02-13-2020, 12:25 AM | #41 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings
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02-13-2020, 12:40 AM | #42 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings
Quote:
And I like the religious touch of jet rosaries, it sounds like something for Sister María Teresa. Fool's gold also has some excellent poetic connotations for cultists who consider clinging to this world a deluded vanity.
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02-13-2020, 03:19 AM | #43 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings
Are you interested in objects of semi-precious stone that might be significant because of their crafting as distinct from their composition? Intaglios, cameos, seals, signets, and Mesopotamian cylinder-seals?
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02-13-2020, 03:20 AM | #44 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings
Quote:
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02-13-2020, 02:28 PM | #45 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings
Looking up some information about mourning jewelry (often made of the previously-mentioned jet), apparently pearls are used to signify that the deceased was a child, which seems to play strongly into the Last Waste's theme of despair and loss. White enamel is also apparently used in mourning jewelry to indicate the deceased was a woman who died unmarried and a virgin; while perhaps not as useful for the rituals, I could see Sister María Teresa having a rosary of jet with white enamel accents in remembrance of her friend and fellow nun who's loss pushed her over the edge (she might also be able to use it as something of a magical focus).
As for how precious stones might be used, I'd suggest making use of Decanic trappings. You don't have to use the Decans for this, just the system. That only breaks things into "expensive" and "inexpensive," with the former just being anything worth half a month's income or more (I think it's specifically that character's income, but making it match Average income for the campaign setting would probably be ok). Given that precious stones are going to be well beyond this, expanding it might be a good idea. TL8 Average monthly income is $1300, but we'll round this up to $1400 (so that half is $700). I'd be tempted to use something like the following: Code:
$ DP 7 1 30 2 150 5 700 10 3k 20 15k 50 70k 100 300k 200 1.5M 500 7M 1000 30M 2000 150M 5000 700M 10000 Code:
% DP 5 5 10 10 15 15 20 20 25 30 30 40 35 50 40 60 45 80 50 100 55 150 60 250 65 500 70 1,000 75 2,000 80 5,000 85 10,000 90 20,000 95 50,000
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02-13-2020, 02:56 PM | #46 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings
Actually, it occurs to me that using ivory from some endangered - or better yet, extinct - animal for the white enamel would make the rosary an even better focus. It would also boost the price - an article on the white rhino that was poached in a British zoo back in 2017 notes its horn could have gone for €30,000 to €40,000, roughly $23,000-$30,000 GURPS. Now, I imagine you could accent several rosaries with a single horn, but if hers used the highest-quality of the harvested ivory, that could potentially make her rosary worth $15,000, for 20 DP as a focus using my table (meaning all her Path of Nonexistence rituals get at least a 20% discount).
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02-13-2020, 08:48 PM | #47 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings
Quote:
In any case, Sister María Teresa and her friends were mostly quick consecrating a casting space to reduce the -5 penalty to -1 before activating Conditional Spells stored in Charms (and one Herb Lore elixir).* Given the -10 Mana at the rental car office in the middle of the day (at least they were lucky enough so that it wasn't No Mana in the daytime), gathering energy would have taken forever and likely been full of Quirks. *Yes, I require rolls for casting Conditional Spells, modified by the Mana where they take effect and whether you have a censecrated ritual space. That means that creating a Charm in a Place of Power can allow you to prepare a high energy working ahead of time, but it won't guarantee it will work in a lower Mana area.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 02-13-2020 at 09:26 PM. |
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02-13-2020, 08:54 PM | #48 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings
Ivory isn't enamel, though. It isn't even tooth enamel, and tooth enamel isn't even a little bit the same as the enamel used in jewellery (which is a kind of glass or glaze).
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02-13-2020, 09:00 PM | #49 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Gemstones Useful for Evil Cultists
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02-13-2020, 09:21 PM | #50 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings
I meant to use the ivory in place of the white enamel; I assumed they would be visually similar enough that you could replace one with the other, and it gave an excuse to boost the worth of her rosary while keeping within theme. It sounds like Icelander has already decided on the design and functionality of that, however. Reading the behind-the-scenes mechanics for the vignette from the other thread was interesting, however.
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Tags |
diamond, gems, ritual path magic, rpm |
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