Burning Dragonmarks - Design Thoughts on Dragonmarks

A pile of books: “Burning Wheel Codex,” “Burning Wheel Gold Revised,” “Burning Empires,” “Jihad: Burning Sands,” “Races of Eberron,” and “Eberron Campaign Setting.”
Some inspirational reading for this morning’s game design hackathon

As my previous post highlights, I’ve had Burning Wheel and Eberron on my mind.

Another key element of Eberron are Dragonmarks. Both the houses as well as the various powers of the mark. I think the easiest approach is to treat a dragonmark much like the Faith emotional attribute, but with a limited scope.

Table 161: Dragonmark Traits
Trait Type Cost
Dragonmark Dt 4 pts
The character gains the “Dragonmarked” emotional attribute. The character’s body manifests a visible mark, much like a tattoo, that grows in size relative to their Dragonmarked score.

Pick the idiom for your mark from the following list: Detection, Finding, Handling, Healing, Hospitality, Making, Passage, Scribing, Sentinel, Shadow, Storm, and Warding.

Dragonmarked

This table needs more options. At present, I’m thinking in general terms. However each mark has differing powers. One thought I’ve had is to allow the Dragonmark to cast the corresponding D&D spells associated with the marks; with an Ob equal to 1 + Spell Level.

Starts at rank 3.

Table 162: Dragonmark Manifestion Options
Manifestation Ob Effect
Draw Upon 2 Make one idiom related ability or skill open-ended until the end of scene.
Aid 4 +1D to any idiom related ability or skill test. Each success increases the aid by +1D, up to a maximum of +3D.
Manifestation 5 Analogue to Minor Miracle.
Obviously not enough entries, but this is what I have.

A Dragonmarked character may always FoRK their Dragonmark emotional attribute into skill checks that align with their Dragonmark’s idiom.

Consequences of Failure

Tax, as per Sorcery tax.