The Dresden Files > DFRPG
Assorted questions
nadia.skylark:
--- Quote ---Plus, I'm not sure that Red Court even have spirits that you could suck in.
--- End quote ---
True. I more meant that, given the number of people the Red Court has murdered there, there should be a lot of ghosts.
--- Quote ---As to the compels, another point is that the "oathbreaker" power as you wrote it is revolving around who they broke the oath to, which I don't think is accurate to the series (it's specifically fae that hold you to your oath like that; making a general promise on your power and then breaking it reflects on you regardless of who you're acting against); plus, it seems just killing the dude you broke oath against would remove the penalties entirely -- would it also remove the rebate?
--- End quote ---
Good point!
How about this?:
Oathbroken [+1]
Available only to spellcasters. You broke an oath made upon your power. As a result:
-you suffer a -1 penalty to all discipline rolls made for spellcasting.
-this upgrades to -2 against the both the person you broke your oath to and to people related to your broken oath (ie, If you promised person A on your power that you would stay with their daughter for a week and keep her safe, but then broke your oath to them and the daughter got turned into a vampire, then this penalty applies to both of them); also take a -1 conviction penalty against such people
upgrade: Faerie Oathbroken [+1]
The person you broke your oath to was actually a faerie. As such:
-you suffer a -1 penalty to any action that opposes the person you broke your oath to when they're in the same area as you.
-every time you try to work against them (when they're in the area, as above) and succeed, you must roll discipline (with the -1 penalty) against the result as if you were defending against an attack. Failure results in mental stress.
-increase all penalties by 1 for every additional time you break a promise to the person you broke your original oath to (subsequent promises need not be sworn on your power) (increase refresh rebate for this?)
upgrade: Murderous Oathbroken [+1]
You murdered the person to whom you broke your oath, hoping to escape the consequences. It didn't work. As such:
-a magical mark is on you, showing what you've done. Whenever dealing with someone in the magical community, you operate at -1 to all social skills. You can try to hide it, but as per "Marked by Power" this should be difficult and not last long.
Note: Some or all of these power rebates should not be taken unless you expect to regularly encounter the person to whom you've sworn your oath. Also, if you're a Denarian, you can't take these. The Fallen deals with the problem.
Taran:
Since you don’t seem to like the idea of a block, I think it would work better to make oathbreaker act as a threshold. This would require you to add more power to spells. Even a 2 or 3 shift threshold would be a huge inconvenience. And a threshold makes sense thematically as a broken promise creates a barrier to trust and a barrier to your power that must be rebuilt.
Mr. Death:
The thing about the -1 penalties is, in the long run, they're kind of toothless.
Breaking an oath against a Faerie means the faerie owns your ass. It does not mean it's only slightly more difficult for you to interact with them socially. It means they can assert direct control over you, more or less without a contest. The power you've written simply does not reflect that. An aspect that you could compel would.
I seriously think just having an appropriate aspect and a compel is both much simpler and much more in line with what we see in the books.
Not everything is appropriate as a power.
nadia.skylark:
--- Quote ---Since you don’t seem to like the idea of a block,
--- End quote ---
Did I miss you suggesting using a block somewhere? If so, I apologize.
--- Quote ---I think it would work better to make oathbreaker act as a threshold. This would require you to add more power to spells. Even a 2 or 3 shift threshold would be a huge inconvenience. And a threshold makes sense thematically as a broken promise creates a barrier to trust and a barrier to your power that must be rebuilt.
--- End quote ---
That's a good idea.
--- Quote ---Breaking an oath against a Faerie means the faerie owns your ass. It does not mean it's only slightly more difficult for you to interact with them socially. It means they can assert direct control over you, more or less without a contest. The power you've written simply does not reflect that. An aspect that you could compel would.
--- End quote ---
1) They can't always assert direct control over you without contest. Harry was able to fight against Lea most of the time. That's why I represented it as mental attacks.
2) You can also use compels, in the same way you can still compel a loop garou even though it gets a power rebate.
Mr. Death:
--- Quote from: nadia.skylark on June 18, 2019, 02:22:17 PM ---1) They can't always assert direct control over you without contest. Harry was able to fight against Lea most of the time. That's why I represented it as mental attacks.
--- End quote ---
He was able to outmaneuver her. I do not recall any point in the books where she moves to assert control and Harry resists it.
Also bear in mind that Lea has a separate deal, with Harry's mother, that she has to respect when dealing with Harry.
Recall when Mab -- who has no such deal with Harry's mother -- demonstrates that she owns Harry's debt, and physically makes his body do things, and he describes it as something he has no defense or resistance against.
--- Quote ---My left palm slammed down onto the table. I watched, startled,
as I gripped the letter opener in my right hand, slasher-movie style.
In a panic, I tried to hold back my hand, to drop the opener, but my
arms were running on automatic, like they were someone else's.
...
I slammed the letter opener down onto the back of my own hand,
hard. My desk is a cheap one. The steel bit cleanly through the
meat between my thumb and forefinger and sank into the desk,
pinning me there. Pain washed up my arm even as blood started
oozing out of the wound. I tried to fight it down, but I was panicked,
in no condition to exert a lot of control. A whimper slipped out of
me. I tried to pull the steel away, to get it out of my hand, but my
arm simply twisted, wrenching the letter opener counterclockwise.
--- End quote ---
There's no contest there. Mab simply wills it and Harry's body obeys, with nothing he can do to stop it.
--- Quote ---2) You can also use compels, in the same way you can still compel a loop garou even though it gets a power rebate.
--- End quote ---
The rebate and all the messy penalties are not necessary, and do not accurately reflect the effect breaking a promise on your power is supposed to have based on the books.
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