Expanding Unexpanded Superiors?

[Jason]

I'm currently running a campaign with Servitors of Destiny, Creation, Judgment, Wind (in service to Flowers), and Trade. I'm happy to give the Destiny/Creation/Judgment folks access to the expanded attunements listed in Superiors 1 and 3 and in the Eli supplement, but this leaves the folks serving Wind/Flowers and Trade out in the cold, and I feel bad about that.

One possibility is to scour the internet for unofficial extra attunements for these superiors so my players have more options, and I have indeed found several. I feel they lack the variety and usefulness of the official attuenements from the supplements, though, and I'm not inclined to extend the same non-canonic attunement option to those who do have Superiors supplements available to them; it just creates more work for me, trying to sift through and refine things so they feel balanced for our game.

Another possibility is to be more generous with distinctions and secret songs and the like for those who don't have expanded write-ups for their Superiors. I'm leaning toward this, though the specific characters in question may be unlikely candidates for those kinds of rewards, depending on how things go. (Having access to both Janus' and Novalis' attunements is sort of "expanded" in its own way, though, and it's possible the Servitor of Trade could earn a distinction IF he can play politics better than he has so far.)

And yet another possibility, of course, is just to say, "Sorry, better luck next character," but that seems kind of mean.

How have you dealt with this kind of situation in your own games, or how might you suggest I deal with it?

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Jason

I'm currently running a campaign with Servitors of Destiny, Creation, Judgment, Wind (in service to Flowers), and Trade. I'm happy to give the Destiny/Creation/Judgment folks access to the expanded attunements listed in Superiors 1 and 3 and in the Eli supplement, but this leaves the folks serving Wind/Flowers and Trade out in the cold, and I feel bad about that.

One possibility is to scour the internet for unofficial extra attunements for these superiors so my players have more options, and I have indeed found several. I feel they lack the variety and usefulness of the official attuenements from the supplements, though, and I'm not inclined to extend the same non-canonic attunement option to those who do have Superiors supplements available to them; it just creates more work for me, trying to sift through and refine things so they feel balanced for our game.

Another possibility is to be more generous with distinctions and secret songs and the like for those who don't have expanded write-ups for their Superiors. I'm leaning toward this, though the specific characters in question may be unlikely candidates for those kinds of rewards, depending on how things go. (Having access to both Janus' and Novalis' attunements is sort of "expanded" in its own way, though, and it's possible the Servitor of Trade could earn a distinction IF he can play politics better than he has so far.)

And yet another possibility, of course, is just to say, "Sorry, better luck next character," but that seems kind of mean.

How have you dealt with this kind of situation in your own games, or how might you suggest I deal with it?

I've got a Windy in my campaign. I continued the running gag about Janus and Valefor by stealing some of Theft's Attunements and Rites as presented in Superiors 4 for my house copy of the Wind's writeup. (pulls out notes) Ah, yes - I added the Distract Attunement and the "Walk a tightrope...", "Stunt-pilot...", and "Watch a motorcycle..." Additional Rites.

It isn't much, but it's better than nothing. (It's also one of the easier additions a GM can make to any of the Superiors' writeups. I'm willing to bet they'll show up in Janus' official writeup if it's ever written, just to continue the "is he or isn't he?" joke they've got going.)

[JCD]

Honestly, some of the so called expanded ones get short shrift. Kronos has no extra rites at all in Heaven and Hell. I suppose in the other books, Yves might have gotten an upgrade.

To be a bit more helpful, rites are reasonably easy. Extra attunements shouldn't be a big deal either. I mean, the designers OBVIOUSLY didn't care too much about game balance when a Captain of Belial can do the same trick a Bic can do.

[Attercap]

Originally Posted by JCD

I mean, the designers OBVIOUSLY didn't care too much about game balance when a Captain of Belial can do the same trick a Bic can do.

Except for the whole, "can see through flames"/"no vision penalties when fighting through flames" thing. I always saw that as the more important part of the Captain distinction of Belial.

[Jason]

Thanks for the comments. I may check out the write-up on Valefor and work under the assumption that his attunements are ALL identical to Janus's (which makes both characters much more interesting in my opinion).

As for the Trade guy ... well, maybe he'll just be the most likely angel to get a distinction. Plus I made a couple other Word-bound angels who could potentially give him access to their special attunements, if he does good by them.

I suppose the easiest thing to do in cases like these might just be to relax what I allow my players to spend their character points on (e.g., letting them buy attunements from other Superiors, which I don't typically allow unless it's part of their back story already).

[tHEhERETIC]

Originally Posted by Jason

Thanks for the comments. I may check out the write-up on Valefor and work under the assumption that his attunements are ALL identical to Janus's (which makes both characters much more interesting in my opinion).

As for the Trade guy ... well, maybe he'll just be the most likely angel to get a distinction. Plus I made a couple other Word-bound angels who could potentially give him access to their special attunements, if he does good by them.

I suppose the easiest thing to do in cases like these might just be to relax what I allow my players to spend their character points on (e.g., letting them buy attunements from other Superiors, which I don't typically allow unless it's part of their back story already).

I like the first part, but then once I got my brain around Janus I've actually grown pretty fond of him.

I'm personally against cross-Superior attunements, though I have kind of lawyered around that with free-flowing relics. That makes them somewhat easier to take away when the political winds blow wrong, rather than requiring the PC to screw up.

For your Tradesman...why not invent an attunement or rite? Why not sit down with the player and the concept and think...WWMD?

[Jason]

Originally Posted by tHEhERETIC

For your Tradesman...why not invent an attunement or rite? Why not sit down with the player and the concept and think...WWMD?

Mostly because that is not something I am willing to do for every other player in the group due to drastically differing levels of experience with role-playing. It's a can of worms I don't want to open.

[Rocket Man]

This non-canonical Attunement, from the old In Nomine listserv, has been a favorite of mine for Trade. A GM introduced me to it as a special reward for a Destiny angel that had given good "temp" service to Marc:

Penny for Your Thoughts
The angel can loosen lips simply by handing someone a
penny. Anyone who willingly takes the coin must succeed on
a Will roll (Servitors of Greed _subtract_ their Celestial
Forces!) or be forced to answer the angel's questions for
one minute. Note that this Attunement doesn't force the
subject to answer truthfully...

(My note: If it seems too powerful, you can always require a token Essence cost. However, the limited situations under which you can hand someone a penny -- and the typical Will scores of those associated with the infernal -- seem to keep this one from getting too unbalanced.)

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Jason

Thanks for the comments. I may check out the write-up on Valefor and work under the assumption that his attunements are ALL identical to Janus's (which makes both characters much more interesting in my opinion).

Valefor has a few attunements that seem a bit too Infernal for an Archangel, IMHO. But you may think differently...

[Jason]

Thanks for the example; I did come across that, but come to think of it, why not just post all the examples I found...

Backfiling (Trade)
Expense Account (Trade)
Heart of Oak (Flowers)
Zen Rider (Wind)
Rade (Wind)
Some Trade attunements
Penny For Your Thoughts, Wages of Syntax (Trade)
Mail Order (Trade)
Some Christopher, Eli, Janus, Jean attunements