Mobile Homes and Thresholds

[malovane]

So I've got a brand new modern day dresden campaign starting up and one of my PCs wants to be based out of a mobile home.  This brought up the question of does a mobile home develop a threshold?  To me a threshold implies someplace grounded, someplace with permanency.  Like several generations of a family growing up in the same place making a threshold stronger.  If they were to move their entire house, I would expect the threshold to reset.  The fact that its a mobile home makes me lean toward no threshold possible, but I can't find strong support in either direction.

[Mrmdubois]

Just give it a weak thresh hold.  It probably qualifies simply by being a home, but the lack of permanency does seem like it should penalize it.

[Haru]

Well, thinking of mobile homes with multiple generations, a circus comes to mind. I would imagine there could be quite powerful thresholds, even if those homes are portable.

A normal mobile home, I'd say no. Or at least, I'd ask the player how he would justify his mobile home having a threshold. Is he traveling with his tight knit family? That'd be the least to justify even a minor threshold, I suppose.

But let's turn this around. Why does he want it to have a threshold? I assume it is to have a mobile panic room, in case any nasty comes around. If the character knows about the supernatural, he could have asked a wizard or a minor practitioner to help him fortify the mobile home. Maybe coat it with a special paint, carve magic symbols into it, the works. You know, basically a ward that will work the same way a threshold does.

[DMS]

The thing is, Harry's apartment has its own threshold.  It might not be as secure as that of the Carpenter family's home, but it's still somewhere that a mortal has lived, has put down roots, and has cared for (I'm sure thrift store rugs count as taking care of it).

Like many of these metaphysical concepts, I would treat it more as a belief than anything physical.  If this person lives in the same "place" while on the move (and you, as the GM, are okay with it), I would give him or her a threshold.  Maybe not one as strong as a nice Tudor in a well-established neighborhood, but a threshold nonetheless.  Ditto houseboats, if it would ever come up.

I would say that it's really up to you.  It would depend on how strong of a threshold he/she wants, how they can justify it in story, and how long they'd lived in this mobile home.  Your standard bachelor pad might not have much of a threshold, but anything supernatural is going to be at least aware of the fact that it's entering a home.  It might not slow down anything further than a flock of pixies (do pixies flock?  Swarm?  School?  Murder of pixies?  Seems wrong to me...), but that's still a threshold.

[malovane]

General concept is a travelling wizard who wanders across the country.  No family.  Circus is a good example.  Similarly, I could definitely see a Romani caravan as warranting a threshold due to their community, traditions, beliefs, and multiple generations.  This mobile home is more like a mobile bachelor pad - almost equatable to a "homeless" person living out of a cargo van.

Looking back over the rulebook:

Most thresholds or other things that ground out magical energy (like a source of running water) have a base strength of Fair (+2). ...basically, every mitigating or contributing circumstance should add or subtract 2 from this base total. In the case of thresholds, the circumstances you’re looking for are things that make them “more of ” or “less of ” what they are.

Seems that this particular case, the mobile home in question would be a step less than a standard home, so a +0 or +1 at best.

[Haru]

+0 for a lonesome traveling wizard sounds about right. But since he is a wizard, he can easily ward the thing, if you can agree on that. Give the mobile home a ward equal to the wizards lore skill, and that should do it, I think.

[Arcane]

Home is where the heart is.  If he truly thinks of it as his home it should have a threshold, no matter how weak.  Heck, if a "homeless" person had a refrigerator box he lovingly considered his home as he took shelter in it regularly I think a good case could be made for giving it a threshold.

[Lavecki121]

Home is where the heart is.  If he truly thinks of it as his home it should have a threshold, no matter how weak.  Heck, if a "homeless" person had a refrigerator box he lovingly considered his home as he took shelter in it regularly I think a good case could be made for giving it a threshold.

As long as there is a doorway. Also, do thresholds apply to Windows? A threshold is literally a door frame in the real world, is this the same in the magical one? I assume not but I would like to know opinions.

In regards to the op: It still should have a threshold. Starting at 2 we say; is mobile -2; multi generational +2; bachelor -2; reunion gathering place +2; honeymoon "suite" +2; violent tragedy -2; the list can go on forever. So yea go by that

[Tedronai]

I really don't think you can bypass a threshold by breaking in through the window, or even the wall.  Otherwise anything with Supernatural Strength could just ignore the vast majority of thresholds.

[malovane]

As long as there is a doorway. Also, do thresholds apply to Windows? A threshold is literally a door frame in the real world, is this the same in the magical one? I assume not but I would like to know opinions.

In regards to the op: It still should have a threshold. Starting at 2 we say; is mobile -2; multi generational +2; bachelor -2; reunion gathering place +2; honeymoon "suite" +2; violent tragedy -2; the list can go on forever. So yea go by that

Not sure I agree with all those examples, but that's just semantics.

pg231 - a home where a whole family lives has a
stronger threshold than one where a bachelor
lives; this makes it “more” home-like, so the
strength is at a base of Great (+4).

Example from the book would indicate that a "family" modifier would be a +2 which would leave bachelor as the default condition.

Anyway, thanks all for the rapid responses, definitely helped sway me from my initial line of reasoning.  Now to hope the player is happy with the verdict.  I had completely forgotten about the default ward bonus as well - thanks for that reminder as well.  That should balance out the penalty for mobility nicely.

[Lavecki121]

True.  Also is been a while since I read up on thresholds so I had forgotten that second thing. Still it's a +2 for family housing 

Edit: while I am on the subject, what about a home you move back to? It's been in the family for generations, parents pass and the kids rent it out for a while then move back in. Does the bonus for multi generational go away because of that short intermittent period. Also how long would it take to reset, is it immediate one the family moves on our would it hang around for a while. Ex if the carpenters move out and Harry starts renting the house from them is it immediately at the same level threshold he was at his other place or does it take time?

[S1C0]

try making it an iop at least it would never break down and might cost less with the discount add demonic co pilot and a feeding dependency for balance and just give it a custom power of home is where the heart is making it have a mobile threshold

[Mrmdubois]

Although you could have a mobile fortress IoP with a Threshhold as part of its power set that's probably less efficient to the Refresh strapped wizard than simply setting up a ward system that he doesn't pay for with Refresh, or even enchanted item slots.

[S1C0]

ah that would be a lot more efficient and simple has anybody figured out the bag of holding effect yet cause i think it would be epic if you could cram a ton of wards on a slip-space like system and bring in a ton of weak wards over a larger on the inside armor all it would do is act like a mass warding 

[Mrmdubois]

Getting a space bigger on the inside would probably be a major ritual, but also very doable via a number of different methods.

Piling up a bunch of small wards would basically work like it does in the novels, any individual ward would be easier to take out and punch a hole in the defenses that could be exploited.  Building one big ward with multiple effects will generally be more effective and harder to take down.