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Messages - fabulator

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1
DFRPG / Re: Social Tank
« on: October 03, 2010, 09:13:47 PM »
It kinda depends on what you want him to be; a smooth-talking politician that makes a bunch of promises and never keeps them would have Deceit at the top, whereas a charismatic, honest, trustworthy guy would probably have Rapport. Presence, Intimidate, and probably Discipline will be the next tier; Scholarship, Contacts, Conviction, those will probably be your next tier. Again, it all depends on what you want this guy to focus on.

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DFRPG / Re: Blessed Bullets???
« on: October 03, 2010, 09:10:07 PM »
Well I think you have been given a plethora of good ideas here and one of them is bound to work for you and your group. One other thing; keep in mind that whatever you decide to go with will apply to your monsters as well as your players. It'd be conceivable for some cultists/Red vamps/etc... to start profaning bullets and having them cause profane damage. That might be a bit of a shock to the players the first time a normal bullet wound starts to cause a lot more damage as it attacks their innate goodness.  Again, it might be something to hammer out with the players but its certainly legit.

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DFRPG / Re: DFRPG Character Creator/Manager
« on: September 30, 2010, 04:28:10 AM »
is there a mac version in the works?

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DFRPG / Re: Vampires and Hunger
« on: September 30, 2010, 04:24:57 AM »
Quote from: wolff96 on September 28, 2010, 02:30:13 PM
Just a quick question... 

Assume a powerful White Court Vampire. 

Heh, I love that. Sounds like a physics problem. "Assume a spherical, frictionless vampire..."  But in answer to your question, there's no problem with letting the Whamp activate lesser forms of his powers with less hunger stress.  Its not spelled out in the system anywhere but it makes sense and as long as the group is ok with it, go for it. 

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DFRPG / Re: Thaumaturgy Lore requirements
« on: September 23, 2010, 05:25:36 PM »
oooh, I like the lore stunt idea; itd be for neuromancy though, not necro.  Although I do like the option of having him pop back up later as a recurring villian. thanks for the ideas!

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DFRPG Resource Collection / Re: Sample Combat
« on: September 23, 2010, 05:23:32 PM »
So what you mean there is that if you create an aspect that covers the whole zone (High Winds) you've got to apply shifts of power to keep it going but if you create an aspect that just hits one person (or a few) then if you apply an extra shift of power it becomes sticky. Is that it?


Also, in regards to all the discussion on Law-breaking, the original act in question was a 'direct mental attack' that (I believe) was aiming for unconsciousness. Now, to my eye, that doesn't automatically violate any laws but as a DM I would definitely be asking the player for more description.  A spell that seeks to overload the target's sense with false and/or contradictory info and thereby produce confusion would be a mental attack but most likely that would be a maneuver to apply an aspect.  A spell that plays upon a target's fears and tries to call up his worst nightmares; that's a direct mental attack that could definitely cause some stress damage. It's also a grey area for the Third Law at the very least.  I think the major issue becomes if the subject is impressing his or her own fears onto a sort of 'fear-template' provided by magic that's not Lawbreaking; the caster has not invaded the subject's mind or thoughts. However, if the caster actually reaches into someone's mind to find their fear of clowns and then uses that to drive the person insane, that's Lawbreaking. Someone brought up the fact that mental stress/consequences usually involve things like The Bogeyman is Real or somesuch and I don't think that kind of thing is grounds for Lawbreaking. If the caster applies an aspect to a target, the caster is responsible for that aspect and the nature of its application. If the target applies the aspect themselves (they chose to do so instead of taking stress hits) then the target is responsible for the nature of the aspect.


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DFRPG / Re: DFRPG The Musical
« on: September 23, 2010, 02:20:49 PM »
Der Erlkoning by Schubert. 'Nuff said.

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DFRPG / Thaumaturgy Lore requirements
« on: September 23, 2010, 02:19:52 PM »
So I am writing up a villian for my DFRPG game and I have a question. What I'm shooting for is a dumb jock kind of guy who has either discovered a bit of magical talent in himself or has come across some sponsor/item of power/tome of eldritch lore/etc...  I've started with the focused practitioner template and given him ritual (neuromancy) but I wanted to keep his Lore low for the concept.  Some of the spells I've worked up for him have complexity of 8 or 12 which in his case is going to require a lot of time for prep (like, 7-11 shifts worth).  I'm toying with the idea of giving him a book (Malicious Mentalism and You! or something like that) that gives him an effective Lore of 5 (Superb) but only for neuromancy. Would this be an item of power? sponsored magic? enchanted item slot? is this even a good idea? So far I'm leaning towards sponsored magic; the book gives him the Lore as well as the ability to do any neuromancy ritual with a complexity of 10 or less at evocation speeds. How does that sound?

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DFRPG / Re: Draining intellect with psychomancy
« on: September 18, 2010, 03:18:17 PM »
Ahhh ok, I thought that might be the case. I'm flipping between DF and Pathfinder for our group so I get systems confused sometimes.  Thanks for clearing that up

10
DFRPG / Re: I'm behind a magic circle and the vampire has a gun... Can he shoot me?
« on: September 17, 2010, 10:36:57 PM »
Quote from: JosephKell on August 25, 2010, 09:24:54 PM
Okay, so I accept that non-mortals can't break a circle, even if they throw something across (Bob threw Dresden a squeeze bottle of "GTFO" potion in Storm Front, and it didn't end the circle).  So shouldn't a non-mortal with a gun be able to shoot across the perimeter?

I don't know if there's a Word of God about this somewhere but I've often that that Butcher may have written that particular passage without either fully fleshing out what magical circles can do or without checking his notes. It's pretty clear from the rest of the books that Bob tossing Dresden that potion should have broken the circle or not been able to penetrate it.  However, Butcher is superhuman and a god among men so obviously there is something much deeper going on than just a simple continuity error.  Perhaps Bob is a Dragon in disguise or something of that power level; I'm sure they don't care about circles.

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DFRPG / Re: Fudge Dice
« on: September 17, 2010, 05:31:43 PM »
Yep, still some left there; about 12 now since I ordered a set. Yay fudge dice!

12
DFRPG / Re: Draining intellect with psychomancy
« on: September 17, 2010, 05:06:14 PM »
Quote from: Papa Gruff on September 17, 2010, 02:26:33 PM
You're welcome. It was fun actually. I guess you arrived at 16 because of the +1 for each extra shift that lifts the spells duration one step up on the time table. That is strictly optional. If you don't care for a longer duration then the aspect will automatically be established for one scene a.k.a. 15 minutes. My calculations where based on the absolute minimum of shifts you have to raise for the effect that you described.

Granted that a conviction of average might be all you should be able to find in the average high school kid the minimum gets lowered of cause. Yet there might be the occasional religious pupil with a higher one... Well our warlock would probably be clever enough not to try his spell on those, so i guess the ritual could be done with a reduced complexity.


Well I was putting extra shifts in for increased duration but don't you have to get at least one shift past whatever block or defense the target rolls to do anything? If the student has a conviction of +1 and rolls +4 then he has a total defense of +5 so I need at least 6 shifts to do anything to him yes? That's what I was calculating

13
DFRPG / Re: Draining intellect with psychomancy
« on: September 17, 2010, 02:08:33 PM »
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Quote from: Papa Gruff on September 17, 2010, 10:30:17 AM
I surer hope so because the wardens would be all over this guy.

Ya he's a warlock in training and he's already got a Lawbreaker stunt, well on the way to full Bad Guy status.

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As for the rotes:

I'm almost certain that the greater version isn't totally in line with the rules. So this guy is using his stuff on his fellow class mates right? To inflict a mild consequence you have to do an outright attack ritual. It's save to say that the pupils wouldn't have a conviction above 3, if you wan't to be sure to inflict a mild consequence you'd have to invest at least 11 shifts of power (3 for approximated skill level + 4 to cover the possible defense roll + 4 to deplete the stress track).

I was only giving his classmates a Conviction of +1 considering the area of town they're in which gave me 10 complexity. 1 for skill +4 for roll+ 1 to get past defense +4 for track/consequence

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Now the other part of the spell is a maneuver on the caster himself. He won't defend against it, so the base difficulty is 3/good. To make it sticky there is an extra shift needed, witch makes the difficulty 4. Depending on the desired duration of the effect the complexity would  have to go up +1 with every step on the time table (starting from 15 minutes as this is the average length of a scene). So far so good. The complexity of everything combined so far seems to be 15 shifts.


I think you meant 16 shifts there if I followed you math correctly. But yeah, we're up to about 15 shifts

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As a GM I would add an other +2 requirement on top of the spell to reflect the difficulty of combining the two effects you desire. That brings the complexity to at lest 17. The "Stolen Intellect" aspect holds for as long as you have designed in the construct of the spell and not only for two invokes (the first tag of cause is free). More shifts don't give you more uses. They just prolong the effect of the thaumaturgic spell.

17 Shifts isn't something you do easily. I doubt it could be done as a spur of the moment ritual in some shady high school restroom. Come to think of it. Even 14 shifts isn't something a newbe warlock could pull of easily without tapping into a lot of stuff.


I hadn't looked at the idea of making it a sticky aspect and just using the shifts to prolong the duration of its "sticky-ness" but that definitely works better. And yah, this greater version is not something done on the spur of the moment, he's going to be doing some prep and invoking aspects, all that stuff. That's why he's got the lesser version for when he needs some smarts now! Thanks for all the input

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DFRPG / Re: What about Oberon?
« on: September 17, 2010, 03:30:55 AM »
I think that the idea of Oberon and Erlking being the Spring and Autumn Kings is pretty good and it makes a lot of sense to me. I've been working with an idea that at one time all 4 courts were relatively equal in power and then Titania decided to make a bid for power and through some crazy complex faerie scheme stole/consumed Oberon's power by sacrificing him on the Stone Table. This upset the balance of things so the Erlking was forced to yield his position and pass most of his power to Mab. However, the Spring Knight managed to escape Titania's plans and thus allowed the Erlking to keep a bit of his might and become the leader of the goblins and wyldfae. The Spring Knight's survival also provides the possibility of Oberon's eventual return; maybe he wasn't killed but just reduced to pure mortal status.

15
DFRPG / Draining intellect with psychomancy
« on: September 17, 2010, 03:20:48 AM »
Ok, so I'm whipping up a neuromancer for my DF campaign and I'm trying to put together some of his rote spells. So far he's a focused practitioner with Discipline at +5 and Conviction at +3. Here's what I've got so far:

Brain Drain! (lesser version)
Complexity: 8
Effect: target gets temporary aspect "Drained Intellect"
Duration: a few hours

The idea here is that the neuromancer (who's a highschool student btw) will drag some poor freshman into the locker room in the morning, do a quick ritual, and then tag the aspect later on in the day to improve his abilities on a test or class discussion.  Since most of the victims will have Average skills at best he only needs about 5 shifts to get the aspect and he adds a few for more time before he invokes the aspect.

Brain Drain! (greater version)
Complexity: 14
Effect: target gets mild mental consequence "Brain Drain!"; caster gets sticky aspect "Stolen Intellect" which last for 2 invokes (tag once for free o'course) and more shifts grant more uses.

This would be the more lasting effect that the neuromancer is looking for, something that will really beef up his smarts at the expense of someone else.  This ritual takes longer to set-up but it provides a much more lasting effect.



So, does that look right? Is there a different way to do it? I thought about messing withs skill points but aspects seem to be easier and more in keeping with the system. Any thoughts?

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