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Topics - Drachasor

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DFRPG / Divining the Future without Breaking the 6th Law or your GM

« on: February 21, 2011, 04:23:44 AM »

I was thinking about the problem with future divinations in a game is that it is hard to make them actually useful. Players are pretty unpredictable that even a GM can't say what will happen with any good authority.

However, there's a neat way to handle this in the Fate system. Do a Divination Ritual of 8 or so complexity, that's about right to place a maneuver on you for a day (that assumes a "scene" is 15 minutes, the default duration of a maneuver). The aspect is "Prepared for the Future" or somesuch. While you can boringly invoke this for a +2 to a roll, you can Invoke For Effect for some interesting stuff such as a complete justification for having an odd potion you otherwise couldn't justify (remember while you can declare you happen to have a potion on you, the GM can also decide it is just too unlikely, and this gets around that). You could also Invoke For Effect to say you weren't surprised by an ambush or any number of other things (e.g. you happen to be carrying a self-inflating boat when you get tossed overboard into choppy waters). The beauty of this is that it preserves the surprise for the player and in-game it doesn't break the 6th Law since you can't actually affect the time-stream to a meaningful degree (imho, the "light touch" is preserved). Essentially it just makes you able to create super-coincidences.

DFRPG / Language House Rules

« on: February 18, 2011, 01:25:34 AM »

Anyone make any house rules for languages? I was distraught to find out how very few languages you can effectively know in the game (my character in my current game is an archaeologist and I'd like to at least know a ton of dead languages). A Scholarship of 5 giving you just 5 additional languages seems pretty small. Anyone else find this a problem?

I thought a basic improvement might be to go with the White Wolf system. Each point in Scholarship doubles the number of languages you know.
Average: 2 languages
Fair: 4 languages
Good: 8 languages
Great: 16 languages
Superb: 32 languages
Optionally one could halve these numbers and treat them as "additional languages beyond your native one".

Of course, if one wanted to get more complicated, one could price various language families together as something cheaper to acquire. So Latin and its descendants might count as 3 languages give their similarities.

Thoughts?

DFRPG / Warden Swords and Enchanted Items with multiple Uses

« on: February 16, 2011, 12:16:53 AM »

So, we all know (theoretically) that Warden Swords have 3 charges and each charge can be used on one of two things. Any thoughts on rules to allow this? Requiring another item slot for another use seems too much (or perhaps in some cases too little if you've tossed 7 item slots pumping up an item). I was thinking that if you reduce the power of the item by 1, then you could add another use that shares the charges. That seems reasonable.

In this way, Warden Swords would require someone who makes items with 3 charges have +2 frequency and 8 base power (theoretically). Lowering the power to 7 lets them have two uses (counterspell or attack), and lowering the power to 6 lets anyone use them.

Thoughts?

DFRPG / So the first law can't be broken unless you WANT to break it, right?

« on: February 15, 2011, 12:56:53 AM »

The rules for taking someone out indicate that you decide how they get taken out. If you do 8 stress of damage to a zone or two of people, some of them civilians, you could decide no one dies. Heck, seems like you decide on an individual basis. Perhaps the civvies all have some burns and are in shock (can't do anything), and the majority of the heat was focused on the bad guys who get incinerated. Assuming that strikes everyone as possible/reasonable, then that is how the attack would go down, right?

I suppose someone could die because of fallout and it would be up to the group to decide whether that qualifies as breaking the first law.

DFRPG / Holding Back the Hexing

« on: February 11, 2011, 10:31:09 AM »

So I was thinking about how to stop hexing, and was wondering what the thoughts of others were. The purposes of this could range from taking a plane ride to using a computer (when not in use, you turn off, unplug, and seal the computer in a magic circle to block energies).

Thematically, one would think a small 2 or 3 shift block would stop normal hexing while it was up (e.g. allow the use of technology), since random leakings aren't high-powered. Obviously that wouldn't stop the effects if you get really emotional about something. Rules-wise though, that's a bit less clear since hexing (the non-helpful kind) is done by compels.

Only way to stop compels, I think, would be a magic maneuver on yourself. Say something like "My Magic is Sealed" and then you Invoke for Effect that so that for the duration of the maneuver you can't use magic (which might count as a compel depending on what comes up*). Bit more pricey** to go that way, though doing "I can't Hex!" as a maneuver seems like dirty pool.

In either case, probably the best way to do this for a long trip would be to have a magical item do the effect since extending the duration longer than a scene means you can keep it up indefinitely (though it costs you 1 mental stress each "scene"...though I guess some might think THAT is cheap too).

So does this sound reasonable to anyone or should stopping accidental hexing be strictly a matter of fate points spent to resist compels?

*Interesting question here. If something starts simply as an Invocation for Effect. You are going on a plane, so you make it so you can't use magic. No compel there inherently since you might not need any magic. While on the plane, some monster attacks, like a Vampire of some sort. Seems like the compel is already there, so at that point you could choose to accept a Fate Point from the self-compel or, somewhat amusingly, buy out of your self-compel by spending a Fate Point at which point the magic block would be broken. Thoughts?

**Not in shifts, but in loss of ability.

DFRPG / Soul Lightning

« on: January 23, 2011, 08:46:59 AM »

This is part of an idea I am tossing around for my Son of Thor character, but I thought it would be nice to talk about it in the forum and get the perspective of others. I want to try to hammer down things a bit more solidly than Soulfire is in the book (and also make a 4 and 5 point version).

Soul Lightning, Thor's Lightning, Zeus's Thunder, this special magic has many names. Like Soulfire, it can be used to empower magics with the user's soul. Replenishing your soul after drawing deeply requires good deeds, quality time with loved ones, and other nice things. Alternatively, it is possibly to have this ability powered by another source, but they typically have similar good agendas (such as those of Heaven). In either case, evil is not well tolerated, and users will be strongly inclined to eradicate true evil.

Cost: Greater Soul Lightning costs 5 refresh. Lesser Soul Lightning costs 4 refresh. Evocation and Thaumaturgy each reduce the cost by 1 (or similarly, having either Greater or Lesser Soul Lightning reduces the cost of Evocation and Thaumaturgy by 1 each). If you have Evocation and Soul Lightning, then you must take Air as an element (if you do not have air as an element and gain Soul Lightning, you must change one of your elements to air).*

Benefits: Standard sponsored magic benefits, with a potentially gentler agenda. Greater Soul Lightning downgrades the Toughness ability of any supernatural creature by one step when employed (Mythic Toughness becomes Supernatural, Supernatural becomes Inhuman, Inhuman goes away). Both Greater and Lesser Soul Lightning fully satisfy the Catch (page 185) for creatures vulnerable to “holy” sources of damage. With some creatures (even those that operate on a “plot device” level), it’s still potent enough to get their attention (though obviously less so for Lesser Soul Lightning).

In Evocation, Soul Lightning (Greater or Lesser), allows you to use certain aspects of air. Lightning may obviously be employed to attack, maneuver, defend, etc. Thunder-like noises may also be created. If you have access to evocation, Soul Lightning's benefit (such as being considered holy) carry over to any element you use, so long as you have access to Soul Lightning.

In Thaumaturgy, Soul Lightning (Greater or Lesser) allows pretty much everything except dark magic and curses. (Hmm, should veils be disallowed too?)

Breaking a Law of Magic (but not dispelling the effects of a broken law, such as undoing a transformation or restoring someone's mind), automatically gives a user of Soul Lightning (Greater or Lesser) three debt (this represents the displeasure of the entity providing Soul Lightning and/or the stain on one's soul).

*Feels unbalanced to not have that clause.

I feel like Thaumaturgy and perhaps "dark magic" needs to be pinned down more. I am worried about balance a bit. Anyhow, I'd like to flesh this out some more and get it pinned down fairly well as a 4 refresh ability (Lesser) and a 5 refresh ability (Greater). I THINK it is sufficient to have the difference be Lesser not degrading the catch of things it affects (except when the catch is Holy power). Thoughts?

DFRPG / Great NPC ideas

« on: January 21, 2011, 03:53:52 AM »

I think it would be fun to post some great ideas for NPCs. I shall start with something my group came up with last night (we're composing a new campaign).

Carlos Equis, The Most Interesting Man* in the World (Yes, based on the guy in the Dos Equis commercials)
Red Court Vampire

We came up with him as the leader of the Red Court Vampires trying to take over the Brewery District in St. Louis (location aspect is "Stay Thirsty, My Friends")

*We use the term loosely.

No statblock for him, since he's just an NPC concept of course, but I don't think statblocks are really needed (they are fairly easy to do...good ideas are harder to come by).

(Maybe there's already a threat with people posting great NPC ideas as a resource, but I didn't see one on the latest two pages).

DFRPG / Internal "Sponsored" Magic

« on: January 21, 2011, 01:44:13 AM »

What do people think of "sponsored" magic without a sponsor proper? Say you are a changeling, son/daughter of one of the elder Sidhe, so the magic is just part of you. Or you (in the case for a character I've thought about) are the son of a god, so the magic reflects that that parentage. Or you are just prophesied to be special or powerful in some manner magically, so the sponsored magic reflects that. You'd still get compels, they'd still work the same way, they'd just be compels that reflect part of your inner nature in one way or another. So mechanically it would be just like normal sponsored magic, except flavored in a different way (one could even consider how the book does Soulfire a lot like this, given that people with Soulfire don't seem to have the blatant compels of Summer/Winter Knights, etc).

I brought this up a couple times today in other threads, but I thought it was worth discussing on its own.

DFRPG / Making an Item of Power: Mjolnir (more or less)

« on: July 12, 2010, 10:19:21 PM »

I had a recent thread where I talked about how I'm making a Son of Thor as my character for an upcoming campaign. I'm leaning towards him having a magic hammer that's an Item of Power. As part of going towards that, I thought it would be fun to try to stat out Mjolnir.

Description: Mjolnir is the mythic hammer wielding by the God Thor, forged by the dwarven brothers Sindri and Brokkr. It is said to be capable of leveling mountains.
Skills Affected: Weapons?
Effects:

Giant Slayer:* Against anything that naturally possesses the Hulking Size attribute (or innanimate objects the size of a large car or larger), attacks with Mjolnir ignore all defensive abilities (such as Toughness) and ignore mundane armor.
It's a Hammer: Mjolnir is a heavy hammer made of steel (iron). It acts as a weapon 3.
Shortened Shaft:** Loki in the guise of a fly bit Brokkr when he was blowing on the forge while Mjolnir was being forged. Because of this the shaft is too short to comfortable wield in two hands. To wield this weapon in combat enhanced strength is required (lift 7 or better).
Seeming:** The owner of Mjolnir can make the weapon appear as any sort of hammer from 4" in size to its full size (no larger), this is more than just an illusion and allows the hammer to be placed in a pocket or other small space. As soon as the weapon is wielded in combat, however, it returns to its normal form (or before if the owner so desires).
Never far from reach:** Mjolnir can be thrown as a weapon up to 2 zones away (instead of the standard 1). Upon striking or missing, it returns to its owner's hand immediately.

*My attempt at giving it some power of giants, which seems appropriate, as well as its "mountain destroying" capability.
**This stuff might seem odd, but it is basically straight from lore. I took some liberties with Seeming since from what I understand Mjolnir could only be shrunk, but I think changing how it appears adds a nice element for role-playing and doesn't upset anything.

I think the actual Mjolnir would need a bit more oomph, but overall I think that's a good starting point. What do people think the refresh cost of this would be? -1 with the standard deduction of +2 included? Or does the potential property-damage aspect of it warrant a higher value? (I'm not sure it is a big deal, myself) -- (I was thinking Giant Destroyer at -2, Seeming at 0, Shortened Shaft at 0, and Never Far From Reach being a -1).

Here's a question though, if an Item of Power had an ability that let you add to its magical effects (using all the rules for creating a magical item, with all the normal requirements as well, so you provide the item slots), would that be a +0 ability? Seems to me like it would.

DFRPG / Son of Thor concept for an upcoming campaign

« on: July 03, 2010, 04:38:32 AM »

Well, I was messing around with a bunch of ideas in my head and decided I wanted to see about making a Thor-like character. I think having him be Thor's son who largely wants to follow in Thor's footsteps, so to speak (e.g. thunder and lightning, hammer, fighting bad guys, but not copying his dad's deeds). For the purposes of the character, Thor is angelspawn of some sort (like the OW says most gods are), and a good guy who lives in the Nevernever. I think my character will have grown up in the Nevernever for a significant amount of time (I want to use "thees" and "thous" without my guy doing it as a fad). He's NOT an Emissary of the Asgard/Thor though, (Thor wants him to make his own way, but that doesn't mean his dad never asks for a favor...like any relative might).

Obviously the high concept is "Son of Thor". Right now I am mostly thinking about two issues. First, what's his trouble? I've thought of Like his Father before him (e.g. wants to be like dad), One of the Asgard (e.g. their enemies are his enemies and other such things), and "I am the Son of Thor!" (really dislikes concealing his identity). Anyone have other ideas?

Also, Toughness and perhaps Recovery powers make some sense, but what would his catch be? I have trouble thinking of something that makes a lot of sense here, best thing I got is "Unholy Power" such as hellfire, unholy water, etc, but that seems far from perfect. Any thoughts there?

I'm pretty early in the creative stages, obviously, but I thought some people might have some neat ideas to share, so share away!

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