BerzerkerUnit
2022-09-03, 01:37 PM
An idea maybe for a dreadrealm,
Immortality is the norm. Once you reach the end of your peak years (say mid 40s for humans?) you just stop aging.
Only "The Worthy" are allowed to have children. If you don't earn the right to reproduce but do so anyway, bad things happen. Like your child being forced into an eternal life of drudgework for some family (never having the chance to become Worthy themselves) or worse, forced to become an Adventurer. Adventurers have to go out and risk their immortal life in battle with deadly creatures or challenging dangerous environs. That need to earn the right to have a family leads those of lower classes to be Adventurers, trying to complete deeds that can earn them the necessary votes or money for bribes or whatever metric is used to be deemed Worthy. Nobles aren't immune to this requirement, just more likely to be able to donate money or land in sufficient quantity to be deemed worthy.
They've decriminalized murder because immortality is the default. Actually killing someone is only sort of bad. Like it's understood to be a moral failing, but also a kind of necessary sacrifice for society so you're usually forced to pay a fine and suffer some corporal punishment for an Unworthy and maybe up to a year of Adventuring without recognition for one of the Worthy. Serial killers are not prominent, but often find their way into adventuring and mask their dark drive with the calling.
War is not a viable alternative. The ruling class can't get the necessary support of the people for something that will cost so many of them eternity. Death is possible, but only through violence. Illness just makes living awful, but if you live long enough despite it, you'll get over it sooner or later (most of the time). Starvation and thirst are just torture but you can always just walk out into the woods and eat leaves or bugs until you have the strength to do more.
The Law of Three Witnesses
Adventuring parties are generally groups of at least 4. This is to insure that a given individual, when reporting their deeds, has the requisite 3 witnesses for such accomplishments to be accredited to them. This means you have to trust your allies or be willing to share credit. If there's any discrepancy in reporting, no one gets the credit and the risk was wasted. 5th Members are often bards or scholars, professional witnesses to record each member's contributions.
This might create an interesting dynamic at the table as there's a narrative reason for players to record and recount their adventures from week to week.
There is no resurrection magic, though reincarnation works, however this requires the player to just build an entirely new PC anyway as what it actually does is use their carcass as a home for the recently displaced soul of some other poor adventurer from another world.
At times, the ruling class mandates a culling, and PCs may be tasked with population reduction. How they go about it might be up to them, or their patron (a Dark Lord of some kind) might have a very specific target in mind, like a village that refuses to pay taxes, or that's taken up with a foreign god, or that recently discovered a diamond mine...
Any thoughts to expand the concept are welcome or is it just too dark.
Immortality is the norm. Once you reach the end of your peak years (say mid 40s for humans?) you just stop aging.
Only "The Worthy" are allowed to have children. If you don't earn the right to reproduce but do so anyway, bad things happen. Like your child being forced into an eternal life of drudgework for some family (never having the chance to become Worthy themselves) or worse, forced to become an Adventurer. Adventurers have to go out and risk their immortal life in battle with deadly creatures or challenging dangerous environs. That need to earn the right to have a family leads those of lower classes to be Adventurers, trying to complete deeds that can earn them the necessary votes or money for bribes or whatever metric is used to be deemed Worthy. Nobles aren't immune to this requirement, just more likely to be able to donate money or land in sufficient quantity to be deemed worthy.
They've decriminalized murder because immortality is the default. Actually killing someone is only sort of bad. Like it's understood to be a moral failing, but also a kind of necessary sacrifice for society so you're usually forced to pay a fine and suffer some corporal punishment for an Unworthy and maybe up to a year of Adventuring without recognition for one of the Worthy. Serial killers are not prominent, but often find their way into adventuring and mask their dark drive with the calling.
War is not a viable alternative. The ruling class can't get the necessary support of the people for something that will cost so many of them eternity. Death is possible, but only through violence. Illness just makes living awful, but if you live long enough despite it, you'll get over it sooner or later (most of the time). Starvation and thirst are just torture but you can always just walk out into the woods and eat leaves or bugs until you have the strength to do more.
The Law of Three Witnesses
Adventuring parties are generally groups of at least 4. This is to insure that a given individual, when reporting their deeds, has the requisite 3 witnesses for such accomplishments to be accredited to them. This means you have to trust your allies or be willing to share credit. If there's any discrepancy in reporting, no one gets the credit and the risk was wasted. 5th Members are often bards or scholars, professional witnesses to record each member's contributions.
This might create an interesting dynamic at the table as there's a narrative reason for players to record and recount their adventures from week to week.
There is no resurrection magic, though reincarnation works, however this requires the player to just build an entirely new PC anyway as what it actually does is use their carcass as a home for the recently displaced soul of some other poor adventurer from another world.
At times, the ruling class mandates a culling, and PCs may be tasked with population reduction. How they go about it might be up to them, or their patron (a Dark Lord of some kind) might have a very specific target in mind, like a village that refuses to pay taxes, or that's taken up with a foreign god, or that recently discovered a diamond mine...
Any thoughts to expand the concept are welcome or is it just too dark.