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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Taskill_Mckennan on February 28, 2012, 06:48:25 PM
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Yet another question i have, this time about aspects. So far we've been playing 7 aspects and can reword them at minor milestones, but I've got a character who at the start was fairly calm and collected and wouldn't hurt anyone intentionally (Even if he was a bit of a rouge) but he executed an Npc (Which the character had perfectly legitimate vendetta against) while the other characters were distraced. This was a major turning point for the character
I decided it could work as an extreme mental consequence for the character. An even ocurred that screwed him up so much he personally changed to a much colder darker character. So i'm calling it a
"Plot consequence" inflicted upon a character when their lives have screwed them over to where they cannot be the same person they were a few months ago.
Either that or from now on I'm just going to have parts of that actually inflict massive mental stress to force them to take a consequence
I'd like both feed back and other options to this please
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It's unfair to have them fill their Extreme Consequence slot when they did not, in fact, take a consequence.
Just have him change an aspect. There's no rule that a major change has to be the result of an Extreme Consequence.
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I've always played that aspects can be changed mid-story without needing a milestone or consequence **IF** there is major in-story justification.
For example, I had a character with the High Concept aspect "Ignorant Emissary of the Great Phoenix". He had been brought back to life and granted Sponsored Magic, but he didn't know who had done it or why. Eventually, he set up a ritual to contact his sponsor. After meeting the Great Phoenix and learning why he'd been brought back, I immediately crossed out the word "Ignorant" from that aspect. The GM and party approved of this, of course.
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I allow major character-changing events to let them rewrite relevant aspects right away.
When explaining it I do admittedly explain it as "conceding into taking an Extreme Consequence (without filling the consequence slot)," though this is also influenced by:
A) I'm trying to teach them that conceding is absolutely a valid option
B) It seems to get through easier AND
C) Got a very system-focused player, who prefers that I explain things in mechanics over fluff.
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I don't really think you need to alter the aspect immediately. For things of the nature of, an otherwise completely pacifistic character snapping and killing someone, the full psychological consequences of that wont be apparent for some time (and really are the sort of thing that should be played out over multiple cases. If he really was a pacifist, he's going to carry that with him for years). So, the character sheet response to that action can wait till the end of the session (and therefore the minor milestone). At which point, the character and the group can decide whether this was an isolated incident (no need to change the aspect, unless he wants to add a guilt or fear of being caught spin on it), or whether this was a breaking point that will fundamentally alter the characters psyche (in which case the Milestone should probably be upgraded to Major), or anything in between.
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It sounds like you want to add in some house rules to represent a form of "Humanity loss" (similar to White Wolf games, for example). Aspect change is definitely the way to go; if you want "mechanics" for it, why not use the aspect darkening guidelines that go along with Lawbreaker powers as a baseline?
Don't actually force the purchase of a stunt or power (or if you do, make it a -0 mortal stunt as a placeholder, so no refresh loss of bonuses), but keep track of "alignment infractions", and slowly darken aspects as they build up. Don't apply this to characters who commit crimes that are in-line with their existing aspects -- for example, a character with the aspect "The gene pool is gettin' a bit dirty -- call me the pool man!" who kills a rapist is acting to his aspects and shouldn't need to do anything. And, of course, if at some point the aspect become "dark enough" to reflect that that sort of action is in line withe his "alignment", stop tracking that particular type of crime...
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It sounds like you want to add in some house rules to represent a form of "Humanity loss" (similar to White Wolf games, for example). Aspect change is definitely the way to go; if you want "mechanics" for it, why not use the aspect darkening guidelines that go along with Lawbreaker powers as a baseline?
This seems like a viable mechanic for it.
I don't really think you need to alter the aspect immediately. For things of the nature of, an otherwise completely pacifistic character snapping and killing someone, the full psychological consequences of that wont be apparent for some time (and really are the sort of thing that should be played out over multiple cases. If he really was a pacifist, he's going to carry that with him for years). So, the character sheet response to that action can wait till the end of the session (and therefore the minor milestone). At which point, the character and the group can decide whether this was an isolated incident (no need to change the aspect, unless he wants to add a guilt or fear of being caught spin on it), or whether this was a breaking point that will fundamentally alter the characters psyche (in which case the Milestone should probably be upgraded to Major), or anything in between.
This seems like it'll be fun for our longer sessions (We have between 0-2 short 2 hour sessions a week and a 8ish hour session on the weekend so yah) and I'll probably do a mix of both of them
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This was a major turning point for the character
If you already phrase it like that, wouldn't it be appropriate to give the character a milestone separate from the rest of the group?
Second, I don't necessarily see this as a turning point. Yes he killed, but that doesn't have to turn him into a killer. He didn't just kill for fun, as you said. As part of the vendetta he could rationalise it one way or another, so it might haunt him, but it doesn't turn him into something he's not. The decision should stay with the player, adjusted maybe by the consensus at the table so it stays within reason, but forcing an aspect onto a PC is - in my opinion - a bad thing. How does the player view this scene and his characters response to it?
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The aspect was akin to something like "Innocence lost" or something similar. Basically the character had left his past behind and had been haunted by it. I'm thinking the separate milestone might work as well but i have a few players (See angel PC template for the example of one) who complain when someone gains milestones sooner then they do or more than they do
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It doesn't have to be a mechanically advantageous milestone (i.e., you don't have to give him refresh or skillpoints), just let him change an aspect.
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It doesn't have to be a mechanically advantageous milestone (i.e., you don't have to give him refresh or skillpoints), just let him change an aspect.
touche