December 20, 2023: The Curious Countdown: Number 7 – It's A Sin!

Behold! The fourth installment of our "curious countdown." Today we turn our eye to number 7. (Check out the first post if you want more info.)

I'm not entirely in the loop of everything that happens in the intergalactic conspiracy, so many times, cool stuff just shows up on my doorstep. Case in point: the Seven Deadly Sins Die. When this oddball die arrived at our house as part of a "box o' loot," I wasn't sure what to make of it. But I soon realized the potential. (The premise is pretty self-explanatory, but in case: it's a seven-sided die, with each side adorned with one of the deadly sins.)

As someone who's an improv-type GM, its usefulness for quick-and-dirty motivations made it so powerful for me. I couple it with a "strength" die – a plain six-sider. When the heroes meet someone I haven't fleshed out, rolling those two dice gives me their "most-interesting" (as I define it, from an adventure standpoint) "sin." So, a roll of "Envy, 1" might mean the barkeep listens a bit too intently to the adventurers' exploits (current or forthcoming) – which may open up future blackmail or coercion opportunities for other bad guys. A roll of "Wrath, 6" could indicate the herbalist is secretly a mass murderer – are the heroes minutes away from stumbling onto a plot that the GM didn't know about seconds before?

For those who have one of these fine dice and are looking for more ideas, I note that Hexagram #11 has an article from Car Wars Line Editor Irene Zielinski called "Seven Deadly Motivations," with meaty insight into how to incorporate this die into The Fantasy Trip.

-- Steven Marsh