Keeper help: need a good god

Where new Keepers can ask "stupid" questions without fear of hazing.
Eibon
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Re: Keeper help: need a good god

Post by Eibon » Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:52 am

Sound like you've got things well under control and worked out. The idea that Von Smitt is is testing himself agains clever people is certainly an interesting option.

I don't think I'd advise this as a general tactic: the problem with Super-Geniuses are that the Keeper needs to be pretty bright too (and I'm not that good...). I'm reminded of the observation, when, in dramas, the super villain asks, "Why am I aways surround by incompetents?" the unspoken answer is, "Because you're not smart enough to employ competent staff."

Also, having a problem with historians because you are forward-looking is quite an obscure motivation. While alien motivations mostly should be inexplicable (beyond wanting the Earth back), I find players can identify better with human villains if their motivations are understandable: so an Indian who what's to bring down the British Empire and free India from its rule is understandable; a woman trying to scam her family's fortune after being disinherited for her independent ways is understandable; or a man unwilling transformed by the Old Ones trying to get back to his childhood sweetheart and scare-off her new suitor is understandable. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't have an adventure where blind, malignant Fate dumps on the players, or that Super-Geniuses can't play chess with the players, but most trouble in this world is cause by people who think they are doing the right thing, and if the plan is a long running campaign, then mixing it up will help its longevity.

I suspect you have things all worked out, so I'll not comment further on your specific plotline.

monkey prime
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Re: Keeper help: need a good god

Post by monkey prime » Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:31 pm

Thank you Eibon I've really appreciated this whole exercise.a lot of it's happened quite organically so being pushed on the details is wonderful. I've really enjoyed being able to discuss this. As a Keeper it can be lonely as the people you might turn to for this kind of discussion are playing the game and you don't want to spoil it for them.

This whole plot line has been an offshoot of my intended pre-campaign stories so has happened more by accident so I've been working this up as I've gone along.

In terms of his motivation, to my mind it's an arrogance. He believes technology is the most important thing. The problem is that his inventions are relegated to toys, impressive but toys. They can't see the vision of what else these innovations could achieve. From his point of view he sees others who would obsess and pour money into looking at the past. Who would ensure buildings and land would be preserved when they could be used for factories or to further progress. Historians he views with arrogance, they would hold us back, they would have us saddled to the past. Theologians would have us be holding to a rickety God, bowing and scraping. Archeologists would have us worry and obsess over pot shards and maintain holes in the ground. These people tie us down, hold us back. How dare they?

I see what you mean about super geniuseseseses. I think of him as being like Celestrial Toymaker from Doctor Who. He loves to play games but his flaw is that while he can stack the deck but he can't outright cheat. The house while deadly could be beaten. In the toymakers view the game has to have an element of risk, that they can be beaten. He pits his genius for the challenge but chooses those whose world view differs from his, past not progress.

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