House of Cards GM Log

IMC: Weird Chaos

posted by Ginger at 10:17 PM, July 17, 2003 | Filed under : IMC , Traveller's Guide to Chaos | Comments and Followups

Arref brings us the next IMC exercise:

What sort of things do you guys place in your Chaoses to make them weird?

Some spoilers are in the extended entry, but nothing we haven’t already alluded to.

In a first series campaign, you have a lot of room for weirdness without the constraints of the second series.

Our guiding principle in thinking about Chaos is Jim Henley’s comment that Amber came from a unicorn f**cking a mad hunchback, and Chaos should be stranger than that. Our influences include: T.S. Elliot (The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock), the Principia Discordia, Michael Moorcock, Buck Godot, Tales of the Beanworld, Toon, Fanstasia, Dune, and, of course, H.P. Lovecraft.

One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In Chaos, this is normal.

The PCs have not spent significant amounts of time in Chaos, but some of them have had a chance to speak with those who have. Some of the ideas that have been touched on are:

• Chaos is inherently unstable. Strength of will means a great deal. Lack of it is fatal.
• Time isn’t and doesn’t.
• Chaosians have unusual eating habits
• Form is mutable. Physical aspects such as size, shape, and even sex are not certain.
• Reproduction is—different. Sexual reproduction is grotesque and embarrassing.
• The relationships among Chaosians are complex, yet simple. Vassalage doesn’t really begin to cover it.
• There are no equals in Chaos. Forget this at your peril.

Mutable forms mean there is no limit to the weirdness you can throw at the characters. The lack of knowledge that Amberites have of Chaos and the fact that the Chaosians don’t perceive beings as equals means that all powerful Chaosians are dangerous. It’s a good basis for a campaign in which Chaosians are unknown and unpredictable enemies.

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