Power-Ups for RPM?

[Refplace]

Well thanks for the acknowledgement and thoughts on Control (Magic). That thread is around here somewhere and I recall debating with a few people on ther cost till everyone posting got the reason it was at 40 was it pretty much covered everything in a fantasy setting. But the point cost was never blessed so is not RAW, just what I thought was fair.

FYI I built my Magic as Powers system as Rank 1 to 5 with each Rank a level of Control so 40 to 200 points and then spells as AA off that. So you could possibly even make B-Dog happy with level 1 to level 5 spells.

As for the Mana Enhancer an other stuff, keep in mind my mention of CM (Dedicated Controls) to get around the Affects Others enhancement.
The reason I came up with that was I did not want to have to buy the ER with enhancements that increased the cost to let others use your pool.
A flat 10 points seemed workable and treat the Trees like a vehicle or building.
I think 20 points is ok for the advantage but not sure I like it for fluff reasons.
So far the Natural caster and Magery seem the best fit for the setting and concept. It means my trees dont power a few big rituals a day so much a there likely to power a lot of rituals and can be used by most everyone in the village at one time or another. This actually makes them more useful and more a valuable resource to protect which I like.

[Refplace]

Speaking of Compartmentalized Mind what do you guys think using it only to Gather Energy is valued at? Or only to use with RPM?
I tend not to give very much but am curious on others views.

[munin]

Originally Posted by PK

… Compartmentalized Mind (Limited, Ritual Path magic, -10%; No Mental Separation, -20%) [35/level]. …

Gathering energy is basically the only thing you use Concentrate maneuvers for in RPM, so there isn't really a difference between "RPM Only" and "Gather energy only".

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by munin

Gathering energy is basically the only thing you use Concentrate maneuvers for in RPM, so there isn't really a difference between "RPM Only" and "Gather energy only".

That seems closer to fair then I expected. Still not sure I agree on the No Mental Seperation value but ts RAW and in multiple places so I'll deal.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Well thanks for the acknowledgement and thoughts on Control (Magic).

Of course! I think you posted it first, even though I'm pretty sure I was toying with it before that. And it is a good idea.

Originally Posted by Refplace

Speaking of Compartmentalized Mind what do you guys think using it only to Gather Energy is valued at? Or only to use with RPM?
I tend not to give very much but am curious on others views.

Originally Posted by munin

Gathering energy is basically the only thing you use Concentrate maneuvers for in RPM, so there isn't really a difference between "RPM Only" and "Gather energy only".

Yeah, PK posted that earlier, I suggested a -50% or so value, because that is what I was using in my games. Though I can see how it can be too good a deal.

Originally Posted by Refplace

That seems closer to fair then I expected. Still not sure I agree on the No Mental Seperation value but ts RAW and in multiple places so I'll deal.

Actually No Mental Separation is about right IMHO.

[Kalzazz]

I am thinking of allowing Super Symbol Drawer perk

Super Symbol Drawer gives +1 to suitable casting rolls and thaumatology knowledge checks when the caster follows the following restrictions
1. Uses symbol drawing for 1 minute (modified by time spent rules)
2. Grandly draws symbols, either in the air (-4 penalty) or on a suitable surface (such as the ground with a stick, or on the wall with a marker), the symbols must be suitably grand as in some ways they are a prop much like a grimoire, no smaller than (the smaller of caster SM or SM 0, so a pixie could get away with say a normal sheet of paper sized set of symbols, but a human or a dragon would need to cover a human sized area)
3. Makes their symbol drawing check. +1 on success, -1 on failure, +2 on crit success, -2 and an automatic quirk (if the spell succeeds at all) on crit failure. On a knowledge check, a crit fail is still -2, but adds a bit of misinformation as well
4. It must be done right then right now before casting/pondering something, cannot be done ahead of time

Inspired heavily by this thread (I thought Worminghall Symbol Drawing was awesome and wanted to use it for RPM back then)

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=98862

Symbol Drawing just doesn't get the RPM love, its only real use is preparing for -1 casting for non adepts, and they can just use Thaumatology instead (and considering they need the Thaumatology to cast the spells in the first place its hard to see why they really want Symbol Drawing to)

I think that it being time consuming, obvious, limited in application, requiring an otherwise dubious skill and allowing observers to figure out what your doing makes this perk category (note, as for allowing it to influence thaumatology knowledge checks also, in movies we always see people trying to figure out knotty problems at the blackboard, so I think symbol drawing makes sense there to)

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

I am thinking of allowing Super Symbol Drawer perk

Super Symbol Drawer gives +1 to suitable casting rolls and thaumatology knowledge checks when the caster follows the following restrictions
1. Uses symbol drawing for 1 minute (modified by time spent rules)
2. Grandly draws symbols, either in the air (-4 penalty) or on a suitable surface (such as the ground with a stick, or on the wall with a marker), the symbols must be suitably grand as in some ways they are a prop much like a grimoire, no smaller than (the smaller of caster SM or SM 0, so a pixie could get away with say a normal sheet of paper sized set of symbols, but a human or a dragon would need to cover a human sized area)
3. Makes their symbol drawing check. +1 on success, -1 on failure, +2 on crit success, -2 and an automatic quirk (if the spell succeeds at all) on crit failure. On a knowledge check, a crit fail is still -2, but adds a bit of misinformation as well
4. It must be done right then right now before casting/pondering something, cannot be done ahead of time

Inspired heavily by this thread (I thought Worminghall Symbol Drawing was awesome and wanted to use it for RPM back then)

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=98862

Symbol Drawing just doesn't get the RPM love, its only real use is preparing for -1 casting for non adepts, and they can just use Thaumatology instead (and considering they need the Thaumatology to cast the spells in the first place its hard to see why they really want Symbol Drawing to)

I think that it being time consuming, obvious, limited in application, requiring an otherwise dubious skill and allowing observers to figure out what your doing makes this perk category (note, as for allowing it to influence thaumatology knowledge checks also, in movies we always see people trying to figure out knotty problems at the blackboard, so I think symbol drawing makes sense there to)

I don't see anything wrong with this right off, but I havent had much sleep. I'd change the name personally, something like "Symbol Mastery" or the like.

[Langy]

Here's a little perk that might be interesting:

Natural Charmer - You are a natural at making charms and do not suffer any penalties from lacking a workspace kit. 1 point.

Though with the set-up/packing time, it might be more fair to make that 10 points and add the following as the perk:

Natural Charmer (Improvised) - You are a natural at making charms and, when working with no workspace kit, you act as if you had an improvised workspace; when working with an improvised workspace, you are at no penalty. 1 point.

[Humabout]

I might call the first one only 3 points, thinking about it. It's basically an Accessory perk with enough Signature Gear to buy a basic workspace kit (2 points worth at TL 3). You could even make this a leveled perk:

Level 1: Basic Kit [3]
Level 2: Good Kit [8]
Level 3: Fine Kit [29]

The only annoying thing about this approach is that the point value of the traits varies by TL because an average month's pay does not scale with starting cash between TLs.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Humabout

I might call the first one only 3 points, thinking about it. It's basically an Accessory perk with enough Signature Gear to buy a basic workspace kit (2 points worth at TL 3). You could even make this a leveled perk:

Level 1: Basic Kit [3]
Level 2: Good Kit [8]
Level 3: Fine Kit [29]

The only annoying thing about this approach is that the point value of the traits varies by TL because an average month's pay does not scale with starting cash between TLs.

Yeah, it's basically an accessory perk - except it also eliminates the packing/unpacking time.

I wouldn't make it give a bonus; if I wanted that, I'd probably just user Higher Purpose (Charm Maker), Natural Caster (Charms Only, -x%) or something.