Just wondering if anyone has any suggested cards for the Harrow Readings at the start of each chapter.
I'm about to start SDTTG and will rig the reading so that it hopefully drops hints about the past and present and foreshadows what's coming.
I'd love to hear what others chose for their readings in all the chapters and how they worked out.
What you can do is just roll a d10 (rerolling 10 for the alignment) and a d6 for the ability score. From there, just look at the table for what card that is (it helps if you have book 1 from the original printing, as the table is nicer to look at). From there, you just have to know the plot enough to either wing it or just preplan out a spread for everyone and reveal it as their choosing as well as what Zellara would say. I much prefer the latter as it removes any stump or duplicate cards, and because I can begin to incorporate plans I have for individual characters through the AP, and it helps nudge them along these paths.
Also, the original printings also had a short blurb for like two or three specific harrow cards and placement for each book, but not enough to fill out 4+ complete spreads.
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Good idea, to cheat. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to run the Harrow legitimately. It appears to not have been playtested at all. And how does it make sense to foreshadow the future if all the player characters might die and the future not happen? They copied the Harrow from Ravenloft but in Ravenloft it wasn’t meant to predict the future? Wasn’t it meant merely to give the location of some items?
I am running CotCC right now too, just got done with the fishery, and I am desperate for some help on how to make the Harrow playable at all. Ideally I don’t want to ditch it or rig it, I want to get it working as intended but I doubt that’s possible.
The pathfinder campaign setting is called "Lost Omems" because prophecy/fate/etc. has literally stopped functioning (since the death of the god, Aroden). A Harrowing (in world) doesn't really work any more as a result.
When I GM'd this, I decided the idea of conducting a harrowing is more important that what the cards actually mean. So you go through the act of shuffling cards, carefully laying them out... and then you make up some bullstuff based on what the players have done in previous chapters and whatever challenges you know are coming up in the next chapter. The fact that the harrowing doesn't, and can't, actually mean anything is inconsequential to the mystery of "what does this MEAN???" The harrowing is great at injecting some mysterious foreshadowing into the adventure and for giving the setting some feel.
That, and the fact that the harrowing is used to determine how many Harrow Points the PCs receive. BTW, this is a popular campaign and the harrow stuff has been used thousands of times over the last 15-ish years, so it's been playtested. You might simply be overthinking the whole thing. It's a GM gimmick.
-Skeld
Good idea, to cheat. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to run the Harrow legitimately. It appears to not have been playtested at all. And how does it make sense to foreshadow the future if all the player characters might die and the future not happen? They copied the Harrow from Ravenloft but in Ravenloft it wasn’t meant to predict the future? Wasn’t it meant merely to give the location of some items?
I am running CotCC right now too, just got done with the fishery, and I am desperate for some help on how to make the Harrow playable at all. Ideally I don’t want to ditch it or rig it, I want to get it working as intended but I doubt that’s possible.
I find that the worst part of the Harrow readings is the Choosing. The links from the card to the encounters is often tenuous at best.
Anyway, to answer my original question, here's the reading I constructed
The Big Sky.........The Twin........The Avalanche
The Trumpet.........The Courtesan....The Sickness
The Snakebite.......The Marriage......The Waxworks
I figured there's no point in being subtle here, might as well make the references absolutely on the nose, clear as daylight.
Remembering that the top row indicates positive outcomes, the middle ambiguous outcomes and the bottom negative outcomes.
The Past
The Big Sky, freeing from bondage, represents the freeing of the orphans from Lamm
The Trumpet, declaration of power, represents a power rising in Korvosa with its nature still obscured
The Snakebite, poisonous powers or ideas, represents the assassination of the King and the corruption of justice in the false accusation against Trinia Sabor (and attempted execution of an innocent)
The Present
The Twin, duality of purpose, represents a figure living a dual life who will be of benefit to the PCs (Blackjack)
The Courtesan, political intrigure, represents the Queen who is presenting a masked face to the people - will that be for good or evil?
The Marriage, union of persons or ideas, represents the coming together to Lady Andaisin and Rolth Lamm. Two unlikely partners working together.
The Future
The Avalanche, unrelenting disaster, represents the coming catastrophe for Korvosa but misaligned perhaps shows that the party will prevent it.
The Sickness, disease of body or soul, represents a plague that will overcome the city - will it destroy everyone or be resisted?
The Waxworks, helplessness and entropy, represents people that trapped. Paralysed while they are tortured, (Possibly the new recruits to the Gray Maidens or the patients in the Hospice)
I would obscure at least some of the details, for example you may not want to undermine the intrigue factors of the game by saying "trinia is innocent" before they even know who that is (or maybe you do want to have these predictions be so strikingly accurate that the players seem helpless to stop them).
poisonous powers or ideas, represents the assassination of the King and the corruption of justice in the false accusation against Trinia Sabor (and attempted execution of an innocent)
Maybe instead of this, it can be a bit more vague, "represents the poisoning of person and ideal... (even continued if you want to be less vague) the twice fatal scourging of a great figure and Korvosan ideal." In both cases, it's referencing the death of Eodred and the potential death of Trinia by corrupt justice without mentioning them explicitly and letting there still be mystery as to when this even unfolds. In Trinia's case, they also have to make the connection that both her interaction with the King's death was based on an event in the past and Korvosa's ideals, an unashamed LN civilization with its powerful Arbiters, are the justice she would be made to face.
I would also either obscure the names of the Ileosa (maybe she's just "a lady in mourning") and Rolth+Andaisin. I would also probably move their thing to the future column, as while they probably are pairing up now, the results will be seen in the next module. And with Waxworks, definitely stick to the idea of just the Grey Maidens, as they are a reveal at the start of the second module, and for anyone that remembers this by that point, it can instill a sympathy and fear of what these once trapped women entail.
Also, it's a shame that they reduced the spread down to once for the whole party as opposed to once per PC. I enjoy tailoring Zellara's responses to things that will be important to their character and even to point them to through-lines of extra character plot I would write in for them. That's obviously not possible with one spread, but at least you don't have people being screwed over by getting more or less Harrow points.
I would obscure at least some of the details, for example you may not want to undermine the intrigue factors of the game by saying "trinia is innocent" before they even know who that is (or maybe you do want to have these predictions be so strikingly accurate that the players seem helpless to stop them).
poisonous powers or ideas, represents the assassination of the King and the corruption of justice in the false accusation against Trinia Sabor (and attempted execution of an innocent)Maybe instead of this, it can be a bit more vague, "represents the poisoning of person and ideal... (even continued if you want to be less vague) the twice fatal scourging of a great figure and Korvosan ideal." In both cases, it's referencing the death of Eodred and the potential death of Trinia by corrupt justice without mentioning them explicitly and letting there still be mystery as to when this even unfolds. In Trinia's case, they also have to make the connection that both her interaction with the King's death was based on an event in the past and Korvosa's ideals, an unashamed LN civilization with its powerful Arbiters, are the justice she would be made to face.
I would also either obscure the names of the Ileosa (maybe she's just "a lady in mourning") and Rolth+Andaisin. I would also probably move their thing to the future column, as while they probably are pairing up now, the results will be seen in the next module. And with Waxworks, definitely stick to the idea of just the Grey Maidens, as they are a reveal at the start of the second module, and for anyone that remembers this by that point, it can instill a sympathy and fear of what these once trapped women entail.
Also, it's a shame that they reduced the spread down to once for the whole party as opposed to once per PC. I enjoy tailoring Zellara's responses to things that will be important to their character and even to point them to through-lines of extra character plot I would write in for them. That's obviously not possible with...
Thanks, I probably should have made it more clear that this is my Chapter 2 reading, so the past elements are directly in their past.
The sentences after the cards are more why I chose then rather than the reading I gave of each. The actual narration was much more vague.
Ah, then sounds perfect.
Good idea, to cheat. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to run the Harrow legitimately. It appears to not have been playtested at all. And how does it make sense to foreshadow the future if all the player characters might die and the future not happen? They copied the Harrow from Ravenloft but in Ravenloft it wasn’t meant to predict the future? Wasn’t it meant merely to give the location of some items?
I am running CotCC right now too, just got done with the fishery, and I am desperate for some help on how to make the Harrow playable at all. Ideally I don’t want to ditch it or rig it, I want to get it working as intended but I doubt that’s possible.
Well, for starters, Zellara should absolutely tell them, if they don't already know, that the future is always in motion, that chance and fate and the gods will can change in an instant. There's no way to truly predict the adventure, you can merely guess. Low CR encounters can destroy a party who roll fourteen 1s in a row, high CR encounters can be trivilized by having the right spell or an NPC failing a save at the wrong time. A player might leave the campaign for external life reasons, cutting off their character's story.
Look at fortune telling - particularly the very stereotypical 'old gypsy woman' ones - in movies and TV shows.
You don't say "I see that you will fail an Acrobatics check, fall from the roof during the Shingles Chase and die". (Because even if you can reasonably safely guess the encounter will happen, you don't know where a particular PC is going to be standing or what the rolls will be). You can, however, say "I see a slippery rooftop, and death's grim hand reaching for those who are not agile of foot".
You don't say "You will end up joining the city guard under Cressida Kroft after you're done with Gaedran, because the king will be dead by then and there are riots". You say "I see a city in chaos, angry crowds and burning flames. Order must be restored if Korvosa is to survive, and your hands will make that difference".
I ran a separate reading for each PC, then picked one card from each row (so three cards read per PC). I ran it at random, drawing the cards blind, then selecting the best true match/partial match/misaligned I could find from each column.
It was a GMing challenge, but it wasn't too hard. Some nebulous muttering about their backstory or characteristics, vague threats about encounters to come, some foreshadowing of what might happen in the next book. And then the PCs get Harrow Points to help them survive, which is the retroactive "Ah, because Zellara warned me about slippery rooftops in the Shingles Chase, I spend the Harrow Point and make the reroll." We had a lot of fun with it.
Book 1 is the hardest, because you probably don't have a handle of the PCs yet. By the time you get to Book 2, you'll have a better idea of how they'll react, so you can "predict" that the Paladin will risk himself to save the innocent, and that the Con-dumped Bard will 'face death from an enemy within his own body" (he'll very likely fail a Fort save and contract the Blood Veil).
I have audio of my readings for Book 1,
Book 2, Book 3. (You'll need to pick through the session AP if you want just the readings).
I didn't keep text transcriptions of them all, but here's a few examples from Book 3. GM commentary in italics.
Received: The Wanderer, a card that sees the worth others do not. This card is about her relationship with Sabrina, and how what Lucy sees in her may one day change what Sabrina sees in herself.
Past: The Desert, misaligned. Zellara sees the negative past, a harsh environment. It is not snow or heat or jungle, but an emotionally bleak landscape in Lucy’s heart that the desert sits. Alone, she would not have survived the desert, without the aid of Quoth and Zee. She sees the link of hearts to Sabrina, who also carries the desert in her past. Sabrina has been abandoned by those who should have cared for her. Her father has made a mistake, one he wishes he had not made, in abandoning her. But this is the past, and neither of them are alone anymore.
Present: The Inquisitor. Lucy will face secrets and lies, plots and plans long-laid in the city that are nearing their fruition. Someone she will face soon does not see the truth of what Lucy is. He sees only the beauty of a woman - a weakness. Lucy must use the truth against him and reveal her strength to him.
Future: The Joke. Zellara sees the same foe Garrin saw. His physical prowess will be strained to overcome it, while Lucy’s magic may be more effective – but only if she can pour sufficient power into her magic. The foe is much more resistant to it than they might first appear. Rakshasa have good Spell Resistance - but you'll notice while this provides a vague warning, it doesn't actually help the PCs or flatout tell them about the nature of the Rakshasa.
Garrin
Received: The Rakshasa, a card of control and enslavement. It represents the hidden hands that manipulate the situation, the enemy that Garrin must face, and the innocent that will suffer under the Rakshasa.
Past: The Rakshasa. It is significant that we have seen this card thrice now. A card of domination, of mind control. It is a warning that Garrin’s past has not strengthened his will enough for the trials he will face in the future, that he must be strong of mind to resist those who would turn him against his allies.
Present: The Snakebite. Zellara sees a literal reading Garrin’s present, opposing assassins and poison, and she sees honeyed words to be wary of. The Red Mantis are here. This does flatout tell the PCs they'll fight assassins... but how much does that aid them? They might prepare an anti-invisibility spell, or be worried about failed Perception checks, but that's part of the fun of the game.
Future: The Joke. A terror that will oppose Garrin in the close future. Garrin faces his foes head on, but he is ill-equipped to face this one head on. He has the wrong metals to face the task ahead. His foe may be overcome with cunning, or with enough difficulty, he may bludgeon his way through eventually.
Prophecy hasn't stopped. It's stopped being guaranteed. Previously, every actual prophecy came true. They were a guarantee. As of Aroden's death breaking a major, real prohecy, fate is no longer guaranteed. That doesn't mean Fate and Destiny don't still exist, they're just not perfect. I can take a pretty good guess as to what my players will do and run the Harrow towards that. It won't all come true, but it'll be pretty close.