Shadow powers for a Focused Practitioner-level thief?

[TimPendragon]

Hey, folks,

My friends and I will be having the second session of our DF game in about 16 hours or so, hopefully the first actual story session since the last time out was building characters and nailing some things down about where we want things to go. Since we live in the Baltimore area, we're using the setting from Your Story, but with original PCs, at least until we get really comfortable in the game and then we'll probably change locales.

Anyway, there's four players in the group (plus myself), and we're playing at the Chest Deep level. One of the characters is a supernaturally-talented thief/grifter type, more or less Focused Practitioner level. The player (Gil) is having a bit of trouble nailing down the exact powers, and I'm not completely sure myself what the best route would be. His general notion for the PC's powers is a form of shadow manipulation -- a bonus to stealth, shadow tendrils providing a limited kind of telekinesis (useful for pickpocketing, lockpicking, limited combat), very short-range "teleportation" between shadows (like essentially opening a portal to the Nevernever, but not actually going through to the other side, just sort of skirting along the boundary) which is easily thrown off if he's in a hurry or his concentration is broken. Any suggestions for how to handle this? Homemade powers? The basic TK and Teleport powers from the book don't quite seem to fit. Should I be looking at spells and evocation to represent this rather than supernatural powers?

I saw a Shadowmancer template on the resources wiki, but that's far more powerful than we want the character to be.

Also, this is my first time GMing any RPG, so I'm kind of nervous about the whole thing. Hopefully I won't suck at it and the group will have fun. Any suggestions for a newbie GM?

[Blk4ce]

I made exactly that character once. But I made him a spell caster so he would be more powerful than you want it.
I like magic for its versatility so I suggest he takes at least Channeling (Shadow). If you don't want him powerful (and you don't want to take sponsored tenebromancy) after that, cloak of shadows, custom teleportation with the limitation that it works only through shadows, speed power (a thief should be fast). Also, suggest to him the power Incite effect (living shadow). Actually, you can upgrade that last one for attacks and not need channeling.

[PirateJack]

Hmm, if I were to model that powerset I'd probably go for something along the lines of:

Channelling [-2] (Shadowmancy)
Ritual [-2] (Shadowmancy)
Cloak of Shadows [-1]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Limitation [+1] (Requires shadows, no initiative bonus)

The Channelling power represents his telekinesis while Ritual gives him the ability to use skill replacement for use in pick pocketing/lock picking (as well as other things). Cloak of Shadows pretty accurately models what you've described for the stealth based bonus. Inhuman Speed + Limitation could be used to model the short range teleportation (basically within the same zone for dodging purposes, but given greater time to concentrate he can go much further).

You've got plenty of refresh free in this powerset to use for other powers or upgrading Channelling/Ritual through refinement, or just banking them for extra Fate Points.

[Cadd]

PirateJacks setup looks perfect, and seems to be just the right level of Refresh Cost for Chest Deep. I would probably stop there and have 2 adjusted Refresh. I find being at >1 Refresh is pretty comfortable
Just work out the limits for Shadowmancy Evocation-effects, to avoid lengthy mid-session debates

[Sanctaphrax]

I would avoid Channelling, actually. It doesn't represent telekinesis as well as it represents having a rocket launcher in your brain, and that level of firepower seems inappropriate here.

Ritual is more workable, but it's kinda slow for stuff like pickpocketing. And it includes a bunch of abilities which don't seem appropriate for this guy. I mean, summoning an army of shadow soldiers or strangling a troll from across the planet are both within the realm of Ritual (Shadow).

I guess you could define your field of casting very carefully to avoid that, but it'd never be a perfect solution.

Not sure why the Shadowcaster Template would seem too strong. It's only 4 Refresh.

It's not a perfect fit, though. Needing The Sight to get Teleportation is probably inappropriate for this character.

I'd go with Telekinesis, Cloak Of Shadows, and a Limitation attached to either Inhuman Speed or Teleportation. Plus maybe a stunt or two.

[TimPendragon]

Thank you for all the input, guys! PirateJack's setup is definitely a great start, certainly very close to what's needed. Channeling may be a bit too powerful, but writing a toned-down custom version might be doable. The character isn't trained, just "street smart" in this area, he's got the natural ability and has learned a few tricks over the years, so that's why a full on Shadowmancer doesn't seem right.

There's still a lot of areas in the game, like refining/upgrading powers and just spellcasting in general that are kind of vague to me. I love Your Story, but it really is light on example and a lot of the explanations are really abstract/counterintuitive...

[Sanctaphrax]

If you're new to the game and unsure of your rules-fu, you may want to avoid spellcasting altogether. It's by far the hardest section of the rules to grasp.

So really, I don't think a toned-down custom version of Channelling is a good idea. Spellcasting is a bit complicated and writing custom Powers is hard. Custom spellcasting Powers are probably not a good idea for someone who isn't sure what they're doing.