Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth, Treasure Slumber

Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth is a game that I love the idea of. I think of it  as being something close to The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen but  only on a superficial level. The idea of a game where the players have a hand in  the overall flow of the game at a broad strokes level is appealing. It might  take sometime to get the right group of players assembled but when it happened I  think it would be amazing.

This is a game I have never been able to find the time to play and I am certain  that groups I have played with would find this amazing stupid. In different  groups over the years there have been individuals that it very well might work  with but there have never been more than one or two in any given group. I fully  believe that this is game I will never get to used as it was designed to be but  it will instead be relegated to use as a mining source.

The idea of this appeals to me I think almost entirely because of a novelette by  Theodore Sturgeon called the Microcosmic God. This is one of my favorite science  fiction stories eve, You see a hint of it in Men In Black and in the first  episode of the revived Outer Limits (though this is attributed to a story  called Sandkings I think that drew from Microcosmic God) and in an episode of  The Twilight Zone called The Little People. I am not sure this game is for  everyone but I know as reference material to get the creative juices flowing it  should serve nicely.


Published: 1994
Pages: 308

From the unofficial Aria site:

Throughout history, peoples and cultures have told stories of their gods,  heroes, and villains in order to better understand the world around them. These  myths seize upon the hopes and fears of society; heroes embody a culture's  highest ideals while villains manifest as ancient dreads personified. Aria  focuses on the Journey of the Hero, the sacred quest of the Monomyth, which  represents in mythic language the seeking of cultures after their own identity.  Aria Canticle of the Monomyth is a roleplaying game system which attempts to  embody this connection between hero and culture.

Aria is designed to function on several levels; during the course of a single  game, players can assume the roles of individual personas, persona lineages, or  even whole societies. All such interaction is directed toward the development  not only of personas, but also of entire cultures and worlds. As an integral  part of the game, Aria players weave together mythic, historical, and personal  time into one great tapestry of life — a living history beginning with the first  game session. Creating this vision of the Monomyth, where heroes and villains  clash in a world as well-developed and as rich in character as its mightiest  inhabitants, Aria players engage in the pageant of Mythmaking, the evocation of  numinous symbols summoned from the collective imaginations of the entire gaming  group.



Spell:

Treasure Slumber

Level: Third   
Range: 9"
Duration: Special
Area of Effect: 4" Radius
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 4 Segments
Saving Throw: Negates/Special

When this spell is cast the magic user will cause all in the area of effect who  fail their saving throw to fall into a deep slumber. The length of this slumber will be varied.

The duration of the effect will depend on the level of the caster as well as how  much wealth the affected individuals have on them. For each level of the caster  the number of units of time will be increased by one from a base of one. The  units of time are in the table below. Those who make their saving throw will not  fall into the slumber but will be stunned and unable to act for the remainder of  the current and the following round.

Copper     Segments
Silver        Rounds
Gold         Turns

This means that an individual affected by this spell cast by a seventh level  magic user that had only copper on them would slumber for eight segments. If  they had silver it would be eight rounds and if carrying gold it would be eight  turns.

Individuals in this slumbering state can not be touched by any other living  creature or they will awake immediately. This will prevent the sleeping targets  from being slaughtered. If any attempt to harm one of the sleeping individuals is  made they will all immediately awaken.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the write ups last,  were all written up or conceived of back in the 80's so the terminology may not  appropriate for anything other than 1e and depending on how well I did back then  it may be slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of spells  that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :) Please feel free to  comment on them but try not to be too hard on me. If anyone wishes to use these  in anything they print please let me know in advance and all I ask is proper  credit.