afortiori

Background

The game takes place in a parallel universe, very similar to ours, with one important difference: in 1675, Isaac Newton Discovered that the fundamental laws of nature are guided and enforced by an external power that is both measurable and, to some degree, malleable. He named this power "The Pulse".

And then science lost. The Church of England considered Newton's finding the ultimate proof of the existence of God, and by the order of King Charles II, the entire Royal Society was hijacked and turned into a secret lab for studying it and synthesizing a new religion, Catholic and reformed, with a closely knit hierarchy, and dedicated to the proposition that miracles־on־demand is something that should be monopolized.

So successful was this new religion, so virulent, that it quickly took by storm not only England, not only the world, but well beyond. With the ability to defy gravity, space exploration came sooner and developed faster. Humanity has spread all over the solar system, on planets, moons, space stations, and even asteroids (or 'rhoids, as the bitter inhabitants call them) lassoed by brave space cowboys.

Today, most people still live on Earth, under the United Church's thumb and watchful eye; but the Church's control grows weaker with distance from the centralized power of Earth. And although extra terrestrial settlements depend on religious technology for survival, there are more and more people out there who do not believe The Pulse actually has a plan. Or even that it should be capitalized.

Recently, in its investigations of The Pulse, the church discovered a strong anomaly on an asteroid named "Apophis", and have interpreted it, according to ancient prophecies, to indicate that the living avatar of The Pulse, a messianic figure from early Pulsist theology, was finally born. The church, unable to ignore this omen, but unwilling to disturb the status quo over it, sends the most unlikely pilgrim to find it.

Our Heros

• Shariputra was born in the City of Westminster, orphaned at an early age, and raised in a temple, as most orphans are. From the very beginning, Shariputra showed great promise and devotion, but he kept asking the wrong questions, and by the age of 13 he was sent to the remote monastery of Saunt Augustine, which is pretty much the sanatorium of the United Church. As the story begins he is 17, a talented acolyte and a devout believer, who is suddenly assigned a dangerous mission which very few wish to see fulfilled. He, naturally, considers this the highest honor.

  It is our plan, in the game, to see Shariputra lose his immaculate faith, and find something else instead.

• Barnabas is the ascetic Primate of Saunt Augustine, where all the weirdos come to worship The Pulse. He is a devout believer, but Being a Primate he has no illusions as to the purity of the Church. He takes a strong stand against Pulse manipulations, believing that Man should study The Pulse so he can serve it, and not so it can serve him.

  It is his decision to send Shariputra, and to give him remote guidance on his pilgrimage.

• Didymus and Maimonides, a hardened space rigger and his faithful talking owl, especially trained to fly in micrograv.

  Recently the duo fell on some hard times, and Didymus decided to take a dangerous job on a remote asteroid – which just happens to be Apophis.

• Richard Wakeman is a drunk, charming church organist with a hidden talent, who is unknowingly the protégé of The most evil man in the universe.

The Story

We didn't actually start playing yet, but we do know we want to play the following two scenes:

• Scene I, in which Shariputra packs his shit and gets ready to leave. play]wall ]noborder:100 50 0 0 :Click, swipe or use the arrows to advance the story ]:30 200 shariputra: My name is Shariputra. shariputra: This is my story. deja] shariputra: It used to be a simple story, +shariputra: up until The Primate called me to his chambers. ]tall:0.5 -165 1 2.5 shariputra: It was cold, up in the tower. shariputra: Our Primate did not believe in warmth. barnabas bleft: Shariputra, my son. shariputra bright: Yes, father? barnabas bleft: Sit at my feet, Shariputra. I have great news for you. +barnabas: Great indeed. ]:0 1 2.5 0.5 barnabas bleft: You have learned of Saunt Wren, did you not? shariputra bright: Of course, Primate. Saunt Wren the churchbuilder. The father of architects. barnabas bleft: But you did not learn of his... Theologigical works? ]:0 1 2.5 0.5 shariputra bright: Not as such, Primate. barnabas bleft: Hardly surprising. They teach only what is easy to learn. For the harder stuff you need to work. Faith is not enough, young Shariputra. The study of the divine requires will! shariputra bright: Oh, but I do have the will, Primate! ]:0 1 2.5 0.5 barnabas bleft: Which is why you are here, little grasshopper. Take this. It is Wren's apocalypsis. barnabas bleft: It tells of the coming of the living Avatar of The Pulse. Far more important than the fodder you are used to. Of course, most scholars consider it to be little more than the ramblings of a senile fool... ]:0 1 2.5 0.5 shariputra bright: Primate! The words of a Saunt are the Pulse's own! barnabas bleft: Man is fallible. And all believers are men. None will say it out loud, but prophesies, especially the more... Poetic amongst them, are considered allegorical at best. ]:0 1 2.5 0.5 barnabas bleft: But look here. Read this passage. Man on other planets! He knew! And look at the drawing. You see? It is Pluto. Discovered decades after his death. And now this drawing, which he calls "The Anti־Earth". "And the Sun shall be its mirror". Doesn't it look like he is describing a gravitational anomaly orbiting the Sun opposite of the Earth? shariputra bright: It actually does. But such an anomaly does not exist... ]:0 1 2.5 0.5 barnabas bleft: Ha! You see how quickly your faith falters? Look at this! Data sheets from the Pulse telescope on Mars. And more from the Fluxion station. shariputra bright: But that's... barnabas bleft: Just the temporal leakage! It's forming, just like Saunt Wren saw it. And the Avatar is indeed coming. And you, thrice blessed Shariputra, will be the first to welcome him. shariputra bright: Ah... Ah... ]:0 1 2.5 0.5 barnabas bleft: You will leave now. I am arranged for luggage. Clothes, food, traveling expanses, and copypaper with which you can reach me. Check it often! barnabas bleft: You will make your way to Santander, 50 miles to the west. There you will procure passage to these coordinates. You have less than a week. Hopefully, by the time you are there I will have more information for you. barnabas bleft: Be careful. Keep your mission to yourself. Trust no one. There is no way to tell what the enemies of the Church might do if they find out. At this point, nothing is certain. ]:1 0 1 0[deja ~center shariputra: What could I do? I took the package I was given and started walking. Didn't even stop to take a piss. ]noborder:1 0 END OF SCENE (click the little close button on the top right or hit q)
• Scene II, in which Didymus and Maimonides find themselves in a fine mess. play]noborder :Click, swipe or use the arrows to advance the story ]:10 -30 didymus thought: Space. didymus thought: Yet another frontier. maimonides bright: Boss? ]:5 0 didymus thought: It's a pretty straight forward job, really. didymus thought: Strap the phlogiston rockets +thought:, check. didymus thought: Assemble the rig for the gravity sails +thought:, check. didymus thought: And then ride the sucker into stable orbit behind the sun +thought:... maimonides bright: Are we almost there yet, boss? didymus bleft: Yes, Maimo, we are almost there. ]:5 0 didymus thought: So why am I nervous? didymus thought: Sure, maneuvering into orbit is the tricky part. You have to use the phlogiston, and it's a damn small asteroid. If I crack it we don't get paid. And probably die. But I should be used to that. And yet... didymus thought: ...something doesn't feel right. Almost physical. A fly buzzing behind my eyes. maimonides bright: What are we talking about here? Five minutes of five hours? ]:5 0 didymus thought: And my damn owl won't shut up. didymus bleft: I'm stepping outside, Maimo. Gonna check the mooring before we start breaking. ]:0 -.1 .5 3 didymus thought: I'm relieved to step outside the artificial gravity. ]deg05:0 -.1 .5 3 didymus thought: It's been acting up on the way here, to the other side of the sun. ]deg10:0 -.1 .5 3 didymus thought: At least Maimonides enjoyed himself. A single g in a constant direction is boring when you have wings. ]deg30:0 .3 1 2.8 didymus thought: And then it hits me. +thought deg10: didymus bleft: Maimo, come in! +thought deg30: +bleft deg10: didymus bleft: We are accelerating. I'm getting external gravity here. Something big. +bleft deg05: ]deg50:0 20 2 0 ~center didymus bleft: ... +didymus: BRACE FOR IMPACT! ]noborder To be continued (click the little close button on the top right or hit q)

The Game

The guiding principle of this game is not keeping secrets from the other players. This does not mean that there are no surprises, it only that everyone gets surprised together, at the same time. I try to share my plans for the game as soon as they hatch, and I encourage you to do the same. Release early, release often.

And since we want to keep this site accessible, and even cool, to outsiders, there will be a lot of editing and polishing and playing some scenes more than once. To the tech geeks among us I will add that the site sits in a git repository, so we have an infinite undo stack and the ability to fork the game and explore different possibilities.

Buzzwords: Rules, their manipulation and breakage. Faith, loss of. Sequential and non־linear prose, examination of.

yes yes lets play already