Author Topic: Little Chicago  (Read 2418 times)

Offline Tush Hog

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Little Chicago
« on: July 08, 2010, 10:17:49 PM »
Who wants to take a stab at it?

Offline Deadmanwalking

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Re: Little Chicago
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2010, 10:29:20 PM »
Personally, I'd make it a Scene Aspect taggable for all applicable magic, and then have it be a great excuse for additional declarations. Simple, really. It also, obviously, counts as a sympathetic connection to the actual city of Chicago.

Offline Lanodantheon

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Re: Little Chicago
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2010, 12:28:07 AM »
I'd make it as a focus item for Divination. A BIG focus item. Like....8-10 Slots. 6 if you wanted to make it more reasonable.
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My name is Lanodantheon Thul, Conjure that by your own risk....But first, you have be able to spell it...

Offline Belial666

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Re: Little Chicago
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2010, 12:34:57 AM »
Sympathetic connection to the entire city of chicago plus at least a +7 focus since it had to be a size category larger than Harry's staff. (staves cap at +6)

And yeah, that means it takes 3 Refinements worth of slots.

Offline PhoenixCustodis

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Re: Little Chicago
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2010, 01:32:59 AM »
To me it seems like he can avoid at least some of the refinement slots for a focus item since he can't carry it around. This could act as either a discount in refresh or he could treat it as an upgrade to his workspace giving him a +X to Lore when using his workspace for a divination in Chicago.

Offline JosephKell

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Re: Little Chicago
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2010, 02:43:18 AM »
To me it seems like he can avoid at least some of the refinement slots for a focus item since he can't carry it around. This could act as either a discount in refresh or he could treat it as an upgrade to his workspace giving him a +X to Lore when using his workspace for a divination in Chicago.
Actually this is factored in by the table on YS 281.

A 5-6 slot focus is basketball sized.  In fact, the marginalia on the same page talks about focus items in excess of 6 being "vehicular sized" (i.e. a 7 slot focus is the size of a smart car).  And Dresden responds "There's no Little Chicago in my pocket" (he must be happy to see us then).

But that is just the total slots.  So it might be +4 Complexity and +4 Control on Divination.  But knowing Dresden, he would have as much Complexity as possible, and not bother with control (just take longer to start the spell going).

However, since Dresden is constantly making skill checks to maintain Little Chicago to keep it current, those act as extra +2's for the complexity.
-Resources: Equipment.
-Endurance: Long-Term Activity (going around town chipping buildings and grabbing bark samples)
-Craftsmanship: Building.

With Lore 6, 6 focus slots, and those 3 skills, his divination start at on the fly of 18.  Although I think by the rules, 6 of that can only be tagged once (then you have to invoke with fate points).

The Extended Divination is detailed on YS 297.
Base Complexity: Target's Conviction + 4 + threshold/wards.  Duration is 1 shift per step up time scale (starting from a scene for 0 shifts).  I think a scene is about 15 minutes.  So spying on a conviction 3 character for a day that is sitting in his apartment is 13 shifts (3 + 4 + 1 threshold + 5 duration).  Of course if you just wanted to spy on the apartment, you could scrap paint from the door and spy on the place for 10 shifts (but then you can't follow him if he leaves the location).

... And this gives me a scenario idea.
If you have to ask, it probably breaks a Law of Magic.  You're just trying to get the Doom of Damocles.

Offline Fedifensor

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Re: Little Chicago
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2010, 03:13:27 PM »
I wouldn't charge for it.  Little Chicago is basically a way for the GM to move the plot forward.  It has a lot of potential downsides, including the risk of blowing up if you don't use it properly.