The Library Realm

Sunday was my Father's Birthday. He loved books, so to honor him this week, I am doing a series of posts about books, bookstores, and libraries in Everway.

This is the final episode of our current You Decide series!

With this post, you have a d10 set of  people, places, and things 

that can be detailed as you like for your own Everway campaign.

We'll post a Table for the series next week.

You Decide #10

In You Decide posts, we create new Vision Cards together! The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, and draws three Fortune Cards, and one or more Inspiration Cards. 

Then, we ask you to answer a few questions about the image. You flesh it out.

There are guidelines on how to play You Decide, and Everway reference information available here.

You Decide About the Image:

http://www.timbuktubooks.co.za/

Frame: The image is of The Library Realm. It is a  fortified realm unto itself. The city and lands surrounding it are another realm entirely.

Fortune Cards:

• Virtue: Spring - New Growth
• Fault: The Lion, Reversed - Weakness
• Fate: The Soldier - Duty vs.Blind Obedience

Inspiration Cards:

• I drew the Inspiration Card Courtesan for additional ideas. You can click on the image below to expand it.

C. 2012 Chad Davidson and Obsidian Serpent Games

• The card's Archetype is Sex
• Its Event is Seduction
• It's Trait is Seductive
• It's Quirk is Flirtatious
• It's Element is Fire
• It's Terrain Feature is Plains

Questions:

1. Why is The Library Realm, a realm unto itself? Did someone build it? Or was it always there, waiting for scholars to arrive?
2. What is the name of the other realm? How does The Library Realm get along with it?
3. What aspect, person, or creature in The Library Realm is represented by the Courtesan? What does it do? If it is a person or creature, what are its goals?

What are your answers? You Decide! in the comments, below.

Jenny Everywhere

We'll be running this series through You Decide #10, 

so that you can have a complete d10 set of  people, places, and things.

You Decide #9

In You Decide posts, we create new Vision Cards together! The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, and draws three Fortune Cards, and one or more Inspiration Cards. 

Then, we ask you to answer a few questions about the image. You flesh it out.

There are guidelines on how to play You Decide, and Everway reference information available here.

You Decide About the Image:

Jenny Everywhere image by Nelson Evergreen
http://theshifterarchive.com/whois/

Frame: Jenny Everywhere is a Spherewalker who has been seen on many worlds. Her philosophy is "be prepared", so she always has several different changes of clothing with her when she walks from sphere to sphere. 

The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed.

Fortune Cards:

• Virtue: The Priestess - Understanding Mysteries
• Fault: Fearing Shadows, Reversed - Recognizing Safety
• Fate: Knowledge - Truth vs. Falsehood

Inspiration Cards:

• I drew the Inspiration Card Tree for additional ideas. You can click on the image below to expand it.

C. 2012 Chad Davidson and Obsidian Serpent Games

• The card's Archetype is Nature
• Its Event is Animals
• It's Trait is Sturdy
• The d3 roll for the card is 2, which means that if the Jenny Everwhere has a power, that power has any TWO of the following three qualities: frequent, powerful, and/or versatile.

Questions:

1. What realm is Jenny from? Does she even know? What motivates her to Spherewalk?
2. What are the Floating Heads in the upper right quadrant of Jenny's image?
3. What are the flying jars or bottles in the the lower right quadrant of Jenny's image? What spilled out of the jar by Jenny's foot?
4. What power does Jenny have? Does the Tree image mean it has something to do with spherewalking among the Tree of Worlds, or something else? 

What are your answers? You Decide! in the comments, below.

You Decide! #8: The Duality Mask

We'll be running this series through You Decide #10, 

so that you can have a complete d10 set of  people, places, and things.

You Decide #8

In You Decide posts, we create new Vision Cards together! The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, and draws three Fortune Cards, and one or more Inspiration Cards. 

Then, we ask you to answer a few questions about the image. You flesh it out.

There are guidelines on how to play You Decide, and Everway reference information available here.

You Decide About the Image:

"Ceremonial Mask" (Painted Wood), Pacific Northwest, Canada
Obsidian Arts exhibit, Pillsbury House, Minneapolis, MN
Photo c. 2012 John Everett Till

Frame: The image is of a Ceremonial Mask of painted wood. The mask is topped by bleached horsehair. It has a split image: much more human on one side, much more abstract and lively on the other.

Fortune Cards:

• Virtue: The Defender, Reversed - Peril
• Fault: Drowning in Armor - Protective Measures Turn Dangerous
• Fate: The Phoenix - Rebirth vs. Destruction

Inspiration Cards:

• I drew the Inspiration Card Crossroads for additional ideas. You can click on the image below to expand it.

Copyright 2012 Chad Davidson and Obsidian Serpent Games

• The card's Archetype is Choice
• Its Event is New Choice;
• It's Trait is Flaky.
• The d3 roll for the card is 3, which means that if the mask has a power, that power is frequent, powerful, and versatile.

Questions:

1. What realm did the mask come from? Who brought it here?
2. What is the nature of the Ceremonial Mask's duality? Who or what does the user become when wearing it?
3. What power does the Ceremonial Mask have? Is it as dangerous as the Fortune Cards suggest?

What are your answers? You Decide!

Everwayan Update

Yesterday, we posted You Decide! Number 7. We plan to take that series up to 10 posts, so that the series can become a nice d10 table for a GM looking for some random people, places, and things to use in their Everway game. I will probably use these as hooks in a new mini-campaign later this year.

We have a couple more things in the works in the next coming weeks, including an interview with Greg Stolze, and reviews of the Story Cards RPG and the House of Cards RPG.

And I had an epiphany today for a new series. The plan is to carve out a spherepath/gatepath series starting from one of the known gates in the city of Everway, and detailing the successive gates and realms that connect out from that gate. In other words, I plan to detail out one branch of the Tree of Worlds... at least detail it out a good ways, through a number of successive gates and alternate/branching gatepaths.

http://shamanicgardener.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/moringa-leaf-harvest/

One of my insights is that this could be useful and fun for thinking about economies along the branch, as well as about other aspects of how connected realms influence each other culturally, politically, religiously, etc. I think it could also be interesting to tell the story of some of the Spherewalkers who travel up and down the Branch.

The Branch and its succession of gates and realms will also need some kind of physical representation - a map of the spherepath. I'll have to think about how to do that.

If you have other ideas for kinds of posts or series that you'd like to see, please let me know!

Finally, I wanted to give a plug for a neat Roman alternative history game which came out in print this week. Servants of Gaius, which is reviewed in detail here and here is a tight, rules light, neat alternative history RPG in which the PCs play special agents of the Emperor Caligula (eccentricities toned down a bit and explained) who has called together the "Servants of Gaius" as a secret force to combat the nefarious agents of Neptune, who seek to destroy Rome.

Even cooler, The Bedrock Blog, has published a post called "Help Build Rome." They are inviting people to write their own NPCs, locations, things, adventure ideas, gods, etc., to be published on their blog. I like the attitude.

Silk Thread Wheel

We'll be running this series through You Decide #10. 

Then, we have a new project to launch. 

More on that in tomorrow's Everwayan Update!

You Decide #7

In You Decide posts, we create new Vision Cards together! The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, and draws three Fortune Cards, and one or more Inspiration Cards. 

Then, we ask you to answer a few questions about the image. You flesh it out.

There are guidelines on how to play You Decide, and Everway reference information available here.

You Decide About the Image:

Ikat Wheel, "Weaving to Survive" exhibit,
Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN
Photo c. 2012 John Everett Till

Frame: The image is of wheel frame (about the size of a breadbasket) used to weave silk fibers together to make richly patterned textiles.

Fortune Cards:

• Virtue: Inspiration - Creativity
• Fault:  The Lion - The Body Prevails, Reversed
• Fate: Spring - New Growth vs. Stagnation

Inspiration Cards:

• I drew the Inspiration Card Blacksmith for additional ideas. 
• The card's Archetype is Industry
• Its Event is Something Breaks;
• It's Trait is Industrious.
• The d3 roll for the card is 1, which means that if the mask has a power, that power is either frequent, or powerful, or versatile.

Questions:

1. Who uses and owns the wheel? Who make the wheel?
2. What kind of textile is the weaver trying to create using the silk threads on the wheel?
3. What power does the wheel have? Does it take a toll on the user? What happens when a thread breaks?

What are your answers? You Decide!

You Decide: The Whisker Mask

You Decide #6

In You Decide posts, we create new Vision Cards together! The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, and draws three Fortune Cards, and one or more Inspiration Cards. 

Then, we ask you to answer a few questions about the image. You flesh it out.

There are guidelines on how to play You Decide, and Everway reference information available here.

You Decide About the Image:

Ceremonial Mask, Wood and Feathers, Fiji
Obsidian Arts exhibit, Pillsbury House, Minneapolis
Photo c. 2012 John Everett Till

Frame: The image is of a wooden mask with feather whiskers. A figure wearing this mask has been seen slipping between the shadows on Strangerside's tangled streets.

Fortune Cards:

• Virtue: The Smith, Reversed - Evil Effort
• Fault:  Winter, Reversed - Inexperience
• Fate: The Fool - Freedom vs. Lack of Connection

Inspiration Cards:

• I drew the Inspiration Card Plague for additional inspiration. 
• The card's Archetype is Decline
• Its Event is Illness;
• It's Trait is Corrupt.
• The d3 roll for the card is 3, which means that if the mask has a power, that power is frequent, powerful, and versatile.

Questions:

1. Who is wearing the mask? What is their name and from what realm have come?
2. What is the history and nature of the mask? What creature does the mask represent? Does the mask have any unusual powers?
3. What is this person doing in Strangerside?

What are your answers? You Decide!

You Decide: Sister Wave

You Decide #5

In You Decide posts, we create new Vision Cards together! The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, and draws three Fortune Cards, and one or more Inspiration Cards. 

Then, we ask you to answer a few questions about the image. You flesh it out.

There are guidelines on how to play You Decide, and Everway reference information available here.

You Decide About the Image:

Title "Sister";  Medium: Newsprint and Print; Artist: Jean, Cuban
This print is part of the Obsidian Arts exhibit at Pillsbury House in Minneapolis, MN
Photo c. 2012 John Till 

Frame: The image is of a Spherewalker named "Sister Wave."  Some call her unstoppable; others say she just likes to beat her head  against a wall.

Fortune Cards:

• Virtue: Autumn - Plenty
• Fault: Overlooking the Diamond, Reversed - Recognizing the Larger Problem
• Fate: Spring - New Growth vs. Stagnation

Inspiration Cards:

• The character's name is a combination of the art work's title ("Sister") and the title of the first Inspiration Card that I drew, titled "Wave." The card's Archetype is Futility, its Event is Unstoppable Force, its Trait is Aggressive, and the Character Quirk is Hums.
• We drew four Inspiration Cards, using the d6 randomizer to determine Sister Wave's four Elements: 
• Fire 1
• Earth 1 
• Air 3
• Water 4
• We drew the Inspiration Card titled "Dragon", using the d3 randomizer to determine that Sister Wave has a two point power. This card also has a signifier for Storm as a weather type.
• The Inspiration Cards we drew for her are titled: "Wave", "Journey", "Race", "Hermit", "Coin", and "Dragon"

Questions:

1. What realm is Sister Wave from? What motivates her to walk the spheres?
2. What two point power does she have? Feel free to use one of the Inspiration Card titles to come up with something.
3. What issues or interests motivate Sister Wave to take action? Why is she perceived as both unstoppable and as beating her head against a wall? 

What are your answers? You Decide!

You Decide: A Spherewalker Named "Brother"

You Decide #4

In You Decide posts, we create new Vision Cards together! The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, draws three to six Fortune Cards, and asks you to answer a few questions about the image. You flesh it out.

There are guidelines on how to play You Decide, and Everway reference information available here.

You Decide About the Image:

Title "Brother";  Medium: Newsprint and Print; Artist: Jean, Cuban
This print is part of the Obsidian Arts exhibit at Pillsbury House in Minneapolis, MN
Photo c. 2012 John Till 

Frame: The image is of a Spherewalker named "Brother." He is often found in places where "the news" is being shared or sold.

Fortune Cards:

• Virtue: Summer - Energy
• Fault: Overlooking the Diamond - Failing to See Opportunity
• Fate: Sowing Stones - Fruitless Labor vs. Ceasing Fruitless Labor

Questions:

1. How did Brother get his name? Was it a given name or one he chose?
2. What realm is Brother from? What motivates him to walk the spheres?
3. What gifts or powers does he have? What does he use them for?

What are your answers? You Decide!

You Decide: Who Is The Watcher?

You Decide #3

In You Decide posts, we create new Vision Cards together! The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, draws three to six Fortune Cards, and asks you to answer a few questions about the image. You flesh it out.

There are guidelines on how to play You Decide, and Everway reference information available here.

You Decide About the Image:

Rockwell Kent, endpapers for illustrated Canterbury Tales
http://www.drawger.com/?what=shows&show_id=27&image_id=1542

Frame: To the left are sheep. In the center is a tree. A figure just right of center is looking at the horsemen galloping by in the lower right corner of the picture.

Fortune Cards:

• Virtue: The Peasant - Simple Strength
• Fault: Knowledge -Truth
• Fate: The Creator - Nurture vs. Abandonment

Questions:

1. Who is the watcher? A shepherd? A Spherewalker? Someone else?
2. What realm is this? What is going on in this realm? If you'd like a Virtue, Fault and Fate for the realm, here they are: The Dragon- Cunning; Trickery - Deceit; Law: Order vs. Treachery
3. Who are the riders, and why are they in such a hurry?

What are your answers? You Decide!

You Decide: The Face From the Void

You Decide #2

In You Decide posts, we create new Vision Cards together! The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, draws three to six Fortune Cards, and asks you to answer a few questions about the image. You flesh it out.

There are guidelines on how to play You Decide, and Everway reference information available here.

You Decide About the Image:

Terry Martin (artist)

"Mother Cut Your Toenails, You're Tearing All The Sheets," 1999 Walnut

The Albertine Monroe-Brown Study-Storage Gallery
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Photo c. 2012 John E. Till

Frame: This object is made of some unsettled wood. It can be held in two hands but be careful not to lose a finger: the wood drifts. A steward found it one day sitting in the King's chair in the Council House. The King's adviser, Hermes Branch Crookstaff, had it removed to the Secure Collections room at the Library of All Worlds.

Fortune Cards:

• Virtue: The Cockatrice - Corruption
• Fault: Inspiration - Creativity 
• Fate: The Eagle - The Mind Prevails vs. Thoughtlessness

Questions:

1. Who made this?  Does it have any special powers?
2. What realm did it come from  - if any? 
3. Who - if anyone - put it in the Council House?

What are your answers? You Decide!

How to Play You Decide

Based on some feedback from friends, and inspired by a post over at Hereticwerks, I am providing some simple rules for playing the game featured in tomorrow's post. 

You Decide posts are a game most Everwayan. They're a collaborative way to create new Vision Cards for the game!

You Decide starts with an image of a person, place, thing, creature, etc.

You Decide posts ask you to take a look, and share your own ideas about what the image means in the Everway multiverse.

To give you a starting point, I draw either 3 or 6 cards drawn at random from the Fortune Deck.

The first three are a reading of the image's Virtue, Fate, and Fault. 

If there are three more cards, those represent the image's Past, Present, and Future.

Next you get a very brief framing statement providing a general sense of who or what you are looking at.

Finally, you are offered some questions to consider. Here's where You Decide! Put your answers in the comments. Let's see what we can create together. Over time, I will index some of the answers that emerge as part of the site resources.

I have already posted one You Decide here. That one is an image of a door in Strangerside. The questions  start by asking Who made the door? and go on from there.

Here are three resources to make the game easier to play:

• An Everway Setting Basics page which answers questions such as "What's Strangerside?" and "What are a Virtue, Fault, and Fate?"
• The On Language and Names page provides some simple guidelines for creating names for characters, people, and places
• A link to a table with descriptions of the Fortune Cards, so you can take a deeper look at the meanings behind the card draws.

I also want to recommend another kind of You Decide game. Hereticwerks hosts the adventures of Bujilli, a player character whose destiny is collectively determined by readers' comments and dice rolls. Every Thursday, those comments help shape a new episode in his adventures. The adventure has been going on for 25 weekly episodes now! Check it out and play! 

You Decide: Strangerside Door

This is a new type of Everway post. 

In You Decide posts,The Everwayan shows you an image, provides a brief framing statement, draws three to five Fortune Cards, and asks you to answer three questions about the image. You flesh it out.

The Image:

Detail from carved wooden door (Africa)
Obsidian Arts Center exhibit
Pillsbury House, Minneapolis.
Photo c. 2012 John Till.

Frame: This is the door of a building in Strangerside.

Fortune Cards: 

• Virtue: War - Great Effort
• --This card depicts Ogun (no kidding! this was the first card draw)
• Fault: Fertility - Growth
• Fate: The Satyr - Indulgence vs. Moderation
• Past: The Hermit - Wisdom
• Present: The Unicorn - Purity
• Future: Nature - Life Energy

You Decide:

1. Who made the door?
2. What happens behind the door? What kind of building is this? Who owns it? 
3. Who was the last visitor to pass through this door?

What are your answers?