Thursday, December 10, 2020

Class: Sword that Cuts Heaven

I'll stop basing things on Auntie Maya when I am DEAD

Class: Sword That Cuts Heaven

I have no idea if this class even works. Who even knows. What's a class. I'm just going to ignore HP and Saves this is absurd enough entirely on its own. High level fighter, can't increase HP by leveling up or something. Whatever. Fuck levels.

Once a Generation

Only one player per campaign can be a Sword that Cuts Heaven. If the character dies, another one cannot be taken (though if a player leaves, the character may of course be adopted by another player).

Vow of A Quiet Life

You have sworn yourself to a life of peace (and usually isolation). You may draw your weapon to kill only under very specific circumstances. Note that this is not what must be fulfilled in order to enter combat, only what must be fulfilled to kill someone. Make it limited and specific. Ex:

  • You have named enemies of great power.
  • There is an individual you are sworn to protect above all others. 

In both cases you still need to try an alternative first before delivering killing blows, whether by words or nonlethal combat.

A Crude Tool to Create Ghosts 

You deal damage in HD. This is not a mistype. Your damage die remains the same for whatever weapon you choose, it just jumps right over hit points. Morale rolls will be made.

Farewell to Arms

Successful attack rolls made against antagonists who have not triggered your Vow do no damage, but will instead disarm them of their weapons. This can also be used to strike projectiles out of the air.

There is Another

The Sword That Cuts Heaven has no shortage of enemies, but this one stands above the rest. They are your equal, and wish to see you dead.

The tracker begins at 1-in-100. It will increase by 1 for every time the StCH is seen in combat, (whether or not anyone is killed), by 5 if they kill an enemy in combat, and by 1 each in-game day after the initial combat.

1d100 is rolled each game day. If it is is ever under the tracker, the Enemy knows of your location and will be upon you in 1d10 in-game days (or next session, whichever is more relevant / fun)

The Enemy is another Sword That Cuts Heaven, with the same mechanics.


 

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15 comments:

  1. DanDecember 10, 2020 at 8:59 PM

    Is it a joke? Is it serious? I don't know. I have too many drafts and it was done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. msilverDecember 10, 2020 at 9:18 PM

    Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. MufnDecember 10, 2020 at 10:24 PM

    I feel like it needs some sort of drain for the STCH so they can go back to normal, some mechanic that moves the tracker in the opposite direction; annoyingly i have no idea what that would be in an actionable sense outside of the weak-sauce 'leave the party/change your costume/end relationships' nuclear option. Maybe you spend Opulence to get back to 0? Nah. I guess dath of an opposing STCG could be a a quick/dirty track negator, it just seems incomplete for some reason.

    Food for thought, keep it up mang

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DanDecember 10, 2020 at 10:42 PM

      I certainly felt like there was something missing with the class, but a solution never revealed itself when i was writing it.

      Delete
    2. MufnDecember 11, 2020 at 7:23 AM

      Slept on it and moght have an idea: starts with good Saves, can burn save score to negate 10-20 points on the rival tracker (permanent loss?)

      Delete
    3. M-and-DDecember 11, 2020 at 9:50 PM

      Reset the count if you leave no witnesses

      Delete
  4. LocheilDecember 10, 2020 at 11:37 PM

    I mean, really, why ever stop basing things on Auntie Maya.

    Royalty is a continous cutting motion

    ReplyDelete
  5. maratDecember 11, 2020 at 10:01 AM

    Very cool.

    ReplyDelete
  6. qpopDecember 11, 2020 at 2:11 PM

    You better not even stop basing things on Auntie Maya even AFTER you're dead.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ArkosDecember 12, 2020 at 2:53 PM

    To reset the counter, maybe it goes down by 1 every week you go without fighting?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DanDecember 12, 2020 at 5:19 PM

      Perhaps. But as i think about it more, I think I am warming up to the whole inevitability of it all.

      Delete
    2. CallmesalticidaeJune 20, 2024 at 10:19 AM

      I also think that the inevitability is appropriate for this class. I think that the counter might accumulate too quickly for some game, but you can't possibly account for every possible game. It could also accumulate too slowly for some games!

      And anybody who's reading your blog should be acquainted with the art of hacking things for their own game, so I think what you've got is fine.

      Delete
  8. SpwackDecember 13, 2020 at 3:39 AM

    So, you kill 1d6 HD per round using a dagger? Is that spread over multiple targets?

    I would have the tracker start at 0-in-100. You start out having successfully hidden yourself and lived a peaceful life. You might go out wandering, but so long as you never use your combat abilities, it's not a problem. Then, after the first "slip-up", it's only 1-in-100. It's not so bad. Why not just kill them all?

    ReplyDelete
  9. SeanDecember 27, 2020 at 7:55 PM

    Makes me think of this Troika! background on Hexculture. https://hexculture.com/2019/10/the-sharpest-sword-does-not-exist.html

    ReplyDelete

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