On the one hand, I would definitely do character generation (at least!) for any campaign in the setting using Dramasystem guidelines, and I would recommend it to anyone (I sadly wasn't yet aware of Robin D. Laws' system when I started with the present group.)
On the other hand, I feel formulating the setting in as many formats as I can certainly helps to get it across, so here goes.
Photo by Richard Bohus on Unsplash
Nutshell
Group of mages deal with infighting, and intrigue between their peer groups while surviving in an urban fantasy version of contemporary Budapest that is in many ways geared against magic-users.
Setting
I've already detailed the history of the setting in a previous post.The Andrássy Rifts
There's a previous post all about this.Paradox
Paradox in this setting is the metaphor for the unease, hostility, and discrimination that mages elicit from non-magickal society, and the system that is in control of that society.To bring this home fully, Paradox flaws and backlashes in this setting tends to manifest as socially frowned-upon or debilitating conditions such as stammering, epileptic seizure, motor impairment in limbs, blindness or extreme myopia, facial scarring, etc.
Alternately, there could even exist a sort of 'wizards disease' such as color blindness, as a form of permanent paradox that afflicts all magickal people, and is a stigma: the basis of slurs and discrimination (so that, for example, mages have trouble differentiating between various banknotes without using magickal means).
The Szekeres-Bara Theory of Self
(disclaimer: I'm still struggling with this component of the setting - I feel I need a sort of scam religion to justify and lend moral superiority to the establishment, but it seems coming up with a workable concept that fits the setting is more than I bargained for)This is a state-sponsored and -endorsed human potential movement self-religion along the lines of Scientology, Arica, est, the Gurdjieff School, and the like.
Detailed write-up planned!
Setting questions
- How widespread and intense is this repression really? (Does it resemble in any way, shape, or form the way Uighurs are treated in China?)
- Do magickal people have to register? Are they prevented (in a magickal way disguised as technology) from entering certain areas?
- is there a secret police?
- How ubiquitous is the propaganda machine?
- Is there a police state?
- Do mages have a person, symbol, or artifact to serve as the icon of their rebellion (like early Christians had the fish symbol)?
- How advanced is the technology?
- How bleak and cyberpunk is the world?
- Are Technocratic agents a playable option?
- Is the Technocracy irredeemably evil, are Technocrats just mistaken, or is the Technocracy also (if less enthusiastically and/or openly) fighting against the Powers that Be that they've helped set up but which has since outgrown them and their control?
- Are the Traditionalist/Disparate factions really a scourge to rid society of - are the PCs righteously resisting rebels, or deluded terrorists?
Characters
Sample Roles
- Cabal Leader: probably has some dark secret - no-one can become an influencer with this recent history without having at least one unsavoury compromise in their past. Possibly also has dirt on one or more of his peers to keep them sweet.
- Firebrand: possibly personally traumatised by the Technocracy (family disappeared, ambitions thwarted, blacklisted, imprisoned, etc.) and now seeking revenge; has only these milquetoast cabal-mates to rely on.
- Rookie: has just awakened and been recruited to the cabal - still has trouble adjusting to being on the receiving end of all the unconscious discrimination that he's dished out as a 'normal' in his now-past life.
- Technocracy Spy
- Acolyte: non-magickal sympathizer of the wizards' cause.
- Tourist Mage: came for the party, stayed for the party/The Party/Love/Ascension/War/?. An outcast within outcasts - Budapest mages on the whole don't take too kindly to outsiders.
- Cabal Lieutenant: keeping the troops happy while vying for his boss's position.
- Specialist: an magickal academic/experimenter who couldn't care less about their social environment. Only interested in Ascension/on the cusp of a major breakthrough/etc.; a liability to the cabal as far as security and PR goes, but can they afford to let the Specialist go and die alone, or be recruited by another faction?
- Martyr: the 'normals' need to know about the nature of reality even if they mock us as we try to teach them about it. Probably alone with such views within the cabal.
Character build questions
- How many of you are there in your cabal? What are the points of friction within the group?
- How well do you feel your paradigm/Tradition/magickal support group is represented within the Budapest agglomeration?
- What is your opinion of the so-called "tourist mages" who come to fill up on all the Quintessence flowing about and then either settle or move on?
- What do you think of the relatively large Chinese community in Budapest?
- In what way do you personally feel marginalized in Budapest?
- What is your stance towards the Andrássy Rifts? Are they an opportunity or a source of danger to Budapest?
- How important is Ascension in your life?
- How important is your non-magickal family (if you have any non-magickal family) in your life?
Sources
Francesco Rosi films, such as Cadaveri Eccelenti.Themes
- Survival
- Civil War
- (Anti-)Terrorism
- Corruption Eats Your Soul
- Resistance
- Trying for a Second Chance on a Missed Opportunity
- Injustice
- Treading Water
- Paranoia
- Hope
- Sense of Exclusion
- We Can Do This, We Don't Need Anyone
- Dog Eat Dog
Tightening the Screws
Here's where the Dark Secrets come in.Throw them at your players when they seem to settle into a rut.
Names
Hungarian or Chinese family names.Everyone is known only by their family name or "handle". Perhaps even official records only contain a single name for people, with some other biometric data identifying people with the same name.
Ádám, Bedics, Li, Csiszár, Kovács, Tóth, Nagy, Fekete, Magyar, Chen, Takács, Hegedűs, N. Bodnár, Somogyi 2., Zhang, Zhao, Sárossy, Treuer
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