D&D General Dragonmarks in other settings

[Horwath]

I can use them for noble houses of Waterdeep, or just appearing for individuals dragons predicted for greatness in the future.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I'd never allow 2024 Dragonmarks in any other setting.

The 2014 version of them was reasonable enough to include as options in other settings, but the 2024 Dragonmark feats exist to make characters who choose them much more powerful than any other characters. I'd have no intentions of being unfair to players who don't pick balance-breaking options to let another player get significant expansions to their spell list, or feats that are stronger than everyone else's origin feats, or even get extra casts of much more powerful spells than anyone else can acquire via feats.

This seems a really deeply felt response, and I find it surprising. Which Dragonmarks do you find more powerful than, say, Magic Initiate (Wizard)? Find Familiar, True Strike, and another wizard cantrip, cast with Int, Wis, or Cha, seems to me a high benchmark that (arguably) none of the Dragonmark feats match in terms of power.

Perhaps a related question is this: how free do you allow your players to be in the choice of background? Among the stronger (or at least more desirable) Dragonmarks to my eye is the Mark of Passage. To take it, though, through the House Orein Heir background, means that you can't start with a 16 or 17 in Charisma or Wisdom, which would limit its desirability for Bards, Sorcs, Warlocks, Paladins and Rangers. If you implement customizable backgrounds, it becomes more desirable. Without that, though, it will appeal to some Rogues, some Fighters, Wizards... maybe monks? That to me feels like an appropriate limitation.

 

[Blue]

Though that doesn't mean the only way to introduce Warforged is like this.

I like the idea of them being a Dwarven creation. In one variant, Warforged are a way for couples that can't have children (maybe due to a disease that lowers fertility, homosexual pairings or multi-racial pairings ) to create something like a child. Two souls merge and create a new soul, just like in biological procreation, but the result isn't a dwarf, it's a construct. This would be very different than Eberron Warforged - these Warforged might have loving parents actually, and grew up in the Dwarven culture, maybe the culture still treates you different from normal children (and children treat you differently).

And there you have an example of what I was suggesting for Dragonmarks -- make them important and lore-connected in your setting.

This is a good example of how one can treat such flavorful things and not go the FR route of just tossing them into the setting.

 

[Blue]

I see your point, but to me, it is still a mechanically interesting option to model some of the scenarios described in my initial post, even when you remove it from this original lore.

The point isn't just removing it from it's original lore. It's taking it from it's original lore solely for it's mechanical aspects without replacing the lore, like the Forgotten Realms and some other kitchen-sink settings have done with the Warforged.

This is a roleplaying game. Yes, "game" is in the title and we can have purely mechanical bits, but "roleplaying" is as well. Make them interesting from that aspect as well.

The title of this is "Dragonmarks in other settings". What is superior for an RPG: a flavorless mechanical construct, or the same mechanical construct that also ties into the setting, has meaning, will cause reactions from people who see it, and otherwise interacts both mechanically and culturally?

Stripping half of the meaning of the Dragonmark away by only looking at the mechanical aspects weakens them in a roleplaying game. Give them lore. Give players meaningful choices beyond just the mechanical wargame aspects.

 

[TwoSix]

As per usual, the best approach is to ask the player.

If they just want it as a mechanical upgrade, work with them to build a small roleplaying hook localized to the character; there's no need to build out setting-level detail for it.

If they would like to attach some setting lore to the idea, work with them to build up how they view the "mark" as interacting with their characters, and then you can use that concept to flesh out some in-setting story concepts for later.

And if they're really interested in the "mark" ideas having a strong in-world meaning, than you can work on doing some reskinning that impacts the setting.