Re: [BNW] Bargainers - totem making rules

[Kirk Monsen <munchwolf@yahoo.com>]

> > Also materials play a factor.  It's harder to make
> a
> > Blaster totem with a water gun and a pipe cleaner
> then
> > spending thousands of dollars on obscure reagents.
> 
> Although it is easiest to describe this in terms of
> money, you might also express this in terms of
> rarity
> vs. commonness, relativity (of the symbolism) of the
> 
> object to the demon being charmed, and destruction
> of
> the object.
> 

Well, yes that was part of the idea.  After all it's
GM's discretion.  So items (like the bones of a dead
saint) can't be given a monetary value.  The idea for
money was only to give a rough outline.  Investment of
time before hand setting up the ritual could also be
considered for this bonus.

> E.g.: if the totem uses the bone of a saint (that
> the 
> Bargainer had to sweat to get), give 'em +5;  if he
> gets a bone of a saint that locked 
> away/defeated/banished this *particular* demon, give
> 'em another +5;  if he has to destroy the bone to
> create
> the totem (meaning he cannot do it again), give 'em 
> another +5, for a total bonus of +15 (to throw
> numbers 
> around madly! HAHAHAHAHA!).

Not sure I'd give bonuses that high.  Maybe +3 for the
bones of that saint, +6 if the character sacrifices
the saint.  The main idea of the bonuses came from (a)
30 being a REALLY high number.  I don't care how many
d6 you roll.  If you only get to keep the results from
1, you will need to get at least 5 6's in a row (at
least as I understand the rules, I probably should
read them more indepth as I've only glanced at them)
since bargainers have no inherent skill that adds to
the die roll.  The other ideas was to avoid the all
eggs in one basket approach.  Only limit the bonuses
from one catagory to +5 (as in the case of an
investment) and limit the number of catagories to
about 4 (which I think I did). So even though
potentially the player could get up to a +20 he would
have to make an extremely involved ritual, using lots
of resources that he won't be able to get again
anytime soon, using a bunch of people who might not be
able to spend another week re-attempting this ritual,
and casting it at a specific time which might not
occur again for a year.  Normally a player probably
won't get more than a +5 to +10 using this system.  It
was designed more in mind for villians who have the
resources, time, and followers to be able to expend in
creating the more powerful artifacts. 

> > Experience:  I was debating with the idea of
> making
> > each totem it's own trick, but didn't like that
> idea
> > much.  Instead they should be treated like
> > quasi-skills.  Each time a particular totem is
> > successfully made the bargainer gets a +1 bonus to
> > making this totem again.  This bonus is additive
> up to
> > a max of 5.  So let's say you've made the mimic
> totem
> > 3 times already, the next time you try you
> > automatically get a +3.
> 
> I dunno about this one...  I like the idea that each
> totem is somehow unique, and that to charm the same
> daemon multiple times is going to get harder each
> time...
> And finding another "compatible" daemon is going to
> require searching and learning the tricking all over
> again...

True, but the idea behind it is there are probably
more than one 'blaster' totems floating around and
since you've made one before you'd have a bit of a
better idea on how to make one the second time.  Maybe
instead have the players make an occult roll or
somesuch before hand, and use the successes from that
in helping make the totem.  Sort of like the blueprint
phase of Mad Scientists.

-Munch Wolf
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com