Atlantean Construct (Premise)
An Atlantean Construct is my, admittedly, thinly veiled attempt to present super-tech and supernatural devices and affects that can be controlled by the Characters of the LOE Universe.
Growing up with roleplaying games, and then spending over a dozen years away from them in my personal CE (Christian, not Common, Era), I was fascinated with the abilities of flying men with beams of light bursting from their eyes; wall crawling and fish calling, and, the bamf of Here! and then Not.
When I returned to RPGing, ostensibly for my grandchildren, I had to determine what the extent of things would be, and now having a dozen years of Christian Life and study under my belt, I was able to tackle the essential questions. Should Christians Roleplay. Yes. How should they play was the issue. Rate G and Rated PG (with a smattering of R) movies became my rule of thumb, as they were my personal guide when watching various entertainments.
But magic. Ah, what of magic? I find more interesting answers in the Bible than not. I mean, when talking about the supernatural, the Bible is the go-to source! Resurrections! Water walking! Creating passages across bodies of water large enough to allow 600,000 men to pass through! Axes floating in the water, a few fish and bread feeding thousands, handkerchiefs that heal, teleporting deacons, people falling dead at the pronouncement of a Godly man! All of these things and so much more are written in the pages of the Word of God, and most of them were performed through the hands of men who were as mortal as you or I...
So, examples a-plenty I had. The How Do We Incorporate It was the big mystery, which became quite easy once we accepted that good characters could perform supernatural actions of their own agency.
First, we have to look at source. It was decided that there were two sources of supernatural knowledge: God, and perversions of the abilties which man could utilize, and so ultimately its source was Satan. However, the source of all power was God, as He is THE Creator. Satan doesn't create new power, he perverts by twisting intent and purpose. A hammer is wonderful device - but it can be used to build or destroy. And beyond its effects, more importantly would be the motive of the heart wielding the hammer.
After source, we must look at agency or affect. Well, it depends upon the iteration of our particular LoE setting. Since LoE can be played across any setting, it becomes a matter of choice as to how much supernatural power you want thrown around at the table. This is where the genius of Fate comes into play.
Fate has a wonderful Action - Result resolution system that's very minimalistic in the amount of rules necessarily to resolve a given situation and instead focuses on the agency of story. You see, the effects of having slipping on ice, and someone telekinetically causing you to mis-step are pretty much the same: you fall, and are at the very least inconvenienced and having to get up (up to, and including, damaging your body on a more lasting nature than just your pride).
And so the idea is "semantics." Whether one is hit by a stone flung from a sling or a bullet, potentially fatal damage can ensue. Yes, yes, the gun is more likely to cause enough traumatic damage that can result in death, but that's not the point. An action was made, at range, that caused damage to another party. The type of damage can be modified by that most powerful of Fate's tools, the Aspect. If the ranged attack comes from a gun or sling, it's (relatively) simple concussive damage, and nothing further need be said, except ouch. But if it comes from a flamethrower or a fireball, now on top of the initial damage one may take, one has the obvious pain of possibly being On Fire, with what that mechanically entails (taking additional damage until the fire is out, and/or something important being toasted well-nigh to unusefulness).
Fate doesn't seek to fuss with whether a fireball is more powerful than a flamethrower or a bullet, it simply wants to resolve how the resulting damage affects the character, and therefore, the story. It's this ability of Fate that made it very easy for me to choose it as the game-engine that drives the LoE universe.
So, if you want your story to be Super-flashy with awesome powers being tossed about, no problem! If you want it to be uber-quiet on the supernatural scene, that's a doable thing as well. At the end of they day, Fate Rule 0 is what's important: If you're not having fun, you're probably not doing it right. Well, at least that's my interpretation of it.
Growing up with roleplaying games, and then spending over a dozen years away from them in my personal CE (Christian, not Common, Era), I was fascinated with the abilities of flying men with beams of light bursting from their eyes; wall crawling and fish calling, and, the bamf of Here! and then Not.
When I returned to RPGing, ostensibly for my grandchildren, I had to determine what the extent of things would be, and now having a dozen years of Christian Life and study under my belt, I was able to tackle the essential questions. Should Christians Roleplay. Yes. How should they play was the issue. Rate G and Rated PG (with a smattering of R) movies became my rule of thumb, as they were my personal guide when watching various entertainments.
But magic. Ah, what of magic? I find more interesting answers in the Bible than not. I mean, when talking about the supernatural, the Bible is the go-to source! Resurrections! Water walking! Creating passages across bodies of water large enough to allow 600,000 men to pass through! Axes floating in the water, a few fish and bread feeding thousands, handkerchiefs that heal, teleporting deacons, people falling dead at the pronouncement of a Godly man! All of these things and so much more are written in the pages of the Word of God, and most of them were performed through the hands of men who were as mortal as you or I...
So, examples a-plenty I had. The How Do We Incorporate It was the big mystery, which became quite easy once we accepted that good characters could perform supernatural actions of their own agency.
First, we have to look at source. It was decided that there were two sources of supernatural knowledge: God, and perversions of the abilties which man could utilize, and so ultimately its source was Satan. However, the source of all power was God, as He is THE Creator. Satan doesn't create new power, he perverts by twisting intent and purpose. A hammer is wonderful device - but it can be used to build or destroy. And beyond its effects, more importantly would be the motive of the heart wielding the hammer.
After source, we must look at agency or affect. Well, it depends upon the iteration of our particular LoE setting. Since LoE can be played across any setting, it becomes a matter of choice as to how much supernatural power you want thrown around at the table. This is where the genius of Fate comes into play.
Fate has a wonderful Action - Result resolution system that's very minimalistic in the amount of rules necessarily to resolve a given situation and instead focuses on the agency of story. You see, the effects of having slipping on ice, and someone telekinetically causing you to mis-step are pretty much the same: you fall, and are at the very least inconvenienced and having to get up (up to, and including, damaging your body on a more lasting nature than just your pride).
And so the idea is "semantics." Whether one is hit by a stone flung from a sling or a bullet, potentially fatal damage can ensue. Yes, yes, the gun is more likely to cause enough traumatic damage that can result in death, but that's not the point. An action was made, at range, that caused damage to another party. The type of damage can be modified by that most powerful of Fate's tools, the Aspect. If the ranged attack comes from a gun or sling, it's (relatively) simple concussive damage, and nothing further need be said, except ouch. But if it comes from a flamethrower or a fireball, now on top of the initial damage one may take, one has the obvious pain of possibly being On Fire, with what that mechanically entails (taking additional damage until the fire is out, and/or something important being toasted well-nigh to unusefulness).
Fate doesn't seek to fuss with whether a fireball is more powerful than a flamethrower or a bullet, it simply wants to resolve how the resulting damage affects the character, and therefore, the story. It's this ability of Fate that made it very easy for me to choose it as the game-engine that drives the LoE universe.
So, if you want your story to be Super-flashy with awesome powers being tossed about, no problem! If you want it to be uber-quiet on the supernatural scene, that's a doable thing as well. At the end of they day, Fate Rule 0 is what's important: If you're not having fun, you're probably not doing it right. Well, at least that's my interpretation of it.
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