+Terrible Butterflies+: Call for Players

In 2007, I played what would become my favorite RPG ever: +Terrible Butterflies+, with bard_bloom, creator of the game, as game master.

Ever since that game ended, I've been wanting to run a game of +terrible butterflies+ myself. The main thing that deterred me was that I didn't want to run the exact same system. Not because of flaws in the existing system, but because one of the joys of the game had been finding all the best ways to exploit, contort, and abuse the array of magical powers our characters possessed. And, as with any puzzle, once you know the solution, there's no need to solve it again. It would still be a great game for new people who hadn't experienced it yet. But for players who had, I felt it'd be much more fun with all the previously-discovered exploits removed -- and new ones uncovered. With Bard's permission, I've occasionally noodled away at ideas for the game: things I could take out, things I could put in. Not to make it better, but to make it different.

Over the past several days, bitten anew by the bug after talking about RPG systems, I decided to do it. I finalized my ideas, added my changes to the rules, and created what amounts to a new version of +terrible butterflies+.

Now, I want to play it.

I can't guarantee that you'll love the game as much as I do -- I don't think anyone else loves this game as much as I do, though I'll note that everyone I polled who'd played this system liked it -- but I hope that if you join me, you'll have fun.

A horrible thing is insidiously invading Truman High School.  A psychic predator that devours souls and wears the bodies of its victims.  An invisible, intangible monster with mysterious powers and hidden motives.  A mystical or technological horror from some unknown astral hell, insinuating itself into mundane society for some unknown purpose.

That's you.

... but you're actually a fairly nice supernatural horror, as these things go.

This story is about testing boundaries, about gaining great power and what you decide to do with it. It's about difficult moral choices and problems that cannot be solved by hitting them repeatedly with a pointy stick.* It is, at its heart, about growing up.

I'll be the game master. I think the campaign will be most fun for people who enjoy roleplaying conversations and character interactions, and who want to use a rich, quirky form of magic in creative and innovative ways that generally have nothing to do with killing monsters and taking their stuff.*

If you're interested in playing, email my gmail.com account, Ladyrowyn, and I'll send you a copy of the rules so you can make a character. (It's fine if you ask for the rules and later decide you don't want to play, for whatever reason.) If you have questions that you think other people might ask as well, leave a comment and I'll answer here.

* No disrespect intended towards games where you blundgeon your conflicts to death and loot the bodies! My weekly World Tree game is based on that model. But +terrible butterflies+ isn't.

Jogging

(All times very approximate -- I didn't time anything, not even how long I was at it.)

 

0:00: I think I'll go for a walk.
0:15: *play "Another Way to Die" on iPod*
0:30: This'd be a good song to jog to.  Gosh, I haven't jogged in at least, what, a year? Eighteen months?
0:45: What the heck. *starts jogging*.
1:00: Whee!
1:45: I'm not sure riding the exercise bike four-five times a week is keeping me in any kind of shape for jogging.
2:00: This hill near my house is just as horrid for jogging up as I remember.
3:00: Okay, riding the exercise bike four-five times a week is definitely not keeping me in shape to jog.  I don't think I'm going to make it to the top of the hill.
4:00: Nope, not gonna make it.
8:00: Wait, what? I not only made it up the hill but I'm halfway around my old loop?  I wonder if I can make it the rest of the way?
16:00: Hey, I can.  I'm not that tired ... I wonder if I can get up the hill again?
23:00: I can!  Woot!  I don't think I can make another loop, but let's try.
32:00: This is only technically a jog, in the sense that the pace never has both feet on the ground and sometimes neither.  I can walk faster than this. Still!  Jogging!
35:00: I made another loop!  I bet I can't make three.  But maybe I can get up the hill again.
43:00: Made it!  That's really the hard part.  I might as well try for another circuit.
45:00: I bet it's the butterflies. It always was easier to jog when I was thinking about +terrible butterflies+.
48:00: And I thought I was jogging slowly before.
1:01:00: Okay, that's three circuits.  You've made your point. You can stop now.
1:02:00: No, really. That's enough. Let's just cool off now.  Good girl.

 

I guess the exercise bike does keep me in shape for jogging.  Although I am still going to be really sore tomorrow. Ow.