Long-Distance Teleport
 

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?

Re: Long-Distance Teleport
 

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...

Re: Long-Distance Teleport
 

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...)

Re: Long-Distance Teleport
 

"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?"

Re: Long-Distance Teleport
 

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

Re: Long-Distance Teleport
 

A: They ask their boss to ask his minions.

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

Re: Long-Distance Teleport
 

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.

Re: Long-Distance Teleport
 

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.

Re: Long-Distance Teleport
 

Offering my house-rule rewrite of Long-Distance Teleport for consideration here. It's a spell known, in setting, for being particularly wonky and uncertain.

Long-Distance Teleport (S): This spell lets the wizard “blink” a figure or group of figures from the wizard’s current location to some other, faraway location. The figures being teleported must be physically linked (e.g. holding hands). The wizard casting the spell does not have to accompany the party, but does need to be in physical contact as well.

The Strength cost of a Long-Distance teleport depends on the degree of mystic harmony between the two locations: Locations with a high degree of mystic harmony between them have a low St cost to teleport between, while those with a low degree of mystic harmony require more Strength – sometimes a lot more Strength.

When the wizard casts this spell, he states the maximum St cost he’s willing to pay, with a minimum St cost of 1 St per figure teleported. If the GM decides that this at least equal to the actual St cost of the teleport (as set by GM whim) then the wizard pays this actual St cost and arrives at the desired destination. If the offered St is less than the actual cost, then the wizard pays the minimum St cost of 1 St per figure and ends up at some other interesting location determined by the GM. (Possibly one just a very short distance away.)

A wizard does not have to make a Dx roll when casting Long-Distance Teleport. Instead the wizard must spend two turns either shouting the appropriate Words of Power or else speaking them in a loud, clear voice. At the end of the two turns, the figures being teleported vanish.

Re: Long-Distance Teleport
 

May depend whether the Wizard's Guild is secretly run by demons.