Since 20th anniversaries have stopped and Demon the fallen wasn't likely to get a 20th anyway, I kinda want to make rules for a DTF 20th edition myself. DTF in particular had a host of problems that could have used another shot at editing/revising. Anyone interested in helping me iron out the worst kinks?
Some of the most major problems are:
-It was narrowly focused on abrahamic mythology and tried to force the rest of WOD into that mold.
-The factions weren't fleshed out enough.(Ravagers and Earthbound being too similar for example, Redeemers barely had any identity or purpose)
-Many mechanics were unbalanced or inconsistent.(Malefactor factory and Devil pyromaniacs, Torment made different powers less or more useful with no real pattern)
Another thing I want to do is create a middle ground between the mechanics of DTF and Devil's Due(Dark Ages DTF). I love how Devil's due handled torment and Apocolyptic Form traits, but it made demons very similar to each other unlike the distinct houses in DTF.
Some of the most major problems are:
-It was narrowly focused on abrahamic mythology and tried to force the rest of WOD into that mold.
-The factions weren't fleshed out enough.(Ravagers and Earthbound being too similar for example, Redeemers barely had any identity or purpose)
-Many mechanics were unbalanced or inconsistent.(Malefactor factory and Devil pyromaniacs, Torment made different powers less or more useful with no real pattern)
Another thing I want to do is create a middle ground between the mechanics of DTF and Devil's Due(Dark Ages DTF). I love how Devil's due handled torment and Apocolyptic Form traits, but it made demons very similar to each other unlike the distinct houses in DTF.
- So to tackle the first major problem: why not make the background lore closer to early Judaism(recognized there were other gods, but thought their's was the best) or Gnostic Christianity(recognized there were other gods and thought their's was a jerk[and maybe got mugged by jesus], so they swapped for one they liked better)? "The Creator" could be one god among many, but they were the ones who made the first humans and other gods may or may not have copied the design to make their own later. She can still be "all powerful" as a god, but this would at least let DTF fit with the rest of WOD without stepping on other games toes or ruining the major themes of DTF
- Some factions need to be changed more than others to make them more distinct, individuals changes are as follows
- Ravagers are pretty redundant when paired with earthbound, so I'd change them completely. Personally, I'd make them the faction that's unified by the fact that they want nothing to due with The Creator, Lucifer, or the war with heaven anymore and have jumped ship. The faction would now be made of Demons trying to party it before the end days come, those building doomsday bunkers to try to survive/wait out the Apocalypse, and those trying to build an escape route out of creation for or "underground railroads" out of the warzones when things go down.
- Redeemers I'd change so that the factions isn't completely unified on what "Redemption" means. All demons in the faction agree that the war with heaven when to far, but there's now a growing schism between the Fallen who think "Too Far" was when they pushed early humanity too hard and ruined their connection to humanity as a whole and those who argue siding with Lucifer against god was the deciding moment. Needless to say both sides view the others as traitors. The faction is building up resources, connections, and allies as measures to better help humanity or "Redeem" members on the surface, but behind closed doors the faction is getting ready for all out civil war as both sides seek to purge the "Heretics" in their ranks
- Faustions need some slight tweaks in that they never actually do anything to reach their goal of unlocking humanities full potential in canon. A good way to amend this would be to have them use pacts and knowledge of creation to teach their thralls to become sorcerers or(rarely) awaken as mages.
- Cryptics would also need as slight tweak to pair with the earlier lore tweak, in that they are trying to pursue the knowledge of other gods and supernatural powers to escape/slay/become equals to the creator(depending on the demon. This can be represented with them aggressively pursuing information on and pacts with the other supernaturals in WOD or exploring places alien to the fallen(Like the Middle/High Umbra, The Dreaming, Hollow Earth, Etc.)
- Luciferians can be left mostly alone.
- Ditto for Earthbound.
- For mechanics I want to separate Apocalyptic form traits from Lore like in DTF, but have number of available Apocalyptic traits Torment and Pacts like in Devil's Due. I'd also like to reshuffle how lores work and interact with the backgrounds eminence, paragon, and mastery:
- Apocolyptic traits should deal with passive abilities, resistances, and increasing dice pools. If a Fallen buys a trait using torment, then they can't remove that torment until they give up that trait. On the other hand, traits bought with pacts are lost the moment that the mortal stops breaks the pact or dies.
- All lores now last for 1 turn, can only affect 1 target, rolls are made to determine the damage or effectiveness of a power and faith can't be spent for extra dice by default anymore(See backgrounds below).
- Eminance now functions "almost" similarly to Garou ranks with some exceptions. Eminence now limits the amount of lores a fallen can use with the Paragon or Mastery advantages(which have also been changed). Eminence is the ability that all demons possess to increase in station based on personal merits(unlike static angels), it is fueled an ancient contract between all demons and Lucifer himself. A fallen raises in Eminence when another fallen at least 2 ranks higher spends a dot of permanent faith and performs a ritual that recognizes a deed they have performed. Any fallen may also loose Eminence if another fallen of at least 1 higher rank spends a permanent faith dot and performs a ritual of chastisement for a failure or mistake.
- Paragon and Mastery have been changed. Paragon now allow a fallen to spend up to their Paragon rating in faith points to either add dice to or re-roll dice on a lore roll at 1 faith point per die added/re-rolled. Mastery now allows a fallen to spend up to their mastery rating in faith points to extend either the duration or number of targets of a lore by a multiple of their permanent faith rating for each point spent. Paragon costs[new rating x5] XP to increase, while Mastery costs [new rating x10 and cannot be higher than Paragon], and fallen can only have a combined Paragon+Mastery rating up to their permanent Faith.
- Fallen whose mortal host "dies" can possess one of their mortal thralls to avoid falling into the abyss. Doing so mean that their attribute and abilities change to that of the new host, but Lores, Pacts, Apocolyptic Traits, and Torment all carry over. The Fallen's permanent faith shrinks to that of the new host's faith potential.
- Earthbound and Fallen thralls work differently. Fallen empower their thralls using the thralls inherent faith potential(standard DTF rules), but Earthboud are only able to infuse their thralls with their own taint. Earthbound Thralls use Devil's Due rules save they use faith-potential instead of resolve(normally capped at 5) and they can spend XP to learn their earthbound master's known lores up to the third dot
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