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More Uses for Promise Leaves; Since they're called promise leaves...
Topic Started: Jun 7 2009, 06:21 PM (304 Views)
kismetrose
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Originally posted elsewhere on March 20, 2008:

One of the great things about changelings is that they can all make magical promises (pledges) and do all sorts of nifty things with them. One of the crappy things about the Changeling main book is the convoluted write-up for making pledges, which kept us away from using the system until we'd made a cheat sheet. Since then, we've make good use of pledges because they're so damned useful. When I get around to running Changeling, I know that pledges will start flying. And it's always bothered me that promise leaves sound cool but are only used to extend the duration of some Artifice powers. With a name like "promise leaves," you would think these special items had something to do with pledges.

One night just before falling asleep, I saw a scene in my head in which one of my developing NPCs wrote down a pledge on something like parchment. Then, after it was signed by both parties involved, she curled it up and burned it. She said it was bad luck to let words hang in the air unseen; the promise would be blessed in the smoke. What she didn't tell the other party was that by doing it that way, the pledge would be reinforced by the mystical force of the Wyrd.

Then it occured to me - she was using a promise leaf. A lightbulb went on in my head about a few more uses of promise leaves, so I wrote it up and floated it over on White Wolf's message boards, and got a few helpful comments. After some more consideration and pruning, here's what I've got:

  • Promise leaves can act as physical manifestations of a promise. The pledge must be written on a promise leaf and signed by all parties, at which point the promise is bound into the leaf. As long as the contract exists and its terms are unfulfilled, the parties are bound. If the parchment is destroyed, the pledge is undone without penalties.
  • Any pledge that is sealed by ritual destruction of a promise leaf (usually burning) is reinforced by the Wyrd. Anyone who tries to interfere with the terms of the pledge takes a dice penalty on all actions to meddle. The penalty depends on the sanction(s) involved (a death pact would bring a -3 penalty on any attempt to manipulate the pledge). In addition, any failure on rolls to meddle is counted as a dramatic failure.
  • If called upon to do so and ritually prepared, a promise leaf will extend the duration of a pledge by 10% with no additional cost. After use, the leaf crumbles to dust.

In order to be used for any of the functions above, a promise leaf must be ritually prepared beforehand. I am thinking that this will involve at least one hour of activity (praying, chanting, meditation) and the expenditure of one Glamour and one Willpower point. Only one benefit can be enacted per pledge (not per promise leaf). Once used for any such purpose, a promise leaf may not be reused.

What I am left wondering is: Do the powers sound reasonable? Is one Glamour and one Willpower too much or too little? Should there be a chance of failure (in which the benefits just don't take effect)?

I worry that with these kinds of additional uses, promise leaves will be priced pretty high and that will kinda screw any Wizened in my game. Should I stipulate that another ingredient is needed to activate these powers (like an ink or paint, maybe)?
Edited by kismetrose, Jun 7 2009, 06:23 PM.
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