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Topics - sinker

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DFRPG / Hey guys, check this out!
« on: May 02, 2012, 06:22:26 PM »
So I know this is a bit off topic, but I feel like many of you are my friends and I wanted to share this project I've got going on. Plus it's for charity, so you're a terrible person if you don't check it out. ;D

The Reaping, a hunger games role-playing marathon to support child's play.

Doesn't cost anything to play, you just need to have an interest. All the money is raised by "sponsors" trying to keep you alive in the game.

Neat, huh?

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DFRPG / The mortal choice
« on: April 09, 2012, 06:00:27 AM »
All this talk about changelings elsewhere has me thinking about the mortal choice (to be clear I'm talking about the changeling choosing to renounce his fey parentage and be completely mortal). How does it work? What does it require? Is it merely an assertion on the part of the changeling ("I choose to be mortal.") or does it require more formality? Perhaps even some form of ritual (not actually thaumaturgy, but the more general meaning)? Is it instantaneous or does it take time for them to slough off their supernatural nature? And how much do they loose? Is a daughter of a troll still going to be big and strong (just not supernaturally so) or does that fade too? What would you do with the remaining fey connection? The fey parent remains, so would they still be a significant part of the story, or would they fade into the background?

There are some mechanical questions too. Do they become "Pure Mortals" with all that entails, or do they remain changelings (they do still fit the "Musts")? What happens to the powers? Do they simply leave a big pile of refresh behind? Would you allow a player to spend all of that immediately, or would you require a gradual process of "finding themselves as mortals?"

Anyone have any thoughts on all of this?

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DFRPG / Questions for the Boss man
« on: November 15, 2011, 05:37:42 AM »
Hey guys, I've finally got enough questions of my own that I think I'm going to email to Fred. Anyone want me to ask anything? I'll post my answers here when I get them.

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DFRPG / Orbius just gave me an idea!
« on: October 18, 2011, 06:43:17 PM »
I know, bear with me for a second.

Orbius is a magic grapple right?

Grapples can drag someone a zone as a supplemental action.

Bam, there's a completely RAW, if unnecessarily complicated way of moving someone with magic.

Has this occurred to anyone else? Anyone use it in play? Am I the last to figure this out?

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DFRPG / Military black-ops warlocks (no law talk...sort of)
« on: July 24, 2011, 12:35:11 AM »
So I had an idea for a campaign I might or might not run. Basically since the White Council stays away from all governments, it's safe to say that most governments as a whole are in the dark. And as mentioned in a couple of books, the White Council is too small (proportionally) to catch most of the minor or wizard class talents before their powers fully manifest.

Bearing those two concepts in mind I was thinking about a government psi-ops program that stumbles upon people with talent. None of these people (the government especially) knows about the White Council, the laws, or actual magical practices/concepts. So finding what it believes is actual psychic talent, the government trains them to become psychic soldiers, black-ops style (espionage and assassination, etc), or at least helps them to develop their talents with that in mind. The players are these psychic soldiers.

So here's the dilemma I present to you. I put no law talk in the title, but what I'm looking for are ways to deal with the laws (or the lawbreaker powers). There's no question that these people will be breaking the laws. That's what they are trained to do considering no one even has a basic understanding of the laws. What I'm wondering about is how to work this idea so that all of the PCs remain PCs, but I don't want to ignore the laws entirely, because I do want to represent the slow twisting of these people.

Should I simply give everyone enough refresh to deal with lawbreakers? But then players with talents that can't break the laws, or with less opportunity to break the laws have a ton of fate points. Do I ignore the lawbreaker power, assuming that they all have it to some extent (and what all players have isn't worth buying individually)? But then I don't have an interesting way of recording that descent. Should I lengthen the number of instances between Lawbreaker powers? Should I allow a way to (sort-of) repair the lawbreaker damage? Maybe replacing aspects still, but not loosing refresh? Any other good ideas?

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DFRPG / High complexity wards
« on: July 11, 2011, 08:02:27 PM »
I had this thought while looking over another thread (http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,27121.0.html), but I figured I'd avoid hijacking it.

Question: How many of you have actually used complex wards as a player? And I mean actually used them, not cast them on your base of operations and then never dealt with them ever again.

I just can't think of a situation in my play experience where I used anything greater than a quick ward (I.E. something in the 10-20 range) to protect something briefly (I.E. hours or days).

I only ask because I wonder if it would be appropriate as a GM to hand wave that kind of thing. "Sure, your ward on your house summons guards when it falls, shall we move on to the story?" Or do you think that it's important to really work these things out in detail?

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DFRPG / FAQ: Circles, lawbreaker, compels, etc
« on: May 04, 2011, 08:11:22 AM »
So I've noticed that a lot of questions tend to get asked repeatedly and as such I thought I'd put together this thread that we could point people to for answers. Since many of these questions don't have RAW answers I was going to make this thread an open place for people to state how they would handle X situation. Feel free to make suggestions as to how you would handle things and I'll add them, but please don't argue about what someone suggests unless you're backed by RAW (and not just your interpretation of RAW or some implication in RAW but direct contradiction in RAW). Also feel free to suggest other things that tend to come up if you feel I missed any and I'll add them as well. Finally I know that I'm quite verbose and sometimes over-complicate my statements, so please ask for clarification or suggest a clearer way of stating something and I'll try to adjust it.

Circles
Most of us agree that mechanically magic circles are treated like blocks or thresholds, requiring a supernatural creature or effect to get above the block to break it and possibly dampening powers of supernatural things contained by it's strength. How to create a circle is done different ways by different people. Suggestions include:
  • Simply taking an action and rolling conviction, lore, or discipline (depending on the situation and the GM) to determine the block's strength.
  • Treating it as a ritual, with a maximum strength equal to lore, and a creation that involves rolling discipline against a maximum of your conviction to determine strength. Though some people would ignore conviction and go straight for discipline.
  • Taking an action and rolling against a set difficulty determined by the GM. The strength is then really a narrative concept that the GM determines, deciding on the fly what could be powerful enough to break through and what wouldn't be.
  • Making it a lore/conviction/discipline maneuver and then compelling anything that would be effected by it.
  • Setting a threshold strength relative to the refresh cost of the person making it (I.E. using that measure of will to determine the circle's strength).

Lawbreaker
Lawbreaking is made up of a large number of concepts that GMs can't always agree on. By RAW there are two components to how the lawbreaker power works. Firstly the laws are actual rules of the universe and any time they are broken the person who did it is actually changed by the act itself, regardless of any other factors. This is represented by the character being required to change an aspect upon breaking the law. Secondly having the lawbreaker power also denotes the character is now a marked man. If the council ever finds out he or she will be hunted down by the wardens.

Using only these two factors one can see how some GMs do not make sponsored magic users take the lawbreaker power, because 1) the magic being not their own distances them from the universal laws and 2) sponsored magic users often fall under a different accorded faction which would shield them from the white council.

There are other sides to the power that aren't always used by all GMs. One is the concept that any human being must adjust when they severely harm or kill another. That adjustment can lead them down a dark path pretty quickly and it's a concept that applies to sponsored magic users as well as wizards.

As for lawbreaking itself there are a number of factors that people use to determine if a law has been broken.  One is intent. Did the spellcaster intend to break the law, or have knowledge that lawbreaking was a likely result of the spell? This often applies to things like wards, where if someone creates a deadly ward and someone dies that was a result that they must have foreseen.

Another means to determine if a law has been broken is often the result itself. Did the person break the law? An example from the forums is a wizard is fighting what he believes to be zombies and crushes one. Later they are revealed to be drugged humans. Was his intent to kill a person? No, however he did, and (because of the universal law) that changes him regardless.

There are often looser or tighter interpretations of the laws. Some GMs consider transformation done to a willing target to be grey but not black magic, and there's a variety of different opinions on how distanced magic must be from a killing (I.E. can you hold someone still and then shoot them?). Some GMs consider any mental/social stress or consequences deal to be against the laws, but others stick to the strict letter of the law (no mind reading and no compulsions). Almost all of us agree that one can go forward in time all you want but stopping time or going back would be messing with the flow of time.

Compels and Player compels

To be continued... Cause I'm tired....

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DFRPG / Spellcasting and maneuver duration
« on: April 19, 2011, 01:52:09 AM »
Relatively simple question. I cast a spell to maneuver. Do I have to devote shifts to duration or is it a fragile/sticky situation like all other maneuvers? What does everyone think?

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DFRPG / Are Offensive Blocks Offensive?
« on: April 10, 2011, 05:52:32 PM »
I know the question seems a bit redundant, but hang with me for a second. The only way this matters of course is with wizard specializations and foci. Someone mentioned this in another thread and it got me thinking about a wizard putting all of his or her specializations and foci into offense and then using the offensive block to essentially defend (I.E. it prevents someone from attacking you) which seems a little unsportsmanlike...

Anyway, what do you all think? Are all blocks defensive by nature in that they prevent attacks from getting to you, or are they split into offensive and defensive categories determined by who they target?

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DFRPG / Outsider Immunity and Sponsored Magic
« on: April 01, 2011, 04:48:45 AM »
Something just occurred to me while playing. We know outsiders are immune/resistant to magic. Does this include sponsored sources? Fae? Hellfire? Any other thoughts as to why?

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DFRPG / The wizard challenge!
« on: January 10, 2011, 04:31:39 AM »
I propose a challenge to the forum.
Statement: A creative wizard can do anything that anyone else can do using only his wizarding talents.
The challenge: Prove the statement wrong (or right) by naming a specific action that said wizard can't do. Then the rest of us will try to figure out how to do it. For the purpose of this argument the wizard has the sight, soulgaze, wizard's constitution, evocation, and thaumaturgy. The only frills being refinement to add the two missing elements to his repertoire (for maximum flexibility).

I'll start with the casing trapping of Burglary. Any takers?

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DFRPG / Non-Accorded Neutral Ground
« on: December 06, 2010, 03:35:37 AM »
Hey, anyone else come up with a good idea for supernatural neutral ground? I hate how suddenly there are hundreds of "Accorded Neutral Grounds" everywhere, when in the books it seemed like Mac's was kinda special that way.

My group has a cop bar for a neutral meeting place. We figure no one's going to start anything in front of dozens of mortal authorities.

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DFRPG / Offensive Armor?
« on: October 12, 2010, 08:28:43 AM »
So I was reading through the book while thinking about rote spells for a character and the part about offensive blocks caught my eye. I decided to make a spell that would hold somebody (I.E. a block that prevented someone from moving). Days later I used it and it was less than effective, I couldn't draw enough shifts of power to make greater than a 5-shift effect at the time and 5-shifts really isn't that hard to meet or beat for someone remotely skilled and then the block is gone. A couple of days later I got an idea. A wizard can make a block, or using the same power make armor that is half as effective. So can we use that armor offensively, creating a lower level, longer lasting penalty to another's actions? What do you think?

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DFRPG / A Question About Power Foci
« on: October 12, 2010, 07:18:39 AM »
Hey, just wondering if anyone else had noticed this. I was making a character today and I was creating her Foci when I decided to look at the spellcasting system in general. It's been a couple of months since my last game and I thought I'd make sure I remembered it all right. I was looking at evocation when I realized that it never mentions power foci. It states that the mental stress taken is equal to one plus the amount of power exceeding one's conviction. It makes no mention whatsoever of power foci. It then goes on to state that to control the spell you roll discipline plus any bonuses from control foci. It specifically mentions foci in the control section but makes no other mention at all. I can't even find any mention of power foci other than that in the item creation section of the thaumaturgy chapter. What's your guys' take on this? Accedental omission? Do the power foci do something else I didn't notice?

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