Daniel Sell
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Peculiarities intermedian-mortem
🕑 Added 2024-05-11 18:43:15 +0000 UTCThis list has been kicking around for years now, in various forms. It started as a simple mutation list to create some granular variety in Troika characters, and then spiralled into a fractal infinity that could never be finished.
In my project to create Troika 2 I'm ensconcing or burying every unfinished idea. Everything that didn't make the cut on the first edition will be addressed and judged. Peculiarities will be in the book, probably much like it is now (see attached PDF) but edited and tightened. As more things get finished, it's clear that this edition transition is an effort to make a complete ontology, a 'Troika Of Everything'. The original introduction said it, that Troika 1 was skeletal. Troika 2 will be corpulent.
About the list. The way I've been using it is to offer players the option to roll on it up to three times. If at any point they don't like what they get, they can ignore the result but stop rolling. The finished article will be different, and I foresee this working a bit like the Random Spell Table but as a random item table. Backgrounds can have a little slush pile of rolls on the peculiarities table, '2 Peculiarities' for the burglar, for instance, many for the cacogen and so on.
As is Troika tradition there hasn't been an attempt at balance here, some of these things are useless or outright harmful, whereas others are immense. The only thing that matters is they can make a potential lynchpin around which someone can have some fun. That floppy hat is the thing I keep coming back to. Someone is going to get a big floppy hat on this table and then decide that it's central to their character's identity. Others will beg the question of 'how did you get that?' which offers its own joys. It will create mirth! What more does a system need to do?
Comments
Erik W
That is a delightful list!
