The News

News by Turn

Turn 7.
Turn 6.
Turn 5.
Turn 4.
Turn 3.
Turn 2.
Turn 1.
Turn 0.

Sources

All the news stories in the game will be written from an IC viewpoint. Each news source is rated according to the veracity of the news stories told from their viewpoint.

These folk aren't official news sources, they are merely there to present the stories that people are talking about in divine society. Don't bother trying to manipulate the news by killing off one of these sources - we'll just make up someone else to replace them. Similarly, don't try and con divine society by feeding misinformation to one of the sources - we'll just tell the story from someone else's POV. If you want to hoax people, actually go out and set up a convincing hoax.

Sources who are Voices of Truth will be the folk whose news stories you can absolutely rely on. They tell stories which are both accepted by more-or-less everyone as true, and which have been verified by strong, unimpeachable evidence. They tell the sort of stories which only people who are delusional, chronically misinformed, or deep in denial refuse to believe. These stories are also always very clear-cut: there's not much ambiguity as to the nature of what has happened.

Reliable Sources tell stories which reflect what most in-the-know folk regard as true, but there's always a chance that a lot of people may have fallen for a very convincing scam - the sort of story where you'd find yourself in the minority if you disbelieved them. This also covers stories which are true, but it's not clear whether the full truth has come out yet, or there is some ambiguity as to the causes or motives involved.

Plausible Storytellers relate tales which have been making the rounds but don't have much evidence backing them up. The stories they relate are always believable and could quite conceivably be true, but there's a lot of doubt surrounding them. Few people believe wholeheartedly that these stories are true, but few are confident enough to dismiss them out of hand. This category also includes stories where, yeah, it's clear that something's going on, but nobody really knows what to make of it - there's not enough information to definitively say what is happening.

Shameless Rumourmongers come up with all sorts of crazy bullshit - the sort of stories which lots of people have heard but nobody really believes. If such stories are true from time to time, it's by accident rather than because of there being strong evidence. This includes stories which humans might be convinced to believe, but the Gods know better. If you make a habit of believing these stories you'll end up gibbering about Parroting-Puppet Gangster Evil Educators with their beaming messages into your head about the Worldwide Frankenstein Communist Computer Word God which is suppressing Nature's Harmonic Four-Sided Time Cube and how it's all linked up with the cabala and JFK and the Mayan calendar and gangs of midget bankrobbers, but there may be a very occasional grain of truth in there.

Most news stories will be from Reliable Sources and Plausible Storytellers.

Voices of Truth

Peter-of-the-Beard

An ancient human sorcerer of considerable power, Peter-of-the-Beard has lived since before the First War. He has a vast array of divinatory techniques at his disposal, as well as a great many friends, allies and contacts amongst the spirits and creatures, and corresponds with similarly venerable magi. News stories from him will take the form of lectures given to his students, and Peter knows well that it is a fatal mistake to give a student of magic a piece of information which is not completely checked out and verified - for although a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, a little untruth can be fatal when dealing with magic.

Dolfod, the Enquiring Herald

Dolfod is a very minor New God who spends his time travelling hither and thither in the guise of a hitchhiker. His speciality is being at the right place at the right time to watch very large and very important events taking place. He then relates the stories he hears to various of his friends, and soon all the Gods know what Dolfod has seen.

Reliable Sources

Harry Cale

A mortal who lives in the ruins of New York, in a small community which spends its time fishing, trying to grow crops in Central Park, scavenging from the devastated buildings and fending off raiding gangs. His prized possession is his ham radio rig, which he uses to talk to the rest of the world, relay the stories he hears from other survivors, and play tapes of transmissions he records from the airwaves. Across the globe those who have access to shortwave radios make sure to listen to the "What Do We Do Now Show" - even if they don't have their own transmitter rigs to call in stories, it gives them a sense of hope. Harry's radio is powered by the same water wheel which the Central Park group hopes will one day grind its grain, if they can survive until next year's harvest.

Elga Stutz

A German journalist who is the sole remaining writer at the Berlin Examiner, a newspaper which she and her assistants now print from an old-fashioned printing press and distribute amongst the people in the Berlin refugee camp - folk who have fled from as far as Norway, Britain, Spain or Yugoslavia from rampaging gangs, natural disasters, or less mundane terrors. Back before civilisation collapsed she was one of the journalists who almost exposed the existance of the Iron Rule - especially in her article "Who Are the Iron Men?" - but now her paper is mainly there to relate the stories the refugees bring with them.

Plausible Storytellers

Charles Wever

The barman and owner of Charlie's Bar in Johannesburg. Thanks to the growth of the Empire of Udon he's got the bar up and running again, and travellers of all sorts come through with interesting tales - which he regales his customers with regularly.

Illisozt

A pathetic, sickly excuse for a demon, often summoned by apprentice magi as practice. Gladly tells such trainee wizards what they want to know, but will often leave out the most crucial facts, or go off on irrelevant tangents.

Surbiton Parish Council Newsletter

Edited and mainly written by Ethel Malone, the newsletter can be regarded as a Voice of Truth when it comes to the details of tea parties and art and craft fairs, and other mighty deeds of the pensioners of Surbiton. When it comes to matters of more cosmic importance, however, Ethel is not so clued in: when the Gods and other powers make their presence felt in Surbiton, she could miss them completely.

Jack Jones

A Nihonese sorceror.

Shameless Rumourmongers

Enrico

Enrico's always been a crazy, homeless street preacher, trying to claw a living on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Now he has real Gods to preach about, but that doesn't stop his overzealousness and hyperbole from obscuring any useful information he is struggling to impart..

Commander Neville

Commander Neville lives in a hut in the Rocky Mountains with a lot of ammunition. He uses his ham radio for two purposes: