Looking for advice on a move and I hope you can help me out.
In my current “Curse of Drazhu” campaign Cassius the Paladin, in a battle with Drazhu, had his sword shattered by the lich’s dark magic. The frozen shrapnel lodged in his body and is now poisoning his soul and turning him evil. He quests to find a cure for his affliction.
I’d like to create a custom move to give some mechanical weight to the curse. I want to encourage the player to make some tough choices. For example, perhaps embracing evil benefits him somehow? Or, choosing good could be rewarding despite penalties?
So, I call upon the wisdom of the Tavern, how would you make Cassius’ curse interesting?
I made a magic item as a danger once. Haven’t playtested it, but it gives more and more powers as you progress towards your Impending doom: https://plus.google.com/101199869016634749008/posts/4DSGaX6Ttb8
You might also want to check out the Ravenloft campaign setting books. They introduce the concept of Paths of Corruption, where each evil act gives you more power, but also transforms you more into a monster. “Domains of Dread” for 2E AD&D is a great book, for example.
Another idea: Check out the DCC “corruption” mechanics, maybe Death from Patrons of Lankmar. Defy Danger vs. Wisdom every play session to avoid, really good acts purge a corruption level, etc.
Or a simpler mechanic: every session the guy loses a point of wisdom if he fails the roll. Lose all and become Drazhu alive and reborn! Naturally drinking from the Fountain of Whatever will restore him and all of his wisdom, but it is located in the forbidden place only whispered about and only the famed Brass Dragon Sage knows where that really is…
As for the interesting part, since this is was a curse from a lich, maybe for each time he harmed another or acted selfishly in the pursuit of knowledge he gets an XP (and a point of corruption or similar mechsnic)?
Asbjørn H Flø, Mark Tygart these are great ideas. I really like the concept of giving him a countdown clock with grim portents like your magic item, With each step he gains something but becomes closer to turning evil (a wraith bound to Drazhu perhaps!?) Plus, good acts could provide resistance to advancing the portent. Roll plus good to stop the clock advancing.
You could give him a free/unwanted compendium class, something like this.
drive.google.com – Insert Class (Thrall).pdf
Jeremy Strandberg holy crisp, amazing. I’ll definitely float this as an option to see if he’s in to it.
Based on Jason Cordova’s mind control move:
When you draw upon the power of the frozen shard, take +n forward, but the GM gets n hold. The GM can spend one hold to suggest a course of action that conforms with the following statement: _________ (e.g. “I want to cause death and destruction”, “I must aid in the lich’s resurrection”). If you take the course of action mark 1 XP. If you do not the GM gains 1 hold (gets it back).
Nick Nunes Yes, I was actually looking for this earlier as a source of inspiration. I like the simplicity of it. Easy to use and easy to explain. Thanks Nick!
The move is pretty bad Nick. The player can just not do it. And nothing happens.
Camilo Suñer maybe, but tempting them with +5 on a critical roll could be hard to turn down.
For 5 hold for the GM to control the character towards any awful end? Hardly a reward. Preferably a list of 3-5 powerful abilities which at least one of those works symbiotically with the lich, regardless of distance. And of course roll for it. The GM could have a similar list where it has some consequences that when a player rolls the move, the GM picks one. But the GM doesn’t say which one. I had quite a similar case and the way the GM solved it was triggers by situations. The curse caused fails or partial failures to worsen the curse, and slowly consume him. Sometimes he had visions of the forgotten, weakened God and that lead to some pretty interesting situations because the character just wouldn’t have it. A big part of the game became getting rid of the curse. Best part was I had recently turned to this God as a Cleric.
I think that the curse must be prevalent and the GM able to trigger it. If only the player can, you’ll probably need to offer an extremely good boon or treasure each time it’s triggered.
The move as written could be power gamed. I didn’t spend a lot of time writing it, just grabbed the template from my notes. If power gaming is a concern because the player has no interest in roleplaying their corruption the move should be adjusted. I did not get that impression from D. Kenny’s description, but perhaps add “If the GM has hold you cannot draw on the power of the shard.”
Be careful of moves that allow the GM the ability to commandeer a characters actions, this can be a slow way of killing the character, by shaping it into something the player is no longer interested in playing.