User:Morbus Iff/Sojourns and Scholars - Revision history

Morbus Iff at 23:51, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T23:51:21Z

Morbus Iff at 23:50, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T23:50:06Z

Morbus Iff at 23:29, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T23:29:49Z

Morbus Iff at 22:01, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T22:01:30Z

Morbus Iff at 21:30, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T21:30:47Z

Morbus Iff at 21:28, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T21:28:32Z

Morbus Iff at 21:23, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T21:23:34Z

Morbus Iff at 21:22, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T21:22:47Z

Morbus Iff at 21:22, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T21:22:23Z

Morbus Iff at 21:18, 19 June 2008

2008-06-19T21:18:52Z

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 Players start out as level 1 scholars, unknown, unread, and hopelessly obsessed with making a mark in the world with their own understanding of how things are. Their primary goal, at first, is to get one of their articles into the Ghyll Encyclopedia, a massive tome that contains all knowledge of the known world. As such, players and their scholars are constantly expected to take notes and journals of what they're experiencing, and then to turn these experiences into a concise encyclopedic entry. The Encyclopedant (the primary gamemaster of a ''Sojourns and Scholars'' campaign) decides which entries are accepted into the Encyclopedia, and the players and characters earn experience based on their literary output. There's no game mechanic or trick to this: players are expected to literally write up an encyclopedia entry as if they were their scholars.
-Entries that the players create (as their scholars) are entirely up to the player's imaginations. The GM may set the stage stating that there are "flowers blooming and bugs alight", and a player could rightfully create an entire entry on the pollination habits of the nutter fly. Or the acidic consistency of blooming soil. Or how the nutter fly was identified as the catalyst in three deaths. Gamemasters shouldn't feel that they need to provide noticeable hooks for encyclopedia articles: the players, and scholars, should feel free to carve their own niche from the adventures you both create.
+Entries the players write (as their scholars) are entirely up to the player's imaginations. The GM may describe a scene stating that there are "flowers blooming and bugs alight", and a player could rightfully create an entire entry on the pollination habits of the nutter fly. Or the acidic consistency of blooming soil. Or how the nutter fly was identified as the catalyst in three nearby deaths. Gamemasters shouldn't feel that they need to provide noticeable hooks for encyclopedia articles: the players, and scholars, should carve their own niche from the adventures you both create.
 ====Players are also gamemasters====

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 Players start out as level 1 scholars, unknown, unread, and hopelessly obsessed with making a mark in the world with their own understanding of how things are. Their primary goal, at first, is to get one of their articles into the Ghyll Encyclopedia, a massive tome that contains all knowledge of the known world. As such, players and their scholars are constantly expected to take notes and journals of what they're experiencing, and then to turn these experiences into a concise encyclopedic entry. The Encyclopedant (the primary gamemaster of a ''Sojourns and Scholars'' campaign) decides which entries are accepted into the Encyclopedia, and the players and characters earn experience based on their literary output. There's no game mechanic or trick to this: players are expected to literally write up an encyclopedia entry as if they were their scholars.
-@todo Expand "you see a flower" into an entry.
+Entries that the players create (as their scholars) are entirely up to the player's imaginations. The GM may set the stage stating that there are "flowers blooming and bugs alight", and a player could rightfully create an entire entry on the pollination habits of the nutter fly. Or the acidic consistency of blooming soil. Or how the nutter fly was identified as the catalyst in three deaths. Gamemasters shouldn't feel that they need to provide noticeable hooks for encyclopedia articles: the players, and scholars, should feel free to carve their own niche from the adventures you both create.
 ====Players are also gamemasters====

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 Players start out as level 1 scholars, unknown, unread, and hopelessly obsessed with making a mark in the world with their own understanding of how things are. Their primary goal, at first, is to get one of their articles into the Ghyll Encyclopedia, a massive tome that contains all knowledge of the known world. As such, players and their scholars are constantly expected to take notes and journals of what they're experiencing, and then to turn these experiences into a concise encyclopedic entry. The Encyclopedant (the primary gamemaster of a ''Sojourns and Scholars'' campaign) decides which entries are accepted into the Encyclopedia, and the players and characters earn experience based on their literary output. There's no game mechanic or trick to this: players are expected to literally write up an encyclopedia entry as if they were their scholars.
 ====Players are also gamemasters====
@@ Line 38: / Line 40: @@
 ====Exploration is a character's primary form of adventure====

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 Players start out as level 1 scholars, unknown, unread, and hopelessly obsessed with making a mark in the world with their own understanding of how things are. Their primary goal, at first, is to get one of their articles into the Ghyll Encyclopedia, a massive tome that contains all knowledge of the known world. As such, players and their scholars are constantly expected to take notes and journals of what they're experiencing, and then to turn these experiences into a concise encyclopedic entry. The Encyclopedant (the primary gamemaster of a ''Sojourns and Scholars'' campaign) decides which entries are accepted into the Encyclopedia, and the players and characters earn experience based on their literary output. There's no game mechanic or trick to this: players are expected to literally write up an encyclopedia entry as if they were their scholars.
-====All players are gamemasters====
+====Players are also gamemasters====
 In the ''Lexicon'' rules that inspired ''Sojourns and Scholars'', everything written down becomes fact. This is easy, at first, since so few facts exist. As the game continues to be played, and the world begins to take shape (both in locality and in flavor), however, these facts intertwine ever further. Eventually, truth begins to stretch and morph: where one scholar defines something, only to have another twist and expand it to something entirely different. Scholars try to paint facts into corners for others to devise a way out of. Logic-based "traps" form, family histories become convoluted, plots become thicker, and always, always, a semblance of truth must ring out.
@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 In this way, world creation and plot development is shared by both the gamemaster (the Encyclopedant) and his players - players must write articles about the happenings in the world and Encyclopedants must choose one to represent truth, but must then also abide by this player-written truth. It is not uncommon for scholars to collectively agree on a certain fact solely to see its ramifications on consensus reality.
-====You play weaklings and pacifists====
+====Most characters are weaklings and pacifists====
 As scholars, most of the characters have spent their lives buried in books or other means of knowledge growth. As such, physical fighting, itself not a very common activity in the Ghyll world (and, even when it happens, deliberately ignored), is even less a popular pastime among scholars. While your fact-finding missions may eventually turn sour, life-threatening, or otherwise physically adversarial, scholars almost always prefer to run, opting to live another day than to have their own definition in the Ghyll Encyclopedia contain half-truths written by other scholars. In cases where running is not an option, obfuscation, diversion, stealth, or other life-saving trickery is attempted.
@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 This rulebook contains no details about physical combat.
-====Exploration is your primary form of adventure====
+====Exploration is a character's primary form of adventure====

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 ====You play weaklings and pacifists====
-As scholars, most of the characters have spent their lives buried in books or other means of knowledge growth. As such, physical fighting, itself not a very common activity in the Ghyll world (and, even when it happens, deliberately ignored), is even less a popular pastime among scholars. While your fact-finding missions may eventually turn sour, life-threatening, or otherwise physically adversarial, scholars almost always prefer to run, opting to live another day than to have their own defining entry in the Ghyll Encyclopedia contain half-truths written by other scholars.
+As scholars, most of the characters have spent their lives buried in books or other means of knowledge growth. As such, physical fighting, itself not a very common activity in the Ghyll world (and, even when it happens, deliberately ignored), is even less a popular pastime among scholars. While your fact-finding missions may eventually turn sour, life-threatening, or otherwise physically adversarial, scholars almost always prefer to run, opting to live another day than to have their own definition in the Ghyll Encyclopedia contain half-truths written by other scholars. In cases where running is not an option, obfuscation, diversion, stealth, or other life-saving trickery is attempted.
 ====Exploration is your primary form of adventure====

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:28, 19 June 2008
Line 32:		Line 32:

	====You play weaklings and pacifists====		====You play weaklings and pacifists====
		+
		+	As scholars, most of the characters have spent their lives buried in books or other means of knowledge growth. As such, physical fighting, itself not a very common activity in the Ghyll world (and, even when it happens, deliberately ignored), is even less a popular pastime among scholars. While your fact-finding missions may eventually turn sour, life-threatening, or otherwise physically adversarial, scholars almost always prefer to run, opting to live another day than to have their own defining entry in the Ghyll Encyclopedia contain half-truths written by other scholars.

	====Exploration is your primary form of adventure====		====Exploration is your primary form of adventure====

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 In the ''Lexicon'' rules that inspired ''Sojourns and Scholars'', everything written down becomes fact. This is easy, at first, since so few facts exist. As the game continues to be played, and the world begins to take shape (both in locality and in flavor), however, these facts intertwine ever further. Eventually, truth begins to stretch and morph: where one scholar defines something, only to have another twist and expand it to something entirely different. Scholars try to paint facts into corners for others to devise a way out of. Logic-based "traps" form, family histories become convoluted, plots become thicker, and always, always, a semblance of truth must ring out.
-This roleplaying game is no different: even though, as a team of scholars exploring and witnessing the same thing, the notes you take and the encyclopedia articles you submit determine the truth of what is known. Ghyll is a game of ''consensus reality'' - the more people who believe in what you write cause your words to become the truth of what is being detailed. Getting an article into the Ghyll Encyclopedia is the greatest achievement of a scholar, for the Encyclopedia is widely regarded as the greatest body of research in, and of, the Ghyll world. Naturally, other scholars would prefer their knowledge to be self-evident, and arguments about which facts are most representative of what really occurred replace the physical combat of most tabletop roleplaying games.
+This roleplaying game is no different: even though, as a team of scholars exploring and witnessing the same thing, the notes you take and the encyclopedia articles you submit determine the truth of what is known. Ghyll is a game of ''consensus reality'' - the more people who believe in your articles cause them to become the truth of what is being detailed. Getting an article into the Ghyll Encyclopedia is the greatest achievement of a scholar, for the Encyclopedia is widely regarded as the greatest body of research in, and of, the Ghyll world. Naturally, other scholars would prefer their knowledge to be self-evident, and arguments about which facts are most representative of what really occurred replace the physical combat of most tabletop roleplaying games.
 In this way, world creation and plot development is shared by both the gamemaster (the Encyclopedant) and his players - players must write articles about the happenings in the world and Encyclopedants must choose one to represent truth, but must then also abide by this player-written truth. It is not uncommon for scholars to collectively agree on a certain fact solely to see its ramifications on consensus reality.

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 ====Writing, of some sort, is expected of all players====
-Players start out as level 1 scholars, unknown, unread, and hopelessly obsessed with making a mark in the world with their version of the truth. Their primary goal, at first, is to get one of their articles into the Ghyll Encyclopedia, a massive tome that contains all knowledge of the known world. As such, players and their scholars are constantly expected to take notes of what they're seeing and interpreting and then to wrap these notes up into a concise encyclopedia entry for inclusion. The Encyclopedant (the primary game master of a ''Sojourns and Scholars'' campaign) decides which entries are accepted, and the players and characters earn experience based on their literary output. There's no game mechanic or trick to this: players are expected to literally write up an encyclopedia entry, as if they were their scholars.
+Players start out as level 1 scholars, unknown, unread, and hopelessly obsessed with making a mark in the world with their own understanding of how things are. Their primary goal, at first, is to get one of their articles into the Ghyll Encyclopedia, a massive tome that contains all knowledge of the known world. As such, players and their scholars are constantly expected to take notes and journals of what they're experiencing, and then to turn these experiences into a concise encyclopedic entry. The Encyclopedant (the primary gamemaster of a ''Sojourns and Scholars'' campaign) decides which entries are accepted into the Encyclopedia, and the players and characters earn experience based on their literary output. There's no game mechanic or trick to this: players are expected to literally write up an encyclopedia entry as if they were their scholars.
 ====All players are gamemasters====
@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 In the ''Lexicon'' rules that inspired ''Sojourns and Scholars'', everything written down becomes fact. This is easy, at first, since so few facts exist. As the game continues to be played, and the world begins to take shape (both in locality and in flavor), however, these facts intertwine ever further. Eventually, truth begin to stretch and morph: where one scholar defines something, only to have another twist and expand it to something entirely different. Scholars try to paint facts into corners for others to devise a way out of. Logic-based "traps" form, family histories become convoluted, plots become thicker, and always, always, a semblance of truth must ring out.
-This roleplaying game is no different: even though, as a team of scholars exploring and witnessing the same thing, the notes you take and the encyclopedia articles you submit determine the truth of what is known. Ghyll is a game of ''consensus reality'' - the more people who believe in what you write cause your words to become real, to become the truth of what is being described. Getting an article into the Ghyll Encyclopedia is the greatest achievement of a scholar, for the Encyclopedia is widely regarded as the greatest body of research of the Ghyll world. Naturally, other scholars would prefer their truths to be self-evident, and arguments about which truth is most representative of what really occurred replace the physical combat of most tabletop roleplaying games.
+This roleplaying game is no different: even though, as a team of scholars exploring and witnessing the same thing, the notes you take and the encyclopedia articles you submit determine the truth of what is known. Ghyll is a game of ''consensus reality'' - the more people who believe in what you write cause your words to become the truth of what is being detailed. Getting an article into the Ghyll Encyclopedia is the greatest achievement of a scholar, for the Encyclopedia is widely regarded as the greatest body of research in, and of, the Ghyll world. Naturally, other scholars would prefer their knowledge to be self-evident, and arguments about which facts are most representative of what really occurred replace the physical combat of most tabletop roleplaying games.
-In this way, world creation and, more importantly for tabletop gaming, plot development, is shared by both the game master (the Encyclopedant) and his players - players must write articles about the world, Encyclopedants must choose one to represent truth, but must also abide by this player-written truth.
+In this way, world creation and, more importantly for your adventures, plot development, is shared by both the game master (the Encyclopedant) and his players - players must write articles about the happenings in the world and Encyclopedants must choose one to represent truth, but must then also abide by this player-written truth.
 ====You play weaklings and pacifists====
 ====Exploration is your primary form of adventure====