So for some direct inspirational goodness….

So for some direct inspirational goodness….

The cult of whispers (named The Spook Sisters) had infiltrated the Red Sashes inner sanctum, done away with the sword wielding bravados through wile and seduction and stood with the safe cracked and open…

In a flash of opportunity (since I had been playing waaaaay too much dishonoured), I said that instead of parcels of coin, or maps of the city or barrels of demon blood, there was a heart; a huge beating leviathan heart. Replete with clockwork mechanisms and spectral vapours propelling its undeniable beat.

What does it mean? Clamoured the sisters as they grasped its ectoplasmic soaked flesh in their quavering hands… What does it do? How can we use this? Pondered – this was all in the moment mind – and I went with the obvious:

Point the Heart at an object, person, or hulking mass of architecture and it responds with a succinct datum, ranging from inner turmoil to long quashed hopes and dreams. Anyone can be the voice of the heart, so long as we don’t contradict established canon. The secrets it whispers will narratively inject life into Duskwall we might otherwise have stolen away from through rolls and mechanics without story. NPCs become more than just walking shells for you gals to inhabit or eradicate on a sociopathic (spectral) whim; they become people, with lives and hopes and dreams, walking products of this blighted city that’s become their prison.

In effect,  it became a rather macabre in-game macguffin ‘talking stick’ that has encouraged the players to develop the world before we go to the dice, and ramped up their reputation and accountability in the fiction. Folks now want them deadybones.

Thanks to the Heart, the plight of the poor and the avarice of the elite are subtly highlighted, giving dark meaning to Duskwall’s unjust factional structures. The players themselves  can’t escape from the Heart’s omniscience. With it we  have learned of the whaler’s deaths accrued in the construction of ‘The Leviathan’s Curse’ Pub,  and of the watered-down ink black blood that they serve there.

With this ‘insider knowledge’ the players can use the Heart and bestow structures or locations in Duskwall that they find significant with a history all of their own design. They have a place amidst the ghosts and the grime,  not just a convenient corner to disappear into the shadows. They have an in-game artefact that lets them wrap themselves wholeheartedly (pun unintentional!) in the author stance. The conversations at the table are hectic and full of promise.

I can’t wait to see how this evolves through more play!