Wise Old Man
Starting Items: comfortable plain clothes, a flask or pipe to warm the cockles, a cane or walking stick, some kind of geegaw or bobbin or thingamajig or other entertaining but largely useless trinket
Starting Skills: Pick two- one befitting a scholar or a sage, and one befitting a fun grandpa
A - Compassion, Quest
B - Wise Counsel, Hospitality
C - Turning of the Tide
D - Unseen Labours
- Compassion: Your character instinctively knows what would most help a person, in that moment. At any time you may ask your GM this, and they will sum up this need with a one word answer.
- This is often obvious when it comes to immediate material needs (e.g. a man dying in the desert needs "water"). However, it can be useful for hinting at esoteric or hidden needs (e.g. a seemingly mad man needing "alcohol"; as it will kill the hidden worm in his belly that's controlling him).
- For characters whose basic needs are met: this may often reveal a more moral or psychological needs they are lacking or ignoring (e.g. a spoiled prince needing "humility," the gruff guard needing "recognition," etc).
- This word is always what would truly benefit THEM, and may change from moment to moment.
- Quest: Once per clearly defined goal, your character may implore Fate, the Gods, etc. what could be done to achieve that goal (e.g. "How might the Ring be destroyed?"). Your GM will then give you a Quest which another character may perform, which will be guaranteed to achieve this goal if they should succeed (e.g. "If Frodo successfully carries the Ring all the way to Mount Doom, it will surely be destroyed.").
- The Quest itself is merely a path to success, and is not itself guaranteed to succeed (e.g. Frodo might die, might not make it to Mount Doom, might abandon the Quest, etc). Many other paths also exist that may potentially achieve the same goals.
- While you can assist others in their Quests, you cannot complete their tasks for them; nor can you force an unwilling person to fulfil a Quest (e.g. no you can't stuff Frodo in a sack and carry him there).
- While a Quest might guarantee a desired outcome occurs, it offers no insight into any unforeseen consequences that might naturally arise from that (e.g. sorry about all those injuries Frodo).
- Wise Counsel: Whenever you give advice, warnings, omens, etc. which are genuinely helpful and in a listener's best interest: they must Save in order to disobey your advice.
- Hospitality: If you introduce one or more neutral parties to each other over acceptable food and drink which you provide, they become fast friends (mechanically: they cannot work to harm one another, and perhaps this makes NPCs with shared interests easy to recruit?). This friendship lasts until:
- one party asks a favour of the other(s). As long as this favour is reasonably small or does not pose harm, the other(s) are obliged to grant it
- an outside party works to break apart the friendship
- the interest of any party comes into direct conflict with another
- Turning of the Tide: If someone significantly falters or fails at a Quest you have given them, you know immediately. You may appear to them instantaneously, as if you just walked into a scene, no matter how improbably or how distant you are. After this, you return to wherever you were originally.
- Unseen Labours: Your Compassion may now be utilised on anything- groups of people, cultures, art pieces, abstract concepts, etc. As a general rule, barring immediate catastrophe or destruction, the needs of inanimate objects or large groups are less liable to change but much more difficult to meet.
Back when I wrote Wizard of One, this kind of wormed it's way into the back of my head as counterbalance. I'm more writing this to get it out of my head than anything else?
- Originally I was debating tacking on some kind of bonus to Turning of the Tide for either talking them back onto the quest or ending them righteously, but I figured the former wasn't needed and the latter kinda clashed tonally.
- Quest feels like it might play terribly at the table? In a sense it helps build objectives and direction in for players that want it, but it also locks in a certain mindset. Like conceptually I like "trying to satisfy the whims of fate" and "indirect pathways to success" but might be a bit undercooked.
- Also cut a "twisting fate" type D Feature that felt kind of off tonally
- Wise Counsel was a late addition, and I don't know how I feel about it. The class definitely needs a few more active tools but that one isn't hitting quite right. If you have any better ideas, feel free to reach out to me.
This post by Ro Pham is licensed under CC BY 4.0, and may be used by anyone with proper attribution.
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