Nature’s Price?
I’m continuing to have fun adventures with my group’s Druid, who has recently started playing with Elemental Mastery. Now, this is a rather lovely move, with all sorts of interesting side effects, but I’ve struggled a bit with coming up with good things to ask for as nature’s price (the option that he has chosen most often.) Twice now I’ve applied some elemental-themed damage (HP loss seemed reasonable, given the big things he was trying to do), but that strikes me as kinda boring. What kinds of prices have you seen nature take?
Sacrifice is a nice big one. The destruction of emblems of civilisation, or buildings. Abandoning people in the woods. Planting trees everywhere you go.
That sort of thing?
Chris Longhurst I get the feeling that the price should be more immediate, but I like that line of thought. Hmm…
Spitballing:
“The flames will do your bidding if you give to them the nice dry timbers of this cabin. “
“The river feels the itch in it’s side from the nearby Harnburg dock and asks that you remove it. Do you agree?”
“WIND WANT YOUR NICE HAT. WHEEEEEEOOOWWW”
“Fertilize the ground with a finger, meatthing, and earth will consume your enemies as you ask”
Dan Bryant I dunno, I’ve been on the player end of a delayed realization of a similar price, and if done right the suspense and foreboding can really spice up the time after. Like “what did I do…” I’d still keep it pretty soon after so it’s still fresh in the mind, but I don’t thin it necessarily has to be immediate.
You burn the rope, and the house behind it. The river washes the goblins away, but now its flooded and moving to fast for you to cross safely.
Aaron Griffin
Ooh, I like those. Basically it comes down to giving the elements a sense of agency and trying to think of things they might want.
I was playing it as the price just takes effect (without knowing what it would be before creating the effect), but I like the idea of phrasing it as an offer, so, yeah, you can take the juicy benefits of that 11 you just rolled, but you have to be willing to pay for that crazy awesome effect you just asked for.
I’ve done like Aaron Griffin suggests, with the “price” being something the spirits ask the druid to do. (e.g. remove the source of evil buried deep in the earth). If it’s not something the druid can do right away, it can spiral into a Parlay, with a 7-9 requiring some concrete assurance (a blood oath, for example, or allowing the spirit to “ride along” with the druid).
Alternately, it can be a “punishment” or a task. E.g. the druid had called on the earth spirits to close a tunnel, but they extracted the vow described above. When the druid called on them later (vow still unfulfilled), he got a 7-9 and choose “retain control.” So the spirits didn’t do what he wanted but he had to pay their price anyhow… I described how the skin of his arm started to petrify a little, getting a rocky, numb, cold.
We didn’t keep playing much past that, but I would have written that up as a series of Grim Portents, giving me an easy progression of costs to inflict.
Really nice suggestions here. 😀
Jeremy Strandberg has a good idea. I was going to say something like “You ask the wind to blow your foes over, but to do so will also knock down that old ash tree nearby. The spirits warn you of this and say you must take on part of the tree to gain their aid.” If the druid accepts, after they finish the move, BOOM, ash wood arm. Fully functional, but now you get a weird urge to keep a good distance from camp fires and torches lol
Nature’s price could be that the element in question doesn’t work for you the next time you try to harness it.
Call on the primal spirit of fire? The next time you try to light a campfire, nothing happens.
Water? At your next ration consumption, the water you drink doesn’t quench your thirst. Take a debility until the next rest.
Air? The next time you’re on a boat, winds send you off course.
Earth? Nothing comes to mind right now.
Michael Mendoza Next time they rest the ground just isn’t comfortable any way they try to sleep, take -1 forward the next day from being tired and groggy.
I went with the “punishment” angle myself when we’ve come across this (like the element doesn’t listen or actively stays away for a time (can’t feel the warmth from a fire, etc.)), but I really like the personification thing you guys have going on. I’ll have to remember that for next time.