Unseen Voices – Player Handout

The Unseen Voices are innermost temptations, sins and virtues. They are the personified struggles of the characters in 97 Poets of Revachol. 

There are 13 players who will play different Unseen Voices. They will have their own characters, each with their own personality. Each with an outward manifestation, which will mostly blend into the background until they turn their attention to someone. 

The Unseen Voices are a big part of the surrealistic aspects of the game. They convey the characters’ inner feelings but also provide some weird and strange interactions in the world. 

Each Unseen Voice is its own character, with a public manifestation that people only ever look at in passing and an exuberant thing underneath.

Play Style

When playing an Unseen, you will influence someone’s play to a great extent. You get to create scenes, shine a spotlight on them, and enable them to fully engage in their character’s inner conflicts. However, you will rarely be the star. You will always be a whisper from the shadows, a temptation just reaching from the beyond. As an Unseen you will have your story, but your character will not have a strong story arc or development.

Meta-Techniques

The Unseen utilize a few specific meta-techniques. They have a toolbox at their disposal that they can use to influence characters.

The Whisper

Unseen can influence a character and talk to them. Only this character will be able to hear them. 

The Command

Using the keyword really, really, Unseen can tell players that what they are saying is to be done now (for instance, if they need to be taken to a prepared scene).  The Unseen are going to use this technique to speed up scenes, but leave the decisions about the character with the players.

Blackboxes

The game features 2 blackboxes which can be used by all players, but especially the Unseen can use them to create experiences from the past, hallucinations, or scenes within a character’s mind. 

Pins

Every Unseen has a specific colour associated with them. By offering characters pins, they show their growing influence on someone. 

The Convention

The Unseen are locked in endless games and schemes about influence, weird wagers and so on – a bit like popular images of Greek gods playing chess with people´s lives. They have their own space, the Convention, which is only for them. Here, they can exchange information, talk about their “playthings”, or generally hang out.

Characters

Public vs. Internal

Every Unseen has a public persona – that is, someone who is seen by everyone – a homeless person pushing their cart, a drugged-up teen at the club or old soldier musing about lost glories. While players will know they are Unseen, the characters will perceive them as part of the background, not worth much interacting with. However, you can always choose to engage as your public persona. 
When using your whisper and revealing your inner life, you show your real character, a concept, a virtue, a sin. This is who you truly are. Unseen can be concepts like “Street Martyr”, “Collector”, or “Corrosion”.

“Your” Characters

Every Unseen has a few characters specifically assigned to them. You will have more information about them and will be integral to that character’s struggle. 
You can always choose to engage with other characters, but interacting with your characters will always have the highest priority.

Costumes

Like all characters, the Unseen get their own costumes. These will usually be a lot more extroverted but will also have more layers to hide that inner life. 
Every Unseen has a specific colour, so you can also choose to bring your own accessories if they fit that colour.