I'm researching Fairies now. They will be very important to the game. In OHMAS, Fairies are undifferentiated until they begin to mature. At that time, as a property of Fairie, they begin to take on shapes which mirror their inner personalities. A brutish, murderous fairy will become a Red Cap. A wicked, thieving fairy will become a Spriggan. A helpful, domestic fairy will become a Brownie. Fairy sizes are pretty arbitrary, as fairies can grow or shrink as needed. They also don't breed true - because fairies reflect outwardly what they are inwardly, two Red Caps could have a Giant child, and two Spriggans could have a Hobgoblin son. Fairies need to learn their magic, so Fairy Changelings do not know Fairy magic, though they have an aptitude for magic of other kinds. They also never change shape to reflect what they are, because they grow up outside of Fairie.

-clash

Sylvia Townsend wrote an excellent series of stories entitled Kingdoms of Elfin. It is certainly worth a look to generate some ideas regarding Fairies.

Quote from: JohnnyWannabe;309010Sylvia Townsend wrote an excellent series of stories entitled Kingdoms of Elfin. It is certainly worth a look to generate some ideas regarding Fairies.

Cool! I'll have to look her stuff up.

I do want to stay away from the Seelie/Unseelie Court thing. It's not only a modern concept, it's thoroughly hackneyed. I'll stick with a more traditional - and more English - setup.

-clash

I've just finished with Commonwealth Space, so I am able go get back into developing OHMAS full on. My fairy researches continue apace. There are so many layers of misconceptions about Fairie that it's really difficult to tease out what people really believed about them in the 16th century. The Victorians ran over Fairie with hobnailed boots. The Modern writers try to shove everything into Celtic niches, and saw off anything that sticks out. Towering misconceptions take on a life of their own. "Sidhe" originally referred to the Fairy mound, not the inhabitants, for example. They were the people of the Sidhe, like I would be one of the people of Boston. Banshee originally meant "Woman of the Sidhe" before being corrupted. But Sidhe is an Irish word, and a gentleman of London in 1585 would not refer to a Fairy mound as a Sidhe.

The Anglo-Saxon and Celtic worlds were far more separate then than they are now. In Ireland, the English only controlled the Pale around Dublin. Scotland was a separate country with it's own royalty. The Tudors were a Welsh family, but hadn't lived in Wales for at least a couple of generations. They spoke English and French, not Welsh. I will be emphasizing this separateness in OHMAS. Piskes (Pixies) are to be found in Cornwall and Devonshire, not in Kent or Wales, for example.

Anyway, I digress...

-clash

I think you are over-thinking things. First and foremost, it is a game. Cull from the books the things you like and leave the rest to fancy. Have some footnotes or asides that explain your reasons for doing what you did with respect to faeries.

Quote from: JohnnyWannabe;309337I think you are over-thinking things.

That's my schtick. I over-think so you won't have to.

QuoteFirst and foremost, it is a game. Cull from the books the things you like and leave the rest to fancy. Have some footnotes or asides that explain your reasons for doing what you did with respect to faeries.

Footnotes? We don't need no steenking footnotes! If they want to know why I do what I do, they can work from first principles, like I do.

Actually, that *is* the way I work, Rich. I have to analyze and understand what's going on first, then I build the method to effect what I need in game terms. I aim for conceptual elegance - not saying I ever achieve it!

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;309351That's my schtick. I over-think so you won't have to.

But I do anyways, because I'm a gamer.

Quote from: flyingmice;309351Actually, that *is* the way I work, Rich. I have to analyze and understand what's going on first, then I build the method to effect what I need in game terms. I aim for conceptual elegance - not saying I ever achieve it!

-clash

See my response above.

One of the interesting quirks implied by the bubble/sidhe thing - as explained in the Savant post - is that Fairies don't create their own bubbles/sidhes/fairy hills. They exploit naturally occuring and/or human-created bubbles for their own purposes. There are a lot of good reasons for this:

A: Fairies are known to travel between their hills through our world. If they could create tunnels between their hills, they would use them and travel through them, without entering our world.

B: The entrances to traditional fairy hills are usually well marked by boulders, standing stones, caves, and the like. If they could create them, like a Savant, they wouldn't need to mark the entrances.

C: While some Fairie Realms are enormous, most are not. If they could make their bubbles bigger, they would have already. Instead most of them live in their bubbles and go out into our world to find sustenance in their strange fairy fashion.

Being unable to create their own realms forces fairies to interact with humans, which fits with the fairy stories.

-clash

My playtest - I generally run alpha playtests concurrently with writing - goes on swimmingly. I've got at least one of each character path and option in the party, and so far all have been workable, contributing characters. They decided they liked Rich's suggestion of a club, so have formed one. It's been a year in game time since they first met. Two have gotten married to each other, while two other pairs have formed relationships. One of the party is awaiting trial for murder. He's an Anglican priest, and was presiding at the wedding of the two characters. At the ball afterward, someone let loose salamanders, and one of the guests caught fire and went up like a torch. The priest couldn't stand to see her suffer, and killed her with a knife to the heart, in front of many witnesses. Unfortunately, compassion for suffering is not a mitigating circumstance in England in 1561, and he's probably going to be hung. Meanwhile, the rest of the party hunts for the one who loosed the salamanders.

-clash

Love the game description.

Anyway the priest could be 'saved' by the upper clergy to use him?  perhaps a perfideous bishop?

Quote from: LordVreeg;309934Love the game description.

Anyway the priest could be 'saved' by the upper clergy to use him?  perhaps a perfideous bishop?

Possibly... We'll have to see how it goes. What he did was well meant, compassionate, and horribly wrong for the social mores of the time. That might happen on a battlefield, with no one around, never to be mentioned, but not in a ballroom in the company of nobles - the groom himself was noble, and the Queen was present, though in another room at the time. At the least he should have offered the poor woman unction. Bringing modern attitudes into a renaissance game can be dangerous. Now he sits in the Tower, a prisoner, with no evil in his heart. At the moment, I can't think of a way he can realistically get out of it, and I'm not sure I want him to. It *would* drive home a lesson.

-clash

And lessons are desperately important, I agree.

I was speaking about a selfish clergyman interceding to gain some credibility and fealty from the PC, when he secretly had uses for him down the road.  

But i understand what you mean, the mores of the day are what they are, and commited the act in a major public forum.

Here are the varieties of associations the PC can construct:

Private Cluib

Arcane Mercenary Company

Arcane Bounty Hunters

Arcane Guild

Extended Family

Arcane Cooperative

Courtier's Henchmen

Active Arm of Political Body

Government Ageency - Espionage

Government Ageency - Arcane Police

Government Ageency - Diplomatic

Government Ageency - Explorers

Government Ageency - Military

Active Arm of Church

Secret Society

Religious Cult

Religious Order

Witchhunters

Scholarly Society

Active Arm of Trading Company

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;310068Here are the varieties of associations the PC can construct:

Private Cluib

Arcane Mercenary Company

Arcane Bounty Hunters

Arcane Guild

Extended Family

Arcane Cooperative

Courtier's Henchmen

Active Arm of Political Body

Government Ageency - Espionage

Government Ageency - Arcane Police

Government Ageency - Diplomatic

Government Ageency - Explorers

Government Ageency - Military

Active Arm of Church

Secret Society

Religious Cult

Religious Order

Witchhunters

Scholarly Society

Active Arm of Trading Company

-clash

So, this is going to be a stew game? Where you toss everything into the pot and let it bubble away? Not that that's a bad thing. Stew is wonderful, warm, and filling. Add some spices and stew can be exciting.

Quote from: JohnnyWannabe;310109So, this is going to be a stew game? Where you toss everything into the pot and let it bubble away? Not that that's a bad thing. Stew is wonderful, warm, and filling. Add some spices and stew can be exciting.

Umm, I'm not sure what you mean - "stew game" isn't a commonly recognized terminology. If you mean all these associations exist in the world, then no. The group picks one structure and works within it. I'm giving options for group structure, not listing the various groups that do exist in the game world. The group picks a structure, allocates resources, fleshes out the association with PCs and NPCs, and plays. There may or may not be other such organizations in the world, that's up to the GM, but by listing possible structures, I'm not advocating that they should all actually exist.

Or were you meaning something else entirely?

-clash