Well, I'm not a Mormon...morganminstrelOctober 29 2003, 15:36:13 UTC
...and I don't even play one on tv, but as you may remember I did a lot of research on the LDS a few years ago. (I even made it about 9/10ths through the BoM. Why didn't I finish it? I have no idea; can't remember...never did get to reading the D&C, though I do have a copy...) Anyway, this sounds like a lot of fun to me, since I have some knowlege of the "mythical" background. Speaking secularly, it's a bit Call of Cthulhu-y, which is all to the good. I like the idea of playing an "apostle" type character (you might want to play up a bit of the similarity to the wandering apostles in Acts) who has ties to the communities he/she visits. I also like the almost Hawthorne-like tie of spiritual-translating-into-real (which is, of course, a Mormom trait as well as a Puritan one, but the Puritan feel will be more understandable to a wider audience. After all, not everyone will have read about the Deseret settlement, but just about everyone's read "Young Goodman Brown" at some point
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Couple more points/questionsmorganminstrelOctober 29 2003, 22:53:33 UTC
1. Forgot to comment on the progression. I like it, but I think you'd want to have that as only one of various possibilities, otherwise the game might get a little monotonus/predictable. But I do like it.
2. Given that the PCs are agents of the Church (I keep thinking of the word "apostle," although that obviously has a slightly different context for LDS), what precisely is their relationship to the heirarchy? I understand you might be trying to keep it a bit vague so you don't turn off non-Mormons or tick off actual Mormons, but it would come up in games, I'm sure. Are they part of an organization sent by the councils in SLC? How closely are you playing this to history? (Forgetting, for a moment, the demons and ghosties.) Will there be "gentiles?" Come to that, will there be good ghosts/spirits?
Wow, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, huh? But the idea must be good if it has me thinking this hard.... :-)
Re: Couple more points/questionsmorganminstrelOctober 30 2003, 11:10:06 UTC
What do you do?
Well, I could be snippy (yet historically accurarte) and just say we kill him, but... ;-)
I was thinking more of dealing with the US Army (the Utah War and all that) as well as settlers passing through (aka the Mountains Meadow shhhh!), etc. Of course, if you make this completely mythical and take it off Earth (which might be a good idea as it makes it more non-Mormon friendly), that might not be an issue at all.
I'd definitely be interested in seeing more detail about the setting/overall mechanics. (As you may remember, the nitty-gritty mechanics interests me a bit less--though moreso now than when we gamed together--but the big picture fascinates me.)
Re: Couple more points/questionslumpleyNovember 1 2003, 07:34:31 UTC
Seriously. That guy's gonna get killed all the time.
Johnson's Army and non-Mormon settlers, for sure. Whether they come into play in any given game is up to the players, naturally, but they'll be in setting. If you want Mountain Meadows Massacre: the Masquerade, you got it.
Wow, I now realise how little American history I know. There was a war in Utah? SLC I take it stands for Salt Lake City? I feel like a dunce. But then, if I mentioned the Eureka stockade, the Pub with No Beer and Bourke, then perhaps I'll feel a little better
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Now my ignorance of Mormonism flows thick here. Do Mormons believe that humans can mete out justice on God's behalf? Because I would go to Romans 12 and say "'It is mine to avenge; I will repay' says the Lord". Which is of course a quote from Deuteronomy, but I prefer NT quotes :)In pre-statehood Utah (especially early on in Brigham Young's time), members of the Church were charged to defend the church and community By Any Means Necessary (for lack of a better phrase). Yes, I was only joking somewhat when I said that the obvious and semi-historical reaction to Lumpley's "alcohol-drinking, sinning tax collector" would be to shoot him--and then hide the body and say he "just walked into the wilderness; injuns musta got him." Briefly, the Mountains Meadow Massacre was an event where a Mormom militia (with, at first, Indian allies) set upon a settler band passing through Utah on their way Westward. After about a 3 day engagement, they killed almost all of the settlers. Although the Prophet and co. maintained deniability, the stage had
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Is it my understanding that there will be an 'audit' of some sort by the GM occasionally? Because your language leads me to think that the GM is not allowed to have a God hand-puppet at all.Not allowed at all, ever, under any circumstances. No audit. I think that maybe the GM and the other players can suggest to you how you might play a particular situation, but it's only up to you
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Quote: Notice that God's character, the pattern over time of God's will, can't be set by any one player. Instead it'll emerge from play to reflect the moral sense of the play group. Stepping back, you'll be able to reflect upon what you and your friends have to say about God, by looking at the personality of God in your game
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The thing that most concerns me in all this is that the NPCs can't work in remotely the same way that PCs do.
I mean, a lot of the mechanics of the PCs depends on whether or not they're doing God's will. But whether or not the NPCs are doing God's will is undefined by definition, so how do they work?
Also, I don't see a lot of room for specialization among the PCs. Why are they travelling in a party, anyway? For story reasons, that is.
The thing that most concerns me in all this is that the NPCs can't work in remotely the same way that PCs do.
I'm good with that. In fact, it's been a toss-up whether the NPCs get stats and stuff at all. Turns out that they do, and they're even the same stats as the PCs, but that wasn't foregone at all.
The God stuff will be a relatively small part of the mechanics. There'll be plenty of specialization. Stay tuned for details.
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2. Given that the PCs are agents of the Church (I keep thinking of the word "apostle," although that obviously has a slightly different context for LDS), what precisely is their relationship to the heirarchy? I understand you might be trying to keep it a bit vague so you don't turn off non-Mormons or tick off actual Mormons, but it would come up in games, I'm sure. Are they part of an organization sent by the councils in SLC? How closely are you playing this to history? (Forgetting, for a moment, the demons and ghosties.) Will there be "gentiles?" Come to that, will there be good ghosts/spirits?
Wow, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, huh? But the idea must be good if it has me thinking this hard.... :-)
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Well, I could be snippy (yet historically accurarte) and just say we kill him, but... ;-)
I was thinking more of dealing with the US Army (the Utah War and all that) as well as settlers passing through (aka the Mountains Meadow shhhh!), etc. Of course, if you make this completely mythical and take it off Earth (which might be a good idea as it makes it more non-Mormon friendly), that might not be an issue at all.
I'd definitely be interested in seeing more detail about the setting/overall mechanics. (As you may remember, the nitty-gritty mechanics interests me a bit less--though moreso now than when we gamed together--but the big picture fascinates me.)
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Johnson's Army and non-Mormon settlers, for sure. Whether they come into play in any given game is up to the players, naturally, but they'll be in setting. If you want Mountain Meadows Massacre: the Masquerade, you got it.
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I mean, a lot of the mechanics of the PCs depends on whether or not they're doing God's will. But whether or not the NPCs are doing God's will is undefined by definition, so how do they work?
Also, I don't see a lot of room for specialization among the PCs. Why are they travelling in a party, anyway? For story reasons, that is.
But it's fascinating. I kinda want to play now.
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The thing that most concerns me in all this is that the NPCs can't work in remotely the same way that PCs do.
I'm good with that. In fact, it's been a toss-up whether the NPCs get stats and stuff at all. Turns out that they do, and they're even the same stats as the PCs, but that wasn't foregone at all.
The God stuff will be a relatively small part of the mechanics. There'll be plenty of specialization. Stay tuned for details.
Reply
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