[MH] [RPM] Do Charms Have to Break?

[Engurrand]

Quick question about the definition of a charm.
Charms are described as typically small breakable objects (jewelry is common) with a conditional ritual woven into the object with special preparation such that when the object breaks the spell activates, or in reverse, such that the spell activates when cast and the object breaks when the spell is disrupted or defeated.

So, could you make a charm with a conditional ritual such that the ritual activates when the object is manipulated in some way other than breaking?
For example,

1. a keyboard charmed such that it activates a spell when the word abracadabra is typed
2. a string encharmed to activate a spell when the string is swung through a particular pattern (possibly requiring a roll against Dance)
3. or a wand encharmed such as to activate its spell when waved in just such a way (possibly requiring an attack roll or a roll against Musical Performance Conducting or whatnot).

As I understand it, these are clear-cut examples of using conditional rituals, but do they qualify for a bonus from special preperation with a high quality charms kit and therefor count against your limit of concurrent charms? Could you carry fifteen such pieces of string with identical rituals on them (or fifteen typewriters)?

Thanks. My witch doesn't love the idea of getting punched in the charm puch and having every spell go off at once. :)

[johndallman]

I think charms don't have to be broken, but breakage is a commonly-used triggering condition. It is clear and easy to define, doesn't require skill, and makes it clear who has activated the charm. The section on "Ammunition Charms" on p. 27 of Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic is significant in my reasoning, since that offers charms that don't have to be broken.

The triggering conditions for your examples are all complex enough that your GM could reasonably require that you include a Sense effect to ensure the trigger works. See "The Trigger" on pp. 25-6 of T:RPM.

[Apollonian]

I personally like the idea of charms being destroyed in some way, as it emphasizes their one-use nature. Alternatives to being broken that I like are paper strips with the "spell" written on it that are burnt to activate the charm. Or knots tied in string or cord; to activate the charm, the knot is undone, releasing the spell.

[AlexanderHowl]

A possible simple alternative to breaking would be untying, such as with a knotted cord. During the performance of a conditional ritual, the practitioner ties a specific knot. In order to activate or release the ritual, the user unravels the knot. I would require Knot-Tying at a +4 modifier to properly tie or untie the knot, as the knot must be complex enough to avoid accidental release but simple enough for a quick release.

[Engurrand]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

A possible simple alternative to breaking would be untying....

This was my first thought as well. I built a witch who wore a fringed jacket and tied her knots into the long leather fringe. This concept was playable and fun, though picking the correct knot to untie necessitated the unusual Fast-Draw (Knots) skill.

You could come up with other things that come apart and therefor satisfy the "breaks" constraint:

Velcro
Snaps
Buttons
Promises? That's an odd one. Maybe a promise ring (lesser sense mind) that snaps when a specific promise is made (edit: broken not made), then the same ring is also a charm that activates when the string breaks. Can you do both kinds of charm on the same object? It breaks when the spell is broken and it breaking activates a new spell?

But what if I want to bring some of the flavor of dance aspected magery to my charm list? I suppose that a completely sane answer would be that you can add as many conditional rituals as you want to your poi or dance flags or bangles, as long as no two spells overlap effects on the same object, you just can't claim the +2 for your expensive charm kit and you'll need a skill roll to activate the effect. It's really the charm kit part I'm not sure about.

[GarenLiLorian]

There are a couple of constraints:

- A normal person watching would automatically (which I read to mean: without a skill roll) know that the trigger has occurred.
-The trigger can be fooled or set off accidentally.
-The charm is 'used up' when set off: broken or torn, or expended in the case of an ammunition charm (you can't recover the bullet or arrow and use it as a charm again, I guess)

I think the second clause is the important one here. I'd rule that you could use charms that don't break (so long as they are clearly 'used up': activating a glow stick, untying a knot, breaking a circle, etc.), but they'd need to be about as likely as a standard charm to be set off maliciously or accidentally.

[Ejidoth]

I think there's some value in the magical-thinking logic of an expended charm being clearly 'used up' somehow. Like, you're not just tying the spell trigger to a momentary action, but to an actual change of state. You're connecting the ephemeral 'magic' stuff to something physically real.

The examples in the first post all fail to do that: nothing has changed about the keyboard, the string, or the wand, to symbolically show that you're using up their stored magic.

This isn't about the actual rules, though, just my sense of what feels right for the pseudo-modern magic in Monster Hunters.

EDIT: GarenLiLorian wrote a similar post while I was still fumbling with this one. I definitely agree with all three of the constraints listed there.

[Engurrand]

Originally Posted by GarenLiLorian

- A normal person watching would automatically (which I read to mean: without a skill roll) know that the trigger has occurred.

This is my read on conditional ritual default casting, as well. With conditional rituals you can add an additional sense effect to the spell so it can see reality in more detail and trigger on a more complex or subtle event. Are you saying that this option is, in your opinion, not available for charms?

Originally Posted by GarenLiLorian

-The trigger can be fooled or set off accidentally.

This is a little hard to regulate, but it seems reasonable that any caster with conditional rituals hanging about in their space or on their body, charms or not, would be subject to accidental casting on critical failure of appropriate skills, in addition to the other effects of critical failure.

Originally Posted by GarenLiLorian

-The charm is 'used up' when set off: broken or torn, or expended in the case of an ammunition charm (you can't recover the bullet or arrow and use it as a charm again, I guess)

The rules do not state that the arrow cannot be recovered and recharmed. In fact, the section on ammunition charms is what got me curious to ask here. The opening paragraph of the section on Charms in the RPM book describes them as "fragile objects" repeatedly, with the implicit assumption that the condition of the charm conditional ritual is "when the object breaks," but the ammunition charm has a different condition: "when shot into a target." So, presumably the arrow doesn't need to be fragile. Which means that charms don't need to be fragile? Or are these, for some reason, the only allowable conditions? Confused face.

Originally Posted by GarenLiLorian

I think the second clause is the important one here. I'd rule that you could use charms that don't break ... but they'd need to be about as likely as a standard charm to be set off maliciously or accidentally.

It is far easier to break a small bottle in someone's pocket than it is to steal an arrow from their quiver and then launch it at them. While both can be exploited, they are not equally easy to exploit.

I agree that any conditional ritual has (almost by definition) the possibility of being activated accidentally, and a charm compounds this by being transferrable. But the idea of arbitrating whether a player can make a kind of charm based on the meta consideration of how difficult it would be to exploit doesn't sit well with me. Using the rules and constraints you're given to make things harder on your enemies is playing the game, not cheating. If you want all charms to be equal, then you've got to rule that all charms are the same. That's a fair ruling, especially in a game with limited RPM and thus pressure to take up less screen time with differentiations and tactics within RPM.

[AlexanderHowl]

A charm is a subset of conditional ritual though, as you can easily have a conditional ritual that is not a charm that activates when a condition is met (for example, saying a certain phase in Liturgical Latin). The advantage of the charm is that it can be transfered (anyone who breaks it gains the benefits) versus a standard conditional spell, which cannot be transferred. A magician should probably only use charms to help others, as normal conditional rituals offer superior flexibility.

For example, Black Kat is a powerful magician who is fluent in the Basque Language who possessss Photographic Memory, Magery 8, and Thaumatology-20, giving her 28 conditional rituals. She uses her magic to hang 28 conditional rituals on her person and gives each of them a different Basque phrase as a trigger (which she will not forget because of her Photographic Memory). When the party attacks her lair in New Orleans, she is able to escape them by triggering a conditional ritual that moves her to her apartment in New York by saying 'eat my dust!' in Basque as a free action. If she had it as a charm though, it would have likely taken her two turns (one to ready the charm and one to break it), which could have resulted in her death or capture.

[Engurrand]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

... A magician should probably only use charms to help others, as normal conditional rituals offer superior flexibility.
....

That's what I thought too and I was very happy with it, but I was wrong. Another important advantage of charms is without them you can't have more than one of the same spell ready. Ref Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic Page 27, Features of Charms, the first bullet point.
A caster cannot have multiple of the same spell hung as conditional rituals on their behaviors, because they are the subject of all the spells and you can't be the subject of two spells with the same effects. So while Black Kat would do very well to have her escape spell hung as a conditional ritual for the reasons you say, she could not hang any other greater create crossroads spells on her person. You can creatively engineer your spell list to avoid this problem, but if you're a blaster, you need your charms for all those missile spells.