Mike Carscadden
04-16-1997, 08:49 PM
I don't know if it was mentioned somewhere or if I just made it up, but
here is a house rule that I use in my BR campaigns. I call it a blood
oath. I believe that in one of the books it says you can lose blood
power for alignment infringements well this is one step further. If the
scion or regent swears a blood oath he or she commits a portion of
himself(blood) to the oath. If the oath is broken some blood is lost.
In my game I make it a significant amount (15-20pts)to show how bad it
is to break such an oath. Oaths like this are a great DM tool, I used
it to get a greedy mage in a Rjurik campaign. You see the mage in
question, we'll call him Dan, you see Dan was your typical power hungry
mage. Unfortunately for Dan he had a weak tainted bloodline and had I
believe one power. We use the s and P in my games and Dan had made the
closest thing to a fighter he could and still be a mage. I think he had
access to something like 3 or 4 schools. Anyway I didn't like this much
as his character was pretty lame. So I invented a weapons master in the
capital. Well I've played with Dan for quite a long time so I made this
NPC so that Dan would just love him. The NPC lavished a few gift on him
and then revealed the secret that he was a mage. Dan was so happy he
had found a weapons master and a magical tutor in the same place. Now
at this point I was kind of tired with dealing with a mage in Plate
armor so I had the NPC make a special deal with Dan. The NPC performed
a special ritual that allowed Dan access to all schools but took away
his other abilities. Also he made Dan swear a few things in a blood
oath. I think this is how it went. "I Dan swear by my Blood that I
will never wield another weapon in anger, nor wear armor that encases
the body, nor ever harm Narm(NPC's name) or his wife, this I swear by my
blood." I may have forgotton a few things but that was the general jist
of it. Well after that the NPC gave Dan a few minor spells and sent him
on his way. Unfoutunately for Dan he had taken the flaw powerful
enemy(not good in my games) and it turns out that loveable little npc
was Dan's powerful enemy. Now think back to the begining where I said
how much the blood oath takes when broken 15 to 20 right, well dan only
had like 11. So he knew if he broke it he would lose all his blood and
by loosing all his blood lose his ability to cast true magic. Dan's
hasn't broken the oath yet and now the Villian is taunting poor dan. We
had to stop playing during school so the final battle hasn't happened
yet but it should be good. let me tell you Dan was real bitter when he
found out how bad I screwed him. The funny thing is I think the rest of
the group saw it coming.
MJC
here is a house rule that I use in my BR campaigns. I call it a blood
oath. I believe that in one of the books it says you can lose blood
power for alignment infringements well this is one step further. If the
scion or regent swears a blood oath he or she commits a portion of
himself(blood) to the oath. If the oath is broken some blood is lost.
In my game I make it a significant amount (15-20pts)to show how bad it
is to break such an oath. Oaths like this are a great DM tool, I used
it to get a greedy mage in a Rjurik campaign. You see the mage in
question, we'll call him Dan, you see Dan was your typical power hungry
mage. Unfortunately for Dan he had a weak tainted bloodline and had I
believe one power. We use the s and P in my games and Dan had made the
closest thing to a fighter he could and still be a mage. I think he had
access to something like 3 or 4 schools. Anyway I didn't like this much
as his character was pretty lame. So I invented a weapons master in the
capital. Well I've played with Dan for quite a long time so I made this
NPC so that Dan would just love him. The NPC lavished a few gift on him
and then revealed the secret that he was a mage. Dan was so happy he
had found a weapons master and a magical tutor in the same place. Now
at this point I was kind of tired with dealing with a mage in Plate
armor so I had the NPC make a special deal with Dan. The NPC performed
a special ritual that allowed Dan access to all schools but took away
his other abilities. Also he made Dan swear a few things in a blood
oath. I think this is how it went. "I Dan swear by my Blood that I
will never wield another weapon in anger, nor wear armor that encases
the body, nor ever harm Narm(NPC's name) or his wife, this I swear by my
blood." I may have forgotton a few things but that was the general jist
of it. Well after that the NPC gave Dan a few minor spells and sent him
on his way. Unfoutunately for Dan he had taken the flaw powerful
enemy(not good in my games) and it turns out that loveable little npc
was Dan's powerful enemy. Now think back to the begining where I said
how much the blood oath takes when broken 15 to 20 right, well dan only
had like 11. So he knew if he broke it he would lose all his blood and
by loosing all his blood lose his ability to cast true magic. Dan's
hasn't broken the oath yet and now the Villian is taunting poor dan. We
had to stop playing during school so the final battle hasn't happened
yet but it should be good. let me tell you Dan was real bitter when he
found out how bad I screwed him. The funny thing is I think the rest of
the group saw it coming.
MJC