Take this simple premise:"Blood is life, life is sentience, thus blood is sentient. That which is imbued with blood, is alive."
Turn it into a set of game rules:
Every successful physical attack delivers to the surrounding area a splash of gore; whatever is coated in the bloody spray must make a d20 save equal or over the total damage done (for slashing weapons, halved for piercing and quartered for bludgeoning) or become sentient. The number rolled is then assigned between the six base attributes, and the newly aware creature gains the dominant attitude of the bloodgiver as a basis for personality.
Example: Schlork the Gouter cuts Edvard Sparkle in half with his slashing zweihander, doing 18 points of damage and showering the stone statue behind him with blood. The statue has a chance of becoming sentient; GM rolls a 14; the statue becomes sentient, with 14 points in attributes (say Str 5, Dex 1, Con 2, Int 3, Wis 2, Cha 1) and starts whining.
Then apply it to a setting... like a castle or a city or a region or a world.
Would would it be like?
Hmmm. Anything other than blunt weapons forbidden for beings outside of the "Order of Creators". Inquisitionlike searchers of "wrong life". Sentient creatures on the run, whole races considered outlawed, because their ancestors were spawned from this process (or are thought to).
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is really THE evil behind this? What about... Vampires?
Great Idea...
I like the idea--it's a terrific idea, in fact--but I'm not sure I want it to be an entire setting, even if only a castle or keep. Instead, I like the idea of it being imbued as a curse (or a boon, depending upon one's perspective) on an edged-weapon.
ReplyDeleteI went ahead and took the liberty to craft up my weapon idea and posted it on my own blog to save space here.
LINK: http://thedwarvenstronghold.blogspot.com/2011/11/found-item-lifebringer.html
Yeah the more I think about it, definitely better as a more localised occurrence. The Lifebringer sword is damn fine; from a bastard DM point of view I would rather make the Lifeblood trait something other than a weapon, as it would a) stop PCs taking undue advantage of the ability (though I;m sure that they would still find a way anyhow) b) it would force them to think differently about overcoming their foes. If you gave it as an ability to a creature (a la Calibos from the latest Clash of the Titans), or made it an trait of a cursed ruin for example, then the PCs can't just rush in swords flailing (or swording?) or if they do they'r ein for a shock. Still, the sword rocks.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Put that way, I can see where the cursed ruin could work from a bastard DM perspective.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the weapon-specific trait goes, if you were to rule that the creature that the Lifebringer (or similar weapon) brought to sentience was of the same alignment as the vanquished foe, or that the weapon's curse caused the newly-awake creature was automatically of opposing alignment from the wielder.... That might keep the players from taking advantage, as they would quickly find themselves surrounded by new foes. As you said, though, it's tough to EVER keep the players from taking advantage.