04-28-2010, 11:01 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Adelaide, Australia
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Idea for new Dungeon Fantasy class
I better write this down while I'm still inspired by the coffee...
I was doing some reading for my PhD today and it made me think of a potential Dungeon Fantasy class. I was reading about Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius where he has a man who has fallen from grace talk to Lady Philosophy about the folly of worshipping Fortune and her wheel, because she is so fickle and if you love her for her prosperity you must love her for the ruin she visits upon you. Here are some quotes about the text from p. 151 of The Medieval World View by William R. Cook and Ronald B. Herzman, Oxford University Press, 1983: Fortune and her wheel express the proper medieval attitude toward worldly goods. Any worldly good, such as money or property, or any worldly pleasure, such as food or sex, is incapable of fully satisfying anyone because it is only partial. As the consolation states, “The good is defined as that which, once it is attained, relieves man of all further desires. This is the supreme good and contains within itself all other lesser goods. If it lacked anything at all, it would not be the highest good, because something would be missing, and this could still be desired.” To see any of Fortune’s goods–those subject to Fortune’s wheel–as the highest good is to seriously misunderstand the nature of reality: what is subject to change is incapable of bringing full satisfaction. Or, to express the same idea in the language of Augustine, to put one’s trust and hope in any worldly possessions is to mistake those things for ends that must rather be seen as means to an end. Whenever the wheel appears in medieval art or medieval literature, it suggests these related concepts: the instability of all earthly possessions and the folly of putting one’s trust in them. It also says that Consolation of Philosophy was one of the most influential texts of the early Middle Ages and beyond, that more copies of it survive than almost anything else and that it was a big inspiration for Chaucer and Dante among many others. So how does this fit with killing guys and taking their stuff in Dungeon Fantasy? I'm imagining a cleric or a martial artist, warrior monk sub class with a very strict code of conduct. They must follow it, and it must somehow reflect an understanding that all things are impermanent and the only lasting and true goodness comes from religious purity and living a life with a mind closer to God. The reward is: the GM cannot steal your loot. You have a special ability that means you can spend points to gain the powers of any magic item you have. The magic item is drained, but you keep the ability forever. It wouldn't work on certain artifacts, but most would be open to draining. You would use powers and the pricing of similar abilities to work out appropriate costs, and how much you should spend. So you have a sword with accuracy +2? You suck the magic out, now your fists are +2, and count as magic weapons, if it's important. It would be slightly cheaper than just raising your Brawling skill or whatever, because it would have the limitation that it's magic, and of course it would work from Brawling, Karate, whatever. You have an amulet of fire resistance? Drain that baby and add it to your permanent stats! Of course his personal Code, Duty, Discipline of Faith or whatever should be particularly rigorous, enough so that he is slightly annoying to his companions, and perhaps he can only use one magic object at a time until he drains it. His new abilities are like clerical powers: if he upsets his God, he loses them all! He wouldn't have spells exactly, but he would accumulate more and more spell like powers over time and end up becoming a formidable weapon which the GM can't arbitrarily gimp, 'Your fists are a lethal weapon and must be registered with police!' The GM would have to be careful about what items he gives out, and do others in the party give up their treasured objects so their niche filler in the corner becomes that much more invincible? I guess the ability is a bit like Imbue and some parts of Thaumatology. It could be a nice counter and in joke in a Dungeon Fantasy game, and actually a nice class on its own, potentially. And each individual playing the class would be unique, because they get their abilities based on what they find and what they have access to, what they individually learn of God's world based on their life-path and God's providence. Obviously the idea would need a lot more working out, fine tuning and writing up, but that is the initial spark, and right now I am technically supposed to be doing more reading for uni and so I should get back to that... |
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