Superstitions and Spells

[Shaghayegh]

I played a campaign where a friendly PC Favored Soul cast a Light spell on a pebble and then gave it to an 8 year old child NPC with a wink as the adventurers were going into a well to rescue some villagers that had been kidnapped and taken underground.

A while later, I created a PC that was that 8 year old boy, who had been inspired to study Arcane magic because of that pebble that glowed briefly and then faded.

We've never come up with the details of the story of what happened between the pebble and his adulthood, but I'd imagine a good superstition story could develop out of it. Carrying pebbles for luck, expecting a light to signify a good or catastrophic event perhaps.

Do you mean something like this?

That is a good start. It would be even better if you could tie into some real world folklore...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Well, I think it needs to be more clear on what you are asking. Are you asking to think about in how real life superstitions came into being? Alternatively, are you asking on how you can introduce superstitions in your campaign?

That is a good start. It would be even better if you could tie into some real world folklore...

And this is where [MENTION=97812]emoplato[/MENTION]'s question comes in. I don't think I understand what you're asking.

 

[Shaghayegh]

And this is where @emoplato 's question comes in. I don't think I understand what you're asking.

Look at real world superstitions, could they have been inspired by spells or powers known in the game? Maybe black cats are bad luck because some wizard used one to transfer a touch attack. Want to make a new superstition for your campaign? Look at commonly used spells and figure out how they can be misunderstood by an onlooker...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Look at real world superstitions, could they have been inspired by spells or powers known in the game? Maybe black cats are bad luck because some wizard used one to transfer a touch attack. Want to make a new superstition for your campaign? Look at commonly used spells and figure out how they can be misunderstood by an onlooker...

Perhaps my ignorance of real world superstitions is getting in the way. Could you list a number of suggestions you have in mind?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Let me start.

In China, it was a superstition that wearing a piece of jade would protect you. In a setting where magic is real, people might learn of Cloaks of Resistance (which always have a jade stone in some particular corner of the world for cultural reasons). Uneducated people in that culture might assume that simply wearing a piece of jade would protect them.

In 4e Eberron, there's a ritual that lets you take a friendly dead person's head and use Speak with Dead on it once per day. Well, I assume the person had to been friendly, but maybe I'm wrong... It's called Spirit Idol, and is obviously handy for elves who practically (and sometimes literally) worship their ancestors. An elf wouldn't consider carrying out their grandparent's head around and asking it for advice to be all that odd... but an uneducated person might think carrying around their ancestor's head and trying to talk to them to be worth something.

Unfortunately, in real life superstitions don't mean anything. I'd be reluctant to have a setting where you need to throw an offering to the god of the sea whenever you go on a journey, because while that might be cool flavor, those offerings start to add up, both in terms of PC wealth and in terms of damaging perceptions of the economy.

 

[Shaghayegh]

Let me start.

In China, it was a superstition that wearing a piece of jade would protect you. In a setting where magic is real, people might learn of Cloaks of Resistance (which always have a jade stone in some particular corner of the world for cultural reasons). Uneducated people in that culture might assume that simply wearing a piece of jade would protect them.

In 4e Eberron, there's a ritual that lets you take a friendly dead person's head and use Speak with Dead on it once per day. Well, I assume the person had to been friendly, but maybe I'm wrong... It's called Spirit Idol, and is obviously handy for elves who practically (and sometimes literally) worship their ancestors. An elf wouldn't consider carrying out their grandparent's head around and asking it for advice to be all that odd... but an uneducated person might think carrying around their ancestor's head and trying to talk to them to be worth something.

Unfortunately, in real life superstitions don't mean anything. I'd be reluctant to have a setting where you need to throw an offering to the god of the sea whenever you go on a journey, because while that might be cool flavor, those offerings start to add up, both in terms of PC wealth and in terms of damaging perceptions of the economy.

In many religions quite a bit of wealth is sacrificed as offerings, which why the Catholic church is posh and so many tombs beg to be looted. Hmm. Other things could lead to superstitions too. Thinking about ships making offerings to the gods, maybe that gets started as part of something mundane, such as paying tribute to a local monster, like a kraken or tribe of sahuagin, becomes a tradition, outlasts the monsters, has its origins forgotten, then turns into a superstition...

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I think it's fine if it's a plot point. "Give annual tribute to the ocean, it's actually going to the sahuagin, who use the money to buy magic items from a nearby thieves' guild..." If the tribute is cut off, it can result in a rolling plot. I wouldn't want PCs to feel they need to dump cash into the ocean, however, unless they become the local lords.

 

[nijineko]

http://sangi.sanguinarius.org/creative/OriginsOfPopularSuperstitions.pdf

 

[Shaghayegh]

I think it's fine if it's a plot point. "Give annual tribute to the ocean, it's actually going to the sahuagin, who use the money to buy magic items from a nearby thieves' guild..." If the tribute is cut off, it can result in a rolling plot. I wouldn't want PCs to feel they need to dump cash into the ocean, however, unless they become the local lords.

Each passing generation wears down and slowly alters the meaning of the original tradition. The first generation knew they had a pact with the sahuagin, they had to dump a goat over the side of their boat for the sea devils to eat to get safe passage past a small sahuagin village a mile from the beach. Ten generations later the sahuagin have moved away, but superstitious seamen and fishers in the area chuck a piece of food in the water when they set sail past the area for "good luck"...