So in my game I’m in, the Doomed (daughter of Basically Trigon) is 1 point off from their final Doomsign and death. The Legacy (descended from Literally Angels) just took their Moment of Truth, because thus far the story between the two of them has been that the Legacy is in love with the Doomed and vice versa.
The book says nothing can stop it, but it also says that during a Moment of Truth a character does the impossible and takes full narrative control. I’m thinking of allowing the Doomed to take their final Doomsign, be rescued by the Legacy, and potentially switch to another Mask, rather than dying, because I’d like to let them have a happy ending.
Opinions?
Question: Are you the Doomed, the Legacy, or the GM in this game?
If you’re the Doomed or the Legacy, talk with the other player about whether this is cool or not.
If you’re the GM, don’t do anything. Let the players of these characters make those decisions.
GM, and the Legacy has discussed how she specifically wants to save the Doomed, while the Doomed is just like ‘well I don’t have enough advances to switch playbooks’ [they had insanely lucky rolls for most of the game, sadly].
I like the storyline myself.
OK, so you’re the GM and it sounds like you’re fine with allowing the Legacy to save the Doomed. That’s fine and good, as long as the Doomed wants that to happen.
If the Doomed wants to be saved by the Legacy, great. Allow it to happen. If the Doomed doesn’t want to be saved by the Legacy, then then don’t make it happen.
We recommend shying away from any clearly overt planning—trying to pre-plan that the Doomed will take their last Doomsign, with certainty, takes away some of the tension in the moment of play. Give the Doomed a chance to dodge that last box, for as long as they can! But don’t be afraid to make them mark it when it’s appropriate, even if it means the end of that character—this is what the story of the Doomed is all about!
Mechanically, taken as written, if the Doomed takes that final Doomsign, that’s it—they should meet their doom and perish. Otherwise, those Doomsigns and the pain and terror of that arc is abated—it was never really a true threat. So from a “play to find out” perspective, this should really supercede everything, even Moments of Truth. There’s a lot of dramatic mileage to be had out of a Doomed who’s desperately trying to avoid marking that last box on their doomtrack, who’s hamstrung by how scared they are of their own powers.
With that said, however… If the Doomed and Legacy want to confront Not-Trigon early and take him down, they’re more than able to, and the Doomed can even then change playbooks. From the book: “You might confront your doom and overcome it purely over the course of play—in which case, the GM might say it’s appropriate that you simply mark off this advance and change playbooks.” It seems well within the story for the Legacy to use a Moment of Truth to defeat Not-Trigon and allow the Doomed to switch playbooks.
They might have to seek out that confrontation—without the “change playbooks” advance for the Doomed, they can’t automatically force a confrontation just by taking an advance—but that’s what the Doomed’s Sanctuary is for, solving impossible problems! 🙂
Finally, beyond that, if you really want to give them a happy ending, you can make a custom move for the situation. “When you put your angelic essence on the line to save the child of a demon, you can take their Doom onto yourself—they change playbooks, but you gain a doom track.” “When you burn away your angelic essence, you can cleanse the demonic essence from another soul—they change playbooks, but you must cross off an ability, permanently.” “When you use a Moment of Truth to save a Doomed who is about to die, it costs you dearly but you can do it—mark three conditions, and the GM will tell you one move that you lose.”
Essentially, creating a custom move here will let you handle the situation in exactly the way you described, with the Legacy using a moment of truth to save the Doomed at the last second. But if you go this route, make sure the move has teeth, with a major cost attached. No way in heck does the Doomed get off scot-free if they trigger their doom. And the Legacy probably should get more than a little burnt, too!
That’s the key to keep in mind here—the Doomed has a button they could press to try to take steps to get rid of their Doom the whole time, in the form of their Sanctuary! For things to get down to the wire (which is just awesome!), it means they were purposely not paying attention as that doomtrack kept filling up, and now they face the consequences. It’s not about being harsh or cruel—it’s about staying honest to the fiction, and to the story you’re telling. So if the Doomed does hit that very last Doomsign, I highly recommend that you do not let them get off without any cost or consequences.
This could just as easily be the desperate last chance that destroys her too. Either way I think thats an epic ending.
Well. For some people, the appeal of being the doomed is in viewing that as part one of the story and hope/plan to defeat the doom and move to a different book. Different people, different tastes in what makes a good story or a story they are interested in.
Incidentally, how does someone like a Transformed beat a Doom if they acquire one?
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I’d echo the idea about not over-planning. It’s cool that you have this possible scenario and a thought to deal with it, but yeah, let it play out and see what happens.
That being said, it’s your game, do whatever you and the other players want to do, and if you want to let the Legacy save the Doomed, then why not? It’s a story, and might be an epic one.
THAT being said, listen to what Magpie says and definitely have some serious cost for one or both of them. You don’t escape fate without a severe price to pay. So think of something almost worse than death and make them suffer (it’s part of the fun). Learn from Supernatural: death is the easy way out. Or from Hamilton: Dying is easy, son; living is harder.
So I’ll chime in, because something a lot like this happened in the final session of a campaign I ran.
The doomed marked her final doomsign, setting off the mechanisms that had been surgically implanted in her to absorb the world’s nuclear energy and then release it in a massive explosion. But the Nova used his moment of truth to halt the process and destroy the device. It worked very well in the context of the game, but I think there were some important reasons for that:
The Doomed had already soundly defeated her nemesis, and there were reasons in fiction why, even absent the Nova, the doom could have been cured. It really felt like the doomed’s arc was over, and the doomtrack only kept going b/c it was written into the playbook.
Additionally, what happened was a perfect synergy with the villain i’d prepared for that final session–A future version of the Nova sent back in time to ensure the Doom explodes.
And, the Nova is the Nova, and completely re-writing reality is their thing. And it was the last session of the game no matter what happened to the Doomed. Lots of confluence made it the right call for the game. But, just as importantly, It’s not something I’d planned, or even had an inkling was going to happen. Complete surprise by the Nova’s player.