Living the Call of the Wild

[Rocket Man]

I have a player who is creating a Servitor of Jordi, Archangel of Animals. By far his most interesting dissonance condition is the one that reads:

"Jordi’s angels cannot allow themselves to be swayed by the concerns of human society, its rules or its expectations of behavior."

I have a few ideas as to how that might play out in a game ... but I'd like to hear some suggestions from the hivemind. What would you consider to be examples of this condition in action?

[Jason]

Hmm.

A kind GM might decide that even animals recognize "rules" to some extent. (I'm thinking of the part of Homo Ludens observing that the "rules" of play between dogs include not biting hard enough to draw blood.) I don't think a Servitor of Jordi would be unable to follow social rules, like not biting a friend;*they'd just ignore those social rules that seem particularly human. This Servitor of Jordi would probably be especially in touch with its emotions, quick to lash out at a perceived threat, regardless of social context, but more or less able to function in relaxed situations. (Not sure what this means for Elohim or Animals, though.)

A creatively evil GM might rule that it is dissonant to wear pants.

[ladyarcana55]

One of my players was a Jordite and the way he played it was this...

A house is on fire and there is a person and a cat trapped inside. You can only rescue one. You will get Dissonance if you leave the cat and rescue the human.

I'm not even sure that is correct but it made sense to us both

[Archangel Beth]

Frankly, whenever I get a go-ahead for Jordi (and I know who I want for him, but don't know if I can get her, *SIGH*), explaining and making-more-playable his dissonance conditions would be a top priority.

I think that my "I know it when I see it" example would be Hitherby, from the Fiat Justitia game.

(beth pauses a while to re-read http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~maya/nom...t/HITHER1.html, and giggles a lot.)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Jason

A creatively evil GM might rule that it is dissonant to wear pants.

I don't see how that's evil. It seems to me that even taking a human vessel for the purpose of better interacting with human society is dissonant in the first place (unless of course you are talking about pants for non-human animals; which is simply wrong).

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I don't see how that's evil. It seems to me that even taking a human vessel for the purpose of better interacting with human society is dissonant in the first place

Not necessarily. After all, one of the rules of life is that a species best communicates with its own kind; if you are hoping to influence humanity in some way (such as for the protection of wildlife), a human form may be necessary. Distasteful, but necessary.

(unless of course you are talking about pants for non-human animals; which is simply wrong).

Heck, yeah. That's evidence of serious Discord right there. :)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

Not necessarily. After all, one of the rules of life is that a species best communicates with its own kind; if you are hoping to influence humanity in some way (such as for the protection of wildlife), a human form may be necessary. Distasteful, but necessary.

I meant that assuming a human form solely for the purposes of not breaking human rules (No Dogs Allowed) would be dissonant. Assuming a human form to communicate with humans might be alright, but it's still probably dissonant to do so with any manner of social grace. Nakedness would seem to be appropriate in this case. More sophisticated interactions with humans ought to be done through other angles, or soldiers as intermediaries.

EDIT:
A simple solution would be to steal the concept of Werewolf's monkey puzzle as a Servitor Attunement

Something like:
Monkey Mask
Regardless of your vessels actual species you can trick humans into perceiving you as a Human of an appropriate manner of dress and appearence. [Some game mechanics involving Perception here, I think].

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I meant that assuming a human form solely for the purposes of not breaking human rules (No Dogs Allowed) would be dissonant. Assuming a human form to communicate with humans might be alright, but it's still probably dissonant to do so with any manner of social grace. Nakedness would seem to be appropriate in this case. More sophisticated interactions with humans ought to be done through other angles, or soldiers as intermediaries.

EDIT:
A simple solution would be to steal the concept of Werewolf's monkey puzzle as a Servitor Attunement

Something like:
Monkey Mask
Regardless of your vessels actual species you can trick humans into perceiving you as a Human of an appropriate manner of dress and appearence. [Some game mechanics involving Perception here, I think].

Hmmm ... I could see that being justified yes, since it's a matter of "camouflage to blend into a dangerous background" rather than "Giving in to the humans and their silly rules." I like that .... though the image of my player's angel walking nude through the back alleys of Boulder is rather amusing.

[alexondria]

really I'd say that the dissonance condition only comes into play when it's conflicting with the priorities. Not attacking the man walking down the street for no reason or not refusing to wear pants just because shouldn't be dissonant- refusing to release the poor whale that would be happier in the ocean because that's technically theft would be. But then again I've never ran a character of Jordi so no clue how my view would actually work out in a game.

[ladyarcana55]

I always interpretted it

Best interest of animals vs best interest of man

Yes, keeping the whale would benefit research but it wouldn't benefit the whale.