Our modern world nears the precipice of fantastical incursion. The game plays 15 years in the future of our current time, but 10 years after magic has become socially accepted as real, having swept across the world with such relentless abandon that even the most stubborn struggle to ignore it.
Magical incursions did not appear in a single event; there is no epicenter to separate the past and new world. Just like when tracking a new trend, slang, or fashion, it’s easier to give a rough estimate of when it entered popular knowledge than when it specifically first appeared. When it comes to magic, this is especially true; folktale is as old as time, and none can truly say when those tales turned to reality. No one really knows how long the magic has been there, and with new time magic expanding our history, it may not be possible to identify when change truly crept in.
Regardless of how or when real magic appeared, the change is prevalent enough that society is forced to adapt. Many reject the magic on the news and before their eyes. Some seek to define it to a science. Most see it as a new opportunity to explore. At its simplest, the game takes place at the beginning of something new: Witchgates.
Witchgates refer to the regions that are, or have been, altered in a fantastical manner that modern science has yet to explain. Some are permanent and expansive while many more are fleeting and small. A witchgate rarely appears in stark contrast to the world with a definite line. Instead they are most commonly similar to a change in biomes. Fields of wheat intermix with crystalline stocks and glasshoppers until you reach a gem-like forest. A once barren cave has gravity defying lichen and pools of not-quite-water. Clouds of vaporous iron and shrieking terrors float miles over regions once acclimated to stormy weather. The mist of a march shifts into a perpetual black smog with glowing movements.
Setting Layers
The remainder of Witchgate’s setting is split into layers; starting with high level concepts needed to explore the general themes of Witchgates and to help guide players to create their own regions, with later layers providing more details with specific factions, events, and locations within a pre-made setting.
When starting a game, the GM should declare what layers they are referencing for their game so that players can know if there is any common setting knowledge they can explore. GMs are still welcome to take from deeper levels of course, but that information may be slightly altered or no-longer common knowledge in the GM’s universe.
GMs choose to ignore any and all of the layers, utilizing the system’s mechanics in their own universe, but should still consider the parts of Layer 1 which influence the mechanics of legacy abilities.
Layer 1
At this layer there are no names to remember. Instead, the first layer is here to help players to understand the themes and questions used to generate their own story details and factions. We also provide several templates which can be placed over real-world or made-up locations. These templates will provide self-contained alterations to modern settings, each with their own inherent challenges, internal conflicts, possible parties of interest, and potential rewards for players to uncover.
Finally, this layer also describes lore concepts which directly relate to mechanics or general gameplay. For example, thresholds are barriers to magic which can appear naturally or be created by some player characters, and so a common understanding of how to interact with thresholds is necessary for most characters.
Setting Questions and Possible Answers
- How have the new dangers from witchgates changed how society acts?
- Has it altered transportation?
- Is air-travel safe? Maybe it is safer to fly on slower and lower vehicles that can be protected from winged creatures.
- Are main-highways guarded? How risky is traveling on a rural backroad?
- How close do people live together?
- Have people flocked to cities for safety in numbers?
- Are there areas with dangers so great that walls and barricades are needed to keep people safe? If so, how’s security managed to enter and exit?
- Who manages the monsters?
- Are there mercenary monster hunters or is that managed by a government task force? Are there bounty hunters?
- Who harvests the supernatural components from a danger? Who buys?
- How are intelligent threats handled?
- How corrupt and bias are justice systems towards magical beings?
- When all magic is new and valuable, how much exploitation do characters need to worry about, both in and out of the justice system. Maybe magical possessions commonly get “lost” after a “dangerous” person is detained. Are all witchgates sought out by corporations and special interests?
- Has it altered transportation?
- How has crime and business changed?
- How valuable is magical R&D and magical attainment, and how willing are some organizations to get the advantage over others with magic?
- How has magic that allow scrying and mind control altered the political landscape and espionage?
- How have magically binding contracts changed business?
- With governments struggling to keep up with changes and businesses struggling to compete with each other, how have common people filled the vacuums?
- Are there adventuring leagues? Local volunteer guards or trail scouts watching for new witchgates?
- Are there local or national vigilantes?
- How common is street magic? Are there local apothecaries?
- How has infrastructure been maintained? How far ahead are cities over rural areas? What places have been forgotten, and who has moved into those corners?
- How much do people trust what they see online? Is it video magic, illusion, or reality?
- How has the environment changed?
- What new weather patterns have formed?
- What witchgates are widely known of and considered part of ordinary life?
- What new factions exist?
- Power struggles: Who really owns the local domain?
- Is there a unified group or is power split across others.
- Who manages communication between the power players?
- Who manages food and resources? Zoning laws?
- Who has dibs on newly discovered witchgates?
- Legacy purists: as people of the same legacy find each other, what are the views of the purists? What legacies do they dislike mixing with and why?
- What powers have humanitarians gathered and what are their priorities?
- Power struggles: Who really owns the local domain?
- Who are the newcomers to a scene and what are they shaking up?
- Are there powerful groups pushing to take authority or land away from locals?
- Has anyone or anything gone missing? What’s been done about it so far?
- What places have had to be abandoned and why?
- Is there a new influx of population? Where are they settling and what are they doing? Refugees or opportunists?
Mechanic Lore
This section describes setting details which are integral to gameplay mechanics or general roleplay with legacies within the system. As such, these are the same details which are commonly shared on a blue sheet made available for all players to reference as common character knowledge.
- Thresholds
Thresholds are magical barriers confined by a physical location, such as a house, ritual circle, or even a fence. Weak thresholds occur naturally at locations that have a strong emotional resonance with them; consider an old family home, a well attended church, or a cemetery. Magic and magical creatures have trouble attempting to cross the barrier unless invited by the owner of the threshold. Since a threshold is maintained by a physical location, if a nonmagical force breaks the threshold, then the threshold itself weakens or disappears.
Thresholds using circles create a spherical barrier, while thresholds used on an entrance to a location cover the entire location, including other and open entrances.
Characters will find it nearly impossible to use their magic through or within a barrier that they have not been invited into. Fully magical creatures, such as Fae, Fetch, Elementals, Werebeasts, and Vampires cannot cross a threshold without invitation. - Sympathetic Magic
Some magic does not care about physical distance, and can instead utilize the emotional distance an object or place has to an target. This connection is called a sympathetic connection. Spells that utilize a sympathetic distance create a two-way connection that supernatural targets will always notice.
Some creatures can use the two-way nature of a newly created sympathetic connection to cast their own spell onto the other end of the line. For those without that option, a simple change in appearance may disrupt a facsimile connection, but more elaborate plans are needed to disrupt stronger connections. It’s always useful to know a magi who can trace and potentially remove the link for you. - The Laws of Hospitality
Though not always magically binding, the laws of hospitality help maintain order in a magically chaotic world. Most creatures in supernatural societies expect others to maintain these laws. Some Fay and all Demons are bound by the Laws of Hospitality, unable to break them for any reason.
- Host
Provide food, protection, living arrangements, and safe passage to guests - Guest
To not act against the host or other guest without the host’s permission. To avoid being a burden where possible.
- Host
- The Letter of the Law
Supernatural contracts are generally followed by the letter of an agreement, not by the spirit of an agreement.
Furthermore, a contract is always verbally agreed and signed by participating parties. Any contract that has an alternative agreement process is not binding – you can not incidentally agree to a contract. These two details are especially important to keep in mind for Fay contracts.
For example, the phrase “if you enter this house you agree to take off your shoes” may not be binding unless a person vocally confirms their agreement. In contrast, a phrase “By signing this, you agree to take off your shoes when entering this house.” can be binding if both parties sign to affirm or vocally affirm.
Template: Cityscape
The Cityscape represents common factions, landmarks, and supernatural alterations to the modern city which players may find within the game.
- Make it weird;
- witchgates and felled beasts, newly found mines in the center city,
- Visual theme: waterways, airtravel, high in the mountains, down in the crater or underground, smog, built around a singular huge landmark, lantern city
- architecture -gothic, slick, western, tuscan, eastern, etc
- Old Locations:
- Neighborhood Tones: Culture student / wealth and poverty / markets / office buildings / warehouses / factories / night life / parks and nature / notable community groups helping the community recover or making things worse?
- Landmarks: Museums, river docks, entertainment districts, shopping districts, food, universities, sewers, historical structures, natural geographic features, libraries, law enforcement locations, public resources, power stations, abandoned structures. public transport. areas of heavy traffic
- Landscape:
- Hills / mountains / rivers / wide open, waterfalls
- Shortcuts
- New Locations:
- City Walls:
- Endless Alleys:
- The Stacks: Quickly built and often cheaply made apartments to accommodate the large influx of population as people retreat from rural towns. Common in cities with dangerous surroundings. Many home-run shops and stores allow these communities to thrive.
- Spiritual Authorities and Security:
- Events:
- Festivals – music, small arts, handcrafts,
- Protests and Riots
- Sunny Weather or Storms
- Who’s in charge?
- the ruling power could be absolute, contested, split amongst factions, given to elected officials, or anything else you can imagine.
- But who wields the power? politicians of the people or criminal underlords, or worse, corporations? Religious influences
- how is control maintained?
- Public opinion on the leadership? disgruntled or fearful?
- What problems are people facing?
- Crimes: drugs, theft, violence?
- Magical monsters
- encroaching witchgates
- outside pressures
- limited resources
- failing infrastructure
- Gossip and Encounters
- New weird thing appeared at _____
- Skunk holding up traffic
Layer 2
Timeline of major events and floating Locations
Layer 3
Factions and specific events and locations – who are the main players and what’s going on now
Layer 4
Secrets only specific factions or individuals know