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TTRPG Tuesday: Once and Future and Right Now Thing

Damn, August feels like a long time ago.  Maybe because it is! Welcome back to the Velocimancer blog for another TTRPG Tuesday!

Since last time I have done absolutely nothing further with Cold Iron Company, just absolutely stopped dead in its tracks.  lol and/or lmao - fortunately I’ve made peace with letting projects be on the shelf, as none of them need to be The One that’s going to launch me into a spotlight I’ve stopped craving, and I can just focus on the project that I want to at any given time.  As evidenced by the fact that I sat down this evening to work on a play and opened this tab instead hahahahahahaha.  Anyway, let’s get down to it, shall we?

I’m kicking around this concept, and some title options are: Coming True; The Wyrds; You, the Myth, the Legend.  It started with the idea of specific quests that players could undertake, which upon completion would result in a specific level.  Yes this is framed for D&D and yes, this is kind of inspired by like 3/3.5e prestige classes.  Only each of these is one level, and instead of having a few class/skill/feat/ability prereqs, it’s awarded for completing the unique quest associated with it.  So you could be a Fighter 5 / The Betrayer as a level 6 character, or a Rogue 2/ Druid 10 / The Black Swamp Fox as a level 13 character.  As the player you are presented with the Quest Level when you level up after completing it, and could always decline the Quest Level and take your regular class level.

Example: The Dread Librarian

Prerequisites: Use the Tome of MacReng to seal the voidghost known as Hundred Teeth, Hundred Tongues

Class Features: +1 spellcaster level, +2 Wis, Spirit Vision: You may see undead within 15 feet through darkness, invisibility, and cover.

In addition to the DnD stuff, this was inspired by my love for acquiring Titles and Reputations and Upgrades and whatnot in monomyths like the Dresden Files or Kamen Rider, bildungsromani(?) like that.  So naturally it got me thinking about other ways to mythologize your character and make them memorable, and if this is something that you can choose as time goes on, my mind also bounced to a mechanic based around origins, and one around futures, giving me a triumvirate of The Rumours, The Trials, and The Prophecies.

The Trials are what we’ve already described, and the Rumours are the past element; a Session Zero mechanic wherein a player introduces their character, and then the other players share what they’ve heard about the character, either by name or unattributed deed.

Examples: “I’ve heard that Skyttu was banished from their clan for embarrassing the chieftain in their coming of age trial”, “I heard tell of a Northerner who spitted a jealous husband with his own rapier when their own blade was… otherwise occupied”, “I heard there was someone around here who witnessed when the walls fell at Tik Navaat - could it have been Skyttu?”.  None of the rumours need ever come true, but they’re good metaknowledge for the players to have, even if the rumours are never even voiced, as a player may decide/reveal at any point that a rumour about their character was true, and act accordingly.

That leaves the future, and the Prophecies; the Prophecies are what it says on the tin, however tightly or loosely the DM/GM has the campaign plotted out, they should devise a number of prophecies, of varying cryptic-ness, and reveal them as time goes on; the players can decide to try and fulfil and/or avert these prophecies, so there should definitely be ones that preclude one another, and in this way even the concept of destiny can be subverted in favour of player agency (however illusory that may be in your campaign).

So those are the three elements, and I’d love to create a package laying out the format/mechanics as well as examples for all three, and offer it as a system-agnostic supplement like I plan to with the Bulbs System.  Obviously the bulk of my experience in this space has been through DnD but I’d love to try and provide some examples in other systems to showcase the possibility space.  So if anyone reading this (lmao) can recommend any other systems, OSR or otherwise, that have PC level-based system, please let me know.

And that’s it for me! Whatever this ends up being called, it’s now a supplement WIP to go along with the Bulbs system.  May as well organize my TTRPG WIPs since there’s a lot of them now.

Awaiting graphic design and/or playtesting:

  • What Makes It Move
  • Star Baker
  • Riders

Plotted out or started:

  • Bulbs System
  • Spectres of Brocken specific Bulb set
  • Untitled past-present-future supplement
  • Next Company supplement

I’m running out of 2022 to get stuff on itch, but maybe I’ll spend some time during the cold dark holidays making ashcans to put up there, to at least get it out of my Google Drive and onto a public platform.  We’ll see eh? Anyway that’s all for now, til next time!

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