Followers and NPCs

There are three classes of NPC in the Cypher System: NPCs, NPC Allies, and Followers.

I went in looking for rules to create a "starship crew" for the game, and my first inclination was to give them all a level and potentially a modification based on their specialty. For example, my level 3 ship's doctor would have a modification in medical, allowing them to perform at level 4 in medical tasks.

This was the right call, and it matches the Followers rule on page 233. The Followers' rule says that an NPC Follower can have several modifications equal to their level, so my level 3 doctor could have medical, biology, and diseases as modifications and get another level when dealing with those fields. Doing this makes the NPC Follower-like, but they aren't a Follower unless a character's ability grants the PC one. We cross into creature and NPC design at this point.

Ordinary NPCs just have a level and a modification if you wish. For the most part, they will be a single number for their level. When an ordinary NPC fights another NPC, it is just level versus level, and the higher level is the winner. The rule for this is on page 215.

An NPC Ally, like a wolf pet of a PC, has a level, and their attacks are rolled for by the PC. This rule is on page 222. For the most part, this can be handled as a cooperative action, as outlined on page 226. Note that pets are not necessarily Followers as defined in the rules. Pets do not usually gain modifications unless the pet is obtained through an ability that grants a Follower.

These modifications granted by the Follower rules are essential! The NPC becomes "extra special" and starts getting bonuses in many areas. A follower can even be 'exceptional' and be one level higher than usual (page 233).

Now, how do you roll a leveled NPC attack against another leveled NPC attack? The game says "rolls for them," but how does my level 4 wolf attack a level 3 orc war chief? What is the difficulty number?

For "level versus level" battles, I use the Vehicle Combat system on page 230. Simply compare the numbers; if the attacker is higher, ease the attack by the difference in levels. If the defender is higher, hinder the attack by the difference in levels.

So, with our level 4 wolf versus the 3 orc chieftain, the difference in levels is one. Our wolf is one higher, so we ease one level. So the difficulty of the attack is the orc's level of 3, eased by one level, to a difficulty of 2, a roll of 6 or higher on the d20. What is the damage? A level 4 wolf would do their level as damage, normally, unless the wolf has a modification to damage, which would add one to five.

Followers are notable NPCs granted as allies through character abilities. For the most part, they act just like NPCs in most ways. They can grant PCs assets in various tasks. When the follower is level 3 or higher, they can grant a PC an asset to attack and defense, but only if they have a modification that allows them to do so, such as "assists defense" for a shield bearer. This is all on page 233.

If a Follower attacks another NPC, you have just ruled "level versus level" or handled it like vehicular combat. If you need extra depth and detail, take the time to play it out in wargaming detail; otherwise, use your best judgment and incorporate it into the narrative.

So, for my starship crew, all I need is a list of NPCs and any modifications they have. I won't go whole "Follower level" with any of them unless the PC gains one as a follower; they will all be standard NPCs with a few optional specialties.

The Cypher System makes this easier than any other game. If you are running a large starship crew, a superhero group, or a fantasy guild full of NPCs, no game makes it as easy as this. I remember in Star Frontiers needing a character card for every NPC, or in D&D 4E, having a full character sheet for everyone in the player's guild. It was a massive amount of bookkeeping for no good reason. If you run a guild where PCs take a group of NPCs out for an adventure, only the PC needs a character sheet; everyone else is an NPC with a level and a few modifications. Since a modification can be a power, you can simulate traditional fantasy classes this way easily.

Followers gain special modifications, can assist in attacks or defenses, progress in levels, and can be exceptional because they cost a character pick.

NPCs (and NPC Allies) are mostly the normal "everybody else" in the world, and should not be as powerful or versatile.

Soft No Conflict Gaming

The last time I stopped playing Cypher for a while was when I had a few games go soft, with zero conflict, story gaming, and no consequences nonsense. These games were the worst time I had with the system, and it isn't even the system's fault. This would have been terrible in any system.

There needs to be conflict, and there need to be permanent consequences. Even in a romance game, make rejection a serious thing; it should be. Make consequences real. You mess up at the party, push over the wedding cake, get kicked out of the hotel, and are on the street, looking for a new place to stay. You will face social hindrances due to poor hygiene. You have a new challenge of getting your luggage back. Forget about the relationship, we have to figure out a way to survive the next few days before your plane leaves. Oh, and the tickets were in your luggage. You could find a way back into her heart by then, but you have bigger problems to solve now.

Better yet, start the game in this horrible situation, put the world against you, and figure out how you are going to make things right, given your limited resources and skills. Give yourself a checklist of problems to solve, and figure out who is against you.

If you find yourself protecting your characters, get rid of them. I had a game where I wanted nothing bad to happen to a character, and it felt like a form of wish fulfillment. Looking back, I should have retired that character and started with a new one. Someone random would have been more interesting than my Mary Sue or Perfect Pete. Retire those characters to your personal Hall of Fame, and start new ones.

All this reminds me of the current crop of "cozy RPGs" out there, typically where you all play cute, human-like animals solving problems like the world was a giant Care Bear cartoon, and finding a way to get Mosey Moose's bicycle out of the lake is the session's equivalent of the boss battle. Sure. Fine. For some, I guess. But I tried that, and it made me put the game aside.

Also, remember that you can have an enemy that attacks you with a condition, and not damage. If you fail the defense roll, a condition is given to the player, and that can be just about anything you can imagine, such as unconsciousness, paralysis, or anything else. The Enthrall ability is used in the Cypher Rulebook on page 218, under The Effects of Taking Damage. If you are in a pie fight and fail your defense roll, you now have the (let me make one up) messy condition, which is a hindrance to social interactions. You could create mental conditions, too, such as afraid, demoralized, panicked, possessive, and so on. The game does not have a condition list, like it does not have a skill list, so you are free to create anything you want here.

I forgot about this when I played, and could have used these suggestions to liven up my non-combat game. If someone gets discouraged from a course of action, they may develop self-doubt or a mental block against taking it, and that becomes a "mental enemy" they must now defeat. The damage that the enemy may inflict may alter the character's actions, or even cause loss of intellect points. Yes, you can create an enemy out of anything in this game, and you should use that to your advantage. You can even do this as a GM Intrusion.

If your character really wants something, even in a cozy game, you need opposition to overcome, a conflict, and others in the story who may oppose them. Make whatever you want to happen worth getting, and don't "make it just happen!"

"So many adventures start with the characters sitting in a tavern, waiting for something to happen to them. Don’t do that to your PCs (unless they own the tavern and it’s being threatened by ogres or something). Instead, give them strong reasons to care about the situation and the people involved. While characters will often do something for the promise of money or because they know it’s the right thing to do, there are so many great ways to get them emotionally invested in what’s about to happen." - We Are All Mad Here, page 40.

For games with social conflicts, the Cypher book, We Are All Mad Here, gives you some great suggestions on getting players to care, and these can apply to any genre or any setting. Playing in a fairy tale world presents significant motivational challenges for players, as it can be difficult to get them to care about what is happening, given the stark differences from their own experiences. However, threatening a reputation or a beloved place or people can apply to anything, from a Western to a science fiction game.

"Character arcs are the means by which players can invest themselves more in great stories and character depth and development. Just like in a book or a television show, characters progress through their own personal story and change over time. A PC with a character arc decides for themselves what they do and why. Character arcs are like stated goals for a character, and by progressing toward that goal, the character advances." - Cypher System Core Rulebook, page 238.

Also, remember a core tool of the Cypher System: Character Arcs! You pay 1 XP to enter one, but get 2 XP for every step you complete to progress them, and 4 XP if you succeed at the climax (2 XP if you fail). Even the resolution phase gets you 1 XP. If you have a directionless, aimless, bored character, give them an arc, and the motivation of XP should get them going.

Looking back, my solo-play judgment got clouded, and I did not have a fun time with that game. There were a few things I could have done to liven things up, create challenges where there were none, and introduce non-violent conflict in my game. This was a toxic mix of pet characters, wish fulfillment, zero conflict, a lack of creativity, and not creating conditions or enemies, as well as not utilizing the rules to my advantage.

We can learn a great deal from those experiences about why things failed and how we can improve them for the next time.

Cypher: Deeper Characters

Cypher's characters are far deeper in design complexity than 5E. Before the Cypher Tools site, I would be hunting down the powers in the book, copying & pasting those into my character sheet, and building a character that way. The name of a power isn't always sufficient; I also need the cost, description, and whether it is an enabler, among other details.

Each power is like its own 5E power, and you are assembling a character out of building blocks. The character build system is far better than 5E, while you have archetypes, you don't have classes, set trees, and a strict progression of powers. Only the focus has a "leveled power" structure, but that is your character's "main thing." Everything else is pieced together as you wish.

And you can buy a second (or third) focus! There is a combination of powers at work that is truly amazing. The characters in Cypher System are so much better than D&D 5E, and even better than Daggerheart. Daggerheart is similar in that you are "picking and choosing cards" as you level, but in Cypher System, you get so many more choices, and you get far more than just fantasy.

Daggerheart also borrowed Cypher's resting mechanics, along with some ideas from Low Fantasy Gaming. Cypher does it better, resting does one thing, and it is straightforward.

Once you master character creation, infinite worlds are at your disposal.

Since Cypher's ability scores are pools, they "do more" than D&D. These are your health, extra effort, and spell points. They work for a living, and are also your character's health. Using them smartly helps you succeed, and managing your rests and levels leads to a tension I do not feel in D&D or 5E. In Cypher, I will be going into a situation where I'm down on my ability scores and short on rests, and I will start to worry. In 5E, I typically feel a constant state of safety.

5E's resting and resource depletion mechanics are straight out of an MMO, and they are terrible. They were created to address a problem that had become chronic in D&D 3.5E, the 15-minute adventuring day, where balancing encounters was done on complete resources, and that meant alpha-attacking an encounter and going all-out, and then heading back to the inn to rest a day before the next room.

It was the worst of video game logic, combined with a system that attempted to emulate the classic game. Many DMs just gave up, letting parties do this rather than drag the session out by saying, "The monsters prepared for your return." Or even worse, clearing out the next day and leaving a dungeon with no loot, filled with traps, and plenty of summoned creatures to chew on those who dared enter. The game took long enough to play, so why make it worse? Just let them reset and hope the night does not drag on too long.

In Cypher, I am focused on the story.

If I have a dungeon in Cypher, like a rescue the princess story, that is a one-shot, single-run, you only get one chance thing. This is not a video game board that you can clear one room at a time. There is no shuttling back and forth to the inn. You get one try.

The resource management in the Cypher System makes this possible. Everything is a resource. Recoveries are limited. You need to spend wisely to both avoid rolls and increase your odds. Cypher System is an excellent solo game, where you watch your pools tick down, and you begin to wonder if you will be able to make it through.

The game is loaded with tension and choices, and it does not protect you from them.

The Tariff Post

https://www.montecookgames.com/tariffs-mcg-and-your-games/

MCG's response to the current tariff situation is fine with me. It did not become political, struck an even chord, and was more business-focused than I expected. There is even a statement in there saying, "This is not political," and I trust them. I don't want gaming to be political, either. I want everyone to come together at the gaming table and share ideas, have fun, get to understand each other, and talk.

I like their games, too.

This must hurt them pretty hard, since a lot of their new games are there bug, boxed, "experience games" with lots of cards, dice, folios, trays, tokens, and other pieces. They are being honest with us, and I do not see that as a problem.

Would I like them to source more US manufacturing? Yes! People who have jobs here and can live the American dream, put food on the table, and get their kids through school, is what everyone wants.

I would also like to see overseas workers receive equal wages and a standard of living comparable to that in the United States, and for their industries to adhere to the same rules. You can't be for workers' rights and environmental protections here and ignore the plight of others overseas. Sorry, we care about everyone, and the current situation is causing damage to populations, economies, world stability, and health that is not sustainable.

I get the feeling the era of "cheap imported goods" is coming to an end.

This era has likely caused centuries of environmental damage overseas. It will only increase global tension as the massive population discovers that they have polluted their rivers and land for short-term gain, and they will need to migrate (or expand violently) to find new land to exploit and ruin. This modern, hyper-capitalist industrial era is like a never-ending wildfire; unless it is carefully monitored and controlled, it will consume and destroy everything it touches, making everyone else's lives worse in its wake.

I am still a capitalist and believe in free markets, but I am not stupid, either. I remember my mother talking about lead paint, DDT, leaded gas, toxic rivers, acid rain, chemical-contaminated land, cancer-causing agents, radiation from nuclear testing, rampant cigarette use, and so many more catastrophes in this country due to the same thing. Sustainability applies to everyone, even when we buy from overseas.

I hope this new era brings a few more assurances that the plastic pieces used in our games came from sources that did not cause worker suffering or environmental damage overseas. At least in this country, manufacturers have to play by the rules. Can I have fun with a game that caused harm and suffering overseas? If it means paying a little more, then it is worth knowing I did something to help.

A better world comes from billions of tiny decisions to do one small thing better each and every day.

Make yourself a part of that.

You will do more good by spending your energy on one minuscule positive thing at a time rather than trying to change everything all at once.

Be the change you want to see.

Would I pay more for these "experience games?" I would if I found them compelling and worth the value I was getting. Mind you, I play solo, so games with a lot of pieces and components aren't my focus, but if a game has a compelling setting and story, then I'm on board. Even a hundred-dollar boxed set will provide more than hundreds of hours of entertainment quickly.

Even Daggerheart is an experience game with all the cards, and I fully expect the next version of D&D to follow that model. It is only a matter of time, and D&D 6 will be almost entirely card-based, with each new adventure module giving you more cards to play with. It's five to ten years away, but Daggerheart established the model and opened the door to a potential nightmare future.

Your character won't be able to find a +1 sword unless it is on a card that came with an adventure module. Skills? Spells? Races? Backgrounds? All card-based, with special, rare ones being the most highly desirable ones. No cards? Not a legal character for organized play. Please buy some booster packs for the currently released adventure. I hope you get a few rare or unique cards, or your character won't be wanted at the higher levels of play.

Enjoy these games that are just written in books today.

The cost of these games is still inexpensive compared to the financial drain that mobile games put you under, and video games are going the same route. Card games are already lost, too. Remember, we are in the gaming market, and the recent collapse of Wizards' VTT project means that microtransactions for D&D have been pushed back by five years. I do not want to go that route with tabletop gaming.

Tariffs are a thing, just like recessions and market collapses are. Ultimately, they will be temporary. But if they give us a chance to reflect on what we were all doing over the last 10-20 years, that is a good thing. Part of me is happy we are waking up from this nightmare of cheap imported goods, and questions like this are being asked. Was the hobby indirectly causing suffering and harm for profit?

These are all valid questions, and honestly asking yourself, "How can I do better, and what have we learned?" is not political at all.

Slipping Out and Making Me Care

The one time I slipped out of Cypher System was because I lost faith in the difficulty system. When a difficulty rating means nothing, you need to take a step back. Cypher is a system where you can quickly slap down a fast number, goblin, difficulty 2, go! The pit trap, uh, difficulty 2! The next door is locked, difficulty 2!

You can see yourself start to question things after a while. What am I doing? Am I just rolling the dice against numbers? This is what I call "losing focus" in the system, and it puts you in a spot where you start to crave games with more depth. But the depth in other systems is often an illusion.

What is armor class or challenge rating in D&D? A d20 target number. This is the same level of "depth" as D&D, and it is an illusion. Cypher is the same exact level of depth, and the dicing is the same.

In GURPS, your chance of success is rolling a number or less on 3d6, such as 14 or less, and this is often modified by difficulty, like a +4 being hard. What is this in Cypher? We start with the difficulty, and ease the roll by your skill level. Cypher is the same exact level of depth, but the dicing is different.

Yes, you feel like you are getting more depth, but as any statistics professor would tell you, all you are doing is taking a different path to get to the same probability result. If your success chance was 40% in any game, you would get there via many paths, and always end up at 40%. How you rate difficulty, roll low or roll high, 2d6, 3d6, d20, 1d100, and difficulty and modifiers all get you to the same place.

At a point, the game you play does not matter at all. This is the beauty of the Cypher System; it goes all the way back to the core mechanic of difficulty versus factors that ease or hinder the roll. We are back to base statistics, on the metal. We build out from there. Our character matters. Our ability score pools matter as a resource to spend. Our edge and effort matter. Our health matters. The rest we have left matters. Our gear and skills matter.

And it all starts with difficulty.

In Cypher, to make those difficulty numbers mean something, change up the consequences of failure!

When edging along a mountain cliff, you may set a difficulty of 2 to maintain balance and move forward, but failure means a thousand-foot fall and certain death. I would allow a player intrusion to save yourself, but consequences are consequences. Best to reduce that to zero and not even roll, spend some effort, rely on your skills, and use assets.

I play solo, so I need to challenge myself to give meaning to the hardships I put my characters through.

Also, when you feel yourself slipping into the "grey zone" where "nothing means anything," toss a GM intrusion at your character, accept it, and make them lose a key piece of equipment, weapon, or armor. Put a consequence on yourself for slipping into the pit of meaninglessness and not feeling anything.

I like to call this "slapping myself" when I play solo. If I fall into a place where I'm not caring, I need to take a hit for that and make my character's life worse.

But, also, if you find yourself creating a sequence of meaningless, grinding the cog forward, ratcheting a series of rolls forward to the end, what are you doing? That isn't playing! That isn't a story! It is like going through the AD&D adventure The Tomb of Horrors, and you are rolling for every trap, every secret door, and every strange fresco and mosaic on the wall. Sure, you are neutralizing the threats as you go, but after the twentieth trap, your eyes glaze over, and you are telling yourself, "Was this an adventure written for D&D?" After a while, you are asking yourself, "Is there anything else to do in here?"

And after my fourth session of going in there, all your trap-finding and secret-door location skills are maxed out and easing everything by two levels. Some D&D adventures make terrible Cypher adventures, and not everything converts so well, since those adventures were never written with a narrative focus. Or even simple things like "the doors slam shut behind you!" or "a ticking clock before something terrible happens!"

There are plenty of tools these days to make an adventure like this much better. Ticking clocks, countdown timers, countdown dice pools, delayed secret effects, affecting perception, paranoia, body horror, strange happenings, losing items that you swore you had, using a horror mechanic, effect on random card draws, misleads, corrupting magic, uncertain magic, whispers, sanity, and so many other tools are at our disposal these days. We also have a whole genre book on horror, featuring Stay Alive, which is full of tools to make adventures like this better, beyond the fear of instant and random death.

I can see how my first attempt to play through Tomb of Horrors would be with Cypher System. Oh, this room, a deadly trap, that is a difficulty of 6. Please roll. Okay, this party member is dead. Let's go to the next room with the difficulty 7 trap and roll again. Hey, two dead, be happy the next room is a 5.

Either I don't care, the adventure is a poor choice, or a lot more work needs to be put into this to make it meaningful in a narrative-based game. You need to be able to read what is on the walls, the books on the shelves, and piece together clues that will give you an edge deeper in the dungeon. Part of the fun here is unlocking the mysteries, one by one, being smart, getting a deeper understanding, and finding the next clue.

The story of the demi-lich at the end should be woven through this story, and understanding the dungeon should be woven into every room, with one more thing to learn, which will help you avoid certain death later. We should know this demi-lich by the end, and we should be horrified at what he is and the story of his madness and downfall. And there should be one clue in there, if we are smart enough to put it all together, which should tell us his weakness.

Make me care. Grab my interest. Let me find secrets. Raise the tension. Give me a reason to cheer or cry. Tell a story.

That is what each die roll should do.

The Cypher Character Builder is Amazing!

The Cypher Character Builder is amazing. This is the first time I've tried this, and it can build a character in a few minutes, compared to about 15-30 minutes of flipping through the book and copying and pasting blocks of text from it into my character sheet. You can choose custom, random, or pre-generated characters. You can download a PDF that is editable and has working checkboxes and places for current values. You can spend XP and level up.

It supports multiple books, but not The Strange, Numenera, or the Diamond Throne. Most recent Cypher books are supported, and more will be added as they are released (as it appears by the dates). There are still a few manual steps, such as choosing equipment, armor, and weapons. Given the number of genres the game supports, just DIY these.

This is in the Cypher Tools link in the sidebar, which goes to the Monte Cook Games site.

If you haven't signed up (it's free) and tried this tool, you should. I wish all games had this.

First Look: The Diamond Throne

"Monte Cook’s Diamond Throne Roleplaying Game is about storytelling in the world of Serran, created by the imagination of Monte Cook some years ago. Each player creates a hero and teams up with other heroes (played by friends). In the preface you will find a lot of useful information about the world, like festivities, important ceremonies, timekeeping, colloquialism and many other things." -The Diamond Throne, Unearthed, page 3.

The Diamond Throne (TDT) is a unique, stand-alone Cypher System game that serves as a complete fantasy RPG, featuring a distinctive setting, rich background, and flavor. The game feels much like "Cypher does an OSR game" style of feeling in how it is put together, with a specific, yet generic fantasy world, with plenty of backstory to spur your imagination and plots in the setting.

This is one I wish to have gotten more attention, since it is every bit as capable as any 5E-based fantasy game, if not more so on the narrative front, since it is Cypher System.

The game's world has a D&D 3.5E feel, breaking the mold enough to feel different yet adhering to just enough fantasy tropes to feel familiar. It is not "so far out there" that people have trouble even conceptualizing a character within the setting. This is closer to OSR-style fantasy in structure, as it features a comprehensive equipment list, allowing you to purchase items such as bedrolls, candles, and tents. That "very low level" play where you are scrounging coppers together to buy a torch is the essence of old-school play, and TDT has that.

And you can ignore the game's world, or use it as much as you want. There is a premise here where three major factions are fighting, with humans and the typical fantasy races caught in the crossfire. The usual fantasy kingdoms were conquered by demons and ruled over for centuries. A race of benevolent, civilization-building giants (double-sized humans) came in and kicked the demons out, and now rule the land. The typical fantasy kingdoms now have freedom under the rule of giants. And now the dragons are showing up to fight with the giants.

That is the setup. Use it or ignore it as much as you want. The game even tells you to. You can insert "your fantasy race here" into the game, and it fits the structure. Want to play a "dark elf" - sure, you crawled out of a cave somewhere, and you were always down there, waiting to appear. It's fantasy, no one is going to complain. The setting has several preset races, but you can add your gnomes, halflings, wood elves, or anything you want to it.

It serves as a starting point, much like any semi-generic D&D 3.5E setting was back in the day. It saves you a ton of work developing history, locations, backstory, and everything else - and then tells you that you can ignore it all and do what you want. Again, this is an OSR-ism, and perfect. Why buy it? Well, when I am not feeling creative in an area, I fall back on the book and just use that.

One fatal flaw the TDT books have is that there are not enough monsters! I know what they are trying to do with the monsters they included: slow down, present each one as special and interesting, and give it a unique twist that fits the setting's flavor and history. As a result, the number of traditional monsters they have is a handful, and this game desperately needs its own bestiary with unique takes on the standard fantasy critters.

If you want more standard fantasy monsters by the dozen, pick up Godforsaken, the Cypher System fantasy supplement. While some of the other Cypher-based fantasy games have good monster lists, they do not come close to the number and variety of the fantasy standards in this book. This book is also the best resource for your standard "generic fantasy tropes," so it will be handy for a lot more than just a monster list, as you get magic items, spells, species, and much more.

Godforsaken is more of a "fantasy world-building guide," but the wealth of things in here makes it an excellent companion book to TDT.

The conflict between giants and dragons is the setting's next big fight. The giants here are not your evil D&D brutes; they are a civilized race of builders who create civilizations as their core ideals. They can be both good guy, or the force of conquerors the characters seek to depose.

And I do hope they make that "twisted fantasy bestiary" for this game, even as a resource for other Cypher games; that would be a handy book. A "tome of twisted magic" with more spells, magic backgrounds, artifacts, and cyphers would also be very welcome. Yes, I know about the generic magic book, 'It's Only Magic,' but that's for more modern magical settings. I want this setting to outdo the OSR with every release and raise the bar.

TM and © 2024 Cook Games, LLC
The Diamond Throne, Unearthed, page 44

The setting presents giants as too noble and mighty for my tastes, as they wiped out the demons completely. Demons are linked to the tenets of humanity and sin, and they will never truly disappear since they are more a physical manifestation of a metaphor for human failings and morality. Giants should not be portrayed as all-powerful and benevolent dictators, since any threat that appears, players will assume that "our giant parents" will be around to wipe them out, just like the demons.

That is not happening this time.

Giants need a fatal flaw, such as their numbers decreasing with every passing year, and they are always worried about passing on the legacy of freedom and civilization they have given the people of the land.  They need to worry about constantly being "called home" over the sea to help repopulate their homelands. They need to find worthy successors in these lands among the fantasy races to carry on their creations and legacy. Being an "evil giant" means turning your back on those you freed and losing faith in what the giants created here to seek power, wealth, dominion, or comfort. That is a powerful story with meaning in our world today, that "who shall take up the legacy of freedom" thing, and it needs that theme.

The giants are passing on the legacy.

Especially with the rise of the dragons. The need to find rules and worthy warriors to protect the legacy becomes urgent, and that is your call to adventure. The dragons are a metaphor of war and the barbarism of the fall of civilization, another theme with its foot in our world, so it takes on a deeper meaning.

The dragons are war and barbarism.

The game says you can bring demons back, but with this conflict made stronger, the setting doesn't need them as a direct force. They can sit in the background, scheming and plotting, corrupting souls, feeding into both sides, and making everything worse. That is the best use for demons, the hidden faction fanning the flames, spreading lies, turning giants to evil, whispering attack plans into the ears of dragons, and weakening both sides for their eventual rise and return.

The demons are corruptors.

With this story structure, The Diamond Throne becomes a passive setting where the default assumption is, "Oh, the giants shall take care of it," to an active setting where The Diamond Throne is waiting for a character to sit upon it and be declared worthy. The giants are still benevolent, but they have a foot out the door, and they are looking for someone to stand up.

This is very much a Game of Thrones setup, with factions seeing opportunity, and the characters picking sides and proving they are worthy to take responsibility for guiding the lands through the next major war with the dragons. Having a few factions willing to do evil things to grab power is also another strong story arc, and it can set up different factions seeking to hold power to take the throne for themselves.

The Diamond Throne is up for grabs.

What will dark hearts do to take it?

And what shall you do to prove you are worthy?