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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: DesertCoyote on June 07, 2010, 11:50:03 AM

Title: Sunshine in a bag.... ok, maybe not.
Post by: DesertCoyote on June 07, 2010, 11:50:03 AM

Chris, JD, Scott, Robert, spoilers.  beat it. :)

(click to show/hide)

Sunshine Moonlight in a bag your pocket

I've got a band of lycanthropes that have thus far proven only to be minor villains, mostly because outside of a full moon, they're just normal people.  No offense intended to anyone playing such a character, but it's hard to get worked up about 5 days of power out of every 29.  

So, to help them out without dropping something game breaking, I've taken a spell from Harry and modified it a bit.  The spell where Harry captured sunshine, but instead capturing moonlight from the full moon.  Basically it triggers a rare or involuntary change in characters that have a moon based change for a duration of one scene.  After that scene is over, they gain a temporary aspect "Very Tired" and get -1 to anything they're doing until they get some rest.

To bring it in to my villains, I'm tying it into the local native american tribe that lived here.  Luckily, from a storytelling point of view, not much was written about them besides some pretty scary stuff about cannibalism and the words of a Spanish guy named Cabeza de Vaca on a few of their religious practices.  The particular band of "rage spirits" that give my lycanthropes power were all part of the Karankawa belief system and gave their warriors power if they were worthy.  All spirits, messengers, and dieties had been asleep akin to most other old gods.

The rage spirits woke up after a development project desecrated the grave site of some of their respected dead.  Left on their own, the rage spirits had no way to fully inform their hosts ... and to be honest, didn't really want to.   When one of their hosts died (honorably within their culture), a ghost of a long dead shaman stuck in playback mode shows up and compels them into awakening "The Sacred Smoke" . . . a messenger to their sun god.  TSS is able to grant some of them sponsored magic and they learn the trick about storing moonlight, but they're still working on awakening their god.

Thoughts?  I just thought some of you might like the "trick" and find it useful in your campaigns.

Title: Re: Sunshine in a bag.... ok, maybe not.
Post by: luminos on June 07, 2010, 11:54:18 AM

That is a rather creative idea, and I certainly like it.  I think your players will get a kick out of it when they find out about it.

Title: Re: Sunshine in a bag.... ok, maybe not.
Post by: Slife on June 08, 2010, 06:35:51 AM

Another method would be for them to steal one of the less closely-guarded moon rocks.

Sunlight reflected by the moon has to be moonlight, right?   ;)

Title: Re: Sunshine in a bag.... ok, maybe not.
Post by: DesertCoyote on June 08, 2010, 06:51:10 AM

Funny you should bring up stealing moon rocks....

From the wikipedia article on moon rocks:

In June 2002, 101 grams of moon rocks were stolen from the Johnson Space Center by interns Thad Roberts and Tiffany Fowler. The pair used knowledge of the security around the rocks gained during their internship to remove a 600 pound safe containing the samples. Roberts is a certified pilot and scuba diver who was an ambitious student pursuing degrees in Physics, Geology and Anthropology who aspired to be an astronaut. Fellow interns Gordon McWhorter and Shae Saur were also later arrested for their role in the theft and attempted sale of the rocks. The theft also included a meteorite that may have revealed information about life on Mars.

Incidentally.... Shae Saur was a student at Lamar University... in Beaumont, Texas... which is 10 minutes from here.