Madeiner
2013-02-28, 05:23 AM
Hi there.
In my new eberron campaign, which is very RP heavy with deep characters by design, we have an house rule about character deaths.
The first time a PC dies, he can use two action points to instead convert the death to a permanent penalty. The penalty is part numerical and part RP, and with time investment, RP and money, the PC can regain functionality, and even improve, turning the penalty into a bonus.
The second time the PC dies, the penalty is more severe, and can still be worked over, eliminating it with time, but not improving upon it.
The third time the penalty is permanent.
One character "died" once already. One lung was damaged, perforated by a sword: he was healed and had a mechanical bypass implanted, but now needs to drink special potions (costing money) each night to prevent death. Also, everytime he runs, charges or does strenous activity he must save or be fatigued.
The PCs have planned now to break into a bank, to recover some schematics which allow the PC to design a new mechanical lung, which will eliminate his penalty and also confer some bonuses.
<background explanation over>
The warforged alchemist also "died" last night. He fell off a lightning train and into a chasm below, while grappling another warforged (which tried to save him to keep him from falling, or at least the thinks so)
This warforged PC regards most warforged as brothers, while not getting along much with other humanoids.
The penalty idea was that the other warforged would implant a component in the PC's head.
This component would effectively change how the warforged PC perceives the people around him. He will no longer discern races: everyone he encounters will be seen as a generic warforged, even if he knows its not the case. He won't be able to discern warforged from other races. This is not based on sight, rather is a mind affecting effect.
He will however be able to "sense" other people, and his mind will assign "warforged" names to every person he can talk to. Even if someone tells him his "real" name, his mind will change it to a warforged name. In my campaign, warforged take names based on their personality or their traits. The villain was called "Wall" because he is based on survivability. Another was named "drummer", because he was, well, a drummer. And so on.
He will also be able to sense some personality traits, possibly emotions or something else (any help?) from the people he interacts with. The idea came from Death Notes, where character could see other people lifetime remaining. I want the warforged to "see" something too.
I think this is a nice idea, since at character creation we planned how his character will evolve, and will learn to judge people not based on their race, but on their actions.
HOWEVER:
This is very complex RPing. I'm not sure the player can handle it well, and also don't know if he will like it. I will offer him the chance to "bail out" by forcibly removing the component and taking some other damage instead.
I will have to prepare "warforged specific" description of every NPC they meet. Also (but this is a good think) he might discover things easily. For example, what if the warforged name he perceives for a friendly npc is "Traitor"? How will he react?
Everything i "say" as DM will have to be interpreted differently by the warforged PC. I might describe a family eating dinner, and all he would see would be warforged acting strangely.
RP will be complex: the player KNOWS it is a human family, his character does not. What if there are so many signs someone is human that even the character could not possibly believe their fake warforged form? What if the other PCs tell him they are human?
What do you think? Can this work and would it be enjoyable? Could you also suggest me some "mind reading" abilities the PC would have? I thought about the name, maybe current emotions, but what else?
Also i'd need some way to handle those situations where it is clear he is facing humans, not warforged. Should he be able to overcome his sense and, while still seeing them as warforged, can regard them has humans?
In my new eberron campaign, which is very RP heavy with deep characters by design, we have an house rule about character deaths.
The first time a PC dies, he can use two action points to instead convert the death to a permanent penalty. The penalty is part numerical and part RP, and with time investment, RP and money, the PC can regain functionality, and even improve, turning the penalty into a bonus.
The second time the PC dies, the penalty is more severe, and can still be worked over, eliminating it with time, but not improving upon it.
The third time the penalty is permanent.
One character "died" once already. One lung was damaged, perforated by a sword: he was healed and had a mechanical bypass implanted, but now needs to drink special potions (costing money) each night to prevent death. Also, everytime he runs, charges or does strenous activity he must save or be fatigued.
The PCs have planned now to break into a bank, to recover some schematics which allow the PC to design a new mechanical lung, which will eliminate his penalty and also confer some bonuses.
<background explanation over>
The warforged alchemist also "died" last night. He fell off a lightning train and into a chasm below, while grappling another warforged (which tried to save him to keep him from falling, or at least the thinks so)
This warforged PC regards most warforged as brothers, while not getting along much with other humanoids.
The penalty idea was that the other warforged would implant a component in the PC's head.
This component would effectively change how the warforged PC perceives the people around him. He will no longer discern races: everyone he encounters will be seen as a generic warforged, even if he knows its not the case. He won't be able to discern warforged from other races. This is not based on sight, rather is a mind affecting effect.
He will however be able to "sense" other people, and his mind will assign "warforged" names to every person he can talk to. Even if someone tells him his "real" name, his mind will change it to a warforged name. In my campaign, warforged take names based on their personality or their traits. The villain was called "Wall" because he is based on survivability. Another was named "drummer", because he was, well, a drummer. And so on.
He will also be able to sense some personality traits, possibly emotions or something else (any help?) from the people he interacts with. The idea came from Death Notes, where character could see other people lifetime remaining. I want the warforged to "see" something too.
I think this is a nice idea, since at character creation we planned how his character will evolve, and will learn to judge people not based on their race, but on their actions.
HOWEVER:
This is very complex RPing. I'm not sure the player can handle it well, and also don't know if he will like it. I will offer him the chance to "bail out" by forcibly removing the component and taking some other damage instead.
I will have to prepare "warforged specific" description of every NPC they meet. Also (but this is a good think) he might discover things easily. For example, what if the warforged name he perceives for a friendly npc is "Traitor"? How will he react?
Everything i "say" as DM will have to be interpreted differently by the warforged PC. I might describe a family eating dinner, and all he would see would be warforged acting strangely.
RP will be complex: the player KNOWS it is a human family, his character does not. What if there are so many signs someone is human that even the character could not possibly believe their fake warforged form? What if the other PCs tell him they are human?
What do you think? Can this work and would it be enjoyable? Could you also suggest me some "mind reading" abilities the PC would have? I thought about the name, maybe current emotions, but what else?
Also i'd need some way to handle those situations where it is clear he is facing humans, not warforged. Should he be able to overcome his sense and, while still seeing them as warforged, can regard them has humans?