It’s About the Buy-In [Promethean: The Created]

Open Development, Promethean: The Created

Hey, pieced-together protagonists. It’s Tuesday! Normally I’d be tallying the result of your votes, but I didn’t get to put up a choice on Sunday because I was, as it happens, too busy redlining Promethean 2nd Edition. But I did want to talk about a couple of things, just so we’re all on the same page going forward.

Every RPG – heck, every piece of media – has a buy-in. I used that picture from Guardians of the Galaxy both because the characters, in that scene, are agreeing to the buy-in that Quill’s suggesting (“Let’s go fight Ronan”), but also because the movie itself has a fairly steep buy-in. We’ve all made a lot of jokes about how it’s a movie about a raccoon and a talking tree, and what we’re joking about there is the buy-in for the movie. It’s space opera, and there’s some weird content.

The same is true for an RPG. You want to play Vampire: The Requiem, the buy-in includes your character being a vampire and drinking blood. You want to play Dungeons & Dragons, the buy-in includes a fantasy setting, high magic, some underground cavern-y kinds of things and large, fire-breathing reptiles. You want to play Chill (look, I had to. I’ve been really good!), the buy-in includes that you’re a person who feels that saving people from the Unknown is an acceptable risk for your life and soul.

Now, I want to be clear about something: Not being willing to agree to the buy-in of a game doesn’t mean you’re wrong about it. I don’t care for D&D, myself. That doesn’t mean I’m right to feel that way or that my many friends who enjoy it are wrong, just that I’m not into it. The buy-in isn’t something I want to make. Peter Quill the DM says “stand up,” and I’m thinking, “nah, no thanks.” I don’t have to agree to the buy-in…but I do need to acknowledge it’s there.

Promethean is, at its heart, humanist. The game views being human as a desirable state. The characters are not human, nor were they ever, but the Azothic memory inside them, the thing that wakes up and nudges them when they stray from the path or comforts them in their darkest moments, pushes them to work alchemy of the body and soul and join the human race. Yes, by doing so, they give up some nifty super-powers, but they also give up the horrible, nagging, ever-present feeling that they don’t belong in their own bodies, let alone with the people they see all around. Sure, a Promethean that achieves the New Dawn can’t lift a car anymore, but by becoming part of humanity, she doesn’t have to. She doesn’t need to wander and run from people just when she starts feeling close to them. She can have a family and friends, rather than a throng, which everyone understands is a temporary arrangement.

That’s the buy-in for the game. That’s what the players need to get behind to play Promethean as written (and, like, let’s just all dispense with the “you can feel free to do whatever you want with the game, because it’s your game the minute you buy it,” right? I don’t have to keep saying that, just take it as read). If that’s a buy-in that a group doesn’t want to make, that’s fine! The World of Darkness has a lot of other options that don’t have the same humanist slant (Vampire treats humanity as important in very different ways, Werewolf likewise, in Mage you’re more than human, and in Demon you can be multiple humans but with sci-fi technognostic spy powers! So much choice!).

Promethean is not about transcending humanity. It’s about achieving it. Much like 1st Edition, Promethean 2nd Edition is not going to cater to players who want a transhumanist setting.

With all of that in mind, here is another excerpt from the Alchemists section, because folks responded pretty positively to them and I figured you might like to see a little more. I’m not posting any mechanics because their mechanics are going to get fiddled with a bit, and I’ll want to post them when we’ve done a little more fiddling. But we did include a few sample organizations of alchemists, so here’s one of them:

The Pristine Order of the Auric Chalice “The secrets of the Art aren’t for everyone.” One of the most famous alchemical miracles is the transformation of lead into gold. Anyone who has made even a basic study of alchemical lore, however, knows that it is merely a metaphor. In fact, many alchemists believe that the search for material wealth is a dangerous distraction that can lead a seeker down dark paths. The Pristine Order of the Auric Chalice agrees with this sentiment to the point of violence. These alchemists universally come from money — usually old money — and frown upon using alchemy for personal gain. In fact, they believe those alchemists who attempt to turn lead into gold, or otherwise improve their material circumstances with alchemy, are somehow a danger to everyone else. The details of this ideology are quite foggy. Some members of the Pristine Order believe that using alchemy to base ends somehow poisons the soul, to the point that those who indulge in this sort of alchemy will inevitably descend into dangerous madness and use their alchemy to wreak indiscriminate havoc. Others hold that such “base” alchemy releases or creates dangerous spirits or monsters. Some even claim that Prometheans, Pandorans, quashmallim, and other dangerous freaks and prodigies of the Divine Fire are somehow created or released by selfish uses of alchemy. The only thing they can do, of course, is use their money, contacts, and alchemy to prevent anyone from debasing alchemy. The best way to do that, of course, is to kill them (though a few members of this order have had some luck force-feeding their victims potions that erase their memories of alchemy, along with many of their other memories and some of their ability to reason). Alchemists of the Pristine Order hunt Prometheans for the Pyros and Vitriol they need to carry out their war against other alchemists. Anyone who lacks a privileged background is fair game, since these alchemists assume that the temptation to use alchemy for material gain is just too great for anyone without wealth to fall back on. The Pristine Order of the Auric Chalice is also one of the most socially backwards alchemical organizations in the world. The heart of their organization is a longing for the “good old days” of alchemy, when it was a secret art practiced only by those who could afford to pay its cost. The modern day, with its electronic communication, scanned grimoires, mass-produced glassware, and online chemical suppliers has ruined alchemy by making it accessible to anyone. Female alchemists aren’t explicitly banned in this organization, but they are rare. The same is true of non-white alchemists, or those with money, but no family history of wealth. Many of these alchemists try to cover their murderous campaign with a veneer of old-world sophistication.

Next Sunday, I shall pose another choice!