I’m thinking that Burden comes due when a 4-part clock is filled in.
A delve into an Incursion is 3 parts and downtime (training, research, personal projects) are 1. So generally, an Incursion and a Downtime means a payment comes up.
A poor roll under certain circumstances might mean the players lose some time. This can be a tick on the clock.
Side-Thought I Set Aside
I was thinking that maybe players could spend 3 Hunt Tokens to erase a tick on the clock but I think the math on that doesn’t work. Spending Tokens that are worth 3 Coin if you cash them to hold that bill off is a good deal. So, for now, there is no way to stop that clock.
Quick Side Job Generator, roll 3d6
Inspired by Planarch Condex: Dark Heart of the Dreamer
If the clock above strikes and a treasure-hunter is short on Coin, they could take a side-job. Side-jobs are quick, bloody work dealing with kinstrife, assassination, bodyguarding and other shield-breaking wolf-work that no one else can or will do.
These jobs are 1 Coin.
I was going to have these jobs pay more but then the game would quickly be about freelancers in the city doing side-jobs (see also, every Planescape game ever) but if that is where the table wants to go, it’d be easy to turn a job into an Incursion.
The Gig
- Kill someone who is well guarded
- Kill
- Kill
- Bodyguard for someone dangerous people despise
- Steal something locked up and treasured
- Train mercenaries (explain what skill you have that is of use to sellswords)
The Money
- Local nobles
- Nobles
- Merchants
- Merchants
- Holy folk
- Wizards
A bit of color
- An ancient Kaldhurite artifact
- A pocket dimension
- Devils
- One of the Sisters
- Someone from their past
- That weird shit from the media you just ingested
Job still available?
- No, it got done.
- No, it was a total disaster and the faction offering the job is in deep shit.
- No, no one took the gig, so the faction went in-house for talent.
- Yes, it is available because the intrepid freelancers who tried it failed because it was way more complicated/difficult than it first seemed.
- Yes, it is still up for grabs.
- Yes, no one is touching it…what is going on?
I’d be tempted to roll up or choose 3 or so jobs. The tables are meant to be inspirational, meaning, don’t roll if you’ve got ideas or the fiction demands a certain job is out there.
Caravan Guard
It is a traditional side-gig for adventurers, delvers and treasure-hunters.
I’d have merchant houses have deals with the folks who hold debt over treasure hunters. So, for as long as you are a caravan guard your Burden freezes. The debt-holders agree that in this wolf-age of broken shields, caravan guards are necessary to keep bandits at bay. The guards get their food paid for and can travel without their Burden piling up.
If a guard has more than 6 Burden, their debt-holders might not be patient forever. Though this could be a good way to return a treasure-hunter if they don’t have enough Coin to pay off their Burden.
Long Term Projects
Straight outta Doskvol, inspired by Blades in the Dark. Tell the table what you want to do, everyone discusses it and helps set a clock (or a series of clocks) and it is a modified Hunt roll.
Take a light color die when you explain to the GM what you want to build, create or learn more about in the world and how you plan to make it happen.
Take a light color die if you have a skill or piece of equipment that will help.
Take a dark die if you are willing to risk mind and/or body to get this done.
1 You tick 1 on the clock but have attracted unwanted attention that will cause trouble later (maybe an option to drawn no attention but lose a tick?)
2-3 You tick 1 on the clock.
4-6 Tick 2 on the clock.
Breaking the Rules
I love in DCCRPG how players can ask to break the rules. When they do so, the GM explains the quest/adventure they’ll have to go on to attempt to do so.
For example if you wanted to make your Charisma score higher, you could break into the God of Beauty’s house and steal from the pool he drinks from every night before going to sleep. It is dangerous and maybe even unlikely but it is possible to get past the Beauty God’s guards, wards and traps to drink from the Beauty Pool gifted to Him from the Sun and Moon in hope that it doesn’t destroy your mortal frame and actually makes you more desirable.
What happens when the players look at their Burden score and say, “How do we stop this shit?” prepared to burn the world down to make it happen?
That’ll be an interesting game.
Dice Icons are from Game Icons.net
British Library. Histoire de France. Deuxième édition. British Library Flickr Collection. https://flic.kr/p/hSdx8e
British Library. Streifzüge in den Urwäldern von Mexico und Central-Amerika … Mit 76 Abbildungen, etc. British Library Flickr Collection. https://flic.kr/p/ibB9Ah
Githyanki Diaspora 