[Fifth World - TSOY Variant] Taint Mechanic for "Outside" Acts

[Brennan Taylor]

I am working on a variant of The Shadow of Yesterday called The Fifth World. In this game, characters are all members of a community loosely based on SouthWest Native American culture, and there are very strict rules of behavior and taboo activities. Performing these taboo activities has a mechanical effect in the game, and the character accumulates a sort of taint, called Outside points, which will end up cursing the character if it goes on for too long.

My issue is that I don't want this to be a straight 'do this, get point' sort of system. There should be some roll or conflict involved. The consequences can be dire, especially if the character doesn't want to admit the act.

Here's what I have so far:

Outside Behavior
If the People do not live in the right and proper way, bad forces begin to accumulate within them. Wrong living gradually begins to cause harm to a character as they suffer from spiritual corruption. Living in this way is called "Outside" living, and characters begin to accumulate Outside points if they do not act properly.
Performing proscribed behaviors increase Outside points. Doing any of the following things will cause a character to gain Outside points. If a gain of Outside points is indicated, the character must make a simple check(?) against his current Outside value plus whatever number of points he risks gaining. If he fails, his Outside points increase to the new value. If successful, he gains one-quarter of the possible Outside points, rounded down (yes, this could be zero).
•   Killing. Any killing act will give a character Outside points.
o   Killing an Animal. A person can atone for animal deaths without a formal ritual so long as they say the proper prayers when the animal is slain. If she does not observe proper forms, she will gain one Outside point per animal improperly slain. Outsiders and monsters count as animals.
o   Killing a Person. Killing people will cause corruption to accumulate no matter what a character does. He must atone in proper ritual for these acts. Killing a person earns a character five Outside points.
o    Killing Kin. This is probably the most harmful act a person can perform. Killing a kinsman earns a character 20 Outside points.
•   Theft. Stealing anything from another person is a corrupt act. Robbing Outsiders and non-humans is exempt, since they are not really people.
o   Stealing an Everyday Item. Stealing average personal items that are easily replaced earns a character one Outside point.
o   Stealing an Important Item. Stealing something that is very important to the victim and is difficult or impossible to replace earns a character five Outside points.
•   Assault. Attacking another person is frowned upon socially, but one doesn't earn Outside points from this unless the other person is permanently harmed. Maiming, crippling, or otherwise causing permanent injury earns a person three Outside points. Just beating someone up earns no Outside points. Assaulting animals, Outsiders, or monsters is exempt, and earns no Outside points.
•   Disrespect. Showing disrespect to someone deserving of it is an Outside act. Disrespecting elders in one's own family is worse than disrespecting elders in another clan. Generally, this applies mainly to those venerable individuals who have power in a city or clan only. Disrespecting your peers or subordinates is not a problem. Children are also immune to this, they will merely earn themselves a beating rather than Outside points.
o   Disrespecting an Elder. Showing disrespect to any elder, regardless of clan or family (even an Outsider or monster), earns you one Outside point.
o   Disrespecting a Clan Elder. Rudeness to an elder in your own clan or kiva society earns you two Outside points.
o   Disrespecting Your Kin. Disrespect to your own mother, father, grandfather, or grandmother earns you three Outside points.
•   Deceit. Lying is an Outside activity. Telling small, white lies will not accumulate points, the point of the deception must be harmful. Unlike many activities, lying to Outsiders or monsters is not an exception from this activity. A lie to anyone has the same effect, even if the victim is not of the People.
o   Harmful Lie. If a lie leads to harm of any kind to the victim, even if it is loss of face, you earn one Outside point.
o   Dangerous Lie. If a lie leads to maiming, crippling, or other permanent physical harm, you earn three Outside points.
o   Deadly Lie. If a lie leads to a person's death, you earn five Outside points. If the person who dies is a kinsman, you earn 20 Outside points.
•   Rape. Forcing oneself on another person is also an Outside act. There is, however, no concept of spousal rape in this society. Husbands and wives are expected to have intercourse if one of them wants to. Raping someone who is not your own spouse earns you three Outside points. This includes the rape of Outsiders, animals, or monsters. Even consensual sex with such beings accumulates two Outside points.
•   Contact with the Dead. Having contact with dead bodies is considered ill-omened, and even handling a dead body can cause a person to accumulate Outside points.
o   Touching a Dead Body. Any physical contact with the dead body of a person (not a monster or Outsider) earns you one Outside point.
o   Stealing from the Dead. Taking something from the body, such as bones or hair, or even jewelry, earns you three Outside points.
•   Improper Crafting. All manufacturing must follow strict spiritual and magical guidelines. If a character does not observe these guidelines, corruption is accumulated.
o   Everyday Items. Making an everyday object improperly earns a character one Outside point.
o   Special Items. Improperly making a special item, such as those built by secret societies, earns the character five Outside points.
•   Harmful Magic. Casting harmful magic, or commissioning harmful magic to be cast, will corrupt a person. This corruption is a hard thing to clear from oneself, as bad magic is totally malicious and completely outside the social order. To clear these points, the character must reveal his act to the victim. Normal cleansing rituals have no effect. Sorcerers actually have another way of clearing this corruption, as revealed in the description of the society.
o   Casting Harmful Spells. To cast such magic oneself earns 10 Outside points.
o   Having a Sorcerer Cast Spells. To have someone else perform the magic earns a character five Outside points.

Only certain people can help a character cleanse themselves. The character must be purified and atone for the transgression. The secret societies have rituals for this, especially the hunting societies.
As a character earns more Outside points, these begin to have real effects upon the character. Misfortune will begin to stalk him, and eventually the People will cast him out and he will become an Outsider. Use the following table to determine the effects of Outside taint:

Point Total   Effects
1-2   Although the character is beginning to accumulate some harmful effects, he shows no outward sign of spiritual taint.
3-6   The character suffers from minor bad luck: breaking pots, minor burns, tripping often, etc. He looks a bit haggard and vaguely ill, but can still function. He will be plagued by poor sleep and bad dreams he can't remember.
7-11   Bad luck begins to plague the character. Whenever he is at risk of harm, the worst outcome occurs (if he falls, he breaks a bone; if he is cut, it gets infected; etc.), his hunts fail, his sleep is haunted by terrible nightmares, his wife's crops and animals suffer from illness and die, his children grow ill, etc. He has a permanent penalty die that he cannot get rid of unless the taint is cured.
12-16   Terrible catastrophes begin to occur around the character. His relatives die, his house collapses or his village catches fire, his wife's crops are washed away, his wife becomes barren, all of his crafts are ill-formed and do not work, he becomes gravely ill with some wasting disease, and he cannot sleep at all. He now has two penalty dice on all actions, and cannot accept gift dice from other players.
17-20   The character is now terribly ill, and all those around him suffer calamities as described above. His whole community is cursed. He cannot draw on any pools, nor accept gift dice, and he has two penalty dice on all actions.
21+   If he has survived this long, the character is now an Outsider, and can no longer perform any of the Secrets he has learned. His people shun him, and if he has any relatives left they will drive him out into the wilderness. His penalty dice are gone, but he is no longer human in the eyes of the People.

Any advice on refining/streamlining this? As an add-on to existing TSOY rules, I would like to get this to feel more like the other conflicts in the game. Maybe gradually accumulating points isn't the way to go, or some adjustment more like Sorcerer's Humanity rules would be appropriate.

[timfire]

If the consequences are so bad, why would I ever want to engage in taboo behavior? It seems to me that you may want to set up some sort of incentive to misbehave. This doesn't neccesarily have to be mechanical, btw. Following me?

[timfire]

Just to add to the above---Was that the type of comment you were looking for, or did I misunderstad the point behind the taint-thing? Meaning, is the taboo thing meant to be central to play, or just a side issue?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Brennan,

Apologies for not getting to this earlier - I just finished layout on the new TSOY last night.

So, this is very cool. You've implemented a lot of TSOY's themes, actually - the transformation of humans because of following/not following a code. I think Tim has a point, though - why would I? It looks pretty rough.

I'm guessing the game will be about why you have to transgress these codes. Am I on target?

[Brennan Taylor]

Yeah, these codes will be central to the game in its final form. There will be in-game incentives to break the codes, which is something that I will be strengthening as we go on. Some of the issues that will push toward this will be improving one's rank in kiva societies, clan rivalries, love triangles, and a societal focus on saving face. Some of these will be served by mechanically, by both Keys and by an esteem rule that indicates a character's standing within the clans.

My own main criticism of this right now is that it is way too complicated. I was thinking that I should create a smoother, less detail intensive track, similar to the sin hierarchy in DitV. That would probably make this easier to implement in play.

It is also pretty rough as it stands now. I think it would be better to make the Outside taint affect others more than the character, so that the character can act transgressively, but would only feel the punishment if he is close to the people around him.