Here are drafts of a second batch of work-in-progress prestige special ability options for cultist PCs, based on their deity’s traits. I posted Alluring ideas earlier. Here are some for Sinister.
I would love any and all feedback, criticism, and ideas! Many of these don’t quite do what I want mechanically since I’m partly awaiting revised ‘faction game’ mechanics.
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Sinister
Trust is for the weak: Gain special armor against betrayal, treachery, mutiny, or resulting demoralization. When you roll a crit while acting in direct betrayal of someone’s trust, clear 1 stress.
Hardened Soul: Gain special armor against fear or harrowing experiences. When you roll a crit while non-violently asserting your dominance over others (such as through intimidation or foretelling horrible future events), clear 1 stress.
Do Not Meddle: You may hold hostile human authority figures at bay with the power of your devotion and a symbol of your deity. This effect costs stress equal to the rank of the authority or or scope of the group (1-6). (only very slightly modified from Dylan Green’s cleric ability)
Grim Portents: You tend to foretell worst possible outcomes as if they are certain. Gain +1d on rolls during flashbacks in which you make a creepy declaration of a future misfortune or destruction that involves your crew. Such flashbacks cost -1 stress to trigger.
Divine Visage: Your appearance permanently manifests blatant signs of your deity. Describe how. Gain +1d to intimidate, sow fear, or interact with supernatural beings, but take -1d to appear trustworthy, inconspicuous, or holy.
More complex but flexible alternative: You may alter your appearance to manifest signs of your deity, though doing so temporarily submits your body to the wild appetites, whims, and aims of your deity. Describe how. Gain +1d on rolls to intimidate, cause terror, or interact with supernatural beings. Take the lasting condition Uncontrolled with 2–6 segments based on the magnitude and duration of the effect.
The Thrill of Terror: Gain +2d on any action roll by taking a 6-segment lasting condition Extreme Phobia toward something common that is featured in the current scene or score.
Friend of Misfortune: Gain +1d and ignore the effect of a lasting condition for one action by revealing how you intended to suffer prior harm, misfortune, or faiure as part of a mysterious, elaborate plan. Aggravate the ignored lasting condition by increasing its clock size by 2 segments. (You may only ignore and aggravate each lasting condition once on a given action, but may stack this ability as many times on a single action as you have separate lasting conditions.)
Transparency: You may attune to reveal an NPC has a mysterious employer or clandestine loyalty. If you succeed, spend stress equal to the tier of the NPC’s existing faction affiliation.
Conspiracy Theorist: Your ideas are ridiculous but compelling. Gain +1d when convincing others that a person or faction is mysteriously responsible for seemingly unrelated problems.
Sinister Smile: Increase your effect by 1 when harming friends, lovers, allies, and confidants.
Wheels Within Wheels: [Something about intricate plans involving extensive webs of connected factions. Maybe the following?] Gain +1d during flashbacks in which you reveal an additional faction’s interests in an element of the present score. Such flashbacks cost -1 stress to trigger.
Double Double: Gain a tick on playbook advancement when you double cross your employer on a score. [Alternative benefit could be +2 coin or hold or a single-use fine asset of your choice (as if with an acquire asset roll).]
Spider in a Web: When the outcome of a score would negatively effect a faction status, you may attune to instead apply that negative faction status to a different faction.
Profound Company: You may seek and interact with one of the following abstract concepts as if they were humans on your list of friends. Take a lasting effect Addled with segments equal to the magnitude of the knowledge, boon, or manipulation sought (2-6). You may take this ability multiple times to choose additional concepts.
Which of these lists is best? (I’m leaning toward the first)
—Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath
—Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, Delirium/Delight
—Luck, Fear, Hate, Hunger, Pride, Power, Love
—Power, Duty, Glory, Truth, Love, Justice
Other unformed ideas
Master’s Plaything: [something about benefits of a sinister deity being underhanded/mischievous toward the crew]
Hex/Superstition: [Something about manipulating NPCs superstitions/fears or employing hexes/curses]
Misfortune/Disaster: [something about twisting or foretelling disasterous fortunes]
Some of these are truly horrible. Well done.
Thanks. I struggled with which elements of Sinister to highlight, and how to appeal to diverse character concepts. The element of mystery was actually hard to highlight without just duplicating what flashbacks already do, given that the game system assumes players don’t focus on the details of intricate planning.
I see Sinister as being more about fear than betrayal. Some suggestions:
Menacing: take 1 stress during an effect roll to fill in 1 segment involving intimidating people.
Restless Shadows: when escalating, your shadow and those around it grow restless, revealing your connection to the supernatural in an uneasy display. Any hope of resolving a situation in a friendly way evaporates; only violence or fear can go forward–but count as having a fine item for either of those options.
Ice Blood: Immune to intimidation or supernatural fear.
Nightmares: Look a target in the eye, and take 1 stress. Project the space for nightmares into their mind, to be filled by their own fears. As a down time project, fill the tug-of-war clock. If you succeed in one down time, the target commits suicide. if you succeed in more than one down time, the target goes mad. If the target succeeds, the dreams are shaken off. Most targets gain 1 segment per down time, but they can employ fine items or professional help for more.
Bearer of Ill Tidings: If you can deliver bad news and successfully rattle the recipient of that news, clear 1 stress.
I love the evocative flavor of those ideas Andrew Shields, giving new supernatural fictional permission more than mechanics.
I was mainly trying to emphasize the “mysterious malign intent” element of Sinister more than just “terrifying now”. I especially like the idea of Bearer of Ill Tidings, which touches at the ideas of ominous, foreboding, dread implied by sinister.
My current set of abilities also mostly lacks ways for players to find out or invent the details of their deities sinister agenda. How could some abilities allow/invite players to introduce omens or dread of whatever future evil the deity intends even if it’s shrouded in mystery at the moment?
Aw, I had a big post and it got eaten. I’ll try again.
Shucks I hate it when that happens. Sorry.
Evil Eye: (same mechanics as nightmare, but if succeeding in 1 go they lose a close family member to estrangement or death etc. or in filling the clock in more than 1 down time, face financial ruin.)
Dark Divination: Conduct a fortune telling ritual (either familiar, like palm reading or tarot reading, or esoteric like ecstatic possession or reading entrails.) Use Channeling. State a truth about what will come to pass in the target’s future (the target need not be present.) Each manifested danger is a possible caveat, a way to defeat the prophecy. Assume a 4 segment clock, roll a resistance roll. For a minor curse, take stress to ram the curse in place. For a major curse, take a point of trauma, and fate is set on its horrible path. (This can be used for dying words.)
Portents: Truths flicker and dart behind the world everyone else sees. Sometimes you see portents, your patron leading you in a direction; if you follow that direction, lose 1 stress and know you are being positioned in the right place at the right time. If you resist, take 1 stress.
Billowing Shadow: Dressing in dark and shapeless clothes that conceal you counts as a fine item towards stealth, intimidation, or combat.
Project Unease: Stare at a target for at least ten seconds. (The target does not need to be aware of you.) The target will begin thinking of vulnerable things, and will feel a need to go and make sure everything is safe. If the target actively resists, that creates a clock, and you must overcome the target’s will. This can be used to make targets leave an area, or to encourage them to accidentally lead spies to what they value.
Special abilities are fun, but what must a character do to get them? Sacrifice and dark deeds! They must fill a 6 segment clock, in a mix of down time project and on-the-job improvisation. No need to roll, though; they just need to fill it in.
1 segment for driving someone insane.
1 segment for driving someone to suicide.
1 segment for taking away all of a target’s hope.
1 segment for delivering a soul-crushing revelation.
1 segment for blind obedience furthering a wider plan.
1 segment for taking away a target’s future (up to ritual murder–but it can’t be combat and it can not under any circumstance be quick.)
(They don’t need one of each, but each achievement is 1 segment.)
Awesome Andrew Shields. I love the mechanized means of furthering devotion. I would maybe make it more fickle by having each segment instead equate to number of dice in a Please the Master roll which can result in great boons or great displeasure.
As written, these are basically a special xp advancement track.
Right, an experience advancement track–designed to parallel the playbook requirements. You check off six, and get a new special ability–in this case, you have a secret not-playbook with requirements, and you check off 6 to get a special ability. That’s what I was going for.
You could make it more fickle, of course.
Oh I have a player who could be inspired by this. Christian Beutenmueller
Quick thought. The way I’m handling maintaining a relationship with a god is right now in Blades Against Darkness a lasting condition “Sacrifical Debt” with clock segments equal to the scope of the effect.
As of predicting the future it should be as simple as something like this:
Fortelling: When you spend the time in quiet contemplation (a few hours) or make the appropriate sacrifices you can attune to gather information about about the future.
Dylan Green I could also see having a push-pull clock of divine favor, where using special abilities “cashes in” some divine connection, which must then be refilled.
Related, perhaps there would be supernatural abilities that were defensive, and you could spend out of the divine favor clock instead of taking stress.
The sevenD are wonderfully fitting here
Building favor you cash out and building debt you need to pay back are pretty much the same thing.
Also, if you wanted to build up extra favor, that’s cool, start a project clock. Fill it up and you can call on that much “favor” without incurring debt.
Dylan Green Is there a limit to how much debt a character can accrue before the divine shuts down the line of credit? =)
Also, is each supernatural effect incurring a lasting effect? And what do those lasting effects penalize until cleared?
Well, when you have an lasting condition you take -1d to applicable actions. You wanna keep racking up clocks of “sacrificial debt” that’s your business…
Right, I was wondering what those lasting effects penalize. All rolls? Just supernatural ones?
Anyway, anyway, I can be patient and see what you come up with. It’s not fair to seize on a few details and decide I have an opinion. =)
The text is “-1d if you’re hindered by any relevant lasting effects.”
So if you have a lasting effect “Broken Leg” then, running, jumping, dancing, swimming, etc.
If you have a lasting effect “Sacrificial Debt” then it’s -1d when you ask your deity for anything. Aid, guidance, further miracles, etc.
Dylan Green Yeah, I know how the rules are structured. I just ask because it could be a subset that only penalizes you if your faith is tested (very narrow) or when you are using supernatural abilities (more broad) or for everything (super broad.)
Like saying an injury only affects you if you use the injured part; if it’s the head or torso, it always counts. So I was just curious how you were treating it.
There must be a roll to incur more debt, or maybe the penalty applies to use supernatural powers. I don’t really have enough to speculate. I hope the project is going well!
Personally, I like the idea of a push-pull favor clock that allows or disallows access to supernatural powers. I think whether it’s debt you pay off or favor you cash in (mechanically identical) depends on how you want the deity fictionally portrayed.
If it’s a bedeviling, faustian, tricky sort, then freely offering power anytime that comes with contractual debt seems right, like a mob boss who’s always glad to offer favors since it earns loyalty from those who now owe. On the other hand, a being with more self-respect or less tolerance/patience may require payment first before offering any power. The idea then becomes, I hold the cards; prove you’re worth it and then I might deign to act on your behalf.
Where it could get REALLY tricky is if you had some special abilities that required going into debt, and others that only work if you’ve got a balance.