Author Topic: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP  (Read 3925 times)

Offline CottbusFiles

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Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« on: December 18, 2011, 07:49:04 PM »
or any other strongish mythological creature?
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Offline Tedronai

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2011, 07:56:20 PM »
creatures are not items
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Offline ways and means

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2011, 08:02:45 PM »
Creatures aren't items but personally item of powers for me are just powers imbued into something external so I would allow it for a pet. For a Pegasus  I would treat it as an Iop and the horse itself as an extension of the player (for stress and action purposes) so the IoP gives you the wings and speed powers and a power that allows you to substitute survival for athletics (riding).
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Offline CottbusFiles

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2011, 08:08:39 PM »
creatures are not items

Than how do i do it?
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Offline Tallyrand

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2011, 08:18:28 PM »
Than how do i do it?

You get your GM to agree to allowing you to have a pet Pegasus and then represent it with one of your characters aspects.  Spend a fate when you want it to do something, accept a compel when it makes your life complicated.

Offline EdgeOfDreams

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2011, 08:30:32 PM »
Tallyrand's idea works pretty well.  That's what my group has always used for characters who have a specific NPC friend/partner/spouse/contact who shows up occasionally in the story - stat them out, give the main character an aspect naming the NPC and their relationship, and use invokes and compels to control when that NPC shows up.

Alternative, since this is sort of a pet/mount rather than a human NPC, you could try writing up a custom "Awesome Pet" power or something like that which would define exactly how strong the pet is allowed to be.  If you went that route, I would say you could have your pet be in any scene you want (within reason) WITHOUT needing to invoke your aspect, because you already spent refresh on the pet power.

Offline CottbusFiles

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2011, 09:49:24 PM »
Tallyrand's idea works pretty well.  That's what my group has always used for characters who have a specific NPC friend/partner/spouse/contact who shows up occasionally in the story - stat them out, give the main character an aspect naming the NPC and their relationship, and use invokes and compels to control when that NPC shows up.

Alternative, since this is sort of a pet/mount rather than a human NPC, you could try writing up a custom "Awesome Pet" power or something like that which would define exactly how strong the pet is allowed to be.  If you went that route, I would say you could have your pet be in any scene you want (within reason) WITHOUT needing to invoke your aspect, because you already spent refresh on the pet power.

Having a power like that makes more sense i think. Having a character whos pet is maybe a big part of what he does but has a lot of other powers or survival stunts etc. and a low refresh would have problems bringing his pet into play. Any ideas on how to write up such a power? It could be put to good use on a demon summoner
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Offline benign

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2011, 10:11:04 PM »
Well, the thing about making it a power is that you have to split your refresh between you and the pet. So while I understand you not wanting to have a pet that is too weak to contribute in a meaningful way, this solution might just make both you and the pet underpowered and unable to contribute.

Dresden RPG is less dependent on the refresh or "level" of the characters involved than, say, d20 is anyway. In some games a level 4 character will be useless in a party of level 10 characters, in DF a refresh 4 pet can be a huge asset to characters with 10 refresh to spend.

My feeling is that including the pet as a separate entity is going to make you happier than splitting your refresh between yourself and a pet, who will end up with about the same amount of refresh (probably) as if you'd just statted it up separately to begin with.

Offline benign

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #8 on: December 18, 2011, 10:27:49 PM »
If I were to make a power for it, it might be something like this. Game balance is absolutely not guaranteed here, as nobody but me has looked at this.

Companion [-1]
Description:
You and another being are inextricably tied. Whether it be a blood brother, a familiar, or something else, the two of you are utterly devoted to one another and your fates are intertwined.
Musts: You must define an NPC character or creature to be your companion. Take an aspect that reflects your tie with it.
Effects:
Ally.
Create a character sheet for your companion. It has 2 refresh to spend and half the number of skill points that your character does.
We are as one. You are subject to compels on both the aspect that defines your relationship to your companion and, in some cases, to any aspects that your companion itself has. You may also choose to spend your own fate points on rolls and declarations made by your companion.
Level up [-1]. Your companion gains an additional two refresh to spend on powers and stunts. It's total refresh may not exceed half of yours.

Offline Tallyrand

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #9 on: December 18, 2011, 10:29:43 PM »
Having a power like that makes more sense i think. Having a character whos pet is maybe a big part of what he does but has a lot of other powers or survival stunts etc. and a low refresh would have problems bringing his pet into play. Any ideas on how to write up such a power? It could be put to good use on a demon summoner

Going with the pet power isn't a bad idea, but you seem to have missed the utility of the Aspect pet.  The important this with the Aspect pet is that it doesn't cost you any refresh, so for that you would just make your low powered/stunty character (perhaps, with GM permission even a Pure Human) and write up a separate sheet for your Pegasus completely independent of your characters Skills and Refresh.  Leave 5 or so refresh open on your main character sheet and you can likely count on having  your Pegasus at the ready whenever you need it.

Offline benign

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2011, 10:30:52 PM »
If I were to make a power for it, it might be something like this. Game balance is absolutely not guaranteed here, as nobody but me has looked at this.

Companion [-1]
Description:
You and another being are inextricably tied. Whether it be a blood brother, a familiar, or something else, the two of you are utterly devoted to one another and your fates are intertwined.
Musts: You must define an NPC character or creature to be your companion. Take an aspect that reflects your tie with it.
Effects:
Ally.
Create a character sheet for your companion. It has 2 refresh to spend and half the number of skill points that your character does.
We are as one. You are subject to compels on both the aspect that defines your relationship to your companion and, in some cases, to any aspects that your companion itself has. You may also choose to spend your own fate points on rolls and declarations made by your companion.
Level up [-1]. Your companion gains an additional two refresh to spend on powers and stunts. It's total refresh may not exceed half of yours.

Yeah this . . . might be pretty OP. Other people will have things to say I'm sure . . .

Offline Tedronai

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2011, 10:31:12 PM »
If I were to make a power for it, it might be something like this. Game balance is absolutely not guaranteed here, as nobody but me has looked at this.

Companion [-1]
Description:
You and another being are inextricably tied. Whether it be a blood brother, a familiar, or something else, the two of you are utterly devoted to one another and your fates are intertwined.
Musts: You must define an NPC character or creature to be your companion. Take an aspect that reflects your tie with it.
Effects:
Ally.
Create a character sheet for your companion. It has 2 refresh to spend and half the number of skill points that your character does.
We are as one. You are subject to compels on both the aspect that defines your relationship to your companion and, in some cases, to any aspects that your companion itself has. You may also choose to spend your own fate points on rolls and declarations made by your companion.
Level up [-1]. Your companion gains an additional two refresh to spend on powers and stunts. It's total refresh may not exceed half of yours.

I'm not sure that 'total refresh' is a defined term, so you might want to clarify by adding 'including refresh spent on stunts and powers'
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Offline Tallyrand

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #12 on: December 18, 2011, 10:34:30 PM »
If I were to make a power for it, it might be something like this. Game balance is absolutely not guaranteed here, as nobody but me has looked at this.

Companion [-1]
Description:
You and another being are inextricably tied. Whether it be a blood brother, a familiar, or something else, the two of you are utterly devoted to one another and your fates are intertwined.
Musts: You must define an NPC character or creature to be your companion. Take an aspect that reflects your tie with it.
Effects:
Ally.
Create a character sheet for your companion. It has 2 refresh to spend and half the number of skill points that your character does.
We are as one. You are subject to compels on both the aspect that defines your relationship to your companion and, in some cases, to any aspects that your companion itself has. You may also choose to spend your own fate points on rolls and declarations made by your companion.
Level up [-1]. Your companion gains an additional two refresh to spend on powers and stunts. It's total refresh may not exceed half of yours.

In my game I wouldn't allow this power, too much room for abuse.  Being able to effectively raise your refresh by 25% seems very powerful, when you factor it that you can also give yourself extra skills and a whole extra set of stress boxes this way it seems likely that it would cause problems.  Personally I see this more as a [+1 or +2] but with the limiters of the powers being in a seperate body.  Allow the base assumption of all if your allies skills to be Average [+1] but allow additional refresh be spent to raise it's skills to Good [+3] for 1 or Superior [+5] for 2.

Offline benign

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #13 on: December 18, 2011, 10:42:20 PM »
In my game I wouldn't allow this power, too much room for abuse.  Being able to effectively raise your refresh by 25% seems very powerful, when you factor it that you can also give yourself extra skills and a whole extra set of stress boxes this way it seems likely that it would cause problems.  Personally I see this more as a [+1 or +2] but with the limiters of the powers being in a seperate body.  Allow the base assumption of all if your allies skills to be Average [+1] but allow additional refresh be spent to raise it's skills to Good [+3] for 1 or Superior [+5] for 2.

Not that I'm really that attached to my concept, which I banged out in 5 minutes with very little thought given to balance, but I'm not sure it's that OP. Adding more refresh available to your character is nice, but it also means that some of the powers you effectively bought are housed in a body that is less skilled than yours, limiting their use. More skills is definitely good, what if I decreased the amount of skill points available and set the skill cap for your companion to be one lower than yours? And the stress boxes thing is nice but not seemingly amazing, since it doesn't make you personally any more durable. You could still go down without your companion soaking up a single shift of stress.

Again, I'm not saying what I wrote is balanced. I'm just not sure it's as ridiculous as you seem to say it is.

Offline Silverblaze

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Re: Can i have a Pegasus as an IoP
« Reply #14 on: December 18, 2011, 11:52:44 PM »
I see a few ways to handle this.

Aspects: very flexible, but can be less satisfying than a sidekick or pet.

IoP: similar to how ways and means suggested it.

Constructs: There is a comprehensive guide on creating one with thaumaturgy on this site someplace.

Use those rules.  Apply a refresh cost to have a pet for a player treat it as a power that (if it dies the players refresh is returned to the player.

House rule it: we on this site may have experience under our belts, but we aren't at your table.  We all have differing versions of game balance.