My last post identified several traits I will define trappings for: accord, order, magic, and so on. Each trait can have more than one trapping. I was about to start describing trappings for various traits, then realized…
… before I go into what individual trappings look like, it’s probably a good idea to describe their structure.
Each trapping has seven grades: Trace, Faint, Light, Medium, Heavy, Overwhelming, Total. They have increasing (usually mechanical) effect and influence. It would be good if each grade has the same scale of effect across all trappings… but honestly, that’s not a hard goal.
- Trace trappings are noticeable, may be inconvenient, but probably don’t harm anything. A fire (heat) trapping can just be ‘uncomfortably warm’… you’ll want ice cream, but will need to eat it fast.
- I don’t know how much I’ll use this one. It gives me a place for ‘noticeable difference’, and it gives me a way to step down from Faint. You’re inured to heat, so a trapping others find tiring, you find balmy and comfortable.
- Faint trappings are more troublesome. A fire (heat) trapping can be ‘very hot conditions’, causing nonlethal damage hourly (save to avoid).
- Light trappings are getting dangerous. A fire (heat) trapping can be ‘severe heat’, causing nonlethal damage every ten minutes (save to avoid).
- Medium trappings are hazardous. A fire (heat) trapping can be (reduced) ‘extreme heat’, causing nonlethal damage every minute (save to avoid).
- Heavy trappings are lethal without the right protection. A fire (heat) trapping can be (reduced) ‘extreme heat’, causing lethal damage every minute (no save).
- Overwhelming trappings can quickly be lethal without the right protection. A fire (heat) trapping can be equivalent to ‘fire dominant’, causing lethal damage every round (no save).
- Total trappings can be basically over the top unhealthy. A fire (heat) trapping can cause lethal damage every round, no save, resistance and immunity halved. That is, does big damage per round, immunity only halves it, only half fire resistance applies.
- I don’t know how much I’ll use this one. It gives me a place to park ludicrous effect, and I can have trouble defining those.
I adjusted the meaning of ‘extreme heat’ a little. A quick search online suggests 140F (the lower bound of ‘extreme heat’) is not quite ‘imminent lung damage’ temperature. It is close, though, so I used the split of ‘nonlethal’ and ‘lethal’ to decide Medium and Heavy grades.
There can be mitigating or enhancing factors here. Creatures sensitive to heat or poorly prepared might treat the trapping as one grade more dangerous. Creatures inured to the trapping might treat it as one grade less dangerous.
I keep using the word ‘dangerous’. I suppose it is not necessary for a trapping to be inherently hazardous. A world with high accord can be very beneficial to those present, it’s so safe. Unless, of course, you are a murderhobo whose very nature runs against that of the world itself. That could be inconvenient.