I am a new DM (2nd campaign) and I am playing a group of 6x24-28 year olds who have never played before, so I wanted to have it flashy enough that they were hooked enough so we managed to stay together for a long session.
I have been super fascinated by the deck of many things, but I do not trust that it would go over well. I fear that if a player gets screwed they will just not want to play anymore.
My setting is a a group of adventurers all convinced that they are the chosen one of the regional god. They are attempting to prove they are the chosen one by doing the most heroic/legendary deeds. My idea is that when a particularily epic deed is done, their god grants them blessings. It would correspond to tarot cards and they are pretty much lesser versions of the good cards in BoMT. However as the story progresses the blessings would get better, but evil grows and some of the cards are replaced with curses, essentially the bad cards from BoMT.
So now these deeds come along with risk that the reward will end up a curse.
I would establish the concept on the first day giving one of the following blessings
-Inner quest: causes player to gain enough xp to level up
-smite: call upon the power of your god to kill a baddie (up to certain HP)
-Saving Grace: gives player a healing spell once per day they can use.
-disney princess: gives you the power to send a spirit bird to the nearest town (so long as you are outside)
-water walking
None of those are exactly real ones because I dont want my party to be able to know what the hidden cards are, but the idea is that they start off sort of useful but the bigger the deed the more amazing cards are shuffled in.
I dont want to shy away from using too many because I dont know if the campaign will last long and i want them to do amazing things. On the other hand, i dont want to make it too overpowered and hasten the campaigns demise.
Do you think that the incorporation of curses will balance out the effects of the blessings? Do you think it is wrong to use the BoMT in such a bastardized way? Is this a dumb idea?
The idea itself is not bad, by any means, but what if to balance out the blessings, instead of curses in the deck (which you can still include, but maybe to a lesser degree, like a soft-corruption) they start finding on their way one or more chosen of evil deities, provided with similar boons?
I mean, if good gods do that, why can't the bad ones, right? ;)
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
LeKs idea is better - it makes you and and the in-game deities seem less capricious from “accidentally” cursing your players, and also creates an in-game tension. Even better, have an evil party who are like the Injustice Gang to your party’s Justice League.
as to effects, given that you’re only showing examples of possible effects, can’t comment too much on them. For smite, though, an effect like that I’d base off CR rather than HP. I’m not sure how balanced any benefits that might possibly last forever would be. I personally would prefer a one-off boon with a potent effect than something that is either going to become too lame by the time a character levels up sufficiently or is too powerful in order not to be too lame. Once-offs are easier to measure their impact and thus keep broadly balanced.
I think I probably could have been more clear. The curses would be coming from evil deities or demons as the power of evil is increasing across the world. Doing good deeds would get the attention of good gods for rewards, but the evil gods dont want the chosen one running around spoiling their plans, so maybe you get struck with blindness or they turn an NPC hostile or turn all your gold to copper.
Ones from demons would be more in the middle. Sort of double edged swords, like you gain a great ability but it comes with a price (ie lowered stat, attract more enemies etc)
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I am a new DM (2nd campaign) and I am playing a group of 6x24-28 year olds who have never played before, so I wanted to have it flashy enough that they were hooked enough so we managed to stay together for a long session.
I have been super fascinated by the deck of many things, but I do not trust that it would go over well. I fear that if a player gets screwed they will just not want to play anymore.
My setting is a a group of adventurers all convinced that they are the chosen one of the regional god. They are attempting to prove they are the chosen one by doing the most heroic/legendary deeds. My idea is that when a particularily epic deed is done, their god grants them blessings. It would correspond to tarot cards and they are pretty much lesser versions of the good cards in BoMT. However as the story progresses the blessings would get better, but evil grows and some of the cards are replaced with curses, essentially the bad cards from BoMT.
So now these deeds come along with risk that the reward will end up a curse.
I would establish the concept on the first day giving one of the following blessings
-Inner quest: causes player to gain enough xp to level up
-smite: call upon the power of your god to kill a baddie (up to certain HP)
-Saving Grace: gives player a healing spell once per day they can use.
-disney princess: gives you the power to send a spirit bird to the nearest town (so long as you are outside)
-water walking
None of those are exactly real ones because I dont want my party to be able to know what the hidden cards are, but the idea is that they start off sort of useful but the bigger the deed the more amazing cards are shuffled in.
I dont want to shy away from using too many because I dont know if the campaign will last long and i want them to do amazing things. On the other hand, i dont want to make it too overpowered and hasten the campaigns demise.
Do you think that the incorporation of curses will balance out the effects of the blessings? Do you think it is wrong to use the BoMT in such a bastardized way? Is this a dumb idea?
Hi LordNovaHimself, welcome to the forums o/
The idea itself is not bad, by any means, but what if to balance out the blessings, instead of curses in the deck (which you can still include, but maybe to a lesser degree, like a soft-corruption) they start finding on their way one or more chosen of evil deities, provided with similar boons?
I mean, if good gods do that, why can't the bad ones, right? ;)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
LeKs idea is better - it makes you and and the in-game deities seem less capricious from “accidentally” cursing your players, and also creates an in-game tension. Even better, have an evil party who are like the Injustice Gang to your party’s Justice League.
as to effects, given that you’re only showing examples of possible effects, can’t comment too much on them. For smite, though, an effect like that I’d base off CR rather than HP. I’m not sure how balanced any benefits that might possibly last forever would be. I personally would prefer a one-off boon with a potent effect than something that is either going to become too lame by the time a character levels up sufficiently or is too powerful in order not to be too lame. Once-offs are easier to measure their impact and thus keep broadly balanced.
Thanks for your feedback!
I think I probably could have been more clear. The curses would be coming from evil deities or demons as the power of evil is increasing across the world. Doing good deeds would get the attention of good gods for rewards, but the evil gods dont want the chosen one running around spoiling their plans, so maybe you get struck with blindness or they turn an NPC hostile or turn all your gold to copper.
Ones from demons would be more in the middle. Sort of double edged swords, like you gain a great ability but it comes with a price (ie lowered stat, attract more enemies etc)