Gate stabilisation
 

One thing in the rules I didn't notice until recently was that Gates can fail every so often (statistically, once every 216 uses). Unless quickly restored with a Create/Control Gate spell, it will collapse. If this gate connects two remote parts of the world, it can be a real pain to rebuild it. So how do you game cities that rely on Gates?

It seems like a logical course is that there is a wizard on call who is available any time the Gate is used in case it needs to be restabilised. This presumes that the city controls the access and scheduling of Gate usage, so that the wizard is guaranteed to be available. And this would likely be a high-paying job, since the wizard needs to be pretty skilled and the work schedule would interrupt usual wizardly tasks like adventuring or item creation.

One alternate approach I thought of is a magic item called, unsurprisingly, a "Gate Stabiliser". This is a ST 50 Powerstone with an additional enchantment that functions like an automatic casting of Control Gate with no changes to the Gate rules. It is embedded into the framework that demarcates the Gate (archway, door jamb, etc), and is synchronised with the Gate so that any changes to its rules are picked up by the stabiliser. Lastly, it is self-powered, so that it doesn't need external maintenance.

Obviously a Gate Stabiliser would be a very expensive item to create, and only be practical for cities who rely on their Gate connections to maintain their livelyhood. And it may not be a legitimate item, since there isn't a current item enchantment listed for the Gate spell. But I figured I'd put it out there.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

This is probably excessive pedantry, but such things can be fun nonetheless. I was thinking about what constitutes a single "use" of a Gate, since failure has a chance of occurring after each use. Most of the time this is pretty obvious - a person or wagon or thrown object passes through the Gate, that's a discrete "use". One could think of the activity period as having a degree of latency, so that a whole party moving through in close formation might also be considered a single "use". But I would argue there is also a time component.

Say for example an evil mage opens one end of a Gate in a town, and then travels to his base, where he opens the other end and begins marching his Orc army through it. While this would be a continuous stream and therefore sort of like one "use", I would say that the failure roll should still occur at timed intervals during this use. Maybe once per minute for such continuous use.

Gate failure is still relatively rare, but not so negligible that it wouldn't be a concern for places that rely on them. Right now I'm considering it more from a city-planning aspect than as a regular player.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

Cities which rely on gates?

Hopefully those are very rare and exceptional, unless you want a world where gate travel makes your world geography more or less irrelevant.

It depends on the nature and quantity of the reliance, and the availability of gate wizards. How often do they need to pass someone through the gate? And how many gate wizards do they have available/willing to help them with gates? And for how long?

In general, if you want to keep a gate available, you can have someone available who can stabilize a gate when it breaks down, or you can have more than one gate from A to B, and stop using the gates when you get down to one gate, unless you have a gate stabilizing wizard available. In an emergency, you can risk the life of a very powerful wizard who has both Create Gate and Long Distance Teleportation.

If you only mostly need the gate to exist, but not to constantly use it, then it's not that hard, because you can just call for a gate wizard when you use it, or when your redundant gates break down to the last one.

If you need steady traffic, then you start needing a dedicated corps of gate wizards.

Having a group of people who know the Aid spell is generally wanted/needed too, especially for heavy operations.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

Unless you WANT gates to be an even more map-shattering force than they already can be, I would not allow an entire group or wagon to count as only one use of a gate.

Consider that you can already use one gate to get hundreds of armed men inside a fortified place (average 216 before it starts to flicker, plus however many can pour through while it is still flickering). That's extremely undermining for most forts and secure locations, and to my mind calls for more limits and defensive magics, rather than more lenient rules that allow it to be worse.

I generally pick a weight limit (say 300 pounds). If something heavier passes through, it either requires additional breakdown checks (e.g. another roll per 100-300 pounds in excess), or a modifier to the breakdown check (e.g. +1 for every 100 pounds over 200 pounds). And I tend to roll again when passing a gate while it's flickering, for additional mishap (generally instant closure, but a random gate breakdown result can be a nice deterrent to abuse).

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

I have two such cities in the game world I'm working on. The aptly named cities of Eastgate and Westgate, on opposite banks of a huge river (like the Mississippi), which provide the only easy way to cross said river for a very, very long way. Unsurprisingly, the cities earn a lot of money from tolls paid by travelers wanting to cross the river. Each city maintains a caravansary for groups readying to cross, as well as a large barracks for troops to deal with unwanted intruders.

These gates are also artifacts from the days of Mnoren, so there's no breakdown risk.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

I can imagine solutions that solve the problem without letting Enchantments run wild, but nothing that fits within the Official Rules.

For example, maybe there's some ITL-unmentioned difference between 'normal' Gates and the Gates that are maintained by the authorities as their Rapid Transit Network. Maybe those Gates are built on top of key ley line intersections, or big deposits of magic crystals, or whatever.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

Personally, I really like that gates aren't some kind of perpetual motion machine that let people flit around the world faster than boarding an SST.

Even with an Eastgate/Westgate kind of situation, I think maintaining the gate SHOULD be expensive and difficult. The cities make up the costs by charging every groat the traffic will bear to use the gates (though why they don't just build a riverboat or two complete with Mechanician's Guild patented primitive steam engines -- ah HAH! Suddenly the Mechanician's Guild gets some love from the official authorities -- I couldn't really say...).

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

I love that gates exist in the game and it is clear how you make them. But I don't sprinkle them around as a public utility in anything like the numbers some folks are talking about here. When it comes to gates and other powerful magic items, I like to follow the same principle that applies when your toddler asks for help climbing a tree: 'You can do it if you can do it'. It's perfectly clear in the rules how a gate gets made, and it is easy to imagine the outlines of an NPC who can make one, but how many PC's will go to the effort to make themselves capable of it? I take that as my measure of how widely accessible the ability really is.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

Is it useful to think of a Gate network like the Roman roads? A potentially multigenerational task, requiring constant maintenance, but giving an amazing advantage?

One of the wizards in the DoD set is a Gate maintainer.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

That is a good way to think of them. Another side to that comparison: what became of the roman roads in the dark ages? They existed, but as scattered bits and bobs leading from you to who knows where...

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

theyre mostly still there, just 10 or 20 feet underground now :)

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

Well, my original idea was that Eastgate and Westgate's gates were Ancient artifacts, and beyond the capability of current mages to duplicate. This was before I decided to put them in my TFT campaign, where gates are still a thing. So, at least in this case, they will probably remain an artifact, and as such require little or no maintenance (as gates created by current mages would).

As for riverboats--or even sailboats or ferries--yes, they may exist. But they can't begin to compete with the throughput of the gate. Traffic can flow in both directions as fast as it can be organized. Which is why there is a sophisticated queueing system on each side, to maximize efficiency. Yes, the cities charge thru the nose to use the gate, but it makes crossing the river quick and easy.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

I like this idea. Personally, I _never_ try to make things fit exactly within an RPG's rules; story comes first. Just because the rules limit what the PCs can do, that doesn't mean that the rest of the world has to operate under the same limitations. The rules are for the players; the GM does what is best for the adventure.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

This is why I don't care all that much about the "errors" on the character cards. There are rational ways to explain their apparent deviation from the Rules, and they aren't obligated to follow the Rules anyway.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

If you want to limit an artifact gate then have it stabilized by sucking five fatigue from each traveler, or some other means to limit player abuse.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

The campaign I am in has very limited gate travel, but the idea of draining fatigue points from each traveler is an excellent idea. If I ever get to the point where I am ready to run my own campaign I'll keep that in mind.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

I like this -- plus it allows for some interesting role-playing, as the characters are likely to want to find an inn to rest up after using a gate, so then you have a nearly automatic opportunity to provide them with information, encounters, maybe even hirelings.

Kind of like Guy McLimore's old "Crossroads Inns" (which are always a thing in any campaign I'm GM-ing), only instead they're "Gateway Inns!" ;-)

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

This also works on another level... it makes the idea of moving large armies via gate much less attractive.

I also like the idea of there being a difference between ancient Mnoren-built gates and those that wizards can pull off. I think that is really the only practical way of providing for large-scale, safe and reliable gate travel if that's something the GM wants in their campaign.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

If you really want Cidri gate travel to be as common as American air travel then it's going to be a big hit against the given wizard numbers.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

I can see the competition now. Gateway Inn on one side of the street and Courtyards by Mnoren on the other side. Both offer free continental breakfast.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

And for the more budget-minded adventurers, down the street from the snooty Wizards' Guild gate, lies EconoGate — the discount teleportation service with fares up to 75% lower than the competition, but with less legroom, no snacks, and just the tiniest, infinitesimally greater chance (x3) of gate failure.

…

So please sign the waiver before entering, and be sure to indicate your next of kin.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

Nice to see all the variation in ideas about how folks handle Gates in their own campaign settings. I never used them very much, but then I recently had an idea for an adventure setting that was Gate-heavy. I've since revised that so it doesn't need Gates, but it's what got me thinking about the Gate stability issue in the first place.

I would think that any city where Gates are the absolute life-blood of the place would have an on-call mage. And I like the parallel that Steve draws with the Roman roads - they can become a costly but vital part of maintaining an empire, while also being convenient for others to use. At least as long as said empire allows that use.

And I agree that any Gates left behind by the Mnoren are likely to be far more reliable. They may even have technological or magical Gate stabilisers of their own.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

In the rules as written there are two basic ways of recovering from a gate failure:

• Let the gate fail and rebuild it with 50 ST as needed.
• Have a wizard able to respond within a minute with 50 ST.

The recovery ST can come from either stored or living ST. If you use stored ST then it takes a week to recover so your average traffic level is a fifty trips a week per wizard. If you use live wizard ST then you need a group of at least a half dozen wizards at hand and your traffic level is ten trips per hour per wizard.

If you rebuild instead of recovering then double these numbers, but add in travel time.

Re: Gate stabilisation
 

One other thing that just struck me about established Gate systems is that Mnoren Gates can literally lead to other worlds and planes. Since the Gate creator has to be able to travel to both ends of the Gate, only someone with a dimension-transiting ability like a Mnoren (or a demon) would be able to erect such a Gate.

No doubt this has been discussed before, but it's just now entering my own calculus for a maintained Gate network. I could see access to such Gates being very highly controlled by powerful groups, as well as becoming possible sources for incursions onto Cidri by beings from strange and distant realms.