07-21-2018, 03:18 PM | #41 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
That seems pretty thorough, and I think it is worth the column-inches.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
07-21-2018, 03:21 PM | #42 |
Join Date: May 2018
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
What about a gate which only allows people approved by currently on-duty "gate sentry" in the gate room?
How about one which only allows someone whose name is in the most recent "gate authorization book" signed by Frozleboz And having been in the gate room at some time? A gate which allows people who satisfy a rule specified by the gate attendant? A gate which allows people which another gate, specified by the gate attendant, would allow? |
07-21-2018, 03:40 PM | #43 |
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
What if a thief dresses as a woodsman or a wizard?
Or are you saying the gate can recognize learned Talents? |
07-21-2018, 04:17 PM | #44 |
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Coquitlam B.C.
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
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07-21-2018, 06:22 PM | #45 |
President and EIC
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
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07-21-2018, 06:26 PM | #46 |
President and EIC
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
If I had a player as interested as you, the end result would probably be a couple of pages of house rules, called the Liber Portorum or something of the sort. But I *know* that you can come up with cases like those faster than I can one-shot consistent replies. Do you have a general solution?
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07-21-2018, 06:33 PM | #47 |
President and EIC
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
This takes us straight back to Nivenesque perpetual motion by teleportation.
The "free energy" problem is the big one to me and is solved, I think, by requiring the plane of the Gate to be aligned with the vector of local gravity. I wrote a monster called the Gate Spider which spins webs that make Gates. It will be posted one of these days. I would like Gates to remain one of those things where the standard wizard texts don't have all the answers. Leaving GMs free to make interesting Gates: cool. Empowering IQ 18 rules lawyers to make interesting Gates that twist time, space, and economics: only funny once. |
07-21-2018, 10:32 PM | #48 | ||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
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May I suggest that it might be best to simply not set a challenge for us people? Don't try to beat us, just decline to play our game. TFT is a simple but fun fantasy game, and the way to have it remain simple and fun is to engage with it as a fantasy game. A "magic is physics" setting with all the alternative physics worked out and explained might be fun, at least for people like me and David Bofinger — but it won't be simple and it won't be [straight] fantasy. Detail attracts attention. If you put detail into the physics that will attract attention towards the physics — and away from the fantasy. Better, I think, would be to write "RULE ZERO: TFT is a simple, fun, fantasy game." I don't think that TFT has room to include Niven's Theory and Practice of Teleportation as a footnote, besides which I never discussed it with a physicist who didn't laugh at Niven's attempts to conserve energy.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 07-21-2018 at 10:47 PM. |
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07-21-2018, 10:36 PM | #49 | ||||
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
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* they are giving perception powers to gates that I don't give to actual people, even talented ones. (There isn't even a spell for "Detect Talent", well, except Telepathy with permission. There also isn't one for "Analyze Attributes", and we preferred to try to avoid referring to attributes directly when in-character.) * I'd like gate rules to be expressible verbally in-character by someone who doesn't think in terms of game stats. (So I'd be happy with "pass people who appear to have above-average strength" or "...who look stronger than me" or weight-based things, but not "ST 14" or measures of DX or IQ unless you set up a test they have to do and have them roll to do it.) I think might be good if basically the gate were like a medium-IQ observer (or literally included a magic spirit) who can see, hear, and smell (and may have Mage Sight) and possibly can act as a metal-detector (or substance-type detector - maybe as something tries to pass, it can "taste" the surface of everything passing through, even under clothes and in containers... maybe it can even taste the interior of things due to its nature). I tend to think I might like it to be fool-able by disguises, Conceal Spells (if the logic applies), and to be fallible (like someone casting a Detect Magic spell). i.e. I don't think I really want a Gate to come with a built-in ability to detect or analyze magic that is more reliable than a wizard casting a spell to do so. Nor do I want it to be able to detect things that an observer can't, and that there are not even any spells for. Quote:
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[howitzer] I'd also suggest a line or two mentioning somewhere that GMs may want to have slightly altered versions of some spells to suit their tastes, and that a campaign might have variations of the same spell with different tradeoffs. That would help explain how the GM's world has some existing gates doing something interesting yet it doesn't mean the Wizard's Guild's version of Create Gate allows that, perhaps because it was cast with a little-known version of Create Gate that even if you find a book containing it, you'll realize that version has other limitations. [/howitzer] |
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07-21-2018, 11:10 PM | #50 | |
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Coquitlam B.C.
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Re: Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks
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I agree with your post above, but I would like to emphasize the quoted section. I strongly agree. In fact, a short paragraph like the one below might say... "It is known that magic worked differently long ago, and some artifacts, items, and gates have effects that no wizard now can reproduce. Such old magic is somewhat fragile." This has 3 good effects: -- It gives a sense of wonder, and counters somewhat 'industrial magic'. -- It gets the GM's mind percolating. -- It gives the GM an excuse to play with items which he or she would like to be different, from what is written in the books. (The final sentence is an excuse to weaken or break the item if it causes problems.) ;-D Warm regards, Rick. |
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