I’m planning on running a BWG game set during the Children’s Crusades, with the PCs being poor from the ages of 12-20ish. I wanted to give players a chance to resemble the fabled leaders of crusade, who have miraculous abilities such as spectacular oratory gifts or overt Faith-slinging, as well as allow PCs to avoid being total scrubs mechanically (I’m assuming 3 lifepaths would put most characters in that age range).
I’m wondering what the best way to do that would be. My thought was to do some combination of:
A) Give PCs extra Trait points to start off with.
B) Let players pick one otherwise expensive Trait that is appropriate for a member of the CC for free - Faith, auras, etc.
Why not use the rules as written? IIRC, it’s entirely possible to get Faith in two lifepaths if you want, and I know it can be done in three. If you really want a 2-LP campaign and have miraculous gifts, steer them toward the Child Prodigy trait (which lets them advance a mental stat or shade-shift a single skill). Alternately, consider letting them use Practical Magic from the Magic Burner–it’s great for things like Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who inspired armies and led them with ferocious skill. Take Art Magic with Military and Martial skills, and a child who’s never picked up a weapon has a preternatural skill with them. Take Practical Magic with social skills and they will be a spectacular orator despite never speaking in public before. Best of all, the idea of Tax works perfectly with it, as using these gifts from God comes with a cost.
Don’t worry so much about them being total mechanical scrubs. Remember that BW is a game about “fail forward”. Failing doesn’t mean a whiff or an abject, catastrophic failure. Just means that they don’t get what they want out of what they do.