Assassins Creed - Pieces of Eden

[Lenny J]

Hey guys! Sorta new here, made a couple of posts around, but I had a question for my fellow DMs on here.

I am running an Assassin's Creed tabletop (which in my case would be in the upcoming Genesys system, but you can picture your respective systems for the question.) It is based in China prior to the Destruction of the library of Alexandria, but probably only a single lifetime before this, although I am still working out what exact time the PCs ancestors were born. In the story, the Piece(s) of Eden is/are the Scroll(s) of Eden. (Scrolls so that if I change the location I don't need to alter the piece itself.) I am, however, having trouble coming up with what exactly it is the Scroll(s) have or do. (Most likely there are 4 scrolls they will find. The other hundreds are in the library and they will likely destroy it so as to avoid it not falling into enemy hands, since the cause of the library's destruction was unknown)

I tossed around the idea of the scrolls containing the Isu genome (Isu are the people of the first civilization, like Minerva and Juno.) However it seems Ubisoft has said that Abstergo has some of the Isu genome thanks to the sages in the more recent games. The other issue with the concept is it could easily go over the players heads.

Likewise, what could a Scroll of Eden do? Preferably not something so powerful they would want to use all the time, but something important enough that they'd need to protect it.

Post your ideas below so I can see!




DISCLAIMER:

Please do not tell me that Assassin's Creed doesn't work as a tabletop or not to try to pull this off. I just wanted to put out there that my group is actually very experienced and mature, and I am a GM of about 10 years or so. I know what works, and what doesn't, and I know how to improvise fairly well if things go wrong. I am actually in college for storytelling so that I can enter the game development industry, and I am (most likely) getting a minor in World History, since most stories seem to be derived in one way or another, from the history of past civilizations. Seriously look at Mesopotamia, every Star Wars Planet is named after a Mesopotamian City-State. Also, I know text can be misinterpreted so I wanted to state that this disclaimer was not intended to sound aggressive or aggravated at all.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

There's an Assassin Creed wiki that has some good information:

http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Pieces_of_Eden

The salient section from it:

"Some such as the Swords of Eden, with the ability to emit energy blasts, were designed as weapons while the Shrouds of Eden were medical in nature, capable of healing even mortal wounds. The diverse functions of the devices extend further: many were capable of bending the thoughts of one or more individuals to the will of the user, projecting illusions or concealing the user's presence. The Precursor boxes, powered by other Pieces of Eden, could imprint the memories of its users onto others. Other functions were more mundane relative to modern human technology, such as the projection of holograms or the Crystal Skulls that acted as long distance communication devices, but these nevertheless appeared supernatural to ancient peoples."

Energy weapons, healing, mind control, illusions/invisibility, telepathy, those all seem like pretty easy things to replicate in an RPG. I'm not familiar with Genesys, but I'd think the only real difficult part would be game balance.

 

[Lenny J]

There's an Assassin Creed wiki that has some good information:

http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Pieces_of_Eden

The salient section from it:

"Some such as the Swords of Eden, with the ability to emit energy blasts, were designed as weapons while the Shrouds of Eden were medical in nature, capable of healing even mortal wounds. The diverse functions of the devices extend further: many were capable of bending the thoughts of one or more individuals to the will of the user, projecting illusions or concealing the user's presence. The Precursor boxes, powered by other Pieces of Eden, could imprint the memories of its users onto others. Other functions were more mundane relative to modern human technology, such as the projection of holograms or the Crystal Skulls that acted as long distance communication devices, but these nevertheless appeared supernatural to ancient peoples."

Energy weapons, healing, mind control, illusions/invisibility, telepathy, those all seem like pretty easy things to replicate in an RPG. I'm not familiar with Genesys, but I'd think the only real difficult part would be game balance.

Yeah I've read the wiki. I'm trying to come up with something original and different.

As far as Genesys it is the system Force and Destiny uses, which allows for force powers. Basically the system was so good the had to republish it for every other setting so it's balanced.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Hmmm....

Two ideas come to mind.

If you're using the Animus concept, how about a piece of Eden that directly affects the Animus?

It’s like that part where the one being starts talking to Desmond through Ezio. Maybe it can send people to some unpleasant past life regression against their will. Almost like D&D’s Maze spell.

If you’re not using the Animus, another idea could be to have it be something giant and immobile, like Cleopatra Needle, or another famous obelisk. But unlocking its secrets isn’t easy…

Yeah I've read the wiki. I'm trying to come up with something original and different.

 

[Lenny J]

Hmmm....

Two ideas come to mind.

If you're using the Animus concept, how about a piece of Eden that directly affects the Animus?

It’s like that part where the one being starts talking to Desmond through Ezio. Maybe it can send people to some unpleasant past life regression against their will. Almost like D&D’s Maze spell.

If you’re not using the Animus, another idea could be to have it be something giant and immobile, like Cleopatra Needle, or another famous obelisk. But unlocking its secrets isn’t easy…

I am using the Animus concept; The party will bounce back and forth between modern and Ancient times in order to find scrolls and prevent them from falling under Templar hands. I also considered the idea that the scrolls held the recipe to the Elixir of Immortality as featured in Assassin's Creed Unity. (The one Nicholas Flamel made.) But I just don't know. I'd like it to have a mechanical ability, such as bending people's will, or the effects of the Force Move ability in the Force and Destiny Rulebook. (It's a cool system but very few people seem to play it.)

More About the system:

As I said, Genesys is the Force and Destiny system by Fantasy Flight, but minus the star wars for any setting. The system is optimized for cinematic play. Instead of Numbered dice, you use dice with symbols; Dice are categorized by Positive and Negative Dice, each one with its counterpart. Symbols cancel each other out until you get a dice pool. Symbols are Success-Failure, Threat-Advantage, Triumph-Despair.

Its a great system and I recommend you look at it, (Also its considered Canon for Starwars.) But thats basically the system I'm using. Force powers have their own dice, so If you look at the system I would pretty much use the systems Force Dice, for powers granted by a piece of Eden.

That being said, any powers for the scrolls? Powers that are preferably like some sort of Force Powers. (Or more realistically, Powers exhibited by Pieces of Eden.)

Also important note: Pieces of Eden can and do interact with each other in AC canon. (i.e. Apple and Staff of Eden.)
Additionally, The purposes of the pieces made by the Isu were not the only purpose. After creating the devices, the Isu would constantly discover new uses for their devices. This means that I could always give the apple an additional power.

 

[Lenny J]

Update:

It was pointed out to me in this forum how Minerva spoke to Desmond in the Animus, and I was recommended an idea off of this forum about the Scrolls giving instantaneous knowledge of certain subjects to those who used them, however there was a Key Scroll required to be used to comprehend the others.So basically like a big cipher. One such scroll could be the Isu Genome, the other being the Elixir of Immortality (Since apparently that's Canon.)

Thoughts on other powers?