Questions & Answers

[Starsign]

I also like the idea of the Blood Moon connection, though I'm not sure how much Grima should be connected to it so you can leave that to Rune. :)

Although I admit, I've never seen the real moon in any shade of red either.

[Gallowglass]

I’ve seen it once.
As I recall it happened to fall on a Saturday night and the weather forecast was for clear skies, so it seemed that it was a “do it now if ever” kind of thing, plus young and foolish at the time :)

Because the moon was going to be low in the sky (it being a winter month) we couldn’t watch it from the comfort of one of our gardens and just do a sleep over, so we walked over to a nearby park armed with ground sheet, blankets and snacks, to where the horizon was uncluttered.

Unlike a solar eclipse, the lunar eclipse went on for ages. Definitely hours. Although not all of that time was at totality since it’s changing so slowly. Normal moonlight is bright enough to give some visibility at night, but this was just the moon being coloured without much in the way of reflected light.

The phenomenon is due to the blue light getting scattered away in the Earth’s atmosphere, such as happens at sunrise and sunset, except with the Earth standing exactly between the Moon and the Sun, that ‘sunset light’ is the only light reaching the moon.

I’m not sure that it’s special enough for it to be worth other people staying up for, but I was curious and wanted to see it while the chance was there. So often in Britain celestial events are hidden behind rain bearing clouds.

 

[Gallowglass]

National Geographic video on Lunar Eclipses. It explains things in a bit more detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW2xRR75lKE

[Neopopulas]

If i remember the colour of the moon also depends a lot on where you are in the world.

[Rune Knight]

Ok, this helps me imagine the red much better, thank you. Hearing it described as this kind of "sunset orange" helps make it feel more grounded, and less like an overly supernatural, highly saturated red like in some video games I've played.

In that case, the Blood Moon could be seen as the same kind of benign celestial event that most people often miss, while supernatural forces tend to pay more attention to it because of it's significance to them, actually noticing when it's a Blood Moon and seeing it more often.

To be clear, I've approved the connection between the Blood Moon and a few things so far: unbound familiars like Grima, the awakening of vampires, and some witch rituals including but not limited to initiations.

[Rune Knight]

Btw, quick update: as mentioned in the ad, I've extended the advertisement period. So far, the Family Pet and the Best Friend have been taken, and we have one (rather promising) applicant for the Wild Card still in the works.

No one has applied for the Rival yet, and I don't really expect anyone to, tbh: the role only has a small amount of screen time for this one-shot. Once the window of opportunity for the Rival has come and gone in the story, there shouldn't be a need to advertise anymore. :)

[Gallowglass]

Yes, the colour may well vary depending on lattitude, though I don't know if it would be more intense if it was higher in the sky, or less. There are a lot of variables I believe. It would be kind of interesting to know how much that affected it.

I would describe what I saw as a 'thin red'. Imagine getting a bloclk of red watercolour paint and thinning it right down with water and then giving the moon a kind of blush with it. It's definitely red but it's just a blush over the moon's features. At least that is my memory of it's appearance.

That said I can understand why it would have caused such great concern in the past. Seeing the moon 'stained' with blood is going to give rise to some pretty wild theories.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Gallowglass (see edit history)

[Rune Knight]

Update Log #2: I've extended the ad period again, as per usual. :) Not much has changed, but I don't expect it to until we're closer to the halfway point of the episode, when the other characters will enter the scene.

Speaking of which, we're making steady progress in the story so far! We're near the end of Scene III, Scene IV will reunite us with the Best Friend, and then Scene V will be where the other characters are introduced.

[Gallowglass]

Theatre of the Mind.

I'm assuming that for 'common or garden' things we can just assume they would be present, such as windows and contaminated waste bins in a surgery. Whereabouts is the dividing line between things which can be automatically assumed to exist, and things where we might need to roll to determine the result?

[Rune Knight]

When it comes to establishing things in a scene, there are generally three things that can be done:

The first is to reasonably infer that what you're looking for is present in the scene. A perfect example of this is the contaminant waste bin you just established in the veterinarian intensive care unit: it's perfectly reasonable to assume that such a thing would be in that room.

The second is to roll to Create an Advantage. This is usually a Notice check, or Vigilance in terms of this specific game. The character searches for the item and "happens" to "realize" that it was there all along, even though we as storytellers hadn't thought of it yet.

And the third is to spend a Fate Point to declare a story detail; any character can do this at any time. This is basically a Deus ex Machina ability, but the GM has the power to veto anything too egregious, so it should still be within the realm of possibility.

In the case of the window, the reason it didn't take a Create an Advantage action or cost a Fate Point to establish is because I (the GM) had always intended for this element to be present in the room, I had just forgotten to establish it. Not all rooms like this have windows, so it could have been up for debate otherwise.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Rune Knight (see edit history)

[Gallowglass]

11 hours ago, Rune Knight said:

Not all rooms like this have windows, so it could have been up for debate otherwise.

Oh, that's interesting. Thinking back on it I guess my view of vetinarian practices is greatly coloured by all the James Herriot dramas that I've seen on TV. He was a British Vet who wrote a series of books about his experiences. The books became so popular that a long running TV series was based on them, with re-runs occurring from time to time.

In the 30s to 60s nearly all doctors and vetinarians operated out of old victorian houses which were spacious and had therefore been re-purposed into medical centres, usually with a staff of two to three doctors with a housekeeper/receptionist.

[Malkavian Grin]

On 11/19/2023 at 1:05 AM, Starsign said:

Although I admit, I've never seen the real moon in any shade of red either.

It's more pink than red. Blood Moon happens about once or twice a year regularly. What's rare is when it's also a blue moon at the same time.

Hi folks, I've been eyeballing this one. I love FATE as a system but every game I've played dies too soon and I never learn more about playing it better. I know the basics but I'd like to know enough that i could eventually rub a game in it (tried once or twice with abysmal results).

So it looks like the only uncontested spot is for a baddie? I can make a fun antagonist. Let me take a look and see if i can come up with anything good (and i don't even know what show you're talking about).

[Rune Knight]

Hello! :) We've been doing well so far, and I'm confident we'll be able to give you a great experience with Fate.

Eyeing the Rival, are you? At the pace things are going, your application could be ready just in time for them to appear, so you've arrived just in time! Let me know if you have any questions, or if you'd like to brainstorm any changes to the character: I'd love to discuss whatever you need to.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Rune Knight (see edit history)

[Malkavian Grin]

22 hours ago, Rune Knight said:

Hello! :) We've been doing well so far, and I'm confident we'll be able to give you a great experience with Fate.

Eyeing the Rival, are you? At the pace things are going, your application could be ready just in time for them to appear, so you've arrived just in time! Let me know if you have any questions, or if you'd like to brainstorm any changes to the character: I'd love to discuss whatever you need to.

Groovy. My last FATE game made me think i actually didn't know how to play which was super odd since i learned from Dresden Files which is where the system got started.

Anyhow yeah looking at the rival. I'll have a gander and see what's going on with it.

How long do scenes last, thus far? I see it says they are in like 2 scenes total out of 8?

[Rune Knight]

@Malkavian Grin We just finished scene 3 and are about 1/3rd of the way through scene 4. :) With all of the characters and character interactions in the scene that the Rival is in, I expect it will be one of the longest: at least as long as this scene, if not longer.

Something important that we'll definitely want to discuss - be that here or in your upcoming application thread - is the Rival's two best friends. We'd go over questions like "do you like them or do you think we don't need them?", "if you keep them what can I (the GM) tell you about their default character traits?", and "is there anything you'd like to change about them?", so I look forward to that.

Also, art is an important aesthetic to keep in mind for the character. Ellie and her rival express their competition against each other through painting mostly, so that would be a good thing to focus on.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Rune Knight (see edit history)