Category: The Watch RPG Community

An interesting observation.

I am finding it actually uncomfortable to apply the stereotypes to the Shadow. Nothing really over the top, but specifically my players have chosen for one of the Shadow;’s servants to be “Women corrupted into idols and objects of veneration”.

I have thought of a couple ways to represent that in the game . . . just every time I sit down to flesh it out just a little . . . I feel, icky.

Does anyone else experience this? lol

Also, would anyone mind giving me some feedback once I settle on something. I really want these elements of my game to make an impression

Today I have been considering the Shadow in my Campaign.

The Enemy is Darkly Sorcerous, and Reality Warping.

The Enemy Amplifies the voices of the Shadow Held, Crushes Autonomy, and Grinds down the willful.

For Darkly Sourcerous I figured I will use that as the basis for it’s powers. Ancient rituals, blood magic, etc. No fireballs or lightning. The powers on display I want to be subtle and that flows straight into Reality Warping.

So I felt like I could apply this in a lot of reality warping ways.

– Powerful enemies can bend time and space in limited ways

– Powerful enemies are able to manipulate light and wind and other elements in limited ways

I imagine this being showcased in battle scenes and gives me ways to carve out little moments in the combat where time slows, or seems to jump around. Disorienting shifts in the environment, similar to when Frodo wears the One Ring. Everything goes all inverted and warped.

Also, lands coming under sway of the Shadow will start to warp and twist.

– Sounds and colors become distorted and warped.

– Physical objects feel off. Soft things feel prickly electric, solid things slip from the fingers, your eyes cannot seem to focus on other things.

Trying to work these themes into what the shadow does.

Amplify the voices of the shadow held. I thought this made a good battle showpiece as well. Women set up as beautiful weapons their voices like that of the Siren and Banshee.

Then back in the clan lands, perhaps particularly weak people are starting to talk peace. Sought out by Agents of the Shadow, they begin to speak out and people are starting to listen!

Crushing autonomy, I am thinking that some of the voices of the Shadow Held also subvert the cause of the Unification. In the Fundamentalists/Traditionalst They insist that the clans MUST return to the old ways. That the clans are losing because they disbanded and are not fighting the ways that the gods intended. Radicals under the shadow will propose increasingly severe changes that take choices away from people. Like each craft must wear assigned colors. No symbols of the old clans are allowed anywhere and all punishable by increasingly draconian punishments.

Grinds down the willful. I think I am just going to represent this as the result of each of the things above always happening in the background. No sooner does the Watch Commander deal with the Molthas representative who is angy at a slight from the Richti rep, but now the Fundamentalists are demonstrating in a nearby village and it sounds like revolt may be in the works. Just a complete and constant slew of small petty problems that must be addressed immediately that keep interrupting the business of getting the war dealt with.

Wow that was a mouthful . . . what do you think? Any ideas you might get rid of or throw in there? Comments would be appreciated.

I want to do some relationship mapping for my game coming up.

Does anyone have recommendations for software that will make it relatively easy? I was considering a OneNote canvas or maybe MindMap software.

So I have about a month left for prep. I’m starting it by repeatedly reading the MC section of the book. I decided to work on the principle “ASk questions that generate new ideas and build upon them”.

I emailed each of my characters one, simple question (different for each character).

So far I am loving the responses.