Sparky McDibben
2021-03-28, 07:07 PM
This is my attempt at creating a game structure for handling situations when players use their abilities in creative ways that are clearly outside the intended scope of the ability. It focuses more heavily on casters, but could be easily adjusted to include martial abilities.
We've all been there: some player proposes a use of an ability that wildly stretches what that ability was supposed to be used for. For me, I was struck by the idea of using the suggestion spell to give multiple commands to a target. For instance, why not say, "You will think that everything I [the caster] say to you [the target] for the next 8 hours is a phenomenal idea, and you will attempt to carry it out to the best of your ability." This amounts to wishing for more wishes - instead of one command that requires an 8 hour concentration duration, I can give a whole bunch of commands with an 8 hour concentration duration.
My first thought was, "This is a great idea!" My second thought was, "I don't know of a single DM that would go for that." Now, I hate shutting down my player's ideas, and I also think, "Because I said it doesn't work," is a weak-sauce DM-fiat crap. So, I got to thinking about how I would handle this situation at the table if it ever came up, and it led me down a couple of interesting rabbit holes.
This might be horrendously dull, which is why I've hidden it behind a spoiler - the core basis boils down to: Understand why spells in your world operate the way they do on a fiction level.
I decided that in my worlds, spells aren't just a rote effect: they're hardcoded into the structure of the multiverse. That's why a fireball on Eberron and a fireball on Oerth are the exact same mechanical fireball, requiring the same components, casting times, and ranges. Notably, this is also why names like Mordenkainen are known on places Mordenkainen has no record of visiting: He literally signed his name into the structure of Reality. Mages in Wildemount see the same spellcraft as the ones in Faerun, literally saying, "Mordenkainen came up with this spell." Ergo, someone has to embed this structure into the Weave of magic itself, threading it throughout the cosmos. That sounds like a task that would require a whole bunch of mystical energy, and could piss off a large number of entities (which is why Mordenkainen didn't try it until he was an archmage).
Therefore, if you wanted to create a spell across the entire multiverse, you've got to get literal divine sanction, even for arcane spells. You've got to go to every god whose duties this spell impacts and get them to sign off on your effect. That's why enchantment spells have limited durations and bunch of fine print - the god/dess of Destiny put those codicils in there because when people act according to their free will, it screws up the Ineffable Tapestry of Fate.
Knowing why spells behave a certain way is more than just good worldbuilding; it informs your response when players try to push those spells beyond their restrictions. I immediately started thinking about how the god/dess of Destiny would react if casters started abusing their good nature. Those weird assassins brotherhoods from Wanted! Wildly improbable Final Destination shenanigans! Psychotic flumphs (for absolutely no reason)! Then I calmed down and realized I needed a system that could potentially encompass every supernatural entity, even the little gods. This is what I came up with:
When a player uses an ability in a way authorized by the text but clearly outside its intended function, the player draws the notice of otherworldly powers. The powers are put on notice that someone is tampering with the Way Things Ought To Be, and begin actively seeking the player out. Roll 1d4 and consult the following table:
1d4
Catastrophe Die
1
1d6
2
1d8
3
1d10
4
The player has drawn attention from two or more powers. Roll again to determine the size of the Catastrophe Die, ignoring this result on subsequent rolls
Next, determine the powers involved in searching for the PC. For example, if player is abusing the sleep spell to hurt people, they might draw the attention of Morpheus, god of dreams. Consider how Morpheus might react. Morpheus might stage a dream-test for the PC, illustrating likely consequences for their actions (perhaps that could be run as a skill challenge, with failures dealing psychic damage, or even temporarily erasing the sleep spell from the PC's mind!). Alternatively, Morpheus could send dreams to the PCs acquaintances, implying what the PC has been doing and generating social pressure. Finally, if the PC still isn't getting the message, Morpheus might trap the entire party in a nightmare-maze, confronting them with the ghosts of the PCs victims and harrowing them through a series of horrifying nightmares until the PCs escape. If you can't think of an entity right then, I find the Inevitables are a good default option for this.
If the PC has attracted attention from two power, its possible that one of the powers involved likes what the PC is doing. For example, if your PCs are using fire-based spells to cause wildfires, its possible that the goddess of fire is seeking them out to offer them divine patronage, while the Obad-Hai, the Green Man, is seeking them out to bestow a divine can of whoop-a$$. Have the player keep track of two Catastrophe Dice, each starting at the same level.
Catastrophe Dice are a countdown clock. The higher the die size, the longer the time left on the clock. Every time the PC uses their ability after the first time, have them roll the Catastrophe Die. If the die comes up as anything other than a 1, nothing happens. On a 1, however, the power they've irritated tracked down the PC's position, and takes action. Using the example with Morpheus, this might be when Morpheus sends the PC the dream-test. After the power takes action, the Catastrophe Die is reduced one step (from a d10 to a d8, for example). The Catastrophe Die cannot be increased, and cannot be reduced lower than a d4. Should the PC roll a 1 on a d4, the power involved should be throwing significant obstacles at the PC (angelic Kill-Teams of an appropriate CR, elemental eruptions, omens of doom for anyone who helps the party, etc.).
The way to get this attention to stop is actually fairly simple: the PC just has to encode a new spell into the fabric of Reality. On a metagame level, that means working with the DM to decide an appropriate level for the new spell, along with any other restrictions (concentration, casting time, etc). On a narrative level, however, that means an adventure of some kind. In my worlds, I make the PCs travel to an appropriate place (Astral Plane, the very first temple, the Stone Table, etc), and run it as a skill challenge. If the PC has wisely restricted their activities, heeded warnings, and generally not pissed too many people off, they can use the Catastrophe Die as a bonus to their rolls (if the Catastrophe Die comes up a 1, though, they've put their foot in their mouth; they roll the Die again and subtract it from their skill check). If the PC has seriously angered the Powers That Be, they might suffer disadvantage, a higher DC, or they might have a bunch of restrictions on their proposed spell. For this reason, I usually have the player create the spell they want to have, and then I identify three restrictions on it. Depending on the player's rolls, those restrictions can be either bypassed or loosened, and the final result written down. And from then on, in every campaign, that spell is part of the new canon.
Two very important points - the player should be the one rolling the Catastrophe Die, and you should tell the player exactly what's happening. The player has to be the one to roll because otherwise it starts to feel punitive, discouraging creative play. Also, the player should know when the dice come up with bad news, because that tells them "Something bad is about to happen; you should prepare for that." This raises tension, produces conflict, and lets you build anticipation. You should tell the player what's happening because 1) the character would probably know the metaphysical constraints of their magic, 2) the character is definitely not the first person to try pushing their luck in this way, so knowledge of these consequences exists in the game world, and 3) doing so empowers the player to make informed risk/reward decisions.
The intended function is enable the player to enjoy a creative use of a spell or ability without that creative use becoming a crutch. I have seen several instances when players realize they've come up with a use for an ability that is more powerful than intended and it becomes their "go-to" move. This system tries to place elastic consequences (in that you can scale the severity of the consequence up or down to taste) that can build over time, introducing a long-running element in your game. Similarly, this structure tries to reduce DM fiat - it acts as a prompt: why are you uncomfortable with the player's proposed use of this ability? What resources should they be expending to achieve the desired result? Then, it gives you a framework for how your world pushes back that takes "Because I said so" off the table. The desired end-state is one where both parties are having more fun.
To that end, be very careful when designing the Power's intrusions. If it feels like "Rocks fall, everybody dies," that defeats the purpose of the system. I find that using these intrusions as a complication to existing play goals tends to work the best. It sucks when diabolical bounty hunters from Nessus ambush you at the inn. It sucks way worse when those same bounty hunters crash the Harvesttide Ball, letting everyone in town know the PCs are reckless troublemakers and not to be trusted.
This system can be abstracted and used for any circumstance when the party has irritated a person or faction with resources greater than theirs. Let's take an example: the party just robbed the baron's tax collectors, but failed their Stealth check. You know that the party will be in this area for a while, and rather than introduce the baron as immediately tracking the PCs down, decide to let the baron's antagonism simmer in the background for a bit. As such, the failed Stealth check represents the PCs leaving some incriminating or identifying information at the scene.
So the baron is the antagonist; that leaves us the trigger, the consequences, and the resolution.
The trigger is the condition that causes the players to roll the Catastrophe Die. In this case, I would have the trigger be "whenever the PCs take an action that might get them identified by the baron's minions." Go to the market, head out on adventure, hit up your contacts...make a roll. Rather than decide if the baron has minions patrolling all these locations, or who the minions have paid off for information, etc., I just let the dice tell me that information, then make note of it. If the PCs roll a 1 when they go to visit Blind Clem, well, it turns out Blind Clem has outstanding warrants, and cut a deal with the baron for clemency.
The consequences can vary according to the antagonist's resources. The baron probably has a Goon Squad, a staff wizard or cleric, an assassin on payroll, and the powers of High, Middle, and Low Justice in their domain. Consequences could involve the Goon Squad roughing up the player's associates, making it harder to fence their loot. Or the wizard might summon an invisible stalker to hunt the PCs down. Or the baron could declare them all outlaws and now they're on the run, with their faces plastered everywhere and the assassin after them.
The resolution is how the players get out of this predicament, and requires knowing the antagonist's weaknesses. Weaknesses might include a secret escape tunnel that leads to the baron's bedroom, compromising blackmail material currently held by the local bishop, or the fact that the baron's sole heir is due back from Loxdon University in a week. The PCs might break in and either threaten or outright kill the baron (in which case they now have to deal with the baron's heir), or they might steal the blackmail material and use it to force the baron to back off, or they might kidnap the heir and use them as a hostage to make the baron call off their Goon Squad.
We've all been there: some player proposes a use of an ability that wildly stretches what that ability was supposed to be used for. For me, I was struck by the idea of using the suggestion spell to give multiple commands to a target. For instance, why not say, "You will think that everything I [the caster] say to you [the target] for the next 8 hours is a phenomenal idea, and you will attempt to carry it out to the best of your ability." This amounts to wishing for more wishes - instead of one command that requires an 8 hour concentration duration, I can give a whole bunch of commands with an 8 hour concentration duration.
My first thought was, "This is a great idea!" My second thought was, "I don't know of a single DM that would go for that." Now, I hate shutting down my player's ideas, and I also think, "Because I said it doesn't work," is a weak-sauce DM-fiat crap. So, I got to thinking about how I would handle this situation at the table if it ever came up, and it led me down a couple of interesting rabbit holes.
This might be horrendously dull, which is why I've hidden it behind a spoiler - the core basis boils down to: Understand why spells in your world operate the way they do on a fiction level.
I decided that in my worlds, spells aren't just a rote effect: they're hardcoded into the structure of the multiverse. That's why a fireball on Eberron and a fireball on Oerth are the exact same mechanical fireball, requiring the same components, casting times, and ranges. Notably, this is also why names like Mordenkainen are known on places Mordenkainen has no record of visiting: He literally signed his name into the structure of Reality. Mages in Wildemount see the same spellcraft as the ones in Faerun, literally saying, "Mordenkainen came up with this spell." Ergo, someone has to embed this structure into the Weave of magic itself, threading it throughout the cosmos. That sounds like a task that would require a whole bunch of mystical energy, and could piss off a large number of entities (which is why Mordenkainen didn't try it until he was an archmage).
Therefore, if you wanted to create a spell across the entire multiverse, you've got to get literal divine sanction, even for arcane spells. You've got to go to every god whose duties this spell impacts and get them to sign off on your effect. That's why enchantment spells have limited durations and bunch of fine print - the god/dess of Destiny put those codicils in there because when people act according to their free will, it screws up the Ineffable Tapestry of Fate.
Knowing why spells behave a certain way is more than just good worldbuilding; it informs your response when players try to push those spells beyond their restrictions. I immediately started thinking about how the god/dess of Destiny would react if casters started abusing their good nature. Those weird assassins brotherhoods from Wanted! Wildly improbable Final Destination shenanigans! Psychotic flumphs (for absolutely no reason)! Then I calmed down and realized I needed a system that could potentially encompass every supernatural entity, even the little gods. This is what I came up with:
When a player uses an ability in a way authorized by the text but clearly outside its intended function, the player draws the notice of otherworldly powers. The powers are put on notice that someone is tampering with the Way Things Ought To Be, and begin actively seeking the player out. Roll 1d4 and consult the following table:
1d4
Catastrophe Die
1
1d6
2
1d8
3
1d10
4
The player has drawn attention from two or more powers. Roll again to determine the size of the Catastrophe Die, ignoring this result on subsequent rolls
Next, determine the powers involved in searching for the PC. For example, if player is abusing the sleep spell to hurt people, they might draw the attention of Morpheus, god of dreams. Consider how Morpheus might react. Morpheus might stage a dream-test for the PC, illustrating likely consequences for their actions (perhaps that could be run as a skill challenge, with failures dealing psychic damage, or even temporarily erasing the sleep spell from the PC's mind!). Alternatively, Morpheus could send dreams to the PCs acquaintances, implying what the PC has been doing and generating social pressure. Finally, if the PC still isn't getting the message, Morpheus might trap the entire party in a nightmare-maze, confronting them with the ghosts of the PCs victims and harrowing them through a series of horrifying nightmares until the PCs escape. If you can't think of an entity right then, I find the Inevitables are a good default option for this.
If the PC has attracted attention from two power, its possible that one of the powers involved likes what the PC is doing. For example, if your PCs are using fire-based spells to cause wildfires, its possible that the goddess of fire is seeking them out to offer them divine patronage, while the Obad-Hai, the Green Man, is seeking them out to bestow a divine can of whoop-a$$. Have the player keep track of two Catastrophe Dice, each starting at the same level.
Catastrophe Dice are a countdown clock. The higher the die size, the longer the time left on the clock. Every time the PC uses their ability after the first time, have them roll the Catastrophe Die. If the die comes up as anything other than a 1, nothing happens. On a 1, however, the power they've irritated tracked down the PC's position, and takes action. Using the example with Morpheus, this might be when Morpheus sends the PC the dream-test. After the power takes action, the Catastrophe Die is reduced one step (from a d10 to a d8, for example). The Catastrophe Die cannot be increased, and cannot be reduced lower than a d4. Should the PC roll a 1 on a d4, the power involved should be throwing significant obstacles at the PC (angelic Kill-Teams of an appropriate CR, elemental eruptions, omens of doom for anyone who helps the party, etc.).
The way to get this attention to stop is actually fairly simple: the PC just has to encode a new spell into the fabric of Reality. On a metagame level, that means working with the DM to decide an appropriate level for the new spell, along with any other restrictions (concentration, casting time, etc). On a narrative level, however, that means an adventure of some kind. In my worlds, I make the PCs travel to an appropriate place (Astral Plane, the very first temple, the Stone Table, etc), and run it as a skill challenge. If the PC has wisely restricted their activities, heeded warnings, and generally not pissed too many people off, they can use the Catastrophe Die as a bonus to their rolls (if the Catastrophe Die comes up a 1, though, they've put their foot in their mouth; they roll the Die again and subtract it from their skill check). If the PC has seriously angered the Powers That Be, they might suffer disadvantage, a higher DC, or they might have a bunch of restrictions on their proposed spell. For this reason, I usually have the player create the spell they want to have, and then I identify three restrictions on it. Depending on the player's rolls, those restrictions can be either bypassed or loosened, and the final result written down. And from then on, in every campaign, that spell is part of the new canon.
Two very important points - the player should be the one rolling the Catastrophe Die, and you should tell the player exactly what's happening. The player has to be the one to roll because otherwise it starts to feel punitive, discouraging creative play. Also, the player should know when the dice come up with bad news, because that tells them "Something bad is about to happen; you should prepare for that." This raises tension, produces conflict, and lets you build anticipation. You should tell the player what's happening because 1) the character would probably know the metaphysical constraints of their magic, 2) the character is definitely not the first person to try pushing their luck in this way, so knowledge of these consequences exists in the game world, and 3) doing so empowers the player to make informed risk/reward decisions.
The intended function is enable the player to enjoy a creative use of a spell or ability without that creative use becoming a crutch. I have seen several instances when players realize they've come up with a use for an ability that is more powerful than intended and it becomes their "go-to" move. This system tries to place elastic consequences (in that you can scale the severity of the consequence up or down to taste) that can build over time, introducing a long-running element in your game. Similarly, this structure tries to reduce DM fiat - it acts as a prompt: why are you uncomfortable with the player's proposed use of this ability? What resources should they be expending to achieve the desired result? Then, it gives you a framework for how your world pushes back that takes "Because I said so" off the table. The desired end-state is one where both parties are having more fun.
To that end, be very careful when designing the Power's intrusions. If it feels like "Rocks fall, everybody dies," that defeats the purpose of the system. I find that using these intrusions as a complication to existing play goals tends to work the best. It sucks when diabolical bounty hunters from Nessus ambush you at the inn. It sucks way worse when those same bounty hunters crash the Harvesttide Ball, letting everyone in town know the PCs are reckless troublemakers and not to be trusted.
This system can be abstracted and used for any circumstance when the party has irritated a person or faction with resources greater than theirs. Let's take an example: the party just robbed the baron's tax collectors, but failed their Stealth check. You know that the party will be in this area for a while, and rather than introduce the baron as immediately tracking the PCs down, decide to let the baron's antagonism simmer in the background for a bit. As such, the failed Stealth check represents the PCs leaving some incriminating or identifying information at the scene.
So the baron is the antagonist; that leaves us the trigger, the consequences, and the resolution.
The trigger is the condition that causes the players to roll the Catastrophe Die. In this case, I would have the trigger be "whenever the PCs take an action that might get them identified by the baron's minions." Go to the market, head out on adventure, hit up your contacts...make a roll. Rather than decide if the baron has minions patrolling all these locations, or who the minions have paid off for information, etc., I just let the dice tell me that information, then make note of it. If the PCs roll a 1 when they go to visit Blind Clem, well, it turns out Blind Clem has outstanding warrants, and cut a deal with the baron for clemency.
The consequences can vary according to the antagonist's resources. The baron probably has a Goon Squad, a staff wizard or cleric, an assassin on payroll, and the powers of High, Middle, and Low Justice in their domain. Consequences could involve the Goon Squad roughing up the player's associates, making it harder to fence their loot. Or the wizard might summon an invisible stalker to hunt the PCs down. Or the baron could declare them all outlaws and now they're on the run, with their faces plastered everywhere and the assassin after them.
The resolution is how the players get out of this predicament, and requires knowing the antagonist's weaknesses. Weaknesses might include a secret escape tunnel that leads to the baron's bedroom, compromising blackmail material currently held by the local bishop, or the fact that the baron's sole heir is due back from Loxdon University in a week. The PCs might break in and either threaten or outright kill the baron (in which case they now have to deal with the baron's heir), or they might steal the blackmail material and use it to force the baron to back off, or they might kidnap the heir and use them as a hostage to make the baron call off their Goon Squad.