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Messages - mstorer3772

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31
Well the fea also said that she had a good mind to tell him what really happen and stop all this none sense, also if she knew what was really going on why was she so compelled to help molly in her training so viciously.

It's also possible that the winter fae won't try to screw him over any more now that he's their Knight.  UNLIKELY, and quite possibly just the opposite... though anything that would prevent him from serving Mab properly would undoubtedly Invoke Her Wrath.

32
DFRPG / Re: Some unexpected dangers of the Sixth Law
« on: August 24, 2011, 06:11:20 PM »
Consider: the effects of magic in the dresdenverse tend to follow the laws of physics.

Which should include the correlations between time and space.

The interesting thing about spacetime is how flexible it is.  As you pour more velocity into an object and it aproaches the speed of light, it's velocity stops changing so much and SPACE AND TIME change instead.  Gravity warps spacetime.

And we know time can travel differently in different corners of the Nevernever... but folks don't have to "pay the piper" later for that, at least knot that weave scene.

OTOH, magic might cause a steep enough spacetime "sheer" to compress molecules entering the sheer to fuse.  That would be bad.

OTOOH, physics is convoluted enough and good enough at avoiding "free lunches" that changing spacetime like that might also change the way matter compresses to a point where that's not an issue.  No "cheap" fusion for you "just" by changing the flow of time.

Lots of options for a GM to take.  Time traveling suicide bombers that go up remarkably like nukes.  The Gatekeeper steps in, Things Get Dicey.  Or just ignore it and let magic create a temporary "speed" power, just be sure to follow the rules for temporary powers as closely as possible (ie: fate point cost at the very least).

33
DFRPG / Re: Entropy Curses? How about...
« on: August 24, 2011, 05:43:25 PM »
Masked as Feng Shui masters.

Masked!?  What do you think Feng Shui is?

And I disagree with your "the bad luck has to come out somewhere else".  We certainly didn't see any good luck seepage in Blood Rites when people were dying from entropy curses left and right.  No lottery winners, no "ran into The One Who Got Away, we have a date tonight", no Maxwell Smart dodges.

If you want to go Dark Darker Darkest with your campaign, by all means... but as far as game mechanics go, there's no reason for it.

34
DFRPG / Re: Help I have a Fate point hoarder?
« on: August 24, 2011, 05:36:27 PM »
I've read through this thread a couple of times and I'm still not actually sure what the problem is. It looks to me like the person running the game is having some uncomfortable emotional reactions - but that in terms of what's going on in the game, things are okay. Maybe not great, but okay.

It sounds like everyone else is working as a team, setting each other up, but this guy's just a Tag Sponge:

Quote
The group is great at making asspects available for others to tag for free and he will always use these, but he will not spend points to use his aspects.

He's a taker, not a giver.  THAT I can see being a problem.  If the other players are trying to set him up to through the big whammy, fine... but I suspect that isn't the case.

35
DFRPG / Entropy Curses? How about...
« on: August 24, 2011, 05:19:12 PM »
An entropy BLESSING.  A year of GOOD luck.  Just like the curse, only with warm fuzzies instead of cold pricklies:

May Fortune Smile Upon You
Type: Thamaturgy, Entropomancy
Complexity: 22 shifts vs target's Discipline.
Duration: 1 year.
Effect: Target gains "Fortune Smiles on Me" for one year.  Expect to be thrown out of a lot of casinos if you go that route.

That raises an interesting question:  When casting a spell on someone that they want cast on them, do you really need to beat their Discipline/Fortitude/Reflex?  Can't they just say "hey, I want that" and let it happen?

The "Dreamless sleep (easy version)" variation text suggests that overcoming Discipline is only necessary when they want to resist:
Quote
Attempting this as an attack will be opposed by the target's Discipline.

So a blessing could be significantly cheaper.  13 shifts (pure duration, scene -> 1 year) instead of 22.

This sort of "good joss" spell could include all kinds of happy effects.  Fertility, prosperity, professional success, romantic success, whatever. 

36
DFRPG / Re: I am bad at GMing - No compels.
« on: August 24, 2011, 12:02:14 AM »
It's also quite possible that you're players aspects just aren't that... compelling.

Would you mind telling us what they are?

37
DFRPG / Re: Is it just me...
« on: August 24, 2011, 12:00:33 AM »
WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!?!

38
DFRPG / Re: Is it just me...
« on: August 23, 2011, 11:39:19 PM »
My villainy knows no bounds!

Next:  ELMO HAD FOUR DUCKS!

39
DFRPG / Re: Is it just me...
« on: August 23, 2011, 10:16:08 PM »
Wait, so you're swimming against the currents of time too?

Swimming and peeking are different.  Ask Gatekeeper Rashid with that metal "I see future people" eyeball of his.  Very Odin-esque. 

Holy Snuck-Up-On-Me-Parallels Batman!

40
DFRPG / Re: Is it just me...
« on: August 23, 2011, 08:54:18 PM »
All is proceeding as I have foreseen.


Ahahahaaa!


Whoops... so that's what getting a Lawbreaker power feels like. >:D

41
DFRPG / Re: I am bad at GMing - No compels.
« on: August 23, 2011, 08:48:33 PM »
In addition to what's already been offered here, I have another:

Represent fate points with some inedible physical tokens that are easy to slide back and forth.  Poker chips, Go/Pente stones, those glass beads from the bottom of your fish tank (ew), cheesy plastic coin pirate treasure bits, whatever.

Play with them absently while running the game.  The idea here is that by keeping them In Hand, you're reminded of their existence and will Actually Use Them.

It also give something for your players to point at while self-compelling.

42
DFRPG / Is it just me...
« on: August 23, 2011, 07:47:47 PM »
...or does anyone else hear Mr. T saying "Flint Lockwood" from Partially cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs every time you look at "LCDarkwood".

No?  Okay, how about now?

<Mr T>LCDarkwood</Mr T>

Did I just violate the 4th law?

43
DFRPG / Re: Extreme Weight
« on: August 19, 2011, 04:51:47 PM »
If you really feel the need to stat such a thing out... lets see here...

Quote from: The Rules
Something six levels below his Might could be
used as a thrown weapon.

"Huge" gives a +2 to lifting & breaking trappings.  I'd say a city sized bug has quite a few levels of huge, and probably Mythic Strength (+12 lifting) as well.

Lets say 4 Huge's & Mythic strength.  That's +20 lifting.

Looking at the Lifting Chart, I'd say each +1 doubles the weight.  For example:

+1 Most adults.  I'd call that around 150lbs.
+2 Most heavy-set adults.  Call that 300lbs. 

It breaks down in a hurry between +3 and +7, but it's at least possible that's a typeo.  But probably not.

For argument's sake, lets assume:
1)  a mid-sized car (+9) weighs 1 ton (2000lbs).
2)  Each shift after that doubles the weight.
3) A sky scraper weighs 100,000 tons (that's a very "brown" number... guess where I got it from)

So 2^x > 100,000.  Solve for x.

x = 17 (rounding up to the nearest whole number).  2^17 = 131,072 for those of you playing from home.

And you need to beat that by 6 to use it as a thrown weapon.  So 23.

And the mythic strength + (huge x 4) combo gets you to 20.  So your super-bug only needs a might of 3.

But I'd just wave my hands and say "Plot Device".

Of course the big problem with throwing things like that is that you can't really throw them.  They're hollow and designed to support their own weight while sitting on stable ground.  Imagine a 5ft tall model of the Eiffel Tower made from popsicle sticks and Elmers glue.  It's barely holding itself upright under its own weight when that weight is evenly distributed across its base.

If you grab one corner of such a building and lift, you're likely to rip that corner off and get a front row seat to watch the rest of it fall on you.

But lets say you pick it up successfully.  Now you want to throw it (a Long Way).  That means subjecting it to tremendous stress, almost certainly along an axis that wasn't meant to take it.

"Extreme consequences" just don't do it justice.  Oh, some pieces of the building would go in the general direction you wanted, but most of the building's mass would break off and go in various directions, with a fair amount dropping on the head of whatever was foolish enough to try and throw something that fragile.

Yes.  I said "fragile".  At that scale, a skyscraper is popsicle sticks and Elmers.

If you really want your giant bug to throw something huge, try ripping out the side of a mountain.  You'd still have some of the same problems, but you can at least argue the possibility with a straight face.

But I'd still go with "Plot Device".  Dues Ex Bugina doesn't have to obey trivialities like "plausibility" and "physics".


PS: Zones?  The building itself has at least one zone per floor plus one for the roof.  If you're not affecting at least that many zones with your impact, You're Doing It Wrong.

44
DFRPG / Re: Which book?
« on: August 18, 2011, 04:32:12 PM »
I second this recommendation. Since Our World is mainly useful as a sourcebook for figuring out just how to build a something or other, it's almost MORE useful as a PDF than as a real book for one major reason.

Searching.

The PDF is so much handier for just searching through and seeing, "Hey, how are the Knights of the Cross statted up? I think I'll make my Holy Swordsman of Islam more or less the same." Or setting up Fix as one of your antagonists and seeing exactly what kind of power he throws out in a throw down.

Definitely buy Your Story first though. You can't really understand Our World without Your Story.

If you buy a physical book from your Favorite Local Gaming Store, Evil Hat will give you the PDF.  For Free.  Send them a scan of your receipt, they send you a download link.

Yes, the PDF by itself is considerably cheaper (40$ vs 20$).  If that's a deciding factor, so be it.  But don't think that you have to forgo the PDF if you get a physical copy.

I'm really surprised there's not a "Evil Hat PDF Guarantee" page in YS.  Presumably there isn't one in OW either, but I don't own that one (yet).  Ditto for a thread here in the forums.  It's a Pretty Big Deal.  In my none too humble, PDF-programmer-for-15-years-so-I'm-more-than-a-tad-biased opinion...

PS:  Does anyone else think "Yes" when they see "YS" and "Ow(short for ouch)" when they see OW?  Given how high we all fly our [Fr|G]eek flags around here, I suspect not.

45
DFRPG / Re: For the Wizard Who Wants Everything.
« on: August 18, 2011, 03:50:09 PM »
We know circles are normally powered by blood and will and, yes, having to cut yourself every time you want to watch TV would be inconvenient. Even Hand however provides a solution. That story had Gard using the "sorcerous equivalent of a nine-volt battery"** to power one for Marcone.

Vanilla mortals normally need a drop of blood.  Wizards can empower a circle with a "whispered word and a brief effort of will" (while touching said circle).  I suspect an experienced wizard can empower a circle just as easily as you or I flip a light switch.

Quote
**Yeah, so maybe it contains a Schrondinger Cat with its throat cut. Who knows how Gard does things?

I suspect the cat's throat would be both cut and uncut until you opened the box.  ;)

And given that Gerd is all rune-happy, I suspect there's no cat involved.  Funny though.

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