The Runelords

[Starwolf]

I am preparing a new Fantasy Hero campaign. I need some input from anyone that has read the Runelords by David Farland. I am looking for ideas on how to construct the forcibles, the earth wardens, the water mages, the flameweavers, the reavers, and possibly write-ups for force warriors, force horses, force elephants, and Runelords.

 

I think that the forcibles/runes are essentially a NND transfer, with OAF, a delayed return rate (the dedicate must die for the recipient to loose the benefit, or the recipient must die for the dedicate to get his stats back), no range, Physical Armor/Clothing defends (the foricible must touch the skin), the dedicate must be willing (though this can be compelled through blackmail, bribery, and threat), And the transfer cannot completely drain the character (stat is lowered to one), The dedicate must make a con/ego roll to survive the initial transfer or return of the stat (there is a huge shock to the system or die.

 

Any ideas are welcome

[Killer Shrike]

Sounds like you are on the right track -- a very highly limited Transfer with an effectively-forever Delayed Return rate.

 

There were also some side affects for the dedicates as well, although the only one that was psuedo beneficial was the ones that gave SPD or DEX depending on how you handled it -- they aged slower, like Borensen's dad, so that when their Runelord died or whatever, they were basically none the worse for wear, having lost very little of their own lifespan to the process.

 

Also, IIRC a person could only ever be a dedicate once.

 

And also, you would need to consider the concept (I cant remember what it was called) where a person could be given a number of endowment of a particular type and then become a dedicate of that type for another, augmenting the effect of the endowment.

 

 

As far as the Elementalists, they never really did enough for me to get a strong feel for their abilities. I read the 1st two books, but couldnt get past the first couple chapters of the 3rd IIRC.

 

Also, endowments can be taken from animals, and can be kind of vaguely defined, like taking the power of scent from dogs (the so called Wolf Lords did this, right?)

 

 

 

You probably should list all the endowments possible first and define what they take in mechanics terms. Start from there, and that will give you a better idea for the points involved....

[Starwolf]

And also, you would need to consider the concept (I cant remember what it was called) where a person could be given a number of endowment of a particular type and then become a dedicate of that type for another, augmenting the effect of the endowment.

 

They were called vectors!

 

Also I recall that if someone took an endowment from an animal they took on a vague aspect of the animal, like an enlongated snout for taking smell from dogs.

 

I figured I had the basic gist of the design, I just wanted to get input fromothers to make sure I wasn't missing something. Thanks for the input.

[NuSoardGraphite]

I read the first three books of that series last year. The fourth book is out now, but I have yet to pick it up. The first thing I said while reading the first book was "This would make a great HERO campaign!"

 

Endowments I remember are:

 

Brawn (STR)

Metabolism (SPD/DEX)

Wit (INT)

Glamour (COM)

Health(?) (CON/REC)

Various Senses

[Starwolf]

Yeah the ones I remember are:

 

Brawn (STR)

Voice (Pre)

Glamour (Com)

Stamina (BODY/CON, Adds to figured)

Metabolism (SPD)

Grace (Dex)

Wit (Int)

Sight (+Per w/Sight Group, Telescopic)

Hearing (+Per w/Hearing Group, Telescopic)

Smell (+Per w/Smell group, Tracking, Discriminatory)

[Killer Shrike]

Also, dont forget that Endowments were readable by the scars by those who knew how to. Each "rune" was different, so that you could look at a person's skin and go "3 Voice, 5 Stamina, 2 Metabolism......."

 

 

Also, enough Stamina granted pretty effective Regeneration, enough Metabolism caused the recipient to age faster but they also moved so fast they were a blur (extra running pats 12 SPD?) and could damage themselves, enough Voice granted a massive AoE RKA, enough Glamour a pretty effective Mind Control, and so on.

 

So basically, it seems like there should be a "critical mass" point where enough endowment of a certain type grant further powers, and some of them have side effects.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Ah yes!

 

The one for DEX is Grace and the one for CON/BOD is Stamina...and I forgot about Voice. I remember that being a big deal in the books.

 

Hmm...all the basic characteristics are covered except for EGO...was there one for willpower in the books..I think it was mentioned but never seen/used.

 

As for granting powers beyond a certain point, I would say that once a Characteristic reaches 30, additional Endowments after that grant appropriate Feats based on the characteristic transferred.

 

Don't forget that even a single of Endowment of Wit can grant such abilities as Eidetic Memory and Lightning Calculator. Endowments of Metabolism should include levels of Lightning Reflexes. Endowments of Stamina could include immunity to poisons and disease etc.

 

Also, considering the linear nature of Adjustment powers, it might be wise to consider a sliding scale of the number of Endowments vs the number of Dice of Transform or Aid given. Otherwise, characters like Raj Ahten will have Characteristics exceeding 100 in some cases (such as with his hundreds of Endowments of Brawn and Stamina)

 

Here's one method:

 

The base dice of Transfer is determined by the quality of the Forcible used in giving the first Endowment.

 

Additional Endowments after the first give a bonus to the maximum amount of the Characteristic Transferred.

 

However, the bonus is +2 to the maximum on the dice per doubling of Endowments.

 

Endowments/Bonus

2/+2

4/+4

8/+6

16/+8

32/+10

64/+12

125/+14

250/+16

500/+18

1000/+20

etc.

 

Thus, Raj Ahten, with his 1000 Endowments of Brawn probably has a STR somewhere around 50 (15 base STR, +15 from initial Endowment, +20 from additional Endowments)

 

Perception based Endowments could work in a similar manner, but add Range Levels as well as bonus to the perception rolls.

[Starwolf]

I like the idea of the sliding scale. I had wrestled with the concept of Raj Ahten and his thousands of endowments. Thanks again for all of the ideas....

[Killer Shrike]

I vaguely recall some Runelords were considered to be of "unfortunant attribute", suggesting that there were impracticalities involved in getting to many of a certain endowment without enough of another endowment to back it up.

 

The main case seemed to be too many boosts of Metabolism w/o enough boosts of Stamina.

 

 

Also keep in mind when scaling the power of endowments that skill should count for something too. Borenssen IIRC was able to take out members of Raj Aten's Immortals, who had many more endowments than he, because unlike most Runelords, Borenssen actually knew how to fight before becoming a Runelord. So enough CSL's should allow a less-endowed warrior to defeat a stat-monkey with more endowments but less ability.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Well, thats generally a case of Skill levels vs Raw Characteristic. A smart player with enough Skill levels can defeat a character who relies on Raw Characteristic more often than not....

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by NuSoardGraphite

Well, thats generally a case of Skill levels vs Raw Characteristic. A smart player with enough Skill levels can defeat a character who relies on Raw Characteristic more often than not....

Right; Im just saying to be careful when scaling the power of the Runes so as not to eclipse the possibility of CSL-based characters of being competitive.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Of course, of course.

 

The most effective type of Endowments (In Hero Terms) would be of Grace and Metabolism. In the books, it seems as if most warriors (excluding obvious exceptions like Raj Ahten) only had 1-3 endowments of each. This means that both Dex and SPD (the two most combat-effective Characteristics) will still be within reasonable levels.

 

Of course, they seem to just pile on Endowments of Brawn and Stamina, but high STR is easy to deal with and high Con, while somewhat annoying at times (hard to stun) is still very manageable.

 

Now question:

 

Do you think that Endowments should also affect the Figured Characteristics or not? If so, that changes what power is used with Endowments, since Adjustment Powers have no effect on Figured Characteristics....

 

However, in the books, it seems as if they do affect figured characteristics, most especially Endowments of Stamina. A single Endowment of Stamina seemed to affect how long the character could last without rest (REC) How much physical labor the character could perform (END) and how "Tough" they were in combat (Pd/Ed). If you want to use Transform, then it would have to affect all those characteristics as well as Con...expensive, to be sure (of course, since the character isn't paying for this, then does it really matter?)

[Killer Shrike]

You could theoretically treat the dedicates as IIF for powers & stats bought as powers, with the Runes treated as a symbolic link to the actual person. As far as the impact on the person, a Transform into an appriopriate altered state (healed back by the death of the Runelord) can be used to kind of handwave the angle of using living people as Foci.

 

If you can get to the "IIF" dedicates in their normally guarded locations, you can really mess up a Runelord.

 

Any thoughts?

[Starwolf]

If you can get to the "IIF" dedicates in their normally guarded locations, you can really mess up a Runelord

 

This is very true... I also remember that one of the tactics that was feared was;

 

Capture an enemies dedicate that grants metabolism, then start giving that dedicate metablism, effectivly turning him into a vector.....and with enough endowments, it rapidly aged the target runelord. I seem to recall Raj Ahten thinking that if his enemy had taken 60 endowments of metabolism he could just go home as King Orden would then die of old age by spring.