[SOY] Witches: Brides of the Shadow

[James_Nostack]

What's a "pumpkin fantasy" game without witchcraft? 

Secret of Witchcraft
Pick an aspect of the world: this is your theme.  A theme can be something like Night, Love, Iron, Forest, Winter, whatever.  When doing things that involve your theme, you have +1 protection.  So: a Winter Witch might have +1 protection when in a duel of wits, or a duel of swords, in the winter time, but nothing in the boiling desert--and vice versa for the Desert Witch.  Prerequisite - Must be female.

Secret of the Witch's Curse
You can give someone a penalty die to all things related to your theme, for a number of days equal to the Success Level of your Pray skill check.  Prerequisite - Secret of Witchcraft.

Secret of the Witch's Brew
With a successful Complex Crafts check, you can create a mysterious concoction that heightens perception of the cosmic forces surrounding your Theme.  Anyone imbibing the drink can use Reaction to generate rollover dice for things related to the Theme, due to their heightened senses.  However, the drink gives you a penalty die to all skills that draw on an appropriate Pool.  The drink's effects last for, oh, maybe 3-4 hours.  Cost - 1 Reason.  Prerequisite - Secret of Witchcraft.

Secret of the Witch's Song
With a successful Story-Tell (or Music--whichever covers Singing, I can't remember) check, you can alter an aspect of your Theme, at least as it applies to a couple of people.  The extent/permanence of the alteration depends on your Success Level.  A mediocre change, for example, might be a minor setback easily overcome.  An amazing change, however, might seem totally inexplicable and eerie.  Cost - 3 of whatever pool Storytell/Music draws upon.  Prerequisite - Secret of Witchcraft.

Secret of the Witch's Familiar
You've made a pact with some infernal creature, which is disguised in this world as a creepy little animal.  Keeping it around you gives you a +1 SL to these Witchcraft feats.

...... Any ideas for others?.....



PS - I am still pinching pennies to buy the Revised Edition, so maybe Clinton's already dealt with this.  If so, even better!

[Judd]

The Cackling Key

Get 1 xp for every time you make some mad doom-filled prophecy filled with truth and bile (and those who are listening believe). Gain 3 xp every time you horrify a child or add to your own mystique as an evil crone through some infernal action.  Gain 5 xp for doing something that is perceived as so evil (whether it is or not) that the entire community around you gathers up in arms to drive you from the premises.

[Ron Edwards]

Buy off the Cackling Key by doing something that cancels the possibility of the prophecy coming to pass.

Best,
Ron

[Judd]

Buy off the Cackling Key by doing something that cancels the possibility of the prophecy coming to pass.

Best,
Ron

I knew I missed something.

Nice, thanks.

[Eero Tuovinen]

This might sound like a pretty dumb question, but anyway: what are the literary sources for this witch-theme thing? I saw it in the Diamond Throne setting, too, and thought that it was just D&D wankery. Apparently it's more widespread than that. I'm talking about this winter-witch, desert-witch thing. If I could place it, perhaps I could use it for something instead of just scratching my head.

Where I'm coming from: the witches I'm familiar with are brides of Satan or priestesses of the old faith or natural alchemists or storybook characters. I can't off-hand name literature where witches are, like, some kind of elemental forces. The closest I can get in anglo lit is Baum's Oz, and even there the witches had titles based on where they lived which had nothing to do with elemental themes, if I remember correctly.

[James_Nostack]

Eero - in this case, they're recycled from a SOY adaptation of "Arcana Unearthed" I half-completed.  But at least in modern day American fantasy fiction, there's occasionally the notion that a witch might have a particular zone of control, or area of expertise. 

Here, it at least works to give some variety to the game.

For that matter, there's absolutely nothing in European folklore (at least that I'm aware of) to indicate that magicians were epsecially learned folks who spent all their time reading books and conducting experiments in a big tower.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Eero - in this case, they're recycled from a SOY adaptation of "Arcana Unearthed" I half-completed.  But at least in modern day American fantasy fiction, there's occasionally the notion that a witch might have a particular zone of control, or area of expertise. 

Here, it at least works to give some variety to the game.

Sure, that sounds sensible. I was just expecting a more deep-rooted witch, so the theme thing seemed weird. Otherwise those look like interesting secrets. Perhaps a flying secret would go with these?

An alternative Secret of Witchcraft could be about initiation (for a diabolical or animistic take), I guess. A ritual that allows the witch to converse with her spiritual patron.

For that matter, there's absolutely nothing in European folklore (at least that I'm aware of) to indicate that magicians were epsecially learned folks who spent all their time reading books and conducting experiments in a big tower.

You don't want to go there, because that's exactly the old European magician right there. Check out the historical sources for the hermetic tradition. And we're not even talking folklore but historical personages, here.

[James_Nostack]

Historically, yeah.  But I think the closest you get to that in the literature is Faust, though.  Anyway...

Yeah, I don't know how to do Flying in SOY.  And another thing I was thinking about: how do you do Shapeshifting?  Like, the whole D&D thing with the Druid turning into an animal.  It seems like that would be a neat thing to add to the SOY toolkit for some characters, if not witches per se.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Eero,

Speaking for myself only, the direct source for witches to have a specific elemental association are Narnia (the White Witch, a winter-queen) and The Wizard of Oz (the Witches are associated with cardinal directions). I also suspect site-specific hags and nymphs are involved as well, whether from myth or their debased representation in the Monster Manual.

Best,
Ron

[James_Nostack]

Key of the Hermit
Gain 1 XP for driving people way, so that you don't have to meet with them.  Gain 3 XP for making a person feel so unwelcome (without actually assaulting them) that they storm off, never wanting to be around you again.  Buy-Off - Go to a party, and enjoy it.

Key of Spite (possibly too close to Paka's secret, but whatever)
Gain 1 XP for complaining about wrongs that have been done to you.  Gain 2 XP for making other people miserable.  Gain 5 XP for indirectly making the source of your woes miserable.  Buy-Off - Get over it.

=====
Very Off-Topic PS - In European folklore, who's a wizard/sorcerer/magician guy?  What do they do?  I mean, I'm aware of Merlin, Faust, Simon Magus, and maybe Vainomoinen from Finnish mythology.  But surely there's more than that?  I always run into a problem when playing fantasy RPG's, because the "wizard archetype" is so under-defined, at least based on my reading.  (PM me instead, if there's the worry of thread drift.)

[Twobirds]

Buy-Off - Go to a party, and enjoy it.

Considering this is a method of recharging your pools, you might have conflicting mechanics.  Even outside of Near, the system is very social.

Very Off-Topic PS - In European folklore, who's a wizard/sorcerer/magician guy?  What do they do?  I mean, I'm aware of Merlin, Faust, Simon Magus, and maybe Vainomoinen from Finnish mythology.  But surely there's more than that?  I always run into a problem when playing fantasy RPG's, because the "wizard archetype" is so under-defined, at least based on my reading.  (PM me instead, if there's the worry of thread drift.)

Look for Ars Magica 4th edition, if you haven't.  It's free.  It's enjoyably historical, describing potion-makers and animal transformations and all sorts of stuff.  The story of John Dee is also a great source.  He talked to angels in crystal balls.  Dee also let his evil assistant, Edward Kelley - who rewrote sections of Dee's journal and talked far more to angels than Dee could - sleep with his wife because, Kelley insisted, the angels said so.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Wow - I love this stuff. I agreeWow - I love this stuff. I agree that the elemental witch isn't that based in folklore, but it's still cool as all get-out.

James - you asked about flying in TSOY? I'd say it's just a secret - probably spend one pool point to do it for a scene. (If you mean magical flying. Normal flying wouldn't cost anything.) As for shape-shifting, look at the spell in the Three-Corner Magic for an example of shape-shifting. "Flipping" abilities is the hidden mechanic in TSOY.