Personal enlightenment in a fantasy setting

[aco175]

I might just place opportunities in the path of the PCs and see if they bite, and thus proving their good or worthiness.

The Moses movie has the scene when he first meets his future wife and she cannot get water from the well since she is being harassed by the men of the other faith. There might be several interpretations on what is right- similar to paladin discussions on what a LG alignment would do.

There could be simple things like seeing some poor people trying to fish but having no luck and no knowing really how to fish. I'm seeing that the Bible might have a lot of ideas on this topic.

 

[GMMichael]

OK, so I'm planning for a traditional fantasy campaign in a low-magic setting with a brutal game system.

Always good to have the potential for PC-dismemberment.

The campaign will be akin to the Staff of Seven parts. The PCs will locate a gizmo that shows the location of specific items, but before the gizmo can be used (each time), a PC must complete a task of selfless enlightenment.

I'm thinking one will be to proving the innocence of a man wrongfully imprisoned for murder.

More selfless would be volunteering to take the place of the wrongfully imprisoned man. Coincidentally, the man was imprisoned in an escapable dungeon. If only he had the skill (and comrades) to do the escaping!

Selfless: doing something for which you get no external benefit. Internal/emotional benefits may abound, although even more selfless would include doing things you don't enjoy, and for no external benefit.
Enlightenment: being wiser than before.
Selfless enlightenment: doing things to gain enlightenment is not selfless. So selfless enlightenment could be doing things to enlighten others.

Which points pretty strongly at becoming a volunteer librarian. Bye bye, adventuring days!

In other words, forcing the PCs to perform non-dungeon-crawl, zero profit side quests that have at least a vague association to 'enlightenment' or 'wisdom'.

A forced PC likely isn't acting selflessly (or having fun), so I hope that's hyperbole. But yes, PCs don't do much in a vacuum, so you have to throw some options in their way. Maybe I can be helpful and come up with another one...

Hunger striking is one way to go. The PC's consequence could be losing some physique (Strength?).

Then there's the Final Fantasy IV option: a PC's dark twin comes through the mirror to attack him. Failing to counterattack is showing the necessary enlightenment. "Justice is not the only right in this world."

 

[Gorgon Zee]

But, if you are doing it so you can use the item it isn't really a selfless act - the PCs now have an ulterior motive for those acts. "If you do this nice thing, I will give you $100K," isn't all that selfless.

It is still a great way to get them to do things that aren't traditional adventuring bits. And it may well be enlightening - especially if in each case the situation is more than it appears on the surface.

Agree. The way I would do this is to make the rewards for the "selfless act" a meta-reward. So when playing in-character, the character is being selfless. But the player can be selfish, looking for the cool meta reward.

So the "rod of seven parts" is a problem because it's an in-character reward and so the acts cannot be selfless. Depending on the system, I might make the meta-rewards things like:

• patronage
• additional meta-currency (fate, story points)
• additional relationships (family ties, romantic interest)
• building opportunities (making a base for the characters, nicer inn)
• get-out-of-jail-free cards: One use: The GM will allow anything that isn't campaign-wrecking.

For ideas, I'd recommend looking PENDRAGON adventures. That system is all about "What Sort of Knight are you?" and the main fun is deciding between the passions that inspire your knight. Mechanically, your knights all look very similar, But when one is famously cruel, another famously arbitrary and another is devoted to Chivalric ideals, any form of social interaction is fun.

 

[Bohandas]

Which points pretty strongly at becoming a volunteer librarian. Bye bye, adventuring days!

Or it's the START of wacky adventures in Ponyville

 

[Voadam]

I wouldn’t focus on selflessness which leads to detachment or self abnegation but instead on something like enlightened compassion and making things better.

Much more straightforward in doing good narratively in my opinion.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

In other words, forcing the PCs to perform non-dungeon-crawl, zero profit side quests that have at least a vague association to 'enlightenment' or 'wisdom'.

Any ideas for more? I need a half-dozen in total.

I'm a fan of "the twist."

Have the party hired by someone to do something. They are told that ... whatever. This village is filled with evil raiders and needs to be wiped out, and if they do so, they get untold riches.

But when they get there, they realize (HOPEFULLY!) that the village is just poor villager, and they have been hired to clear them out because Big Bad wants that land for (insert nefarious purpose).

And the party was previously told that if they fail, Big Bad will send a team to do it right.

Does the party stay and defend the villagers? It's like Seven Samurai, but no pay.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I decided I was overthinking this.

My solution is that the creator of the gizmo required that to use the gizmo, a permission (small ritual) from a willing descendant of the creator, and only one permission can be given per descendant.

This places the party at the mercy of fairly random NPCs, who will certainly abuse the situation.