Nothing Sacred - A Game of Youdunit! Cover Rose (symbolism) Black: slavish devotion (as a true black rose is impossible to produce), tragic romance, death, hatred, or farewell Blue: mystery, believed to be able to grant the owner youth or grant wishes Red: love Fiction / Examples Denoted thus: ----- Strategically placed pieces of seeming fiction will actually be cleverly disguised examples that the chapter following it will rely heavily upon. Subtle system characteristics will be doubly hidden and be referred to more than one chapter backward (such as "remember the example back in Chapter Two where..."). The examples taken together and in the order presented, would create a 'full' story: beginning, middle and end; complication, crisis, climax, resolution and denouement; all characters encharacterized; setting, character, theme, plot, style and action; characterization, setting, conflict, tone and irony; statement of conflict, rising action; all done in tiny snippets of story. ----- Title Page Introduction (Foreword or Preface) - Set the ‘Editorial Voice' Nothing Sacred is a game of make-believe. Of a make-believe city with hardboiled investigators, beautiful femme fatales, jealous husbands and deadly siblings, all trapped in situations they didn't cause, striving against uncaring fate and only making matters worse. A death has occurred! (Or close enough that it doesn't matter.) And each player takes on the guise of one of the suspects. It's a race to see who can pin the murder on another player. Will you remain an unlikely suspect? Or turn out to be the cold-blooded killer? Oh, one more thing...all the suspects are gods of ancient myth. Times have been tough, these many centuries; worshippers, cults and fashions have come and gone. No one believes anymore...in anything. Life on the street is brutal, but free. Earthly laws don't count down here, and that's just the way you like it. The noir street scene wraps around everything like a boa constrictor, squeezing the color right out of it. It's a world of black and white, only mixed into the many shades of grey. In the chiaroscuro lighting, you can't tell good from evil, who's a lover or who hates and there doesn't seem to be any difference between loyalty and betrayal anymore. You're a punk, a goth, a bum or a thug. Looking like you grew up on the streets, you do what it takes to get by. Except you're immortal; nothing can, in any way, kill you. Nothing hurts more than a paper cut and nothing beats the pleasures of the flesh. Your music's loud and your life louder. Anyone who isn't armed is the prey. You've already tried riches beyond imagining, but it ain't worth the work. Family is all you have left, even if they loathe you. But now one of them is dead. Well, not exactly dead, but they ain't coming back. That's what it's like for the pantheons of olde. And that's what you play. To play you need something like five six-sided dice (the normal kind you find in board games) and maybe some copies of the character sheets or else enough blank paper for all the players...oh yeah and at least five other people to play with. It might be nice to have a table to put your drinks on, to roll dice on and to put your god's write-up on; you don't need it, but you'll have to imagine one is there for the sake of the game. Dedication Mostly Chris Lehrich [sp] Table of Contents Chapter One - The Basics ***** From Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories, by S. S. Van Dine, "The detective story is a kind of intellectual game. It is more--it is a sporting event. ...[with] Very definite laws--unwritten, perhaps, but none the less binding...." ***** You could say that you're writing a detective story through playing this game, but you'd miss out on a lot of the fun! A writer knows the ending, he knows where all the clues lay hidden, he decides where the bodies are buried and nothing whatsoever is surprising or suspenseful for him. In this game, we actually make it up as we go! Around every corner is a surprise and during every turn you take, the plot can and does twist. You don't know what is real until someone actually says it. Remember that. You're also here to play and have fun. Think of it as a little escape from the humdrum of the real world, a tiny break in the sanity. In this make-believe world, when your god acts, you describe it to everyone; that's how you play this game. Settings are important, but they aren't anything without action. Indulge yourself and if it isn't fun, don't do it! This is a 'youdunit' game because everyone writes their god up as the killer. Not that everyone did it, but if someone threads enough clues together, they prove that you done it. (Youdunit!) (And all clues left unrevealed have never existed.) To finish your character, you will plan out an entire murder by the clues on your god's write-up. At this point you can only imagine some of your god's possible clues, motives and opportunities based on who the victim is. ***** "Principal amongst Escapism are fiction literature, music, sports, films, television, role-playing games, pornography, recreational drugs, the internet and computer games." - Wikipedia ***** In God We Trust Let's start with those guises you'll adopt. Here's a few to get you started; there'll be more, later, and in detail. This'll just get you started! Sample Characters Include sample clues, brief modernization, and a cool description; art if possible o. Cernunos - is older than the celtic pantheon and joined at its foundation; he was the "Lord of the Hunt and of Wild Things" and associated with produce and fertility (sex) o. Lludd - had an invincible sword, one of the four great treasures and was the god of harpers, healing, historians, magic, poets, warfare, writing o. Lugh - of the "long hand" and "skilled in many arts" was a trickster god, master of all arts and so god of too and served the Dagda o. Morrigan - a terrifying figure. She is associated with war and death on the battlefield, sometime appearing in the form of a carrion crow, premonitions of doom and she once coupled with the Dagda o. Ogma - a god of scholars, education, writing and eloquence o. Deceased - Dagda - is the supreme god and the god of the arts, knowledge, magic, music, prophecy, prosperity, regeneration and he had a magical cauldron with an inexhaustible supply of food Deify Yourself Take on the guise you think is the coolest; this is the god you will play during the game. Make sure you divide the gods up fairly; only one player to each god and vice versa. ----- Example must contain a scene where the co-gamemaster speaks for a witness as though it were his character. An example where the player says something about going to the library to look something up, but another player deftly shifts the action to a different locale. ----- Let's Start with a Few Mechanics Each god has three qualities that get them through life. Three strengths or three weaknesses (or a mix), this is what they pit against the uncaring world. Let's call them statistics because they get numerical measure. Whenever you want your god to do something impressive, you have to use a stat. To use a stat, you roll as many dice as the stat lists; count the number of sixes and that's the rating of how impressively you succeeded. (Avoiding the dice doesn't mean you fail, it means that whatever you did was hardly worth mentioning.) Of course, if your god is in an impressive jam, rolling the dice is the only way out! First is Brains, the measure of your god's mental abilities. This let's you trick the unwary, conceal against the suspicious and strive against the complicated. Figuring out the clues is up to the player, not the stats; your co-gamemaster loses his flora if he can't make it clear to you. Next is Beauty, the ability to use sex 'as a weapon.' If you want to romance a secret out of mortal or a god played by the gamemaster, this is what you use. Use it to dress to impress, flirt shamelessly and to get someone in bed (hey, pillow talk counts as a clue). Beauty can turn an argument into passion, a fight into sex or a trap into a boudoir scene. Use at your own risk. Finally there's Braun, a rating of your god's physical capacities in the cruel city. You wanna win a fight hands down? You wanna break into a place quickly? What do you think you use to intimidate? Braun. This is more than physical fitness or strength, this is how your god gets things down in the very physical world. Scenes This game is divided into scenes. At the beginning of every scene, the player whose turn it is announces what he's going to do. This is where you proceed with your investigation; choose your moves wisely. Each scene will be bid out in a way something like poker. The player whose turn it is will open with what he's going to do; this would be the 'why' of the scene. Then he antes up one rose petal. Didn't I mention those before? Yeah, in this game you win and spend rose petals; five of them make a rose. (More on this in a bit.) The bidding moves to the right from him and the next player announces one of the features of the upcoming scene. And so on. This is how scenes are set. Some features to look for in a scene are when it takes place, the people who are there, the place it's at, things you can find there (like evidence); basically the when, who, where and what. The why and how are give by the player who starts the bidding. How's that like poker? I'm glad you asked. After the basic features of the scene are bid out, it gets really interesting. Now each player is able to bid something that is incriminating to their god. When you do this, first you match the bid as it came to you (this is called the 'call'), then you add another petal to the pot. The next player can either call your bid and add an incriminating detail for their god (which raises the current bid another petal to the next player) or they can call and fold (they put as many petals in the pot as the current bid) and stop bidding for this scene. This continues until last player raises. The remaining player wins the pot and becomes the co-gamemaster of the scene. What's a co-gamemaster? I'll explain that in a bit. Those Roses (How to Use the Rules) You start with two roses (or 10 petals), symbolizing both hope and betrayal. Remember, to do something impressive, roll a number of dice equal to the appropriate stat. One six is above average success; two is deft success; and three is impressive success. When you roll it against something a gamemaster or co-gamemaster is running, the get to tell how you won out. If it is against another player, it's there turn to describe how they lost to you. You can push a few petals across the table to sweeten the deal and get a better description, if you want; bribes are always welcome. If you want to succeed without rolling, call for sacred intervention. In this you request another player to describe the cool, kick-ass way your god succeeded. Basically, you describe your god's action (but not your intended resolution) and the deity gets a rose (or more) from you if they make it cool enough. Cool enough is judged by the thumbs up from you and the rest of the players; majority rules! ----- Example must show archetypical murder scene Bid a late entrance with their inconsistent alibi Bid an apparent motive Bid the reason everyone got together was because someone called them all. ----- It Begins with a Murder The bidding for the crime scene starts a little differently. Here, the gamemaster throws out the first feature of the scene by naming the victim. This special ante is only for the details of the murder itself and is followed the rest of the scene as usual, but the winner in this special case is the one who gets to play first. Players will bid things like how the victim 'died,' how long ago, who witnessed it and the physical evidence. Before you begin play, make sure everyone agrees on why they all got together at the same time. What are Gamemasters? At this point, you should have some idea who will help everyone envision the scenes their gods will be in. He is called the gamemaster (or she, the gamemistress). The god chosen by this player is the victim. Instead of running his god around trying to solve the mystery, he will be the one who imagines all the places and he describes them so the players can use them. Don't worry, it's not as hard as it sounds; the other players will give plenty of input about the scenes when you make them. As a gamemaster you will be filling up the city these gods exist in. It is your place to paint a picture with words, to craft the background and stage for these gods to act upon. The city is dark and ominous; everything should seem threatening and dangerous (at least to the lowly humans who color the atmosphere). If it doesn't contribute to this atmosphere, don't mention it! Remember that I mentioned there would be a co-gamemaster? Well, except for the murder scene, the co-gamemaster is the one who won the bidding. It is his job to 'spill it.' If he doesn't want to forfeit his winnings to the player of the scene, he has to slowly reveal his secret in as indirect a fashion as he can. Now he doesn't do the driving of the scenes, that's for the gamemaster; he just makes sure that the gamemaster doesn't get lost. He ducks into gamemastering whenever he must to keep things moving the player towards figuring out the clue he has chosen for this scene. Threading It All Together Now the purpose of every scene it to find clues (you can't end a scene without the player learning at least one clue). The purpose of the clues is to put together the thread that connects the victim to the culprit. And the reason you race to pull together your thread is to prove someone else did it before they can finish their thread. The major portion of play will be finding and correlating evidence to put 'the big three' on your thread, motive, means and opportunity. When you have those, you call all the gods together and deftly reveal who the killer is (like your favorite detective of movies, television or stories). That's how you win and find out who loses in Nothing Sacred. Beware! Players will also be giving you there inconsistency as a clue. Try to keep it out of your thread! Chapter Two - Playing & Character in Depth How to Play this Game of Noir Pastiche ***** "In this sub-genre, the protagonist is usually not a detective, but instead either a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator. He is someone tied directly to the crime, not an outsider called to solve or fix the situation. Other common characteristics...are the emphasis on sexual relationships and the use of sex to advance the plot and the self-destructive qualities of the lead characters." - George Tuttle ***** There are only three things you need to know to play these gods and this game: 1. When speaking as or describing the actions of your god, try to think like they would. Or at least like you would, if you were them. 2. Ham it up! Whatever characteristics are that define your god are a license to over-act. Play it to the hilt, it's the only way to really enjoy it. 3. Oh yeah, solve the murder before someone else pins it on you! Making Your Own Gods Look up new pantheons or pick from the lists in the next section. You get six dice to assign to the three stats. Divide them carefully! The arrangement says a lot about the ways your god is effective in the game and the dark, dark city. Braun belongs to the bullies. Brains are for the slick operator. If you want to be the femme fatale, your beauty better be three dice. No stat can have less than one die or more than three. Your Patron Deity (Making That God Yours) Give your god the once-over and see what strikes your fancy. How do your favorite aspects would translate into modern jobs, dress or property? Be clever, be hip, be cool, always make it cool. This becomes the central idea of your god in this game (it can be different in every time you play). Don't forget to garb it in a way intrinsically 'you.' Clues Now it's time to write your clues. The number one, most important thing to remember about your clues is that they need to be as weird as possible, the more bizarre the better. The reason is that common clues are terribly hard to guess at and not very interesting to hint at. Clues are more than physical evidence; they are a reason for physical evidence. Many times you will simply list a clue as what may leave evidence; you can work out what kind of evidence much later. The later the better. If you don't fix on a specific piece of evidence, you will find it much easier to play your out clues (with only a few exceptions). The number of clues you need is the same as how many players you face (including the gamemaster). There are three you cannot avoid: motive, means and opportunity. After that, you can get creative. Now you don't have to start with these three, but you must have them on your list when you finish. How about some suggestions? ***** Rule 3: "To compensate for their poor choice of murder method, the murderer will devise an elaborate plan to cast suspicion away from themselves and on to one or more other people. Despite being based on detailed and untested assumptions about human behaviour, this plan will initially succeed perfectly." - Ten rules for writing Golden Age Detective Fiction by Jon Jermey ***** Think about the gamemaster's god. Why would yours want him dead? Did you seek him out to kill? Or draw him into a trap? Think of yourself (in your god's shoes) as a cold-blooded killer; this was not a crime of passion or a sudden decision (they aren't allowed in this game); you knew you were going to do this. Also, which way did you kill him (entrapment, consumption, amnesia, transfiguration or inhibition)? If you went looking for him, where did you find him? What was he doing? Remember, the more unusual, the better. Did you catch him in another act? Did you use a weapon of opportunity or did you bring the means of demise with you? Don't forget after the fact; how did you leave or escape? Where did you go? What is your alibi? What did you leave behind that could incriminate you? (Remember, though you may not want to, the point is for someone to get caught.) If it's a trap, how did you get the victim to where you did it? How would he have explained it to anyone else? Did you take something from him? What about the scene suggest your god as the culprit? Did you try to stage the crime scene? Try to clean it up? Try to hide the crime entirely? Did you set up an alibi? Did anyone help you set it up? (These are only suggestions of what you might ask yours; if you can think of other ones, that's even better.) The most important thing to work out here is your (god's) motive. Why did you do it? Is it revenge? Are you taking something back? Is it to silence him? Did you want his main squeeze? Did he take yours? Does the crime make you feel or act guilty? There is one more clue you need to add to your write-up. The inconsistency. You need some kind of clue that makes your god seem innocent. Maybe a good fake alibi or a supposed inability to commit the murder? Perhaps something that points clearly at another god? The sky's the limit! Scenes When you announce your intentions for a scene, the trick is not to be too specific about it. You might be looking something up or going to question someone; you could even be checking up on something you have hidden. Just keep the details vague; don't name any names (if you can help it) and only refer to locations generically. You'll understand why in a second. The most prominent features of a scene includes the 'where' of it (the kind of neighborhood it's in). There's also the physical setting (building, lot or whatever); the time of day, the 'when;' and the 'what' of the scene that creates the tension. What's that? Tension? Yeah, of course...detectives never go into a quiet bar or empty lot; there's always something on the verge of happening, something bad, that's the 'what' of the scene. And your god is going right into the middle of it. (Your investigation should be easy?) And in almost every case, the scene will revolve around 'who' is the subject of the scene. Who is the god there to see? These things are bid during the ante. Death Amongst the Immortals Movies seem to have given everyone a misunderstanding about the nature of immortality. When you are a god, you're immortal; nothing can ever, in any way, kill you. Very often you see immortals being slain on television; well, I'll tell you, they aren't immortal, they are eternally young - a big difference! So if gods are immortal, how can you have a murder mystery about them? Good question. There are things that can happen to an immortal that to the other gods is as good as being dead. Top of the list is entrapment; Persephone was trapped in the underworld and the immortal head of the Lernaean hydra, Hercules trapped under a rock forever. This way of taking a god out of action works as good as any murder does. Next on the list is eating them. Such as the Zues' siblings (Demeter, Hera, Hades and Hestia) were consumed by Cronus. Gods can't be digested, but can neither act. You can also give them amnesia, forgetting their place and spurning their kind. Then there's transfiguration; a god in the form of an animal is no longer that god (but not mortal either). Lastly (at least for the shortlist), is breaking them. Destroying a god's spirit completely is a work of emotional sabotage. A dispirited god is not much more than a statue (of course petrifying is a form of transfiguration, not inhibition). Features of the murder include how the victim was taken out, how long ago it occurred, witnesses and various pieces of physical evidence. You can bid only one witness or piece of evidence at a time, so make it significant. If you're clever, you can bid an apparent motive, too. The most important thing to bid in the murder-ante is what brought everyone together at this time. One of the best ways to make bidding easier is to keep the larger details more archetypical. Don't go into great detail bidding the physical location; just make it 'a bar' or 'a junkyard.' Another feature you can bid is the late appearance of your god; make it apparently juicy though. There is no co-gamemaster only for the murder scene, because everyone will be there...at first. Starting with the winner and going counter-clockwise around the table, each player takes turns describing 'one thing' that their god does in or with the scene. 'One thing' is not simple like crossing the room, but a whole group of actions that result in a simple thing occurring in the scene (like flirting with someone is one thing). For the catty jibes and conversation, it doesn't need to be your turn to start talking. Dialogue in this scene is important because the death of a god requires truth from everyone present (hey, it's the rules), no matter what. Don't forget you can keep your mouth shut, lying by omission, but be careful what you say when someone accuses you! The rules also say that you can't give up any of your clues in dialogue at the crime scene (or any following scene you are the player in). Fine Threads Now a thread is beaded with some very simple parts. The centerpiece is made up of three things, motive, means and opportunity. There are also witnesses, conspirators, physical evidence and even psychological profiling; each of these things leading back to the 'big three.' Don't expect to find these in any particular order. Worse still, you'll be getting conflicting clues about the other suspects as well. It's up to you to pick your own prime suspect, pursue their clues and, if necessary trade clues with other players. And don't forget to look out for the inconsistencies (everyone's got one). Each god will start out with a chance to examine the scene of the crime (and 'body' if one is present). If bidding went well, there should be witnesses to question and plenty of evidence to follow up on. This is where you start your investigation. Now this being a game, it isn't as simple as simply applying yourself to the situation and everything presents itself; that only happens in the movies. In fact, you have to be a little more specific about how you start every scene. You have to state your 'purpose.' If you don't, you won't find anything. You want to check out a lead? Ask for what you expect. Physical evidence can be examined by experts or oracles; witnesses can have their testimony doubt checked; suspects can be followed to an incriminating encounter; just be inventive as well as specific. Most importantly, you'll need to work backwards. Begin with a theory about the means, motive or opportunity. Now investigate what would have to be there if it were true. Not there? Try a new theory. Invent hypothetical clues and then check to see if they are really there. When you work out a possible motive, means or opportunity, it should lead you to another of them or to a suspect. You'll regret not checking into the background of your suspect because that's the most ripe for evidence of motive. And whatever you do, make sure you challenge every alibi. Don't dally waiting for information to drop into your hands; that's strictly against the rules. Go! Do! Confront! Maybe even research. When you think you have enough clues to string together a whole thread, do some thought experiments. Reconstruct the scene; correlate the testimony and physical evidence; does that fit your theory of motive, means and opportunity? Does it fit the suspect's profile? One thing to remember is that you do not need all the clues from your suspect; just make sure your thread is incomplete; sometimes intuition is enough. If your thread is strong and consistent, it's time to bring together the concerned parties (including the culprit). There should be reason enough to bring all the players together (and the rules say they have to come to this scene). Confront the killer in whatever fashion suits your god. (Remember? Play it like you are in their shoes.) Pick the reconstructed scene apart only to reveal the murder with a flourish at the end. Trick the bad guy (that means his player too) into incriminating himself (especially if your thread is a little weak in spots). Pick a fight and force a confession. The choice is yours! (And by this point you should have a really good idea how your god would do things.) Now, if your thread doesn't match the clues written by the suspect's player, they can use the difference to invent a detail (that's real to all the gods, but extemporaneous for the players) you overlooked and disprove your case. (This happens a lot in play; expect several 'final' scenes.) There's also nothing to say that you can't revise your thread at that point; it only exists in your head after all. And there's also nothing that says you can't confront the villain with an incomplete thread to trick them into thinking you guessed the rest of the clues. The Final Twist in the Plot ***** Rule 10: "When confronted with their guilt the accused shall not point out the paucity of the evidence against them or the threadbare nature of the detective's reasoning, but shall instead engage in some dramatic act which makes their capture or demise a certainty." - Ten rules for writing Golden Age Detective Fiction by Jon Jermey ***** At the point someone is 'caught,' the nature of the game changes. That player is now the murderer (and all the clues left unheard on the other write-ups 'never existed'). You should act the way your god would if they were caught for this murder. Do you cackle maniacally and declare that it's too late and nothing can be done about it? Do you calmly relate the missing (or underrepresented) clues as the master criminal makes his dramatic confession? Do you scream, "I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling gods and the dog!" Ham it up, because this is the best part of 'losing.' Now the remaining (no longer) suspects may have the chance to decide on the appropriate punishment (if it works out that way). Or perhaps capturing the guilty provides the method to releasing or recovering the 'deceased?' Whatever you do, make sure at least the gamemaster runs through the end of the scene (and any necessary vignettes) to tie up all the loose ends. It might seem strange that all the gods live in the same city. They don't; distance has little meaning for deities, going from the sewers of one to the pool hall belonging to another deity in another city takes very little real time. Chapter Three - How to Use the System Roses Dice based resolution will usually fail. Sacred intervention gets around that but requires a certain amount of trust. The rose economy works like this: you get roses by winning a sacred intervention or for co-gamemastering. You spend roses on getting sacred interventions and bidding scenes out. The tactical challenge is getting your clues spread out among the other players, forcing them to collaborate to 'catch' you. You must use your clues to spoil someone else's thread. You can also 'trade clues' when no one can win. Celtic Aengus - a god of love, youth and poetic inspiration and his father is the Dagda Brigit - was the daughter of The Dagda (and therefore one of the Tuatha Dé Danann) and wife of Bres of the Fomorians and the goddess of all things perceived to be of relatively high dimensions such as high-rising flames, highlands, hill-forts and upland areas; and of activities and states conceived as psychologically lofty and elevated, such as wisdom, excellence, perfection, high intelligence, poetic eloquence, craftsmanship (especially blacksmithing), healing ability, druidic knowledge and skill in warfare, also connected to holy and healing wells Cernunos - is older than the celtic pantheon and joined at its foundation; he was the "Lord of the Hunt and of Wild Things" and associated with produce and fertility (sex) Epona - was particularly a goddess of fertility, cornucopia and the protector of horses, donkeys, mules Dagda - is the supreme god and the god of the arts, knowledge, magic, music, prophecy, prosperity, regeneration and he had a magical cauldron with an inexhaustible supply of food Lludd - had an invincible sword, one of the four great treasures and was the god of harpers, healing, historians, magic, poets, warfare, writing Lugh - of the "long hand" and "skilled in many arts" was a trickster god, master of all arts and so god of too and served the Dagda Morrigan - a terrifying figure. She is associated with war and death on the battlefield, sometime appearing in the form of a carrion crow, premonitions of doom and she once coupled with the Dagda Ogma - a god of scholars, education, writing and eloquence Egyptian Anubis - serves as both a guide of the recently departed and a guardian of the dead and silently walks through the shadows of life and death and lurks in dark places Bast - the protector goddess of Lower (northern) Egypt, her name means (female) devourer and she was defender of the pharaoh and Ra Hathor - the daughter of Ra, she was the personification of the Milky Way (seen as a waterway in the heavens) responsible for the yearly inundation of the Nile and goddess of Joy Horus - is the god of the sky, the patron of Upper (southern) Egypt, and the son of Osiris, his mother is Isis and the sun was one of his eyes and the moon the other, Isis - cosmic goddess all over the whole ancient world and the wife and sister of Osiris and mother of Horus, the child of Ra's wife, Hathor, and was worshipped as the archetypical wife and mother Osiris - was not only the merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life and the resurrection figure; he was the Father of Anubis and of Osiris; was killed by his brother Set who wanted Osiris' throne and Isis brought Osiris back to life Ra - was the major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, he commanded sky, earth, underworld, he is also seen as the ruler of all and creator god Set - the patron of Lower (Northern) Egypt and the god of the desert, associated with sandstorms, and desert caravans; he was chief god (of northern Egypt) and god of the underworld and evil Thoth - god of arbitration, equilibrium, magic, writing, science, law and the judging of the dead; the reckoner of times and seasons Greek Gods => more like dons or bosses -> could be gang leaders Aphrodite - was the goddess of love (physical or sexual attraction), lust, and beauty; she was born from the foam after Cronus castrated Uranus, and of the practice of ritual prostitution Apollo - was the god of music, medicine, death dealing, and archery; as the leader of the Muses, he is a god of music and poetry; he is the son of Zeus and Leto Ares - is the son of Zeus and Hera; he is more accurately the god of savage war; vultures and dogs are sacred to him Eris - is the Greek goddess of strife and of chaos, daughter of Zeus and Hera Hades - god of the dead, was a fearsome figure to those still living; was known as "the unseen one", or "the rich one;" brother of Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Poseidon and Zeus; possesses the helm of invisibility; Hera - was goddess of marriage, the patriarchal bond of her own subordination: her resistance to the conquests of Zeus is rendered as Hera's "jealousy;" wife and older sister of Zeus Hermes - was the trickster god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and invention and commerce in general, and of the cunning of thieves and liars Morpheus - was the god of dreams and has the ability to take any human's form and appear in dreams. His father is Hypnos the god of sleep. Nyx (the goddess of night) is his mother/grandmother Poseidon - was the god of the sea, as well as of horses and, as "Earth-Shaker", of earthquakes; Like his brother Zeus, he did not share the fate of his other brothers and sisters who were eaten; when the world was divided in three, Zeus received the sky, Hades the underworld and Poseidon the sea Zeus - is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus, and god of the sky and thunder; consort of Hera and the youngest of his siblings; he is known for his erotic escapades Norse Balder - the god of innocence, beauty, joy, purity, and peace, and is Odin's second son; his mother Frigg made every object on earth vow never to hurt Baldr Freyja / Freyr - were the twins born of Niord and are the fertility god/goddess; Freyja was also a goddess of love, beauty, sex, and attraction; Freyr was also the phallic fertility god and rules over the rain, the shining of the sun and the produce of the fields Frigg - was the wife of Odin and goddess of the sky; she is a goddess of fertility, love, household management, marriage, motherhood, and domestic arts Heimdall - is the guardian of the gods; his senses are so acute that he can hear the grass grow and he also requires no sleep at all and was called the White God Hel - is the queen of Hel, the Norse underworld, and the daughter of Loki Loki - is the mythical being of mischief and trickster foster-blood brother of Odin; he is described as the "contriver of all fraud" and a kind of celestial con man; Loki is an adept shape-shifter, with the ability to change both form and sex Odin - was the chief god in Norse mythology; god of wisdom, war (bringer of victory), battle and death; sacrificed one of his eyes in order to gain the wisdom of the ages Thor - is the red-haired, the son of Odin and one of the most powerful gods; he owns a short-handled war hammer, Mjolnir which has the power to throw lighting bolts; to wield Mjölnir, Thor wears a belt which boosts his strength and special iron gloves to lift the hammer Tyr - is the one-handed god of single combat and heroic glory; the Fenris wolf bit off Tyr's hand when it was finally bound Chapter Four - Who Plays All the Rest? The Role of the Gamemaster Don't think of a scene as a place or a stage. Scenes are movements, changes or transformations. If something doesn't change the big picture even slightly, the scene isn't over. Some scenes are questions and others are surprises, but most challenge the status quo. Before this game is over, what was will be gone. The players are either the destroyers or the preservers, either way, everything will change. Little by little at first, but by big jumps and leaps by the time the game ends. This doesn't mean war, but it could mean the top dogs are put down. If everyone loved the star of the city, a new one will arise; if someone held all the chips, they will be bankrupt. It is the job of the gamemaster, since he isn't in the middle of the action, to watch and make sure this happens. Take notes if you have to. The second most important thing to gamemastering is to remember; this is all make-believe! If someone doesn't have it on their write-up; if it isn't in this book; if someone hasn't said it yet, it just doesn't exist! You may imagine what is behind a door when the scene starts, but you can't let that stop you from changing it on the fly to make a better scene. If fact, you'd be much better off not to think that there even is something behind the door until it opens. This is the art of flexibility; use it! Don't get too involved with any idea that you have, you will definitely wind up changing it. This is chief amongst the reasons that no one describes where or what their god is going or doing specifically. They speak in archetypes. They propose what might be in the scene and you create details to support (not fulfill) this in the most hardboiled noir way possible. And if someone hasn't said it yet, plan on changing it before someone does. Pacing, Pacing, Pacing The number one most important thing to keep in mind at all times is pacing. If the game, or your descriptions, seem to lag, the suspense is lost; this is a game of suspense. Let's start with a few tricks to keep up the pacing. Instead of starting a scene with a soliloquy of the dark streets, cut right to the meat. If someone wants to check the neighborhood bars for a witness, don't just put them there. Do something interesting, start at the point where an unplayed deity has this god tied up in the backroom with his thugs working him over because they want to know why he's so interested in this witness. Don't turn it into a fight though, that's a little over the top, have them let him go with 'a warning' not to look into this; then cut right to the witness apologizing. Remember, the players are...well, the playas of this world. If they are up to something, you have to try and take something from them. No one gets to sit and just watch their scene go by. If their god doesn't jump into the thick of it, you have to kick them into the deep end of the pool. They don't know what to do? Attack them! They don't know what to do with a clue? Chase them! They think their so cool? Show them up! Never let things slide; that's against the rules. In every scene something has to happen, if they don't do it, do it to them. Nothing Sacred is a game of suspense and mystery. As gamemaster, your most important job is to maintain the suspense. Don't ever, ever, let the tension drain out of a scene, or between scenes. Threaten violence; if you can't justify physical violence, go for the emotional kind and if you can do emotional, go right to sexual! The tension of the almost assured violence creates suspense; go for it! The second most important thing is to always escalate! If the last few scenes threatened violence, the next few need at least a little of it. Keep things spiraling higher and higher; if it goes on long enough you can and will begin threatening these gods with violence and death themselves. (This is why, late into hardboiled detective fiction, people start trying to kill the investigator.) Just the same way you big a scene by cutting right to 'the meat,' you should end it right away. There is never a scene that needs denouement; that comes at the end after it's all over. Play off the rise of suspense from getting the clue right into the end of the scene. You can and definitely will run into situations where you close the scene before the player feels they were 'done.' Do that and you're doing it right. The most artful of these kinds of scene-closings is the cliffhanger. Make the entry to this god's next scene look like it might not happen or may be a disaster. This is the only way to prevent the feeling of let-down or anticlimax; these are your enemies! Guiding Play One tool present for both the gamemaster and the co-gamemaster is the block or channel. Think of every scene as a question being begged by the play; if the god is looking for the wrong thing, the answer isn't just no. It's no with consequences, that's the block; don't just have them fail to find something, rub there nose in it and make fun of them (with the character the gamemaster plays, not for real). If they are on the right track, you are answering the scene's question with a yes...but. To you, every scene is a complication for their god. Either they deal with it or it gets worse. When they deal with it, it always creates new complications. If it gets worse, you are the one who decides how. If they are in trouble, now that trouble is passed up the chain of command; you know what I mean. Suspense, danger and tension (sexual or otherwise) just keep getting worse and worse until the culprit is revealed. If you have trouble thinking of a new complication, try thinking about what is expected in this punk noir game; that's what it should always be. Never just give them what they want to find, tease them with more. Or make them an offer to co-conspire. Or make it a painful victory. The point is not only do you reward them with the clue, you must, absolutely must, 'raise the stakes.' If the god feels he 'got away clean,' you didn't do it right (unless it was by the skin of their teeth and feels only temporary); make it the kind of 'messy' success that makes them come back for more (and hopefully gives them an idea where to get it.) For every bit of suspense you close (answering the question), you must open another, bigger and more dangerous, one. If the player isn't taking his god in a way that leads to this complication, do not - I repeat, DO NOT - force them into it. That is completely wrong in any role-playing game. Since you are being so flexible, just change the complication's details so that it is where they are going. Every complication can be simplified to the point were it will fit anywhere; make sure that place is where the player is headed, because it's really the place they want to be. Other Gods Only the gods matter, anyone else is completely ignored as pale background coloring. (This definitely isn't a game about hiding among humans.) So who are the other gods that the players don't play? They belong to the gamemaster and co-gamemaster. They are not much more than repeating complications or simply running gags. The show up like a bad penny and only make things harder (and more suspenseful) for the players. Try to think of the gamemaster's gods more as moving talking complications than people. Keep them consistent, but remember: anything not spoken of or implied about these gods doesn't exist...yet. It can be changed anytime before it actually comes to play. These complications, the gamemaster's gods, can oppose, support or exploit the players' gods. What's important is that every one of these characters must have some kind of connection or kinship with the players' gods; whether family, pantheon, interests, attraction, rivalry, enmity or needs, there must be some kind of connection. And don't forget, all there is to what the gamemasters have their gods are those gods' desires. They don't think, they just act; they are as two dimension as a thin piece of paper, but they are very motivated. Are they driven by irrational needs, secrets or misunderstandings or only extreme ones? Make sure that how badly they need what they want is equal to the current tension level of the scene (never impede or lower a tension level just for them). If that seems inconsistent, have them reveal that those desires were 'under wraps' earlier. As they appear again and again, never end a relationship to the players' gods; you can change the character of these connections, but you cannot dampen or eliminate them. By chance or necessity, the gamemasters' gods will evolve. They might begin as nothing more than a secondary character, but every time they appear they must become more connected to the action and the players' gods; the can become more relevant or more effective (as a complication), but they must grow as needed by the situation. The Hardboiled, Noir God-Punk Murder Mystery Game ***** "Noir is 'overwhelmingly black'" - Robert Ottoson ***** The tone of noir is downbeat and yet darker still. To put it simply, the five basic qualities of noir are: things in it must be strange and exotic; everything is sexy or perverse or violent; nothing is ever clear cut, ambivalence is the air they breathe; it's a cruel place where no one ever 'wins' and it's almost completely oneiric. In punk-noir, the 'city' is presented as a 'labyrinth' of punk bars, dance clubs, street scenes and drug dens. All of the motifs are of contrasting extremes like good and evil; love and hate; as well as loyalty and betrayal; there is never a clear winner. What Does Hardboiled Mean? It can be distinguished by the illusion of a darker kind of realism; with characters who are unsentimental or mordant; it must include portrayals of crimes and confrontations, violence and sex; it's fraught with moral quandaries that are unusually ambiguous or terribly relative; the 'heroes' are more flawed and morally questionable than anyone else; and it emphasizes moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Not a pretty place. The scenes are fast-paced, lurid, sensational and exploitative; about greed and jealousy; the world is inherently corrupt; people face-off against uncaring fate and are frequently doomed. It has characters like hardboiled detectives, femmes fatale, bumbling policemen and jealous husbands; they are trapped in unwanted situations, which they didn't cause, but definitely exacerbate; striving against uncaring fate to the only possible bleak, conclusion. Index Glossary Appendix I attempted to make use of Moyra Turkington's pull mechanics for the sacred interventions. Everything else was meant to be as traditional as possible