A tribute to our imagination

In Seventh the Mind has a central part. It has not only one part but several parts to play but most importantly it lies at the foundation of Seventh. For it does come from our imagination.

In any case I would like to pay tribute to the mind in this case. Your mind, my mind and our mind. In Seventh the mind is just another dimension, a dimension just like length and width. There has so far only been two players who has experienced a lecture in the game about how this works and I have made a post about how it is possible, a priori, for those dimensions to exist. I am not going to give that in-game lecture here, I will merely touch on it. But enough introduction to what I want to say, please read on.

Focus and start imagine a Dot. It can be of any colour and of any size. Now keep this Dot in your imagination but I also want you to imagine a second Dot, make it the same as the first Dot. Without you knowing it you have now created a dimension and I will come back to the Why of that, hopefully, later. If you now draw a line between the first and the second dot you will have in your imagination created an image of a dimension. It has no thickness and it has no depth, it only has a length.

Is the line in your mind now visible to you? Can you see it in there? If I told you that it is impossible for you to see it would you then believe me and would the fact that you absolutely can see the line in your mind tell you that it is possible? This is where the Mind will show that it is absolutely a fantastic device that breaks the boundaries of reality. Please read on.

The reason why it is impossible for you to see the line that you drew between the two Dots you imagined is because the line has no thickness and it has no depth. Look at the screen in front of you. It has a width, it has a height and it has a deapth. If you start taking away one of these at the time you will end up with just one. So start taking away the deapth of your screen. Would it be possible for you to see it if the screen only had a width and a height? No, it would not because without the depth there is no way there is room for substance. This is the limitation of the Real world. Everything is made of three dimensions and if you take away one of the dimensions, like depth for example, it is not possible for any substance to fit in just two dimensions. If you have followed this far, please read on.

So how is it possible that you are able to imagine just one line, one dimension? Is your mind able to “see” things that are not physically possible to experience? Or is it so that when you imagine something that you, without having to think of it, are always imagining in three dimensions? No matter what the answer is to those questions, it is clear that you are able to imagine it. You are able to imagine the shape of the line that in principle is the same as one dimension, and you are also able to imagine the meaning of this whole concept, and this is something that can not be found through empirical experience, it can only be found in your mind, your imagination.

With all this in mind it becomes quite clear that anything should be possible in our imagination and this is a powerful thing. It is so powerful that we can create alternative worlds within our minds and we can make things happen in that alternative world and it is completely directly unaffected by the real world.

With this I meant to make a tribute to our minds, as they are, and hopefully inspire thinking and imagination and make it a respected and a truly enjoyable place to be in.

A repetition but this time as an Illustration

I have written on the subject of life and death in Seventh earlier but this is how I choose to illustrate it:

This Project is changing direction!

This project will from now on change direction. Up until now this blog has been about creating a new role playing game together with a whole new rule system and a lot of new nerdy classes and fantasy variations. But this will now end and the reason for this is simple. I have already achieved what it is I really want with this project through this blog.

I feel that I am finished with creating the whole system and rule set for this new RPG. However, the real purpose for me creating this new role playing game is that it gets me to write. I am such a person that cannot write just like that and I have no discipline what so ever. This system that I have built so far is like a tool for me that enables me and pushes me to write effortlessly. It is only a shear joy to write the adventures and stories.

From now on there will only be blog posts on Lore about the world of Seventh and Stories that take place in the world of Seventh. So, there will not be any blog posts that involves rules about the game nor will there be any explanations about mechanics of how things work.

This new direction means that Seventh is an imaginary world that is created through a game master telling a story and through a player that is leading a protagonist or any other character through the story. The only thing the player has to know is his own character sheet. I will update the blog with that character sheet later. Other than that the player is free to interact within the story however they wish to.

All the things that are behind this imaginary world is in my head and the only way I can explain them properly is to tell it in the story. I don’t want to impose my ideas and thoughts and anyone through a rule system, instead I want to give shape to those ideas and thoughts within the story so that anyone who is playing can choose to interact however he pleases.

There are more points to bring up. There are so many rpg gaming systems out there that it is impossible to compete with them. Most people play DnD anyway. So there is no point in just creating a variation of these system if no one is going to play it. It is better to be true to what you do and what I really want to do is to write stories that fits my way of thinking and the system as it is now does that thousandfold.

The Beauty of imagination

Yesterday my lover and companion read the first 17 pages of the latest adventure in Houndsend. It is a story that I present and Anders unfolds and a big part of the adventure takes place in the Realm of the Mind.

So, after she had read it I asked her if she had any questions and if she had understood everything. When I asked about what she thought what happened when the protagonist appeared in the Realm of the Mind she said that she understood it as the protagonist was transported into another dimension. I responded that this can be true but that it is not necessarily true. The other dimension might be true but the transporting might not be.

I tried to explain an alternative and this is what I said:

If I ask you if we can meet telepathically with our minds and see each other, even though we close our eyes and shut our ears, while communicating would you say that that is possible? The answer here is No! So, does it seem supernatural and fantasy like that the persons in the story can do so? Yes, is the answer to this question. But if I ask you if you can just  imagine us two communicating telepathically with each other, would you then say yes? Yes, is the answer to this question too. So just like you can imagine us communicating telepathically you can just as well imagine others do it, for example the two persons in the story? The answer is again yes. So, just as you and me in this real life can imagine things so can these characters in this imaginary world imagine things? Yes! So what is the difference between you and me imagining that we are inside our heads talking to each other and that two imaginary characters are inside their heads talking to each other? For we can imagine it, right?

Birth and Death in Seventh

Excerpt from Where did I come from? by Roman Stalworth

It is commonly understood that the opposite to Life is Death. This is an impossible. Life is durative but Death is instant. Death is a critical point where one state changes to another. Life is a state where the state is and stays until it reaches Death. If Life is not the opposite to Death, what is? The opposite to Death is Birth. Like Death, Birth is a critical instant where one state changes to the other and this insight might shine some light on the question “What is the opposite of Life”. But before we go further from here we need to clear out what the state is before Birth and after Death. We must do this beacuse if Birth and Death are critical points that indicates a change in state, there must logically be a state before Birth and after Death.

There is a thery that states that before anything there has to be an Idea. It is then derived from there that the Idea itself must be a state which preceedes Birth. It preceedes all births, from the simplest to the most complex, as the birth of the Multiverse.

The Birth of man, then, is preceeded by the Idea of man or is it the idea of Life? The power that lies within an Idea is the Idea itself. It shapes itself and acts on forces that is inevetibly itself. If this circular thinking is true then the state after Death must also be an Idea, for this brings the span of Birth, Life and Death into a full circle that starts and ends with just an Idea.

It has been proposed that before everything there was only the Idea. The question that arises, then, is what was before the idea? In this school of thought the answer is simple, but unresting. The answer is that before the Idea is the Idea. The Idea is in itself circular and acts only on the forces that comes from itself. This leaves the Idea to be the beginning and end of everything.

From this comes the theories of the Power of Will, discussed elsewhere.

– Roman Stalworth

Roleplaying or not?

lately I have had thoughts and discussions around roleplaying in a roleplaying game and I have had the chance to test some of these thoughts in a recent game of Sventh. I have also had some discussions about rules and what role the player should have towards the rules, this as well I have tested in a recent gaming sesseion.

The discussions were about how much any rules actually add to the game experience for the player. Is it fine for the player to look up the character sheet each time he wants to act? Is it fine to just stick to the rules as a player? For some it probably is but I think for most it will probably be more fun to do whatever feels right to do or whatever comes to mind. For example in a combat sistuation, should the player only use special attacks and the like that are listed on his character sheet or should the player be able to do whatever he see fits without it being included in the character sheet or in the rules? If he should, then should he cunsult the game master or any rules if he does not understand fully what a special attack does or how it works?

I think the above questions has been answered for me in the last days and after the last game, and the conclusions are the following:

1. A player should never ask the game master about the rules.
2. The player should never ask the game master if he can or cannot do certain things.
3. The player should avoid deciding actions via looking at the character sheet, the character sheet should only be consulted. An example of that is: The player walks on a straight dungeon hallway but in the end of that hallway there is a big hole in the floor that is deep enough to not go into to. The hole stretches for about two meters where the floor starts again. Here the player should not look at the character sheet to see if his character can jump or has a special ability that makes him able to jump, because of course he can jump. The player should instead face the situation and then creatively deal with it. How can he get over the hole? Is there anything in the vicinity, a wooden plank, a bench? If not, then maybe decide to jump over. So the player states the action of jumping over the hole. The game master then decides what abilities that the player should include in the role and he comes to the conclusion that the player will probably use his Strength and Agility to jump and then he asks the player if he wants to run and then jump or just jump.  The player says he will run and jump if he wants to be safe or he decides to jump from a static position if he wants to show off how well he can jump. When the reasoning has come to a decision the game master notifies the player that he needs to roll 1d10 and then add his Strength, Agility and his Movement Speed to the result.
4. Anything is possible to do as a player, it is up to the game master to decide how the rules should be utilized in any action.
5. The game master is the one who should know the rules.

Discussing all these thoughts about playing a role playing game eventually leads to the actual Role Playing. The line between just playing the game and role playing the game is very blurry. One could argue that the character classes and special abilities of the character that the player is playing must be honored because that is what the character you are playing knows, the character does not know what you as a player knows. Just as this is a valid argument you can stretch it and say that just as I am able to reason about what I can do, so can the character I am playing do as well. A mage might not be very good at doing round house kicks while jumping from a table but none the less he can at least try. And as it is the Game Master who should decides what dice needs to be rolled and what abilities that counts as modifiers he should see that physical abilities as Agility and Strength should be included but also the characters experience of doing flying kicks in the air, and/or the characters expierience of close combat fighting in general. A mage is typically not well versed in any of these things so the risk is big that he will fail with the flying round house kick and maybe even fall prone to the ground while doing so. Nonetheless, if a mage attempts to do this I am sure it will be amemorable moment and lots of fun and that is the most important.

If you have read this far then you will learn what has changed in the rules of the game Seventh.

Rules:
1. Every character starts with the most fundamental things that builds up any character. These fundamental things are divided into Physical Abilities, Mental Abilities, Senses and Adventuring Skills.

Physical Abilities:
Strength
Agility
Endurance
Beauty

Mental Abilities:
Intuition
Intelligence (Reason)
Will
Wisdom

Senses:
Vision
Hearing
Taste
Smell
Physical Feeling
Remote Feeling (Clairvoyance)

Adventuring Skills:
Exploration
Combat
Concentration
Divination
Creation

2. When you create a new character all your fundamental statistics starts at a value of 0(zero). Zero reprecents the average abilities values the human race (or whatever fantasy race you like) has. If you want to customize you character you need to lower one Ability in order to increase another Ability. So for example if you want to have a very intelligent character you need to lower one or many of the other abilities.
This not only puts your character in the shoes of a non-hero but also makes it possible for you to create a character has Character. I mean, if you lower many abilities in order to increase one or two very high, you have automatically created a character that is very specialized and depending on how you interpret what it means to, for example, be really weak (low Strength) but be very determined and driven (high Will) you will have some interesting fights.

3. Character classes, or Adventuring Professions as I almost rather call it, will remain, and will be updated, but your character does not start with knowing a Profession. Instead the character needs to learn a specific profession via adventuring. A mage could probably learn the mage profession from studies and at mage universities and whatever comes to mind. There are million ways in getting to know a prefession.

4. A guideline to if you want to role play the character you are playing is to interpret your Ability Scores to start with. These values tells you a lot if you get to know what each Ability stands for. Later on you can also interpret the Classes your character have in order to see what your character would do. The world view your character has can be any world view, but good role playing most probably keeps this world view consistent for the character.

 

That is all for now. Thanks for reading

Andreas

What is Seventh

For anyone new who reads this and might be interested in games, I thought it might be good to sketch and outline of what Seventh, this game project, is about. So I will try to do my best here:

What type of game is Seventh?
Seventh is a Role Playing Game, often abreviated RPG. It is a role playing game in all senses because you are meant to play the character as that character see the world and not how you in real life see the world. You can see it as you are interpreting the characther you are playing.
The game is set in an imaginary world which sole purpose is to expand and embody the imaginations we all have. It is a fantasy world with magic, swords and bows.

Why can’t I just be myself when playing?
There is nothing that says that you cannot be yourself but you are missing out on some very important things. First, the whole idea of taking the role of someone else, be it a hero, villain, commoner or gay wizard, is aiming at identity freedom. In real life we have an identity that is imposed on us either or both by ourselves or our environment. This can sometimes limit the way we act, think, speak and so on and it can trap you in certain patterns. Role Playing enables you to step outside yourself to act, think, speak however you want and noone will ever tell you that it is wrong or bad. This is a freedom and it can be a lot of fun.

How do I play a game?
All you need is one person who leads the game and at least one person who plays the game. The one who is leading the game is the narrator and the referee of the game. That person makes up stories, events and situations where the playing person tries to react to that. As a game leader you do not have to make up a whole novel to make it playable. It is enough to start with a premise such as: “The sun is on its way down and you are standing in the middle of a forest in which you have never been before. There is a tiny furry animal on the ground in front of you that seems to stare at you with its seemingly worried eyes. What do you do?” After that you make it up as you go along.
The person who takes the playing role needs to make up a character and you can do that by following the Character Creation Guide that is posted somewhere on this blog.
When you have decided who wants to be the game leader and who wants to play you just need a way to communicate everything. I have found that Google docs are the best if you are just two people playing. The game leader writes something and then informs the other that he is done. Then the playing person checks the document and writes what his or hers character want to do and then you continue in that manner until you can’t get any longer.
The good thing with Google docs is that you can share the document so everyone can write in it in real time. There are of course other ways you can play the game in.

What is the difference between Seventh and Dungeons and Dragons?
The main difference is that Dungeon and Dragons is set, almost set in stone, so the world, characters and the fundamental philosophy of the game is hard to change. Seventh is an imaginary world started from scratch which enables anything to happen and take shape. I wish to bring a new view to the fantasy world where Philosophy is the strongest influence. You should be able to dig deep into what it is that makes up a person and his or hers view on life and I think that Philosophy and Science is the best tools for digging deep into things.

But there are many aspects of Dungeons and Dragons that are very Philosofical?
Yes, but that philosophy is mainly already set. Seventh is a fresh start where new perspectives can thrive.

But, what is this really about? I mean it is just another game?
True, this is just another game and the most fundamental reason for playing it is that you get something out of it, be it fun, enlightning, learning, meeting new people or whatever it is that drives you.

Do I need to know any game rules?
Yes you do. The most important rules are how you build a character. Once you know that you are free to interpret it however you want. However, it is in my interest to make Classes or Professions that your character can follow. This can both make it easier and more fun fore you and you can compare it with how other people see a class or profession.
There are also other rules like, How do I fight? How do I intereact with other people in the world (non playing characters)? There are some general guidelines on how this should be dealt with but as long as everyone who is involved are playing by the same rules there is nothing to worry about. But yes, I will update these rules as well in the future.

Any other questions?

Seventh’s Dimensions Explained

I am very proud to present a graphical illustration that illustrates how to imagine all the 10 dimensions that exist in the universe of Seventh. I am proud because it took a long time to get my mind around and I think it Illustrates well what it is meant to illustrate.

Please view the image and read the text to understand how to imagine all the dimensions in the Seventh Universe:

Logic For Game Rules

Dear,

I have been discussing the matter of game rules with myself and have discovered quite som interesting stuff. I will write a summary of them here but I will also post links to the whole discussion in the end.

The Combat System.
The chance to hit your target is determined by your experience with the weapon you are using. The Strength and Agility will also add a little bonus.

The way damage is calculated is Base Damage + Weapon Damage + Strength/2 when fighting with melee weapons but there is a limit to how much Strength you can utilize for any particular weapon.

Melee Weapon Damage is determined by the Weight, Size and Sharpness of the weapon. For Blunt weapons Sharpness is substituted by the grade of Bluntness, the less blunt the more damage. The Weight and Size determines what size of the die is used for Weapon Damage. There are 6 different sizes: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20. The Sharpness determines how many of that die is used. There are 5 different grades of sharpness. So, the weapon with lowest damage does 1d4 in damage and the weapon with the highest damage does 5d20 in damage.

Ranged Weapon Damage is two fold. One damage for the bow and another damage for the arrow being used. The bow damage is determined by: The Quality of the bow and the Bow String determines what size of the die it uses. This has 6 grades: d4-d20(just like above). 
The arrows is determined by 1.The Weight of the arrow. This determines what size of the die that is being used which has 5 grades where the smallest die is d4 and the highest is d12. 2. The Sharpness of the Arrow Head. This determines how many of that die you are using. The smallest damage being 1d4 and the highest being 5d12.

To read the full monolog about the Combat system, have a read here:
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgcmcwht_97wtwr39g5

Origin of Magic
Magic can be understood, controlled and used. There is physical Magic and there is also a dimension called Magic or the Magic Plane. Physical Magic is the Fifth Element (The first four: earth, water, wind and fire). The Magic Plane is the Fifth Dimension (The first four: forward-backward, right-left, up-down and time).

The Fifth dimension works like a Control Plane for the first four planes. The Fifth Elements works like a control element for the first four element. The fifth element is the same as what the Plasma state is, where the smallest parts of the atoms roam free. This state of matter can be turned into any of the other four elements where Fire is the easiest one to convert Magic.

You can also create True Magic but then you need to have access to the Sixth Dimension. You get access to the different planes via your Remote Sense.

Magic in its use
Magic is used via spells. Either by spells you have created yourself or that you have learnt from other sources.

To read the full monolg about the Origin of Magic, follow this link:
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgcmcwht_9696fh4xds

If you want to read about all the different dimensions that exists in Seventh, you can find that here
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgcmcwht_100cv2cxz9r

I hope you enyojed the reading.

Andreas