Precision Hexing

[whitelaughter]

Simply trashing a technological item is straightforward, but how would you go about more detailed interference?
Possible examples:
causing a mechanical watch to run slow or a mobile phone to burst into flames.
While making a car cease functioning is straightfoward, how about ensuring that the brakes fail?

A character who only has Mana  Static is going to want to play with the implications of his power, while a more powerful character could create spells to focus or refine what can be done.

Suggestion?

[Sanctaphrax]

According to the hexing rules on page 259 of Your Story, this sort of thing is mostly not allowed.

Hexing cannot be used to manipulate technology - only destroy it. You cannot use hexing to do maneuvers unless destroying the device is precisely what justifies the maneuver. So if there's an advanced filtration system in a building keeping gas out of a room, you could hex the control panel to put the Aspect FILLED WITH GAS on the room, but you couldn't selectively control the gas flow in any way.

Despite that, I would be inclined to be flexible with hexing maneuvers. Seems like it'd lead to more interesting gameplay.

[g33k]

According to the hexing rules on page 259 of Your Story, this sort of thing is mostly not allowed.

Despite that, I would be inclined to be flexible with hexing maneuvers. Seems like it'd lead to more interesting gameplay.

But the whole "tech hex" is supposed to be a problem for the characters, a hindrance; not an advantage.

Leveraging it into just another magic power to use seems to me like the wrong approach.

Unless of course you had an entropy-specific caster.  Someone whose whole schtick was degrading and destroying stuff in a controlled manner, and couldn't really do much else...  Then, yeah, I could see that character having a unique relationship with tech-hexing.

[Sanctaphrax]

Deliberate hexing is in the game for a reason; it's meant to be a useful ability. The game will even charge you Refresh for it, in the form of Mana Static!

Not that anyone actually buys Mana Static, but you know what I mean.

[g33k]

Deliberate hexing is in the game for a reason; it's meant to be a useful ability. The game will even charge you Refresh for it, in the form of Mana Static!

Not that anyone actually buys Mana Static, but you know what I mean.

Harry himself often hexes things, in tactical ways.  It's definitely a thing in the Dresdenverse!  So, yeah, deliberate Hexing, sure.

But the Dresdenverse specifically does not have this sort of "detailed interference" (to quote the OP).  "Cannot interact with tech in a controlled or non-destructive way" is one of the in-world limitations on wizards (to the extent that one book hinged on the Bad Guys hiding some info on a USB stick, knowing that few wizards would even understand it, and none of them would be able to use it), and Harry needing to rely on non-wizard allies (and PC wizards needing non-wizard PC's) is a feature, not a bug...

You suggest that it'd lead to more-interesting gameplay, but I fear crossing that line would do the opposite, making "wizard" even more the swiss-army-PC and reducing character variety.