Dragon: The Embers Core Book - MrGone's Character Sheets

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98
Philosophies
Philosophies
Philosophies
Aspect Aspect Factory Factory
Factory
Now that you’ve seen the array of premade
Aspects, you possess enough
information to create some of your own.
Crafting an Aspect takes four steps:
Step 1: Create an Ability
Your Aspect should alter some way the
Dragon interacts with her world. For
Sequential Aspects, this advantage takes
the form of an increasing bonus. For
Odd/Even Aspects, two advantages
alternate between granting bonuses. For
Compound Aspects, an advantage is
applied to an increasingly wide selection
of tasks (At least five).
Step 2: Assign a Physical Tell
Every Aspect has a sign that it is in use.
This forces your Dragon to turn it off,
lest she give herself away. The Tell that
you use should be unique and at least
somewhat difficult to conceal. As a
good guideline, the more potent the
advantage you Aspect provides, the more
difficult the Tell should be to conceal.
Step 3: Attach a Cost
Determine whether your Aspect needs a
cost to deter use. If it is often useful,
requiring Breath once a scene is a good
deterrent against overuse. If it is
incredibly useful, make it cost Willpower
each time it is used. And if it is
indispensable, each use should require
Breath.
Step 4: Assign a Card and Suit
Deciding the Method your Aspect is
associated with is really a matter of gut
feeling, so there’s little to say about this.
Before placing your new trait, look at the
other Aspects in your target Method to
make sure your new advantage fits
thematically.
Besides their introverted view,
Dragons are all possessed of extroverted
opinions that they enforce on the world
around them. Part of their divine right is the
ability to impose things on matter by forceof-will,
and the Philosophies are the roads
Dragons use to achieve that end.
The cynicisms and stereotypes of a
particular school become reality when they
are focused into a Philosophy. The five
forces Dragons control, woven into their
very fabric of existence, leech out with
thought and make a more suitable
environment. Destruction, Oath, Health,
Pain, and Memory all bow to the material
kings, and their tribute is magnificent. It’s
good to be king.
While once available in full to each
and every dragon, the dichotomy that came
with the Collapse shattered these five forces
down the middle, and the schools that
followed each took a piece. When brought
together some semblance of the original
potency can be mimicked, but never will it
be the same.
When making a Dragon character,
that character receives a fleeting two dots to
place in Philosophies, and one such dot must
always be placed in the Philosophy that
matches the Dragon’s school. These first
two dots reflect the Dragon’s introduction to
her new worldview, and the influences that
come with such a worldview.
Unless the Dragon is possessed of
the “True Heart” Merit (see page XX) and
vicariously houses her Heart in chest, she is
unable to cross schools to claim
Philosophies. A Dragon of Bone cannot
acquire dots in the Wrath Philosophy (Being
that it’s a Saintly Devil School), though she
could purchase dots in the Ash Philosophy
as it too is one of the Embers Schools. Also,
unlike Aspects, Philosophies must always be
activated in order, starting with the lowest
level and working up to the highest level
known. Obviously this means Philosophies
must also be purchased sequentially.