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Author Topic: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!  (Read 9723 times)

Slambo

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #15 on: June 15, 2021, 10:20:30 AM »
Lol its 20.21$ that has to be on purpose.

BoxCrayonTales

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #16 on: June 15, 2021, 10:24:01 AM »
Reading it now. Frustrating that it seems to be only scanned images rather than clean electronic text. That explains the file size.

Yeah, the statement about the heroic Invisible College bringing social and technological advancements definitely runs counter to what Mage proposed. That game presupposes that all such advancements were part of an evil conspiracy to control humanity.

Okay, on page 344 it basically provides rules on how to become a D&D lich, complete with a phylactery. I know the trope goes back to Koschei and Dorian Grey, but the use of the term "phylactery" in such a way comes from D&D and not any real magical tradition to my knowledge. This is because in the earliest editions of D&D the phylactery was a literal phylactery (a prayer box used in Hebrew traditions). It makes no sense to call it a phylactery in-universe unless the PCs are D&D players.

EDIT: Actually, the section on false immortals reminds me of the false immortals section in Palladium’s Mystic China. Was that an influence here?

The concept of "false immortals" is a real life concept in Alchemy, and yes, especially in Asian Internal-Alchemy.
Well, researching them has proven to be impossible for me. Google keeps giving me completely irrelevant results.

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #17 on: June 15, 2021, 10:38:47 AM »
Reading it now. Frustrating that it seems to be only scanned images rather than clean electronic text. That explains the file size.

Yeah, the statement about the heroic Invisible College bringing social and technological advancements definitely runs counter to what Mage proposed. That game presupposes that all such advancements were part of an evil conspiracy to control humanity.

Okay, on page 344 it basically provides rules on how to become a D&D lich, complete with a phylactery. I know the trope goes back to Koschei and Dorian Grey, but the use of the term "phylactery" in such a way comes from D&D and not any real magical tradition to my knowledge. This is because in the earliest editions of D&D the phylactery was a literal phylactery (a prayer box used in Hebrew traditions). It makes no sense to call it a phylactery in-universe unless the PCs are D&D players.

EDIT: Actually, the section on false immortals reminds me of the false immortals section in Palladium’s Mystic China. Was that an influence here?

The concept of "false immortals" is a real life concept in Alchemy, and yes, especially in Asian Internal-Alchemy.
Well, researching them has proven to be impossible for me. Google keeps giving me completely irrelevant results.

It's mainly stuff from very obscure primary-source texts. Wujcik included it in Mystic China and that was a big sign that he had MASSIVE knowledge on the subject of Chinese mysticism.
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BoxCrayonTales

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #18 on: June 15, 2021, 11:33:03 AM »
Reading it now. Frustrating that it seems to be only scanned images rather than clean electronic text. That explains the file size.

Yeah, the statement about the heroic Invisible College bringing social and technological advancements definitely runs counter to what Mage proposed. That game presupposes that all such advancements were part of an evil conspiracy to control humanity.

Okay, on page 344 it basically provides rules on how to become a D&D lich, complete with a phylactery. I know the trope goes back to Koschei and Dorian Grey, but the use of the term "phylactery" in such a way comes from D&D and not any real magical tradition to my knowledge. This is because in the earliest editions of D&D the phylactery was a literal phylactery (a prayer box used in Hebrew traditions). It makes no sense to call it a phylactery in-universe unless the PCs are D&D players.

EDIT: Actually, the section on false immortals reminds me of the false immortals section in Palladium’s Mystic China. Was that an influence here?

The concept of "false immortals" is a real life concept in Alchemy, and yes, especially in Asian Internal-Alchemy.
Well, researching them has proven to be impossible for me. Google keeps giving me completely irrelevant results.

It's mainly stuff from very obscure primary-source texts. Wujcik included it in Mystic China and that was a big sign that he had MASSIVE knowledge on the subject of Chinese mysticism.
I’d like to read those texts. The way both games handle yin-yang qi is pretty different from the way I’ve seen those concepts described in traditional Chinese medicine.

That doesn’t explain why you used D&D-specific jargon like “phylactery” if your intent was to be authentic to real occult traditions. Are there really no terms for soul jars in occultism?

Are there any plans to release the pdf with selectable/searchable text? It looks like a scanned image book, but the store page says its a “original electronic format”.

Snowman0147

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #19 on: June 15, 2021, 01:55:12 PM »
Box you need to realize that Pundit isn't the publisher.  Pundit made the book, but he didn't make the pdf.  The people who made the pdf are the publisher.  Your pdf questions should be directed at them and not at Pundit as he has no power in how the pdf is made.

Though if the PDF is scanned pages that could explain why PoD hasn't been done yet.

BoxCrayonTales

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #20 on: June 15, 2021, 03:28:10 PM »
Box you need to realize that Pundit isn't the publisher.  Pundit made the book, but he didn't make the pdf.  The people who made the pdf are the publisher.  Your pdf questions should be directed at them and not at Pundit as he has no power in how the pdf is made.

Though if the PDF is scanned pages that could explain why PoD hasn't been done yet.
Thank you for explaining that.

danskmacabre

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #21 on: June 15, 2021, 07:18:40 PM »
Will grab this once it has a Colour, Hardcover, print copy with a bundled PDF option on DTRPG.
Looks interesting.

Looks like many references to Enochian Magick, Golden Dawn, Rosicrucians, Illuminati, Freemansons and ceremonial magick in general.

Any mention of Thelemic practices?
« Last Edit: June 15, 2021, 07:20:40 PM by danskmacabre »

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #22 on: June 15, 2021, 08:17:19 PM »
Will grab this once it has a Colour, Hardcover, print copy with a bundled PDF option on DTRPG.
Looks interesting.

Looks like many references to Enochian Magick, Golden Dawn, Rosicrucians, Illuminati, Freemansons and ceremonial magick in general.

Any mention of Thelemic practices?

Thelemic magical practices are the same as the Golden Dawn's, plus a couple of extras. Those extras are mostly in there.

A lot of Thelemites think their religious practices are somehow also magical, which is as true as saying the Catholic Mass is magical, but no more than that. So you don't see much there about the Gnostic Mass if that's what you meant by practices (because, let's face it, the 'magical practice' of 90% of self-proclaimed thelemites is MAYBE doing the middle pillar or Resh or the LBRP, going to a gnostic mass if one is close by, and getting stoned while talking about kabbalah).
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danskmacabre

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #23 on: June 15, 2021, 09:44:28 PM »
Thelemic magical practices are the same as the Golden Dawn's, plus a couple of extras. Those extras are mostly in there.

Early Thelema (such as from the Equinox and related material) are more akin to Golden Dawn, AC was in the Golden Dawn for some time and based his work on that.
Later works, such as Book 4 went their own way quite a bit. Still. I guess this isn't a place to debate the fine details of Thelema or whatever..


A lot of Thelemites think their religious practices are somehow also magical, which is as true as saying the Catholic Mass is magical, but no more than that. So you don't see much there about the Gnostic Mass if that's what you meant by practices (because, let's face it, the 'magical practice' of 90% of self-proclaimed thelemites is MAYBE doing the middle pillar or Resh or the LBRP, going to a gnostic mass if one is close by, and getting stoned while talking about kabbalah).

Like many occult groups, cults, religions etc, people bring a lot more to a particular practice than just that.
Thelema, Golden dawn or whatever gets more vague the closer you look at it and when you really want to "do" something, you need to bring a lot of your own knowledge, research, experience and creativity into it, that and whole whole thing is very personalised.
Are most people in any group (whether mysticism or anything really) just "Doing the motions" and there to socialse or just waffle on about whatever? yeah sure, but that's pretty much always the case wherever you go and whatever you're into.


Anyway, thanks for the clarification of the content in your RPG..

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #24 on: June 15, 2021, 10:03:03 PM »
Thelemic magical practices are the same as the Golden Dawn's, plus a couple of extras. Those extras are mostly in there.

Early Thelema (such as from the Equinox and related material) are more akin to Golden Dawn, AC was in the Golden Dawn for some time and based his work on that.
Later works, such as Book 4 went their own way quite a bit. Still. I guess this isn't a place to debate the fine details of Thelema or whatever..


A lot of Thelemites think their religious practices are somehow also magical, which is as true as saying the Catholic Mass is magical, but no more than that. So you don't see much there about the Gnostic Mass if that's what you meant by practices (because, let's face it, the 'magical practice' of 90% of self-proclaimed thelemites is MAYBE doing the middle pillar or Resh or the LBRP, going to a gnostic mass if one is close by, and getting stoned while talking about kabbalah).

Like many occult groups, cults, religions etc, people bring a lot more to a particular practice than just that.
Thelema, Golden dawn or whatever gets more vague the closer you look at it and when you really want to "do" something, you need to bring a lot of your own knowledge, research, experience and creativity into it, that and whole whole thing is very personalised.
Are most people in any group (whether mysticism or anything really) just "Doing the motions" and there to socialse or just waffle on about whatever? yeah sure, but that's pretty much always the case wherever you go and whatever you're into.


Anyway, thanks for the clarification of the content in your RPG..

There's three components to Thelema:

1. The mystical revelation and Holy Books of Thelema.  These do not play a big part in the Invisible College RPG, though Aleister Crowley (now one of the Secret Chiefs) is given an entry and reference is made to the Liber AL.

2. The magical system of Thelema; principally the A.'.A.'.
In the Invisible College RPG, the College's curriculum is essentially the curriculum of the A.'.A.'., in terms of the mastering of specific magical theories, practices and techniques at specific degrees.
Many of the particular rituals that Crowley wrote himself were either reimagining of existing rituals (the pentagram and hexagram rituals, the abra melin ritual) or of other cultural practices (bhakti and raja yoga, past life recollection techniques, etc). So in the magic system I don't go into too much detail about the texts of the rituals; for example, I talk about Banishing as a ritual, but that ritual could be the LBRP or the Star Ruby, as either ultimately work the same.  Ditto for the cultural practices.

3. The religious and fraternal activities of Thelema: the Gnostic Mass, Ecclesia, and OTO. These are barely mentioned.



And as to the second part of your comment, you're quite right, and that's a part of what I talk about in my introduction to the game. I make it very clear that the world of the Invisible College is one just like ours, in that 90% of occultism is crap and 90% of the people engaging in occultism are either posers or frauds or just too undisciplined to do anything other than treat occultism as a 'community' or a 'lifestyle'. And (I hope) it's pretty evident in the text that it is not one specific 'denomination' or practice that is the one true way but that 90% of everything is garbage, and the other 10% is from people who push themselves to the limit and discover real Truth.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2021, 10:06:29 PM by RPGPundit »
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danskmacabre

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #25 on: June 15, 2021, 10:25:48 PM »
1. The mystical revelation and Holy Books of Thelema.  These do not play a big part in the Invisible College RPG, though Aleister Crowley (now one of the Secret Chiefs) is given an entry and reference is made to the Liber AL.

2. The magical system of Thelema; principally the A.'.A.'.
In the Invisible College RPG, the College's curriculum is essentially the curriculum of the A.'.A.'., in terms of the mastering of specific magical theories, practices and techniques at specific degrees.
Many of the particular rituals that Crowley wrote himself were either reimagining of existing rituals (the pentagram and hexagram rituals, the abra melin ritual) or of other cultural practices (bhakti and raja yoga, past life recollection techniques, etc). So in the magic system I don't go into too much detail about the texts of the rituals; for example, I talk about Banishing as a ritual, but that ritual could be the LBRP or the Star Ruby, as either ultimately work the same.  Ditto for the cultural practices.

3. The religious and fraternal activities of Thelema: the Gnostic Mass, Ecclesia, and OTO. These are barely mentioned.

I'm not so interested in seeing point 1 or 3 (although I'm aware of the Book of the law and so on) represented in detail in the RPG. It'll be interesting to read what mention it does get though.

I was more curious if you would "Gamify" point 2 (which you have answered). I'm aware of the existence of the A.A. and its function and was curious how much of the Magickal practices (not really religious practices of the OTO, doctrine etc) would be present.
I kept my original comment/question as more generally Thelema, rather than go too much into detail, meaning whether it was relating to O.T.O. or A.A.

And as to the second part of your comment, you're quite right, and that's a part of what I talk about in my introduction to the game. I make it very clear that the world of the Invisible College is one just like ours, in that 90% of occultism is crap and 90% of the people engaging in occultism are either posers or frauds or just too undisciplined to do anything other than treat occultism as a 'community' or a 'lifestyle'. And (I hope) it's pretty evident in the text that it is not one specific 'denomination' or practice that is the one true way but that 90% of everything is garbage, and the other 10% is from people who push themselves to the limit and discover real Truth.

Yes agreed on this point.


Anyway, thanks again for the clarification of the content. Looking forward to getting a Hardback print of this book.

The Witch-King of Tsámra

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #26 on: June 16, 2021, 01:29:28 AM »
Are there any plans for supporting The Invisible College via RPGPundit Presents?
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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #27 on: June 16, 2021, 05:45:09 AM »
Are there any plans for supporting The Invisible College via RPGPundit Presents?

Given that RPGPundit Presents and The Invisible College are done by two different publishers, that's potentially not very likely.  There's a chance of course that I could do products similar to RPGPundit Presents for The Invisible College through the new publisher.
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Murphy78

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #28 on: June 16, 2021, 03:30:45 PM »
I've really enjoyed Dark Albion and Lords of Olympus, so I think it's a safe bet.
A few questions:

- how is the paper: matte or glossy?

- are you planning adventure modules?

- the setting is hard-coded or  can it be hacked easily, coming up with different organisations, enemies ecc?

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Re: The Invisible College: Occult Modern Conspiracy OSR is here!
« Reply #29 on: June 17, 2021, 06:11:57 PM »
I've really enjoyed Dark Albion and Lords of Olympus, so I think it's a safe bet.
A few questions:

- how is the paper: matte or glossy?

- are you planning adventure modules?

- the setting is hard-coded or  can it be hacked easily, coming up with different organisations, enemies ecc?

Having not yet got an author copy (what else is new?) I probably wouldn't be the right person to answer the first question. Maybe someone here who's already had it delivered could tell you.

I have some possible ideas for adventure modules, but nothing definite yet. At 432 pages, the book is very much complete.

The setting can, I think, be hacked quite easily. You could take the core concepts of the mechanics and use them for all kinds of things. Obviously, you could run a campaign where your PCs were from a different or new faction of the occult war. Or where the PCs were agents of one of the Intelligence Agencies of the major nations that know of the occult war.  But you could also get rid of the "secret societies" angle altogether if you wanted to, and have just some occult realism game in the modern world. I'm sure you could do other stuff with it too.
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you've played 'medieval fantasy' until you play L&D.


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The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

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Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
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Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.