Oh, I don't need another project...

[telerib]

I so want to write up a "Mirror, Mirror¹" version of 7th Sea's Theah for Flying Koala Games.

This came up in the forums, starting out as a discussion of doppelgangers. A doppel wouldn't be an opposite, but thinking about a "Shadow Theah" full of people's doppels (mostly unseen and undetected, one suspects) naturally led to Reverse Bizzaro World.

One of the fun things about trying to engineer a Reverse Bizarro World is keeping all the major players and recent events consistent, while having radically changed everything about the people involved. If the evil King Leon of Montaigne is now the good King Leon of Montaigne, how do we get to a dead Hierophant and the Montaigne-Castille war?

Leon, while good, also has Objectionist leanings; specifically, the species of Objectionism that's thinking that maybe sorcerers aren't inherently evil after all. What kind of cruel god would condemn to the Abyss someone whose only sin was being born to the wrong parents? This Leon is open about having sorcerous blood, but he doesn't actually use his Porte much (since using sorcery is clearly a sin). The enfant terrible of Castille, young King Sandoval (who murdered his father, banished his older brother to usurp the throne, and killed the Hierophant to paralyze the Concilio de Razon, the only real obstacle to his total power) uses this obvious heresy to command the Inquisition to attack Montaigne. Leon responds by counter-attacking, and we have the canonical Castille-Montaigne war reflected in the Reverse Bizarro mirror.

Technically, I really don't have time for this. I want to be going to the gym and working on my music during my "me time." Those are, objectively speaking, my goals which I also enjoy and which bear sweeter fruit down the line. But they do lack a certain "gee golly whiz!" factor.

1 - The "Spock with a Beard" episode of Original Trek, for those of you whose Star Trek geekery doesn't include episode names

Comments

Sounds cool

[m-streight.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about not doing it right away. I have loads of ideas for games that I have put on the back burner. Just put in a few beards when you do.

Re: Sounds cool

[telerib.livejournal.com]

Actually, the very first thought I had was that Giovanni Villanova (http://www.tlucretius.net/7thSea/Characters/villanova_sm.jpg) would specifically not have a beard in this alternate world. :)

Re: Sounds cool

[m-streight.livejournal.com]

That would seriously disturb anyone who knew who he is. I approve wholeheartedly!

[giddysinger.livejournal.com]

Hmm.... Then that would mean that Verdugo...

My God. The Inquisition becomes a cross between the R&C and DKR. They *are* the bad-ass *mumblemumble* servants of Theus.

Ooh... I picked a bad time to not look at the forums for a week.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

Yes, defending the honest people of Castille from their royal Bad Seed. I'm not quite sure what to do with El Vago. It's in the Resources forum, last page of the Eisen thread.

Elaine is the beautiful but dark Witch-Queen of (Unseelie) Avalon; the O'Bannon is ancient and physically weak, but full of deep wisdom and forethought. Maybe poor Jamie MacDuff really is nothing but a savage in a skirt? He's the one I'd hate to change the most... The Black Dawn is the scourge of the seas. Those who stand against her are cursed with bad luck. Lady Celedoine is still Sidhe-blooded, but don't ask which court, and Bloody Bonnie McGee shares certain nasty habits with Liz Bathory.

The Strange Skies is a research vessel, advancing Cresent science and knowledge of the ancient races.

I think Falisci twirls that mustache of his, sipping wine and joking with his guests as his enemies try to escape from elaborate deathtraps; Villanova wants to unite Vodacce to stand against the Vendel - but he's being unknowingly puppeted by his evil wife and mistress. Mondavi's a rice farmer... really... but Lucani isn't quite the yipping poodle he appears to be. Beatrice Caligari is straight-up mad.

The secret societies are harder; they're all designed for Heroes, so I wouldn't want to make them all Villainous. I think I'd flip their contrasts, so that R&C and the Explorers are the edgy, grey ones and DKR and the Rilasciare are white-hatted. I think the real keepers of the R&C secret would have to be the Inquisition in this version, which makes sense if you think about the origins of the Inquisition.

Wilma Probst takes bribes and uses blackmail to keep Freiburg running; maybe she's shacked up with Logan Sieger, who keeps the eisenfurst drunk and drugged up. It's a struggle for poor kindly Redmond Earheardt to pay all the bribes Wilma demands, what with the way he forgives the widows and orphans who can't pay their rents.

It's addictive.