Obscura

--- Work In Progress ---

Introduction

CLS's game for 2019-2020 is Of Alchemy and Magic Obscura (or just Obscura), a game of discovery, intrigue and struggle against the odds when science and magic collide.

A thousand years ago, the world was a very different and darker place. Magic was a powerful force, and legend has it that powerful mages ruled from twisted fortresses, aided by pacts with dark powers. Inhuman and monstrous magical beings known as “elementals” walked the world, terrorising humanity.

A group of adventurers ended this tyranny by performing an epic feat known as the Sealing, largely cutting off the mortal realm from the elemental. Magic greatly faded, and science grew to fill the gap. As the new world was built, the world before became obscured in myth.

In the last few months, strange things have been happening. Thaumaturgy and alchemy have started misfiring in spectacular ways. Strange lights have been seen in forests, and odd creatures have been spotted in isolated locations. It seems that the Sealing is weakening and magic is getting stronger again. Are the dark times destined to return? Or can something be done to stop it?

The ruling Council of the city state of Clare has recruited adventurers to investigate what's going on, and you have answered the call. You may be here because you want to make a difference, for adventure and challenge, for knowledge and the power that might come from it, for coin, or maybe something else...

Major Themes

• Discovery: Finding out about magic and the true history of the world and the nature of the Sealing. As the Sealing becomes weaker, more things will become possible with magic and science, and pushing the boundaries will be important to match the increasing stakes.
• Intrigue: The major powers will be at odds and the task force will need to balance effectiveness against public relations. Plenty of political and social wrangling to be done.
• Struggle Against the Odds: There will be strong antagonists who wield abilities the PCs don’t (initially) have access to and who won’t be beaten easily.

What Can I Play?

Fighty characters can fight belligerent enemies. The intention is that even in interactives, fights will be challenging, with scope for the PCs to lose, so fighty characters should find themselves valued, even outside of linears. If you want to be a Big Damn Hero then there are easily accessible ways to increase your power while increasing your risk of death.

Scholarly characters can research elementals and the world. Not much is known about the elemental realm and elementals, since it’s been cut off for centuries. There's also plenty of alchemy and magic research to do.

The city of Clare has a number of factions that can help or hinder the task force, and wrangling them will be something those with social and political leanings can do.

Events

The campaign takes place in interactives each Friday, and on linears around every other Saturday. Interactives are the regular meetings of the Clare task force to plan, perform experiments, and anything else they might like to do. Linears represent excursions in to the wider world.

For the dates of events, please see the main society website.

About

Written by Jon Cooper. Contributions by Tomas Pilar.

Obscura is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Much inspiration taken from Breaking Worlds, Citadel and NFNC.