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So one of my players has asked for a different cultural blessing than normal, in order to represent his character's innate nature. Here's my first shot at such a thing:

Simple Folk
appropriate quote from Sam goes here

You possess a natural innocence and optimism that sees the world as it should be, not necessarily as it is. Once per Adventuring Phase you may immediately restore a spent point of Hope by adding one temporary Shadow point. If possess any Flaws (due to a Bout of Madness or other reasons), you may not use this ability.

Additionally, you may add a new Distinctive Feature: Innocent.

I love it!

zedturtle wrote:If possess any Flaws (due to a Bout of Madness or other reasons), you may not use this ability.

Does this mean that the Cultural Blessing can no longer be used once a character's first flaw is gained? ... That seems a bit harsh.

Rich H wrote:

zedturtle wrote:If possess any Flaws (due to a Bout of Madness or other reasons), you may not use this ability.

Does this mean that the Cultural Blessing can no longer be used once a character's first flaw is gained? ... That seems a bit harsh.

I agree. That's why I added the bonus Trait, but I'd love suggestions.

zedturtle wrote:I agree. That's why I added the bonus Trait, but I'd love suggestions.

I'm thinking that it isn't a great idea to shut off, permanently, the main element of the cultural blessing once a certain state/condition is reached. Other blessings work constantly or work under specific circumstances but don't become permanently unusable when some particular state is reached and cannot be removed. I'd personally try to come up with an option for this that follows this blueprint.

Is the blessing too powerful, compared to others, if you simply removed the permanent restriction - the blessing can only be invoked once per adventuring phase so that feels like a limiting element in itself?

I do love the flavour of shutting it off after a permanent Shadow point...great narratively...but maybe overly punitive mechanically.

Rich H wrote:

zedturtle wrote:I agree. That's why I added the bonus Trait, but I'd love suggestions.

I'm thinking that it isn't a great idea to shut off, permanently, the main element of the cultural blessing once a certain state/condition is reached. Other blessings work constantly or work under specific circumstances but don't become permanently unusable when some particular state is reached and cannot be removed. I'd personally try to come up with an option for this that follows this blueprint.

Is the blessing too powerful, compared to others, if you simply removed the permanent restriction - the blessing can only be invoked once per adventuring phase so that feels like a limiting element in itself?

I want something that triggers an "innocence lost" condition, but maybe I should scale it somehow.

Maybe it could be as often as desired before the first Flaw, and only once per Adventuring Phase afterwards?

zedturtle wrote:I want something that triggers an "innocence lost" condition, but maybe I should scale it somehow.

Maybe it could be as often as desired before the first Flaw, and only once per Adventuring Phase afterwards?

That could work... From a metagame perspective, just like Stiff Neck, it tempts the player to build up temp Shadow - in this case in order to replenish Hope - but push too far and you could easily succumb to your first Bout of Madness and then the blessing becomes more restricted, which I like.

Is this really needed for Hobbits though - they get high Hope *and* add an extra point into the Fellowship Pool? Genuine question here, not trying to poo-poo things, as I've only LM'd Hobbit PCs for a few sessions and there were 4 of them in the Fellowship so they could burn Hope and not worry using the RAW.

I do like the idea though.

Or find some way to make it progressively less effective. This is too complicated, but something along the lines of "Whenever you spend a point of Hope you can try to pass a Wisdom check to get the Hope back with a point of Shadow, but you subtract a number of Success Dice equal to your permanent Shadow."

This might be a good quote:

“The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.”