Welcome to Wonderland!
So, I find JAGS Wonderland a really interesting setting, and wanted to play a game there. Unfortunately, it's also kind of obscure. I prefer to be a player, but there's no way I'm going to see a GM pop up saying 'hey, let's play JAGS Wonderland!'. It's just not gonna happen.
So I did the only sane thing, and decided to run a game.
Sorry for all the words. If it makes you feel better, 'lots of words' is probably something you want from your GM?
Maybe not. Anyway!
The Ruleset
The game will be played under the JAGS system, which is available free from
https://www.jagsrpg.com/ . A site which also includes the JAGS wonderland book, for those who want a better description of the setting than I give below. Occasionally, I've seen the Wonderland PDF say things like 'the full rules for this are in JAGS Have-Not' - in which case I will liberally apply rule 0.
The setting:
It's Earth.
Broadly speaking, anyway. As far as most people know.
The big difference is a mental illness called Cyclic Psychoeffective Disorder. There is very little effective treatment for CPD. Victims have episodes in which they act erratically - irrationally. During these episodes, they report seeing strange and impossible things around them. Horrifying things. Sometimes, it breaks them. Sometimes their actions make them a danger to themselves and others, and they have to be locked up. And sometimes tye just.... disappear. In total, 80-90% of victims have their lives effectively ended by CPD within a year.
Oh, and it's infectious. Noone knows how. If you hang around someone with CPD during an episode, there's a good chance you'll be next. Usually it only transmits in person, but there are rumours you can even get it by watching someone have an episode on TV.
Needless to say, people are terrified of it. If people find out you have CPD, even if you're one of the 'lucky ones' who don't just snap, they are going to start avoiding you.
Last thing... it's all real. Everything you see during a CPD episode is 100% true. You really have fallen through the cracks in reality to somewhere else. To Wonderland. You seem to act strange in reality because you've been replaced by something from Wonderland which doesn't understand how your world works.What's worse, it's trying to imitate you - but since you're currently in Wonderland, what you're doing might not make too much sense in the 'real world'.
That last paragraph isn't common knowledge. But the guovernment knows, and they're actively working to hide it. On top of which, there are numerous cults, conspiracies, and mad wizards, who know the truth, and to whom those with CPD are very, very useful.
In short, CPD really, really sucks.
Guess what's going to happen to your characters!? I'll bive you a hint - it's not 'a surprise party'.
Player characters may come from anywhere, but the action (after the prologue) will start in Oxford. Because it's Alice in Wonderland, where else would I set it?
Don't worry, I'll get you there if your character lives and works elsewhere.
Some notes on playing:
I'm going to be honest here - I have never played a game which did not involve PCs having hdden agendas, betraying each other, and generally fighting each other as much as any of the monsters. Face to face games I've been in have set up pbp threads to allow players to talk to each other and the GM without the other players knowing. The other PbP game I'm in I just shot one of the other players in the back.
Suffice to say, I'm fine with party infighting. It's not like I require it, but I'm not going to object either. I may even engineer it during the campaign, if the opportunity arises. It means I have to do less work.
However.
PvP of any kind should be purely and entirely IC. Don't try and ruin a player's enjoyment of the game. Don't get upset when the secret cultist betrays you, and you end up in an asylum - and if you're the cultist, don't be upset when your victim gets revenge.
I know some players don't like conflict with other players, and want to be able to trust their teammates. That's completely understandable, and I respect it. But I would ask that you don't join this game.
Other than that, standard thing, tell me if you want to join.
This message was last edited by the user at 16:54, Sat 16 June 2018.
