All
I wanted to share what I have recently done for a player who's going for a Signature Item as part of their Player Story. This is a character who we 'recreated' from 1e. His character had been Sidhe blooded "Child of the Sea" with Glamour Magick, mostly around sea-style abilities. When we redid in 2e, he was a Knight of Elaine and wanted to get his Sidhe Sword back in hand. In addition to the normal "Signature Item" abilities, I've added a few others (Same cost as I didn't feel these were going to make it overpowered).
Oidhche Tonn "Night's Wave" - Sidhe Sword
These properties are always on:
1) Always know when a Storm is coming
2) You cannot drown while you have the sword in your possession
3) You can see clearly underwater even in the darkest depths of the ocean while you have the sword in your possession
4) Gain 3 Bonus Dice instead of 2 Bonus Dice on a Sailing Risk (Spend Hero Point) while you have the sword in your possession
5) Once per session, you may spend 1 Hero Point to heal a ship of 1 Critical Hit
The hilt is made of translucent crystal, with a lapiz-lazuli gem set into the pommel. The blade is a strange blue-gray metal with ice crystals that constantly form and melt upon the crossguard. The hilt is always cool to the touch.
Is it still 3 pts? Because I could easily see it being a 4 or a 5 with those powers.
/Soren A. Hjorth
Interesting point.
I wonder, could each of those powers be a 1 pt advantage? That would make for some easy personal stories (1 step: "Learn another power of my sword"), and you could dribble out those effects over time.
Thoughts?
It's still 3-points. I didn't really think most of the additions warranted more points, given how specific they are (I'm not sure how often the group is going to be swimming in the depths). Because it's a sword, I don't see it adding a lot to normal Skills, so I gave it a boost to Sailing since that's its 'purpose'.
I like the idea in general of dribbling 1-pt advantages to a Signature Item and I will use that going forward. For this specific item though, I honestly don't think I as a player would spend a point so that I could sense coming storms or see clearly in the dark depths of the ocean. The 'can't drown' might be useful but really there aren't any drowning rules that I've found anyways so it may not be a big deal. The Extra Die to Sailing Risks with a hero point spent and heal a Critical Hit on a ship once / session are nice but again situational.
I do appreciate the good insight and I may scale something back. This character doesn't have a dueling school so this will be his primary way to deal more damage. He's also less of a combat character so I wanted the item to have some interesting abilities outside of combat. I may have gone a little too much on the power side, but I didn't think it was too much yet.
John
Harliquinn,
I just like the idea as it mirrors Earthdawns cool method of handling items. It also lets you give items abilities, but lets the player prioritize them.
And sorry, but I can imagine a few of my players abusing the hell out of "I can't drown".
I can see that it wouldn't be right for all games. I do like the idea of allowing 1 pt advantages to enhance it.
John
I had a similar conversation with some people here and elsewhere, and I do think that it may be the best way to approach things. Sure, some story-elements can be tossed in at no cost, but some specific powers really should have some sort of cost associated with them.
"Smilies exist because no one's bothered to create a sarcasm font." --Lost_Heretic
I think I will have the player toss in one of his 'banked XP' in addition to completing the story to unlock all the 'extras'. I'm not going to ask for more than 1 XP for all of the extras as I don't think this warrants a 5-pt advantage. Thanks all for the feedback.
I'd love to see any other cool things people have created.