Environment as an antagonist

[Doc Democracy]

I was flicking through my Deadlands books the other day and was taken (again) with the mechanics surrounding the fear in the area. 

 

Supernatural creatures in an area have their abilities boosted when fear in the area is higher. Heroes can reduce the fear factor by defeating creatures and then visiting local communities and telling tales of that.

 

It means that the big, powerful creatures in high fear areas cannot be tackled directly because they are too powerful.  Heroes need to engage with minions, slowly whittling down the fear factor.  Only once that fear factor is reduced could the heroes consider taking on the local big bad.

 

I reckon this is a great mechanic forcing players to engage with the broader issues and communities.

 

My thoughts are that the supernatural creatures are bought with abilities that grow in high fear areas.  The environment will also deliver penalties to PCs, giving a double whammy of impacts.

 

I reckon this supernatural effect could be translocated to more mundane effects.  Taking on the local bandits is difficult because everyone is too scared to stand up to them and their confidence is high. As they begin to suffer defeats, that fear and confidence begin to diminish making each opponent that much easier to defeat.

 

It could be a magical thing, with wizards, or something to do with the Fey.

 

Not sure I am asking anything, just felt the need to share...

 

Doc

[Steve]

The Change Environment ability seems to fit the bill. Just need to tack on appropriate limitations and advantages. For example, you could have a big bad that has a massive adjustment going on as a megascaled one, but it is dependent on the fear level going on.

[GDShore]

Environment can be more than one thing, fear can be a very hard thing to overcome but it can also be the climate environment. From '80 till 2000 I ran adventure's every other weekend, then I got a promotion at work (or as one of my friends called it a demotion with higher pay) and had to work every weekend from April till the end of September and sometimes into the end of November. I have always used the weather as an antagonist in my adventures. I would keep a weather diary actually 4 or 5 such. Tempreture, precipatation, wind conditions and severe weather having to face a blizard in May can be a bit of a schock. With the Change Environment Power maybe not so much anymore although, a 3-4 tornadoe might just play havock with that too. Having your party wet, cold, misarable can and will affect thier ability to function. I created at one point a table of weather effects on melee, ranged and spell casting, I wasn't capricious with the weather, I would have friends or relatives send me a daily weather report on thier locale conditions. I would use those offset by a year, to handle weather in the campain. Then there is the political environment laws, culture, prejudices and locale mores. It enrich's your world. 

[Christopher R Taylor]

I do like that concept, and I'll probably work something like that into my Dearthwood aventure whenever I get back to working on it.  But I agree, environment is a major part of adventure and play that doesn't get touched on often and is an exciting part of play if handled right.

[MordeanGrey]

I’ve done something like this in several games. The Fey (raw magic) exists, but is manipulated by enough people believing in it, practicing it (religion), etc.

 

If parents in the village all tell their children to be good or the boogieman will come and take them, and enough of the children believe it, the boogieman will manifest as a result of the Fey being manipulated.

[Gauntlet]

Another option might be to give the upper entities a Variable Power Pool dependent on the fear factor in the area. This means that the more fear around the more changes to reality they can create.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

If parents in the village all tell their children to be good or the boogieman will come and take them, and enough of the children believe it, the boogieman will manifest as a result of the Fey being manipulated.

 

Yeah I have a system like that in my game.  Spirits that devour spent mana (and transform it into usable mana).  The spirits can be activated by beliefs, spirtuality, and magic use to manifest as elementals, fae, etc.