STORYCollective unconscious, sometimes misgiven as collective subconscious, is a term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. It is a part of the unconscious mind, shared by a society, humanity and all life forms, that is the product of ancestral experience and contains such concepts as science, religion, and morality.
At the turn of the century, weird stuff started to happen. In some places, people started turning into stone, other places, they turned into zombies. Giant monsters burrowed up from the ground, animals and wildlife dominated areas and transformed into terrible angry beasts.
The collective unconscious runs deeper than Carl Jung ever imagined. There is an energy that ties everyone together. When people started dropping off, other creatures tapped into it and were corrupted. The only ones who remained were the young and outcast, people so severely detached from the collective unconscious that it couldn't effect them. These were teenagers specifically, Metalheads, Alt-Rockers, Goths, HipHoppers and Ravers.
Communities of these people are forming in places across America. Discoveries have been made about the nature of music, and that through the use of music, a survivor can safely tap into the collective unconscious in order to defend themselves. The process is exhausting, physically demanding and psychologically corrosive, but in a crunch, It could save your life.
CHARACTER SHEETCharacter sheets consist of a name, a style, a short description or backstory, lists of characteristics, Items, Spells and Play-List, and a gauge.
DICE MECHANICYou roll the dice (2 d6) whenever you perform an action while in immediate danger. The low DC is 6, medium DC is 4 or 8, High DC is 3 or 11. If you roll extremely high (12) or low (2) your action is considered awesome. Your gauge goes up.
AWAKENINGWhen your gauge reaches certain points, you can Awaken for a short amount of time and you get a song. One person should be able to awaken at least once per encounter.
Awakening puts you into a narrative position. Your character taps into the collective unconscious, their eyes glow like a god's, their form becomes elemental or animalistic in nature and when channeled through music, they take on characteristics of their style. You overcome the obstacle and decide how it happens. Your influence only lasts until the end of the song. During an awakening, you are defining your powers. If you collect enough inspiration, you can spend these to grab a power that you had used while you had awakened.
When your awakening is over, your character passes out and is considered helpless.
SONGSWhen you get a song, you take something from the title,lyrics or subject. You can spend points from your gauge to keep something from that song. It may be an item, a characteristic or a spell.
Not all lyrics can be used as spells, you may not be able to use every song. In that case, the song becomes recycled into inspiration. These are points that can be used to enhance current spells or characteristics.
If you draw the same song a second time, the characteristic or spell you chose becomes more powerful.
CORRUPTIONAny time a player gains a characteristic or spell, they have a chance of becoming corrupted. When this happens, they lose control of their character for a certain amount of time.
DM NOTES- Durring each encounter, at least 1 person should awaken. An awakening should mark the climax of the encounter.
Characters should be given enough risks to take in and out of combat in order for - Players to go home with 3 or 4 songs in their play-list.
Default gauge levels set at prime numbers after 2. So 3,5,7,11 and so on.
Characters will be spending a certain amount of time in survival mode. This consists of gathering supplies, finding music and completing tasks. Encounters only creep up once in a while. There should be enough danger without incorporating enemies. - Encounters say something about the area. If its an office, it might be corperate zombies. If its suburbia it might be wildlife reclaiming its domain. If its arazona, it might be giant sand worms. The monsters you throw in there should be derivative of things that already exist.
- Players who are reading this even though you shouldn't be - Animals, beasts, other people, kitchen appliances, what have you, are just as corruptible as you are, but you have music as a tool to help you handle it.
Side note: Character sheets are to be stylized to look like notebook paper that's been doodled on. This can be easily rectified by simply creating characters on notebook paper and doodling on it.
