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Messages - dragoonbuster

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196
DFRPG / Re: Trying to implement magic from outside sources.
« on: July 22, 2015, 04:49:45 PM »
There's a good deal of wiggle room in there, especially since faith is so intimately entwined with the Voodoo magics.

I'll refer to both YS pg 249 and Harry's explanations (If I had books/pg numbers I'd list them) where it is clear that you can mix faith with magic without intrinsically changing the nature of the magic. If your faith wavers, and you've entwined your faith and magic together, then your magic won't work. That's all easily handled with compels.

Like I said, you could work in custom or standard True Faith powers if you want, but there's nothing in the Dresdenverse magical canon that says for whatever reason Voodoo is the exception to thaumaturgic themes and requires extra powers.

Unless my knowledge of Voodoo is lacking some wide gap and there's some integral mechanical part to it that can't be modeled by Thaumaturgy?

197
DFRPG / Re: Trying to implement magic from outside sources.
« on: July 22, 2015, 04:22:00 PM »
Number 2 is a magic I expected to see within Dresden but not covered the almighty Voodoo. Now Voodoo from what me and my friends have tried to figure out is a real head scratcher. Voodoo has heavy influence on your faith and what Loas you believe in which provides your list of powers in a sense. It also offers the temptation of dark magic via voodoo dolls for domination and such. So a simple one but how would you work it? Issue we have is how to tie in a sort of faith power mechanic to leads to you being able to do some funky magic tricks.

I don't see any need for True Faith there...you could add it in, if you want, but it's not necessary. Harry's said more than once that your magic works how you think it should...if you think must have faith, think you must have a shrunken head to do X, think must have cock's blood and St. John's Wort for Y, then you need it. Those are all simply trappings of your thaumaturgy. There's nothing that voodoo does that you can't do with Thaumaturgy.

198
He has sponsored magic (we're calling it Phoenix Fire) that's sort of a modified version of Seelie Magic. This type of sponsored magic gives him fire, air, and spirit spells, and biomancy at the speed of evocation. It has "themes" like balance, growth, renewal, and rebirth. 

3 different elements given from one Sponsored Magic is probably too many for only -4 refresh. If you look, most sponsored magics grant one, maybe at most 2 if you broadly interpret them.

1. Does biomancy break the law of magic about transforming if you're only repairing or renewing the natural processes of a body? Such as closing a bullet wound or, maybe, regrowing a severed limb at the extreme? This isn't biomancy that transforms a person into a fish or anything. It's very similar to the Reiki/Healing Touch thing Elaine did in the books, I think. Did that break the laws of magic?

Elaine basically was "helping" bloodflow and manipulating chakra points, pushing a little extra with her magic, not really doing much "healing" as it were in terms of direct tissue manipulation with magic.

Technically that's a grey area, and a zealous Warden would technically be in his rights to perform a head-ectomy, if he has jurisdiction over the PC under the Accords. I generally interpret that Law to require the magic to be "against their will or when you screw up." As long as you don't screw up, and you don't transform them against their will (even healing, if they don't want it, would count here), then you're fine. Of course, the more you do this, the more you're inclined to go to that solution first for your problems...so the GM should be compelling one of your PC's aspects (and you should self-compel) to push in that direction whether you've broken a Law yet or not.

2. How do focus items work for sponsored magic? Using the fire magic part of Seelie Magic as the example, should it be a wand with a +1 offensive control Seelie Magic? OR +1 offensive control fire?

This is really a question for the table and your specific GM. Some people allow catch-all foci, some require them to be split between evocation/thaumaturgy...but then some thaumaturgy is done at evocation speed, so how is that calculated? It's not mentioned in the book at all, and there's no exactly right answer.

I tend to prefer to require separate foci for evocation and thaumaturgy; if using thaum-as-evocation then the evocation foci take precedence. Your setup is a little wonky because of the multiple-elements. It might be more appropriate/easier to combine characteristics of air, spirit, and fire into a new, single "Phoenix Fire" element.

199
DFRPG / Re: Faith Power Thoughts
« on: July 16, 2015, 12:59:05 AM »
A few thoughts:

- In my opinion, Righteousness or Holy Touch allows one to "bless" objects and make them Holy anyway. I wouldn't even require a FP unless it was mid-scene and fighting a demon you say something like "I land next to my golf bag and pick up my four iron--good thing I blessed it--and swing at the demon..." ((Dogma, anyone?)) A maneuver would also work for that case.

- I think giving the ability to make anything a temporary Sword of the Cross reduces the narrative power the Swords bring to the table. Champions of God tend to be pretty FP-laden in my experience, and I expect a person with this power to more or less have a Sword of the Cross (minus All Creatures) on them at any time. And given that they can make mundane items into Holy Weapons, they don't have the issue of trying to carry a big ol' Sword around in broad daylight. Pretty much everyone knows when a Knight walks into a room if he's got a Sword on him...this person would throw off no such warning to others.

- True Aim, IMO, is rather powerful--particularly when the PC also activates Righteousness--and I'm not a big fan of it being a common power in my games, but that's me.

- That said, it seems more or less balanced.


200
DFRPG / Re: Whats the final verdict on magic
« on: July 14, 2015, 06:30:45 PM »
I guess you could do that. I'd rather have them be thaumaturgy-only with specialists using evothaum, though.

Having started a game w/o mental evocations and allowing them partway through, I agree with this ^ wholeheartedly.


201
DFRPG / Re: Sense8 Characters (S1 Spoilers)
« on: July 14, 2015, 06:21:50 PM »
I've watched four episode of the series now and I think the round of inaction is probably a good idea, but another idea could be that the skill being borrowed is reduced to mediocre for one round instead. That said, I'll have to watch the rest of the series, see if the moment of confusion reduces/disappears once the characters get used to being sensates.

Not being a fan of inaction unless you've sacrificed your turn previously a la Riposte/Redirected Force/something similar, I think a Mediocre roll is more appropriate. It still gives you a shot, and you can still burn tags or FPs to get something done.

Absolute inaction is counter to FATE's concepts in my opinion.

202
DFRPG / Re: Automatic success
« on: July 14, 2015, 06:18:28 PM »
This situation sometimes develops in my games: PC has a Skill of 7 and is making a Declaration.  Since the default number is almost always Good (+3) to make, this means that an Aspect is almost automatically placed on a a scene or opponent. I'm thinking of house ruling that a die roll of -4 before modifications always fails, just to avoid automatic success ("There's no such thing as a 'sure thing' at my table, folks!").  Has this come up at your tables and if so, how do you deal with it?

- First, a skill cap of 7 is too high for PCs IMO, even in high-powered games, and is the main reason your issue comes up, but since you're mid-game:

- Good (+3) is never "automatic" in my book. Every declaration has to be weighed whether it is truly new and interesting to the scene before I even think about difficulty. My standard for what is interesting goes up as more declarations are made and/or Power Level/Skill Cap gets higher. A holy terror of a PC with a power level of 20 refresh and a bazillion skill points will have to work harder to find interesting enough things to come up with than a Chest-Deep character will.

- When you get into high power levels, forget the book's ruling on how to come up with difficulties. It's scaled to a different level. Ask yourself the likelihood of that declaration being true in that instance, and come up with a number based on that, then you can scale that up or down a point or three based on how interesting or funny it really is. If your likelihood of it being true is very high, and so you're coming up with numbers -4 and -5 from your players' skill cap...ask yourself again how interesting it really is.



- I actually don't like the Declaration mechanic. I liked it at first: "Cool, I get rewarded for being creative." Then I realized that what really happens is it gives less creative players a handicap. In my game, Declarations as a free action no longer provide a free tag unless you spend a FP to create them. If you spend a full action like you would with a maneuver, you get a free tag. Solved all my Declaration problems. This doesn't affect Thaumaturgy because outside of conflicts there's no practical difference between a "full" and "free" action.

203
DFRPG / Re: Has anyone used this power?
« on: July 10, 2015, 08:18:51 PM »
I saw this power in the Custom Powers master list. It seems perfect for my next character, but I'm worried it might be a little to strong. Has anyone used it in play?

Dream or Reality [-2]
For you the lines between Dream and Reality are blurred, so much so they are almost non-existant. You live just as much in the world of fantasy as you do on planet earth. You are able to bring your control of your Demesne into the mortal world. You are able to shape reality to your whim.
Skills Affected: Discipline
Musts: Demesne
Effects:
Sculpt Reality. You can alter reality as if you were in your personal Demesne, though not as freely as you would be able to in the Nevernever. You can roll Discipline to place scene aspects as normal, and can even use discipline to physically attack using the (now) mutable nature of the zone against your opponents. However, your attacks are all weapon: 0. Any change you make is impermanent, and reverts to its original state at the end of the scene, however, you may spend a fate point to make a change permanent (or more, at the GM's discretion).
Rapid Eye Movement. When you use this power your eyes flicker back and forth as if you were sleeping.
Illiteracy. You are unable to read, it is not because you do not know how, it is just that your brain is unable to correctly identify the symbols on the page. If you somehow loose access to this power, you will be able to read (if you were previously able to).
Improved Sculpting -1. Your attacks are now treated as Weapon: 2.
Powerful Sculpting -1. Your attacks are now treated as Weapon: 4, and any scene aspect you place is automatically made 'Sticky'.

I wouldn't let a PC take something like this. NPC-only power in my book.

This seems completely outside of Desdenverse physics, to me, to be able to reshape reality at a whim like it's your Demesne. Doing the equivalent to this with traditional Dresden magic could very quickly stack up to absurd difficulty even with thaumaturgy, let alone at evocation's speed/methods. I could only see a rare few god-level beings capable of it, and none have shown any kind of ability like that so far outside of their realm of influence (aka, Mab causing blizzards in July).

If one of my players wanted this I'd instead recommend taking Ritual: Transformation and Superior Transformation powers. You might also consider Ritual: Conjuration/Superior Conjuration instead, or take Thaumaturgy and one/both of those Superior casting abilities.


204
DFRPG / Re: Help my bad guy!
« on: July 08, 2015, 08:50:24 PM »
To be honest, I wouldn't let that work, for the following two reasons:

1: Black Court weaknesses.  I read this as being unable to cross thresholds without invitation - mundane running water is, after all, just another type of threshold.  Magical running water, though?  Not a threshold, not a problem.

2: I don't think you can conjure up a proper magic-blocking circle using magic.  Admittedly, there's nowhere in the books saying you can't... but consider how many times that sort of thing would've been useful to Harry ("Oh, look, monster of the week, let me burn a circle around it and then it'll be harmless"), and yet neither he nor any other wizard ever does it.  Even Shagnasty physically draws a circle around himself when he needs one.

So, that'd be my rulings on the matter.  Even if you decide to rule differently than I would on number one, the sorcerer should still have all his magic and be able to counterspell or otherwise retaliate regardless of the running-water-circle trick.  Of course, it is a pretty clever notion; if I had a player try that, I'd offer them a compel, to the tune of: "You think this should work, and the vampire's playing along hoping he can lure you in close and then suckerpunch you.  Buy off the compel to realize he's faking it, and you can get him to waste time trying to trick you.  Or accept the compel and be up a fate point."

I agree with #1 here; running water specifically is only an issue to beings who have to use ectoplasm for hold a physical construct together in the mortal world like Demons. Running water doesn't affect vampires, Fae, ghouls, etc.

We don't know how running water affects different kinds of magic, truthfully...it doesn't seem to affect Lea's/Fae magic. Harry, IIRC, only mentions running water affecting Mortal Magic...whether blampires use "mortal" magic or something else remains to be seen.

The compel works, but the running circle is a clever use of magic that's a grey area in terms of how possible it is. We know little of Water magic; it's totally foreign to Harry, remember. I'm fine with them using that narrative to erect a Block or Armor; being able to "create" a threshold on the fly works to me, it's just not the same kind of one created by more serious things like "a happy family lived in this house for fifty years." I think that's a reasonable way to go about it--if the player tries something like that just say "evocation can only accomplish so much" and treat it like a Block/Armor.

205
DFRPG / Re: Sense8 Characters (S1 Spoilers)
« on: July 08, 2015, 04:39:30 PM »
Yea, balance was a concern here.  The other cluster-mate in theory, mentally switches places or is in some sort of very basic autopilot.
Initially it's just accidentally tapping into each others' senses.  As it person A is listening to loud music on her headphones, and person B a continent away thinks his neighbors are playing loud music.  Or seeing a different person in the mirror.  A combat example early is when one of the sensates- a bus driver in Nairobi- is getting attacked in a rural village.  He accidentally calls upon a clustermate, a Chicago cop, who is able to fire a gun with much greater precision than the original sensate.  It's literally only a single action.  Meanwhile, the Nairobi driver briefly sees himself in the Chicago PD station.

The "weak" sharing seems more the function of compels and invokes of their "Sensate" ascpect. The "single action" skill use could be an invoke for effect to do a 1-time skill replacement roll. This sounds like how you'd invoke these abilities before taking the actual named Powers.

206
DFRPG / Re: Most memorable Aspects?
« on: July 07, 2015, 12:27:14 AM »
Had a player with a PC with "It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time". That was a fun one to compel.

207
DFRPG / Re: Whats the final verdict on magic
« on: July 01, 2015, 09:13:27 AM »
Magic is very powerful, but limited in its own ways, and just requires a different approach that other types of characters. There are plenty of other ways to build very powerful characters; each serves a different role than the other. Good GMing solves many of the problems magic can cause, and restrained role-playing solves the rest.

208
I'd just say "You can't have physical immunity," frankly. It's a broken power for PCs and I never allow straight "Immunity to Everything but X" -- I allows "Immunity to X" style powers.

If they have Human Form, then the powers attached to that are only available when in an obviously non-human form (which is the whole point of getting a rebate refresh). So "resting" form with toughness (or Immunity, if you must) all the time is great! Until they need to go to the store to buy bread or something, then an eight-foot juggernaut with purple skin and flaming hair (or whatever) is going to turn some heads.

209
DFRPG / Re: Faerie Conversations & Lying
« on: June 02, 2015, 05:29:04 PM »
While you can't predict exactly what the players will say and do, once you play with them for a while, you'll get a feel for how they approach such things and can plan accordingly. Before the conversation starts, consider what Maeve does want instead of what she doesn't want to reveal. Then come up with a way for her to say the literal truth that leads the players in the direction Maeve wants them to go. Have Maeve steer the conversation, like Aurora does in that book, to lead the players and their characters away from the topic Maeve wants to avoid.

Pretty much this. Figure out your Fae's objectives/motivations before the conversation.

Also, a lie by omission can be rolled with Deceit and then can trigger an Empathy defense. They won't know what she's lying about, but the players will know she's not saying something.

210
DFRPG / Re: Conspiracy Theories?
« on: June 01, 2015, 02:21:01 AM »
The Gatekeeper is Lovecraft.  You ever see the two of them in the same room?  Didn't think so.

Slightly off topic, related: In my game, I've named Lovecraft and Tolkein as wizards and Walt Disney as a warlock whom the Wardens have had to take out three times (he seems to keep coming back...).

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