2006-06-10 : The new specializations rules
Mastery sheets:
* Name
* Significance
* Plays into
* Vulnerable to
* Actions & Misactions
For the first chapter, create a mastery sheet only if you're the GM.
Pass the finished mastery sheet to the player of the appropriate character, or keep it for yourself if the appropriate character is one of your NPCs.
Masteries are an interesting part of the game: they're your opportunity to invest in the game and its world beyond this single chapter.
Name:
For the first chapter, create only one mastery. Choose something that grabs you from the elements.
Name it from its entry, adapting it as you like.
Let's say that the warrior cult grabs me. I write "initiation into the warrior cult."
Significance:
By default, every mastery is worth 1d6 to one endeavor.
For the first chapter, the mastery must be of modest significance. This means that you choose one of the following options:
* It's potent. It's worth a die one size larger - in this case, a d8 instead of a d6.
* It's broadly applicable. It contributes its die to an additional endeavor - in this case, two endeavors instead of one.
* It's innate. Whoever has it can't casually lose it, drop it, undo it, or have it revoked.
* It's unique. Whoever has it, no one else can have it too.
* It's far-reaching. Whoever has it, it allows them to take actions beyond their normal human reach.
(Great significance, by the way, means that you choose two options, and extreme significance means that you choose three.)
So initiation into the warrior cult is of modest significance: it's worth its default 1d6 to one endeavor, and I choose that it's innate. Once an initiate into the warrior cult, always an initiate into the warrior cult.
Plays into:
Name the endeavor or endeavors that the mastery contributes its die to. It's easiest, but not necessary, to stick to the five core endeavors.
I could choose "making war" for initiation into the warrior cult, but let's say I have a slightly different, more personal vision of what the mastery means, so I choose "defending myself." An initiate is a brother to lions even off the battlefield.
Vulnerable to:
Every mastery is vulnerable to one other mastery. Name it. For chapters after the first, you can choose a mastery that already exists, if one's suitable, but for the first chapter you're naming an altogether new mastery.
Whenever you go up against someone who has the other mastery, you gain no benefit at all from this mastery. That's what "vulnerable to" means.
Notice that a mastery's vulnerability is another mastery, not to an action (like "vulnerable to being stolen"), not to a circumstance (like "vulnerable to the full moon"), not to a class of person (like "vulnerable to ghosts"). It must be a mastery, something that players could legitimately write on their character sheets and get dice for.
Let's say that for initiation into the warrior cult, I choose "vulnerable to: animalism." I don't know yet what animalism means, as a mastery, but I'm imagining someone calling upon their own wild instincts to out-lion the lion. Maybe for some future chapter I'll create a mastery sheet for animalism, or maybe one of the other players will - who knows?
Actions & Misactions
List at least three things that you have the right to say when your character actively uses the mastery and has the upper hand. Start these with "I," and refer to the character's opponent as "you."
For broadly applicable masteries, list at least two for each endeavor.
For far-reaching masteries, establish their reach here. "I summon lightnings and fire down upon you," "I raise an army of swaying wheat-men from the field," "I peer in as though I were a bird on your windowsill."
List at least one thing that your opponent has the right to say when your character actively uses the mastery but her character has the upper hand. Start these with "you" - it's your opponent speaking for your character.
For initiation into the warrior cult, let's say that I choose, for actions, "I tear into you without fear or hesitation," "I move faster than any person ought to," and "I smash you aside like nothing."
Let's say that I choose, for a misaction, "you're berserk and panicked; all you can think about is escape."
Masteries in conflict
Roll a mastery's die whenever you do that endeavor. You can choose to not use the mastery if it makes sense; the mastery's die counts when you're determining who's rolling bigger dice.
When your opponent wins the advantage but not a total victory, she gets to choose one of:
* Go forward into the next round with an advantage die, a d6 with pips.
* Cut you off from your mastery for the rest of the conflict. You lose the associated die. She has to say how. She can't choose this if your mastery is innate.
* If you have other characters rolling on your side of the conflict, she can put one of them out for the rest of the conflict. She has to say how.
Masteries after the first chapter
Players of recurring characters choose one:
* Write an existing mastery on your character sheet. Don't choose one that's both unique and already written on someone else's.
* Write a new mastery on your character sheet. Create a mastery sheet to go with it.
* Bump up by one the significance of a mastery already on your character sheet.
* Reassign your character's dice and stats from fresh. Keep any specializations you've written on your character sheet from previous chapters, but divvy a fresh set of dice among your stats, and write out your endeavors and assign stats to them anew. Notice that choosing this option lets you recover any dice you've lost as the consequences of actions in earlier chapters.
* Create a one-time character sheet for your character specific to this chapter. For instance, you might create your character as a young person, or your character transformed into a leopard, or your character's immaterial presence, as the chapter calls for.
Starting with the third chapter:
When you make a new character, you can start with one mastery (of modest significance) on your character sheet. Choose one that already exists or make up a new one and create a sheet for it.
As GM, you should make a new mastery or two - maybe writing up one already named - pretty much every chapter.
Characters can have masteries without writing them on their character sheets. Writing it on your character sheet secures it for purposes of still having it at the beginning of the next chapter.
Have I left out anything you need to know?
1. On 2006-06-10, Jason M said:
This looks good to me. What's that bit about not sticking to the five core endeavors? Can you author new endeavors now? Can you still specialize endeavors?
2. On 2006-06-10, Vincent said:
You could always make up endeavors, and you still can.
When you create your character, you have the five core endeavors - asserting yourself, defending yourself, enduring duress, exerting yourself, manipulating others - and then whatever other endeavors you care to list for yourself, at least a couple and as many as 5 or 6. Making love, doing thuggery, riding horses, casting spells of hell-magic, whatever you need to fill out your character.
So when you create a mastery, you name the endeavor it modifies. It can be a core endeavor, but it could just as well be a non-core endeavor. "Initiation into the fourth and darkest black brotherhood of the pit," for instance, would be a mastery that contributes to casting spells of hell-magic.
In fact (and you probably already get this, Jason) you can add non-core endeavors to your character sheet whenever you want, at no cost, with no warning, justification, or provocation. They aren't mechanically significant! They only say what stat you roll when you do that thing - and you were always going to roll some stat. Now we know which.
3. On 2006-06-10, Vincent said:
Oh, ha ha! Here's a vital piece of information. "Masteries" is the new name for specializations. Same thing.
4. On 2006-06-10, colin roald said:
* Write an existing mastery on your character sheet. Don't choose one that's both unique and already written on someone else's.
What about characters that are not in the current chapter? Say at the end of the last session, the Head of War-Captain was in possession of Lady Catherine (and written on her sheet). Can Sir Carl claim to have it now? What if both Lady Catherine and Sir Carl end up both in the next chapter?
It seems like as long as it's possible for Catherine to come back, Carl can't have it. Seems like that would have the nice effect that if Carl wants it, he has to pull Catherine into a chapter and take it from her.
It's legal to have the consequence of a conflict be "erase the Head from your character sheet and let me write it on mine," right?
* Write a new mastery on your character sheet. Create a mastery sheet to go with it.
Does it matter what significance is the master you invent? Does it have to start at modest? Seems like it ought to.
* Bump up by one the significance of a mastery already on your character sheet.
So suppose I have Initiate of the Warrior Cult, and I want to bump up the significance by making it far-reaching, allowing me to literally summon a lion-spirit to aid in battle. Have I just effectively created a new mastery, Second-Circle Initiate, or whatever? I wouldn't expect that improving my character would cause everyone else with this mastery to get better, too.
I guess I'd be inclined to interpret this rule as "trade a mastery for one of one significance level better."
* Reassign your character's dice and stats from fresh. Keep any specializations you've written on your character sheet from previous chapters
(You missed a search-n-replace on "specialization".)
5. On 2006-06-10, colin roald said:
So for the first two chapters, the GM is making up masteries, but player characters aren't allowed to have them on their character sheets? So then GM characters can have them, or PCs but they won't be on their character sheets?
Is it possible to have an innate mastery that's not written on the character sheet? You can't be *temporarily* initiated into the warrior cult. But suppose you have "get visions from Minerva" as an innate mastery—under the old rules, you could "lend" a vision to another character. Does it come down to GM fiat whether it's allowed or not?
6. On 2006-06-11, Jason M said:
We've been playing with the endeavors as sacrosanct - we added specificity ("I use Grace instead of Guts when Defending Myself from mole people") but not new endeavors. Maybe that's the same thing.
Funny, but the semantic change from specialization to mastery makes a big difference in terms of comprehension to me.
7. On 2006-06-12, Vincent said:
Colin's questions!
It's legal to have the consequence of a conflict be "erase the Head from your character sheet and let me write it on mine," right?
Erase the head from your character sheet, yes. Write it on mine, no.
The only time you ever get to write a mastery on your character sheet is during a chapter's beforeplay - when you're updating a recurring character's sheet, or when you're first creating a new character sheet after chapter 2.
This is super important to the dynamics of unique masteries. The head in the box, right? At the end of chapter 1, it's in Cath's possession, but Carl is at the top of the owe list. At the beginning of chapter 2, Carl can add it to his character sheet, as his update, with no explanation given or required why he has it now and Cath doesn't.
Possession of it is what matters during a chapter. It can change hands (if it's not innate) a hundred times over the course of a chapter, and whoever happens to have it right now gets its dice. Between chapters - particularly, at the beginning of the next chapter - what matters is whose character sheet it's written on.
What about characters that are not in the current chapter?
If it's unique and written on someone's sheet, whether they're in the current chapter or not, you can't write it on your sheet.
Does it have to start at modest?
It does! I'll make that clear.
I guess I'd be inclined to interpret this rule as "trade a mastery for one of one significance level better."
Ah yes, very good. Let's go with that.
So for the first two chapters, the GM is making up masteries, but player characters aren't allowed to have them on their character sheets?
Exactly.
Is it possible to have an innate mastery that's not written on the character sheet? You can't be *temporarily* initiated into the warrior cult.
It's totally possible.
So I'm the GM and I create a sheet for initiation into the warrior cult. You're playing the young warrior, so I pass the sheet to you. For the duration of the chapter, you've got that mastery (you can't lose it, because it's innate).
The chapter ends. Sooner or later, your warrior comes to the top of the owe list. Now you get to decide: do you want to write "mastery: initiation into the warrior cult" on your character sheet?
If you decide yes, bammo, it's yours forever, more or less.
If you decide no, then huh! You're saying that you don't expect your initiation to be a forever kind of thing.
As GM, I might say, "well, you're still an initiate, so you still begin the chapter in possession of the mastery." Or I might say no such thing, I might say, "well, I guess the initiation didn't take for some reason," or "ha! They booted you out! They revoked initiation!"
If you don't write it on your sheet, you're leaving it up to me.
But suppose you have "get visions from Minerva" as an innate mastery—under the old rules, you could "lend" a vision to another character. Does it come down to GM fiat whether it's allowed or not?
It comes down to the compelling logic of the events in the game. Everyone's fiat.
Anyhow you can have visions from Minerva if you want to, you don't need the mastery to say so.
Like this: the mastery says that it's always within your rights to have visions from Minerva. It doesn't say that it's never within anyone else's; anyone might have visions from Minerva any time, as events in the game warrant. Just, you ALWAYS can.
8. On 2006-06-12, Vincent said:
Jason: We've been playing with the endeavors as sacrosanct - we added specificity ("I use Grace instead of Guts when Defending Myself from mole people") but not new endeavors. Maybe that's the same thing.
Same thing.
One of the uses of adding new endeavors is to cluster diverse activities under a single stat. Like, take making love.
If you DON'T have "making love" on your character sheet, and you say, "I make love, what stat do I roll?" I say, "well, are you exerting yourself? asserting yourself? manipulating someone? Whichever, roll that stat."
If you DO have "making love" on your character sheet, and you say, "I make love, what stat do I roll?" I say, "well, what stat does it say?" Now it doesn't matter whether you're exerting or asserting yourself, we don't have to analyze it and make that judgement. We just roll what it says.
This isn't obviously the thing to do, just a thing you can do. You might want your character to make love with different dice depending on whether you're exerting yourself, asserting yourself or manipulating someone. You get to choose.
This makes...
MB go "This whole example"*
KM go "This whole example"*
*click in for more
9. On 2006-06-12, colin roald said:
Do named GM characters ever go on the "we owe" list? I thought I saw somewhere that they don't, but now I can't find it.
10. On 2006-06-12, Vincent said:
They never do.
11. On 2006-07-01, Ringtone. said:
Very good site. Thanks!
Ringtone.
Free Ringtone.
12. On 2006-07-01, Didrex. said:
Good site. Thanks!!!
Cedar lumber.
Didrex.
Home business.
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