Amazing! Warehouse, Part 5
The Beginning of the Second Draft
“Community” by Journeyman
Writer’s Note: Below is the start of the rough draft, and by that I mean that I feel I am getting close to something publishable, and by close, I mean it’s 10 drafts away from being done.
As I read my initial draft (the collection of posts that came before this one), I decided on that the goal of my revision would be introducing this strange setting and the strange activity of roleplaying games to an audience that has never paid that much attention to H.P. Lovecraft, cosmic horror in general, or roleplaying games. I would assume that my audience had no prior knowledge.
Against the Amazing! Warehouse,
A Post-Human Role-Playing Game
Prologue Part I--The Post-Human World
So what is the Post Human world? Some time in the very near future, the day after tomorrow if you like, the stars line up just right, and the gods of Chaos wake from their long nap, and turn their attention to us, to the little creatures of Order, and our reality warps like a glossy magazine left on the dashboard of a car on a hot day, like a sweater when you pull hard on a loose thread, like a computer screen if you run a magnet over it, like your life when you find out that you’re breaking up after five good years and two bad ones.
But you survive, right? Reality warps, and you find a new lover, or as one door of perception closes, another one opens, or something like that. The point is that things got weird, but you still struggle, you still hustle. You might have a third eye that lets you see into other dimensions, but you get migraines when you do so. And your roommate is an intelligent fungus named Billy, but you still have to call your momma once a week, and you fight with Billy over space in the fridge, and maybe once or twice in your life, something terrible happens, and you and the fungus stumble through the disaster as you try to do the right thing and not be a screw up, and that’s the Post Human world in a bite-sized nugget. What follows is a more in-depth explanation.
The Mosaic Reality of the Post-Human World
The Balance Between Order and Chaos
Humans always say something like, “When the gods came” or “when the gods woke up” to explain the arrival of the gods and the Chaos that came with them in their wake. The gods say “When the humans called us” or “when the humans entered the Dream” to explain the webs of Order from our minds and cultures that enticed and ensnared the gods of Chaos. Both points of view are true.
Consequences
Reality is fractured. There are a million little communities, and each has its own reality, its own physical laws.
Almost every being in the Post-Human world is an amalgam of chaos and order. Humans and even animals are mutated at some level, and other beings, such as aliens and ghosts exist as well.
A Billion Little Pieces
Reality has been fractured, infused with chaos. Each sentient being in the Post Human world has their own reality. On a personal level, this means that people’s thoughts, feelings, desires, anxieties and so on can manifest, at least temporarily, outside of their mind and in the physical space around them. This happens most often when a person is alone.
What applies to a person applies to communities as well. The more isolated they are and the smaller they are, the more chaotic they are.
This makes all isolated places — including the road — wondrous and terrible.
The larger and more cohesive a community is, the more stable it is.
But even the most stable communities are but islands in a sea of chaos.
Consequences
Each community is a different setting with potentially different magic, technology, culture, physical laws, mutations, and so on.
Most communities do not have access to the internet or cell phones as we know them. The technology still exists, but near-instantaneous communication between devices that are in different communities is impossible, though some communities have local cell phone and internet service.
The New Weird
The emulsion of Chaos and Order creates strange things that should not be, and often there is a contradiction or tension at the heart of each power, monster, mutant, and anything else of Order infected by Chaos, or anything else of Chaos captured by Order. This means that there are no typical monsters or powers or mutations in Post Human.
So, for example, a ghost in Post Human starts much like any ghost, as a restless spirit. But in Post Human, it clothes itself in ectoplasm and starts a new life. These ghosts are very resilient and possibly immortal, but if they meet anyone from their past life, they quickly start to dissipate and finally move on. Starting a new life without using the resources of their old life is difficult. Staying away from friends, foes, and family is even more difficult.
Consequences
Characters, places, and plots are complex and contradictory. Special powers breed special problems, but a curse can be a gift as well.
Prologue Part II--What Is a Role-Playing Game?
Caveat: This definition is most definitely for my games only. It might fit others, or not, and that’s OK.
The Post-Human games (of which Amazing! Warehouse is one), are a mix of the games of “pretend” we played as children, the games of imagination we play before writing a story, improv, conversation, and just enough rules to have structure but not a single rule more.
How This Works
Game Preparation--GM
You have a gaming group of friends and acquaintances. One person, the game master (GM) -- as in master of ceremonies (MC) -- has an idea for a game that they want to run. In this case, it is Amazing! Warehouse.
The GM has some preparing to do. The GM imagines what their version of The Amazing! Warehouse will be like. What do they want to focus on, what elements are interesting to them. The GM also leaves room for the players’ contribution, and the GM emails everyone with details about the game, character creation, and so on.
Game Preparation--Players
The players imagine what kind of character they want to play within the setting that the GM has sent to them. They use the rules of the game and the GM’s rules to create characters and then send those characters to the GM and perhaps the other players.
Game Preparation--As a Group
At this point, the characters are not finalized. They are drafts. The GM and other players offer constructive criticism. Players might try to connect their characters, and the GM will incorporate elements of the characters’ background, skills, and description into the setting. If a player decides that a group of snakes (Amazing! Warehouse uses animal protagonists) are their allies, the GM would do well to make those snakes an important and interesting part of the game, even if they didn’t think of snakes until the player submitted their character.
Session Zero
The gaming group finally gets together, maybe online, maybe at someone’s house, maybe at a pub or gaming café. They have what’s called a Session Zero, in which they discuss the game, their characters, scheduling, and any concerns they might have. Sometimes they play a short introductory scenario, sometimes not. The game begins in earnest the next session, Session 1.
Consider using the word "communicating" or "sharing" instead of "email" in the game prep paragraph. I've learned recently from my younger coworkers that emails are corporate and dated.