Sorcerous Complications : Astal Wandering

Conan: Adventures In an Age Undreamed Of
1

As a GM, having a list of potential complications to impose on players when they roll 20’s adds a lot more flavour than just adding to the doom pool. With a sorceress witch in the party, I’ve started to compile a list of complications specific the spells she casts. Here is a list for Astral Wandering. Some of these are more harsh than the usual complications you would get with 1-2 doom spends, but hey… its sorcery. I hope to post something like this for more spells in the future. Feel free to add your ideas.

Astral Wandering Complications

  • Sorcerer is seen from the physical realm, potentially losing any element of later surprise
  • Sorcerer accidentally comes into contact with a base element and takes 2cd damage (pg 174)
  • Pulled by Astral streams. Character does not return to the body at the expected time. Degree of inconvenience determined by number of complications
  • Oh Hello: Attacked by an astral being for 4cd mental per complication
  • I can’t unsee that: character takes 4cd mental per complication after witnessing that which should not be seen
  • Rough landing - Upon returning to the body, the character is Dazed for the remainder of the scene or 2 rounds + 1 round / complication if returning to an action scene
  • Unwanted Guest: Astal being possesses character for a short time upon returning to the body. For the remainder of the scene, character actions can only be taken after a successful Discipline test of d1+number of complications. Failure results in one of the following (roll d20)

1 Astal creature allows host to act normally, happy to tag along
2-4 Character does nothing as the astal being stares at the physical world through the eyes of its host
5-7 Character can act but is considered Dazed
8-10 Astral being has never before had legs. Character is considered Hindered
11-12 This body is so… different! Character is considered Staggered
13-14 Astal creatures wants to see the sights. Character runs off in a random direction
15-16 Character talks to someone else in an unrecognized and inhuman language
17 Character attempts to seduce the closest person / creature
18 Character attempts to kill the closest person / creature
19 Character attacks themselves
20 Character convulses and takes 6cd physical damage (no armour or cover) and 6cd mental (stun)

1 Like
2

Sorcery usually generates more Complications than other rolls, so more severe consequences for more Complications are fine.

Having a list of potential Complications is certainly nice to have. Personally, however, I would not want to limit myself to that list.

For example, if a character uses Astral Wanderings to explore a dungeon, one possible Complication could be that while the astral form is invisible, the character’s presence is somehow noticed, thus making it harder for the players to strike.

So bottom line, I always want to keep my options open and use Complications specific to the current situations. But having a fallback list is a nice backup.

1 Like
3

I totally agree. It’s just useful to have a list of potential complications so that you can vary it up and not feel pressured for the sake of time to just add to the doom pool. I’ve added being seen, and coming into contact with base elements as other complications.

2 Likes
4

Thank you for this list! I am trolling for more lists like these, as I often have some difficulty coming up with complications on the fly.

It sounds like you have some other lists for other spells. Any chance that you’d share them?

5

another suggestion . There’s something wrong at home :
The character gets the nagging and rock-solid feeling there’s somthing going wrong with his physical body, though he can’t tell what kind of wrongness. He can either abort and go back home to check (finding nothing serious, maybe even nothing a all), or he can keep going and take increasing mental stress as the feelings keep worsening.