Outlier

 

Outlier by Bonobo!

 

 The VaM-style spell today is Outlier - the title coming from this song by Bonobo.

Migrations should be listened to with headphones, all in one go. I recommend darkness as well.

 

 

 

 Here are some definitions of outlier!

a person or thing situated away or detached from the main body or system.

a person or thing differing from all other members of a particular group or set.

 

a younger rock formation isolated among older rocks.

 

a data point on a graph or in a set of results that is very much bigger or smaller than the next nearest data point.

No lyrics!

And here is the spell, it is a strange one!

 

Outlier

Duration: 1 real world hour

Range: Caster

Once this spell is cast, the caster is split off reality – like a pane of glass breaking on a busy street they are simply off to the side, of interest but not actionable, and not forgotten, just not able to interacted with.

Take the caster of Outlier and put them into a different room than the other players.

They will still roll initiative as normal in combat, can still take noncombat actions – but the player’s characters and NPCs and creatures will semi-forget them – it is like getting used to the heat, or a droning sound at work – it is there but ignored. They still affect the shared reality.

If the outlying caster damages, touches, or otherwise contacts or connects with a living or undead being – that being can see them as normal for one round.

You should regularly go to the other room and talk to the outlier, and ask what they are doing, so on and so forth – in combat go to the room and hear their action when their turn comes up on initiative.

Spend time explaining what they see, so they can make decisions, but this time and distance and information barrier will make things confusing – any weirdness is considered an effect of this spell.

They also get Telekinesis at will while outlying.

Miscast Table

1 – Outlier lasts the entire session instead of one hour.

2 – Instead of going and talking to them, just leave them alone in another room for an hour – when the hour is up, before they return, roll 1d6, they experience the result, describe it to them – then bring them back to the group.

• 1 – They got lost, wander their character somewhere near or far, but always a possible distance. They may have passed locked doors or otherwise intractible terrain.

• 2 – They remain in the space, room, or nearby radius where they first cast the spell.

• 3 – They found something, got bored, and came back to the party – Describe the nearby “thing” of interest they saw.

• 4 – They got lost, and summarily stuck under, in or on something – hope someone can hear them calling for help!

• 5 – They return with some new equipment – what they found is up to the referee.

• 6 – They return, but are different in some way – referee can roll on a table or alter their character in some way.

3 – 50% of the party gets Outlier cast on them instead of just the caster – referee, choose randomly – they all share a room.

4 – 75% of the party gets Outlier cast on them instead of just the caster – referee, choose randomly – they all share a room.

5 – Outlier gets cast on the referee! The referee goes to a different room, and each time someone wants to take an action, whether that is in combat or not, one party member may go to the other room and speak with them, and see how that action goes. If in combat, the referee will shout out each initiative number and that will inform the player they should come convey their action.

6 – If this result is rolled, and there are enough rooms for each player to get a room, each player goes to their own separate room. Then, each is given 60/X minutes, where X is the number of player characters – this is how long they play as if they are the only party member to exist. Once each player has this small amount if time to do what they want to do, all the players reconvene and may communicate what each other did. Their actions in aggregate may be illogical or impossible, they still happened though.

7 – The caster of Outlier becomes the referee for the rest of this session.

8 – The player character’s natural state is now Outlier, casting Outlier now only gives them an hour with the rest of the players.

9 – Spell works as normal, but instead of another room, the caster goes beneath the table.

10 – The spell is partial, instead of just going to talk to them, the caster also gathers a message of what they do, and reads and adjudicates it out loud with the rest of the group.

11 – Spell works as normal, but instead of another room, the caster goes outside – if safe/possible.

12 – The spell is delayed – and takes effect sometime in the future – when exactly is up to the referee.