Wonderland - Jags

Deeper Mysteries - Overview
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presence
Mass Hallucination, Cont’d
of others also helps calm
fears and prevent emotional
trauma—of course it does have
the possibility of convincing
the subjects that there is a real
element to their experience.
This feeling that “there is
actually something to their
experiences” is drummed out
of them at meetings with horror
stories about those who have
embraced their delusions. A
good deal of questionable data
on Mass Hysteria and Group
Hallucinations (and the power of
Suggestion) is given out as well,
even though knowledgeable
people know that a lucid,
continuing, intricate shared
experience is entirely unlike
Mass Hysteria or hallucination.
I don’t want another of
your rational explanations!
I know what I experienced
and I’m not crazy!
- Melanie,
Amityville: The Demon
Dangerous things may come for him (both on otherwise relatively safe
Chessboard One Episodes and, at times, even on Chessboard Zero!). A
person with Damage (bad Twisteds) will tend to appear clinically insane
when they are not having an Episode.
The Episode
Infection means that you periodically have an Episode (a period of time
wherein you undergo Descent: traveling to a lower level of reality—
‘visiting the lower chessboards.’) When you are Infected you will
have Triggers that “set you off” but even if you insulate yourself from
Triggers (or just have very minor ones) the chances are you will still
have Episodes and, over time, they will get worse.
Handling Triggers as a GM
The Game Master usually decides what triggers a character. Usually
this does not need to be specified. Things like environmental stress,
something unexpected happening, or even daydreaming and boredom
can cause episodes. A character who is Infected may undergo Descent
several times a day in the wrong environment or if things, in general, are
going badly.
Examples: In one game, the PC went into an Episode every time her
cell phone rang. In another case there was a segment of a PC sliding in
and out of descent in a dizzying fashion (one minute things are normal,
the next not—then they’re normal again). In another game, episodes
came in steady waves on a more regular schedule (once every few days
or every few hours). In still another, a coming storm “brought Descent
with it”—and the characters could ‘feel it coming’ as they saw the
clouds move in. All of these are canonical examples of how it works.
For most people in the Underground Support Groups, they try to lead
crashingly mundane lives and avoid all outside unusual influence and
still suffer descent about once a month.
How Often Do Episodes Happen?
Generally anyone Infected will have at least one Episode a month. Often
there are more short ones—and sometimes a character may have several
a day (or even an hour).
Usually one knows when a ‘cyclic’ Episode is coming on—or, if a
character is Triggered, they may know that “it’s going to happen soon”
(in the next few minutes or an hour).
The Episode: How deep do I fall? How do I go down?
Again, a lot of this depends on the GM and the specifics. An Episode is
a bit like an “acid trip” in that it starts and then stops. Let’s look at some
conventions.