Re: [BNW] Meta-Plot vs Static world

["William Davis" <williamjdavis@hotmail.com>]

Umm, if I want the further Meta-plot information, I have to buy the new 
books. They have the information. They have the basic premise. It IS a 
marketing ploy to deny the information and parcel it out in future books. 
"if you want the WHOLE story, tune in next week for the adventures of...."
The basic premise is, yes, low-powered supers in Fascist America. However, 
an additional underpinning of the whole world is that all the powers are 
related in some 'mystery' way. NOW, I am left with:

A) completely ignoring this and Hoping my players do also. And then also 
hoping I can work it in seamlessly at some future time when it is revealed.
B) winging stop-gap answers based on little or no information. Hoping my 
players don't notice. AND that I don't somehow STILL alienate the real 
mystery, and can work it into the plot.
C) making up an answer to the question that I use to answer any questions 
which arise, and to plot out some kind of time-line for future gaming. Hope 
that my decision doesn't stray far enough from the 'standard' that it won't 
take a week to rework and patch any supplement after the mystery is 
revealed. Hope that I can think of a coherent answer that doesn't get 
submarined by something in the basic book. (but I think that's not too 
difficult)

And I can say that I think the Meta-plot is bad, and not very well done in 
BNW. Keeping secrets from the GM is just stupid. Like I said, I DON'T need 
to have the GAME books surprise me, my players manage that fairly well 
thank-you-very-much.
See, I can easily alienate any new supplements and probably several new 
characters and power packages. (yes I have decided to just answer the 
question my own way, and figure out how to crunch things)Now here is a 
possible answer for my world:
Delta/alpha powers are caused by an Alien energy spore released when a 
spaceship crashed at Roswell prior to WW1. The Energy spore is a symbiote 
which alters the delta sequence and sustains the host through harvesting 
wavelengths of energy currently undetectable through modern science. (the 
energy spore itself is also of a frequency which cannot currently be 
detected). The spore's frequency is disrupted by the bio-electric field 
surrounding a human. Hence they can only enter a host when said field is 
down or severely weakened (host near death). Following the joining the 
symbiote has adjusted to the field and is fine. The delay between the crash 
and the first 'birth' was due to the symbiote needing to age to a level of 
maturity where joining is possible. This also allowed the energy symbiotes 
to drift world-wide prior to the first manifestation. The symbiote has less 
than a base level (animal) intelligence, and is not a 'reasoning' creature. 
Alphas are caused by Symbiotes which reach their second stage of evolution. 
During this stage the symbiote can only join with someone whose delta factor 
genes have already been altered, and whose bio-electrc field is down or 
suppressed (near death/coma). During this joining, a delta's symbiote and 
the Second stage symbiote join and spawn a youth symbiote. The release of 
this energy super-charges the host who also now has a second symbiote. This 
is the ONLY way for the Symbiotes to reproduce. However, symbiotes are 
'released' upon the death of their host and search for another. The 'bomb' 
killed off all the fully mature symbiotes by resonating at a frequency which 
disrupted them. This was an unintentional side effect of the main purpose of 
the bomb, which was to phase the energy pattern of Alphas to another 
frequency causing them to cease to exist in this universe. There has been a 
'fallout' effect which has killed any maturing symbiotes, which is why no 
alphas have been born. Also the total number of deltas in the world has been 
slowly  dropping since the bomb as some of the symbiotes released due to 
host's death matured before finding another host. (but no one has noticed 
because every country is so secretive about it's delta population)
Yes, it is possible for a symbiote to 'mature' to alpha level while inside a 
host. However, this can only happen if it is allowed to build up energy and 
use it for itself. (that is the Delta CANNOT use his powers for several 
years). This alpha build up will be gradual, and almost unnoticeable, until 
and unless the delta 'dies' with his symbiote at alpha-level. The lowered 
bio-electric field will allow a delta level symbiote to merge with the alpha 
level and cause the 'massive' alpha manifestation along with the birth of a 
new symbiote.
Gadgeteers can only keep one item up at a time because they are focusing 
some of the symbiote's energy into it.


From: "Caias Brian Ward" <talespinner@mindspring.com>
Reply-To: bnw@gamerz.net
To: "Brave New World" <bnw@gamerz.net>
Subject: Re: [BNW] Meta-Plot vs Static world
Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 18:21:57 -0400

You can cover the 'basic premise' of the world easily:

BNW: low-powered supers in a Fascist America.

There you go.

The rest, you can ignore.  I know I do.  You can't say Metaplot is bad.
Metaplot works well, as long as you cover the bases.  I think your problem
seems to fall with not enough information given to be able to run with the
metaplot.

That seems to be a different issue than calling it all a 'marketing ploy'.

Caias


----- Original Message -----
From: William Davis <williamjdavis@hotmail.com>
To: <bnw@gamerz.net>
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2000 6:00 PM
Subject: Re: [BNW] Meta-Plot vs Static world


 > Sorry, but I don't run a static world.



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