Procedimiento de recuento de votos en grupos de trabajo

Category: 1 Warning: None

Keywords: Invasion, Shifting

Description: A purely supernatural calamity, a

spiritual invasion sees the Gauntlet that separates the world of flesh and spirit crumble to dust. Where before only small areas allowed spirits to pass between the worlds, now they can cross over where and when they like. Some are as physically present as they were in the Shadow, though others still choose to Urge or Claim people to achieve their own ends. Without warning, the world ends.

Each spirit is a fundamentally alien being, Mani- festations of raw concept, all a spirit can understand is filtered through that concept. Plenty of spirits manifest based on the thoughts and feelings of humans, and in- deed occultists have posited a symbiotic link between people and spirits before, but the vast majority of spir- its simply do not care. To them, humans are tools, or pawns, or food. In the face of alien foes, many of whom can’t be harmed by normal weapons, the outcome is simple: people try to fight, and they lose. One spirit of pain or murder spends weeks butchering every resident of a sleepy little town. The spirits of sports-cars and of highways engage in open warfare, not caring for people using the road at the time. Spirits of greed and avarice Urge their victims towards disturbing heights, killing over pennies — or collecting the still-beating hearts of unloved people. A few spirits fight, but none really want to go back to the old divide. To the denizens of the Shadow, the Gauntlet was a prison wall, and one taste of freedom cements the idea that nobody’s going back. Within a year, continued spiritual harassment has left humanity devastated. With the majority of humanity dead, it’s not long before the survivors huddle around the fire and create new folk-tales, passing on the knowl- edge of spirit-bans to help their children survive.

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Resonance

Spirits feed off the residual thoughts and feelings that permeate an area — the area’s resonance. A canny person can alter the resonance of an area using all manner of occult rituals to ward off the worst excesses of spirits.

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult + equip-

ment

Action: Instant Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The ritual goes wrong.

The resonance changes to attract the spirits the characters were trying to avoid.

Failure: The resonance of the area doesn’t

change.

Success: The characters manage to alter the

area’s resonance for a day per success.

Exceptional Success: The resonance of the

area remains changed for a full week.

Considerations: Even with the Gauntlet long

gone, most spirits remain dormant until something wakes them. Using decoys and even fake farms to distract spirits from the main sources of food can help people avoid a spirit’s interest. Spirits can Urge or Claim people, and can Fetter objects, hiding themselves within. A person may look and act human, but the strange god-thing lurking within her soul, and looking after a stranger could see her turn the band of survivors into her personal spirit-cult.

Supernatural Complications: This is every sen-

sible werewolf’s worst nightmare. While some among the Pure — and a whole mess of Beshilu — rejoice, far more realize that everything from the death of Fa- ther Wolf to the fall of the Gauntlet was just training wheels. Some go mad, others believe they’ll never sur- vive. Some packs rise to the challenge, ready to show that Urfarah’s legacy lives on. Ulgan Prometheans may lose themselves to the spirits who first tore them apart, or fight against the Shadow to forge their own destiny. Mages well-versed in the Spirit Arcanum can quickly set themselves up with an incredible power base, as long as they’re willing to expend the time and energy to maintain their spells, though other people may see them as traitors.

Inspiration: Poltergeist, Pulse, The Dark Tower

Theological

Category: 1–2 Warning: None Keywords: Invasion

Description: While many of the apocalyptic scenari-

os presented in this system could be classed as “God’s do- ing,” this scenario has Him affecting the world directly. As a category 1 event, a theological eschaton is the Rapture. The chosen — whether that includes virtuous atheists or hate-filled preachers spewing fire and brimstone — simply vanish one day. Those few people who have committed acts of actual, tangible evil also vanish. One morning, the world wakes up to a massive decrease in population: several billion people are gone, with no evidence as to where or why. Unlike other catastrophes, there’s no loss of resources or infrastructure, but the sudden loss of popula- tion is a massive shock. For every one person who heads in to work thinking that the traffic’s unusually light, five are never seen again. In some places, the breakdown is relatively quiet and simple as the machinery of the world folds into itself. In others, survivors fight over material goods and loot abandoned homes, venting their confusion and anger in the only way possible.

Introspection

As one of the few people neither too good nor too bad for the world, each character must overcome sometimes crippling depression, trying to work out why she’s been left behind and what that means for her. This roll may be required at Storyteller discretion, often when the story hits a quiet, introspective part.

Dice Pool: Resolve + Composure Action: Instant

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The character slips into a

bout of depression (as per the derangement)

Failure: The character can’t make sense of the

world.

Success: Slowly coming to terms with what

has happened, the character can focus on what’s really important: staying alive long enough to make a difference.

Exceptional Success: The character discov-

ers something about herself that she’d not real- ized before, and regains a point of Willpower.

As a category 2 event, a theological apocalypse doesn’t just involve saving the chosen of each side. Vast forces of unknowable entities use the world as their battleground. The only humans who matter have already been saved, so any humans killed are mere collateral damage. While some people may expect the battling forces to be winged humans common in pop-culture, the “angels” and “demons” actually fighting are terrify- ing extensions of the Divine Will. One may look like a giant human with a platonic solid in place of a head, while another is a nightmarish cross between octopus, scorpion, and spider-monkey with venomous talons at the tip of each tentacle and fearsome agility. With the whole world as their war zone, survival becomes a matter of keeping hidden. Even when the armies have moved on, what will happen to Earth after the war is over?

Considerations: A post-Rapture game works well

with muted themes, a subtle hint that nothing has any point any more. Describe everything as though it’s hap- pening on a TV screen or a long way away, and work hard to make the characters never really care about anything. The Divine warriors present during a Category 2 event are very dangerous. While a small group of humans might manage to hurt one or two, it’d take everyone on Earth to change the course of the war — and 5/6ths of the population have already gone and aren’t coming back.

Supernatural Complications: Supernatural crea-

tures aren’t immune to the cull, though neither spirits nor ghosts are involved. A Sin-Eater can look for the shades of the departed all she likes, but nobody who vanished has left a ghost. Likewise, werewolves who think that marauding creatures are spirits will soon find themselves mistaken. Prometheans may recognize that the entities burn with Divine Fire, and Qashmallim show up wherever these “angels” have walked. Some mages, especially Obrimos and Magistos, may think they know what’s going on, while others refuse to accept that the creatures walking the world have any relation to the angels and demons that roam the Supernal Realms.

Inspiration: Spite: The Second Book of Pandemonium,

The Road, The Rapture