Outside Sources of Power for Evocation

[Mr. Death]

So, the gamebook says that it's unlikely to use an outside source of power for Evocation, but it might be possible (and we have a canon example in Harry using lightning to zap frogman in Storm Front). So I'm curious as to what ways this might be implemented.

The obvious way, of course, is to Invoke the scene aspect representing the source of power for a +2 to the power of the spell.

One idea I had, though, is to let the player invoke for effect, and give them a set power rating that they don't have to spend a mental stress for--but they don't get to choose how much of that power they want to use. So if you invoke the power of a Thunderstorm, you might get a free Weapon:8 spell, but you have to roll Discipline to control all 8 shifts, and deal with either the fallout or backlash as it comes.

Any other interesting ways to deal with this that you guys have found?

[Haru]

An idea I have proposed in another thread: temporary place of power.

Sponsored magic from a place of power costs 3 refresh. With Evocation and Thaumaturgy, you get it for 1 refresh, or 1 fate point as a temporary power for one scene.

With that comes every advantage from sponsored magic, and depending on what you agree upon with the GM, you can get some serious juice out of that. I would probably limit the use to some degree, since you can't really have debt to a storm or something similar, but I would have to see how that actually plays out.

But if a player is creative enough and can think of an interesting way to pay the storm back his debt, I'll probably go for it.

[sinker]

I can think of a few ways you could play out debt to a storm, but you're right it is a bit wonky. Another option would be to have general purpose debt to the GM.

[Haru]

Care to elaborate? I've been wanting to create a temporal sponsor list for a while now, including ley lines, storms and more, for spellcasters to invoke occasionally. I actually was thinking along the lines of a regular GM debt, but I kind of thought that was a bit lame. Flavored debt is much more fun. But maybe that could be the default, and if you find a way to flavor it, great, otherwise you just bring it up another way. Ley lines are probably easier, since they are most often tied to a specific kind of magic or have a kind of agenda anyway.

[Wolfhound]

In our game I handle it with a scene Declaration; either
a)  "Strongly Felt Emotion" - Harry and his Rage
b) "Place of Power" - Genus Loci, on top of a Ley Line, the Fae stone tablet, whatever
c) "In the Whirl and Rush" - the category in which I include storms or large mobs of people, etc.

As with any other Declaration, the used Skill needs to make sense (Lore for a Place of Power, maybe Conviction for "Strongly Felt Emotion," Empathy for "In the Whirl and Rush" from a crowd of people... whatever).

If it's a good one, I allow them to either Tag the Aspect like with any other Declaration (+2) or
a) gain a single "free" point of Stress for Evocation (i.e. only pay additional Stress from their own boxes)
b) gain a single Exchange worth of power shifts for Thaumaturgy

It's worked pretty well for us so far.