Here's the latest return for Parliament's cover art from yet another fantastic artist, Pavel Kolomeyets.

As with our other mind-blowing artists, this one's for hire. If you've got a project and some scratch to back it up, I highly recommend him. Don't take my word on his skills; head on over to his sight and check out his stuff! 

Did the playtest last night. Whew. Some thoughts:

1. I still haven't nailed the time structure of the game. We found a really good "zen" between turns organically as we played, so that's become the new standard. Writing it down in comprehensible language, as a process, is going to be the trick (that and internally balancing it)

2. The game lends itself to displays of horror. Once again, the players painted a tapestry of terror with their portrayal of the characters. It was a thing of dark majesty.

3. We had a "false start" in the beginning: I had stripped their characters of everything but their character mechanic (no minions or resources) believing this would make things simpler; oh how wrong I was. It left the players rudderless, without direction. I immediately gave them back their stuff, and they dove right in.

4. NPCs have like, no hope in a contest with the PCs (this was intentional). Its not just the power disparity either (although yeah, its a pretty big gulf): its that the NPCs don't understand that they're in a horror game. I'm curious what a savvy NPCs could accomplish.

5. Player feedback; the character sheet could use a "notes" section

6. I had XP as per the amount of souls you claimed (by killing fools). I'm reconsidering this; I want to incentivize players to build up territory and power structures, not just kill a ton of people. I'll need to put my thinking cap on to create a better incentive structure.

7. This attempt is leagues closer than the previous test. And that test was homing in on what I wanted.

I'm considering this test a solid stepping stone. Now for some thinking, design and re-writing for test #3.

Character sheet

I'm really nervous about the Parliament playtest. I just had the in-house group make characters; tonight or tomorrow I'll be prepping for the second playtest; first test with the new rules.

My stomach is in knots; I've never been this nervy about a playtest before. I have a lot of confidence in the system I've designed, but I keep feeling like I'm going to get in front of them and all the disparate parts won't click and I'll not know where to go from there.

I've been GMing a long time. The only thing that makes me nervous is the idea of being dead in the water, with no idea how to handle what my players just pulled off. I imagine its similar to the feeling a comedian gets when they're dying on stage.

I'm really worked up about it. If this doesn't swim, it sinks, and I'm back to the drawing board.

Wish me luck.

And here are the powers for the other 2 archetypes

Primal

Shadow Meld

·       You can melt into darkness, becoming one with the shadows

·       While so transubstantiated, your physical form ceases to exist and your consciousness inhabits the darkness into which you’ve melded

·       You cannot be injured or touched while melded

·       You may travel through any conjoined darkness, slipping invisibly through the tiniest gaps. You move distances one category faster while so traveling

·       You have the edge over foes without supernatural senses or similar darkness magic in all Skulking contests. Foes who overcome this sizeable disadvantage are overcome with a sense of dread, but your presence is not revealed.

·       If bathed in light such as that your pool of shadow would completely vanish, you substantiate unharmed

Command Creatures of the Night

·       At your whim, you may summon and control nearby creatures of the night. They obey as minions with reliability 3+

·       Creatures subject to your command include any purely nocturnal creatures as well as wolfs, bat, rats, black cats, beetles, centipedes, flies, toads and any partially nocturnal carnivores

·       Such thralls obey you for the remainder of the night, or one shift during daylight hours. You may attempt to recruit them as permanent minions after their dark compulsion to serve has ended

Monstrous Form

·       You may assume a monstrous, powerful form to wreak terror and havoc

·       When you transform, gain 1D6 Urge

·       Your speed and power double while transformed

·       Your attacks inflict two wounds, or anti-structure damage

·       Your hunting a violence attributes both increase by +1D6

·       You gain an additional wound box, which will vanish with no ill effect if you return to your normal form

·       Mortals beholding your monstrous form are subject to a mind-blanking terror which scrambles their memories and makes their accounts of encountering you unreliable.

·       Mortals of Efficacy 3 and less are affected. Their minds fabricate a rational explanation for your unimaginable monstrosity. Such sightings cannot add evidence against you or reveal the supernatural

·       Mortals so stupefied either flee in horror at the sight of you or stand gibbering like lunatics, unable to take any other action

·       More capable mortals recall you clearly, and present a problem

Element Control

·       You have mastery of one of the four Ptolemean elements, these Air, Earth, Fire and Water. You may alternatively have mastery over one of the five Daoist elements, these Earth, Fire, Metal Water, and Wood

·        You cannot create this element from nothing; however, you may control any amount of your chosen element that you can perceive

·       The element may be manipulated as though an extension of your body

·       Although you are no deadlier for this power, acts of destruction (or creation) become enormously simpler and their effects more far-reaching

·       Earth: You can shape or destroy a supporting pillar’s worth of stone or concrete material per action. Fresh, usable material must be used to build or repair structures

·       Fire: you can increase or decrease the intensity of flames. Smothering a raging bonfire or condensing it into a cutting torch is the product of an action’s concentration

·       Water: You can liquify ice or solidify water into ice crystals with your action

·       Air: You can generate hurricane-force winds or calm such winds into doldrums with your action. You can achieve a limited flight with this power, but it is clumsy. If you find yourself in an aerial battle against another who possesses the Flight dark power, they begin the conflict with the edge

·       Metal: As the Earth power, but affects steel and metal beams rather than stone or concrete. You may use violence to damage and destroy vehicles as an anti-structure weapon

·       Wood: As the Earth power, but affects wooden beams rather than stone or concrete. You can affect any plant matter, granting you the edge in any environment saturated with flora (such as the deep forest)

Invoke Calamitous Weather

·       You can sicken the skies with ill weather

·       At the conclusion of shift-long ritual, you sacrifice a living creature and bend the weather to your will according to the size of the life so destroyed:

·       A small sacrifice like a rabbit or rat can overcast or clear the skies. It can birth or kill a mild wind.

·       A goat or dog can turn a sky from sunlight to rain or vice versa.

·       Sacrificing a human can upturn the seasonal weather; it can snow in the summer or burn in the winter. You can also summon rains of strange things, like toads or fish.

·       Slaying five or more humans can summon natural disasters; tornadoes, floods, wildfires, etc.

·       If a monster is sacrificed, a catastrophic weather phenomena can be manifested; typhoons, hurricanes, even earthquakes

Abomination

Return from the Grave

·       Death does not long tolerate you in his domain

·       When you are destroyed by damage or accident, you can pull your fragments or essence from oblivion and return to hideous life

·       If slain by a monstrous foe, you cede 10 of your souls to them, but retain the rest

·       You can return to life either at the site of your demise or your lair, at your option

·       Once this power is used, it calcifies and must be repurchased before it can be used again

Productivity of the locust

·       You infect a place or people with a deadly pestilence, granting a feverish burst of energy followed by noxious decay

·       This pestilence effects either a minion or a machination, seeping into all persons and locations

·       If targeting a person, they become swollen with dark might and operate at the monstrous tier for one entire day

·       If targeting a machination, every person and location is suffused with evil power. It produces resources at +1 tier the next time it is leveraged

·       After the period of increased power has concluded, minions become putrescent and decayed; they operate at efficacy 1 until they receive a quarter’s hospital-level care for their mutilation

·       Machinations become corroded and damaged. All persons are affected as minions above; locations become polluted blights which are unsuitable for human habitation unless extensive repairs and cleanup is done

Thews of the Giant

·       You are granted the strength of a giant; you can now inflict damage to structures and vehicles as though your bare hands were anti-structure weaponry

·       You do one additional damage against living targets with Violence

·       Your lifting capacity doubles. For most characters, this will mean a maximum capacity of roughly 3000 lbs.

Undying Body

·       Your physical frame is suffused with diabolical might, rendering extraordinarily difficult to destroy

·       You are granted a single additional health box at structure-tier; it cannot be damaged except by anti-structure weaponry. Although you can lose your other health boxes to standard damage, this final one resists all weaker forms of harm, making you indestructible by lesser means

·       If reduced to only this final health box, you are a shambling, shredded mound of broken organs and minced flesh. Such comprehensive destruction of your body penalizes you with -2 skulking, and you cannot use Perfidiousness at all. You may still use Dominance, but only to terrify, not to direct or bully.

Command the Dead

·       You can reanimate the bodies of the dead as zombies to serve you

·       Requires a shift-long ceremony performed near a place of death (defined as any place where semi-intact remains are; they can be animal or human)

·       At the conclusion of the ceremony, a blasphemous miracle occurs and the corpses rise to serve you.

·       If performed during the day, D3 corpses, up to the total nearby, rise to serve

·       If performed at night, D6 corpses, up to the total nearby, arise

·       If began and concluded during at the midnight shift, 2D6 corpses, up to the maximum nearby, rise to serve

·       Zombies created by this power are efficacy 1 minions, but because of their inhuman resilience they have 1 health box

·       Zombies are braindead; they can neither employ nor learn any skill or language, although they are tireless and can perform simple manual labor

·       They have reliability 4+; zombies who fail their check wander in search of living flesh to consume, attacking any living creature they encounter

Now that I've got a break between semesters, I've been spending some time with my much-neglected project Parliament of Crocodiles. Here's an excerpt:

Dark powers list

Fiend

Summon the Demonic
• This dark power requires a 1-shift long ritual, culminating in the slaughter of a living creature.
• It summons a demon from the pit to do your bidding. This manifests as a Minion; the caliber of which is determined by the sacrifice.
• A small sacrifice like a rabbit or rat yields a tiny imp of efficacy 1.
• A goat or dog would yield a more versatile creature, efficacy 2.
• Sacrificing a human yields a powerful incubus of efficacy 3, while slaying five or more humans raises a true terror of efficacy 4.
• If a monster is sacrificed, it summons an archdemon of efficacy 5. Such beings make poor minions, and tend to submit to their bloodlusts too frequently. Therefore, they have only reliability 4+.
• They possess reliability 2+, and may assume human form to carry out the tasks you set.
• However, should they fail a reliability roll, they will succumb to their lust for blood and kill the nearest beings, human or otherwise.
• All demons possess the Flight and Demonic Contract dark powers.

Curses
• You may place a hex of terrible power on an unlucky foe.
• This requires a 1-shift long ritual and the sacrifice of a resource of a given tier.
• To curse a mere mortal, a nightly tier 1 sacrifice is sufficient. This reduces their efficacy by 1, or gives you the option of forcing them to fail a reliability roll.
• Cursing a monstrous foe is more costly, requiring a regular gift of tier 3 per night the curse remains. This reduces one of their stats of your choice by 1, or increases their urge by D6 points per night rather than 1.
• Cursing a machination requires a nightly sacrifice of a tier 1 less than the initial investment. The curse counts as a complicating factor.
• Finally, curses must be targeted very specifically. You cannot target a foe whose identity remains a mystery.

Flight
• You can soar through the sky with the grace and speed of a raven.
• You can also float or otherwise defy gravity at your leisure. You may carry up to your maximum while so doing.
• This reduces all of your travel times by 1 category when employed.

Shadow Control
• All darkness is yours to command. You can swell any shadow to engulf all nearby light, creature terrifying images, even grab and attack with the penumbra.
• This grants you an additional die if used to aid Perfidiousness
• You can use darkness as an extension of your own body; it can lift as much as you can, or attack a foe with Violence

Diabolic Contract
• You may enter in to a dark covenant with a willing mortal.
• In return for a task of your choosing (ongoing service or one especially difficult task is common) you mystically conjure their desire into being
• The reward conjured is limited by what it is in your power to procure, which leaves significant latitude if used creatively; for example, though it is outside of your power to make another fall in love against their will, a Dominance roll could cow them into being a subservient spouse.

Horror

Mesmerism
• This dark power permanently enhances your Dominance trait.
• If you dominate a mortal, you may choose to hollow out their mind. This annihilates their personality and memories while they remain enthralled, leaving them a perfectly obedient puppet.
• While enthralled, they follow your every command perfectly, although they have no free will and cannot interact socially or perform complicated tasks.
• You may program a thrall to continue to obey when you return their mind. This converts them to a minion, although they have no memory of this and otherwise go about their lives unaware of their new purpose.

Puppeteering
• By hollowing out a fresh human corpse, you may squeeze inside and assume their form.
• This deception is completely identical to the cadaver; their voice, appearance, blood, fingerprints, etc. will be the same
• You will not however, possess any of their memories, mannerisms, or other aspects belonging to their mind, heart or soul
• Although you are considered to pass any Perfidiousness rolls to continue the deception of being the mimicked person while you wear their form, true friends, family and others who knew them well will detect the radical change and respond as suits their character

Wraithly Form
• You may become insubstantial at will.
• Your appearance becomes translucent and clearly supernatural while this power is active
• You cannot affect or be harmed by physical things while in this state
• You may move through solid matter as though it were no more substantial than mist
• Through the use of other dark gifts, you may affect material things and be harmed in this state
• Humans of strong faith or with access to powerful science can drive you off, ward an area against you, or injure you while insubstantial at the GM’s option

Telekinesis
• You can lift and move objects with the power of your mind alone
• You can lift up to human normal lifting capacity (155 lbs.), either in a single heavy object or numerous small items
• Your psychic force has the same dexterity as your hands and fingers, allowing you fine object manipulation
• You can press, shove, lift, and otherwise interact with any object or person which you can perceive clearly
• You may levitate yourself clumsily at a pace no faster than a brisk walk. If you find yourself in an aerial battle against another who possesses the Flight dark power, they begin the conflict with the edge

Hive Mind
• You may link any minions into a hive-mind with you.
• At your option, you may leave your body on “auto-pilot”, monotonously carrying out an assigned task, while your consciousness enters the mind of a linked minion.
• You control the character directly as though it was your own, using their stats when required.
• If any of you linked bodies is destroyed, you may flee to any other body linked into the hive mind.
• Minions which you do not manually pilot are subject to their reliability as usual, but you share thoughts with them perfectly