Did I get any attention with that subject? I was originally hoping for some feedback with the "By Hero Wars Inspired" thread, but maybe it wasn't quite clear.

I was thinking of allocating a meta-game resource with a loose grounding in the setting to provide flexible effects of locations, items and so on.

What about saying that an item (or location or whatever) has a certain Legendary status. A power from it's Myths. It doesn't have to be a pure "belief-invoked" power (like I believe the gods of Glorantha are operating on?), but something which would fit more with Ygg... the magnitude of its destiny.

I was toying with the idea of calling this "Weird" (or Wyrd) too, just like the fate points of the characters. In fact the fate point aspect of the Weird could be considered a secondary effect of the Weird of the characters.

In this new interpretation, the Weird is a measurement of the strength of their destiny, the legendary quality of their fate-thread. If your weird is strong, then that means you might be destined for great things.

The Weird of Items

What about applying this to items? Well, items with weird have a destiny of their own, just like the heroes. Minor magical items might have a Weird of 1. That's the minimum for a magical item or mystical place. The weird would then go up up up. 10 would be enormously mythical.

Uses?

The first use I could think of is the least interesting. Basically it states two facts:

1. "An Item of higher Weird than it's user will not show its true ability"

2. "An Item of higher Weird is destined for a user worthy of it (of same Weird or higher)"

This could simply be dealt with mechanically like:

Your Weird is 1: You can use level 1 of this item's powers
Your Weird is 2: You can use level 2 of this item's powers

And so on...

However, that's not as much fun as making items with untapped potential. Basically they might have 3 levels of powers but Weird 5. That means they have more powers that could be brought into play in times of need. It's an interesting idea.

In addition, I can see items spending weird "fate points style" on their own to guide them to their destiny.

However, the more interesting thing comes if you consider the same mechanic for locations, like "The Perilious Forest".

Let's say it has a Weird of 5. That means that anyone with a Weird less than 5 WILL be abused by the Forest's power. Someone with higher weird is considered immunized, or might easily get through.

What do I mean with "abused"? Well the Forest can use it's Weird to call on it's powers. With 5 for Weird that means it has 5 legendary powers. Each of these are potentially so powerful that they can only be overcome by spending a weird-fate-point OR by actually outsmarting it.

For example, they arrive in the pathless forrest. But they have the artefact of True Path of the Goddess which can find any path. With that they can overcome one of the Forest's 5 powers. Or they might find a guide or think of a clever way. In any case, if they overcome the Forest's powers they are considered "immune" to it.

There can be variable as well as permanent powers. Monsters living in the forest would be considered variable for example. Pathlessness is permanent. The variable can be new every time the character comes there.

These are just some loose ideas. How do they sound?

Not bad.
It's a pretty cool way of 'quantifying destiny'.
One thing I might add:
If charachters start weak and get more powerful, their weird might always be overshadowed by the places/itemts/people they meet, at least initially.
Possibly being exposed to a higher weird (destiny) than yourself could cause
your own destiny to increase. I.e. you get caught up in great things. I would say there is probably a greater chance of you actually overcome the challenges of greater destiny. In you example, if the characthers overcome the forrest challenges, their own destiny goes up.

Another possibly idea would be to have a sort of 'destiny' map, instead of a relationship map. This could tie in places, and items also. (A neat idea would be to have playable places/items. Player one is the hero, player 2 is the hero's magic talking sword. )

Christoffer,

Very cool idea.

Paul

Hi Christoffer,

What you're describing has been presented in almost the same terms in the game Orkworld, in which the crucial game mechanic called "Trouble" gets incorporated into items. Trouble is kind of like a Wyrd/Destiny mechanic that rises and falls during play, and it represents an unusual set of interactions (a) between player and character and (b) between character and GM.

Anyway, the point is not to suggest emulating Trouble, but rather examining how the author (John Wick) found a great way to incorporate significant magic items of many power levels into play without having either special rules or a laundry list of items.

Best,
Ron

The way I was envisioning the Weird was as a more or less static power level. You could almost think of it as the "level" of basic D&D.

The Weird is the Myth Power, the Magic of the Fate of the item or character or place. A measurement of it's magickness as a concept. But despite that it's not an abstract thing. The fates (or the norns would probably be more in line with the title) has woven a strong thread for it. And this thread can become stronger yet.

Anyway, bumping up and down (and obvious addition) ends up inappropriate if you look at it as a mix of the magic of the place (or whatever), it's fate and the myths around it.

Even if the Perillious Forest is forgotten for 500 years, it doesn't make it less powerful. Even if wielded by a farmer, the magical sword doesn't get less legendary.

The only time when I could imagine a temporary reduction, is if someone refuse their fate. Like the hero settles down as a bar owner. His weird is then obscured and he can die like any other men by trivial things like falling down the stairs when he's drunk.

Non-sentient objects never go down in weird until they are destroyed.

However, I don't figure I will use any of the possible consequences of having a weird which actually guides the character to his or her doom. I want the game more open-ended than that.

On the other hand it would be interesting to have a mechanism to let you state a destiny (die in the hands of an ork) to get an extra fate point. The bad thing is that when such a situation appears, the GM gets as many fatepoints as the character's maximum to play against that character as long as the situation persists.

As for being overshadowed by magical items. That's exactly the point. The point of "not being worthy" of an item. And the fact that people were fated to have certain items and such. Most items will be at Weird 1 though the same as starting heroes.

But again, think of it as D&D levels and you get a much better hint of how it could work in the mechanics.

I was thinking of quite mechanically updating it (weird) as you increase in experience. Because the weird is not the same as their heroic status or their fame.