What do you think the Court of the Tarot will be like?

[gaby]

I think members will take a name from the Major Arcana,s cards.

Do you think some members will be a Magic or Psychic P.C.C?

I can't wait for rifter 45 to come out.

[Lord Z]

Basically yes, yes, and yes...

I'm the article's author. That's three points for Gaby. Any other guesses?

[mrloucifer]

Wurd... I'm excited to see what the Court of Tarot is about myself.

I had something of an elitist group in my game once, but they ended up destroyed by a serious evil. here's hoping the Court of Tarot Fares better.

[Lord Z]

I apologize for the short answers. There are a couple of reasons for being non-verbose. First, I don't want to disclose too much of the information in the text, so I'm falling on the side of caution. Second, I don't want to mention something which might not be there. I submitted the Court as a series of three articles. I then wrote and submitted a follow-up article which was related but not specifically about the Court. The papers which Wayne sent to me didn't mention which of the four articles had been picked as Rifter material.

Thank you for the support, guys.

As for how the Court will fair, I think they are doomed. The Lazlo Society has more player-characters. Nothing in the megaverse is more dangerous than a team of player-characters.

[mrloucifer]

As for how the Court will fair, I think they are doomed. The Lazlo Society has more player-characters. Nothing in the megaverse is more dangerous than a team of player-characters.

WURD!

[Shawn Merrow]

Read the article and really enjoyed it. You, came up with a great group Lord Z with a lot of adventure potential. Also thought Lady Teapot was a rather unique idea.

[AzathothXy]

I didn't thnk I would like the article, but then I found myself losing track of time reading it. Which of course means I really got into it. So I was wrong, good addition.

[Lord Z]

Ouch! Neck cramp from swelling head! Thank you both for the feedback. Lady T says that you may kiss her ring now.

[mrloucifer]

Buzzard and I are going out for drinks this weekend.

[gaby]

Have any one come up with Court,s members?
if you do show ther here?

How do you see some one membership passing on?

Do you think it,s Hereditary passing in families?

What would you changed from Rifter to make it your own?

[mrloucifer]

Have any one come up with Court,s members?
if you do show ther here?

How do you see some one membership passing on?

Do you think it,s Hereditary passing in families?

What would you changed from Rifter to make it your own?

I am in the process of adding a member of the court or three in my game, sending them up to Seattle where my game takes place. I see them as more "lesser evil" NPC's right now as all my players are VERY pro-Lazlo, but I'm good at adding shades of grey to my NPC's (even my villains have good merits at times) so who knows what could happen?

I dont think I will make any changes in my game, I like the set up the way it is.

[Lord Z]

Rank in the Court is bequeathed from one generation to the next. This usually happens along family lines from parent to child, but often enough that isn't how it happens. Court members can be bribed into giving away their ranks in their wills. Or the older member can simply grant the rank to a student or protege'. If no heir is specified, the queen gives away the rank. The queen has the authority to create new ranks and assign them however she sees fit, but that very rarely happens because the queens like to keep their club small and elitist.

[Lord Z]

The Court of Tarot errata article is up. My big fat thanks to the Nexus Nine crew (particularly Tenchuu) for hosting this. Fear not the link...

[Shawn Merrow]

The Court of Tarot errata article is up. My big fat thanks to the Nexus Nine crew (particularly Tenchuu) for hosting this. Fear not the link...

Get this error message "There was an error opening this document. The file is damaged and could not be repaired." when I try to open it in Reader 9.2. Also OpenOffice.org was also not able to view it.

[Lord Z]

That's curious. It is a .pdf document, but I am viewing it easy as you please with Firefox, Adobe Reader 9.2.0, and Foxit.

[Shawn Merrow]

That's curious. It is a .pdf document, but I am viewing it easy as you please with Firefox, Adobe Reader 9.2.0, and Foxit.

Finally got it. When I was using "Save target as" it was not downloading the full file.

[Lord Z]

Okay, that's even weirder. There must be a Gremlin involved somehow.

[Cybermancer]

Okay, that's even weirder. There must be a Gremlin involved somehow.

It's the more tech savvy members of the Lazlo Society running interference.

[gaby]

The Court of the Tarot makes good competittion for the Lazlo agency,but also for Groups in set the Past and They can wokr in H.U too.
I think it,s Great if they become canon,maybe a member as a example of a magic Ppc,non-human,s race,or it,s members are meeted during a Adventure.

It have Great Potential,I hope BtS,s players use it.

[Lord Z]

Thank you, Gaby.

[mrloucifer]

Ive used the court a few times in my game.

[Lord Z]

I will remember that!

[Lord Z]

Hey Gaby, I could use some fun phrases in French. In this Splicers thread, I made up a Great House which patterns itself after the legends of Charlemange.

[gaby]

Ca ne fait rien (it doesn't matter)

[Hendrik]

Charlemange

Not French, good Z!

Charlemange was a "Frank" not a Frenchman. The latter is what the French said, when the Germans said "Karl the Great" (which referes to the same man) was German. Both utter nonsense! The Franks had a great grasp of (what) territory (means), but none of them would have understood nationality.

That said, I love - and I apologize, my French is extremely basic -

On y va (let's go!).
Qu'importe (doesn't matter / who cares)
Bah! (pha) - MUST be accompanied by a French shrug and can be used as an answer to almost any question (if you do not "bah" to unfriendly)
Hein? - a close brother to "bah!" (can mean "what?" or "eh?")
pas que moi hein - "not only I"

None of that is King's French, but not rude IIRC.

Cheers
Hendrik

[Hibik]

Remember that during the Frankish period, Latin was still a big language, even though vernacular French had already diverted significantly enough from Latin - people east of the Rhine would be speaking varieties of Old High German or one of the Germanic languages . As he was important, however, pretty much all other languages would be translating Charlemagne out of a Latin name - in this case, Carlolus Magnus. In German he's Karl der Grosse.

[Hibik]

That depends a lot on what they did in their lives. A noble OCC or profession would make sense in most cases if we're talking about nobility, unless they spent a significant amount of time doing something else. Part of the difficulty of statting someone out is that history often remembers the deeds of their polities more than the people themselves, and it takes many to make a kingdom. It's a little easier with inventors and explorers.

Charlemagne seems like a noble. He might be charismatic or handsome, but that might just be depictions of him.

Ponce De Leon seems like he'd be a military class as he was a soldier in Spain before he became an explorer and governor of Puerto Rico. He seems like he was an intelligent capable man.

I don't know enough about the life of Yaa Asentewaa to say for certain. As she was Queen Mother in the Asante Confederacy, I'd likely say a noble, probably either intelligent or charismatic.

[Lord Z]

An update for House Paladin has been posted. It seems that this house is getting more arrogant and elitist all the time, much like the Court of Tarot.

[Jasper]

So lately I’ve been getting back into BTS, going over my pages and pages of notes, making up new NPCs, re-reading books etc. I stopped buying Rifter back in 2007 so I missed the Rifter with the Court of the Tarot but I ordered it from my LGS and they got it quick so finally got to read it. What follows are my notes regarding your article. Some questions may be mixed in. And yes, I have located the 47 page errata pdf and read that as well. My notes are a little scattered still. You should have seen them before I fixed them up.
Comments:
When Buzzard is explaining the suits to Anna in the second page he mentions that each suit has fourteen ranks but only explains thirteen, pretty much leaving out Pages. What happened here? Do the suits have 13 or 14 ranks? Tarot suites have 14 cards while playing cards have 13, maybe you (or Buzzard) got confused .
I had a question regarding the Minor Psychic powers mentioned but I’ve read those rules are in a possibly pending article that you submitted.
For my campaign I think the CoT as a globe spanning organization is too powerful. I mean the CoT controls 10% of the world’s wealth? I’ll tone it down for my campaign while still having them rich and powerful. I definitely like the idea of them though.
Isn’t the plural of staff staves, not staffs? Is that an oversight or does the CoT actually refer to that suit as Staffs?
I like the doll, it’s a little crazy. I’d be freaked out. Did not see it coming in the story. She’s pretty powerful with both magic and psionics but that’s fine considering her position. Between this and the origins of the CoT (with the stabbing and all) as an outsider I’d be suspicious of what’s behind them and what’s really going on.
The Thomas Edison/Rasputin links I’m not so sure about. Probable but not true, pumped up to give themselves importance. I’m wary of tying in too much historical figures in my campaign but on the other hand I do sometimes. In your Rasputin write up in the errata it seems that Rasputin in your world came to America and was never the advisor to the Russian royal family or whatever. Or was he supposed to be in two places at once or what? Even the assassination attempt on his life in your write up is pretty much the way he really died. Regarding Thomas Edison I find a hard time reconciling him as an occult researcher but that’s my bias from White Wolf which has him as a pure Technocrat (in oWoD anyway).
You refer to the Lazlo Society several times as the organization that the CoT hates. I think you mean Lazlo Agency, not the Lazlo Society. The Society is anybody who creates an account on their website while the Agency are the investigators. I think.
You say membership may never be rescinded but you also say ranks can be bequeathed by their owner’s. If I sell my membership what rank do I have now or does the sale only finalize upon my death?
I saw your comment on the forums that ranks are usually inherited. While I would think psychic power is inherited to a degree wouldn’t this policy ultimately lead to the inheritors being mostly powerless (though titled, educated and often rich) while new members are invited because they have powers but are often rankless? I think a hundred years (and several generations) of this policy would lead to stagnation, that’s why they don’t like the Lazlo Agency (who have more powers). I would also see a lot of the members seeking mystical powers from other means.
Order of the Golden Circle – The “Redneck Illuminati”. White Supremists. Sounds awesome, I would like to know more about them. They still supposed to be around in current day? Are they based on anything historical? A quick Google search turned up nothing for me so I am guessing they are a creation of yours.
I like the Nega-Psychic origin regarding Houdini. I don’t see it as their origins but as a resurgence of their numbers, sure.
Is it Jasmine or Veronica Ravenbilt who is the Princess of Staffs (Staves?)? I’ve seen both names.
Would have like more stats for the modern Court, while interesting I don’t want stats for past dead members as my campaign is set in modern times.
I would have loved seeing more mentioned regarding the Major Arcana. I felt it has huge potential and was left unexplored here. I mean, these are the unique cards that had a lot of symbolism but there’s nothing on them. Was this part of your write up left on cutting room floor? I plan on creating a separate forum posting on my take on the Major Arcana.
Errata comment:
Not a fan of the True Ghost, I like how Palladium stays away from them as it just gives a different taste/feel. At least they’re rare.

All in all I found your article intriguing and inspirational. Thanks for your hard work!

[gaby]

Well I see the Major Arcana as the People who focus ecconomic power and political influence.

the Minor Arcana are the Field agents focus investigation of and taking out threats to the Club,rounded resources like enisting friendly magic being or pursuit magic items for the Good of the club.

I also think it,s better to show the Club members of the Here and Now.

[Lord Z]

Hello Jasper,

Thank you very much for your kind words. I am more than pleased to answer some questions.

The suits are patterned off of the tarot decks. I was confused, not Buzzard.

The minor psychics got moved into a some material I added to The Rifter #0.1. That project is still up in the air. Minor psychics bridge the gap between psionicly blind normal people and PCCs. Here is the short version. A minor psychic gets one of these three options: one psychic power of choice, open oneself to the supernatural as per a Psychic Sensitive, or the ability to use psi-devices.

The figure of 10% of the world's wealth is perhaps extreme and better suited for a N&SS or HU game than a normal BtS game. The figure actually comes from a factoid I heard once about the real Henry Flagler and his contemporaries like Rockefellar and Morgan. There was this one particular neighborhood outside of New York City where all of those industrialists owned houses, a weekend getaway location. The owners of the homes in that neighborhood collectively held 10% of the world's wealth at that time. I'll stick by this figure for the Court, if for no other reason than a GM might want to run a high rollers campaign like that. Having the richest PC in a campaign can be fun. For your own games, I highly encourage you to scale back or restructure the Court as you like.

Regarding 'staves', you are correct. That is the plural form of staff in this usage. I did not know that until you pointed it out to me.

Regarding Rasputin, I was a little vague regarding his story. I didn't do it that way on purpose so much, but I am pleased with how it turned out. It gives the GM a little elbow room to decide what was true and what has become falsified history. The Court's Rasputin (who probably is the real Rasputin) probably did serve an an advisor and healer for the Tsar's family for a time, but then the found an even better deal.

Regarding Edison, yes and no -- Edison did not always have a reputation as being a by-the-numbers engineer and somewhat ruthless business, crushing the dreams of young Nicoli Tesla. During his own lifetime, there were rumors that he was developing a variation of his phonograph designs which could hear the voices of ghosts. No one has ever found such plans nor such a device, but I extrapolated on the rumor and wrote that he got the darn thing working.

The Agency vs the Society. Yeah, I know. From a writer's point of view, it doesn't make as much sense for the Court to hate the Society. From a gamer's point of view, I think it works. In years of playing BtS, I have never seen anyone roleplay a member of the Lazlo Agency. It certainly is an option. The way that the game is usually played, the Society is far more likely to have PCs who are members. The Court is intended to be a source of rivals for the PCs, so there you go. In game, we could chalk this up to some snooty Court members being bigoted: 'Lazlo Agency, Lazlo Society, those people are all the same.'

Membership before death -- rank is prized by the Court members, and they are very unlikely to give it up for any price. The system is set up by the Queens to work like lordships in feudal Europe. Selling of a rank before death would be rare if it ever happened. I would like to see this explored in an actual game sometime. Whether the new owner of the rank is acknowledged or not by the rest of the Court would likely depend on whether or not the current Queen chooses to accept him.

Concerning the Court loosing its psychic potency over time due to the system of inheritance, I think you have a good handle on the situation. Maybe one of the those mystic means of gaining power would be Tainted PCC by Mr. Loucifer that appeared in a recent Rifter. Another source might be a deal struck with a Soul Tree or some other powerful supernatural creature with questionable motives. It sounds like the basis of an awesome campaign to me.

The Order of the Golden Circle is based on something historical. I first found out about them in one of Kenneth Hite's Supressed Transmition books. The bank robber Jesse James was speculated be a founding member. There is very little written about the Golden Circle anywhere that I have stumbled across which means either there was not much to it in the first place or else it is really good at being secretive.

Did I imply that Houdini was the origin of Nega-Psychics? I did not mean to do that. I entirely agree with you that the Negas experienced a revival as a result of his efforts.

Veronica Ravenbilt is the Princess of Staves. It sounds like I made an editing error somewhere.

Stats for contemporary members of the Court, huh? I would like to see that also. The only other Courty I remember giving stats was the Tower Card in Rifter #0.1. He's really odd, so you might not like him. Mr. Loucifer has fleshed out an Eight of Swords for his own campaign, and he might share if you ask very nicely and maybe show him some leg. Does anyone else have Court PCs or NPCs fleshed out?

Thanks for being honest with me about the True Ghosts. I respect your opinion.

A lot did end up on the cutting room floor, but that is because the stuff which was cut wasn't as good. I purposefully left many of the Major Arcana roles blank so to leave room for GMs to insert their own NPCs or give PCs rolls to aspire to fill. That said, I would love to see what other Major Arcana characters have been created by other people.

[gaby]

What do you think,you need to changed to make the Court of the Tarot wokr in Heroes Unlimited?

[Lord Z]

Let me think about that a bit, Gaby.

[krate]

I don't know about game mechanics. But it doesn't take much to make the Court work in HU. I'd hand out more spandex and comic-book weapons for the guards. The Major Arcana would walk around in fancy clothing, cause they would be the inner circle. I would give them the wealth and influence they have now but I'd give them a super-power or two or three. I picture them kinda like the Hellfire Club.

[Lord Z]

Okay, I was thinking of an answer to the question. Instead, I liked Krate's answer much better than my own. To that, I will just add that the Court will be attempting to buy up influence in places where things happen like Century Station, but its efforts will be slowed by the presence of other super-agencies who are already established in such places. So yeah, the major change will be in the style, not the powers nor the organization of the Court. Make them more four-color comic villainy.

Regarding those mechanics, the members of the Tarot who are psychics would need just a bit of tweaking to bring them in-line with HU 2nd edition. Assume that they all have stable ISP reserves like all of the other psychic humans in HU. I would use the Master Psychic hero to determine ISP. They no longer experience ISP surges when in the presence of the supernatural.

Any other suggestions, folks?

[Lord Z]

Regarding the Mystically Bestowed class, yeah they can be quite potent. I roleplayed a Mystically Bestowed character in a huge cross-genre world-hopping pbp campaign that Logan the Defiant ran for a long time. I built her to be a grown-up version of the magical girl anime concept. I am thinking that the class was modeled after Captain Marvel from D.C. comics, so they are supposed to be potent. (Yes, I know that HU doesn't use the term 'class', but that is what it is.) The most straight-forward way to reign in a Mystically Bestowed, I would think, would be to ban the option for Major Superpowers. Using only Minor Superpowers, there are still a lot of options that don't become campaign-wrecking.

Regarding the Alien Intelligences, The AIs are based loosely on Lovecraft mythos eldergods and such, so they are supposed to be untouchable by mortals. If you would like to see a weaker AI, just make one as such. Even Alien Intelligences can be down on their luck. Maybe the AI in your game just lost a war in another world and came to Earth to recover its strength. A similar critter to the AI but less powerful would be the Soul Tree from the Rifter, one of my favorite monsters. Soul Trees can give power in the form of knowledge and generate entity-like minions, but it cannot possess nor create avatars. Knowledge from the dead can include all sorts of useful stuff according to the whims of the GM, like locations of lost treasure or secret bank accounts or even magic spells. I did mention a Soul Tree existing in the home turf of the Court (either in the original article or in the errata document).

I haven't read a lot from the HU sourcebooks, so I don't know how much useful for BtS is to be found there. Your HU article, Mephisto, about the new magic classes is something that I still think would be an excellent fit in BtS.

Let me know what you come up with, M.