Here’s a quick companion to my more rustic and less “up-market” prior Carousing Consequences & Complications Table, with this one focusing a little more on the slightly more stuffy and formal occasions the Player Characters may find themselves invited to or even reuqired to attend. Potentially useful in the later Domain Tiers as well, alongside some of my recent tables for Stronghold Benefits and Castle Hassles.
When Telegraphing or Foreshadowing Encounters, sometimes other senses can be employed. Thinking about this led to another fun Table that had my imagination working overtime! I tried not to consult my prior Three Hundred Smells Table for this one, but I’m quite certain there might be a bit of overlap here and potentially with my Spoor & Sign or Tracks & Traces by Type Table as well.
Naturally, since our musty Monster Manuals don’t come in spectacular “Scratch & Sniff” these are all fanciful speculation and conjecture. I suppose that’s a good thing too, as I’m not sure I’d really like to experience a Troglodyte’s signature Stench ability!
Deity Disfavor is a Class Feature that doesn’t receive a ton of attention. One can infer a few potential concrete triggers for this from the Class Description (ignoring the Prohibition Sharp/Stabbing Weapons, failing to carry a Holy Symbol...those Poor Clerics that begin Play with only 30 gold pieces!) but much of it falls to Referee interpretation on adherence to the tenants of Alignment and the Religion. Some of my Prior Tables attempt to make this a little more transparent (such as my Hundred Holy Taboos) and less of a “Gotcha!” to be sprung on the Player out of the blue, but what should happen if a Cleric falls from those good graces?
Inspired by a conversation with another Referee, I decided to put together a d100 Table of potential Penances or Acts of Contrition that might serve as some ideas for these situations. Later presentations tend to handle this with the casting of a specific Divine Spell (such as Atonement) but that does strike me as a little perfunctory. I suppose if you aren’t capable of casting it on yourself, that could lead to a little leg work.
The table is a bit of a mixture: I wanted to try and avoid things that were too Restrictive or could potentially impact Play in a severely negative way (such as a “Vow of Silence” impairing communication, etc.) but some of those surely snuck in. I also wanted to try and avoid things that were just easily elided through a Downtime Activity if at all possible. I think I was a little less successful in that goal, but that would still be up to the individual Referee. I believe that some of these entries might be more useful for fleshing out a particular Faith when portraying other members: These could be used by a Referee in Play by attaching them to another Penitent in a Player Character’s Faith, in order to telegraph those Consequences of straying out of that Favor. I should definitely try to remember add this to my Deity Generator when I get the chance!
Content Warning for a soupçon of Self-Harm/Mortification of the Flesh. Feel free to season this to Table Tastes and Player Preferences.