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Messages - Guldor

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DFRPG / Re: Mind Magic questions
« on: November 02, 2011, 09:34:40 AM »
@Sinker: Do you use "Mind Magic" as a new evocation element or do you simulate it with spirit evocation. But when you do this with spirit evocation: Is spirit evocation too powerful then?

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DFRPG / Re: Mind Magic questions
« on: October 27, 2011, 01:54:16 PM »
I would be some kind of ritual, which should be designed to took out the victims mental stress track and then adding shifts for consequences. The classical mindless grunt would get the extreme consequence "Enthralled" or something like this. Every time he gets an order form the wizard, he wold get an compel for this consequence.
Rulewise: The complexity of a ritual like this would be: Conviction (or perhaps discipline) of the victim + 4 + shifts to fill the mental stress track and add consequences.

Another possibility I could imagine is to use Spirit evocation to attack the thoughts of a victim using his conviction (perhaps discipline...Iīm not sure) as a defensive skill. If you deal enough stress to create consequences itīs like the above sample.

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DFRPG / Re: Merfolk, What are they?
« on: October 18, 2011, 09:11:52 AM »
I actually have a player, who plays a half undine. Iīm modelling merfolk more or less after the ancient greek origins and assume that they are some kind of independent fae court. Since we are playing in germany, more exactly Bremen, the fae of the north sea are an important force of the local supernatural politics. The player itself doesnīt really belong to this merfolk, since I thought of a darker breed of merfolk faeries, who life in the deep, cold reaches of the ocean, and who are some kind of cruel seers, who belong to the winter court.

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DFRPG / Re: Acts of selfless hope
« on: October 05, 2011, 01:33:30 PM »
Some ideas for True Hope:

Someone with a terminal illness, who is still happy and has perspectives in his life.

Some strong religious believers, who have witnessed war, rape and other bad stuff, but still believe in the general goodness of mankind.

The city of Las Vegas or similiar places should be bad mojo for Skavis. Although everybody knows that in the end the bank will win, they are hoping for the big prize. Here I wouldnīt say itīs true spiritual hope but a lot of people with a lot of hope at one place could disturb a Skavis WCV.

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DFRPG / Re: Victorian Age Campaign
« on: October 04, 2011, 10:46:44 AM »
Quote
Quote from: Richard_Chilton on October 01, 2011, 01:58:25 PM

    You might want to use the old form of Hexing (milk spoils, etc) if you're setting the game in the past.

    Richard


In Victorian Times, it'd be flame sputtering.  Spoiling food was for around the Dark Ages, I think.

I think you are both right. But itīs mentioned that most technology past the WW2 is sensitive to modern times hexing. I would speculate that hexing has to do something with human belief. In the Dark Ages most people were farmers and in their belief evil or something unnatural manifests itself in strange signs like spoiled milk or the birth of twoheaded animals or something. One could assume that especially the WW2, where technology killed millions of people and the times thereafter the belief of the people changed and technology became some kind of a new belief system. Not really like some kind of new religion but nevertheless spiritually important. So from thereon the changes in the reality caused by MORTAL spellcasters tended to show in other ways. Especially the victroian ages (or a renaissance setting) are some kind of borderzones, spiritually spoken. In the cities (London would be THE example in victorian times) the people are used to gaslights and other stuff and a little bit of science, while in rural areas there are still a lot of people, who belief in ghost, fairies and magic. But if you see who many people were still simple landfolk (no offense towards farmers here :-))  i would handle it like hexing in the dark ages.....

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DFRPG / Re: Why are zombies a violation of the fifth law ?
« on: September 23, 2011, 07:21:06 AM »
@Richard: Yes youīre totally right about this forum. In german forums you normally have the same problems with people, who threat you like crap. Some people seem to think they donīt have to be polite, when they are more or less anonymous. This reflects a bad light on those people: They are only polite, if it may reprisals if they arenīt. Here nearly all posters are friendly, constructive and helpful.

So thank you all guys for the discussion. I now have some new points of view and I am sure I and the ectomancer player will work something out regarding the fifth law.

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DFRPG / Re: Why are zombies a violation of the fifth law ?
« on: September 22, 2011, 06:22:44 PM »
First on: Thank you all for making productive comments and not yelling around, that my point of view is bullshit :-)

@Richard: Of course ghosts donīt have a soul. From a certain point of view you could argue the have no real feelings are not intelligent. I donīt want to argue about one point: Ghosts have got no soul (perhaps some former musicians...sorry for the joke :-)). But they are imprints of the soul of a former living being at the timepoint of the death of this being. The canīt really evolve, but they (only my idea about it) have feelings. The feelings of the person, who died. Perhaps they simulate the feelings, but they donīt see it this way themselves. For them (and in my opinion ghost must have some kind of self awareness to act like they do in the books) their feelings and thinking is real. And if itīs only a really really good simulation: Where is the difference for the person who treats them like his personal slaves. I know I get kind of philosophic here but for all the Trekkies out there: Thin about Data. His feelings are some kind of simulated but are they therefore not true?

@sinker: Seems so be a good idea to attack mentally amd have some kind of psychic consequence. Will work for me :-)

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DFRPG / Re: Why are zombies a violation of the fifth law ?
« on: September 22, 2011, 04:39:25 PM »
@Umbralux: Yes of course this would be the ideal solution, if there wouldnīt be a lot of grey areas. From my point of view it isnīt a clear choice, neither for the player nor the GM. I agree that some dice rolls, which decide if you are morally rotten or not are not very elegant. My houserule was more or less some kind of brainstorming. It bothers me a little bit that there is no inbetween for lawbreaking.

For example:
(click to show/hide)

I would like to simulate this rulewise: There are things that are not really lawbreaking according to the letter of the law, but the should have a small impact on the soul of the wizard.

@Richard Chilton: Yes the white council doesnīt bother. But how cruel is it to force a feeling, intelligent being to fullfill you every wish. When you use magic for this, it should be some kind of "lesser lawbreaking", donīt you think?

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DFRPG / Re: Why are zombies a violation of the fifth law ?
« on: September 22, 2011, 12:46:15 PM »
Come on Belial, a little bit more creativity  :) Since the Wizard has to control the undead and the spirit provides the link to them, the wizards soul is still touched and stained by the death magic. So here is your lawbreaking. And by the way: I try to make it a little bit harder to avoid black magic. I think according to the lore you can do with ghosts what you want. Rulewise there would never be a punishment for the wizard, if he didn`t get caught by some overambitious warden.

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DFRPG / Re: Why are zombies a violation of the fifth law ?
« on: September 22, 2011, 07:26:21 AM »
Very interesting discussion! It seems to me, that especially concerning ghosts, the opinions are very varied.


Personally the way I figure it is that with a zombie you are using a dead body. That dead body is a link to the person who used to be inhabiting it.

Additionally Quantus is right about necromantic energy being different from normal magic.

I think for me this is the main argument against creating zombies. The body must be a really strong link to the soul of the former owner of the body. So by giving the body false life, you are disturbing the dead. And there is the lawbreaking. Since animals have no souls (?) it might be not good manners to raise them, but you donīt play around with some souls.

The matter on ghosts is a lot more complicated. If it has no soul it seems to be no problem to force them to do something with magic. Of course, to state it again, itīs morally really problematic to do so, but form the point of view of the white council it shouldnīt be such a big deal. (When Harry enthralls a fae Morgan is not happy but canīt do anything about it: @Lanodantheon: I am reading the books in the moment but my gaming group donīt know them :-) In the moment  I am reading White Night so Dead Beat is done :-))  But still I have the feeling that raising animal zombies and forcing ghosts into fighting frenzies SHOULD leave a small stain on the wizards soul. Not quite enough for a lawbreaking but still.

I have thought about it and have come up with some kind of houserule. Maybe you people are interested in it.

Example 1: Wizard A is creating a big ugly zombie to beat up an enemy of him. He now gets his lawbreaking stunt and thats it, because there is no leeway.

Example 2: Wizard B is forcing a ghost to beat up an enemy of him. Since the ghost has no soul itīs not really a lawbreaking, but you also enthrall it and perhaps a part of the spell is using a tiny bit of death magic. As a GM I would state that he is about to walk a darker path and therefore his soul maybe stained a little bit. To simulate this in game terms: The GM rolls an attack with a  desired strength. Lets say the GM thinks this is a minor staining and he sets a strength of 4. He rolls a 2 and therefore the attack has got as power of 6. The wizard may use his conviction (because he might believe it was necessary to send the ghost and for the greater good and so on) and his roll results in a 4. Therefore he got two shifts form the attack. This shifts are used to open up the stress track necromancy (or vice versa for another not quite lawbreaking). Perhaps it could be of the same length as the mental stress track, but it wonīt clear as fast. Maybe you may roll conviction against stress +2 or something to remove one point of stress every minor milestone. When the stress track is full you get your lawbreaking stunt.

This seems to be a bit complicated, I know. But I donīt like to see things only black and white. Perhaps the white council does this a lot. But for roleplaying reasons it might be more interesting to see someone fight with his own conscience, after he has done something very questionable.

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DFRPG / Why are zombies a violation of the fifth law ?
« on: September 21, 2011, 08:08:41 AM »
We now start a new gaming group (with people I play with like forever) and one of them will play an ectomancer. I already told him that Necromancy would bring up the White Council and that he already met a warden, which told him very clearly what he is allowed to do and what not. All three players don`t know the books (and only one the TV series) and so I have to explain a lot of the Dresdenverse to them. But they are unbiased, so that will be a big merit.
When we made characters the ectomancer player was already rambling about creating undead and stuff like that and I think this might be great thing to see were this may lead storywise. But I have big problems fpr myself to define, where the borders of true necromancy are. As I understand it, it is forbidden, to contact or summon unwilling dead. Ok so far. Ghost are something entirely different because they are only imprints of the dead.
So my first question: Is it black magic if you summon and bind a ghost as some kind of bodyguard or fighter. In OW the spirit warrior (donīt remimber the right term for them right now) is described as normally used by necromancers. Might be cruel to use ghosts that way but is it really a violation of the law? And if it is not I would still like to stain the ectomancer when he would doing it the whole time. There might be no soul but like faeries ghosts have more or less real feeling and if you force them to "die" for you is quite not very friendly.
My second question: Why is it a violation of the fith law to create zombies. Same as for ghost warriors: It is sick like hell perhabs but you use long dead bodies and bind some random spirit to it (By the way it is never explained what these spirits are) and then you have some kind of construct. And building constructs is normally no problem as I see it. Or are you summoning the real dead soul of the former body owner? Or are you using the might of the death of that person? Then perhaps I would understand the problem....


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DFRPG / Re: Things you may stumble opon in the Nevernever
« on: September 09, 2011, 11:58:25 AM »
A tall and slender tower, inhabited by a fae sorceress, who collects Humans as servants and playthings.
Some lonely coniferous forest with thick undergrowth and a permanently creepy howling wind between the branches.
A beautiful meadow full of flowers and some pixies, who are prancing around.

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DFRPG / Re: Weapons and the law
« on: August 26, 2011, 07:34:28 AM »
Iīm from Germany and there are enough people who possess weapons. Iīm surely no expert, but I think small halfautomatic weapons are ok for private persons if you have a license and there some shootingclubs. At home you must store your weapons and your ammunition in two different and closed cupboards.
But youīre right that the german police would get crazy if you run around with a gun in public. I think there is a cultural dependency on this whole topic. Donīt want to offend anyone, but as I know weapons are more common in the USA, because in former times the settlers had to defend themselves. Itīs some kind of proud tradition. Please correct me if Iīm talking bullshit.
In Germany there was (at least the last 200 years or so) always some kind of strong ruling power and the normal guy didn`t really need a weapon. Iīm telling this because perhaps you could make this some kind of theme for your campaign. Something like: "Look officer, he has a gun!". Then you could always compel this in certain situations. Even when the character has a license, it will cost him time to discuss with the police etc.... And if the character pays a fate point to circumvent the compel, the random guy in public didn`t saw it.

@Rubycon: Are you also german or is there a special reason, why you wan`t to play a story there?

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DFRPG / Re: Starting Power level
« on: August 23, 2011, 10:15:55 AM »
Maybe you think a little bit too much about it. But this is at least a lot better then not thinking about the powerlevel. My limited experience with the Dresden files rpg shows that it is not so important how big the powerlevel of the characters is, because there is always a bigger fish to challenge them without stretching the universe too much.
In my opinion it is a little bit more interesting how much experience the players of your group have concerning the Dresdenverse and roleplaying in general. If the are unexperienced it might be too much to start with a lot of power right form the beginning of a campaign. They might end up using only part of their abilities "effective" and maybe canīt work as a team to substitute each others weaknesses. 

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Thank you very much for the answers. I already allowed the halfdryad to peek into the nevernever with a lore roll arguing with her high concept. I think it is a good idea to use a fate point to invoke the high concept to shift into the nevernever. I think I will handle it like this and only at certain places which are at least a little bit magical.

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