A lurk PC of mine wants to acquire what amounts to a magic weapon. He wants a dagger that will momentarily paralyze anyone he wounds, and he wants it to be a permanent addition to his equipment list. Not wanting to just say no, I told him I’d think about it. I have a few thoughts, but what would you guys do in this situation?
A lurk PC of mine wants to acquire what amounts to a magic weapon.
A lurk PC of mine wants to acquire what amounts to a magic weapon.
I’d say “Sure, just be aware that every time you use it, it will become more famous, and more people will come after you to steal it.”
Sure how do you come into possession of this thing? Oh you want to make it. Cool start a clock and work on it during downtime. Oh you want to steal it? Sounds like a job. Pitch it to the team.
If they just want to HAVE it I’d say look at the Ritual Questions and negotiate the effects he wants and the costs that make it reasonable.
What is the effect you want to achieve and how do you make it weird?
I want to search the scene for traces of those who attacked. I do this by seeing the ghost echoes of the actions they left behind.
What is the weird ritual you perform?
I pull out my pipe and drop in a ball of the good stuff. You know, black lotus laced with crematory ash.
Why does that work?
-That’s easy. You want to see beyond the veil, you gotta take a little trip there yourself._
What is the price and to whom do you pay it?
Well the door swings both ways right? You borrow some death. They borrow some life.
How did you learn this technique?
I bought some shit off this guy once and it turns out he gave me some of his personal stash by mistake. Now I’m a regular buyer.
So many possibilities! First question is how common such a thing is in your setting. If you’ve got a version of Duskwall where whispers and leeches make all sorts of electroplasmic gear and it’s fairly commonplace among the well to do, then this is the direction I’d go.
Make it a down time action to acquire an asset. Depending on the quality of the roll, that’s how good the dagger is. Have some good traits and some bad traits, and assign them based on the roll. The dagger may have 3 traits total; on a poor roll, the dagger is enchanted but has 3 bad traits. Standard, one good two bad. Fine, two good one bad. Exceptional, 3 good traits.
Bad traits:
* Hungry. If you use a complication while wielding it, you nick yourself.
* Whispers. The spirit bound to it will NOT shut up, always whispering when it is readied for use.
* Blood Diver. If you use a complication while wielding it, the ghost in the blade escapes and possesses the one you stabbed. It cannot be put back in the blade, and it may not like its wielder.
Good traits:
* Potent. Add +1 potence.
* Commanding Chill. Renders a combat one position more controlled by slowing foes in melee range. The effect can be ended as though reducing effect.
* Freeze Blood. If an attack succeeds on a target, that target is immobilized for about a minute.
Just a brainstorm.
You could simply make it a playbook advancement chosen as Veteran special ability.
John Harper already mentioned that he plans on providing a list of general special abilities, that players can choose from this way.
Also sounds like a long-term project.
He’s got to find it, or someone to build it.
Thanks for the input everyone. I’ve decided to do a little bit of everything, and make it a part of the characters story. Of all his crew, he’s easily the most murderous, but he also wants to play his character as a champion for the downtrodden. I’ve decided that Vasdahl, an Old God of Murder, has taken notice of him and wants to corrupt him into service. This God has sent him dreams of a magic dagger deep in a hidden temple. He has a long term project to find the temple, and then looting the place will probably be a score. Once he has the dagger, using it will make him a much more effective murderer, but also cause his bloodlust to rise. We’ll see if his character can resist the corrupting influence of the Dagger of Vasdahl.
Very cool, Mark.