Stargate spell draft

[Whitewings]

Stargate (VH)
Regular

Duration: 10 minutes
Cost: 8, plus distance modifier. See below. Half to maintain. A gate can be made permanent for 10 times the normal cost.
Time to cast: 5 minutes
Prerequisites: Magery 3, Plane Shift and Teleport

This is an extremely long-range teleport spell; it opens a 1m x 2m portal with a range best expressed in tens of millions of kilometres. Larger gates are possible, but the cost is directly proportional to the gate’s area.

The caster must have at least some familiarity with the target location. Penalties: -2 for a place you have “seen” only through the mind or memories of another, or via television, photography or other recording; -2 for a place you have not seen within a month (except, perhaps, your own home!); and -1 to -3 for a place seen only briefly. Effects of mana level are determined by the less advantageous of origin and destination.

This spell can also be hazardous: If the casters fail the roll by 1, anyone passing through the gate takes 1d damage and arrives at the destination physically stunned (HT roll to recover). Even a successful transit can be disorienting; each user must roll vs. Body Sense skill (p. B181) in order to act on the same turn as arrival.

A failed roll means disorientation – no actions except defense are possible on that turn. A critical failure means the traveller falls down, physically stunned. A teleporter arrives in the same position he started in. The traveller may try facing a different direction, but this makes disorientation on arrival more likely: -2 to change facing, -5 to go from vertical to horizontal or vice versa! Anything carried on a person, up to “heavy” encumbrance, goes with the traveller.

This spell may also be used to enchant a permanent gate, in which case several additional considerations become important. The caster(s) must specify if it will be always open, always closed, or open and closed when certain conditions are fulfilled (opens only on the hour of the full moon, opens only when someone utters a password, etc).

Several gates may share a single location. Only one of them may be open at any time, so it is common to have them cycle in time, giving the net effect of a single gate leading to a choice of destinations. They must be created separately, but otherwise behave as a single gate. Permanent gates can be “anchored” to a physical gateway; they then resist displacement or destruction
at a bonus given by the gateway’s DR.

This is also a Movement spell.

Distance Cost Increase Skill Penalty
Within 10 million km 3 0 (Earth to Luna)
Within 100 million km 4 -1
Within 1 billion km 5 -2 (Earth to Jupiter)
Within 10 billion km 6 -3 (Earth to Uranus)
Within 100 billion km 7 -4 (Kuiper Belt)
Within 1 trillion km 8 -5
Within 10 trillion km 9 -6 (Oort Cloud)
Within 100 trillion km 10 -7
Within 1 light-year 11 -8
Within 10 light-years 12 -9 (Alpha Centauri)
x 10 distance +1 -1

For obvious reasons, this spell is almost always cast ceremonially, preferably with a very great number of supporters.

[Pursuivant]

I've seen similar spells in the past. In a world-hopping or interstellar science-fantasy campaign a Stargate spell or equivalent makes perfect sense. It fills the role that Gate or Teleport Other spells fill in campaigns which are primarily set in a large region of a single world.

Your variant looks to be fairly well balanced. It's a variant on Create Gate which is slow, expensive and risky to cast, and requires some serious prerequisites. If you wanted to make it even more of a hassle to cast, bump the casting time up to 1 hour, or increase casting time based on the distance to the other end of the gate.

[Whitewings]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

I've seen similar spells in the past. In a world-hopping or interstellar science-fantasy campaign a Stargate spell or equivalent makes perfect sense. It fills the role that Gate or Teleport Other spells fill in campaigns which are primarily set in a large region of a single world.

Your variant looks to be fairly well balanced. It's a variant on Create Gate which is slow, expensive and risky to cast, and requires some serious prerequisites. If you wanted to make it even more of a hassle to cast, bump the casting time up to 1 hour, or increase casting time based on the distance to the other end of the gate.

Thank you.

[Pursuivant]

Also, if you're ripping off the movie/TV franchise, you can seriously mess up PC mages by requiring them to have at least Accented level with written Ancient Egyptian and Electronics Operation/TL12+ (Matter Transmitter) skill, plus some combination of Military Rank, Security Clearance, and Unusual Background advantages.

IMO, piling on spell prerequisites doesn't slow down your typical Magery 3+, IQ 14+ mage PC that much because more spells equals more spellcasting power, and you just need to spend 1-2 CP to boost your skill with a new spell up to decent levels.

OTOH, forcing the character to buy 15+ points in languages, skills, and advantages that he's otherwise not likely to use for spellcasting weeds out all but the most committed mage characters.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

OTOH, forcing the character to buy 15+ points in languages, skills, and advantages that he's otherwise not likely to use for spellcasting weeds out all but the most committed mage characters.

I wouldn't do this unless i thought it aided character development. It's actually not very productive when you saddle a PC with an expensive Skill or Advantage that does nothing but make the GM's adventure possible in the first place.

What happens if no PC takes this? An NPC does and the adventure goes on anyway. A player would take this spell if he thought it would be cool to be able to do this but if you penalize him for trying to do soemthing cool you'll jsut be trotting out one of your NPCs to cast the spell otherwise not horn in on the main adventure.

[Anaraxes]

Is the intent to support a planet-based gate, where PCs walk to other planets (like "Stargate SG-1"), or a Spelljammer sort of "magical spaceships" game? The 1x2m area is the size of one person (and a bit small at that), which might suit the former, but is going to require enlarging for just about any craft that might pass through.

[Anthony]

There's no real need for a special spell, a 1,000 lightyear teleport is only -20 skill and 23 fatigue, and gates are just a multiple of teleport (unclear if the Beacon spell helps with gates, if it does that makes things easier).

[Fred Brackin]

[QUOTE=Anthonyt (unclear if the Beacon spell helps with gates, if it does that makes things easier).[/QUOTE]
;2277232]

It seemed clear enough to me that Beacon helps with Gate. In Powers terms Gate is just the "Tunnel" Enhnacemnt for Warp or Jumper.

[namada]

Beacon also helps with Teleport, halving costs to cast & skill penalties, however, that's only if the caster is there, at the location where another caster is teleporting to - by casting this, you're sending a Beacon to aid anyone that tries to go to your location. Not really a Stargate.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It seemed clear enough to me that Beacon helps with Gate. In Powers terms Gate is just the "Tunnel" Enhnacemnt for Warp or Jumper.

Magic not built on Powers, and Beacon does not specifically mention Gate. I suspect it is supposed to help, but it's not a slam dunk.