[D&D 3.5] Wyrd Tales

[charles ferguson]

Hey Matt

A simple way to add some granularity without any additional overhead to the curretn Wyrd concept could be, any time you make a roll and get (frex) a 20 or a 1, and you're doing something toward a Wyrd, you get an XP bonus. (like 10 XP x Lvl or something). Have to tinker to get amounts right, but the rationale being, a critical or a fumble will teach you something (or whatever).

Except I don't know how this would work for magic, does that involve any d20 rolls?

Also, it raises the issue of when do you establish that a roll is working toward a Wyrd? Before every roll, or only afterward when an XP bonus is earned? Obviously you introduce some complications with both of those options. (Unless you take the honor system a la TSOY, which might solve both of them pretty simply, if it it's suitable for what you have in mind).

I just thought of another idea: at the end of any fight that involves your Wyrds you get an XP bonus based on HP lost. So getting pounded helps your char. You could make it somewhat flat so it doesn't do so much at higher levels, but pain = serious gain for low level chars who wade in when their Wyrds are involved ).

cheers, charles

[charles ferguson]

Some more thoughts:

Doesn't Sacrificing in effect bypass char (or Wyrd-possessing NPC) death? In gamist play wouldn't you (or wyrd-holding NPC) continually sacrifice, create new wyrd, & sacrifice again whenever you get killed?

I think this may need some more thought.

Aside from the endless loop thing, if you're trying to circumvent the player/NPC death rules, is using Wyrds the best way to do it? The loss of Wyrds, which you presumably want players to be emotionally invested in, as an alternative penalty to death sounds like it could be counter productive & lead to some skewed strategies in why & how players choose/use Wyrds. Especially at at low levels where death is already problematic & enthusiasm-killing enough.

Also: if you plan to use wyrds as significant flags/ plot-building devices, it might bear thinking about how their loss will impact GM prep (if at all).

If you did want to keep it, you might consider that by sacrificing a Wyrd, it could be seen as technically failed--so you could give the player 200 points for it. Thinking here about Dave's level 1 XP-thrashing thing again.

BTW, great implementation of a very cool concept.

charles

[Andrew Cooper]

Just a quick thought.  You could simply up the number of Wyrds a character can have by 1.  If a 1st level character can have 2 Wyrds instead of 1 then it is more likely that he will be doing something related to at least 1 of his Wyrds during a given session.  Even 1st level characters would have the ability to have both group and individual goals at that point.