A little help with a new pattern

[yrtalien]

In a game I'm running one of players became a pawn of the pattern.  Both the Pattern and the Logrus have been, in the background, using them as tools trying to increase their power... In the last game, as Brand returned and was walking the pattern to be restored to his full power, one of the characters was attempting to fight him while on the pattern... in the process though she was knocked off the pattern and vanished in fire and storm.

The player found herself in a void her legs burned badly with the pattern presenting her with an option.  Take the jewel of Judgement to the Keep of 4 Worlds, and there scribe a new pattern which it could then absorb or be subject to the same rules as everyone else and be consumed for falling from the pattern (she had ALOT of Good Stuff banked).  She agreed to scribe the new pattern and made her way, with her commrades to the Keep.

On the way the players were beset by reps of the Logrus and the Rose (Corwin's pattern) who tried to stop them, convince them not to do it, or convince them to do it on their behalf instead.  In the end right after they've taken the keep for themselves Corwin himself approaches and introduces himself.  He explained that if she did this the Patern would be so much more powerful than the Logrus the Logrus would have to do something major to offset the imbalance... with her life on the line she shook Corwin's hand and explained that she would rather not die and began to scribe the new pattern.  Corwin went across the room and patiently waited to  see the conclusion.

As the player was walking the pattern, making it mirror the one that she saw in the gem, she realized she had reached a point where her memories of Amber's pattern and what the Gem was showing her diverged.  Unsure whether Corwin had used his superior attunement to the Gem to force her to scribe the Rose instead of Amber's pattern, or whether he was directly screwing with her perceptions she stopped and tried to figure out what to do.

Now, when I thought of this I imagined my tortured player trying to decide whether to trust her memory or her attunement to the gem, instead what I got was a character who threw her arms up and decided screw them all.  If Amber's pattern would destroy her for not setting the right pattern and she couldn't figure out which was the right pattern she would scribe her own pattern to protect herself.  And of course that's just what she did.

So in a world where I have the Logrus and the Pattern in a contest with each other, the Rose moving in on both their teritory.  A player with a wild hair up her ass just added another player.  I actually find it quite funny and that pattern is currently protecting her from the wrath of Amber's pattern... So she's alive which is ultimately what she wanted.

Unfortunately now I've got to come up with some powers for a new pattern.  Mostly I think it should mimic the powers of the old pattern with a little tweak here and there to reflect her personality... the character is a warrior a stubborn, dutiful, Amazon in a dress, and I'm trying to come up with some variations on the pattern imprint I can pass on to her.  She's found that Amber pattern imprint has been overwritten by hers and I want it to have it's own flavor.  Can any of you help me with ideas?

Thanks

[RPGPundit]

I just think you were tremendously generous in letting her survive falling off the pattern in the first place; I am NOT a GM who goes around killing Amber PCs wantonly, quite the contrary, but its like one of the few hard and fast rules of how to get yourself killed in the game that if you fuck up while walking the pattern, you're dead.

Aren't you concerned that from here on your players will be expecting similar treatment; that if player x got to fall off the pattern and live, why wouldn't they? And subsequently treating the whole thing of walking the pattern much more nonchalantly, so that it becomes the instant no-risk cross-shadow teleport system Grand Central Station its never meant to be?

RPGPundit

[jibbajibba]

I just think you were tremendously generous in letting her survive falling off the pattern in the first place; I am NOT a GM who goes around killing Amber PCs wantonly, quite the contrary, but its like one of the few hard and fast rules of how to get yourself killed in the game that if you fuck up while walking the pattern, you're dead.

Aren't you concerned that from here on your players will be expecting similar treatment; that if player x got to fall off the pattern and live, why wouldn't they? And subsequently treating the whole thing of walking the pattern much more nonchalantly, so that it becomes the instant no-risk cross-shadow teleport system Grand Central Station its never meant to be?

RPGPundit

Did state there was a lot of good stuff in the bank. And Corwin and Merlin do king of use it as a Cross shadow teleport system well until Merlin gets Ghost and a spikard by which point he doesn't need it any more.

[yrtalien]

I just think you were tremendously generous in letting her survive falling off the pattern in the first place; I am NOT a GM who goes around killing Amber PCs wantonly, quite the contrary, but its like one of the few hard and fast rules of how to get yourself killed in the game that if you fuck up while walking the pattern, you're dead.

Aren't you concerned that from here on your players will be expecting similar treatment; that if player x got to fall off the pattern and live, why wouldn't they? And subsequently treating the whole thing of walking the pattern much more nonchalantly, so that it becomes the instant no-risk cross-shadow teleport system Grand Central Station its never meant to be?

RPGPundit

I do worry about things like that but I wasn't willing to kill the character and she had intentionally banked alot of Good Stuff in case something bad did happen to her.  Basically the decision maker in situations like this is tension (for me).  Will it create more tension for the character to die or for her to survive and finally learn that the Pattern is a sentient somewhat arbitrary thing that has been using and willl continue to use her.

For me the answer was the latter.  Now my players fear the pattern not because of it's rules but because walking it opens you up to it's influence.  It could try to enforce it's will upon you again if something goes wrong.  Actually I think they're a bit MORE nervous about the pattern now then they were before when they thought it was just a big dumb paper weight.

: )

[Sydius Mendoza]

Given that you had the PC inscribe the pattern at the Ko4W, I would think that living trump powers are an obvious start. Perhaps protection granted by the new pattern would counter act the madness factor?

Or maybe magnify it? PC survives because of good stuff banked, but perhaps GS is all but wiped out leaving them with bad stuff (i.e. mental instability, loss of humanity, etc).

Really cool idea BTW. I especially like using the term "The rose" for Corwins pattern. So much so, I just might steal it

[RPGPundit]

I understand your thinking, and actually the experience makes a real impact, when something you've been told over and over again as a truth (that you WILL die if you fail to walk the pattern) turns out not to be true.

At the same time I hate to take away from the game one of the few things that are supposed to, with absolute certainty, cause your demise.  Even getting decapitated might not do it, with tricks from shapeshifting and the like.

RPGPundit

[Brent Not Broken]

All this "the player should have died when she fell off the Pattern" seems like closing the barn door after the horse has run away, don't you think? Even if everyone were to agree that that's the case, the OP's game has already moved on in another direction, and it sounds like it's a little late to go back and change that detail around.

I think the OP's question is an interesting one, and if you consider that each Pattern is a reflection of the personality of the person who drew it, that makes Amber's Pattern even scarier (since it's Dworkin).

You might be able to squeeze some mileage out of the notion that the character of a given Pattern has less to do with its artist's baseline personality and more to do with their intention or state of mind at the time when they were drawing it. Sounds like this character had a lot going on in terms of confusion, stubborn rebellion, and the desire for self-preservation, and her new Pattern (and new capabilities) are flavored by those kinds of characteristics.  (Maybe that's the only reason this new Pattern can protect her against Amber's Pattern-- it's purpose is to defend those who bear its imprint, so that's what it's good at.)

Is it established that Corwin was messing with the image in the Jewel to try to confuse her, or is that just a thing she suspects? Regardless, maybe this Pattern is so infused with false imagery due to the circumstances of its creation that it allows its user to shift images in the same way that Amber's pattern allows its users to shift chance and probability. Maybe it's a specialized type of Shadow-shifting that occurs entirely in the heads of others. (It's certainly an interesting contrast to the much more straightforward notion of "an Amazon in a dress", for sure.)

[RPGPundit]

I agree that its probably counterproductive at this point, but at the same time I find that there's very little in the way of advice I can give the OP.  One would have to know the specific character in a very specific way to know how to match the new pattern to her personality.

I can't figure out whether the OP is even asking "what would the world created by her pattern look like" or "what kind of powers would the new pattern have"?

RPGPundit

[Sydius Mendoza]

I took it as a question leaning more towards the "what powers?" side of things. Taking it from that direction, it is pretty easy to start with location of the new pattern. Inscribing a pattern in the Keep of Four Worlds gives the pattern a huge well of raw power and shadow to tap into. Twists based on the PC can be thrown in for flavor, but it would be easier story wise to focus on the properties and powers of the new pattern that have to do with the Ko4W and the Black Fount. Was a pattern at this location the Goal of all of Brands schemes in the Corwin cycle? Did bathing in the Fount instill madness in him, or magnify what was there? Would a pattern protect the PC from this madness? Was the madness specific to Brand?

[yrtalien]

I agree that its probably counterproductive at this point, but at the same time I find that there's very little in the way of advice I can give the OP.  One would have to know the specific character in a very specific way to know how to match the new pattern to her personality.

I can't figure out whether the OP is even asking "what would the world created by her pattern look like" or "what kind of powers would the new pattern have"?

RPGPundit

I was asking for some help with ideas for what kind of powers the pattern would have.  Thank you all for all your help and contributions.

[RPGPundit]

Just how Amazon is she? Could it be a pattern that only women can walk?

RPGPundit