Machine Summoning Errata/Discussion

[PTTG]

Machine Summoning/TL is a spell from the Technological college that replicates various other summoning spells. Among other things, range explicitly does not matter for this spell, and it can call "one machine of a named type," and it compels the item to travel in a very direct route until it reaches the caster.

Importantly, it doesn't grant any special intelligence to the machine (and only works on those of IQ 6 or less), and doesn't let them move if it can't otherwise do so.

Soo...

Wizard: "I summon a 'Boeing-747 designated Air Force One.'"
GM: "Erm, the spell succeeds, and the closest machine of that type is directly on the other side of the planet. It will take at least a day for it to get here."

Meanwhile, Air Force One flies straight down... and since the target is the plane itself, nobody aboard gets to resist the spell.

More generally, should attended vehicles (including vehicles such as sailing ships which might be left unpiloted even while being "manned,") be automatically excluded? My gut says probably, but a really good wizard probably should be able to take control of something being piloted by a novice without trouble.

Hmm... there's still the problem when someone stands in front of an enemy corporation's headquarters or whatever and summons an ICBM. Give it five minutes of spell maintenence for it to launch, and then teleport away from the soon-to-be-crater

This is still a fun (and quite powerful) spell for any TL; it can summon a reed boat to you up a river, and possibly drop a bucket down a well to you or slide a ladder along a bookshelf too. Not to mention allow you to duplicate Seek Machine for immobile gadgets.

One last thing, I think the spell could be made to work with attended, otherwise immobile objects in some cases; I imagine a wizard casting it in on some fellow's pocket watch in order to cause it to drop out of the mark's pocket as he passes the mage on the street. It seems reasonable that something that could manipulate the controls of a car could jostle someone's pocket somewhat subtly.