In making a new character that apart from being a wizard is also a goldsmith. My idea for practical use of this in game is mostly going to revolve around declarations and assessments, and of course his foci and enchanted items will mostly be various kinds of personalized jewelry. However - thinking about skills for him I ran into a bit of trouble: Goldsmithing does not fit comfortably in either Performance or Craftsmanship, to my eyes.

At first I though "oh, of course it's Craftsmanship - this is a craft, there's no "performing" part in this!" Until I looked closer at the trappings...
Breaking, Building, Fixing. These are all really a lot more suited to "practical" crafts, repairing machinery, building houses etc. Being a goldsmith really doesn't help all that much when you try to shore up the door against some oncoming beastie trying to beat it down...

"All right, I guess it might actually be Performance then..." Well, some actually seem to fit better here, at least!
Art Appreciation - transplanted to Jewelry and other fine metalwork, sure!
Composition - This would then be the actual "making the stuff" trapping.
Creative Communication - Eehh... I don't really see how this fits what he's doing...
Playing to an Audience - Most decidedly No.

Now, I understand some trappings (or other areas of the skill) might not be appropriate for every character, especially for those skills that can have a multitude of specializations (a plumber has craftsmanship - doesn't mean he'll be able to fix the bad wiring so you can get the electric lights to work). But in this case I'm really not sure which way to go.

Looking at the trappings, Performance seems a better fit; but at the same time I think the tool use and handiwork translates better over to Craftsmanship when he tries to improvise other stuff...

Sure, I could use either as long as the GM and I agree on the limits of his capabilities, but I'd like input on which skill you people would chose for this.

First of all, to make sure I've understood it correctly:
The Specializations possible to chose from for Thaumaturgy are
Complexity (for one use/theme, adds effectively to  Lore)
Control (for one use/theme, adds to Discipline)
Strength (for Crafting only, adds Strength to Potions & Enchanted Items)
Frequency (for Crafting only, adds Uses/Session to Potions & Enchanted Items)
Focus (for Crafting only, adds to Lore when calculating the max # Bonuses per Focus Item)

Now, what I'm wondering is if ever a theme-based Complexity rating can influence Potion or Enchanted Item strength?
By my reading - no, but it feels strange that someone with, say +4 Complexity (Biomancy) wouldn't get any benefit when making a potion that boosts adrenaline and endorphin (potion that adds a couple aspects around strength and endurance to be tagged) over making a potion to make you invisible...

Hi, now that the spellcaster of my game is getting ready to actually throw around some conscious magic (she's growing into power, only really finding out about it during play), her player and I have been thinking a bit about what kind of effects (narratively, the mechanics are perfectly clear) could be achieved with Evocation and what would belong among Thaumaturgy.

The character is meant to grow into a full wizard template, but the talent is kicking of with Biomancy. So her current spellcrafting powers are:
Ritual (Biomancy)
Channeling (Water) - Our thinking here is that 1: Her powers are supposed to grow and expand when upgrading to Evocation & Thaumaturgy, not change, so we went with one of the standard elements; and 2: Water feels most closely linked to biological life. This connection is partially inspired by the "Bloodbending" of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We're also loosely thinking about the concept of the Humours with this connection, though there's a lot for me to read up on there.

First - would you agree that the selection of Water as Channeling-element for a Biomancer-growing-toward-wizard?
Second - what would you say of these effects:

• Effects similar to tear gas by causing mucus membranes in the eyes, nose and mouth to overproduce? (Maneuver: Aspect "Tear gas" or similar on the target)
• Choking/suffocation from water in the lungs, exuded blood & mucus? (Attack)

Or would these be too complex for Evocation? I'm still really on the fence. I really like them, but the might very well need Biomancy Evothaum.

Since I'm making a hunting-themed changeling, I've been looking at both Glamour and Cloak of Shadows. I've decided to give her Glamour, since that feels so intrinsic to everything faerie, and Cloak of Shadows very much fits her concept of a sneaking, stalking hunter. However, there is a distinct overlap on the sneaking department between those two powers. With access to Minor Veils, is the stealth part of CoS actually worth anything?

I started thinking that maybe the veils from Glamour requires some non-trivial amount on concentration to keep up, however the rules don't mention it. I was thinking that if it requires concentration, it might count as a supplemental action.
So: Is the upkeep of a Glamour veil considered a Free or Supplemental action?

A post by Tsunami in the "Thunder Gates" thread reminded me of something that's been at the back of my thoughts for a while.

I'm currently designing a hunting-themed Changeling (half goblin). In what areas would she be able to pass into the nevernever on her own (if any) without any other power? What would be "affinity" areas? Would any wilderness with a natural predatory fauna do?
How long would crossing into the nevernever (or back) take when not using something like Swift Transition*? I'm guessing "A few moments" but not realistically doable during a conflict.

*This, btw, has a really confusing name to me, nothing in the writeup indicates a different speed of transitioning, just that it can happen anywhere.

/Cadd

In the game I'm about to kick off, one of the players are kicking around an idea of playing an Emissary of Cerberus/Garm, essentially a local "deputy" that Cerberus sends after people mucking around with the dead (mostly necromancers) and occasionally regular ghosts.

In order to physically interact with ghosts in the mortal world, OW p56 says three things are required: Some form of magic, knowing the ghosts name, and speaking that name out loud.

Would it be cheapening things too much to allow the power Ghost Speaker to also allow physical interaction with ghosts, thus bypassing the necessity of knowing its name? Of course, they would be able to affect the user physically as well, with no need to further materialize.

I'm slowly prepairing to run my first DF (or FATE, for that matter) game, and one of the players are kicking around a very interesting concept.

A blind character, born seeing but with some kind of disease or damage that made her lose her sight before ~2 years old. Magically talented but not properly aware of it, her magic has been making up for her lost eyesight, but when she realises (probably needs someone to give her the idea, even) her talents are much broader than that she will be able to start affecting more and more, essentially growing into her magic in game.

The inspiration started off with Agent Tilly (Changes), who uses a magical talent for recognizing lies without realising it's magic.

How would you represent this mechanically?