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It might be too early for the Golden Dawn, but it was inspired by Masonic organizations and I think the Rosicrucians... or was it the other way around? I get my esoteric orders all mixed up. Regardless, if those organizations didn't exist til later, perhaps this character was an inspiration for them, a practitioner of secret thaumaturgic sexual arts, a coitamancer or something...

Oh god, who would want to get mixed up in that! Is it too late to change my character?

I think you can see why I want to play someone like him. Sex so good it's literally magic.

I know it sounds like a silly, obvious thing to say, but we ofc have the OOC here to discuss anything if there's any discomfort that DOES arise. <3

Start with this. Tell me what you want to exist in the setting. If you want people with bunny ears, now is the time to mention it. Also, tell me what you don't want. If anything I put in my last post about what I imagine and what I don't imagine for the setting runs contrary to what you imagine, we need to work it out now, not when we're a couple weeks into a roleplay.

@IsabellaRose Thank you for putting what I was just working out how to express so cleanly and clearly.

I was planning to just wholesale import basic historic reality (more like... um... well, as if it were a tv show - sometimes veering into exploring darker themes, sometimes just handwaving the troublesome aspects, depending on how much anyone wants to focus on them and what fits into the story) and alter whatever needed to be altered to fit the setting. That includes the the rebel remnants, ex-confederates, recently freed slaves, the encroachment of the settlers on First Nations lands, the Army carrying out its campaign to clear the "savages" from the lands... But as WickedCadrach said, as background unless it becomes useful to the plot

I feel like we could still explore a post-Civil War era without the civil war having been started for the same reason. The introduction of strange steampunk technology could result in the same sort of divide between the industrialized north and the plantation focused south. Perhaps we could use automatonized people instead? Or perhaps an inbalance in the existence of the special blue-coal type resource? It could be shifted instead into a war created mostly from a class disparity, perhaps one which existed much more heavily in the south. Maybe they instead shifted closer to neo-feudalism, and it wasn't a specific set of peoples but more a gene

I agree with this notion. It's a touch early for the Golden Dawn to be a thing, but it feels like Hermetic and Thelemic magic might be an aesthetic choice that makes sense for a character like that. EDIT: Oh! Also, if you want to go nuts with it, Google 'Thelemic sex magic'. Crowley was just... if I read about this man in a book, I'd say the author was stretching believability. EDIT 2: Eroto-comatose lucidity - aka, slow, tantric sex until you see the gods and spirits of the invisible world. Like I said... wild stuff.

Well yes we're meant to be fleshing out the world, seeing what sorts for the players and whatnot rn. What I listed are details I definitely think would make the game world more interesting and would really like so we can discuss and all that so anything you really want you can list, and anything you don't as well but definitely what you might want. Helps keep the players on the same page and of course see what works for Isabella.

@IsabellaRose I think you have great handle on everything, I understand you idea of not explaining were magic comes from but I just want to make sure if I do play a deviant British aristocract with some semblance of magic that I won't unwittingly be a servant of Cthulhu and go insane. I also don't want to use native American source partially because I don't know anything about it but it also feels like appropriation.

I think we need to talk about this. The story seems to be taking a long, hard look at the human condition and the weight of expansion, technological advancement, wealth and power - slavery and its echoes are certainly part of that. I, for one, think if we're going to talk about the Army and the First Nations, enslaved people also need to be included.

I am not sure if we are just supposed to be listing our own ideas for now, or discussing each others too and other things. I still don’t expect anything to fall under no for me. The above works for me if Isabella and the rest of the group thinks it works. That sort of group for the characters works for me too, might help me cut down on the list of character types I was thinking between. But a surprising number might still fit, will work my way down to a single choice as we finish up the details.

@IsabellaRose How are we handling player wealth? I am thinking my character could be part of the British aristocracy but not sure if that would work well.

The geography's actually super easy. Just remember two rivers and California. The Mississippi runs north to south and cuts the USA in half. In 1880, everything east is 'civilization', and everything west is wilderness, homesteads, and one-street towns (basically). The Rio Grande runs from the north-west to the south-east and divides the USA from Mexico. Mexico used to own a bunch of stuff north of the Rio Grande but lost it after people decided they'd rather be part of the USA, mainly because that meant they'd get to keep owning other people as property. The USA changes its mind on that idea a while later anyway. California i

Bump

I'll see what I can do. Itching to write a silly little preamble for Millie back in the city!

Everything you need to know can be learned from the Wild, Wild West TV series with Robert Conrad. 3 episodes should cover you. OK, so maybe a couple of episodes of Kung Fu too.

Ghosts in the Flesh I feel them before I hear them. Octavia’s laughter, sharp and familiar, coils around the back of my mind. Luna’s sigh follows, tender and aching, as if she still doesn’t quite believe she’s here. But they are both here, inside me, crowded into the same fragile flesh that was supposed to be mine alone. It was only meant to be temporary, a stopgap, a mercy. Octavia’s ghost had already been with me for months, tucked like a burning coal into the neural buffer no one else dared use. And then Luna… my bright, impossible Luna. She should have had her own body, her own future. But the people hunting me found her, and ma

Might make a separate topic in the club with a poll and link to it here when it is done. Since in theory it could lead to setting something up here someday. Though who votes might be as important as how many vote, and I know a number of them might be tricky for people to get into if they don’t already have books/familiarity themselves, especially ones that are long out of print and/or have a bunch of books. But I like polls and might be interesting to see results.

I like the crazy blue mineral/crystal. Two names to put forward: Luminite, or Cyanthium. Though that's what the smarty pants call it. The common folk might refer to it as 'Bluefire' or 'Glowstone.' @WritesNaughtyStories I'm with you on the promiscuity, and it makes sense that it being a taboo absolutely does NOT stop people. @IsabellaRoseI'm on board with the list pretty much as is and I like the summing up there. Given we're working in an Alternate History of the real world, you'll all have to forgive my geographical or historical blunders (although I know we're not using real figures.) Ignorant Brit over here.

I'm pretty much on board with Izzy's list. I want to campaign for having the discussion about First Nations and the Army - those both loom large in most westerns.

All of those character options sound like they'd fit pretty seamlessly! For the vampire-esque character, you wouldn't even need to retain any of the actual weaknesses of a traditional vampire. You just "look" like one, so superstitious common folk assume you must be one. You're just an eccentric inventory/scientist who has fled persecution in Europe/back east and setup shop in this town, because you can get anything you need via the railroad in town, and you get the privacy to conduct your experiments without someone looking over your shoulder. But of course, rumors abound about what exactly it is you do in that big house all alone, and

I won't do a classic Vampire then, that is fine. Like I said, I do have other ideas as well. That said (and maybe someone already brought this up but I was too tired last night to notice), maybe the being a weird Human thing would work. Sort of like the weirdo from another culture like @WritesNaughtyStories combined with the Dr. Frankenstein angle. Maybe they look a little vampiric, and they have a bad reputation of being a Vampire (for people who don't know them, sort of like @WickedCadrach's idea of weird being called, for example, "The Werewolf of ____"), and part of their looks and such were due to nature and/or experiments they have

Okay, so far I have... INCLUDE Ashborn: Prudence to have existed in our past and to have left her legacy of defending love in all its forms. With that comes the oppressive social and religious pressure that drove Prudence to condemn her lover. gunfighters in dusty streets Airships aesthetically, I would prefer zeppelins! and hot air balloons government agents in luxury train cars with odd, clockwork and steam-powered gadgets magic being a thing in the setting in the right, mystical, unobtainable doses (The big bad dabbling in something they don't understand and we won't either) automatons, or at leas