Long-Distance Teleport

[hcobb]

ITL pg 33: "A wizard can use this spell to get rid of a foe"

What? Why do it that way?

There is no listed DX adjustment or range limitation for the subject of the spell.

What house rule do you use to prevent poofing the Princess from her distant palace to right next to the evil wizard in his lair?

[Skarg]

I have it that the subject needs to be visible and within 1 megahex. Any short range would do.

Our first thought would be to just make it a Thrown spell, but then a GM might assume that you can't cast it on someone else without at least a -1 DX penalty, which greatly increases the chance of death, or at least that they need to stand in your hex when they cast, which seemed unpleasant. But more importantly, if you apply Thrown range penalties, then wizards can take advantage of the penalty to increase the chance of killing their enemies with it (I'll cast it at range 20!), which would be a loophole against the prohibited intentional failure so you can kill the subject.

A more complex rule that would let you have the range penalty would be to use the Thrown range penalty, but if you fail due to the penalty then the spell just fails, but a 16 or a roll greater than your base DX have their listed effects.

I actually kid of prefer that more complex way, and may switch to it.

I might even add that if you try to cast it on someone further than 1 hex away and fail, you pay full ST cost and roll on a scatter diagram to see if you accidentally teleport something other than air to the destination...

[JLV]

Originally Posted by hcobb

ITL pg 33: "A wizard can use this spell to get rid of a foe"

What? Why do it that way?

There is no listed DX adjustment or range limitation for the subject of the spell.

What house rule do you use to prevent poofing the Princess from her distant palace to right next to the evil wizard in his lair?

I'm assuming that the suggestion originates based on Jack Vance's Dying Earth, where that sort of thing was repeatedly done...

As far as the Princess goes, don't you have to be standing in sight of her to do that? Which, I would think, would be hard to do, in a world where such things are possible, and therefore guarded against. (Another reason why many women choose to go veiled and have lots of other women around dressed the same way and also veiled...)

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by JLV

(Another reason why many women choose to go veiled and have lots of other women around dressed the same way and also veiled...)

"Your Highness, you've got to be more careful. That's your third Glamor double to be abducted by demons this month!"

"I know. Who do you think is summoning those demons? When will people get the concept of copyright and trademark?"

[JLV]

"One, that's what ladies in waiting are for; and two, if we didn't do it this way, who would the heroes rescue?"

[hcobb]

A: They ask their boss to ask his minions.

Q: How does the Wizard's Guild track down rogue demon summoning?

[Axly Suregrip]

The rules don't cover this.

I am going to go with: the casting wizard must be touching the other person for them to be the subject of being teleported.

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by Axly Suregrip

The rules don't cover this.

I am going to go with: the casting wizard must be touching the other person for them to be the subject of being teleported.

That seems reasonable to me. It also falls in with treating the teleport of character other than the casting wizard like a thrown spell provided that you allow the minimum -1 adjDX of to disappear if the wizard is touching the subject to be teleported.