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Messages - Oblyss

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DFRPG / Re: How would you represent a "Good Bob" v "Evil Bob" Power?

« on: February 09, 2013, 01:55:30 AM »

Quote from: Tedronai on February 09, 2013, 01:29:41 AM

Not entirely accurate. It can't raise social or knowledge skills, but that's not entirely the same as 'only being able to raise physical skills'. Sadly, skills aren't so neatly divided, let alone into a mere three categories.

I'd say you could just make a GM exception on that rule. My GM already did with intimidation saying it didn't make sense you transform into a huge beast and can't become more intimdiating. But it's just a clean little way to make it work I think, even if you have to customize it up some. Dunno.

DFRPG / Re: How would you represent a "Good Bob" v "Evil Bob" Power?

« on: February 08, 2013, 11:43:24 PM »

Maybe beast change and just rename it "Alternate personality", switching up the skills and aspects to fit the other personality more.

DFRPG Resource Collection / Re: Custom Powers Master List (Work In Progress)

« on: February 08, 2013, 04:06:51 AM »

Quote from: Sanctaphrax on February 08, 2013, 02:47:33 AM

There is a Sponsor Power on the list already, for what it's worth. It's not very nicely formatted though.

I think Unlimited Blade Works needs something extra. Any ideas? I'm not familiar with the source material, so I don't know what's appropriate.

As for Reality Marble, how about this:

REALITY MARBLE [-1]
Description: You can travel to a magical sub-universe of your own creation and drag other people with you.
Skills affected: Conviction, others.
Effects:
Reality Marble. As an action, you may spend a Fate Point to enter your Reality Marble. If you wish to bring other people with you, you may roll your Conviction skill. Then every other character within a zone is forced to enter your Reality Marble with you unless they beat your roll with a defense roll using Conviction or Athletics. People drawn into the Marble remain there until you decide to send everyone back or get knocked unconscious. However, you can't keep people longer than the time indicated by adding your Conviction roll to "half a minute" on the time chart.
Different Rules [-varies]. The laws of physics are somehow different in your Marble. Negotiate the effects and costs of this upgrade with your GM. Examples to come.

That looks pretty good. As for other things with Unlimited Blade Works I don't know, I'm about to watch the Unlimited Blade Works movie in a couple days so I may have something then. Maybe with Unlimited Blade Works it gets a duration boost automatically? That would fit in line with the power, it's meant to be fired for extended durations in rapid fire.

As for reality marble itself, that looks like a good write up. It's also an ability that is supposed to be different for each person using it. So it might cost differently based on the abilities it goes with in it, which I think is what you have in different rules and would work perfectly.

One other reality marble I remember off the top of my head,(wasn't technically an RM I think but it more or less is one) is a giant Roman theater where the user's attacks bypass all armor. So I guess it'd be a -4 cost in line with Mystic Eyes of Death Perception for that one.

Quote from: Hick Jr on February 08, 2013, 03:19:28 AM

Would Reality Marble be adujudicated similarly to Reality Warper, but only while you're inside the marble? I could see it as just Reality Warper or Demesne with a bunch of upgrades, and a Cassandra's Tears-esque ability to place world aspects, like THE NAZIS WON, DINOSAURS EVERYWHERE, or OLD WORLD OF DARKNESS.

I'm not familiar with reality warper but yeah, it's only in effect while inside the Reality Marble. They are really fun 'worlds'. They tend to look more like a giant stage than actual planets or such, good for dramatic fights.

The Unlimited Blade Works reality marble is just a barren wasteland with and endless amount of swords stabbed into the ground in crooked angles, with massive metal gears turning in the sky. Here's the two picture examples of UBW and the other one I mentioned a second ago.

Unlimited Blade Works:
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120508175621/typemoon/images/b/bf/UBW.jpg

Aestus Domus Aurea:
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110325200829/typemoon/images/thumb/e/e9/Aestus.jpg/1000px-Aestus.jpg

The way they tend to work, is like a Demesne except they have one specific thing they do normally. So the World Aspects would have to be set up ahead of time when you first take the ability. Though you could possibly change the Reality marble later, it would have to be a certain amount of sessions later and maybe after one of your aspects had changed. The marbles are supposed to be physical constructs of your inner self or something. I am speaking fairly loosely on them but I believe it's correct.

So someone's reality marble might be a case of them having ton of speed, toughness, and recovery, and flight abilities in in a world without light.

DFRPG Resource Collection / Re: Custom Powers Master List (Work In Progress)

« on: February 07, 2013, 02:39:57 PM »

Quote from: crusher_bob on February 07, 2013, 06:57:15 AM

No, I'm saying that if you are just going to use the power 90%+ for the attack/block/maneuver that evocation can already do, and use it to 'make' relatively normal weapons that you can hand out to your friends (some sort of thaumaturgy at evocation speeds) then the power is fine as just 'sponsored magic'.

So, the parts of the power that you can't do with that power already should be the ones you spend all the time and rules effort on.

I see, I hadn't slept when I wrote that post so I'm not surprised I misunderstood something.

Quote from: crusher_bob on February 07, 2013, 06:57:15 AM

For example, the the 'reality marble' just an excuse to have fight where you can throw huge gouts of fire at each other and not damage the countryside? May be best implemented as a genre convention of the game, not a specific power.

Or can you do other things with it?
Examples I can think of:
Store stuff in it. even large things, like, say boats, automobiles, or minions and then take them out when you need them.

Act as a barrier to escape, so that once someone is in it, they have to deal with you?

Act as a maneuver generation engine, that doesn't have the stress limitations of evocation (i.e. something like the 'incite effect' power)?

----------------

The reality marble, as with the rest of the custom ability, is just a power I'd really like and my attempt to define it in a balanced manner in game terms. The gouts of fire aren't specifically something I desire, but they are a part of the power itself. And they work as just a simple show of illusion magic that last a short second as a byproduct of the use of the ability. The ability more specifically transports everyone in the vicinity to a wide open battlefield with no hiding spots, and is a form of Demesne. Though I wasn't sure how to balance a demesne trap in refresh.

And yeah, you nailed it in one of the questions. Once someone is inside of it, it should be crazy difficult to escape and yes they have to deal with me. I'm not positive I understand you on the maneuver generation engine part, I haven't dealt with incite effects much at all.

Quote from: crusher_bob on February 07, 2013, 06:57:15 AM

----------------

Now that I think of it, writing up 'magical sponsor' as a power which adds onto magical powers and replaces 'sponsored magic' may help clean up the rules a little bit. This also allows you have sponsors which are more powerful (and costs points) or sponsors that suck somehow (and give you back points).

This also removes the odd cost difference of sponsored magic when you do or don't already have other magic powers.

Well it's supposed to be an ability that gives you the means of casting magic to summon blades instantly, so if you don't already have evocation and thaumaturgy it cost more, but if you have them already then you get a rebate. I wasn't the one who suggested that part.

DFRPG Resource Collection / Re: Custom Powers Master List (Work In Progress)

« on: February 07, 2013, 06:28:16 AM »

Quote from: Sanctaphrax on February 07, 2013, 03:42:11 AM

Looks interesting, but your formatting and wording are giving me trouble.

Is this the same as what you wrote?

UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS [-4]
Description: You can call up weapons from a magical realm inside your soul.
Sponsor: This magic is self-sponsored.
Agenda: As self-sponsored magic, this power lacks an agenda. Compels from its debt generally involve brutal headaches or one's magic going haywire.
Evocation: Unlimited Blade Works Evocations take the the form of spectral swords that appear from nowhere.
Thaumaturgy: Unlimited Blade Works rituals can be used to conjure weapons.
Evothaum: Unlimited Blade Works allows its user to conjure weapons with Evocation's speed and methods.
Extra Benefits: Unlimited Blade Works allows its user to use rituals to create temporary Items of Power. The complexity of such rituals is set by the GM.

If so, seems kinda weak.

I think it might be fair to include the Reality Marble in Unlimited Blade Works.

Reality Marble would make a pretty cool stand-alone Power though. We'd just need to define the process of entering the world and its duration a bit more. Might be worth including some clear advantages for being in your own marble too.

PS: If anyone has any ideas for making Limitation clearer, I'd like to hear them. I'm mostly talking to Lavecki, but everyone's welcome to contribute.

Sorry about the formatting, and yeah that looks like it more or less. I was trying not to make it too crazy. And yeah, I think Reality Marble is worth being it's own power. Maybe a -1 cost on it? And reality marbles should do different things for everyone. One version of a Reality Marble, or rather something similar to one, set up a world where the user's attacks bypassed all defenses. That's just an example though, so I suppose that sort of thing should cost differently from power to power. That one specifically would probably be -4 to match Mystic eyes of death perception.

Quote from: crusher_bob on February 07, 2013, 04:43:59 AM

What utility effects that you can't 'copy' rules wise with evocation/thaumaturgy did you want out of unlimited blade works?

For example, can I generate several weapons, give them out to all my friends and stage the most well armed prison break in history?

That's something that 'sword themed evocation' can't accomplish.

Sure you can. It's just different flavor for the same ability and simplifying the mechanical description.

Instead of bothering to calculate the cost of summoning swords that are only going to be used in an attack in a summoning ritual, you just do a basic spirit attack. If you are planning on arming a bunch of people with swords, you would do a ritual to summon swords instead of an attack.

Quote from: crusher_bob on February 07, 2013, 04:43:59 AM

That's something that 'sword themed evocation' can't accomplish. Then, the next question to ask is, "is this usage of the power going to be a one off thing, which could be modeled by using fate points for temporary access to a power, or something that happens often?"

So, as an example, White Court vampires technically have access to some sort of domination/long term mental control through their powerset. If we look at Tomas as a PC, how often has he used this? Never. So it probably shouldn't appear on his character sheet.

So, when writing up a custom power, you should be thinking along the lines of, 'what will it be used to do 90% of the time?' Then, you can add expansions of the power-set that are there for people who use uncommon applications of the power on a regular basis.

Are you referring to the reality marble or the power as a whole? Of course I plan on using it as much as possible, though not on random thugs of course.(both) I was just trying to balance the Reality Marble around being able to trap enemies in a 'Faux Demesne' for a fight.

DFRPG Resource Collection / Re: Custom Powers Master List (Work In Progress)

« on: February 06, 2013, 12:33:24 PM »

I noticed Tracing on the list, and I've been working on a similar ability to it.

I've been trying to work it up from Tracing to Unlimited Blade Works, at first I thought it'd be too silly but then I thought about it and decided it'd work just fine.

Currently here's the basic write-up of it.

(click to show/hide)

Sponsored Magic(from self): Tracing

Cost: -4 (rebate of +1 per Thaumaturgy, or Evocation purchased.)

Debt: The user's magic goes haywire in some way, or they receive mental consequences at GM compel usually in the form of horrible headaches.

Effects: Allows the user to use summoning magic with evocation speed. Can summon any weapon they've seen, though Items of Power copies have significantly reduced effectiveness(Exact amount at GM's discretion, ranging from minor reduction, to reduction of being just another sword. Most likely a fate point requirement to summon such items and only last for one scene. Such items also have a shift cost requirement proportional to how powerful they are.)

Power:
[-0] Unlimited Blade Works: The user can summon an unlimited number of swords from thin air, and fire them like a rain of projectiles as long as they may cast spells. These swords are spirit based spell attacks and do as much damage as they are granted shifts in power. They are also quite capable of firing at extended durations if given the power in shifts for the duration. (Basically just a reflavoring of a basic spirit attack to be swords, probably also affects Faerie catches. This is a benefit but I don't think it's worth a -1 refresh. The swords are all Weapon: 3 if generic, though they do more shifts of damage by firing lots of them at once, or you could say you summoned a very big one the size of a car for a 8 shift attack.)

Power Addon:
Name: Reality Marble - Unlimited Blade Works
[-2] The user is now able to create a Reality Marble, a magical personal world of their own making and summon everyone in their vicinity inside of it through an illussionary explosion of flames at the cost of a fate point and one supplemental action of reciting a prayer. This world is effectively their Demesne, though it is more static than a normal one making it impossible to make free declarations on the environment and such, though control over less overt things might be possible. The Reality Marble can not be sustained for long periods of time. It can only be activated via a vocal prayer. This is not a method of true escape, as where ever they entered this Reality Marble they will appear once it runs out of energy, as well as any dead bodies or corporeal objects inside of it.
(Possibly, for this reality marble Unlimited Blade Works cost no shifts of energy or mental stress while inside of it, though you must still roll to control it as normal or risk fallout with swords being fired like a machine gun. In this case, you would have to spend your mental stress and energy instead on keeping the reality marble functioning, and when your mental stress box was full, it would deteriorate. Or you could choose to end it early. If instead, Unlimited Blade Works does cost shifts of energy, then the Marble is free but still deteriorates when you are unable to cast any more spells as your energy well is dried up.)

Specialty:
Provides a bonus of +1 to power and frequency of crafting.

Here's what I have of it so far, and I've pretty much just lumped some of the things from Tracing onto it such as making permanent swords through a crafting roll. I haven't gotten around to adding them to the description yet. The sponsored magic idea was from someone else on the forum I found while searching for it.

DFRPG / Re: Are all Aspects made equal?

« on: February 05, 2013, 07:23:27 PM »

Quote from: Deadmanwalking on February 05, 2013, 07:20:47 PM

Yeah. A mechanically ideal combat round of five PCs vs one enemy in DFRPG usually consists of everyone except the hardest hitter making Maneuvers or Assessments and maybe Declarations, then passing all their tags to the heavy hitter. That can easily be 4-8 Aspects on a single attack.

The same is true of minions teaming up on PCs. Aspect stacking is powerful and dangerous in Fate.

Huh I didn't know about that combat tactic, I've only messed with maneuvers a little bit so far. That can lead to some crazy shift spells.

DFRPG / Re: Are all Aspects made equal?

« on: February 05, 2013, 07:12:38 PM »

Quote from: tzizimine on February 05, 2013, 07:07:53 PM

So, if I'm understanding it right, the issue of severity that I'm concerned with is a matter of 'duration'.

Short term aspects would be things that would be applied as maneuvers.
Injury based ones would be based on the appropriate Consequence slot.
Ones that from characters / locations are permanent.

But, using a scene specific / zone specific aspect (like ON FIRE vs. SMOKE-FILLED ROOM) would only be different in what it could effect, since both are only going to last for as long as this scene.

Sounds like experienced GM's use situations where aspects 'stack'... like a SMOKE-FILLED ROOM and ON FIRE combine to either 2 compels or a +4 die bonus?

I'd say the severity is both duration and how open the aspect is for compel. If it's an aspect that can be compelled against you with just about everything you do, that's different than one of equal standing that only gets compelled at certain times.

Let's say you have two moderate consequences. HURT LEG and CONCUSSION. The hurt leg might only get compelled when you go to run or stand, where as the Concussion might get compelled from trying to stand... trying to see... trying to reason a situation out.

So even if they are both moderate consequences one is definitely worse than the other.

Quote

Sounds like experienced GM's use situations where aspects 'stack'... like a SMOKE-FILLED ROOM and ON FIRE combine to either 2 compels or a +4 die bonus?

Yeah pretty much, players can do this too. I've stacked multiple aspects to get one spell off, along with tagging scene aspects getting up to +6 and such.

DFRPG / Re: Are all Aspects made equal?

« on: February 05, 2013, 06:36:19 PM »

I'd say there's a clear difference between Sprained and Broken aspect-wise, as one would be connected to a mild consequence, and the other to a moderate. (May be mixing up the exact levels but the difference is clear)

And then because of the severity difference it would be a lot easier to compel the broken aspect, on top of it lasting longer than the sprained one.

And for more character type aspects, I'd say no they aren't all equal. One aspect might be worded in such a way no one ever figures out how to use/compel it, or it just has such a short scope of use that it almost never gets used.

DFRPG / Re: Coming to Terms With Summoning and Binding

« on: February 05, 2013, 02:37:26 PM »

Quote from: Crion on January 30, 2013, 06:56:49 PM

Actually, I was looking over the Refresh Values of the stuff in Fate Core, and realized that the refresh ratings give you the ONE element/ritual without the item slots (basically, sans Refinement), so the numbers actually make sense.

The summoning rules basically dictate that the highest skill the summoned being has was your difficulty to summon the entity if I remember correctly. It, of course, did not factor in powers and whatnot, and makes the summoning of a "weak" creature very easy, which could work for Binder's goons (as they were one-shotted with maybe a skill rating of +1 or even +2, relying on sheer numbers to succeed).

I have two problems with these rules: the first is that it can make it very easy to summon a one-trick pony, but it also makes said one-trick pony a viable tool for a short period of time. The second makes it difficult to scale a more powerful entity, as it doesn't include the powers loadout.

Perhaps the difficulty for a short-term summoning should be Highest Skill + Refresh of Powers? While it may not be as difficult as "taking out" the target, it does leave leeway for increased diffficulties for longer tracks of time, specific commands, etc.

One of the reasons I'm even considering this: I'm running a game at an anime convention, and one of the other GMs mentioned I should watch a few newer series, one of them being Fate/Zero. I'm now trying to determine how to get one of the Servants summoned to work within this game without making the servant a second PC.

That's actually a really fun idea. I was already looking at making a summoned minion follower based on those house rules that were linked. That sort of thing would be neat to go with my character's new direction. I think the house rules linked fit just fine for it, as Servants are supposed to require a lot of power to summon them. Normally the load is being carried by the Holy Grail instead of the Master if I remember correctly.

DFRPG / Re: Cognitive dissonance? It's never what you expect the game to be.

« on: February 05, 2013, 01:08:54 PM »

Quote from: fantazero on February 04, 2013, 10:07:36 PM

this a thousand times this. Nothing sucks worse than having to take back seat to Pet Npcs, Characters from the book or anything thats not a PC being awesome

I agree with you quite a bit, though I don't think it's always bad to have an NPC show up and save you. I mean, Dresden shows up and saves the day a lot, but he also ends up requiring saving a lot as well. So as long as you balance it out I think it works out, and can give the players a Brothers in Arms sort of feeling with the NPCs if they are always saving each other out of messy situations here and there. As long as it's not one sided. But yeah I totally agree, I want the players to get to feel awesome.

I mean how would your players feel in this sort of situation: Tell your players, "There's a man shooting fire at a bunch of ghouls and getting kicked around a block away, he looks in trouble." The players save the guy and he says, "Hell's bells, that was a close one. Thanks for the help guys, I thought I was a goner for a minute there. Name's Harry Dresden."

That's really how my friend described the Dresden novels to me anyway when they got me reading them. "Dresden gets beat up: The books."

Personally, my GM hasn't used any named characters from the novels yet.

DFRPG / Re: Newbie to the game: Non-Evil Necromancer

« on: February 03, 2013, 12:07:26 PM »

Quote from: Mrmdubois on February 02, 2013, 10:47:06 PM

A grey knight exists in all kinds of literature, you just have to slap the title onto the myths, legends or literature that you're drawing from. Lancelot was a grey knight, King Arthur's strongest, most loyal and also incredibly flawed for example. I might be misunderstanding what you mean when you say grey though, elaborate please?

No I believe you understood perfectly, and that's a great idea. I didn't think about just giving titles to existing lore. Your example actually fits in really well with my plan for this title's position. Arthurian legend is one of my favorites, and was the one I had in mind. I was sort of thinking of The Grey Knight being Camelot's version of their "Winter Knight". Of course they have a number of knights just hanging on every corner. There would be the knights of the round table who answer only to Arthur, and are considered the most noble of his knights. And then his Grey Knight is more of his personal enforcer, and considered the least noble, though still is forced to follow Arthur's code of valor unless specifically ordered otherwise.

And I'd say for fun's sake they are considered one of the knights of the round as well. That's the basic idea I've got now anyway. It'd also help lead my character away from the kemmler history they have might make the Council a little less freaked out, somewhat.

Edit: Yeah cool, thanks a bunch Mrmdubois. My Gm seems on board with this Grey Knight idea now. We worked out most the details on why and how it'll happen, except for why my char will agree to it.

DFRPG / Re: Newbie to the game: Non-Evil Necromancer

« on: February 02, 2013, 03:46:43 PM »

Quote from: Mrmdubois on January 23, 2013, 11:30:46 AM

That would still seem to allow you to pull ideas from Mort and Susan.

Yeah but my GM wasn't really interested in the ideas I'm afraid and it just wasn't sounding as neat at the point, but I've been talking to them about other ideas and I think we're close to settling on one.

I still have to talk to them but I think I have a 'winner' idea this time, as in one they'll accept. We just gotta hammer out some details, which at this point I am not concerned about and the GM can rule what they like and I will just be happy to have an idea done.

I'm still not 100% on the main idea, but currently I am thinking one of these two ideas.

The Grey Knight
The Black Knight

The GM wants something with some lore backing it, otherwise I would jump at the Grey Knight idea, it just sounds great to me. The black knight is fun too, but I've just leaned more towards the whole "Grey" theme in recent years. Sadly, there's just nothing in legend about something like that, so my GM probably won't be up for it, I'll have to wait and see later today. Though The Black Knight on the other hand has a decent bit of legends and historical value to them. And even in the legends it was more of a title than a person, so that's a plus.

One problem is, what kind of job would either of these knights have. Who would be their boss?

Well there's all sorts of ways to go with that, maybe the Erlking, or maybe they don't have an existing boss, and instead have a longterm mission.

Maybe it's the mantle of a longdead court and they are the new protector, or ruler, of it and it's their mission to resurrect the court. In a sort of "Hey kid, here's a burnt down Denny's restaurant, if you fix it it's yours." Sort of deal. Just some thoughts on one way it could go.

And on the Item of Power, I found a great one to go with whatever sort of Knight I make. One I never hear mentioned much but I think sounds really neat to use, "The Vorpal Blade". And I'd love to hear any stat suggestions on that.

Thank you again, for all the various input thus far!

DFRPG / Re: Newbie to the game: Non-Evil Necromancer

« on: January 22, 2013, 04:32:46 PM »

Hah, yeah I can see it. I might have to pick up the Discworld stuff next after I finish Side Jobs. Audio books makes school work a lot more bearable.

Edit: Welp nevermind. My Gm had already approved the idea when I asked "So my char can be the new death?" but is now saying it's not what they intended from the start, so probably just scratching the entire thing. Mechanically it's the same thing, but they are just figuring on my char being labeled a servant of Death. And my GM isn't one to compromise.

DFRPG / Re: Newbie to the game: Non-Evil Necromancer

« on: January 21, 2013, 04:49:51 AM »

Quote from: Haru on January 21, 2013, 04:42:53 AM

Actually, the story from the book would make for a great introduction to death for your character.

(click to show/hide)
Mort is supposed to take a beautiful young woman, but instead he falls in love with her and spares her life. Since she was supposed to die, reality starts collapsing around them.

Oh, and the name is a variation on the German word "Mord", I think, meaning "murder". I'm not sure Pratchett intended that, but it's still a cool fact, I think.

Oh, there is also "Reaper Man" from Pratchett, where Death is sent into retirement. There are quite a few cool things there, that might give you some ideas as well.

That's all really interesting hah, wow. Will definitely have to look into it thanks.

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