I recently binge-watched The Witcher on Netflix, and there were some social mechanics that I liked and wanted to include in my world.
1. The Law of Suprise.
I immensely enjoyed the concept of the law of surprise and how Witchers would often use it to acquire new children that they could train and eventually turn into new Witchers - though the idea that the law of surprise was not something exclusive to Witchers, but also a social contract used by Kings, Queens, and even ordinary folk like the merchant who offers to abide by the law of surprise when Geralt saves his life, was also entertaining.
In general, I like the idea of the Law of Suprise, I think it's cool, and I want to steal it.
2. The way new Mages areobtained
We first see how the Brotherhood of Mages obtains new students when meeting Yennifer. Senior mages called Rectors can track the chaos of newly awakened mages, often children or young adults, and then turn to steal, pay for or barter for them. However, it's not outright stated why we do see the purpose of this practice through storytelling. All the female mages who complete their training, and one can assume males also, become sterile.
In the world of The Witcher, it seems that mages arise naturally due to some convergence of chaos. Where we see certain bloodlines consistently producing mages, having any magical ancestors at all doesn't seem to be a prerequisite.
It appears that magic in The Witcher is more like wild magic in D&D.
3. The brotherhood of mages controls everything from the shadows
All mages in The Witcher are highly skilled manipulators and political manoeuvres.
Through either action or inaction, the brotherhood of mages controls everything from the shadows, placing themselves into positions of power and, over centuries playing a long game that, in the end, only benefits the brotherhood. Even though the noble families seem to realise that the mages only care about playing the long game, it appears that the nobles knowledge of this is another level of control exercised by the brotherhood over the noble families of the North.
I like the idea that mages are not in it to save the world. They are in it for themselves, first of all, and the brotherhood in the long term.
4. Humans kill anything different because they're weak and afraid of the world
Although this is a common trope, I very much like how The Witcher series on Netflix runs with it. Humans are shown as immensely powerful. So powerful that they have almost wiped out an entire race of magical beings and are in the process of wiping out everything else that's different. They build mighty empires that enslave or destroy everyone and control the world - and human mages, as mentioned before, are the ultimate puppetmasters of the fates of every living thing.
Despite seeming so extraordinarily powerful, however, humans are weak, fragile beings, perhaps even the lowest of all forms of sentient life, and all of their power is nothing more than a facade. Humans are constantly afraid of things more powerful than them - which is everything just about, and so through grand displays, they bluff the world into thinking they are powerful and kill anything that doesn't fall for their bluff.
They did this with the elves who first taught them magic; they do this with the monsters, and they even do it between each other. Humans must kill or control everything differently because they are too weak to stand against a world hell-bent on destroying them.
Where elves are immensely magical beings and monsters are often incredibly physically powerful, it seems that in The Witcher, the sphere humans came from was relatively benign with little actual danger—seemingly evidenced by the fact that humans are generally less magically gifted and don't seem to be natural-born predators, or are physically resilient.
There are exceptions, of course. Mutants like Witchers are mighty, but they are created, not born, and designed as weapons. The Rectors of the Brotherhood of Mages are also powerful and talented mages. Still, their existence seems to be either the result of mixed elven heritage or a pure expression of chaos - in short; they are extraordinary humans, not normal ones.
I realise this is a common trope in fantasy. Still, I liked how The Witcher did it, making humans into faux beings of power, and hiding the human weakness behind control, aggressive expansion and murderous designs.
4. The idea of Witchers.
I liked the whole concept of the Witchers as a whole. The idea that humans created powerful weapons through a mix of alchemy and magic to defend themselves against a hostile world seems fun to me.
I want to create a version of Witchers in my world.
--------
Those were the things that I got excited about and wanted to include in my world. The problem is, The Witcher is quite a popular Netflix show, and people will know where I got them from if I wholesale drop them into the world I am creating.
Do you have any thoughts on disguising these ideas, so they are less obviously stolen from a Netflix show? I am now trying to claim I came up with them independently or anything; I Only want to make it less obviously from The Witcher, so my players don't immediately go, “yep, we know all this”.
How do you disguise ideas and social mechanics that you steal from other media sources?
Thanks.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Brotherhood of Mages having a centuries long plan makes me immediately think that a human isn't behind, but something with a much longer life span.
If you keep developing each of the ideas and thinking of the D&D races, classes, spells, mechanics, etc. that would be involved in each of them, then they will gradually morph into something slightly different, and maybe new names will present themselves.
Also in D&D while mages are often associated with the class now called Wizards, the way you describe mages in the Witcher, those are sorcerers in D&D.
There's also nothing wrong with outright copying the environment and society of The Witcher, and explaining things as "like in The Witcher." Your PCs know they're either playing in the world of The Witcher or a world heavily influenced by it, there's not big deal there. As long as you're not copying the entire plot of Witcher stories for your adventure, leaning on an established setting may actually be helpful in gaining player engagement with the world. They already know and think about it, so will likely be less timid and more curious about it. No need to play charades, laying out your cards including "like in the Witcher" is better sometimes, I'd say often, than trying to obfuscate it. Only real consequence will be party efforts to see how closely the world connect to The Witcher, basically expect Easter egg hunts for elements you hadn't put into the game but they want to see.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Similar to what midnightplat says, Why hide it? If it works for you and is fun for the table, what does it matter the source. In fact, it can be helpful. If your players have watched the show, you can just say, we use law or surprise, like in the witcher, and then you don’t need to explain it more.
Most of these concepts aren't really new. 2), 3) and 4) certainly exist out there in many forms of media and my first thought would not be that you got it from The Witcher. Similarly, Witchers themselves are basically just slightly fancier versions of Van Helsing (replace alchemy with the bleeding edge of science and medicine, which were essentially just as mysterious) and similar stories of monster hunters - including the general gist of what adventurers are in D&D. I mean the Monster Slayer Ranger literally gets the equivalent of the Quen and Yrden signs in its granted spell lists.
The only one that would signal "Witcher" to me would be the Law of Surprise, which is a cool concept but much more suited to a fixed narrative where the "surprise" is not really a surprise at all to the author. In D&D the future is a lot less rigid and the rules of the LoS are so open that it's very easy for it to "go wrong" and you get a dog or a kidney stone or something. I feel like it would be hard to include without also some heavy contrivance to make sure it gives you the intended result.
People are born with the ability to touch magic, which is similar to Sorcerers, but they still study in schools for years to gain mastery of it, and then become advisors to the kings and queens of the kingdoms, which is much more of a Wizard trope.
Ultimately, the only types of spellcasters in the Witcher are Druids (Ancient magic) Mages (Female) and Warlocks (Male) (Combo of innate potential with magical study) and another type similar to a DnD Warlock (Beings who make pacts with powerful creatures to gain power).
Good advice here. Let me add a note of caution: The Law of Surprise is first and foremost a writers' gimmick. It's just a plot device to saddle a character with a child.
There's nothing wrong with that, but a D&D game has more than one writer, so make sure you have buy-in from your players.
My campaigns are full of ideas lifted from other places, my players enjoy it when they spot them and they then enjoy it even more when I surprise them with a shift ti that theme they didn’t see coming.
Embrace it and work them in and don’t worry overmuch about hiding it.
My fav ever TTRPG system in terms of lore is still legend of the 5 rings.
There is an organization in that called the Kolat humans who put in place a scheme many many many generations in planning designed to remove divinity from the world and ensure humanity becomes free from the gods who rule them.
I have found ways to work them into my current campaign and despite my players knowing the lore they have not yet picked up on it at all.
Most of these concepts aren't really new. 2), 3) and 4) certainly exist out there in many forms of media and my first thought would not be that you got it from The Witcher.
Number one is not exclusive to the Witcher either--in fact, it might be the oldest trope of the four listed. The earliest instance of the Law of Surprise I can think of comes from the Book of Judges, first written circa the 8th century BC, but likely based on even older legends. In Judges, Jephthah promises God the first thing he sees upon returning home if he is granted victory in battle--a promise he ultimately keeps even though his own daughter is the first thing he sees upon returning home.
The law also existed in the Slavic mythology on which the Witcher franchise is based, usually seen as a payment to the devil.
The idea of specifically giving children in payment is another common trope in medieval tales, usually involving they fey, witches, etc. taking individuals' firstborn as payment for various services rendered.
You could probably get away with utilizing the Law of Surprise in your game. Most folks will immediately think the Witcher if you use it, but I do not think that association is so emersion-breaking as to be a problem. If you disagree and do not want players to jump to the Witcher conclusion, you could use the payment of firstborn to fill a similar purpose, albeit one that is more generic.
Thanks for all your suggestions, guys. The reason I was thinking of trying to disguise it was so I didn't seem like a lazy DM who stole something wholesale from another form of media and didn't even bother to change it at all.
Although if someone asked, I'd tell them, “yes, I got that from The Witcher”.
It's not like I wanted to claim that I came up with these unique ideas all on my own or anything; I didn't want to seem too lazy.
Regarding The Law of Suprise, The Witcher is the first time I have heard of it, and I enjoyed it both as a social mechanic and a storytelling device. I think it is cool and want to include it in my world. The reason I think it is cool is that you can't put a price on a life, so the law of surprise determines the payment for saving someone's life. After reading some Witcher lore, it seems there are two forms that the law of surprise can take
“The first thing that comes to greet you.”
When requesting "the first thing that comes to greet you", the price could be the likes of a dog, a halberdier at the gate or "a mother-in-law impatient to holler at her son-in-law when he returns home".
”What you find at home yet don't expect.”
When requesting "what you find at home yet don't expect", the price could be a lover in the wife's bed, but sometimes, a child, etc.
It also seems that when requesting the law of surprise as their reward, the requester must specify which form it will take; otherwise, the one saved can choose, and the requester must abide by that choice.
I like this whole thing very much and want to find a way to include it in my world that is consistent and doesn't just create havoc.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
As others have said most of those ideas are common to other fantasy settings, and I would striaght out say "you could call law of surprise like in the Witcher," or give it a similar name and say that this works a bit like in the Witcher but people can't gift you a gall stone or similar, if you need an NPC to claim the child of another NPC as a plot set up, or you want to give your players the option of getting saddled with a child you could stright out make it a life for a life.
Thanks for all your suggestions, guys. The reason I was thinking of trying to disguise it was so I didn't seem like a lazy DM who stole something wholesale from another form of media and didn't even bother to change it at all.
Although if someone asked, I'd tell them, “yes, I got that from The Witcher”.
It's not like I wanted to claim that I came up with these unique ideas all on my own or anything; I didn't want to seem too lazy.
Regarding The Law of Suprise, The Witcher is the first time I have heard of it, and I enjoyed it both as a social mechanic and a storytelling device. I think it is cool and want to include it in my world. The reason I think it is cool is that you can't put a price on a life, so the law of surprise determines the payment for saving someone's life. After reading some Witcher lore, it seems there are two forms that the law of surprise can take
“The first thing that comes to greet you.”
When requesting "the first thing that comes to greet you", the price could be the likes of a dog, a halberdier at the gate or "a mother-in-law impatient to holler at her son-in-law when he returns home".
”What you find at home yet don't expect.”
When requesting "what you find at home yet don't expect", the price could be a lover in the wife's bed, but sometimes, a child, etc.
It also seems that when requesting the law of surprise as their reward, the requester must specify which form it will take; otherwise, the one saved can choose, and the requester must abide by that choice.
I like this whole thing very much and want to find a way to include it in my world that is consistent and doesn't just create havoc.
I will say that while the TV show seems to indicate the law of surprise is always a child, a lot of the time it can be something really mundane.
Just make it more like the stuff that the Witcher took it from:
The Law of surprise: It's a lot like stuff from the bible. I think it Jepta (or something like that), who promises to give god the first thing he sees when he gets home if if survives the war. That thing was his daughter, who he kills. Maybe frame it as a price, rather than a reward, maybe tie it to a god of luck or gambling like Tymora that is already established in the world.
Mages are found: This is just the X-men, people with powers manifest and are found by other people with power to be trained. Just make it more like the x-men than the witcher, like include the fear and persecution. I'd recommend adding some tradition or superstition involved because it helps with world building. Like they abandon children in the forest trying to give them back to the fey or something.
The brotherhood of mages controls everything from the shadows This is just the Bene Gesserit from Dune. They send their sisters to advise and aid in noble houses and other centers of power to influence events. You really just need a very specific goal that they are trying to reach that is original to your thing.
Humans kill anything different because they're weak and afraid of the world This is everywhere, feel free to use this because there is no way anyone will think you got it from any one place in particular.
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Hi,
I recently binge-watched The Witcher on Netflix, and there were some social mechanics that I liked and wanted to include in my world.
1. The Law of Suprise.
I immensely enjoyed the concept of the law of surprise and how Witchers would often use it to acquire new children that they could train and eventually turn into new Witchers - though the idea that the law of surprise was not something exclusive to Witchers, but also a social contract used by Kings, Queens, and even ordinary folk like the merchant who offers to abide by the law of surprise when Geralt saves his life, was also entertaining.
In general, I like the idea of the Law of Suprise, I think it's cool, and I want to steal it.
2. The way new Mages are obtained
We first see how the Brotherhood of Mages obtains new students when meeting Yennifer. Senior mages called Rectors can track the chaos of newly awakened mages, often children or young adults, and then turn to steal, pay for or barter for them. However, it's not outright stated why we do see the purpose of this practice through storytelling. All the female mages who complete their training, and one can assume males also, become sterile.
In the world of The Witcher, it seems that mages arise naturally due to some convergence of chaos. Where we see certain bloodlines consistently producing mages, having any magical ancestors at all doesn't seem to be a prerequisite.
It appears that magic in The Witcher is more like wild magic in D&D.
3. The brotherhood of mages controls everything from the shadows
All mages in The Witcher are highly skilled manipulators and political manoeuvres.
Through either action or inaction, the brotherhood of mages controls everything from the shadows, placing themselves into positions of power and, over centuries playing a long game that, in the end, only benefits the brotherhood. Even though the noble families seem to realise that the mages only care about playing the long game, it appears that the nobles knowledge of this is another level of control exercised by the brotherhood over the noble families of the North.
I like the idea that mages are not in it to save the world. They are in it for themselves, first of all, and the brotherhood in the long term.
4. Humans kill anything different because they're weak and afraid of the world
Although this is a common trope, I very much like how The Witcher series on Netflix runs with it. Humans are shown as immensely powerful. So powerful that they have almost wiped out an entire race of magical beings and are in the process of wiping out everything else that's different. They build mighty empires that enslave or destroy everyone and control the world - and human mages, as mentioned before, are the ultimate puppetmasters of the fates of every living thing.
Despite seeming so extraordinarily powerful, however, humans are weak, fragile beings, perhaps even the lowest of all forms of sentient life, and all of their power is nothing more than a facade. Humans are constantly afraid of things more powerful than them - which is everything just about, and so through grand displays, they bluff the world into thinking they are powerful and kill anything that doesn't fall for their bluff.
They did this with the elves who first taught them magic; they do this with the monsters, and they even do it between each other. Humans must kill or control everything differently because they are too weak to stand against a world hell-bent on destroying them.
Where elves are immensely magical beings and monsters are often incredibly physically powerful, it seems that in The Witcher, the sphere humans came from was relatively benign with little actual danger—seemingly evidenced by the fact that humans are generally less magically gifted and don't seem to be natural-born predators, or are physically resilient.
There are exceptions, of course. Mutants like Witchers are mighty, but they are created, not born, and designed as weapons. The Rectors of the Brotherhood of Mages are also powerful and talented mages. Still, their existence seems to be either the result of mixed elven heritage or a pure expression of chaos - in short; they are extraordinary humans, not normal ones.
I realise this is a common trope in fantasy. Still, I liked how The Witcher did it, making humans into faux beings of power, and hiding the human weakness behind control, aggressive expansion and murderous designs.
4. The idea of Witchers.
I liked the whole concept of the Witchers as a whole. The idea that humans created powerful weapons through a mix of alchemy and magic to defend themselves against a hostile world seems fun to me.
I want to create a version of Witchers in my world.
--------
Those were the things that I got excited about and wanted to include in my world. The problem is, The Witcher is quite a popular Netflix show, and people will know where I got them from if I wholesale drop them into the world I am creating.
Do you have any thoughts on disguising these ideas, so they are less obviously stolen from a Netflix show? I am now trying to claim I came up with them independently or anything; I Only want to make it less obviously from The Witcher, so my players don't immediately go, “yep, we know all this”.
How do you disguise ideas and social mechanics that you steal from other media sources?
Thanks.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Brotherhood of Mages having a centuries long plan makes me immediately think that a human isn't behind, but something with a much longer life span.
If you keep developing each of the ideas and thinking of the D&D races, classes, spells, mechanics, etc. that would be involved in each of them, then they will gradually morph into something slightly different, and maybe new names will present themselves.
Also in D&D while mages are often associated with the class now called Wizards, the way you describe mages in the Witcher, those are sorcerers in D&D.
There's also nothing wrong with outright copying the environment and society of The Witcher, and explaining things as "like in The Witcher." Your PCs know they're either playing in the world of The Witcher or a world heavily influenced by it, there's not big deal there. As long as you're not copying the entire plot of Witcher stories for your adventure, leaning on an established setting may actually be helpful in gaining player engagement with the world. They already know and think about it, so will likely be less timid and more curious about it. No need to play charades, laying out your cards including "like in the Witcher" is better sometimes, I'd say often, than trying to obfuscate it. Only real consequence will be party efforts to see how closely the world connect to The Witcher, basically expect Easter egg hunts for elements you hadn't put into the game but they want to see.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Similar to what midnightplat says, Why hide it? If it works for you and is fun for the table, what does it matter the source. In fact, it can be helpful. If your players have watched the show, you can just say, we use law or surprise, like in the witcher, and then you don’t need to explain it more.
Most of these concepts aren't really new. 2), 3) and 4) certainly exist out there in many forms of media and my first thought would not be that you got it from The Witcher. Similarly, Witchers themselves are basically just slightly fancier versions of Van Helsing (replace alchemy with the bleeding edge of science and medicine, which were essentially just as mysterious) and similar stories of monster hunters - including the general gist of what adventurers are in D&D. I mean the Monster Slayer Ranger literally gets the equivalent of the Quen and Yrden signs in its granted spell lists.
The only one that would signal "Witcher" to me would be the Law of Surprise, which is a cool concept but much more suited to a fixed narrative where the "surprise" is not really a surprise at all to the author. In D&D the future is a lot less rigid and the rules of the LoS are so open that it's very easy for it to "go wrong" and you get a dog or a kidney stone or something. I feel like it would be hard to include without also some heavy contrivance to make sure it gives you the intended result.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
They're kind of halfway in between.
People are born with the ability to touch magic, which is similar to Sorcerers, but they still study in schools for years to gain mastery of it, and then become advisors to the kings and queens of the kingdoms, which is much more of a Wizard trope.
Ultimately, the only types of spellcasters in the Witcher are Druids (Ancient magic) Mages (Female) and Warlocks (Male) (Combo of innate potential with magical study) and another type similar to a DnD Warlock (Beings who make pacts with powerful creatures to gain power).
Good advice here. Let me add a note of caution: The Law of Surprise is first and foremost a writers' gimmick. It's just a plot device to saddle a character with a child.
There's nothing wrong with that, but a D&D game has more than one writer, so make sure you have buy-in from your players.
My campaigns are full of ideas lifted from other places, my players enjoy it when they spot them and they then enjoy it even more when I surprise them with a shift ti that theme they didn’t see coming.
Embrace it and work them in and don’t worry overmuch about hiding it.
My fav ever TTRPG system in terms of lore is still legend of the 5 rings.
There is an organization in that called the Kolat humans who put in place a scheme many many many generations in planning designed to remove divinity from the world and ensure humanity becomes free from the gods who rule them.
I have found ways to work them into my current campaign and despite my players knowing the lore they have not yet picked up on it at all.
Number one is not exclusive to the Witcher either--in fact, it might be the oldest trope of the four listed. The earliest instance of the Law of Surprise I can think of comes from the Book of Judges, first written circa the 8th century BC, but likely based on even older legends. In Judges, Jephthah promises God the first thing he sees upon returning home if he is granted victory in battle--a promise he ultimately keeps even though his own daughter is the first thing he sees upon returning home.
The law also existed in the Slavic mythology on which the Witcher franchise is based, usually seen as a payment to the devil.
The idea of specifically giving children in payment is another common trope in medieval tales, usually involving they fey, witches, etc. taking individuals' firstborn as payment for various services rendered.
You could probably get away with utilizing the Law of Surprise in your game. Most folks will immediately think the Witcher if you use it, but I do not think that association is so emersion-breaking as to be a problem. If you disagree and do not want players to jump to the Witcher conclusion, you could use the payment of firstborn to fill a similar purpose, albeit one that is more generic.
Thanks for all your suggestions, guys. The reason I was thinking of trying to disguise it was so I didn't seem like a lazy DM who stole something wholesale from another form of media and didn't even bother to change it at all.
Although if someone asked, I'd tell them, “yes, I got that from The Witcher”.
It's not like I wanted to claim that I came up with these unique ideas all on my own or anything; I didn't want to seem too lazy.
Regarding The Law of Suprise, The Witcher is the first time I have heard of it, and I enjoyed it both as a social mechanic and a storytelling device. I think it is cool and want to include it in my world. The reason I think it is cool is that you can't put a price on a life, so the law of surprise determines the payment for saving someone's life. After reading some Witcher lore, it seems there are two forms that the law of surprise can take
It also seems that when requesting the law of surprise as their reward, the requester must specify which form it will take; otherwise, the one saved can choose, and the requester must abide by that choice.
I like this whole thing very much and want to find a way to include it in my world that is consistent and doesn't just create havoc.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
As others have said most of those ideas are common to other fantasy settings, and I would striaght out say "you could call law of surprise like in the Witcher," or give it a similar name and say that this works a bit like in the Witcher but people can't gift you a gall stone or similar, if you need an NPC to claim the child of another NPC as a plot set up, or you want to give your players the option of getting saddled with a child you could stright out make it a life for a life.
I will say that while the TV show seems to indicate the law of surprise is always a child, a lot of the time it can be something really mundane.
Just make it more like the stuff that the Witcher took it from:
The Law of surprise:
It's a lot like stuff from the bible. I think it Jepta (or something like that), who promises to give god the first thing he sees when he gets home if if survives the war. That thing was his daughter, who he kills. Maybe frame it as a price, rather than a reward, maybe tie it to a god of luck or gambling like Tymora that is already established in the world.
Mages are found:
This is just the X-men, people with powers manifest and are found by other people with power to be trained. Just make it more like the x-men than the witcher, like include the fear and persecution. I'd recommend adding some tradition or superstition involved because it helps with world building. Like they abandon children in the forest trying to give them back to the fey or something.
The brotherhood of mages controls everything from the shadows
This is just the Bene Gesserit from Dune. They send their sisters to advise and aid in noble houses and other centers of power to influence events. You really just need a very specific goal that they are trying to reach that is original to your thing.
Humans kill anything different because they're weak and afraid of the world
This is everywhere, feel free to use this because there is no way anyone will think you got it from any one place in particular.