Dance Limitation on Magery

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Bruno

On the plus side, if you break out in interpretive dance in the middle of a battlefield, you might be able to argue it as a Dirty Trick the first time as you confuse the crap out of your enemies. :)

How very Starlord of you.

[robertsconley]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

Everything else you suggested seems fine, but this one seems a bit overly-harsh. I'd suggest instead that the mage has to dance when the maintenance comes due. So if you've got a 1-minute duration spell, and the mage wants to maintain it, they have to be free to dance for a few seconds (I'd just use the original casting time) at the end of the minute. It's still limiting, because a spell can easily come due at a time it would be inconvenient to break out the old soft-shoe, but it's not as crippling for long-duration spells.

Sound reasonable thanks.

[robertsconley]

Updated Ruling

Magery Limitation: Dancing -40%
You don't the dance skill to do magic but if you are going to maintain spells with Dancing Only Magery AND execute a DX based skill Then your DX skill will be capped to the lower of your Dance Skill or DX Skill. This is only a factor the turn you have to expend fatigue to maintain the spell. At which point you need to do a dance for that turn.


To do this during flight you will need to learn a Dance (Air) technique which default to Dance -4. It is an Average Technique.

If you cast or maintain a spell you will need at least the majority of the six surrounding hexes clear (4 out of the 6). Or you will need to make a dancing roll to keep on dancing.

[ravenfish]

Personally, I always assumed that the limitation values on Magery were more generous than those for other advantages (compare Day/Night-Aspected at -40% to the standard -20% for an accessibility limitation applying roughly half the time) to compensate for the fact that all the spells you buy are similarly limited but receive no direct discount in point cost.

[justsell]

I really like this limitation for bringing an Avatar: The Last Airbender feel to magery.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by robertsconley

If you are dancing then your melee skill will be capped the lower of your weapon skill or your dance skill.

I'd never allow that. Dances are stylized, they aren't just "I'm moving around", they're "I'm moving around in a predefined pattern". If you are dancing, you can't be using a melee skill *at all*, or anything else that requires moving your body. I might be inclined to allow enough flexibility for "move in a particular direction", but that's about it, and you certainly couldn't claim the sprint bonus.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Dances are stylized, they aren't just "I'm moving around", they're "I'm moving around in a predefined pattern". If you are dancing, you can't be using a melee skill *at all*, or anything else that requires moving your body.

A possible exception to that: a Capoeira stylist in a cinematic martial-arts campaign (Martial Arts p.152-153).

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Dances are stylized, they aren't just "I'm moving around", they're "I'm moving around in a predefined pattern".

That's not true at all. Or rather, yes, most dances have strictly predefined moves, however... many do not.

Also Capoeira is a martial art that is taught as a 'dance'. And do not forget there's an entire trope for it.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by malloyd

I'd never allow that. Dances are stylized, they aren't just "I'm moving around", they're "I'm moving around in a predefined pattern".

*laugh* you clearly never went to a highschool dance. Or a mosh pit!

A little more seriously, many dances are lower-body only - you may be holding on to your dance partner with your upper body, but the only convention for that is usually "around the hand, shoulder, or waist regions". Some dances are "jumping up and down rhythmically". "Dance" is just as broad a category of art as any other.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Bruno

"Dance" is just as broad a category of art as any other.

Eh, if it's genuinely art, it's either stylized, or completely scripted. If there isn't something artificial about it, it's not "art".

Somewhat more on point, if you are getting a -40% price break on spellcasting for it, it better be a *limitation*. Being able to cast spells with the same moves you are using to fight in melee isn't a Magery limitation, it's a major advantage starting from Compartmentalized Mind or Altered Time Rate.