Playtesting package for a soft scifi Fate game called Elysium Flare can be found here. (Newest version is patron-only; scroll down for older versions.)
It's by the same folks who did Diaspora.
(@trogdor, @doppelgreener Is that something we're interested in?)
A near-reality scifi universe where most things about physics and biology are the same but anything could be different, and contradictions that emerge from play are taken as implications about something not yet understood. Tonally it's a hopeful game about combating darkness and defying fate.
I haven't read beyond the pitch yet, but the pitch sounds like we might like to at least look into it for inspiration on how to do similar things.
ooh, there's some very interesting ideas in here about how to deal with multiple kinds of reality interaction.
There's natural physics, mystic physics, and psychic physics.
Each provides exceptions to the rules of the others, and has a set of skills associated with them.
And there's some cool ideas about stereotypes that might get good play in our revised Amaterasu game.
Everybody gets a stereotype aspect that defines what other people expect of them. Humans are reckless, Fabricants are soulless, Ursans are brutes, etc.
Ooh, a new kind of stunt: Because I am [awesome in a particular way] I can take an automatic 2 on my roll instead of rolling the dice in [circumstance].
But neither of those is really rewarded by mechanics :<
I'm thinking of my choice of melee kensei weapon too. Being the filthy minmaxer I am, something other than what our paladin has (IIRC a longsword) would be optimal. Doubles our chances of finding a magic weapon someone can use.
Damage type diversity is a plus too, but DnD 5e doesn't have that many things resistant to one of {slashing, bludgeoning, piercing} without being resistant to all of them.
> Ribcage. You have armor:1 against pointy attacks. If you take no stress from a successful attack with a pointy weapon, you can make a free overcome action with Physique to take the pointy weapon away from your attacker.
btw, we'll see how things go with Pixie, they've been sick lately :/ (which is why they weren't around yesterday) -- hopefully they'll be around ~3h from now for a bit so we can at least make some progress then
@Shalvenay I'm about to head out for the evening, unfortunately. Unless it goes exceptionally poorly, I'll not be around for the remainder of the day, I'm afraid
I can just tell you the details. I stumbled upon in while looking for the Waddenzee covenant, entirely by accident.
The two laws of relevance here are:
Actually, it's an oath every magus has to swear, thus the “I” perspective.
(5) “I will not […] scry upon members of the Order of Hermes, nor shall I […] peer into their affairs”
The other one is a law stat states that members of House Bonisagus may claim other mages' apprentices (temporarily or permanently, as I got from context).
“scry” has come to be understood as more general than “use magic to peek”, it concerns also mundane means to gain magical secrets.
Now, the legal case is: Can a Bonisagus mage claim the apprentice of a member of house Bjornaer, which is a mystery cult, if the apprentice is old enough that he might have been introduced to the first mysteries?
(Which would be a magical secret of House Bjornaer)
Kind of, yes. But mostly I thought this might be interesting to you because it's about the interpretation of “scrying” and – I don't know how the story went on, but if it was the focus, not just a flavourful sideplotline I assume that it would be – studying previous Tribunal decisions on what other juries think “scrying” should mean, and on how to weigh a passage of the Oath, which everyone must swear, and a customary – bylaw? – which is not part of the Oath, but implied in and grown from it.
@Anaphory I'd personally be inclined to say "yes, but that apprentice is still bound to keep the first mysteries of house Bjornaer in confidence" -- basically, they're under a NDA with house Bjornaer that still binds them even though they are apprenticing to another house
@Anaphory and yes :) I could see how it could develop that way, in the fashion of English common-law argument
@Shalvenay That is, if you want the case settled in favour of Bonisagusmage. If you were arguing for Bjornaermage, who does not want to lose his apprentice, you might come to a different conclusion. And from there it would be tribunal politics to convince other Covenants of your opinion, which you care less about.
@Anaphory yeah -- the Bjornaer side would likely argue that the fact he knows the first mysteries means that any attempt to poach him would be considered a violation of the fifth oath
As a side note, Ars Magica has an entire House (with a singular core archetype, where others may have multiple archetypes) of enforcing the Rules and Code and for arguing cases. I suspect therefore that there might be other forum or online documented games of AM where such disputes might be documented.
if I was Bonisagusmage btw -- I'd actually argue that they're released from their secrecy obligations by way of the apprenticeship. it'd be a bit of a stretch, but it does have parallels to RL trade secret law
where what would in effect be a time-indefinite non-compete would be frowned upon due to its impact upon the laws governing freedom of employment
to continue the parallel to trade secret law, there'd also be the question of what steps house Bjornaer takes to keep their mysteries confidential
