Power-Ups for RPM?

[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.

[Pragmatic]

Okay, cost to convert one path's Greater adjustments to Lesser?

E.g., Amplify Injury (Thau: RPM, pg 39) has Greater Destroy Body. How much to convert that to Lesser Destroy Body (reducing the cost to 21, instead of 63)?

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Okay, cost to convert one path's Greater adjustments to Lesser?

E.g., Amplify Injury (Thau: RPM, pg 39) has Greater Destroy Body. How much to convert that to Lesser Destroy Body (reducing the cost to 21, instead of 63)?

40 points / Greater Effect reduced in this way.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Okay, cost to convert one path's Greater adjustments to Lesser?

E.g., Amplify Injury (Thau: RPM, pg 39) has Greater Destroy Body. How much to convert that to Lesser Destroy Body (reducing the cost to 21, instead of 63)?

Originally Posted by Humabout

40 points / Greater Effect reduced in this way.

Well, if it's just for a specific ritual, you'd need Control Amplify Energy 3 [30]. You could also buy Control Destroy Body 3 [45] which would affect all rituals with those parameters, or Control Destroy or Body 3 [60] which would affect all Destroy or Body effects, or Control Magic 3 [120] which could reduce one Greater effect to normal cost. Now keep in mind, that these can only affect other people, not yourself, per Pyramid #3/20 Infinite Worlds (p. 7). Though "Cosmic, Affects Self" (+50%) would negate that. Though it would increase the costs quite a bit...

[Langy]

Note that that could also increase the cost of someone else's rituals.

Also, I feel like it should be 2 levels, not 3; each level would allow you to increase or reduce the multiplier by one (to a minimum of 1).

If it's just for decreasing, that might be a -25% modifier, which when you include a 'self only, +25%' version of that cosmic modifier leads to a fair price of +0% for just decreasing the price of your own abilities. This would cost 2 FP every time you used it and an IQ roll (or IQ-based skill roll), unless you bought that off with Reduced Fatigue Cost and No Die Roll Required.

So, something like:

Reduced Greater Effects Multiplier - [Varies]
With a moment's concentration and an expenditure of individual energy, you can reduce the Greater Effects Multiplier of your next ritual by one per level to a minimum of one.

Whenever you'd like to invoke this, make a roll against Thaumatology and pay 2 FP. If you succeed, your next ritual will have its Greater Effects Multiplier reduced by your level in this advantage.

The price per level depends upon the scope of the abilities you can use this with:

Specific Ritual: [10/level]
Specific Path and Effect: [15/level]
Specific Path or Specific Effect: [20/level]
All Paths and Effects: [30/level]


---

I'm unsure on pricing. It may be a little too cheap; better price might be 15-20-30-40 or maybe double at 20-30-40-60, though if I went with double pricing I'd probably do so by using No Die Roll Required and eliminating the skill roll.

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Well, if it's just for a specific ritual, you'd need Control Amplify Energy 3 [30]. You could also buy Control Destroy Body 3 [45] which would affect all rituals with those parameters, or Control Destroy or Body 3 [60] which would affect all Destroy or Body effects, or Control Magic 3 [120] which could reduce one Greater effect to normal cost. Now keep in mind, that these can only affect other people, not yourself, per Pyramid #3/20 Infinite Worlds (p. 7). Though "Cosmic, Affects Self" (+50%) would negate that. Though it would increase the costs quite a bit...

Why 3? I thought we only needed 2 levels of Control (Magic) to reduce an x3 multiplier to x1. Maybe I misread upthread.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Humabout

Why 3? I thought we only needed 2 levels of Control (Magic) to reduce an x3 multiplier to x1. Maybe I misread upthread.

Okay, Control (Psi) lets you add a level to a power per 10 full levels of Control. Control with Natural Phenomena allows you to add +1 or -1 effects every three levels. I figure the first level lets you give a bonus to gathering rolls, the second lets you reduce a the Greater effects multiplier by 1, two by two (effectively removing one Greater effect). Ive used this in my last couple of game sessions and it feels about right in game. Langy is free to do it his way! He's the GM, if he says it works that way, then it does. I think its two generous. Two levels of Control (Specific Ritual) equal two levels of Magery (Ritual Path) - which allow him to ignore a Greater effect for one ritual. That could have a Archimedes-like effect if you pick the right ritual. I'll look at this thread again in the morning and see if anything shakes loose, I've fried my brain writing all day (something like 10,000 words) so I might be seeing this wrong. Regardless, that's the method I've been using.