Surviving the trip required a small portion of her attention.  Her spark did most of the work, keeping her body functioning while the alien energies pressed in, but with a little effort she was even able to keep them from her. There was little else to do but wait for the trip to end.

As Nika felt herself slip from the Blind Eternities, she quickly opened mouth to voice her complaint.   But instead of a fresh breath of air to use to expel her curse, she nearly choked on a mouthful of brackish muddy water.

Panicked, Nika opened her eyes and swiftly confirmed she wasn't going crazy.  She was fully submersed in a brackish, muddy lake of some sort.  Nika saw the shadowy shapes of what appeared to be her companions struggling to reach the surface nearby.  A few swam to the surface but two particular silhouettes caught her eye.  The first was the distinct form of Gaeleth, her feathery wings bent and twisted around her as she fought her way to the surface.  The second was Ada, who had simply ceased her struggle and was letting her artificial body - which had no need for air - sink to the bottom from where she could simply walk to the shore.

Nika herself made it to the the surface with little effort.  She started to get a look around the area, but everything erupted into chaos.  Quick glimpses were all she was able to take in before she was forced to react.

She saw she was in the middle of a small lake, muddy and dim, surrounded by a damp forest.

She saw a canoe directly in front of her, containing a startled middle aged man staring back at her in surprise as she surfaced.

She saw the Nero already reaching one of the nearby shores.

She saw a robed figure surface near her that seemed familiar but who's face she didn't have time to place.

She saw a long fleshy tongue dart out of the reeds at the lake's edge and splinter the canoe, sending its occupant tumbling into the water.

She saw the tongue retract towards some sort of beast at the lakes's edge; large but haunched over beast clearly some sort of troll, but slimy and pudgy.  The beast opened its mouth and bellowed a... was that a croak? in challenge.

Even as Nika reached the shore, Nero was already racing towards the amphibious beast, darting between branches and dodging flicks of its tongue.  As Nika slipped into the woods to flank the creature, the air above the pond erupted in a fireball, sucking the warmth from the area around the small clearing and sending a shiver down her spine.

Nika heard the drier upper branches of the trees catch on fire only a few moments before she smelled it.  Turning back she saw the robed figure - having reached the shore - laying on its back where the explosion of a botched fire spell had knocked it from its feat.

"Oh, right. That'd be Ibrand."

How the fire mage arrived wasn't an immediate concern, so she pushed it to the back of her mind and continued slipping soundlessly through the forest.  She had almost reached her target when the frog troll's tongue finally caught up to Nero, snatching a leg out from under him and sending him tumbling to the ground.  It reacted quickly, throwing its tongue like a lasso to snag him for consumption.

Nero reacted even faster.  As the fleshy lasso darted towards him, he rolled aside and to his feet, drawing his blade and stabbing it through the troll's tongue and the tree trunk behind it.  The creature reacted in shock, and before it could pull itself free Nika rushed in.

She reached within a few paces and lept into the air, grabbing on to a stout branch of one of the younger trees. Before her weight caught, she sent her magic coursing down its trunk, softening it's tissue into a flexible mesh.  Instead of holding her weight, the treetop whipped downward like a hammer, it's burning boughs crashing into the troll and scorching it's slimy hide.  The frog troll croaked in terror, tearing its tongue free from Nero's blade and fleeing into the forest.

By the time the creature had dissapeared into the trees, Nika, Ada, and Gaeleth (who had concealed her angelic presence behind her humanform fleshmask) were trying to help the nearly-drowned canoeman while the others tried to deal with the burning trees.  The swampy vegetation was wet enough that the fire wasn't spreading quickly but they still had to work to contain it.

They calmed him long enough to learn his name was Katan and that he was from a nearby village named Talousholt and was fishing, but when he asked who they were their replies sent him back into histeria.  Nika and Ada began talking about sorcery and planeswalking and such, pointing his attention to the fires above... just in time for Grrk to complete the spell to extinguish them.

A layer of mud nearly a hands-width deep lifted up into the air and flung itself into the trees, coating everybranch and smothering the fires.  The coating dripped for a few moments before the goblin directed it back down from the trees, glopping to the ground with a wet thwump.

Between the talk of witchcraft, destructive magics, and the being startled by the goblin's mudcraft, Katan's fear won out and he scrambled away from the planewalkers and ran into the jungle. Gaeleth tried to stop him but realized he was hysteric and that the planeswalkers weren't going to be able to do anything for him and letting him return home on his own was for the best.

After making sure that the fires were completely out and collecting a few fish from the superheated lake for a later meal, Nika was able to lead the group around any significant dangers in the swampy forest. But once away from the lake they needed to decide where to go. Gaeleth volunteered to shed her fleshmask and take to the skies above the forest to get a look around and see if there was anything nearby worth heading towards.

From the higher vantage-point Gaeleth was able to see the miles and miles of rolling plains that stretched out from the forest, checkered with plowed fields and dotted periodically with the silhouettes of farmhouses. Further down the road in one of the many valleys the larger gathering of buildings of a town could be seen. The planeswalkers decided to head to the hamlet and try and get their bearings and find out more about the plane they were on.

An hour later they reached the edge of the forest and found themselves near a road that Gaeleth said should lead to the village she had seen from the air. Night was fast approaching but they traveled for a few more hours before making camp, ultimately deciding not to wander in to the town during the middle of the night.

* * * * *

Session 2 was the last session of Manaburst that I'm going to be running for a little while.  With my current work schedule I wasn't able to continue putting the amount of prep work into the game that I thought it deserved, so one of the other players volunteered to take over gamemastering for a while.

I'm a few sessions behind on these write ups but it's going well IMO.  Thankfully I recorded the sessions as a method of note-taking and have been referring to them to catch up.  With any luck I won't lose any details to the depths of a poor memory.

Ada

Ada's original conception was that of a construct capable of aiding its master in research and ritual.  She quickly became indispensable to his experiments, able to observe and record all that transpired while his concentration was elsewhere.

Many years after her creation, Ada was given sentience when a powerful spell cast by her master inadvertently bound a being of primordial magic within her shell.  The reaction not only destroyed the ritual but also flung Ada from the plane, sending her careening through the Blind Eternities for the first time.

Concept of Magic: Flow of Aether

Although all but incapable of creating sorcerous effects on their own, Ada's nature is uniquely suited to enhancing (or diminishing) others' abilities to cast spells.  She also has enough knowledge of the principles of magic to duplicate or dispel arcane energies.  Her summons of choice are constructs fashioned from raw mana, as opposed to simulacrum of actual living things.

Gaeleth

Gaeleth hails from a plane of high ideals which views itself as the model of civilization.  As a judge and arbiter, it was Gaeleth's responsibility to punish those unable to abide by its laws.  She excelled in that role, so much so that when her superiors detected the unignited planeswalker spark within her, they immediately began training her on how to unlock its potential.

Since then it has been Gaeleth's duty to wander the multiverse and bestow her justice upon those whom require it.  Sometimes is it through quiet consultation, other times it is by her burning wrath.  No matter the methods necessary, her justice will be done.

Concept of Magic: Lux Eterna

Gaeleth leads light to calm, defend, and heal those whom need her protection.  When her commanding presence or a calm word fails to disarm a situation, Gaeleth can summon forth angelic soldiers to dispense justice on her behalf.

Grrrk

For most of his early life, Grrrk personified the title of 'minion.'  He never had the desire or motivation to lead on his own, so dutifully followed whomever had the power to protect him.  He was a miner and a tunnelguide for his warren until his powers manifested.

After a short (and fatally unsuccessful) attempt at using his powers to lead a small group of his fellow goblins, Grrrk has fallen back to his original nature, shrugging off responsibility and hiding guilt by having someone else make the difficult decisions.

Concept of Magic: Seismic Might

At tiny Grrrk's will, mountains shake.  His magic is that of the earth itself; bending, breaking, and shaping stone to do his bidding.  He is even able to infuse the earth with elemental sentience, creating servitors to assist him.

Ibrand

After witnessing the destruction of his people at the hands of demonic invaders, Ibrand took the fear and terror he felt and forged it into rage and hate to fuel is already potent pyromantic abilities.  Now he directs his abilities towards hunting down those that destroyed his homeland.

Ibrand has already proven he's been willing to wreak massive destruction to get at his enemies; there's no telling how far he will go in the name of vengeance.

Concept of Magic: Wrath of Flame

Fire is the harbinger of Ibrand's will, burning and consuming everything and everyone between him and his revenge.  The fury of his magic constantly rages at the edge of control but Ibrand's will is formidable and he wields it with uncanny skill.

Nero

Son of a planeswalker and a demon, Nero was abandoned by both parents soon after his birth.  Found as an orphan he was raised and conditioned to be a remorseless killer.  By the time he discovered the truth of his heritage, he had already to turn his talents against the demonic horde invading the planes.

Concept of Magic: Shadow Magic

Although not as skilled in raw sorcery as most of his fellow planewalkers, Nero does possesses some ability to summon and manipulate shadows.  Primarily used to obscure and obsfucate, Nero's magics have served him well in his chosen profession.  In addition he can, when pressed, weave shadows into minor entities bound to his will.

Nika

As the only sentient entity in the plane called Eden, what could be called Nika's childhood was unique, to say the least.  Her education came through the experience of living at one with the wilderness around her.  She didn't realize that her ability to influence the living network of the forest was a form of magic until a planeswalker, an explorer named Kolorghu, came to her sphere.

Kolorghu's good nature and Nika's inquisitiveness were a natural match, and while he explored her plane, she traveled with him, learning about what it meant to be a planeswalker.  Some time later when Kolorghu left Eden, Nika decided to journey with him and see what else was out there.  The two have since parted ways, but Nika's undying curiosity has survived.  She continues to seek new experiences, new things, and new places.

Concept of Magic: Biotic Gestalt

Nika's magic draws upon the complex network of organisms in the wild, coaxing it to produce the desired effect.  Whether it's shaping plants to her will or summoning swarms of tiny creatures, Nika is able to insinuate her will into an ecosystem and influence it from within.

Torvolis

Torvolis was born into a nomadic tribe where he reluctantly followed his father's footsteps.  His father, the tribe's chief hunter, would leave big shoes for this son to fill, and Torvolis was nowhere near skilled enough to do so.  His true skill didn't manifest until otherworldly demons attacked his people and his spark ignited catastrophically, creating tornado-strength winds when he tried to defend the tribe.

Instead of being thankful, the survivors exiled Torvolis from their land for practicing witchcraft.  Shocked and angry, he did them one better and planeswalked away, never to look back.

Concept of Magic: The Windswept Plains

Torvolis' magic is that of the great winds that swept across the plains where he grew up.  When in need of aid, he calls upon creatures native to his homeland; from the birds over head to the beasts that roam the land.

* * * * *

The custom magic cards (created with Magic Set Editor) have also been appearing in the campaign write ups so far.  For anyone who plays magic out there worrying about balance, don't.  They're not meant to be played.  The cards started as a joke, but turns out the group really enjoys meta-humor in them.  It was fun seeing their antics re-imagined using MtG rules, so I've kept it up.

Hopefully by the end of the campaign I'll be able to  post a WotC-styled "visual spoiler" page with all of the cards.  I don't think all the in-jokes will translate but we'll see.  :)

It's no secret that I'm a fan of miniature use in role-playing games, but for our Manaburst game I wanted to try something different.  I was worried that if the players - who were new to FATE - saw the miniatures on the table it might distract from the looser, narrative way FATE designates location in a scene.  So I decided to try something new:

A sample combat zone setup for a boarding action.

Whenever a map is necessary, I sketch one out on a pad of paper and thumbtack it down to a couple cork tiles.  We then use straight pins to mark locations and move them around as necessary.  The pack of small push pins I purchased contained three different colored pins, which helps keep from confusing groups on the map.

For the PCs or important NPCs I use larger pins, with the PCs' getting extra attention.  I had asked the players for pictures of their characters before the campaigns started so I could surprise them with their pins at the first game.  I cropped and resized these pics before printing them out as two .75" x .75" squares side by side which were wrapped around pins and taped into place.  It makes it easier for each player to quickly see their own pin given the smaller size of the maps we use.

So far the only complaint has been that the maps can be a little small, but that could be easily resolved with some larger cork tiles.  Other than that, though, the process has been quick and abstract, allowing more room for narration.  Seems like a success to me.

As creatures followed, scrambling and seaching for footholds, Nero called back to Grrrk, who was effortlessly drawing up strength from the stones beneath him. The wall slowly began toppling over, while simultaneously the ground on the far side started to rumble uncontrollably.

Nero tried to leap free but had underestimated the goblin's destructive capabilities and caught a glancing blow to the side, knocking the wind out of him as he tumbled away. The sunblights were not so lucky. The wall came crushing down, sandwiching them between the crumbling slab and the trembling earth.

Though all the blighted creatures in the immediate vacinity had been destroyed, more were quickly approaching and the planeswalkers swiftly decided to seek refuge in the building they had seen at sunrise. They hoped sheltering in the shadows would keep the creatures out.

The planeswalkers made a fighting retreat, moving as quickly as they could while keeping the creatures at bay. A trio of sunblights had pounced on Ada from out of nowhere, forcing the group to stop long enough to get her to her feet and moving again, though they soon reached the structure and the series of odd pillars that surrounded it. There was an eerie sensation as they passed between the pillars, not unlike that of moving through Ada's earlier spell, and the planeswalkers soon realized that the creatures could not pass through them to follow.

Our heroes continued inside to find the large structure was one single room, and seemed to be untouched by whatever force devastated the rest of the plane. In the exact center of the perfectly round room, hovering roughly four feet off the ground, was what could only be described as a tear in the plane.

The gash was surrounded in concentric circles of a flowing blue ruinc script, each of which seemed to slowly turn around the tear itself.  A similar set of runes were carved onto the stone floor at a diameter large enough to encompass the rip, and after curiosity led Ada to get a closer look, the planeswalkers realized the runes on the floor were preventing anything from approaching the wound.

Since Ada felt the scar didn't pose any danger to the PCs, and the sunblights outside definitely did, the planeswalkers decided to pass the night in the relative safety of the domed structure.  While the others settled down inside the structure, Nika heads outside to look around the building from the safe zone between it and the circle of columns a dozen so yards around it.

She watched the sunblights pace around the structure restlessly but saw nothing else for most of the night. A few times she would have sworn she saw something large moving out in the shadows between the larger ruins, but never got a clear look.

When night fell, the planeswalkers resumed their journey towards the nearest "pull" they had noticed earlier. A few hours later they discovered they had been led to a borderpost - one of the places where the walls between planes were weakest and crossing through the Blind Eternities was safest.

Nika voiced her interested in waiting around until sunrise was closer to see if the could catch sight of the shadow she had seen during the previous day.  The others agreed, and Ada volunteered to planeswalk to the other side of the borderpost to see what sort of plane was on the other side.  With a deft manipulation of the energies around the crossing, she simply took a step towards the post and vanished from the plane.

And without warning, the others found themselves pulled along after her.

* * *

Session Date: 9/5/2010

The main theme I was shooting for with this session was the "where he heck are we" feeling, which I think the players got. I also wanted to set up some facts for later games. Unfortunately this session posed a number of questions but provided very few answers. I've been in campaigns where every single session was like that and there are very few more frustrating types of games. To that end I need to make sure that the next couple sessions start provding answers before my players' curiosity turns to frustration.

As part of character/setting creation, I had each of my players create plane as well. Broken, the plane featured this session, was not one of their creations. Similar to the question/answer issue above, I plan on using a player's plane next. I know they trust me as a gamemaster or I wouldn't be running this game, but I still don't want them to get the impression that I'm not using the material they went through the effort of creating for the game.

My biggest regret of the game was not emphasizing the alteration of "party make-up" when the planeswalkers in the started the game. I had mentioned before I was going to be able to accommodate players who wouldn't be able to make every session by switching out party members, but that it was going to be handled as part of the story and not via an alloy of handwavium. I think the players assumed it was the latter and didn't really roleplay the issue much. I would have rather they had, but I wasn't going to tell anyone how to play. So I'm going to have to make sure that more details on this setup are revealed in-game so the characters can react to it's direct presence.

The only feature of the room to stand out was the circular engraving in the center of the floor, but before anyone could investigate they realized something was off. Torvolis was missing and another man had appeared - a planeswalker named Nero. Accusations were curbed when Grrrk and Ada vouched for him, having traveled with him before when they and a fourth planeswalker named Ibrand had attacked a plane under demonic control and decimated one of their strongholds.

The group started looking around for answers to where they were, how they had gotten there, where Torvolis had gone. Gaeleth followed Ada, illuminating the chamber so that she could examine the carvings and the two found the artifact Grrrk had swiped from the magnus on Whitesea laying against the wall, smoking slightly.

While most of the planeswalkers tried to figure out what had happened or invesigated the small chamber, Grrrk quickly grew tired of the discussion and decided to venture outside to look around. He padded up the stairway in relative quiet and stepped out onto a plane that could only be called Broken.

Ruins stretched as far as Grrrk could see in the dim light, remains of ancient stone sculptures which had succumbed to some massive force ages ago. The weathered edges of the stones revealed the destruction had been some time ago, but still only sparse grasses grew in splotches here and there on the landscape.

Once they realized Grrrk had wandered off to get himself into danger, the rest of the planeswalkers headed to the surface. After taking in their surroundings they realized there were four points on the plane that seemed to be pulling at their senses, scattered at some distance around them. Seeing no other signs of life or anything other than crushed rock nearby, they decided to head towards the nearest one.

After an hour of travel and exploration, the planeswalkers were treated to one of Broken's sunrises. Bright white light dispelled the reddish glow of early morning, revealing that the ruinous landscape stretching from horizon the horizon and revealing the only solid structure the planeswalkers had seen so far - a large domed building two stories tall that sparkled in the newly arisen light.

The sun heated the broken landscape quickly, sending wisps of heat dancing along surfaces here and there.  As the planeswalkers debated searching the structure against following whatever was calling to them off in the distance, the heat whips began coalescing into solid forms.

One appeared nearby Ada, pouncing at her before she could react. Its forearms landed squarely on her chest, and the creature passed through her like a ghost. She shook as its passing leeched heat and life from her body, but was able to recover before it wheeled on her.

The other planeswalkers turned to face the creature, Grrrk already dancing about as he began working magic. But past them Ada could see more of the creatures emerging from the ruins. Dozens, maybe more, many of them circling towards the planeswalkers' presence and bounding towards them.

Guessing the creatures were more mana than corporeal, Ada threw up a field of disruptive energy around her immediate vicinity. Even as her companions struck at the creature behind her with magic and steel - seemingly succeeding in disrupting it's form enough to banish it - a dozen more slammed into the field.

Most bounced away harmlessly, but a couple shimmered as they passed through, their forms partially disrupted but they maintained their form. Nika rolled to Ada's side and passed energy into the sparse plant life around her, creating a cage around both her and Ada. She wasn't sure the structure would keep the creatures out, but it caused one to pause long enough for a plate-clad knight to drive it's blade through the creature.

The knight, light gleaming off it's armor so intense as to almost be tangible, fought back to back with Gaeleth - its summoner - as they began dispatching the creatures that had crossed the field. From her position within the cage, Nika noticed that the creatures - coalesced light that they seemed to be - were avoiding areas of shadow and called out to her companions.

The discovery did little to help Gaeleth and her knight. Both glowed with a radiance that dispelled nearby shadows as they fought, but Nero had other ideas. He scanned the surrounding buildings and when he found what he was looking for, wheeled on the little goblin.

"You're good at breaking things, right?"

Grrrk's mischievous smile was enough of an answer for Nero. He pointed to the remains of one wall of a two story building and sent Grrrk towards it. As they both left Ada's protective field, Nero darted towards the nearest sunblights to get their attention. The creatures had realized they couldn't reach the planeswalkers within, so when new prey presented itself they all turned to follow with eerie howls.

Session 1 to be continued.

The campaign opened in media res with the characters on the plane of Whitesea, being ambushed by a herald of the demonic forces trying to invade the plane, and some of his forced-converts.  Our bold planeswalkers backpedaled initially but after Grrrk unleashed his destructive power in the area indiscriminately, knocking the converts (and a companion) out of the fight, the herald fled.

While Nika and Ada helped get the companions back on their feet, Gaeleth took a moment to examine the fallen conscripts.  Under their armor she found the pale skinned faces of the denizens of the plane, eyes rolled back in their heads - vacant but alive.  Realizing there was little to be done for the conscripts except to end the Herald's hold on them, the planeswalkers quickly chased after him.

The plane of Whitesea was named for the spires of rock emerging from the thick layer of clouds below the inhabitable portion of the plane.  These tiered formations are connected at various levels by suspensions of beautifully crafted filigree.  The chase carried across a number of these bridges before the planeswalkers caught up to the herald on one of the mountainous spires.

Near the herald stood a magus performing a ritual from where he stood on  an arcane glyph carved in the middle of a series of standing stones.  As the planeswalkers approached, the magus wrapped the herald in sorcerous energies, mutating him a giant-sized demon.  The hulking creature bellowed out a challenge then turned to exact its vengeance on the planeswalkers.

With her encyclopedic knowledge, Ada recognized a ritual of anchoring - the magus was using an artifact to create a portal which would allow the demonic horde to begin invading the plane.  Some sort of field between the stones prevented the planeswalkers from hurling sorceries at the magus, and the demon's unholy strength kept them at bay.

Eventually Torvolis and Nika were finally able to distract the demon long enough for Ada to dispell the field.  Grrrk darted between the stones, snatched the artifact from the magus.  He screeched in something between glee and defiance and threw himself from the sigiled dais.

As the artifact left the circle of stones, the magus' spell was disrupted.  The arcane energies built up atop the spire were suddenly unleashed, cascading out of control.  Everything flashed vivid colors, then faded to the black of unconsciousness.

*   *   *

Session Date: 8/21/2010

From a session-design standpoint, I chose a combat to start the game with for two reasons.  One, it set immediate stakes for the scene so the players didn't have to fumble with what was going on as they tried to learn the system.  And two, the combat conflict resolution rules encompass every system of the game, meaning the players would gain a basic understanding of the whole system for them to build from.

Most of the players started out hesitantly, but one of the advantages of having a GM-NPC for this session helped here.  I pretty much jumped in the pool, letting them know the water was fine.  Once they all realized how far they could flex the system, the game just opened up for them.  'My' character will be gone next session, though, and only show back up if someone else decides to GM a session.  I get all of the GM spotlight already, I don't need a share of the player spotlight as well.  ;)

And that sets up the first session of the campaign proper, the write-up of which should appear soon.

Character generation was slow at first while everyone wrapped their head about the phases and aspects that FATE uses, but before long we had a fairly diverse group of planeswalkers who, for the most part, had a united enemy and had met each other in their travels-at least in passing.

Ada

Ada's original conception was that of a construct capable of aiding its master in research and ritual.  She quickly became indispensable to his experiments, able to observe and record all that transpired while his concentration was elsewhere.

Many years after her creation, Ada was given sentience when a powerful spell cast by her master inadvertently bound a being of primordial magic within her shell.  The reaction not only destroyed the ritual but also flung Ada from the plane, sending her careening through the Blind Eternities for the first time.

Concept of Magic: Flow of Aether

Although all but incapable of creating sorcerous effects on their own, Ada's nature is uniquely suited to enhancing (or diminishing) others' abilities to cast spells.  She also has enough knowledge of the principles of magic to duplicate or dispel arcane energies.  Her summons of choice are constructs fashioned from raw mana, as opposed to simulacrum of actual living things.

Gaeleth

Gaeleth hails from a plane of high ideals which views itself as the model of civilization.  As a judge and arbiter, it was Gaeleth's responsibility to punish those unable to abide by its laws.  She excelled in that role, so much so that when her superiors detected the unignited planeswalker spark within her, they immediately began training her on how to unlock its potential.

Since then it has been Gaeleth's duty to wander the multiverse and bestow her justice upon those whom require it.  Sometimes is it through quiet consultation, other times it is by her burning wrath.  No matter the methods necessary, her justice will be done.

Concept of Magic: Lux Eterna

Gaeleth leads light to calm, defend, and heal those whom need her protection.  When her commanding presence or a calm word fails to disarm a situation, Gaeleth can summon forth angelic soldiers to dispense justice on her behalf.

Grrrk

For most of his early life, Grrrk personified the title of 'minion.'  He never had the desire or motivation to lead on his own, so dutifully followed whomever had the power to protect him.  He was a miner and a tunnelguide for his warren until his powers manifested.

After a short (and fatally unsuccessful) attempt at using his powers to lead a small group of his fellow goblins, Grrrk has fallen back to his original nature, shrugging off responsibility and hiding guilt by having someone else make the difficult decisions.

Concept of Magic: Seismic Might

At tiny Grrrk's will, mountains shake.  His magic is that of the earth itself; bending, breaking, and shaping stone to do his bidding.  He is even able to infuse the earth with elemental sentience, creating servitors to assist him.

Nika

As the only sentient entity in the plane called Eden, what could be called Nika's childhood was unique, to say the least.  Her education came through the experience of living at one with the wilderness around her.  She didn't realize that her ability to influence the living network of the forest was a form of magic until a planeswalker, an explorer named Kolorghu, came to her sphere.

Kolorghu's good nature and Nika's inquisitiveness were a natural match, and while he explored her plane, she traveled with him, learning about what it meant to be a planeswalker.  Some time later when Kolorghu left Eden, Nika decided to journey with him and see what else was out there.  The two have since parted ways, but Nika's undying curiosity has survived.  She continues to seek new experiences, new things, and new places.

Concept of Magic: Biotic Gestalt

Nika's magic draws upon the complex network of organisms in the wild, coaxing it to produce the desired effect.  Whether it's shaping plants to her will or summoning swarms of tiny creatures, Nika is able to insinuate her will into an ecosystem and influence it from within.

Torvolis

Torvolis was born into a nomadic tribe, where he reluctantly followed his father's footsteps to train as once of the tribe's hunters.  His father, the tribe's chief hunter, would leave big shoes for this son to fill, and Torvolis was no where near skilled enough to do so.  His true skill didn't manifest until otherworldly demons attacked his people and his spark ignited catastrophically, creating tornado-strength winds when he tried to defend the tribe.

Instead of being thankful, the survivors exiled Torvolis from their land for practicing witchcraft.  Shocked and angry, he did them one better and planeswalked away.

Concept of Magic: The Windswept Plains

Torvolis' magic is that of the great winds that swept across the plains where he grew up.  When in need of aid, he calls upon creatures native to his homeland; from the birds over head to the beasts that roam the land.

There were two more characters made, but their players missed the first actual play session and I'll introduce them in when I talk about our first game.  I'm giving all of the players some time to tweak their concepts if they don't like how their characters turned out and I want to give them the same opportunity before I write up the results.

Sure, that card game has its mana-powered magic, but it's made for a turn-based card game and can be considered slower and less fluid than I'd like for our campaign.  I still had two questions to answer before I could design my magic system: how exactly does one gain and spend Mana, and does summoning pull a preexisting creature to the summoner, or does it create a simulacrum.  To answer these I decided to ask WotC directly... so to speak

I'm a recovering Dragonlance fan and I haven't read any game fiction in years, but I decided to dip back into the pool and pick up Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum, the most recent MtG novel.  Overall the experience was about as expected - the story was pretty slow and none of the main characters were really likable - but I was able to get what I was looking for out of the book and have decided how to handle the three main aspects I had questions about.

Mana Pools/Use

I knew early on that I didn't want to make magic a multi-part process, where a character has to access mana somehow for each separate spell.  So when one of the main characters in Teeth described needing to rest to replenish her mana for more intricate sorceries, I found basis to apply a pool-type mechanic into the game where mana is stored and used over time until time is spent replenishing a supply.  Right now I'm leaning towards adding a stress track to be consumed through spell use.  If the character exceeds the track, they would start suffering Consequences that could make spellcasting and/or recovering mana more difficult.

The only outstanding issue is how close  I want to match the game.  My preferences would be to have a single stress track for all mana, but it would make more "in world" sense to have each color of magic be its own track.   In order to make a multi-color mage less enticing, I'm probably going to have to penalize all of a character's pools if they have more than one - perhaps rationalize it along the lines of that the body can only contain so much mana at a time.

Summoning

I was worried at first about summoning in general, mainly because I wanted to keep it simple and without moral issues.  I didn't want players to worry about pulling guardsmen from their families at night and getting them killed, or effectively causing a breed of animals to go extinct by their efforts.  Sure, there are many possible story elements that could accompany those issues but they aren't issues I want the game to be about.

Instead I'm going to go with how I interpreted how summoning worked in the novel, and have planeswalkers craft mana into facsimiles of what they're summoning.  Instead of pulling a Lion or a Vampire or a Merman from somewhere, the summoner uses their magic to create a manifestation of the idea of the creature type in question.

Planeswalking

This one is where I'm really going to have to diverge from the source material.  In Teeth, mention is made of the ability to planeswalk at any time.  And although a reason is given during the expedition that takes place in the book isn't done using magic flight, there's no rationale as to why the characters couldn't planeswalk to another plane, then planeswalk back where they wanted to go.

I don't want planewalking to be the get-out-of-jail free card, nor do I want it to be the solution to every problem, escape from every danger, or the like.  I want the characters' journey to be part of the game, and giving them the ability to sidestep that or simply bypass entire planes at will is counter to how I want the game to run.

So instead I'm going to restrict planewalking to be along set connections between the planes.  Characters will not be able to go wherever they want simply at will - they will have to travel across some planes to get to others, and will have to find specific places of power to actually planeswalk.  I already have some explanations for the restricted travel in mind, but like so much else in the campaign it's going to be adjusted according to the background the players create for their characters.

With the so-called metaphysics of spellcraft set, the only thing that's left is the actual system design.  Spirit of the Century is flexible enough I should be able to create a few plug-in systems for what I want with little difficulty.  I already have some rough ideas sketched out; I'll be posting the details as I get them nailed down.

Unless something else comes up, I'll be starting this campaign when our current one ends some time in October, when that game's gamemaster moves away.  That leaves me with plenty of time to make sure everything's finalized, but with none of the players having any experience with FATE I want to make sure that I have plenty of resources and cheatsheets ready so the game isn't slowed down by the new system.

During one of our games a player mentioned that he thought a role-playing game set in a heavily Magic-inspired setting would be a lot of fun, but that playing beings like planeswalkers didn't seem like it would work. He was surprised when I replied that not only did I think it would work fine, I had done it before.

I'm not about to usurp the Earthdawn game we have running - I enjoy it too much. But with the interested around the table it seems like it might be time to break out my Manaburst notes and look at making some revisions.  I've already started getting ideas on how to improve over our first attempt.

The first change that I'm going to have to make is stepping away from the visual/narrative Everway-style task resolution system to something more traditional.  Judging by my last attempt and knowing the members of this group, I think that a system with a little more structure would go a long way to making the game play smoother.

To that end I'm leaning towards using FATE as the core mechanic this time around.  It has a more rigid structure than Everway but there's still enough of a narrative aspect to let players maintain a high fantasy feel through descriptive actions.  FATE has the structure I want for this game, but it using it will create three problems I'm going to need to work through to make the system fit Magic's cosmology.

The Colors of Mana & Associated Symbolism

1. 5-Color Magic

The problem of 5-color magic is twofold. First and foremost, Spirit of the Century (and Diaspora as well) really don't have complex magic systems. A MtG-style magic system wasn't necessary for either system for obvious reasons so wasn't created. That means a design from the ground up. I'll definitely be begging, borrowing, and stealing as I go but one way or another I'm going to have to add a system to the basic FATE rules.

The second issue is one of distinctness. In a non-MtG style game, a magic system could be simplified by letting players perform Maneuvers using a magic skill to apply Aspects to their target or perform a task. In fact this could work for Manaburst as well, but a completely open magic system would create a situation like this:

DM: Each of you arrive at a separate corner of the island. In front of you is a locked and barred wooden door. Behind each door is a passage to the underground chamber you all want to be the first to find. What do you do?

White Mage: It's the will of the heavens that I reach the chamber first. Divine Mandate will open them for me!

Blue Mage: Probe the locking mechanism with divinations to discern their inner workings and ultimately undo them!

Black Mage: Rot the door from its hinges in a sickly haze!

Red Mage: Blow the door apart with a fireball!

Green Mage: Summon a rampaging beast to batter the door down for me!

It's easy to look at the other four replies and think "Cool, everyone can show off their own flavor of magic!" And that could work just fine, but in my opinion there's an associated shortcoming.   I feel that each color of magic should be distinct in at least some of its effects. A Red Mage should just be able to do things that a Blue Mage just can't.   Otherwise color just becomes a flavorful descriptor.    That may work fine from a narrative aspect, but if anyone is in the party is a mage, there's the potential for players to feel frustrated by not being able to stand out in what they can do.

I want every mage to be distinct; to feel like they offer something to the group that the others do not. I'm tempted to go so far as to make characters choose a specialization or theme within each color they have to stick with.  They could purchase additional specializations (within the same or different color), but that would cost them more of a yet undefined character-build resource.  That would also allow multiple mages of the same color to remain distinctness as well. Example specialties might include:

• Purity of Light (White) - Restoration and cleansing effects and angelic creatures
• Dissonance of Thought (Blue) - Mental effects and illusory creatures
• Evershifting Tides (Blue) - Misdirection effects and aquatic creatures
• Stench of the Grave (Black) - Fear and decay effects and undead creatures
• Unholy Pact (Black) - Corruption and/or otherworldly effects and abyssal creatures

2. Color-Influenced Attributes

This one is a biggie. The original Manbrust rule turned each of the colors of magic into an attribute and derrived skills from those. That worked fine for that game, but after looking at the skill pyramid in FATE and how it ties to everything else, I'm going to have to take a different approach for this game.

My first thought was just to make a separate mana-pyramid in addition to the regular skill pyramid, but that just gives the players more skills and will promote multi-color mages. I want that to be possible, but as the exception instead of the norm.  It also adds complexity to the system I don't think it needs.

My second thought - and what I'm leaning towards at the moment - is to have each color of magic be a separate skill which they have to fit on their skill tree. I might even break each color into summoning and sorcery for more variance in aptitudes. My only regret is losing the way Manaburst ties every stat to a mana color, but in the long run I think this will be easier to manage.

That leaves stunts though. How to I handle those, or do I just remove them completely? I might use them as the gateway - a character needs a stunt for each flavor/specialization (see above) they intend to use.

I'm not sure I like that though. The names I've started coming up for for specializations sound like Aspects to me. I'd like to be able to make them into Aspects, but I don't think that's mechanically a good idea. If you have to have a specific Aspect to perform a certain spell, you shouldn't automatically be able to tag that same Aspect for a bonus. That pushes me back towards Stunts as the "gateway" to spellcasting, but I'm going to see what other systems I can find online.

3. Incorporating MtG Cards?

I'm not sure if this is going to make it into the final version, but I'm tempted to see if we can find a way to work MtG cards into the mechanic at some point.  In the original Manaburst, they were the random aspect of task resolution, but the Fudge dice are going to do that here.  I might give a player a +1 to any roll to cast a spell they have a card that represents it, or summon a creature they have a card they can represent it visually.

I can really appreciate this visual aspect, but I'm worried about it overshadowing the game; either constraining players to only think of what is in their card collections, or even penalizing those who only have a small number of cards.  That's definitely something I want to avoid, which might mean I drop this concept before all's said and done.

The TL;DR?

One of my biggest challenges is going to make sure there's some of the flavor from the card game maintained, but it can't overwhelm the role-playing aspect.  Looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

As far as the session itself, we wound up tracking down the baron that had placed a price on our heads and kidnapped him from the compound of the cult he was heading up. After some discussion as to how to force him to remove the bounty he had placed, the idea of a psychic re-education was brought up. So that's where we ended the campaign - as our characters were hiding out for a couple months re-writing the Baron's psyche in preparation for when we return to the campaign later.

For now the mantle of the gamemaster is being passed off to another player who's been prepping a SciFi game set in our solar system with an inhabitable Earth, no aliens, no "magic", and no interstellar travel. We've settled on a basic concept for now - residents of a space station that has recently been invaded and occupied by an unwelcome power who have to form an underground resistance to drive them off. A couple of the players have come up with basic character concepts but we'll be nailing down all the specifics at our next session. Should be fun!

However due to karma's attempt to balance itself out, we've finally been able to restart Renegade Horizon. There was a drought of gaming for a while due to scheduling conflicts for a few months where we didn't game at all, but now we're back, this time with a few minor changes.

We changed our group up a bit to start things out. We had been trying to game every other Sunday, but one of our players had a different game on the off Sundays. That was all fine or good except when we had to miss a session. And with just three players and a gamemaster, if anyone couldn't make it we would call the session. If the session was called, it meant two weeks minimum before gaming again because of the one player's other group.

After a little over two months of no gaming, we decided the scheduling just wasn't working for us. We didn't have anything against the player with the other game, but it was making scheduling impossible so we had to part ways. So we pulled in a couple of people we had played Warmachine with in the past to bump us up to four players plus the gamemaster. At this point we have a much better chance to be able to play if someone can't make a given session.

In addition the Gamemaster requested that we port the game over from Spirit of the Century to Savage Worlds, his system of choice. Our session last week was a first experience with the Savage Worlds system for the other veteran RH'er and myself, though we had both played Deadlands before. Personally I'm not entirely comfortable with the system yet but I very much enjoy the game and the company so I'm more than willing to play some more with it and get a better feel.

Our last session was a combination character creation/recreation and the first half of an adventure. We should be finishing it up this coming Sunday so I'll be able to talk more about the game itself then. We're also also in the process of updating the campaign wiki with information for the new players but we're all still playing with our characters and trying to either define or redefine them in a new system. So nothing is set in stone just yet.

One last final note - one of the players threw together a theme song for the campaign during our hiatus. Musical ability makes me jealous.

Because of the genre-mashing involved, it's difficult to give a one-sentence summary of Aria. The closest RPG comparisons I can come up with would have to be Privateer Press's Iron Kingdoms, which they describe as Full Metal Fantasy, and Misguided Games' dieselpunk game Children of the Sun. A fantasy world at his heart, it does have some basic technology. The most advanced branch of science is aonics - the use of sigils and runes to bind minor "demons" to objects to create a specific effect. This new field has opened new avenues of technology such as limb replacement or airships. In addition men have learned that inscribing certain sigils onto themselves allows them access to a form of sorcery. However such sorcerers must constantly fight a losing battle against the bound demons for control and thus have been labeled heretics by the rest of the civilized world.

Our game started a few years after Jedon, the great war, and centered around a small airship owned and operated by the player characters. After a quick discussion where we assigned crew rolls and started character generation. This was the first time creating SotC characters for all of us involved and things went a little slow. Skills and Stunts were relatively easy to assign but Aspects took a little more work - we had to try to figure out where the line between Stunt and Aspect lay and decided what was too broad and what was too specific. I expect things to go much faster in the future.

We wound up with a captain from the Empire of the Vale (similar to the Roman empire), a mechanic from the Valerian Highlands (British Isles), and a my character, a Kishian (Turkish) cook. As we discussed the novels that made up our character backgrounds, we decided on a ship stolen from the Forsaken - the evil corrupt empires in Aria - which was inhabited by an Aonic intelligence. While the technology of an aonic intelligence isn't anywhere near a typical Ship's AI from more traditional SciFi settings, it does provide some interesting feel to the ship as well as a little creepiness as it regularly requests we return the sacrificial alter we dismantled in the engine room so that it can be "fueled properly."

The game itself was fast and smooth on the whole, although we did have to stop and reference a few rules now and then. Not that the rules are complex, just that this session was our first use of them and we were double checking ourselves in a few points. It helped once I was able to reference the SRD for the Gamemaster while he was running the game so he didn't have to stop to check the book. It looks like once we're more comfortable with all the ways that aspects are applyed and tagged things will run much smoother.

Plot-wise last session was intriguing. The main plot was pretty basic - my character's nemesis kidnapped another character's daughter to lure the characters (specifically mine) to her. However we found the monks that the daughter had been living with killed (apparently not by the nemesis) a person we suspected had more information was killed by one of the two guest-star PCs that joined us for this game. It will be interesting to see what happens at the beginning of the next session.