THE CHILTRION CAMPAIGN (TCC) I have labeled The Chiltrion Campaign as a GURPS Supers game, but it is actually a GURPS Supers/Psi/Space game. The latter two elements will not be immediately apparent, however. I will be using the GURPS system when mechanics are necessary, but will be trying to minimize the amount of "roll-playing" necessary. Don't worry if you're not familiar with GURPS; see CHARACTER CREATION, below, to find out why your initial game statistics won't matter that much. Q: Why is it called "The Chiltrion Campaign"? What the heck is a Chiltrion? A: You'll find out. Eventually. Maybe. (OK, probably.) I don't know how many players I will accept; it depends somewhat on how many are interested. If you are interested, contact me at 73312,3242. I usually log onto CompuServe several times a day. The game will be all message-based. BACKGROUND The background is easy; it's modern-day Earth. Our Earth. January, 1994 (as of the writing of this document.) No unusual elements that anyone knows of. Everything is perfectly normal. Except that people with superhuman abilities are starting to pop up all around the world. Very gradually, at first, but it's becoming more common. As of the start of this campaign, there have been rumors of several paranormal "incidents" (see the teasers), but most people are still rather skeptical. Sightings of flying men and strange phenomena in the backwoods of Canada are slowly making their way from the front pages of the Enquirer to the back pages of mainstream newspapers, but no one has yet taken these strange reports seriously enough to feature them on "Nightline". Or maybe someone is just suppressing such stories.... CHARACTER CREATION Your character will be a paranormal. Here's the twist though; when the game starts, you're just a normal human. Your first adventure will feature the first manifestation of your powers. Therefore, your initial character concept should be a normal human being. You can make him or her whatever type of person you wish, from a Green Beret to a hamburger-flipper at McDonalds. If you are familiar with the GURPS system, send me a write-up (does not have to be too detailed) of a normal person, preferably built on 100 or fewer points. I'm not too picky about the point totals, and if it's a really good character, I don't mind if you exceed 100 points. I just don't want a world-famous, mega-rich Olympic-level athlete with four black belts who also happens to be a Nobel-prize winning nuclear physicist. Do NOT fiddle with points too much and try to "optimize" your character, because once your powers manifest, your stats will be far less relevant than your character background. If you're not familiar with GURPS, no problem. Just send me a description of your character, including personality traits, strengths and weaknesses, and skills. POWERS You will have super powers, but your CHARACTER will not know this when the game starts, and neither your character nor you will know the full extent of them at first, even after they manifest. *I* will be designing that part of your character sheet, with input from you. How much input? That's up to you. Of course I'm not going to make anyone play a mentalist if what they really want is someone with super-strength and bullet-proof skin. Therefore, you can tell me what you want in the way of powers, in any of the following ways; A) You can give me a very specific description of what powers you want, even including a complete write-up from GURPS Supers or GURPS Psi. I don't think this is quite as much fun, since it leaves less room for surprises on your part, but if you want to have a great deal of control over your character, I will allow it. Keep in mind two things, though; 1) Keep it under 400 points. 2) I am going to make some changes and/or additions, no matter what, just to keep you on your toes. Also see the note concerning Campaign Premises, below. B) You can give me some guidelines, and allow me to work within that framework. For instance, "I want to be a mentalist." "I don't want to be a mentalist, but anything else is OK". "I'd like to have Invisibility, and generally be a stealthy-type character, but you can surprise me with the exact nature of my powers." "I want the Super Flight advantage because it would be really cool to fly circles around jet fighters, but everything else is up to you." C) You can give me a totally free hand, and be totally surprised by what your character can do. (The most fun, but I suspect most people won't trust the GM that much. ) Your first few adventures will center around learning that you are a paranormal, and what you can do. And you may have powers that you won't find out about for quite a while. CAMPAIGN PREMISES This is a pseudo-"realistic" campaign, in that it starts out in our "real" world, and people will have realistic reactions when strange individuals show up on the street tossing fireballs and lifting cars (i.e. mostly they'll run screaming, except for the comic-book fans who will ask how THEY can get superpowers, the reporters who will want to interview you, and the government....well, you'll have to see how the government reacts.) The power level is that of a classic comic-book campaign, however, rather than a "Wild Cards" campaign. Your characters will be truly superhuman, not merely humans with some potent abilities. Naturally, the relative power of your characters will vary, because as in any superhero campaign, some people will want to play Cosmic Man, while others find Mr. Street Avenger to be more their style. On the surface, the campaign may appear to be a fairly typical "We're the first paranormals in the world" scenario, developing into a traditional comic-book campaign. Things will get a little more complex than that. The few hints in this document may give you an idea of what's coming, but I think you'll be in for some interesting surprises. Your characters will eventually wind up together, at least from time to time, though not necessarily as a "team" (in fact, it would be very surprising if this happens.) I expect that there will be many sub-plots involving only a few PCs, or even just one, while there will be several overall threads that will affect all of you. I enjoy roleplaying and character development a great deal, so I will try to accommodate anyone who wants to go off on a tangent and have their character do things on their own. There will be events that will most likely bring you all together. Q: What about sex 'n violence? A: Both will probably occur, but I don't feel a need to be particularly graphic about it, so for now, I'm keeping the campaign in the public area. If anyone wants to start a thread that requires moving to the Adult area, I have access there, so you may do so, but please don't do it gratuitously (just because you want to type out complete four-letter words, for instance.) PREMISES CONCERNING POWERS AND "UNUSUAL" PHENOMENA All superpowers have a common origin, and it won't be giving TOO much away to say that they are basically psionic in nature. This does NOT mean you're limited to the traditional Psi abilities, though you may certainly have them too. Superman could easily be explained as a psionic character, with psychokinesis providing levitation, invulnerability, tremendous strength, and heat vision. Aquaman can breathe underwater because he can telekinetically extract oxygen from water. Spiderman's webs can be an ectoplasmic projection. Even the Flash could have a combination of highly specialized levitation and the ability to slow time around himself. In other words, most any kind of superpower is still allowable, just remember that they all come from the same fundamental source. No one gets powers by being bitten by radioactive spiders or being hit by a meteorite. However, the stress of such incidents may cause your powers to MANIFEST, making you THINK that's what bestowed them. There IS a reason why these powers are manifesting now. You may discover what it is, or you may not. I like to maintain some semblance of plausibility, even in a superhero campaign. Therefore, try to avoid really bizarre or ridiculous powers, like being able to turn into a sofa, or shooting bursts of high-velocity English muffins from your fingertips, or talking to rocks. Unless you have a VERY good rationale for such silly powers, I won't allow them. Q: What about Magic? A: There is no magic. Or if there is, it is very non-obvious, and very few people believe in it. Just like our world, in other words. If you want a character who is a practicing magician or something (such as a Wiccan, Thelamite, etc.), and you want magic powers, you will be limited by two factors; 1) Before your powers manifest, you have no abilities that any non-believer could measure, therefore, don't bother writing a character with Magery or spells from GURPS Magic. 2) You can ask for powers that are "magical" in nature, and your character may believe they are magic powers. They may even work like magic powers, such as requiring you to "cast a spell", or use a "magic item" to activate them. However, they will in fact be of the same origin as everyone else's powers. Sorry if this disappoints anyone, but there is NO magic. At least that you will have any contact with. At first. Q: What about ghosts and vampires and psychic auras and other "supernatural" phenomena? A: Things that fall in the shadowy region between magic and merely paranormal may or may not exist. If you encounter a vampire, is s/he really undead, or someone with vampire-like powers and a necessity for blood to maintain their metabolism? You may have a psychic, and you may even have someone who can talk to ghosts. (Are they really spirits of the dead, or manifestations created from the spectators' memories and the medium's ectoplasmic projection talent?) You may not have a character who is truly supernatural, such as a "real" vampire or werewolf. No demons either. Q: What about techno-gadgets, like flight rings and laser rifles and infrared goggles and so on? A: This is OUR world, 1994. Flight rings? Not likely. Laser rifles? It's possible that the military might have a working model under development, but if you meet someone on the street with a laser weapon, you can be sure something very strange is going on. Infrared goggles? They're available, but tend to be pretty bulky and very obvious. If you want comic-book style infrared goggles that look like ordinary sunglasses and no one will know you have them....sorry, not available. This is not to say that advanced technology will not appear. In fact, laser rifles, compact infrared goggles, and perhaps even flight rings, may show up in time. But not because someone at Sci Fi Laboratories suddenly figured out how to ignore the physical laws that have stumped every other scientist in the world, and begins mass-production of teleportation platforms. Just assume that science and technology is at the same level as in OUR world, and if you meet someone with a remarkable gadget, react accordingly. Sorry, that means no hordes of blaster-toting NICE agents doing battle with sinister powered-armor NASTY troops in the streets of New York. And no Iron Man characters. Q: What about non-humans? Alien races, mythological beings like faeries and Atlanteans, etc.? A: Your character must be a normal human (at least when you start out). The existence of non-human races is in the same state as in our world; some people may believe they exist, but no one reputable can offer any proof.