Martial Practice : Blood Demand

[AbdulAlhazred]

I am big on the legendary angle... myself

Uther that selfish bastard plunging Excalibur in to the stone and declaring only he and his could draw it forth had a spine tingle to it.

I think it works fine as a MP too in part because I see daemonic, draconic, fae, and divine blood-lines in basically a huge number of heros, villains and kings in legend and even asserted in history. All the main players in Arthurian legend had a special bloodline as does every character the greeks called hero (which literally meant defender btw)

Well, I just see MPs and Rituals as things you LEARN, not things you ARE, but its all just mechanics. Maybe being able to CREATE something like a 'sword in the stone' is a ritual/mp. IIRC in at least many versions of the legend it was Merlin who did that, but there certainly isn't any one canonical version of that story.

 

[Garthanos]

Maybe being able to CREATE something like a 'sword in the stone' is a ritual/mp.

Many magic items of myth could only be used by their "rightful" wielder and those of their bloodline ie to me its very much a bloodline / heritage magic. Its basically an ownership claim and the nobility are super huge on ownership... it was a magical thing to them.

In some sense the stone is just a special effect of that edict

 

[Garthanos]

Perhaps merlin just wrote the text to inform folk of the nature of the weapon...as part of political machinations.

It seems obvious to me that it was ahem Kings magic...

In the movie Excalibur it is easy to view what Merlin did as merely prophecy

 

[Garthanos]

Another special effect for the edict of ownership might be the weapon is clumsy dull and rusting in anyones hand but the true bearer.

 

[Garthanos]

OR perhaps the device will withdraw the better part of its power from anyone using the weapon and they will risk being
affected by an affliction like the Ring bearer in Tolkein LOL

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think any or all of those options are possible.

 

[Garthanos]

I think any or all of those options are possible.

while it triggers the right legendary buttons for me its not a high impact ability in game terms rather like a certain swordmage ability (the one ring affliction aside where even its lesser power was awesome to most which created yea old curse dynamic)

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

while it triggers the right legendary buttons for me its not a high impact ability in game terms rather like a certain swordmage ability (the one ring affliction aside where even its lesser power was awesome to most which created yea old curse dynamic)

Well, 4e (D&D generally) has Artifacts to fall back on here.

Another bit where I like the results of my HoML design. If you LOSE a major boon, well, then you also lose the level associated with it! This has some interesting implications (though it shouldn't be overused, temporary loss of a 'tactical' nature shouldn't count for instance). It does provide a very nice 'passing the torch' concept though in mechanical terms!

 

[Garthanos]

Well, 4e (D&D generally) has Artifacts to fall back on here.

Sure for the one ring or similar context -- > the other effect I could make a really cheap MP and I might very much... but aside of its roleplaying angle and flavor ummmm oh well.

Another bit where I like the results of my HoML design. If you LOSE a major boon, well, then you also lose the level associated with it! This has some interesting implications (though it shouldn't be overused, temporary loss of a 'tactical' nature shouldn't count for instance). It does provide a very nice 'passing the torch' concept though in mechanical terms!

[/QUOTE]
Most of what you have mentioned have made me interested in details of HoML do you have it compiled?

But this is one is kind of meh...

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Most of what you have mentioned have made me interested in details of HoML do you have it compiled?

But this is one is kind of meh...

I did post a link in my thread back in December talking about 4e homebrew stuff.

And, yeah, level loss for 'dramatic reasons' probably isn't something that most games will delve into much. It is also more likely to form a mechanical justification for things like some old hero that just doesn't have the stuff anymore. Maybe even ex-PCs that have sort of faded away after leaving the adventuring life.