I just ran a metaplane for a recently-initiated mage (Most haven't made the investment in karma to try for it) so she could lean how to mask.

Being kind, I simply pitted her against a Force 2 Earth elemental and had a free-spirit pop in and offer to teach her Masking if she managed to defeat it.

Said elemental kicked her ass (9S physical...owwww...) until she got a lucky swing in (No weapon foci here) and managed to overcome it.


I was just wondering how other GM/players take the Metaplanes - like VR or like "Alice in Wonderland" with the breaks off.

Thankee,

-Tir

If you can find it, check out the adventure Harlequin's Back, and also Survival of the Fittest for a couple of examples. When ever I run as astral quest, it's usally a series of places/events/challenges.

One I ran was nothing but braint teasers and puzzles that helped the PC's navigate the labrynth they were in (imagine the old movie Labrynth). Another was going from place to place to solve problems (more Quantum Leap). There's really no wrong way to do it. Just make it interesting, and the challenge reflect the difficulty. I once died on a rating 2 astral quest. Just to learn a stupid spell . Ugh.

The best quests, though, IMO, are the ones that touch one personal points for the PC's involved. Use things like hopes, fears, cotnacts, frineds, family, and tweak or change them. Use things that are going to get a reaction. IMO, undertaking an astral quest should be the kind of thing the mage goes *gulp* before. Assuming it's not Rating 2 at least.

My GM recently ran a one-on-one session for my shaman when he went to the metaplane of Owl to retrieve his disrupted Ally. It's a pretty cool way to run things if scheduling allows it and your GM is willing to put in the time.
It was basically configured as a series of lessons for the young shaman in ways he can use his abilitites. For example, he's a street shaman so the Dweller pose as a rival ganger and my character had to use his etiquette(street) skill to avoid a badly stacked fight.
The metaplane itself was configured as a wilderness landscape, and our hero had to navigate it himself. Once he was dropped off in the metaplane proper and Owl decided he was permitted to perform his quest he found himself on a featureless, grassy plain with no clue where to go next. Just to make things tougher, Owl had decided it was daytime in her realm, so the usual totem penalties for spellcasting during the day applied.
Certainly made a more engaging approach than the old (dice roll) "Ok, place of Battle, it's a torqued off Forest Spirit, go to it." It was a handy way for my GM to hand me as a player a few tips on magical approaches I hadn't tried as well.

I agree that it's a lot better to give it some sort of supposition, even if it is just the place of battle. Another example, there's an option given in one of the adventures to have the PC battle as a dragon against another dragon, to learn a lesson of why the dragons play their little pawn games instead of going at it in 'person'. So for our game, I ran one of the PC's and she had to fight a dragon their characters now "IRL", not just something out of an astral quest. And they had to fight in dowtown Seattle. It was very cool.

It's also a good oppurtunity to get the magic characters to flex in different directions and try their hands at different things, especially if you use the random tables to choose where they go. And anything goes. I was really thrown for a loop the first time my shaman had to do a quest, and had no magic at the first Place he arrived at. Just be creative with it. Let it be a divurgence from the norm.

hehe.. I remember one where we as a group re-enacted the shoot out at the O.K. Corral ala Tombstone (The movie that is). WE started out two days before and went through the motions, then went to the shoot out, and won. Then nothing happened.

We figured we'd move on after that. Nope. Then we really began to sweat when we realized that people were going to start trying to assassinate us. Me especially, because I ended up in the roll of Morgan (the one that got shot in the back and died).

My GM consistently has a series of events set up for astral quests..

Of the initiation variety?
Arrive at a carnival.. have to go to the divination tent and do some divining.. answer questions. One of the spirits there points out things like "you need a job, she might be hiring" and names like "It's so corny I can't say it, you can't think it, but there it is"..

There's also the ledge, with no way off but jump, 500 ft straight down onto rocky shallow water.. (with 1 karma pool left -- place of fear. And oh was there that..)

Or the places of signs.
"Drink me" on a bottle of the most foul stuff imaginable.
"Climb" on a mountain

The campfire of the natives.. where they ask "What of my people, Pale Ghost?" Pure roleplay, but so much fun.

The Bar.
Appear.
Resist 12MStun. You just had time to see a Troll's fist collide with your face.
Disappear.

The rolling method works for doing "Fast" astral quests. But it's far more fun and memorable when you have actual events.

When my GM would do this, Harlequin's Back aside, I was a little surreal. More problem soplving than anything, a lot like Lyberinth or a Warner Brother's cartoon from the 1940's

As a followup to my post further up, my GM just uploaded the log of my character's astral quest (the advantages of gaming online there), so here's a link for those who might be interested in seeing how a detailed quest can be played out.

A fine day in the metaplane.

I recently ran one of my Shamans through a Quest to change her Totem (well, change from Dragonslayer to Thor, so more of a rename). We did it as a pure diceless sort of thing. Thor was testing her to see if she was his sort of runner, so He dropped her in the frozen north, with nothing but some furs, a spear and a round leather shield. Oh, and a Giant in forest that was looking ffor a shaman size snack. At that point it was a matter of how she approached the giant slaying, and if she was crazy enough, Thor would let her on board. She ended up dropping out of tree on to the thing and stabbing it in the eye, so Thor was all good . I though the diceless aspect (she did some rolls before hand that, unknown to her, decide the outcome) made it a much different place, since dice are the physics of the gameworld, and you know they don't apply here.

Well, I was very much a fan of Joseph Campbell and Karl Jung. All my astral quests were always dreams, psychoanalyst fodder.

I am sure there are metaplanes dedicated to tv show run offs or spoofs. I have always tried the diceless mind puzzles myself. try and work with symbolism adding extra depth to objects/spirits.