I've had the pdf for a bit but recently received my hard copy of Lusus Naturae. Reading through this has inspired dozens of ideas for a new campaign just this afternoon. The physical book is very good quality, but the material is, in short, spectacular.
Rather than being just a collection of creatures, the book weaves a complex tale of possibilities by the creatures referencing each other. The party might encounter the Oocytic Warden or Elana Suur ... which will invariably lead to a search for Davinia Marrow. Of course, that will tie into encounters with marauding beasts that portend the coming of the Mallison. On top of everything else, there is a sweet monster generator in the back few pages that create more than just a set of stats, but horrible monstrosities with motives and style.
Rafael Chandler kicked some serious ass putting this together. I'm going to have to get a hard copy of Teratic Tome too. Maybe Pandemonio as well. Get your hands on a (legal) copy - this guy deserves your loot.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
More Treasure (but now Interesting!)
In the last post I described some mechanics for getting cash value loot. However, I'm of the firm opinion that loot from critters doesn't always have to be 1000 copper coins or a gem the size of a fist. Treasure is a reward, and rewards should be more than cash loot.
Recap of the Treasure Tables
These are from the last post, just to put some perspective on things.
Loot Descriptions
Knowledge - information is power, and can really set the tone
Using Knowledge Loot
Rather than just handing the players the map that is the loot from the encounter, the players may have to find and decipher it. A tattoo to a lost island tattooed on the back of a dwarf, a scrap of mouldering parchment tucked under the body of a halfling jammed into the pantry, or perhaps the map is actually written on the back of a painting.
The knowledge loot give an opportunity to expand the setting and tone, create a sprawling living world that seems to intersect here and now where the players are, and allow for side-adventures or tie-ins with other adventures and campaigns.
A book might be missing a chapter, so tracking down the author (The Right Honarable Sage McLain who was last seen studying obsidian artifacts near Volkem) could give the characters another contact, another adventure, more insight into the contents of the book (Identification of 4th Age Dire Weapons), or just be a wild goose chase into another dungeon where the dumb old sage bought the farm when he was ambushed by a band of savages.
Magic and Relics
These are going to be specific to each campaign and should be fun and interesting items. A "Ring of Protection +1 Defense" sucks. "The Ancient Ring of Ignoo" which is a a brass band beaten into shape with the bone of a tiger and worn by the barbarian tribes of Jorhim (which grants +1 defense) is awesome. Same with spells. This is where the GM gets to shine.
Recap of the Treasure Tables
These are from the last post, just to put some perspective on things.
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Loot Descriptions
Knowledge - information is power, and can really set the tone
- Map- a partial map of the dungeon, another level, or another location
- Sings - information about a looming threat - dragon poo, an elf nailed to the wall, or huge claw marks
- Book - books on a topic may impart some knowledge, but most useful for bulking up research libraries
- Notes - detailed notes on a subject directly related to the dungeon, for example, notes on the different powers of "The Eight Eyes of the Greyjax"
- Mystical - predictive or direct insight through dream, vision, or otherworldly voice
- Consumables - potions, powders, and other one-off items
- Minor Item - items that give small bonuses or are of limited use such as the Headscarf of Sassoon (which allows one to change their hair color once per day)
- Scroll - most likely spells, but also things like summoning or protection scrolls
- Major Item - bigger ticket items like Yerd's Blade of Infinity (a longsword +2 that allows the wielder to run for 24 hours) or the Elfish Cloak (makes you look like an appropriate plant if you stay still)
- Faltering Relic - a relic that is on it's last legs ... roll for a relic and reduce the power left in in dramatically
- Rings - magic rings of everything from protection and invisibility to improved blocking with bucklers and storing spells
- Weapons - magic sword! magic spear! likely intelligent and probably either mean or having ulterior motives
- Armor - magic leather of ignoring acid damage and growing horns, magic chain mail of flying and weeping blood
- Wands - potentially infinite source of casting a specific spell, these are powerful in the hands of wizards and often useful for the rest of us as well
- Weird Stuff - All of the uncommon and incredibly powerful magical items the GM can think of including various "artifacts" like hands and eyes of super-evil but really powerful arch-lich daemon lords. And the apparatus of Kwalishlish (whatever that is).
Using Knowledge Loot
Rather than just handing the players the map that is the loot from the encounter, the players may have to find and decipher it. A tattoo to a lost island tattooed on the back of a dwarf, a scrap of mouldering parchment tucked under the body of a halfling jammed into the pantry, or perhaps the map is actually written on the back of a painting.
The knowledge loot give an opportunity to expand the setting and tone, create a sprawling living world that seems to intersect here and now where the players are, and allow for side-adventures or tie-ins with other adventures and campaigns.
A book might be missing a chapter, so tracking down the author (The Right Honarable Sage McLain who was last seen studying obsidian artifacts near Volkem) could give the characters another contact, another adventure, more insight into the contents of the book (Identification of 4th Age Dire Weapons), or just be a wild goose chase into another dungeon where the dumb old sage bought the farm when he was ambushed by a band of savages.
Magic and Relics
These are going to be specific to each campaign and should be fun and interesting items. A "Ring of Protection +1 Defense" sucks. "The Ancient Ring of Ignoo" which is a a brass band beaten into shape with the bone of a tiger and worn by the barbarian tribes of Jorhim (which grants +1 defense) is awesome. Same with spells. This is where the GM gets to shine.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Uninteresting Treasure
One thing I've always loved was interesting treasure. Of course, when it comes to actual play, especially as a GM, I've discovered that players often don't actually care about most loot. Is it magic? No? Sell it. As a GM, why should I spend so much time making up so many interesting treasure if it lasts for only a few moments?
In my last game the players went well off the rails of where I thought they would. In looting a house, they found some treasure, but I didn't feel like making up the details right then and there. In the end, after a quick appraisal roll, i said "You found 50 ducats worth of various trinkets". I was really quite disappointed in myself, bu my players were completely cool with it. So I started thinking - how can I make loot more interesting but not spend so much time on things that are just going to get sold off. How can I make SOME treasure more interesting rather than go into detail about everyhting.
That brought up an idea I had ages ago about how I've been handing out treasure. And lo, the following treasure tables were born.
The Loot Tables
When an room (at least when random dungeon stocking) indicates loot is present, roll on the Primary Loot Table. Then roll on the Loot Details table. The roll is 1d6p (roll 1d6 - if the result is 6 add 1d6-1) with a max value of 11 (although I may fiddle with this after some actual play).
Loot Descriptions
Trinkets - small valuables
Descriptions
So now I can make some hand-wavy descriptions of minor loot (trinkets) and really get into describing the cool stuff. I'm sure I'll break out some random tables for inspiration on this as well, but now I won't have to spend as much time agonizing over what is pretty much "worthless" descriptions of things that are going to just be moved around for cash and then caroused into experience points anyway.
In my last game the players went well off the rails of where I thought they would. In looting a house, they found some treasure, but I didn't feel like making up the details right then and there. In the end, after a quick appraisal roll, i said "You found 50 ducats worth of various trinkets". I was really quite disappointed in myself, bu my players were completely cool with it. So I started thinking - how can I make loot more interesting but not spend so much time on things that are just going to get sold off. How can I make SOME treasure more interesting rather than go into detail about everyhting.
That brought up an idea I had ages ago about how I've been handing out treasure. And lo, the following treasure tables were born.
The Loot Tables
When an room (at least when random dungeon stocking) indicates loot is present, roll on the Primary Loot Table. Then roll on the Loot Details table. The roll is 1d6p (roll 1d6 - if the result is 6 add 1d6-1) with a max value of 11 (although I may fiddle with this after some actual play).
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Loot Descriptions
Trinkets - small valuables
- Coins - the familiar dungeon loot, a pile of coins
- Jewelry - rings, circlets, that sort of thing
- Gems - gemstones! the good stuff
- Objects - sceptres, crowns, royal orbs, a gilded chalice, and so on
- Damaged Treasure - a Treasure, but damaged and therefore not as valuable
- Lost Object - an item of importance being looked for by someone
- Trophy - cool dungeon trophies like mounted dragon heads or an owlbear paw cloak clasp
- Oddity, broken - strange otherwordly object that doesn't do anything
- Oddity, working - as above, but it domes something keen
- Hoard - roll a few times on the loot table and compile everything together, use hoard value
| Loot Value This is always the tricky bit. Take the "treasure unit" for the dungeon (based on the dungeon level and number of characters it was designed for) and multiply it by the modifier for the Trinket and Treasure type value modifier. This is how much the loot is worth if straight up sold off. The values look a bit weird, I admit, but the average value of treasure, based on the probability of the various types of loot coming up and the multipliers comes out to pretty darn close to average. Example The Base Unit of Treasure is "100g".
Variance If you don't want everything to always be worth the same value, roll 2 red dice and 2 black dice. Subtract the red total from the black total and multiply the difference by 3. This is the % difference. Get a -3? Then the coin pile above is now worth 9% less (45.5g if you want to do the math). In the end, the probability evens out. |
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Descriptions
So now I can make some hand-wavy descriptions of minor loot (trinkets) and really get into describing the cool stuff. I'm sure I'll break out some random tables for inspiration on this as well, but now I won't have to spend as much time agonizing over what is pretty much "worthless" descriptions of things that are going to just be moved around for cash and then caroused into experience points anyway.
Friday, June 12, 2015
Goblins of the Great War Camp
Our Hackmaster games have been on and off this year. We've had a few more adventures in Aldsburg - mostly urban business dealing with a new Tower and a gang called the Flamblades and hilariously miserably failed sewer exploration.
The last time we got together, though, there were only 3 of us ... so I proposed that we play a game of Goblin Quest which I helped kickstart. It was totally worthwhile.
The Great Warcamp
When the 7th age began the realms of Marlgor began to succumb to a terrible threat. A band of dire and inscrutable wizards had grown a city-camp where they did nothing but prepare for war. Here in the far wasted north on the shores of the ship-devouring The Claw, our goblins came forth from the slime pits and, with little more than bravado and a complete inability to understand exactly how screwed they were, set off on a Goblin Quest!
The Goblin Clutches
Slopface - one giant eye, experts in looking spooky, dreams of being a beauty queen, armed with the Impressive Bow of Impressiveness
Ruptured Condom - big hands, experts in slapping, dreams of becoming arm wrestling champ, arned with the Empty Bananananana Skin of Humiliation
Bleak-pook - no survival instinct, experts at annoying wizards, dreams of being the first goblin wizard, and armed with the Totally Not Dead Magical Familiar That's Definitely Not a Parrot.
Our Goblin Quest!
Bake an Orc Cobbler and Eat it to Gain AWESOME POWER. Everyone knows orcs are tough guys, and making a desert out of one and eating it is totally a great and delicious way to get tough.
Task 1: "Blend" a Moonchild (progeny of the Dark Moon Goddess)
Stage 1: Find the Dark and Mysterious Woods Full of Sharp Things that Go Straight For the Eyes
Stage 2: Capture the Moonchild (who probably isn't a giant slug)
Stage 3: Get the Moonchild to a suitable Crypt
Task 2: Prepare an Orc
Stage 1: Get an Orc to follow us to the Crypt
Stage 2: Slather Orc with "blended" Moonchild
Stage 3: Get the Orc into a coffin
Task 3: Follow Recipe and Chow Down and Get AWESOME POWER
Stage 1: Find the recipe
Stage 2: Follow the recipe
Stage 3: Eat the Orc Cobbler, get AWESOME POWER
Highlights
Legends Whispered Around the Goblin Camp for Like A Week
Sluggo the Goblin rides forever with the Goblin King
The Bleakpook clutch familiar passes power to all who gaze upon it
Ruptured Condom clutch beat an Orc at Arm Wrestling ... becoming Champion of Life
Fizzik was the first True Goblin Wizard who summon lightning
The demon goblin Ix haunts the slimepits ... beware young goblins!
Deathtoll
Slopface clutch
Blokko - bugbear stabbing
Licko - devoured by orcs for being too sexy
Sluggo - immolated by booze
Taco - death by tasting Orc Cobbler
Ruptured Condom clutch
Blix - death by magpie
Nix - slapped by an orc
Bix - arm wrestled to death
Ix - death by demonic cauldron
Bleak-pook clutch
(unnamed) - chomped by a ghoul
Zot - devoured by an orc
Fizzik - stewed in the stew
All in All
What a damn fun game! This isn't normally the type of thing we do, but it was a blast. I can't wait to play it again. Thanks, Grant Howitt, for being awesome and writing a sweet game. When I get home (I'm travelling for worth at the moment) I'll scan in soem of our sweet goblin drawings.
The last time we got together, though, there were only 3 of us ... so I proposed that we play a game of Goblin Quest which I helped kickstart. It was totally worthwhile.
The Great Warcamp
When the 7th age began the realms of Marlgor began to succumb to a terrible threat. A band of dire and inscrutable wizards had grown a city-camp where they did nothing but prepare for war. Here in the far wasted north on the shores of the ship-devouring The Claw, our goblins came forth from the slime pits and, with little more than bravado and a complete inability to understand exactly how screwed they were, set off on a Goblin Quest!
The Goblin Clutches
Slopface - one giant eye, experts in looking spooky, dreams of being a beauty queen, armed with the Impressive Bow of Impressiveness
Ruptured Condom - big hands, experts in slapping, dreams of becoming arm wrestling champ, arned with the Empty Bananananana Skin of Humiliation
Bleak-pook - no survival instinct, experts at annoying wizards, dreams of being the first goblin wizard, and armed with the Totally Not Dead Magical Familiar That's Definitely Not a Parrot.
Our Goblin Quest!
Bake an Orc Cobbler and Eat it to Gain AWESOME POWER. Everyone knows orcs are tough guys, and making a desert out of one and eating it is totally a great and delicious way to get tough.
Task 1: "Blend" a Moonchild (progeny of the Dark Moon Goddess)
Stage 1: Find the Dark and Mysterious Woods Full of Sharp Things that Go Straight For the Eyes
Stage 2: Capture the Moonchild (who probably isn't a giant slug)
Stage 3: Get the Moonchild to a suitable Crypt
Task 2: Prepare an Orc
Stage 1: Get an Orc to follow us to the Crypt
Stage 2: Slather Orc with "blended" Moonchild
Stage 3: Get the Orc into a coffin
Task 3: Follow Recipe and Chow Down and Get AWESOME POWER
Stage 1: Find the recipe
Stage 2: Follow the recipe
Stage 3: Eat the Orc Cobbler, get AWESOME POWER
Highlights
- Tricked a Hobgoblin into giving us directions to the DM Woods FSTGSFTE
- Indiana Jones style launching over brambles
- Moonchild licking delicious goblin blood
- Attacked by Magpies
- Death by magpie, death by stabbing, death by wizardy stuff, sacrificed head
- Demand Cryptlord helps ... and it does ... kind of
- Sexy goblin eaten by orcs
- Word tattoos appear on goblin bodies ... they are not good
- Magic charm (chicken bone) eaten by orcs
- Death by slapping
- Running from a band of enraged orcs
- The "charmed" orc eats another goblin
- Goblin arm wrestles an orc, death by arm being ripped off
- Skateboarded into orc causing orc to be covered in blended moonchild goo
- Wizard Staff with a Knob on the End opens coffin
- Orc, now slippery with goo, falls into coffin and knocked out
- Off to the the Dunn Inn to find a bugbear chef
- Bugbear helps us because it is funny
- Bugbear stabs us, dog bites us, bugbear taunts but tells us a "recipe"
- Sudden goblin realization of our places in the Order of the World
- Makes us want to gain AWESOME POWER even more so
- Death by booze immolation, but orc cooking in coffin
- Coffin on fire, booze on fire, orc on fire
- Taco the Goblin that smelled like Taco Bell dies eating Orc Cobbler
- Death by lightning
- Death by summoning a demon
- Death by drowning on Orc Cobbler
Legends Whispered Around the Goblin Camp for Like A Week
Sluggo the Goblin rides forever with the Goblin King
The Bleakpook clutch familiar passes power to all who gaze upon it
Ruptured Condom clutch beat an Orc at Arm Wrestling ... becoming Champion of Life
Fizzik was the first True Goblin Wizard who summon lightning
The demon goblin Ix haunts the slimepits ... beware young goblins!
Deathtoll
Slopface clutch
Blokko - bugbear stabbing
Licko - devoured by orcs for being too sexy
Sluggo - immolated by booze
Taco - death by tasting Orc Cobbler
Ruptured Condom clutch
Blix - death by magpie
Nix - slapped by an orc
Bix - arm wrestled to death
Ix - death by demonic cauldron
Bleak-pook clutch
(unnamed) - chomped by a ghoul
Zot - devoured by an orc
Fizzik - stewed in the stew
All in All
What a damn fun game! This isn't normally the type of thing we do, but it was a blast. I can't wait to play it again. Thanks, Grant Howitt, for being awesome and writing a sweet game. When I get home (I'm travelling for worth at the moment) I'll scan in soem of our sweet goblin drawings.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Aldsburg in 3D
Playing with my 3D printer this weekend I created a very small scale
model of the City of Aldsburg. I'm still adding bridges and need to
create a separate piece for the Tower of Steel. Each of the towers is huge - a single level of the Lions Tooth, for example, could (and in some cases does) hold three distinct villages.
After finishing the bridges and adding the Tower of Steel I'll likely add some of the Wards (places between towers that people live) then do a bit of painting.
Next steps are to design better towers and bridges - add some details and print everything bigger - probably 2x with an eventual goal of doubling that scale as well. I also need to get a better feel for the terrain - adding some variation, slopes, that sort of thing.
Chances are I'll create the model in a larger scale but do a print at this scale again (just shrinking it before printing). Each level of the mountain is 5mm, the towers range from 10mm to 25mm. So the Tower of Skulls is 47mm (2mm for the base, 20mm of terrain, 25mm for the tower) tall ... which is less than 2 inches. I made the models in Sketchup 2015, used Repetier for the slicing and printing software, and did it all on my Printrbot Simple (which I totally put together myself).
The Towers
A. Village of Greaves
B. Village of Helm
Reasons for the Print
The first reason is because it is FUCKING AWESOME! Seriously. I got a 3D printer from my wife and have been using it. Because it is a 3D printer! I'm still fascinated with the fact that now I effectively have a fabrication machine in my house. Unbelievable.
The second reason is because I tried to map this on paper and it was a mess. I want my players to get a feel for the scope and scale of this thing that I've been working on for ages and this seemed the best way to do it. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out and have learned more about my printer and design.
After finishing the bridges and adding the Tower of Steel I'll likely add some of the Wards (places between towers that people live) then do a bit of painting.
Next steps are to design better towers and bridges - add some details and print everything bigger - probably 2x with an eventual goal of doubling that scale as well. I also need to get a better feel for the terrain - adding some variation, slopes, that sort of thing.
Chances are I'll create the model in a larger scale but do a print at this scale again (just shrinking it before printing). Each level of the mountain is 5mm, the towers range from 10mm to 25mm. So the Tower of Skulls is 47mm (2mm for the base, 20mm of terrain, 25mm for the tower) tall ... which is less than 2 inches. I made the models in Sketchup 2015, used Repetier for the slicing and printing software, and did it all on my Printrbot Simple (which I totally put together myself).
The Towers
- Brindle's Gate
- primary way in/out of Aldsburg
- home to plenty of military and insane Aldsburg bureaucrats
- Lions Tooth Tower
- where the campaign has been focused
- currently the most defined of the towers
- Juniper Tower
- an prison for the insane
- run by a cult called The Administration (aka the Doktors)
- Iron Blood Tower
- Blue Tower
- Pillar of Ivory
- wherein the fanciest of nobles and the Patrician live
- the most elegant and decorated tower
- Jundar Tower
- also known as the Tower of Giants
- current involved in a Halfling revolt
- Bull Tower
- Winter Tower
- Mountain Perl
- Tower of Skulls
- contains a huge temple to the Wyrd
- contains the bones of noble dead and heroes of worth
- creepy as hell wit the bone and death motif
A. Village of Greaves
B. Village of Helm
Reasons for the Print
The first reason is because it is FUCKING AWESOME! Seriously. I got a 3D printer from my wife and have been using it. Because it is a 3D printer! I'm still fascinated with the fact that now I effectively have a fabrication machine in my house. Unbelievable.
The second reason is because I tried to map this on paper and it was a mess. I want my players to get a feel for the scope and scale of this thing that I've been working on for ages and this seemed the best way to do it. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out and have learned more about my printer and design.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Session Report: Aldsburg Chronicle [A9]
... in which a new adventure begins & the GM learns his lesson ...
The Party
Mirk - Halfling Thief
Mynock - Mighty Fighter
Alois - Cleric of the Unfettered Raven
Pendegast - Dusk Mage of the Void
Tronheim - Dwarf Dusk Mage of the New Moon
The Adventure
With numerous contacts burned and rumors discovered, the party is going to sneak into Juniper Tower to find a huge ruby that has been hidden there by thieve's unknown. The ruby is rumored to be part of some ancient arcane artifact from the Tower of Steel. Seeing as the Tower of Steel has been closed off for several months and, on a more worrisome note, the steel of the sttel tower has been "bleeding" into the surrounding landscape - rocks and grasses are taking on a hardened metaillic sheen.
After gathering as much information as possible, the party used a contact to get snuck into Juniper Tower. Sigmund (the contact), a tall,wiry, one-armed fellow who had an unsavory look about him, but was vouched for. With some bribe money in pocket, he smuggled the party into Juniper Tower ... of course things didn't work out quite as expected.
The party emerged from their crate and were at the bottom of a strange elevator. Above them bars were crisscrossing the way out, blocking both adventurer and elevator from going back up. Cursing Sigmund's name, the party began exploring, looking for the ruby, knowing full well they were in the Underworld.
Pushing through a chamber that appeared to be an old warehouse or storage area, overrun with vines, the party hacked through some vegitation only to be attacked by a tremendous worm covered in spines and insectoid plates. Some deft combat maneuvers quickly took it out, and the party moved on. Exploring the crates and the area they discovered more useless crap - rotted grains and mouldering silks. It was, at that moment, one of the huge boar-creatures that they had been warned about came crashing through some doors and tore shit up. A few moments later the party was stading knee-deep in demon-boar guts, Mynock chopping off the huge board head and Alois working claiming a bell-encrusted tusk.
Making note of a small chamber that was obviously once used for some sort of arcane ritual (binding? summoning? it was tough to tell) the party moved on through a chamber where thick pinkish vines stretched like webs between floor, all, and ceiling. Ignoring some other passages they deemed "Not interesting enough" they suddenly became aware that some small humaoids in the next area were watching their torchlight (thanks, Dwarf Low Light Vision!).
A wizard spell later (a black cloud obscured the humanoids line of sight) and a combination charge and sneak attack from the party laid waste the small creatures wielding make-shift weapons and strange overly-complex and ineffective armor.
However, the damage was done and the party, now understanding they were not quite prepared for this, fled. Also, because real-life time was short, time to roll on the "The Session is Over and You Didn't Escape the Dungeon Table". The SODED table is hand for keeping things episodic. I've seen some other tables like this and loved the idea. I'll add that to another post.
Notes
Not to put too fine a point on it, this is not the best adventure I've ever run. We perhaps had a bit too much to drink and were all a bit loud and excitable and my organization wasn't the smoothest. However, in the end, some adventure happened, some experience was handed out, monster were battled, and dungeon explored. I was a bit overconfident this round ... I'll take it as a lesson learned and do better moving forward. Trying new things doesn't always work and I need to take that into consideration ... perhaps a more focused brain storming activity - getting an adventure generally planned and using player rumors to help define it more rather than flat out starting from scratch.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Damn True Facts
For the Aldsburg campaign I've added a new feature to character creation where the other players add some defintion to the characters. When a character meets other characters for the first time, the players get to tell what they have heard about their new adventuring companion.
An Example from the most recent session
Tronheim is a Mage/thief of the Dusk lineage, totem the New Moon.
Damn True Fact 1: Trondheim murdered someone close to him and his facade of honorability is a lie
Damn True Fact 2: Trondheim doesn't remember doing this
Damn True Fact 3: His facial features are always slowly changing
Damn True Fact 4: His personality changes with the moon cycles ... along with this face ... and his skills ... and his memories!
From these DTFs I add in some specific details. In this case
1) He has a criminal contact in the that knows of his deed
2) The above was modified to be there is someone suspicious keeps following and talking to him
3) Trondheim's innate changability allows him, once per session, to permanently swap two skill scores.
There may have been some other things, but the above DTFs and results really set a tone for a fine new character.
How Many?
We were initially introducing new DTFs all around for all characters, but it got to be a bit much. So now each character will have a max of 6 DTFs. I'll add a spot to the character sheet to track them along with reputations, which are something I'm going to work on next.
Other Results
Other results from DTFs have included:
An Example from the most recent session
Tronheim is a Mage/thief of the Dusk lineage, totem the New Moon.
Damn True Fact 1: Trondheim murdered someone close to him and his facade of honorability is a lie
Damn True Fact 2: Trondheim doesn't remember doing this
Damn True Fact 3: His facial features are always slowly changing
Damn True Fact 4: His personality changes with the moon cycles ... along with this face ... and his skills ... and his memories!
From these DTFs I add in some specific details. In this case
1) He has a criminal contact in the that knows of his deed
2) The above was modified to be there is someone suspicious keeps following and talking to him
3) Trondheim's innate changability allows him, once per session, to permanently swap two skill scores.
There may have been some other things, but the above DTFs and results really set a tone for a fine new character.
How Many?
We were initially introducing new DTFs all around for all characters, but it got to be a bit much. So now each character will have a max of 6 DTFs. I'll add a spot to the character sheet to track them along with reputations, which are something I'm going to work on next.
Other Results
Other results from DTFs have included:
- Initial boost to Karma (Honor)
- A penalty to gaining and using Karma (applied to Trondheim)
- Improved skills (I head so-and-so has never been caught while peeping at the ladie's bathhouse: +1d12p to hiding)
- Saving Throw Mods (+1 save vs fear because the Lord of Winter whispers ncouragement)
- Weird Abilities such as Vanish Foe (concentrate hard enough and your enemy may just vanish ... or maybe you will)
- Crazy Strong (1 mulligan each level for feat of strength checks)
- Various personality traits (obsessed with fruit, loves orphans, etc.)
- And so on ...
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