[UA] Playing yourself (was: Campaign logs)

[Cassady Toles]

I'm fishing for ideas/concepts/useful criticisms/complements/thoughts/etc. 
If any of you could help/tell me what you think/mail me drugs I'd appreciate
it.

One of the things I like about UA is that it's easy to fit "real"
metaphysical concepts into it however you like.  Specifically, I'm really
into Voodoo/Santaria/and the similar religions/metaphysical principals.  My
idea was for a game centered around a group of individuals from outside the
practicing culture dealing with a voodoo cult in New Orleans.  

I see voodoo as being at once about two very different things.  The loa are
immortal spirits who represent both the best and worst of specific traits in
humanity.  I see the loa as being groups of demons, but they are different
from most demons because, they are specifically demons of god-walkers and
other high-end avatars.  Due to an ancient (pre-historic) pact made among
tribes in Africa with the invisible clergy, the clergy has the ability to
retain agents past death, the agents have a way of contacting the clergy
directly, and non-avatars have a way of "borrowing" the abilities of the
clergy briefly.

A godwalker (or any other avatar with 90% or higher avatar skill) at death
has the option of sublimating their identity to the ic and in exchange can
live eternally as a special sort of demon with extra abilities and no need
to fear the creul ones.  Technically any member of the clergy can take
advantage of the agreement and perform the task, realistically, there
haven't been any new loa in a while.  No one knows if this is because the
agreement has failed or because the newest members of the clergy haven't had
any servants agree to the title.  The most common voodoo rituals are
elaborate and specific summonings that call out to any demon "imprinted" by
the ic and sublimated to the persona of the loa.  This ritual doesn't force
the demon to come, but the demon recieves a +20% in soul combat to possess
afterward, so they frequently do.

Additionally, the ritual doesn't call particular loa.  Any can attend.  Such
is the danger of voodoo.

The most common loa are:

Papa Chango (the thunder serpent, the black snake):  Papa chango is the king
among the loa.  He rules over them and watches all rulers that they never be
as viscious, proud, and foolish as he once was.  Chango is also the dark
threat of thunder, and can be called on to strike dead enemies of the
houdoun.  Chango is a loa sublimated to both the True King and the
Executioner (this implies relationship between the two members of the
clergy)

Damballa Ouido (the white snake):  Damballa is everyone's friend in need. 
He can make things happen.  Any service by god and man can be performed by
the white snake if he offers his blessing.  He always charges a price, and
drives a hard bargain.  Damballa is a loa sublimated to the merchant, though
some argue he is in fact the trickster, others argue the hunter.

Erizulie (The woman in red):  Erizulie is a fertility goddess of a sort. 
She loves to drink, party, and flirt.  Her presence is hearlded by a sweet
smell sometimes tainted with cinnamon.  She prefers vibrant colors.  She
prefers to pick up of the best looking man in the place, class is a
secondary concern.  She also enjoys riding in the body of a man and doing
so.  Erizulie has elements of the mother, and elements of the flying woman,
she also has traces of the whore, and it is assumed by some that the naked
goddess could be found through her.

Eshu (the wanderer, the vagabond):  Eshu goes where he likes and does what
he likes.  In exchange for a service performed the gods, he was offered
whatever he liked.  He wanted to live without restrictions.  Eshu is least
likely to come when called and most likely to drop in uninvited.  He does
seem to have a benevolent quality.  Eshu embodies qualities of the
masterless man and flying woman at the same time.  He also is one part
trickster and one part rebel.

The Ghede (baron samdi, baron la croix, baron cemetere) the three faces of
death.  All are men crawled out from the grave wearing a tuxedo.  All are
skeletons.  All of them like cigars and wild parties.  The three all serve
different puropses on the other side of the veil, taking souls where they
should be, protecting magicians from demons, etc.  The exact traits of the
three vary wildly, as does their relationship.  It is said the ghede are
necessary servants, they are also called pilgrims, judges, chronicalers, and
in some cases the noble protector.

Legba (the old man at the crossroads)  Legba is the oldest of the loa.  He
is a whithered man who stands at every crossroad and watches which path you
pick.  Crossroads tie in heavily to voodoo as symbols of potential, of
different places coming together and splitting apart.  Legba is the most
coherent of the loa, and is generally the first called to open passages for
the others.  He rules province over the temporal realm and wealth,
possibility and the future.  Legba is part messenger, part scout, part
pilgrim, but most of the chronicallers of the invisible clergy agree that he
is the mystic hermaphrodite.  

There are other loa depending on tradition and time, but those will suffice
for now as ideas of how the loa work (if anyone really wants more loa and
ideas about them drop me an e-mail and I'll share those as well, but I am
trying to keep this from becomming the huge document of death.

The most common magical tradition among voodoo practicioners is
personomancy, and actions taken by loa without the consent of the
practicioner are said to be able to generate personomantic charges....  It
is said that some houdoun can practice the old magic of masks, and not the
postmodern one so well known.  These practicioners actual abilities are
highly in dispute (as is their existance itself).  Though recently, the
tradition has become a magnet for dipsomancers, the rituals themselves can
put the drinking performed in fraternity hazings to shame.  Further,
dipsomancers can deal with demons as part of the impossibilty end of their
random magic.  This new tradition does rankle the old followers of
personomancy.

So anyway, the conflict I have the idea for is three sided.  The central
point is a large cult of lay practicioners (a lot like a church, but more
drinking and less Jesus).  

The houdoun (priest) is a personomancer, getting older, but popular and
generally liked among the members of the cult.  There's a newcomer, a bokkor
(a priest with no connection to any congregation--usually does magic for
hire).  This newcomer is a powerful and charming dipsomancer following the
route of the mystic hermaphrodite.  He's trying to filch the congregation to
perform a ritual to call together the statosphere and the earth, and return
the land of the dead to the land of the living for a short time.  He talks a
lot about the barons and papa legba.  He also will do crazy mojo that
generally speaking the houdoun won't and isn't capable of.  

The third side is a team; an entropomancer and a demon he's teamed up with
at the moment.  The Demon wants a piece of the action the loa have.  Easy
source of people to possess and take over, the people thank you for it, etc.
The entropomancer sees this as the perfect opportunity, walk in with
nothing, walk out on a river of blood with a pocket-full of major charges,
and well on your way to ascending as the Harbinger of Doom.  Dangerous?
Stupid? Psychotic?  Yes to the third power, but that doesn't mean it can't
succeed.  The Entropomancer is just some guy who recently joined the cult,
and as of yet has little power or influence, but is honestly likeable and
people find him fun to be around.

I haven't even decided how to bring in player characters, or what they would
want to do.  I also want to try to figure out something the houdoun can be
besides merely the nice witch-doctor type.  Part of that is that right now
it's too easy to find a good guy (the houdoun).  I want to make it a harder
choice than it currently is.

I'd also like to fill the corners with some other occult wierdness.  I can
see in-routes for bringing in Abel's Enforcers (the NI), the path of spartan
vigilance (a large dangerous cult of wastoids, dropouts, and losers led by
an annihlomancer who took fight club too far, and has burned too many pasts
to simply be squelched), the C of TNG, eventually the Sleepers and the Order
of St. Cecil.

I just need to figure out what sort of sane characters would get involved...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am the messiah in the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniel's.  Drink of me
and
no peace." -- Cobra Baghdad www.peoplehateme.com
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