Embedding Lore in your Classes

A while back, I wrote about the tensions between wanting no homework and settings with rich lore (and some potential solutions). Today, I’ll write about another solution: embedding your lore into your classes.

Brief summary of the problem I’m trying to solve

There is fun to be had when everybody at the table deeply understands the setting and the lore. Getting mastery of these elements requires solo prep time and can be pretty boring; contradictory to the purpose of roleplaying, which is getting together with your friends to have fun.

People have come up with different solutions to this problem. One often cited one is collaborative worldbuilding. You and your friends come up with the lore together, thus moving it from solo and boring back into the core premise.

Creativity is fun. But it’s not the fun of discovery.

Discovery requires prep. The more you want to have the feeling of exploration at the table, the more your prep must adhere to blorb principles.

Embed Lore Everywhere

The point of my Dark Souls-esque Worldbuilding post (referenced above) is that you can embed lore into unlikely places, like your equipment lists. 

To build on that, you can embed lore everywhere. In this way, you feed the lore of your setting to your players like feeding your dog a pill wrapped in a piece of bologna. 

Embed Lore in your Classes

One strong way to embed lore is to put it into your classes. 

Players love reading classes. They love imagining characters. They love seeing powers and abilities. 

If your game comes with a setting and isn’t a generic game, this is a huge opportunity for you. And not having weird ass classes is a missed opportunity.

A fighter is boring. Even something like a druid or a bard is boring at this point.

A sword-lord just sounds cooler. And gives you an opportunity to talk about how sword-lords fit into the social structures of your setting. 

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Sidebar

One of D&D’s weirdest features at this point is its half embedded setting and half generic. Half of the game begs you to think about your warlock’s patron, revoke your paladin’s powers for breaking their oath, consider the organization of druids. The other asks you to consider each class as a bundle of mechanics with no representation: do you want to make a clumsy oaf who blunders their way into success? Just use monk stats, it doesn’t mean anything. The tension in the contrast between these two points is a huge weakness in the game. 

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GLoG classes are cool and easy to make. People like making them because its pretty easy to think about a class’s essential gimmick as four chunks of mechanics. 

One of the things I noticed about GLoG classes is that people are embedding some essential setting elements in the template A of a class. I think this is great (this is what gave me the idea for this post). For example, for a Princess class, you might add a template ability called Noble that says “You’re a member of the nobility. Everyone treats you with respect. Also, you’re worth more alive than dead. You’ll be ransomed instead of killed, if possible.”

Joesky Tax:  False Shepherd

Here’s an example class to further show how you might go about this:

When the signs were right – the daystar burned in the sky, the lambs gave forth bloody young, the olive trees bloomed in winter, the dead sang hymns of welcome – everyone knew the Shepherd was soon at hand. The Wheel of Fortune spun out many would-be Shepherds in those days, doling out many miracles in anticipation of his coming. 

There was a Conclave. All the would-be Shepherds gathered and discussed among themselves who amongst them would be most worthy. All then beheld the True Shepherd, and knew him, and rejoiced. 

You were one of the False Shepherds. Perhaps you even believed in yourself, at that time. But now there’s no doubt. Yet, you still have your miracles.

Start with: hair shirt, shepherd’s crook, and a musical instrument (pan pipes, a lyre, or a horn)

A – Penance of Humility, Gesture of the Wheel 

B – Signs and Wonders

C – Prophecy

D – Minor Sainthood

Penance of Humility

1. Gesture of Command

You can issue a one-word command to anything the Creator made (except for humans, who have free will). Nature will obey implicitly: trees will fruit, rain will fall, embers will kindle into a blaze. Creatures like angels and demons and undead are allowed a save. If the command lasts more than a single round, the target gets a new save at the beginning of each of its rounds.

2. Song of Reincarnation

Used at funerals. A dead body will sing the praises of the Creator, then the Wheel will accept their soul. They will enter the cycle of reincarnation. This deals 2d6 damage to a corporeal undead.

3. Miracle of the Moving Moon

The Wheel turns. You may select a different time of day, different position of the heavens, and different time of year. For the next day, the world exists in this new time. The flow of time is restored at the dawning of the next day.

4. Gesture of Learning

You are given a memory of a past life. Ask a question of the GM. 50% that your past life knows a relevant and true answer.

5. Miracle of the Maker

A natural feature, such as a standing stone, old pine tree, or hillside will be spontaneously carved into the shape of a religious icon. This effect is permanent. Sleeping at this site heals an additional +1 hp.

6. Miracle of the Burning Building

When you use this Sign, remove one worldly impediment from one target:

This miracle will only benefit those who have never taken an innocent life.

7. Gesture of the Thunderbolt

The Creator will throw a thunderbolt at your behest. 2d6 damage to anyone visible to the open sky, the target can save for half.

Prophecy 

You have one prophecy inside you. This is what the Wheel wove you for. 

You can feel the prophecy in the back of your throat. When you choose to let it out, it’s as if someone else is speaking through your mouth. Something everyone intuitively understands is true.

A prophecy has this format:

You will say the first part of the prophecy, and the GM will stipulate the second. For your section, you can say anything that you want to happen in your game world: the king will be reborn, the evil empire will fall, the broken sword will be remade. The GM also has free range to impose difficult conditions that are necessary to achieve this. 

By achieving template C, your prophecy will be spoken. If you die before you have a chance to utter it, it will issue forth from your corpse. 

Minor Sainthood

You gain 1 MD and learn one magic spell from the Elementalist spell list. You can cast this spell intuitively as a miracle. Your MD is a d4.

You no longer need to confess your sins to re-invoke a certain Sign and Wonder.

If and when you die, your body will be uncorrupted and never rot. Your spirit will ascend to Heaven. The site of your grave will become a holy site, and your miracle will manifest here upon occasion.