I can only feel a slight tickle in my throat, but my brain is *gone* and I keep falling asleep kind of unexpectedly. Once or twice without making it to a couch or bed.
You'd think this would mean "so no Hitherby!", but actually it means no character profile and a bonus Hitherby. Character profiles are work; short legends aren't.
I wouldn't mind looking at a developmental chart!
Rebecca
On Monthbooks: I figure that once we get the process rolling, they'll come out at about one a month. It hasn't taken six months to get the first one ready---it took four months before it was time to start thinking about it, and most of the time right now is getting the relevant act together. At worst, it'll be two more every other month. :)
On gift reviews: sorry to fall behind! When my life gets a bit less hectic, I'll be able to read again. :)
On age: I've been reflecting, ever since I posted Jane's character profile. I'm not sure whether I have a realistic sense of the cognitive development path for children.
The age 8 is the first really defined year for me. I learned number theory. I was an avid SF/F reader. I started writing non-rhyming poetry. I wrote my first real paper. I had to build a new front personality after my first one (not counting the birth personality) broke. It was immediately before algebra, knee surgery, and my first experience with roleplaying games.
Six for me was a year of "innocence, at a price" and "starting the project of figuring out the world." It was the year I learned to read silently. My step-brother, pestered to loan me what he'd just been reading (Dune), gave me Richard Bach's "Illusions" instead. I learned to play Backgammon, but not yet the piano.
. . . So, I don't know. Should Jane be 8-9 instead of 6? Should Martin's already variable age skew higher than it does?
It's not a question of vocabulary and speech patterns; both Jane and Martin are special cases in terms of available intellectual resources. Jane inherited an unknown portion of Jenna's cognitive abilities and life experience, and Martin sprang into existence full-formed.
It's a question of whether six is a reasonable age to decide to go out and fix the world, and whether ten and thirteen (Martin's defaults) are reasonable ages to be . . . well, Martin.
Rebecca
He wasn't special,
My monster.
We have so many,
We can send them all over the world.
I'm not too naive.
I lay low.
People are nice
If the monsters don't spot you.
And they're not everywhere.
It's safe here
In the fief of the
Usual circumstances.
But they are outside it,
Waiting,
With open maws.
More peckish than hungry, really.
Copyright (C) 2004, Rebecca Borgstrom
* "My monster" is not Hitherby's "the monster." Just in case you had to ask.
Hm!
You could have a system where everything and everyone in the world is rated in terms of plot importance. This would include people, spells, and storylines. Your default assumption is that if you clash with something more important, you lose, somehow. Then you use whatever kind of resolution system you want (Nobilis-style diceless resource management, D&D-style miscellaneous level-based powers and bonuses from dice rolls, or whatever) to pump your plot importance in specific ways. The generic quest goal would be "do enough stuff to build your quest up until it's more important than the thing you're trying to defeat."
If you want to cast a spell that's significantly more important than you are, you can either quest or accept the assumption that, because your spell is more important than you are, it's going to kick you around as part of how it works, and so will the people questing to break it.
This is, admittedly, only a seed.
This also allows for amusing effects like the minimally-important immortality spell, which would basically last long enough to say "Ha ha ha, I am immortal" before the adventurers accidentally step on your secret weakness. (And, similarly, the world-shaking magic missile. "It's the Prince of Darkness! Jack Chick was right!" "I magic missile him! He dies!")
Rebecca
who was going to post this on the "Magic as Plot Device" thread on rpg.net, but then decided she wanted it around where she'd know where to find it later. :)
P.S. Gnu years? Anyway, my driver's license claims I'm 31.