AGM Motion: Errata in the Rules
marios richards
The other motion I will put forwards will be a (-nother) generaly
hodge-podge of, well, errata. Errors in the rules, explicit and
implicit. People are welcome to reply with things I haven't thought
of/forgot about.
Off the top of my head:
(i) One error I introduced to Halt when I stipulated that you couldn't
slap/poke/tickle people out of a Halt - people removing weapons from
Halted people. Ingenious, but, I think, it goes against the basic design
of the miracle. Solution : You can remove a sword - or any item - from
someone's hand when they are in any kind of paralytic state, but you
have to deal _at least_ a 'Half' of damage to the hand gripping the item
(phys-repping breaking/cutting fingers).
(ii) Level 1 Alchemy seems to suggest that you get full venom use by
taking one level of each Make skill. This is definitely not the
intention of the rule - the 'use all venoms but Assassin's skill' is in
the Scout class at level 3 - the Alchemist version can be summed as 'you
can use anything you can make'. So, level 1 Make Blade Venom allows an
Alchemist to safely handle level 1 Blade Venoms, but not level 2 or higher.
Marios
Marios
Spell Grammar
Basically - whenever you cast a spell, including the necessary
information at the end of the spell.
This is devilishly difficult to do if you wanted to cover all
spells, but I'm primarily thinking of simple stuff like <Damage Type>
<Damage Amount> or <Effect Duration> <Effect Type>.
E.g. Fireball = "IC Vocal" + Through Magic 3
Flash = "IC Vocal" + 3 Second Blindness
V.O.P. Sleep = "IC Vocal" + 5 Minutes Unwakeable-Sleep
Why? Because the system is complicated and most people don't
take the time to memorise all the offensive effects in the system.
Side effects? Mages/priests/alchemists having to cast a little
bit slower.
Marios
Zoë Robinson
news:4026c19f....@news.freeserve.net...
<Cut>
> Side effects? Mages/priests/alchemists having to cast a little
> bit slower.
I'd love to see this get passed but this final point is going to be where it
falls down. Remember the flash/blackflash argument of how it allowed a mage
to run away when a fighter was charging them? If they have to cast slower,
they won't be able to get the vocal off and, therefore, it will be argued
that all spells become unworkable (although they don't).
Zoė
--
"You can't stop being dead just because you're a different
colour!" - Saruman to Gandalf, 'Dead Ringers'
Marcus Rich
> falls down. Remember the flash/blackflash argument of how it allowed a mage
> to run away when a fighter was charging them? If they have to cast slower,
> they won't be able to get the vocal off and, therefore, it will be argued
> that all spells become unworkable (although they don't).
How about applying it to effects over 1st level? Everyone knows what
flash/blackflash do, and same for halt.
Marcus
---
"I'm not lost, I just haven't pinpointed exactly where we are at the
moment" - Belgarath The Sorceror
Marcus Rich
Marios
>How about applying it to effects over 1st level? Everyone knows what
>flash/blackflash do, and same for halt.
Actually, no they don't. Have a look at Paul's post.
Anyway, what's the preoccupation with knocking out lots of lvl
1 spells immensely rapidly?
Marios
Marcus Rich
> Anyway, what's the preoccupation with knocking out lots of lvl
> 1 spells immensely rapidly?
> Marios
Umm, the idea behind them? Flash is a "help i'm being chased" spell... If
you have to scream out "Flash! 3 Second Blindness!" you'll be dead before
you finish it...
Zoë Robinson
<Cut>
> Actually, no they don't. Have a look at Paul's post.
What post? Are people only posting to the internal newsgroup again?
Marios
>> Actually, no they don't. Have a look at Paul's post.
>
>What post? Are people only posting to the internal newsgroup again?
Paul Townend - he just said that he had no idea what Flash did
other than it made you blind. He thought it was about 10 seconds.
Marios
Marios
>> Actually, no they don't. Have a look at Paul's post.
>> Anyway, what's the preoccupation with knocking out lots of lvl
>> 1 spells immensely rapidly?
>> Marios
>
>Umm, the idea behind them? Flash is a "help i'm being chased" spell... If
>you have to scream out "Flash! 3 Second Blindness!" you'll be dead before
>you finish it...
The second part is an OOC vocal to tell people what the effect
does - it doesn't signify the point where the spell takes effect
(unless you actually don't know what it does).
Basically, you say "Flash! Blindness 3", the monster hears
Flash - if, as you said, most people know exactly what it does, then
most people will clutch their eyes and scream, only the people who
don't know what it does will wait until the Blindness 3 to start being
blind.
Anyway, you can move and cast - and continue to move. There's
no need to stand stock still explaining what an effect does.
The only time I can see this being relevant is being rushed by
three monsters at once - Flash isn't supposed to make mages immune to
this sort of concerted attack.
Anyway, mages aren't _that_ feeble. They can wield weapons -
some very, very effective staffs/spears, even daggers are ok for
parrying.
They no longer lose the ability to cast spells if a metal
weapon/metal armour is touching them, so nasty melee spells like touch
shatter and shock suddenly become a lot more effective.
Being attacked in melee is no longer 'instagib' for mages - as
long as their attacker isn't machinegunning (in which case it's death
for almost everyone who takes their hits) and as long as they don't
get flustered and forget all their spells (thinking clearly under
pressure is pretty much the only OOC skill mages have to play with).
Marios
d j d harris
Marios you should know better. now you've stumped a perfectly good
idea by also in the same breath mentioning the perfectly bad idea of flash.
repeat said example without mentioning flash and everyone would see that
its a really good idea for people to say in casting what they doing
because its really hard to remember all the spell effects and saves
confusion.
shame on you and your lack of flash-trouble sixth sense
marios richards
> shame on you and your lack of flash-trouble sixth sense
Uh, yes, you're right. Amend all my rules change suggestions with a
specific coda which exempts Flash and Blackflash.
Marios
ora...@hotmail.com
vocal: "shatter this <item>" (not just shatter)
very difficult to co-ordinate the contact with the casting unless you
grab the weapon (or decide that casting at the same time as touching
isn't important)
Mark Potter
> Paul Townend - he just said that he had no idea what Flash did
> other than it made you blind. He thought it was about 10 seconds.
> Marios
Someone should educate him: he's missed out on an eternity of angst and worry.
Mark.