I think the theme is a very slight reward, actually. Looks more like a way to link the games to me… the impact of one theme does not seem to be too heavy, I think… But I perhaps misunderstood some subtilities.
The real thing, to me, is the ability to “finish” the session, by telling each story or giving the right to give conditions… It is clear that now, knowing the sacrified PC’s player ends the game, the mecanics may create a race to volontary deaths… But it is perhaps (I think Darthbinks told us this yesterday) balanced by the experience system in a campagn game : death (Good roleplay and +1 fortune) vs life (experience)…
Yesterday, since Simon and I were ready to sacrifice (Simon’s PC cut his veins while burning, and I was the burning lady), one solution could have been to tell the story of a double sacrifice… The game mecanics were very good (5 free dice for my action), linking the two characters, but does it allow a shared sacrifice, Darth ?
Each “season” (story arc, etc …) at least one character has to die - or the story ends. It does not matter, when someone dies and it does not matter how many, as long as it is a minimum of one .
Since it was a One-Shot, the “season” was just one game session.
@Epilog
The mechanics for the “Omen” are intended to be able to direct the next story arc = telling your DM (Giver of Life), what you want your group to experience in the next “season”.
This mechanic was never intended to be used in an One-Shot.
For the (second) One-Shot I hoped to find something that “feels” similar - so I tried the “Give one condition to the epilog” approach in the second run.
This worked really really well - but I have to admit, that noone of you knew, that I wanted to do this before the game session had ended.
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- but I have to admit, that noone of you knew, that I wanted to do this before the game session had ended.