Diegetic Growth In Strotherhine
When I was still in the planning stages for my current campaign I was concerned that some of my players wouldn’t be satisfied with how Cairn approaches character growth. Many of the folks I play tabletop games with seem to relish mapping out a character’s level progression. They enjoy theorycrafting, tinkering with different builds, and min/maxing those choices. I have long found this kind of play tiresome, but in recent years have grown to realize that there isn’t anything wrong with that kind of game, but it's not why I got into TTRPGs. Nonetheless I was worried about how I retain those players' interests, in a game that doesn’t have a rigid structure for growth.
Cairn’s approach to growth is entirely narratively driven. It encourages growth as the result of how the events of the game impacts, shapes, and changes those who experience those events. This is more akin to how a character might change over the course of a book or film. This means that characters are routinely growing more interesting, but not necessarily “better.” Sometimes this is slow, and happens over the course of many games, and other times it is a sudden and abrupt alteration.
The good news is that my players understood, and were mostly intrigued by, this approach. The bad news is that it was harder for many of them to envision how that actually works at the table. If I'm entirely honest, it also felt a little intimidating for me as the warden, and it required me to change some of my own thinking about how I set up and run games.
As the Warden it meant that I needed to ensure I was filling the game with lots of opportunities for growth. I needed to create a world filled with things the players did not understand, contagions, dangerous places, powerful entities, intriguing factions, relics, and spellbooks. I needed to make sure there were engaging foes and lots of opportunities for success and failure. In reality, I was already planning on focusing on all of those things, but now I also needed to focus more specifically on how all of them might be the catalyst for growth. How do these things change those that engage with them? So I have written out several examples from my campaign to help illustrate how growth has worked at our table, hopefully they might be helpful for yours.
Examples of Diegetic Growth from Strotherhine
Gossamer & the Dream Beast
While on an expedition, deep in the Greenwids, the party came across a dark statue rising from the overgrowth and shaded darkness of the forest. It appeared to be a strange beast sitting on its hind legs, but it was so overgrown that it was hard to make out what it was. While the rest of the party explored the area to see if they could come across hints to the statue's purpose, Gossamer hung back and carefully cleared away the brush, and cleaned the statue. It appeared to be a strange beast with the trunk and tusks of an elephant, the ears of a rhinoceros, the tail of a cow, the body of a bear and the paws of a tiger. Between its feet the stone was carved with a shallow bowl filled with old gold coins. Gossamer emptied what remaining coins he had into the bowl.
Over the course of the following week Gossamer slept more deeply than he could ever recall, and his dreams were more vivid than he ever thought possible. The dreams were always pleasant but Gossamer had the eerie feeling that they were not entirely his own. Furthermore, all of them featured the strange creature he had seen carved into the statue in the Greenwids.
Most of the dreams were so fantastical in nature that despite their vividness Gossamer knew them to be dreams, but there were a few moments where even his waking mind had a difficult time distinguishing what is reality.
In one of these moments he saw himself clearing the vines off the statue and making an offering to the altar, the creature came to him and offered a paw. Gossamer didn’t know how, but he knew the creature was pleased with him and that it was making him an offer. The details of the offer were not clear and Gossamer sensed that there may be some cost, but he could also tell that the creature was waiting for his response, and in that moment of the dream Gossamer realized he had complete autonomy. Gossamer nodded at the creature and accepted the offer.
Following the dream he began to feel a strong connection to the world of dreams, and nightmares. At first this connection manifested as the ability to dream lucidly, with an increasing amount of volition, but by the end of the week Gossamer realized that he had a new found ability to see into the dreams of the sleeping. This ability required some effort (fatigue) but it allowed him to view other’s dreams as if they were his own. Once viewing them he could also shape the dreams of others, changing the narratives, tone, and events of a dream or nightmare.
Through his own dreams Gossamer began to see that there may be more possibilities and ways to develop these abilities but some of this power may be limited by the strange Dream Beast's own abilities. Gossamer understood that the Dream Beast had been forgotten and that by clearing away the vines he had begun a journey of reawakening its power.
Over the course of the week he also realized that this connection came at a price: Gossamer had become much more reliant on sleep. He required more time sleeping than most people (mechanically if he stayed up for a watch during a make camp action, he would begin the next day with a fatigue). Gossamer wondered at this new development and realized that developing further abilities would likely come with additional costs. It seems that deepening his connection with the world of slumber would also increase his reliance on it.
Gregor & Undeath
During an expedition the party had made camp in the ruins of a shrine that sat on a hill in the Fields of Moseley. That evening they were beset by an aggressive lighting storm and driving rain. They took turns keeping watch while the rest of the party tried to get some sleep. During Gregor’s watch he saw a squat, fat, tree standing alone in the field beyond their camp. It was only visible during the brief illuminating light created by lightning bolts, but he could see fruit hanging from its branches.
Despite the obvious risks of standing in a field during a lightning storm, Gregor wandered out of the safety of the party’s camp to investigate the tree. Upon getting closer he saw that its bark appeared warted and coated in a viscous film, and that its leaves drooped like wet mayfly wings. Seeing this he knew it to be something the party had encountered before: a Gristle Pear Tree.
Gregor knew that unappealing plump fruit that dangled from its branches were both incredibly filling, and had a restorative quality. Eating the fruit of the tree was like chewing on fistfuls of fat and gristle, the fruit was always unsettlingly warm and greasy. Most of the party assumed the trees had something to do with the necromancy that had cursed the Fields of Moseley, and had abstained from eating the fruit, but Gregor had a habit of indulging in them, and he was eager to gather them, despite the dangers.
He approached the tree and then suddenly felt all of his hair stand on end. He did his best to lunge away from the tree, just as it was struck by a bolt of lightning, but he wasn’t quite quick enough and was shocked as the lightning hitting the tree discharged into the puddles of rain water that had formed around it.
When the rest of the party got up in the morning they found Gregor in the field near the charred remains of the tree, his pulse faint and his breathing slow. It seemed that he was likely moments away from death. Desperate to save their ally, the party found the charred remains of one of the Gristle Pears, still crackling with electricity, and they broke it up and forced it down Gregor’s throat. They hoped that the restorative nature of the fruit would revive their friend, and it did. Gregor regained consciousness, and while greatly weakened, and pale, they were able to help him travel back to town.
Following the incident Gregor began to feel very strange both more alive, and also, less so, than he ever had. During this time Vanora Seweard, the town’s Vicar, had also developed an uneasiness around him and told him that she was worried that something had changed within the structure of his soul. Gregor began to have strange unsettling dreams, and he couldn’t help but feel that he was somehow trapped between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Gregor also discovered another oddity from the accident. He realized that he generated a mild electric charge that he could discharge at will, though every time he used the ability it left him feeling weaker (+fatigue).
As time went on his dreams grew stranger and more unsettling, in them he would often die and feel his soul separate from his body. He then would see his body continue to move as his consciousness would float formlessly above it. Gregor felt that the link between his soul and body had weakened. That somehow his body was pulsing with some kind of unnatural necrotic force. While he recovered from his injury he also developed an aversion to cooked meat. Something about it didn’t seem as appealing to him, but he also found that something about raw meat seems very appetizing.
During the weeks that followed Gregor’s condition grew worse, his skin never regained its color, instead it was a sickly pale-white with greyish patches, and his eyes took on a slightly milky hue, and appeared sunken into his face. He began to feel a coldness so deep in his body that it never seemed to leave. He felt that he couldn’t ever get warm. Meanwhile his aversion to cooked meat had turned into an outright repulsion. The thought of eating cooked meat sounded disgusting to him and any time he attempted to eat it, he would gag. Gregor’s desire for raw meat grew into an intense craving, he desired it above all other foods, and he never felt completely full without having it with a meal. Gregor was slowly slipping into undeath, and without a major intervention of some kind his character would become a mindless zombie.
Lief & the Wild Horse
Lief had spotted some wild horses not far from town while on an expedition. He wasn’t an experienced rider, nor had he spent much time around horses so he used his downtime to reach out to Harold, the head groom of the stables, and mentioned the horses. Harold said that with Lief’s help he thought they could likely break the horses and bring them into the stable. Harold offered Lief what little money he had, as a thank you for the tip, and to compensate him for the help. The two of them headed out to the fields outside of town. Lief rolled a die of fate roll to see what degree of success they had, and unfortunately only got a 1, meaning that they were only successful in bringing in one of the horses.
The following downtime Lief offered to help Harold out at the stable, and over the course of the week worked closely with Harold and the animals he tended to. Harold was grateful for the help and impressed by Lief’s commitment and work ethic. Harold gave Lief some general guidance on how to handle horses and told the occasional story about his life prior to crossing the sea and coming to Strothehrine.
At the end of the week Harold pointed out that the horse Lief had helped bring in, had clearly taken a liking to him, so Harold made him an offer. He told Lief that he had helped bring the horse in, and had shown a clear willingness to help care for it, so if Lief was willing to give him three more weeks (downtimes) of helping around the stable he would give Lief the horse and teach him everything he needed to know about riding and caring for it. Lief gladly accepted the offer.
Stram & the Fen-Folk
After several expeditions into the marshes the party had encountered a group of small caiman-like people who typically only communicate with hand gestures. The party referred to them as the Fen-Folk. Stram had made an effort to encourage them to visit town, and spoken with the community there to ensure it was a safe place for them to come. He spent a downtime trying to learn as much as he could form the Fen-folk and after careful observation Stram had realized that these hand gestures made up a more complex language than the party had first thought. During this time he learned some about many of the threats in the marshes and was eventually gifted a map that showed how to get to the home of the Fen-Folk.
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