magical tattos + mundane items

[Haru]

I usually don't like magical tattoos, because they often try to get around the item part of enchanted or focus items. That said, I've had an idea that would kind of take this to the extreme.
A charakter, that is able to put items inside of drawings he made of them and he would be able to take them out again, removing the drawing as if it had never been there. If you do this with tattoos, you can carry a lot of stuff in plain sight. And drawing a sword from your forearm? That is just plain awesome
I am not sure how to stat this, though. Maybe by creating aspects and invoking them for effect to get the item back? Any ideas?

[Masurao]

I could see it working a bit like this: you use Thaumaturgy to summon up an amount of power, with a certain purpose, for this example: a sword to do battle with. You summon the magical power, but instead of using ectoplasm to give it form, you leave it as a tattoo upon your body. Now, when you need it, you pull the tattoo of your skin, releasing the magical power and forming the sword for a scene. Afterwards, the power dissipates.

This way, you would be able to become very versatile, but you do not really create the 'not-an-item enchanted item', because it lasts only a scene. (Of course, you could more power into the item to keep it solid, by taking mental stress, I guess.)

As for mechanics, I'm not your man

[sinker]

To me that seems not very useful. Or I suppose I should clarify, it would be very useful only rarely. The whole equipment setup in FATE is abstract. People have X because they have it (invoking aspects, making declarations, etc). So it seems to me that everyone can do that, at least mechanically. The only time it would be useful is after your character has been disarmed, and even then a mundane with the proper skills can do the same. I can't see devoting an entire character concept to the idea, unless you're going to give him some extra bite (I.E. it's not just mundane items).

[Haru]

Well yes, the idea was basically smuggling items through all kinds of security. A smuggling based character comes to mind, or a thief, carrying the items literally on his body, when he leaves a scene. But I admit, there has to be a bit more to it.

Maybe something like a pair of snakes coming to life from the casters body, attacking his opponent. But that would get us into the enchanted item tattoo business again, rather than my original idea.

Or I'm too tired right now...

[devonapple]

I believe that if we think about this in the abstract, it won't be too unbalancing. Any of these ways work:

Aspects: this particular thing is usually the province of an Aspect, like "Always Armed" or "Where Did That Knife Come From"? Fate Point = weapon.

Skills: you can set this up with skills, usually a Resources, Contacts or Deceit declaration to establish some James-bond style planning, like "I convinced a groundskeeper to leave this plastic-wrapped gun in the downstairs toilet reservoir, in case I was disarmed at the front door." An Aspect version would be "Man on the Inside" or "Gullible Groundskeeper." Free tag/invoke = weapon; upgrade with Fate Points to expand the scope of effect.

Thaumaturgy: often used to replace a skill roll, either directly, or by performing a Maneuver to create an Aspect.

[EldritchFire]

I usually don't like magical tattoos, because they often try to get around the item part of enchanted or focus items. That said, I've had an idea that would kind of take this to the extreme.
A charakter, that is able to put items inside of drawings he made of them and he would be able to take them out again, removing the drawing as if it had never been there. If you do this with tattoos, you can carry a lot of stuff in plain sight. And drawing a sword from your forearm? That is just plain awesome
I am not sure how to stat this, though. Maybe by creating aspects and invoking them for effect to get the item back? Any ideas?
[/quote

The character I'm currently playing draws a sword from a tattoo in his forearm! Here's the basic write-up of his powers.

If you're interested in the actual character, here's the Obsidian Portal page.

I hope that can help you out!