Hi all,

So a while back I complained about there not being enough uses for gold in the game, which started a thread that ended up with the wonderful Chalice of Avarice creation, for which I am very much obliged. I had some initial ideas when I posted that message that I never really got around to cementing. While I wait for the City expansion to come out and solve all our Gold woes, I struggled for a bit and came up with this Bottle Imp, loosely based on a Robert Louis Stevenson story. In that story, people who use the powers of the Bottle Imp have to sell the bottle for less than they paid for it, or be damned; this leaves the guy who paid only a penny for it in a quandary. I opted to have the price increase as it went, and have the chance of paying a consequence increase as well. Basically I wanted something that encouraged character interaction and put an emphasis on gold and fate (another problem with the game, I found, was the difficulty of replenishing fate if you're not evil). I wanted gold to be a temptation with real consequences if you're not careful. I've tweaked it a bit here and there, but I'm still not completely satisfied with the results. Looking for some input on how to make the whole thing work, hopefully with a little more elegance both in wording and mechanics. Ideas, anyone?

Note: We play using a couple of house rules that ought to be mentioned for the card to make sense: 1. To "level up" in Craft or Strength, we use the "current Stat+1" rule: that is, if your current craft is 7, you need 8 points of monster trophies to level up, etc. 2. We use an alternate Tavern space, which I think I got off BoardGameGeek. I include an uncredited link with apologies, only to show people what I mean by "gambling "in this context.

http://files.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/474a2kfvqh/Tavern_Revised.jpg?

I'm pretty sure that someone on these forums is probably behind this great Tavern space; if you tell me who you are, I'd be glad to credit you.

BOTTLED IMP

Ages ago, in acquiring the Crown of Command, the Wizard incurred a terrible debt to the powers of darkness -- a debt that has yet to be paid by his heirs! At the beginning of the game, the player with the highest Fate value takes the Imp. In the case of a tie, roll one die. The lower score takes her.

While the Imp is in your possession, you may not possess a Talisman. This greedy creature can, however, impart two useful abilities on her owner - at a premium ! This cost for her services begins at a rate of 1G:1 Fate, ( trinkets may be used at their full gold value) but increases by 1G each time it is used.

To use the Imp's abilities, choose:
A) Pay a Fortune: You may spend gold as if it were Fate to re-roll a die, at the rate of the Imp's current premium.
B) Twist of Fate: You may force another player to re-roll a die. Pay the current premium, then flip a Fate token like a coin, with the affected Player calling "Bright" or "Dark" in the air. If you lose the toss, he does not re-roll. You may, however, call it to auction: Increase the premium by 1G and try again. If you succeed, he may pay any combination of gold and/or Fate to match the new premium; otherwise, he must re-roll. You may call any number of auctions in a turn.

If you do not have enough gold for these abilities, you may strike a Dark Bargain with the Imp herself. Take the required number of gold coins and place them on this card. You are then teleported to the Tavern, where you must gamble, once per turn, until a) You can repay her; or b) You lose all your Life. The Imp will also accept a sacrifice of monster trophies at a rate of 1 level up:1G.

Her powers come at a terrible cost! Each time you cause a die to be re-rolled using her abilities, roll a second die. If you roll doubles, discard all your Fate permanently.

To divest yourself of the Imp, you must encounter a Player possessing a Talisman. The fickle creature will then leap to him, giving you the Talisman in return. Alternatively, in lieu of your normal reward, you may sell her to a character you defeat in battle or psychic combat for her current premium, which he must pay, even if it means striking a Dark Bargain or offering her a sacrifice. When the Bottle Imp changes hands, her premium drops to its initial value of 1:1. You may acquire her more than once during a game.

That's it so far. I've done a quick mockup using Strange Eons (I called her an Alternative Ending, for lack of a more appropriate format). I'd love to hear suggestions about how to make this better, though if you think it doesn't have a place at all in the game, I don't need to hear that. Even if you can think of catchier names for her abilities, I'd love to hear them. Anything to get her to a usable state. Thanks in advance!

wow that looks really fun and i hope i can try it out tommorrow but one thing i dont is the trophy part as u do it so say ur at strentgh 7 would u have to pay 8trophies 9 trophies than 10 trophies to pay off gold or just 8,8,8

We play that you have to pay one more monster trophy point than your current Craft or Strength that is, when you are Strength 2, you only need 3 points in trophies to get an extra Strength. But if you are Strength 8, you need 9 points. That way, if you die late in the game, it's easy to power back up, but it gets harder to just muscle your way up the ladder when you have higher stats. I don't like it when an automatic kill results in a power up...lame!

I agree on the easy power ups, for the way Talisman is rigged, the higher you go the easier it is to get to next boost. On the downside, for some groups this does turn players more toward the prosthetic boost (objects, magic objects, followers, etc.) But I think most groups player this approach are composed of players of like mind on the lameness of autokills.

Has you group ever played roll result based autoloss / autowin house rules?

No...do you mean battle/psychic combat without reference to stats, based only on the roll of a die? Or am I misinterpreting your question? I'm intrigued.

...I'm also wondering (from the lack of discussion on the Bottled Imp) whether people just think it's unplayable as it's worded? I feel like it has potential, but I defer to the wisdoms of more frequent players than meself. I wanted something that worked at fundamentally tweaking the mechanics throughout the game (rather than a true AltEnd), but it might just be too wordy and too fiddly. Anyone wanna offer some constructive criticism?

after playin it it is a good alt ending but the abilities are a little too op but u can only use them too many times and then bam u can steal a talisman and gold

Thanks for the feedback! I'll try to think of ways to remedy that.