It's World Trees All the Way Down.

Yes, I'm still running a Nobilis game!  And I need to gush about it a smidgen.

Our current campaign is a bit of a reboot of the game I was running when last I wrote regularly, so the principals will be familiar.  In the meantime, we played a game about a sort-of-doomed Creation staring a almost-certainly-doomed Familia of Nobles, the Powers of Openings, Awakenings, Patience and Vengeance.  That campaign (subtitled "Ashes of an Age") is a long, fun, dark story.  Remind me to tell it to you sometime.

But my players seemed really interested in going back to the characters and the campaign we never really finished.  So, we rebooted, giving everyone a chance to re-imagine their characters, and giving our new player a chance to work her ideas in.  Which didn't completely happen...

In Nobilis, the group plays demigods that each have/are one concept that actually belongs to a bigger being, called an Imperator.  The concepts, or Estates, that each player chooses help to define who the Imperator will be.  In this case (campaign subtitled "When Worlds Fall"), my returning players each rebuilt their Powers of The Dead, Tracking, and Blood, while I threw in an NPC Power of Blades.  Their boss was a giant serpent/dragon named Nidhogg, the Serpent Who Gnaws at the Roots.  But the newer player had a great idea I couldn't ignore - she wanted to play someone old, and powerful outside of the normal dynamic of Noble and Imperator.  That character would get injured, and Nidhogg - ever the collector of stuff - would come to rescue her.  What's left of that new character's mythic essence translates into the Power of Release, which Nidhogg - ever the collector of stuff - claims as his own.

Oh, and the character - the new one, old and powerful?  It's basically Lilith, Adam's legendary first wife.

I was pretty friggin' happy that this idea fell in my lap - my first Nobilis campaign dealt heavily with the origins of humanity - in that setting, I had decided that Adam and Eve weren't really created, so
much as imported from beyond Creation.  Now I have another reason to re-imagine lots of characters from that first campaign, dust them off and make them relevant for a new game.

Most stories about the Garden blame the Serpent.  The Peacock got off  scott-free. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Themes are important for lots of table-top RPGs, and maybe more so for Nobilis.  A lot of the theme comes from the Estates the players choose, but also from the Code their characters adhere to.  Codes are sort of like political parties of demigods - and this group overwhelmingly focus on Codes that talk about individual freedom in some way.  Some focus on Humanity's freedom to direct their own fates, especially if that has dangerous or deadly consequences.  Others favor every being's freedom to be exactly what they are or should be.  And one prefers focusing on how to protect Humanity, including from themselves.  We definitely range all over the security vs. freedom spectrum.  I find it compelling and fun, so I often feature NPCs that relate to that somehow.

So far these characters have a great time dealing with large plot points in the most complicated way possible.  I've always been fortunate with this group of players, because they are very good at providing more hooks just by playing, and they're all pretty great at enjoying themselves even when their characters are in trouble or pain.  I still want to stand by the idea that any roleplayer can play Nobilis - but these people make the game for me.

Sometimes literally.


Bonus Links:

• My favorite art of Nidhogg, by Ruth Taylor
• A whole DeviantArt group for Nobilis art
• Tumblr for Jenna K. Moran, game designer for Nobilis.

The New 52 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New Superman

Image via Wikipedia

If you dress like this, you necessarily have no fear of heights.

DC's renumbering/reboot of the DCU hits stores tomorrow.

I like the old characters--I like the sheer history of the DCU.  It's why I can catch up to some of my favorite characters in "Justice Society of America."  History and legacy are a couple of big hits for me--"Legacy" is actually the subtitle of my 3+ year Nobilis GWB game (probably ending tonight!).  Being mindful of where you come from, who your heroes, mentors, role-models are, and what you may be leaving behind is powerful stuff.

So, when I heard the news this summer that DC would be doing a reboot, my first reaction was great disappointment.  I didn't want new takes on familiar characters and themes, I wanted the history to continue.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Crises and the big crossover events.  I love the big, cosmic stories because I think the writers and editors of DC do them so well--the universe can change seven ways from Sunday, people hurt, and people make it through, and it works for me.

I know Superman is getting a full reboot, but there seem to be series that are getting renumbered but keeping at least some history around--in the GL-related titles, for instance, where the events of "Blackest Night" intact.  But how does this affect continuity and cross-over potential?  Are there two versions of Superman (again)?  How many bat-mantles are out there, now?  I loved the story of the Robins and how Jason Todd and then Tim Drake took on the mantle of Red Robin, originally a character in "Kingdom Come."  It looks like Captain Atom is back...I try not to be confused with that guy, but Grant Morrison hurts my head sometimes...

I need to finish reading "Brightest Day" and "Flashpoint."  I'm going to do some major web-research about The New 52 today.  I need to get prepared for this stuff, because, as DC points out, this could be a great time to start buying comics again.  Same-day digital copies are a huge bonus for me, a guy who games, chats, reads and writes digitally, these days.

Related articles

• Grant Morrison Reinvents Superman, Can He Rescue DC Comics? (fastcompany.com)
• Off Topic: Red Robin (Tim Drake) from The Rhetorical Gamer (morrisonmp.wordpress.com)

The Power of Objections.

Is there any story more iconic in Nobilis than the courtroom drama?

In the setting, besides a giant wall of blue flame that separates what Is and what Is Not, besides the World Tree of all Creation, somewhere above Hell's corruption at the base of the Tree and Heaven's beauty at the top, there is a Court.

Let's call it the Locust Court--because there are bugs.

Depending on the editions, it gets its name differently, but the main point here is that this is where the Nobilis go if they've screwed up.  "Screwed up" can also mean "pissed off the Evil God that Calls the Shots," Lord Entropy.  It depends on the GM how fair the trials are--they typically aren't at all--and charges range from harming innocents to Loving, or failing to do your part in the whole mishmash.  The books emphasize Lord Entropy's corrupting nature--if he doesn't declare you guilty and set a nasty punishment, it's because it serves him, somehow.

So, I set up events to introduce our two new characters, the Powers of Love and Betrayal, by having a friend of theirs (and of one of our original characters, the Power of the Dead) break some serious rules--he killed his Imperator, his boss.  And so, the PCs are at the Locust Court--called to testify about what they know of the Power of Pain's betrayal of his former Lord (and the former Lord of Love, Betrayal, and Regret).  His defense?  Their former Lord wanted to die.  The Fallen Angel Shemhazai had second thoughts about most things in his existence, from his support of Lucifer's Rebellion to arranging certain life-lessons for his Nobles.  They claim that Shemhazai knew about the plot against him and subtly encouraged it.  He knew that he would be taken back to Heaven after death, and he sought redemption so much that he'd gladly be murdered for it.  It really was serving his will, they say.

Image via Wikipedia

Lord Entropy sentenced everyone to mud-wrestling.

The Powers of Love and Betrayal were charged with contempt of court for basically saying things that made Entropy and his Noble, the Power of Scorn, mad--they wanted to punish Pain to make an example of him--to show that killing Imperators is a BIG foul, that noone gets away with that.  They were taken out back and beaten for their insolence.

And the Power of Pain?

They'll make something stick.  It might not be the capital crime of betraying his Lord, but they won't let him get away without scars to make him remember who's in charge.

Introducing: The New Guys.

It’s been my experience that the party never stays stable—there always comes a time when someone has to drop out, or wants to change characters, or someone is added to the group.

To be fair, as a player I’m the guy who seems to want to change characters all the damn time.  But party/coterie/familia rosters tend to change even when I’m not playing, or even involved with the game at all.  So there, it’s not just me.

When it is me, it’s usually two things.  Either I overestimate how much/how long I’d be interested in playing a certain character concept, or something else catches my imagination so completely that I form a new concept and have that stuck in my head so fully that I just need to play it.  Sometimes I see that the party needs some role filled, and I think about changing to meet those needs—but one of the above reasons is usually behind the change, too.  Sometimes what I’m playing just doesn’t fit the group.  This isn’t often an actual problem, though—unless, again, I’m bored or I’ve latched onto another concept.

I suppose I rarely come up with concepts that can’t work with most parties.  In D&D terms, I tend towards lawful, if dark, characters.  Even if the character has had problems working with others in their backstory, I try to write incentives to join the other PCs, and have ideas for how I’ll interact with each.

Changing rosters seems to be pretty easy in D&D games.  You get back to town, and someone bows out to settle down, or moves on to another region.  Sometimes they die, either by planned out fiat, or purely by the die rolls.  You find someone else in the dungeon—the last survivor of a lost company of adventurers, or a lone traveller captured for nefarious purposes.  Someone comes to town because of the local problems, hoping to make a difference or a least a few gold pieces.

In World of Darkness games, the issue is similarly easy.  The current plot/baddie has attracted another Vampire/Werewolf/Frankenstein/Wizard who wants to do something about it.  Or perhaps the plot/baddie has a hostage.  You lose characters when something else in the World of Darkness calls to one of you—it’s something they have to do alone.  Or someone falls to the current baddie—proof that this world is darker, and that drama over their death would be pretty interesting to play out.

Other systems and settings aren’t much different.  Mo matter if you’re running or playing a game about super heroes, pulp adventure, or a gritty cyberpunk future, chances are one of the situations above will work for your group—but this is yet again one of those areas where Nobilis stands out.  Since the PC group is supposed to represent the aspects of creation owned by their boss (Imperator), whether that’s an angel, devil, dragon or god, certain character changes can strain the framework of the game.  Characters can die, even in Nobilis, so it’s possible to retire one Power of Lies, and come up with another concept that uses the same estate—a brand new Power of Lies that is different in key ways.  Actually, I think this is one of the more intriguing aspects of the game, that an Estate can be served/embodied by completely different people.

And while that sort of character change works out well for the game, others have to be handled carefully.  What if a player wants to drop their current Estate and play something new?  What if a new player joins the group, but noone’s leaving?  Bring in new Estates to an established game leaves the imaginary audience (maybe the players and GM, too) wondering “How does that work, exactly?”  It’s up to the GM and player to work out exactly what’s going on in the continuity that makes these changes possible.  Did the Imperator always have these facets of creation, and just didn’t have servants for them?  Did they gain them in some way?  If so, how?  Did another Imperator die, or forfeit them?  Does the Imperator actually have the new Estates, or do they still belong to something else, something that is working with it—or at least alongside it?

These are issues I had to resolve in my newer Nobilis game recently.  I loved the opportunity to add a certain player, and I like the new characters, but when this sort of thing happens in Nobilis, you need worry about a lot of details ahead of time.  You need to know what’s going on in your Creation.

Of course, a roster change in Nobilis can be lots of fun, if you do have those answers and the characters don’t.

Sad (Stories) Say So Much.

It turns out my game can be a bit of a downer, some sessions.

Yes, I'm referring to Nobilis, again. Time and again, Suriel (the PCs' Angelic Imperator) has lost something. He's lost Atlantis (his home) and his Familia (the PCs starting the game), near the beginning. When he got that back, it wasn't long before he lost face with his brother angels for hiding one of their own from Creation. And then he got kicked out of the Coucil of the Metatron (think elder Angels) for hiding perhaps the most feared and dangerous of the Fallen in a similar way. He stood up for the Grigori. He's lost a few more Nobles since. And now it turns out he was actually killed over 7000 years ago and transformed into an what was supposed to be an enemy of Creation. Fortunately, he's the Angel of Loyalty, and still has a job to do. After that's done, though...

I'm in my third year of running my Nobilis game, my third year with Suriel. I've known it wasn't a happy tale from the get-go--the subtitle, "Legacy," implies it, if you think. The game started with a handful of PC Nobles who were destined to lose. I told each the players to have an Anchor--a more human, more limited character--handy to play sessions with different scope than the typical Nobilis game. And then I told each player individually that their starting Noble characters weren't really their main characters--that they'd switch to their Anchors full-time at some point. And halfway through the summer, I killed the whole group, and their Anchors got their jobs as the Powers of Waves, Rock and Roll, Loyalty, the Subconscious, Discovery and Masks.

I could go on listing the losses the players have suffered, but it would take a while, and it's not the point. I like the heroism spurred on by this sort of tragedy, and the PCs have risen to meet the challenge. I love the heroes who have every reason to give up, to cut their losses or to at least get hung up on them, but don't. They go on anyway, even though they know it's going to hurt even more before they are done.

My girlfriend and I are playing in a Changeling game together as a brother and sister who were kidnapped by the Fae as children--our brother at age 4, her character at age 5 and mine at age 8--one night after another. The growing horrible knowledge that these things aren't your brother and sister, and that something GOT them in the night, and that your all-knowing parents couldn't tell the difference...it's just too much fun. And to come back physically a 11-year old after a handful of years (maybe) in captivity to find that around 30 years passed, and that those things took your life from you...now that is a hero's origin story if I've ever heard one.

I've been kicking around an idea about D&D clerics and paladins, especially the later. It seems most concepts for those classes involve a great deal of education--they imply well-to-do if not noble families. Heck, the paladin class isn't complete without the Knowledge (nobility and royalty) skill. What of the peasant who shows up to the Temple with his jaw set, telling people he wants to be a paladin--that he knows he's been chosen? He's tested, or course--even if they aren't normally, he would be. Senior paladins and/or clerics react with at best patronizing looks and helpful advice (that they're all sure he needs), to at worst outright scorn (because he's taken a child's game too far), but he knows it's real. He passes the tests his way--technically legal, but with unexpected twists and use of a commoner's strength, perseverance and wisdom. His peers think he's doomed, or a blight on the order, or a little brother they should protect from the real evils of the world. That'd be an interesting paladin to me.

Start from the mud. Maybe even fall in it a few times, just so you know which way is up.

~j

The Life of Death.

Yeah, I have a new blog.

You might ask, "Why a new blog? You hardly ever write on this one!"

The Life of Death is all about a guy that doesn't exist. He'll talk about his fictional life as the Power of Death--he's based off a character I'm playing in my girlfriend's new Nobilis campaign, and a character that will be popping up in my Nobilis game. In both, he was chosen--inexplicably--to serve and protect a shard of the soul of the fallen Angel Samael; specifically, the shard of Death. His family varies from game to game--most of the time, he'll be the Matt Underwood from her game, but I'm allowing for the possibility that I'll want to write something about the Matt of Death from -my- game.

So, look for stuff there. I'll post other random rants and fiction here, but that one will mostly be fictional rants.

~j

Break.

Yeah, that's probably enough of one.

I'm not precisely sure what made me totally neglect the write-something-every-day thing, but in the interests of laziness and avoiding too much introspection, let's just call it...laziness. I've found I like doing this--but, it's setting aside the time every day--time that could be used to sate my addiction to World of Warcraft, time that could be used sleeping, or time that could be used watching TV the way of the future. Yeah, by finding some website that's streaming it.

Not that I sleep too much. But the other two, they're a big problem.

Nobilis tomorrow night. We have a new player--who doesn't have a new character yet, but that's cool, it's a work in progress. And our old new player is a great addition to the game--her character's needing to go to the other characters for advice or help actually keeps other people involved. Now if only I could learn to do that myself...

I have been informed by my weather guru that the current bout of mild mildness will continue until...Our Independence Day. I'm a little bemused by the fact that I have a weather guru--a sweet older lady who comes in to Friday's every Monday. I also like the idea of only referring to the upcoming holiday as...Our Independence Day. You go, Bill Pullman.

That's enough ranting randomly for this evening. Tune in next time. And that reminds me of the Muppets.

~j

Topic.

Because I missed last night, and Friday night, and I need to keep my momentum up.

Sometimes, I paint myself into a corner with stories. Tonight, I managed to have a rather significant number of powerful NPCs show up in game. I tried to set things up so that they weren't dominating the dialogue, but by their very nature they draw attention. The PCs kept deferring, in some cases the players didn't think they could really do anything significant in scenes with so many major players. I ended up narrating. And talking to myself. Argh.

This from someone who is trying to be very careful about these sorts of game sessions. I complain about them all the time, and then they sneak up on me and I can't seem to do much about it. I suppose it should make me more forgiving of other GMs, but it just makes me more determined to stop it from happening.

The issue with Nobilis and this particular problem is Imperators. The gods of the game, they give the PCs their power and usually send them out to do things. But they have their own relationships. They're big, they're powerful, they're forces of nature. And they make the PCs feel small. Even though they should do something in the world, they should often do those things off-screen, away from the PCs.

For my Nobilis game, I want to have big, cataclysmic stuff happen to the PCs and their home and their boss, so we can take a step back to look at the game. I want this so that we can decide what we want next. Are the stories we've played the sorts we want to continue playing? If not, how do we want things to change? Imperators showing up and being impressive is one way to do this--but definitely not the best. I'll remember this for the next time I want to shake things up.

Play and learn.

~j

Black, Black Emptiness.

Yes, I like Byronic heroes.

The trappings of darkness and danger are cooler to me. Knights in shining armor are fine, but I like menace, I like creepy and spooky. There's something to be said for Batman picking his theme to scare the crap out of his enemies, the cowardly and superstitious criminal element.

I don't think I scare easily--perhaps a lot of people think that, but I'll stick by it. I'm not talking about being startled, I mean deep, bad Fear. It's an interesting topic for me. I remember one of my first comics as a kid--it was Robin versus the Scarecrow, and Robin seemed screwed--until he used the Scarecrow's (not-irrational) fear of Batman to good use.

Later, I started reading the Dragonlance novels by Weis and Hickman. The creepy, frail mage Raistlin was instantly my favorite character, and hasn't been dethroned since, even with all of the stories written for that setting. His style and the choice of evil--as I see it, in order to save the world. Fantasy stories are different. Our heroes kill people all the time in them, so the major shift with the character of Raistlin was mostly the trappings of evil--the black robes, the nastier sorts of spells. In later books, we see he's even more willing to hurt people close to himself...but we can still see noble, if prideful goals.

Nowadays, my favorite characters to play in RPGs are usually at least a little like Batman, a little like Raistlin. Most games don't give me the flexibility to play truly evil-focused characters, but I'm not sure I'd want to. I like the bad guys that fight the worse bad guys, or the dark characters that just want to dabble in nastiness and would rather the world not end--it's just inconvenient. I want to play the characters that use the trappings of evil to fight evil. I've had a sort of signature character that has evolved through the years--the necromancer who would rather keep the real threats from ending/taking over the world. He was human at first, and now I usually see him as an elf--elves are nice for the creep factor, I like to accentuate how they aren't human, and don't think like humans. In Nobilis, I want to explore how a power that adheres to the Code of the Dark or the Fallen Angels can help work to make Creation a better place.

I'm not sure what kind of person it makes me. It's just more fun this way.

~j

Seek.

That's when everything went bad.

There's a tremendous roaring overhead, and all of a sudden, all the print in the room spells it out. S-E-E-K. There's a tremor, and a book falls from a shelf, the pages begin to flip from one cover rapidly to the other, and all the words are "SEEK." Only, all of a sudden, they aren't just that. Now, as the pages continue to flip, you can barely read, "SEEK the FACE of the LORD." And you get a glimpse outside, through a window, and see what's making the crashing, roaring sound above.

The Atlantic Ocean is caving in on Atlantis.

The Angel Suriel climbs as you watch, one fist cocked back for a blow to beat back the ocean, but all over Atlantis, chaos reigns. The Fountain that leads to the Angel Anada's Cityback bursts open with a dazzling display of glorious light of all colors, and is then cut off. You feel the Suriel's Realm, Atlantis, steel itself as a wave ripples out from his ruined temple to the edges where the waters arc upwards, back to the ocean--the Realm has been closed. The ocean is no longer collapsing--but all along the walls of water, shockwaves ripple up and down with the impact of someone trying to break their way in.

"Roger Comstock, Marquis of Discovery, this is the Angel Gabriel," a dark, rich voice, obviously used to talking to mortals enters your mind. "You should leave your Chancel, if you can. Meet me in...Iowa...City."

Roger bows in reverence automatically as he replies, "If I can, I will meet you there, Lord Gabriel." In another, slightly more familiar tone of reverence, he prays, "My Lord Suriel, Gabriel has asked that I meet him outside the Realm, if I can."

The Angel above Atlantis yells, "WHAT!?" and dives to Roger's mansion, into Roger's mansion, making another Angel-sized hole. "What about Gabriel?"

As the Noble and his Imperator discuss the causes of the curent catastrophe, the folk of Atlantis hurry about, preparing for assault. They scurry, but in a somewhat resigned fashion--as if to say "I knew this would happen again." Palace Guards are fanning out into the city, seeing to the safety of the populace. One guard notices an older gentleman attempting to herd crabs into an open area--the guard shouts, stopping a wall of water from smashing and scattering the flock and it's master.

In front of Comus, Lord of Misrule and power of Masks, the scones fall to the tremors, scattering. They seem to spell out "SEEK the FACE of the LORD."

The Angel Suriel turns in exasperation from Roger, and focuses, spreading his hands out over Atlantis--and suddenly, everything is different. The island/continent/city now circles an expanse of dark, violet water--a path into the human subconcious--which itself surrounds the old ruined temple that serves as the Angel's home.

"Oh, crap," the Angel Suriel sighs.

The ruins promtply explode, to reveal radiant, silvery light streaming from the face of another Angel. His presence brings to mind a Heavenly choir of voices in sixteen-part harmony. His wings are shelter in the middle of the turmoil, the sword in his hand is sleek and sturdy, obviously meticulously made from the best alloys known to Heaven, science turned deadly.

"Phanuel."

((Excerpt, with corrections and liberties, from tonight's Nobilis session. Enjoy. ~j))

Angels in the Outfield.

I'm going to talk about Nobilis some more.

It's a game where you play (usually) a human who's been put in charge of a concept of reality. You have a godlike boss of some sort that gave you this power and responsibility. There are alot of beliefs and agendas around. The big questions are left unanswered by the basic setting--God (Cneph, as he's called) is missing, noone's really sure if any of the assorted prophets and messiahs were the real thing. There are things from outside reality that want to break it all down, starting with the weakest links, which might be you.

There are factions, of course. Heaven is a big deal in Nobilis--the Angels champion the causes of beauty and justice and the idea that they are right. The base setting is pretty neutral about this, but in my experience, GMs tend to give them a bad rap. Most Angels you might meet are snobbish at best and fascist egomaniacs at worst. The concept of justice that they supposedly champion becomes completely self-serving. They draw their flaming swords at the drop of a hat.

I'd blame this on a general glorification of the less-organized eastern religions and general contempt of western religions. Angels are more associated with Christianity, and in my experience, gamers are less impressed with Christianity and its trappings. Biases happen. We all bring things to our games constantly that we're not even necessarily aware of.

I've tried to take another tact in my Nobilis game. Probably because of my experiences in other games, my game is quite a bit more angelo-centric that most. Even the Dark (who mostly seek ways to get humanity to destroy themselves) have some legitimacy built into my version of Creation. That leaves me with less grand factions of Evil, yes, but I'm going to try to use more individual villains than Leagues of Bastages.

Maybe more on this in the future. I doubt I'm done writing about one of my all-time favorite games, anyway.

~j

Tick Tock

This is random, and I'd apologize, but you could just click out.

I was thinking about translations today.

A huge part of the world measures distance with a decimal system. The English system still strives on, mostly due to tradition. We use it, we're used to it, it works for us. We're proud, so we don't give it. I'm fairly certain that the only way the English system of measurement will die is if all nations that use it were to be conquered by other people who use the metric system. Conquer seems to have lost popularity in the modern world, so...long live the English system.

Languages seem to have been the least successful in this manner. I suppose language evolves a bit faster than, say, distance, but there are still a crazy amount of languages out there. While we have standard systems of measurement that everyone (besides us whackos) are expected to use, we insist on translating our thoughts and words into all of these systems of communication. We have different languages, different alphabets, and different systems of writing altogether.

But when it comes to time, everyone seems to use the standard. We may argue about which day want to celebrate the near year, but the world seems to use one calendar. Sun dials from Babylon made their way to modern atomic clocks keeping their perfect time...twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. There have been corrections and modifications (not to mention language changes), but the overall idea and way of doing it is still around.

So...when we want to tell the people we work with our plans, we don't have to translate our calendar. We might need to put the rest into Spanish, though. Interesting, the lines we draw.

Four seasons--it's an obvious cycle, and not a simple construct of man. Barring remainders, we have about 12 full moons during that cycle. Twelve is unfortunate, it's really hard to turn that into decimal, but fine--it's still not a man-made phenomenon. Decimalizing the day would be easier. We could have 10 hour days with 100 centihours each to replace minutes, and further subdivide to milihours and so on. This is all man-made, simply a continuance of the babylonian belief that 12 was a special number--something strengthened by the 12 full moons a year, sure.

As a Nobilis player and GM, I have to admit that Time has got to be one of the strongest concepts we have as humans. We all think of time in the same terms. With the exception of people we consider mentally inferior, we mostly experience time in the same way. Sometimes it goes faster to our perceptions, and sometimes it drags on, but it mostly goes at the same rate, and always goes forward.

Except in dreams.

Except in Deja vu.

Except in...

~j