#cmwge

come on a journey with me?

there - past the scaffolding, past the rafters, up above past the windows and gables and fire escapes, if you make it to the roofs -

you'll encounter environments not of this world. rooftop gardens that have twisted themselves into dense forests, church spires that have , tiled expanses that stretch into the horizon and become meadows, gutter-lakes, deserts, mountains...

you'll encounter them, too, if you really look: the rats.

they want to show you these places, navigate them, map them, study them, know them. they want to befriend you, guide you, tell you their stories and weave new ones where you feature alongside them. if you want to make any headway, up there on the roofs, you'll need their help.

after all,

this is a place where the gods do tread. if they find you creeping about their domains, they will find you, kill you, transform you, dig their hooks into your very soul and never let go.

the rats know a secret.

gods can be killed.

you are the key.

the far roofs, currently crowdfunding, is home to some of the best role-playing game i've ever had. participating in several playtests has completely sold me on its viability as a system. notable are its set of unique oracle mechanics that tie into its freeform roleplay system, determining the physical and emotional outcomes of different events. gather hands of cards and tiles to weave together magic that can alter even monumental fates, fight peril with dice rolls, and collect components for spells and make headway on character advancement by spending time getting to know your companions, both human and murine.

it is, of course, written by dr. jenna moran, best known for previous innovative ttrpg experiences about divinity, such as nobilis, glitch, chuubo's marvelous wish-granting engine, and wisher, theurger, fatalist (WTF).

The players are all attending Town's high school; Iolithae Septimian is a student there, as a result of a Steamed Hams type incident where she accidentally turned the lie "I'm a high school student" into truth. (She doesn't like to talk about it.) She still has the usual amount of power, it's just that "a high school student" has become a fundamental part of her existence for now, which means she is required on a cosmic level to attend class, do homework, screw up in gym class and so on, in the same way a mortal would.

Nominally the kind of story you're in decides your Arc, and how much the narrative/world/fate approves determines whether it's Immortal, Sickly, or Frantic. Is it their mystic destiny or a perfect fit for them? Immortal. Is it anti-world or so bad an idea you cackle every time you think about their plans? Sickly. Are they just dealing with life like people have to? Frantic.

The eight Arcs aren't designed with the intention of being formally comprehensive so much as "I ran out of good ones after eight no matter how hard I looked." There's a couple others other people have built based on life experiences that I haven't had, but I don't think I've seen any other Arc options that are stories in my bones that the eight colors don't cover. It took me forever to find the eighth, to be honest, and I only went that far because I was hoping they'd map better to the trigrams than they do.

So if you're like having troubled dreams, probably green. If you're trying to solve some major scientific problem, probably gold.

Looking in more detail at that gold thing:

Is it the story of the hero-scientist solving the problem and saving the day? Immortal Gold---at least, if you're on the miraculous scale. You probably wind up with a jetpack or rocket suit and fly around blasting enemies. ( https://jennamoran.tumblr.com/post/140649801653/magical-hero-4-of-4 )

The story of a regular scientist? Miraculous-scale beings are on Frantic Gold and naturally by the time you solve your major physics problem or whatever you are also better at sports and art and medicine and such. Regular mortals are just on "gold, but sort of franticky."