Author Topic: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe  (Read 2824 times)

Offline Clotho19

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Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« on: June 21, 2010, 09:14:51 PM »
Although i love the dresden files, i must admit when it somes to the fae and the sidhe, i pefer merry gentry style fae and sidhe over all others. Am just curious how others would handle em in the dresden files. Whether you tink hands of power are a bit to strong, or would fit fine. And whether should go with the style of magic presented for the fae in DFRPG, i.e. sponsered magic, seelie and unseelie, or go with evocation and thaumaturgy. Glamours feel right so would keep that.

Am trying to combine the two, merry gentrys fae and dresden files fae, i.e. making the sithin's areas that are part of both the mortal world and the nevernever, allowing for the the three queens to remain, along with the Sidhe Knights, but painting the fae as beings that have lost much of their power over time, and are now trying to reclaim it. And of course, am painting the Sidhe as playable characters, but am having trouble making it work with the refresh levels, even submerged.

Anyone have any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

Offline EldritchFire

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2010, 12:38:15 AM »
Could you give us a bit of info on Merry Gentry-style sidhe? I'm unfamiliar with the reference.

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Offline Belial666

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2010, 01:07:08 AM »
@EldritchFire:
It's by Lauren Hamilton.



Look at Incite Emotion for vampires. It is a touch mental attack at skill+2 for -1 refresh. With improvements, it can go up to a Weapons 4 ranged mental attack and block for -4 refresh. Since Hands of Power are not stopped by armor and seem to affect even extremely tough fae as easily as normal ones, they are "mental" attacks. Taking out results in the effect of that hand of power, be it insanity, some sort of transformation or even death.
Full sidhe would also get sponsored magic but with a caveat; faerie weaknesses like Cold Iron do affect their magic as well. Some of them might have less magic, resulting only in channeling or ritual.
Almost all of them have some glamour to appear human as long as they don't use powers.
Finally, most of them seem to have some inhuman strength/speed/recovery at least. And the older they are, the more physically powerful they are.

So, basic template for a young sidhe just manifesting powers would be something like this:

Magic -5 (pick 5 refresh of Hand of Power and/or spellcasting abilities)
Inhuman Recovery -2
Inhuman Toughness -2
Catch: Faerie Weaknesses  +4 (also affects magic hence the increased discount)
Human Guise +0
Inhuman Strength -2
Glamours -2

You could then add things like Emotional Vampire and/or feeding dependency since some of their powers work via blood or sex and improve existing abilities as time passes and the refresh level increases. Do note that Merry is not your average sidhe (she's actually a changeling by DF rules) and that the Queen's Ravens have centuries or even millenia of experience-their powers have grown considerably and are far beyond "submerged" levels.

Meredith at book 1 would have:

Hand of Flesh -2 (weapon 2 touch mental attack at conviction+2, takeout causes transformation)
Persistent Power -2 (her Hand of Flesh keeps attacking at Conviction after an opponent is touched, eventually transforming the victim fully. Priced as per poisoned claws)
Sponsored Magic -2 (wards only, hence the reduced cost)
Inhuman Recovery -2
Supernatural Toughness -4
Catch: mundane attacks +5 (this replaces the standard faerie weakness)
Inhuman Strength -2
Unnatural Constitution +0 (as per wizard's constitution-she's long lived and heals completely given time)
Human Guise +0

Offline Deadmanwalking

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2010, 01:28:06 AM »
That looks like a decent baseline for how they should work, yeah. I'm not sure that's quite how I'd do all Hands of Power, but it works pretty well. Any game even attempting to approximate the books power level should be MUCH higher Refresh than even Submerged, though. Even Merry gets a whole lot badder than that quite rapidly.



For those thinking of looking into the books, fair warning, they're Unseelie Faerie Porn. They're good Unseelie Faerie Porn with a plot, but, well, they are porn.

Offline luminos

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2010, 01:32:06 AM »
Small correction:  The -1 version of incite emotion does maneuvers and blocks, but not attacks.

Question:  what is the effect, in terms of mechanics, of having a catch that effects magic?
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Offline Deadmanwalking

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2010, 01:36:02 AM »
Well, from having read the books:

Cold Iron cuts through Sidhe magic easily and quickly, like it was paper, and cannot be effected by it. Ever.



That's certainly worth an extra Refresh or two. I'd basically give it a +1 or 4 additional cost and allow it to subtract from the cost of the Magic as well as Toughness powers

Offline Belial666

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2010, 02:04:19 AM »
Quote
Any game even attempting to approximate the books power level should be MUCH higher Refresh than even Submerged, though. Even Merry gets a whole lot badder than that quite rapidly.

Well, fully-developed Hand of Flesh would be -4 refresh, -2 for Persistent Power, adding Hand of Blood would be another -1 refresh as per extra emotion, dual wielding stunt to use two hands of power together (upping weapons to 6) would be another -1.
Full Unseelie Magic would be -4. Maybe allowing a few refineries to show increased power another -4.
Still Inhuman Strength is -2. Toughness powers should stay as they are for -1 total.
Greater Glamour would be -4.
Sponsored Magic that is stronger than normal magic via various artifacts should be equivalent to soulfire through an Item of Power for -1 as she already has other magic.
Divine Copilot to represent her being guided by the goddess is -1.
Some sort of healing power but with feeding dependency (sex) should be -1 or so.

Total refresh cost is -26. Quite high but not unreachable. Harry Dresden in Changes is about the same power with the difference that he's not an idiot; he actually makes use of that power.

Offline Deadmanwalking

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2010, 02:21:34 AM »
Oh, I wasn't complaining about high-powered games, just making an observation.

Offline Clotho19

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2010, 02:47:01 AM »
I actually tink a lot of that works, using the outline of incite emotion for hands of power is genius in my opinion. And tink the other hands of power can work too, though the queens hand of power to suck all the oxygen out of room, would be hard to stat but than again she would plot device rather than pc potential. And most of the other tricks, could be covered under magic,for those who haven't read the books most Sidhe have some minor powers that are leftovers from being gods or being descended from em, i.e. merry has several powers from being descended fertility deities, which all of course relate to sex, sex mad Laurell K Hamiliton strikes again. My only prob is the idea that the magic is sponsered, in merry gentrys world the magic comes from within the fae itself, not from faerie or the courts, but thats just a name issue more than anything else.

I am still having trouble making them fit in dresdens world, at first thought it would be easy but now feel like will have to replace most of  what we know bout the fae and the courts from the dresden files, with improvised stuff from the Merry Gentry books. Not an easy task, as still trying to keep the changeling template, altering it so that rather than become npcs automatically if they gain all the powers of their race, rather if refresh allows they upgrade to a Lesser Fae or Sidhe template but still being mortal, like merry, even though the books hint that she may no longer be mortal, and using the sithins as areas that reside both in the mortal world and faerie, the Sidhe Knights remaining, and could even increase as it says in the books that there are humans who have been infused with Fae Magic. The rest, not so easy. As in, how would the white council treat the them, the same as they do fae in dresden files, or since they have free will as sometimes allies/enemies.

Offline rickayelm

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2010, 02:58:25 AM »
Rather than having sponsored magic wards only she should have ritual-2(wards), she also uses defensive magic in duels before the series starts and she uses earth magic in the first book, so I would give her channeling-2(earth) as well.

Offline Belial666

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2010, 07:24:35 AM »
Andais would have suffocation and darkness for her hands of power so she could use those effects at will and she would have similarly-themed magic to use for the less often but far more powerful effects. Or she could make spray attacks with her hands of power via a stunt, spreading weapons rating but not skill.


As for the magic in the books, you have it backwards; ALL of it is sponsored, granted by their Goddess and Faerie itself. It is the sidhe that believed the magic was their own and due to that arrogance failed and lost access to most magic.

Offline snowbank

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Re: Merry Gentry Style Sidhe
« Reply #11 on: June 23, 2010, 01:20:51 AM »
@EldritchFire:
It's by Laurell K. Hamilton.

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