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Vita Nostra Q10: Gaming
I knew I'd forgotten something!
How could we use this in gaming?
Is this a setting for the "magical boarding school" setting, where the PCs are students learning about their powers (and having adventures along the way)?
Could this be used as a model for how magicians are different from normal, with different ways of viewing the world and thinking about it?
Could this be the basis of a magic system? All the students seem capable of a range of abilities, such as self-transformation, psychological control, flight, manipulation of coincidence, and so on. How would Vita Nostra's magic translate into game terms?
Comments
Would gamers put up with "your character keeps blacking out and waling into doors for the next six months"?
Does the gaming style known as "Purist Cthulhu" mean anything to you?
So that’s one I would take, if I didn’t already have it.
Another interesting thing for me is the relationship between the apprentice and the mysterious master. For this, the game My Life With Master immediately springs to mind. How far can the apprentice be pushed? What do they gain by accepting ever greater challenges? What do they lose?
Didn't see anything systematic that I would use. Seemed quite random to me - or rather entirely driven by plot. That's a good way to build a thing (mosaic), but not as good a way to guide what is or should be built. I wouldn't be surprised to see the trilogy be episodic (a la Narnia) rather than through-composed (a la LOTR). A shame because the dynamic diagramming is a great germ of an idea. But getting ritual(-magic) into role-play is a challenge. Maybe works better in a war-game situation?
As for the setting, it's a pretty standard wizard school. Where were the secret passages? I thought the vision-world was a good manifestation of planar travel becoming possible in a campaign that is becoming high(er)-powered, and a good way to introduce new NPCs without messing with world-view. The tie-in with religion and occult didn't do it for me however.
There were a few characters and character-traits I would use, the Teachers having specialities of lore about unknowns, especially Portnov, Farit as an ambiguous manipulator who seems to carry (or is it send?) messages to reveal power, and induce compliance. The challenge with Lore-Masters like Portnov is that most players I know wouldn't put up with him, which is part of why I find planning this kind of game a challenge. Most games (genre-movies, books, etc.) end up using murder-hobos to solve problems, and create an expectation that burning something down is a win. Thus they go to nowhere.
Coincidentally, Becky Annison posted today about her game Blackborow Academy, where you play the teachers trying to educate and protect the children while dealing with your own personal baggage. (Twitter post ). That could be an interesting take on the magical school, meaning you get to be the one imposing on the kids.