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<blockquote data-quote="Zephrin the Lost" data-source="post: 6252418" data-attributes="member: 30760">I think the biggest misstep I took when writing my own icons was to choose models with less reach than is needed for their influence to be felt even in scenarios that do not directly hinge upon them. Also to place many intermediaries between the icons and the PC's, so it's not the icons helping out and /or messing with them directly but rather their agents or operatives. Another part of icon involvement that gave me trouble at first was reconciling icon roll benefits and outcomes. I was almost treating the icons like divine beings who were unduly invested in the PC's activities. That was actually reasonable for some of the icons in the Ravenloft setting who were powerful liches and vampires, but was inappropriate for those more grounded in the physical world.&nbsp; one solution was I let the PC who had a positive relationship with the Dr. Frankenstein-like icon to find a collection of the good Dr.'s papers. We would then credit any beneficial icon rolls to the PC's study of the papers. This culminated in using a 6 to reattach another PC's arm that had been ripped off by a bugbear. It was right on the money for that icon. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Another thing I learned is to ask the players if they want to cash in an icon roll, and not just cash it in for them and award them a success on a check or an item etc. It's really fun when it's a 5 I'm asking about because they know I've come up with the good and the less good so it makes the moment a little more anxious. Hope that helps!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Zephrin the Lost, post: 6252418, member: 30760"] I think the biggest misstep I took when writing my own icons was to choose models with less reach than is needed for their influence to be felt even in scenarios that do not directly hinge upon them. Also to place many intermediaries between the icons and the PC's, so it's not the icons helping out and /or messing with them directly but rather their agents or operatives. Another part of icon involvement that gave me trouble at first was reconciling icon roll benefits and outcomes. I was almost treating the icons like divine beings who were unduly invested in the PC's activities. That was actually reasonable for some of the icons in the Ravenloft setting who were powerful liches and vampires, but was inappropriate for those more grounded in the physical world. one solution was I let the PC who had a positive relationship with the Dr. Frankenstein-like icon to find a collection of the good Dr.'s papers. We would then credit any beneficial icon rolls to the PC's study of the papers. This culminated in using a 6 to reattach another PC's arm that had been ripped off by a bugbear. It was right on the money for that icon. :) Another thing I learned is to ask the players if they want to cash in an icon roll, and not just cash it in for them and award them a success on a check or an item etc. It's really fun when it's a 5 I'm asking about because they know I've come up with the good and the less good so it makes the moment a little more anxious. Hope that helps! [/QUOTE]

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