Hi all,

Reading through the "Intimidate Foe" thread reminded me of this...

My players encountered a small group of goblins with a warg in the Grey Mountain Narrows. Nothing too difficult for the party to handle (on paper, at least) but the dice simply weren't with them that day and they were getting the worst of it. Most were wounded, all were weary. In desperation, a player lit his cloak on fire, threw it over his shield and attempted an intimidate foe action. He rolled a Gandalf and two Tengwars! Given the use of fire in the attempt, I ruled that the warg went into a fit of terror, snapping and clawing at some of the goblins as it fled into the mountains. The party, not wanting to risk further injury in the chaos, wisely retreated.

It was a wonderfully intense scene that everyone enjoyed (despite the many wounds). Something about snatching victory - or survival in this case - from certain doom. Then someone said something to the player/character along the lines of "Way to go, Warg Bane!"

There it was: Warg Bane.

I didn't make much of it on the spot other than friendly banter and good cheer between companions but it stayed with me. The next time we got together I told the player who had succeeded the intimidate roll to write "Warg Bane (wargs of the Grey Mountains)" among his specialties and to treat it as such moving forward. Basically granting an auto-success to intimidate wargs of the Grey Mountains, or be able to try to intimidate them when it would normally be impossible to do so (perhaps in a warg-den), or to gain an advancement point.

The players loved it.

Since then, I've decided to keep an extra "trait slot" open for each player in case similar moments come up.

Just wondering if other Loremasters have been granting individualized Traits as the story goes. (The Elf-Friend trait in Those Who Tarry is granted to whole group.)

Cheers,
Dankers

Cool, i like that.

OK as long as the Player spends the necessary Experience Points during the next Fellowship Phase if they want this particular trait - nothing is for free unless it comes with balances!. You should examine things from the wargs' point of view: are the next wargs going to be told by other wargs 'beware of this creature - he can do fire!" or something similar. Perhaps the PC now has a Standing with Wargs! Or maybe only with certain warg tribes??

Robin S.

@Danders: awesome idea!

@ Robin: You may have a good point, but how many experience points is a trait like that worth though....

Very nice idea.

As to how it's acquired: I'd treat it as a Distinctive Feature (which are individual) rather than a Specialty (which are cultural). And if the player wants to keep it, he can swap it out with another Distinctive Feature in his next Fellowship Phase as per RAW, AB172.

As for cost: not sure I'd make the player pay for it. It happened as an outcome of the story. Although requiring the hero to undertake "gain new distinctive feature" at the next Fellowship Phase to make the new feature permanent seems appropriate. And I wouldn't ask them to remove an existing Trait because the possibility must exist (in my mind anyway) that a "negative" Trait might be earned through adventuring as well. If the character had not succeeded, perhaps the Trait would now read "Wary of Wargs" and require an undertaking to remove if the player so desired. But he may wish to keep this negative trait for the potential it gives for acquiring advancement points.

As for nothing is for free unless it comes with balances: ...he, he, he. This is where evil, er, I mean, crafty Loremasters make hay for further adventures!
-Only you can save us from the wargs, Warg Bane!
-I'm on the job! Where do you need me?
-Our village is in the Misty Mountains.
-The Misty Mountains, you say...?

The Trait system gave me an opportunity to let a character be shaped by the story a bit more than standard experience/advancement points would allow. So far it has worked well and has been received positively by the group. Still a work in progress to be sure, but it's an avenue, I think, well worth exploring.

Thanks so much for the feedback! It really is a fantastic forum.

Dankers

How about if a player wants more that two "distinctive" traits they pay for it like a skill? The third trait costs 3 experience, the 4th trait 4, and so on. Since traits aren't supposed to be that powerful the player is paying for the ability to have more distinctive traits than other people.

A player could possibly earn experience during an adventure towards a trait. For example the original post in this thread might have netted the PC the first experience point towards acquiring the new trait.

Interesting suggestion. I'm also wondering if, for the sake of system consistency, the new/additional Trait could be purchased as a Mastery when a character's Wisdom score is increased.

Wouldn't that be a bit expensive? A character only gets a limited number of virtues, and another trait isn't as valuable as a Mastery (or any of the other virtues).

I don't see any reason why characters shouldn't (rarely) be given a free trait by the Loremaster. There is precedent for it in TfW...at the end of Adventure 4. It doesnt imply the players have to pay for the bonus distinctive feature, merely that they have earned it.

That said, if you live by the sword...the reverse may also be true. If one of my heroes had reckless and ran away from every fight i might change his feature to cautious in the fellowship phase...to capture how he was playing the character.

Yes, that was definitely the primary idea I was trying to present in this thread: have any Loremasters had opportunity to grant bonus distinctive features (be they positive or negative) to characters that have earned them through play.

Thank you for bringing us back on topic, James!

Hmm...I guess I could see it as a reward for roleplaying kinda like experience points or advancement points.

There probably should be some sort of limit to distinctive traits. Perhaps tired to Valor and Or Wisdom (higher of the two?). Since the traits reflect the person it would seem that the more well known somebody is the more traits people would be aware of. Plus, if characters have too many distinctive traits then those traits stop being that distinctive.