Entry: The Raven's Eyes

[JoeJohaneman]

Time Range: 3 sessions of 3 hours
Ingredients: Package one, all four ingredients (wanted the extra challenge of an extra ingredient. Hope it works out.)

The subtitle of the game is "A role-playing game of Paramilitary Shamans". Think "24" meets Shamanistic Magic. The game is set in a future America where the government has been taken over by a theocracy, The Church of One Truth. The Church has been raising demons to possess mortals. Then, to prove the power of their God, they cast out the demons.

The PC's are shamans belonging to various clans, each clan given certain powers by their totem. (ie, bear, mountain lion, etc.) The Church has its own totem, the Raven, which they have subjugated to their will. The combined clans are called the Committee.

Unlike most games involving magic, spells are not castable instantly in most circumstances. All magic is based on spirits, and shamans must summon and bind spirits. The usual practice is to bind spirits to fetishes. Spirits can only be bound, however, to objects made of glass. Spirits range in power and age, and there are many types of spirits. The most powerful spirits are the Ancients. They are unknowable and unbindable by ordinary means.

To make things more difficult, one of the attributes is emotionability. Shamans with higher emotionability have more power, but because of their closer connection to the spirit world, they loss control over their emotional stability. In effect, the more powerful the character, the less stable he is.

The purpose of any campaign in the game is to take down an arm of the church. Campaigns are divided into three sessions, called Acts, each 3 hours long. I haven't quite figured out how to force the characters into the three hour paradigm, but I'm working on it. Obviously the GM will need a watch or a clock.

Well, that's about it. Comments welcome.

Joe

[Antti-san]

I kinda like the idea, eventhough it sounds really hypocratic to summon demons only to cast them out.

But I certainly like the shamanistic thing. It sounds like Mage the Awakening infused with the anime Shaman King and mythology of Cthulhu. (Gee, I see Old Ones everywhere ^^) And of course, the 24 for the time range.

Personally, I think that the Church needs more evil theme. What if they actually didn't unsummon the demons they bring forth, but use the possessed for their own purposes?

Damn I like your game already ^^

[JoeJohaneman]

[matthijs]

What happens in each of the three sessions? What do the players/characters do, against whom/what?

[JoeJohaneman]

[itaigreif]

[JoeJohaneman]

[JoeJohaneman]

Just a little preview from the game. It's the two stories from the introduction.

Kevin's Story

Kevin could feel the presence of a spirit; something cold and evil. He followed the feeling to the alley and saw the ghoul standing above a little boy, its hands plunged deep into the child’s ethereal body. It was draining the child’s lifeforce. Kevin had only a matter of seconds.

He reached into his bag and pulled out his fetish. To outside appearances it was just a key chain, “life’s a beach” scrawled across the red glass. But to Kevin it was much, much more. It contained a spirit, a spirit bound to his servitude. Generally, the spirit’s power was diminished by its entrapment, but he had no time for minor effects. He had only one choice. Even though it had taken him two days to prepare the fetish, he had to release the spirit. It was the only choice if he was to save the child.

“In the name of the bear, I release you if you will save this child!” The red glass glowed and the fire spirit trapped within rushed out, acknowledged its former master, and then rushed at the ghoul. The creature, consumed in feeding, didn’t notice it was in trouble until it heard Kevin’s voice. Then, it turned to see the fire spirit rushing towards it. The ghoul screamed in rage and fear, and then it was consumed in the spirit’s flame. The animated corpse cried a curse with its half rotten tongue, but it was too late. Its body erupted into flame and the evil spirit animating it was released into the ether.

Kevin walked over to the boy to make sure that he was still breathing. He had gotten to him in time. He pulled out his cell phone and made a quick call to 911. He could have called on the bear to heal the boy, but he had other fish to fry and time was running out. The Committee didn’t take kindly to operatives screwing around on missions, even if it was to save an innocent. The Committee’s goals were grander, no less important than saving the world.

As Kevin turned to walk away, he felt himself being watched. He looked up and saw the raven on top of a nearby building staring him down. The Church’s bird cackled and flew off, to report to its masters no doubt. Kevin sighed. Now the Church would know he was in town. His handler would not be happy. He decided he had better hurry. He had an altar to defile, or to purify, depending on who you asked.


Jamie's Story

Jamie sat in the temple and waited. Kevin should have been here by now. He probably got sidetracked by some innocent. Poor protective bear pups. She never would understand why they needed to save every single innocent. Didn’t they realize that the missions were much more important?
Humanity’s future was at stake. She was glad she belonged to mountain lion. He was much more clear-headed about such things.

She was in great danger waiting here. She was in the middle of enemy territory, a temple of The Church of One Truth. Kevin and she had to defile the altar, to lessen its power on the earthly plane. The Church held their darkest rituals here. Innocents had probably been sacrificed on the altar that sat before her, though the norms would never know about that. They come to the temple for the public mass, weddings and funerals. They didn’t see the demon raisings or the binding rituals. How else would the Church have demons to cast out if they didn’t raise them? On their own, demons had no path to the earthly plane.

Jamie sighed and decided she couldn’t wait any longer. She had to get the altar cleared up. Of course, there was only one way to clean up this foul altar. She dreaded it, but it was necessary.

She saw a priest working on the altar. He was preparing it for the public mass. The public was allowed into the temple during this time, which is how she had gotten in. But if a monsignor or a bishop walked in, they’d have detected her aura in a heartbeat. She’d have been found out for sure.
She walked up to the altar and tapped the priest on the shoulder. He jumped in surprise and turned around to face her. “Oh, you startled me,” he said.

“Forgive me, father,” she said.

“No harm done,” he said.

“No, not for that. For this.” She pulled her Athame from its sheath and pushed the blade into his stomach. He gasped and then fell to the floor. She pulled his body onto the altar and cursed Kevin for not showing up to help her. Only one thing could defile the evil altar and that was the blood of the evil. She didn’t like murder, not even the murder of a priest, but it was necessary in the war against the Church. She thanked Mountain Lion for her strength, and then made her way out to the street. She made a few quick glances, saw no ravens and made her way down the street.

One more casualty in the war against evil.

[JoeJohaneman]

Finally figured out how I'm going to handle the time thing in the game. Straight from the game:

A Campaign

A campaign in The Raven’s Eyes only last 3 sessions, called acts, each act being 3 hours long. At the end of a campaign, the players turn their characters over the GM and do not use them again in another campaign. Those characters may appear as NPC’s in later campaigns at the GM’s discretion, but the players will not control them.

In the first act, the characters are given an assignment from their handler, and they must then acquire information and necessary materials. In the second act, the GM adds the complication, a side story that interferes with the character’s mission. In the third act, the characters must resolve their assignment, bringing the campaign to its climax and denouement. In all cases, the goal of a campaign is to bring down an arm of the church, whether it be a single temple, or the church's headquarters.