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Messages - pogoman

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DFRPG / Re: What's the most munchkin character you can build?
« on: May 17, 2010, 04:57:00 AM »
Are you serious?
A) ??? Is an Char unrealistic who only works 8 hours per month? Because of too much work? Then any normal mortal who didnt won in the lottery is unrealistic?
B) Do you think he can use the "Army" only for fighting, because I wrote Army there? He can have the right tool for the right job every time he wants it. Scouting, no Problem. Fighting, no Problem. Information gathering, no Problem. Fast talkin, no Problem. Going to jail for you (Go to the Police and make an "I did it" statement), no Problem. And so on...
C) ??? The Chars in you game dont have 8 uninterupted hours in an month?
And even then, he coud divide those 8 hours in sixteen half hours and summon and bind creatures before he goes to bed.


"A" and "C" have nothing to do with the time investment being too much, and everything to do with a character whose response to a threat is to summon an army.  As has been pointed out other places, there are game (not necessarily system, mind you, although their could be) ramifications to summoning and binding large numbers of creatures routinely.  And you missed my point on the time investment, because what I was saying was that I don't routinely give my players 8 uninterrupted hours during an adventure with which to do whatever they want.  Time constraints are king.  If there's an evil warlock trying to complete a magic ritual, he's likely got a time-frame.  And the player may not HAVE 8 hours to spend before they need to stop him.

In your other example, if he's summoning creatures before bed what is he doing with them in the meantime?  Do they just sit around his apartment?  Watch some TV?  Do the neighbors notice something weird?  Landlady? What if aforementioned Warlock can tell something weird is going on, and calls in a tip to the police who show up with a warrant?  Do his summoned beasts need to eat?  Honestly, the comic potential for having a dozen unruly summoned creatures in your apartment... well, it boggles the mind.  As a GM I'd salivate over the chance to mess with a character that way.  It would just be too funny.

I think his point is that they won’t have time to do it in an adventure. And personally, I’d say this kind of constant mass binding is probably about as likely to get you dead as a single big-thing binding. Every non-bound critter in the city will constantly be trying to kill you, just so you don’t enslave them someday.

^-This.  I actually think exploring the story ramifications could be cool, though, so I have no problem with a character summoning a ton of creatures.  I'm just pointing out that it could cause massive problems for the character.

As for being able to tailor the army to whatever you want, that's true to a point.  But I hold that it makes things too simplistic.  Again, if you're not putting a character under any sort of time constraint, the problem is simpler than it would be.  Or if you put them in situations where there is a clear foe to defeat.  Even scouting won't help if you don't know what you're actually looking for and have to deal with surly bound creatures who aren't inclined to exercise initiative on your behalf.  Remember how Grimalkin hates being bound by Harry in SK?  Think about that times 100.  And god help you if you summon a creature and force it to divulge information without payment.  It may then decide to come back later to collect, or sell your "debt" to something a lot stronger.

I mean, c'mon, does anything LIKE being called out of wherever they were and told to do stuff?  Without payment?  Or, if it DID want to be summoned, would it go back nicely afterwards?  And if you're playing them, then the GM has an in to limit your summoning to something... manageable.  If not, you may have just summoned a new villain for your character.  Or army of villains.

But this is all really about GMing style.  My bottom line is I think summoning an army is totally awesome, and I'm glad you can do it within the rules.  I just think that it provides so many story-based hooks and downsides that it's impractical to use regularly.

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DFRPG / Re: What's the most munchkin character you can build?
« on: May 14, 2010, 07:41:50 PM »
Quote from: Korwin

But lets drop the matter of uber-powerfull summons for the moment. Does nobody see a problem with summoning an Army?
100 hundred magical constructs on the powerlevel of an Hellhound? (little more of 8 hours nonstop summoning and binding).
Its not as problematic as the mass summoning of Powerfull Things and workable. But its hard on the overpowered mark.


I'd also like to throw out the idea that any character who routinely spends 8 hours summoning and binding an army is A) not being played realistically, B) being given problems that are too simplistic (and thus CAN be solved just by summoning a giant army), and C) is being given far too much time to deal with their problems.

Although I suppose I should add that I personally don't have a problem with the fact that the rules allow for a character who can summon an army.  Why?  Because that's freaking awesome.  It shouldn't be anything that a (player) character can do on the fly every day, but once in a blue moon when the situation gets bad?  Yeah.  Heck, if I were a GM, I'd be willing to plot an entire adventure around putting their character in a position to do that.  Just to allow the player/character to have that shining moment of awesome, the kind that you still talk about months later.  Character should be allowed to be super-powerful occasionally, whether by burning a metric ton of fate points or by cashing in on the powers they spent their refresh on.

Also, it might be cool to make this a chance to show exactly how far a character will go to get something.  What does it take to force your character into a situation where they cash in all 100 True Names they've spent years gathering?  How much debt will they take?  Will the bound creatures try to take revenge later?  Something on this scale would probably be worth an aspect change.

So bottom line: summoning an army could be fantastic character development, as well as completely awesome conceptually.  And there are some very good reasons why it'll be difficult to do it with any sort of regularity.  So I'm on the side that says it's not a problem.

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DFRPG / Re: As Many Templates as I Could Fit on One Character...
« on: May 10, 2010, 01:14:46 PM »
I had been wondering just how many templates you could fit on a character but hadn't tried to do it myself! Would be so confusing to play as though!

Confusing to PLAY as?  Imagine what it must be like for poor Thor!  That's precisely why his Trouble is what it is.   ;D

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DFRPG / As Many Templates as I Could Fit on One Character...
« on: May 09, 2010, 02:58:43 AM »
I grew curious about how many templates I could logistically fit on a single character at submerged.  I believe it may be possible to throw on another... perhaps with an Item of Power instead of one of my -2 refresh templates?  Regardless, I found this a funny exercise.  Even if no GM worth their salt should EVER allow this for real.


Name: Thor Badass McAwesome

High Concept: Half-Troll Red Court Infected Kinetomancer Raith Virgin Emissary of the Cruel Fates

Trouble: Everyone wants (and has!) a piece of me!

Background, in which Thor is conceived: Aspect "My White-Court Mother Loved a Troll"

Rising Conflict, in which Thor is turned half-Red and is offered by the White Court to the Cruel Fates as a sign of friendship (and censure of him for allowing himself to be turned half-red): Aspect "Better Red than Dead, But Better Dead than a Slave to the Fates"

First Novel, Pick Your Poison, in which Thor becomes the center of a four-way power struggle between the Summer Court, the Red Court, The White Court, and the little-known Court Court (allies of the Fates): Aspect "YOU CAN ALL GO TO HELL." 
Thor also changes his last name from "Raith" to "McAwesome" in this phase.  A change, I feel, for the better.

Guest Novel, in which Thor does something badass: Aspect "My Middle Name is Badass!"

Guest Novel, in which Thor helps a pretty girl: "...but I'm still a sensitive, caring man who can only accidentally kill you about five different ways while weeping Cassandra's Tears."

Powers:
Inhuman Strength (-2)
Channelling (Spirit, -2)
Cassandra's Tears (+0)
Emotional Vampire (-1)
Incite Emotion (Lust, -1)
Marked By Power (-1)
Addictive Saliva (-1)
Blood Drinker (-1)
Feeding Dependency (+1)
Inhuman Recovery (-2) with the catch being Sunlight, holy stuff, his belly, and unawesomeness (+1)

Total Refresh = 1 (submerged power level)

Skills:

Great (+4): Discipline, Deceit, Contacts
Good (+3): Fists, Conviction, Lore
Fair (+2): Alertness, Athletics, Investigation, Endurance
Average (+1): Driving, Empathy, Guns, Might, Scholarship, Stealth

Templates Used: Changeling, Emissary of Power, Focused Practitioner, Minor Talent, Red Court Infected, White Court Virgin

So. Anyone want to take up Thor?  Perhaps in a less... serious... game.

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DFRPG / Magical Healing
« on: April 14, 2010, 10:29:11 PM »
So one of the uses for Seelie Magic is being able to cast "healing" at evocation speed.  Unfortunately, I only found one example of a healing spell, and I'm a little confused on what the difficulty would be to cast one.  What would you need to do to remove the higher consequences?  Also: would you pick an element for your healing spell?  Or do focus items simply not apply?

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DFRPG / Re: Enchanted Items Patch - Important, holy crap!
« on: April 12, 2010, 06:04:29 PM »
I just want to be perfectly clear on this point:

I buy a refinement.  I can either get 2 specializations, 2 focus items, or 4 enchanted item slots.  If I spend a specialization on crafting frequency, it now ups frequency for all my enchanted items by 2.  If I get a focus item crafting frequency, it ups frequency for all my enchanted items by 2 (and I'm assuming I don't need the focus item on me at the time for this to work, although I could be wrong).  If I add an enchanted item slot to an existing item, I can up the frequency by 1.  So all are equivalent bonuses, correct (except that with multiple items a focus or specialization would be "worth more" than a single item slot)?

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