For all sorts of general OOC chat.

Given a key part of the game is working on a collaborative backstory and families which gel together I'll set up separate boards to discuss those areas in detail.

We've got a few players added in now and a couple more who have expressed some interest but just either want to have a think about things or had some questions. Please, everyone, feel free to start firing off ideas in the other threads; no need to wait until it's a full house to get the creative juices flowing!

Hi everyone. I guess my first question relates to the tone of the post apocalyptic future. Do we want a realistic Mad Max type world where the weirder elements are either very hidden or absent, or do we want a future that is more Gamma World like with weird.mutated animals and plants and magical old technologies? Or are we talking Fallout where most folks remember what the old world was like?

Personally, I was thinking of a future where the ancient world is more of a myth than history. The families are well established, and the average person thinks of the pre apocalyptic times as we think of the biblical times. Stories around, some true some false, but the reality of the past is mostly lost and is treated as some mythic golden age.

Just a thought - I'm open to other ideas as well.

Out of the three examples given, I'd be most interested in Gamma World - The Fall changed the world and made it weird, and in terms of how long ago it was, having it where it's so long ago to be a myth feels too old. By that point, we're less in the ruins, and pushed through the other side.

Granted, I know some of the questions the family get asked suggest how recent it was, such as this for the Merchants:

Yeah, maybe the better question is not about the specifics but the level of weirdness.

Personally, I want something in the middle. something not hyperealistic, but also not something like Numenera where the fantastical/weird is everywhere.

I disagree about the myth thing being too old. I mean who knows what the level of technology the humans had before the fall was? Their artifacts could have endured ages. The ruins of humanity could be thousands of years old, but still be around (especially if the Fall was very far in our real life future).

I definitely don't see it being Numenera style. In my head (and I'm open to discussion) it's very much more in the middle where it's pretty common knowledge that pre-Fall tech exists and is capable of fantastic feats but such tech is hard to find and dangerous to acquire.

I think the corebook describes the 'ruins' setting as "characters and families are far removed from the technological wonders of the Before, ending up at a state pretty similar to the modern world. The technology that exists is scavenged and temperamental". That kind of thing sounds right to me.

Sounds right to me too. I like it being unsure if the tech you find will even work and do what it's supposed to do or not. If you can figure out how to work it in the first place.

Got it. I missed the fact that you were going with the ruins setting. If that’s the case the weirder families won’t be allowed in the mix so that sort of defines the level of strange in the setting right there.

I am open to just about anything as I am new to PbtA and Legacy.  I've been interested in learning and jumped at this opportunity.  Personally, I am ok with a little weirdness, but, not sure I want to go full on everyone you see is going to fire mystic bolts at you  :)

But is it going to be ONLY ruins, or still going to allow a hint of echoes, as per your world building thread?

As families such as Enclave who do have the tech, using the other families to bring it back to them, in exchange for protection/treaties/surpluses, could fit.
Or maybe the Servants, who worship old tech, much like Planet of the Apes and worshiping a nuclear bomb (or equivalent)?

I interested in a touch of Echoes in the ruins setting. Works for me!

I like the idea of ruins, with a touch of echos, but also eldritch mutants, viral horrors, or whatever which are a little more prevelant than technology? The sort of phoenix-point-esque? I'm not sure exactly what I'm trying to espouse.

Based on the family discussion thread, I am guessing what we need to decide asap is are we ok with allowing some level of supernatural and/or extreme tech (AI) in the game.

For me, I truly don't care one way or the other.  Being new to the game and setting I have about 5 ideas for families and I am just waiting to see what we are allowing before I work out the finishing touches.

I am fine with supernatural/AI in the game. In fact, I'd prefer it that way. Don't get me wrong, the non supernatural stuff still sounds fun. But it sounds like a lot more fun if we have the supernatural elements in the game. That's just my opinion, not everybody will agree with me and that's fine.

For my part where possible I wouldn't want the overall tone to overly restrict players choice of families. I see the 'ruins with a touch of echoes' tone to really be the feel of the post-Fall world in general but that doesn't mean that player families (exceptional by design) aren't different from that. So there might only be one functioning AI in the whole world but that just happens to be the one behind the Synthetic Hive.

Also some of it is more in the way the families are styled than the family itself. A Synthetic Hive full of shiny chrome hoverbots might not fit a setting which a load of half-human cyborgs cobbled together from parts found in the wasteland might.

Don't mean to pick on the Hive here by the way, they just worked well as an example!

It does feel like we're moving more towards the weird style, but we could likely keep the look of tech rugged. Though having it where the Hive (in your example) are mysteriously clean and factory fresh being one of the things that helps people know the family, as well as question how they are doing it. Is there a secret factory or warehouse, and are doing everything they can to keep others away?

And did the supernatural lead to AI and tech coming along, or was it the other way around...?

So...should we decide upon families? I'm cool with the Deathless Elite - six individuals who have a supply of endless clones such that they are effectively immortal. They fancy themselves as gods, and have been living a decadent life with servants who are rewarded with a good life as long as they attend to the 'gods needs'. The 6 will likely survive each age...so you'll be seeing a lot of them ;-) Their refuge is on a mountaintop, protected and disguised so that they are not 'bothered' by the common folk. They use airships to travel and do what they can to maintain their god like lifestyle.

I've chosen to be the Lawgivers of the Wasteland. They sound right up my alley so that's who I'm going to play.

Planning on taking the Life Everlasting move then Player 2?

 The question I have, before I get fully in to family, is, where is our homeland.  Are we doing this on earth in a specific locale...another planet...and, if on earth, which continent...or has the fall totally misshapen the world?

I guess I like some geography before I finalize which of my ideas I like the best.

Player 1 - Absolutely!

New player jumping in!  I'll say at the outset that I have the 1e core book for this game but none of the 2e stuff, so apologies in advance if I miss something here or there.

I'll post my family and setting ideas in their respective threads.

Welcome, Welcome, glad to have you aboard. I'm interested to see what you choose to play.

Update - I found that the publisher's website has e free PDF of all the playbooks plus basic rules reference, so I should be good for 90% of things now.

My initial view is that it should be Earth, not least as then we don't have to come up with a load of alien fauna and flora and can rely on the 'normal' stuff except for the mutated versions which can be more...well, tentacley.

I was thinking to keep the actual area as vague as possible. Largely as I was going to randomly generate the basic map and it is unlikely to suit any real word place. Shall we call it, for the sake of argument, the continental United States (as was) as it is so well covered in the media everyone, no matter where the player lives, has a vague idea of what it is like?

That works for me - There is enough geographical options, with coasts, lakes, deserts, mountains, dense urban areas and small towns amid nothingness.

I usually like it narrowed down a bit, unless the GM allows us to make up our own hometown if we want. Usually a large village or small city, nothing major, just somewhere for our character to be from.

Am I wrong in my reading, I thought each of our families had their own town/haven/cave, etc. perhaps a few barter towns are set up and/or one of the player towns might be big enough for such.  I could be wrong as I am just reading and soaking in new knowledge.

We are all in the Homeland, a safe(ish) region. It would have towns, havens, threats, and other things besides our families there.

As we influence it with our families, as well as whatever the GM adds.

Maybe one side is coastal, with lots of woodlands, or a desert, ruined cities waiting to be explored, roving bands of monstrous humans, and so on.

I believe we collaboratively generate the maps as part of chargen. I don't have the pdfs at hand, but I thought that's how it goes.

Starting with the generic 'United States' works for me.

I definitely agree with keeping it on Earth, and vaguely US sounds fine.  As far as specific geography, whatever ended the world might have made some changes to the land, so no worries there.

My plan for the map is to randomly generate something which we can then play around with a bit before adding on the various specific features generated by each Playbook.

Might have to wait until the weekend so I can sit down with and figure out how to use hexographer properly though if I get a chance earlier I'll sort it out. I would certainly intend to have a coastline (because that opens up lots of options for all sorts of things) and at least one central hub/population center but beyond that see what the algorithm throws up!

If anyone wants to hash out ideas, you can get me on Discord - NuFenix#6922

As working things out can be slow on here at times, and all the important stuff can live on here.

I've put up some individual threads for the families I have names for to thresh out the fine detail. I think that just leaves two so just let me know the details and I'll get threads set up for you too.

Where do people stand on others commenting in 'their' thread? In my head I see a bit of a free flow of ideas but if the preference is that each thread is just for that player and me then I don't mind us all agreeing that and any other ideas and such can be shared here or in the more generic family thread.

Initial experiments with the map are going alright so I hope to have a first version up for comment over the weekend.

I'm fine with either TBH. Maybe keeping the comments in a central thread may be better to reduce clutter in the individual family threads (and to make it easier to see all the comments together)

The general family thread would be best for discussing things which involve treaties being formed. As some may be negotiation, general discussion, and means people aren't bouncing between all the threads to see what does(n't) apply to them.

As promised my first crack at a map for the Homeland should now be up in the 'game maps' section. I'm not overly wedded to it it people think it needs some minor (or substantial) changes. My thinking was that it's bordered by fairly significant obstacles which is why the families (and NPC population) managed to survive where so much of humanity did not.

There's a slight issue in that the labelling of the hexes is pretty much unreadable (on my computer at least) so I might need to have a think about how to do that a different way.

I haven't chucked any settlements, ruins or otherwise on it as I think it makes more sense for players to place their landmarks, settlements (if applicable) and suchlike first and then populate around that. In any even I wouldn't intend to put every random town, ruin or important site on the map as I think that would remove the joy of improvisation and making stuff up as we go along!

Is it possible for there to be a larger copy, as I struggle to read it, even when opening it in a new tab?

This is probably an inelegant way of doing it but this document from my Google Drive should be more zoomable!

https://drive.google.com/file/...xvU/view?usp=sharing

Did that link for the map work for everyone?

It looks like we now have three families ready to go, one in the works and I think two more where they're still in the 'design phase'. Anything I (or the group as a whole) can do to fuel any creative juices or help choose between options?

Once all the families are done we can fine tune the world history (I already have some ideas for the missing blanks in that and how to kick things off) and then whip up some characters to get cracking with.

The map worked fine for me.

Right, we now have four families either completely finished off or at least broadly fleshed out and just needing the last few bits and pieces. I think that's enough to move things forward and get us a step closer to actually kicking things off!

I know one player is yet to decide on their playback but I figure we crack on for now and then they can catch up.

I think the last few bits we need are:

1) Populating the Map - do you want to start letting me know (either here or on your families individual thread) where you want any of your Landmarks and, if you are 'Settled' where you want your main settlement and I'll drop them on the map. Happy to do it either by hex reference or if you just want to give me a rough location. Also if you don't really mind then let me know and I'll drop them where seems thematically appropriate.

2) History - all of the playbooks have questions which involve the other families for building up history and sorting out initial treaties. Feel free to start sorting out answers to those in the 'Family Relations' thread.

3) Characters - then it's just for working on the initial characters. I'm going to put up a post in the 'world building' thread in a bit with my thoughts on the initial setting and what sparks the initial drama. That may influence what types of character you want to plump for with this age.

So, I'm thinking that the Olympians Redoubt (Mount Olympus) is in the center of the island at 022 023. That area is a large mountain, with the Redoubt at the top (and other areas deeper within the depths of the mountain). Access usually occurs via the flying chariots. Given the  'Lord of the Domain' lifestyle it seems to make sense.

Before: A fortress of glass and stone perched in a remote location. I see that as possibly being located at 026 002

The Fall: A slender tower turned into a haven for the desperate. Maybe this is at 015 008

A Threat: A violent revolutionary for the destitute. Perhaps there is a refugee camp at  018 004 where the violent revolutionary is collecting recruits.

The Haven - "A temple, with holographic monuments to the few Olympians who have chosen to forgo their mortal existence and unite with the Cosmos." That's at 018 020 . It's clearly visible from Olympus, and sits in the middle of a grassy field with a peaceful, reverent atmosphere like a weel maintained cemetery/monument.

All of the information below is open to massive change. I'd rather get a better sense of all the families before answering these history questions TBH, but there are my initial thoughts.

Which one of you first found power in the confines of Mount Olympus? (They say the price they paid for that power and give you 2-Treaty). Perhaps the Protean Foundation was given access to a large, diverse seed vault or genetic stock hidden in the depths of Olympus?

Which one of you was saved by an inhuman traveler? (Give them 2-Treaty as you crave to know more about this wanderer). I take this as one of the families was saved by an 'inhuman traveler' (not one of the Olympians) and the Olympians want to learn more about this savior so the family that encountered the traveler has 2 Treaty on the Olympians as leverage

Whose kin suffer as our thralls? (Give them 2-Treaty, and they say why the thralls can’t leave). Perhaps a group of Unbidden Inc. cyborgs who have been cut off from the main collective?

I love the thinking behind those landmarks!

Anyone else got any preferences for where things might go?

Locations now, and I'll post separately for relationships after that...

For what the GM and I had previously discussed about how Need: Land might fit with my ideas for the Protean Foundation, I think what might work here is an area where the land we have is not as useful as it once was (like when our campus was first built).  Given the way we're starting the campaign, a lack of defensive terrain would probably feed into that too.  So I'm thinking 015.007, or somewhere similar, would work.

What one will find there is a cluster of buildings, glass and concrete, surrounded by a tall fence.  Before the fall this was a secure medical research facility; since then it has been repurposed as a home for this group of survivors, though also still an active research facility.  Some of the outbuildings are in disrepair, but the three largest remain in decent condition.  The little park that used to sit between them is now just a large patch of weedy dirt though.

Before: another hospital, once private and fancy, probably not that now but definitely still secluded like before.  Any of the forest/mountain hexes would serve nicely, but if it's okay with the GM I'm going to claim 005.005 (though if someone else wants to take that spot for their own stuff then I'm fine with moving this one).

The Fall: Catacombs filled with failed genetic experiments.  The dumping ground for some of the work that Protean Labs didn't talk about - too advanced for easy disposal within the lab facilities, but unsuccessful and presumed dead as far as our scientists were concerned.  Can be found under the hills at 017.007, though doing so is not recommended.

A Threat: A plague too efficient and dreadful to be natural.  The ruins of the settlement where it was, ahem, "discovered" are at 018.004.

Haven: Yet another research lab (what was it about this area that there are so many of them around?), this one reclaimed by nature and partially uplifted animals.  The Foundation knows if its existence but that's as far as they've gotten with it, so far.  Located along the coast at 016.015.

History:

Everyone has a need for your products.  Take 1 Treaty on each Family.  So you all know where that's coming from.

Which of you has made agreements with us that might end up saving mankind AND the planet?  You take 1 Treaty on them.  This feels to me like it might be a Bennington thing, but if someone else wants to volunteer for it I'm open to that.

Which of you supplies us with resources vital for cultivation?  Work out what the supplies are and give that family 1 Treaty on us.  I feel like this fits really well with this:

So what am I getting from Olympus?  I think it's some kind of biochemical waste that is a byproduct of whatever it is that the Olympians do to keep themselves eternal.  We take it off your hands so it's not making Olympus look all gross and mortal, and we put it to good use in our controlled mutation experiments.  How does that sound?

Okay, that sounds good to me if no other family wants it. We'll have to work out what the agreements our that might end up saving the planet but I think we can do that. Shouldn't be a problem.

That sounds great. Take our gross chemical sludge please :-)

Hey folks
I was planning on posting in the last 12 hours or so, but sadly got a bit caught up by circumstance.

I'm too tired now to really form anything coherent, but will have stuff ready in the next 24. Very excited to get this rolling.

I feel like Aethernauts are going to be unloved in all this.

But, we did help cause the end of the world...

Plus, it fits with the description of one of my needs:
Prestige
Your family are pariahs, disdained, or beneath other’s notice. Your citizens get more done when they hide their affiliation, and though others will respect bargains and obligations they’ll do so grudgingly.
When you open a gateway that allowed beings from outside our reality to come in, and cause the downfall of humanity, it does lead to everyone not liking you.

Oh, I'm so glad that was you - I was afraid one of my less-successful experiments did something!

I mean, certainly whatever I've got going on couldn't possibly interact in an unhealthy way with whatever you've got going on, right?

Alrighty, I got a couple posts in.
Following up on the GM's note that pbp could serve as ample grounds for inter-family intrigue, I've kept some things hidden in my public-facing sheet. However, Legacy explicitly only allows for that sort of thing so long as everyone's on board: if anyone is disinclined to play that way, just say so, and I'll gladly revert to a less cloak-and-dagger approach.

That being said, I intent to play Unbidden Inc. a mysterious group that has seemingly retained broad powers, technology, and freedom post-fall. They're almost always available to Lend Aid or meddle, but the cost of their help isn't always apparent.

I put a quick blurb about them in my sheet-thread, if you want to take a gander.

That description looks pretty cool - I think our families may do some business together before long, if they haven't already!

I am definitely open to some PvP as long as it makes sense in the story.  I don't intend to dive into it, but I'm not averse if that's how things develop.

Sorry for the slight slow down my end; busy run in to the long weekend. Should get something substantial up in the next day or so!

I'll update the map with all the fixed locations tomorrow.

As for PvP goes I would certainly be happy with a level of it. Not necessarily all out war (or all out scheming against each other) but scheming for others' resources, pipping them to wonders and all that jazz I think just keeps things fun! Of course it's by no means required, if everyone is getting along famously then that's fine too!

I've updated the map with those who provided locations. I moved a couple of them about if they would be too close to other locations (and that wouldn't make sense).

I think I just need Aethernauts and the Bennington Family to let me know where they're thinking for their bits and pieces.

I've put the updated map, and a key, up in a new notice thread to keep it nice and easily locatable. I'm also going to update that thread with all the key information about each family that would be available at a glance in a 'normal' game (stats, treaties, surpluses etc.) as that can influence decisions.

Either later today or tomorrow I'm going to go through the history questions and check which have been resolved and which ones remain outstanding.

After that it should just be characters and we're ready to go! Phew, that's a lot of set up :)

Sorry for delay - Easter break was taxing due to extra family time, and needing to get back into swing of things with work.

Took a look at the updated map just now, saw that this is right next to my main base.  Are we thinking that I already have some established relationship with the denizens of the tower, or is first contact going to happen in-game?

I can't really see any details on the map. Am I missing something?

When I saw the locations I nearly moved the tower and then thought it might be interesting to have it nearby. I would say that's up to you - you could have an established relationship with who(what?)ever is lurking in the tower or they could be very recent arrivals.



I've just reuploaded it in the game map bit here and there's a link to a pdf version in the 'game status' thread if you want a more zoomable option.

I've added the last locations to the game map now (I just put the Bennington landmarks where I felt they worked) so we have a populated map. I've also updated the family relations thread with the outstanding relations so we can finalize treaties.

That would just leave characters; do people feel ready to start designing their characters to run for the first age?

Given the choice, I think I'd prefer to go with "currently unknown, will need to explore" - I feel like there are a lot of different ways that it could go and it'll be more fun to see how it plays out than to decide it ahead of time.

I don't know about the others, but I feel ready to move into individual characters.  I'll take a little more time to think over my remaining relationship questions and then hopefully have that settled in the next day or so.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Sun 11 Apr 2021.

Sure, the Olympians support the Bennington's efforts to keep the area safe and lawful.




I'm also okay with this for Unbidden. Perhaps there is something in the depths of the mountain that is hidden to even the Olymipans?

And for the Ethernauts:



The immortal, Dionysus, and his retinue (who he calls Maenads). They seem more focused on altered states of conscious and trying to commune with higher powers.

I'm ready to start making a character: seems quite simple even. Feel like we have a good foundation here.

About characters - are we starting at the 'Family' level ( where we represent our entire group and can create new family members as needed for the roleplay without needing to do through the detailed character generation)?

We only need a character created when we 'zoom in' to a more detailed, specific setting where individual members of the families go out in search of some specific objective.

I'd rather start the role play at the family level, let us get a better sense of these groups and the named individuals in the Families, then zoom in later when there is a specific reason to do so.

My reading has always been that you create one character at the start of each age to be the 'main' character of the family through that period and be a focus for events. The choice of that character also gives some ideas about the kind of things you, and by extension others, might be getting up to - an elder leader is going to put a different flavour on your families age than a rebel scavenger.

That doesn't stop other quick characters being rustled up as they might be needed for scenes (or names and characters just being made up on the fly if they don't need stats).

My initial thoughts had been to start with something zoomed in to kick matters off but I'm not wedded to that if we start with bigger picture stuff. Actually my thought of an opening scene, the representatives of the families meeting with the representatives of the locals to decide what needs to be done about the refugees, could work as a sort of "in character zoomed out" scene with the families representatives not actually having to be be the main characters and just serving as the mouthpiece for the families views.

That works for me, I was just wondering. My read of the game was a bit different in that I got the sense that at the Family level, you didn't create a character per say, but brought in characters for roleplay purposes as needed. Of course when you zoom in, you could pick one of those not very sketched out characters to flesh out and make a main protagonist.

It doesn't matter to me, but it is going to severely limit my choices for character playbooks as I will feel the need to pick a playbook that can both represent the Family interests as well as be an interesting protagonist on their own *shrug*.

There's still a couple of people's history options up for grabs but we're nearly there on that.

That means once people have characters ready to go we can kick off. Alternatively having thought about it some more I quite like the idea of starting things off with a thread that is 'in character' but not specifically with the chosen characters for this age (though not precluding them if it would make sense for them to be there). So allowing for the more zoomed out decision making but allowing everyone to get a flavor for the different families. How does that sound as that is something we could get up and running pretty quickly?

I like it, but I think I made that clear earlier:-)

I can work with it.  I was thinking about what playbook I would want for my single character starting out, based on what I thought I might do without any more external input, but on the other hand starting more zoomed out and getting said external input would also work.

A chance to do some posting about family members and interacting with one another, though not necessarily being the main character for that age, would help flesh out the family, and how we all interact.

Perfect - that's a majority in favour and no objections!

I'll get something along those lines up over the weekend (if not just before).

Right, first IC post is up (finally!) so it's over to you!

I'm assuming everyone has sent one representative to the conference but who that rep is up to you. As previously discussed it doesn't have to be your main character for this age though can be if you want. If not then no need to make them as a quick character - I'm not anticipating character level dice rolls here (though if that changes we can whip up quick characters) and I see anything which needs doing will be family level at this point.

Entirely up to you how you want to proceed. Obviously the main thing the NPCs will want to talk about is the refugee issue and you can engage with that but if you would rather try and find some way to address your needs, gain surpluses or just generally expand your power base go for it!

Bennington and Unbidden do you want to post an introduction before I move the main thread along?

Sorry for the slowdown - hectic week at work.

I'll move things along over the weekend.

No worries, it's been the same on my end the last couple weeks.

I didn't want to reply to the Proteans in case Bennington or Unbidden wanted to add something first. However, they seem to have been away for over 2 weeks now...

Yeah I fear we have lost them. To do the world building bit and then ghost before it even starts running seems an odd thing to do but such is life in RPoL!

Three players is still enough for a decent game of this in my book so I’m happy to keep forging ahead if everyone else is?

I can hold off posting for a day or two if you want to respond to the Proteans?

It's unfortunate, but I'm definitely willing to keep going with the group we still have.

I don't have anything in particular that I want to do with the current scene - assuming the others agree, should we jump into our meeting with the refugees or wait for you to set the stage?

Sounds good to me. I'll give it a day or two and if nobody has anything specific left that they want to do I'll move things along.

Sorry - last week got away from me.

Ready now to move on to a fully zoomed in post. I think we'll need characters for that so are people able to whip up their main character for this age now you know the kind of issues at stake?

Unfortunately for me, life is hectic right now. I think I need to drop from the game. Sorry all..I just don't know when I can post.

So am I the last player standing at this point?

I spaced out as others had gone, and was finding it difficult to feel engaged.

Which I'm angry at myself for, as I requested the game in the first place :(

I feel you - too much attrition at once really sucks the life out of a game, and it's hard to stay enthusiastic through that.

Yeah, I fear with this system so much time is spent on world building at the start it runs the risk of losing that early momentum you need for play by post.

I think that if (likely when) I try to run it again on here I might go in with a ready made setting and just have players fit their families in to that. It takes some of the charm of the start of the game away but would hopefully move things to starting properly much more quickly.

I've thought about doing something similar with Ars Magica - I've been in so many games on here that burn all of their new-game momentum on creating the covenant (the PCs' base, if you're not familiar with that game) and then have little to none left for the actual game.

In any case, thanks for having put this together!
This message was last edited by the player at 00:39, Thu 01 July 2021.