Mirror Mirror

Setting

You are invited to revisit a beloved or familiar character; to take that character into a brave new world where they will be re-imagined so that your story can begin again. Somewhere, somehow your character has been drawn through a mirror into a Mirrorway, forever changed and placed into the world beyond. To some this new place will be utterly unfamiliar. Others might see familiar aspects of their past in the lands beyond.

Characters

Players in our game participate by playing characters they have created in other worlds, other games, and other stories. Although Mirror, Mirror takes place in a land called the Shattered Realm, you recreate a fantasy character from another world who has been drawn into the Shattered Realm at the time that you start the game. In this way you are able to take an original fantasy character that you have previously created and re-imagine that character for this new story. Your character will take on new life as you pass into the Shattered Realm and begin another chapter in your history. Our goal is to allow you to play a character of your choosing that you know well, with your established history and story largely intact.

Worlds outside the Shattered Realm are collectively known as the Outlands. All characters in Mirror, Mirror have one thing in common: at the start of the story they are drawn from the Outlands through a mirror and emerge from one of the Mirrorways into this previously unknown realm. Some characters are accidentally drawn into the mirror during some adventure, some enter the mirror purposely to explore what is on the other side, and some characters fleeing from some great danger might use a mirror to escape an otherwise unpleasant fate. Whatever the circumstances of your passage, it begins with a mirror touched by a Mirrorway and ends at one of the Great Mirrors within the Shattered City.

Character Restrictions

There are some restrictions when plot considers your character for inclusion into the game.

The character must be your original creation.

The character you wish to bring into the game must be one you created. The concept, name, and history must be your own, and you must have participated in the additional story elements of whatever ongoing game or story engaged the character.

You must be able to represent the character with the appropriate costume and make up.

You will be playing, fighting, and role playing as the character during the course of the game. This means to must be able to properly represent that character with your costume. Some types of characters simply aren't feasible in an action game. Dragons, Sprites, Gnomes, Giants, and similar creatures that can't be represented by a player through costuming and make up cannot be played.

You must be able to approximate the character's skill set in the rules of the game.

When you pass through the Mirrorway your character will appear in the Shattered Realm as an incarnation who has been changed by Refraction. If you cannot, even with this process, create a satisfactory representation of your character using our character creation rules then choose another character. The incarnation within our rules should provide a character with a similar feel. If re-imagining your character will prevent you from having fun playing that character then choose a different character. It might be that our rules framework is not flexible enough to incorporate your epic Draconic Ninja Archer Voidmage with her soul sucking rune staff, and you can't imagine running the character without the ability to call down a meteor to destroy enemies. If our rules are not flexible enough to realize your character then you will need to consider another character.

It must be a fantasy character.

Mirror, Mirror is a fantasy game and we do not allow characters from other genres into the campaign. Although we welcome characters from Western fantasy, Eastern fantasy, and all the varied cultures in between, your character should not have skills, knowledge, items, or cultural elements of games or worlds outside the fantasy genre. If your character cannot be re-imagined without references to post 1500 technology such as fire arms, gunpowder, mechanical devices, robots, cyborgs, steam punk devices, or other elements outside the fantasy genre then you cannot bring that character into the game.

Your must be able to strip out names of people, places, items, creatures and other proper names that are iconic

to the previous story and still be able to role play your character. When you first come into game the Mirrorway affects your thoughts making it impossible to communicate proper names to other characters. You must be able to participate in the game knowing that the details of you history and backstory are strong within you but shattered when you try to impart those details to others.

It must be a heroic character.

Mirror, Mirror is a game of heroic fantasy. You should choose a character that will thrive in and be fun to play within that type of story, environment, and campaign. This does not mean you can only run characters with a strict moral compass. If you cannot integrate, however, into social dynamics of the Shattered City and interact meaningfully with the people that now dwell there then it is unlikely you will have a fulfilling experience at the game.

Refraction

Characters do not pass through the Mirrorway unchanged. As you enter the Shattered Realm your physical and mental existence adjust to more fully integrate with the Shattered Realm. The Mirrorway brings a new incarnation of your character into the Shattered Realm. This process is called Refraction. The Shattered Realm has a unique flow of magic to it, and Refraction explains how your new incarnation channels with and interacts with the magic and reality of this new world.

When you pass through a Mirrorway this process of Refraction changes your physical appearance and form. It explains why your character might look different due to the limitations of costuming and makeup. Since you will be physically playing your character, Refraction explains differences in height, weight, hair color, eye color, voice quality and any other characteristics that costuming and make up might not be able to represent.

Refraction also explains changes to your skill set. When you re-imagine your character you use the character creation rules to approximate the knowledge and skills of your character. The reality of the game is that many abilities that are common to other story telling mediums are impossible for us to represent in an immersive live game. The incarnation of your character in the Mirror, Mirror game might be very different from previous stories. Refraction of the Mirrorways explains that.

Mental refraction causes the character's memory, history and story to become clouded and obscured as you pass through the Mirrorway. While your personality and outlook need not change, and you can recall in great detail the circumstances of events and encounters of your history, the specific names of people and places are obscured with this new incarnation of your character. Although you can still remember your previous travels in great detail, when you try to impart those stories to other people those names and details seem to fracture as if you were trying to piece together an image of them through broken glass. You will find that you are unable to call upon these names and details when talking to other people and trying to do so will be painful. To further elaborate, when you re-imagine your character for Mirror Mirror your history and back story are stripped of specific names by the Mirrorway. These details remain within you, but trying to impart them to others seems somehow broken. The names fail in your throat and trying to invoke them in conversation, image, or written form fails resulting in physical pain. Only the names of original characters or items that physically pass through the Mirrorway can be passes to others through story, writing and art. If you come through the Mirrorway with a group of companions you will remember their names. You will remember names you might have given to treasured items you carry. So long as the name is an original creation and it physically passes through the Mirrorway you will retain mastery of the name.

Wait, What?

Refraction accomplishes two things.

First, it explains why your character is different within our game as compared to previous stories. If you are reimagining a powerful fireball throwing wizard from a different storytelling medium, Refraction is the reason why you cannot throw area of effect spells, polymorph into a dragon, or perform any of the numerous magical feats that are impossible or impractical to represent in a live action immersive game.

Second, it strips away names and details of previous worlds while keeping the essence of your character intact so other players won't be pulled out of character when you talk about your own story and they recognize elements from games and worlds they might be familiar with. Our goal is to preserve your story, your personality and your heroism without having recognizable details of shared worlds intrude on our game and break immersion for people who might recognize elements of those worlds.

This is not to say that the details of your history must forever be buried in your own mind. Sometimes these memories can and do come forth, rising from the shattered attempts to conjure them forth in story and becoming whole, free to share with others. These thoughts can be called forth in two ways.

Awakening

There might be times in the game when your mind is repaired and specific details of your past be made whole and free to share. This reweaving of your thoughts is called an Awakening. Although the circumstances of these sublime moments vary greatly, there are details about this process that remains consistent.

At the start of an Awakening, some spirit or powerful being initiates a state, trance, or ritual in some private place that temporarily makes your thoughts whole. During this time the details of your history come into focus like cloudy glass finally cleaned to reveal a clear scene beyond. You must remain relatively still, and your only activity is the role playing actions which the spirit calls for or beckons you to perform. You can break the trance at any time by calling “Resist” and leaving the area. If you maintain this state and follow the instruction of the spirit, it imparts the Lucidity trait with the verbal “Imbue Lucidity Trait by...”

Once you have the Lucidity trait your history comes into full focus. Although your memory and thoughts are restored, you can only answer direct questions from the being that initiated this state. It is unusual for this to be public, as it is much easier for a spirit or entity to delve into your cleared thoughts in private while you whisper only to them. If the spirit does not find what it seeks, or the thoughts are for whatever reason not to its liking, it can call “Cure Lucidity Trait by...” to end the state. Your thoughts once again dim and shatter, and the act of trying to communicate those to others once again becomes painfully impossible. If the spirit finds what it seeks or is pleased by what it hears, it can permanently repair those thoughts or details you have described to it. It will touch you and call out “Repair Thoughts to Lucidity” to make the story you have imparted to it permanent in your mind. At this point the memories you have communicated while you were last imparted with the Lucidity trait come clearly into focus. They are strengthened and repaired such that you may freely communicate those details in story, writing, or art to other characters in the game.

Recognition

Within the Shattered Realm there are many places and people that exist with titles or names that describe their nature. These people and places sometimes hold great power and are well known. Others are secretive and known to few. These elements can be important characters, divine beings, cities, villages, or entire kingdoms. These people and places are called Iconics. These iconic people and places forego proper names and resist attempts at specific names. Although one might attempt to name them, the denizens of the Shattered Realms quickly fall back to using the iconic titles of these people and places.

When you pass through a Mirrorway the memory and details of truly iconic and recognizable figures, places and items from your previous world are forever shattered. You lose the ability to share those thoughts with others. Even an Awakening will not clear the memory of these iconic elements of other worlds. While these memories can never be freed, there are times in the Shattered Realm that people from the Mirrorways recognize these iconic elements in the various figures of the Shattered Realm itself. During the process of Recognition you realize one of these named elements of the Shattered Realm to be, in essence, the iconic element from your memory. As you explore this option, many find that these figures also recognize you, and that the places that seem familiar actually contain places you recognize from your own world. When Recognition happens, the iconic elements from your back history and the titled figures or places from the Shattered Realm actually become the same.

Recognition happens as suddenly or gradually as needed for all the parties involved to recognize the shared memories from the past. Sometimes these tales are slow to be revealed as it takes time to recognize these similarities through the shattered image of Refraction. Once it takes hold, however, it becomes very real. You come to recognize the figure and they come to recognize you. The memories, oaths, titles and perhaps even magics or curses solidify and become a real part of both of your histories.

There are many times when Recognition fails as well. Sometimes you might approach an entity that seems familiar, but as you share memories it is clear that this is not someone you might have known. The process of Recognition is not uncommon in the Shattered Realms so most beings are if not used to it, at least aware of the phenomenon as common.

If Recognition takes hold with a titled Iconic of the Shattered Realm, and the titled figure is comfortable that they recognize you as someone they once knew and still know, they will verify the Recognition. They will role play the final Recognition, touch you with a packet and whisper or call out “Repair Thoughts by Recognition.” At this point, the memories and history are very real. You must be very careful who you recognize from your history, because for good or ill Recognition is also very permanent. For places, you generally Recognize them by discussing them with someone who is both native to the area and familiar with it. If the native knows the area well enough they can verify Recognition of the area with the same verbal.

As you explore the rule book you may already see elements of the Shattered Realm that seem familiar to you. If the iconics of the world described in the rule book seem to fit your history you can choose to Recognize them before you even play the game. This is most often done with Kingdoms and divine beings. These Recognitions take place during Refraction and the iconic names take the place of the proper names you are used to. This allows you to circumvent Refraction and you can use the titled name to immediately communicate elements of your history or story. Any Recognition that happens before the game or between events must be submitted to plot for approval.

External links

Mirror Mirror

Contents

Setting

Characters

Character Restrictions

Refraction

Wait, What?

Awakening

Recognition

External links

Navigation menu

Mirror Mirror

Setting

Characters

Character Restrictions

Refraction

Wait, What?

Awakening

Recognition

External links

Navigation menu

Search