Sex/Magic an intimate role-playing game for friends Author: Adam Dray Published: April 26, 2008 Revision: Draft 2 (incomplete) Art By: Raven Daegmorgan [http://game-chef.com/af2008/comments.php?DiscussionID=74] NOTE TO THE BUSY JUDGES I am a wordy fucker; for that, I apologize. But my muse held a gun to my head and told me to write all of this. I hope that my text is compelling enough to get you to read it all. I mean, dudes, a game about sex and mind control! Truth or Dare as the central resolution mechanic! But if you must skim, make sure you read the paragraphs that are prefixed with "!!!". I marked them so you don't miss any of the cool stuff. I've marked the insertion of my images with [[Image:|]] in mediawiki format. INTRODUCTION Rising to prominence in the late 1800's, various groups used the term "sex magick" (often with the K, sometimes without) to describe mystical practices and rituals, often involving orgasm and taboo, that could give the practitioner magical power over the world. I make no claim about those groups or their beliefs. This is a work of fiction that borrows the idea of magic-through-sexuality and feeds upon it for game play. In Sex/Magic, players take the roles of modern people who are discovering awakening magical powers tied to their sexuality, and learning more about the doors they have opened and what potential for good and evil lies beyond. The power they gain often comes at a cost of innocence but it can change the world. Its use also attracts Seekers, a secret branch of the government that finds people with magical powers and "reprograms" them. !!! The game helps players explore the uses of power (sexual or otherwise). At the same time, it provides tools for getting to know one another in an intimate way. The rules have a "Truth or Dare" mechanism that adds a layer of real-life tension on top of the fiction. You feed that information you learn about your friends back into the game to make it more emotionally powerful for them. MATERIALS AND SETUP The game requires blank paper and pencils, copies of the character sheet (it's simple, so you can just write the sheet on blank sheet of paper, too), and two decks of normal playing cards (remove the jokers). Shuffle them and put the deck where everyone can reach them. You'll want to play in a quiet place away from other people. The rules refer to the "game table" but you can play just about anywhere as long as each player has a surface on which to write. Do have snacks available and plan for real food _before_ play. Ordering pizza mid-game is a horrible mood-spoiler. Dinner is a great way to break the ice before an intense game. It's a great time to make sure everyone knows what the game is about. Don't pressure anyone to play. Plan for plenty of time after the game to talk about what happened and decompress. People might be upset or spacey. If people have to drive home, offer them crash space on the couch if they want it. Do not use alcohol or other drugs to "loosen up" or lower your inhibitions. Sex/Magic is a game best played with all your wits about you. The mistakes you make while drinking could hurt your friends. PLAYERS Sex/Magic is a game for three to five players. Three or four is optimal. You should all want to get into each other's heads, learn a lot more about each other, trust each other, and be comfortable (though perhaps nervous) about exploring adult issues with one another. This game has no Game Master. Every player creates their own character. The duties typically associated with a Game Master are shared among the players. !!! Each player should come to the game with the goal of exploring sexuality with their friends at the game table. Each player should be ready to be serious about difficult issues, talk about taboos, describe intimate situations in erotic detail, and try _to arouse each other_. !!! Arousal comes in many varieties, and many of them are uncomfortable or even unsettling. Arousal means a lot more than sexual arousal, or "turning on." You can arouse someone by scaring them, freaking them out, or embarrassing them. All of these are fair game in Sex/Magic. Every player must be aware of this. The rules provide safety valves for players but they do not prevent anyone from raising uncomfortable topics. That is, the game will not require you to walk through scary doors, but it will likely open them and make you look to see what's inside. This is why you should play with people you trust or, better, love. SETTING !!! The essence of the setting is the modern world, but with a few "awakened" people (Shapers) with mind-control abilities that are powered by sexual energy. And there are some poseurs, too: people created by a secret CIA drug experiment. They have mental powers, too, but they're comparatively lame. The Seekers are a super-secret organization that roots out Shapers and does terrible things to them. The World All the characters you create will live in a modern city. The world is the modern world you know, in a specific city of your choice. Choose a city from your own experiences in which to set your stories. If you don't have an urban background, go with what you know instead, or base your city off what you've seen on TV. The geographical setting isn't the most important thing here; just have a shared understanding of the kinds of things you'd encounter in daily life, such as public transportation, lots of street-ridden cars, alleys, throngs of people, skyscrapers, seedy industrial districts, smelly canals or rivers, prostitution, and homeless people. You don't have to use a modern setting and you don't have to use a city, but you're walking the tightrope without a net if you do something different. Some settings that might work are European cities in the late 1800's or the suburbs in the 1950's. Whatever you do, don't pick a setting that overshadows the personal issues of normal people. For example, you could make characters who are fighting in the American Revolutionary War, but then the game would focus more on the history and the Revolution, and make the personal problems of the characters seem pretty trivial and angsty. "Magic" By and large, belief in magical powers is considered wild superstition. People might admit to believing in ghosts or flying saucers or miracles, but only the smallest fraction of the world believes in magical powers that can be controlled. Certainly, science fiction is full of accounts of ESP, telekinesis, and similar mental powers. In this game's world, however, there _are_ strange mental powers, and only a few people are aware of them. In the 1960's, the CIA was forced to scrub its MK-ULTRA program, which experimented with a variety of psychotropic drugs. In trying to learn how to control people during interrogations, they stumbled onto drugs that awakened psychic powers in their test subjects. Some of those experiments were performed on the populace (without knowledge or consent) via LSD "released into the wild." This resulted in a lot of people being exposed to the special drug, LUX, which could lie dormant for years and even be passed onto children. Once activated, LUX brings about a fundamental change in the brain that alters a person's mental powers. The powers are crude forms of mind manipulation that can be used to override brain control of the body, erase memories, rewire emotional and physical responses, and even control thought. People with these powers are collectively called Actives, and they fall into a few categories: * Dormants are those who have powers but aren't really aware of them, or perhaps they unconsciously suppress them. Their lives might seem a little lucky, or they might be more charismatic than usual, or people might be more afraid of them than they should. Their powers are never obvious. * Tyrants are those who use their powers to gain incredible power. They give themselves away very quickly as they start molding the world around them like dictators. Many quickly go insane. * Stables are those who have a stable grip on reality. They use their powers carefully, cover their trails, and are hard to detect. These are also the most dangerous. A super-secret branch of the CIA, called SEEK, produces its own Actives (called Seekers that they keep in Stables). Their mission is to track down Actives using financial data and psychic trails (and sometimes the very obvious path of devastation that Tyrants leave behind) and apprehend them. SEEK can reprogram Actives with drugs and electromagnetic machinery, thus removing the psychic abilities. SEEK is so secret that it now operates outside the control of the government under its original charter. They have wiped the memory of their existence from anyone in the CIA or Senate or Defense Department or higher. This is "Men in Black" stuff, only way more serious. Their mind-wiping is a bit cruder; some of those people forget how to control their bodily functions, too. Real Magic What the government doesn't realize is that they didn't create the mental powers. They just found a key and a back door into them via the LUX drug. Native Americans in the Southwest have been using peyote in a similar way for years. !!! Throughout time, a handful of people in the world have had natural ability to access these same mental powers, only in a far more powerful way. The strongest have risen up as great leaders (good or evil) and shaped history. For this reason, they call themselves Shapers. The Shapers are generally aware of the state of the world, meddle in politics (but not so much as to get caught by SEEK), and are aware of the other Actives who generally give the Shapers a bad name. !!! Shapers become aware of their powers in different ways, usually during adolescence or their first intense sexual experience, and always near an ancient site or historical artifact. They rely on the Shaper internalizing an ancient language whose origin goes back to the first people. This language cannot be spoken or heard, only thought, though certain symbols and pictures drawn on pyramids and obelisks give hints to the minds that awaken it. The mental abilities are tied closely to sexuality and require sexual energy to power them. The exact method of powering abilities differs from Shaper to Shaper. The nature of Shaper power is different than that of LUX-activated people, whom the Shapers call Primitives. Shapers learn fine control over thoughts, operating with a mental scalpel compared to the Primitives' sledgehammer. A Shaper can change people without destroying the essence of their personality. They can reach out very far, whereas Primitives can generally only access what they can see. [[Image:http://www.daegmorgan.net/raven-daegmorgan_1.jpg|A Seeker reaches out for you. His mental avatar is in the guise of a Native American skeleton.]] SEEK does occasionally locate a Shaper, but they don't understand why they're so different. The scientists think that the LUX has altered the person in some way that is not yet understood; the truth is that LUX has nothing to do with the Shaper's power. That doesn't stop SEEK from using their drugs and Seekers' mental abilities to hammer away at the psyche of a Shaper, turning their mind to oatmeal. CHARACTERS !!! You will play a Shaper. At the start of the game, you will not know any other Shapers but you will meet them soon. Your character won't even know he or she has mental powers at first. You'll discover them in play, but you'll choose a course to follow before you start playing. You can change that course as you learn more about your character through play, though. Each section below describes one part of a character then (prefixed by >>) explains what you need to do in that section to create your character. >> Throughout the process of making a character, your job is to create a person that you care about, and that the other players care about. If you don't do that, you'll have a crappy time and, worse, your friends will have a crappy time. You are responsible not only for your own fun, but for your friends' fun, too. >> Resist the urge to be funny. This is not a comedy. Humor may come out in play, and that's okay, but do not build it into the game. Create serious, believable characters, not caricatures or cartoons. History History is a very short phrase that describes the Shaper's state of life at the start of the game, before they have learned about their powers. It's usually just two words. The first part is an adjective and the second part is a noun (usually a profession). Here are some examples: * burned-out scientist * ambitious entrepreneur * spacey drug dealer * perverted priest * honest cop A Shaper with a very humble History will see their lot in life improve after gaining mental powers. A Shaper with a very blessed History will see their lot in life degrade after gaining mental powers. !!! Character creation: >> Choose a History for your Shaper. Explain to the other players what you mean by it and discuss what the life of the character might be like. >> Figure out some basic details about the life of the Shaper: where she lives, how much money she makes, what kind of car she drives, what kind of clothes she wears. Traits Every character has three traits: Mind, Body, and Psyche. Mind is the Shaper's normal mental ability to reason, to remember, to plan, to seduce. Body is the Shaper's physical ability to move, to endure, and to attract. Psyche is a trait that only Shapers and Primitives have; most people have no Psyche. Psyche is the Shaper's psychic ability to reprogram, to read minds, and to control thought. !!! Character creation: >> Distribute 5 points among Mind and Body (each must get at least 1 point). The two scores must add up to 5. >> Psyche starts at 0. Abilities Abilities are skills the Shaper can learn. These are areas of focus. Most of a Shaper's abilities will be related to Psyche, but a few (learned in regular life before awakening to the mental powers) will be related to Mind and Body. There are more Psyche abilities than Mind abilities, and more Mind abilities than Body abilities. The flesh is weak. Body Abilities Endure - performing without tiring, surviving physical damage and pain Fight - battling with hands and weapons, at distance or close-up Move - lifting, dragging, running fast, reacting quickly Mind Abilities Calculate - thinking quickly, making good decisions in an instant, estimating, doing math Empathize - understanding not only what another person is feeling or thinking, but why Manipulate - getting people to do what you want through emotion, deception, seduction, and coercion Plan - creating viable strategies for the long term, thinking many moves ahead Psyche Abilities Block - protect yourself against other psychic attacks Enhance - making a person feel more of what they already feel Program - changing the way a person thinks Rewire - altering how a person's physical body reacts Sense - feeling other people around you, even at a distance !!! Abilities do not have scores like Traits. You either have an Ability or you do not. Having an Ability just means you're especially good at it. If you don't have an Ability, you can still do that thing; you just won't get an extra card for it. !!! Character creation: >> For each point you have allocated to Mind and Body, choose one Ability in that category. Check that Ability's box on your character sheet. For example, if you have Mind 2 and Body 3, then you may choose 2 Mind Abilities and 3 Body Abilities. >> Allocate the points in a way that harmonizes with the Shaper's History, and makes sense to you and everyone else. >> You get no Psyche Abilities at start, because your Psyche trait is 0. Bonds !!! Bonds are things or people the Shaper cares about. Each Bond has three parts: a Subject, a Boon, and a Challenge. The Subject is the person or thing. This can be a hobby, a sports car, a job, a lifestyle, a girlfriend, a family member, a friend or group of friends, or anything like that. The Boon is the reason the Shaper cares about the Subject. What does the character get out of the relationship with the Subject? The Challenge is the one thing about the Subject that keeps the Shaper from being totally satisfied. What about the Subject aggravates the character or ruins their enjoyment? !!! Character creation: >> Create one or two Bonds representing things or ideas. >> Create two or three Bonds representing people. >> Detail the Subject, Boon, and Challenge for each. Talk these out with the other players. >> It benefits you to create people who really grab the other players by their heartstrings. Make people-bonds who the other players will love, or love to hate. "Sell" the idea of these people to the other players. Gender and Sexual Preference !!! Gender is a tricky subject, especially in a game so focused on sex. Just like in the real world, Shapers come in more genders than "male" and "female," though those are the simplest choices. The character sheet has a blank line for gender, and you should feel comfortable in writing down whatever you want there. Also decide what your character's sexual preferences are. Sexual preference includes gender, but also extends to fetishes in the usual sense and fetishes in the most basic sense (stuff that turns you on). !!! There is a mechanical advantage to being female. There is a stronger mechanical advantage to being neither male nor female. Your Shaper might be male, and turned on by short, smart men. Your character might be female and be turned on by rich bodybuilder men with a Mommy complex, but also have a thing for male transvestites. A Shaper might be male-to-female post-op, into piercings and latex fetish gear, and attracted to dominant and cruel women. Maybe your character is turned on by just about anyone and everything; it's all good. Just be aware that, whatever you choose, you will be exploring those relationships in play. Be comfortable with the skin you decide to wear. !!! Character creation: >> Record your character's gender. >> Write down six things that are sexual (or at least sensual) turn-ons for your character. >> These six things should include, at minimum, one type of person, one fetish or situation, and one kind of physical contact or expression. Name !!! Every Shaper needs a name. It should be a normal first and last name (or however your Shaper's culture names people). The more normal the name, the better. Don't choose the name of any real person known by any player. "Normal" means normal to you and your friends. If you hang with friends who call themselves "Spacer," "Cowboy," and "Slimey," then those are normal names to you. The name restriction is meant to keep you from putting an unnecessary wall (an "unusual" name) between you and your feelings. The character in Sex/Magic is a mask, but don't make it too thick a mask. !!! Character creation: >> Name your character. >> Every player should take a turn to introduce their character. Explain every choice you made on your character sheet. Ask each other questions. >> Take notes about each other, because you'll be providing the excitement for each other and trying to get into each other's heads. USING THE PLAYING CARDS The game uses playing cards as a randomizer and determiner of events in the game. Later rules describe how you resolve game events but it's important to understand now how the cards work. Card Value !!! In general, cards are worth their face value. They are ranked Ace through Ten, then the face cards. That is, Ace has the lowest value, not the highest, and the face cards beat all the number cards. The face cards are generally ranked in the expected order (Jack, Queen, King) with two exceptions: * When a Shaper with a gender that is female plays a Queen, it beats a King. * When a Shaper with a gender that is neither male nor female plays a Jack, it beats a Queen and a King. Having a male gender doesn't earn you anything special. Society has been very kind to you already, so suck it up. Note that this is the Shaper's (the character's) gender, not the player's. Sometimes there will be a declaration of Trump (one of the four card suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades). When this is the case, any card of the Trump suit beats any card of any other suit, regardless of its face value. For example, if clubs are Trump, then an Ace of Clubs beats every diamond, heart, and spade; it still loses to every other club. Card Management You will hold a hand of cards. Don't normally show them to other players. The maximum number of cards you can keep is equal to your character's Psyche score. You will often draw more cards to your hand (usually a number equal to your character's Mind score) but at the end of any player's challenge you must discard cards until your card count is equal to Psyche. Keep the discard pile separate from the draw pile. When the draw pile empties, shuffle the discard pile and make it the new draw pile. It's fine to use more than one deck of cards (shuffled together) so you shuffle less often. The backs don't even matter, really. STRUCTURE OF PLAY !!! Sex/Magic plays out five stages: Normal Life, Initiation, Exploration, Threat, and Epilogue. In each stage, the Shapers learn more about their abilities and the state of the world. A stage does not end until all Shapers have achieved certain goals. Each stage consists of one or more scenes for each Shaper. Players take turns getting scenes and generally don't have more than one scene in a row but probably will have multiple scenes per stage. Scene Order At the beginning of each scene, each player should draw two cards and place the first one on the left and the second on the right. The left card determines the order of scenes for the spotlight player. The right card determines the order of scenes for the spotlight player's challenger. Ties are resolved by further draws. You can't be your own Challenger; go to the next higher card in that case. After you finish your Spotlight scene, discard your Spotlight card. After you perform the duties of Challenger for another player's scene, discard your Challenger card. This helps keep track of who has gone and who gets a turn yet. For example, Adam, Bobby, Chris, and Dani are playing. Adam draws two cards: 2, 10. Bobby draws 4, Jack. Chris draws: 4, Queen. Dani draws 10, 6. This sets up four scenes as follows (explained below): Scene Spotlight Challenger Helpers ----- ----------- ---------- --------------- 1 Dani (10) Chris (Q) Adam, Bobby 2 Bobby (4) Adam (10) Chris, Dani 3 Chris (4) Bobby (J) Adam, Dani 4 Adam (2) Dani (6) Bobby, Chris Dani has the highest Spotlight (left) card, so she gets the first scene. Chris got the highest Challenger (right) card, so she will be the challenger in Dani's scene. That's scene 1. Scene 2 is less clear. Bobby and Chris tie with a 4 for the next highest Spotlight card. They draw again. Chris gets a King. Bobby gets a Jack, and his character's gender is described as a pre-op male that identifies as female, so the Jack wins. That means that Bobby gets the next Spotlight. The next highest Challenger card is Bobby's Jack, but he can't be his own Challenger. After that is Adam's 10, so he'll provide the challenges. Chris and Dani help. Chris lost the tiebreaker last scene, so she gets Scene 3. Of the players who haven't been Challengers yet, Bobby has the better card (his Jack beats Dani's 6). Bobby will challenge Chris. Adam and Dani help. Scene 4 is straight-forward. Adam hasn't had a scene yet, since he had the lowest Spotlight card. It's his Shaper's scene. Dani hasn't challenged yet, so it's her challenge. Bobby and Chris help. Once everyone gets a scene, collect the remaining Spotlight and Challenge cards and put them in the discard pile. Repeat the scene- order process for the next set of scenes with new Spotlight and Challenge cards. Vetoes Any player, regardless of role in the scene, always has the right to say, "That doesn't make sense." This is a hard-line veto. Stop role- play, explain why you think something doesn't make sense, and listen to what everyone else has to say. If they can't convince you, then they have to "rewind" the story, remove the thing that doesn't make sense, and continue play forward without it. Be flexible about what is plausible in the story. The veto power is very important but do not abuse it. You may not use it to veto something that makes sense but you just don't like. You may not use it to veto something that is possible but suspiciously convenient, as if the story's author was planning it all to come together neatly. Who judges if you're using your veto unfairly? Well, you do. Your friends can't get into your head to find out if you're cheating, so don't cheat. If you do, they won't trust you to play Monopoly with them, let alone a trust-dependent game like this. A veto does not use the Resolution mechanics. Use the Resolution mechanics only when what the Shaper is attempting makes sense in the context of the story, but you think it's an interesting point to test the player's resolve to succeed. The Spotlight When you are the Spotlight, the scene--the story--is about your character's issues and problems. Scenes are best when they lead up to a problem to be solved or some kind of character growth. The Spotlight starts each scene by describing what their character is doing. Informally describe where the character is and what is happening. If you think there's someone else there in the scene, mention that, too. Start role-playing. You have goals for your character, right? Act out your character's interests. Describe what the character does. Basically, everything that you say happens will happen until the Challenger stops you and asks for Resolution (more on that soon). The Helpers can offer bits of color, too. They can play out the roles of other people in your Shaper's life, and even suggest conflicts for your character. These are things the Spotlight rules over in a scene: * where the scene starts * who is in the scene with the Shaper when it starts * what the Shaper does and says (until Resolution is invoked) * when a scene ends * what Ability applies to Resolution (subject to the Trait the Challenger chooses) The Helpers The role of Helpers is to provide color and act out the roles of the people who are "bit parts" in the Spotlight story. Let the Challenger play the leading roles and antagonists, unless they delegate to a Helper. The Challenger One role of the Challenger is to help the Spotlight prove their character. More importantly, though, the Challenger should work to understand what is important to the Spotlight player. What moves them? It is slightly adversarial but it is also a cooperative venture. The Challenger has a lot of authority (veto power) in the scene. These are things the Challenger rules over during a scene: * how every non-Shaper character acts * what happens in the scene after it starts (adversity) * when to invoke Resolution * what Trait governs the problem the Shaper faces Note that the Spotlight starts and ends scenes, so the Challenger can't end the scene but can do anything they want during the scene. Do not play semantic games here. If the Spotlight starts a scene, the Challenger cannot fundamentally change the nature of the scene (that's really a way of ending the scene and starting another). The Challenger needs the Spotlight's blessing for that. Also note that the Challenger picks the Trait that governs the situation (is this a Mind problem, or a Body problem, or a Psyche problem?), but the Spotlight chooses the relevant Ability under that Trait. Sometimes there isn't a relevant Ability (without straining credibility), and that's okay. The Challenger should delegate minor roles to the Helpers. Let the Helpers role-play, too! The Challenger will be watching for the Spotlight's Shaper to do something that seems really important to the player. That's when the Challenger jumps and calls for Resolution. This brings a new set of rules to bear on the Spotlight, and whether or not the Shaper can accomplish what the player wants is up to those Resolution rules. Resolution !!! Normally, the Shaper's player gets everything they want. As soon as something seems important to the Shaper's player, the Challenger springs the Resolution rules and this forces the Spotlight player to make a decision: _How important is this to me?_ Important to the player, not the character. The Resolution mechanics will give the Spotlight a way to succeed outright by satisfying a "truth or dare" challenge. If the Spotlight will not or cannot satisfy the challenge, then they can fall back to playing cards from their hand. Difficulty The Challenger draws a number of cards (the number differs in each Stage) and lays them face up. This collection of cards is the difficulty of the scene. If the Spotlight turns down the challenge, they will have to beat each of those cards with one of their own. The Spotlight sees the difficulty of the scene before hearing the challenge. Challenges !!! A challenge is usually a question (about _anything_) that the player must answer truthfully. It can also be a dare, but the Challenger should make the dare relevant to what is happening in the fiction. This is a question or a dare _for the player_. The player cannot lie. The Challenger solely determines if the player has satisfied the challenge. If not and the player will not fix it, then resolution continues to the cards. There are no limits to what the challenge can be. If the Challenger makes the challenge too difficult or embarrassing, the Spotlight will surely avoid it. The real trick is not coming up with the hardest challenge of all, but coming up with a challenge just hard enough but not too difficult. It's social brinkmanship and player skill is important. The Challenger's primary goal here should not be to embarrass the Shaper's player, but to learn bits of information about them that they can feed into later scenes. For example, if the Spotlight has a scene about a girlfriend, the Challenger might challenge with, "Tell us why you don't have a girlfriend." If the challenge is a dare, try to make it symbolic with respect to the story you're telling. For example, the player of a Shaper using orgasm as a source of magical energy might be challenged to fake an orgasm. It must be made clear that the challenges are for the players, not the characters. We want to hear why Bobby doesn't have a girlfriend, not why his Shaper doesn't have a girlfriend (maybe his Shaper _has_ a girlfriend). And Dani has to fake an orgasm, not Dani's character. Sure, you might play it out as part of a scene where Dani's Shaper has an orgasm. The challenge is still Dani's-the player's. Realize that some questions are painful to hear. Asking Bobby why he doesn't have a girlfriend could hurt him a lot. He doesn't have to answer, but the question could cause him grief to contemplate. This doesn't mean you should ask the question. Just be sensitive about how you ask. _Never_ force or harass a player to take a challenge. Procedurally, the Challenger should issue the challenge without a lot of discussion, and the Helpers should then stop what they're doing and pay attention, quietly. No one should speak until the Spotlight answers or asks for clarification. !!! If the Challenger feels the challenge has not been satisfied, the Challenger says "draw cards," and that's it. The Spotlight can amend their answer, perform more action to satisfy a dare, or ask for clarification. !!! Once the answer is given or the dare is completed, and the challenge is satisfied, the Challenger says "thank you," and that's it. Don't discuss it unless the Spotlight asks for discussion. Avoid laughing, sniggering, eye-covering, or any other "avoidant" behavior designed to make you more comfortable at someone else's expense. This is probably an intense moment; do not vent that intensity through the psychological tricks we all know. Vent it in the scene's closing. If the Spotlight accepts the challenge and performs it to the satisfaction of the Challenger, then the Spotlight player gets a reward (see below). Go to the Cards !!! If the Spotlight does not accept the challenge, the cards will decide the outcome of the scene. The Shaper's player has to produce a card that beats the difficulty, set before the challenge was issued. The player draws a number of cards equal to his Shaper's score in the Trait the Challenger has stated is relevant here, plus one more card if the Spotlight can explain how they use an Ability (under that Trait), a Bond, or their History to the Shaper's benefit (only one additional card here, total). The Spotlight adds those cards to their hand, then chooses cards and plays them. At the end of Resolution, the Spotlight discards _all_ of their cards (played or unplayed). The "Sex and Magic" chapter describes how to fill your hand with cards. The Spotlight must beat each of the cards in the difficulty cards. For example, if the difficulty is 7, 9, 10, then the Spotlight must play a card that beats a 10, another card that beats a 9, and another card that beats a 7. The Spotlight must play as many cards as the difficulty, even if they are losing cards, and the player can play winning or losing cards at their whim. The player must beat, however, all of the difficulty cards to win Resolution. If the player's cards beat the difficulty, the Shaper can do what the player was trying to do when the Challenger interrupted. Continue role- play, explaining how it all turns out. The Challenger and Helpers jump back in, too, playing out the roles and adding details. The Shaper gets final say over what happens, but it has to evolve logically from what was set up before invoking Resolution. If the player's cards tie the difficulty, the Challenger can up the stakes of the scene (in the story), draw more cards for the difficulty (same number as before, plus one more), and issue another challenge. Nothing has been Resolved. Play it out as a regular scene, but with the new, more intense stakes. If the player's cards do not beat the difficulty, the Shaper fails at whatever the player was trying to do when the Challenger interrupted. Continue on. Role-play the failure. The Challenger gets final say about what happens but it has to flow from the way the scene was set up before Resolution was invoked. Do not start further challenges (stop before that happens). Those will make great follow-up conflicts for the Spotlight player's next scene. In all cases, the cards are determining if what the player successfully gets their character to do what they wanted. This always ties back to the story and it always has to make sense to everyone at the table. If the Spotlight says, "I will have my Shaper jump up to the ninth story," and that doesn't make sense to Bob, then Bob should stop the Spotlight and veto the nine-story leap. Trump In scenes regarding different topics, certain suits of cards symbolize different problems. * Hearts represent love-family, friends, and significant others. * Diamonds represent money and career. * Spades represent enemies-sometimes other Actives or even Seekers, but possibly just random violent thugs. * Clubs represent health-occasionally threats to your mental abilities: an illness that makes your powers fuzzy, for example. !!! After drawing the Difficulty cards, the Challenger may choose to focus a scene on one of these suits. He declares the Trump suit when laying down the Difficulty cards, then must focus the problems and adversity on the aspect of the Trump suit. Development (Rewards) !!! A player who satisfies a Challenger's challenge earns a reward in the form of an opportunity to develop the Shaper's Psyche score and Abilities. Before resolving the scene, handle the development opportunity. The Spotlight declares what he is trying to change: any Trait that isn't already a 4, or any Ability that the character doesn't yet have. You can't take additional Abilities under a Trait until you have improved that Trait to support them (recall that the score must equal or exceed the number of Abilities under that Trait). Treat the Development opportunity like regular Resolution but without a "Truth or Dare" challenge: just cards. The difficulty is a number of cards equal to the score to which the Spotlight wishes to raise a Trait, or the number of Abilities the Spotlight will have under a Trait. The Challenger draws that many cards and shows them to the Spotlight, face up. The Spotlight draws one card from the draw pile, adds it to their hand, then plays a number of cards against each of the Challenger's cards. The Spotlight must match (beat, really) each of the Challenger's cards to succeed at developing the character. The Spotlight has to play that many cards, win or lose. The Spotlight must win this card battle without benefit of card draws for a Trait. This means he has to earn cards through other means (see Arousal, below). For example, Bobby wants to raise his Shaper's Psyche from 1 to 2. Adam (the Challenger) draws two cards and displays them: 4, Jack. That's the difficulty. Bobby draws a card (a lowly 3), adds it to his hand (which is 2, 10, Queen), then plays a Queen to beat the Jack, and plays a 10 to beat the 4. Bobby changes his character's Psyche to a 2. All those cards played get discarded. As another example, Dani wants to raise her Shaper's Calculate (a Mind Ability). She already has Empathize and Plan. She already has raised her Mind score to 3 so it will support three Abilities. Calculate will be the third Mind Ability, so her Challenger, Chris, draws three cards and plays them face down: 5, 7, 9. Dani draws a card (an Ace) and adds it to her hand (4, 9, King). She can beat the 9 with her King, and beat the 7 with her 9, but her Ace and 4 will not beat Chris' 5. Instead, knowing she can't win, Dani plays her lower cards (Ace, 4, 9), hangs onto the King, and does not add Calculate to her character's Ability repertoire. She has to play three cards, even though she lost. Arousal !!! Remember in the early part of this text, we discussed arousal and how it is not necessarily sexual arousal, but anything that really moves a player. These rules allow a player to reward another player when that happens. You can give any other player a card at any time, regardless of your or their role (Spotlight, Challenger, or Helper). !!! In fact, the rules require it. When something a player does during role-play touches you emotionally, turns you on, scares you, or otherwise makes you _feel_, the rules require that you acknowledge it by drawing a card from the pile and handing it to that player without discussion. Players may never solicit another to give them a card, ever. If they forget, too bad. This game demands a lot from its players. It demands that players remain self-aware to realize when something has touched them. It demands that players admit it when something arouses them. This is why you play with your friends and other people you can trust. It is expected that each player will continuously raise the bar on what is arousing to them. As your emotional arousal level increases, it should be harder to stir you. The player who has earned a card just adds it to their hand. It can be used later in any Resolution conflict or Development conflict. Remember that the maximum number of cards you can hold at the end of a challenge is your character's Body score. Discard the cards you don't want. Earning cards this way is vital to succeeding in the game. Players who can arouse other players will continuously improve their hands and win more conflicts. They will have larger hands of cards and that will allow them to develop their characters more often. SEX AND MAGIC So far, the rules have barely mentioned sex and magic! Here's where things get down and dirty. Powering Up !!! The Shaper's Psyche abilities are powered by sexual energy. In Stage 1, you will establish what is a turn-on to your Shaper. You can change this turn-on at any time, but you must make it clear to the other players what the turn-on is. To "power up" your Psyche (put cards in your hand), you must role-play scenes of sexual gratification. !!! When you are the Spotlight, you can start role-playing a sexual scene and declare that you are "powering up." The Difficulty for Resolution is one card plus your Shaper's Psyche (e.g, if Psyche is 2, then the Difficulty is 3 cards). If you succeed, you may draw a number of cards equal to your Psyche and put them in your hand. No, you don't have to act them out for real. You don't even have to get extremely graphic. Play at a level that is comfortable for you and your friends. This is your chance to arouse your friends, though, and earn additional cards. Using Psyche Abilities Block provides mental defense against psychic attacks. Use Block to keep other Actives out of your head. Enhance can change the "volume" (intensity) on feelings and emotions. The ability can also dampen or turn them down. You might use Enhance to make someone love you more, make yourself feel less pain, or make a crowd of rioting people less angry. Program changes the way a person thinks. It's perhaps the most powerful ability of all. People who have been reprogrammed this way are not aware of it. They may wonder why they think that way, but will have no idea. No one will be surprised if this is the first Psyche ability you choose. Rewire changes how the brain controls the body. With Rewire, you can make someone sweat, cause them to punch themselves, force them to orgasm, or even stop their heart. Sense reaches out to other people's minds to hear their thoughts and feelings. Use Sense to read someone's mind, to detect threats before they happen, and to find other Actives nearby. [[Image:http://www.daegmorgan.net/raven-daegmorgan_2.jpg|Chris' Shaper and her Raven avatar use Sense to reach out across the globe to find other Shapers.]] THE STAGES The previous chapter mentioned the five stages through which the story progresses. Characters progress in lockstep--you won't have one character in Normal Life while others are in Initiation. !!! Each stage has strict parameters for the scenes you will play. Each stage has specific conditions that must be met by every character before play can progress to the next stage. A Shaper who has met the conditions for the current stage is free to play out additional scenes that develop the character's Traits and Abilities (and other intangible, but important aspects of the character, like their personality and history). Stage 1: Normal Life Shapers start out living normal lives. You will play through a few scenes to _establish_ what life is like before the change. Focus play on your History and your Bonds. The Challenger should bring out the problems in your regular life: in your job, your relationships, your health, your general safety. The Shaper should feel that the world is a normal (but difficult) place, without weird magical mental powers. The Challenger will draw 3 cards for each challenge and play them as the Difficulty. !!! Stage 1 ends when every player has played through Resolution of a problem that showcases their character's sexuality. They do not have to succeed. Each scene must establish something that sexually arouses the _character_. Additionally, you may not raise your Shaper's Psyche or buy Psyche Abilities yet. Stage 2: Initiation This stage examines the moment when the Shapers discover they are different and also how they come to terms with themselves. This is an amazing moment in the life of the Shaper. The Challenger (taking suggestions from the Spotlight player) should explain what awakened the Shaper--it's always a combination of some kind of contact with an ancient, mystical device or symbol, sometimes in combination with taking hallucinogens or having a near-death experience or some other out-of-body experience (meditation, trance, and so on). [[Image:http://www.daegmorgan.net/raven-daegmorgan_3.jpg|A Shaper examines a symbol carved on an obelisk in Belize and awakens the astral dragon in his mind.]] When this occurs, the Spotlight raises their Psyche to 1 (for free!) and chooses one Psyche Ability. The Spotlight must also, at that time, describe the Shaper's avatar. This is an animal or spirit guide of sorts, but it is really a mental construct the Shaper uses to personify the power growing within. The Challenger will draw 3 cards for each challenge and play them as the Difficulty. !!! Stage 2 ends when every player has played through Resolution where the Shaper uses a Psyche Ability to solve a problem and succeeds. Do not introduce MK-ULTRA or other psychic threats in this stage of play. Stage 3: Exploration Shapers explore their abilities, grow in power, and shape the world around them. They may start to realize there are other Shapers and Actives out there or even learn about SEEK, but they do not come under large-scale attack. The Challenger should let the Spotlight play with their new powers a bit, perhaps build a small empire around themselves, fix the world, and so on. The Challenger will draw 4 cards for each challenge and play 3 of them as the Difficulty (discard the unused card). This makes Exploration challenges a bit more difficult, but the player ought to be earning more Arousal awards, too. !!! Stage 3 ends when every player has raised their Shaper's Psyche to at least 2 (via normal Rewards). Stage 4: Threat Something threatens the Shaper. The Shaper may learn of other Shapers, or other Actives, or perhaps SEEK. This is an exciting stage because it's the first opportunity to bring the Shapers together (though that is not required), and because the tension is high. The Challenger should make the Truth or Dare challenges pretty rough here. This is the moment of truth, so to speak. In the story, the Challenger will be bringing other people with Psyche abilities into play, and they will be wrestling with your Shaper for control. The in-game stakes should be high, too, but not game-ending for the Shaper. For example, losing Resolution against a Tyrant or a Seeker might result in your Shaper being humiliated, but not flatlined; being imprisoned, but not executed. The Challenger will draw 4 cards for each challenge and play all of them as the Difficulty. !!! Stage 4 ends when every Shaper has used their Psyche Abilities at least once and has eradicated the threats against them. This doesn't mean that SEEK has to be destroyed. Maybe just every Seeker who ever knew of your Shaper has been mind-wiped. Stage 5: Epilogue !!! The Shaper has overcome threats and changed for better or worse. How does the Shaper end up? The Spotlight should drive things here. The only role the Challenger and Helpers have in this stage are to role- play. There is no Resolution, because the Spotlight gets to write their own ending. Given godlike mental abilities, what happens to your Shaper? !!! Stage 5 ends when every Spotlight player has played out an epilogue scene to show where they end up.