If at all?

I like my players to roleplay, and I've been trying to get them to do it more for a while now with little to no effect. Originally we were playing 1st Ed and ran through Damned Cities. It was...well not that good to say the least, your run of the mill rag tag band of crazies acting like what inquisitorial acolytes from the holovids act.

Afterwards we rebuilt the characters in 2nd edition with all the extra trappings of the character creation supplement. Including the Superstitions.

And the oddest thing happened when we picked up House of Dust and Ash and had a quick rehash of what happened and what everyone's characters were. I asked in passing what their superstitions were because I was just curious.

Later all throughout the game the players, whenever it was appropriate, always made it a point to have their characters act to their superstitions.

The Hiver subconciously was always making pyramids with stone or ash with his boots, the Noble who got palsy was smoking so it'd clam his shaking hiding his strength, the feral worlder hunted vermin running around in the house for food because he wasn't eating otherwise, and the forge worlder refused nearly to the point of death to use his flamer in the library because he did not feel as if he could destroy knowledge.

And I was so pleased with them because it was the most roleplaying from them as a group I've seen in a while, and I just really feel that the superstitions really kept the players in character more so than anything else I've ever run for them from 1st ed.

Anyone else have any fun stories or praise/criticism involving Superstitions?

My tech priest got the forge world superstition in which he hums to sooth the machine spirit. It inspired me to make my tech priest rather eccentric so on top of humming he talks to his tech as if it were a companion or assistant, especially his many mechadendrites which he has individually named. Basically I've given him a multiple personality disorder in which the other personalities each have control over their own mechadendrite and so act seemingly independently and he thinks and acts like he can hear them talking to him. Even though he doesn't have many insanity points I justify this personality disorder by saying the procedure that gave him the infused knowledge talent was not perfect and had some rather severe side effects.

So basically everything that makes my character more than a generic biologis tech priest I developed from the seed of his superstition.

So I would say the superstitions can be a great source of inspiration for a character if you don't already have ideas about personality but they can also be ignored if you already have a strong character idea and have come up with quirks of your own.

My Astra Telepathica Assassin and a Ministorum Warrior had misgivings during the game, but we were both from Shrine Worlds. When offered a drink as toast the survival of our first outing, we simultaneously spat out the first sip "For the dead." We hadn't discussed this beforehand, there wasn't a moment of lost pacing, we each simply looked across the table with mutual understanding.

The best way I've found to "train" players (without them knowing) is to present things I want to teach them ingame - to happen to NPCs first, that way like in psychology the witness can then put themselves in the victim's shoes - and thus learn...

This is basic evolution applied to gaming LOL

Now for superstition...

Firstly - is said superstition grounded in actual reality with a practical lesson or purpose to follow?

Second - is said belief merely a result of culture climes (i.e. where you are at, and what you do, and the like)?

Third - does said superstition in fact serve to bring men low (think of this like "bad advice" or practices - like what people believe about ubiquitous the Ouija broad or tarot cards for example)...

Superstitions are like a Fable - something to learn from and or adhere to in order to stave off ruination from the slight to the catastrophic

At the end of the day - think about superstitious we all know in real life, then think about how or why that even came about and how it's applied by people - doing so should give you a good basis to set your foundations upon!

P.S. Lets say your PCs dont learn from observing NPCs - give NPC "nobodies" a boon once a session (maybe a building facade collapses and the menial beneath the rubble - the only survivor - is dug out as the characters walk past and look upon - the nobody raises his shoddy aquila icon and praises the emperor for his protection!)

Stay GAMING

Morbid