TEXT: In This Issue:
  • Supplement Reviews
  • Magic Alternative
  • A Super Option
  and more!
  The Fanzine of
  
  C o n t e n t s
  2 Kaput meantime
  Your editor spouts off about things on his mind this
  t i m e .
  5 Involuntary measure
  Phii Masters and Nicoie Frein add a bit more to
  popuiation of the Edge with new GMCs.
  16 Al Amarja Today
  The oniy news you need to readi
  17 Little Scratches
  Serving the community since 1940!
  21 Over the Panel's Edge
  Lisa Padoi expiores the use of OTP's mechanics in
  a super-hero-type setting.
  25 Alternative magic system
  Joshua Kronengoid ties fringe traits to fatigue
  instead of a vague '"psychic pooi" in this intriguing
  a r t i c i e .
  28 PIcus ﬁeld day
  Letters from the readers.
  30 Edge watcher
  Lisa Padoi reviews Weicome to Syivan Pines and
  A i r w a v e s .
  EdgeWork is distributed by Atlas Games, PO Box 406,
  Northﬁeld, MN55057, USA. EdgeWork is edited inde
  pendently by Peter Hentges, 1055 SE 26th Avenue,
  Minneapolis, MN 55414, USA. Art this issue pro
  vided by Eric Hotz and Scott Lien.
  
  Kaput meantime
  Hey look! Another place I
  get to spout off about just
  about anything I like. Gen
  Con, my OTE game, the
  Internet, anything, and
  people are not only have
  to listen but they must take
  me seriously! Well, ...all
  right... maybe at least
  they'll read...
  Kick-off at Gen Con
  At 1992's Gen Con Game Fair in
  Milwaukee, Over the Edge was
  debuted by Atlas Games. This
  year, EdgeWork made its debut,
  much to the delight of OTE
  gamers. Aiding its success was
  the fact that Atlas Games
  actually had a booth (in
  stead of being forced to
  share one as they did in
  1992). I had to run a
  game ﬁrst thing Thurs
  day morning and so
  my friend Bob and his
  business associate
  Joel delivered the
  box of EdgeWork
  # l s t o t h e A t l a s
  G a m e s b o o t h
  when it opened.
  A t l a s w a s
  conveniently
  located off of
  one of the main
  causeways of
  t h e d e a l e r ' s
  r o o m a n d f a r
  enough from
  the TSR castle to
  b e o u t f r o m
  u n d e r i t s d a r k
  shadow. Fortunately for me, they
  were also just up the aisle from
  Abalone games. (I'm a big Aba-
  lone fan! <grin>) Since Atlas was
  doing me the favor of pushing my
  other fanzine (Redcap, for Ars
  Magica), I basically split my time
  during the convention between
  t h e t w o b o o t h s w h e n I w a s n ' t
  running games.
  The experience let me meet a
  number of gaming honchos and
  semi-honchos who breezed by the
  Atlas booth to say hello and scam
  some of the latest Atlas product.
  Robin Laws, Ken Ralston, Paz and
  Angus of The Last Province, Nicole
  Frein (nee Lindroos) and her
  Mark, Lisa Stevens and her new
  toy, Dave Nalle, Stewart Wieck
  and hosts of others all stopped by.
  Some of these folks I had met
  before but many were new
  f r i e n d s .
  I also ran an OTE game at Gen
  Con. "Stream of Consciousness
  Blues" was an interesting experi
  ence of role-playing. Seemed that
  most of the folks had a good time
  during the game. At the end of it,
  they all gave me a nice round of
  applause. First time that's hap
  pened to me at Gen Con!
  But I think the seminal experi
  ence of Gen Con lies not in its
  games. The hordes of people who
  descend upon MECCA each year
  and game from 8:00 a.m. to mid
  night only to retreat to their hotels
  and grab a brief rest before going
  at it again are only getting part of
  the Gen Con experience. For each
  year there are a number of parties
  thrown by various parts of the
  gaming industry at near-by hotels.
  Completely apart from the oppor
  tunity to swill a few brews on
  someone-else's tab, these gather
  ings give us the ultimate opportu
  nity to do what drew us to gaming
  anyway: socialize! Imagine your
  typical party. A room full of folks
  Page 2
  
  chatting amiably and consuming
  party foods and drinkables while
  listening to some music perhaps.
  Now add in the fact that all the
  people have at least one thing in
  common with you: they are
  gamers! Imagine discussing the
  relative merits of metaphysics
  based on the opposing views that
  there is an objective reality and
  that reality is determined by
  consensus belief only to discover
  that your opponent in this discus
  s i o n i s s o m e o n e l i k e R o b i n L a w s
  o r K e n R a l s t o n !
  That, I think, is the ultimate
  Gen Con experience. You can wax
  poetic about your good games and
  the exciting seminars and the
  schmoozing in the dealer's room
  but when you get right down to it,
  conventions are for talking to
  people. If you don't do it (either at
  a party or a bar or a restaurant)
  you're just missing out. And if you
  don't go to conventions of any
  type, you'll just never know.
  The two parties I attended at
  least brieﬂy this year were the
  Alarums and Excursions (A&E)
  party and the White Wolf party.
  A&E is the longest-running
  gaming apa, a collection of some
  of the best gaming writers all
  putting their thoughts into some
  thing like a computer bbs but on
  paper. Another way to describe it
  would be a "cocktail party in
  print." And every year at Gen Con
  they throw a party so that mem
  bers and friends can meet face to
  face. Given these people's ten
  dency to talk about the philosophy
  of gaming and game design, some
  of the con's most interesting
  gaming conversations happen at
  this party. And the people are
  really nice too. It's a relatively
  small affair and tends to be
  i n t i m a t e a n d f u n .
  White Wolf's party draws
  hordes of people that follow their
  games. From the small start in
  their hotel room a few years ago,
  they've moved into hotel function
  spaces to provide the kind of room
  their following needs. This tends
  to be a more raucous party with
  plenty of drinkables and, this year,
  a nice little collection of cheese
  and fruit on a buffet table. But the
  noise and crowd just didn't really
  appeal to me. Especially after
  Mark Hagen threw a half-full
  glass of beer on me. He protested
  that he was aiming for John
  Nephew but it was my blazer that
  bore the brunt of this attack. By
  then it was middling late anyway
  and I wandered on back to my
  h o t e l .
  In other news, the glorious
  P r e s i d e n t o f A t l a s G a m e s d i d h i s
  patriotic duty and had the editor
  of this humble, horrid rag ar
  rested. Klingon jailers appre
  h e n d e d h i m i n t h e m i d d l e o f a n
  Abalone game/sales pitch and
  dragged him, screaming, to their
  vile cells. There he was impris
  oned with a lowly shop-lifter and
  wallowed in abject dishonor until
  the Klingons recognized his status
  as a political prisoner and put him
  in with a war criminal, Tom
  Johnson of Task Force Johnson.
  Years later, his sentence ﬁnally
  ﬁnished, the editor was released to
  live once again under the mercy of
  t h e e x a l t e d P r e s i d e n t .
  My DTE series start...
  You may recall from my last
  editorial that, despite laxmching a
  career as OTE's top spokesperson,
  I hadn't actually started an OTE
  series as yet. Well now I have. My
  regular Sunday game needed a
  break and when the guy who
  w a n t e d t o n m W a r h a m m e r
  Fantasy Role Play didn't show up,
  I offered to run OTE.
  It took a while to convince
  everyone to give OTE a shot.
  Mostly because we're just a bunch
  of apathetic slobs. "Whatta you
  want to play?" "I don't care,
  whatta you want to play?" But
  when it came down to it they
  relented. So then we started
  creating characters.
  Page 3
  
  The group is fairly creative but
  limited somewhat by not knowing
  what OTE is all about. I ended up
  with quite a few fringe talents
  among the group, something that
  seems to occur in the one-shot
  games I run now and again as
  well. I have an elderly English
  woman on the trail of a long-lost
  nephew, a swashbuckling Holly
  wood actor, a yoga master and
  teacher, a soft-hearted PI, a former
  secret agent trying to retire, a
  mind-reader from another planet
  a n d a s t r e e t - b u m w i t h a
  t e c h n i c o l o r c o a t .
  My only real struggle in charac
  t e r c r e a t i o n w a s w i t h t h e f o r m e r
  secret agent. He wanted to take
  Blind as a ﬂaw but then have a
  fringe power that allowed him to
  sense things aroimd him (i.e., the
  Daredevil comic character). Once I
  c o n v i n c e d h i m t h a t t h i s c o m b i n a
  tion didn't make Blind a Flaw, he
  altered his conception some to
  come up with a workable charac
  t e r .
  The only other difﬁculty was
  when two of the players wanted
  their characters to have guns upon
  the island, in spite of being warned
  about the consequences. We ran
  through brief scenarios in which
  they did a good job of convincing
  me that they would be able to
  sneak their personal ﬁrearms onto
  the island. The ﬁrst is a one-shot
  charge in the base of one
  character's cane (like a shark gun)
  and is unlikely to get him in deep
  trouble until he uses it. The other is
  your standard issue semi-auto
  matic pistol with one clip of
  ammimition. This will be causing
  its owner some grief in the future
  but for the time being I've got him
  so paranoid that he keeps it in a
  locked metal box on the top shelf
  of his closet. So there is no real
  danger of it coming into play
  anytime soon.
  Over the course of a couple of
  sessions I think I've got them
  started along some plot lines that
  should pan out nicely. You might
  recall, however, that my fear about
  how I might run OTE was that I
  would screw up the setting. Well,
  true to form, I did just that. A few
  of the PCs broke into a storefront
  and the whole group of them
  ended up in a little ﬁght with the
  security force that came to the
  a l a r m . I m a d e t w o m i s t a k e s w i t h
  this security force. First, the shop
  was in Flowers and the security
  wasn't the Aries Gang. Second, the
  four operatives who responded
  had the red dagger emblems of
  Safe n Soimd on their uniforms but
  later identiﬁed themselves as
  members of Dunkleburg's Security
  to questioning PCs.
  In the ﬂow of the game, I just let
  these things slide not even noticing
  the mistakes. Later, when I looked
  over my game notes I discovered
  them and gave myself a mental
  slap on the forehead. But, remem
  bering a seminar on creativity that
  I attended for work earlier in the
  month, I set about on a path to
  ﬁxing those problems. The method
  I learned in that seminar, I think,
  lends itself quite well to OTE
  problem solving and has actually
  turned my weaknesses as an OTE
  CM into strengths.
  The basic idea of the method is
  to deﬁne a paradox and then ask
  yourself, "How could this be
  true?" For example, if you're
  looking for a way to ﬁnd a new
  market for refrigerators, you might
  take an obvious relationship about
  refrigerators and create a paradox:
  Refrigerators are hot! Then ask
  yourself the determining question,
  "How could this be true?" and
  come up with the idea that, as
  insulated boxes, refrigerators
  might be useful to Eskimos as a
  place to keep food from freezing
  during the long winter.
  In this spirit I took the problem
  that I had created and posed the
  question. "How could Safe n
  Soimd agents say they worked for
  Dunkleburg's?" or "How could
  Dunkleburg agents get Safe n
  S o u n d e m b l e m s ? " F r o m t h e r e
  came the "Why?" questions. And
  on A1 Amaija, the whys can lead
  you anywhere, right? So no matter
  how preposterous the reasoning, it
  could be true. The agents could be
  under some form of mind-control,
  one security agency could be
  trying to set the other one up as
  incompetent (most of the PCs
  escaped after all), a third party
  could be trying to bring down both
  of them.... The possibilities are
  really endless.
  A n d n o w t h a t I ' v e " d i s c o v e r e d "
  this method, I feel a lot more
  freedom as an OTE CM. There are
  no more mistakes, there are only
  opportunities.
  OTE on the net
  If you're looking for an even
  more avenues to explore OTE in all
  its glory, the OTE Internet Mailing
  List is for you! AU you need is
  access to tﬁe Internet to join this
  messaging service dedicated to
  OTE. While you might ﬁnd
  o c c a s i o n a l m e n t i o n s o f O T E
  elsewhere, only on the OTE list can
  you be guaranteed devotion to
  OTE topics alone.
  To subscribe to the OTE list
  send a message with your Internet
  address to: edge-
  owner@cool.khis.com. Clay
  Luther, the list administrator will
  get you set up and in no time at all
  you'll be receiving the latest word
  o n O T E !
  Frequent contributors to the
  OTE list include Jonathan Tweet,
  Robin Laws, John Nephew, Woody
  Eblom and yours truly. Get the
  dope straight from the grower,
  subscribe to the OTE list today!
  And Edge Work can also be
  reached on-line. Mail sent to
  peter.hentges@cool.khis.com will
  get me and I'll give it the full
  c o n s i d e r a t i o n i t d e s e r v e s .
  e
  Page 4
  
  nvoluntary measure
  Phil Masters dominates this
  instaiiment of EdgeWork's
  column of new places
  and faces forAIAmorjo.
  Phil was a little late getting
  his submission into Friend or
  Foe so we beneﬁt from his
  tardiness. Fiere ore four
  new inhabitants of the
  Edge from Phil's fevered
  bran and Nicole Lindroos
  Frein tells us about her
  Neighbor Lady.
  Bernadette O'Craig
  Chambermaid and Slightly
  Naive Natural Witch
  Bemadette O'Craig is a farmer's
  daughter from the rural west of the
  Republic of Ireland and a charm
  ing, optimistic, open-hearted
  young girl, too. Not, one might
  think, a natural emigrant to A1
  Amaija. Indeed, she often wonders
  what she is doing here; but she
  thinks that her mirror knows what
  it is talking about.
  Bemadette is, in fact, a natural
  magic-wielder; someone with a
  genetically-derived talent for astral
  manipulation so powerful that it
  needs no special training. (That
  said, her natural open-mindedness
  and wide-eyed fascination with the
  world in every conceivable aspect
  wouldn't necessarily block any
  fringe or magical talent.) However,
  her ability needs a focus to work
  through; she ﬁnds it in any decent
  m i r r o r .
  W h e n B e m a d e t t e l o o k s a t a
  mirror, it stops reﬂecting light, and
  starts projecting images from the
  astral plane in the form of what
  look like modiﬁed reﬂections. At
  ﬁrst, other observers may not
  notice this fact, unless there is a
  large amoimt of magic around. But
  sooner or later, they will see that
  individuals look a little different in
  the glass than in reality, back
  grounds look distorted and heavy
  with shadows, and a few objects
  seem to be wrapped in light (or
  darkness). If anything masked or
  disguised is in view, the disguise
  wiU be at least partly eliminated in
  the reﬂection. All of this only
  applies while Bemadette is looking
  in the glass.
  She herself can do a lot more
  with mirrors. Her "reﬂection" is in
  fact her astral body; she can
  t r a n s f e r h e r c o n s c i o u s n e s s
  "through the looking-glass," at
  which point her physical body
  slumps, her reﬂection smiles and
  then the mirror retums to normal
  except that it no longer reﬂects
  Bemadette's inert physical body.
  (This is an effect that could lead to
  tricky misimderstandings for
  people with old-fashioned ideas
  about supematural beings and
  mirrors.) Furthermore, her "reﬂec
  tion" appears to have knowledge
  that Bemadette herself lacks;
  presumably by virtue of its access
  to magical symbol-ﬁmctions. It
  sometimes "talks" to Bemadette
  when she looks at it, giving her
  suggestions, wamings, and advice.
  In fact, although it seems certain
  that Bemadette's "reﬂection" is
  simply her astral body, it has some
  imusual traits. It seems rather
  more worldly-wise, assertive, and
  aggressive than her normal
  Page 5
  
  personality; its character is far
  more that of a self-assured, tough
  and slightly secretive woman. This
  probably just means that experi
  ence of the astral plane has made
  Bemadette very slightly crazy,
  making her slip schizophrenically
  into this different persona when
  she uses her powers. This could be
  bad news; multiple personalities
  are not always regarded as a sign
  of health. The alternative, that the
  reﬂection really is someone else,
  c o u l d b e w o r s e .
  (One relatively mild option is to
  decide that Bemadette is actually
  the reincarnation of a skilled
  medieval witch, and when she
  accesses some of the witch's
  powers, the witch's personality
  tends to assert itself. Of course,
  that could lead to other complica
  tions...)
  Despite her tougher "astral
  persona," and because of her
  optimistic, good-natured mind-set,
  B e m a d e t t e ' s v i s i o n o f t h e a s t r a l
  plane is a lot less deformed and
  frightening than most people's.
  Mostly, it looks like the "real
  world," but ﬂooded with more
  light and plunged into deeper
  s h a d o w. I t s m o r e h o s t i l e d e n i z e n s
  generally appear humanoid to her,
  but hulldng, lumbering, and dark,
  with few visible features; almost
  like a child's idea of the sort of
  strangers one shouldn't talk to.
  At home in Ireland, Bemadette
  kept her mirror-magic a secret, and
  did little with it. However, a few
  months ago, her reﬂection told her,
  loud and clear, to travel to A1
  Amarja. Why, it won't say; appar
  ently, it feels that something there
  needs or deserves her attention.
  Quite possibly, it actually doesn't
  know what it has sensed; it seems
  to enjoy projecting a sense of
  mystery, even to Bemadette
  herself. It may be working against
  one of the many great evils to be
  found on the island; it may hope to
  get Bemadette more entangled in
  the supematural there, strengthen
  ing the side of her personality that
  it represents; if she is actually the
  reincamation of a powerful
  individual, it may be pursuing
  some personal vendetta or debt
  from &is past life.
  In A1 Amarja, Bemadette has
  foimd work as a chambermaid in
  Cesar's Hotel, living in staff
  quarters there. Off-duty, she is
  sometimes to be found in cafes in
  Sunken or Flowers Barrios, letting
  the rougher side of A1 Amarjan life
  slide past her, but her reﬂection
  might direct her almost anywhere.
  On Sundays, she attends Mid-
  Eastem Compromise services in
  the Temple of the Divine Experi
  ence; she is a good Roman Catho
  lic, but not too hot on the precise
  details of doctrine. At other times,
  she shuts herself up in her room
  and enters her mirror, trying to
  ﬁnd out what she should be doing
  n e x t .
  Irish woman, age 21,165 cm, 61
  kg, innocuous, with dark hair and
  green eyes; dresses plainly.
  Languages: English, some
  Gaelic, a few words of A1 Amarjan
  patois.
  Attack: 2 dice (if she has to)
  Defense: 2 dice
  Hit Points: 16 (healthy)
  T r a i t s
  Astral Projection, 2 dice: She
  requires a mirror to trigger this
  trick, as described above, but
  otherwise, she rates as a pretty
  good operator on the astral plane.
  (Sometimes "faints" while looking
  at a mirror, leaving no reﬂection.)
  Oracular Reﬂection, 2 dice: It
  would be really interesting to
  know how her reﬂection ﬁnds out
  so many secrets, but it isn't telling.
  Mostly but not always, it obtains
  data relating to magical/super
  natural phenomena. To extract
  information from it, she has to talk
  to it; others can hear what she says
  (although she talks quietly), but
  only she can "hear" the answers.
  ("Talks" to mirrors.)
  Mirror of Truth, 1 dice: When
  she is looking in a mirror, it tends
  to show reality rather than appear
  ances, replacing illusions and
  seemings with the truth, and
  showing magical items as obvi
  ously "strange." (Looks carefully
  into mirrors.)
  Astral Persona, 3 dice: If en
  countered on the astral plane, she
  comes across as a competent,
  adaptable individual, and every
  thing she does on this level (deal
  ing with astral entities, fending off
  magical assaults, whatever)
  justiﬁes that impression. (Projects a
  tough, competent air when dealing
  with magic.)
  Innocuous Charm, 3 dice: She is
  so pleasant and open and friendly
  that many people are pleasant
  right back to her, even on A1
  Amarja; she can get answers and
  co-operation by this most simple of
  tactics, and she doesn't even Imow
  she's being clever. (Open, friendly,
  polite demeanor)
  Relatively Innocent, penalty die:
  Being nice and open and honest
  may achieve results sometimes,
  but not always. Faced with unre
  lenting hostility, fanaticism,
  cruelty, or calculated mendacity,
  she suffers a penalty die on
  attempts to handle the perpetra
  tors socially or emotionally, due to
  emotional shock and inexperience
  of guile. She is also a committed
  Catholic, and may annoy devotees
  of other beliefs by her refusal to
  back down from that position.
  (Open, friendly, naive demeanor)
  Scenario Idea 1
  While staying in Cesar's, one of
  the PCs is still in her room one day
  when room service comes by. The
  chambermaid goes round, cleaning
  brieﬂy but efﬁciently, and is just
  wiping the mirror when she seems
  to look at her reﬂection brieﬂy,
  murmurs "oh dear", and seem
  ingly faints (dropping out of sight
  of the mirror).
  Page 6
  
  B e m a d e t t e h a s r e c e i v e d a n
  urgent instruction from her
  reﬂection, and headed off into the
  astral plane. The PC's ﬁrst (and
  perhaps, for the moment, only)
  problem is to look after the uncon
  scious body. The admin staff at
  Cesar's will be quite willing to
  help when contacted, although
  they may ask a couple of tactful
  questions to check if the PC did
  anything to bring on this problem.
  (They have to be alert for tricky,
  malicious, or dangerous guests.) If
  the PCs notice Bemadette's lack of
  reﬂection in a mirror, it's up to
  them how to react; if anyone
  points it out to the Cesar's staff,
  they will be concerned and con
  fused, but their ﬁrst instincts will
  be to keep such weirdness quiet, to
  avoid scaring any guests. (Staff,
  such as Mugly Flats, with other
  loyalties, may report back as
  appropriate, leading to more
  complications in the plot.)
  B e m a d e t t e w i l l " r e c o v e r " i n a
  few hours, and at ﬁrst, she will
  refuse to talk about the incident,
  beyond saying that she feels ﬁne
  now. However, the problem she
  was confronting still exists, and the
  next time she gets to a mirror, her
  reﬂection will suggest to her that
  the PCs might be able to assist, and
  after all, they are already involved.
  T h i s w i l l l e a d t o a c o n ﬂ i c t w i t h
  some supernatural problem from
  around A1 Amaqa. This could
  mean some open exponent of black
  magic, such as Sir Arthur Compton
  (or more likely, rather, his bennies),
  or a slightly-more-competent-than-
  most Satanist gang; a "traditional"
  supernatural threat, such as a
  vampire; or it could mean some
  slightly less obvious operator, such
  as Paul Weisberger (of the
  Philosopher's Stone). For a really
  heavy incident, Bemadette may
  have been noticed by Cheryl
  D'Aubainne, and have been
  shadowed astrally by Juana
  Salvador, who has orders not to
  attack (yet) while other of Cheryl's
  followers investigate on the
  physical plane.
  (Altematively, any time that a
  PC staying in this hotel knowingly
  or unknowingly brings something
  magical back to the place,
  Bemadette may become aware of
  its reﬂection, and somehow get
  involved in the related adventure.)
  S c e n a r i o I d e a 2
  There's a bar on Flowers with a
  big mirror behind the counter,
  visible through the window from
  the street outside. One aftemoon,
  Bemadette and some of the PCs
  both happen to be down that way.
  Sharp-eyed characters may see her
  glance casually into the bar;
  anyone nearby will notice her gasp
  and run off down the street. Very
  alert folk will note a normal-
  looking passer-by fade off the
  street. Seconds later, a big, dis
  torted, dangerous-looking fellow
  (perhaps a mutant?) emerges from
  the bar and sets off in the same
  direction as the girl, not running,
  but moving with determination.
  Inside the bar, a little confusion has
  been caused; the big fellow evi-
  Page 7
  
  dently seems to have sneaked
  behind the counter, than leapt over
  it, spilling a few drinks on his way.
  Bemadette has, in fact, spotted a
  demonic entity which was main
  taining human form, but with
  some difﬁculty, being more
  powerful than subtle. Her truthful
  perception of it in the mirror has
  shattered most of the illusions it
  was projecting, forcing it closer to
  the form she perceived (and to the
  mirror). It wants revenge; more to
  the point, it wants to stop her
  imperilling its secret mission on
  E a r t h .
  The ﬁrst problem for the PCs,
  once they realize what is going on,
  may be to protect Bemadette, or at
  least to deal with the confusion on
  the streets of the Edge as the entity
  storms after her, trampling on
  anyone who gets in its way. If any
  law enforcement types intervene,
  the being will shmg them off; this
  may lead to an escalation of
  violence, and the main problem for
  the PCs may then be to keep their
  heads down low enough. If it faces
  overwhelming force, the being
  may fade back to its plane of
  origin, or concentrate on regaining
  a harmless appearance, but it will
  certainly be back on Bemadette's
  trail, sooner or later.
  Of course, there is also the
  question, in the longer term, of
  what the creature was up to before
  it got side-tracked. If the PCs team
  up with Bemadette, her good
  nature and high principles will
  ensure that she worries about that,
  even if they don't.
  An entertaining variation on
  this theme would be to have
  Bemadette see Michael d'Angelo
  (see below) m a mirror. She would
  be awe-stmck; he would be
  primarily concemed to keep her
  quiet, without harming her, and to
  stop her persistently running to
  him for aid against evil. He might
  sub-contract the problems she
  brings him to anyone convenient.
  Such as, say, the PCs.
  Michael d'Angelo
  Resting Soldier
  If anyone asks, Michael
  d'Angelo describes himself as "a
  soldier, relaxing between battles."
  If asked if he's a mercenary, he
  laughs and says no. If anyone
  suggests that A1 Amarja is a pretty
  odd place to relax, he shmgs and
  says "I've seen worse than this".
  His appearance and manner
  suggest that he could well be a
  very good ﬁeld ofﬁcer; he's
  evidently tough, intelligent, and
  s e l f - a s s u r e d .
  Socially, he's great company.
  He's clearly determined to party,
  and while he'll usually let others
  take the lead, he'll join in with
  anything, provided that it's
  reasonably moral. (It may take
  characters a while to notice that he
  doesn't take any interest in bla
  tantly immoral or illegal plea
  sures.) Mostly, though, he prefers a
  relatively quiet style of fun,
  sipping drinks and swapping
  stories. He's clearly seen a lot of
  wild things in his time; anyone
  studying his stories will note that
  he's usually a passive observer in
  the events described. In the
  company of military folk, and after
  a few drinks, he may slip in what
  soimd like "tall tales" about battles
  fought with swords against
  imspeciﬁed enemies.
  T h e t r u t h i s t h a t M i c h a e l
  d'Angelo is a soldier in the war
  between good and evil on a level
  t h a t m a k e s a l l h u m a n c o n c e m s
  look petty and trivial. As a faithful
  servant of the light, he's been
  given a few decades to rest, in
  human guise, and he's determined
  to enjoy it. A1 Amarja strikes him
  as a good place to spend his time,
  b e c a u s e t h e b o i m d a r i e s b e t w e e n
  good and evil, right and wrong,
  seem fuzzier here, which lets him
  r e l a x f r o m h i s n o r m a l a t t i t u d e o f
  absolute rigor, and here he can
  experience human existence in the
  greatest possible variety. Most of
  his stories come from earlier parts
  of his vacation, when he wandered
  t h e E a r t h .
  He may be a major power for
  good, but he's taking a break just
  now, and he doesn't want to be
  disturbed. If anyone tries to
  involve him in serious matters, he
  just ignores them. If someone tries,
  knowingly or otherwise, to appeal
  to his better nature, he might say
  "Ten thousand years of tyranny on
  Earth are just an eye-blink in
  eternity. What's it to me?"
  That might make him soimd
  like a cold ﬁsh, but nothing could
  be further from the apparent truth.
  He surely wants to enjoy himself
  and human beings provide the
  context for his relaxation. If
  anyone or anything forces him to
  exert his real capabilities (let alone
  return to serious battle) he will be
  very annoyed. How do you like
  having your vacations inter
  rupted?
  If anyone wants to ﬁnd Michael
  for any reason, they are best
  advised to check out the classier
  bars and cafes in Broken Wings;
  occasionally, he takes in a play or
  movie in Flowers or Science.
  (Nothing too morally challenging,
  that would interrupt his mental
  relaxation.) He lives in a perma
  nently rented suite in Bienvenidos
  Hotel. His monetary needs are met
  by a world-wide collection of
  investments and accounts, estab
  lished centuries ago.
  (Apparently) A1 Amarjan man,
  age early 30s, 191 cm, 85 kg. Short,
  m e d i u m - b r o w n h a i r c u t n e a t a n d
  fairly short, dresses casually but
  stylishly.
  Languages: Observed to speak
  English, French, German, A1
  Amaijan patois with ease; could
  probably pick up any others in a
  few hours (the talent is part of his
  vacation package).
  Attack: 5 dice (anything at hand)
  Defense: 5 dice.
  Hit Points: 40 (impassivity)
  Page 8
  
  T r a i t s
  Scenario Idea 1
  Perfect Warrior, 5 dice: An
  eternity of combat with the ulti
  mate enemy might not count for
  much, but the good-quality body
  he's been allowed for his break is
  built to keep him comfortable. This
  covers not only personal combat,
  but strength, reaction times, etc., as
  w e l l a s c o m m a n d t o d t a c t i c a l
  skills in stress situations. (Looks in
  excellent condition.)
  Astral Potence, 6 dice: Anyone
  who observes him with magical
  senses, tries to attack him using
  spells, or whatever, will soon
  become aware that he possesses
  incredible magical power and
  potential, although he doesn't
  choose to use it. (Regarded with
  awe or horror by magical entities.)
  Spiritual Awareness, 6 dice: He
  can perceive the truth through any
  amount of magic, misdirection, or
  confusion. (Ignores all lies and
  camouﬂage.)
  Cannot do Evil: He may be
  resting at the moment, but when
  push comes to shove, Michael
  d'Angelo is an agent of good, and
  free will isn't part of the question.
  He won't commit any acts of
  cruelty or imfaimess, and he tends
  to obey the law, so far as is pos
  sible on A1 Amarja and so far as is
  compatible with morality. He
  obeys local moral codes, less
  because they are automatically
  right than because casual violation
  of such rules is a "bad habit,"
  leading to a disregard for any
  rules. He is moderate in his
  consumption of alcohol, and he
  will only engage in sexual activity
  with volimtary partners who
  won't be hurt by his own emo
  tional detachment. (That's on A1
  Amarja; in an area where the local
  sexual morality is stricter, he'll be
  celibate.) He doesn't judge others
  (being on vacation); he just acts
  this way. (Always behaves morally
  impeccably.)
  The PCs are out for a drink one
  evening when they are publicly
  attacked by some very powerful
  opponents. In fact, their latest
  enemy has some connections in the
  black magic imdergroxmd, and
  he's lost his temper and set a
  bunch of thinly-disguised demons
  o n t h e m .
  Just as things are looking reaUy
  bad, Michael d'Angelo shows up.
  He takes one look, draws a deep
  breath, and steps forward. Twelve
  seconds later, two demons are
  down, and the rest are running.
  One is dangling in d'Angelo's
  hands. He looks at it, says "I am on
  holiday; I resent being disturbed,"
  and throws it through the nearest
  window. It ﬂees, gibbering in
  terror. Michael d'Angelo then
  moves for the nearest bar, refusing
  t o d i s c u s s t h e i n c i d e n t w i t h
  a n y o n e .
  T h i s s h o u l d b o t h d i s t r a c t t h e
  PCs, and armoy the hell out of
  them. They could end up spending
  several sessions trying to ﬁnd out
  more about d'Angelo, with little
  success. Alternatively, they may
  ﬁnd that their current supernatural
  enemies have started ignoring
  them, and going after him. The
  resting warrior of good will ﬁnd
  this very tiresome, becoming
  increasingly terse and abrasive as
  the opposition refuse to let him
  take a holiday in peace. He may
  politely tell the PCs that he wishes
  they hadn't got him mixed up in
  all this. Not really their fault, of
  course, but would they mind
  dealing with these villains
  quickly? He'd take it as a personal
  f a v o r.
  (What he regards as the value of
  a personal favor is left to the GM.
  It might mean d'Angelo putting in
  a good word for the PCs with his
  superior ofﬁcer. Say, after their
  deaths.)
  Page 9
  
  Scenario idee 2
  PCs who need cash, or who just
  make a living as investigators, are
  hired by an unknown third party,
  working through intermediaries,
  to investigate Michael d'Angelo's
  background. This should make for
  a strange time, as it is both trivially
  easy to establish facts about his
  recent past as a wandering ob
  server and playboy, and com
  pletely impossible to establish who
  he really is or where he comes
  from. He just appeared, in a quiet
  comer of northem India, about
  ﬁfteen years ago. If they challenge
  him directly, he just laughs them
  o ff .
  Eventually, the PCs will have to
  tum in a report admitting defeat.
  Their mystery employer evidently
  accepts this (at least, they get paid
  a minimum as per contract) but
  word comes back down the line;
  there could be a bonus if someone
  is willing to... remove... d'Angelo.
  How the PCs react to this is up
  to them; morality aside, they may
  have leamed enough by now to
  know that the project would not be
  as easy as it might sound. Even if
  anyone (PC or NPC) actually
  succeeds (actually sending
  d'Angelo back to a higher order of
  existence), someone bearing a
  family resemblance to the de
  ceased shows up a few days later,
  and investigates the matter with
  frightening efﬁciency. (This would
  be another emissary of higher
  power, also on vacation, deter
  mined to prevent such holidays
  being disturbed in future.)
  The hidden employer causing
  this trouble is actually a senior
  Peace Force ofﬁcer, working semi
  ofﬁcially. It has been noted that
  this person d'Angelo appears very
  competent in military affairs, and
  he is psychologically immune to
  many of the forces that keep most
  of the denizens of the Edge in line;
  he doesn't take drugs, shows no
  detectable "hooks" for blackmail,
  and ignores threats. This has the
  Peace Force and their de facto
  allies in the Net worried. It will
  probably be best for all who have
  become entangled in the affair if
  someone can somehow convince
  them that Michael d'Angelo will
  leave them alone if they leave him
  a l o n e .
  Sandy Three-Five
  F r e e - l a n c e M e c h a n i c
  Sandy Three-Five's real name is
  Jane Sanderson. (This is no great
  secret; it's just that everyone who
  knows her uses her nickname.) She
  was bom in Sydney, Australia, the
  daughter of a bank clerk, but she
  developed an obsessive interest in
  automobiles from a very early age.
  Eventually, having obtained formal
  training to go with her natural
  talent, she found various jobs as a
  jvmior mechanic on the interna
  tional rallying circuit. Then, one
  day, while between jobs and
  feeling rich enough to take a
  holiday, she heard about A1
  Amarja. When she got there,
  something about the casual,
  opportunistic local life-style
  appealed to her. (Mostly, it was the
  lack of auto safety regulations.)
  Furthermore, she decided there
  was a gap in the local market for
  good mechanics. So she never got
  around to leaving.
  Sandy now has a workshop in
  Justice Barrio, with living quarters
  attached, protected by a Safe n
  Sound decal, where she repairs
  jitneys and cabs (she is good
  friends with a lot of Giovanni's
  drivers). Sometimes, she gets more
  exotic work, such as tuning up
  "specials" for people who can pay
  enough. (She has no taste for
  engaging in criminal activity
  herself, but she doesn't ask stupid
  questions of her customers.) She is
  a versatile mechanic, and might be
  found working on a smuggler's
  speedboats or (on a bad week) a
  building's elevators, but her ﬁrst
  and last love is the private car. She
  knows Dmitri Vatsavos (of
  Dmitri's Fix-It Shop) slightly; they
  compete for some business, but
  mostly, she likes big, conventional
  machines, and he likes small,
  weird gadgets, so they get on okay,
  and sometimes pass customers
  over to each other.
  Page 10
  
  Sandy is unusual in A1 Amarja
  in that she runs a private car.
  Actually, she usually has three or
  four of her own in the shop at any
  one time, in varying states of
  completion and usefulness; when
  she gets bored with one, she'll sell
  or dismantle it. Sometimes, she
  ﬁ n d s t h a t n o n e o f h e r c u r r e n t
  stable are actually roadworthy
  when she needs transport, and she
  has to take a cab, but more often,
  she'll appear in some '50s Ameri
  c a n ﬁ n n e d m o n s t e r o r ' 6 0 s B r i t i s h
  family rust-heap.
  As this may suggest, Sandy
  makes house calls if offered cash,
  so she may turn up almost any
  where round A1 Amarja from a
  poor cabby's place in the depths of
  Four Points to the garage of some
  plutocrat out in the coimtry. She's
  not stupid, she knows where's safe
  and when isn't, she can look after
  herself in a ﬁght, and she doesn't
  start trouble, so she's unlikely to be
  found in need of rescue. Her
  elevator repair work gets her
  standard passes from
  Dunkelburg's for Broken Wings
  and the Golden Knights for Gold,
  and she has friends among Otto's
  Men, who get a bit unhappy at the
  thought of an unattached woman
  with a job, but can't help liking her
  dirty-ﬁnger-nailed style and
  straightforward manner; they end
  up treating her as an honorary
  male, an exception that proves the
  rules they set for female behavior.
  Her sldlls and growing rep
  enable Sandy to make a decent
  living, but she actually works as
  she does for love. She really likes
  machinery; her favorites are
  middle-of-the-century automo
  biles, preferably with V8 engines.
  H e r n i c k n a m e c o m e s f r o m h e r
  special fondness for a certain
  smallish, 3.5 liter alloy engine used
  in a number of US and British
  models; many of her personal
  stable of cars incorporate this
  power unit.
  Sandy is, naturally, good with
  all sorts of mechanical tools, but
  she is never without her favorite
  monkey wrench, which she can
  use as a weapon if she has to. She
  half believes it brings her luck.
  Sandy is a useful contact,
  especially if you have a machine
  needs ﬁxing. Her ability to pass
  almost anywhere on the island
  would make her a very versatile
  ally, except that she doesn't want
  to get mixed up in dangerous
  activities or lose customers, and
  she values her rep for tact and
  neutrality. Still, convince her that,
  say, you're ﬁghting someone who's
  out to conquer the Earth, and she'll
  pitch in with the best of them.
  More usually, though, she works
  for cash, around $200 a day, plus
  travel and parts, although she'll
  give generous informal discounts
  to fellow enthusiasts and anyone
  who'll sit and talk cars with her for
  an hour or six. At the end of a long
  day's work, she'll usually be found
  in some fairly quiet bar, drinking
  beer (not jumped, but in respect
  able quantities) and talking cars
  with any fellow enthusiasts she
  can ﬁnd. She rarely takes much
  interest in romance, although it's
  not inconceivable she might fall for
  someone, in a straightforward sort
  of way.
  Australian woman, age 33,167
  cm, 67 kg. Blonde hair, grey eyes,
  usually dressed in overalls and
  carrying a monkey wrench.
  Languages: English (Australian
  accent), some A1 Amarjan patois, a
  f e w w o r d s o f G r e e k .
  Attacks: 3 dice, x2 (wrench)
  Defense: 2 dice
  Hit Points: 22 (stolidity)
  Tr a i t s
  Ace Mechanic, 4 dice: There's
  not much in the way of machinery
  that she can't ﬁx, and quite likely
  improve if she has to. (Always
  talking about old cars, and often
  working on them.)
  Page 11
  
  Old Car Expert, extra die: She is
  downright obsessed with private
  a u t o m o b i l e s f r o m t h e l a t e 1 9 4 0 s
  through to early 1960s. Her
  knowledge of d\is narrow ﬁeld is
  such that she gets a full extra dice
  on any action involving such
  vehicles. (Always talking about old
  cars, and often working on them.)
  Robust, 3 dice: A varied life,
  little interest in health-diminishing
  vices, and some heavy physical
  work, have turned her relatively
  small body into a well-muscled
  and efﬁcient mechanism. She is
  rarely ill, and can swing a heavy
  punch. (Solidly built.)
  Old Car Bore, penalty die: She is
  rather single-minded in her
  interests; in fact, if they were a
  little more cerebral, she'd probably
  be called a nerd by people who
  think in such terms. As it is, she's
  not the easiest of people to hold a
  conversation with, unless you
  share her obsessions; she suffers a
  penalty die in most social situa
  tions, and may be slow to recog
  nize some problems as really
  important. (Always talking about
  old cars, and often working on
  them.)
  Scenario Idea 1
  One evening in a bar in Flowers,
  the PCs notice Sandy, whether or
  not they've met her before. She
  seems to be having an argument
  with a member of the Aries gang.
  Not smart, that.
  Actually, she's let her enthusi
  asms get ahead of her good sense,
  and is debating the relative merits
  of Harley Davidson and Triumph
  motorcycles with the biker. How
  this situation develops depends on
  the GM and the players. It might
  be a brief, if tense, matter of
  talking the slightly drunk biker
  down from getting violent, with
  out impugning his status, after
  which the PCs will have made a
  friend in Sandy. On the other hand,
  careless, over-violent, or over-
  chivalrous PCs might escalate
  what is currently a mild bar-room
  dispute into a full-scale battle with
  the barrio's de facto police force.
  Even if things stay calm for the
  moment, the Aries gang may
  harbor a grudge against the PCs,
  or against Sandy. In the latter case,
  she might ask or hire the PCs to
  watch her back for a day or two
  while she's out on her repair jobs,
  until she's had a chance to
  straighten things out with the
  gang, making for a few days of
  wandering around assorted
  strange comers of the Edge.
  Scenario Idea 2
  After they have become friendly
  with her, or come to owe her a
  favor, Sandy comes to the PCs with
  a puzzle that they might be able to
  help solve.
  It goes like this. Recently, she
  had a customer she didn't recog
  nize, who asked her to come out to
  an estate in the A1 Amaijan woods.
  Leaving a note with Safe n Soimd
  as to her location (naturally), she
  made the trip. There, in a big old
  bam, she was set to work to
  perform some necessary but minor
  m a i n t e n a n c e o n t h e ﬁ n e s t c o l l e c
  tion of classic autos she's ever
  seen; an early Rolls Royce, a mint
  '50s Chevy, a couple of Ferraris, a
  racing Bentley, a WWII German
  general's staff car, and a lot more.
  She goes dreamy-eyed just talking
  a b o u t t h e m .
  Page 12
  
  The trouble is, they have no
  right to exist. Sandy knows her
  classic cars; most of these were
  limited-production models, and
  every known example is docu
  mented and accounted for. They
  might have been replicas, of
  course, but Sandy would stake her
  reputation as an expert that they
  weren't. There was nothing fake to
  be foimd; furthermore, some of
  them looked genuinely aged,
  cracked leather on the seats, a
  touch of corrosion here and there,
  s t u ff l i k e t h a t .
  Sandy memorized a few chassis
  numbers, and looked them up; the
  r e s u l t s w e r e c o n f u s e d . S o m e o f
  them corresponded to cars known
  to be kept in open but secure
  museums by various reliable
  organizations, others were on
  record as completely destroyed,
  and others again were completely
  wrong: non-existent, never existed.
  Now, she normally doesn't ask
  questions of customers who pay
  on time, but she has her priori
  ties—and this puzzle is driving her
  c r a z y. . .
  There are three options for the
  GM here, three answers that the
  PCs might ﬁnd, assuming they
  help Sandy investigate. Firstly, the
  collection could be genuine; the
  life's hobby of a recently-deceased
  A1 Amarjan high-up, a friend of
  the D'Aubainne family. His heirs, a
  b i m c h o f b r a i n - b u m e d d e c a d e n t
  socialites, just don't appreciate
  what they've got; there could be a
  real opportunity for proﬁt here, if
  the PCs don't mind risking the
  anger of some very rich, amoral
  people.
  Secondly, the collection could be
  fake; the embodiment of a huge,
  eccentric scam, the creation of a
  fairly crazy master criminal.
  Unfortunately, the team of expert
  t e c h n i c i a n s w h o c r e a t e d i t w e r e
  recently, in the course of a celebra
  tion, wiped out in one of those sad
  accidents that happens on an
  island with lax drug laws and/or
  ﬁre safety regulations, and the
  criminal underling responsible for
  the next phase of the scheme
  panicked and got sloppy, hiring an
  outsider (Sandy) to help get the
  cars ready for showing to the
  prospective marks. This could put
  the PCs in a tricky position; there
  might be scope for them to either
  proﬁt from or prevent this large
  but non-violent crime, but the
  scheme is being ﬁmded by leading
  members of the Net, who could
  decide to have any nuisances
  removed with simple, brisk
  efﬁciency.
  Lastly, the collection could be
  something very strange. Someone,
  some innocuous-looking CMC, has
  developed the fringe power to
  transport large inorganic objects in
  from alternate timelines, and they
  have been taken under the wing of
  a rich A1 Amarjan with a taste for
  exotic automobiles. Perhaps to
  build up a collection of saleable
  items, perhaps just to provide this
  patron with lots of beautiful toys.
  The fringe power wielder has
  developed enough control and
  sensitivity to obtain the sort of
  thing that the patron wants more
  often than not, but the sea-bed
  near the estate is full of dumped
  cars, less interesting "acquisi
  tions." In this case, the PCs aren't
  necessarily in big danger as they
  investigate, but the patron may
  become ruthless if his source of
  pleasure is threatened, and the
  fringe power wielder may become
  the target of all sorts of people
  with other ideas as to how this
  talent could be used, such as the
  Philosopher's Stone, or pretty well
  any other conspiracy on the planet.
  (If a conspiracy does get use of this
  power, the CM can have a lot of
  fun working out just how deadly it
  could make them. To start with,
  there's aU those alternate timelines
  with atomic bombs, or perhaps
  even weapons that haven't been
  invented in our world, yet...)
  Page 13
  
  Sigourney Stuidhuist
  Free-lance Theatre Person and
  Friend to Lame Ducks
  Sigoumey Stuidhuist was bom
  and brought up in a comfortably-
  off Jewish family in New York. Her
  weird mental gifts emerged slowly
  through her childhood, and her
  parents proved quite adept at
  ensuring that they lead her to be
  seen as a freak, even when she
  developed into an unusually tall,
  strikingly thin young woman.
  Eventually, she entered college,
  and looked set for a career some
  where in the arts world.
  Then her weakness for all
  manner of lame ducks kicked in.
  She joined various theatre and art
  groups, and the leader of one, in a
  ﬁt of hubris, declared that they
  should go on a world tour. In her
  heart, Sigoumey knew that the
  group wasn't up to such a project,
  but she couldn't bring herself to
  desert them. That she was effec
  tively the star of the group says
  more about their talents than hers.
  The group got to Europe, and
  the stress of artistic failure made
  the leader increasingly extreme in
  his ideas. He had heard of A1
  Amaija; there, he declared, his
  (sorry, their) genius would be
  appreciated. However, even A1
  Amarjans have some taste. After a
  few weeks, he and the handful of
  members who had stuck with him
  managed to get a plane out.
  But without Sigoumey. Her
  sympathy for the underdog and
  t h e b o m f a i l u r e h a d b e e n s t i m u
  lated here as never before. Landing
  a series of short-term jobs with
  various theatre groups, she settled
  down. Eventually, she foimd she
  could augment her income by
  working as a stringer for the kind
  of newspapers that believe the
  things she reported from the Edge.
  Her phenomenal memory and
  basic artistic talents make her
  tolerably competent in this work.
  She lives in a rented apartment
  in Sunken, dividing her time
  between making a living and
  helping people. She is known to
  such luminaries of the Edge arts
  world as the Black Death Theatre
  Troupe, and occasionally works for
  them, but she is not regarded as a
  major ﬁgure in their world. She is
  usually found in theatres or artist's
  bars, sometimes taking notes for a
  review or "backgroimd piece,"
  unless she has latched onto a
  h u m a n d i s a s t e r a r e a .
  Sigoumey's mental gifts might
  bring her to the attention of the
  likes of the Philosopher's Stone, if
  they were a little more spectacular
  or a little more imusual. As it is,
  her friends are the only people
  who usually become aware how
  odd her mental functions can be.
  Jewish woman, age 24,184 cm,
  62 kg, slightly cadaverous, short
  dark hair and brown eyes; dresses
  in slightly "melodramatic" or
  "artistic" ways, but with a lot of
  variety (long skirts trimmed with
  white lace, highly-colored trouser
  suits, immaculate linen safari suits
  over black velvet blouses, etc.).
  Languages: English, a few
  words of Yiddish, a smattering of
  A1 Amarjan patois.
  Attack: 3 dice, x3 (rapier)
  Defense: 3 dice
  Hit Points: 20 (determined)
  Traits
  Weird Mental Abilities, 2 dice:
  There seems to be an oddly
  "mechanical" element to her brain.
  This gives her near-photographic
  recall, a precise sense of musical
  pitch, the ability to perform
  accurate mental arithmetic at high
  speed, and the skill to judge time
  and compass direction with a
  glance at the sky. (Sometimes
  displays implausible precision or
  makes accurate calculations
  without thinking.)
  Useful Stage Performer, 3 dice:
  Although she's never going to be a
  star, she is a versatile performer.
  She can act well enough for
  support roles, dance in various
  styles, handle her own make-up,
  play backing music on clarinet,
  and even perform stage acrobatics
  in a pinch. Some of these tech
  niques might be useful away from
  the theatre, although she might
  take a penalty die for trying to
  apply them to unfamiliar pur
  poses. (Moves quite gracefully, has
  stage make-up and a pair of
  clarinets.)
  Competent Fighter, 3 dice:
  Having learned assorted self-
  defence techniques as basic good
  sense in New York, a bit of Aikido,
  and fencing and suchlike for stage
  work, she is far from helpless in a
  ﬁght. If faced with the possibility
  of serious combat, she may carry a
  fencing rapier with a functional
  point and edge to it. (Moves with
  precision in dangerous situations,
  sometimes carries a rapier.)
  Sucker for Lame Ducks, one
  die: She really can't ignore any
  k i n d o f b o m f a i l u r e o r o b v i o u s
  loser, and only rolls one die if
  attempting to resist a hard luck
  story. Note, however, that this does
  not mean that she is stupid. She
  has the same chance as anyone else
  to recognize a con artist, and she
  tries to give people the help they
  need, rather than what they ask
  for. She tends to get romantically
  involved with the kind of emo
  tional basket cases that no really
  sensible person would allow into
  their life. Anyway, her help is
  sometimes sufﬁcient to lift people
  out of the category that she
  instinctively wants to help. (Lis
  tens sympathetically to hard luck
  stories.)
  Odd Looks: She is strikingly
  tall, thin as a rake, pale and
  vaguely cadaverous-looking. This
  doesn't stop her being fairly
  attractive by many people's
  standards, but it limits her ability
  to blend in with crowds, or take
  certain parts on stage. (Looks
  slightly weird.)
  Page 14
  
  S c e n a r i o I d e a 1
  The PCs hear that some enemy
  of theirs will be in a certain theatre
  that night, and set out to catch him
  there. Unfortunately, Sigoumey
  also is there, and she notices the
  PCs moving towards their target.
  Guessing that they mean him no
  good, she warns him, then covers
  his escape by providing a diver
  sion, probably using her knowl
  edge of the theatre layout and
  talent for precision timing.
  Assuming that the PCs aren't
  the sort to just nail Sigoumey for
  being a nuisance, they'll want to
  do a certain amount of talking if
  and when they catch up with her.
  Of course, if their enemy then
  returns with greater force, her
  sympathies may switch to the PCs.
  Scenario Idea 2
  Having somehow heard of the
  PCs' past good deeds, Sigoumey
  comes to them for help when her
  latest sad case looks to be seriously
  out of his depth. He's a pale,
  ﬂabby character, who seems far too
  naive to have lasted a minute on
  A1 Amarja, and everything about
  him strikes her oddly-hmed brain
  a s w r o n g .
  Actually, this "victim" is a
  Mover plant, set up, through
  medical manipulation and hypno
  sis, to look a little like a Pharaoh's
  Aphid. The Movers want to know
  more about the Aphids, and just
  how important they are to the
  Pharaohs, and they have identiﬁed
  Sigoumey as competent enough to
  ﬂush something from cover, and
  manipulable enough to handle
  later if necessary. They have
  therefore set up this scam in the
  expectation that word of
  Sigoumey's latest "friend" will get
  back to some Pharaoh Quisling
  who will react in an interesting
  way. (Yes, this is a pretty vague,
  under-stmctured sort of plot for
  the Movers to pull, but that's part
  of the idea; the high-ranking
  Mover responsible reckons that, if
  nothing else, it should confuse the
  Pharaohs no end.)
  The other wild card in this plot
  might be Monique D'Aubainne, or
  rather her imderlings, and most
  especially Dr Nusbaum, working
  on her behalf. He'd love to have an
  Aphid of his own; as he points out
  to Her Exaltedness, it would allow
  him to provide her with those
  treatments based on Apep's
  Breath, without having to rely on
  anyone for supplies. (Tmth be told,
  h e ' d b e m o s t i n t e r e s t e d i n e x a m i n
  ing its metabolism and genetic
  stmcture, but that's not what he'll
  say to her; he's
  not stupid. Of
  course, he
  k n o w s t h a t
  s h e ' l l h a v e
  guessed his
  personal
  priorities... But
  t h e i r i n t e r e s t s
  still coincide,
  a n d h e w o u l d
  never betray
  h e r. H e ' s n o t
  stupid.) Thus it
  would be a very
  bad move to let
  any word of all
  this to get to the
  powers that be.
  Incidentally,
  r e m e m b e r t h a t
  if the PCs
  decide to give
  up and hand
  the fake Aphid
  over to anyone,
  Sigoumey will
  tum against
  t h e m a n d m a k e
  a break for it
  with the poor
  v i c t i m . H e ' s
  exactly the sort
  of being who
  triggers her
  over-developed
  protective
  i n s t i n c t s .
  Page 15
  
  Al Amarja Today
  Liberion freighter sinks! Med
  HALIFAX, Canada UFI - In early
  January, Canadian search crewswere
  combing the North Atlantic by air,
  looking for some 35 crewmembers
  of the Liberian-registered, 81-ton
  Marika-7 freighter believed to have
  sunk in heavy seas.
  The ship left Quebec on Dec. 27
  boimd for Holland with a load of
  iron ore. A distress call was radioed
  reporting the ship had sunk in lati
  tude 46:53 North, longitude 33:10
  West, some 1,300 km northwest of
  the Azores Islands.
  Dan Bedell, a spokesman for the
  Canadian Rescue Center, said two
  Canadian military aircraft had cir
  cled the skies 1,500 km east of St.
  Jolms, Newfovmdland, looking for
  the bulk carrier.
  The ofﬁcial said the crewmembers
  were believed to be from Greece and
  the Philippines.
  Canadian maritime authorities radi
  oed a message at 2314gmt to all vess-
  esl in the vicinity to render assistance.
  Bedell said the Rescue Center had
  received an emergency call from the
  Marika-7 Saturday morning, and a
  Hercucles search-and-rescue plane
  was dispatched to the area.
  A second aircraft sent to the area
  joined the search, which will contin
  ue during the night, the spokesman
  said. A corrunercial tanker was also
  heading to the spot to assist in the
  seeirch, but Bedell said 18- foot-high
  waves and 50-knot winds could slow
  the rescue mission.
  Aircraft crews reported seeing lights Marika-7, built in 1973, is operat-
  in the water but found no signs of by Atlantic Maritime Enterprises
  the ship. Bedell said. S.A., of Piraeus, Greece.
  R e ﬁ n e r i e s
  S h u t d o w n
  LONDON—^Mediterranean refiner
  ies are undergoing particularly large-
  scale maintenance shutdowns in the
  period from end-January to April,
  largely in response to a tight crude
  oil market that has squeezed proﬁt
  margins, reﬁners and traders in the
  region say.
  In Italy, Agip SpAhas slated a heavy
  shutdown program, with the Livor-
  no reﬁnery (processing around
  84,000 barrels a day of crude) closed
  for one month. In Spain, Repsol's
  Cartagena reﬁnery (120,000b/d) will
  be shut through May.
  By May, peak seasonal demand for
  gasoline is expected, and it is better
  to have most producing capacity
  back on-stream by then.
  C h i i e G e n .
  P i n o c h e t
  t o 
  V i s i t
  Gen. Augusto Pinochet is planning a
  holiday in South Africa, a country
  t h a t m a i n t a i n e d c l o s e l i n k s w i t h
  Chile during the 1973-90 military
  government. Pinochet started his
  ofﬁcial vacation Tuesday.
  As an adjimct to his vacation, Gene-
  arl Pinocht will alsobe making a stop
  in Al Amaija. It is likely his stop will
  include a visit with Her Exaltedness,
  Monique D'Aubainne.
  Page 16
  R a d i o a c t i v e c h a i r
  MOSCOW (UPI) —ARussian busi
  nessman who died recently of mys
  terious causes was apparently killed
  by his chair, which was foimd after
  his death to be highly radioactive.
  Investigators discovered that the
  deadly ofﬁce chair was the source of
  1.5 million times more radioactivity
  than normal background levels,
  causing fatal radiation poisoning in
  the man. The man, indentiﬁed only
  as V. Kaplun, was general manager
  of a Moscow-based private ﬁrm and
  had been hospitalized for over a
  month before his death last week.
  Doctors had been imable to diag
  nose his ailment, though one physi
  cian said the symtoms resembled
  those of radiation poisoning. The
  dead man's coUeages at the ﬁrm dis
  covered the chair's potency after they
  decided to inspect the ofﬁce with a
  Geiger counter and found levels off
  the scale. Peace inspectors foimd ra
  d i a t i o n l e v e l s o n t w o ﬂ o o r s o f t h e
  building of 120 to 200 roentgen per
  hour. Inside the man's ofﬁce, the
  paper said, "radiation levels were
  enormous, comparable to only Cher
  nobyl." The building was immedi
  ately cordoned off. Other employees
  of the ﬁrm will be examined for signs
  of radiation poisoning. It was not
  k n o w n h o w t h e c h a i r b e c a m e r a d i o
  active, though there have been other
  incidents where ordinary household
  i t e m s a n d e v e n f o o d s h a v e b e e n
  f o u n d t o b e r a d i o a c t i v e .
  
  Little Scratches
  Seymor McBean sez YES to cafﬁne! The hole in the ozone layer is grow
  ing and letting in increasing amounts
  The Cleaner. 186676 of deadly cancer-causing radiation.
  This growth is claimed to be caused
  A c s e n d 
  b y 
  e l e v a t o r , 
  o c c u p m g 
  a 
  m i d - 
  i 
  i . 
  n 
  ^ 
  r
  . i . 
  ^ 
  - 
  r 
  J 
  e n t i r e l y 
  b y 
  p o l l u t i o n 
  a n d 
  C F C s 
  f r o m
  w a y 
  p o s i t i o n 
  t o 
  f o r c e s 
  o f 
  w r o n g 
  a n d 
  . 
  ^ 
  ^ 
  i 
  ,
  ^ 
  ^ 
  , 
  , 
  , 
  . 
  ° 
  1 . 
  m d u s t r y 
  a n d 
  t r a n s p o r t . 
  I f 
  y o u 
  l o o k
  w r o n g e r 
  o s t e n s i b l y 
  s h a k i n g 
  t h e 
  s e l f 
  ^ 
  1 
  - n 
  ^ 
  ^
  1 
  ^ 
  . 
  T T 
  a t 
  t h e 
  s t a t i s t i c s 
  y o u 
  w i l l 
  n o t i c e 
  t h a t
  asl.ep-H..Cul-Ups th. total amount of CFCs and ciu-
  The administrators reserve the right bon-dioxide emissions do not ac-
  to determine what is imacceptable coimt for the ozone depletion. They
  or out of theme. This poUcy is not sbort by an order of magnitude,
  debatable and violators of it wiU not So why is ozone being depleted so
  be tolerated. rapidly? The truth is that it is being
  deliberately depleted as part of an
  Of course, this in turn gives us the effort to reduce the population of the
  opportunity to leam to use the pow- Earth by 33% by the year 2000. This
  er of our minds to heal ourselves. secret plan was hatched after the
  Club of Rome's report on overpopu-
  There is something that can be de- lation, and is known as "GLOBAL
  scribed as a meduim based "activi- 2000".
  t y " t h a t i s g o i n g o n w i t h
  showbusiness. They all are having The GLOBAL 2000 agenda is imple-
  fun with the topic of adult entertain- mented in many ways. Wars are en-
  ment.ForexampletheownerofBurts gineered deliberately. New
  Place was f oimd dead along with his genetically-engineered strains of dis-
  wife, and it became Ricks Place the eases are released, and cures are de-
  very next day, with a person like liberately suppressed. Natural and
  "Regis Fillman" warning that the artiﬁcial disasters (e.g. Chernobyl,
  girls were on the agenda not the Bhopal, and droughts and ﬂoods)
  menu. Well... Ricks Place closed are created. Ozone depletion is cre-
  down due to ﬁghting over how tips ated by similar means. Giant aircraft
  were passed and the aids issue. Arm based at Lake Groom enter low earth
  length tips? in 1984 some guy came orbit to release a chemical substance
  to a bar I was at and told me. Well... more potent than CFCs. This sub-
  it changed to Cheetas with the same stance is responsible for the majority
  people involved. I constantly hear of ozone depletion,
  innuendo about that Ricks Place ﬁght
  on how tips were to be given com- Why is this happening? It is partly to
  ming from old movies, communi- reduce the Earth's population for
  eating through time. They couldn't economic reasons, and partly as an
  havepickedabetterissuetodriveall experiment into new techniques of
  of "America crazy" as sexual issues reducing the population rapidly and
  seem to do the trick! precisely. Various senior elements in
  the LFS (Bolshevik) Government, the
  Acrid hallucinations power the libi- Bilderberg Conference, the Trilater-
  do groped missiles dressed sluggish- al Commission, and the secret shad-
  ly killing Mary. — The Cut-Ups ow world government that operates
  through the United Nations are re-
  Be seeing you-Richard sponsible for this poUcy.
  Public acts of a sexual nattire as well REPRODUCE THIS IMPORTANT
  as buildings and objects of sexual INFORMATION FREELY,
  nature are strictly prohibited.
  Page 17
  
  The Neighbor Lady
  A pale, almost emaciated
  woman, with big eyes and curly,
  dark hair piled into a ponytail on
  top of her head and fastened with
  a large shiny bow, the neighbor
  lady is only seen through the
  window of her apartment or
  occasionally gripping the hand of
  an equally big-eyed, chubby,
  sandy-haired toddler and waiting
  for a taxi.
  When a car pulls up in front of
  her home, the neighbor lady jumps
  up and dashes to the window,
  staring out at whatever activity is
  taking place with unblinking
  interest. Sometimes, inexplicably,
  the neighbor lady will become
  agitated or enraged by the pres
  ence of people, or maybe because
  the people arriving are not who
  she is expecting, and she will jump
  up and down screaming and
  gesturing from behind her closed
  window. A pantomime in rude
  ness. Mostly, though, the neighbor
  lady and the child will only stare,
  looking surprised or perhaps
  frightened.
  People looking into her house
  from the street will see that her
  curtains are never drawn. Little of
  her house is visible from outside,
  but it is possible to see several
  Christian images (pictures of
  Christ ascending, a cruciﬁx, a
  nativity scene) on the walls, a
  television set, a pile of cassette
  tapes, a sofa and coffee table, a
  kitchen table and four chairs and a
  napkin holder. Notably missing are
  any children's toys. Occasionally,
  there is a CB antenna set up in
  front of the house, sitting on an
  overturned pot. The location of the
  anterma and the pot changes
  frequently, although no one is ever
  seen moving it. Sometimes the
  antenna is mounted on the outside
  of the building (hanging from the
  porch light, sticking straight out
  from the wall, etc.). No radio
  device can be seen from the
  outside of the house, nor is the
  neighbor lady ever seen using a
  radio, walkie talkie or telephone of
  any kind.
  Further unusual behavior
  includes turning cartwheels on the
  front sidewalk, riding a bicycle in
  circles on the road and gesturing at
  the child in some unusual sign
  language (not ASL).
  Encounters with the neighbor
  lady make people curious. Who is
  she waiting for? Why is she there,
  alone with her child? Is the child
  hers (there seems little resem
  blance)? On those rare occasions,
  where does she go in her taxi?
  More unusual, what is she doing
  on the bicycle and turning cart
  wheels? Is she psychotic?
  Some possibilities for the Crazy
  Neighbor Lady
  1) The neighbor lady is really a
  Half-Glug, who was until recently
  living a rather typical life as an A1
  Amarjan. Last year she attracted
  the attention of a sower, who
  taught her a little about her
  Glugness and impregnated her,
  and then mysteriously disap
  peared. (Maybe he died, maybe he
  has been captured and examined.)
  The strain of this has left the
  neighbor lady in an unstable
  emotional state, caught between
  fear that the truth about her will be
  found out, and the rage at being
  trapped in the house with a
  mostly-glug child. The Christian
  imagery hides totems and idols of
  A r m z h a k .
  2) The neighbor lady is hiding
  out on A1 Amarja where her
  unusual behaviors are more likely
  to go unnoticed. She has stolen the
  child from a couple for whom she
  was working as a nanny. She has
  taught the child to respond to a
  sign language she has created, so
  that she can order him around
  without ever having to use his
  name. She keeps tabs on radio
  transmissions in case anyone calls
  the Peace Force.
  3) The neighbor lady and the
  child are really incorporeal aliens
  w h o h a v e t a k e n h u m a n f o r m s .
  They don't realize that their
  Page 18
  
  behaviors iriight be seen as un
  usual, because they have had no
  contact with humans other than a
  few bad Jerry Lewis movies and
  some episodes of America's Most
  Wanted, so they alternate between
  pratfalls or goofy humor and
  violent outbursts. A lot of the
  actions taken by the woman (such
  as riding the bicycle and turning
  cartwheels) are just her way of
  experimenting with her new body.
  4) The neighbor lady is a normal
  woman who came to A1 Amaija
  from a repressive culture, which
  demanded that women maintain
  total control over themselves at all
  times, that they remain in a
  subservient role and that they
  maintain absolute celibacy until
  marriage. She was seduced by a
  member of another culture who
  offered her a different life; she
  came to A1 Amarja to meet him
  when she discovered she was
  pregnant, but although he is
  supporting her here, he has not
  shown up to be with her. Her
  actions are those of a woman who
  ﬁnds herself alone in a foreign
  culture that makes no demands of
  self-control or propriety upon her.
  Because she has given up on her
  own cultural restraints, she ﬁnds
  that she is a victim to mood
  swings. Her outbursts at passing
  cars and people on the street are
  due to her frustration at being left
  alone by her lover, whom she still
  expects to arrive any day. Her
  occasional taxi trips are to check
  for him at the airport. She has no
  experience in child rearing or any
  rambunctious behavior (like
  bicycle riding) and is merely
  muddling through as best she can.
  (Based on Nicole's neighbor
  lady. Really.)
  •
  S U B M I T !
  To the Just and
  B e n e ﬁ c e n t R u l e r
  of the Universe...
  EdgeWork needs your women
  talents! This 'zine is dedicated to
  bringing you what you want out of
  OTE. The only way I can do that is
  if you tell me. So write a Letter of
  Comment (LoC) or, better yet,
  submit material that you'd like to
  see in EdgeWork.
  Send submissions to Peter
  Hentges, 1055 SE 26"* Avenue,
  Miimeapolis, MN 55414, USA. I
  am speciﬁcally looking for art
  work, articles, character/place
  descriptions, plot/conspiracy
  ideas and expansions upon OTE.
  But anything, anything, you'd like
  to read about in EdgeWork is
  perfectly ﬁne with me.
  So get off your lazy ass and get
  writing! The best way to send stuff
  is on 31/" diskettes. Any Mac or
  DOS word processing ﬁle will
  likely work ﬁne (save down to
  ASCn if you're using something
  particularly odd). You can also
  send material to me via internet at
  peter.hentges@cool.khis.com.
  Failing electronic submission,
  please type and double-space your
  submission and mail it to the
  address above.
  Art submissions should be
  photocopies of black and white
  line art. Interested artists should
  send a query letter so that speciﬁc
  assignments can be sent out to
  you. I often have short turn
  around times so ability to work
  quickly under dead-lines is a plus.
  People who contribute to
  EdgeWork get the issue their work
  appeared in free. And
  occaisionally, John Nephew will be
  in a particularly magnanimous
  mood and send you some OTE
  product as well, but that's not an
  ofﬁcal thing so don't expect it.
  Page 19
  
  Looking for ﬂie Rl^ Connecﬂon?
  h f
  Turn to the Magazine for the Multi-Dimensional Gamer.
  The Best in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Popular Culture and Games.
  Featuring Newsletters from your favorite manufacturers.
  We've m Whal You're
  %%
  For.
  Hk Fﬁssln^ Unle.
  w o e 7 0 0 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
  Available now in your favorite store, or by subscription.
  CRYPTYCH MAGAZINE 30617 US HWY. 19 N, Ste, 700, Palm Harbor, PL 34684. 6 Issues: $12.95 US (FL residents please Include 8% Sales Tax), $20.95 CAN, Overseas $32.00 US
  
  Over the^Edge
  Lisa Padol offers us o
  variant to the standard OTE
  rules. These rules are
  designed to be used for a
  superhero-type of game
  using the basic Idea of the
  OTE rules. Use Lisa's Ideas to
  take your heroes out of the
  comics and Over the Edgel
  This variant was created by
  Avram Grumer, who kindly gave
  me permission to write this article
  about it. He intended this to be
  used for a superhero game, where
  it may be desirable to have high
  skill levels in fringe powers.
  Begin by creating an OTE
  c h a r a c t e r w i t h t h e s t a n d a r d t r a i t s :
  one exceptional trait, two superior
  traits, and one ﬂaw. Now, if you
  choose, you may take up to two
  a d d i t i o n a l ﬂ a w s . F o r e a c h a d d i
  tional ﬂaw, you get an additional
  die which may be applied to any
  trait, or used to create a new trait.
  Thus, if I take an extra ﬂaw, I
  can put another die into a regular
  trait, say knife ﬁghting, for 3D
  (e.g., the 2 everyone gets plus 1
  extra). Or, I can put it into an
  exceptional trait, like
  neurosurgery, or a fringe power,
  and get ID (the origined 0 plus 1
  more). Or, I can add it to a good or
  exceptional trait, getting, say 5D in
  acting, or 3D in neurosurgery. A
  superhero character with three
  ﬂaws might have 6D in strength,
  or 4D in telekinesis.
  Alternatively, if you want high
  powered characters, but you don't
  want them to have to take mul
  tiple ﬂaws, just tell the players
  that they have a certain number of
  extra dice to play with as they see
  ﬁt. The characters above were
  built with two extra dice, but you
  can allow your players more. Any
  imused dice can become part of
  the experience pool.
  Sample Super NPCs:
  Back when OTE was still in the
  playtest stage, I tried converting a
  character I'd created for Vampire:
  the Masquerade to OTE. I wanted
  to do this while staying within the
  OTE rules, so I decided that there
  were only 2 traits a vampire
  needed, strength and hypnotism.
  T h i s w o r k e d o u t w e l l :
  Strength, 4 dice
  Hypnotism, 1 die
  Acting, 3 dice
  I didn't miss all the abilities
  Vampire: the Masquerade vam
  pires have. The personality trans
  lated surprisingly well. The
  problem was, vampires are sup
  posed to be superhumanly strong,
  and very good at hypnotism. I
  really wanted 2 dice in hypnotism
  and 5 dice in strength. Using the
  rules above, this becomes possible.
  Page 21
  
  C h e v a l i e r C h a r l e s G e n e v i e v e
  Louis Auguste Andre Timothee
  D ' E o n d e B e a u m o n t
  Le Chevalier will also answer to
  Chevalier D'Eon, Chevalier, D'Eon,
  Beaumont, de Beaumont, Charles,
  a n d C h u c k .
  Historically, Le Chevalier D'Eon
  was a cross dressing spy for
  France. He was given a pension on
  two conditions: First, he had to
  choose a gender and stick with it.
  Second, he was not allowed to
  write his memoirs. All bets as to
  his actual gender were settled at
  his death, when it was revealed
  that he was indeed male.
  Nevertheless, the vampire
  insisting that she is Le Chevalier is
  f e m a l e .
  She owns a small theater near
  the Plaza of Flowers, and works as
  an actor and stage manager. Her
  ﬂamboyant style and insistence on
  being referred to as male fails to
  provoke so much as a raised
  eyebrow.
  Caucasian female, left handed,
  160 cm, 55 kg, brown hair worn in
  a long pony tail, brown eyes.
  Favors ﬂamboyant clothing which
  w o u l d h a v e b e e n c o n s i d e r e d
  fashionable two and a half centu
  ries ago.
  Languages: French, English, A1
  Amaijan Patois
  Attack: 5 dice or 2 dice (un
  armed or with rapier) xl or x3
  Defense: 5 dice or 2 dice
  Hit Points: 28 points of Inhu
  m a n E n d u r a n c e
  T r a i t s
  Inhuman Strength, 5 dice (1
  extra die here) (When she loses
  control, Le Chevalier throws heavy
  furniture around)
  Hypnotism, 2 dice (1 extra die
  here) This allows Le Chevalier to
  easily hypnotize normal humans,
  as a proper vampire should. Strong
  willed humans can still resist,
  again with traditional precedent.
  Of course, there are quite a few
  folk in A1 Amaqa who fall into this
  category.
  Acting, 3 dice (refers to herself
  as a Thespian)
  Flaw: Can't function in sunlight.
  (Never seen during the day.)
  Flaw: Needs a blood diet. (No
  stray animals near the theater.)
  Flaw: Insane. Le Chevalier is
  attempting to deny her past by
  constructing an elaborate fantasy
  world. (Will lose control if re
  minded of unpleasant facts - See
  secret below.)
  Secret: During the French
  revolution, Le Chevalier and her
  sire were imprisoned. Her sire told
  her to drink some of his blood.
  When she tasted it, she lost control,
  and drank it all, killing him. Her
  guilt over this incident caused her
  to go to radical lengths to deny it,
  adopting a new personality.
  However, certain circumstances
  might bring back unpleasant
  memories, such as being asked to
  drink another vampire's blood
  (this was originally intended for
  Vampire, the Masquerade, remem
  ber), she will react in one of a
  number of interesting ways. She
  may go berserk and attack; she
  may try to run away; she may beg
  her dead sire for forgiveness.
  Story ideas
  Le Chevalier is ﬂamboyant
  about her wealth, which is consid
  erable. Perhaps the PCs are
  tempted or hired to separate her
  f r o m i t ?
  L e C h e v a l i e r c o u l d b e c o m e t h e
  patron of any PC with an interest
  in working at her theater. The PCs
  in question will no doubt notice
  her strange habits.
  T h e N e u t r a l i z e r s c o u l d r e c r u i t
  the PCs to kill Le Chevalier. Or, Le
  C h e v a l i e r c o u l d h i r e t h e m t o
  protect her from the Neutralizers.
  Or, the PCs could stumble into this
  c o n ﬂ i c t w i t h n o i d e a o f w h a t ' s
  going on.
  One of the PCs could remind Le
  Chevalier of her sire. She could
  follow him around, begging for
  forgiveness.
  There's always the old standby:
  Le Chevalier decides to make a
  midnight snack out of one of the
  P C s .
  Page 22
  
  Attack: 5,3, or 2 dice (see
  below), damage varies.
  Defense: 5,3, or 2 dice (see
  below)
  Hit Points: 21 (tough)
  Traits
  Soldier, 3 dice: Arthur wasn't
  necessarily the greatest ﬁghter.
  There was no reason for Karen to
  be either. Avram pointed out that I
  didn't have to take 3 ﬂaws. 2 can
  be quite a handful.
  Leader, 3 dice: Karen has
  Arthur's ability to rally troops in
  b a t t l e .
  Excalibur, 5 dice: Avram
  wouldn't tell me precisely what
  Excalibur was capable of doing. I
  think he intended it to allow Karen
  to use 5 dice when attacking with
  it. I'm pretty sure it was to count as
  a magical weapon in the case of
  beasties that can only be hit with
  such things. Avram was also
  toying with the idea of allowing
  Excalibur to shed light equal to
  thirty torches, as Malory claimed
  o n e o f A r t h u r ' s s w o r d s d i d .
  Flaw: In disgrace. The League of
  N a t i o n s b e l i e v e s K a r e n d e s e r t e d .
  K a r e n M a t c h s t i c k
  Back when Avram was thinking
  about running Over the panel's
  Edge, I found myself bereft of
  inspiration. I suggested a female
  version of King Arthur, perhaps a
  reincarnation. To my surprise, he
  liked this idea. We dubbed her
  Karen Matchstick, since we both
  liked Matt Wagner's Mage,
  Avram's campaign world is an
  alternate version of Earth, with
  superheroes. Nothing, as far as I
  know, was set in A1 Amarja.
  What you are doing in this case
  is using the GTE system, but not
  the background. Avram limited the
  number of extra ﬂaws to two, but
  you don't have to do this.
  At 17, Karen became pregnant.
  The father, Morgan, 20 years old at
  the time, was told by his parents to
  marry her. Shortly after the baby
  was bom, Karen decided that
  Morgan had manipulated her into
  a life she didn't want. She divorced
  him, and he retained custody of
  the child. He got a degree in
  Thaumaturgy. She joined the
  armed forces of the League of
  N a t i o n s .
  Avram's alternate history kicks
  in here. He reasoned that, since the
  land now known as Iraq is where
  many scientists agree that life
  originated, any secrets that man
  was not meant to know probably
  came from there. During the Gulf
  War, Saddam Hussein dug up one
  of these and used it to devastate
  the League's forces.
  Karen was in Iraq with the
  League, but she was not present
  during Hussein's attack. She'd met
  a m a n n a m e d M a r t i n B a r d t h e
  night before. Martin was actually
  Merlin. He realized that Karen was
  the reincamation of Arthur, and
  teleported her away from the
  b a t t l e .
  Caucasian, age 32,175 cm, 60
  kg, brown hair kept short, blue
  e y e s .
  Page 23
  
  Flaw: Memories of Arthur's life
  have started to retunr. Unfortu
  nately, they overpower Karen's
  mind. Thus, she's likely to break
  into Old Welsh, address people
  who died almost 1500 years ago,
  ﬁ n d h e r s e l f i n b e d w i t h a w o m a n
  even though she's heterosexual,
  and so on. (For those of you
  interesting in source material,
  check out Tim Powers' The Draw
  ing of the Dark.)
  Other ideas for Super-
  powered PCs:
  Many secret organizations on A1
  Amarja are trying to create super-
  powered beings. Perhaps all of the
  PCs come from one such group.
  Maybe The Philosophers' Stone
  has ﬁnally succeeded in awaken
  ing fringe powers. Whatever
  organization created the PCs
  undoubtedly has plans for them.
  They may or may not wish to go
  along with these plans. And, of
  course, all the other secret organi
  zations on A1 Amarja are going to
  w a n t t o c o n t r o l o r n e u t r a l i z e t h e
  P C s .
  You can also use this as a way of
  creating interesting alien races.
  Perhaps all PCs are part of the
  same race. Or, perhaps they
  represent different races in a
  diplomatic or surveillance opera
  tion. Naturally, all the secret
  organizations on A1 Amarja will
  want to use the aliens to further
  their own interests. Alien races
  such as the Kergillians may
  perceive the PCs as a threat to be
  eliminated, or, they may form an
  alliance with them. Perhaps the
  fate of the galaxy depends on the
  PCs coming to a diplomatic
  agreement with the various aliens
  hidden in A1 Amarja. It is the ideal
  location for an interstellar confer
  ence. Earth is unaware of the
  existence of alien civilizations, so
  the political advantage of holding
  the conference on a particular
  race's home ground can be elimi
  nated. A1 Amarja is the only place
  on Earth where such a conference
  could take place without attracting
  u n d u e a t t e n t i o n .
  Page 24
  
  Alternative magic pooi system
  Joshua Kronengold
  provides an alternate
  method of limiting the use
  of fringe powers by PCs
  based upan a measure of
  fatigue, i guess reading
  thaughts and maving stuff
  with your mind gets to be
  a strain far most people....
  The system presented by
  Johnathan Tweet in OTE for fringe
  powers is quite ﬂexible. Unfortu
  nately, because Johnathan didn't
  initially use his "magic pool" rules
  in his own games, but added them,
  along with hit points, to make the
  system palatable to a greater
  variety of GMs, they seem rather
  artiﬁcial to me. I have created a
  system which possesses approxi
  mately the same complexity as the
  OTE hit point system, and which
  provides a very different view of
  how a fringe power will work.
  In most literature discussing
  fringe powers, a character unable
  to use her abilities from overuse is
  either very tired, or better yet,
  unconscious, rather than simply
  out of "psychic pool." Nor will she
  ever know exactly how many
  times she can use her abilities,
  though she might be able to make
  a good guess based on how tired
  she is. And surely a telekinetic
  won't be nearly as drained by
  mentally moving a chess piece as
  by stopping a car from hitting a
  s m a l l c h i l d !
  Because of the divergence
  between my conception of how
  fringe powers should work and
  how OTE represents them, I have
  created a fatigue based system,
  incorporating all of these points
  and several others. Because this
  represents a conceptual difference
  with the original OTE system, it
  should be useful both for those for
  whom the mechanical system was
  added, as well as those who would
  rather just wing it.
  Fatigue
  Under the fatigue system, the
  psychic pool, where most psychic
  attempts are considered equal, is
  replaced with a "fatigue level," in
  which a more difﬁcult effect can be
  produced less frequently.
  My method for calculating
  fatigue is analogous to that for hit
  points, except that unusual traits
  (those that start at 0) are treated as
  if they were two dice higher for
  this purpose. If you have one
  fatigue related trait (a trait that
  Page 25
  
  requires fatigue, or a trait which
  would logically inﬂuence it, like
  high will, constitution, or Zen
  mastery) you can choose to roll its
  effective magnitude [2 plus it's
  magnitude if the average character
  has it at 0, its magnitude if the
  average character has it at 2] times
  2 dice, or take 7 times its effective
  magnitude as a default fatigue
  level. The rules given for multiple
  hit point affecting traits also
  applies to multiple fatigue affect
  ing traits, which is why I mention
  non-fringe fatigue related traits at
  all.
  For example, a character with
  Zen Buddhism at 4 and Psychic
  Invisibility at 1 could choose to
  take the maximum of 8 dice for
  Zen and 21 points for the Psychic
  Invisibility (which counts as 3 for
  this purpose), or the 6 dice (Invis
  ibility) and 28 (Zen) or 8 dice and
  six dice.
  Like hit points, fatigue levels
  should have descriptive names
  attached to them, like "chi"
  "mana" or "energy."
  W h e n e v e r a c h a r a c t e r s u c c e e d s
  in a roll to normally use a fringe
  power, the amount of fatigue lost
  is equal to the target number
  minus the amount by which the
  roll exceeds the target number. If
  she fails, the fatigue is equal to the
  number rolled (except in the case
  of a botch, where it's twice the
  target number, or depends on what
  effect the GM wants to attach to
  the botch).
  So, if Sara Jane, with a Posses
  sion trait of 3 dice and a fatigue of
  45 (average for that high a fringe
  power) attempts to take over the
  mind of John Doe (with no appli
  cable abilities), and rolls 13 against
  his 8, she will take 3 fatigue; if she
  rolls 12 against his 6 she will take
  none, if she botches (rolling three
  ones) and he rolls a ten she might
  take 20 fatigue and end up in the
  mind of a nearby stray animal.
  Effects of fatigue
  Because fatigue represents the
  character getting mentally tired,
  losing fatigue involves more than
  just not being able to use your
  fringe power. When a character
  has lost half of her fatigue, she gets
  a penalty die on all actions, and
  should be role-played as if she
  hasn't slept for a night.
  When she has lost fatigue equal
  to or greater than her fatigue level,
  but less than twice that of her level
  (between 0 and -[maximum
  fatigue]) she loses one die on all
  actions, and if she rests she will fall
  unconscious. She must also make a
  roll on her best fatigue related trait
  (with against -1 x [her currently
  negative fatigue level] in order to
  stay conscious whenever the GM
  rules that she isn't ﬁlled up with
  enough hormones to keep going
  until she hits the limit of human
  capacity. Dodging bullets counts
  for this purpose, as does attempt
  ing to drive in non-trafﬁc jam NYC
  rush hour trafﬁc; negotiation
  probably doesn't.
  If a character manages to lose
  twice her maximum fatigue, she
  falls unconscious, and remains
  unconscious, barring imusual
  interference, like drugs, until she
  reaches at least 1 fatigue point, at
  which point she will sleep nor
  mally, until she reaches full fatigue
  or is completely rested.
  On average, 8 hours of sleep or
  u n c o n s c i o u s n e s s w i l l r e s t o r e a
  character from 0 fatigue to full,
  and non-mentally strenuous
  waking time will restore fatigue at
  about half that rate (having
  endorphins or adrenaline pumped
  through your brain counts as
  mentally strenuous for this pur
  pose). A character who has fallen
  unconscious in the heat of a battle
  (by losing over twice her fatigue
  level) will stay unconscious for at
  least 8 hours, and possibly 16 or
  m o r e .
  Pushing
  Pushing a fringe power is also
  covered in this system, but is made
  much more dangerous and inter
  esting. As in the psychic pool
  system, a character pushing a
  fringe power will receive bonus
  dice equal to her level in the
  power. However, fatigue loss is
  equal to the roll made, as the
  character isn't holding back, but is
  attempting with full effort to
  succeed in the given task. Any
  excess over the needed target
  n u m b e r d o e s n o t c o u n t e r t h e
  drain, but may act as overkill, at
  G M ' s d i s c r e t i o n . I f a c h a r a c t e r
  attempts to use her Infatuation
  fringe power, pushes, and ends up
  with twice the resistance score, she
  may end up with someone who
  Page 26
  
  worships her as a goddess. Smaller
  amoimts of overkill may also
  prove interesting.
  H a v e f u n w i t h t h i s .
  Because pushing a fringe power
  involves a brute force approach,
  "blowing the top off" (rolling all
  sixes) isn't quite as lucky as it
  would be in other cases. Rather
  than showing tremendous ﬁnesse
  (which in this case approaches
  impossibility) it indicates that the
  character does something with her
  fringe power that it rightfully
  shouldn't be able to do.
  A psi-blaster might have
  everyone around her in pain, not
  to mention the intended target. A
  scanner might end up not with the
  thoughts she was looking for, but
  with the entire mind of her target
  permanently ensconced in her
  scull along side her own. A pos
  sessor might switch bodies rather
  than just controlling for a time. It is
  possible that a character could use
  these as a springboard for develop
  ing a new fringe power, but it's
  also possible that she could never
  preform the task again, or that her
  brain will be permanently altered,
  and that any successive attempt to
  use her fringe power will activate
  the new effect.
  Have fun with this, too.
  The two effects need not be
  combined, nor does blowing the
  top off require success. A failed
  (but all sixes) roll will not succeed
  at what it would normally do, but
  is much more likely to succeed at
  whatever inadvertent effect is
  c a u s e d .
  To use the previous examples, if
  all of the previous targets had
  successfully defended, the psi-
  blaster would have had everyone
  around her except for the intended
  target rolling around on the
  ground, the scanner would end up
  with the mind, but as a whole,
  with personality, and not be able to
  read it fully, nor ﬁnd the informa
  tion she was looking for in the
  original mind; the possessor's
  situation might be unchanged, or
  he might ﬁnd himself in residence
  in the target's imconscious, unable
  to affect her physical processes, or
  leave, imtil she goes to sleep, at
  which point things get interesting.
  These rules also apply to
  psychic defense. Again, the rules in
  the book for random mechanics
  are identical, but an unsuccessful
  active defence will not have the
  lowest two dice counted towards
  drain. Alternately, the GM can rule
  for certain kinds of attacks that
  non-psis will receive drain when
  "attempting" to defend against
  certain kinds of attacks. Because
  these rules affect the character in
  question, and only that character,
  they can be used in the same game
  with different fringe powers to
  simulate different power sources
  and mechanics. A telepath might
  get fatigued as she used her trait,
  while a mage might simply draw
  on the mana in his body and be
  unable to use his magic once it was
  gone. For that matter, some
  powers, like empathy, work best
  when they cannot be turned off, or
  at best focused or shielded.
  e
  Page 27
  
  Pious ﬁeld day
  A c o l u m n o f
  correspondance from
  fhose who have written into
  EdgWork. WouidnJ you like
  to be like these people?
  R o b i n L a w s
  r o b i n d l @ a o l . c o m
  By the way, I ﬁnally had a
  chance to read EdgeWork (between
  screenings at a film festival—talk
  about piling disorientation upon
  disorientation) and very much
  enjoyed it. Right now I'm debating
  with myself whether to add the
  subway to my OTE series. Given
  the hidden nature of the stations, it
  would be possible to just go,
  "Subway? You mean no one told
  you about the subway?" even
  though they've been playing since
  January. However, the question I
  wouldn't be prepared to answer is
  why the stations are kept hidden—
  since they're privatized, one would
  expect the station owners to not
  only advertise their own stations
  but perhaps be involved in cut
  throat competition with the other
  station owners. Which would be
  cool but not amenable to dropping
  i n m i d - s e r i e s .
  Anyway, take care
  R o b i n
  Thanke for writing Robin. You'll have
  to tell U3 all about that ﬁlm feeti-
  vai.... The way I explain away the
  private eubway etation ownere not
  being competitive ie that they are
  kind of a pain the butt. You want
  people banging on your door in the
  middle of the night wanting to uee
  the eubway? So while convenient for
  the rider, they are inconvenient for
  the home-owner. See Liea Fadol'e
  letter below.
  Lisa Padol
  lvp@cunyvmsl .gc.cimy.edu
  Got ish 1, and I like it. There's
  nothing I dislike about it.
  I like the imdergroimd, but will
  pass on a critical comment: Putting
  terminals in businesses, homes,
  etc. is logically even more inconve
  niencing that the regular way of
  doing things. Construction and all
  t h a t .
  Re: Alto-Ubica: I love this. What
  happens to PCs who try to go
  there, using maps and so on? It
  does, after all, maintain a physical
  existence. If they succeed in
  escorting a native "home," what
  happens? Does she realize it's
  home, or does she think a mistake
  has been made?
  L i s a P a d o l
  Glad you liked EW1. You are right
  about adding eubway terminate to
  homee and bueineeeee and euch.
  That'e part of the reaeon they turn
  up in euch etrange placee. In the
  cellar behind the water heater, for
  inetance. Or out back right next to
  the dumpeter. In the copy room with
  the microwave and vending machinee.
  Or that water cooler ewinge out
  revealing a cloeet. Or...
  Maybe 3ruce Turner can anewer
  your Alto-Ubica gueetione. Or maybe
  another reader hae an opinion? Well?
  N i c o l e L i n d r o o s F r e i n
  n i k c h i c k @ a o l . c o m
  Peter,
  First off, let me say that I had a
  chance to read through EdgeWork
  more thoroughly (after the move to
  Canada and getting settled in). I
  hope that it does well for you, and
  I i n t e n d t o r e c o m m e n d i t t o
  everyone I meet in the local
  gaming store. The ﬁrst issue
  started off with a bang. Good job!
  As for what I would like to see
  in EdgeWork, the content of issue
  one just about sums it up. Al
  though I think the Atlas Games
  products are of high quality, I do
  think there is value in the sections
  of The Edge and A1 Amarja that
  don't deal directly with drugs,
  violence and sexual deviancy. 1
  know, I know, those things are a
  large part of OTE and Atlas
  Games' tries to provide us with
  "cutting edge" material. That's
  good but I also like to see things
  such as the essay from Jonathan on
  the origin of fringe powers, and
  the creation of new secret societies.
  This is great stuff, keep it up!
  It was nice to see you at Gen
  Con. I hope I'll see you again next
  year. Take care,
  Nicole Lindroos Frein
  Gee, more people liking EW....
  Seginning to eound like a conspiracy
  I think the "cutting edge" material
  does draw a bunch of people to the
  game. 3ut it can only go on so long
  before it grows old and tired. Feople
  want new things and EW is one place
  they can get it from. Stuff that will
  never make it into an "ofﬁcal" supple
  ment (because of editorial direction
  or length) will continue to show up in
  the pages of EW.
  Page 28
  
  Shadowgate Manor
  4809 E. Washington Avenue
  Las Vegas, NV 89110
  Dear Peter,
  I just had the rare pleasure of
  reading the ﬁrst issue of EdgeWork
  and am dutifully writing a letter of
  comment as requested in your
  editorial. Each of the articles in the
  magazine were interesting and
  provided gaming ideas. Because
  the essence of Over the Edge is
  things-are-not-what-they-seem, the
  referee needs to be able to con
  stantly provide new input and that
  can only come from magazines
  such as EdgeWork) as you pointed
  out some of us have to occasion
  ally go to work, walk the dog, etc.,
  instead of creating things for our
  FRPG campaigns.
  Yo u a s k e d f o r c o m m e n t o n t h e
  alternate damage rules. They are
  easier, but melee combat is easy
  enough in this game that the
  subtraction/multiplication isn't all
  that onerous. Personally, I like
  simple roU-the-dice-for-damage vs.
  roU-the-dice-for-armor, so I'm in
  favor of the alternate damage rules
  on general principles. It does
  appear though that targets will be
  h u r t m o r e o f t e n . P o s s i b l e s o m e o n e
  could do the math on this? More
  compelling is an alternate rule for
  gunﬁre combat vs. armor. Since
  neither guns nor bullet-proof
  armor are intended to be used very
  often on A1 Amaija, the rules for
  ﬁguring damage are needlessly
  complex.
  In most role-playing games,
  population of the world the
  c h a r a c t e r s i n h a b i t s e l d o m i n t r u d e s
  on adventures. There is presumed
  to be large numbers of people out
  t h e r e s o m e w h e r e f r o m w h i c h
  comes the pertinent tiny number of
  adventures. However, your article
  on what the A1 Amaija subway
  system might look like suggests a
  reverse population problem. The
  population of Las Vegas proper is
  about the same 300,000 as The
  Edge. Yet, this is still a small town
  in which people of a given profes
  sion or social circle are likely to
  know, or at least know of, almost
  everyone who has been in that
  circle for any length of time. The
  Edge is simply too small to contain
  the vast number of powerful
  supernatural conspiracies contem
  plated without them tripping over
  each other, even with the
  disinformation practiced by Her
  Exaltedness. Similarly, the NYC
  subway system is himdreds of
  times larger that what you propose
  and it would be bursting at the
  s e a m s t o c o n t a i n t h e a m o u n t o f
  strangeness appropriate to the
  game. My modest proposal is to
  consider that the population of A1
  Amaija is at least ten times as great
  as suggested in the rules—imlike a
  fantasy milieu where it would be
  impossible to actually feed all
  those people while fending off
  dragons, in a modem-day
  economy an island the size of A1
  Amaija could easily support that
  many. A secondary proposal
  would be to have the action going
  out into the rest of the world—
  presumable the various conspira
  cies have tentacles everywhere,
  and you'd get a chance to use all
  those nifty ﬁrearms mles if the
  characters adventured in places
  with less de facto gun control.
  Ronald Pehr (or so I interpret
  the signature...)
  I tend to aqree with your com-
  mente about the amount of weirdneee
  in Al Amarja. I think the baeic Job of
  every OTE OM ie to decide which bite
  of etran^eneee are juet the prouduct
  of over-active ima^inatione on Al
  Amarja. 3ut to take an example from
  my own life, I ueed to be quite active
  in the Minneeota 5F Society I helped
  r u n c o n v e n t i o n e a n d w a e a c t i v e a t
  meetinge. Still, I only knew about a
  third of the membere well enough to
  tell you what they did for a living.
  Thue, I believe that even in a place the
  eize of The Edge, people can have
  eecrete ae big ae being a Eharoah
  quieiing. So I don't think we need to
  crank up the eize of the Edge, we juet
  need to think more deviouely. Page 29
  
  Edge watcher
  Lisa Padol reviews two OTE
  suppiemenfs avaiiabie
  from Aﬁas Games. Ready
  to spend your OTE bucks?
  Read this ﬁrst!
  Sylvan Pines
  Welcome to Sylvan Pines, adven
  ture for Over The Edge, Atlas
  Games. Design & Conception:
  Stephan Michael Sechi, Additional
  Design & Development: Mark
  Frein, John Nephew. $8
  This 32-page scenario assumes
  that the PCs are staying in one of
  two wings at Sylvan Fines, a
  psychiatric facility. Wing Two is
  where the dangerous patients stay;
  the doors between the two wings
  are locked. Strange things happen,
  and the doors to the outside are
  locked, while the doors between
  the wings are opened. The PCs
  must ﬁgure out what is really
  going on and, presumably, escape.
  A year ago, I probably wouldn't
  have noticed that there were any
  problems with the way the sce
  n a r i o w a s w r i t t e n u n t i l I s t u m b l e d
  across them. However, I am now
  aware that players will come up
  with clever, but logical ideas that
  scenario designers haven't taken
  into consideration. In addition,
  t h e i r c h a r a c t e r s h a v e i m u s u a l
  abilities. Thus, I read Sylvan Pines
  extremely carefully, hoping to spot
  potential problems in advance.
  The big problem is that, once
  the adventure begins, the PCs are
  straitjacketed into one course of
  action. This surprised me. It's just
  not a problem I associate with
  OTE. Nevertheless, page 23 says:
  "There is...no way to get out
  without going to the basement. Don't
  let PCs fuss around too much....
  They're in for the duration."
  In other words, this is a jail
  break scenario, and there's only
  one way to get out. Sorry, that's
  not workable. I can hear my
  players asking all sorts of logical
  questions.
  H o w d o t h e l o c k s w o r k ? I k n o w
  the computer opens them, but is it
  a matter of magnets? Can they be
  picked? Can the entire lock be
  taken out of the door? Which way
  do the doors open? Where are the
  windows? How strong are the
  doors, walls, and ﬂoors? Or could
  one break through the roof? I can't
  just say, "Nope. This just says
  there's no way out." It's wrong.
  I shouldn't have to invent this
  on the ﬂy because the designers
  didn't see ﬁt to think of it. After all,
  I am paying for someone else to do
  my thinking in the ﬁrst place.
  You'll notice that this has nothing
  to do with any special abilities
  individual characters might have.
  I'm surprised this didn't come up
  in the playtesting.
  I'm not sure why it's so terrible
  to keep the PCs from leaving in
  other ways than the designers
  intended. But if you only want one
  way out, it's your responsibility to
  go over the adventure with a ﬁne
  toothed comb, systematically
  removing the obvious possibilities.
  I have some minor nitpicks as
  w e l l . T h e o v e r v i e w o f t h e s c e n a r i o
  says that the orientation section
  includes "ﬂoorplans for the
  s a n i t a r i u m . " I t d o e s n ' t . I d o n ' t
  know if this was a change that was
  missed in the proofreading, or if a
  map somehow got left out.
  There is a map at the end, but it
  does not show everything. Where's
  the meat locker? Where are the
  Quiet Rooms? If they're in Wing
  Two, just how does a Wing One
  patient, get into them? There is a
  r e f e r e n c e t o " S e c u r e d R o o m s " i n
  Page 30
  
  Wing Two. Where are they? How
  do they differ from normal Wing
  T w o r o o m s ?
  Also, it would be nice to know
  what the outcome of all the chaos
  will be, presuming inaction on the
  part of the PCs. One CMC has
  locked another into a closet. What
  does he plan to do next? Wait until
  the other starves?
  The designers hope that Sylvan
  Pines will be reused. It is intended
  to provide both a setting and an
  adventure. However, the scenario
  leaves Sylvan Pines short on
  personnel, and possibly imusable
  by the time everyone gets out.
  There is a lot of material in
  Sylvan Pines that I can use.
  However, both as a setting and as
  an adventure, it should have been
  thought out more carefully.
  A i r w a v e s
  Airwaves, adventure resource for
  Over The Edge, Atlas Games.
  Design: Rembert N. Parker. $5.
  This 16-page scenario doesn't
  have an easily summarizable plot.
  I t h a s d i ff e r e n t c h a r a c t e r s w i t h
  different goals. One or more of
  these goals may involve the PCs in
  the problems faced by AXTC, a
  new television station in The Edge.
  The designer seems to have
  taken most of the possibilities into
  account. The ﬂexibility of the
  scenario makes surprises easier to
  d e a l w i t h .
  One of the GMCs has hired the
  Hooligans, a gang specializing m
  making life miserable for its target.
  A nice touch is that the scenario
  takes into account the possibility
  that the gang will be paid off. This
  sounds obvious, but many sce
  narios would assume that, of
  course, PCs won't stand for this.
  The Hooligans are also well
  thought out, far more interesting
  than ordinary terrorists. (I would,
  however, like to know whether
  they would ever turn down a
  client on moral grounds.)
  The GMC who hired the gang
  eventually kidnaps another GMC.
  The set up for this is also well
  thought out. If the PCs are dealing
  with the Hooligans (whether by
  force, bribery, or some other
  method), the GMC who hired
  t h e m t a k e s m a t t e r s i n t o h i s o w n
  hands. If the PCs refuse to deal, or
  if they aren't involved with that
  plot, the kidnapping occurs when
  the Hooligans have escalated their
  actions to a speciﬁc degree without
  getting results.
  The climax of the scenario is a
  s h o w d o w n b e t w e e n t w o G M C s
  who aren't directly involved in the
  plot mentioned above. Advice is
  given for running this conﬂict if
  the PCs are on one side, the other
  side, or neither side. There's also a
  nice section on the fallout from the
  adventure, as well as suggestions
  for integrating the setting with
  OTE campaigns. Whereas Sylvan
  Pines will likely be in
  some.. .disrepair, due to the events
  scheduled to occur, the setting of
  Airwaves will probably be reus
  able, no matter what occurs.
  Minor Nitpicks: On page 14, it
  says: "the Hooligans absolutely
  r e f u s e t o r e v e a l w h o h i r e d t h e m " .
  Does this mean that they won't
  break imder torture? Especially in
  an OTE campaign, it wouldn't
  surprise me if some PCs used
  torture to get the Hooligans to
  reconsider. I'd give this a fair shot
  of working, and then have the
  Hooligans target the PCs for the
  rest of the campaign. But, it would
  b e n i c e t o k n o w h o w t h e a u t h o r
  w o u l d h a n d l e i t .
  Then there's the map. Which way
  do the doors in the theater open?
  Where are the windows? On the
  street map, where are the doors?
  Nevertheless, Airwaves is well
  thought out, both as a setting and
  as an adventure. I had thought $5
  was a stiff price, but I am forced to
  admit this product is worth it.
  e
  Page 31
  
  S u b s c r i b e
  EdgeWork\
  Ken Rolston's Evil Twin would want you to!
  Each (Quarterly \eeue of EdgeWorkwlW brin^ you inno-
  vatwe and thought-provoking ideas for your Over the
  Ed^e ^ame. Read what happens to the best minds of
  the ^amin^ industry when they start working on
  something as sick and twisted as OTE!
  EdgeWork subscriptions are $20 for U.5. addresses.
  Make check or money orders payable to "Atlas
  Games" and send them to:
  A t l a s G a m e s
  PO 5ox 406
  Non;hﬁeld, MN 55057
  Write to Atlas for information about back issues or
  foreign subscriptions.
  □ Yes! I want to do the bidding of Ken Rolston's evil twin!
  Send me 4 quarterly issues of EdgeWork, the OTE fanzine!
  N a m e
  A d d r e s s
  C i t y 
  S t a t e
  Make checks payable to "Atlas Games.'
  
  Another exciting issue
  of EdgeWork
  t h e f a n z i n e d e v o t e d t o
  Over the Edge™
  3 7 ^
  EdgeWork, the fanzine that gives you quarteriy
  information solely about Over the Edge, returns in
  this action-pocked second issue. No more reading
  oil those gaming magazines and sifting through
  them for something that you might be able to
  convert and use in your GTE gome — you con find
  it all right here!
  Edited independently by Peter Hentges of
  Minneapolis, EdgeWork provides a fresh view of GTE
  material. Not slaved to the publisher of the gome,
  Peter and other contributors con give unbiased
  reviews of GTE products and recommended
  products by other manufacturers that might ﬁt your
  GTE game.
  This fanzine operates with the direct support of its
  readership. An active ietter column explores topics
  raised in previous issues. Readers submit articles
  that further detail the setting of the game and offer
  alternatives that wouid iikeiy not be published
  elsewhere. Whether too much outside the editoriai
  direction of most GTE materiai, or intriguing but too
  short for a fuil supplement, the cream of
  "alternative" GTE material appears in EdgeWork.
  Joine the legions of avant garde gamers playing
  GTE and read EdgeWor/c today!
  Cover photograph ©1994 Robin Jenkins
  Effects & cover design by John Nephew
  °''® trademarks of John Nephew, used with permission.
  EDGEWORK is on independent pubiicotion distributed by Atios Gomes. AG2402 • $5 95
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Over the Edge/Over The Edge [2nd ed]/EdgeWork/EdgeWork 2 Scan.pdf