[Sorcerer] Traveller: Holy War
Christopher Kubasik:
We had our third session of our game set in the universe of Classic Traveller Sunday night. (You can check out tons of material about Traveller and the Classic Traveller setting, along with notes about what I was doing with the setting, Player Character creation, and game prep here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=26849.0)
Due to the holidays, travel and illness, my group and I had not played for almost three months. This gave me lots of time to think about the game I had set up. And something was beginning to bother me.
After playing the first couple of sessions I realized we were slipping toward a trap I hadn't anticipated: simply playing in the Traveller universe rather than creating a story of our own. My Players were having a blast doing all the "bits" of being soldiers in a military hard-SF setting, but I knew that in a short-while I'd end up dazed and bored. My Players weren't going to build anything unique if I didn't inject something to really shake things up.
More importantly, I had ported the game of Sorcerer to the Traveller setting in part to test the rules of Sorcerer. I had taken out Demons and Lore, replaced it with vague ideas about social acts one committed that were the opposite of our Humanity definition of Friendship. But none of it seemed to be gelling. I felt like we were doing Traveller well, but Sorcerer poorly. The personal stakes didn't seem big enough. The story felt diffused and lacking the narrative focus worth of a long form TV show – which is what I usually shoot for in a Sorcerer game.
In short, I was pretty sure my Players could have their character have an adventure inside the setting, but that nothing particularly significant was going to happen to either the characters or the setting. This made perfect sense for the Traveller. The setting has always been, and remains, an elaborate model train set that defies any real change. It's beauty – both within the fiction and as a published setting – is it's conservative nature. The setting (an interstellar Imperium spanning 11,000 worlds) envelopes the Player Characters. They can have adventures within its borders, but only within nooks and crannies that ultimately won't matter much. The Imperium itself is resolute and cannot change.
I realized I could play that way. Or I could open up the possibilities of adding more sorcerous weirdness, larger scale of conflict, and a chance for the PCs to flip over the entire established order of the setting (if they wished).
I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to go with this, but while I was traveling I decided to brainstorm on the matter.
I had already established an Interstellar Jihad at the request of one of my Players, and realized that this was the point to really crack things open. In fact, at the end of the second session, the PCs, who had been hired to put down a rebellion on a planet, encountered old friends of their who were working alongside the rebellion, along with missionaries who were supporting the rebellion. Floating amid the mercenaries was a figure of glowing, golden light who spoke to one of the PCs, knowing his heart better than anyone, who attempted to get the PC to turn from his mission.
I had assumed that this was an Angel from the rules of Sorcerer's Soul But honestly, I hadn't thought it through completely. I just knew that it felt right when I introduced it, and that my players responded favorably. They were curious and jazzed and a little spooked. But I didn't know exactly what to with it.
So, I thought, what if the followers of the Jihad had actually tapped something unworldly? This sounded interesting to me. What if your enemies turned out to have something more special than you?
Keeping my notion that I would draw on the Classic Traveller setting whenever possible, I decided that the Angels would be creatures associated with The Ancients. I saw them as "memories that had floated forward through time" and needed sentient beings (ie: sorcerers) to let them take action in the physical universe.
I decided that the Zhodani and Imperial forms of psionics were the naïve forms of this Angelic Lore, but that two hundred years ago the citizens of the Z'harde Caliphate had contacted, summoned and bound the Angels of the Ancients.
It all was making sense, and seemed like a good idea. But there was a bit of sadness at all this coming together so quickly. It felt like I was losing Traveller. Which I was. I was now making something more specific. Not Traveller. But Traveller: Holy Wars – a specific setting and setting premise that would make sense one group's game or even a Sorcerer mini-supplement.
In truth, what was at stake was this: I was either going to play Sorcerer, or I was going to play Traveller. Which is strange, because I was going to use the rules from Sorcerer. In fact, I'm not sure if I can articulate why this was this case. But here's a phrasing that popped up in my head that seems to sum the issue up:
We were either going to play a story, or play the setting.
While some part of me really wanted to play the setting, I knew that ultimately, for me, the story choice would be more satisfiying.
I wrote in my notes: "If I introduced the Angels, then the whole game will change. We won't be playing a cozy game of mercs-on-missions anymore. The narrative will become epic. It will be worthy of Dune…. Which I always wanted from a traveler game, but never got."
So, here's the one sheet I came up with…
Christopher Kubasik:
Traveller: Holy War
ONE SHEET
HUMANITY Is…
… Friendship. It is the warmth that connects us even as we travel the stars. It is what makes us value one another even if we do not see each other every moment.
AT HUMANITY 0, you are…
… a husk of a person, aware of all time and space, able to work with your Angel to further their agendas, but unable to see an person as an individual. Everything is abstraction; you only see the big picture. You are the embodiment of Alienation.
Anyone who reaches a Humanity of 0 is a mummified husk: still breathing, and undoubtedly tended to either by the faithful (or, government officials, scientists or whomever, depending on the sorcerer is devoted to.) The angel is born anew as a Passer demon.
Any sorcerer who reaches a Humanity of 10 automatically triggers a Banishing ritual for all Angels that the sorcerer is bound to. The Banishings my be involuntary, but they take place. The sorcerer will spend however long it takes writhing, wailing, perhaps despairing until all the rituals are completed.
HUMANITY CHECKS to…
…stay connected to friends.
RITUALS ARE BASE ON…
Alienation. Rituals are acts of abstract thinking (Madness) or acts of soul-killing violence (Death) that allow faithful to leave behind the concerns of the day to day and see the world only in terms of the Big Picture.
ANGELS WILL…
Encourage followers to use others as tools, see only the "big picture"
Christopher Kubasik:
The ANGELS of the ANCIENTS
Angels are the handiwork of the The Ancients – the actual work the Ancients performed made manifest. The Angels do not live in this time; Lore allows us to move backward through time, and bring them forward to this age. They exist in the space within our atomic structure: neither here nor there in terms of time, but present always with the man or woman who can see beyond the mundane details of the day to day.
The Angels demand rituals that threaten the sorcerer's humanity. They great amazing powers (all the special Angel powers in Sorcerer's Soul, as well as Abilities built using standard Demon rules.) All they ask in return is that the sorcerer see the universe in it's true colors: cold, implacable and not worth fighting or dying for except for one cause: to unite the stars and all it's races into a peaceful hegemony.
The Angels are Parasites. However, they can manifest themselves as creatures of glowing golden-white light outside of the sorcerer, floating in mid-air, wrapped in glowing fabric that floats around them.
The Angels appear as creatures of golden light when they manifest, beautiful and enticing. When still within a sorcerer, the sorcerer's skin has a golden tinge, the sorcerer's eyes have a golden glint – which is either enticing or disturbing depending on the intensity.
The Angels of the Ancients clearly have no fear about being seen or having sorcerers reveal their powers. However, they bide their time. Their motto is, "Everyone gets an invitation." They have no desire to tear apart interstellar empires if it will only lead to mass chaos and the deaths of untold billions if political and social infrastructures are destroyed. So they are working with small cells and political groups across the stars building powers bases and converts. They will gather their army as they go.
SPECIAL NOTE: The Angels described in Sorcerer's Soul have astounding powers, including the ability to protect anyone they are touching from all harm, or "rewind" time a few moments to allow a second chance for an action.
Significantly, the Angels have an ability called TRAVEL. This allows the Angel to move anywhere instantly, with or without another person.
Now, while this would be a significant ability in any fantasy setting, it is preposterously powerful in the setting of Traveller. Remember that the political and social berock of Traveller is that there is NO FTL travel or communication. Travel between stars takes at least one week, and it is not unusual for travel across many systems to take weeks if not months of time. The navies of interstellar empires are built on the assumption that no one can simply blip across dozens of parsecs in an instant.
But now the priests, priestesses and prophets of the Caliphate can. It is a game changer. And I love that rule have this unexpected power!
SORCERERS
The priests, priestesses and prophets are simply the most disciplined people who have allowed themselves to be bound by the Angels. The concentration of the efforts gives them more Angels per world than anywhere else.
But efforts to tap these powers, if misunderstood, take place in the labs of the Zhodani Consulate or the Imperium, in military intelligence barracks, and in the well-funded facilities of mega-corporations. Even a few cults scatted in backwater stars have contacted and summoned the powers of the Angels.
So, some groups call those bound to the Angels Priests or Priestesses or Prophets. Other groups call them Psions. Others might call them PsiSoldiers. There are several in the labs of the Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate, struggling to reconcile their new "understanding" of the universe with their loyalties to the political entities they serve.
jburneko:
Christopher,
So if I understand you right you're not actually treating the Angels has Humanity helpers as described in Sorcerer's Soul. They're the demons of this setting but you're including the Angel powers listed in Sorcerer's Soul among their potential abilities. Do I have that right?
Jesse
Christopher Kubasik:
Hi Jesse,
I'm going to need you to break that out a little.
The Sorcerer's Soul suggests that one way to play Angels is that they are a threat to Humanity.
This is Rules Option 1, as described on pages 52-53:
Quote
The most important thematic twist is that Bindings should be thought of in reverse, in that the angel Binds the person, and the relevant roll should be its Power against the person's Humanity...
A good story along these lines concerns characters who think they're in good shape because the angels are on their side, but their situation turns out to be very similar to that of diabolists.
Also, in the context of this rules option, Humanity may be lost in the course of dealing with angels, and thus take on a very disturbing meaning -- that some degrees of "good" are just plain inhuman.
So, they're angels. They just have an agenda that is too good for people to remain people. If they win, no one will ever care about a specific person as a specific person ever again (no more Friendship). But there will be peace across the stars....
Does that answer your question? I'm working from the book, but a variation listed in the book.
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