The Dresden Files > DFRPG
Jacuzzomancy?
Forte:
So I'm looking to do my first game (i will be the GM) and i've been reading over the manuals. We're going to be running a game at Up To Your Waist, and one of the players wants to be a con artist who uses magic to dupe his marks. The basic premise is he wants to be able to "summon" a hot tub for his customers, grab their money, and then bail before it dissolves back into ectoplasm. I realize this is A) Ridiculous and B) kinda complicated, but he's really jazzed about the idea so im trying to figure out how that might work.
My first thought was a Focused Practitioner who did Thaumaturgy or Ritual magic, but a hot tub is mechanically fairly complex; even if its "inner workings" got reduced to "air bubbles come up, water stays hot," I'm not sure if it would be viable (How many shifts would something like that cost?). The second barrier i see to this model is that if it actually has real, actual water, could that be a part of the summoning and more importantly, would that qualify as "running water" and ground out the spell? Seems very anti-fun for that to be the case.
The sceond way I thought of tackling it is for him to be creating an Illusion somehow, with enough shifts that it could have some 'tangible' aspects, and instead his mark is really sitting on the floor or in a lawn chair thinking they've just had a hot tub installed. I have basically no idea how to stat that one out though.
Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on how to bring this concept to life?
Sanctaphrax:
Doing that with conjuration would be pretty darn hard. YS274 specifically says
--- Quote ---Functioning objects of real technology are pretty much impossible (or more accurately, too much work to be worth it).
--- End quote ---
and even a nonfunctioning hot tub would be pretty hard to make. I'd eyeball it at complexity 9 if you wanted it to look convincingly real. 3 shifts for complexity, 2 for size, 4 for believability.
You don't have to worry about shorting out your own magic, though. Water mages don't seem to do that. And anyway, it's no fun, so why should it happen?
The Power you really want for this kind of trick is Greater Glamours (YS166). It's not intended as a PC power, though. You might want to work out some kind of middle ground between Glamours and Greater Glamours. Alternately, you could just let the player take Greater Glamours after a conversation about what will fly and what won't.
whitelaughter:
Well, he could summon an NPC of mine from a different game system....
For the In Nomine game, I created an ethereal that was a water elemental that owned a bath/spa/jacuzzi artifact; rewritten for the Dresdenverse he'd only need to have Swift Transition (No Mortal Home), a high Craft skill (specialising in massage) and the ability to grant the Aquatic Power (say, put that in the Jacuzzi Item of Power).
The only payment Laver would want would be the Fate point to 'loan' his IoP to his bather.
Laver would then hang around until he was next summoned.
here's the write up in the IN rules if you're interested:
(click to show/hide)Laver
Primal Bath Spirit
Corporeal Forces: 1 Strength: 2 Agility: 2
Ethereal Forces: 4 Intelligence:10 Precision:6
Celestial Forces: 1 Will: 2
Perception: 2
Element: (Classical Elements) Water.
Affinities: Water(Primal), Fire (Moderate),
Glamour(Moderate),Entrancement (Slight).
Vessel: Large body of water/3, Charisma +3 (Bath -
Essence cost: 150)
Skills: Artistry(Massage)/6, Knowledge (Hell's
royalty/3).
Rituals: Summon Named Ethereal Spirit.
Dread: A disappointed bather/4.
Attunements: Partial Celestial Attunement(Lilith).
Artifacts: Talisman(Artistry{Massage}/6); is also an
endless supply of bath salts and oils. Takes the form of a bath, spa or jacuzzi as desired.
Countless cold, dirty, miserable humans have dreamt of
a nice warm bath - and their dreams spawned Laver.
Laver has no particular agenda: all it wants is to
help people relax and be clean. It's very good at
this; bathers frequently fall asleep, as the water
massages the tension out of them - so Laver simply
grants them the ability to breathe underwater.
Laver's name can be found in numerous sorcerous texts,
with the simple deal Laver offers - summon it and
provide the 5 essence it needs to power it's
abilities, and you will be delightfully pampered.
Sorcerers in the know consider Laver one of the most
useful spirits to Summon - any spirit can grant power,
but Laver makes life worth living.
He's also a fine way to Damn your soul, although that
wasn't his idea. Lilith was the first Superior to
learn about Laver, and swiftly granted it the ability
to Summon her - if she's going to listen to sorcerers
offering deals, she may as well do so in comfort.
Besides, most sorcerers' brains melt when they see
Lilith bathing, which makes them so much easier to
manipulate and out-bargain. Andre and Eli are also
regular patrons - Laver grants +4 to any attempt to
Invoke any of these 3 Superiors. (Kobal has been known
to captain ships whilst bathing in Laver, but that
joke has apparently gone stale).
Laver is probably doomed - "Prince Andre is so nice!"
Although Lilith is trying to keep Laver free (with aid
from Eli, Marc and Yves!), Andre is determined to have
Laver's services permanently at his disposal. If
(when?) Andre succeeds, he intends to add 2 Forces to
Laver, one from a Balseraph and another from a Djinn;
then add his appropriate Band Attunements and the
Sensitivity Attunement! Of course, all of this
Infernal power is likely to warp Laver, but Andre
doesn't care.
g33k:
Hmmm... I may be overlooking something, but...
- I don't think summoned water "is" water, magically-speaking (in the sense of grounding-out magic); it's really ectoplasm, and reverts as soon as it's cut off from the Nevernever (either by a circle, or the caster running out of shifts/concentration). So I think he;s good there... unless I'm mistaken, of course!
- Given that the faux hot tub doesn't need to last very long, why make it tech? Heat the water (and move it) via magic. "That's the access panel. Only qualifited electricians should open it." (A) there's no heater or pump & (B) the whole thing will be gone (dispelled back to ectoplasm) before it "wears out" (stops working). Why make a tech device (which magic is Really Bad At) when you can make a magical one that just LOOKS like tech?
Have I gone wildly astray here?
Sanctaphrax:
You certainly could simulate the jacuzzi's effects with magic, but it'd add yet more complexity to an already non-trivial spell.
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