The Dresden Files > DFRPG

Comments thread for "The Laws of Magic: Part 1 of 8"

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iago:

--- Quote from: Douglas on June 13, 2007, 05:47:48 PM ---Yeah, because Ballistic forensics is a fun thing to have pointed your way.  ;)

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with Spirit of the Century, though I have looked at some of the information available online about.  I saw the Refresh stat on some of the characters shown in the material on the Evil Hat website, but have no real notion how it works.

--- End quote ---

It basically operates as your character's "story fuel" -- sort of like Willpower in a White Wolf game, but more pervasive, and with interesting ways you can behave to get some of it back.  In the Dresden Files RPG, it's also an indicator of how much free will you have... for reasons that resonate with the game mechanics that are hard to explain without giving you more of the game (Sprit of the Century uses Refresh, but not in a "you use it to pay for powers" sort of way -- still, knowing that game will give you a solid grounding in a lot of what we're trying to do with the DFRPG.)

hollow49:
Perhaps this question will be answered in one of the later parts - if so, apologies for jumping the gun.

Suppose you have a lawbreaker character. He gets a bonus on any actions that would, if successful, break that law again. What about the grey areas? Does the bonus only apply if it would count as breaking the law again? If so, can he choose to make it into a law-breaking case to get the bonus?

E.g. if you have a character who killed (a human) with magic, in a magic duel with a vampire. The vampire is aware but not human, and is deemed a monster by the White Council, so let's assume that it wouldn't count as a violation of the Laws to incinerate it with fire magic. The character needs every bonus he can get - can he deliberately draw on his darker side to make the situation into a law-breaking one to get that extra bonus, accelerating his spiral into darkness but winning the duel and saving his life?

iago:

--- Quote from: hollow49 on June 14, 2007, 02:52:27 PM ---Suppose you have a lawbreaker character. He gets a bonus on any actions that would, if successful, break that law again. What about the grey areas? Does the bonus only apply if it would count as breaking the law again? If so, can he choose to make it into a law-breaking case to get the bonus?

--- End quote ---

I'd allow it; since grey areas are as much about intention as anything, if the character is breaking the law in his mind, then it sounds like a broken law to me as far as how it affects him.  That said...


--- Quote ---E.g. if you have a character who killed (a human) with magic, in a magic duel with a vampire. The vampire is aware but not human, and is deemed a monster by the White Council, so let's assume that it wouldn't count as a violation of the Laws to incinerate it with fire magic. The character needs every bonus he can get - can he deliberately draw on his darker side to make the situation into a law-breaking one to get that extra bonus, accelerating his spiral into darkness but winning the duel and saving his life?
--- End quote ---

... I'm gonna take issue with your example.  If you're melting a Black Court vampire, that's not really a violation of the Laws: it's pretty clear they're a monster.  So I wouldn't call that a grey area.

But in the end, it's gonna be on the shoulders of you and your GM to define when it happens.

Good question.  Thanks!

hollow49:
The example was based off the scene in Grave Peril where Harry has just eaten the Nightmare's power, and uses that power to obliterate the red vampire who jumps at him (can't remember her name - one of the twins from that book) only to feel sick afterwards at the realisation that he's used his magic, which comes from his own soul, in such a violently destructive fashion. I agree that it's not something that would ordinarily be a grey area - what I'm asking is can a player take such a situation and draw on the perversion of his own magics in such a way as to get the bonus, at the cost of the usual penalty, turning something that is normally OK into something questionable, perhaps in the way he does it? Deliberately use his magics in a way that twists them even when it isn't necessary, in other words.

iago:

--- Quote from: hollow49 on June 14, 2007, 04:12:53 PM ---The example was based off the scene in Grave Peril where Harry has just eaten the Nightmare's power, and uses that power to obliterate the red vampire who jumps at him (can't remember her name - one of the twins from that book) only to feel sick afterwards at the realisation that he's used his magic, which comes from his own soul, in such a violently destructive fashion. I agree that it's not something that would ordinarily be a grey area - what I'm asking is can a player take such a situation and draw on the perversion of his own magics in such a way as to get the bonus, at the cost of the usual penalty, turning something that is normally OK into something questionable, perhaps in the way he does it? Deliberately use his magics in a way that twists them even when it isn't necessary, in other words.

--- End quote ---

Sure!  I'd support that.  After all, it counts as a "tick" against how many times you've broken that particular law, which causes your aspects to slowly get replaced by darker things.  So there's a downside to "pay" for the upside. :)

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