How time flies. In just a few short weeks the
Ways and Means crowdfunding campaign has surpassed our expectations and overtaken our previous record for highest funded Heart campaign to date! We’ve still got seven days left on the clock too, just to show off a bit. It only seems fitting that today we take a look at the self-proclaimed master of crowds that is the Demagogue – one of the new callings that's marching its way into the Heart at the head of an angry mob.
Let’s see what Elaine Lithgow has to say about the Demagogue.
Elaine Lithgow: I’ve been running games for one group of players on and off for just shy of a decade now. They’re a fantastic bunch that always show up ready to play and dive into the world with both feet. When you’re been running games for the same players for so long, you start to spot trends in the kinds of characters they build, the stories they tell, the memes they love. We all know Ross’s character is going to end up the begrudging leader of the party, Robin’s going to end up the long suffering moral compass, Esme will adopt the first sad or weird animal that I put in front of her, and Sam’s going to play a walking joke that ends up breaking out hearts. But the player who planted the seed for the Demagogue is Dan. Why Dan in particular, I hear you ask?
Dan always starts a cult.
Doesn’t matter the setting, doesn’t matter the system, doesn’t matter the character he plays, the instant I drop that man into any fictional world, a giant invisible clock starts counting down. When that clock strikes twelve you can bet your arse his character’s standing at the head of a crowd and directing them to tear apart the foundations of my carefully crafted world – smiling as he does it.
The Demagogue calling is for all the Dans out there. They're charismatic leaders who have big dreams they can’t realise on their own. Maybe they want to found their own church, overthrow a ruling political body, or just float atop a sea of adoring followers. Whatever it is, they need bodies to do it. Lots of bodies. Of course the oppressive regime in Spire doesn’t just sit about and let Demagogues gather followers in the open – as the Calling illustration by Sar Cousins wonderfully depicts (check those cops bashing their way through the crowd). It’s no wonder that some Demagogues decide to descend into the Heart to gather power beyond the long arm (and heavy cudgels) of the law.
The Demagogue’s ability For The cause grants them a special Bond which represents their burgeoning cult/political movement/mob of sycophants. Just like a normal Bond, the Demagogue’s followers can help them recover Stress and take actions that vary in potency depending on whether they are within the follower’s expertise or home turf. Additionally, these followers can join the Demagogue on their journey, though they might wish they hadn’t. The Demagogue can gamble with their follower’s lives, by commanding them to help them with a Risky or Dangerous action. This lowers the Difficulty of the action but in return, both the Demagogue and their followers take any resulting stress.
Nothing quite like hurling your underlings into the meat grinder to achieve your goals making the ultimate sacrifice for the cause.
As you might expect, the beats for the Demagogue revolve around growing and nurturing your following, from recruiting hapless rubes to your cause, to establishing safehouses and infiltrating establishments. Everything a growing cult needs.
By the end of their Heart campaign, you can expect a Demagogue to stand tall atop a pile of their followers' corpses, reaching out with desperate blood soaked hands to grasp at their ultimate desire, whatever that might be.
That’s all for today. Remember, we’re in the home stretch now. For more updates, make sure to
follow the campaign if you haven’t. In the next dev blog we’ll take a rummage through the stalls of Derelictus to see what secrets the new Equipment chapter has in store for you.
- Elaine & The RRD Team
