The Seven Sorrows
The Seven Sorrows (simply called Sorrows) is a custom made table of effects the Cursed experience when they roll Cinder for magic use. The Sorrows themselves are a table of twelve different results that you must roll a twelve sided die (a d12) every single time your Cursed character uses their magic, the number result is the Sorrow that triggers. Seven of these have negative effects, hence the name.
Creating the Sorrows[edit]
The Sorrows are defined by the player, designed to suit your character and whatever they may be cursed with. The table of Sorrows should use the flavour of the curse and show unique effects that suit the character and the nature of their curse. 'Generic' Sorrows are allowed, of course, such as a power overload, but it has to be customised to the character.
When you create the twelve cursed effects, seven of these curses must have a negative or harmful effect directly impact your character. Whatever these might be are completely up to you. While you may have more than seven, you may not go below seven. The remaining five may be neutral, with one possibly having no effect at all.
In your character profile, the Sorrows table should be in the 'Other Magic Notes' section and every Sorrow should be numbered.
Tips for the Sorrows[edit]
You may change your selection at any time (without admin approval) as your character develops, but stick to the guidelines of at least seven negative Sorrows and the tips below.
- A well-crafted Sorrow has a moderate impact on a post, with some variation.
- A Sorrow should have an immediate effect in the post, not a delayed effect.
- A Sorrow works best when it wont pass unnoticed, but stopping short of stealing the scene.
- Give other players a chance to react!
- A Negative Sorrow should be an obvious drawback, either painful or troublesome, but not dip into something too severe or lethal.
- Allow the Sorrows enough breathing room that they do not discourage a Cursed from using magic.
- The true risk in the Sorrows is in stacking multiple, so leave room for characters to invite that risk.
- If a Sorrow includes a mechanical penalty, do not make this the only negative impact.
- The Sorrow should justify and explain why the mechanical penalty is there.
Examples of Sorrows[edit]
The Sorrows below are sourced from existing characters, tailored to their curses and keywords. Because of this, we don't recommend copying these, but you can take the basic recipe and create your own for your Cursed character's Sorrows.
- Negative Sorrows
- Blackout: You become the centre of a personal null field. Any magic cannot enter or leave this field, fizzling out before it can even take root. You cannot roll Cinder for Magic Keywords for two posts. This does not impact Luck loss.
- Bad Luck Charm: Something around you will go wrong, either something he's handling directly or something someone is doing. Remove 1d6 from the next roll in the thread, either Strike or Cinder. Does not have to be the person who rolled the Sorrow.
- Mirror: Free choice of a negative effect and re-roll on the Sorrows table. The result applies to everyone in the thread. The one rolling the Sorrows has both active at the same time.
- Sunburn: Your palms blister and burn, like they've been pressed to something molten hot. Effect lasts for five posts, after which they fade as if they never were there. Remove 1d6 from your Strike pool for any rolls made within those five posts.
- Overload: Something goes right or very wrong, depending on your perspective. Theo's power overloads, bursting out uncontrolled. If it is in the context of an offensive power, roll a Cinder attack roll and apply it as an area of effect versus the DC of anyone within range.
- Gemology: You suddenly start sweating gems, painful and sharp as you secrete them from your skin. The type and size will vary, often depending on the situation and emotions involved, but they'll bunch up underneath clothes and drop from your skin, sharp enough to create little cuts.
- Berserker: You are abruptly overcome with aggression and bloodthirst, and you struggle to have a rational response to the situation.
- Anemic: You suffer a bout of fatigue similar to that caused by iron deficiency.
- Gunshot: You are abruptly deafened for a post, as if you've heard a gunshot without ear protection.
- Neutral Sorrows
- Silver-Tongued: Your tongue turns into solid silver in your mouth. You can make sounds, but cannot form any understandable words. Effect lasts for five posts.
- Pick of the Litter: Reroll on the Sorrows table three times, free choice of one result. If you get this result again, disregard and reroll the dice for a different result.
- Magnetic: You become magnetic, attracting any type of metal around you. Anything metal will stick to you, little pieces rolling towards you as if pulled by a strong magnetic field. Effect lasts for five posts.
- Third Eye: Things go so awry, a literal third eye appears on your forehead. You do not gain any prescience, it's just a third eye. It disappears eventually.
- Gilded: Whatever Theo touches turns to gold for the next few posts. Food, objects, people. This is a temporary effect, whatever he touches will eventually revert to its original state.
- One-Horned Wonder: A unicorn appears. No matter where you are, there's a unicorn. A classic white-as-snow unicorn, with a flowing mane and tail, and polished black hooves. Maybe even the horn is sparkling gold. It'll disappear within the hour.
- Bloody: Your mouth fills with the taste of blood and your saliva becomes bloody, although if analysed, it would be clear that it is not your blood.
- Scatter: For the next five posts, anything you touch that may be neatly sorted, organized, or otherwise put into order is abruptly put out of order. Things spill, drawers open, papers fly out of order.
- Spritely: Your magic attracts the attention of fire spirits or salamanders. A cloud of little motes of light, they tend to dance around you, and can make things smoulder if touched, but are otherwise harmless.
Involving Dice Mechanics[edit]
Players can choose to involve mechanics in their Sorrows if they think it would be fun, but this is not required. If you do tie in mechanics, you may not include mechanics that affect DC or Thresholds. We recommend sticking to small dice penalties, re-rolls, or a minor penalty to Luck. If we find a Sorrow involves too much custom dice rules, we will ask someone to revise.
In the event of the Sorrows impacting other PCs through area of effect attacks/explosions, any mechanical penalty is limited to a single post.
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