Tindalostalbot

So Eclipse Phase has this cool transhuman idea that you switch bodies ("re-sleeving"), unfortunately almost everything else about it sucks--the system, the art, the graphic design--so me and Kirin invented a new more Old School game of transhuman post-scarcity hard sci-fi star horror that we're gonna play on Thursdays. It's based on Gigacrawler.


Psychostubborn and Psychoflexible are each rated on a scale of +0 through +10 and together must add up to +10. So you can have each at +5 or have +3 Psychostubborn, +7 Psychoflexible, or +10 Psychostubborn, +0 Psychoflexible, etc.**

You also get 4 points to spend on the last two things: Knowledges and your Familiar. If you are psionic you can use them on psionic abilities instead.

Knowledges are packages of information skills you can buy to start with for your brain. These start out broad and are technical things (ie only cover things that not all people can try, like there's no swimming or dodging skill because anyone can try to swim or dodge). Each Knowledge costs one point, they are:

Alien cultures
Animal handling
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Biology & Genetics
Chemistry
Craft/Hobby (specify)
Demolitions
Geology & Earth sciences
Hacking & Computers
Human cultures
Language (specify)
Mechanics & engineering
Medicine
Piloting
Psychotherapy
Thief (Analog intrusion, like lock picking)
Tracking

Psionics only:
Calm (advantage to San checks for someone near by) (Cha roll)
Counter (block other psionics) (Int roll)
Danger sense (Per roll)
Influence (like Charm Person) (Cha roll)
Read surface thoughts (Per roll)
Suggestion (basically as D&D spell) (Cha roll)
Hey Kirin, invent more psionic powers -Z

You also have a Familiar (like what is called in E Phase, a Muse) which is a personal AI that hangs out with you, it is full of software designed to help you not be murdered. It has two stats:

Knowledgebank--This is how big and well-designed the AI's program of downloadable skills and information is. The better this trait, the better the chance your AI can get you information and abilities compatible with your neural net. Downloading knowledge isn't instantaneous and requires a mental flexibility check or results in lost sanity (see rules below for details).

Printer--This is how good at creating and locating useful equipment out of local materials your familiar is when it's hooked up to the proper equipment. If you need a shotgun or a grappling hook or something and haven't already explicitly collected one, you roll on this trait to see if your 3d printer has prepared one for you. Downloading knowledge isn't instantaneous (see rules below for details).***

The bank and printer are rated +0, +1, or +2--your choice, but come out of the same pool from which you buy starting Knowledge. So you can choose to have +2 in Knowledgebank and +2 in Printer but have 0 Knowledges to start or you can have, say, Medicine and Piloting and +0 in Knowledgebank and +2 to Printer.

If you choose a body that does not match your brain, you get 5 additional points to add to this pool because you're presumably experienced and on at least your second body.

Speaking of choosing bodies....

Character generation: Body

You choose a body from a GM-provided list of available bodies. Different planets have different bodies available at different moments.

Each body has some familiar stats again, they usually start out rated +0, +1, or +2:

Strength
Attack (covers shooting and close combat)
Dexterity
Armor

Armor is almost always +2. With humans and most other organics this represents some removable armor, with robots this is something built in.

There is another stat called Defense which is just Dex+Armor.

Each body also has saving throws, based on what it's made of, ranked +0 thru +10, these are:

Exposure save (drowning, in a vacuum, etc--organics are especially vulnerable)
Corrosive save (always = armor x 3)
Electromagnetic save (machines are especially vulnerable)

Each body also has special abilities called Advances.
-The first time you move into a new body you get to choose one advance.
-Each time you finish a mission or otherwise "get XP" you get to buy one advance from your body's list. (Also see "Leveling up" below).
-If you start the game with a brain and body that match, you get all the Advances for that body--it's your body.****

Advances are typically either things that offer a situational +2 to ability rolls (like you are extra good with knives: +2 to knife combat or piloting in-atmosphere craft: +2 to Dex rolls doing that), a +1 to an ability, or powers/aptitudes that allow you to do things nobody without the aptitude can do (like climb walls like a fly).

Some Advances are Permanent--that is, they stay with you even after you switch bodies.


Sample Bodies:

Genetically optimized human

Strength +1
Attack +2
Dexterity +1
Armor +2 (while wearing armor)
Defense +3

Exposure save +4
Corrosive save +6
Electromagnetic save +8

Advances:
+1 to Int (Permanent)
+1 to Per (Permanent)
+1 to Cha (Permanent)
+1 to Dex (Permanent)
+2 to Exposure save (Permanent for any organic body)

Caul-V-series warmech

Strength +2
Attack +2
Dexterity +0
Armor +3
Defense +3

Exposure save +8
Corrosive save +6
Electromagnetic save +2

Advances:
+1 to Attack (Permanent)
+2 to Attack with rifles (Permanent)
+1 to Printer (Permanent)
+1 to Armor
+2 to Psychoflexible (Permanent) (results in a -2 to Psychostubborn)


Crawler (Stealth-Optimized, Uplifted Langur Monkey)

Strength +0
Attack +1
Dexterity +2
Armor +2 (while wearing armor)
Defense +5

Exposure save +2
Corrosive save +6
Electromagnetic save +8

Advances:
+1 to Dex (Permanent)
+2 to Dex in stealth situations (non-Permanent)
+1 to Attack, Defense and Dex in zero-G (Permanent)
+1 more to Attack, Defense and Dex in zero-G (non-permanent)
+2 to Mechanics and engineering if used for sabotage (Permanent)
Observation droid

Strength +0
Attack +0
Dexterity +2
Armor +1
Defense +3

Exposure save +8
Corrosive save +6
Electromagnetic save +2

Advances:
+1 to Per (Permanent)
+2 to Dex rolls for stealth
+1 to Dex rolls for stealth (Permanent)
+3 to Bioflexible (Permanent) (results in a -3 to Biostubborn)

Chameleoid (Humanoid with chameleon DNA)

Strength +0
Attack +0
Dexterity +1
Armor +2 (while wearing armor)
Defense +3

Exposure save +2
Corrosive save +6
Electromagnetic save +8

Advances:
+4 to Dex in stealth situations due to changing skin color
+2 to Dex for climbing
+1 to Dex (Permanent)
Chameleoid dermographic language (Understanding is permanent, but being able to "speak" the language requires a body with an appropriate skin)
Pilot Chameleonoid vessel (Permanent)--Chameleonoid vessels have a unique color-coded control system layout. This is essential a specialist Knowledge.

In our games, the GM will make some more bodies available depending on the mission, but if you want to play right now, feel free to make your own. Remember if you start with a brain native to your body you get all the advances, so don't give any one body too many. Though some bodies are just better than others, period.


Task Resolution

Generally you roll a d12+modifiers to do anything where failing might have interesting consequences.

Most rolls are opposed, like you roll d12+Int to hack something and the GM rolls d12+however good they think the countermeasures are to resist you. High roll wins. However, the GM can also assign a static target number in situations where the thing isn't fighting back, depending how hard it is. If a character has some issue that makes things especially hard or easy for it specifically (ie swimming this lake of goo is normally a difficulty of 8 but it's especially hard if you're a dog) then the GM may use 5e-D&D style "advamtage" or "disadvantage".

Use of Knowledges and most Psi powers are an ability check that is simply enabled by having the Knowledge. So a "Chemistry check" is an Int check that you get to make because you have Chemistry. It's possible to have a Knowledge enable more than one kind of ability score check: a GM could rule that diagnosing a disease is a Int check (enabled by Medicine) but performing surgery is Dex (enabled by Medicine).

Again: Knowledges are specialist things--you can't even try piloting most craft if you don't have the pilot Knowledge.



Urgent Task Resolution and Combat

Since this is horror, combat in this game more follows the Call of Cthulhu "figure out something big before you die" model than the "ranges and damage spreads matter a lot" model of like D&D and wargames.  In any situation where you need to do this before someone else does that (usually combat) there is no initiative, rather there's a "clash" system.

Think of a clash like a panel in a comic book. Each clash involves opposed rolls. It takes about 6 seconds.

Basically everyone says what they want to do. Then they roll a d12, high roll gets to do what they want. In complex combats with multiple participants, if you don't roll high but your task wouldn't be interrupted by anyone rolling higher than you, you can do it, you do your thing.

Typical combat involves an attack (Attack score + d12) vs either another attack (Attack vs d12) or dodging, running away, etc (Defense + d12). You could also have like an attack (Attack score + d12) vs an attempt the hack the weapon making the attack (Int + d12, only possible if the combatant has Hacking).

There's no variable damage--this is a harsh post-scarcity future and if you are using a weapon strong enough to get through the enemy's armor (or lack thereof) the enemy is gonna get fucked up. If you aren't, nothing happens.

You go straight to the crit table at the bottom of this entry every time you get hit. (It's basically an adapted version of this.)

Example: If a regular person punches another person in (22nd century nanospace-)armor, nothing happens--they have crazy future armor and the armor is preposterously out of scale to the attack. If they punch a regular person in no armor successfully, that is doing damage and you roll a crit. Combat is fast and deadly.

If you roll less than a 50 on that table, you need to also make a Psychostubborn check (difficulty 10) to avoid losing d4 sanity points.

The winner of a clash gets to decide the range at the beginning of the next clash. So if you successfully shoot someone you can decide the next round starts with you far away (you are hit, I can make my getaway) or close up (you are hit! I can now come over and finish you off). The max distance you can move away is 60 feet unassisted.

If the goal of the combat action was not to do damage--like you wanted to knock someone down or take something or whatever--then, again, winner does that.

If the situation is such that one side would naturally have an advantage (you're fighting in a tiny broom closet and one person has a knife and the other has a sword, so the knife is a better weapon) then the GM can grant 5e-style Advantage (roll twice, pick the highest).

Note that because Defense involves adding Armor to Dex, maneuvers where armor wouldn't matter (grappling, pickpocketing) are just against Dex.

Area-effect weapons and environmental conditions can trigger body saving throws--failing one of these save does one of three things:

-Kills you
-Inflicts a specific kind of damage unique to that kind of effect (ie exposure to this radiation makes your eyes melt shut)
-Causes a roll on the Crit table

The GM is encouraged to design bizarre puzzle-monster postLovecraftian boss foes that require more than physical force to put them down.



Weapons and Equipment

This isn't a Spidergoat Economy, your Printer provides you with weapons capable of dealing with ordinary threats provided you make your Printer roll and they fit the tech level/aesthetic of the game (kinda hard science fi, except some people are psychic?). You need a grenade? Make a Printer roll to see if you managed to download specs from the Aether and get one properly made. You need a neutron grenade specifically, to kill the organics but leave the ship intact? The GM might make that a higher difficulty number check, maybe an 11.

This isn't always a check to see if you can print it--printing takes at least a number of minutes equal to the difficulty of the check times 2 in minutes. It's a check to see if you were prepared enough to have the thing already.


Downloading New Knowledges

This takes one minute and a successful Knowledgebank check, difficulty 8. A successful download requires the PC to make a difficulty 8 Psychoflexible check or lose d4 San, if it's a new language it's only difficulty 6.


Healing

This will mostly be dealt with on the crit chart, but mechanical repair or medicine can be used to fix crits but it takes time and can't be done in a tactical situation.


Dying

Dying happens if you take a bad crit. Then you get re-sleeved as your brain is emailed somewhere and downloaded into a new body in the nearest friendly cache. You have to make a Bioflexible check or you lose d6 Sanity in the process. The difficulty number depends on the new body:

Body matches brain: 6
Previously-experienced type of body: 8
First time humanoid, first time non-humanoid, first time organic: 10
First time machine: 12
First time machine and first time humanoid/non-humanoid simultaneously: 14
Other: 9


Sanity

You'll roll lots of Sanity checks--this is a horror game. GM decides how bad the San loss is--d4, d6, d8, etc.

Losing more than 3 sanity on one roll or in one hour results in a temporary insanity from the table at the back of most editions of Call of Cthulhu. It lasts until things quiet down and someone either administers Psychotherapy (with a difficulty number = 20 minus current San score) or the victim makes a successful Craft/Hobby roll or you level up and choose the option to fix your sanity. This recovers d4 San and cures the condition.

You lose all your sanity points and you're permanently insane and an NPC.


Leveling up

Every time you've completed a mission (GM decides what that means) you can do one of three things:

-Take an Advance from your body's list of advances. You may only take each once, though some are listed in alternate forms, permanent and nonpermanent and/or with different numbers--you can take each form once.
-Gain d4 San
-Take a new Knowledge
-Take a specialty Knowledge (that is, any custom Knowledge narrower than you already have) at +1. So, like, if you already have Hacking. you could take Neural Net Hacking +1. And if you already have Neural Net hacking you could take Neural Net hacking of Military AIs at +1. These stack and apply to the rolls you make with them.

You don't have to roll a Psychoflexible check to gain these knowledges or specialties, they're learned the old fashioned way.

Max on anything in any situation is +10.

------

Crit table

Losing a body part your body used to have but don't now means instant death (so the more mutilated you become the more dangerous combat is). Losing a body party (or equivalent) your body never had means instant death if you're larger than human sized or you've evaded the crit if you're smaller and if you're human size, roll a dex check (8), failure means death, success means you've avoided damage.

1-Adrenaline surge, or auxiliary program activates, you are +1 to Comabt then collapse for d6 clashes when the fight ends plus awesome scar, +1 Cha.
2-Adrenaline surge or auxiliary program activates, you are +1 to Combat then collapse for d6 clashes when the fight ends.
3-Awesome scar, +1 Cha
4-Scar
5-Ugly scar -1 Cha
6 Lose a tooth,  or equivalent
7 Lose some teeth or equivalent in an unbecoming place -1 Cha
8 Str check vs 10 or be knocked down, conscious

9 Successful medicine check (8) next clash or lose right eye or equivalent
10 Successful medicine check (8) next clash or lose left eye or equivalent
11 Successful medicine check (8) next clash or lose right ear or equivalent
12 Successful medicine check (8) next clash or lose left ear or equivalent
13 Successful medicine check (8) next clash or lose tongue or equivalent

14 Lose right eye or equivalent
15 Lose left eye or equivalent
16 Lose right ear  or equivalent
17 Lose left ear or equivalent
18 Lose tongue or equivalent

19 Lose d6 fingers on left hand (6= just thumb) or equivalent
20 Lose d6 fingers on right hand (6= just thumb) or equivalent
21 Embarassing injury (permanent) (player's choice)
22 Lose your nose or equivalent unless the player decides this makes the pc unplayable in which case be a softie and let them pick a facial feature.

22 Biostubborn check (10) or be stunned only able to defend) for 5 clashes (or until proper full-on medical care) then conscious.
23 Biostubborn check (10) or be stunned...
24 Biostubborn check (10) or be stunned...
25 Biostubborn check (10) or be stunned…
26 Biostubborn check (10) or be stunned...

27 Biostubborn check (10) or go unconscious for 1clash (or until proper full-on medical care) then conscious.
28 Biostubborn check (10) or go unconscious for 2…
29 Biostubborn check (10) or go unconscious for 3…
30 Biostubborn check (10) or go unconscious for 4…
31 Biostubborn check (10) or go unconscious for 5...

32 Unconscious 1 clash (or until proper full-on medical care) then conscious.
33 Unconscious 2 clashes (or…
34  Unconscious 3 clashes (or…
35 Unconscious 4 clashes (or…
36 Unconscious 5 clashes (or...

37 Unconscious 1 clash (or until proper full-on medical care), then conscious and disadvantage until successful Medicine check at 6
38 Unconscious 2 clashes (or...
39  Unconscious 3 clashes (or...
40 Unconscious 4 clashes (or…
41 Unconscious 5 clashes (or ...

42-51 Unconscious until Medicine check (8) is made.

52  Neck damage Biostubborn check vs 6 or go unconscious for d4 clashes (or until proper full-on medical care), then back to conscious and disadvantage on all physical checks.  d4 days to recover without proper full-on medical attention.…
53 Head fracture Biostubborn check...
54-55 Broken something in pelvis Biostubborn check...
56-59 Broken something in ribs Biostubborn check...
60 Broken something in left hand Biostubborn check...
61 Broken something in rt hand Biostubborn check...
62-63 Broken something in in left leg Biostubborn check...
64 Broken something in in rt leg Biostubborn check...
65 Broken something in in left foot Biostubborn check...
67 Broken something in in rt foot Biostubborn check...

68 lost use of right hand Biostubborn check vs 6 each clash to keep conscious until successful Medicine check vs 6 (-1 Dex when moving for missing appendage). d4 days to recover without proper full-on medical care but even then you're still maimed.
69 lost use of left hand Biostubborn check...
70 lost use of right foot Biostubborn check…
71 lost use of left foot. Biostubborn check...

72 lost use of left arm past elbow die in 30 minutes unless Medicine check (difficulty 8). Medicine check keeps you conscious with a Biostubborn check vs 8 each clash to keep conscious (-1 Dex for mangled limb). Week to recover without proper full-on medical care but even then you're maimed.
73 lost use of right arm past elbow die in 30 minutes unless...
74 lost use of right leg below knee die in 30 minutes unless…
75 lost use of left leg below knee die in 30 minutes unless…

76 lost use of right arm die in d4 minutes unless Medicine check (difficulty 8). Medicine check keeps you conscious with a Biostubborn check vs 8 each clash to keep conscious (-1 Dex for lost limb). Two weeks to recover without without proper full-on medical care but even then yr still missing a limb.
77 lost use of left arm die in d4 minutes unless...
78 lost use of right leg die in d4 minutes unless…
79 Lost use of left leg. Die in d4 minutes unless…

80 Internal injuries. Die in 30 minutes unless Medicine check (difficulty 8). Medicine check leaves you conscious with a Biostubborn check vs 8 each clash to keep conscious (with disadvantage on physical checks)--a month to recover without proper full-on medical care.
81 Die in 25 minutes unless Medicine etc...
82 Die in 20 minutes unless Medicine etc…
83-84 Die in 15 minutes unless…

85 Internal injuries, unconscious. Die in 30 minutes unless successful Medicine (difficulty 10) (with disadvantage on physical checks). A month to recover without proper full-on medical care.
86 Die in 25 minutes unless…
87 Die in 20 minutes unless…
88 Die in 15 minutes unless…
89  Die in 10 minutes unless ...

90-97 Internal injuries, unconscious.  Die in d12 clashes unless Successful Medicine (difficulty 10) check this clash against and even then you're at disadvantage on everything physical. A month to recover without proper full-on medical care.

98 Instant death
00 Instant and demoralizing death. Allies roll Bioflexible vs 8 or be stunned for one clash.


Character sheet:


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* (Working title)
**The ides of paired mental traits is stolen from Pendragon
***This post-scarcity equipment solution stolen from the "Preparedness" skill in Night's Black Agents
****The concept of bodies as things you serially buy advances from is derived from the Warhammer Fantasy career system. Which might itself be derived from Traveller?

A little story on the Tale today which I managed to piece together with what time I had this week. Time and space and moments can be tricky, coming together in ways that bring us to unexpected moments. In our wondrous universe, one never knows who you might …

 

Encounter
By TeraS

 

Throughout the universe, wherever there is life that calls itself intelligent by some description or another, there are certain places where events transpire which are unexpected: the sorts of things which those involved never could have seen coming or, when the moment has past, never quite understand what just happened. These are the sorts of things which a billion supercomputers, each extrapolating a billion variables in a billion ways, would never come close to predicting or ever being able to explain. In a vast and mysterious multiplicity of universes, these are the events which are sometimes called “miracles.”

In this case, the events occurred around him: a rather ordinary man, sitting alone in a mostly respectable nightclub watching life seem to pass him by; unremarkable to most, a shadow if he was to admit anything. No one paid much attention to him and the time he had spent so far, at the behest of a friend that had abandoned him some time ago, had been isolating. His eyes were focused on the half-filled glass of Diet Coke when she came into his orbit.

“Care for some company?”

There are some words which, when spoken in a certain way, capture one’s attention. That can be caused by the tone—the lovely purr; the hint, in the undertones, of seduction, power, and more—or by one particular tone of voice which offers a simple realization: this speaker actually means what is being said.

Doubting this—for, again, he was ordinary, unassuming, and, after all, even the waitress that had brought his drink had departed well over twenty minutes ago and not checked on him since—he turned his attention to the woman that had spoken. “I’m not really much …”

His reply was caught short by the vision that greeted him.

There are some women who have what is called a presence. Some describe it as how, when these women are in a room, all else kind of fades out into the background. They make, as the cliché says, a very good first impression. Whoever she was, she was very sure that she would do so.

The room didn’t fade out around her, it simply didn’t exist anymore. The glow from her red dress was brighter than all else around him. The light shimmering off her curves made it clear that it wasn’t just painted on, it was almost making love to her. That thought made his breath catch and, strangely, made him feel a little jealous. His eyes traced over her hips, along her legs. Her body was wonderfully perfect, and seeing her cleavage being cupped by the red fabric made it very difficult to continue to look upwards.

“A gentleman shouldn’t be left alone.”

The words seemed odd, catching him by surprise, and thus he found himself looking into a pair of deeply green eyes. All thought of refusing her request was dashed from his thoughts moments later. Being a gentleman, he stood and offered her a place where she could be comfortable. The touch of her hand on his arm brought him up short; the smile upon her soft red lips left a very positive impression. It felt right to bow to her, the offer being made deferentially.

“Please?”

She wasn’t what he expected, considering where he had encountered her. A place like this was filled with those looking for something, expecting something. Rather than taking her leave and ignoring him, she did something different: “Thank you kindly.”

A light peck on his cheek drew him to the booth with her, and he suddenly found himself nestled next to her. There was a scent of cherries in the air now which overcame the typical nightclub aromas. A delightful coincidence, really. Coming to his senses, he reached out for his drink and found it no longer on the table where it had been resting. She held it in one red-fingernailed hand, looking at it with seeming approval. Somehow that approval was important to him.

“Allow me.” She raised the glass towards him, bringing it close to his lips and then guiding him to sip from it. She seemed to know when he had enough, drawing it away and then, as he watched, she took a dainty sip as well before placing the drink back upon the table once more.

He wanted to ask her name, but that wouldn’t be gentlemanly. Instead he tried to come up with a suitable opening for conversation: “Lovely weather we’re having.” As soon as the words had escaped, he wished there was a way to pull them back. It was an idiotic thing to say, especially to a lady of obvious means and intelligence. The little bit of ego that had begun to form within him faded out, leaving him feeling small and foolish.

Her answer was, as seemed to be the one consistent thing about her, unexpected. “I rather adore a cool fall evening. It’s delightful to walk under the moon and share the stars with the right soul.”

What followed was, as he would try to explain in the future, a conversation in which he was the focus. The thoughts she shared were complex, delightfully so. He found himself challenged to think, consider, and express himself like he’d never done before.

Though the night that followed, she didn’t speak much about herself, however. There was an occasional oblique thought that seemed to bemuse her, an occasional flash of red in her ebony hair when the light passed over in just the right way, but nothing more. She was an enigma, and he found that captivating. She was a mystery, and yet, at the same time, he felt as if he had known her forever.

How much time passed didn’t really matter, but, over time, he felt the sensation of the moment coming to a close, the encounter soon to be passed. He found that troubling, and asked a question of her: “Do you come here often?”

“I come where I’m needed.” Again, a mysterious answer, but the words made sense for her, felt right for her. His thoughts were interrupted by her outstretched hand cupping his cheek and turning his eyes towards her.

A question came: “Will I see you again?”

“Close your eyes.”

He didn’t want to, but what resistance he had ebbed away, and the last vision of her was a bright smile and her so-green eyes. He felt her lips brush against his own, pressing lightly, rubbing passionately, taking his breath away.

When the kiss broke, her hand melted away, the scent of the club came back once more. The sounds of the club rushed back, having been missing while she was with him. His eyes opened in surprise, expecting to see her in the booth beside him—she couldn’t leave, after all; he was in the way. But the space was empty, her red a memory, the green of her eyes haunting. His eyes fell upon the table, seeing his glass was empty. But there was something more. Left behind on the table was a small silver card. Upon picking it up, he discovered a name written there. The name she’d never given him, but then he’d never given his name, either.

Tera

As he fingered the edge of the card, he wondered if he’d ever see her again. Turning the card over, he read the message written there.

You will … soon.

Three words that made him smile. As mysterious as ever, it seemed. As he slipped the card into his jacket pocket, he believed her promise and looked forward to the next time he encountered her. He liked being with her, listening to her attentively. Idly, a thought tickled his imagination and he chuckled to himself: what where the chances that she’d be interested in him for more than conversation, anyway?

As he left the club, his walk surer, a smile playing upon his lips, someone was watching him. In the shadows nearby, at the edge of a cone of light being poured from a streetlamp, Tera watched him, a thoughtful, yet bemused smile adorning her lips. He’d find out soon enough why he interested her and why it was, exactly, she had encountered him.

Encounters were but a step on the way to enlightenment, after all.

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afflatus: inspiration; an impelling mental force acting from within.

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I don’t feel much like I can write these days. The reasons are … what they are. I have been told that writing helps in times like this. Perhaps it will, or does, so I try. And, as I write, the words I can manage … well … I suppose … that Queen Tera comes to find me in my darkness and gives me a lesson about whether things are …

 

Light or Dark
By TeraS

 

One of the things that Tera has to deal with—and, for that matter, so does everyone that calls the Realm “home” and happens to have horns and a tail—is a question that is asked over and over again by those who don’t have a clue:

“Are you evil or good?”

There is an obvious reason for this question—the horns and tail—but at the same time the question itself brings about questions about the one that asked the question in the first place.

This, then, is what underpins the question: perception.

In any event, Tera often finds herself being confronted and asked the question. As she doesn’t like to hide her tail or horns, this is something she finds herself dealing with to the point she could almost set the train schedules, if there were any in this particular universe, by.

Sometimes the question is asked in some sort of court, a tribal council, a meeting of elders. Regardless of the place, of those asking the question, Tera’s reply is true to herself for she can do nothing less: “I find it interesting that you ask about evil first, then good. Why is that, I wonder?” The questioner then suggests, or insists, that she is trying to avoid the question, which usually results in Tera pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing: “No. I am trying to understand why you have seemingly made up your mind.” This generally makes her questioner snort in derision, make a snide comment or, if it is an especially good day, their answer makes her smile. Much of the time there is reference made to one deity or another, while insisting that she is not of the light. Her answer is, again, seemingly obvious: “All beings are their children, no matter their look, existence or purpose.”

It is not, sadly, a rare occurrence when they take offence at her reply. There comes a long, quite forceful, statement of what they see as fact. She, of course, listens attentively, sometimes tracing a fingertip over her lips in thought. Allowing them to say their peace, whatever it may be, is only being respectful.

When they are done, out of breath or otherwise, then, at that point, it is Tera’s turn. “The thing about having preconceived conclusions is that they are, for the most part, illusions. Your books speak of good and evil. They offer means to see if one is, or is not, one or the other. Your wiser souls have transcended that level of knowledge and seen beyond, to place their vision upon that which Goddess wrote long before you came to be.”

Her expression generally shows slight disappointment in her accusers. They look at her in defiance, about to interrupt, but she holds up a single finger: “I allowed your words. In the spirit of understanding, one does allow the other to have their moment as well.”

Bluster comes, an attempt to find some sort of law, word, or anything which would put an end to her reply. However, before that can go even a bit too far, there comes another voice, sometimes of an elder, other times of an inquisitive younger soul. Once in a while a child asks a seemingly innocent question. Having no recourse, and feeling foolish for the first time in their encounter with her, they sulk back to their place and watch.

“The question is not whether I am good or evil, as has been asked. The question is, why is it so necessary to ask? What has happened here that when a different soul arrives, seeking nothing from anyone, save to learn, that some are threatened by this?” The Queen moves away from the chair, or witness box, or some other place she has been settled to in order to walk among the accusing souls and consider them. As she passes some by, there is clear attraction to her. Others are repelled; the reasons are their own. Some are indifferent, others impatient to return to their lives.

Somewhere in the room she pauses, her tail moving slowly behind her. Guards in the room tense, the judges are concerned. The prosecutor flinches. The audience, or spectators, depending on the venue, await the next moment with anticipation.

“Light is within each of us. Dark is as well. For each soul, each life, a choice is made to embrace one or the other, or so you might think. In truth each and everyone here has been both, one or the other, or shades thereof.”

Her smile is, always, bemused. “I am not the right hand of Goddess, though I know her and love her dearly.”

This admission brings gasps.

“I am not the hand of evil, though I know of them and have no time for them.”

This brings confusion.

“I am the Queen of my Realm, the Eternal of my King. I am called sister and loved for being so. I love, with joy and passion, my dearest loves, I hold them with me always.”

This makes some give pause and look upon their own lives.

“I am the mother to a son who loves me.”

These words bring nods from those that know what these words mean. They are far more than words alone.

“I am the Dear One of my heart. The singularly most cherished words I know.”

Silence comes over the assembled masses, as she has their attention now.

“You ask me your question and yet do not ask the question of yourselves. You seek solace from the questions within you by projecting your own shades towards me. I cannot help answer your own questions, but I can offer this.”

Her focus is on the assembled souls, her gaze accepting, as it always is, as she always is. “If you ask me to leave, I shall. I hold no ill will. If I am allowed to stay, then, I hope, we can learn from each other.” Turning back to the judge or elders or other authority, she concludes, “The choice is yours, it always is. You must choose, whether light or dark; none else can.”

She walks back to the place where it had all started, waiting for their answer. Either way, she thinks, Goddess knows what will come. In one way, there will be light shared, in another the light will be the moment she was given with them. Regardless of the outcome, she knows one pure thing:

Light and dark are not good or evil. No one should ever see them as being the same.

cosset: to treat as a pet; pamper; coddle.

The concept of giving absolution is, at times, a complicated thing. There are many levels to consider, many possible means to achieve it. But the thing about this particular point is that one cannot simply just ask for …

 

Absolution
By TeraS

 

In every life there comes a time when one must reflect on one’s past. In doing so, one finds there are things done which one isn’t proud of. Those aren’t, always, a problem. One can justify such actions to oneself, to cloak the truth away such that others will never really see it.

However, sometimes there are things that cannot be justified. A moment, something said, an action preformed, something which nags within one’s thoughts, even if they are not completely aware of it always being so. Sometimes, one must face this, to come to terms with it, to try to ask for absolution for what has been. Sometimes there is but one person that can answer the question and give an answer, if one happens to be listening for it—or, for that matter, willing to accept it.

On this day in the Realm the sky was as blue as it always was, the Lake of Fire was calm, reflecting the land that bordered upon it. The clouds surrounded the mountains as they always did and, overall, the Realm was managing as it was meant to, save for one soul who was, at that moment, making her way through the Realm, a specific destination in mind.

Tera, the Queen of the Realm, needed to ask someone a question. The problem was that she wasn’t expecting any sort of answer. Whenever she had spoken to this person in the past, she’d never heard an actual answer. There was no voice to say what the person thought. There was no expression of whether or not her words were even heard.

She had spoken to this person in many different ways, some very personal, some very public. She’d expressed her thoughts about things to others who offered their perspective and made suggestions, and she was given thoughts to consider. She had, of course, examined every one of them, considered each carefully, and did the best she could do. In the end, all of her thoughts and considerations had brought her to this journey where she found herself.

All beings in the universes have, in one way or another, a belief in something. For some, it’s a little bit easier because they know, truly, there is another watching. For some, they have, at least once, been in the presence of Light in the universe.

In the Realm exists a place called the House of Light—a place in which the Goddess of Light is given her proper respect and due. To describe the place is very difficult because ti appears differently for each soul. No two see it exactly in the same way. As Tera stood outside of the arched entryway, what she saw was something she never quite could put into words. The best she could do was describe a wonderful, warm place of love and light that shone brightly over the Realm.

Her expression this day was slightly troubled, her thoughts being about what she was going to ask, even while sure that she’d never actually receive an answer. Still, the words needed to be said, she thought, and she began to walk into the House to speak.

Passing into the bright, pure light, she vanished from view; the Realm lost sight of her. For Tera, her first thought was that she must have made a wrong turn, but she was sure she hadn’t passed through Albuquerque. That thought came because she found herself standing beside a certain fence that she knew intimately well.

“You realize, I hope, you have nothing to ask absolution for?”

She smiled, it was her heart and his council was, as always, true.

“Oh … I think I have many things my heart.”

“What you have, Dear One, is your love which drives you.”

“That’s not it.”

“You have your compassion, which you give freely.”

“I know.”

“You have your passion, for every soul you touch.”

“Always.”

“You have your generosity, giving freely without asking for anything in return.”

“Yes.”

“You are, in more ways than I can count, precious to so many.”

“Never really see that, my heart. It’s …”

“… not how you are, Dear One. Yes, I know.”

He was silent for a time, and she was looking around wondering just how it was she came to be at the fence.

“You know … I’m not sure why I’m here, exactly.”

He shook his head slightly: “Oh, I am.”

“How so?”

“Goddess speaks to us in the here and now, but not in ways that you expect … that’s why she brought us together. You, my Dear One, are looking for absolution. But she’s not the one to give that to you.”

“Then who, my heart, should I be talking to?”

Her heart, the one that knew her so very well, just looked at her. When she realized the answer, she pinched her nose and sighed. He just smiled.

“She’s … a bit too stubborn to listen, you know.”

“Yes, she is … at least when it comes to forgiving herself. However, beneath those red horns and behind those so-green eyes, she’s actually a wonderful soul. She might, if given a chance, find a way to give herself absolution.”

Resting her arms on the edge of the fence, that particular red horned woman they were taking about considered. “I think she’s not willing to accept that she’s worthy of absolution.”

“That’s because she, sometimes, can only see her faults and not the light she is.”

“Oh … she sees them both.”

“Seeing them isn’t the same thing as accepting them.”

“Which means?”

“The path to absolution starts inside of each of us, Dear One. Accept that and, perhaps, you’ll find the way.”

“One hopes.”

“One knows.”

The world cascaded into shimmering light and Tera found herself once more in the House of Light. Once more the Realm saw her and she saw the Realm anew.

That evening, as was her custom and joy, she met her heart at the fence.

“Hello, my heart.”

“Hello, Dear One.”

“I had the most unusual day.”

“How so?”

“I had a conversation about absolution.”

“Really? Do tell.”

She leaned over the fence slightly and kissed his cheek: “That story, my heart, begins with a soul of Light that is wiser than he knows and ends with a soul of Light who learned something she didn’t know before.”

He blushed: “You’re welcome, Dear One. But it was not me so much as Goddess working in and through me.”

She smiled: “Whoever it was, thank you, my heart.”

“Anytime and always, Dear One.”

To find absolution within means accepting that need in yourself and seeing the way clear to believing you are worthy of it. But it also, many times, takes the wisdom of another to show you the way. And, Goddess knows even better than Queen Tera that she is never, ever alone.

In our effort to constantly evolve sometimes you need to look from the ground up. When The Old Reader started, it was (and still kinda is) “the ultimate social RSS reader for The Open Web.” Our old logo represented multiple RSS feeds coming together in one place. But if I had a slice of pizza for every time someone asked us “what’s RSS?” we’d have a lot of pepperoni. 

The Old Reader stands for delivering you content you love, all in one place. It’s the one website to rule them all. You don’t have to know what RSS is. Just plug in some websites and go. So we wanted to give ourselves a little facelift so that people knew this is for everyone. You OR you OR you. If you like technology OR design OR cat videos. If you’re on desktop OR tablet OR mobile. There are feeds of content for you to tap into. And we think our new logo achieves that. 

Look for the new look and design in the app itself in the near future. But as always, you are a part of this community. We want this community to grow so it’s a better experience for us all. Do you think this logo will help us do that? Does it feel more approachable? Will it blow up the internet like the new Instagram logo? We hope so. Will there be millions of posts on “designers react to The Old Reader logo redesign?” Our designer hopes not. We don’t care about their opinion, we care about yours. This mark stands for us all. Read on!

We here at _______ are taking a stand against harassment!

Oh cool. Are you going to donate to legal efforts against harassers?

Well, no, sorry.

Ok, that's maybe a little much to ask. So you're just going to call out the harassers?

Um, no.

You're going to privately take steps to see that they don't harass people?

No.

You're going to block them on social media?

Mmmmmm...not that either.

You're going to stop advertising their stuff?

Uh...no?

You're going to stop buying their stuff and donating to their Kickstarters?

Oh hells no. Gotta keep doing that.

But if there's an accusation of harassment, you're going to read up on it and see if it happened? To be, like, informed?

YeahhhNo. No time for that.

But you'll at least not allow it in spaces you control?

Uh. Actually gonna totally allow that. Wouldn't want to upset somebody by telling them to shut up.

Not gonna like commit it yourself, at least?

I mean, I don't think so, but...

What is harassment?

I don't know. I can't, like, define it.

But you're taking a stand against harassment?

Totally!

2.5D.

I learned about 2.5D, or two and a half dimensions, from my engineering days. Turns out it’s really quite common to make 2.5D things because, for example, it’s easy to drill or mill down into something, and a pain to turn something on it’s side and drill from the other side. Or, as with vacuum forming it’s easy to suck plastic onto a mould, but a pain to get it off if you’ve got any overhangs as you can’t lift it straight up again. Hence the plastic sandpit in our garden is a 2.5D object rather than true 3D. Civilisation in general looks rather 2.5D from the air as we tend to build up, but don’t find overhangs that easy or practical eg the pyramids.

dabster: an expert.

lucida: the brightest star in a constellation.

Hovertext:
Actually, if we eliminated the whole universe...

New comic!
Today's News:

Last week to submit your proposal for BAHFest West!

 

corybantic: frenzied; agitated; unrestrained.

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
>>>JACOB

spinebash: to rest; loaf.

Hovertext:
Once every ten sentences, raise your voice to a high pitch, so as to recall to your mind the days of childhood.

New comic!
Today's News:

BAHFest West is coming soon! We are still looking for more geeks to submit proposals. Click here for more info.

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
>>>EMMA

hi! i was commissioned to make some spooky character gifs for the upcoming film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children @peregrinesmovie which happens to be directed by one of my all-time favorite directors, Tim Burton. really fun project!

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
>>>MISS PEREGRINE

So this fish. Found as part of a gold hoard in Poland, the fish is typical of the Scythian zoomorphic style. The fish has other fish on it, plus panthers and deers and stuff. "Scythian" is kind of a collective name for a not-exactly-mongols central-asian-but-wide-ranging group of nomadic tribes whose impression on literate peoples might be best visualized as Dothraki but actual plus the women fought alongside the men rather than sitting on gazelle hides going "It is known" like some kind of dirt-smeared grassland feelies in an Eclipse Phase thread. Also they had very distinctive metalwork, often gold, usually animals, always with a long rollercoastering line and rhythmic proportions similar to what we know of central Asian tattoos and always with these golf-hole eyes.

We know little of the Scythians actual lives or leaders. This fish was found buried along with some circular medallions and a sheath. Nobody knows what any of it was doing that far north.

But all that has changed because here's this blog entry...

The Fish of Vettersflede isn't art and would be depressed to hear me say it was. Actually it probably would just ignore me or pretend to because it is a god.

A god of the Scythians, to be exact, The Fish Of Roaming, who appears in mid-day dreams. One day a shocked fisherman drew him wriggling from the River Frigid (that's what they call it, they don't know what you call it) on a winter morning in the Hollow Year and brought him to Orvet the Taking Prince, who put the god in a broad trough on high, wide wheels to be dragged behind his raiding train for luck and good counsel.

The god (a small member of one of the philosopher species, related to the aboleth) bored of this situation quickly and demanded the Prince free him. The prince's oracles and witches advised against it. On an abandoned plain, beneath a shining sun, before all the raiding riders, the fish god cut a deal in two parts:

The prince would be granted one wish.
The god would be released into the sea.

Orvet then displayed poor judgment. "Very well, small god," said Orvet "before I give you up, I wish for everything on this plain to be turned to gleaming gold".

And all the tents turned to gold, and all the ropes holding them, and all the tent-stakes and carpets and all the straps and leather and the meat inside and all the goats and all the arrows in their gold quivers and the horses and the daggers in their sheaths, and all the tiny socket-eyed animals that they'd collected and all the Scythians, and Orvet, and the Fish of Roaming as well and all the other things on the plain.

Weeks later, three thieves adventurers from the north came upon what was once a tribe and was now a pile. They took all they could carry, including the fish, buried the rest under the sand, and made a map.

These adventurers soon fell to ill fortune and such treasure as they carried was in turn plundered. And on and on until your game starts.

So anyway there is the fish, found somewhere. It's treasure, yes, but it also retains a divine consciousness, dulled by centuries of use as currency. It is a god, if a very tired one.

The Fish of Roaming has the ability to make anyone possessing it see or believe long distances to be short and vice versa (no save). It will employ this ability to one purpose--to get it back into the sea, where it will regain its full power. It can also, of course, send cryptic dreams. The more anyone looks at the fish, the higher the DC or negative modifier to successfully get a night's sleep. It can telepathically communicate with any living thing if it decides it's really important, which it usually doesn't.

The Fish is worth 100,000 gp, easy, but only if it's actually sold to someone. You don't just get the gp for picking it up.

There's also the rest of the chrysomorphosed encampment, still somewhere in the desert, and the map to it, currently in three parts and rolled in three small sandalwood tubes in three attics still belonging the adventurers' three families in Brandenberg. The fish knows the identity of these adventurers, having traveled with them and been privy to their conversations.

Further complicating things is that, following a massive earthquake, rockslide and some empire-building, the burial site of the literally golden horde not only lies entirely beneath the city-state of the Slender Khan, but has begun to be surreptitiously excavated after having been discovered by the necromancer Abbat Khuor, a man of considerable influence, rumored to be in contact with other gods beneath the sea, who now seek their fellow.
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nodus: a difficult or intricate point, situation, plot, etc.