LogFAQs > #897011616

shadowsword87 posted...

Bleh, that's the sort of naval gazing stuff that I can never get behind. It doesn't matter to the story at all and it just sort of obfuscates just getting into the characters because you have to remember useless facts. Nobody can really do anything with it.

That's on the GM, though. It's not hard to translate that sort of world detail into narrative depth or mechanical depth. Maybe it's common in your world for drunk men in taverns to sloppily hit on women by asking them what their sign is. Or perhaps there's an ancient prophecy that someone born under the sign of the Plow will eventually overthrow a corrupt Emperor (and perhaps said Emperor makes a point of killing all babies born in a certain month?). Or a puzzle in an ancient tomb that requires the PCs to know how to put the signs in order, or match them to something they represent. Even Pratchett made time to mention that Rincewind was born under "The Small Boring Group of Faint Stars" to emphasize just how much of a non-entity he was.

In a gameplay sense, The Elder Scrolls sort of points the way in having each sign have a specific ability, stat boost, or other power tied to it, that players born under that sign can tap into. In D&D terms, it wouldn't be hard to say that Aquarius gives a PC a +1 Int, or Virgo a +1 Cha, and so on - only using different terms. Or maybe Sagittarius favors archers with a metaphysical luck that gives them a boost to rolls to hit. Or maybe Leo gets to battle roar once per day and inspire themselves or an ally. And so on.

The only real limits are what you choose to do with it.

And like I said concerning the Paladin, it's not likely I'm going to use any of this in a game anyway, so pretty much ALL of this is navel-gazing anyway.

Or "bored in the shower/on the toilet/waiting in line at the grocery store" sort of thinking. Just a way to engage creativity and pass time.



shadowsword87 posted...

You just can get more out of it by working on culture/characters/relationships.

Who says I can't do both?

Hell, part of my concept for the zodiac was that every constellation was at least somewhat based on real historical people, who were heroes or villains of their own age, and who were later immortalized in the stars (very similar to how the Greeks viewed constellations in general). Which means I'm already working out a dozen characters in my head as inspirations for the signs, which in turn can influence culture (at least one of the inspirations founded their own empire, which either still exists or is in ruins that can be explored), characters (one of the inspirations sired children, leading to an entire bloodline with special gifts, responsibilities, or enemies), or relationships (what if two current characters are sort of playing out a drama similar to that of one of the star pairings? Or one character sort of idolizes the myth of a given sign and seeks to emulate it deliberately?).

And as a mechanic, it wouldn't be difficult to run that the same way L5R handled "Ancestors" as a mechanic, wherein you can gain both positive and negative backstory aspects from an affinity to a certain sign.


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