Author: Johnstone Metzger

In the game I’m currently playing we’re a cult, and the cult leader wants to do that typical cult leader thing where you tell someone their secrets and then they think you are magic and join your cult. Except she wants it to be actual magic and not just having your underlings spy on people. So we brainstormed the skeleton of a special ability and I’ve got the responsibility of writing up a finished version so she can take it next time she gets a playbook advance.

Here’s what I’ve got so far, thought I’d post it here for y’all to look at. If you have any thoughts about it, let me know!

Eyes of a God, Voice of a Prophet

You can look past a person’s flesh and stare into their soul, divining some secret details that will frighten or impress them when your knowledge is revealed. Take 2 stress when you do this, plus 1 stress for each extra feature: their reaction lasts for hours or even days instead of mere moments—you divine secrets to provoke a different reaction (such as joy or sorrow)—you frighten or impress and entire crown, instead of just one person.

(I was also thinking maybe you could determine what sort of secrets were revealed, instead of picking a different emotion. Like, if you have some idea of something that a person is hiding, you could say that gets revealed. Learning secrets isn’t the primary focus of the ability though, it’s just a bonus and the point is to impress or frighten them so they become more susceptible to influence.)

There’s no shipyard on the map of Duskwall and I don’t remember any mention of it in the city section.

Is this an oversight or is this intentional? Has it been purposely left to individual play groups to decide? Or does it mean that leviathan hunters only get repaired in this city but not built there? If so, where do they get built?

Or have I missed something relevant in the text?

Let’s say I want a new special ability that lets a PC have their own entourage, loyal only to them and not the gang as a whole. What’s the best way to achieve that?

Do they just make a cohort and it functions the same as a gang cohort (same tier a the gang the PCs is in, edges and flaws, etc)? Should there be limits, or additional parameters? Maybe you can use a second special ability to make them fine quality?