I was looking at endurance-based stunts vs powers, and it's just ridiculous. By spending 2 refresh on Inhuman Toughness, you get armor:1 against anything physical, plus two additional stress boxes--which probably means you can absorb an extra 9-11 shifts of damage.

But if you spend that same 2 refresh on stunts to get similar abilities, you'd want stunts like Tough Stuff, which gives you armor:1 against some things but not others, and No Pain No Gain, which gets you an extra mild physical consequence--which means you can absorb an extra 2 shifts of damage, plus you can have the consequence compelled against you and you have to wait a scene for it to clear.

This seems like a huge disparity.

How much refresh do people think it should cost to buy a power that allows you to use the Nevernever's "easy evocations" ability on Earth? Should there be an upgrade available to let you use normal-strength spellcasting without stress as well (this should probably be limited to evocations that are weaker than your conviction+refinement)? If so, how much should that cost? Should it be split into two upgrades, one for evocations weaker than just your conviction, and one for evocations at your conviction+refinement?

So I've been trying to figure out how magic is passed down, because if it's only passed down from mother to child, then Harry shouldn't have magic, and I think I've come up with something:

There are two parts to inheriting the ability to use magic: genetics and exposure to magic in the womb.

You can get the genetic component from either parent.

You also need to be exposed to some degree of magic while in the womb. This is significantly easier if your mother is a magic user, because there is always some magic circulating through magic users even when they're not casting spells (based on the fact that wizards still hex things even when not using magic).

It's significantly harder to be sufficiently exposed to magic if your mother is not a magic user, because it requires that your mother be around multiple fairly powerful magic workings while pregnant with you. This explains why magic appears to normally be inherited from the mother, especially with minor practitioners.

This also explains why Molly inherited magic from Charity but none of her other siblings did: Charity wasn't practicing magic while pregnant with her, but she hadn't stopped long enough for magic to stop circulating through her yet. (After all, if it were just genetic, then Charity abandoning magic would have no effect).

It also explains Margaret--her mom wasn't magic, but was hanging around Ebenezer (since she was married to him).

In addition, it explains both why Maggie might have magic and why it would be influenced by her mother's vampirism--she inherited strong magical genetics from Harry, and was exposed to rampire energies rather than mortal magic while in the womb.

Would Harry have called Lasciel's coin to keep her (or Michael) safe?

So, I don't really like the Lawbreaker power because I feel like it discourages people (or at least discourages me) from playing a character like Harry or Molly, who broke a Law once but is trying to reform. If you're not breaking whatever Law a bunch in game, then it's just wasted refresh. I was thinking about just treating breaking the Laws like an extreme consequence, but then I thought that it might work better if I expanded the Lawbreaker power to give bonuses to things that weren't just breaking the Laws. For example, Lawbreaker (1st) would give a bonus to all violent magic, not just First Law violations. Do you think that that would work, or are there problems with it that I haven't thought of?

So, I've come up with a theory for why Mab would want to kidnap Molly, revolving around Rashid's power of making cryptic statements about the future.

The idea is that Rashid (at two different times) makes statements to Mab indicating that the Winter Lady will be/is infected by Nemesis, and that Molly will/could be the Winter Lady.

Mab interprets this to mean that Nemesis is plotting to kill her daughter and replace her with Molly as their pawn, and promptly sends the Fetches to hunt down/kidnap Molly (either because she can't order them to kill her directly or because she wants to find out if Molly knows anything about Nemesis' plans and make her tell her).

However, Rashid has already arranged for the horror movie convention to occur, complete with Madrigal Raith to make sure it's extra tasty, and the Fetches get distracted long enough for Harry to get thoroughly involved.

The Fetches get Molly eventually, and Mab realizes that it is unlikely (Mab says in Cold Days that it's hard/impossible to be completely sure) that Molly is not Infected (yet). Furthermore, she's been keeping tabs on Harry since he got involved, and realizes that Maeve is acting very suspiciously.

She doesn't want to accept it, of course, but between this and the fact that Rashid helped Harry protect Molly, she is forced to acknowledge that Maeve is Infected.

The book ends with Mab realizing a clear and present danger to her court and Harry gaining an apprentice who can compensate for his weaknesses and force him to improve them--just as Rashid planned!

What do people think?

So, I was reading an old thread about what would happen if you sacrificed a denarian on the stone table, and it sparked an idea.

What if the reason Nicodemus wanted the knife from Skin Game was because it can destroy denarian coins, which by WoJ would free the Fallen inside to act?