Re: Stormapples and Windberries

From: rmv1_at_...
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 15:30:20 -0000

> > Anybody have any thoughts on representing Stormapples (or, better
> > yet, Stormapple Wine (from Sun County) and Windberries (from
> > Griffin Mountain)?
> Back in the early days of the list I asked a similar question about
> magic crystals (that RQII staple). I really liked the answer I got
> from David Dunham: They are a named item, whose powers you figure
> out as you go along. So you would get: Stormapples XX, or
> Windberrries XX on your character sheet. Of course the narrator and
> the player might have a vague idea of what they do that inform the
> choice of when you use them, but the powers sort of get figured out
> at need.
Hmmm... I'm all for encouraging unusual item/ability/personality trait/whatever use in the game; usually, though, I like to define some 'hook' for an item. You can use your sword to attack people, for instance, and use the scabbard to parry. You can use the scabbard as a breathing tube. You can use the sword as a stepping-stool. You can wrap a cord around the scabbard or otherwise hide holdout weapons on the scabbard. You can get a longer scabbard and hide coins in the bottom.

But for Stormapples, I might like to say something like "They're eaten before ceremonies in Earth season, where they lend their special magic to the harvest rituals" and let the players come up with appropriate uses from there. I'd probably say the Windberries normally make you more 'wind-like' or 'let you express your inner wind'. If the players do something especially appropriate with them, I give them a positive modifier; if they do something inappropriate, I give it a penalty or disallow it.  

> Charles Corrigan's character picked up a fine Esrolian broach at a
> market - now the point in the episode was really the haggling for
> the item, not the item itself (Mcguffin) - but Charles wanted to
> list it, so he sepnt a hero point to cement it. Maybe it is just a
> fine broach, maybe not - only somebody's session at some point in
> the future will tell. Similarly Bruce's character decided to use a
> hero point to list a corn dolly he won in a wrestling contest.
Unfortunately, some of my players cannot (yet) be trusted with this much power over the storyline. I may need to be energetic with the vetoes...

Roland