Exi's Emporium

Mortal Limits

To me it always seemed weird that player characters could go to such high power levels without any struggle or attuning their bodies to the power that that just get some day and just can use it without any problems. After many years and many tries, I’ve found a source that have tackled this issue – hit Chinese novel series: “Lord of Mysteries”, which became an inspiration for my implementation of mortal limits.

In the book each section must be learned before advancing to the next stage, just like xp in TTRPGs, but on top of that there is a consumable or a ritual that is needed to safely ascend beyond your current limits, expanding your grasp on it and allowing you to transcend mortal realms.

This helps pace the advancement of your players a little better and get them invested into it, as to level up beyond certain point they’ll need to seek out both ingredients and information, giving you an additional reward that can be given out for quests or exploration, as well as giving the players an additional resource to trade with.

Remnant of Monarch Uncrowned Thread

My Implementation

While I take a lot of inspiration from “Lord of Mysteries”, I also allowed myself a lot of liberty while creating the system, to make it work for 5e and so it is primarily focused on working with that system, albeit it can work with others, but it will need to be altered, at least a little.

Later mentioned consumables are usually created by the players from different suitable ingredients, but they can aslo be sourced directly or exist in the world.

The main system focuses about strands, which are a synthetic measurement of a relative power level that PCs are around these levels alongside their divinity and in world connotations. First two strands (9 and 8) are fully accessible to the mortals and require no consumables or rituals to be achieved – they work as they did in the base game. The fun starts from the 7th strand onward, as to advance to strands 7th, 6th and 5th one needs to either complete a ritual or consume a certain consumable to help them break through the mortal barrier and advance their body beyond what is humanly possible. At the 5th strand players also gain small slither of divinity, which is more of a story device than anything else.

Advancing to the strands 4th and 3rd are much harder requiring both a ritual and a consumable. Knowledge about how to advance to this strands is often lost to time and will have to be uncovered through quest or deals with powerful entities, but this is what is required for one to ascend beyond normal humanity and strengthen their divinity. This is where the characters may start get separated (at least emotionally) form the mundane world.

Strands 2nd and 1st are where the truly powerful beings begin to manifest, having still minor but more impactful amount of divinity allowing they to ignore (damage) resistances of lower level beings. Rituals here are more elaborate and often purposely kept secret by powerful organization wielding ancient knowledge or even gods themselves.

Strand 0 is where divinity properly manifests and it requires one to make a sizable impact on a general existence, gaining a following. Rituals here are elaborate and often take years to complete, often leaving cataclysmic remnants after both success and failure. Strand -1 on the other hand is a god that has ascended fully beyond the mortal realm and their influence is stifled by an unknown power, as so they can have only marginal direct influence on the mortal realm – more often than not being just a beacon for their followers.

The Unwoven are the true beings of pure divine nature that can not be created or destroyed. No one knows where they came from and what are the rules of their existence. They are the power that allows the Strand -1s to exert their influence. They are often passive and uninterested in the mortal and “divine” existing in the weird state in between reality and fiction. Sometimes however they take interest in mortal affairs for who knows what reason.

Closing Thoughts

As always remember to keep your party informed and make sure that they are onboard with the idea, as introducing new things without their knowledge and agreement may lead to resentment and potentially ending the campaign.

This method has worked for me in my games for about 2 years now and I like it as it both gives players additional goals beyond the group ones, but also allows me some breathing room where life gets in the way and I need to quickly come up with something.

Remember – use the TTRPG mechanics you find on the internet responsibly and stay in touch with your players, as every table is different and what works for me may not work for you.