curious-puzzle
2015-04-14, 11:44 PM
So for a game I'm hoping to run in the next while, I've devastated the homebrew setting I was making, and taken a LOT of inspiration from the "Souls" line of games by FROM software (Demons Souls, Dark Souls 1&2, Bloodborne - all awesome games I would highly recommend), specifically Dark Souls. One of the biggest parts of the game is the Curse your character is under - forever dying only to be reborn, over and over again until you've lost your sanity and identity, reduced to a murderous Hollow. Whenever you die, you are reborn at the last Bonfire you rested at; But so are the enemies you had previously slain. This is what I've slapped together so far!
I'm allowing races other than human, so can't just leave it as Humanity. This is meant to represent a character's identity and sanity. Without it, they become nothing but a Hollow, a murderous shell of themselves.
You start the game with a Vitae score equal to half (round down) of one attribute chosen at that time. This should be a defining aspect of your character (and yes, I'm meaning for players to choose their highest/most important stat)
Whenever you die, you lose one Vitae. As you lose Vitae, your body and mind degrade (I'm thinking at half your starting Vitae, healing magic begins to have a reduced effect, and you no longer can benefit from morale bonuses). At 0 Vitae, you've nearly gone Hollow. You gain the Undead template (probably use the Corpse template). If you die with 0 Vitae, you've gone Hollow and are permanently lost (the character is now a murdermonster under the DM's control).
You regain Vitae by defeating powerful monsters, discovering rare caches of crystallized Vitae...or defeating other Cursed individuals and consuming their Vitae
There is a danger to having too much Vitae, however. As your total goes past your starting Vitae score, your emotions start to burn more and more strongly, making you act erratically. Your body begins to twist and reform in response to the power. If your Vitae score ever doubles your starting total, you mutate into a horrific daemonic abomination, and control passes to the DM
I'm also planning on there being benefits to "burning" Vitae. The first is instant healing; by reducing your Vitae score by 1, you regain your maximum hp (standard action). You can also reduce your Vitae score by 1 to regain all the daily uses of a class ability. Spellcasting may also be refreshed by this as well
Places of sanctuary and respite, a Bonfire replenishes a cursed individual, and once attuned to, allows the cursed one to return to life here
To attune to a bonfire, you must rest at one for at least 15 minutes (unsure on the timing on this, should be more than just a quick sit-down, but I don't want to require 8 hours or anything like that)
Once you've attuned to a bonfire, when you die, your body and possessions will be reformed next to the bonfire 1 minute later. Class abilities and spell slots are NOT refreshed by this (this may change)
Bonfires are places of healing. If you rest for a night (8 hrs)within 30 feet of a Bonfire, you regain twice the amount of hp you normally would. I'm also considering just attuning to a Bonfire restoring some health, any thoughts? They may also exude a Sanctuary effect
To prevent characters from being too far separated if they go for quite a while without finding a new Bonfire, a member of a group of cursed individuals can become a Torchbearer. By sacrificing one point of Vitae (this point returns once they relinquish the role of Torchbearer, but cannot be restored by any means during that time) they take a piece of the Bonfire within themselves. If anyone but the Torchbearer dies, they instead are reborn next to the Torchbearer 1 minute later. If the Torchbearer dies, this reverts back to the Bonfire.
Those are the two main things I've got so far. Once the game starts, I may start adding additional abilities related to Vitae and Bonfires (possibly eventually warping between Bonfires for one). Any thoughts or opinions are appreciated, and anyone who's run or played in a Souls-themed game, I'd love to pick your brain. And if anyone's interested, here's a little blurb for the game and a draft of the intro doc for players:
The End has come to all of us, Gods and Mortals alike. The only choice, to be consumed by Flame or Darkness. Our only hope, to steal heroes from other worlds, other times, and pray one of them can succeed where all others have failed. Their fate becomes ours, and for that we should be damned even if they prevail. The Sun gutters, and the Moon burns. What will you do with the rest of your life?
You dream, and you dream of fire. An all-encompassing inferno, too bright to see anything but the flames, too hungry to do anything but feed the blaze. You burn, and are reborn in turn.
But the light dims, the flames contract. The darkness surrounds you, circling closer and closer as the fire flickers. Finally you are left with nothing but a small tongue of fire in the palm of your hand, no more than a candle flame, and the darkness presses down. It’s hungry. You can feel it watching you, waiting, all that is keeping it away is that small pinpoint of light.
You can hear a rhythmic grinding and ticking, the working of some vast machine in the distance that is slowing...to...a...h a l t
The flame goes out, and as the darkness consumes you, you snap awake.
This same dream has haunted you, driven you, these past few months. Perhaps you had it after finding a strange relic, symbols and carvings you didn’t recognize. Or perhaps after reading a scroll speaking of distant worlds, strangely new and crisp unlike the molding detritus it hid among. A madman mumbling riddles. Or you just had the terrible dream after laying down to sleep like any other night. But it has stayed with you since, whether the dream has awaited you every time you close your eyes, or if you’ve only had the dream once, but with such crystalline clarity that it branded itself into your memory.
The dream, and the Mark. A black circle, more like a deep bruise on the back of your hand than anything. Except that nothing you have tried can change or remove it...no wizardry, no healers, no prophets or priests. It doesn’t seem to do anything, other than fill you with a sense of foreboding. You’ve had the terrible feeling that even if you lost that hand entirely, the Mark would somehow still be there, a part of you.
You have found others with the Mark, others who have shared the eerie dream of darkness and flame. Perhaps you’ve become close companions, or knew them before. Or perhaps you are only thinly allied by the threads of the dream. Either way, you’ve finally come across a solid clue. An ancient temple, recently unearthed and the entrance discovered. No one has yet returned with treasure or knowledge, but all of your searching and hunting points to here.
There has to be something. There are scant few options left.
I'm allowing races other than human, so can't just leave it as Humanity. This is meant to represent a character's identity and sanity. Without it, they become nothing but a Hollow, a murderous shell of themselves.
You start the game with a Vitae score equal to half (round down) of one attribute chosen at that time. This should be a defining aspect of your character (and yes, I'm meaning for players to choose their highest/most important stat)
Whenever you die, you lose one Vitae. As you lose Vitae, your body and mind degrade (I'm thinking at half your starting Vitae, healing magic begins to have a reduced effect, and you no longer can benefit from morale bonuses). At 0 Vitae, you've nearly gone Hollow. You gain the Undead template (probably use the Corpse template). If you die with 0 Vitae, you've gone Hollow and are permanently lost (the character is now a murdermonster under the DM's control).
You regain Vitae by defeating powerful monsters, discovering rare caches of crystallized Vitae...or defeating other Cursed individuals and consuming their Vitae
There is a danger to having too much Vitae, however. As your total goes past your starting Vitae score, your emotions start to burn more and more strongly, making you act erratically. Your body begins to twist and reform in response to the power. If your Vitae score ever doubles your starting total, you mutate into a horrific daemonic abomination, and control passes to the DM
I'm also planning on there being benefits to "burning" Vitae. The first is instant healing; by reducing your Vitae score by 1, you regain your maximum hp (standard action). You can also reduce your Vitae score by 1 to regain all the daily uses of a class ability. Spellcasting may also be refreshed by this as well
Places of sanctuary and respite, a Bonfire replenishes a cursed individual, and once attuned to, allows the cursed one to return to life here
To attune to a bonfire, you must rest at one for at least 15 minutes (unsure on the timing on this, should be more than just a quick sit-down, but I don't want to require 8 hours or anything like that)
Once you've attuned to a bonfire, when you die, your body and possessions will be reformed next to the bonfire 1 minute later. Class abilities and spell slots are NOT refreshed by this (this may change)
Bonfires are places of healing. If you rest for a night (8 hrs)within 30 feet of a Bonfire, you regain twice the amount of hp you normally would. I'm also considering just attuning to a Bonfire restoring some health, any thoughts? They may also exude a Sanctuary effect
To prevent characters from being too far separated if they go for quite a while without finding a new Bonfire, a member of a group of cursed individuals can become a Torchbearer. By sacrificing one point of Vitae (this point returns once they relinquish the role of Torchbearer, but cannot be restored by any means during that time) they take a piece of the Bonfire within themselves. If anyone but the Torchbearer dies, they instead are reborn next to the Torchbearer 1 minute later. If the Torchbearer dies, this reverts back to the Bonfire.
Those are the two main things I've got so far. Once the game starts, I may start adding additional abilities related to Vitae and Bonfires (possibly eventually warping between Bonfires for one). Any thoughts or opinions are appreciated, and anyone who's run or played in a Souls-themed game, I'd love to pick your brain. And if anyone's interested, here's a little blurb for the game and a draft of the intro doc for players:
The End has come to all of us, Gods and Mortals alike. The only choice, to be consumed by Flame or Darkness. Our only hope, to steal heroes from other worlds, other times, and pray one of them can succeed where all others have failed. Their fate becomes ours, and for that we should be damned even if they prevail. The Sun gutters, and the Moon burns. What will you do with the rest of your life?
You dream, and you dream of fire. An all-encompassing inferno, too bright to see anything but the flames, too hungry to do anything but feed the blaze. You burn, and are reborn in turn.
But the light dims, the flames contract. The darkness surrounds you, circling closer and closer as the fire flickers. Finally you are left with nothing but a small tongue of fire in the palm of your hand, no more than a candle flame, and the darkness presses down. It’s hungry. You can feel it watching you, waiting, all that is keeping it away is that small pinpoint of light.
You can hear a rhythmic grinding and ticking, the working of some vast machine in the distance that is slowing...to...a...h a l t
The flame goes out, and as the darkness consumes you, you snap awake.
This same dream has haunted you, driven you, these past few months. Perhaps you had it after finding a strange relic, symbols and carvings you didn’t recognize. Or perhaps after reading a scroll speaking of distant worlds, strangely new and crisp unlike the molding detritus it hid among. A madman mumbling riddles. Or you just had the terrible dream after laying down to sleep like any other night. But it has stayed with you since, whether the dream has awaited you every time you close your eyes, or if you’ve only had the dream once, but with such crystalline clarity that it branded itself into your memory.
The dream, and the Mark. A black circle, more like a deep bruise on the back of your hand than anything. Except that nothing you have tried can change or remove it...no wizardry, no healers, no prophets or priests. It doesn’t seem to do anything, other than fill you with a sense of foreboding. You’ve had the terrible feeling that even if you lost that hand entirely, the Mark would somehow still be there, a part of you.
You have found others with the Mark, others who have shared the eerie dream of darkness and flame. Perhaps you’ve become close companions, or knew them before. Or perhaps you are only thinly allied by the threads of the dream. Either way, you’ve finally come across a solid clue. An ancient temple, recently unearthed and the entrance discovered. No one has yet returned with treasure or knowledge, but all of your searching and hunting points to here.
There has to be something. There are scant few options left.