[RPM] Misc Questions

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

What is a good way to carry charms around?

There are so many it would be impossible to list them all. A few done in my games. The player has...

• ...carried his charms around as ceramic charms on a charm bracelet (whoa, that's meta).
• ...carried her elixirs in smokeable form in the guise of cigarettes in a special case.
• ...has used snack food (M&Ms, gum, etc.)
• ...tattoos (which is where the idea for tattoo charms came from).
• ...used strips of parchment, like a mezuzah.

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

What happens if a charm gets broken unintentionally? (say the wizard fell and it got smashed, or the enemy whapped it)

It breaks. Triggering a charm requires conscious thought and act. Unless you've got it so that it goes off when you break it...then it goes off and the spell happens.

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Im thinking of casting charms on say Pretzel sticks or something that seems like it could be Fast Drawable and still DR 0 (or maybe little sticks)

I've used Fast-Draw (Charms) to cover all manner of physical conditional spells - it's like Fast-Draw (Elixir) - but covers all manner of objects imbued with magical power.

[Kalzazz]

Jaina and Joe are fighting

Jaina the Witch readies a Charm (she doesn't have fast draw Charm)

Joe (who does not like Jaina) sees that Jaina has a Small, DR 0, breakable object in hand

Joe, knowing that Jaina does not like him, figures that the small, DR 0, breakable object, is a Charm, and that it is something he would not enjoy being hit by

Joe being 1 yard from Jaina with a broadsword thinks it would be really swell to hit said Charm and trigger the spell to hit Jaina instead of him

Any way he can do so? Does he need to know the exact specifics of it? What if Jaina when she drew the spell said 'Joe, this is a Dehydrate spell that will hit you with Greater Destroy Matter for 6d+1 internal toxic at a range of up to 10yds, and hehe, its against your Wil or HT and your armor won't help!' What if she was lieing and it was actually a buffing spell she had meant to cast on herself?

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Jaina and Joe are fighting

Jaina the Witch readies a Charm (she doesn't have fast draw Charm)

Joe (who does not like Jaina) sees that Jaina has a Small, DR 0, breakable object in hand

Joe, knowing that Jaina does not like him, figures that the small, DR 0, breakable object, is a Charm, and that it is something he would not enjoy being hit by

Joe being 1 yard from Jaina with a broadsword thinks it would be really swell to hit said Charm and trigger the spell to hit Jaina instead of him

Any way he can do so? Does he need to know the exact specifics of it? What if Jaina when she drew the spell said 'Joe, this is a Dehydrate spell that will hit you with Greater Destroy Matter for 6d+1 internal toxic at a range of up to 10yds, and hehe, its against your Wil or HT and your armor won't help!' What if she was lieing and it was actually a buffing spell she had meant to cast on herself?

If the charm is meant to cast when broken, then hitting it with a sword will set it off in her hand. Otherwise, nothing happens (except possible injury to Jaina's hand).

In order to bluff in such a way, it's time to roll and hope it works.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Pretty much what Nereidalbel said.

[PK]

When you create a charm, you must specify the trigger and behavior of the spell. You don't get to just say, "I make it as a charm" because that isn't enough info. All of these trigger/behavior combos will produce different results if the charm is broken accidentally:

• "When I break this charm, cast the spell on whoever I'm pointing at." (Safe, but you can't give the charm away.)
• "When the charm is broken, cast the spell on whoever the bearer is pointing at." (Pretty common phrasing.)
• "When the charm is broken, cast the spell on the area around the charm." (Charm grenade!)
• "When the charm is broken, cast the spell on the last person to damage the bearer." (Revenge, even if unconscious.)

And so on. If you're always specific, you should rarely have to wonder what happens if a charm breaks under unusual circumstances.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Something that might be fun for "cheap" charms might be to add a "Magical Malfunction" for a energy reduction. Whenever the charm is broken, used, whatever - you need to roll 3d, on the magical malfunction number or higher it goes off and is bad (or at least highly inconvenient for you). Perhaps treat it as a botch equal to the amount of energy you reduced the original spell by. Hmmm. Maybe something like...


Malf. Reduction
12 -25%
13 -20%
14 -15%
15 -10%
16 -5%

[Angle]

Ooh, heres a neat idea- allow players to skimp out on the energy costs for rituals, but have the GM add limitations such as that malf in order to make up the shortfall. For bonus points, don't tell them what the errors are.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Angle

Ooh, heres a neat idea- allow players to skimp out on the energy costs for rituals, but have the GM add limitations such as that malf in order to make up the shortfall. For bonus points, don't tell them what the errors are.

You have to be careful adding blanket modifiers to the final cost. I've covered this a bit in a submitted article - but this sort of thing requires strict GM oversight.

[GodBeastX]

One thing that I kinda want to do with RPM that I'm trying to express (Poorly) is familiarity. While I love RPM for the most part, encouraging people to come up with rituals they can do on the fly isn't a bad thing, but something about the lack of a Spell "Set" someone will typically draw from bugs me.

I kind of feel like Mages in the magic system I want to introduce for this setting, should have a list of perks for rituals and if you are casting something without the perk then it's a negative modifier for being unfamiliar.

I'm not exactly sure how to articulate this, so if that was confusing, my intent is to mimic the idea of the geniuses who figure out wonderful formulas for great spells that people mimic because they're awesome, and the people who just follow suit because creating a new spell is a bit more difficult.

It'd also kind of encourage players to use tried and true spells more often I suppose. And it'd also make things like books on spell formulas a bit more interesting IMO.

In a way, I suppose I'm saying, RPM is slightly TOO generic. I have no problem with Generic, I just like a bit more focus in a Mage if that makes sense.

[Ejidoth]

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

One thing that I kinda want to do with RPM that I'm trying to express (Poorly) is familiarity. While I love RPM for the most part, encouraging people to come up with rituals they can do on the fly isn't a bad thing, but something about the lack of a Spell "Set" someone will typically draw from bugs me.

I kind of feel like Mages in the magic system I want to introduce for this setting, should have a list of perks for rituals and if you are casting something without the perk then it's a negative modifier for being unfamiliar.

I'm not exactly sure how to articulate this, so if that was confusing, my intent is to mimic the idea of the geniuses who figure out wonderful formulas for great spells that people mimic because they're awesome, and the people who just follow suit because creating a new spell is a bit more difficult.

It'd also kind of encourage players to use tried and true spells more often I suppose. And it'd also make things like books on spell formulas a bit more interesting IMO.

In a way, I suppose I'm saying, RPM is slightly TOO generic. I have no problem with Generic, I just like a bit more focus in a Mage if that makes sense.

Ritual Mastery is a useful perk for this, but admittedly that gives you a pretty short spell list; once you get to around a dozen perks, just buying a level of Natural Caster starts to look pretty appealing in comparison, and you end up with players switching back to being generalists again.

Grimoires are really where RPM handles the 'it's easier to use magic someone else has already worked out for you' aspect. Having half a dozen or so thematically connected rituals in a commonly available collection-grimoire is a good way to do this, I think. A book of five common spells at +2 costs $700, weighs six pounds, and is a big help to a starting wizard. Maybe throw together a standard 'apprentice book' like this for each Path or magical style you want to encourage in your setting and make them available at half cost or something.