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Old 04-28-2021, 04:51 AM   #21
johndallman
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Mana Damper and Mana Enhancer

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Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
Should Twisted and Wild Mana Generator be part of this conversation or will those come later?
Twisted Mana Generator was done under Disadvantage of the Week; Wild Mana Generator is in the OP for this thread.
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Old 04-28-2021, 03:34 PM   #22
ericthered
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Mana Damper and Mana Enhancer

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Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
I really like the idea of Damper and Enhancer, but I dislike the execution. Part of that is Mana Levels in general are also just weirdly done (The jump between Low and Normal is big, Normal and High is fairly invisible, High and Very High absurd, None to Low probably even bigger). Another is the level limits, why is Enhancer only 2 levels? What if a character concept makes sense to always have Very High even in No Mana (or, which has come up in my games, in anything other than none)? Why can't Mana Damper drop VHM to None? I kind of like how Control Mana can do things (making magic easier or harder by a modifier up to level) but that isn't the same thing and comes with different problems.

This is really good. The levels don't feel linear. They feel like a collection of states arranged in an order.



I once played around with a version of High mana that gave back half of the FP spent, rather like a toned-down version of Very High Mana. I've never used it though.
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Old 04-28-2021, 09:44 PM   #23
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Mana Damper and Mana Enhancer

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Twisted Mana Generator was done under Disadvantage of the Week; Wild Mana Generator is in the OP for this thread.
Whoops, my bad. I also forgot Twisted Mana was a disadvantage, it seems crazy if Area Effect gives points back.

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
This is really good. The levels don't feel linear. They feel like a collection of states arranged in an order.



I once played around with a version of High mana that gave back half of the FP spent, rather like a toned-down version of Very High Mana. I've never used it though.
Yeah, I'd love to make them into actual 'levels'. One setting had it range from -10 to +10. -10 was None, -5 Low, 0 Normal, +5 High, +10 Very High. -10 made magic impossible but you can buy either a perk per spell to cast them at -10 or a 10pt UB to cast any spell at -10. Every number above Normal decreased spell cost by the bonus (or level * 10% if better for expensive spells) but also moved rolls on the critical failure table away toward the extremes. +10 worked like VHM and a critical failure was basically always the worst idea the GM could come up with (you'd wish it was merely a demon!). Mana zones then were assigned a number with the average being -2 (instead of saying Low Mana comes up a lot) and key places usually being positive (such as where large cities would be built). In that system, Mana Enhancer and Damper were 1/10 cost and moved things by a single +/-1.

I do like the idea of High Mana being effectively half of VHM a lot. I think I'd like Low Mana to be 'half' of a spell instead of a penalty, too.
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Old 04-29-2021, 02:26 PM   #24
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Mana Damper and Mana Enhancer

interesting Q:

if perceiving a sort of "terrain as character" where No Mana is actually the baseline reality and a region with Low Mana is actually air molecules all enjoying Mana-Enhancer 1 (Cosmic +50%) [75]

if i have Affliction (Area Effect +50% Negate Advantage: Modified Mana Enhancer +750%) [90] should that be able to lower a 'natural' Low Mana zone to No Mana? for a minute?

without something like that I'm left guessing "where does mana come from" and this is the only way I can think to reshape it without spells, which we can't rely on since they're a catch-22 requiring mana to use in the first place
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