Gorbash Kazdar
2005-08-21, 08:16 PM
I've recently been reading George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, as well as checking out some kings of England, and a certain thing struck me. Many of the famous and heroic characters of Martin's series have appellations attached to their names for deeds both great and ill, as well as for certain famous matters of happenstance. There's Daenerys Stormborn (also called the Mother of Dragons), Jaime Kingslayer, Robb the Young Wolf, Loras Tyrell who is called the Knight of Flowers, Gregor Clegane called the Mountain that Rides, his brother Sandor called the Hound, and others besides.
In history, there's William the Conqueror, Rollo the Walker, Eric the Red, Ivan the Terrible, and hundreds more. Even the semi-mythical King Arthur may have come from an appellation like this; the name is very similar to the word for "bear" in the language of the Britons. It's quite possible that a hero of the time was called the Bear and this eventually morphed into the name Arthur.
Anyways, it struck me that this could work as an interesting concept for character improvement in D&D. The idea is that, if a character earns an appelation via a role-playing situation (as awarded by the DM), they get a minor benefit for it, and then they can gain more by taking certain feats.
Pulled the original version of the feat, cause it needs more work. The idea is that the feat will be awarded as a free bonus feat whenever the DM feels that the character has earned a sobriquet. It would work similarly to the reputation bonus (http://www.12tomidnight.com/d20modernsrd/Reputation.php) from d20 modern, except the intitial bonus to skills would be +2, which would increase by +1 for each additional sobriquet, if any.
Additional feats in the tree would stem from exactly why you won the appellation - for example, "Name of Glory" would grant a bonus to those who won their name from some heroic deed, while "Ill-named" would benefit those famed for a crime or betrayal. Other ideas I have currently are for "Name of Mercy," "Name of Wisdom," "Accursed Name" (for those connect to a negative event or being named for a disfigurement), "Blessed Name" (the opposite of Accursed Name), and so forth. The benefits would be more powerful than Sobriquet and standard feats, since it should be hard to earn an appellation.
I was also considering requiring some sort of ritualistic expenditure of wealth to balance the concept, in the same manner of the Weapons of Legacy rules (that is, in order to unlock the full power of the weapons, you have to take on certain rituals and tasks that also require ritual goods, and thus a gold cost).
To note, I love the idea of using appellations with or without any real in game benefit, and I don't think you need to include a statistical benefit to make it worthwhile to include them. It just struck me as an excellent basis for a game mechanic that hadn't been explored, to my knowledge.
Your thoughts & suggestions?
In history, there's William the Conqueror, Rollo the Walker, Eric the Red, Ivan the Terrible, and hundreds more. Even the semi-mythical King Arthur may have come from an appellation like this; the name is very similar to the word for "bear" in the language of the Britons. It's quite possible that a hero of the time was called the Bear and this eventually morphed into the name Arthur.
Anyways, it struck me that this could work as an interesting concept for character improvement in D&D. The idea is that, if a character earns an appelation via a role-playing situation (as awarded by the DM), they get a minor benefit for it, and then they can gain more by taking certain feats.
Pulled the original version of the feat, cause it needs more work. The idea is that the feat will be awarded as a free bonus feat whenever the DM feels that the character has earned a sobriquet. It would work similarly to the reputation bonus (http://www.12tomidnight.com/d20modernsrd/Reputation.php) from d20 modern, except the intitial bonus to skills would be +2, which would increase by +1 for each additional sobriquet, if any.
Additional feats in the tree would stem from exactly why you won the appellation - for example, "Name of Glory" would grant a bonus to those who won their name from some heroic deed, while "Ill-named" would benefit those famed for a crime or betrayal. Other ideas I have currently are for "Name of Mercy," "Name of Wisdom," "Accursed Name" (for those connect to a negative event or being named for a disfigurement), "Blessed Name" (the opposite of Accursed Name), and so forth. The benefits would be more powerful than Sobriquet and standard feats, since it should be hard to earn an appellation.
I was also considering requiring some sort of ritualistic expenditure of wealth to balance the concept, in the same manner of the Weapons of Legacy rules (that is, in order to unlock the full power of the weapons, you have to take on certain rituals and tasks that also require ritual goods, and thus a gold cost).
To note, I love the idea of using appellations with or without any real in game benefit, and I don't think you need to include a statistical benefit to make it worthwhile to include them. It just struck me as an excellent basis for a game mechanic that hadn't been explored, to my knowledge.
Your thoughts & suggestions?