Hi everybody. I'm running a mashup shattered shards/raise of runelords (based mostly on runelords, but with some elements of shattered shards, like the shards themselves, part of The Crow Dungeon under the glasswork, Lady of light, etc).
I want to play up the sin thing, most of my players played book 1 of RotR under some other GM and they know the sins matter, but they don't know how. I'm thinking about making the sins (or virtues) have weight when playing with the shards.
I've made them put points in a virtue/sin axis, like the old Pendragon RPG, so they have 20 points split in Wrath/kindness, Envy/charity, Greed/generosity, etc. "Neutral" players go 10/10, sinful or virtous players go up to 5/15 or 15/5, and extreme cases might go 20/0 or 0/20 (like, say, a pacifist cleric with no weapons and only healing spells could have 0/20 in wrath/kindness).
I'm trying to think ways to play up the effect of sins and virtues. Besides the obvious (sins of saviors dungeon), where could I use them? Somebody has some idea about how to play sins and the shards? Like, your sin empower the shard a bit, or your virtue make you more resistant to the sin, something like that?
I'm looking for inspiration. I think I'm "almost there", in the sense I think I know what I want to acomplish, but still lack the final idea about the mechanic itself
I was working on a project to use the Sins as Oracle curses - Something like that could work for use with the Shards.
If your sin/virtue track is skewed towards the sin you could get perks (and drawbacks).
Hi everybody. I'm running a mashup shattered shards/raise of runelords (based mostly on runelords, but with some elements of shattered shards, like the shards themselves, part of The Crow Dungeon under the glasswork, Lady of light, etc).
I'm looking for inspiration. I think I'm "almost there", in the sense I think I know what I want to acomplish, but still lack the final idea about the mechanic itself
I've the following suggestions:
1) the "rise of the runelords" should have an effect greater than those described in the books. i can well see the reactivation of many runewells hidden in all Varisia (runewells. there must be more than one) to affect more deeply the very magic of the region. as such the "sins" that people commit become more prominent and attached in the areas next to the runewells and exercite a certain admount ot "taint" in the soul. yet, the same could be said for the virtue. i would suggest you a system of 9 levels of sin/virtue were between 3-6 is normality, and the extreme see people being either lacking or a paragon of the thing. unless you wanna say that merely contact with thassilonia infused artifacts changes people morality or "sin/virtue charge", i would put this value as static for the player characters and shift them only throught role-play. to gain the start value of the players, you could subject them to a survey about situations (like a 20 question thing) and see how many points do they get.2) Certain aspect of sin magic should be possible only if a character possess the right admount of "sin" or "virtue". Or, if you like it more, the thassilonin artifacts should be linked and be more influenced by "sin", in the the sense characters gain either greater capacity in using those instruments if their corrispondent "sin" is developed or are hindered if they lack the specific sin-virtue. you could express this in concentration checks or bonus or penalty in the UMD, or in more potent effects granted by the artifacts (like an effect or heroism, or good hope). I would however play around the fact that sin magic is "redeemeble" and people of great moral can use it as good as sinful people, but that sin is simply "easier, more appealing, funnier".
i'll give you an example of this with greed
greed/generosity 0 construct/ daemon
greed/generosity 1 vow of powerty monk/devil
greed/generosity 2 monks/greedy people
greed/generosity 3-5 normal people
greed/generosity 6-7 greedy people/paladins
greed/genersoity 8 - sin magic users/good celestials
greed/generosity 9 demon of greed/karzoug/angel of generosity
3) In the story, you could use them in the following places
At every runewell - you could put those in many places, either from the old thassilon or some kind of artificial ones created by the evil npcs. examples outside the one at sandpoint are: foxglove manor, inside the tower or Xadesha, in the middle of the lake where there is the ferry (underwater!), inside jorgenfist, at Kaer-Maga (i totally justify a detour), and so on. using things from shattered star, a runewell can be put in the ruins where is the shard, in the lady light, in karzoug laboratory and so on.
with the shards - maybe the shards require to be "fed" while worn, or are needed to estinguish the runewells and so the players are forced to carry them around. possibly only the "paragons" of a certain virtue or sin can use them to pinpoint the other shards to various degrees of precision.
with some artifacts/spells of your decision, that may become affected by metamagic if the character wield certain abilities.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll feed on them.
I'm in the process to change quite a bit of things. For example, I want more connection between some parts, so I'm going to link The Chopper, Nualia, the Catacombs of Wrath, the Skinsaw men, the one-shot module Dawn of the Scarlet Sun and The Scribbler with Shax (which has a shrine under sandpoint, in the Catacomb of wrath, and his mental influence makes The chopper into woodcarving birds.
I'm also thinking about increasing the pressence of the runelords, not just Karzoug, even if the rest of them don't raise yet. Shorsen will have a strong "background pressence" through The Lady of Light book, and Azlanist and his demon worshipping will be felt through Shax.
My feeling for Runewells right now, would be:
A Runewell of Wrath, under sandpoint.
A Runewell of Lust, in Lady of Light.
A Runewell of Envy, in The Shadow Clock.
A Runewell of Gluttony, in the Dark Forest (the Headless Rider demiplane from the Assylum Stone, which will be accessible from Whitewillow, Myriana's home.
A Runewell of Pride, in Jorgenfist.
A Runewell of Greed, in Sins of the Saviors' Dungeon.
A Runewell of Sloth, in Guiltspur (or maybe Kaer Maga)
Another Runewell of Greed, in Karzaug's lair.
Unless I come with a different approach before the next game in 2 weeks (we play 2 different campaigns with 2 GMs), I'll give the players 7 scores in the different Sins, ranging 3-18 like normal stats. So this will bring -4/+4 range modifier, but more realistically -2 to +3/+4 I'll give bonus in the different runewells to characters with a strong sin connection, probably inspired in the Shards effects.