Lore Sheet

[Chris Johnstone]

So, I've been enchanted by the idea of 'Lore Sheets' from WotG--yes, it's an oldish game and idea now, but I simply hadn't stumbled onto it. I don't own a copy of the game, so I'm sort of making up my own interpretation of what this Lore Sheet thing is.

I've been toying with a Tolkienesque game (Spellwoven) for some time now. With that in mind, I thought I'd have a go at creating a short Lore Sheet with a Tolkienesque theme. If you're curious, the idea for Spellwoven is that it be a modular sort of game so that the basic rules set adheres more strictly to a Tolkien-themed fantasy world, but add-ons and modular bits and pieces can grow it into something more personalized.

So, very roughly, here's a first attempt at a Tolkienesque Lore Sheet. I think I'll call them Secret Histories and allow the history and secrets to be bought using points or learned through study and character 'time-out'.

It's not making much of an attempt to be original, but I thought this was a nice sort of place to start out.

The Black Reivers (1 pt.)
In elder days four lords of war were bribed and tempted into the service of the Warlock Lord of Urock Nor. The Warlock Lord worked sorcery on them so that their form was accursed and they slipped into shadow. Their will was bound to one of each of the four swords, and these the Lord of Deepening Shadows kept in his grey fortress at Urock Nor. Whoever possesses the swords gains mastery over each of the Black Reivers, but the swords were scattered and lost in the days following the fall of Urock Nor and their whereabouts is lost too. But, this does not prevent the Black Reivers from walking the earth. They have no master now, and though they despise and hate one another, they are still loosely bound by the will of the Warlock Lord to work in his service and one day perhaps resurrect his soul.
Each of the Black Reivers has the appearance of a lord in full black regalia of war under a tattered cloak. They have no abode or lair and for the most part avoid one-another.

1 pt. One of the Black Reivers is searching not only for his own master-sword, but for all the master-swords. He has set himself upon a secret path to gain mastery over his fellow three dark creatures and raise himself up as a new lord of shadows.

1 pt. The swords are enchanted and appear to be of Elven make. They are icy to touch and their silver blades are ribboned with black metal. To summon and command the Black Reiver, the owner of the sword must speak the wraith's mortal name three times. You will recognize one of the swords on seeing it.

1 pt. You have knowledge of one of the names of the Black Reivers. Their mortal names were Celas, Duhil, Elammal and Farcaramen, but these are lost to most lore-keepers.

1 pt. You know the location of one of the swords.

1 pt. The swords can be unmade and thereby the Black Reivers can be severed from the mortal world and destroyed. But, the swords can only be destroyed whence they were made. Each sword was crafted from dwarf silver and lightning on the peak of the Ashen Mountain. There is an anvil in the snow there, and if a sword is smashed against the anvil it will shatter, returning to dust and lightning again.

[Sanglorian]

Can you give us more detail? What's 'WotG'?

Is buying these pieces of lore making them true, or just making them known to your character?

Why punish people (by charging points) for introducing interesting elements into the gameworld?

[Chris Johnstone]

Ah, I guess I assumed other people would be more familiar with the idea than I am.

WotG = Weapons of the Gods. Came out back in what, 2006?

As far as I understand the concept, buying the secret makes the character aware of the knowledge. The secret is already true regardless of whether the knowledge is purchased. Presumably, however, it's more likely to be a big part of the game if a character knows about it and decides to pursue some course of action.

I'm not sure that I follow that the example given punishes a character per se... unless you mean that by spending chargen points on secrets you can't spend them on something else, like a skill increase? The system I envisioned was one in which there were chargen points specifically set aside for secrets and backgrounds that can't be ported elsewhere. You can opt not to spend them of course, but that wouldn't free up points for other things.

Hm. Did that make sense? I'm figuring out the idea myself as I go along.

[Sanglorian]

[Chris Johnstone]

I've always sort of felt that a 'story games' approach is a more honest view of what actually is going on anyway. Really, most GMs roll with things that players say, change details behind the scenes, hand wave and may entirely scrub one bit of important plot stuff, replacing it with another on the fly. In most games the illusion is that it's GM-driven, but a good Gm listens carefully to what players expect, dread or are hoping for...

At any rate, there's no reason that Lore Sheets couldn't be treated as a bit of the world that only exists if it is purchased. That might even make it easier on the GM.

This also raises the possibility of providing (along with a multitude of examples) a framework for players to invent their own Lore Sheets.

I may not have a lot of time to scribble things together, but if and when I do, I'll post some stuff here. I've been having quite a bit of fun putting Spellwoven together at odd hours of the day, so it'd be nice to get some feedback on the (admittedly pretty straight-forward) game and setting.

[SheikhJahbooty]

Wow,

I can see this lore sheet idea working really great with the modular way that you described you want Spellwoven to work.

Once you're done with it you could put it out with the understanding that other GMs and writers and designers will make up their own modular bits and lore sheets and whatnot, kind of like a GPL thingie, maybe a wiki to collect them all, and just download them, print them, bind them, and pow, really good game, and exactly what you were looking for.