should it be a perk to know a Spell Concept?

[Plane]

Using the rules for Player-Created Spells (M15) or "Theoretical Magic
and Spell Design" (F167) there is a stage at which a tester (not necessarily the inventor) puts a skill point into a spell before testing what it does.

This might be called a 'prototype perk' and it's a gamble since you don't know the outcome until you make the roll, and then it's locked in place, with issues like "a critical failure happens every time I cast the spell even on a normal success" being the equivalent of a "major bug"

(that's one issue I'm not clear on - whether you reroll on the crit fail table every time you cast, or you roll 1 time and the same crit fail result is a consistent major bug tied to the spell)

Prior to this though is a successful "concept roll" process. It seems like once you succeed at the concept roll you have a kind of 'successful concept' where you don't need to repeat the process and just need to brute-force the prototype rolls until they succeed

(otherwise if you need a simultaneous consecutive success in concept-then-prototype it'd take a long time for that to coincide)

In this way, having brute-forced concept rolls until reaching a "I have a successful concept" seems like an asset. You not only have the ability to attempt prototypes for yourself, but apparently also to instruct others to spend a skill point and attempt prototypes based on that concept.

Should that be at least a perk? It's an advanced capacity in a way that others who haven't succeeded at the concept roll lack. There doesn't seem to be any drawbacks to having it, it's kinda like a "pact with a demon" - you have extra options which you may or may not utilize.

It seems similar to technological familiarity in that we don't quite quantify knowing this still via character points (maybe it's not worth a full point by itself?) but possibly we could do that by batching them together in large quantities, maybe using a similar system as Dabbler where for every 8 technological familiarities (or invention concepts) your character knows, it's considered 1 CP of value?

[whswhs]

The way I handle it in play is that casting the spell *always* counts as producing a prototype (since there is always a chance of a major bug, and this can never be avoided). So coming up with the concept equates to figuring out the procedure for casting the spell the first time. At that point you haven't *learned* the spell; but in my view, you've gained familiarity with it, and can cast it at a default of IQ + Magery - 6 (which can be helped by Symbol Drawing, and you can take extra time on the Symbol Drawing). You can practice casting the spell repeatedly until you've put in the hours for self-study, or you can cast it in an emergency, under pressure, and if you succeed at the latter you can spend a point to have learned the spell.

I wouldn't make the familiarity cost any points, not even as a perk. It's just that you've studied the spell enough to understand the intent, though not enough to perform it reliably.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I wouldn't make the familiarity cost any points, not even as a perk. It's just that you've studied the spell enough to understand the intent, though not enough to perform it reliably.

I could see familiarity being too minor to be worth a full CP but in the spirit of rounding up fractional CP costs to 1 it made me think of dabbler-batching multiple familiarities for equipment or like you say, spell in this case.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Plane

I could see familiarity being too minor to be worth a full CP but in the spirit of rounding up fractional CP costs to 1 it made me think of dabbler-batching multiple familiarities for equipment or like you say, spell in this case.

Unlike most skills, which have a default (from which Dabbler raises them), spells have no default.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Unlike most skills, which have a default (from which Dabbler raises them), spells have no default.

yeah I don't mean in the sense of buying up defaults just as in "I spend one character point to be between 2 and 8 benefits"