Get a promotion at work (uniform to detective, assistant librarian to chief, field agent to lead agent, soldier to 'made man').
Inherit a building, a business or money.
Set up your own business (a bar, a bookshop, a detective agency, an auto-repair shop, a gang, a crime syndicate).
Sell some "fiction" books and come into money and fame.
Lose your job.
Get a new job.
Get into serious financial difficulties.
And so on.


Essentially, any normal, everyday occurrence that can cause a change to anyone.  It doesn't all have to be about the magic!

Also, holy water, sunlight, a floor covered with iron filings and so on - i.e. anything that fulfils a Catch but does not have an explicit damage rating like a weapon does - damages as an environmental hazard.

I had an idea back in the day for an Angel character who found a ritual to bind a demon into magical tattoos that gave him the demon's strength and toughness so he could get revenge on those monsters that killed his family.  Little did he know that the demon he bound was the one he was after, and that it could whisper in his ear and slowly corrupt him to evil....

In other words, a perfect DF character with a ready-made Trouble just waiting to happen.



Another way to do the focus thing though could be via Refinement.  Every Refinement is another set of tattoos giving a non focus-based bonus to particular forms of magic.  But initially, just make it an aspect.  Maybe even the High Concept: Tattooed Mage.

Nice work.  I love Burn Notice.

He can, technically, do it anywhere.  It's just a case of whether or not it's a good idea to do it when he has no idea what is on the other side... or if the other side might actually be safer than where he is at the time...

If you have to fight a battle of wills to control a demon, the demon by definition has a will to fight against.  Being a 'magical being', however, means they can't easily break through a simple circle... much like they can't easily break through a threshold, I'd say.  So if they're strong enough, it won't keep them out forever, as long as they're smart enough to realise it.

Also bear in mind that most (if not all) of the demon summoning was in the earlier books, when the "rules" were not as defined as they have become after another ten books or more.

Whoa.

It's going out early?

That's as startlingly shocking as is amazing.

Wicked!

So, how best to model the "attacks" from creatures such as basilisks or gorgons?

My first thought was to use the Domination power as a basis.  Cost it at, say, -4 Refresh, the same as Domination+Master Dominator.  To initiate the attack the creature could pit Intimidation (or maybe Presence) against Discipline to place an aspect like "Locked Gazes" on the intended victim.  Every exchange after that the victim can attempt to break the gaze with the same roll, though I might give the attacker a +2 bonus on that - once locked, you stay locked!  Others could block their view, of course, or distract either party enough to stop the attack, but they've got to be careful about being attacked as well!

And in every exchange, the attacker rolls Discipline vs Discipline, causing mental stress with a +2 bonus (like Master Dominator).  Stress and/or consequences are taken as normal.  If/when the victim is Taken Out, they are turned to stone/frozen in a catatonic state/whatever.  If the Refresh was -4 I'd be tempted to give them +2 on the attack roll to balance the loss of the ability to create Renfields that Domination gives, or take it up to -6 anyway.

My second thought was to use The Sight as a basis; just give the attack an intensity and attack the victim's mental stress that way.  Not much different, though, and harder to cost.


Any thoughts?