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Chaos Magik and RPG

17:42 / 04.12.02

I have been playing Roleplaying games for more than 5 years and I am begining with my Chaos Magik learning. I have been playing with GURPS system and I am surprised that the GURPS books are full with sigils and some deatils refering to Chaos Magik. Also in TSR's Planescape each one of the Outer PLanes have a sigil. Have any of you noticed somethig like this in other RPG systems.

03:21 / 06.12.02

Phil hine mentions using the Star Trek RPG to Invoke various archetypes from that show. I've been really interested in doing something similar with Marvel and DC comic Archetypes.

Sirhan Sirhan Solo

06:12 / 06.12.02

Underworld uses some interesting CM/Urban Shamanism elements for its magic system (the subway system as an immense super-sigil, city archetypes such as Uncle Sam and Kitty Genovese). It's not a terribly good Role-playing system, but certainly has some useful ideas, whether intentionally or not.
Also, speaking of Planescape, isn't the main city actually named Sigil?
Kinda strange, eh?

07:44 / 06.12.02

I've also heard that Mage from White Wolf is fairly acurate in it's portrayal of magic, if a bit more action packed.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:29 / 06.12.02

I've heard that there's this role-palying game out there that's all about, like, the Elder Gods and stuff.

12:51 / 06.12.02

I noodled with an Amber tarot once -- that's a normal tarot with the Amberites added in as supertrumps. It occured to me that each character embraces both ends of a spectrum of actions or beliefs. Julian, relentlessly civilized, is master of the forest; Caine, the betrayer, saves the day at the end. They're utterly true to their natures, yet have the opposite impact you'd expect. Something like that.

But I never finished it. I'm useless with tarot.

15:43 / 06.12.02

If you strip away the game, Mage fairly is a textbook on chaos magick. I mean, you have to come up with a magick system for your character to use, and hang it on a loose framework of points for game effects. There's magick, it does certain things, but how you access it is entirely up to the paradigm of the person using it. Very CM.

And Yea, Amber is full of bits like that. Zelazny was right smart. The books read like comics, but every detail hints at something escoteric. Its maddening fun to pick it apart to find them all. Everything is a reference to something.

14:33 / 07.12.02

"I have been playing with GURPS system and I am surprised that the GURPS books are full with sigils and some deatils refering to Chaos Magik. Also in TSR's Planescape each one of the Outer PLanes have a sigil."

Hellboy, sigils did not/do not originate in CM. sigilization and charging by gnosis does. so I don't know that the sigils in "Planescape" have much to do with that.

09:37 / 09.12.02

Sirhan Sirhan Solo whats that Underworld game you writes about? Sounds like something i wanna read. You know if there anywhere on the web to read about it? And what company put it out? And, most of all, what is it?

Sirhan Sirhan Solo

07:06 / 10.12.02

Wasn't able to find a link to the company's site, but I found this review: http://www.caliverbooks.com/valk%20website/rv_under.html

Basically, the game takes place in the abandoned subway tunnels of New York City. Characters use home-made charms (lucky subway tokens) and folkloric spells (e.g. graffiti sigils, lighting a smoke on a subway platform will cause your train to arrive almost immediately) instead of traditional fire-blast magic systems.
The game mechanics are very loose, so it's not all too great as a stand-alone game, but as a jumpoff point for campaigns, it's really interesting. I'm not sure if it's still in print, but it's worth checking out at any rate.

22:17 / 11.12.02

How about The Barbelith RPG? We make oure won rules and everything. The Ultimate mix between magic and RPG, RPGs as magick!
Anyone up for it?
(myself i havent done any gaming in almopst 10 years but i wanna strat again...)

15:25 / 12.12.02

You mean you aren't already playing it? Cripes man, catch up with the program!

20:29 / 15.12.02

How about a Barbelithj collectable cardgame? We coulddo it as Zine. Design it as it not only can be played as agame but also used in "real" magick.

What do you folks feel?

03:58 / 17.12.02

Hey, it means I get to be a tarot card. I'm in

I represent the force of harmonious imbalance of duality and immanent transcendence. When my card appears, expect paradox, struggling in the near future, and an interesting yet learning time. Light a blue candle on alternating Thursdays for protection in dreamtime.

7 colorless mana, Elder Dragon Mage
2/7 firebreathing, trample, first strike, phaseing
When cusm comes into play, shuffle your hand back into your library and draw 3 cards.

If only you could see what I see, surely the knowlege would set you free, or destroy you.

19:53 / 17.12.02

Perhaps we could do a bit of everything, a RPG with magickal rituals underneath, and a trading card game with tarot referencials, based both in the invisibles and in our own Berbelith experience? Use the RPG archetypes (based in the invisibles and tarot) to construct the characters and their cards. And we could try to have it on public access in this site.

20:51 / 17.12.02

I have a copy of Underworld that I don't use. If you someone wants it, say so.

00:50 / 18.12.02

I just looked at my old Planescape stuff, and the planar sigils are pretty basic. For example, the symbol for The Abyss (which is an infinite number of infinite realms of pure evil piled on top of each other) is the old sideways figure eight penetrated in the middle by an arrow pointing down. Other planes have triangles that represent mountains, eyes with lines and arrows coming out of them, sunbursts, and a couple of spirals. Primal stuff, sure, but anybody could come up with it.

That said, however, Planescape is a good setting with some wonderful heavy-handed philosophy. The main city of Sigil (rhymes with squiggle) is ruled by philosphical "factions" who each seek enlightenment in their own way (and make it trendy). The hedonist Society of Sensation tries to experience as much as they can before dying. The Zen Transcendent Order tries to unify body and mind into an instinctual machine. The Dustmen see existence as a progression through a series of deaths, while the Believers of the Source see a series of ascending reincarnations. These aren't even the best ones, but if anyone cares, they can probably be found written up online.

White Wolf's Mage is a good magic(k) system, but that is its flaw. Only chaos magickians (or poseurs like me) can play it well.

Regarding the Barbelith game, there's already Steve Jackson's Illuminati. It was a trading card game for a while, but now it's back to a basic set with expansions.

09:50 / 02.01.03

Anyone played the cardgame "On the Edge"? based upon naked lunch, or rather lots of ideas stolen from it... And lots of magick thrown into it... Chaos wizards, cut up (as attitude and as human trait) closet surrealists, shamans, imaginary vampires and a Demented poet named Rigor Kwasek that i invoked as a avatar of the God Of Poets (more about that later...)

http://www.drizzle.com/~lostboy/TheEdge/

www.atlasgames.com

also check out the rpg Over the edge havent tried it myself but looks like fun that to...