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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9250935" data-attributes="member: 42582">This actually reminded me of a Bard sub-class I recently read about (designed by Matt Mercer): <a href="https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/College_of_Tragedy" target="_blank">The College of Tragedy</a>.Consider the 3rd level ability &quot;Poetry in Misery&quot;:At 3rd level, the bard who chooses the path of tragedy, &quot;learns to harness the beauty in failure, finding inspiration in even the direst twists of fate&quot;. Whenever the College of Tragedy bard or an ally within 30 feet of them rolls a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, they can use their reaction to soliloquize and regain one expended use of the Bardic Inspiration feature.The flavour/colour of this ability is, ostensibly, that failure - a dire twist of fate - is the subject of soliloquy by the bard, who is thus inspired (regaining a use of Bardic Inspiration). But in fact the rolling of a 1 on a d20, in 5e D&amp;D, does not mean &quot;a dire twist of fate&quot; and need not even be a failure - eg it is possible to roll a 1 on an attack and yet soundly defeat the foe being attacked (eg because other attack and damage rolls are quite successful; or because the opponent also misses their attack; or some combination of these possibilities).So the colour is pure epiphenomenon: the character doesn't need to actually draw inspiration, in play, from tragedy - from their own suffering or the suffering or defeat of anyone else. The subclass ability is purely a mechanical device.The faith and devotion of a D&amp;D paladin are, by default, very similar to this. The flavour floats completely above the reality of play, which is deploying class abilities much the same as anyone else does, and - in some editions - making sure not to fall foul of GM-adjudicated behaviour limitations.I don't want to say there is, of necessity, no agency here. But it has nothing to do with &quot;fighting for what you believe&quot; or &quot;drawing inspiration from your and others' tragedy&quot;. Whatever say the player enjoys over the trajectory of play, it's about who wins and who loses; it's not about these thematic matters.AW, DW, Burning Wheel, Torchbearer 2e - all are pretty different from the D&amp;D default in this respect.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9250935, member: 42582"] This actually reminded me of a Bard sub-class I recently read about (designed by Matt Mercer): [url=https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/College_of_Tragedy]The College of Tragedy[/url]. Consider the 3rd level ability "Poetry in Misery": [indent]At 3rd level, the bard who chooses the path of tragedy, "learns to harness the beauty in failure, finding inspiration in even the direst twists of fate". Whenever the College of Tragedy bard or an ally within 30 feet of them rolls a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, they can use their reaction to soliloquize and regain one expended use of the Bardic Inspiration feature.[/indent] The flavour/colour of this ability is, ostensibly, that failure - a dire twist of fate - is the subject of soliloquy by the bard, who is thus inspired (regaining a use of Bardic Inspiration). But in fact the rolling of a 1 on a d20, in 5e D&D, does not mean "a dire twist of fate" and need not even be a failure - eg it is possible to roll a 1 on an attack and yet soundly defeat the foe being attacked (eg because other attack and damage rolls are quite successful; or because the opponent also misses their attack; or some combination of these possibilities). So the colour is pure epiphenomenon: the character doesn't need to actually draw inspiration, in play, from tragedy - from their own suffering or the suffering or defeat of anyone else. The subclass ability is purely a mechanical device. The faith and devotion of a D&D paladin are, by default, very similar to this. The flavour floats completely above the reality of play, which is deploying class abilities much the same as anyone else does, and - in some editions - making sure not to fall foul of GM-adjudicated behaviour limitations. I don't want to say there is, of necessity, no agency here. But it has nothing to do with "fighting for what you believe" or "drawing inspiration from your and others' tragedy". Whatever say the player enjoys over the trajectory of play, it's about who wins and who loses; it's not about these thematic matters. AW, DW, Burning Wheel, Torchbearer 2e - all are pretty different from the D&D default in this respect. [/QUOTE]

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