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Actual Play

This describes the topics of play as brought forward by the various regions of Near. Magic systems, Species etc. have “… in Play” subsections which may belong here or in another collection. I haven’t made up my mind yet.

Maldor

Actual Play - Maldor

Maldor is the linchpin of TSoY in that it holds the Shadow of Yesterday: the past is everywhere in sight and its weight oppresses the land every day. A game set in Maldor will not necessarily go all revolutionary, however; characters may well end up championing the feudal obligations, transforming the shallow rule of warlords into a real social contract between the rulers and the ruled. I try to reflect this in the crunch, which provides some functional-but-not-quite means for upholding a society in an essentially lawless, feudal context.

Maldor also has a function as the point of relation between the fantasy genre and Near; this is why I start the book with it. Basically Maldor is your normal fantasy setting, so if you want to play around with thieves’ guilds and such, this is the place. There are only few fantasy staples that can’t be inserted here at the group’s pleasure, and ADVENTURE CAMPAIGNS are more than natural, whether they only start or remain indefinitely in Maldor.

The Gender Issue

Maldorian society is traditionally chauvinistic, which means more for the upper classes and less for the lower. It’s become pretty typical in fantasy roleplaying through recent years to actively ignore this facet of medievalism in favor of gender transparency, which is something you can easily do here as well for player characters (or everybody) if you want; however, I suggest considering the opposite tack as well: if you want to play a woman of Maldor, is it not an important part of her identity that she has to deal with these issues in her life?

My own first instinct would be to simply play a male character if I wanted to avoid dealing with this (admittedly well-worn, at least here in my own play environment) issue. Another important point is that at least in my experience bad play around gender has often resulted from disabling play as opposed to enabling; the Story Guide shouldn’t simply use gender as a sadistic hammer for harassing some players.

In practice: if you are Story Guiding for female characters and feel like forbidding the character from leaving her home or speaking in public, consider the situation as a genuine choice for the player, not a prerequisite for play; should they choose to have her rebel, respect the character’s right to try to change her circumstances or even the world.

Sun & Moon

Actual Play - Sun & Moon

There is huge thematic tension in the sun cult of Absolon as it relates to character identity, being how it is just about the only religious tradition in the book that doesn’t offer kewl powerz up the wazoo. I find it interesting to play the humble rural sun priest as a good guy, or have the influential abbot do his best against the ravages of a corrupt Lord, all without Solar Rays of Death in his back pocket.

The Shadow Cult is the only serious ideology to resist the Lords of Maldor, but at least in my games it seems to be filled with terrorist assholes willing to go to any lengths against the Lords. This is sad, as the Shadow Cult is also the only really liberal theology in Maldor. Traditional witchcraft is weak in Maldor, but it makes for interesting sectarian disputes when it encounters its young, mad sibling faith.

The Servitors are only a faint idea, wistful for a third way but impotent in the monotheistic, monolithic present. The Nine Celestials in chapter 32 provide a sketch of an elite mystery cult revolving around them.

No Gods

This is just the first of many chapters in the book to include explicit religions that even have magic powers. What does it mean, exactly, that Near “does not include gods”?

The answer is simple: the Story Guide never considers celestial intent in the plays he makes, nothing ever happens on the initiative of gods, and gods never communicate, and especially never, ever take any stand on issues, even if their purported representatives do. As far as the Story Guide is concerned, he’s running a materialistic setting where having faith gives you super-powers, whatever the characters might think. This doesn’t even particularly mean that the characters are objectively wrong in their beliefs; it just means that even if they are right, that’s not part of the game, and their beliefs will never be affirmed by the setting authority, even if the story itself should.

There are plenty of things the players can do with gods, even with the Story Guide thus constrained. Roll a PRAY (V) check, have your character go into stupor and afterwards claim to have spoken with the Sun Lord who told him that he’s actually Absolon Reborn? Sure, as long as it’s clear that we’re just talking about your character’s subjective experience. That sort of thing is completely in the player’s purview, the Story Guide can never claim that nuhuh, the Sun Lord didn’t talk to your character, because the Sun Lord wouldn’t – he doesn’t have that power, because the gods are not his to play.

If the reader is wondering why we hash these nuances, the short answer is that this anti-god agenda is just another part of the humanistic strategy in TSoY, and a sort of safety rail against bad fantasy game habits: the Story Guide cannot have gods steal the story from the player characters when gods are not in his toolbox. Whatever choices characters make, whatever the consequences, the events play out without divine interventions, at least ones not backed mechanically by characters actually present in the story.

Ammeni

Khale

Qek

Zaru

Goren

Vulfland

Inselburg

Orania

Pere-di-Fey