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Topics - KlausGerken

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DFRPG / Mechanical Owl
« on: March 15, 2021, 11:17:51 AM »
Hi,

I looking for ideas here.

My character was given an mechanical owl by Hephaistos, the greek god of metalworking. The owl was used by him to defend his island against intruders. We haven't seen it in action, but the eyes might have been some kind of weapon. We kind of tricked it by creating an illusion of both real an mechanical mice - it went for the mechanical ones. It can fly, obviously. And my character can talk to it via some kind of magical bond.

My character is a bike messenger from Berlin, who has been sponsored by the magic of the city.

I need some ideas on what the owl can do for me, and how to put that into DFRPG-Rules (NOT Accelerated). I have one point of refresh I can spend at this time.

At this moment I'm thinking along the lines of using the wonderous items rules, but I'm unsure if that would work.

So, looking for help here!

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DFRPG / Can a person with free will cross a magic circle without breaking it?
« on: July 15, 2020, 01:26:45 PM »
Can a person with free will cross a magic circle without breaking it?

Can a person with free will throw objects into a magic circle without breaking it?
Breaking it by moving an object into an circle seems to be very easy.

If so, where in the books does it say so? Obviously I can design a circle in a way that makes it "survive" throwing stuff in:

(click to show/hide)


3
DFRPG / Hannah Asher: How to build?
« on: June 20, 2020, 10:17:44 AM »
I'm rereading the novels in anticipation of "Peace Talks". Ms. Asher just rocked the Gate of Fire.

(click to show/hide)

So she is much better at pyromancy then Harry. Much like Mort is better at his stuff then Harry. But the rules for refinements seem to enforce that a wizard gets better if he has control over more elements - because to get specialization boni, he needs to create a column: Ie: To get a +3 in Fire control, you also need a +2 (maybe in Fire power) and a +1 (in a different element).

So if I would build Ms. Asher, she would be worse then a wizard because she simply could not take a similar amount of refinement stunts.

Any idea on how to change that?

4
DFRPG / Mental Toughness
« on: May 20, 2020, 05:22:38 PM »
Hi,

one of my players chose to use Mental Toughness at -4. (Its defined in Paranet Papers). He plays a stuffy old mage, german nobility as a background.

He had to define a catch for that, and chose "Vanity".

That did not work well when I raised that in game as the GM. We discussed it and figured that "Vanity" is always true, and as such not a good way to be his catch.

Now we are looking for a way to make this a fair part of the game. Any ideas, or any experience with this power? It seem very, very powerful for a mage.

5
DFRPG / [DFRPG] Magic Shields as a Block
« on: January 05, 2020, 12:34:56 PM »
So, I'm again at the point that I might have misunderstood a rule for a long long time. This time: Blocks in Fate 3 :D

Situation: Alex the mage is being attacked and - as a defensive action - calls up her rotespell sprit shield. It has a power of 6 shifts as she is a very experienced wizard.

I was thinking that a block works like this: If the attacker rolls 5 or less, the shield blocks all damage. If the attacker rolls 6 or better, the shield fails to block all damage - its as if it wasn't there.

Alex player thinks that a block works different: Roll of 5 or less: All damage is blocked. 6 or higher: The shield reduces the damage by the block strength, 6 in this case.

Arguments (for my interpretation):
YS210: "If he meets or exeeds the block strength, the action resolves normally". The example later is weird as Harry seems to roll a shield without any shifts put into the effort.
YS293: Carlos Shield can be either a 6 shift block or a Armor:3 - that only makes sense if the shield doesn't work if overmatched - otherwise the block would always reduce the damage by six, the armor only by 3.

Same goes for
Y303: Harry's Duster has also both block and armor values. But the duster might be different from the shield as it can be useful to have armor there: You can also roll a normal defense and then apply the armor. (But that is also true for the shield if you prepared it in advance and give it duration) 

Also, if you use a ritual to summon somebody (like Harry does with the Erlkönig), the circle is a block (stated somewhere in the Paranet Papers). The summoned entity overcomes the block to break free (my interpretation).

Arguments for her interpretation:
YS210: The example implies that the damage passing the block by Harry is reduced by the blocks strength.

Summoning: The block might reduce the Erlkönigs power by its strength to allow Harry to mentally duel the Erlkönig.

So, how do you guys use blocks?

EDIT: Removed some spelling mistakes.

6
DFRPG / Alchemy
« on: November 24, 2018, 06:17:21 PM »
I have a player who wants to become an alchemist.

What do we know about her character?

She's running a rather successful blog on supernatural occurrences. She is a minor talent (psychometric and cassandras tears). She is of gypsy blood. Gypsies seem to have something to do with BCVs - either minons, or in case of her grandmother, mortal enemies. She inherited a piece of jewelery that protects her from their domination.

As a player she's the kind of person who will press on the red button that is labeled "no not touch" just to see what happens. She is NOT good at creating aspects (but her character would be - she has all the awareness and knowledge skills).

She told me as the GM that she would like to learn some alchemy in the near future. I know its part of thaumaturgy, but seems overkill for what she wants to do.

Any ideas on how to give her some kind of alchemy that is both rules light (she's very much a casual gamer) and does not require her to come up with aspects?

7
DFRPG / Backlash
« on: October 21, 2018, 04:41:13 PM »
So the player of the wizard read the rules... :)

Example:
EDIT Correction edited in, because math was wrong - thanks to Mr. Death

A spell with 10-shifts of power is being cast.
Her conviction is 6, she gets +1 bonus on power. So she crosses out the 4shift stress box
She rolls a +1 on a discipine of 5, get +2 bonus from focus items. Thats just 8, so she takes the 2 shifts as backlash, crossing the 2shift stress box (but not on the mental stress track.... she is a powergamer after all!)

The way I read the rules, she would have to absorb 6 points of stress in one go.

Who is right?


8
DFRPG / Urban Magic
« on: October 21, 2018, 04:34:19 PM »
I want to create a wizard based on Matthew Swift (A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin)

He has a very very citybased magic. I'm especially impressed by a situation where he flees a monster. When he reaches a subway-station, he uses the "custom of the city" that you can only enter if you are in possession of a valid ticket, using his magic to enhance this custom, while reading the term of use aloud. That is awesome! He does not (IIRC) create an element like Harry does when using a fireball, but is able to direct the elements allready in the city: Water in the earth, Electrity in the powerline, etc. He talks to the animals of the city, etc.

I found the "urban magic" in the sponsored magic list an I like it very much, maybe it can be used if modified, esp. if it is added to a full wizard template.

But what I want to dissus here is a modified approach to a full wizard.

Your Story,  p. 253 tells us that the platonic view on elements (fire, earth, etc) isn't the only one working - asian casters would use the daoist approach. So lets start with different "elements"

Version 1:
Light
Sound
Building
Life
Traffic

Version 2:
Asphalt
Neon
Electrity
Anonymity
Customs

Also, since I want to interact with tech, I need to change the "Wizards can't use tech"-caveat. YS, p. 229 says its not really defined.Somewhere else (maybe in the books) its said that before tech was a thing, Wizards made milk sour... so they only have an area of incompetence. That could be something totally different.

I'm not sure what that could be. In the age of the internet a young wizard might "believe" in tech (like my version does), so tech works for him - even better then for mortals. But what is it, he does not believe in? Inter-personal relations springs to mind, seeing all the people talking over the internet, but in my group that would be impossible - we play mostly drama and inter-personal relation take up a lot more time then killing monsters.

Not being able to interact with "Nature" would work too, but that has never been a theme for both the books and our table, so that would be "too cheap"

Any ideas or input?

9
DFRPG / Sponsored Magic and Focus Items
« on: October 19, 2018, 10:54:36 PM »
I'm pretty sure that I get focus items when choosing sponsored magic.

The PC in question is NOT a mortal wizard, has neither channeling nor evocation. Just sponsored magic. And thus gets four focus item slots.

How do I build those focus items? The usual formula "Offensive/defensive" + "power/control" + "element" (as in offensive power fire for a blasting rod) does not work for a PC with only sponsored magic - they don't seem to think in elements. If my magic is given to me by a germanic god of wisdom... how do I create the focus items?

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