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Messages - cold_breaker

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61
DFRPG / Re: Running My First Campaign and Want Opinion on My City Sheets
« on: June 28, 2013, 08:22:44 PM »
Actually, I think the build style is just as well. There's always going to be secrets that the PCs don't know, and secrets they do know. You're just integrating it into creation, wheras most of us keep it completely under our hats. The setting is just that: where the adventure takes place. It is far from being the adventure all on its own!

Personally, I have two threats that my players will eventually tackle: but I intend to milk those threats gradually over years, and introduce plenty of sub plots that are barely related to the city sheets. I suspect that the setting will end up being a whole lot darker than they originally envisioned when I'm done with them.

62
DFRPG / Re: Changelings and Seelie/Unseelie magic?
« on: June 28, 2013, 07:52:48 PM »
Quote from: Wolfhound on June 28, 2013, 07:34:06 PM
Just a different point of view

So Sponsored vs Sorcerer (Evocation/Channeling/Thaumaturgy/Ritual)

a) Sponsored gains a reserve of Fate Points independent of the Spellcaster's own Fate Point pool
b) Sponsored costs less than full Thaumaturgy plus Evocation
c) Sponsored is able to do both Evocation and Thaumaturgy within a thematic subset (which, after 2+ years of playing this game regularly... rarely hinders even a somewhat slightly creative player from doing whatever magical effect they wish... though admittedly from time to time they've been completely unable to creatively shoehorn their desired effect into a thematic/sponsored element... it does happen, just rare)
d) Sponsored gains a free boost effect of some kind (reduce Winter/Summer catch or whatever)
e) Sponsored still gains Focus Items / Enchanted items
f) Sponsored can still take Refinements*

You're missing 2 big disadvantages:

1) The power that grants these abilities must approve it - e.g. the GM. Personally, I'd also say that they can revoke these powers at any time. Piss off the Winter court? Oh look, your magic is gone right when you need it.
2) Casting a spell requires taking on sponser debt - in other words, the GM gets to screw you! Repeatedly! For each spell! Being in debt to a sponser should be a bad thing.

Taking on sponsered magic is a short cut - short cuts have down sides. Think of it like buying a forklift instead of pumping iron to lift heavy things. Yeah, it's easier, but it can always be taken away, and requires a bit more flexing to figure out how to move some things.

63
DFRPG / Re: Is looking back in time a violation of the 6th Law?
« on: June 28, 2013, 07:37:05 PM »
Quote from: PirateJack on June 27, 2013, 06:32:33 AM
Well, that's a matter of perspective. I doubt it would matter much to a being that exists at multiple points in a given timeline (as some oracles are supposed to), but the White Council doesn't differentiate much when it comes to things like this. Harry's view of the Alphas (that they're all just doing a very specific brand of magic) is almost certainly the same as the White Council's view. So if someone broke the Sixth Law with a 'psychic power' I can't see the Council approving of it any more than if a Wizard did it.

Given that psychometry doesn't break the Sixth Law in the RPG, I'd say getting information from the past is fine no matter what method you use. Sending messages back (as long as they're subtle, as Bob says in Proven Guilty) would be toeing the line. Affecting the past in a grandfather's paradox-esque manner would be breaking the Law with universal consequences.

No, you miss the point. Psychic powers are not magic. They're out of the domain of the white council. They're not going to kill people for looking through time with psychic powers any more than they're going to execute people for using guns. It's perhaps a bad idea, but not their domain. And the council is nothing if not bureaucratic.

I'd rule something like giving yourself psychic powers to look into the past as being akin to enchanting a sword and executing people with it: it's walking a fine line, but not actually breaking the rules.

As for the original question: I think people in this thread are looking for ways to make it work, while the author is looking for ways to make it interesting. I'd personally rule that depending on their method, as long as they didn't alter the past in any way, they're not looking at a lawbreaker tick. The council on the other hand would see it as skirting the rules and might even use it as an excuse to keep a close on those involved... in other words, fodder for your story.

64
DFRPG / Re: Changelings and Seelie/Unseelie magic?
« on: June 28, 2013, 03:57:36 PM »
Quote from: Amelia Crane on June 26, 2013, 08:58:58 PM
I lean toward sponsored magic not hexing.  This quote from page 290:seems to indicate that the changeling just channels the powers of the court, so it's not using the mortal's nonabsolute will.  Although it still uses the changeling's Conviction, so that's not a conclusive argument.

I agree. My understanding of sponsered magic is that you're quite literally getting a more powerful entity to cast for you - your emotions do not enter the equation because, whether she's concious of it or not, Queen Mab (or the winter or summer court, or however you wish to personify the entire court) is the one casting.

Now, if the sponser does have emotions and mortal whims, this might change. I consider hexing an additional evothium for mortal casters - one that is just as much a boon as it is a curse.

65
DFRPG / Re: Is looking back in time a violation of the 6th Law?
« on: June 26, 2013, 08:35:18 PM »
Couple of points:

Firstly, you can kill with a gun. This doesn't mean spells that kill are Kosher. For that same reason, using time magic to look back in time isn't kosher just because psychics can do it, or there are other ways to do it. Psychic powers are not the same as magic, no matter how much it may seem like it.
Secondly, like all magic, IT DEPENDS ON THE METHOD.

Basicly, it all boils down to the method. Look at the casters preferred methods for doing things. Are they being indirect about it? Are they physically going back in time? Are they temporarily giving themselves psychic powers? It all depends on the proposed method.

66
DFRPG / Re: Concessions
« on: June 26, 2013, 07:13:46 PM »
Yeah, had this argument recently as well, with a player who didn't think the dice roll matters.

Concessions can happen ANY time, except after a roll has taken place. Can't dodge an attack after the fact. Typically though, I like to make them just after taking damage, or when a certain condition is met (e.g. the second a fight looks unwinable from the NPCs perspective) - seems kind of munchkiny to do it just before the PC attacks.  The only in charactor reason I could see for this is if the 'condition' being met is any of his attackers paying any attention to him.

67
DFRPG / Re: Wail of the Banshee
« on: May 07, 2013, 05:41:12 PM »
Quote from: Mr. Death on May 07, 2013, 05:33:56 PM
So I'm thinking of using a Banshee as a character in one of my games, and I'm mulling over what powers she should have. Flight, obviously, and some kind of supernatural sense about Death. It'd be a Fae (the "shee" in the name coming from the pronunciation of "sidhe" after all).

I'm pondering what to do with the scream. Possibly some reflavor of Incite Emotion (Fear)? Something like the Barabbas Curse, where whoever hears it is fated to die?

Yeah, I went with an area wide incite attack at range (since it's technically you only need to hear it.) I did a similar build for a Morrigan, although I used incite bloodlust.

68
DFRPG / Re: Scion Question
« on: May 07, 2013, 03:33:08 PM »
Quote from: Troy on May 06, 2013, 08:14:39 PM
Changelings are Scions. So, that's what brought the question up. Changelings have an explicit Choice to make when playing the game. Remain mortal and have some nifty powers or... become Fae and get some more nifty powers. The rules say that the former is a PC and the latter is an NPC. We're wondering if other Scions have drawback and, even in the case of Changelings, can that Choice be forced upon you?

Another important point: you have the changeling choice wrong. The choice is to become fae and have power and no free will, or become Human and have free will and no power. Not choosing is how they keep a little of both.

69
DFRPG / Re: Scion Question
« on: May 07, 2013, 03:27:24 PM »
Quote from: Troy on May 06, 2013, 08:14:39 PM
Changelings are Scions. So, that's what brought the question up. Changelings have an explicit Choice to make when playing the game. Remain mortal and have some nifty powers or... become Fae and get some more nifty powers. The rules say that the former is a PC and the latter is an NPC. We're wondering if other Scions have drawback and, even in the case of Changelings, can that Choice be forced upon you?

Changelings are technically scions, but fae scions are not necessarily changelings, at least how I understand it. Please let me know if I've missed that part in the books. Basically what this means is not all of them even get a choice: some just plain don't get to choose one or the other, they're permanently stuck in between. That's why I usually like to differentiate between scions and changelings. I'd also say that the concept of the choice is unique to Fae, since the idea of mantles of power is there. For other races, it might not be possible to become a full blooded creature, or it might require some more difficult or simple right of passage - such as a ritual, or simply hitting a certain age, etc.

But as for being forced to make a decision? I'd say yes, but it's quite difficult to force such a decision and might require a strong compel on your high concept. As a GM, I'd never make such a compel if the player couldn't buy it off, and would use it to basically exhaust that players fate points for a fight. I'd also have a good and very personal reason for the compel - your sisters in danger, you could save her if you had more power! etc. etc.

70
DFRPG / Re: Scion Question
« on: May 06, 2013, 02:30:25 PM »
This is where FATE and Butcher's fiction deviate a little. By the setting, Fae have no true free will and can't be PCs. By Fate - if you have enough refresh, they can be.

Personally, I'd allow players to play a full Fae if they had a backstory to explain why they have free will. Possibly a force of nature corrupted?

Scions on the other hand I read as 'half breeds' - as opposed to a changeling that makes a choice to be Fae or human, Scions are human that have inherited power from their non-human parents and therefore are the exception - they mostly do have free will, although they might feel the pull of their parents. The downside of this is they never had the choice to go to one side or the other - they're stuck in the middle with no way out. Thus why Scions are the ideal, if a bit more boring, choice for a PC. They're also a lot more rare than a changeling, and I'd personally say a magnitude weaker than their parentage by default, but that's just me.

71
DFRPG / Re: Red Court Infected - Feeding but not killing?
« on: May 03, 2013, 12:44:36 PM »
Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a caveat that it has to be lifeblood - so no blood packs.

Also, the books say that a white court virgins first feeding is always fatal to the victim. Be careful what you allow for them.

72
DFRPG / Re: Purview of the Elements
« on: May 01, 2013, 04:46:45 PM »
Personally, I like the idea of making backlash hurt someone else, or somehow screw things up in a way other than directly going after the caster. For two reasons: it makes things more interesting, and the caster has the option to absorb the backlash himself. If he doesn't, it seems kind of jerkish to have it attack him directly anyways.

73
DFRPG / Re: building a headquarter
« on: April 30, 2013, 08:23:09 PM »
Don't get too complicated though: it sounds forced. Why not try some external threats? Stuff they'd have to deal with regardless of their choice of lodging? Perhaps they need to take hold of the building legally! Good news, no one holds the deed. It was lost and only a dead man knows what happened to it... Also, perhaps you drop the hint to them that they'll need to ward it against detection - especially from the Fomor - and there's X ingredient that the spell wont be complete without.

74
DFRPG / Re: Price this IoP
« on: April 30, 2013, 04:51:22 PM »
Quote from: Quantus on April 30, 2013, 03:55:43 PM
Another option is to grant the site itself a certain amount of innate power, perhaps fed by the ley lines and focused by the architecture of the temple itself, or through some specific statuary/cross/alter/etc.  It would weaken the denarians, rather than strengthening a character.  The difference being that its effect would be a passive, AoE thing, and not something that needs to be activated/wielded, and thus not requiring the standard IoP character requirements.  Maybe it prevents the nickleheads from using their transformation abilities, or maybe it imposes a new Catch that the PCs can leverage to their advantage.  Maybe it inhibits the control the Fallen can exert as they get closer to the center, so the denarians that are more dominating than partners with their host are suddenly not in control.  Or maybe its not a blanket weakening, but the site is designed to support a ritual that, when triggered, does something appropriately dramatic to the denarians present, so that the site itself is a snare to trap them.  Then you dont need to supercharge your PC's to the point where they can take denarians head on, instead they just need to maneuver and survive long enough to spring the trap, which then forcefully removes their coins or some such. 

These are just thought on how to level the field and leverage the site, without resorting to IoP rules.

And suddenly, I have ideas to integrate this into my game! Nice!

75
DFRPG / Re: Organizing an DF RPG Online Game
« on: April 30, 2013, 04:16:59 PM »
Looks like fun. My main thoughts:

1) GM interaction is key, but I doubt I need to tell you this. I've seen games fall apart because of this though.

2) I'd keep character progression separate. There's no balance reason I can see for splitting up groups due to differing refresh levels - even a 6 refresh character can be useful to a 12 refresh character - the GM just needs to adjust the enemies a little. You might want to add some basic rules to help split up these extremes, but it helps immersion if characters are what you make them and don't just get power.

3) Have hard and fast documented stunts and powers, as well as templates. Don't let players just pile on any powers they like without restriction. Be flexible, but don't make it an exercise in power-gaming.

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