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Old 01-31-2017, 08:43 PM   #531
Shostak
 
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

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Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
This guy would not work- with RPM you always pay for effect, not descriptor. So you would need enough external damage to destroy the bridge thrown on there. External damage is pretty cheap though- so it may still be an inexpensive ritual (at least where the stock RPM differentiation of lesser/greater is used rather than the monster hunters version).
So, are you saying that if one creates a gale force wind, one must also pay to move a sailboat with it? That doesn't sound right to me. Similarly, one should not have to pay to put out flames by creating rain over a fire; it is simply a natural consequence of the spell effect.

However, I would certainly charge a Greater Effect for creating 50 tons of stone 50 yards in the air; that seems to qualify as a rather unnatural situation. I'd charge another for Greater Create Matter, since 50 tons seems like a great amount to me. That will put the total energy required for the ritual quite a bit higher than 29.
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Old 01-31-2017, 10:34 PM   #532
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

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So, are you saying that if one creates a gale force wind, one must also pay to move a sailboat with it? That doesn't sound right to me. Similarly, one should not have to pay to put out flames by creating rain over a fire; it is simply a natural consequence of the spell effect.

However, I would certainly charge a Greater Effect for creating 50 tons of stone 50 yards in the air; that seems to qualify as a rather unnatural situation. I'd charge another for Greater Create Matter, since 50 tons seems like a great amount to me. That will put the total energy required for the ritual quite a bit higher than 29.
Intent is everything.

Is your goal moving a sailboat- then yes. You pay for the weight of the sailboat and the speed you want to move it at, then give it a duration for how long you want to move it around. If instead you are just battering an area with wind, then you pay for duration and speed, if there happens to be a sailboat there, it gets buffeted around (but expert control on someone in the boat can tack effectively against your wind)

The intent of the spell in question is clear, the caster is trying to destroy a bridge; the fluff of how is kind of irrelivant, want to destroy a bridge, pay to destroy the bridge.
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Old 02-01-2017, 08:30 PM   #533
Varyon
 
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

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Originally Posted by AnkhLord View Post
Bridge Beaker Charm
From my response to Ghostdancer in the other thread, for destroying a bridge on the cheap, here's a potential option. Note that, as Ghostdancer mentions, the bridge should probably get a bonus to resist based on its SM (this rule was originally in Powers IIRC, to prevent something like Affliction: Insubstantial from being easily cast on a planet to kill everyone on it).

Bridge Breaker Charm
Spell Effects: Lesser Transform Matter
Inherent Modifiers: Subject Weight, Delay, Duration
Greater Effects: 0 (x1)

When this Charm, typically in the form of a toy bridge, is broken on a real bridge, it slowly reshapes it into a form that cannot support itself. This typically results in the bridge collapsing in one minute, but the spell has a Duration of up to 10 minutes to insure it has collapsed by the time it expires (at which point the bridge returns to its original shape, but this doesn't undo any affects of it falling into whatever chasm it spanned, including its current position). The below assumes a 1.5 ton bridge. The bridge must fail an HT roll, with a bonus equal to SM, to be affected.

Typical Casting: Lesser Transform Matter (8) + Lesser Control Magic (5) + Subject Weight, 3000 lb (5) + Delay, 1 minute (1) + Duration (1). 20 energy (20x1).

Optionally, the type of bridge must be set at the time of casting, to insure it's remade into a form that will collapse. With such a low base cost (15 energy), this may be more likely cast on the spot.
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Old 02-02-2017, 07:22 PM   #534
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

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Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
Intent is everything.

Is your goal moving a sailboat- then yes. You pay for the weight of the sailboat and the speed you want to move it at, then give it a duration for how long you want to move it around. If instead you are just battering an area with wind, then you pay for duration and speed, if there happens to be a sailboat there, it gets buffeted around (but expert control on someone in the boat can tack effectively against your wind)

The intent of the spell in question is clear, the caster is trying to destroy a bridge; the fluff of how is kind of irrelivant, want to destroy a bridge, pay to destroy the bridge.
Except that you could simply have a spell which lifts 50 tons of stone and then... stops lifting it.

The spell doesn't cost more if you intend to drop the stone on someone's head, and it doesn't cost less if you just intend to make a big pile of rubble.

At any rate, it's downright trivial in RPM to demolish structures. Indirectly dropping a large boulder on someone may do a lot of damage, but it's much easier to dodge than a spell that straight-up does damage to everywhere that includes you.
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Old 04-18-2017, 02:14 PM   #535
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

Freleng Door Gag
Spell Effects: Lesser Transform Crossroads.
Inherent Modifiers: None.
Greater Effects: 0 (×1).

Cast on a door, this spell changes the destination of the portal (in the physical, non-cross-dimensional sense) to another one within the area of effect. Can be combined with sense matter if you are looking for a specific room, sense mind if you are looking for a room containing a specific person, and so on. The Area Of Effect modifier could be exchanged for a Range modifier if you know where the destination you want to reach is located. Then you could also do away with the Sense effect. Great for corridor gags.

Typical Casting: Lesser Transform Crossroads (8) + Lesser Sense Matter (2) + Area Of Effect, 50 yards (16) + Duration, 10 minutes (1). 27 energy (27×1).

I could be persuaded the above is a greater effect. Lesser effects can affect existing gates, and lesser transform can change the endpoints without changing the nature of the gate, which I interpreted as the spell being kosher. An argument could be made that it transforms the mundane gate into a non-mundane one though. Thoughts?
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Old 04-19-2017, 08:43 AM   #536
Varyon
 
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

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Freleng Door Gag
Because this is a teleportation effect, you need to add Speed equal to the distance traveled by stepping through the portal. I believe you also need to use Range rather than Area of Effect - the latter would be to alter all such portals within the AoE. Area of Effect is still appropriate if the Sense Crossroads effect shows you all of the eligible portals within the AoE so you can choose which you link (although I'd do that as a separate ritual). Greater or Lesser depends on the metaphysics of your setting, but in general I'd go with Greater - as you note, you're basically turning a mundane portal (a doorway) into a magical one (a wormhole of sorts). Because you're affecting the portals themselves, you may need to pay for Subject Weight for the actual portal, but not for what passes through it (if this were instead a Create Crossroads effect, Subject Weight would instead limit the weight of those passing through).

Note my first point means this spell may need to pay up to three (!) times for Range - once each for distance from caster to each of the portals, and once for the distance between the two portals. Personally, I'd simply add the distances together and use that to determine the Speed/Range modifier, but I'm not certain if that's the way you're supposed to do it. For example, let's say you want to use this spell to block off a 15 yard long corridor by linking the two doorways together. The closer doorway is 5 yards from you, thus the further one is 20 yards away. That's 5 yards (2 energy) to one doorway, 20 yards (6 energy) to the other doorway, and 15 yards/second (5 energy) for the distance between them. Instead of adding the energy costs together for +13 energy, I'd add the distances together, for 40 yards and +8 energy.
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Old 04-19-2017, 02:25 PM   #537
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

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Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
Because this is a teleportation effect, you need to add Speed equal to the distance traveled by stepping through the portal. I believe you also need to use Range rather than Area of Effect - the latter would be to alter all such portals within the AoE. Area of Effect is still appropriate if the Sense Crossroads effect shows you all of the eligible portals within the AoE so you can choose which you link (although I'd do that as a separate ritual). Greater or Lesser depends on the metaphysics of your setting, but in general I'd go with Greater - as you note, you're basically turning a mundane portal (a doorway) into a magical one (a wormhole of sorts). Because you're affecting the portals themselves, you may need to pay for Subject Weight for the actual portal, but not for what passes through it (if this were instead a Create Crossroads effect, Subject Weight would instead limit the weight of those passing through).

Note my first point means this spell may need to pay up to three (!) times for Range - once each for distance from caster to each of the portals, and once for the distance between the two portals. Personally, I'd simply add the distances together and use that to determine the Speed/Range modifier, but I'm not certain if that's the way you're supposed to do it. For example, let's say you want to use this spell to block off a 15 yard long corridor by linking the two doorways together. The closer doorway is 5 yards from you, thus the further one is 20 yards away. That's 5 yards (2 energy) to one doorway, 20 yards (6 energy) to the other doorway, and 15 yards/second (5 energy) for the distance between them. Instead of adding the energy costs together for +13 energy, I'd add the distances together, for 40 yards and +8 energy.
Actually, I sort of see the effect he is going for, in which case I think area may actually be the correct build, and no speed is required.

He is counting a doorway as an existing 'portal'- in that you cross through a doorway to go from point A to point B- since a doorway already counts as a portal with inherit movement speed between A and B he can 'subvert' it to another dooway. Since dooways normally have no 'space' between them, he needs the area effect to cover the entire space that is going to have its doorways altered.

I'm not sure I buy the 'doorways are portals' bit, and I'm not sure the spell is built properly even if a GM were to buy it, but I think I follow the logic.
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Old 04-19-2017, 02:49 PM   #538
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

For a system that has an entire path dedicated to crossroads, RPM doesn't do gates over a distance cheaply, at least not by way of creation. Its much better at going between dimensions.
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Old 04-19-2017, 03:13 PM   #539
Varyon
 
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

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Actually, I sort of see the effect he is going for, in which case I think area may actually be the correct build, and no speed is required.

He is counting a doorway as an existing 'portal'- in that you cross through a doorway to go from point A to point B- since a doorway already counts as a portal with inherit movement speed between A and B he can 'subvert' it to another dooway. Since dooways normally have no 'space' between them, he needs the area effect to cover the entire space that is going to have its doorways altered.

I'm not sure I buy the 'doorways are portals' bit, and I'm not sure the spell is built properly even if a GM were to buy it, but I think I follow the logic.
I follow his logic as well, but I don't think it's the correct way to build this. Area of Effect affects everything in the area, and you have to specifically pay extra to stop it from affecting certain targets. If there are only two portals in the area, I might be able to let it slide, but with more than that I'm not certain how you'd even handle it, as you can't very well link every door together. Maybe something where each time you pass through an affected portal you get moved to another affected portal at random. Even then, it's still teleporting objects, and that requires Speed - I don't think there's any real way around that.

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
For a system that has an entire path dedicated to crossroads, RPM doesn't do gates over a distance cheaply, at least not by way of creation. Its much better at going between dimensions.
Indeed. It seems odd to me that a two-way portal between dimensions costs as much as a one-way portal* between end zones on a (American) football field. Personally, I'd be tempted to require a dimensional portal to have a Greater Strengthen Crossroads effect to actually breach the dimensional barrier.

*I assume a one-way portal only needs to pay for Range to the "start" point, while a two-way portal needs to pay for Range to each. Assuming the start point is within reach of the mage, the dimensional gate costs 10 energy for crossing a dimensional barrier, while the Instant Touchdown ritual spends 10 energy for the effective Speed of 100 yards per second.
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Old 04-20-2017, 08:08 AM   #540
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Default Re: [RPM] Post your rituals here

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Personally, I'd be tempted to require a dimensional portal to have a Greater Strengthen Crossroads effect to actually breach the dimensional barrier.
Nah. Having a spell go across planes is already a flat energy cost (+10, IIRC) - that should cover it. The only reason for an extra Greater Strengthen effect would be if the plane itself is warded by magic or difficult to reach by nature, somehow.

And I wouldn't charge more for a two-way gate, since one-way gates are more secure.
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