Game concept: Liber Ex Tabernis Daemonia Eiciens.

Liber Ex Tabernis Daemonia Eiciens

(Inspired by this)

It is not widely known that demons prefer to possess places and things rather than people – or rather, it is widely known, at least in folklore – but is instead largely ignored in modern society because most people would rather not think too deeply on what the existence of demons implies.  Better by far to keep on with keeping the supernatural nicely vague and plausibly deniable, right?

…Yes, that attitude kind of breaks down the moment that the crushed-iced drink machine gets possessed by a being from the Seventh Pit of Ebon Cacophony and then proceeds to spray ectoplasmic-flavored candied slurry all over the place.  It’s not even that the demons doing the possessing these days have any real long-term schemes. Possessing your local convenience store is apparently now a vacation for them. They apparently win the right to do so in contests. So demons thus have a vested interest in drawing out the process as long as possible.

Fortunately for the supernatural recalibration industry, this is an old problem, which is why there’s an old book on the subject: the Liber Ex Tabernis Daemonia Eiciens (Ex Tabernis for short). Most copies of Ex Tabernis are handwritten and written in a rather obnoxiously dodgy form of medieval Latin, but an English translation was published in the Victorian era. That copy is largely considered useless as anything except a way to figure out what pages the good cantrips are on in the original – but the Victorian edition still has any number of interesting anecdotes in the Appendix, some of which might even still be relevant today. The Latin edition is strictly for work.

In roleplaying game campaigns where demons are real and can possess both objects and architecture, Ex Tabernis is a plausible source for learning spells that detect demonic possession of either. It will also give hints as to what kind of demon is possessing which kind of item/place, and even some helpful advice on how to perform successful exorcisms.  Ex Tabernis is more or less useless when it comes to demons possessing living things, although the text refers to a Liber ab Arboribus as if the reader was expected to know what that was. Lastly, an important safety tip: some of the spells for detecting demonic possession have a problematic side-effect; casting those spells on an area or object free from demonic possession is LOUD, supernaturally speaking.

Quote of the Day, I’m Not Sure If I Buy This About Gamers edition.

I mean, I’d like to. Still, I’m not sure I’m buying this:

More than a decade ago, John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade, who now work at the consulting firm Accenture, surveyed 2,500 business professionals and concluded that people who played videogames as teenagers were better at business than people who didn’t. Their 2004 book “Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever” found that videogame players were more likely to consider themselves experts, to want more pay for better performance and to see persistence as the secret to success.

Seeing as I’ve personally racked up an insane amount of time on, say, Skyrim – and I’m not exactly sure how the ability to crouch my way through a dungeon while pre-emptively shooting corpses that just look wrong will translate into a marketable skill.  Although the mummified remains of an office complex would make for a heck of a dungeon. No, wait, that’s Fallout 4. So… yes, yes it does.

So what do people use for running RPG campaigns via video chat, anyway?

Google Hangouts and/or FaceTime, right? …Yeah, I’m thinking about running one of those. I’m pretty sure that I can get some people together and it’d be easier to coordinate a campaign where nobody actually has to drive to the GM’s house. The major issue?  Keeping the kids from interrupting.  Which my kids will do in a heartbeat.

[UPDATE] Interesting.

Ooh, Castle Falkenstein is on Bundle of Holding.

I personally don’t need it…

…because I was lucky enough to track down a complete physical set of the game line in the 1990s. A combination of ample discretionary cash and ready access to NYC’s gaming stores allowed me to devote resources to find some of the more esoteric stuff, which Castle Falkenstein certainly is. Castle Falkenstein is… it is the distillation of all that is romantic and fun about steampunk. It is a 19th century world where historical and fictional figures meet all the time and have adventures together, set in a backdrop of magic, zeppelins, and dramatic reveals. And, oh, yes: the game uses playing cards, because while ladies and gentlemen might readily amuse themselves by pretending to be cowboys or mages for an evening, they will most certainly not use dice to do it.

I love the Castle Falkenstein setting dearly. And, not to brag (I totally mean to brag) I also have a playtester’s credit for the GURPS edition of it. So while I don’t need these PDFs, there are worse ways to burn through twenty bucks than to get the complete game line…

ZOMG! They have TORG back on Bundle of Holding!

You have, like, a day left to buy it! Well, them: they broke it up into TORG 1 and TORG 2.  At twenty-ish bucks each for both Bundles it’s still a goram steal.

For those who don’t remember: TORG was a RPG that used the convention of ‘alien realities invade our own’ to justify having elves and cyberpunk and dinosaurs and horror and Rocket Rangers and, well, everything else at once.  Mechanics were meh, the setting was awesome.  Perfect reading material, if you’re me.