- This game is under the Supernatural, Contemporary & Drama genres.
- The game system is Based (loosely) on Don't Rest Your Head and City of Mist.
- This game contains adult content.
- The GM has marked this game as containing personal and intellectual property.
If the GM leaves or deletes the game nobody else will be able to continue the game.
Mantles
agency noun
agen·cy | \ ˈā-jən(t)-sē
1. the office or function of an agent.
2. the capacity, condition, or state of
exerting power.
3. a person or thing through which power
is exerted or an end is achieved.
mantle noun
man·tle | \ ˈman-tᵊl
1. a figurative cloak symbolizing authority.
2. something that covers, enfolds, or envelops.
3. a lacy hood of some refractory material that
provides light when placed over a flame.
Mantles (or Mantles in the Dreaming City and What They Found There, if we want to be pedantic) is a world-building game about mysteries, emerging powers, and inner conflict.
Something happened to the world, few know what, why, or even when. In fact, most people don't even think much at all; they go about their lives, day to day, work, play, rest, repeat, never realizing things were ever any different or ever could be.
Maybe you didn't know either, but that was then. This is now and whether you admit it or not, you're an Agent, the worldly expression of an otherworldly dream.
Inside you is the shard of an idea, maybe that idea takes the form of a god, a hero, a monster, a force of nature, maybe it isn't anything more than just a story needing someone to help it be told. Whether you intended to or not, you've taken up its Mantle. Through you, creation casts its shadow on the walls of reality, and it will not be ignored.
Welcome to The City In-Between. Like everyone in The City, you have a story to tell, two in fact, and if you combine them you get a third, since math is cool that way.
Your character is like a superhero with a secret identity, or maybe just like a spinning coin. On one side is your mundane, Profane self. This is generally 'who' you think (or pretend) you are in everyday life. You may cling to this identity or run from it but in either case, it is a crucial part of who you are and without it 'you' can become lost.
On the other side of the coin is something primordial, your Sacred self, a core story and theme. This side needs you to manifest and be heard and it needs you to do this. It is demanding and wants to take over your life but if it does, what happens to the rest of you?
Your job is to combine these two stories and share them with your fellow writers and together, maybe we can create something bigger than all its parts.
Mantles is a character-driven urban fantasy game of three worlds, the Cold, Hard World deprived of magic, and a secret world of magic that most don't think is real, a world that's glad it isn't because real is boring. What about the third world? We don't talk about the third world, the world that exists in empty places where no one can see it, that's awake when everyone else is asleep and frankly likes it that way because that's when it's easier to whisper in your ear and steal your dreams.
The game takes place in the middle world, The Dreaming City, The City In-Between, a vast sprawling place born of the Cold, Hard World, a world ruled by gods or beings near enough to them, haunted by monsters or beings near enough to them and inhabited by mortals or beings near enough to them. It's a place where myths and legends, monsters and magic cling to existence, where mortals come when they dream and stay when those dreams feel more real than reality.
In it, players may take on the role of residents and visitors, monsters and myths, lost boys and lost girls, dreams that refuse to die and dreamers who refuse to wake.
Maybe you know what you are, maybe you don't. Maybe you know where you are, maybe you don't. Maybe you want to be there, maybe you don't. Whatever the case, click here to join or here to learn more.
PS, While this game is intended to be a fairly freeform sandbox where players can craft their own stories with each other, there are a few hooks to get caught by, an overarching plot to discover, and a few mechanics to ground things or add a spark if it's needed.