Academics Skill: Average Sports Skill: Average Favorite Foods: Gems, Diamonds, Wizard Blood Type: O+ Animal: Dragon Age: 14 An Interesting Fact About You: You are the disgraced heir of a line of Draconic Nobility. Character Description ❀ You used to be important. As the son of the Fifth Lord of the Polar Palace, you were destined to live a charmed life of duty and glory. You were to oversee a fief in your father’s domain and watch over the world from on high. But then, you made a mistake. You brought shame on yourself and your family. In his inimitable wisdom, your father stripped you of your titles and lands and banished you from his domain. You’re still a member of the spirit courts, but you are marked and disgraced and few will still take your calls. Now you live in a modest cottage in the Walking Fields, with only your most loyal servants to keep you company. It all seems sort of rough for a kid, but… that’s just how it is, you guess. ❀ You aren’t really a human. Most of the time you look like one, but, in fact, you are a coatl, a shapeshifting sky dragon. You can change your shape into any animal and even transform into an enormous feathered serpent with scales like rainbows. It’s a pretty cool thing to be! ❀ You’re going on this trip because you’ve been ordered to. Your brother, the Tlatoani of the Eastern Palace, has tasked you with aiding in this quest. If you find the Treasure, he says that it will go a long way to proving that you are ready to return to the Courts Innumerable. You’re much more concerned with what completing the quest will mean for you than the actual fulfillment of the quest, at least at first. Sidebar: Shake it Up! For an atypical Servant Prince experience, pick 0-3 of the following: ❀ Instead of Julian, you're Yurian, the Servant Princess. ❀ Instead of a quest to regain your honor, you’re on a quest to repay a debt. ❀ Instead of a shapeshifting dragon prince, you are… ✶ … an illusion-casting fairy prince. ✶ … a metafictional storybook prince. ✶ … an angelic warden. ✶ … a musical sea lord.
Academics Skill: Wise Sports Skill: Tough and Strong as Anybody Favorite Foods: Tea, Rice, Noodle Soup Blood Type: O+ Animal: Ox Age: 18 An Interesting Fact About You: You have a secret love of romance novels. No one can ever know. Character Description ❀ You are a cursed knight who lives alone in a hut. You’re kind of young to be living by yourself, but you have such a look to you of extreme competence that no one dares to say anything. You’ve got the mien of someone much older than you are. That’s sort of your thing. You are competent and dependable and stoic. When Old Mrs. McGurt, with her weak eyes and bad hip, needs help getting to the doctor’s office, you’re there. When Farmer Tanaka needs an extra hand tilling the fields, you’re there. You don’t complain. Maybe you should? Maybe it would be good for you not to keep everything locked inside your stony exterior? ❀ That wasn’t a metaphor. Your skin is literally made of stone. Somewhere in your dramatic and sad backstory as the squire of an itinerant knight, you were struck by a terrible Outside curse. Your skin is thick and grey and hard, your face is marked like the side of a mountain. You’re self-conscious about it and that makes you mad. It’s hard being a teenager, and nobody understands. ❀ You’re going to tag along on your friends’ adventure because someone needs to protect them - from the dangers of the Outside and from themselves. They don’t know what it’s like out there. It’s your job to make sure they don’t find out. Sidebar: Shake it Up! For an atypical Granite Knight experience, pick 0-3 of the following: ❀ Instead of the young woman Oboliu Waite, you can be Dace Lillimut, a young man ❀ Instead of the squire to an itinerant knight, you used to be a superhero’s kid sidekick. ❀ Maybe you’re not 18, you’re actually thousands of years old. Wow. ❀ Your Curse isn’t stone-skin, it’s.... ✶ … a burning flame in your head that never goes out. ✶ … a transformative disease parasite that lets you grow tentacles. ✶ … lycanthropy. ✶ … a genius IQ that separates you from mortals.
Sidebar: Playing Dace Lillimut You’re a bit less stoic than Oboliu. Smiling comes easier to you and you’ve even been known, every once in a while, to laugh. Also, you are, most likely, a werewolf.
Academics Skill: Average but people think more than that Sports Skill: Exactly as Incompetent as Expected Favorite Foods: Pierogies, Gyros, Outside Dust Blood Type: B- Animal: Pig Age: 16 An Interesting Fact About You: You’re probably the richest kid in the Walking Fields. Character Description ❀ You’re a Titov. In Town that usually says all anyone needs to know about the sort of unsavory fellow you probably are. And, honestly, that first impression isn’t really wrong. You like to imagine yourself as a Byronic hero, romantic and brave and wrestling with deep dark emotions. But, really, you’re mostly just a jerk. You think of yourself and your own needs more than you think of other people. When you’re feeling especially self-reflective, you blame your upbringing for how you are. And it is true that the Titov family magic and its associated curse tends to breed a sort of listless, amoral hedonism. But… When it comes down to it… yeah… you’re mostly just a jerk. ❀ You live in a vast gothic mansion down the road from the Light Seeker. Your family had it moved, brick by brick, from Horizon when they chose to leave the hustle-and-bustle of Town for the idyllic countryside. It’s a strange place. Outside dust tends to collect in the carpets and drapes, lending a psychedelic, phantasmagoric feeling to everything. You spend your days skulking around your domain, lounging on chaise longues, eating individual grapes sensually, practicing your magic to get anything that you want. ❀ You’re probably going to go on this quest for selfish reasons. You’re friends with the Light Seeker, but the habit of self-interest is a hard one to break. In your dreams, you’ve been hearing a whispering voice promising you power and magics. In the Outside there is a treasure... a True Thing, the voice says, and all you have to do is find it and claim it. Becoming a God sounds good to you, doesn’t it? Sidebar: Shake it Up! For an atypical Vice Magus experience, pick 0-2 of the following: ❀ Instead of Roderick Titov, you can be Zoey Titova, a girl ❀ Instead of Roderick Titov, maybe you’re... ✶ … Roderick Susanov, a rogue seer who was tempted by what he saw with his magic. ✶ … Roderick Yatskaya, a channeler guided by vast dark powers. ✶ … Leonardo deMontreal, a nightmare-scientist questing to complete his Incomparable Nightmare Engine. ✶ … Colbrand, the False Light, one of the Mysteries of the Rats who wants to become the new sun.
Sidebar: Playing as Colbrand, the False Light
Roderick is verging on inhumanity, you take it much further. You are Colbrand, the False Light, who is called Monstrous, one of the Mysteries of the Rats. Once, you were the thing that made all of the world worthwhile, the thing which even the swans agreed made reality true and good. And then you were lost… and, as it turned out, the world didn’t really need you after all. You do not want to be small and unimportant, you do not want to be unneeded. You look to the sky, to the void left by the sun, and you see the chance you’ve been waiting for for so, so long.
Academics Skill: Not Dumb but Extremely Unfocused Sports Skill: Without Equal Favorite Foods: Banana Cream Pie, Steak Tartare, Pineapple Blood Type: A+ Animal: Monkey Age: 5015 An Interesting Fact About You: You were grown from a seed! Character Description ❀ You are a spirit without peer, if that wasn’t clear enough. You live alone in the woods in a (treasure-filled) cave, doing whatever you like, whenever you like it. Your neighbors see you at best as a charming nuisance and at worst as a dangerous menace. You’re not an evil person, per se, but you are rude, arrogant, and selfish. Despite all of that, of course, you are often lonely. You’ve never been good at making real friends, not in your entire long life, And it has been a ridiculously long life, because… ❀ You are not human. Five thousand years ago, the Heron Queen planted a seed on a hillside under the noonday sun and you grew from that seed like a tree. Vines twine in your hair and flowers bloom at your temples when you’re embarrassed. You share a kinship with birds and can speak the language of squirrels and hedgehogs and moles. That’s just the sort of thing nature spirits can do. ❀ You’re probably going to go on this adventure just… because. You’re going to hear that the Light Seeker has a mission and they’re probably going to go out into the Near Outside and die, and you think that sounds like an awesome place for an awesome person like you. And you’re worried about him probably, too. Sidebar: Shake it Up! For an atypical Peerless Spirit experience, pick 0-2 of the following: ❀ Instead of Sonya, you can be Sonny Hou, a boy spirit ❀ Instead of a forest spirit, maybe you’re... ✶ … a fox-faced spirit ✶ … an ogre ✶ … a highly-advanced cyborg designated SWK-2456
Sidebar: Playing SWK-2456 You’re not a spirit at all! You’re an advanced combat cyborg! Don’t try to trick me! You were crafted ages ago by a team of scientists working to build a perfect organism. You were locked away in a cryosleep chamber for centuries, waiting for the right time to be revealed to an unsuspecting world. You’re a bit less full of bravado than Sonya is, but you are no less confident, your self-regard bolstered by inhuman calculation rather than pure pride. You’re definitely not as good at telling jokes as Sonya is.
Academics Skill: Scholarly Sports Skill: Clumsy Favorite Foods: Rice Balls, Sugar Cereal Blood Type: O Animal: Rabbit Age: 15 An Interesting Fact About You: You’ve never been further from home than School. Not even to Fortitude! Character Description ❀ You're just a simple kid, living in the Walking Fields. You like going to school, playing football with your friends that live down the lane, reading books, and listening to radio dramas on the wireless. Your parents farm strawberries for a living, shipping them to Fortitude where they are made into jam. You've never been very good at farming,but your dad doesn't mind, he has another son and two daughters to help him with the fields. You're a bit hapless and clumsy, the kid who tends to lose things, including himself, at the drop of a hat… which you lost. People say that you're unlucky, but you always seem to make it out okay. ❀ In your heart, you dream of being a great hero, traveling out of Town on a ship to explore the far shores of Big Lake or setting out to the edges of the Walking Fields and beyond. But those are just daydreams. In real life, you've never been further from home than School. You've never even gone on a trip to Fortitude! You have visited Arcadia (awesome!) and Old Molder (spooky!) but never for long. You tell yourself that one day you'll have your adventure. It turns out, your lucky day is coming up! ❀ Your next door neighbor is Ms. Kseniya, a sad-looking jotun lady who likes to sit alone on her porch and watch the storms come in. She always waves when she sees you, but she doesn't smile much. On summer nights you and your friends visit her and she tells giant stories from the time before people came to Town. You can tell she enjoys the company, she tries to teach you some of the Old Words that the Jotun know,though you usually don't have much luck. Once she taught you a charm to keep away hydras; it has always proven effective! Sidebar: Shake it Up! For an atypical Light Seeker experience, pick 0-3 of the following: ❀ Instead of Tripp, you can be Susan Numidia, a Rider girl. ❀ Instead of being strawberry farmers, your parents could be… ✶ … woodcutters. ✶ … cattle ranchers. ✶ … retired pirates. ✶ … ex-soldiers. ✶ … dead.
❀ Instead of living next door to Kseniya, your mentor is… ✶ … Ms. Numidia, your aunt, who teaches you the art of hiding who you are. ✶ … Mr. Calazas, a former masked wrestler, who teaches you his patented leg holds. ✶ … Mr. Carneleon, the mailman, who teaches you about origami and the value of a hand-delivered letter. ✶ … The Headmaster of the Bleak Academy, who, against your will, teaches you things you should not ever have to know.
Sidebar: Playing Susan Numidia You’re not just an ordinary boy living on your parents’ farm… you’re an ordinary Rider girl living on your parents’ farm. Besides having eyes of night and falling stars and… well… you know… you’re different from Tripp in a few ways. You’re a bit grumpier than Tripp. You’re bored with the Walking Fields and with your parents’ peaceful rural life. You have a feeling in your heart that you have a destiny out in the Outside. It’s where you’re from, even if you’ve never even seen the Outside. You’re still going to find yourself falling into trouble, but you’re going to be pretty annoyed by it. Your mentor is probably your aunt Bogud, a Rider witch who tells you stories of the Not and the Old War and teaches you the Outsider secrets of hiding who and what you are. ❀ Susan usually has the Magical Skill Changeling instead of the Jotun Cantrips skill. That’s not necessarily true, it depends on your mentor, but usually Tripp is all about weird ancient magics he only sort of controls and Susan is more focused on strange Bleak subterfuges.
Prepare to go on a great quest to the ends of Creation and well, well beyond. Before you know what to pack for such a quest, though, you need to figure out just who you are! So, are you...
❀ The Light Seeker, Tripp Tanaka, if you want
✶ to be the sort of person who tends to fall headfirst into trouble
✶ to make friends out of enemies
✶ to be sort of naive and embarrassing
✶ to have a mission to find a great treasure
(or are you the Rider girl variant, Susan Numidia, instead?)
❀ The Peerless Spirit, Sonya Hou, if you want
✶ to be an impossibly skilled nature god
✶ to be a reluctant hero and a bit of a jerk
✶ to climb a ladder to heaven and face what doth dwell therein
(or are you the cyborg variant, SWk-2456, instead?)
❀ The Vice Magus, Roderick Titov, if you want
✶ to be something of a comic relief
✶ to use weird and scary magic to get what you want
✶ to decide the fate of whole worlds despite being wildly unqualified
(or are you the girl variant, Zoey Titova, instead? Or maybe you're Colbrand, the False Light?)
❀ The Granite Knight, Oboliu Waite, if you want
✶ to be steadfast even in the face of terrible things
✶ to labor under a terrible enchantment
✶ to get things done when your companions are always faffing about
✶ to be asked to sacrifice your life to remove a great darkness from the world
(or are you the boy variant, Dace Lillimut, instead?)
❀ The Servant Prince, Julian Lungren, if you want
✶ to change into a bunch of shapes but especially an enormous dragon!
✶ to quest to regain your honor and impress your family
✶ to put someone else's needs before your own
✶ I did mention becoming a dragon, right?
(or are you the girl variant, Yurian Lopez, instead?)
Or come and be . . .
❀ The HG, or "Hollyhock God," if you want
✶ to focus on describing the world rather than being attached to any particular character
✶ to play the game, and nobody else is being the HG, so you had better!
✶ to be able to just say that things happen and they do, and
✶ to help pull together a story from the things characters do,
And the angel of the sun did fall. She fell, down, down, from the sky, and into the emptiness beyond the world, beyond the things that were good and real, out where only false and nonexistent things might live.
And then they knew what it was to know darkness, to know meaninglessness, to lose all hope. The world, the whole and breadth of it, knew what it was like to be without a sun.
But at the same time...
...and, perhaps, this was most surprising of all...
At the same time and for the first time, the emptiness beyond knew what it was to have a sun.
And the whole of it changed.
--- Journey to the Outside, a fan campaign for Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine
So, I've been working, off-and-on, for a while on an idea I've had to do a Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine Epic Adventure campaign in the style of Journey to the West. I'm almost ready to get started running it, so I thought I'd share the stuff I've got so far. Instead of actually creating the mechanics for the characters, I'm giving descriptions and allowing the players to choose their Arcs on their own. I'll probably write up, at least, the starting Quests for each character, eventually, but I haven't gotten there yet. So far it's mostly just a list of characters and a bit of description for each one, and their variants.
Jade Irinka is dead. The sun has fallen into the Outside and the world is reeling under a strange and alien sky. Each day a ball of blazing gas rises and sets, casting shadows and helping the plants to grow. But it is not the sun - and in their bones, the people of Town know it.
It is a mournful thing to live in a fallen world.
But there is hope. Or, rather, there is a chance for hope. Hope exists, but someone has to venture out into the Outside and get it. Someone has to go on a journey to save the world. And not just anybody: gods and monsters and villains… and also just some guy.
It sounds like it will be an Epic Adventure, doesn’t it?
Sidebar: Conventions
This campaign is an Epic Fantasy game featuring THREE Conventions, manifesting as level 2 Afflictions:
The stage may be small but audience is great
You are well known wherever you go
And
There’s always a place to stay when the weather gets bad