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Old 01-17-2020, 05:38 PM   #1
bat
 
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Default Adding abstractions

TFT is such a mathematically sound game, very straightforward, how would one add an abstract idea?

For example, I would like to add an item from my OSR blog to a TFT game, namely, The Book of Miscast Spells. This is a cursed spellbook that has altered spells that put the caster (and potentially others) in danger. How should I approach this idea? If a wizard uses the book correctly things will go wrong for them, but that is the nature of the cursed item.
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Old 01-17-2020, 06:57 PM   #2
larsdangly
 
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Default Re: Adding abstractions

There are a lot of fun ideas like this in the Companion and the first three editions of Hexagram. You can look at those for examples of how Steve et al. approach new material. The short version is, just go for it! I.e., declare the effect of an item, make sure the idea has an element of fun, and off you go.
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Old 01-17-2020, 11:09 PM   #3
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Default Re: Adding abstractions

Yes, you can just add stuff you want as you want it.

But if you're enjoying the explicitness and mechanical consistency of TFT rules, there are ways such a book could fit the TFT rules as written.

First, there are magic books wizards can cast spells from, and rules for those. The reader needs to be a wizard and use a magical lab or a wizard's chest, which is pretty expensive. Unless the spells are actually scrolls, in which case they'll be one-use only and burn away when cast.

As for the cursed effects, that could be done in different ways. I would consider whether the book was created to intentionally mess people up (or not), by whom, and in what way.

It is possible for example to research variations on existing spells. A wicked wizard with a lot of time might have researched (intentionally or otherwise) spells which have nasty, even unpredictable, side-effects, and this could be a book of those.

Or the book could be haunted by a ghost who is doing the messing up. q.v. Ghosts.

Or the book could also be an enchanted item with an enchantment created by special research, which could curse people who use the book, either by actually putting the Curse spell on them, or by having other diabolical effects.

Or there could be a deranged wizard who occasionally astral projects himsself to the book with Astral Projection and does mischief on the current owners using spells.
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Old 01-18-2020, 04:11 AM   #4
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Default Re: Adding abstractions

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Originally Posted by Skarg View Post
Or there could be a deranged wizard who occasionally astral projects himsself to the book with Astral Projection and does mischief on the current owners using spells.
Oooo. Can you Astral Project to an item? :)
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Old 01-18-2020, 07:19 AM   #5
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Default Re: Adding abstractions

Scrying is specific to a target (ITL 26), such as "Where's my book"?

Then having seen the place you use Astral Projection (ITL 28) to the location you have previously observed above.

Along the way you can ponder why anybody would ever play a muggle. Extra XP for the extreme difficulty to do anything perhaps?
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Old 01-18-2020, 08:03 AM   #6
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Default Re: Adding abstractions

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Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
Scrying is specific to a target (ITL 26), such as "Where's my book"?

Then having seen the place you use Astral Projection (ITL 28) to the location you have previously observed above.
What Scrying actually says is 'see what is happening somewhere else'. And although the word 'target' is used, there is no example or wording showing the 'target' to be anything other than a location. In fact it twice says 'the place you are trying to see'.

Even if you allowed Scrying for an object, which I'm not sure is RAW, you must surely require the wizard to get a margin of 7-8, since a hazy snapshot isn't enough, and even so, if you just see 'a room' then do you really know where it is? You can see it, but do you know it's location? Perhaps if there's an open window, and it's daylight, and there's something you recognise outside...?

The old Astral Projection required you to 'roughly know how to get there' which would not allow you to Scry then Project. I notice this has been dropped for some reason in the rewrite. However, it does (still) say a place which you 'observed while not Astral', which I've taken to mean a place you have been to before.

Last edited by MikMod; 01-18-2020 at 08:06 AM.
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Old 01-18-2020, 09:52 AM   #7
Skarg
 
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Default Re: Adding abstractions

There are several possibilities with pathfinder, scrying, a crystal ball, or possibly trance, or if the book is a proxy for the wizard, and the wizard knows where the book is before people start moving it around, and cares enough to spend time trying to figure it out, exploring around while astral, etc.

E.g. If the wizard habitually astral travels to where the book last was and then uses pathfinder (unless the thieves go someplace with too many possible paths).

And of course someone could have researched a spell that lets you enchant an item as a beacon of some sort. Even a weird variant of proxy where it lets the wizard add spell effects when people cast spells with the book.
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Old 01-18-2020, 11:06 AM   #8
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Default Re: Adding abstractions

Thank you all for the replies so far! I do have the Hexagram issues that are out and the COmpanion, so I need to look deeper into these.
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Old 01-19-2020, 04:58 AM   #9
MikMod
 
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Default Re: Adding abstractions

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Originally Posted by Skarg View Post
There are several possibilities with pathfinder, scrying, a crystal ball, or possibly trance, or if the book is a proxy for the wizard, and the wizard knows where the book is before people start moving it around, and cares enough to spend time trying to figure it out, exploring around while astral, etc.

E.g. If the wizard habitually astral travels to where the book last was and then uses pathfinder (unless the thieves go someplace with too many possible paths).

And of course someone could have researched a spell that lets you enchant an item as a beacon of some sort. Even a weird variant of proxy where it lets the wizard add spell effects when people cast spells with the book.
To me, Proxy sounds most coherent. The others are a bit of a stretch I think! Note Long Distance Teleport isn't possible with 'only' a crystal ball view for instance.

Just seeing a small cult of IQ 16 wizard assassins (+ apprentices) who Trance for 'the Cardinals ring', immediately Astrally Project there, and then cast Death. Even if the first one dies, the next will succeed. And they could be located literally anywhere on the planet. Sounds a bit OP to me :)
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Old 01-19-2020, 09:14 AM   #10
larsdangly
 
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Default Re: Adding abstractions

Perhaps the best place to look for inspiration in recently published 'official' materials is the set of alternate spell effects based on mispronunciations of standard spell names ('typo spells'). There is an article on this, accessible through the link below:

https://thefantasytrip.game/news/201...n-typo-spells/

This is obviously intended as a bit of fun - a sort of game-able joke (like a lot of colorful details in TFT). But you can use it as an illustration of how free you should feel to just change and add spell effects as you wish.
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