We will play Vox at our next session, April 26th.

Oh, I was incorrect--Vox uses PDQ, not Fate. So bring your six sided dice!

You’re Not Alone
The first thing you should know—must know—is that you
are not alone. There are others like you out there. Maybe you
know this: maybe the Voice told you, or you read about them
in the paper, or saw one of them on television, some crazy guy
wandering through a shopping mall with a samurai sword and
a propane torch, “trying to save people from the spiders.” You
didn’t think that sounded so crazy.
Or maybe you know about these people because you’ve
already met them somewhere. Maybe you were all in Iraq together,
or in a bus accident, or trapped in an elevator that fell
seventeen floors before the emergency brakes kicked in. Maybe
you’re all in the same hospital, trying to get treatment for something
nobody knows how to treat, or perhaps you’re all just under
the same overpass, scrounging for cans and sharing a shopping
cart. Maybe you all had the same dream in which your
Voices told you all to meet at the top of the World Trade Center
on Valentine’s Day, except of course the WTC’s been gone since
9/11 so you each individually decided to go for coffee instead
and wound up in line at the very same Coffee Shack, ordering
the very same Nonfat Decaf Double Latte, and that wouldn’t be
so amazing if there weren’t so many Coffee Shacks nearby, and
as you all waited for your lattes the girl behind the counter said
she was out of nonfat milk, and at that moment you all knew
that you just had to sit down and have a little chat.
These people aren’t necessarily your friends, of course—not if
you don’t want them to be. Sure, you have something in common,
but that doesn’t necessarily mean you trust them. Maybe
you just want to keep them close so you can keep an eye on
them, or maybe you’re just doing it because the Voice says it’s a
good idea. Then again, maybe what you really need right now
is some company, some other Voices to listen to. Voices that
belong to other people. Voices that aren’t in your head.

Though many people hear Voices in the absence of any overt
physical or psychological symptoms, there are certain medical
conditions that can cause one to hear a “Voice in the head,”
including: onset of deafness, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia,
tinnitus, temporal lobe epilepsy, brain tumor, stroke, and manic
depression. Following are some more common causes of Voices.
Drug-Induced Paranoia
Individuals who regularly (ab)use substances like meth, crack,
LSD, or alcohol may occasionally suffer from rather vivid hallucinations—
meth and cocaine users in particular often suffer from
visual and tactile hallucinations that involve black worms or spiders
crawling on their skin. Some have been driven to destroy the
bugs by scratching themselves until they bleed, or attempting to
burn the offending insects off with lighters or kerosene.
The chemical changes in the brain can also bring on bouts of
paranoia, which, coupled with the hallucinations, can make it
seem as if the world is out to get the drug user. Strangers may
seem to whisper hidden threats, and innocuous television or
radio messages can seem to have hidden meanings.

Disociative Disorders
Those suffering from dissociative fugue suddenly and inexplicably
forget their current identity and assume a new one. This
new identity may persist for weeks or months, until the person
suddenly forgets the new identity and resumes the old one—
with no memory of the second identity.
A better-known dissociative disorder is split personality or
multiple personality disorder (MPD), wherein an individual has
several distinct identities. Often there is one primary host and
several sub-personalities, which may be mutually cognizant of
one another, or mutually unaware. Each personality has a distinct
character, including different “vital statistics” (age, race,
religion, gender), different abilities (foreign languages, musical
talent), and different preferences (sexual, personal). With
treatment, the core personality is integrated with the other subpersonalities.
Schizophrenia
According to statistics, one in every hundred people meets the
criteria for schizophrenia. The affected perceive and believe
things that seem real, and may attribute these hallucinations to
outside sources. They see “signs” giving them instructions, or
think their neighbors are spying on them, or that they can talk
to their cat, or that they are a cat. They may feel persecuted
because they are special, and attach significance to mundane
things. They may exhibit anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure),
apathy and ambivalence, withdraw socially, or be catatonic.
It has been argued that schizophrenia might be a holdover of a
condition called Bicameralism, wherein one part of the brain is
subservient to the other, and perceives the other half as a god. It
has been argued that ancient writings offer evidence of this, such
as in ancient stories that involve anthropomorphic “gods” giving
orders to heroes, muses literally singing poems, etc.

Voices can often be triggered by traumatic events. Here are some
examples cited by Vox subjects, from mundane to extreme:
What Does It Sound Like?
Voices can sound like people, with specific features—male,
female, old, young, black, white—or with no discernible characteristics.
They can sound like robots, or machines, or animals.
They can shout or sing, whisper or hum, click or buzz or whistle.
They can be clear or indistinct. They might speak through
one sense, or all senses, or via mixed senses (synesthesia).
Voices can seem to come from within you or from without.
They can seem to have a source or they may be sourceless; they
might be verbose or completely wordless. They can come from
birds or cats or dogs, from leaves or the wind or a babbling
brook, from the radio or the TV or the water pipes.
Voices can be commanding and mean, or beneficent and
kind; about a third of sufferers say that their Voices are helpful
and guiding, and that they would miss them if the Voices were
to disappear.
Voices are often ascribed a “logical” source based on an
individual’s own predilections and beliefs. Superstitious or
religious folk may say Voices come from ghosts or demons,
angels or gods (or God, depending on one’s faith). Those of a
paranoid but scientific mind might claim it’s a brain implant, or
the government sending “Voice To Skull” (V2K) messages via
electromagnetic frequencies (ELFs in the 45 to 75 Hz range, to
be precise) or satellite microwave transmissions.
Of course, it doesn’t take high-tech electronics to transmit;
James Tilly Matthews claimed to be under the influence of a
pneumatic chemistry-driven “Air Loom” in the 1790s.
Prove he wasn’t.

n most RPGs, the first thing that the players decide on is their
characters’ race, background, class, attributes and skills, allotting
a certain number of points into various categories. In essence,
a lengthy character creation process—a sort of game in
its own right—has to take place before the real game can begin.
In this introductory scenario, we’re gonna skip that part.

Vox contains many secrets, and the first one the PCs encounter
in this scenario is the mystery of their own identity, courtesy of
a sort of amnesia or fugue, spontaneously experienced among
a group of people. It’s not like they’ve forgotten everything; they
can probably work out their names from looking at their IDs, and
while they’re digging through their purses and wallets, maybe
they pick up some clues about their families, careers, and paths
through life, sifting through photos, scraps of paper, the flotsam
and jetsam scattered in the wake of life passing them by.
Of course, how can they know these things really belong to
them? The teenage girl with the kitty-cat backpack and the roller
blades might be a regular schoolkid... or a dangerous assassin
playing on her youthful looks, carrying false ID and wearing a
disguise. The man in the business suit might be an agent of some
sinister organization... or an advertising executive... or a gym
teacher... or a serial killer... or all four. Nothing is for certain. Yet.

Every Persona is composed of the following basic elements:

1. A Name
2. A Description: Includes Physique and Personality.
3. Four Core Elements, including:
a. A Past (Good [+2])
b. A Defining Quality (Good [+2])
c. A Motivation (Good [+2])
d. A Quirk
4. Additional Qualities: 1 extra Good [+2] Rank that can
be used to improve a Core Quality or add a new one.
5. Training Points: Zero (0) Training Points to start.
6. A Voice: Likely, but optional; ask your GM.
VOICE
Mechanically, Voices are built much like Personae, with the
main difference being that they have no physical being or any
concrete, substantial definition. Like Personae, they have specific
elements of their own, as follows:
1. A Name: Optional, but useful.
2. A Description: This generally includes Type, Physique,
and Personality. For a list of Voice types, see page 49.
3. Three Core Elements, including:
a. A Past (Good [+2])
b. A Motivation (Good [+2])
c. A Quirk
4. Additional Qualities: 1 extra Good [+2] Rank that can
be used to improve a Core Quality or add a new one.
Voices never have Physical or Defining Qualities (as they
have no physical substance or sense of self).
5. Training Points: Zero (0) Training Points to start.
6. A Persona: Voices do not have Personae of their own
(i.e., this is not recursive); this is just a place to record
which Persona possesses which Voice.

Description
All characters have a Physique which, in ten words or so,
covers things people notice by looking: age, gender, height,
weight, build, eye or hair color, or other features. More detail is
fine, but for starters a short sentence or phrase (“Tall, dark and
handsome man from Brussels”) or a collection of words (“age
30, male, American, 5’9”, 175#, scarred face”) will suffice.
Voices do not have an actual physical Physique, but they can
be described in terms of how they manifest to a Persona, or
“seem” to appear; Voices also have a Type (see page 49).
All characters also have a Personality which, in ten words or
so, covers mannerisms and attitudes that would be clear after
a few minutes of small talk: hobbies or habits (book-lover, cat
person), religion, astrological sign, etc. This can be a phrase or
just a series of words, and includes not only positive characteristics,
but negative ones. Players might wish to use a Personality
Type (described starting on page 80), a tarot card, a totem animal...
anything that best describes that character’s personality.

Additional Quality
Select one more Quality at Good [+2] Rank, or use that Rank to
improve an already-selected Quality.
Example: A player could increase a PC’s Good [+2] Past: Scholar to
Expert [+4] Rank, or buy a new Good [+2] Witty Repartee Quality.

LITIES
A Quality is a notable, talent, skill, relationship, or resource of
a character. It is an inherently positive aspect—a strong point.
A Quality represents a broad skill, field of knowledge, unique
perspective, personality trait, special gift, or social connection.
Any relevant gear needed to properly take advantage of a starting
Quality, like lockpicks for a Thief or a sword for a Fencer, is assumed,
although this only applies to Qualities taken during Character
Generation; other gear must be obtained normally.
If a particular Quality is relevant at all to an action or topic,
the character may apply it when attempting that action or understanding
that topic. This is called the penumbra (or “shadow”) of
the Quality. A player shouldn’t pick Qualities that are too narrow
or its penumbra will be too narrow; too broad, and identifying
the sorts of things that should fall under the penumbra becomes
pointless. Proper word choice is key. The parameters for what’s
“too broad” or “too narrow” are up to the individual GM.
Consider a character with a “Hacker” Quality. The penumbra
of Hacker probably contains such things as computer use,
owning a laptop, underworld connections, hacker magazine
subscriptions, knowing hacker stories, writing software code,
intimidation through email, that sort of thing.
NOTE: It’s okay if a PC wants to be particularly better at some
Quality that might normally fall under the penumbra of another
Quality—for example, taking “Cop” and “Taser” separately.
However, the player should realize that this choice limits the total
breadth of what the character can do, in exchange for being able
to use both Qualities at the same time when he gets into a scuffle
(by adding the MODs together; see page 39).

Several Qualities are Core Qualities, which along with Quirks
comprise the Core Elements of a Vox character. Together they
represent a character’s past, present, and future.
Every Vox character has a Past. This Quality represents where
they come from, their background, and where they were/what
they were doing before the start of the game; examples might
be Navy Pilot, Prisoner of War, Cat Burglar, etc. The Past Quality
provides the GM with a basis for generating Story Threads,
and can help tie the PCs together with a common bond.
Every Vox Persona has a Defining Quality, their primary means
of self-identification; Voices do not. This is not necessarily the
thing a character is best at, but it is the thing she often relies on,
granting her a wider range of abilities with regard to that talent;
examples might be Devoted Mother, Pet Detective, Taxi Driver,
etc. Any Quality can be a Defining Quality, but a character can
only have one Defining Quality. The Defining Quality offers additional
special benefits when Personae are interacting with their
Voices (see page 68). Further, a Defining Quality informs the GM
about what sorts of conflicts the PC wishes to be involved in!
All Vox characters also have a Motivation, which represents
their goals, hopes, dreams, desires, and drives for the future; examples
might be Aspiring Actor, Fight Crime, Go Down Fighting,
etc... Not only does a Motivation help the GM to drive the action
forward, but it helps the player keep their PC focused on a goal.

http://www.aeforge.com/vox/about.html

And the free sampler:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15610966/Vox-RPG-12-Page-Sampler

I didn't really catch what's up with us for schedule -- someone said either two or four weeks from yesterday. Just as a point: I expect to be at Nerdly in four weeks, so I'm out on that one.

I can.

Summary of our characters:

Steve:
Raymond, Asylum alum turned would be artist

Shane:
Jerod, soldier turned social worker

Chris:
Nigel, Cultist and con artist

Eric:
Walls, 14 year old gang member

Me:
The humble GM

Hey guys,

May 9th is sold out at the Source as far as a venue (they are hosting a Magic tourney).

Do we want to try the FFG space on the 9th? Have Eric host? Something else?

I'll go wherever. Also, my house is available, but only one of you has a reasonable way to get here at this point. :(

Someone needs to be authoritative here. Normally that would be the host or GM.

Oh, and I should post rather than edit so the thread is marked as having new info.

Oh crap. I'm sorry to hear that, Eric.

While I could run with just three, do we want to push off a week or not?

I've not been to FFG and I don't know of any other venues off hand.

Chris? Shane?

As I've said, I'm willing to give it a try whether it's Vox, some other RPG or board games. The website makes no mention of reserving a table. Do you know how that works, Shane?

However, there is also an event at the FFG store this weekend.

I have a pile of grading to do - if we're not doing Vox, I'll have to beg off as well.

I could only to next Sunday if Kivi were in the game as Cathy will be out of town and (sigh) parenting comes first.

Otherwise my schedule is open.

30th Works for me.