The way I've rewritten Dragon World, you have Assets, Bond, and Credit.
Time to gather inspiration on the weirdest part of that -- community credit.
In my vision, part of character generation is communal community generation -- the PCs and GM get together and describe where they live. Each is a member of the home community, which they'll name.
I've got basic criteria of the community -- size, recreation, cravings, currency, and values. What I need is a list for each PC to describe how they feel about the place.
Maybe the Wizard's are largely related to treatment of magic, the paladin to how pious they are. Maybe.
Wanna help? I'm gonna need a bunch per playbook, so go wild!
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For the wizard:
ReplyDelete_____________ holds a secret deep within the leadership.
_____________ views magic users with admiration.
_____________ burns spellbooks whenever they find them.
The people of _____________ have learned to listen when I speak the future.
_____________ has a source of great power.
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ReplyDeleteStarting number varies based on playbook. The Wizard, Ranger, and Bard start with 3. The Thief, Fighter start with 4. The Paladin gets 5, the Cleric 6. The cleric is to communities as the Bard is to bonds. Here's the community credit for each, so far. Thoughts and comments, revisions and questions very much welcome.
ReplyDeletePaladin (starting: 5)
_____________’s misguided behavior endangers everyone within!
_____________ provides provisions for its warriors, and can be trusted completely
_____________ has a level of devotion to the gods I find overwhelming.
The people of _____________ have odd beliefs that I have come to respect.
_____________ lacks temples. I will show them the true way.
Fighter (starting 4)
_______________owes me, whether they admit it or not.
I have sworn to protect _____________.
_____________ is unlikely to survive without my assistance.
The people of _____________ are soft; I will show them how to be strong.
_____________ owes me, and everyone knows.
Thief (starting 4)
I stole one of my Assets from _____________.
I have a con running in _____________.
The law enforcement in _____________ is pliable to coin.
The people of _____________ watch their purses carefully.
Cleric (starting 6)
_____________ is good and faithful; I trust their people.
_____________ has no temples to my deity. I will build one.
_____________ is in danger, whether they know it or not!
_____________ has no temples, and no religion. I do not understand them.
I have saved the people of _____________ from disease.
The religion of _____________ is different from my own; I will learn from it.
Ranger (start with 3)
_____________ encroaches upon the wildes.
_____________ is respectful of the wilderness..
_____________ usurps and burns the lands.
I have saved the people of _____________ from predators.
Bard (start with 3)
_____________ has a tradition of travelling troubadours.
_____________ dismisses entertainers as mere fools. I will show them!
I am from _____________; my family still resides there.
I vote the class be called "Witch" rather than "Wizard."
ReplyDeleteFor gendered reasons, Tony Lower-Basch ? Or something else?
ReplyDeleteMan this cleaves super close to something I was doing for a PbtA hack where characters play refugees in a big refugee city. They also create their people and traditions and the like.
ReplyDeleteHave you looked at Legacy? The Family playbooks are super neat.
I don't think so! Is it publicly available?
ReplyDeleteCreating traditions is super great; people are not islands!
Legacy: Life in Ruins is the game. It's on DTRPG
ReplyDeleteOh man, I've gotten three or four different emails over the years on this! I should break down and buy it.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols: For gendered reasons, and because witches have an awesome history of folks like Circe and Baba Yaga, whereas wizards have folks like Merlin and Gandalf, who (if we're honest) are sort of tools.
ReplyDeleteA wizard brags about how he could destroy you, but won't. A witch turns you into a pig and starts looking up instructions on how to smoke bacon.
Tony Lower-Basch Sure. Patriarchy wizards are tools. Malfoy is a tool. Agreed.
ReplyDeleteHermione Granger is a witch. And she's awesome. I've changed the Wizard quote to be from her. Most of them aren't pithy and most are very much in HP fiction, but a few are sufficiently general.
The way I figure it, if somebody wants to play a wizard, they can always take the witch playbook, and tell the group that they're playing a male, rather than the gender default you'd assume from the title.
ReplyDeleteIt does occur to me that the standard D&D Wizard comes from Vance and Gandalf. And, while those are kind of relevant touchstones now, HP and The Magicians series is much more so. None of those have vancian magic, thankfully.
ReplyDeleteAnd they all rely on their wands. That sounds like an Asset to me.
Easy enough to give wizards a wand and a single move that does magical effects.
.. and to name them Magicians.
ReplyDeleteSo choose a different male-gendered term, and make the magic stick-waving more central to the premise?
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess that's one response.
Huh, i thought of Magician as gender neutral.
ReplyDeleteGoogle image results say I am wrong.
ReplyDeleteWizard: silly men. Like, the pictures are ridiculous.
Magician: illusionists, like Gob Bluth.
Mage: looks like D&D, and has the occasional woman. There's one in the second row of image searches, and one where the gender isn't obvious in the first. Most, though, have the sort of beards a pratchett dwarf would consider overkill.
Witch: Mostly women, and mostly wicked witch inspired.
What about "magi"?
ReplyDeleteGoogle image search shows lots of happy teenagers of multiple genders! This appears to be the name of a manga. Def worth considering.
ReplyDeleteHah, crap, that's not what I intended, but I guess it works.
ReplyDeleteIt ... is possible that any old word that is associated with both power and femininity will have "wickedness" as a third association. This complicates the search for a word that is all three of (1) gender representative, (2) not egregiously neologistic, (3) morally neutral or positive in connotation.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Quite. Something about patriarchy.
ReplyDelete