Hey everyone – I’m trying to create a new item for a game I’m running and I’m still a little new to magic items in Dungeon World. Quick setup for the item is that I want it to have some tie to Droz’t, the god of Civilization and Order. This is the same god who destroyed the family, city, and priesthood that one of the characters is from (using the Survivor playbook from Inverse World).
I want to tempt the Survivor with it, as he is a former priest of that faith and has no belongings from that time in his life. My initial thoughts are something like this:
When you would take a massive amount of damage, you may call upon the torque’s power to defend you. If you do you are enveloped in a soft golden light that protects you – but this protection comes at the cost of a memory you cherish.
I was thinking of having a list of boons that also can be checked when the torque is used, with maybe the payoff being that the memories are returned.
Thoughts?
Something like:
When you do one of the following, check it, and gain back a memory you lost.
When you check (all / 5 / whatever) of them, the bracelet will have a new power, for you.
– Build a shrine to Droz’t, in the middle of a city.
– Write a law which promotes order, and make it pass through the institutional means of a city.
– Become the official leader of a city guild.
– Create a colony in an uncivilized place.
– Make a masterwark out of raw material, and consecrate it to Droz’t.
– Map a dangerous place.
– Let the good of many prevail over the good of few while making an important choice.
I like it, I can work with those!
Something I did fail to mention, however, is that the Survivor character has established that for Droz’t the ‘Civilization and Order’ thing is a front for something darker that hasn’t been discovered by the characters yet (or me, for that matter).
I would assume Chaos and Destruction if he destroyed an entire city, priesthood and the character’s family. Destroying a city doesn’t seem in line with “Civilization”.
Well civilization could mean only their own civilization screw everyone else’s. Also order could be the same thing. Fall in line or suffer. Like they pretend to be LG but it’s really LE.
That is actually really easy to do.
As for the item I would go with
Something simple.
Torque of Droz’t
When you wear the torque for a day roll + cha. Max hold is 3.The item cannot be removed while you still have hold.
10+ hold 3
7-9 hold 1 and the torque makes a request. ( could be subliminal or outright ) If you do it mark experience.
6- Hold 1 and the torque will make a request. Do it or the torque burns you marking you a heretic and turns to ash.The character is aware of this result if he denies the torque.
When you spend hold you may
-Roll twice and take the better result on any roll. ( Order )
-Automatically pass a parley check against a follower of this religion or authority figure. (Civilization)
-Know what a person or groups true intentions are at that moment. (Order)
Side Wynder Yeah – that was more or less what I was thinking for motivations. More is set to come out about this in the next game session, but my working idea right now is that everything had to be destroyed to prevent something worse. That doesn’t make things any better for the Survivor and is still a betrayal as it was done without explanation, but doesn’t make Droz’t deviate too much from his stated pantheon.
I like your idea for the Torque – I’ll have something up later based on those ideas 🙂
Here’s what I whipped up – formatting got a little strange on Google Drive, but should look fine in Word:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8XcKJW1YQ4KekxNYnJfUElvRFE/view?usp=sharing
I really like it!
Just an advice: maybe you can use loaded question, for the memories.
Es: “Choose a friendly NPC. They secretly asked you for something, and they needed it NOW. Tell the MC what could happen to them if you don’t complete your end of the deal.
Of course, you don’t remember what your end of the deal actually is.”
“Describe the MC what happened the last day you were together with your greatest love. You can’t describe who they are – you don’t remember them at all.”
You can do the same for commands:
“The torque will ask you to eradicate a dangerous idea, or knowledge. Until you do it, you can’t remove the torque “
“The torque will ask you to make a specific person fit in a specific group. Until you do it, you can’t emove the torque.”
If you use loaded question, don’t ask for all the sacrifices to be accomplished. Just pick a number (5 is a good number, i think.)