XVI - The Tower (16)
Description
One of the most infamous of the arcana, the Tower is a symbol of destruction, endings, of wiping out of life and leaving a clean slate. Conversely, it is also associated with rebirth after necessary destruction and the appearance of new potential. In summation, the Tower can be seen as the arcanum of renewal, of felling an oak so that saplings may grow in its stead.
Creation
The Tower’s bonuses are different from those of other arcana. The character receives no points to allocate to their characteristics. Instead, they receive 2 points to increase their aspect scores.
Fate
When they play this card, a PC can choose to deal the maximum amount of their weapon’s violence to all their successful attacks against an enemy band for the entire duration of a conflict phase.
Even massed ranks are as naught against it.Pasts
Memory loss, a burned village or town, the end of a life, a happy birth, the loss of a loved one, wiping one’s past clean, youth, the hunt for experience, a lack of experience.
Advantage - Thirst for knowledge
The character is probably younger than most, and needs to learn as much as they can from their teammates. They may see other Knights of their banner as role models, trying to emulate their skills as best they can. In game terms, once per game session and only when the characters are in Camelot, the PC may undergo training with another PC to increase one of their characteristic scores. Teacher and pupil must spend several hours in intense instruction, focusing on one characteristic. The teacher’s characteristic score must be at least 2 points higher than the pupil’s. Once they have finished this training period, the pupil may spend half the usual number of experience points to increase the characteristic by 1.
Disadvantage - Amnesia
Whether they woke up in a hospital or were washed up on a beach, the character has no memory of their former life, nobody seems to know who they are, and no records of them exist. They do, however, seem to have a glorious future ahead of them in the ranks of Avalon’s finest. In game terms, the GM decides what mysteries lie in the character’s background. Furthermore, the player does not choose their character’s advantages, letting the GM pick them, and not knowing what they are until they come into play (when the GM chooses to reveal them).