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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Richard_Chilton on February 23, 2012, 09:28:13 PM
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YULETIDE MAGIC [-4]
Description: Drawing on the power of the Saint Nicholas, you’re able to cast spells that fit his essential nature: warmth and coldness, charity, protection, travel, and power over secrets. These magics are under the sway and watch of Saint Nicholas himself; making use of them will inevitably catch his notice.
Sponsor: Santa Claus
Agenda: To reward good children, and to promote the traditions and spirit of Christmas.
Evocation: Yuletide evocations involve the control of warmth and coldness.
Thaumaturgy: Yuletide rituals encourage or make use of warmth, coldness, charity, protection, travel, and secrecy.
Evothaum: Yuletide Magic allows its user to cast conjuration and warding spells with evocation's speed and methods.
Extra Benefits: A character with Yuletide Magic gets a one free specialization in conjuration complexity and another in conjuration control.
This looks good, but Santa Claus did more than 'reward'. To me the article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companions_of_Saint_Nicholas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companions_of_Saint_Nicholas) - specially the side articles at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knecht_Ruprecht (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knecht_Ruprecht) - indicate that Yule Magic should be used to punished the naughty as much as rewarding the nice.
Could we restate it as:
Agenda: To reward good children, punish the naughty, and to promote the traditions and spirit of Christmas.
Richard
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Is not punishment the province of the Krampus? Or are you negotiating to have both Saint Klaus and the Krampus use the same Sponsored Magic?
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I see the Krampus as being an element of the Yule Court. Just as Jenny Greenteeth (a water hag) was a part of sex kitten Maeve's court, Krampus and the other companions are extensions of the power of the Yule Court.
In theory Maeve could use the hag powers of the winter court, but she preferred to have a servant do it. Similarly Santa could punish as well as reward, but he prefers to have his servants do the unpleasant things. The legend of Knecht Ruprecht says that he "represented an archetypal manservant" - and in those days the servant would handle the unpleasant tasks that the lord didn't want to deal with.
I guess it comes down to the role you envision someone with Yule Magic filling. Is he a servant or companion of Santa Claus, or is he an extension of Santa Claus? If the first, then it makes sense that the servant would fulfill some of the roles of the other servants that Santa Claus have done.
But there's another way of looking at things. In the DV, the myths usually come out more historic than Disney. Toot-toot and Tinkerbell might have sprung from the same legends and there are times that Toot-toot and his fellows are nearly Disney cute. That time in Summer Knight, where the little folk are forming up in a military unit - I can see Tinkerbell being in a scene like that. The thing is, I can't Tinkerbell using a box cutter to rip the Summer Lady apart. I really can't see her killing anyone - Summer Lady, Captain Hook, anyone.
Tinkerbell is the Disney version of the little people. The modern Santa Claus - who always brings good gifts and never gives lumps of coal - is a Disney version of the Santa Claus. I see the DV version (described as "he's not what you think") being closer to the old myths than the Coco cola ad.
Richard
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The Custom Power thread would probably be a better place to bring this up.
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It would be reasonable to make Yuletide Magic less purely nice, but stuff like that really should be up to the original author of the power.
Said original author is DeadmanWalking, who doesn't post here anymore.
So if you think it should be changed, please track him down and talk to him.
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It would be reasonable to make Yuletide Magic less purely nice, but stuff like that really should be up to the original author of the power.
Said original author is DeadmanWalking, who doesn't post here anymore.
So if you think it should be changed, please track him down and talk to him.
As a community we don't mind changing stunts others created. You even lead that project. I see no reason it shouldn't extend to powers.
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Said original author is DeadmanWalking, who doesn't post here anymore.
Darn, I thought that might be the case.
Perhaps a new power then - the same sort of sponsored magic, labeled as a variant, that includes the dark side of Christmas.
Richard
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I have no problem editing powers and stunts for balance and formatting and sanity reasons, but when there are no such issues I try to respect the original authors' intentions.
A new power might be a good idea, I dunno.