Limitations and Alternatives ("or")

[GURPZine]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Power-Ups 8: Limitations, p. 6.

Thank you very much! (you all)

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

The situation doesn't have to be due to an intentional effort to prevent casting.

How often does accidental muteness happen? Most of the time, it will be intentional.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

How often does accidental muteness happen? Most of the time, it will be intentional.

Is there a name for the fallacy of treating examples as an exhaustive list?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

If magicians can either speak spells or gesture them, why would anyone be afflicting them with muteness? What would that accomplish? If your kind of magic is so rare that people don't know how to disable it, that's an Unusual Origin.

A general-purpose Mute affliction might be used to stop people from raising the alarm with a shout, revealing critical information, driving you crazy singing "I'm Henry the 8th, I am" or similar, distracting you at a critical moment, etc. If mages are reliant on being able to speak, that's another use for such a power - but if they can instead use gestures, then the mute power is only useful if you've somehow prevented them from making said gestures.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

How often does accidental muteness happen? Most of the time, it will be intentional.

In games I've run? Far more frequently than intentionally caused Muteness...

Reasons some casters in recent Dungeon Fantasy games went Mute:

Holding their breath to avoid: Clouds of Insects, Drowning, Fire Cloud (I rule it as the Smoke spell if you breath in it's area), Fouled Air, Magebane Vapors, Smoke, Stench.

Being rendered Mute not because they were casters but for other reasons: Choking, Silence spells (often times their own!), Retching.