Possible Major Abstraction Rule Change

[Kublai]

Last night, during our campaign, our sorcerer nearly once again destroyed the world with an abstraction. This was the same player (but not the same character) that caused the permanent 100s of leagues huge storm of magic and lightning that rendered a large portion of our map useless!

He created an abstraction to summon all the caribou within 100s of leagues to come to him. His final obstacle was 11 and he had 16 dice to cast it with. Well, he got 11 successes, so only 1 track on the Wheel of Magic needed to be spun. Unfortunately, he then rolled two 6s in a row, which meant two more circles were going to be spun! :shock:

It was sick and we were all very worried. The outcome wasn't so bad, but now it means my character has to fight a giant in single combat. Great. Thanks, sorcerer. :evil:

Anyway, the point of this post was that things need to change. Technically, he succeeded in casting his spell. So why was he punished so harshly? We thought about it for some time as we walked home and ate bagels.

This is what we came up with. Players shouldn't be punished for succeeding. Therefore, variance of the Wheel of Magic will only occur if the casting fails. The number of wheels that vary will be determined by how much the caster failed by. Which wheel and which direction will still be randomly determined by a flip of the die.

For instance, take our Caribou Call spell. If cast again with 11 successes, he would have had no variance! If cast with 10 successes, only 1 wheel spins; 9 successes and 2 wheels spin, 8 successes and 3 wheels spin; etc. until a maximum of 5.

Abstractions are difficult enough that success should not be punished with absolute failure. Try this new mechanic and give us some feedback.


Also, there is some consideration of allowing sigils to be used on-the-fly. With the above example, the result of the facets he used could have been used to do much more powerful things than merely call caribou. He could've controlled the minds of every living thing within the same radius! Therefore, he is worthy of a minoris sigil to reflect the curbed results of the facets.

[Kaare Berg]

I know the sorcerer in my game will thank you profusely for this.

Stay tuned for norwegian magical mishaps.

[Redoid]

He created an abstraction to summon all the caribou within 100s of leagues to come to him. His final obstacle was 11 and he had 16 dice to cast it with. Well, he got 11 successes, so only 1 track on the Wheel of Magic needed to be spun.

First, could you please tell us under what circumstances did the character considered calling all the caribous of the country to him? Inquiring minds want to know!

Second, I feel that having an "intensity" aspect of difficulty. But abstractions could be too simple with enough reduction in intensity, lessening the need to formalize them. And if you consider the difficulty for element the basis, abstractions will be uncastable in the first place. I find abstractions obstacles balanced. Maybe the intensity of magic could be reflected in the tax roll instead? "It's not more difficult to magically convince the guard to listen to your order "let me pass" and "cut your throat with your own sword". But as he'll resist alot more to the second, the spell is much more tiring to cast. It may be coherent. But you may end up with fainting wizards all over the place...

[Kublai]

This consideration I am giving to the Abstraction rules goes nicely along with the new way to figure out dice and Obstacles. Obstacle never goes down anymore, instead dice go up. So if we used this new dice dynamic, this sorcerer would've needed 16 successes on 18 dice. He would've needed 21 successes in order not to get any variance. That is just too sick for us. Now it's just 16 successes and you get it. That's still pretty sick. That also means an Ob 16 Tax test on 19 dice. Still a big eek, too! This should be plenty of encouragement to continue to distill those spells!

(Our sorcerer has a device that grants him +6 dice to casting and tax, btw!)

[Kublai]

And to answer why he was casting this exact spell, well...

In a previous war - in which my character was not involved - he had chased almost all the giant's caribou off a cliff, thereby starving them into submission. Well, year's later and we get invited to their clan hall. They tell us the sorcerer owes them reparations for the lost cattle and all the dead giants, or else they were going to make war again. The sorcerer had two choices, replace the lost caribou or a single combat with thier champion. So, he tried replacing the caribou with his sorcery. And now, I have to fight! :x

[jc_madden]

Happy giant fighting!

Now what I want to know is what was the result of the failed spellcasting?

[luke]

Happy giant fighting!

Now what I want to know is what was the result of the failed spellcasting?

all the metal on his body turned to electricity (white/tax).

heh.

heh heh.

heh heh heh.

he collapsed in a blast of arcing electrocution.

heh heh heh heh.

heh.
-L

[jc_madden]

Bwahahahahaha, that's awesome!

[Kublai]

And the lightning lasted for 3 days! :lol:

[eruditus]

I tend to think that Abstractions should be dangerous and very difficult. My theory is that the idea that if you succeed you shouldn't have any variance is left to regular spells, not abstrations.

This is something I like about BW. Although I like games like Ars Magica and MAGE, there is little to no reason to casts formulaic "spells." Spontanious casting is more flexible and not too terribly difficult.

Abstractions are different. They are the building blocks of magic and designed (in my opinion) more for creating spells (and roleplaying the process through which that happens) than for casting them on the fly.

I would not change Abstractions. What I would do (and have done) is develop a set of Magic Burner traits that effect how people cast spells. One series of traits I am using is a means to gain dice while casting certain elements and impeti while gains obs for others. Also, a spontanious spell caster (which should be rare in BW games) would have traits that shorten Abstration's castings and give "buys" toward variation. Running a magic heavy game right now I will also allow players to spend Artha to lessen variation.

I think that world spanning effects should be possible but not common and should drive stories, not ruin the game ("ooops, we destroyed yet another country").

So I say to your sorcerer "how do you stop from having to face variances?" Stop casting abstractions with obstacles of 11 unless you can cast them carefully and patiently! :evil: