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Messages - The Mighty Buzzard

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421
DFRPG / Re: I am bad at GMing - No compels.
« on: August 23, 2011, 06:36:57 PM »
A) Snake all their phases sheets at the start of each session and read them all the way through again.

B) Tell them you're having a hard time and they need to start bringing up self compels to get you into the swing of things.  After a session or three like that it'll be easy to spot when a compel is warranted and they'll be more invested in the game to boot.

422
DFRPG / Re: Fourth Law of Magic Help
« on: August 23, 2011, 06:30:55 PM »
Furthermore, all wizards should have the ability to do all things that thaumaturgy and evocation (and their elements I suppose) allow.

Sure, why not start them off at 30 refresh and give them a BFG 9000 while you're at it.  Unlimited characters don't have much potential for growth and growth is a big part of the fun of playing any character.

It's not really fair to say that a biomantically focused wizard for example, can't attack, because he can't do it without breaking the second law.

A) If you think a biomantically focused wizard can't attack, you shouldn't play a biomantically focused wizard.  I could play one just fine and stay within the laws.
B) Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this.  Doctor: Then don't do that.
Seriously, that's like complaining that the cops are being a pain in the butt after you knocked over a liquor store. 

Stating that x thing always breaks the law creates this potential limit.

Yup.  Actions have consequences.  It's a recurring theme throughout both the books and the RPG.  If that's not something you're interested in having in a game, you're either going to have to make a lot of house rules or find another game.

Honestly, it sounds like you're running a game for people who don't think a game is fun unless you can do whatever you want, whenever you want.  If they all dig on that kind of thing, peachy.  Personally, I couldn't stand to sit through even one session ran like that.

423
DFRPG / Re: Starting Power level
« on: August 23, 2011, 06:04:28 PM »
Or, you know, escaping, but where's the fun in that?

To paraphrase Jim, the suffering of the players like heroin for GMs.  Seriously though, an escaping baddie means the players get a chance to step up their game.  Early losses/draws only make victory that much sweeter when they finally manage it.

424
DFRPG / Re: Making diamonds
« on: August 23, 2011, 01:45:13 AM »
The problem with applying realism to magic in this setting is that magic in the setting explicitly follows something nearly indistinguishable from narrative law.

Depends a lot your audience then.  Me, I dig on bits where Jim goes more in depth on the "how" of magic.  Makes it feel less like a Deus Ex Machina and draws me further into the story.  I like to carry that over to the games I run or play too.  Admittedly, sometimes up to the point where it looks like it might soon start boring people but hey, you can't hit the target dead center every time.

425
DFRPG / Re: Body Swap Spell
« on: August 22, 2011, 07:24:24 PM »
even with, for example, a death curse or MAJOR spirit ley line to work with?

Edit: Just remembered- ley lines and places of power work like Sponsored Magic, so... nevermind on that.

Wouldn't be a death curse if they lived.  Using up all their stress and consequences is the game method for determining strength of the curse, it's still powered by their life force and wouldn't leave them anything left to transfer to another body.

Besides, even if it were possible, remember that they're not going to lose mental consequences as a result of setting up house in a new body since the whole point of it is that they took their mind with them.  Unless they already had their consequence slots full of physical/social things, they're going to enter the body Taken Out and and at the mercy of whoever they were fighting to choose what Taken Out means for them.

426
DFRPG / Re: How long is a threshold invitation good for?
« on: August 22, 2011, 07:12:28 PM »
I like this.  I wonder if the "rules of hospitality" apply here.
I thought about that too but it doesn't really jive with canonical examples.  If you could rescind an invitation because of a violation of the laws of hospitality, I don't think we'd see the same level of paranoia about inviting something using the form of a friend in.  Don't mean it's not possible, just that I don't consider it probable.

The only issue I have with allowing you to retract an invite after the creature/person has crossed the threshold is it takes away the scariness of "accidently" inviting something BAD into your house....so maybe really limiting it to certain situations like the ones wyvern pointed out.

Nah, I prefer to keep my holy types and wizards on their toes too.  They already get enough breaks against the supernatural.

427
DFRPG / Re: Fourth Law of Magic Help
« on: August 22, 2011, 07:02:06 PM »
This, I think, is where the system becomes useful.  Harry & Co. have to talk in vague terms like suggestion (acceptable) and compulsion (Lawbreaking.)  We can talk about maneuvers, blocks, and taken out results.  Since the first two can be overcome via fate point expenditure and good rolling respectively they can be considered suggestions, while the latter cannot be overcome once established, so it would be a compulsion.

Right, like the aversion spell Harry had on his bolt hole in TC.  The Mr. Grumpy Pants attitude he got from Morgan over it said he was treading too close to the line for his liking but was still barely on the safe side.  So, while you might be able to put a maneuver on an area that made someone jittery and want to be elsewhere, you couldn't make it strong enough to actually block someone who had business in that area and you definitely could not target full on fear at an individual.

Back to the previously mentioned sleep spells, they've only been used by Council wizards so far to keep people that the wizard had no interest in harming from unnecessary pain. 
(click to show/hide)
  I doubt you could get away with using it as a combat tactic against a direct opponent though.

And that's if it would even work against an alert opponent(s) without a lot more shifts.  Thinking surprised (mediocre (+0)+4df) vs alert and fighting it (discipline+4df) here.  It could add up to being a very short or very costly sleep spell in a hurry, especially on multiple targets.

428
DFRPG / Re: Body Swap Spell
« on: August 22, 2011, 04:20:37 PM »
Personally, I wouldn't allow it to be done as evo at all by a PC unless they had something akin to Kemmlerian Necromancy to make it possible.

429
DFRPG / Re: How long is a threshold invitation good for?
« on: August 22, 2011, 04:17:47 PM »
Good calls, those.

They made me wonder, however, if one can actively withdraw an invitation once it's given?

Offhand, I'd say yes and no.  Yes if you do it before they cross the threshold.  No if they've already crossed the threshold.

430
DFRPG / Re: Treating Super-Science as Psuedo-Magic...
« on: August 22, 2011, 04:11:43 PM »
Think a little more "narrativist" and a little less "simulationist" about it...  Look at it in the same vein as SotC's Universal Gadget stunt.  That is, the Super-Scientist has prepared a selection of super-science gadgets that emulate certain evocation effects.  He brought a few of them along with him, but which ones he brought aren't defined, until the player actually decides which effect the character is producing.

Ahhhhh, gotcha.  Just replace Conviction with Scholarship then and go the Sponsored Magic route you were already thinking.

431
DFRPG / Re: Mixed magic
« on: August 22, 2011, 04:01:31 PM »
Btw: Multi-Round attack spells are not really legal by the rules. Prolonging spells is meant for Maneuvers or Blocks.

Yeah, I was thinking of it like a damaging block.  Like Orbius for instance. 

432
DFRPG / Re: Duration Problem
« on: August 22, 2011, 03:58:04 PM »
If your maneuver has a 0 shift result (matches opponent's defending roll or difficulty set by GM), it's fragile (YS114).  Fragile aspects must be used immediately and may only be tagged (or invoked) once.  Once you do, they go away. 

If you beat the result (one shift or more of success), they're sticky.  They can last the whole scene and be tagged once, but invoked as many times as you have FP to spend.  An opponent may act to remove this aspect and must equal or beat the original result to do so.

That's how the RAW have it.

The number of shifts a sticky maneuver costs is equal to the strength of the maneuver + the number of extra uses you want to have available.

That would be a house rule.  Not a terribly odd or bad house rule, mind, just a house rule.

433
DFRPG / Re: Making diamonds
« on: August 22, 2011, 03:51:50 PM »
I'd be willing to accept permanence of a transformation for free in some cases... but I'd still push for the player to pay extra shifts for "authenticity"... again, making yourself into a wolf that's close enough to a wolf to fool a biologist is a lot harder than it seems... same goes for diamonds no matter how regular the patterns are... after all, not all diamonds are created equal. The carbon structure in diamonds has never been found to be perfect, and the flaws that occur naturally and in artificially made ones are easy to spot with even a skilled optical inspection- the artificial ones stand out, and are considered less valuable (because they're less rare, and the value of rare minerals is almost entirely a result of their rarity).
Make one too regular, too unflawed, and you're likely to get a lot of unwanted attention.
Make it flawed the wrong way, and it loses value, or worse, mimics a variety of conflict or blood diamonds.

Excellent point.

Also... minor point to mention. Currently, they can test the mineral content, what ever was in the soil the diamond was born in, and identify WHERE it came from. What would it show, in this case? If you used carbon from coal in Minnesota, would it read as a Minnesota diamond? Or would it come to match what ever sample you used as a template.
Ooooooooo, would you not get to reduce shifts, if you used the magical property of similarity and used a sample to set the "Pattern" and just matched the material to that? So, steal one diamond, and use it as a "Template" to work Geo-Alchemy and make more.

Good thinking and good idea with the template.  A lot like using a seed diamond when growing them in a lab.

Also, make enough and DuBose and the others in the diamond kartel will come gunning for you. Same goes for the emerald kartel in Brazil, and the Ruby kartel in india. They frown upon competition. Not to mention, you can kill the price, by removing the rarity.
Personally, I plan to get rich by harvesting unreachable platinum under the oceans. Thats just a question of Detection and transportation. No one "owns" it and you CANT glut the market, Platinum is ALWAYS needed, to get the Fuel Cell research going.

Could make for an interesting story arc, yeah?  If you're running a pre-TC campaign it's almost certain to be the rampires running the cartels out of Brazil.  No idea for african diamonds.  Indian Rubies could even land you a pissy rakshasa or contracted hitters for the Jade Court.

434
DFRPG / Re: Fourth Law of Magic Help
« on: August 22, 2011, 03:38:33 PM »
I don't think emotional or memory projection would be against the fourth law as you are not controlling the targets mind you are merely  adding stimulus (to which they will respond), you are not controlling what they do or how they think they still get to choose how to react to the horrific memories you beam into their head or the awful feelings you project into their minds.

But then I go with a Hobbes view of freedom unless you are actively stopping someone from thinking something or doing something then you aren't breaking the law. (So as long as you don't use mental grapples or force someone to do something you are ok).     

Molly adding fear in response to drug use was what landed her Lawbreaker in the first place, so I'm pretty sure you're wrong there.  Throwing some mental hurting back as a response to an attempted invasion like in DB or GS I think you could do without worrying about Wardens or picking up Lawbreaker.  Being the one to initiate a mental conflict is likely to keep you from going to that hat convention this summer.

435
DFRPG / Re: Fourth Law of Magic Help
« on: August 22, 2011, 10:10:36 AM »
Quick and dirty rule: If you in any way compromise someone's free will, chop.  So, yeah, inciting emotions would cost you your head.  Assume the Wardens make the RIAA/MPAA look like wishy-washy pansies in their zealotry.

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