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This is an alternative of Cthulhu Eternal - Custom Rules for Motivations.
These are my custom rules for more engaging Motivations in Cthulhu Eternal(also compatible with Delta Green).
There is also an alternate Simplified Version
Design Goals
- Offer a re-roll mechanic
- The re-roll mechanic should connect to the PC’s Motivations
- Re-rolling is mentally exhausting for the PC
- Running out of Motivation is risky
- Re-rolling without a Motivation is mentally damaging
Character Creation Rules
- PCs can assign points to their Motivations, similar to Bonds
- They sum up their INT, POW, and CHA, and can distribute those among their five Motivations
- To ease RPing, Motivations can be formulated as values, fears, passions, or goals (examples below)
Example
Carla is a street fighter stuck between caring about her brother and community in general but also wanting fame as an accomplished fighter. Her stats are STR 17, CON 12, DEX 12, INT 11, POW 10, CHA 10. The player can distribute the 11+10+10 (31) points to her Motivations as:
- (Value) Do what’s best for her family 11
- (Goal) Make a name for herself as a street fighter 6
- (Fear) A boring life of no risks 5
- (Goal) Continue her education 3
- (Value) Contribute to her neighborhood’s community 6
Game Rules
- when a PC fails a skill check, they may re-roll
- the re-roll is only allowed if the action can be contextualized within one of the PC’s Motivations (pending GM approval)
- if the action itself is not immediately relevant within a Motivation, the PC may still roll but they subtract the same amount from SAN as they would from Motivation
- the GM decides the Difficulty Die of the re-roll
- Easy tasks: 1D4; Average tasks: 1D6; Hard Tasks: 1D8
- combat actions cannot be re-rolled
- the PC rolls the Difficulty Die and subtracts the amount (named X, for future reference) from their WP
- the PC can then re-roll the skill check, adding the current Motivation score (after the above subtraction) as a bonus
- if the re-roll fails, they subtract the same amount (X) from their Motivation
- if the re-roll succeeds, they only subtract 1 from the relevant Motivation
- they may not push the same action twice
- if the Motivation reaches 0, the PC must roll a SAN check. If they fail, they suffer a Temporary Insanity episode (after the skill check is resolved)
- the current rule of recovering WP through following a Motivation is removed
- when the PC reaches a BP and gains a new Disorder, it always replaces the Motivation with the lowest score. Ideally, the new Disorder should reflect the negative aspect of that Motivation.
- Example: When Sharon gains a new Disorder, she replaces “Continue her education” with Depression, reflecting the crumbling goals she had for herself.
Downtime: Personal Motivations
This replaces the rules for the “Personal Motivation” downtime action.
- the PC reduces a Bond by 1
- the PC rolls a SAN test
- Success adds 1D4 to a Motivation
- Critical adds 1D6
- Failure removes 1 from a Motivation
- Fumble reduces 1D4
Simplified Version
- PCs may re-roll if the action is relevant to their Motivation
- the GM decides the Difficulty Die of the re-roll
- Average tasks: 1D8; Hard Tasks: 1D10
- the PC rolls the Difficulty Die and subtracts the amount (named X, for future reference) from their WP
- the PC can then re-roll the skill check, adding X as a bonus
- failure counts as a critical and inflicts 1 SAN
Motivation Examples
- (Value) Be a good example to colleagues
- (Goal) Amass a small fortune
- (Passion) Appreciate art
- (Value) Society can only be changed with radical action
- (Goal) Prove your worth to your superior
- (Fear) Being left alone
- (Passion) Obscure bronze age history
- (Value) Always see the positive
- (Passion) Find a fitting romantic partner
- (Goal) Discover what really happened that strange night
- (Value) Justice is best taken in one’s own hands
- (Passion) The latest technology and gadgets
Images from Unsplash.