Yet more clarifying questions for RPM

[Zoomfarg]

Thank you for the replies!

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

No. Resistance rolls in RPM are strictly a Quick Contest of your Path skill used to cast vs. the better of HT or Will plus Magic Resistance. You must win the Contest or the spell doesn't work.

Okay this is what I thought... I think I was remembering one of those proposed rituals where people were un-RAW-ly using bestows a penalty.

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Unaware subjects automatically resist even if it's friendly magic! Tell your allies what you're doing. Those who've resisted know they've been affected by something, just not what.

Gotcha, thanks!

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Area Effect only affects those in its area. Anyone entering it will automatically try to resist the effects (even if beneficial unless told otherwise). They roll their Will or HT plus Magic Resistance against the margin of success of the initial spell. If it has a Duration it lasts until cancelled or the duration is up.

Makes sense. I don't know why I was overcomplicating it

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Rule of 16 always applies. It's based on the ward's Power vs. the will of whatever it is it is keeping out. If that's higher than 16 it gets lowered per the Rule of 16.

Again... makes sense. I don't know why I was overcomplicating it

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

You can make multiple attempts, each at -10 to the roll and can continue until you fail.

Oh whoah! Seems pretty powerful, but the penalty is pretty hefty, so I guess that makes sense.

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Not in bog-standard RPM, no. In Effect-Shaping you can take more time to get a bonus to your spell. If you want something similar for Energy-Gathering RPM then say "For each step (seconds to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days, etc.) you take then double the number of energy gathered for that one roll by x(Number of Steps plus one).

Gotcha--thank you!

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Incantations are not alternative abilities. They are are a form of conditional spell.

Sorry, I haven't gotten anything from the DF series until now--after your reply, I picked up DF 19. (The inclusion of the Summoned table is pretty great!)

I was actually trying to ask about "incantations" from your "Alternative RPM" article from 3/66, under the "Ritual Powers" heading.

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Lesser effects must target one spell or ongoing effect. Greater effects can add Area of Effect and attack multiple spells at once. Use the best resistance roll vs. your skill for all spells or ongoing effects involved.

Gotcha

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Because the creator deemed it more difficult. You can change it if you want. I wouldn't. Create is cheaper because it comes with penalties to make stuff whereas Transform has no such penalties and costs more.

OH RIGHT that's a good point.

Actually that raises an interesting question... would it be appropriate to use the crafting penalties table when labor is involved, even for other spell effects?

Like say you've got a big chunk of marble and you want to use magic to carve it into a statue, or you're trying to dig a mining tunnel that would normally require laborers and engineers...

EDIT: to be clarify, I’m proposing that in some cases, maybe the Crafting Penalties Table could be used based on the wages for the value of labor that would otherwise have been used for what the ritual accomplished, like sculpting or tunnel-digging

Whenever labor is involved would probably be too broad... that would mean you'd have to--on the fly--convert every action that could be achieved by mundane methods into wages. That's definitely too much bookkeeping (literally). But it seems like maybe there's room to apply it outside of Create.

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Pyramid #3/66: Laws of Magic has some rules in there for mixing RPM and Realm Magic a bit. Which I'm sure you noticed.

I did! The thing I really like about Realm magic was the "dividing up the world" formula, so that different systems of division (ie different realm systems) were roughly cost-balanced. I liked being able to have different realm systems represent different magic traditions from different cultures.

RPM mentions using alternative paths, but since it doesn't have anything like Realm advantages RAW, it seems like you've got to have roughly 9 path skills in any system. I've been noodling how to deal with that.