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Messages - wyvern

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106
DFRPG / Re: Shapeshifter character catch question
« on: January 15, 2013, 05:42:08 PM »
Big things might, sure, but that's not necessarily what we were talking about here.  Honestly, it really depends on what you're going for.

For a different perspective, a reasonable big thing catch might be +1: Radiation, and other penetrating effects where being bigger just exposes you to more of the effect.  (This is +1 on the assumption that wizards - a reasonably large category of supernatural individuals - could probably pull of some sort of relevant evocation if they knew the catch.  If you cut the catch down to just radiation, that'd probably be a +0.)
Or it might be +2 to +4: Any area effect attack - hunting mammoths with spears kinda sucks; hunting mammoths with grenades or maybe ballistae or by dropping really big rocks on their heads from a clifftop, on the other hand...

I could see deciding that were-creatures just have more "vitality" than other things and that the stuff-that-attacks-lifeforce catch isn't appropriate for them, though.  However, once you're dealing with supernatural vitality, then, imo, you're probably also dealing with something with a more traditional supernatural catch - silver, or the like.

Depends what the GM is going for, really.

107
DFRPG / Re: Shapeshifter character catch question
« on: January 12, 2013, 12:17:07 AM »
One catch I use for things that are just physically tough is: Necromantic powers & some forms of diseases and poisons - anything that directly attacks the life-force of the creature, rather than representing raw physical damage.  Depending on how common such things are in your setting, this could be anywhere from a +0 to +2 catch - it's certainly not something anyone could get, but it might (or might not) be reasonably available to some decently large groups of opponents, and it's unlikely to be a well-known obvious thing, but it might (or might not) be possible to work out with some research.

For recovery, there's always the ghoul catch: once it's dead, it stays dead.  Doesn't really work for toughness, though.

108
DFRPG / Re: Wild Hunt Carrier Template
« on: January 08, 2013, 08:18:26 PM »
So, did anyone else open up this thread expecting to see a discussion of what would happen if the wild hunt ran down an aircraft carrier - and the captain and crew decided to join the hunt?

...On topic, looks like a reasonable template & neat character concept.  Aspects are a good way of modelling slow changes and restrictions; if and only if you have a high discipline, then demonic co-pilot could be a good addition to the character, with the possibility of taking consequences like "What happened to my thumbs?".  (I've had one character with that power; worked out fairly well for her... but discipline was also her apex skill.  Not that that helped when she started slinging around demonic-co-pilot-empowered sponsored magic, but hey.)

109
DFRPG / Re: Mechanical Preview?
« on: December 14, 2012, 11:33:56 PM »
More specifically, the Spirit of the Century rules can be found here: http://www.faterpg.com/dl/sotc-srd.html

They're not exactly the same as DFRPG, but close enough to get a feel for things.  The biggest difference is DFRPG's mechanical trade-off between free will (represented by available refresh & fate points) and power (represented by stunts, powers, etc.).  Essentially, if you've got ten refresh, you can permanently spend up to nine of that on powers/stunts/etc., but doing so means you start the game with only a single fate point.  (Or if you spend six, you start with four fate points, etc.)

110
DFRPG / Re: Modular Abilities Expanded
« on: November 28, 2012, 12:34:44 AM »
Okay, the thing I'm not seeing in your example is why the "double were form" is in the same category as "general shapeshifter"?

111
DFRPG / Re: Ways to achieve a 100 shift rituals
« on: June 13, 2012, 07:04:24 PM »
The problem was that, any such objection I raised, was met with "Ok, I'll just increase the complexity to add in some way of countering that".  Yes, I could gm fiat a "No, that's not allowed", but I'd much rather have rules that didn't allow that kind of ridiculous escalation in the first place.

In other words, your
I'm still not seeing the problem, sorry.
is getting read by me as "But I can houserule / gm fiat things so they work, therefore the rules are obviously fine".  Which, err, I disagree with; if you have to gm fiat a "I know the rules seem to say you can do this, but I'm not going to allow it," then the rules aren't fine, and should be fixed.

112
DFRPG / Re: Ways to achieve a 100 shift rituals
« on: June 13, 2012, 05:30:19 PM »
Could you supply some more details?  Specifically, how did your player get a link to the fae lord in question?
Link?  Why would he need a link to them, when he can just cast a ritual to put a whole pile of aspects on himself?  Or use the ritual as a skill roll substitute to allow him to make a single devastating attack?  Or, etc.
The problem with the if I could do it so can they approach for thaumaturgy it is pretty much rocks fall everyone dies, its like saying stop using wail of the banshee and decimating all my opposition before the rest of the party gets a chance to act or I will have someone do the same to you. Which if you follow through becomes "yer I totally wiped out all of my PCs in one spell".   
Well, not quite - the fae lord would've had far more fun throwing a geas at the PC than just dropping rocks on him.  And there were plenty of opportunities to be sneaky about things, or call in allies of his own, or etc - I would've had no problem with the PC coming out ahead in the conflict; just that - like a fight between Harry and Cowl - it wasn't going to happen by application of raw power.

113
DFRPG / Re: Ways to achieve a 100 shift rituals
« on: June 13, 2012, 03:48:15 PM »
Come to think of it, has anyone ever had a player or group attempt to resolve an otherwise sticky and interesting issue with the hammer of thaumaturgy?  It’s literally never been an issue for my games, which may be why I was so dismissive of the need to nerf it.

Yep.  Had one player who, for any problem, tried to solve it with "build a bigger ritual".  I tried the bog-standard "if you can do this, so can the NPCs" approach to resolving things, and the result was that player quitting the game (because obviously he, with two refresh spent on rituals, should be able to out-magic a fae lord.)

Aside from that one player, though, I haven't had problems with it.  But I'd prefer a system that didn't require so much heavy-handed balancing - one where that player wouldn't have thought to try out-ritual-ing something with higher spellcasting skills, refinement, allies, etc, and one where my other spellcasting players wouldn't have to be concerned about accidentally overstepping the limits of what's reasonable.

114
In this case, given the extreme limitations involved - you're missing most of the benefits of Inhuman Strength* - I'd suggest simply not taking the power, and having an extra fate point or two available to invoke your high concept for appropriate bonuses.

* I assume it is inhuman you're talking about, since that's the one that costs -2 refresh normally.  Supernatural strength normally costs -4; if your party is letting you have it for -2, that's already plenty of discount, in my not-so-humble opinion.

115
DFRPG / Re: Ways to achieve a 100 shift rituals
« on: June 07, 2012, 04:56:09 PM »
This is the only point I have any issue with.  Scenes much like zones vary in time.  I really don't see 99 scenes being that long.  99 scenes shouldn't be more than 99 in game days at maximum.  (Just my opinion mind you).

However, since scenes have variable length, it becomes hard to assume how long hte spell caster is out of play for.

Though I will say your way of telling them that that takes too long works fine as a balance factor/deterrent.
I'm guessing based off of games I've run / played in; most sessions include about three distinct scenes.  Sometimes more (the GM is going from player to player with "It's been X months in-game since last session; what have you been up to?), sometimes less (climactic battle!).  Game roughly every other week, and that's over a year of not playing to skip 99 scenes.  The important distinction here is that, to get the "I skipped a scene" bonus, you have to miss an actual scene of play; simple passage of in-game time doesn't count.
Sorry I was running on the assumption that no one would try a sacrificial ritual without lawbreaker 2 (any +2 control is nice), I was also assuming any pc trying such a ritual would have high contacts , resources and would know how to cover their own tracks or have the right to do it for them. Making 5 people disappear without a trace is hardly a hard trick to pull off for someone with a reasonable contacts (for example the Red court party).   
Then it comes back to, with you trying to gather 100 shifts of power, everyone even vaguely nearby with a lore skill is going to notice what you're doing.  What's the perception penalty for being a dozen miles away?  I'll bet it's less than -100.  And again, that's not the sort of game I run - and if I were going to run a game where that was expected, I'd houserule down the number of shifts you can get from a sacrifice; something like, say, you can only tag consequences the character would be allowed to use in a conflict, plus extreme, and +2 shifts for doubling the number of sacrifices.  What I would not do is try to balance the game around 100+ shift rituals (edit: as a normal thing; as the occasional plot device that takes many sessions to set up they might be ok) - because the only way to do that is have enemies who also use 100+ shift rituals, and that would just get boring.

116
DFRPG / Re: Ways to achieve a 100 shift rituals
« on: June 07, 2012, 04:17:00 PM »
I wouldn't balance against that.  I would not allow a PC to pull off a 100 shift ritual in the first place.  Worst case scenario, somewhere around 50 shifts in, every single local major power would converge on your location to see who's throwing around stupid amounts of power and shut you down.  But in practical terms, I wouldn't even let a PC try such a ritual in the first place.

Kill 5 people: Congrats, you are now an NPC warlock with too many lawbreaker powers.  While there may be some game concepts where this would be acceptable ("Hey, lets play as evil monsters!"), those aren't the sorts of games I run.  Such games would need other balancing factors, like attention from mortal authorities and/or wardens.
Kill 50 animals: I wouldn't let this work; at best you'd get just a few aspects, like "animal sacrifices", "too much blood", "hecatomb"; I wouldn't give just two shifts per animal.
Make ludicrous piles of declarations: Also wouldn't work; declarations are against whatever target number the GM thinks is reasonable, and after the first few, I'd start adding in stacking penalties.  Or, better yet, as you start to declare how conditions are coincidentally just perfect for your uber-ritual, I'd start throwing compels at the aspects you've declared - as every other major power in the area wants to make use of the same conflux of energies you're declaring exists.
Spend 99 scenes doing nothing: If you've been gone for 99 scenes, you're not a player in my game anymore; that's over a year of real-time not playing.

117
DFRPG / Re: Damnation by Association?
« on: June 07, 2012, 03:53:20 PM »
(Warning: this post contains opinions stated as if they were facts, because it's easier to write that way.  Please respond as if everything had a "This is how I'd run it, but your table may find some other answer appropriate" disclaimer.)

First: Yes, that's lawbreaker - if and only if the assistant actually helps cast the ritual; someone merely contributing consequences or mundane setup (maneuvers for taggable aspects) would not get lawbreaker.  As the book says, results, in the end, matter more than intent; you'd also get lawbreaker if you helped cast a ritual intended just to break a drought, and it caused casualties due to flash-flooding.  However, I as a GM, would not put a PC in the position of getting lawbreaker accidentally or through trickery; that's just meta-game rude.

Second: Grey area.  I wouldn't grant a lawbreaker power for this - but I would allow any appropriate existing lawbreaker powers to provide their bonuses, and I'd have the Wardens get very... concerned... if they ever found out about it.

118
DFRPG / Re: A House Rule For Social Combat
« on: June 01, 2012, 10:28:55 PM »
I dunno about you, but I like to spread out aspects to be applicable to different things--after all, a character should be about more than just what they do in a fight.

Oh, absolutely - but, by the same token, each individual aspect should *also* be usable in multiple situations.  Sure, if your aspects are "boxing gloves of doom" and "sharp left hook" and the like, that's poor design - that should all be one aspect.  But you might have "mighty boxer" (taggable as how you fight) and a trouble aspect of "heart of gold" (why you fight) and, say "horror film nut" (for being able to fight calmly against an obvious monster like a RCV, or for trying ridiculous stunts with a "well, it worked in the movies!" quip) - that's three very different aspects, two of them mostly non-combat, all of which can be - in some circumstances - tagged for straight up combat bonuses.

119
DFRPG / Re: A House Rule For Social Combat
« on: June 01, 2012, 09:16:26 PM »
While I'm not going to claim that Killer Blow is a great, or even a good power, I think you're missing an unspoken benefit to the power, in that it allows you to spend a Fate point to boost an attack without invoking an aspect.

Nope, didn't miss that.  I just don't buy it as something that's relevant - if you're invested enough in combat ability to spend a refresh on a stunt like Killer Blow, you should have a decent supply of relevant aspects.  Worst case scenario, spend a fate point to declare some environmental advantage and use the free tag off of that; unless you've already burned 3+ fate points on your attack, there should be no problem with that.

120
DFRPG / Re: A House Rule For Social Combat
« on: May 31, 2012, 10:30:04 PM »
And what exactly is your problem with Killer Blow? +3 stacked on top of whatever other damage bonuses you have (like Lethal Weapon or a Strength power) seems like a pretty alright deal to me.

The problem with Killer Blow is that, in most circumstances, you're better off not taking the stunt.  With the stunt, you can spend a fate point for +3 shifts on a hit.  Without the stunt, you can spend a fate point for +2 accuracy - and then, because you have one fewer stunts, spend another fate point for another +2 accuracy, for a total of +4 accuracy instead of +3 weapon rating.  (Now, you can contrive circumstances where it's better to have it than not, generally involving large piles of fate points and limited available aspects to tag.  But it's usually a bad choice.)

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