Wyrd of the Week: Between Heroes and Villains

Wyrd of the Week is a weekly column where I'm going to post optional content for The Hero's Journey, Second Edition. Optional rules, new monsters, new heirlooms, new spells, and the like, will be made available for your legendarium! We begin with 

BETWEEN HEROES AND VILLAINS

 Tales of heroes and legendary stories often climax in a grand confrontation between the heroes and a great villain that has long been their adversary. The Hero's Journey, Second Edition should be no different. When your players have spent the entire legendarium chasing down the Bastard Knight or trying to keep Gorlathana the Elder Wyrm from rising to destroy the world, there should be a sense of investment in this final confrontation that is the climax of this grand tale.

But this tension should be built over time and to do so the Narrator should start secretly tallying a two pools of points: The Hero Pool and the Villain Pool. Once the villain of a legendarium has become apparent and will serve as the antagonist across the narrative, the Narrator may begin adding points to this pool. 

Each time the final result of any Attack Roll or Saving Throw made by a player character comes up an unmodified, natural 20 in a scene where the villain is present the consequences of that villain's actions directly impact the scene, then a point is added to the Villain Pool. This point is added in secret and the tally is kept private by the Narrator, continuing to grow over several sessions of play.

Each time the final result of any Attack Roll or Saving Throw made by the Villain or one of their prominent and powerful servants comes up an unmodified, natural 20 in a scene where the player characters are present, then a point is added to the Hero Pool. This point is added in secret and the tally is kept private by the Narrator, continuing to grow over the several sessions of play.

The Villain Pool and the Hero Pool are kept separate. 

Optionally, the Narrator may choose to add a point to the Villain Pool whenever the player characters thwart some plan of the villain through the course of the legendarium - typically no more than one point per session of play. Conversely the Narrator may choose to add a point to the Hero Pool whenever the villain thwarts the efforts of the player or inflicts some grievous personal pain upon them - this could range from inflicting an actual Grievous Wound to the slaying of a supporting character dear to the character or destroying some location that was important to the player character.

When the natural progression of a legendarium's narrative has lead to the final showdown between the villain (and any henchmen present) and the player characters, the Narrator can then reveal the secret pool of Hero Points to the player characters. This might be best done by providing them with a number of chits, markers, or glass beads equal to the number of Hero Points that have been accumulated. The Narrator will also secretly make note of their own Villain Points. 

During the final showdown between the player characters and the villain, any of the player characters can spend a Hero Point to grant Advantage on any roll made by another player character they like. This can include Attack Rolls, Saving Throws, Damage Rolls, whatever they like. They cannot spend them on themselves or to hinder the villain's rolls in any way.

Villains are not so limited. The Narrator can freely spend points from the Villain Pool to grant Advantage to any Attack Roll or Saving Throw made by the villain or any henchmen present, though Villain Points may not be spent to grant Advantage to Damage Rolls.

No more than 1 Hero Point or Villain Point can be spent on a single roll.

These pools of Hero and Villain Points will help create a dynamic, high-tension confrontation between the adversaries that has been empowered by the narrative that has developed over the course of the legendarium. Each small defeat the player characters have experienced along the way has empowered them ever so slightly and will reckoned for. Each slight done to the villain will be paid back... in blood.

For more information on The Hero's Journey, Second Edition or to purchase a copy you can go to DriveThruRPG where the core rules and a line of supplements are available for purchase.