Author Topic: Help building a powerful kitchen witch  (Read 2208 times)

Offline Crimson Overcoat

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Closet Chronomancer
    • View Profile
Help building a powerful kitchen witch
« on: June 25, 2016, 04:35:57 PM »
I'm running a DF game at Gencon this year, and one of the characters is an ex-KGB Kitchen Witch in the vein of a terrifying Martha Stuart grandmother figure. I want her to have powerful thaumaturgy abilities, but I'm not sure how to best model it mechanically. She is a 10 refresh character. The game is a one shot stop the apocalypse type game, so the more powerful she is, the better. Suggestions?

Offline Taran

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 9859
    • View Profile
    • Chip
Re: Help building a powerful kitchen witch
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2016, 06:33:17 PM »
When I think magical cooking, I think: biomancy, transformation and Fire(evocation).

When I think ex-KGB wizard, I think divination and illusion(spirit evocation).

Other than that, I have no concrete ideas.  Wards protecting her Freezer....which is portal to Winter where she acquires interesting and unique ingredients for her recipes.

Offline Haru

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5520
  • Mentally unstable like a fox.
    • View Profile
Re: Help building a powerful kitchen witch
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2016, 10:07:26 PM »
Well, your description is kind of vague. Of the top of my head, I can think of at least a handful of possible set ups.

You could have a voodoo witch with a variation on Domination.

Or a potion witch with a number of potions she takes with her.

If you want to go full thaumaturgy, that can be fun, but it might not be the best for a con game. You'll either end up not using it or hogging the spotlight, depending on how much it is used.

And so on. If you've got an idea on what it is she does and how her magic manifests, we can pour that into a mechanical mold.
“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Offline Ulfgeir

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1566
    • View Profile
Re: Help building a powerful kitchen witch
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2016, 10:11:33 PM »
One question you need to decide on imo:  Is she there to spy on someone (or some goverment/organisation) or a sleeper agent sent there to sabotage things/perform assasinations?

Because those would need different skillsets/powers.

/Ulfgeir
I have not lost my mind, it is backed up somewhere on disc...

Offline Crimson Overcoat

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Closet Chronomancer
    • View Profile
Re: Help building a powerful kitchen witch
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2016, 10:37:23 PM »
She is a retired agent, off the force for over 20 years. She can have full on thaumaturgy. I'm seeing her in more of a enabling and party support role. Here are her aspects:
High Concept: Ex KGB Kitchen Witch
Trouble: Let Babushka fix it
Other aspects:
License to kill
This is how we do things in Mother Russia
A place for everything and everything in its place
Babushka is always prepared
My gentleman friends

Offline Haru

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5520
  • Mentally unstable like a fox.
    • View Profile
Re: Help building a powerful kitchen witch
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2016, 11:01:53 PM »
Support sounds like having a cooler full of potions that increase the other players could be your stick. Depending on your GM, some potions could give a character a minor power for a short time. Like a potion of flight could give a character the "wings" power.

To do so, you'd take thaumaturgy and a ton of refinement for potion slots. Lore should be your highest skill.

Any potion would have a power based on your lore. In a submerged game, that would be a base of power:5. You could take a potion specialization for your free specialization and make that 6.

You get 2 free focus item slots, which translates to 4 potion slots. Each refresh put into refinement gives you 4 more potion slots. You can spend a potion slot to get a new potion or add 2 uses to an existing potion.

Most of your potions should probably be maneuvers, since those can give benefits to others. For example, you can have an eagle-eye-potion that would give a sniper a benefit when shooting at a distance (he gets a free invoke on the "eagle eye" aspect after drinking the potion, which he can use for +2 or for a reroll).

You could go all out for a total of 28 potion slots. You can leave some of them free and use the "potion declaration" rule. In that case, you can ask to have a potion with you that you don't have announced previously. The GM will then give you a difficulty based on how plausible this might be, and you roll Lore to beat that. If you do, you have that potion with you, the potion follows the usual rules (as if you had it with you the whole time). Or you can spend a Fate point to have the potion without a roll (if you go for the roll and fail, that option is void, though you can use the FP on the roll).

To give a character a minor power, you can do the same, a maneuver potion, but instead of using the free invoke for a +2, you use it to pay off the temporary power (Your Story page 92, yellow box). Some GMs might not be willing to allow free invokes instead of Fate points, so you'd have to ask your GM if they are ok with it. We've had quite a bit of discussion about this on the board here as well.

Ok, I think that's enough wall of text. If you need some more information or clarification, just call me. I'm in the book.

No, wait, that was someone else.
“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Offline Crimson Overcoat

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 196
  • Closet Chronomancer
    • View Profile
Re: Help building a powerful kitchen witch
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2016, 11:17:26 PM »
Thanks, Haru. That's exactly what I needed.

Offline blackstaff67

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 490
    • View Profile
Re: Help building a powerful kitchen witch
« Reply #7 on: June 25, 2016, 11:42:17 PM »
Conventional Wisdom in the day held that the KGB, coming from a land famous for paranoia, were in a class of their own.  Not giving her at least Good (+3) Deceit and/or Rapport (or Empathy) would not only be out of character Great (+$) might be warranted.  The Stunt "Linguist" should also apply to her; people with thick Russian accents in Cold War America invited suspicion.
Given that she's Russian, the Aspect "Chessplayer" might also be applied to her.
My Purity score: 37.2.  Sad.