D&D General Help me avoid “Chosen Ones” trope

[DrJawaPhD]

A major “gimmick” in my upcoming campaign is the existence of these tiny fragments of divinity that look like sharp gemstones (I have fun props for these when they appear) that can appear as treasure or even “manifest” from slain creatures. Those who find them can absorb these fragments into their auras, their blood, or their shadows, granting them themed powers.

My problem is that I can’t think of an organic reason why the PCs can see and/or find these divine fragments, since if the fragments have always been around (or visible) they would have all been gathered up ages ago.

You're planning to have these macguffins show up as treasure and to manifest from slain creatures? That sounds to me like they HAVE all been gathered up long ago, and no "Chosen One" trope is needed. Just good old fashioned Murderhobo trope to go collect them

 

[Clint_L]

Make them both a blessing and a curse. Run a starter adventure in which the PCs are exposed to something that makes them able to access these shards, but make it so that the effects are unpredictable, and overexposure potentially lethal. So the players are trying to acquire the shards with the ultimate goal of neutralizing them. That will let you play around with adding interesting effects while also creating a ticking clock, and put the players in the position of having to make tough choices. Which is fun and makes for a good story.

Maybe also add the caveat that the shards have to be kept out of the hands of fiends or celestials, who can properly metabolize them and grow dramatically more powerful and dangerous. That will also give you a cool way to power up BBEGs mid-battle.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A variation on tales told in many cultures, faiths, and even modern fiction :

There is a game being played by divine beings, and the sentient creatures of the world are the game pieces. No mortal being knows the complete rules of The Game, but some have figured out some of them.

1) The shards have not always existed. They’re a component of The Game, and only exist when the divine beings decide to play. Shard locations are determined when The Game is set up. The divine beings have played The Game many times through history, but not at regular intervals.

2) Only those chosen as active pieces by those playing The Game can see the Shards.

3) Whether a piece is active or not depends upon rules of The Game. As far as is known by lesser beings, that can change at any time.

Some believe The Game is a test of worthiness. Others think it’s merely for the entertainment of powerful beings.

 

[ThrorII]

It is an omen. History tells that in the Year of the Gems these things would appear.
or
A strange, unexpected eclipse happens. Now, suddenly, these gems are appearing.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

A major “gimmick” in my upcoming campaign is the existence of these tiny fragments of divinity that look like sharp gemstones (I have fun props for these when they appear) that can appear as treasure or even “manifest” from slain creatures. Those who find them can absorb these fragments into their auras, their blood, or their shadows, granting them themed powers.

My problem is that I can’t think of an organic reason why the PCs can see and/or find these divine fragments, since if the fragments have always been around (or visible) they would have all been gathered up ages ago.

Every idea I come up with ends up being a variation of “you are the Chosen Ones who alone can gather the McShiny Macguffins.” I want to avoid this…because my friends pointed out that I’ve used that trope in my last three campaigns.

What are other reasons why these divine shards are accessible to the PCs?

All suggestions are welcome!
Thanks in advance.
-CKB

If it matters: It is an urban campaign taking place in an enormous city.
In the hidden background, one god is trying to unmask the God of Wealth to reveal them as actually the God of Trickery.

Building on the ideas others mentioned, about the "maybe they're just the first to (re)discover the ritual," perhaps there are other conditions which affect this process.

For example, you've mentioned they look like just especially-pointy gemstones. Maybe, prior to the present day, folks just grabbed them up because they were shiny, and couldn't even actually tell that these things had any value. But something has changed about the world, and now a small slice of people, perhaps only a shining few, can see which things are actually powerful and which ones are just glass in the same shape (or whatever). Maybe it has something to do with a minimum magic threshold being crossed; maybe it's that a particular deity's influence has grown or waned; maybe it's that people with the right genetic makeup didn't exist before now.

Whatever the reason, it's just pure happenstance that these people happened to be the ones who can see it. Nobody chose them, they weren't prepared or destined to it any more than they were prepared and destined to have blue eyes or red hair or whatever. It's just a fact about their existence that enables them to do this.

I'm drawing inspiration pretty heavily from "the Echo," one of the special powers that makes FFXIV's player character, the Warrior of Light, capable of doing all the fantastical things they do. They ARE "chosen"--but only after this power is revealed, not before. Prior to that moment, the adventurer who would go on to become the Warrior of Light was an otherwise normal-seeming person; they were chosen because they had awakened their Echo, not chosen and then given the Echo.

 

[CreamCloud0]

i think it's just as important as making sure they don't start as chosen ones to remember to not essentially turn them into the chosen ones over the course of the adventure, make sure their are other 'players' on the board, other adventurers and heroes they come across collecting these shards, someone who they can conflict with by having basically the same goal but who they aren't SO opposed to that they can't assist each other if needs be, have a scenario where they have to pick between stopping the villain summoning storms on the coast versus the villain summoning a horde of earth golems and lo and behold, by the time they deal with one of those the Other Adventurers have mopped up the threat they didn't deal with and claimed their shard, have scenarioes where your group does what they set out to do but it was a mistake and was the wrong thing to happen

 

[MoonSong]

The divine fragments are only easily visible to people who already have one. The PCs get their starter set (probably very weak ones) somehow that isn't being Chosen Ones; accidental blowback when stopping a villain's ritual, test subjects (willing or otherwise) for a mad wizard, inheritance pressed on them when they're in the right place at the right time for a dying hero to pass them on, whatever. Steal your favorite superhero origin story if you want.

Alternatively, the divine fragments can't be perceived normally. But the party has a patron who's a reclusive artificer with heretical theories, and he gives them a means of detecting the fragments and is happy as long as his theories are proven correct. Magical EKG Meter, special goggles, alchemical eyedrops, take your pick.

The whole point is dangerously similar to one of the elements I handle in my stories. Many people and creatures have inherited a shard of the original living being. That shard is inherited from parents to children, and when activated, it provides powers to the creature that possess it. The shard activates during times of long stress and near death experiences, and rarely is inherited fully activated. This is what my stories use in lieu of mutants.

Normally, when one creature in possession of a shard dies, nothing happens, but if the shard was active and the slayer also was in possession of an active shard, the shard emerges and can be integrated by the possessor of an active one. Otherwise, it deactivates and is eventually integrated by bacteria and goes through the food chain until activated again.

Now, some people learn to divine and manipulate these.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

Every idea I come up with ends up being a variation of “you are the Chosen Ones who alone can gather the McShiny Macguffins.” I want to avoid this…because my friends pointed out that I’ve used that trope in my last three campaigns.

What are other reasons why these divine shards are accessible to the PCs?


If it matters: It is an urban campaign taking place in an enormous city.
In the hidden background, one god is trying to unmask the God of Wealth to reveal them as actually the God of Trickery.

My first thought is that the McShiny Macguffins have only recently become available, or re-available, for some reason, and the PCs are early prospectors in the crystal-rush but not the very first. Maybe the God of Trickery spilled the Divine Bag of McShiny Crystals when taking captive the God of Wealth and assuming his place, and the God of Unmasking has just made the McShiny Crystals visible to mortals as part of a plan to unmask the God of Wealth!Trickery.

This means you'll need to generate a few NPCs (or monsters) who were the first to acquire the Crystals, and another handful (or more) who are currently seeking them out in competition with the PCs.

 

[Faolyn]

Random ideas:

They keep manifesting, so there's no way to gather them all up, even if everyone can see them.

When they manifest from a slain creature, if they're not collected in a certain amount of time, they go flying off in random directions. Sometimes that hits a creature (e.g., a PC) and gives them powers. So it's less Chosen One and more Chosen At Random One.

It takes significant magical abilities or enchanted containers to keep the shards from flying off, so few people actually have the ability to collect them without absorbing them.

They sometimes, even often, have bad side effects, physical or mental, so many people don't want to absorb one.

 

[CompleteKneeBiter]

This has been a fantastic bunch of ideas. Thanks for all the input! I’m pulling bits and pieces from of a lot of your responses.