Metal’s Oneshot Zone

A world where videos of the supernatural go viral every day.

Latest World Events

Posted by Metal, 8 months ago. Permalink

New Church Opens in San Francisco!

The Church of the Divine Luminescence proudly opened its doors last Friday in downtown. In a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by over 500 residents, the new Church’s pastor Gloria Hermann gave a grand speech proclaiming its commitment to bringing light and life to every member of the San Francisco community.

 

“We will bring illumination to all in our tender care”

                   -Gloria Hermann, March 2024

Gloria continued, making a firm promise to reach out and support our unhoused community, a gesture that has stirred up some discussion. 

But what do you all think of these developments?

I’d love to hear from you all in our Q&A below. This is James Gurn of the Independent Gazzete, signing off.

Latest Journals

1 month, 3 weeks ago: Clark Heath wrote a Downtime Journal for To Russia With Love

New cards up my sleeve

After my deck of tarot cards got soaked, I decided I needed to preserve them as much as I could with how dangerous these contracts are. I did my best to dry them out and preserve them before going on a trip to a specialty card shop I read about online that I suspected of having some mystic prowess about it like those liveleak videos online. As I entered the shop my excitement came to a crashing halt, it just looked like one of those cheap tourist shops to attract customers with nothing but some novelty to it, not a shop of the mystic arts. I looked around the shop but everything was a knockoff or made of cheap materials, even my waterlogged set of tarot cards looked better than this. However just as I was about to leave, a deck of metal tarot cards hidden in a back corner covered in layers of dust caught my eye. I don't know what it was but I felt called to the deck, and I even managed to haggle it down to $20 thanks to the fact they were covered in a layer of dust and grime. Once I headed home I discovered that my hunch was right and this tarot deck had mystical capabilities and a rather sharp edge, sharper than most knives I've ever seen. I decided to test them out even more and I seemed to teleport to where I threw the cards which shocked me and sadly punched a hole into the wall of my house which I had to get fixed.

1 month, 3 weeks ago: Clark Heath wrote a Downtime Journal for Crimes of Passion

Exploring my new powers.

After experiencing that awful haunt, I decided to start messing around with my tarot deck that my parents had given me. At first I thought I might be able to interact with the dead or see the future but sadly I was mistaken. I eventually gave up and decided to give my sister a visit to hang out and grab a drink while asking how her college life was going. Thankfully Cunningham didn't follow me and the haunt seems to have ended, though seeing her face staring at me when I looked at that body still haunts my nightmares. I eventually decided to show off some card tricks to my sister since she used to love them as a kid, I suddenly managed to perform a difficult throw that I had never managed to perform before. After a few more attempts I realized I had gained... CARD THROWING?!?!?! SERIOUSLY I risked my life for the ability to throw cards well??? This is ridiculous, I can't believe that's my supernatural reward for this crap.

2 months ago: Clark Heath wrote a Downtime Journal for Beware the Assassin!

Recovery pains

I spent a quite a few weeks in urgent care, somehow not sustaining any lasting injuries. I'll have to thank Orlando next time I see him for helping cover the medical costs for me, but now all I can think about is how I can become stronger. I'm constantly replaying the scene in my head of being trampled on by that unicorn, and no matter what I can think of I just come back to the same conclusion: I am not flexible enough. So once I got home I started to train my body to its limits in a vain attempt to become capable of training my dexterity to new almost superhuman heights, but I'm just a man so I don't know what I was expecting. In a fit of rage I started to drink, ignoring the calls and texts from my sister who was concerned about my hospital visit in California. I don't know when it occurred but at one point from all the frustration building up combined with the alcohol I drank but did something stupid and did a tarot reading for a random squirrel. I didn't expect anything to occur but I felt it was funny and a much needed reprieve from all this practice, up until the squirrel started speaking.

6 months, 3 weeks ago: Jesse Valentine wrote a Downtime Journal for Crimes of Passion

Prep Time

It's been a long time coming since I picked up that awful, god forsaken bottle and had this red hot bastard saddled to me, but I have finally been formally introduced to the world of the supernatural. It took a few trips to a few libraries (most of them shadier than I'd like to admit), but my little personal library is now well stocked with books on the occult and the supernatural. Now, against my better judgement and in contrast to my earlier experience with these "contracts", I find myself constantly watching that phone the strange man gave me. There was something both exhilarating and refreshing to working that case. In between the stresses and demands of my normal job, I have found the time to read most of these books cover to cover, and have downloaded scans of most of them to my laptop. In the meantime, I've been experimenting with this newfound power I've developed. It's sloppy and limited, but I seem to now be able to control fire. No doubt thanks to the Efreet I'm stuck with. All in all, despite my bitching, it's been a productive break in the action.

Latest Completed Contracts

6 Contracts have been run in this Playgroup

Loading...

Illuminated Earth

This is going to at least at the beginning be set up the same as standard Illumination. It’s a playgroup I made so I can run oneshot Contracts for some of my friends. Plus it should introduce em to this game. (And since they might join the larger playgroup one day, it’ll be useful for allowing their accounts here to actually track their progress, function within the system, etc.)

Illuminated Earth is a twisted reflection of the modern world where the advent of smartphones and the internet confirmed the existence of the supernatural instead of disproving it. Here, witch hunts have merit. Billionaires and Senators employ paranormal advisors and bodyguards, and everyone knows. Charlatans become pop culture icons, and each revelation inspires a new cult. The world is changing. The secret societies that pull humanity's strings scramble to adapt.

Now's a good time to move up.

House Rules

Contractors from Metal’s Oneshot Zone Are portable, and may play in Contracts in other Playgroups.
Metal’s Oneshot Zone grants 6 Experience points to GMs who achieve the Golden Ratio.

 

  • Supernatural Powers: All non-mastery, non-concealed Powers must be obviously supernatural when activated or grant a mutation that marks the wielder as supernatural or bizarre if discovered.
  • More to follow in the future

Full Setting Description

They named that time The Illumination, and it was by the flash of a camera phone.

 

The year was 2004. Until that point the Earth was as we had always known her. We filled her cruel vastness with legends, superstitions, and rumors. Warlocks, monsters, and gods lurked on the edge of the collective consciousness, always a possibility but never more. We lacked evidence. That evidence came as humanity filled its pockets with technology equipped to capture and transmit.

 

An iPhone found on High School senior Nate Klienman’s mangled corpse held a video of his girlfriend’s bone-snapping transformation into a monstrous wolf creature. A Brazilian widow documented a series of conversations with the misty figure of her late husband. A Chinese fishing boat caught a mermaid in a net and put it on display in the Beijing aquarium.

 

Each week brought a new revelation that we were not alone. Superstitions reversed their slow death overnight. Salem held their first witch trial in a century. The jury rendered a verdict of “guilty on all charges” and sentenced Maxibelle Horux to death. A week after her lethal injection, half the jury died from a tainted batch of flu vaccine. A fearful, populist movement arose to rid humanity of the creatures lurking in its ranks. Suspects are forcibly subjected to bizarre tests of their humanity, and the results are often open to interpretation. A mob’s justice is swift.

 

Yet the paranormal is not merely relegated to a persecuted class. Where some see monsters, some see sentience, and others see opportunity. If a vampire can sustain themselves on cloned blood and work the graveyard shift, why not legalize and tax? Politicians and Aristocrats employ odd-looking individuals as "advisors" or "protection." Entertainment magazines publish revelations every week about which celebrities shed their human skins at home. Charlatans of all stripes, from palmistry mediums to televangelists, have flourished despite the risks. The treatment of the paranormal varies from place to place, person to person.

 

Long have cabals, cults, and secret societies thrived in the shadows. Their roots run deeply through humanity’s oldest systems of power. Machinations are challenged, and sleeping dangers awaken. The world is changing, forcing long-dormant powers into desperate action. And it is in the midst of this great period of change that The Powers That Be have once again turned their attention to the blue marble. For the first time in two hundred years, Harbingers approach worthy individuals with an offer they won't refuse.

The Games have returned, and a new generation of Contractors are being forged.

World Events

Posted by Metal, 8 months ago. Permalink

New Church Opens in San Francisco!

The Church of the Divine Luminescence proudly opened its doors last Friday in downtown. In a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by over 500 residents, the new Church’s pastor Gloria Hermann gave a grand speech proclaiming its commitment to bringing light and life to every member of the San Francisco community.

 

“We will bring illumination to all in our tender care”

                   -Gloria Hermann, March 2024

Gloria continued, making a firm promise to reach out and support our unhoused community, a gesture that has stirred up some discussion. 

But what do you all think of these developments?

I’d love to hear from you all in our Q&A below. This is James Gurn of the Independent Gazzete, signing off.

View all World Events