Why Take Snatcher?

[nanoboy]

I've been working on advantage-based magical spells for a setting, and I was trying to get initial costs for the introductory version of the spells down. For some, this is easy, but for my conjurers, it seemed hard. I mean, a conjurer's core spell would be based on Snather, right? And Snatcher costs 80 points, so when you manage to tack on -80% in limitations, you get a 16-point advantage. I think that's a little steep for a spell that's supposed to be part of a repertoire.

Then, I realized, why not take Modular Abilities (Cosmic Power; Physical Only, +50%; Accessories Only, -50%.)? That's a 10-point base that can easily be limited down to 2 points for a starting ability. Yes, you're limited to no weapons, but there are other spells based on Innate Attack that would be more interesting anyway. (I've made a couple for the conjurers-- Summon Shortsword and Shoot Arrow.)

[Ragitsu]

How about something like a Dimensional Pocket? One analogue would be the Bags of Holding from Dungeons and Dragons.

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by nanoboy

I've been working on advantage-based magical spells for a setting, and I was trying to get initial costs for the introductory version of the spells down. For some, this is easy, but for my conjurers, it seemed hard. I mean, a conjurer's core spell would be based on Snather, right? And Snatcher costs 80 points, so when you manage to tack on -80% in limitations, you get a 16-point advantage. I think that's a little steep for a spell that's supposed to be part of a repertoire.

Then, I realized, why not take Modular Abilities (Cosmic Power; Physical Only, +50%; Accessories Only, -50%.)? That's a 10-point base that can easily be limited down to 2 points for a starting ability. Yes, you're limited to no weapons, but there are other spells based on Innate Attack that would be more interesting anyway. (I've made a couple for the conjurers-- Summon Shortsword and Shoot Arrow.)

See allies and the summonable enhancement.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by nanoboy

I've been working on advantage-based magical spells for a setting, and I was trying to get initial costs for the introductory version of the spells down. For some, this is easy, but for my conjurers, it seemed hard. I mean, a conjurer's core spell would be based on Snather, right?

Snatcher is better for divination and scrying because a lot of information can be put into a tiny amount of mass. Saturday's winning lottery numbers? The secret password to be let into the sultan's vault? Enemy's battle plans? How about his quartermaster's ledger? The missing pages from the Blue Grimoire? A portrait of the mole on the guild council? Treasure maps? Recipe for the Elixir Viti? The proof (or dis-proof) of Fermat's Last Theorem? No problem!

[transmetahuman]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

Snatcher is better for divination and scrying because a lot of information can be put into a tiny amount of mass. Saturday's winning lottery numbers? The secret password to be let into the sultan's vault? Enemy's battle plans? How about his quartermaster's ledger? The missing pages from the Blue Grimoire? A portrait of the mole on the guild council? Treasure maps? Recipe for the Elixir Viti? The proof (or dis-proof) of Fermat's Last Theorem? No problem!

It would never have occurred to me to let Snatcher work for most of those. If nothing else... parallel worlds, different histories, difficulty of distinguishing winning ticket from thousands of losing ones while poking around, nothing to distinguish mole's portrait from the other councilmen's portraits, "oh, those were battle plans from a timeline where he was invading Fnordia instead", etc. etc. Maybe I'm influenced too much by Merlin of Amber/Chaos and that whole "visualize" thing in the description.

Anyone else play it the way Jeff does?

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by GURPS Characters, pg 86

Information is not available except in the form of “ordinary” textbooks, reports, etc. You can grab a historybook, but you can’t ask for “The Book of What Happens Next in My Adventure.” Note that the GM makes the roll if information is requested. If the roll fails by 5 or more, the information comes from an alternate world with different history, physics, etc., and is wrong – maybe subtly, maybe not subtly at all!

The above quote puts future information (Saturday's lottery numbers) out of reach. As for passwords, do they need to be written down at all?

Also, it occurs to me that rare information is as hard to get as rare materials. So rare information (missing ancient grimoires, alchemical recipes, etc) would be hard to get. And utterly fictitious information (a copy of the Necronomicon in real life where it is fictional) would likely get you a parallel-universe copy or more likely a forgery.

And with Snatcher, how do you know what you're getting is what you want and not what you really want? The war's coming up, you feel nervous, and you use Snatcher to get the enemy's quartermaster's ledgers. But subconsciously, you want reassurance. So what you get is a perfect forgery that tells you that the enemy army is half-starved and has whole units dropping from plague and desertion.

Information-stealing via Snatcher is very easily spoofed.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by transmetahuman

I
Anyone else play it the way Jeff does?

I'd let some of those fly, but not all. In order:

Winning lottery numbers: nope, or at least not this timeline's winning lottery numbers. If I need a justification, I'd just say that lottery numbers are so random that even in extremely close parallels, they're going to be different. From a meta perspective, this it too much of an end-run around Wealth. At least with most valuable Snatcher objects, there's some difficulty in fencing the items.

Secret password to be let into the sultan's vault: Yes, but only if you can get a clear picture of something you know has it written down. You can't just ask for a hypothetical piece of paper that has the information, but if you see the sultan writing it down and handing it to his Captain of the Guard (or even hear about it, at a penalty), it would be fair game.

Enemy's battle plans sound reasonable, although this is one place where players would be wise to not rely too heavily on things. Battle plans are too contingent on circumstances for alternate-reality plans to be totally trustworthy. Likewise on the quartermaster's ledger.

Missing pages from the Blue Grimoire: If you had some idea of the context, I'd allow it, although this is another place to worry about subtle alternate-reality screwups.

Portrait of the mole on the guild council: Nope. If you don't know who the mole is, you can't call up a picture of them. You'd get some random picture of a guildmember, and as a GM, I'd take dark glee in making it a portrait of an innocent guildmember who probably would have been a great ally if you didn't go and accuse them of being a mole.

Treasure maps: Sure, although there'd be no particular guarantee of a useful map if you just asked for a random one. Even if you ask for "Blackbeard's map to the Lost Sierra Madre Mine", there'd be the usual danger of alternate reality screwups. Just enough to run a good adventure, of course. :-)

Recipe for Elixir Viti: If you knew that the Elixir Viti existed in your world, I'd allow it, albeit at a hefty penalty if that's all you knew.

Proof/Dis-proof of Fermat's Last Theorem: Better have some Mathematics knowledge to work the proof yourself, or you may end up grabbing lots of things people thought were valid, but turned out to have flaws. Some familiarity with academic math might help you Snatch a peer-reviewed proof/disproof, at least. :-)

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

And with Snatcher, how do you know what you're getting is what you want and not what you really want? The war's coming up, you feel nervous, and you use Snatcher to get the enemy's quartermaster's ledgers. But subconsciously, you want reassurance. So what you get is a perfect forgery that tells you that the enemy army is half-starved and has whole units dropping from plague and desertion.

This is what the IQ roll is for, and I think giving false information on a successful IQ roll is unnecessarily adversarial. If you succeed the IQ roll, you get useful information. On the other hand, it would be reasonable to not tell the players exactly what the penalty is, to keep them guessing. Did they make the roll, and get useful info, or did they fail by five or more, and get misleading info?

[nanoboy]

Originally Posted by Captain-Captain

See allies and the summonable enhancement.

Sure, there are those, too. I made up a Summon Steed spell on that ground. It's not so good for summoning a lockpick, though.

[WingedKagouti]

The main situation I can see Snatcher being truly useful in, is for a Gadgeteer/Enchanter with Snatcher modified to allow larger and heavier objects.

A person who can conceptualize complex items that usually take a very long time create otherwise.