RE: (TFT) New monster --> Tahquitz --> what the???

["rsmith" <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi all,
	I've GM'ed Steve Jackson's no god universes
and I've played in D&D campaigns where Thor and the
like are regularly trashed by PC's (gods are just
a bud, ya know?)

	In my current campaign, gods are active so
I'm needing rules for them.  Basically I don't want
gods to be something that any person PC or NPC to
even THINK about being able to toast, so I've been
wanting a # of levels of agents and intermediaries
that can represent god's interests.  Tahquitz is
about 1% of the way between gods and the most
powerful PC imaginable.

	More to the point, I like powerful beings
who don't fit into neat classifications.  When
players hear about Tahquitz their likely reaction
is "What?"

	It seems to me that the soul of an angel
should be more important to the god than that of
a moral man.  Also there are not a lot of categories
other than spirit, elemental and soul.  Ka is a
Chinese (I think) name of soul, and I have used
the term for spirits that are a quantum step more
powerful than human souls.

	Voodoo, existential and name magics are
different names for magics that work on the same
principles.  It is the magic system used by
Djinns and other powerful beings.  What they do
is change your true name, thus fundamentally
changing the properties of what ever has been
so renamed.   With existential magic, you can
turn on or off the ability of a soul to use
magic, give a person magical powers like the one
in the "Lords of Dus" novels by Lawrence Watt-
Evans.

	An existential wish is a wish that uses
existential magic rather than regular magic.  As
such it can fundamentally change what you are.
It could add an elemental Accord for example.
It may also raise maximum attributes past normal
racial maximums, add magical senses (danger sense
or the ability to detect magic use) and things
like that.

	It is true that much of human literature
is more interesting if you care about humans,
but Tahquitz is fascinated by what is left out of
stories as well as what gets put in.  Human
beings seem to have an instinctual ability to
turn stories out of some very unstory-like
material and the structure of stories, how drama
pacing foreshadowing all fascinate him.

	Dragons are not anywhere as near as social
beings as humans.  Their tales have historical
depth, but they don't feel a need to entertain.
(If only there were more human storytellers with
an IQ of 30, <<<sigh>>>).

	Also the ability to force stories into
song and poetry blows Tahquitz' mind to a small
extent.


	Defying gods and god like creatures has a
long tradition in literature.  I think that you
would not need that powerful a party to make
Tahquitz worry.  Remember, he assumes that in
any battle, the enemy will roll 3 triples at the
worst possible moment, while he gets a string of
18's.  As far as Tahquitz is conserned, the
perfect battle is one where the enemy rolls
straight triple maximum damages, he rolls a
bunch of 18's and still he finishes it with no
damage.  He is willing to use surprise, ambush,
trickery and allies to acheive this worthy goal.

	The rod adjusts the affected people's
desires so that they are in line with what
Tahquitz' suggests.  As such it is fundementally
more powerful and flexable than a Word of
Command.

	The toughest PC's in my campaign would
not be able to kill Tahquitz but they could
give him a scare.


	Rick



-----Original Message-----
From: tft-owner@brainiac.com [mailto:tft-owner@brainiac.com]On Behalf Of
srydzews@ix.netcom.com
Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2002 7:32 AM
To: tft@brainiac.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) New monster --> Tahquitz


My, that's quite something.

> As such he has a KA
> rather than a soul or spirit.

Which means?

> Has a rod (3.2 meters long masses 95kg)
> which can make beings do what he wishes.

Is this essentially a Word of Command sort of effect?

Oh, and what is an existential wish?

> Tahquitz has a love of literature and
> poetry.  They are the only things that
> humans have created of any worth (in
> his opinion).

Hm, but human literature does not exist in a vaccuum.  Deconstructionist
prattle aside, it is about something, typically about humans and what they
have created.  Is this a paradox, or is this fellow being somewhat
disingenuous when he makes this claim?  Or am I missing the point?

> In the past humans have worshipped
> Tahquitz as a god.  (This is laughable,
> Tahquitz is MANY, MANY times weaker than a
> god than the weakest human is to him.)

I take it you don't toe the party line with regard to Jackson's "the best
gods
is no gods" approach.  His philosophy seems to be that the game is about the
PC's, but if the gods are strong, they don't need PC's--and conversely, if
they do need PC's they really aren't that strong, or at least don't really
have stats of any quantifiable nature.  So what's the point in saying a god
is
"many times stronger" than this?  I'm think we're well beyond the "I killed
Thor wit' me vorpal sword" days of Gods, Demigods, and Heroes (tm).  :)

> He is suggested to GM's as a god
> figure of some barbarian society.  Such a
> pathetically weak, 'scaled down' god could
> actually be frightened by PC's which may
> be what the GM is looking for.

Frightened?  Wow.  Well I can't say anything about your PC's, but I've never
had to GM one that could do much upon meeting with such a creature's
displeasure other than to soil the creature's immortal hide with his
exploding
corpse.

Very, very cool stuff.
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