I have lately been fascinated by the mythological concepts in Path of Exile; one of the scariest deities you encounter is Kitava, the Hungering One; your “devourer” creatures are similar although not necessarily identical. There are also the brother deities Innocence and Sin, the first of which sort of alternates between what in D&D alignment cliches would be called Lawful Good and Lawful Evil, depending on how arrogant his own followers are; the second is at least presently being portrayed as a humble and generally good deity, using his godly title “Thief of Virtue” to become a sort of Prometheus, although given that all deities in the setting are in some sense “god climbers” as well, this may change as the setting continues to develop.
Corpse Balls are a cool creature type. It would amuse me to see an adventure in which the concepts are introduced over time, then dropped/forgotten for a bit, only for the party to later find themselves stranded on a miserable planet covered in decayed junk, only to realize that underneath whatever layer of non-living material platform is currently protecting them, a big gassy corpse-ball is carrying them through space.
I'd be very interested to see how your setting works out. I am a big fan of more interesting mechanics, and I guess by interesting I mean those that add depth to the characters and environment. However, I find that I usually fall into the minority crowd. People seem to generally want to hit things and win for fame and glory, or gain lots of loot and experience. End of story. Maybe your setting does not toy with the general need of people to vicariously explore their own hero journey through an avatar..? So then are you simply suggesting to throw in some new monsters and concepts, but leave the game ideals as are (with the exception of the concept of a Fate weaver)?
I think that what I'm interested in is connected with a lot of the philosophical side of the game, and I want to make things that help players and DMs explore that. But it's a setting book I'm thinking about, not a mechanics book for the most part. The world I'm conceiving is meant to be, at least to a degree, system agnostic. so there are limits to how far I can push the mechanics. But hopefully the setting itself will discourage some of the murderhobo tendencies you refer to.
The other week I found myself homebrewing an expy of Leslie Fish’s “Arizona Sword” and the process of playing it out reminded me of your “Fustians” — for those unfamiliar with the ballad, it’s about an enchanted sword inscribed with runes saying “I serve but the good, of Life and Liberty,” which almost immediately kills its wielder because it senses his desire for power and control. (Fish was an anarchist…)
In implementation, it’s a “cursed” weapon that attempts (high Wisdom/Will save) to inflict damage on the user whenever they try to do something that would harm an innocent, or try to make a decision that affects someone else without being asked, while wielding it. (You are free to put it down at any time.) In terms of raw power it’s not Vorpal or anything (like a certain Nightblood expy our group played around with a couple years ago). Anyway, fun ideas to mess with — cursed artifacts that force their bearers to act “good”, at least for a certain value of “good” as perceived by their creators.
I have lately been fascinated by the mythological concepts in Path of Exile; one of the scariest deities you encounter is Kitava, the Hungering One; your “devourer” creatures are similar although not necessarily identical. There are also the brother deities Innocence and Sin, the first of which sort of alternates between what in D&D alignment cliches would be called Lawful Good and Lawful Evil, depending on how arrogant his own followers are; the second is at least presently being portrayed as a humble and generally good deity, using his godly title “Thief of Virtue” to become a sort of Prometheus, although given that all deities in the setting are in some sense “god climbers” as well, this may change as the setting continues to develop.
Corpse Balls are a cool creature type. It would amuse me to see an adventure in which the concepts are introduced over time, then dropped/forgotten for a bit, only for the party to later find themselves stranded on a miserable planet covered in decayed junk, only to realize that underneath whatever layer of non-living material platform is currently protecting them, a big gassy corpse-ball is carrying them through space.
I love that as a plot hook, might steal it if that's okay!
Please do; I look forward to someday reading about how it went, if you’re still Posting at that time. :)
I'd be very interested to see how your setting works out. I am a big fan of more interesting mechanics, and I guess by interesting I mean those that add depth to the characters and environment. However, I find that I usually fall into the minority crowd. People seem to generally want to hit things and win for fame and glory, or gain lots of loot and experience. End of story. Maybe your setting does not toy with the general need of people to vicariously explore their own hero journey through an avatar..? So then are you simply suggesting to throw in some new monsters and concepts, but leave the game ideals as are (with the exception of the concept of a Fate weaver)?
I think that what I'm interested in is connected with a lot of the philosophical side of the game, and I want to make things that help players and DMs explore that. But it's a setting book I'm thinking about, not a mechanics book for the most part. The world I'm conceiving is meant to be, at least to a degree, system agnostic. so there are limits to how far I can push the mechanics. But hopefully the setting itself will discourage some of the murderhobo tendencies you refer to.
The other week I found myself homebrewing an expy of Leslie Fish’s “Arizona Sword” and the process of playing it out reminded me of your “Fustians” — for those unfamiliar with the ballad, it’s about an enchanted sword inscribed with runes saying “I serve but the good, of Life and Liberty,” which almost immediately kills its wielder because it senses his desire for power and control. (Fish was an anarchist…)
In implementation, it’s a “cursed” weapon that attempts (high Wisdom/Will save) to inflict damage on the user whenever they try to do something that would harm an innocent, or try to make a decision that affects someone else without being asked, while wielding it. (You are free to put it down at any time.) In terms of raw power it’s not Vorpal or anything (like a certain Nightblood expy our group played around with a couple years ago). Anyway, fun ideas to mess with — cursed artifacts that force their bearers to act “good”, at least for a certain value of “good” as perceived by their creators.