Alternatives to Dependancy: Mana

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Ouf. That's a good point. And Harald has a good point about the usability - I've got a programmers usual eye for usability ( Paul Southworth understands ) so sometimes I need to be reminded of such things...

I'll sit and think about it!

Again, have you though about tackling Fatigue only -50% and Cosmic (Fatigue lost due to this can not be recovered normally) +50%, for a net +0% It would mean that fae creatures have the same exact point cost, and being in a no mana area basically saps them of their strength, until they fall unconscious, and die.

Simple, and brutal (though I would add that you do not recover fatigue, period, in no mana areas, to make it even more brutal, and that in low mana areas, you still lose 1 FP per 10 minutes, as per hourly, though you can still recover it if you rest, meaning that you simply do not recover fatigue, and you lose 1 FP if you spend more than 10 minutes without rest).

It ends up as:

Mana Dependency: You need mana to live, and keep your body working. In No Mana areas, you do not recover FP, and lose 1 FP per minute. In low mana areas, you do not recover FP by your own means, but Paut and someone with Lend Energy can help you. -25 points

It's my KISS solution for DF

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Harald387

Anything that will result in on-the-fly recalculation of skill levels or encumbrance levels (especially encumbrance!) should be avoided like the plague. If a character's basic attributes are going up and down with the mana levels, you're going to end up wanting one character sheet for each possible mana level, and that's an insane amount of bookkeeping.

It isn't complicated at all if it's consistent across the board.

In other words, if all stats are at -3 or -6, then you can just say roll at -3 to skill, etc.

Move/Dodge are also negligible, you can just say in this area you're at -1.5, in this one at -3, no math needed, no recalculations needed.

No bookkeeping needed at all, just the GM saying your current penalty/bonus is X.

[Harald387]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

It isn't complicated at all if it's consistent across the board.

In other words, if all stats are at -3 or -6, then you can just say roll at -3 to skill, etc.

Move/Dodge are also negligible, you can just say in this area you're at -1.5, in this one at -3, no math needed, no recalculations needed.

No bookkeeping needed at all, just the GM saying your current penalty/bonus is X.

If I lose three points of strength, I suddenly need to look at whether I've changed Encumbrance levels, and if so whether that affects my move and dodge scores. "What I'm carrying" is *definitely* one thing that will change constantly during the course of a DF adventure.

In all the gaming I do - D&D, GURPS, and any other system - the number one hassle with bonuses and penalties is *remembering to apply them*. Adding more cases where the character operates at a bonus or a penalty - especially on a scale that's guaranteed to constantly shift - is never a good thing.

And that still doesn't address the 'giant staggered metatrait of doom' issue. It's Dungeon Fantasy. Keep it simple.

[Bruno]

I'm thinking of (as an alternative) creating a pallette of disadvantages for Fae character to sellect, totalling up to -25 points. Things like Vulnerability: Iron, Weakness: Holy Ground (for unseelie types), and etc. Pillaging my copy of GURPS Faries like crazy here :D

For specific races, I'll be adding "Disadvantages" that add things like Mana Sensitive or Glamour to some of the major advantages on the template - things like, for Nymphs:
Enchanting Beauty [-4]: Your Appearance and Charisma are Mana Sensitive, can be temporarily disabled by magic disrupting attacks and spells, are reduced proportionately in low mana areas, and shut down entirely in no-mana regions.

Glamorous Appearance [-10]: Your Appearance and Charisma are a subtle and innate charm effect. Not only do you suffer all the effects of Enchanting Beauty (above) but your charms are completely lost on creatures Immune to Mind Control (such as Golems and the undead), and others may make a Will roll to see through the illusion to your true, rather boring looking, form. (Glamour limitation from Powers)

EDIT For clarity, I shouldn't post before coffee:

When I said "adding disadvantages", I was attempting to say "In addition to the standard pallete of disads to pick from, each race will get additional disad options available only to that race. " Amazing how these things can get mangled without caffeine

With more caffeine, I would also put down that the fae races take -25 points of "your choice" disads from that list, and note that these are generally on the list of things that PCs can buy off without the GM thinking they're totally nuts. Or at least put Mitigators on.

On the other claw, I'd add the Terror (Awe) varient from Powers as an optional power-up for Nymphs, but I'd require the same limitations that are on her Appearance and Charisma advantages (if any).

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Bruno

All the fae races in DF have Constant Dependancy mana. In mana levels above "none", fae characters notice no effect, and in No Mana areas they take 1 hp per minute starting 60 seconds after exposure and continuing until they escape. This knocks -25 points off of all the fae templates.

For pixies, especially, this means that most of the time mana doesn't matter, until they hit a no-mana area and then they're incapacitated with a major wound, and are at risk of death.

Hunh? How does one hit point do that?

This makes me, as a GM, extremely reluctant to use no-mana areas if a game involves pixies - but with all fae races there's the pressure to include no mana zones, or that expensive disad is just a pile of free points.

You shouldn't use big no-mana zones but there's a place for smaller artificial ones. For example, if you don't have magic traps in a treasure vault, making it a no-mana zone is a basic security precaution. No mana prison cells. The occasional no mana corridor with pressure activated traps.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Hunh? How does one hit point do that?

Because pixies have something like ST -8 or -9 (I don't have my books to hand, so I can't give you the exact numbers). So even 1 HP is a significant wound to them.

[Bruno]

Pixies have -5 ST and -4 HP. It comes from weighing a pound and being about eight inches tall. Standard Pixies therefore have ST 5 and 1 HP.