A while back itsmisterwilson (of Prime Time Adventures fame) offered to do theme songs for folks' games, for a price. I decided I wanted to buy a theme song for Faith, Faces, & Fingerprints, so I took him up on this and basically asked for "a harpsichordean's take on Ocean's 11", since I think that neatly sums up the feel of the game.

This MP3 is the result and I kind of love it.

Answered Questions from Last Time

• What has become of the Face?
  
• Who abducted him?
  
• Will Brynna, Anders, and Thea be able to find him? (Will they even try?)

New Questions

• Will Anders be able to impersonate the Face successfully?
  
• Will there be another attempt on the Face's life?
  
• Will the Face recover from his injuries?
  
• How will the Council's vote on prayer taxation resolve?
  
• What documents was the Glacindoan Ambassador burning in the fireplace when Anders last visited the Embassy?
  
• Were Thea and Brynna recognized by the Serpent Ring?

New Names

• The Serpent Ring (the most dangerous thugs from the Pit hired to kidnap the Face during the vote)
  
• Breck (the Serpent newbie who Thea "converted" with her faith)
  
• Raff Schneider (Office admid for the building where the Council of 7 meets. Raff tends to hear more than he "should".)
  
• The Millers' Daughter (Recently widowed, Raff's age, she had a recital at which she was introduced to Raff thanks to Anders' maneuvering; they hit it off and may be something of an item now)
  
• Mekhee Fillip (Graffito artist; friend of the group, he helped arrange for a distraction when they needed it)
  
• The Order of Gannet (Thea's monastic order -- and Patriarch Wendell's, too)
  
• Doctor Horatio Alban (The Face's physician, he has finally been brought back together with the Face, who is recovering from major head trauma. Dr. Alban is the one to put Anders on his mission.)
  
• The Council of 7: In addition to The Face, we now have The Crown and The Blood; The Chalice and The Coin; The Left Hand and The Right.

Old Questions, Still Lingering

• Will Brynna & co be able to pull off their caper to subvert the publication of new, anti-Brynna guidelines for graduation at the Black College?
  • The plan seems to involve replacing one of the plates in the printing... How will they pull that off?
• Why have couriers been disappearing?
• Why was Patriarch Wendell (seemingly) taking a bribe from the Glacindo delegation?
• What was the purpose of the gunpowder smuggling operation out of the back of the Glacindoan Embassy?
  • What transpired in the harbor to cause that explosion?
  • Who came out on top—the smugglers or the Gondoliers?
  • Who gained access to the Gondolier watch tables and shared them with the smugglers?
  • What did the head smuggler mean when asking what he should do about "the others", during Anders’ ruse?
• Who had the Face kidnapped?
• Why was he abducted?
• Who wrote to the Face to warn him of an attempt on his life?

Faith, Faces, and Fingerprints again this weekend (finally; it's been a month and a half -- and a bit hard to maintain mental and creative momentum in the face of that, but that's a topic for another time).

In this episode, rob_donoghue's PC, Anders, is put to the task of impersonating The Face for a crucial vote. But there might be one or more assassins out for the person he's impersonating -- so his friends may need to watch his back.

We know the Council of Seven (the Face tends to abstain or cast deciding votes) has two seats of the Clergy, two of the Nobles, and two of the Merchants, and we know that the strong astrological theme of the setting means that each seat corresponds to a constellation. Middle of last month I asked the players if they wanted to decide what those constellations were and I suspect everyone was too busy to respond to that. With the game tomorrow, it's time to invent a few details of my own.



That gives us The Crown and the Blood (Noble seats); The Chalice and The Coin (Merchant seats); and The Left and Right Hands (of Nod -- that goes unsaid; the Clergy seats).

In another post I'll review the lingering questions from the session BEFORE last, and what got answered in the last, and what new questions there are.

So this past weekend I got the chance to run more of my Faith, Faces, & Fingerprints game (I also got to hang out and shoot the breeze with ratmmjess, chadu, and rdonoghue, but that's beside the current point).

We had a fun sort of caper thing going on, with a kidnapped guy and a judicious application of the Wilderness of Mirrors method -- my players contributed five obstacles (I gave each player a fate point per obstacle), and took three "fuck with 'em" points for myself at the end to complicate their path. It worked out really well once we got past the play-habits obstacle of "wait! what? i'm coming up with my own obstacles? okay, i'm going to make them really easy!" thing. Admittedly, that particular hump was surmounted by a bit of me playing "willfully misinterpretive djinn" with the ideas they came up with (e.g., "green, inexperienced recruit" became "green, inexperienced, VERY EAGER TO PROVE HIMSELF recruit", etc).

But what I really liked seeing was the fights. This is not a fighty set of characters, but they found themselves in a few circumstances where things had to come to blows. I'm running with the -2/-4/-6 consequences thing, and really short stress tracks -- the base is 2 instead of 5 -- so the characters were in big jeopardy of getting hurt pretty bad. As a result, the fights that took place were (deliberately on the players' part) unbalanced whenever possible: two of the opponents dropped were knocked down while drunkenly half-asleep; another was incapacitated by a stink bomb. The one time the group's fighter was outnumbered by two guys who were *almost* as good as her, she used a flash-pot to blind them both (go go gadget!) as a two-target maneuver and then put her all into making sure she dropped them both the first time she hit them, tearing through Fate Points and the like to do it.

I dug this a lot. I wanted a fantasy setting where folks got *scared* when the knives came out, and this build for Fate -- similar in several ways to the Dresden Files -- really delivered on that promise.

Next session -- deep into March -- will involve the impersonation (by a PC!) of a politician amidst an atmosphere of intrigue and assassination. Can't wait.

So, folks who've listened to That's How We Roll or looked at the setting glossary for my Faith, Faces, and Fingerprints game know that the "first" session of the game was a big fat collaborative setting creation exercise.

Which was good for buy-in and all that, but in practical terms, what does it mean for on-the-ground play once the game gets started in earnest?

By way of answering that, I present the "as it stood after the first roleplaying session" cast of characters and smattering of locations from the game. Why is this significant? Because, as the GM, I came up with maybe 25% of this stuff. All the rest was invented by my players, at the table, as we played.

Basically I went into this session (now a couple weeks past) with a very simple plan: I had a "short secret" and one or two "long secrets" and a few PC-specific gambits designed to hit their buttons and drop hints at those secrets in their paths. Purposefully, I avoided coming up with much in the way of actual detail for those secrets -- I knew there was a smuggling operation involving a foreign country, for example, but not anything about that foreign country. As the players invented characters and details and events straight out of their understanding of the collaboratively created setting, many of the "blanks" in my secrets were handily filled in by the details they engineered. It worked swimmingly -- and I now have a cast of dozens to work with, many of whom were created simply in the first hour of play, as the characters sat around in a bar after thwarting a mugging, talking about what was going on in their lives.

Success!

Faith, Faces, and Fingerprints: The Cast

• (Capitano) Alverzo Muñoz: The head of security at the Glacindo Embassy. Aware of the predicament regarding the Face.
  
• Donard: A former courier who left the trade after he got married.
  
• The Drunken Man of Import: When Thea stumbled upon this drunkard’s brothel antics during the night out with Martin Echol, he became quite upset until Anders pacified him with some fast talk. Who was he?
  
• The Face (of the City): See the Glossary entry for details. The Face has become a part of our adventurers’ stories, now that they have discovered the fact of his abduction.
  
• The Face’s Informant: The Face has someone who may be positioned within the Church (or is at least a fan of certain inks which usually the Church uses) who had the opportunity to discover and to warn him of plans upon his life. Anders and Thea know of this due to a letter they discovered on the Face’s “clandestine” boat. He (or she) has signed the letter with some sort of symbol, which had no real meaning for those who discovered it.
  
• Glodis van Artz: Brynna refers to her as “the Cow”. This is of course because she is a genuinely lovely person, possessed of great poise, beauty, resourcefulness, and capacity for genuinely interesting conversation. She is Pietro van Banqmère’s fiancée.
  
• The Gondolier: Thea found this guy and warned him about the gunpowder smuggling operation.
  
• Government Fixer Contact Guy: Anders has a friend in the government who can make a boat disappear for a few days before people start asking questions.
  
• Greta “Great Jugs”: A prostitute who specializes in initiating young men to the mysteries of womanhood, and the subtle liberation of their purses from them. (Her pimp has not been named.)
  
• The Guy With The Club: A common mugger who accosted Anders during his “tour” with Martin Echol. Thea and Brynna were happy to instruct him on the futility of his intent.
  
• The Injured Guardsman: One of the Face’s men, he was found out in the stables behind the Embassy of Glacindo. He has not yet recovered consciousness, having taken a nasty knock to the head. He is in the care of Doctor Lorenzano Vulgazi.
  
• Jocque: Jocque is a courier—“the guy with the hat”, as Anders has put it. He’s known for taking unnecessary risks.
  
• (Dean) Lassiter Matilla: Dean Matilla is the exceptionally corrupt top administrator at the Black College.
  
• (Doctor) Lorenzano Vulgazi: A Glacindoan doctor of some skills—sadly, speaking the local tongue of Donnerdam is not among his talents. He is currently taking care of one of the Face’s guardsmen, in secret, following some of the incidents at the Glacindo Embassy.
  
• Lukas Rinne: The House Banqmère chief accountant. He has a relationship of mutual, if blunt, honesty with Brynna van Banqmère, but that doesn’t exactly mean that he’s inclined to help her.
  
• (Duke) Marko van Banqmère: Brynna’s father. A severe man of the noble class, flush with cash and position. He does not favor his daughter.
  
• Martin Echol: The son of one of Anders’ clients, a young man who recently passed the Trial of Adulthood and found himself in misadventures involving a mugger and Greta Great-Jugs.
  
• Menárde: A terribly famous, terribly embarrassed artist from the Artist University—embarrassed because Thea has learned of his, ah, “dalliance” with Lady Vermier. Menárde owes Thea much for the bond of secrecy she keeps with him.
  
• The Mendelsen Twins: A pair of couriers, well known around town, not seen of late. Reliable both for their service and their love of drink.
  
• Nicoline van Banqmère: Brynna’s mother. Her stately beauty is outshone only by her vast capacity for infidelity. Brynna remains in something of a state of denial about this.
  
• Old Sneed: One of the old guard in the courier trade, he is either retired or dead after venturing out into the Folly and never coming back. Some say he found a swamp-lady and made a wife out of her.
  
• Pietro van Banqmère: Brynna’s cousin. He’s in a fairly good position in the family chain of inheritance, if Brynna should happen to graduate from the Black. Glodis van Artz is his fiancée.
  
• The Smugglers: A sizable gunpowder smuggling operation was being run out of the back of the Glacindoan Embassy. What was its purpose?
  
• (Lady) Vermier: The lady with the cats and too much money. She collects art and is something of a “cougar”, particularly with the pretty, young artists she sponsors.
  
• (Patriarch) Wendell: The head of Thea’s monastic order. The Glacindo gave him a horse and some sort of packet when honoring him at their embassy.
  

Faith, Faces, and Fingerprints: Places

• The Broken Cup: A bar on the edge of Glasstown, in Donnerdam.
  
• The Chastised Lands: A tamed section of the Island contained within the Low Wall.
  
• The Folly: To the west of Donnerdam, a vast stinking wetlands spreads out. The Folly, as it is called, has been the site of dozens of misguided ventures to mine some sort of monetary value out of the muck. As you might guess by its name, these ventures never succeed for long—if at all.
  
• The Funnel: The windswept lowlands of the Chastised Lands, where the hills funnel the wind fairly reliably along a particular path. Windmills are incredibly frequent throughout the Funnel, taking advantage of this. The Funnel is to the north of Donnerdam.
  
• Glacindo: A foreign nation from the Continent. They’ve recently sent an entirely new delegation of ambassadors to Donnerdam. They trade extensively with Donnerdam. They’re horsemen, owing to their Continental nature. (They come off as a equestrian riff on Spain and Italy.)
  
• The Low Wall: Some distance away from Donnerdam, the Low Wall separates the rest of the Island from the Chastised Lands. Beyond the Low Wall lies a land of danger!
  

As a final bit, I present the open questions that have resulted from the particular events of this session:

Faith, Faces, and Fingerprints: Questions

• Will Brynna & co be able to pull off their caper to subvert the publication of new, anti-Brynna guidelines for graduation at the Black College?
  
  
  • The plan seems to involve replacing one of the plates in the printing… How will they pull that off?
  
  
• Why have couriers been disappearing?
  
• Why was Patriarch Wendell (seemingly) taking a bribe from the Glacindo delegation?
  
• What was the purpose of the gunpowder smuggling operation out of the back of the Glacindoan Embassy?
  
  
  • What transpired in the harbor to cause that explosion?
    
  • Who came out on top—the smugglers or the Gondoliers?
    
  • Who gained access to the Gondolier watch tables and shared them with the smugglers?
    
  • What did the head smuggler mean when asking what he should do about “the others”, during Anders’ ruse?
  
  
• What has become of the Face?
  
  
  • Who has abducted him?
    
  • Why was he abducted?
    
  • Who wrote to the Face to warn him of an attempt on his life?
    
  • Will Brynna, Anders, and Thea be able to find him? (Will they even try?)
    

[1hr 4min 21sec] We finish out Faith, Faces & Fingerprints setting creation with the shaving of children, a map, a discussion of magic, and much more. The setting of Donnerdam takes its full form, primed to start the game. Character creation did follow this but did not make for good radio -- lots of silent scratching on character sheets and such. So our next episode will carry a snippet of play from the first session. Stay tuned!

http://thatshowweroll.libsyn.com/
http://thatshowweroll.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=304503

http://thatshowweroll.libsyn.com/

[50min 59sec] We're back with the second part of the Faith, Faces, & Fingerprints setting creation session. Unlike the first recording you heard, this gets into the "main sequence", where a sort of organic "freeform round-robin" question and answer session gives everyone a chance to get their priorities for the setting baked into the details.

This worked pretty well. The idea of folks who've answered questions taking a coin that prevents them from answering further ones definitely helped to make sure everyone got a chance to contribute; but we exercised a liberal "embellishment policy" that gave room for some enthusiastic discussion of the answers that were offered.

The post itself:
http://thatshowweroll.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=303879
(Direct link to the MP3)
(The show's RSS feed)

So I've finished listening to the 3 hours of setting creation material I recorded for Faith, Faces, & Fingerprints, the upcoming fantasy game I'm running for a few friends, of which the first hour has been released on That's How We Roll. While listening to it, I've been taking notes to put together a setting glossary to hand out to my players.

This is that glossary.

Faith, Faces, and Fingerprints: A Glossary

Alchemy: Much like chemistry and other physical sciences, but with the trappings of ritual and strange fantasy substances. For the purposes of our setting, "alchemy" is interchangeable with "science".

The Artist University (Name Pending): One of the greatest universities of Donnerdam; it's the Juliard of the setting. The source of incredible inspiration and artistic talent.

Astrologers: Members of the merchant class, actuaries of the soul, they oversee the interpretation charts and tables that determine one's soul-debt, which Prayers were originally intended as a hedge against. They are incredibly well-paid. It's rare that any two Astrological Guilds will find themselves in agreement with one another.

Banqmère: One of the high noble houses of Donnerdam, headed by Duke Marko van Banqmère. His daughter, Brynna, currently attends the Black College.

The Biggest University (Name Pending): Incredibly big and sagging a bit under its own weight. But everyone goes there.

The Black College: A small university that is staggeringly well-funded thanks to the tuition paid by families looking for a way to rid themselves of their black sheep. Students either return to their families in a much more obedient state of mind, or graduate, losing the advantages of their (usually noble) class and entering into the scholarly caste.

Black-Thumb Contracts: Lawyers are referred to as "Black-Thumbs" because they verify their contracts with a thumb-print.

Blessings and Curses: When these occur, they are more the product of certain strong kinds of faith, than of folk magic or other rituals.

Blindness: Sin is a stain that can be seen, according to the Word of Gnod. Some have taken this to mean that if they commit an act that they cannot see, it cannot be a sin. Thus we have the truism: Never trust a blind man.

Blasphemy: Burning scripture is blasphemy according to the Church.

Canals: Wider and more numerous than Donnerdam's alley-ways, the canals of the city act as its roads, and may be the safest of places, patrolled with some vigilance by the Gondoliers.

Children: Children are a social class of their own. To mark this distinction (and to protect against lice), they are shaved; hair, thus, is an adult privilege. To gain adulthood—and become a member of their birth-class—they must undergo the Trial of Adulthood, typically faced between the 15th and 21st year. Those who never pass their Trial become Eternal Children and occupy a number of odd roles, such as running the city's orphanages. Under the law, children have more protections but fewer rights. Children almost always have a patron; it's not quite a property relationship, but the responsibility for (and control of) the child is in the patron's job.

Chimaeras: The Plague of Faces extended into the animal kingdom (and possibly beyond), creating strange collisions of species called chimaeras. Most of these have been "one-offs", though a few creatures—such as the horstrich (see below)—have bred true and in the 150 years since the Plague have managed to root themselves reasonably well into the local ecology.

The Church (of Gnod): Gnodism is the dominant faith on the island and much of the continent as well. In Donnerdam, the relationship between the Gnodic Clergy, the Council, and the many Universities and Colleges has been… colorful.

Classes: Donnerdam has a variety of social classes: the Nobles, the Clergy, the Scholars, the Merchants (Trade Class), Muddles (Working Class), Children, and Foreigners. The only way to enter the Noble class is through marriage or birth; this is often, though less strictly, the case with the Merchant class. Entry into the Scholar class is easy—provided one can graduate.

Clergy: While they can't own property (the Church owns it all, but no individual within the church does), the Prayer trade has ensured that they have very fat pockets for ones supposedly living in divine poverty.

Coin: A material rarity, but this is the hard currency that has fallen out of vogue, in favor of hand-printed scripture (see Prayers).

Companions (of Note): Professional "best friends" who do the work of knowing the right, exciting people and the best places to seek entertainment. They have a guild and everything, and a fairly high standard for membership.

The Council of Seven: The Council of Seven is the ruling government of the city. It has two noble seats, two merchant seats, and two clergy seats. The final seat, held by a popularly elected representative called The Face of the City, is often the one to break ties. There are no seats for scholars; they are thought to be above city politics. Each seat corresponds to one of the six major astrological symbols; the Face is symbolized by the sun itself.

Couriers: Madmen and madwomen who think running messages and packages through the Sinking Heart is a good way to make money. They'd be shunned for this insanity if it wasn't, in fact, a great way to make money.

Divorce: A new notion! Annulment exists, but divorce—that's crazy talk. See also: "Trial of Union".

Donnerdam: The city where we set our scene, also called "The Sinking City" or simply "The Sink-Hole" (this latter moniker is one derived from the Sunken Heart district, which while far from the city's main feature, seems to be the one that foreigners are most fond of remarking upon). Donnerdam is London if it were planted in the Thames instead of on it, populated by Dutch and Norsemen, and then commanded by the God of Money to do a Venice impersonation. It is widely seen as the most modern city in the world, though its tendency to sink into the river delta and isolation on a fairly dangerous island has also led to its image as a place of little strategic value to the continent.

Duels: In Donnerdam, duels are fought "to the wet", which may be interpreted creatively depending on the participants. Duels to the death are illegal. Debates are common, and often last until one or the other breaks a sweat. Duels with blades fought to first blood are not unknown, either.

Elections: An almost random event, class-specific, held for the seats on the Council of Seven when the stars align in such a way to indicate Gnod's Will that another step up to fill the post. This is determined by strange astrological indicators appropriate to the seat in question. The Face, symbolized by the Sun, is up for election only on the event of a solar eclipse.

The Face (of the City): The Face is the seventh seat on the Council of Seven. It was originally established by a man they referred to as The Face because he was demonstrably immune to the Plague of Faces when it hit, thus providing the city some confidence in the continuity of government. These days the Face is an elected position (the Muddles' representative), retaining the name of the one who first filled it.

Facial Tattoos: More common among poorer peoples, facial tattoos have emerged as a practice for establishing individuality in the wake of certain common faces showing up in the population due to the Plague of Faces. Noble folk are far more likely to rely on their heraldic masks (see "Masks") for much the same purpose.

Fingerprinting: A relatively new science compared to the alchemical arts, established in the wake of the Plague of Faces. Fingerprints, it seems, were unaffected, and thus are seen as more genuine certifications of identity.

Folk Magic: A distant cousin (and precursor) to Alchemy (see above). These are the small rituals, the little spells that can produce, at best, very minor effects, sometimes obviating the need for tools or what-have-you. This is the only "shadow" of Sorcery (below) that still exists in the world.

Gambling: Gambling is not a sin. In fact, some even see it as a way of divining the favor of Gnod.

Glass Row (also "Glass Town"): A neighborhood well known for its many, many windows—and bars. Found to the east of the Sunken Heart.

Gondoliers: Others might pole their way down the canals of Donnerdam, but the Gondoliers—unique to that name—are the police force watching over the city, and the river-traffic beyond (their historical duty predating the city itself). They are believed by many to be incorruptible, though some whisper that's due to some creative assertions about what does or doesn't count as corruption—smuggling is common, for example, and tolerated by the Gondoliers so long as the "tariff" is paid (this is how they remain well funded without a dependence upon special interests). They are monks, dedicated to a small, separate faith: they worship the river-gods.

Guerilla Theater: One of the latest fads, a sort of "theatrical smart-mob" thing that takes place in the city streets. Rehearsals are not allowed! Knowledge of the great works vs. improvisational drama!

Gunpowder: Gunpowder exists as an application of alchemy, but is fantastically difficult to work with in small quantities. It's only really useful in large scale applications—such as cannon—and possibly the occasional one-shot hand-weapon.

Horstriches: Popular mounts in Donnerdam, horstriches are a kind of chimaera that has the hindbody of a horse, but the forebody of an ostrich. Nimble creatures that run around on two legs, they're well suited to navigating the alleyways of Donnerdam and even occasionally leap narrow canals. (Yes, Rob, this means you get your chocobos, though they look a lot different.)

Laws: There are some legal protections that exist, but not a strong sense of the Rights of Man (such as right to certain kinds of trial, search & seizure, freedom not to testify against yourself, etc) as far as the legal system is concerned—the legal system "trusts itself". There are different laws for each class; "high crimes"—killing someone, treason, etc, are prosecuted under Noble Law. Under Noble Law, a noble's word carries more weight. But there is Church Law and Courts, Trade Law, etc. This leads to a "by category" perspective on legal matters.

Masks: Masks are the devices of noble heraldry in Donnerdam, a practice that replaced shields and banners following the Plague of Faces. Some merchant houses have adopted the practice as well.

Medicine: Free medical care exists in Donnerdam—but it's provided by students who are still learning the how. If you want reliable medical care, you pay for it!

The Old Church College (Name Pending): When the universities and the Church were one entity, the Old Church College was the greatest of them; following the split, the Old Church College sort of declined in quality, but has remained a place to train upcoming clergymen and provided fairly cheap schooling to the public.

The Plague of Faces: One hundred and fifty years ago, somehow this ancient scourge was unleashed upon the island Donnerdam calls home. It cloned, erased, twisted, and swapped faces among the powerful and poor alike. Donnerdam, then ruled by a king, found itself with three people all wearing the king's face, each claiming a right to the throne. The civil war that followed left Donnerdam with no king at all, placing the city under the rule of the Council of Seven. Its effects are still seen today, in the form of chimaeras (see above), certain neighborhoods where some families all share a common face, and so on. This has lead to things such as masks being devices of heraldry, as well as the science of fingerprinting.

Prayers: The selling of prayers and indulgences by the Church has had a curious effect: more and more, prayers—scribed by a special class of clergymen in an unusual purple ink, impossible to duplicate—have taken over as the primary currency of the city, despite an occasionally volatile exchange rate between prayers and hard coin currency (this is in part due to the fact that the purchase of prayers is not taxed, but the conversion of prayers to coin is).

Rights: The defining right for adults is the Right to Learn, and a Right to Speak. There is a universal Right to Property (not everyone has it, but everyone could potentially own it). See "Laws" as well. Children have fewer rights, but more protections.

Salvaged Tatters: Because prayers are scripture, and burning scripture is blasphemy, the Church must bury prayer-notes which have become so heavily used that they are close to becoming unrecognizable tatters. The Church exchanges such tattered prayers for freshly-scribed ones when needed, and sinks the used-up currency in urns dropped into the depths of the harbor or entombs the urns with the dead in their crypts. Certain enterprising "blind divers" and other grave-robbing sorts have taken to "salvaging" these tattered prayers and bringing them back into the economy—a far easier way to making illicit, easy money than counterfeiting.

Scholars: Philosophers and inventors, the scholar class—seen almost as its own separate culture outside of the pecking-order of the other social classes—could be said to be the real power behind the city, popularizing causes, triggering new schools of thought, and inventing fantastic devices that keep Donnerdam's technological edge. They could run the city, but they keep themselves in check because they have a horrible track record at agreeing one another—and in general have no real head for politics, having excused themselves from having any representation on the Council of Seven.

Sins: Murder is a sin. Forgery and libel are sins due to the oft-sacred nature of the written word. Destruction of holy objects is a sin. Lying is not, so long as it is not written! Gluttony, envy, wrath aren't—they're passions. Sloth is a grey area; willful ignorance ("turning away from the opportunity of knowledge") is a sin! Theft, vandalism, etc may be taken as sins as well. Harming something of value is a sin; taking something of value from someone who does not have the capacity to give is harm; therefore rape and other sexual crimes are seen as sins. Dodging your taxes is a sin.

Slaves: There are none! This is due to the Right to Property. The closest you get is the legal status of Children.

The Slide: A downhill neighborhood that terminates in the Sunken Heart, largely composed of three long mostly-parallel roads and the broke-down houses and shops along them. The lives of those who live there tend to follow this trajectory, though some manage to head the other way and climb their way out of the gutter. It's found branching out to the northwest from the Sinkhole.

Smugglers: There are two kinds of smugglers: the ones avoiding the city taxes (but paying the Gondoliers' "River Tithe"), and the ones avoiding the River Tithe. The latter set usually gets crushed by the Gondoliers, though they still exist. The former are something of a thorn in the Council's side but they're a big part of the Gondoliers getting their funding.

Sorcery: An ancient, forgotten art of High Magic, of which there are many relics left (but none who can master them).

The Sunken Heart aka The Sink-Hole: The Sunken Heart is a district at the center of the city, smack in the middle of everything, the oldest part of the city, its architecture overgrown and growing together like the thick tangle of a jungle, its canals blocked with debris. It is a fantastically dangerous place to travel through alone. It is on the way from point A to point B if one travels most directly, however, and brave couriers have made a mint carrying messages and packages through the Sunken Heart: no one else in the city is able to travel so quickly and efficiently as they do.

Taxes: Taxes are paid according to the zodiac! Different classes pay different rates depending on where their stars are at in the sky that year. Folks who dodge their taxes get censured by the Church and put to work doing public works for the city. The current hot issue is whether or not to tax the conversion of coin into prayer (right now only prayer into currency is taxed); backed by the nobles.

Trial of Adulthood: Children must undergo a formal Trial, appropriate to the standards of the social class they were born to, in order to claim their full class and adulthood rights. Adults may grow hair. See "Children" for more.

Trial of Union: Those wishing to enter into marriage must also face a Trial. Whoever faces the Trial is the one entering into the house and social class of the other, so usually the Trial is faced by the less advantaged half of the pairing—though love has been known to alter that particular equation at times. The terms of the Trial are set by the "receiving" house and class, but satisfaction of the Trial is judged by the clergy. Some unions are known to involve three or more persons, but are relatively rare.

War: Something Donnerdam has been able to hold at arm's length due to a small technological advantage (gunpowder applications), and their small but highly professional naval and marine forces. The continent is not so lucky, with tensions occasionally running high and keeping it "internally occupied with itself".

Wigs: Wigs go hand in hand with masks; those who can't grow hair, but have passed the Trial of Adulthood, do wear them to signify their status.