Reading a recent example of an Endowment from another forum-goer's game (see quote below by Ignus)...
...I decided it would be fun to list a few that have been performed by my players in my game as of late too!.... Here's the quick backstory; The players have been picked by a thieves' guild to be members, as long as they are able to successfully perform a heist for this guild... This group of thieves specializes in performing heists that are enabled through the clever use of magic rituals to make their thefts easier... The players were chosen because they had shown merits in the magical arts since childhood, and unconsciously had been using these hidden magical talents to enable them to perform their own crimes... Having been brought into the arms of the guild, the head of this guild began a six-month training regimen to prepare the players to actually use their skills in full-fledged magic rituals... Once the six months was over, and it was time for them to attempt this amazing heist, I decided that those among them with the abilities of Endowers (Mages) would have had the chance to have completed a variable number of successful Endowments (equal to the successes from a roll of their Essence), and that they could, in turn, make up what those Endowments might be (and then either they or I would make whatever rolls were necessary to determine additional effects, time limits, etc.)...
Of course,...each of these Endowments end up being limited by the amount of time the enchantments will last, and how many players decided to expend Story Points in an attempt to make the length (of time the magic remains effective) to become more "enduring"...
Here's a few examples of what came out of it;
Anyway,...all fun stuff, for a short-run game that should get pretty wacky and hectic before it all finally goes down...
Now let's see if any of these are taken too far,...or if they start to imbalance the game! Live and learn!
Heh!
Scottie
But as far as the actual game went, my character has an endowed glove that allows him to form quasi-real throwing items out of his prána (draining him as if he were using a unique ritual in the dream realm), it's semi-real nature allowing it to slip partially through physical objects. I personally thought it was a great concept, but that's only me of course.
...I decided it would be fun to list a few that have been performed by my players in my game as of late too!.... Here's the quick backstory; The players have been picked by a thieves' guild to be members, as long as they are able to successfully perform a heist for this guild... This group of thieves specializes in performing heists that are enabled through the clever use of magic rituals to make their thefts easier... The players were chosen because they had shown merits in the magical arts since childhood, and unconsciously had been using these hidden magical talents to enable them to perform their own crimes... Having been brought into the arms of the guild, the head of this guild began a six-month training regimen to prepare the players to actually use their skills in full-fledged magic rituals... Once the six months was over, and it was time for them to attempt this amazing heist, I decided that those among them with the abilities of Endowers (Mages) would have had the chance to have completed a variable number of successful Endowments (equal to the successes from a roll of their Essence), and that they could, in turn, make up what those Endowments might be (and then either they or I would make whatever rolls were necessary to determine additional effects, time limits, etc.)...
Of course,...each of these Endowments end up being limited by the amount of time the enchantments will last, and how many players decided to expend Story Points in an attempt to make the length (of time the magic remains effective) to become more "enduring"...
Here's a few examples of what came out of it;
- From a player who had acted as a courtesan, but had always had the knack of convincing her targets of almost anything to pave the way for her thefts, the player ended up creating Endowments upon both her perfumes she crafted, as well as her own beak, both of which enabled her to essentially attempt to influence the behavior of (in the case of the perfumes), or directly command with a single phrase (in the case of the beak) those who failed their Will rolls and fell under her sway... Much like a magical version of the Persuasion skill, except that she was able to add her Mystic Talent dice to augment her roll... Her perfumes had a limited number of uses, and were purchased as Assets that will eventually be used up, whereas her beak was inscribed with sorcerous symbols (like beautiful scrimshaw), and could be used multitudinous times, as long as the Endowment lasted...
- From another came the idea for essentially a "power of good luck in tight circumstances", which we ended up calling the Luck of Muhjíbh. This Endowment was placed on a special tattoo that was given to him as a very young child, which he had, in his youth, subconsciously endowed with luck since he essentially treated it as his lucky charm... Having been formally trained, he now chose to actually Endow it with a power that enables him to call upon the Devah Muhjíbh a number of times a day as if he were performing unique Disciplines (his Essence plus his Mystic Talent), and when he does, he rolls his Endowment Ritual dice, minus whatever difficulty modifier would normally be assigned to some difficult feat he was attempting... For example, when being chased through some maze of passages, if he suddenly came upon a wide chasm he was forced to jump across to escape his pursuers, he might invoke the devah Muhjíbh, beg him to grant his feet the grace of wind and air, roll his Ritual Skill roll at a minus equal to the difficulty I'll be assigning the jump he's about to attempt, and then I'll treat his Ritual successes as a pool of successes he can apply to his upcoming roll or rolls (if he needs to make multiple rolls to perform whatever task he's attempting).... This essentially works much like Acrobatics works to create a pool of successes for one's upcoming defense rolls...
- A player that has both Endowment as well as Healing decided that he wished to create a crystal vessel that could actually contain a reservoir of summoned prána that he could use for healing without actually having to spend time entering Ritual.... After considering the implications, I realized that was no different than a Summoner performing the Disciplines necessary to save banishment successes, and essentially let him spend a Story Point to give his crystal flask the ability to save such prána for a limited period of time, and placed additional limits (similar to a summoner's limits on saved successes) as to how much he can store at any given time... When using this stored prána, he must still intone the words that direct it to do the healings but doesn't have to spend the extra time sinking into a more lengthy and complex ritual at that moment, since he's already spent that time and energy in advance...
- Others include; a satchel containing costume pieces and masks that allow the user to quickly change his appearance through magical means (essentially creating illusions that don't merely mask an appearance, but can additionally make the person more "forgettable", a tattoo that makes the character more fleet of foot, wards of protection against a number of different effects, and finally a tattoo that allows the character the ability to save up successes that let them unravel various types of wards "on the fly" assuming they expend enough successes to beat the roll made by their opponent after they name the number they expend,...again, much like the summoners expend saved banishment successes....
Anyway,...all fun stuff, for a short-run game that should get pretty wacky and hectic before it all finally goes down...
Now let's see if any of these are taken too far,...or if they start to imbalance the game! Live and learn!
Heh!
Scottie