Rework the faustian bargain traitor item

[Noah Buttes]

Thinking on the subject of Infernal Contracts over the last week, I realize that a contract backfiring on the contractor would be pretty silly.

None of the contracts directly backfire on the contractor, correct. Although, the chaplain is working with dark forces and may fall victim to his own hubris if he becomes careless about how he distributes his powers.

When the Chaplain Contract Holder convinces/forces someone to sign one of their contracts, the one signing is offering their soul in exchange for some demonic favor, usually consisting of dubious/literally interpreted wording. Ideally the power/benefits gained from signing a contract would result in a greedy crew member's eventual downfall, eventual being the key word.

Most of them are pretty gradual, but there are a few that are pretty quick acting. This is to provide a bit of variety.

I haven't managed to see all the Infernal Contracts yet but I feel the best example of this ideal eventual demise/literal wording is the Infinite Bee's contract. 
The same could be said for the cluwne one, though it's quite blatant the moment the contract signer is turned into a cluwne (and thus free game for murder) that their demise was planned before their soul was sold to the contractor.

The infinite bees contract is brilliant and is exactly the kind of thing I'm shooting for. You get EXACTLY what you ask for, but 'tis both a blessing and a bane.

Another great example is the mummification contract.

Speaking of selling souls, out of both parties involved in each contract signing, the contractor seems to lose out most often. Having someone sell their soul to you currently offers no benefits (I thought it made the briefcase hit harder, but was told otherwise) not even giving you some more "fun" contracts for some poor sap to sign.

Yeah, I'm working on something to remedy this. Infernal contracts part 2: demonic boogaloo will having scaling briefcases, pens, and an artifact of some sort to exchange sold souls for additional contracts. I'm trying to balance the briefcases and pens very carefully because I really don't want this to become artbox 2.0.

However, there already IS one particular contract that actually uses sold souls, but that contract is very rare due to its nature.

Selling your soul also has no drawback for the crewman signing a demonic contract, but the only suggestion I could offer to that regard is "you can't be cloned if you die, because your soul has been claimed" or something to that effect, but that seems a bit harsh (or perhaps that is the idea???)

I could easily set DNR on people who sign the contracts, but that seems very very harsh.

The drawbacks to selling your soul are the effects of the contract and the inability to sign another contract.

I dunno, maybe you just show up as unknown in the afterlife if you die without a soul.

Off-topic regarding reworking the item itself: I really like that (so far to my knowledge) no one has gone and just murdered a guy just because he's hefting around a red briefcase and trying to trick people out of their souls.

That's great!

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Taking Grifflez points, I suppose the briefcase doesn't really feel like an antagonist item, because the antag tends to lose out while the crew benefits more often than not.

Like I said to Grifflez, I'm working on a solution to that.

If you're buying souls off of people, then maybe you could get a point counter for every contract signed. You could tend spend these soul points on beneficial traits to become the ultimate demon nerd. Of course now, that's a whole other can of worms that complicates everything in terms of design.

I'd rather not have the points be spent on buffs, I'd rather there be passive buffs as souls accumulate. Although, most of the buffs are going to the items themselves rather than to the wielder. That way, we don't get another "OH GOD, I CAN'T STUN HIM" type rampaging chaplain.