Café de Nuit

So, Powers Checks mechanics are one of the continuing problems for hardcore Ravenloft fans. Given the rules as written it's hard to explain why Ravenloft isn't popping out darklords at the rate of one a week or thereabouts, and it's really, really hard to explain why certain favorite NPCs with high body counts haven't been pensioned off to a nice little domain of their very own some time ago. A less common source of complaint, but something which has always bothered me, is that it's a complicated system with a big table full of different numbers.

The following is my attempt to address these problems with a more flexible and somewhat simpler system which explains why simply killing a lot of people doesn't earn a domain.

Powers Checks:

There are seven degrees of evil actions which can lead to Powers checks; in order of severity, they are Trespasses, Offences, Sins, Enormities, Atrocities, Abominations, and Acts of Ultimate Darkness. Powers checks fall into four categories: Violence, Betrayal, Blasphemy, and Black Magic. Violence and Betrayal are both evil acts committed by one person against another individual or individuals; Blasphemies and Black Magic are evil acts against the laws of the gods or of nature. An act can involved more than one of these categories; if it does, the interest of the Dark Powers is even more likely to be piqued.

Severity........Percent chance of failing powers check
1) Trespass...........................1
2) Offence.............................2
3) Sin...................................4
4) Enormity...........................8
5) Atrocity............................16
6) Abomination.....................32
7) Act of Ultimate Darkness..100

Trepasses: The smallest and least important bad deeds can usually only attract the attention of the Dark Powers if the victim is truly innocent, or if the rift is between intimates; even then they almost always go unnoticed. Trepasses do little lasting harm to the person injured, or tamper very slightly with the powers of life and death.

Violence: Bullying, picking fights, assault
Betrayal: Lying to cast blame on someone else, petty theft, small-time grifting
Blasphemy: Defacing a tombstone, breaking a religious tenet.
Black Magic: Laying an Embarrassing curse, use of weak necromantic or evil spells (0-2nd level), voluntary propitiation or asking favors of evil creatures

Offences: Offences deliberately inflict significant damage on others, or meddle significantly with the powers of life and death, or make light of the gods.
Violence: Extortion
Betrayal: Character assassination, burglary, aggressive confidence schemes, voluntary one-time association with or service to evil creatures.
Blasphemy: Breaking an oath
Black Magic: Laying a Frustrating curse, use of low-powered necromantic or evil spells (3rd-4th level)

Sins: Sins inflict long-lasting damage on their victims, or attempt to control the powers of life and death, or mock the gods.
Violence: Grievous assault, mayhem
Betrayal: Perjury with intent to harm another, arranging the total social or financial ruin of an enemy
Blasphemy: Breaking a vow
Black Magic: Laying a Troublesome curse, use of moderately powerful necromantic or evil spells (5th-6th level), creation of the weaker sort of permanent necromantic or evil magic items, voluntary long-term association with or service to evil creatures

Enormities: Enormities inflict permanent damage to their subject, in the case of Violence and Betrayal, or use the powers of life and death for evil ends, or deliberately destroy something good, or create a new source of evil in the world.

Violence: Manslaughter, deliberately crippling an enemy
Betrayal: Gaslighting, planting evidence to frame an innocent man
Blasphemy: Grave robbing, deliberately robbing someone of Innocence
Black Magic: Laying a Dangerous curse, use of powerful necromantic or evil spells (7th-8th level), successfully researching a new, weak (0-2nd level) necromantic or evil spell, voluntary one-time association with or service to a fiend


Atrocities: Atrocities virtually always end in death, use the most powerful of evil magics, destroy something good or worthy, or create a new and permanent source of evil in the world.
Violence: Murder as a crime of passion, routine torture
Betrayal: Betraying one’s friend to the secret police, judicial murder
Blasphemy: Defiling a very holy place
Black Magic: Laying a Lethal curse, use of the most powerful necromantic spells (9th level) creation of moderately powerful necromantic or evil magic items, successfully researching a new, moderately powerful (3rd-5th level) necromantic or evil spell

Abominations: Abominations are acts which deliberately aim at another’s death and succeed in carrying it out, which deliberately profane the holy, or which greatly and permanently pervert the powers of life and death.
Violence: Cold-blooded murder
Betrayal: Gaslighting to suicide
Blasphemy: Deliberate desecration of a very holy place
Black Magic: creation of powerful necromantic or evil magic items

Acts of Ultimate Darkness: Acts of Ultimate Darkness result in intense and prolonged agony for their victim, or cause the death of many people, or invoke demonic powers against the very idea of goodness.
Violence: Sadistic torture, brutal murder, mass murder
Betrayal: Murderous treachery against one’s most trusting friends
Blasphemy: Powerful and deliberate desecration of a very holy place
Black Magic: Creation of the most powerful evil magic items, researching and creating a new and powerful (7th-9th level) necromantic or evil spell, voluntary and long-lasting association with or service to a fiend

HOW IT WORKS: Determine the nature of the original deed (Trespass through Act of Ultimate Darkness) and take the corresponding number (one through seven). That number is the baseline. Now apply any modifiers:


Modifiers for acts of Violence and Betrayal:
Subject of action is evil or a monster: -3
Subject of action is neutral or a stranger: -2
Subject of action is good or a friend: -1
Subject of action is Innocent or an intimate friend or family member: 0

Modifiers for acts of Blasphemy:
The blasphemous act is against an Evil* religion: -3
The blasphemous act is against a Neutral religion: -2
The blasphemous act is against a Good religion: -1
The blasphemous act is against one’s own religion: 0
*This assumes that the religion could at least be mistaken for a Neutral religion (the Lawgiver, for example); obviously, blasphemy against an overtly evil “religion” is a contradiction in terms.

Modifiers for acts of Black Magic:
The spell cast (or researched) is both necromantic and evil: +1

For each additional category of Powers check which also applies: +1

After 1 failed check in a given category: -1 for checks in that category
After 2 failed checks in a given category: -3 for checks in that category
After 3 failed checks in a given category: -5 for checks in that category
For a failed check in a different category: +1 for each failed check

Action is officially condoned or culturally sanctioned: -2

After adding all modifiers, determine the final "score"--the number generated--and roll the Powers Check for an act of that score. Examples are given below.

After 6 failed checks in at least 3 categories: Subject becomes a darklord
After 4 failed checks in one category: Subject becomes a Mist horror
(A subject meeting both of these criteria becomes lord of a pocket domain, like the Phantom Lover or Lemot Sediam Juste.)

The idea is as follows: When a PC (or NPC) performs an evil act which merits a powers check, find the category which best fits the action, and determine the severity of the act, using the described actions as guidelines. This gives the baseline for the action, and a number from 1 (Trespass) to 7 (Act of Ultimate Darkness).

Then apply whatever modifiers are appropriate from the list above, adding or subtracting as appropriate, to get a final number. This corresponds to a percentage, which you then roll.

Example: Harry Longjohns, wizard, uses finger of death to kill a wolfwere. It's a 7th level necromantic spell, so this is an Enormity (4), with an 8% chance of failure.

Example: Percy O'Toole, paladin, uses his silver dagger to cut up an uncooperative werewolf who won't tell the party where the little girl they're trying to rescue is now. This is routine torture (Atrocity, 5), and ALSO breaking a vow (not to do evil acts), which gives a +1, because it involves Blasphemy as well as Violence. It is being done to an evil creature, which gives a -3. The total is therefore 3, a Sin, with a 4% chance of failure.

Another examples: The Midnight Slasher has failed two powers checks for Violence. The Slasher kills a woman whose hair is the same color as Gabrielle Aderre's. This is probably an Atrocity (5), although some DMs might want to rule it an Abomination (6). If we consider it an Atrocity, the appropriate modifiers are 1) that the woman is a stranger or neutral (-2), and 2) the Slasher has failed two previous powers checks in this category (-3). The total is 5-2-3, total of 0--no powers check for the Slasher!

Now, a more complicated set of examples:

Strahd von Zarovich has lived a long and bloody life, in the course of which he has killed, studied necromancy, and consorted with fiends. He has, however, never told a lie nor betrayed his country or his cause. He has failed two Powers Checks for Violence and one for Black Magic.

He calls on dark powers for assistance to gain his brother's bride. This pact is probably voluntary long-term association with a fiend (Act of Ultimate Darkness, 7!) He's done this once before, with Inajira, and failed a previous check in this category (-1). He's failed two checks for Violence (+2). That's 8, for the AoUD+1, no roll needed. Now he has two failed checks in Black Magic.

He lies in wait at the wedding and kills Sergei. That's cold-blooded murder (Abomination, 6), against his brother (-0), with the additional element of Betrayal (+1). He's failed two checks in this category (-3), but two in Black Magic (+2), so the total is 6, an Abomination Let's say for the sake of argument that he fails; now he's failed three in Violence and two in Black Magic.

Tatyana flees and escapes him; enraged, he goes after the guests. This is a mass murder, a Violence category Act of Ultimate Darkness (7), but he's failed 3 checks in Violence (-5). This act only gets a 2, and Strahd is likely to escape, for the time being.

However, he subsequently lies about the involvement of the Dilisnyas, casting the blame for the slaughter on their assassins. This is a Trepass (1). However, he's got a heavy karmic debt from his other powers checks. Add the +5, and now the "harmless" lie is an Abomination (6); Strahd fails the Powers Check. He's failed six checks in three categories and falls into darkness.

So that's the general idea.

My initial reservations: I take back what I said about it being simpler, I'm afraid. I do think it's quite a bit more flexible, though. And it does provide a "universal metric" for all the different categories of Powers Checks, which is useful...

I'm also not sure that the "Powers Checks within the same category" and "Powers Checks from other categories" mechanics are balanced at present.


Questions and comments are welcome, of course!

Er, Waiter? I'll have whatever he's having...

That's just brilliant, Sir. I don't normally go into such detail(just wait for wait for a PC to REALLY go over the line and whap 'em) but that breakdown of yours is magnificent.

Permission to steal?
(1%, 0% if permission given)

order99 wrote:Er, Waiter? I'll have whatever he's having...

That's just brilliant, Sir. I don't normally go into such detail(just wait for wait for a PC to REALLY go over the line and whap 'em) but that breakdown of yours is magnificent.

Permission to steal?
(1%, 0% if permission given)

Granted! By a wide majority!

Thanks for the compliment, too.

Looks good.

Only one thign i stumbled over:

Offences: Offences deliberately inflict significant damage on others, or meddle significantly with the powers of life and death, or make light of the gods.
...
Betrayal: Character assassination

Isn't this also Violence and probably more a sin or atrocity? Or am i misundertanding it somehow?

The Giamarga wrote:Looks good.

Only one thign i stumbled over:

Offences: Offences deliberately inflict significant damage on others, or meddle significantly with the powers of life and death, or make light of the gods.
...
Betrayal: Character assassination

Isn't this also Violence and probably more a sin or atrocity? Or am i misundertanding it somehow?

"Character assassination" is used in the sense of tarnishing someone's good name; it doesn't mean killing a PC or NPC. Does that answer your question?

Yes, quite. Though in the context of a roleplaying game i would probably reword it to libel or slander.

I love the Strahd example. Can you give another example with a Darklord/Mist Horror or Pocket Domain Lord?

The Giamarga wrote:Yes, quite. Though in the context of a roleplaying game i would probably reword it to libel or slander.

Maybe as a parenthetical aside, as the term "character assassination" is not at all uncommon (in English, anyway; I won't vouch for other languages). I'm also inclined to think a writeup for D&D would use the term PC or NPC for "character" if they meant a physical rather than a social assassination.

Huh. Funny thing, that this should come up now: NeoTiamat wrote a bit on "character assassination" for the dopp-book! Ruining enemies' good name is a fairly standard doppelganger defense tactic ... not to mention a popular recreational activity.

Simply beautiful! Great job on this- it may not be simpler but it makes sense. Yup, I'm using this from now on.