Yes. Actual cows. It was not the most serious of writeups.
Ronald, Prince of Cows – Google Docs
Ronald
Djinn Prince of Cows
The world…
(Stops and points)
Cow.
Every organization has them, you know. Those who just don’t fit in properly. Those who just can’t get it. Those who can’t get a grip on reality, no matter how hard they try. You know: idiots.
Continue reading In Nomine Revisited: Ronald, Prince of Cows.
OK. So it’s a plot device.
Wells Fargo Wagon – Google Docs
The Wells Fargo Wagon
Normally musicals don’t actually trigger a physical manifestation of a concept like this, but sometimes even low probability scenarios occur. The Wells Fargo Wagon typically manifests in the form of a horse-drawn enclosed cargo carriage, complete with a friendly driver (typically male) who happily converses with people while smilingly never telling them anything about himself, his wagon, or how it all works. Speaking metaphysically, the Wagon is a standard wish-generator in tangible form, but with three major differences:
If Nobilis taught me anything, it was that it’s very interesting to see what ends up exploding when you give PCs the ability to make their dreams come true.
Destinium
Various Hells think that Destinium is an overbearing tool of the hated Creator Who first forced demons into their exile. Various Heavens think that Destinium is a foul concoction brewed by the very Adversary himself in order to more easily destroy mankind. Various organizations aware of the supernatural, the metaphysical, parallel dimensions, alternate timelines, the spirit world, the Great Old Ones, primal energies, tears in reality, the collective tangible unconscious, the ongoing manifestation of the Plane of the Dreamers upon this one, or the Just Plain Weird simply ban Destinium on sight. And why does everybody hate it so much? Because it messes up everybody’s plans, very much including the people it infects.
I had to go looking for this one.
Clarice, Lilim Princess of Ambition – Google Docs
Clarice
Lilim Princess of Ambition
The world is there for the taking.
Such a tragedy, the death of Mammon — he was truly an inspiration to Hell. He showed such drive, such energy, such focus on promoting both his Word, and the War. It was tragic how Mammon lapsed first to despair, and then suicide. Tragic, and criminal: those that hounded him so should have contemplated how so many vital operations of Hell were jeopardized by their petty little internal quarrel with the Generous Prince. As it is, Mammon’s loss can never be made good.
Still, one must move with the times.
Continue reading In Nomine Revisited: Clarice, Lilim Princess of Ambition.
Beeleggers
It all started when those well-intentioned fools up in the Imperial District decided to ban mead. Now maybe mead was more of a worry now than it used to be, seeing that mages have figured ways to convince the honey-spirits how to give regular mead a proper, heavy kick. And sure, more than a few members of the demihuman races turned out to have a real problem keeping their noses out of the new, boosted mead-casks. Nobody’s arguing that there weren’t problems — but banning all of the mead, period? That was just too heavy-handed.
Not-coincidentally, I was in the vicinity of Altoona last weekend.
Haunters of Altoona – Google Docs
The Haunters of Altoona
City: Altoona, Pennsylvania
Population: 20,000
Controls: Altoona Works, portion of Pennsylvania Railroad
Government: Strongman
Problem: Serpent Cultists
Heroic Opportunity:Technology
City Aspect: Tense and Foreboding
Altoona is a company city. It became the effective headquarters of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) after the Serpentfall, and PRR President Martin Clement is the ruler of not only Altoona, but all of Blair County and the railway from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, although Pittsburgh increasingly disputes this (there aren’t enough people left in Harrisburg to meaningfully dispute anything). The massive rail manufacturing complex of Altoona Works still operates, salvaging, maintaining, and converting train locomotives to burn whatever the engineers can get their hands on; the city itself is a haven for mechanics and engineers, including the ones willing to experiment with Ophi-tech.
Continue reading The Haunters of Altoona [The Day After Ragnarok].
The 3:45 Room
The 3:45 Room exists in an otherwise unremarkable office building, in an appropriately convenient city. The Room is 15’ by 15’ by 10’; it contains a cot, toilet, shower head, hot plate, ceiling light, microwave, combination desk and mini-fridge, wall cabinet, stopped clock set to 3:45, and no electrical outlets whatsoever (the appliances are all spliced directly into the wall). Cell phones and wifi inexplicably fail to work inside the Room; supernatural attempts to scry its interior, or communicate from inside the Room, do not end well. All of this is helpfully explained on a sign on the door leading to the 3:45 Room.
Pangloss Society – Google Docs
The Pangloss Society
“Seeking the best of all possible worlds.”
It is a measure of the Pangloss Society that a surprising number of its lowest-ranked acolytes do not quite realize that Professor Pangloss is a fictional character, and that his adoption as the guiding light of the Society was a cynical joke. It is also a measure of the Society that the aforementioned cynics who formed it were shoved out of leadership positions a decade ago, to be replaced by celebrities with more money than — pretty much anything else, really. Although, to be fair: under the celebrities’ leadership the Pangloss Society has been fairly benign. Or at least mostly harmless.
And this is the other one.
Fanboy-1 (Quantum 5) – Google Docs
Fanboy-1 (Quantum 5)
(With apologies to Ken Hite and Kim Newman)
On paper Fanboy-1 is, if not a cash cow, at least a cash goat for Infinity. It’s a world where most of the greats of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction have had more productive careers; the resulting works are valuable not only on Homeline, but in almost any timeline with a divergence point after about 1945. All of which leads to a certain reluctance to officially notice what might be faint warning signs.
Continue reading GURPS Revisited: Fanboy-1 (Quantum 5) [GURPS 4e]
Have to put this one and the next one back up because I need good links for the new piece that I’m doing.
Incognito (Quantum 5) – Google Docs
This Quantum 5 world diverged from Homeline’s on March 28th, 1911, 7:00 PM Greenwich Mean Time. This date is not actually known to Infinity’s researchers; they have at this point only narrowed the divergence point to somewhere in the spring of 1911. What appears to have happened was that some sort of global quantum effect (translation: “nobody knows”) thoroughly randomized human conceptions across the planet: no one conceived past that point has a precise genetic match to the equivalent person in Homeline’s history.
Continue reading GURPS Revisited: Incognito (Quantum 5) [GURPS 4e]
