Lawbreakers - How do you break the laws of magic

[paulie]

For an upcoming con game I was wondering how people have used the more obscure laws in their games?


I am planning a dirty dozen / seven samurai (magnificent 7) inspired game, with characters who are all lawbreakers who have been organised together to track down and take care of a rougue warden.

But I am stuck coming up with a character who has broken the laws against time travel.

all the others are handled with other characters,
 

• the wardens former partner who killed wrath after his wife was killed (1)
• a well meaning talkshow show host who enthralled a former drug abuser saving her from a lfie of drug abuse. (3,4)
• a wereraven courier who turned her brother into a raven but could not change him back (2).
• a grey path necromancer who used his dark power to bring his wife back from the dead. (5,7)

and someone else, I am thinking a guy who gets information form himself in the future.

1)Thou shalt not kill by use of magic.
2)Thou shalt not transform others.
3)Thou shalt not invade the mind of another.
4)Thou shalt not enthrall another.
5)Thou shalt not reach beyond the Borders of Life.
6)Thou shalt not swim against the Currents of Time.
7)Thou shalt not seek beyond the Outer Gates

[Sanctaphrax]

How about someone who comes from another time?

The first thing that comes to mind is someone who came back from the far future to prevent an apocalypse. Maybe you could say that the future he comes from will never happen now that he has come back from it and changed things. If you are worried about his scientific knowledge or his knowledge of future history, just say that the apocalypse that he came back to prevent eliminated all such knowledge.

[MijRai]

Guy (or Gal) who came back to save their kid from dying.

[Becq]

The Sixth is a bit of a tough one.  You could use and of the ideas above.  But as an alternative, you might consider skipping the "one criminal from each category" idea, and instead let each player define their own crimes freely, including multiple crimes per character.  I think you'll still get pretty good coverage, and if a player does pick the Sixth, he'll probably also pick another, too, which gives a reason for him getting caught.

[paulie]

thanks all I put a neat spin on it, he framed himself form the future in order to get over the wardens.

But thanks for the help!

more to come when I start stating this up.

[Belial666]

My favorite Sixth Law violation is the use of Balefire, from the Wheel of Time series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balefire

Basically, imagine a spell that doesn't kill a target; it erases them from the timestream instead. The stronger the spell (i.e. the more shifts you acheive over takeout) the farther back the target is erased, and his actions, as well as the consequences of those actions, never actually happened. A minor stream of Balefire - that would be a spell cast with a shift or two over takeout - could undo the past couple of seconds of the target's actions. A strong stream of balefire from a senor-council wizard or similarly strong magic user could undo the victim for the past half hour or so.

[Lanodantheon]

My personal favorite way(Though I have yet to use it) to break the Sixth Law besides traveling back in time is Communication/Set-up with Future/Past Self.

Basically the Bill & Ted method: You send a communication through time to either your past or future self(probably your past self would be more feasible) to set up things you need in the heat of the moment. It would be run as a Declaration. THings like, "Trashcan!" and a Trashcan you had set up above your head falls onto the enemy.

[Drashna]

Well, anything that violates the flow of time would be a breach.  Simply (ha!) casting a spell to travel forward, or back would violate it.  Like violating it to save a loved one, or stop a tragic accident.  Or even, just enough research to know how to start the ritual (because a ritual it would have to be) when *somebody* stepped in and stopped them.  Heck, divining the future with any accuracy could be a violation.

Though my personal favorite in that line of thought, is a character that *has* traveled back in time, stopped a horrible tragedy from occurring. Only to have made things even worse. And then for fear of causing further harm to the "timestream", has not set thing back the way they were. Which would mean he has a potental for knowing future events, but definitely not accurate in those "predictions".

[Richard_Chilton]

I came across an interesting bit of time travel in a podcast/radio play (it's a podcast that tries to do an old time pulp radio play - from decoder ring theatre).  The character was from the far future, when records of our time were scattered and incomplete, and when he came across records of a hero who went back in time to do a great deed he recognized himself - or at least he thought did.  So he traveled time and did the things that were recorded top have been done by that hero.

Basically, if you're from far enough ahead that you don't have any real knowledge of day to day life in the present day AND you have seen records that say someone traveled time to be here (and now) then you might not be causing a paradox.  Moorcock used a similar logic for his Dancers at the End of Time books.  A time loop might exist but not a paradox. Of course a warden would still freak over this risk to reality, but that's another matter.

Incidentally, that character from the radio play appears to have never returned to his real time - he's mentioned with "And if wasn't for Tom Tomorrow's sacrifice then Hitler would be in England" - yes, season six of the radio play is set in 1940.  Which means he wasn't so much in a time loop as doing what he had historically done...

Richard

[Wyrdrune]

sounds interesting... can you give a link to that podcast site?

[Richard_Chilton]

The show can be found at http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/index.php?id=rpa - but of the 63 episodes only about 4 mention Tom Tomorrow.  He might be mentioned in another episode or two, but I the one that I can remember him being in are:
Red Panda: Dead Or Alive! (episode 7) - tries to clear the Red Panda's name
The Field Trip! (episode 36) - mentioned in passing
Murder Wears a Mask (episode 53) - accused of murder; the Red Panda tries to return the 'clear the name' favor.
The Nose For News (episode 61) - his sacrifice is mention.

As an aside, the the Red Panda adventures are a good pulp.  Very entertaining.

Richard

[Wyrdrune]

good thing i have vacation next week, so i can listen through them...

thanks for the link.

[southheaven]

6)Thou shalt not swim against the Currents of Time.

As i understand it, the Currents of Time flows from past to the future, so the only way to break it, by swimming against it, is to travel back in time or send a message back!?

[ralexs1991]

well in PG it is implied that the gatekeeper sent a message to himself through time

[paulie]

It is amazing how much I love RED PANDA, all the DRT stuff is excellent.

The show can be found at http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/index.php?id=rpa - but of the 63 episodes only about 4 mention Tom Tomorrow.  He might be mentioned in another episode or two, but I the one that I can remember him being in are:
Red Panda: Dead Or Alive! (episode 7) - tries to clear the Red Panda's name
The Field Trip! (episode 36) - mentioned in passing
Murder Wears a Mask (episode 53) - accused of murder; the Red Panda tries to return the 'clear the name' favor.
The Nose For News (episode 61) - his sacrifice is mention.

As an aside, the the Red Panda adventures are a good pulp.  Very entertaining.

Richard