The Dresden Files > DFRPG
Typo thread
Deadmanwalking:
Non-Typo potentially major issues that have come up in various threads:
1. Can you apply the original Catch as well as the Stacked Catch to Physical Immunity? It would seem by the rules that you can, but that results in this:
Physical Immunity (-8)
The Catch: Water Magic (+3)
The Catch (Stacked): Non-magical attacks (+5)
And a character immune to all non-Water Magic for a single point of Refresh. Which seems a bit cheap for the effect.
2. Can a character with Mimic Abilities come into play with someone (likely a dead someone) already mimicked? Because that can result in badness like the character with 11 Superb skills (he ate Doc Savage's brain), and never using Mimic for anything else. He just has 11 Superb Skills.
3. Can a character with Mimic Abilities mimic more than one person at a time (say, a single skill from each of nine people)? Everything about the ability screams at me that you can't, but others disagree and it's somewhat unclear.
arentol:
--- Quote from: Deadmanwalking on May 02, 2010, 11:01:30 PM ---Non-Typo potentially major issues that have come up in various threads:
1. Can you apply the original Catch as well as the Stacked Catch to Physical Immunity? It would seem by the rules that you can, but that results in this:
Physical Immunity (-8)
The Catch: Water Magic (+3)
The Catch (Stacked): Non-magical attacks (+5)
--- End quote ---
Related to this is also the fact that if you have more than one power from Toughness the exact refresh cost of each power is not clearly defined because the Catch is applied across all of them.
Example of an issue this causes:
Supernatural Toughness (-4)
Inhuman Recovery (-2)
The Catch: +3
Human Form +?
Applies to Inhuman Recovery
How much is "Inhuman Recovery" worth at this point? Is it -2 making Human Form worth +1, or is it -1, making Human Form worth 0?
iago:
I think some of these questions come from a willful misinterpretation of the obvious spirit of the rules. As such I'm gonna get a bit snarky about it. Fair warning.
#1 - The Stacked Catch only applies if you already have another catch applying to your other Toughness powers. There are no other Toughness powers in #1, so the principle of biggest value catch applies, netting only a +5 value.
#2 - If an NPC, yes. NPCs do things off camera all the time. If a PC, no.
Mimicking someone should come off a lot like the process of prepping a Thaumaturgical ritual does: you gotta build the story. No story*, no mimic.
* By which I mean a story which everyone agrees is a good one, passes the sniff test, and sounds like a good fun thing to include in the game.
I could see maybe someone asserting it through a combination of aspects and backstory from character creation, but even then the 11 Superb skills is clearly someone trying to game the system in a way that destroys fun and fair play. (Also, if someone has 11 Superb skills, we're talking about someone who very likely had enough going on that they should have trounced the mimic. Have you done the fucking math on that? This person had 55 skills out of 25, so that's a trick, totaling 165 skill points. Rule of thumb -- if a skill comes from pre-game "eating", the best it can be is two lower than the skill cap for the game. In a Superb-cap game that limits you to Good.)
At my table, people who do that should be shown the exit; they are a committed abuser, interested in aggrandizing their own power fantasy, not in playing a game with other people. I am uncompromising on this perspective, and draconian when someone tries to pull that kind of a rude and disruptive fast one on the game.
#3 - I might bend the rules for a Big Bad NPC, but on a PC I'd say it absolutely is only one victim at a time.
Deadmanwalking:
For reference, I don't think anyone who brought that stuff up (in the aforementioned threads) thought it should work that way or would've allowed it in their games. They were just finding potential abuses of the rules as written, in at least one case specifically so as to avoid them.
And thank you very much for the answers, that should help keep things from getting out of hand. :)
Any chance of #s 1 and 3 making it into the book? #2 is a clear intentional abuse, but #1 might come up accidentally and #3 could do so really easily.
iago:
Oh, I might be upset about the line of thinking, but I'm definitely aiming some ICBMs at 'em and nuking it from orbit. For example:
HARRY: For Mimic Abilities, can a PC mimic more than one person at a time? Or someone from before the first session?
BILLY: I’d say no. It’s a bit of an “evil people eater” power, so it should be treated very strictly when in PC hands.
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