About Altclair
About Altclair
Altclair is Naomi's campaign, set at the college of Altclair, which is somewhere in Missouri, I think. It's a sort of urban fantasy. Think Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, or perhaps GURPS Illuminati IOU. Other source material (that Naomi hasn't read or seen) might include Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and most of Charles de Lint.
The system is OTE, although Naomi tends to streamline even that rules-light system, aided by our general agreement on what does and doesn't need dice.
The players:
1. Manny Jacobowitz, who plays Jim Gaffney, Irish-American from Boston. Affects an Irish accent. Classics major and computer hacker. Dark secret: Got a woman pregnant and she had an abortion. I think this is the only pc secret that isn't common knowledge. I believe one of Jim's traits is Linguist.
2. Joshua Kronengold, who plays Michael Conaway, History major. Michael's folks live 3 miles off campus, but Michael's just returning from England, and has an on-again off-again British accent. Traits are:
- Fencing, 4 dice. He's aiming for the Olympics.
- Mage, 1 die fringe trait
- Ladies' Man, 3 dice
- Flaw: Weakness for the ladies
- Secret: While in England, he got the wife of a friend/mentor pregnant. He ran back to America, where he knows he won't possibly meet her at Altclair, since her husband teaches at Oxford.
3. Lisa Padol, who plays Justin Thorne (as Naomi bemoans the lack of female pcs), double majoring in Theater and Journalism. His mother is in Ohio.
- Central Trait: Creative, 4 dice. This also doubles as a two die fringe power, Maker. It is an extremely broad trait, and I am informed that I am only allowed to get away with it because I am not a twig, aka munchkin. Justin is creative in many different ways; he's just not sure what he wants to do with it. Being a Maker means that Justin can make magical items, as opposed to casting spells.
- Side Trait: Supernatural sensitivity. I keep forgetting it's there. Fortunately, Naomi doesn't. Since Justin doesn't know he's got it - he just thinks he's using the five senses everyone else has - it works out.
- Side Trait: Information Sponge, 3 dice. For a long time, my third trait was undefined. Now, Naomi is willing to allow this, even to allow one to define the trait to fit the situation at hand, but with the understanding that if that is what's done, she'll make sure it bites us hard. Besides, none of us like doing that - it's inartistic. So, after playing Justin for a while, I realized that this is what his third trait absolutely had to be, given how much he was managing to get done while still maintaining a very respectable grade point average. It is not an eidetic memory, just an ability to absorb lots of information very quickly.
- Flaw - This is still a blank on the character sheet, but Naomi is unlikely to press the issue, since Justin has so many. He is insatiably curious. He has trouble keeping his mouth shut, although he is working on this. He has too many projects going on at once. He has trouble saying no when presented with something else to do. During Fall quarter, Naomi dubbed him "the poster child for denial".
- Dark Secret - Justin made a sword during his junior year in high school, and accidentally, and fatally, stabbed his stepfather with it. At least, Justin thinks it was an accident. His stepfather wasn't a bad man, and Justin wasn't having any more than the usual adolescent problems one has with a father -- his stepfather had been around since Justin was four or five.
Mr. Thorne startled Justin by coming down to the basement where Justin had set up his forge, and Justin spun around, newly forged sword in hand. The sword then went through Mr. Thorne's body. Once Justin and his mother recovered from their shock, they called 911 and then the police. It was too late to save Mr. Thorne, and the police took the sword and told Justin not to leave town. The next day, they returned the sword, dropped all charges, and strongly hinted that Justin might want to move very far away from town. Justin has no idea what happened to make them change their mind and is afraid to think about it.
Justin's mother went on anti-depressants and started seeing a psychiatrist about her quite understandable depression. She also suggested that Justin might want to go to her alma mater, Altclair, when he graduated. The idea of going to a college far away from home seemed very appealing to Justin.
A few plot bits explained:
Everyone got to college all right, but Michael left for a while with a new/old acquaintance, Delilah, the girl of his dreams, sort of. He made up stories about an imaginary friend, and she showed up at college. Problem is, her family and all of that are imaginary, or at least, not of this reality. (Justin thinks of it as an alternate universe, but they say he's wrong.)
So, they went off to the part of Canada where she supposedly lived, leaving Jim (Michael's roommate) and Helen (Delilah's roommate) a bit confused. With Justin's help, they painted their rooms, which really annoyed Michael and Delilah when they got back, as they'd planned to have some input into the design.
What annoyed them even more was the rumor Justin had inadvertently started with his speculations that Michael had gotten Delilah pregnant, and they went to get her an abortion. Justin told Delilah he'd fix that if she'd just give him 24 hours. Delilah had no intention of doing this, planning to start a rumor about Helen and Jim (again unwittingly fueled by Justin), but Michael talked her out of it, and Jim apologized a lot.
Now, how do you stop a rumor? Well, Justin's a theater major, so he figured the best thing to do would be to give folks something else to talk about. On the first day of class, he walked into the dining hall naked, pretending that he'd absent-mindedly forgotten his clothes. He quickly fled back to his room, got dressed, grabbed his knapsack, and climbed out the window, heading for his first class.
After classes, he climbed back in through the window while his roommate gave him his messages Several lewd proposals, none serious, most disparaging.
Justin (nervously): Any death threats?
Rashid: No. Two suggestions that you see a psychiatrist.
And one unexpected bonus: Congratulations from Sarah Lacy and Daniel Case, two upperclassfolk in the Theater Department who were delighted by this piece of performance art. In shock, Justin called Sarah back -- she'd scared him thoroughly on their first meeting. Sarah's been at Altclair for six years, making sure not to graduate. She thinks she runs the Theater Department, and she may be correct.
Sarah: Just what were you trying to do?
Justin: Do? Ah, I was trying to start a rumor.
Sarah: Well, you certainly succeeded. Good work. Oh, and Thorne? The window was a nice touch, but stop now.
Justin (numbly): No more window.
Sarah: Never repeat yourself.
Justin eventually got around to telling his mother about the whole incident.
Justin: The first day of classes, I left my clothes behind.
Mrs. Thorne (who was a Theater major herself): On purpose or accidentally?
Justin (miffed): On purpose, of course!
Mrs. Thorne (relieved): Well, that's all right, then.
Justin met Annmarie the ghost while staking out his forge in the catacombs beneath the theater to find out who was turning it on. Upon confirming that she was indeed a ghost, not only did he flee; he also proceeded to do research about possible ghosts at Altclair while adamantly denying to himself that there were such things as ghosts or that he'd seen one. This made the research harder.
Gamequotes
Most common gamequote: Justin, shut up.
Jim: Justin, you like lists, don't you?
Justin: Helen wants a Mongolian pony. Now, as far as I'm concerned, the pony can go fuck itself -
Jim: From what I understand, that's about the only thing it -can't- do.
