Handling patrons and stuff

[CapnHowdy]

Hello DCC friends --

Just a few question about patrons...

1. Do you let the players choose their patrons, or do you introduce the patrons you want?

2. I'm assuming that you roleplay all invoke patron/patron bond spells? Say, if a player survives the funnel, makes a wizard, rolls invoke patron/patron bond spells, they just don't begin the next session as a first level wizard saying, "Oh, in our downtime, I cast these spells and now I'm buddy-buddy with [X] patron"?

3. What are some examples of boons/favors/help that your patrons have given your players?

4. What are some examples of quests/service that your patrons have demanded in exchange for their help?

Thanks!

[Blood Axe]

Don't let it be the simple casting of a spell. Have him make an appropriate sacrifice or perform a task to prove his worthiness.

Look at the patrons in the main rulebook for ideas. There are also some pdf products on DriveThru with new patrons along with several posted free on this very forum.

[CapnHowdy]

But how do you handle patrons?

Do you introduce the patrons you want -- "If you're interested in casting your Patron Bond spell, you have heard rumors of a lost temple of a frog god..."

or

Do you let the players thumb through the rules, pick a patron -- "I would like to take action to secure Bobugbubilz as a patron."

???

[Raven_Crowking]

Potential patrons are supernatural beings the PCs know about. So, in an ongoing campaign, some options may already be known, whereas others are introduced during play.

Appendix N is chock-full of beings that could be considered patrons in DCC. Elbereth in Lord of the Rings never makes an appearance, but in A. Merritt's work, patrons make direct appeals to the protagonists, and are actual beings in the world. In Moorcock's work, Elric already knows the potential patrons of his people, and the various entities folks call on in HP Lovecraft might be located by research into the Necronomicon or other benighted tomes.

I have written several adventures that put PCs into contact with potential patrons - the Black Goat, the Cinder Claws, Doctor Chapman, and Somnos, for example. I am not alone in that; Malloc gains a write-up in the Sunken City Omnibus, and there is a potential patron in The Mall Maul for Crawling Under a Broken Moon (issue #2, I believe) that one might join with when encountered. Silent Nightfall introduces demi-patrons, suggesting (as with the fruitcake in Perils of the Cinder Claws) that there are ways to enter symbiotic (hopefully) relationships without using a full Patron Bond spell.

Other patrons are entities that the PCs may themselves seek an alliance with because they are part of the known backdrop of the game milieu. This includes whatever patrons the judge says it includes....beings that everyone in mystic circles know to be seeking to win friends and influence nations.

In general, I would say you should consider a list of known patrons, patrons that are effectively potential rewards (or punishments) for playing specific adventures (or making specific choices), and dropping the occasional patron reference into arcane works found in adventures...effectively seeding them like treasure maps, which the PCs may then pursue or not. For example: A plague spirit may be encountered in a certain graveyard at a certain time of year. Take it or leave it.

And, really, consider the demi-patron model: I am not bound to you, but I can call on you for (say) spellburn...although there is certain to be some cost...perhaps some form of patron taint.

See also: http://ravencrowking.blogspot.ca/2012/0 ... ssics.html