thread: 2012-09-10 : So very busy!
On 2012-09-10, Vincent wrote:
Alex: Hm, let's see. The Venn diagram is kind of complicated.
Creatures can be living creatures or plasmids.
There's no distinction between plasmids and plasmic entities, except that just as a person you respect is technically a creature but you wouldn't refer to her as one, you wouldn't refer to a powerful plasmic entity as a plasmid. It's belittling!
There are also plasmids you'd call "libertine intelligences," although they don't appear on this list.
Living creatures can be animals, unnatural creatures, or people.
Most creatures fall into one category or another, cleanly - most animals are just animals, most people are just people, most animated gargoyles are just animated gargoyles, most plasmids are just plasmids. But all of the possible combinations exist. A wizard, for instance, isn't just a person, but is also possessed of a plasm called her "plasmic psyche," the very thing that makes her capable of wizardry, so that she is in the overlap between living creatures and plasmic ones.
And then, any kind of creature can be a monster. A monster is just any creature with a monstrous appetite.
So when an element says "create this as a creature," it means "go to the creature creation rules and follow them, making choices as you go, to create this thing. Will it be a monster? Your choice. Will it be a person? Your choice. Will it be a plasmic creature, or an unnatural thing? Your choice."
When another element says "create this as a monster," it means something slightly different: "go to the creature creation rules and follow them, making choices as you go, just as above, but be sure to choose to make it a monster." Similarly "create this as a person": "...but be sure to choose to make it a person."
Obviously, these elements each provide further constraints, guidance, or suggestions of their own. When the entry says "unearthly, perilous things moving about half-unseen," the choices you'd make during creature creation will naturally be different from the ones you'd make to create "blind, ravenous things coiled in the seclusium's well."
And finally, when you create any kind of creature, you can create it as an individual or as a population.
Evan: I haven't seen it. Ought I?
This makes MB go "I'm not a native english speaker so take my words for what they're worth, but as a biologist I find this "plasmid" thing"
This makes go "(continued) a bit distracting."
This makes VB go "Ha ha ha"
I didn't know a plasmid was a real thing. Oh well!
