Moe Lane's Blog, page 878
July 9, 2020
From the FERMI RESOLUTION RPG Worldbook: Religions.
This is starting to come together. Finally.
What is Theurgy?
In general terms, theurgy is the practice of interacting with spirits in order to achieve a supernatural effect. A priest petitioning God to heal a wounded soldier is practicing theurgy; so is a necromancer securing a ghost to a corpse, or a shaman asking a fire-spirit to light his cigar. Where it differs from magery is that spirits have their own opinions and agendas; some can be overcome, but others much be placated or persuaded. On the bright side, theurgy is typically quieter than secular magic. Actual evidence of actual, true, and fully Divine Interventions (or Infernal Interventions, either) is rare.
In game terms, ‘theurgy’ is what happens when a magic user has Invoker instead of Mage. Mages can make magic items; Invokers can ward against and even banish evil influences. It roughly evens out. There is nothing particularly stopping a priest from also being a mage, or vice versa: but Invoker and Mage pools cannot be combined.
Types of Theurgy
Clericism is the interaction of men with gods, or at least demigods. It is simultaneously the most powerful and most capricious form of theurgy, as it regularly entreats with supernatural entities that are more powerful than the theurgist. And gods are notorious for having expectations about their priests’ behaviors.
Shamanism involves spirits of lesser power; ‘natural’ ones are the most common, but there are other types. A powerful shaman can bind and command, but a wise one placates and entreats. A spirit in a bad mood can be extremely dangerous, bound or not.
Necromancy deals with spirits of the dead. Depending on who one asks, this is either low-grade demonology or something else. The Imperium Orci’s Christian priests are expected to only interact with spirits via exorcism (either gentle or otherwise); Second Republic Christian ministers have been known to bind human ghosts into human corpses for ethical purposes. Speaking with the dead is usually considered safe enough, particularly if the goal is to get the spirit to move on to the afterlife.
Demonology is, as the name says, about working with demons. It is not taught by any reputable, ethical magical school; and the Dominion doesn’t teach it, either. Somehow, though, there always seems to be a grimoire or two around that can provide the necessary instructions.
It’s official: FROZEN DREAMS has broken three figures in sales! Huzzah!
Trying to calculate that was surprisingly hard, actually: the Amazon reports don’t always line up with each other. But I can fairly say now that, even by the most pessimistic standards, I’ve sold at least a hundred copies of FROZEN DREAMS on Amazon by now. Which is, obviously, awesome.
It’s also a good excuse for me to dial back* the incessant book-plugging a little. I’m not particularly sorry that I did it — this is how you get people’s attention, after all — but now that I’ve hit this milestone I can tell myself that it’s done quite well for the first month of a first book. And, more importantly; I can spend some of that time to work on other things. I think that’s reasonable.
Moe Lane
*I mean, I’ll still plug it. Just not quite as constantly.
July 8, 2020
The VALLEY OF THE GODS trailer.
VALLEY OF THE GODS looks like a YouTube video where the director was stopped six days into filming and given both a decent CGI budget with absolutely no oversight whatsoever, and John Malkovich. Oh, and John Rhys-Davies is there, too: he was having lunch with Malkovich at the time, and asked to come along. He thought it’d be a hoot.
This is not exactly bad… OK, it looks pretty bad. But it also looks interestingly bad. Which is something, at least.
07/08/2020 Report, FERMI RESOLUTION RPG: 30,158/37,800.
Got the original Geography part finished and added some more locations. The next two are the big ones, though: Magic and Religion. I wrote them originally before I had an actual magical system to link them to, and there’s going to have to be revisions there. Mechanically, magic and theurgy run off of the same mechanics; but the styles are completely different in this iteration.
To give you an idea: anyone with the Magic ability can heal, or throw a fireball. But priests, demonologists, and necromancers are all Invokers, because that ability governs negotiating and manifesting various species. Likewise, alchemists, enchanters, and research wizards are all Mages, because that ability is for manipulating the effects of magic (like spells, potions, and magic items). For that matter, both the Mage and the Tinkerer ability allows somebody to make alchemical concoctions. I think it all coheres, but this is gonna need some playtesting when it’s done*.
Moe Lane
*I’ve also talked to an old buddy of mine from the pre-blogosphere days (yeah, really old): he’s going to be giving me a hand with the project. Truth be told, I could probably use it. I am planning to eventually Kickstart a print version of the worldbook, which will require more art and a proper editing job, but that’s down the road.
From the FERMI RESOLUTION RPG worldbook: Geography.
These are supposed to be snapshots, not full geographical writeups. I’m putting them in for flavor, you see. And to make obscure jokes, of course.
Dupont Elfdan. There is a small circular patch of woodlands inside the city of Georgetown. It is cultivated land, in a sense; someone or something has been shaping the Dupont Elfdan since the formation of the Kingdom of Virginia. By now it feels deeper than it has any right to be. It can be crossed in five minutes by a determined walker, but someone who chooses to ramble through the Elfdan can walk its paths for an afternoon and never see an exit until she is ready for it. Some people go in, and never come out. Sometimes other people see those ‘lost’ travelers, still walking the Elfdan; they invariably chuckle and say not to worry about it.
The Ghost-Road. The Old American Ohioan road from Portsmouth to Chillicothe called the Ghost Road (or the Haunted Twenty-Three) was once shunned; now it is merely ignored. Sorcerously preserved by an ancient curse, it once claimed unwary travelers and reanimated their broken bodies and horrific revenants. These days, patrols from Greater Hershey keep the zombie-towns on the Ghost-Road empty of the Undead; they could do more, but there’s no particular need to.
Lair Liberty. The Old American ruins of Philadelphia are now the exclusive domain of the Wyrm of Philadelphia, and all of its riches (including the historical ones) are now hers alone to enjoy! Well, except for her servants. And their support staff. And the researchers. And their university. And its support staff. Then there’s all the infrastructure implied by the above, and the museums where everything is now displayed, and at this point there simply have to be hotels and restaurants and miniature golf courses for the inevitable tourists over the last century who will apparently pay money to just look at the Wyrm’s hoards. And then there’s the gift shops. Oh, my, yes, the gift shops.
…My God, but how the money rolls in!
St. Liza’s Cathedral. It was only to be expected that the Imperium Orci would erect a cathedral to the first orcish saint, particularly since she was also a martyr and Empress. Consecrated in 2903 (construction began when she was merely the Blessed Liza), the dome of her Cathedral dominates the Saint Anthony skyline. St. Liza’s appears uniquely warded against evil magic; it is said that no malignant spell can be cast on its grounds. Also interestingly; there are numerous icons, statues, and stained glass windows depicting the life and deeds of St. Liza, of course. In every one of them her face eventually takes a slight, but unmistakable, tint of red.
Patreon!BEHOLD! The FROZEN DREAMS/Flying Koala mailing list!
The email signup for Flying Koala is here. This is going to be information relevant to my commercial products; it will be an excellent way to hear about my next Kickstarter, for example*. Don’t expect that much right away: I think that I’m going to send out emails every Sunday if I have anything to send out.
Moe Lane
*I should really mention that on the splat page.
FROZEN DREAMS – and I – need an email list! And newsletter! Opinions welcome!
I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to create an email list and newsletter so that I can keep people in the loop about FROZEN DREAMS, the audiobook, the FERMI RESOLUTION RPG worldbook, the upcoming short story collection, anything else I’ve got in the pipe… you get the idea. Is there a standard go-to resource that everybody uses to create such things? I’ve no real interest in re-inventing the wheel.
July 7, 2020
07/07/2020 Report, FERMI RESOLUTION RPG Worldbook: 29,500/37,800.
I did some rewriting and mild expansion of the Technology section, and added a few more historical NPCs. Some of them will be recognizable, once the short stories are more readily available. I’m pleased that I’m down below 8,500 words to go: it should hopefully go fairly quickly from here on out. I may have the first draft ready to go fairly soon. Then it’s just revising, running it past some folks in the industry, playtesting, yadda yadda. I need to toss off some emails tonight.
