ImagiNation

I recently registered for an RPoL account and have decided to take my first forays into play-by-post role-playing. This has opened up a world of possibilities for me, not the least of which is getting to know new people.

Now you fine folk seem to share some interests with me, so in accordance with my resolution to try and get to know more people, I’m advertising this here, rather than on my Facebook friends list.

 It is my intention to plan and run a game of ImagiNation over RPoL, if I can figure out how to do so. ImagiNation uses the Description System where dice pools are influenced by the verbs attached to your character and the environment, it’s simple and clean.

The premise of the setting is mainland Britain has a suffered breakdown of reality. The barriers between imagination and the real world are gone and strange things dreamed up by people caught in the event roam the land and hide the truth.
 Only those who are already 'broken' (in the words of the author) can hope to cope with exploring, understanding and combating this strangeness for the sake of the huddled refugees that sit and wait and watch from the smaller islands around the coast as well as other countries world-wide.

 There are a few things to note. The game was created in order to allow people with mental illnesses to explore and explain the problems they go through on a daily basis, so trigger warnings relating to a wide variety of mental illnesses apply. That said, the creator suffers from depression and I could be said to suffer from it from time to time as a result of a separate disability, so the subject would be handled as delicately as possible.

 The other is that the game will be set in Britain. There are two reasons for this; I can’t be bothered to read up and research a country I know nothing about to produce a conversion (quite apart from the fact that I am English and love the fact that games set in England do exist) and because I want to exploit some of the geography from around where I grew up.

 If you’re still with me, thank you. The best news of this post (apart from some narrative rp goodness) is that the game is available as a free PDF from RPGNow (where there are some reviews).

 With all that over, is there any interest in a game like this? Or would people like an elevator pitch summary of my idea as well?

You're looking into running a game? Cool :D. That system isn't one I've heard of but from your description it sounds pretty interesting. I just had a look into downloading the PDF but it wants me to create an account on that site in order to do so, so I might check it out tomorrow when I have more time.

I haven't been able to game for a while, and so I may be interested.

Sounds like fun to me...

Here we go. A quick pitch of my idea for the first story arc.

"You aren’t soldiers, and God knows we’d send soldiers in if we could, but you are our only hope. Survivors in Canada have reported contact with family members trapped on the mainland.

 Our techs have verified that the phone signals originated from somewhere in the Midlands along the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border. The last intel we had said that two Loci were in the process of fighting over territory in that area. Sadly, our Reclaimers were unable to pass any more intel along before being overrun by figments.

 Your mission, whether you choose to accept it or not, is to gather intel on the possible enclave as well as investigate the warring factions.

 You will be expected to transmit your findings and await further orders."

-/-

Voice 1: *breathing*

Voice 2: Hello? Marie? Is that you?

1: Victor? Thank God. I thought you were still asleep.

2: *sobs*

1: Are you okay? Victor?

2: Y-yes, I’m fine. We’d given up on you, Marie. It’s been so long.

1: Long? How long was I asleep?

2: *silence*

1: Victor, how long was I asleep?

2: A year.

1: *silence*

2: We fled to Canada. Where are you? We’re coming back for you.

1: I’m at home. It’s safe here. But we can hear things at night. Things beyond the walls. Please hurry, I’m scared.

• Transcript of a recorded phone call with a ‘survivor’ in the Midlands.

Can you give a few details on the game itself? Can we only play humans? Do we get special abilities or magical powers or something or are we all just "normal"? From the description in the first post it sounds a bit Discworldy in the sense of "if you believe in something, it pops into existence". If that's the case then that's cool :D.

*steps off a ledge

I believe I can fly, I believe I can fly, I believe I can- ooooohhhhhhh shhhhh------

Could be extra fun to mix it up with Paranoia I guess! "The computer has decided to temprorarily revoke your imagineering rights, please report to level green for decontamination, debriefing, and defribrillation"

In hindsight, I realise something like that would be useful....

*facepalm*

I'm going from memory here, so it's going to be basic. I'll re-read the rulebook later/tomorrow and provide more information tomorrow. Yes, I post these things at work. I am a bad person.

As mentioned, something happened to the British Isles that fused dreams and reality. The cause is unknown, the event began in Glasgow and spread quickly. People fell asleep and didn't wake up again, their dreams warping the world around them, no longer needing to eat or drink they sleepwalk through a semi-imaginary Great Britain. Lucid dreamers and those who are 'broken' (read: suffer from mental illnesses) can control the world around them to a certain degree (the specifics of what you can do are influenced by your profession).

People with mental illnesses are immune to the effects of whatever happened and become 'Reclaimers', entering Great Britain and trying to work out what is happening as well as reclaim land for the British people still awake. There is a military base somewhere in the south that has been reclaimed, but the largest population centres of Ireland (now united) and the Isle of Wight (I think). Being immune and able to control the world around them, some Reclaimers go off the deep end/succumb to worldly desires and 'desert', carving out lands of their own from the dreamworlds of the British.

PCs are creative people (artists, writers, performers, architects etc.) who suffer from mental illnesses (there are some in the book but I can't think of any right now).

The PCs profession before the event dictates the ways in which they can alter the world around them.

One ability I can think off of the top of my head is that architects can change the features of a building by adding/changing an adjective (I could be wrong about that but I'm pretty sure the end result is the same), ie. fortifying or weakening it.

The Descriptive System uses verbs and the like to calculate dicepools rather than numbers and is easy to pick up. Both rulebooks are free and the ImagiNation one encourages free distribution so I'm happy to e-mail it to people, if I can.

I'll get the rulebook re-read and elaborate more when I have time. I'll do my best to answer questions between now and then.

As a disclaimer, the rulebook will take about an hour to read and I haven't had cause to read it in a while, hence my rudimentary familiarity with the setting, other than knowing it seemed cool.

Cool, so it's like the PCs are a bunch of Scribblenauts players battling loads of variants of the Dreamer :D.

....That's not inaccurate. Right here goes, this a note-form summary of things.

ImagiNation

System: The Descriptive system (PCs, NPCs and environments have stats made of a collection of adjectives known as a description)

Setting: British Isles (specifically Great Britain)

The Hook: A year ago something happened. People stopped waking up and their dreams began to manifest in the world around them.

Things to know; There is a constant military blockade around the British Isles. Three ‘clean’ bases have been reclaimed, one in Brighton, one in Ullapool and one in Holyhead. All are military bases, Ullapool and Holyhead used as training bases. Entry is subject to strict quarantine procedures.

Lobotomised volunteers form the large majority of security forces along the edges of the safe zones, lobotomy renders them immune to whatever happened.

Black market exists to smuggle Dream items from the mainland.

Reclaimers – creative, damaged individuals who are immune to the Thing.

The Monad is an aurora of the dream world, manifestation of the psychic consciousness of those nearby.

 Things to encounter: Figments – dream people made real, trying to live. Dreams – largely benevolent places and things. Nightmares – malevolent places and things. Sleepers – normal people trapped in a dream state (act like zombies). Loci – lucid dreamers or creative people who actively change the world to suit their desires.

The Arts (being the things people can do);

Acting: Actors can physically change themselves into new and (possibly) inhuman things.

Architecture: Architects can change facets of buildings to suit their purpose.

Dancing: Dancers can distort time or draw all the attention to themselves.

Music/Singing: Musicians/singers can alter the mood of the listeners.

Painting/Drawing/Sculpture: Artists using these can create items from nothing.

Poetry: Poets can change any word in a description for a synonym or replace a word with one that rhymes to completely change the nature of that thing.

Writing: Writers can change any word in a description for a synonym or cause an event to happen by narrating it.

There is a list of mental disorders as well, each of which has different advantages and disadvantages. In addition to an art style and a mental disorder, a character has up to three skills/occupations that can influence dice pools.

Edit: Fixed a typo.

That sounds cool...I'd have to be a Poet or a Writer :D.

I've set up an RPoL forum for this. PM me if you want the link or have any questions.

Feel free to RMail me a link to the game, then - my username's the same there as it is here :).

I'm interested, but I should probably set up an account, right?

In order to play in the game, yeah, but it's really quick and easy to do, from what I remember (I joined about two or three years ago) :).

You can send me a link too, if you want.

I've set up a game on RPoL. It won't start for a week or so (until after 23rd at the earliest).

That's good - I'm gonna be on holiday till the 23rd from this Sunday anyway :D.

It's like I read that somewhere....

Lol well I've told a bunch of people, I can't remember everyone I've told ;).

We're currently up to three players. If anyone else wants to join, I'm happy to accommodate up to two more.