"Magic"/"Epicness" of events in the setting

[pemerton]

Over the past couple of weeks I've been getting updates on the Torchbearer Kickstarter. I thought some of the entries on the Town Events table were pretty interesting. Here are threethat really caught my attention, the first two for Elfhomes and the last for Religious Bastions:

Restful memory. You carry with you the peace and tranquility of Elfhome, even after you leave this place. The memory suffuses you with a warm glow. Take +1D to all recovery tests until next town phase.

Doomsayer. The elf king or queen walks among their people, speaking to them of their travels and travails. They automatically alleviate the most dire condition afflicting a character. If unafflicted, they remove any curse carried by the character. If unafflicted and uncursed, start fresh regardless of other outcomes in this town phase. If a character misbehaves in Elfhome after receiving this boon, the king or queen summons them and reads their doom. The GM then changes the character’s belief or instinct. It cannot be changed by the player until next town phase.

Demonic catastrophe. Remain in the adventure phase until the catastrophe is abated or until you hurry off to a safer settlement. Roll d6 again below for type of catastrophe:

1 The gods are deaf to the prayers of this town: no invocations work, demagogues preach the apocalypse
2 Demon (N6, M5) springs forth from forehead of the seventh son of the seventh son, claims the bastion
3 Fire ceases to burn
4 Water ceases to quench
5 All people over the age of 17 have been turned to stone
6 All language sounds like the bleating of sheep​

I think this sort of thing could be good in other games - eg I should have had more of this in my 4e game!

 

[Fenris-77]

Yeah, that's a cool idea. I can think of a bunch of uses for it.

 

[hawkeyefan]

How do these come about in the game? I like the idea...it seems similar to downtime/base events in other games, but I’m curious how these are triggered in play.

 

[pemerton]

How do these come about in the game? I like the idea...it seems similar to downtime/base events in other games, but I’m curious how these are triggered in play.

Dunno exactly, but there seems to be a "Town Phase". I get the impression it's a bit like the similar thing in Dungeon World.

 

[Fenris-77]

So essentially a downtime after-effect, both good and bad? That seems like an interesting way to differentiate locations, and a great way to model things like the restfulness of Rivendell, for example. If I can think of a dozen uses for it without straining its probably a good mechanic.

 

[pemerton]

There is a roll involved, and choices plus maybe other factors affect the outcome of that roll. Roughly speaking, the higher the roll the better the outcome. The two Elfhome ones I posted are at the upper end. The Demonic Catastrophe is a low roll for Reigious Bastions.

 

[Fenris-77]

Oh, so more like random encounters kinda. You can tailor the list of course, I'm sure, so it's still very cool. The change to get a cool result, rather than a surety makes the thing a little harder to get game-y with too, which is good.