Green Woman

[elgorade]

A long note with some lifepaths at the bottom.


A player suggested a village witch character. With some further discussion, she came up with:

<quote>
Well, I pictured her more or less as a Green Woman. Someone who understands how to do things with plants, but on a deeper level, someone who just Understands. She sees the hidden patterns in nature, and she can to some extent turn them to her own ends. She can perceive things that aren't obvious to others. The boundaries between the natural and supernatural worlds are fluid to her. She can probably predict the weather; she might be able, under certain circumstances, to influence it. She knows what soil a certain plant will grow in, but she may be able to coax it out of the ground in a place where it wouldn't normally grow. She knows the habits of animals, and in some cases she can understand them well enough to carry on a conversation with them. She can gain insights into the minds of other people and possibly even influence their thinking, or at least their emotional state--more empathic than telepathic. And she can, to a certain extent, make out the shapes of things she hasn't yet seen, or of things that haven't yet come to pass. Yet to her, there is nothing "unnatural" about any of these abilities. Quite the reverse; they all stem from an understanding of nature itself. She sees all her abilities as an extension of being able to read the signs that are already present.
</quote>

The player didn't like Summoning or Faith as the basis for those abilities, so we expect Sorcery is the way to go. Spells like The Sense, Arcane Kindness, Low Speach, etc.seem to fit pretty well even if the casting is not quite as described above. (A big pile of traits, low speech, weather sense, truthseaker, etc. and not gifted is also a possability, but some would have to come from lifepaths since no-one could get enough trait points.)



Then came the hard part. She wanted to have been a village witch. But there are no village (or peasant) witch lifepaths. Crazy witch in the outcast setting and midwife and auger in the peasant setting are about the closest, but they are all not quite right and fairly hard to get to. Having been born noble (to take young lady) or having been married are the main two ways and neither appeals to the player.

So I spend some time last night fiddling together some lifepaths. They are based on the village acolyte and priest paths, the crazy witch and thinker paths, the city apprentice sorcerer and sorcerer paths and the village midwife and auger paths. Comments are very welcome.



Healer's Helper:
Helps the healer and starts towards being a village healer.
Years: 5
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 7
Leads: Peasant, Servitude, Outcast, City
Traits: -
Stats: +1 m
Skill Points: 4
Skills: Cooking, Mending, Anatomy, Foraging



Village Healer:
Generally not a magical person, just well skilled.
Years: 7
Trait Points: 1
Resources: 12
Leads: Peasant, Outcast
Traits: Bedside Manner
Stats: +1 m
Skill Points: 5
Skills: Herbalism, Anatomy, Apothacary, Animal Husbandry



Village Witch:
Uses magic to help her village.
Years: 6
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 16
Leads: Outcast, Peasant
Traits: -
Stats: +1 m
Skill Points: 5
Skills: Sorcery, Conspicuous, Ugly Truth, Persuasion, Falsehood



Village Auger:
Tells the future. A common path for a witch or an elder.
Not necessarily Gifted.
Years: 6
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 8
Leads: Religious, Outcast, Peasant, Court
Traits: Dreamer
Stats: +1 m
Skill Points: 5
Skills: Astrology, Falsehood, Omen Training, Ugly Truth


Green Man (Green Woman):
Someone whose understanding of nature and the world is such that they can read it well and sometimes guide it as they desire.
Not necessarily Gifted, but probably has the gift or has faith (in a nature god) or has a pile of fancy traits.
Village setting, but really could be Peasant or Outcast too.
Years: 8
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 20
Leads: Outcast, Peasant
Traits: Eco-Freak (or something similar if the player doesn't like "freak")
Stats: +1 m
Skill Points: 7
Skills: Aura Reading, Observation Training, Philosophy, Persuasion, People-wise, Animal Husbandry


Druid:
Ittinerant lawgiver, mediator and sort-of priest. Outcast setting, not because he is an outcast but because he is of no fixed abode.
Years: 12
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 20
Leads: Village, Peasant, perhaps Religious
Traits: Pathless Steps, Voice of Ages
Stats: +1 m
Skill Points: 10
Skills: Law, Oratory, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Command, Singing, Instruction, Survival Training, Obscure History, Orienteering

[luke]

What's your precedent for Green Woman? Is there a story or myth that this comes from? I'd love to read it myself.

thanks!
-Luke

[elgorade]

I don't know. The player just sent me the description I put between the quote tags. In her first pass at building the character, she had just described a village witch/healer. That frustrated her a bit because there are no such life paths and when she tried to adapt other paths (Crazy Witch), she ended up with so few resources that she couldn't buy spells. Then in an email expressing frustration she gave the more detailed description.

So I felt like I needed to try to put togheter some paths that might work for her. The druid doesn't have any direct connection.

[Kublai]

Isn't making LPs fun? I find it very addictive, myself. :D

I have a few thoughts on your situation:

1) The Green Woman idea sounds great, but I would think it would be something a new character would aspire to during gameplay. I feel it would be a much more interesting story to develop into this person rather that start out as one. Start out with some of those desired traits and earn the rest. There would be a lot of satisfaction in that, I think.

2) I feel that even beneficial witches are often treated as Outcasts among the superstitious Peasants. However, if your campaign world is so different, than why not move the Crazy Witch into the Village or Peasant Setting?

3) Please include Required LPs for your new ones.

4) One of your Healer LPs should have access to Field Dressing, I think.

[elgorade]

I was thinking of the Green Woman path as sort of similar to Court Sorcerer, that is kind of a step beyond the base level in the profession. And, purely mechanically, as a way to provide a lifepath that provides a fair amount of resources (for spells) in the village setting. So I'm hoping that the description given is over the top, but that the suggested lifepath is just the first step along the way to the description. Whether I succeeded or not, I don't know.

We tried moving Crazy Witch to the village setting (renaming it Village Witch and changing Evil Eye to Eco Freak). Partly it didn't work out because it requires Wife, being born Noble or having been an Apprentice Sorcerer and the player didn't want any of those choices. Partly it didn't work because even when we fudged that CW has many fewer resource points than Sorcerer and no stat boosts. The character ended up not able to buy spells (after getting an herbalism kit), and low on stats compared to a straight Sorcerer example.

Hmm, Field Dressing. Since Herbalism (and Apothacary) can do the same things, why put it on the skill lists as well. It seems like the only point is to give the character the ability to open the skill and use it for forks. Or are you just suggesting it to allow for a slighly different flavor of healer?


Assuming I don't get any more comments, I'll do another pass over these paths and repost them.

[Kublai]

I suggest Field Dressing because a Healer might know more than one way to heal a person. Field Dressing is better for Treating a wound because its quicker to do. Herbalism is better for Attending because the Obstacles are lower. (I hope I haven't reversed them! :oops:)

[Verrain]

Field Dressing makes sense if you assume slashing and puncture wounds are somewhat common among a community. Enough people use sharp knifes and axes in day to day living that such wounds must come up on occasion. Could fit.

[elgorade]

Here is a second pass at the above lifepaths. Further comments are still welcome. Of course, the Lawspeaker and Druid lifepaths as given would be setting/campaign specific; they might not fit into other campaign backgrounds. I'm acutally not sure I'll use them, but thinking about the Green Woman path got me thinking about them too.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Villages need healing and comfort. The peasants have their midwifes and augers and the cities have doctors, physicians and sorcerers. But the villages are left with only the priests and their words of solise in a later world.


Healer's Helper
Someone doing the basic errands for a Village Healer.
Setting: Village
Years: 5
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 7
Stats: +1 men
Skill Points: 5
Skills: Cooking, Field Dressing, Mending, Foraging, Animal Husbandry
Leads: Peasant, City, Servitude, Outcast
Requirements: -

Village Healer
This is a skilled professional healer in a village. Somewhere between a peasant midwife and a city doctor in terms of formal knowledge. The requirements are basically that the village accepts that you know some healing.
Setting: Village
Years: 7
Trait Points: 1
Resources: 12
Stats: +1 men
Skill Points: 6
Skills: Herbalism, Soothing Platitudes, Anatomy, Apothacary, Animal Husbandry
Leads: Peasant, Servitude, Outcast
Requirements: Healer's Helper, Midwife (peasant), Doctor (city), Physician (city)


Some villages might also have a village fortune tell, wise woman or witch. She's different from the outcast crazy witch because she's an accepted part of society. If she is gifted, she was probably taught by the previous holder of the post.

Village Auger
Not necessarily gifted. Omen training is given for the Peasant Midwife in the Character Burner, I don't know why it isn't listed for the Peasant Auger.
If the character isn't gifted that probably leaves trait points left over for good things like Weather-sense and Second Sight.
Setting: Village
Years: 6
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 10
Stats: +1 men
Skill Points: 5
Skills: Astrology, Falsehood, Ugly Truth, Omen Training
Leads: Peasant, Outcast, City
Requirements: Village Witch, Crazy Witch (outcast), Elder (peasant), Auger (peasant), Sorcerer's Apprentice (city), Green Woman (outcast)

Village Witch
There is no "apprentice witch". A witch with few resources (over all lifepaths) may well be learning from someone else. I would be willing to let a character claim her knowledge of sorcery skill was personal learning rather than taught by someone.
This is basically a better version of Crazy Witch. Oh well.
Setting: Village
Years: 7
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 16
Stats: +1 men
Skill Points: 5
Skills: Sorcery, Conspicuous, Ugly Truth, Persuasion, Falsehood
Leads: Peasant, Outcast, City
Requirements: Character must be gifted.



Finally, while healing and magical aide are nice, sometimes the slip over the line into religion as well. Priests with their churches and their politics aren't the only game in town. In some areas a more remote areas an older, more holistic faith survives. It isn't a part of stable, established society, it doesn't have an established hierarchy, it may not even deal with Gods, but it does provide a sense of connection with the world and one's place in it.

Green Woman (Green Man)
Not necessarily gifted. The idea is a character who is very in touch with the natural world, notices things that others don't and understands them.
Setting: Outcast
Years: 8
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 20
Stats: +1 men
Skill Points: 7
Skills: Aura Reading, Observation Training, Philosophy, Persuasion, People-wise, Animal Husbandry, Eco-Freak*
Leads: Village, Peasant, Servitude
Requirements: Crazy Witch, Village Witch (village), Elder (peasant), Village Auger (village), Thinker, Cultist (assuming a nature cult), Zealous Convert (assuming to nature worship), Heretic Priest, Ranger


Lawspeaker
Someone who preserves the tradition and memory of the group and the area alive. Not necessarily gifted. Ittinerent by inclination, by role (speading tradition and mediating disputes) and by necessity (as spreading a belief not aligned with the nobles or the church).
Years: 12
Trait Points: 1
Resources: 15 (probably many contacts)
Stats: +1 men, +1 phys
Skill Points: 10
Skills: Law, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Singing, Instruction, Foraging, Survival Training, Obscure History, Wanted Outlaw*, Voice of Ages*, Heretic*
Leads: Servitude
Requirements: Cultist (of appropriate cult), Heretic Priest, Druid, Thinker, Inssurectionist, Chronicler (court), Scholar (city)


Druid
Essentially a nature priest. Different from a Green Woman because she believes in a divine force of nature which should be worshiped.
As with ordinary priests, not necessarily Gifted or Faithful, but could be either.
Years: 12
Trait Points: 2
Resources: 15
Stats: +1 men, +1 physical
Skill Points: 8
Sklls: Heretical Doctrine, Obscure History, Ritual, Suasion, Forest-wise, Foraging, Survival Training, Orienteering, Omen Training, Heretic*, Pathless step*
Leads: Servitude
Requirements: Green Man, Lawspeaker, Heretic Priest, Cultist (of an appropriate cult) Character must be at least 16 years old to take this path.

[Kublai]

Nice! They've really tightened up in this version! :D

A question about your requirements. You list required lifepaths but without an "or" at the end. Does that mean a character would have to have taken ALL of those required lifepaths? For instance, "Requirements: Healer's Helper, Midwife (peasant), Doctor (city), Physician (city)." I can only imagine it should read "Requirements: Healer's Helper, Midwife (peasant), Doctor (city), or Physician (city)."

And please describe the new trait Pathless Steps, unless you purposely left that up to our interpretation.

[elgorade]

I assumed the 'or' was implicit. :-)

In any case, thanks for the good comment. I do think the second pass improved them. They still aren't as good as the Student, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Sorcer set, but then again student and sorcery both seem to give too many skill points.

[Feralkoala]

What's your precedent for Green Woman? Is there a story or myth that this comes from? I'd love to read it myself.


A link is:
http://www.endicott-studio.com/galgreen.html

Essentially, it is a common image found in art from across a wide variety of European cultures. Its meaning can vary quite a bit depending on what the viewer brings to the picture; it sounds like the ideas of Elgorade's player fit into these images pretty well.[/url]

[luke]

A link is:
http://www.endicott-studio.com/galgreen.html

Essentially, it is a common image found in art from across a wide variety of European cultures. Its meaning can vary quite a bit depending on what the viewer brings to the picture; it sounds like the ideas of Elgorade's player fit into these images pretty well.[/url]

Very good. this is exactly what I was looking for.

based on a cursory read through this overview, I would disallow the Green Man/Woman LP. Instead, I would use Druid and/or Maiden of the Forest (as a disciple of the Green Man).

I would then like to see actual Green Man LPs. Paths for this ancient forest guardian who is ritually killed every year; What's he like? How does he become Green Man? Is he a faerie elevated to this position? Is he a demi-god incarnate?

I'd do it myself, but I have three thousand things on my plate right now.
-L