Entry? Mother, Maiden and Crone

[uncle_wilf]

Time slot: 3x3 hour sessions

Ingredients: Glass, Emotion and Ancient

The Premise: The Maiden, Mother and Crone have throughout eternity had competitions between themselves; partly to exercise domination over the others, but mostly to stave off the boredom. Each has their own agenda. They select likely candidates or, more often, unlikely candidates to embark on quests; solve problems; choose a sacrifice from amongst their number; or perhaps simply behave better than their compatriots. Sometimes the competition is to see which of the Three can get the candidates to complete their mission on "their watch". Sometimes each of the Three is betting on a different outcome, or a different candidate. Occasionally, very occasionally, the Fates just need something done and the Three are charged with ensnaring mortals to do what is needed...

The Three: Each session, the Candidates are guided by one of the Three. Usually the Maiden will appear first. She is adept at the magic of Emotion and will use her skills and wiles to entice the Candidates into the campaign, concealing her identity and her powers; at the end of the first session, and possibly to the astonishment of the Candidates, she will morph into the Mother.

The Mother uses the magic of Reflection and will be prepared to explain more of the background to the Candidates, and is prepared to be seen using her magics, especially the Scrying ones, to help the Candidates; reasoning that they stand a better chance of succeeding with the proper information. At the end of the second session, she will morph into the Crone.

The Crone has the most Ancient magics at her disposal, but is loathe to use them, having experience of the threefold law. She will aid the Candidates only if they demonstrate that they deserve her respect. Even if her victory over her sisters depends on their success, she will insist on them proving their worth; for the Crone, victory is not necessary, for by the time she appears, her sisters wuill usually have lost...

The Candidates: Candidate generation will happen during the game. The players may write down a name, three attributes (which will provide a +2 bonus when they are relevent) and five skill sets (which will provide a +1 bonus when relevent). These may be written down at any time, and none is fixed until they are written down. Whether they succeed or fail at their chosen task, the Fates will not allow the Three to interfere with their lives again, once the task is over...

Comments?

Gordon

[rpoppe]

Sounds cool and mythic. Can you tell us more about what the players do?

[uncle_wilf]

[rpoppe]

[uncle_wilf]

[kenjib]

When the maiden gives birth, how about the child becoming the maiden?

As far as what the players do. How about, as part of character creation, each one has to declare something that they want to have, but is impossible to obtain. Thus they employ the fates to assist them. An example of the kind of mayhem that could ensue from such hubris, including various deific figures taking different sides, would be the Iliad.

[Doug Ruff]

I wouldn't normally recommend a Piers Anthony book as source material, but With A Tangled Skein is all about this sort of thing.

However, recommending a book to read isn't that helpful for a one week contest, so how about this instead:

What is the Maiden's challenge, what is it that only she can do? That's the focus of the first session. Same applies for the Mother and the Crone.

Usually, the Maiden creates, the Mother preserves, and the Crone destroys (ends); but you may have your own take.