Grimave
Topic Author
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Joined: Wed 01 Sep 2021, 02:55

Corruption Rules

Wed 01 Sep 2021, 03:00

Hello there,

I LOVE the new material for 5e and I'm so glad that I backed up in Kickstarter.

Maybe I missed it but I re-read everything and didn't see but, How exactly does a character gain corruption? Besides of course the starting corruption and the one gained from Items and learning new spells. Every time someone cast's something they need to do any kind of roll?

Thanks in advance.
 
sandor7
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Joined: Tue 06 Jul 2021, 04:58

Re: Corruption Rules

Wed 01 Sep 2021, 03:21

there are 2 types of corruption; permanent and temporary. every time spellcasters cast a spell they roll 1d4 and add the spell level, gaining that number of temp corruption (cantrips yield 1 temp corruption, and favored spells modify this rule a bit). jacob also posted a sample creature in the dev. notes that seems to indicate come creatures can cause corruption as a damage type.

permanent corruption occurs as a result of binding to certain magical gear, or as a result of rolling a 1 or 2 on the mark of corruption table.
 
ShardCollector
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun 08 Aug 2021, 16:42

Re: Corruption Rules

Fri 03 Sep 2021, 10:51

As I stated elsewhere, I think that the corruption needs some beefing up.
In the original Symbaroum you could very quickly (a little too quickly) turn into abomination, while in here it's rather safe to go beyond your treshold.
I'm still planning my first test game, so the rules as written might make sense, but for now I feel like there is serious room for improvement.

Page 38: Corruption

Marks of Corruption is rolled when you go above your corruption treshold. As long as you keep rolling more than the target, you can go pretty high beyond the treshold without any ill effects, and even if you roll under it, you don't get any permanent effects, unless on a roll of 1 or 2.

I think that the higher numbers need some serious work! You can only get 20 as a result if your corruption is at least 20 points above your treshold. That should always be very serious, no matter how well you rolled. I'd say that there should be very real danger of losing your character on results 15 and up.

I'd turn the table upside down, where results 1-5 are mildish (mostly hideable appearance changes + change to your shadow), 6-10 are more serious (taste for raw meat and cadavers etc., plus your shadow now shows serious corruption), 11-15 are really bad (one point of permanent corruption + very visible marks, like black eyes, split tongue, tentacles, shadow now very dark), 16-19 are horrible (one or two points of permanent corruption + random acts of terror and very public displays of corruption, shadow now black), with 20 you turn into a blight born! This way you would gain more and more marks and errational behaviour, if you don't stop in time and you would be put down before you have a chance of turning into abomination.

Each time you get more corruption you need to roll, as long as your total is above the treshold. And of course any result you rolled shouldn't reduce your current corruption, but you need to rest and do some cleansing rituals to get rid of it. Of course if you are at 10 over and get 2 points to go to 12 over you only roll once, after you have taken the point of permanent corruption (so rolling against 13).

This is not the best either, as both very low and very high rolls (as long as you roll above the treshold) are fine and only the high numbers below the treshold are really bad.

I could even go so far as change this completely to D6 based table: Roll a D6 for each point above your corruption treshold. For each 6 rolled, add another die...
Keep the results of 1 - 10 relatively mild but go to very bad effects past the 20 mark. This way you could make some nasty tables and the players would FEAR the rolls as even one rolled dice could be a 6 and then you roll another which could also turn out to be 6... :twisted:
 
SoulAngel
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue 31 Aug 2021, 19:29

Re: Corruption Rules

Fri 03 Sep 2021, 11:03

I think the new corruption rules can perfectly work... because there is two huge difference compared to original symbaroum:

here when you go outpass your threshold, you continue to roll on corruption... and it gets harder and harder everytime. So you will get a lot of blightmark (nice possibility for RP) and you will eventually get permanent on 1&2.

You get corruption more easily in this symbaroum than in the original.

It's harder to loose (24h rest to remove all temp... compared to original symbaroum: end of a scene). It's a system based on attrition... during the journey, your group, fight after fight, will have an higher temporary corruption (even if they can reduce through HD... but they will have to do a tough choice: Hit Dice to recover life or loose temp. corruption), and it will be harder and harder for them to not pass the threshold, take blightmark and, finally, permanent.

If you want to make the game harder, you can add a custom rules, create a "permanent corruption treshold", equal to the double (or triple) of the treshold and when you pass it, you automatically take a permanent corruption point (and loose all the temporary).


@Shardcollector: i really don't agree with your proposition... the game really force you to pass the treshold (remember, a mystic take 1D4 + lvl of the spell EVERYTIME they launch a spell)... so technically, he can pass the trehshold after 2/3 spells by day... so if you have a chance to loose your char... nobody will ever play a mystic on your game... or they play mystic that avoid casting spell.
Keep in mind that, contrary to "classic symbaroum", you don't loose your temporary corruption at the end of a scene... but after a rest of 24h!! (that's a huge difference!) (because, for sure, i can agree with your idea if character loose their corruption after each scene, that make totally sense).
 
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Jacob Rodgers
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Re: Corruption Rules

Fri 03 Sep 2021, 13:40

Very important note: your roll to trigger the Mark of Corruption is not the result you use on the table for the Marks of Corruption. If you trigger your character gaining a Mark then you roll another d20 to determine what the Mark is. And the effects last for at least 24 hours after you reduce your Corruption below your threshold. Some effects are mechanical, some will get get a lot of notice from certain parts of the community!
 
sandor7
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue 06 Jul 2021, 04:58

Re: Corruption Rules

Fri 03 Sep 2021, 22:07

Very important note: your roll to trigger the Mark of Corruption is not the result you use on the table for the Marks of Corruption. If you trigger your character gaining a Mark then you roll another d20 to determine what the Mark is. And the effects last for at least 24 hours after you reduce your Corruption below your threshold. Some effects are mechanical, some will get get a lot of notice from certain parts of the community!
The thing that occured to me while looking at this post last night, is that the rules for extened rest are very specific around when and how you can take an extended rest; not sure how many folks would shelter you if youre eating corpses, drinking blood and your oozing boyles smell like death.
 
Ugglefar
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Joined: Thu 04 Aug 2016, 21:17
Location: Norway

Re: Corruption Rules

Mon 06 Sep 2021, 03:59

Very important note: your roll to trigger the Mark of Corruption is not the result you use on the table for the Marks of Corruption. If you trigger your character gaining a Mark then you roll another d20 to determine what the Mark is. And the effects last for at least 24 hours after you reduce your Corruption below your threshold. Some effects are mechanical, some will get get a lot of notice from certain parts of the community!
This is not clear from the text in the alpha document. I read it like you use the same roll.
 
n4tune8
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu 22 Apr 2021, 22:11
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Corruption Rules

Thu 07 Oct 2021, 01:50

I just realized that in RoS, there is no upper limit to Corruption. You can keep adding to it waaaay past your threshold, you just keep rolling on the Corruption marks. RoS does not have this rule found in Symbaroum: "The character turns into an abomination if its Total Corruption (temporary+permanent) reaches or exceeds its Resolute value."
What if a player character just doesn't care what side effects it gets from Corruption? As a GM, I can always make the world react to that, but in the middle of the forest, who cares that you crave raw meat and stink of death? I would like a rule similar to the one in Symbaroum, just to keep the players minding their total Corruption.
 
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Jacob Rodgers
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Re: Corruption Rules

Thu 07 Oct 2021, 05:40

I just realized that in RoS, there is no upper limit to Corruption. You can keep adding to it waaaay past your threshold, you just keep rolling on the Corruption marks. RoS does not have this rule found in Symbaroum: "The character turns into an abomination if its Total Corruption (temporary+permanent) reaches or exceeds its Resolute value."
What if a player character just doesn't care what side effects it gets from Corruption? As a GM, I can always make the world react to that, but in the middle of the forest, who cares that you crave raw meat and stink of death? I would like a rule similar to the one in Symbaroum, just to keep the players minding their total Corruption.
A goodly number of the marks of Corruption have mechanical effects: Exhaustion (which will kill the character eventually), blindness, deafness, and effects on social encounters {which still can happen in the forest - Queen's Rangers, barbarians, goblins, etc.), plus the chance to get permanent Corruption, which will eventually turn you into an abomination. We're in the process of taking a second look at everything but we've had that decision play out in playtesting and not end well for the character.
 
SoulAngel
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue 31 Aug 2021, 19:29

Re: Corruption Rules

Thu 07 Oct 2021, 09:25

Yea i love the new mechanical for corruption... the thing that bothers me is the ability to lost permanent corruption through ritual...

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