Darkspawn Taint

[Hellebore]

The 40k corruption point effects would be good inspiration imo. Not necessarily the way you get them (ranging from 0-100 corruption pts) but the effects are nice and dark.

For example, every time you receive your Con in taint points you gain a taint trait - sudden outbursts of aggression, sensitivity to light, craving raw meat etc. Once you've received X number of traits you've become a ghoul (X could also be your Con value). As your Con goes up the amount you need to get a trait also goes up. Resistance tests to avoid getting traits could also be used, so that you could end up with a high number of taint pts without actually accruing any traits and thus not becoming a ghoul (as in the above it's the number of traits that makes you a ghoul, not the taint pts).

Grey Wardens either get a bonus to the resistance test, or never suffer taint traits. So you can still keep score of how f'ed up you are.

As for when you get taint pts, that could be GM based, and/or you could have special 'infect' stunts that blight tainted creatures/darkspawn can perform that has a chance of forcibly giving you taint pts.

Hellebore

[Elfie]

the reason for the small numbers is that the dwarves are segregated from the darkspawn, and they do not come into contact with the taint and live, generally.

Yeah I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there Dwarves are closer to the taint than any other race. They live below ground, connected to the deep roads. They are in constant threat of darkspawn incursion. The Dead Legion (of dwarves) constantly give their lives to hold back the darkspawn menace. Perhaps the reason for the perceived small numbers of dwarven ghouls is that the dwarves (probably the Legion in fact) kill them before they reach the surface.

As you said, dwarven broodmothers are the most common, exactly because the dwarves and darkspawn live so close to one another.

[Lynata]

A cult would be cut down by darkspawn, not embraced by one

That depends - Corypheus was a Darkspawn and he had his own cult of "indoctrinated" dwarves. But yeah, otherwise the Darkspawn would care little for mortal followers, which is why I suggested they'd just kill them as the cultists offer them the item. Basically, that the item in question would end up with the Darkspawn by coincidence (some human fools who thought they could "ally" with them) and the horde didn't actually intend to steal it.

I now realize that my post might've made it sound as if they'd be killed by the PCs and not the Darkspawn - sorry for the confusion.

The 40k corruption point effects would be good inspiration imo. Not necessarily the way you get them (ranging from 0-100 corruption pts) but the effects are nice and dark. For example, every time you receive your Con in taint points you gain a taint trait - sudden outbursts of aggression, sensitivity to light, craving raw meat etc.

That's a pretty cool idea! Though it makes the taint seem to work somewhat slowish, especially when it only progresses if you get "infected" again and again, but not by itself...

I don't suppose there is any way to heal the taint - but would it be possible to take the Joining whilst already being corrupted by the Taint, and would this still have the slowdown effect on it?
For this being the only way out would be a perfectly acceptable reason for pretty much any PC to join the Order, even if they'd otherwise never chance it.

[Scion of Haven]

I don't suppose there is any way to heal the taint - but would it be possible to take the Joining whilst already being corrupted by the Taint, and would this still have the slowdown effect on it?

This is, in fact, how the Dalish PC joins in Origins.

[Lynata]

This is, in fact, how the Dalish PC joins in Origins.

Really? Phew.. one of these days I've gotta play that awesome game another time...

[shonuff]

the reason for the small numbers is that the dwarves are segregated from the darkspawn, and they do not come into contact with the taint and live, generally.

Yeah I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there Dwarves are closer to the taint than any other race. They live below ground, connected to the deep roads. They are in constant threat of darkspawn incursion. The Dead Legion (of dwarves) constantly give their lives to hold back the darkspawn menace. Perhaps the reason for the perceived small numbers of dwarven ghouls is that the dwarves (probably the Legion in fact) kill them before they reach the surface.

As you said, dwarven broodmothers are the most common, exactly because the dwarves and darkspawn live so close to one another.

You backed up my point. While the dwarves are generally fighting a losing battle with the darkspawn, the general population is segregated from them by the Legion of the Dead. Dwarven ghouls, IMO, are going to be rare because the darkspawn are typically not running amok amongst the dwarven population. It's battle, and typically it's to the death.

On the surface, the darkspawn are mobile and amongst civilian and refugee populations, so the taint is easily spread. People are traversing and reinhabiting what was darkspawn territory, while that is not commonly done below ground.

[Hellebore]

[quote="Lynata"That's a pretty cool idea! Though it makes the taint seem to work somewhat slowish, especially when it only progresses if you get "infected" again and again, but not by itself...

I don't suppose there is any way to heal the taint - but would it be possible to take the Joining whilst already being corrupted by the Taint, and would this still have the slowdown effect on it?
For this being the only way out would be a perfectly acceptable reason for pretty much any PC to join the Order, even if they'd otherwise never chance it.[/quote]

Well there is some suggestion of 'build up' of the taint in the way mabari don't automatically become blight mabari after chewing on darkspawn (the whole andraste's grace being used to cure a mabari of the taint etc). Humans seem to have less tolerance.

From a purely story perspective the players don't have to know how much taint they've got, the GM could keep track of it and tell them that they're starting to feel wierd (leading to paranoia over it), so there's not necessarily a numerical value placed on degree of taint.

Or you could pull the cheap but useful 'PCs are heroes' and thus don't instantly ghoulify.

If I was running a game I'd probably have 3 'symptom' tracks: Taint (The Blight), Corruption (level of demonic influence leading to abominating) and Insanity.... so a PC could end up as an insane demonically possessed ghoul...

Hellebore

[Tiger's Heart]

From a purely story perspective the players don't have to know how much taint they've got, the GM could keep track of it and tell them that they're starting to feel wierd (leading to paranoia over it), so there's not necessarily a numerical value placed on degree of taint.

Or you could pull the cheap but useful 'PCs are heroes' and thus don't instantly ghoulify.

If I was running a game I'd probably have 3 'symptom' tracks: Taint (The Blight), Corruption (level of demonic influence leading to abominating) and Insanity.... so a PC could end up as an insane demonically possessed ghoul...
Hellebore

How do you know your GM isn't doing this???? (and if I wasn't before, I am now...)

Tiger's Heart

[Elfie]

You backed up my point. While the dwarves are generally fighting a losing battle with the darkspawn, the general population is segregated from them by the Legion of the Dead. Dwarven ghouls, IMO, are going to be rare because the darkspawn are typically not running amok amongst the dwarven population. It's battle, and typically it's to the death.

On the surface, the darkspawn are mobile and amongst civilian and refugee populations, so the taint is easily spread. People are traversing and reinhabiting what was darkspawn territory, while that is not commonly done below ground.

The Legion isn't quite as effective as you think. The dwarves are described multiple places as losing territory to the darkspawn "every day." A constant loss of territory sounds like pretty close proximity to me.

[shonuff]

However, once it's gone it's pretty much gone. Whereas on the surface, after they had destroyed Ostagar, they left. Once they destroyed Lothering, they left. There was room for survivors to leave and settlers/refugees to reclaim. Thus, they would not only discover ghouls, but they could become such themselves. Whereas in the Deep Roads, once a dwarf is behind darkspawn lines, they're pretty much gone.

And there are more examples of elven and dwarven ghouls in The Calling.

[Ghostdanser]

Found some information on taint that might help on the Bioware forums:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic ... 9%26lf%3D8

[Lynata]

Hey, that was a pretty interesting read. Thanks for the link!

Hmm, so a "blight infection mechanic" was in the game at one point ...

... bah, damn casuals, they are why we did not get lyrium addiction there, too!

[Zapp]

It's the casuals that make up the profits of a high-profile game. Without them you wouldn't get the resources for a triple-A game.

[Lynata]

I know ... I know!

Would have been cool if they had added this stuff in as an optional "realistic mode", though. There are multiple modes for playing in ME3, too, so the general principle is sound, as long as you don't waste too many resources on such extras.