BiFrost: The Daredevil Effect & The Tailor

1) Sorry this is late

2) Like most people with Netflix, I have just finished watching Daredevil. I love it. I really enjoyed the gritty feeling, and the various skills everyone brought to the team. I actually liked that the plot of the "mundanes" and that of Daredevil ran side-by-side, especially getting to see all the villain stuff as well. Kingpin was a bit of a wildcard, but it was all very solid.

Something that the show did well is making the inclusion of the ninja's, the "fire-vision," the Stick, and the mystical Madam Gao, feel seamless. Even their offhand mentions of the events of the Avengers film fit in really well. Overall I think it was a good show, go watch it.

My real point is that it got me thinking about how surely some of the delvers in this setting would try to be vigilantes. I'm going to guess, to little success if they try and go the superman route of being out and proud.A good chunk of the police and villains can and likely will be delvers as well, so their acceptance of those outside the law will likely be little. However, it's nice to imagine a few vigilantes who are able to either successfully work from the shadows or are a dirty little secret of the local police.

So the real point of this post is to be a post-it note. There will be delvers who try to better the world from behind the scenes, and would likely take up superheroesque personalities. The Black Witch of San Diego, the St. Louis Hero, the Badger of Ann Arbor, etc.

3) I've been thinking and rethinking how characters will choose a class. And I keep thinking back to something like the Sorting Hat, but I want there to be a little more choice. I kept trying to do something where the characters choose from symbolic locations and items. However, everyone interprets things very different ways, and I hate the idea that someone would get the wrong thing just because they think differently from me.

My solution is an entity, similar to the sorting hat, who I'm calling the Tailor. He helps people find a set of powers that fits them best, he looks at their natural talent (ability scores) and makes suggestions and explains what's going on. He'll likely offer them symbolic items and energies and do a little explaining, but he'll still be enigmatic and mysterious.

The more I talk about this idea, the better I like it.

BiFrost: Seeing What I've Got

A quick breakdown for my own memory:

Institute for Dimensional Study - Scholars and scientists studying the bifrosts
Templars - Religious group that hates the bifrosts and all they stand for
Thaumaturges - Religious group that sees bifrosts as holy
Dungeoneering Inc. - Company that focuses on providing goods to delvers; focuses on tools
Haversack's Goods - Rival company to Dungeoneering Inc.; focuses more on goods
Various Boutiques - Small local companies serving the community and specific classes
Republicans for the Exapnsion of Wealth (REW) - Republic lobbyists for economic protections on wealth retrieved from

Democrats for the Profliferation of Powers (DPP) - Democratic lobbyists for protection of delvers with, especially magic, powers

Guild for the Advancement and Protection of Delvers (GAPD) - Lobby for both sides of the aisle in defense of protections for delvers, as well as a provider of insurance, banking, etc. 

Wow, that is a lot of powers at play. In fact, I think it might be just enough powers in play to finally start planning some interaction and some history. This is admittedly the scary part, because its where people might step in and say "I don't think that's what people would do." They're probably right, I've only studied history in high school, and tangentially in college since literature and history go hand in hand. My expertise is limited, but I love history, and I like thinking about people. Honestly, if I'm wrong, I wouldn't be above admitting and changing it...or at least I hope I'm not above that. Admittedly, no one is commenting yet anyways, at least not on the blog, but I know some of you read this when it comes out. I see you and I appreciate you. 

I'm procrastinating actually having to put this all together. I think I should use the city building tool from the Dresden Files RPG and just expand it to a world. That actually sounds like a damn good idea, I'm always impressed by people who have a firm grasp of the creative process like the folks at Evil Hat. And I'm procrastinating again. 

If/when I do that, I'll make sure to upload a picture. 

In the meantime, I guess it's time to take the world and the powers and start coming up with some...well basically situations. This world was created to build small stories, to take the average person and allow them to grab some power and see what comes of it. 

Speaking of which I have one more power group to add: 

Various Criminal Organizations - From preexisting groups the Bloods, Crypts, Biker Gangs, to new ones that would pop up, the Golden Boys (sounds like a 50's group), the Arcane Brotherhood, Mafia of various countries. Yakuza? Maybe! The Margret Atwood in me says to combine these into something called like Arcanogangs or something, or Crimigicians, but I'll avoid it for now.

Next week I'll start brainstorming adventures and focusing in on specific cities around the country and around the world!

BiFrost: Politics Pt. 3

Just a recap; I've now got these organizations (names to change) set up:

Institute for Dimensional Study - Scholars and scientists studying the bifrosts

Templars - Religious group that hates the bifrosts and all they stand for

Thaumaturges - Religious group that sees bifrosts as holy

Dungeoneering Inc. - Company that focuses on providing goods to delvers; focuses on tools

Haversack's Goods -  Rival company to Dungeoneering Inc.; focuses more on goods

Various Boutiques - Small local companies serving the community and specific classes

Next up are the political factions. Let's be honest here, as far as American politics goes, this would not change the two major parties: Republicans and Democrats. Assuming republicans stay conservative they'd definitely side with the Templars, but have some trouble because they would also allow the new businesses to thrive: everyone likes money especially gold. Democrats, once again assuming still liberal, would likely get some power from the Thaumaturges and might cozy up to one of the other companies, they'd be the Google and Apple, lets make it Haversacks, they seem more fun. 

As far as political pressure, there is also an Adventurer's Guild that has some weird amount of money and power. Partly because, damn, delvers can get rich, and there are obviously several who got very rich. There are probably factions within there too (getting a little Hogwarts here, you know some internal conflict with the Slytherins and Gryffindors...I might add a bit fo that in). 

The Adventurer's Guild also offers more than lobbying, they offer health insurance, life insurance, banking. Honestly, they are the AARP for delvers. I feel like they need another name too. I'll work on that. 

Bifrost: Politics Pt. 2

Last time I added the Institute for Dimensional Study, the Templars (name to change quickly), and the Thaumaturges to the world. They are no fleshed out at all yet, but it is nice to have placeholders. This covers the big powerhouses on the ideological front, but what about the economic front and those who would take all that money and throw it into the political front? 

Economics, we'd probably have a company pop up to take care of the needs of delvers. I always postulated that at first, when there wasn't a dedicated shop, people would mostly go to Cash4Gold and pawn shops to sell the coins they came back with. Eventually this would flood the market and bring down the price, but if only 10% of the population is going into the bifrosts, then I don't think it would be that bad. And honestly, of those going in, those who are professional delvers would likely be limited. It is like war, it is real, it is stressful, you bleed. Some thrill seekers would totally love it, and some people would just be greedy enough. 

I also think that people would go buy their adventuring gear from places like Dick's and Academy. Outdoor survival gear and things like that. You could also pick up weapons there (bows and guns) as well as hammers, knives, pick axes, etc. Swords would be harder to come by, but most people know to order them online or but them from Renaissance Fairs. 

After a while though, someone would see the need and streamline the system to be  a buyer of goods (gold, magic items, artifacts). For now we'll call it Dungeoneering Inc. They create tools, apps, etc. and sell off whatever delvers bring in. Now this is of course the big business, there is likely another one who takes a different approach, one more towards safety lets call it Haversack's Goods Inc. There would also be tons of boutiques popping up that offer more specialized services. 

I just noticed I'm taking a good chunk of this new world in a way similar to Atwood's Mad Adam trilogy. Weird. 

Next week we'll start crafting those political machines. 

BiFrost: Politics

I've got the rules down, and I've got my general theme of power: what will people do with it? Now I need to get some powerful structures into play.

I was thinking of several factions, basically, along with an evolution of the government to match. Now I'm probably super obviously focusing on the U.S. because Amerocentricism and I'm American and such, but I would think most governments would act similarly. Also, I don't feel knowledgeable about other countries to guess how they would react without just stereotyping. I would really like to use the major large cities in the world, (top 10 or so) just to give some non-western and white examples along with the usual fare (I'm looking at you Shadowrun filling the whole continent of Africa with ghouls...that was a weird choice). 

So factions, well last time I hit a few major types of organization that would be interested in either keeping or changing the status quo. Religious, political, social, and let's also add economic organizations that would be for and against using BiFrosts. If I just have a list of good guys and bad guys, that is shitty and useless, so each one will need some nuances to play with and against each other. I'm thinking something similar to Shadowrun's Megacorps faction, but nothing quite so Machiavellian. 

Let's get my stereotypes out of the way; most mainstream American religious folk (protestant and catholic) would be freaking scared of these things and see them as gateways to hell. And then when people come out of them with magical powers. The devil has taken them! Lets call them Templars for now. 

Of course for every reaction there is a reaction, so then a small contingent of religious folk see them as manifestations of divinity and god. They also likely see the powers you get out of it as tools to be used in the end times or for a spiritual war. I like this a lot. They likely want to guard the portals to make sure only the righteous and pure enter. Lets call them Thaumaturges for now. 

Going opposites, let's talk about science and the academic community. I would see them stressing caution, considering the dangers and unprecedented nature of the portals. They would likely want to study a lot -where they come from, where the powers come from, is this really magic? Bill Nye and Tyson would be out there trying to explain it while other researchers try to get funding from economic powerhouses to research this new stuff. This would be less of a new faction, more of an option for using existing universities, and maybe coming up with a new research institute or something. Lets call this the Institute for Dimensional Study, or the IDS. 

More next time! Economic powerhouses and political organizations!