Sentai Fhtagn Spell Poll

[Username17]

That sounds about right. I don't know that all of the specific abilities of those characters would make the cut, but purple powers are indeed supposed to be a bit on the transgressive side. Symbiotes are going to be a bit standardized and by default none of them go in your genitals, but they can and do have you hulk out a bit like that.

Being a purple flavored magic ninja with emotion and body control powers is pretty much what you get as a heroic tier Witch, so I guess Miko Mido could be played reasonably straight.

-Username17

[DrPraetor]

No Crotch Chakra?



(this was a meme in RetroMUD, for which I cannot be blamed.)

[Orion]

I'm sorry, what is this thread building on?

[RadiantPhoenix]

I'm sorry, what is this thread building on?

Making less-terrible Cthulhutech-esque RPG

[Username17]

So the Green spell list could look like this:

Green Sorcerer Techs

• Cloud Memory
  Decipher Script
  Dream Speaking
  Friendly Currents
  Phantasm

Green Summoner Techs

• Breath of the Deep
  Dream Step
  Find Weakness
  Mind Transfer
  Visions of Akasha

Green Witch Techs

• Akashic Syphon
  Alter Weather
  Dread Curse of Azathoth
  Living Nightmare
  Mind Blast
  Mists of Deception
  River's Curse
  Send Image
  Waking Dream
  Water Prison

Sorcerers can learn Sorcerer techs. Summoners can learn Sorcerer Techs or Summoner Techs. Witches can learn Sorcerer, Summoner, or Witch Techs.

And there still needs to be a thing on Arcanotech creation for enchanting and such. You need to be able to brew space mead, which is Yellow, but that shouldn't be a Tech.

-Username17

[Grek]

Yellow would be something like:

Yellow Sorcerer Techs
Fulvous Interference
Speech in Citrine
Mask of Amber
Golden Fortune
Voice of Saffron

Yellow Summoner Techs
Vacuum Transport
Guided Translocation
Phase Tunnel
Eruptive Conjuration
Alter Fate

Yellow Witch Techs
Parallel Viewing
Waveform Decay
Call Lightning
Probability Travel
Everett Blade
Quantum Twin
Uncertainty Field
Ruins of Carcosa
Unutterable Visage
Seek Doom

[RadiantPhoenix]

Can we get 3e-style summaries of those spells?

e.g.: Cloud Memory: change someone's memories of an event.

[Grek]

Fulvous Interference: Yellow Hacking technique to manipulate electronics at contagion range.
Speech in Citrine: Communicate instantly and securely through a telepathic quantum link.
Mask of Amber: Alter your appearance to match that of a alternate possible self.
Golden Fortune: Manipulate probability to grant yourself or others good luck.
Voice of Saffron: Communicate convincingly in any language via quantum predictions.
Vacuum Transport: Directed teleport that is unsafe for living beings without Eldritch Fields.
Guided Translocation: Safely swaps two creatures, one of which must have an Eldritch Field.
Phase Tunnel: Renders an area of space intangible, allowing passage through it.
Eruptive Conjuration: Summon a previously prepared target into something, telefragging it.
Alter Fate: A minor probability adjustment renders fatal wounds merely incapacitating.
Parallel Viewing: View, but not interact with, an alternate possible outcome for a recent choice.
Waveform Decay: Scramble matter by introducing entropy into a target quantum state.
Call Lightning: Shoot blasts of electrical power out of your hands to murder people horribly.
Probability Travel: Safe, instant teleportation to a random location near a quantum linked target.
Everett Blade: Attack something with all possible versions of a weapon, then pick the best result.
Quantum Twin: Split into two unstable quantum clones. The first clone to be observed vanishes forever.
Uncertainty Field: Create an area in which both position AND momentum are unknowable.
Ruins of Carcosa: Teleport in rubble, wreckage and crumbling walls from a ruined alien city.
Unutterable Visage: Become impossible for eye witnesses to accurately describe.
Seek Doom: Identify the nearest object which could potentially kill or destroy the subject.

[RadiantPhoenix]

Fulvous Interference:	Olive Hacking technique to manipulate electronics at contagion range.
Speech in Citrine:	Communicate instantly and securely through a telepathic quantum link.
Mask of Amber:	Alter your appearance to match that of a alternate possible self.
Golden Fortune:	Manipulate probability to grant yourself or others good luck.
Voice of Saffron:	Communicate convincingly in any language via quantum predictions.
Vacuum Transport:	Directed teleport that is unsafe for living beings without Eldritch Fields.
Guided Translocation:	Safely swaps two creatures, one of which must have an Eldritch Field.
Phase Tunnel:	Renders an area of space intangible, allowing passage through it.
Eruptive Conjuration:	Summon a previously prepared target into something, telefragging it.
Alter Fate:	A minor probability adjustment renders fatal wounds merely incapacitating.
Parallel Viewing:	View, but not interact with, an alternate possible outcome for a recent choice.
Waveform Decay:	Scramble matter by introducing entropy into a target quantum state.
Call Lightning:	Shoot blasts of electrical power out of your hands to murder people horribly.
Probability Travel:	Safe, instant teleportation to a random location near a quantum linked target.
Everett Blade:	Attack something with all possible versions of a weapon, then pick the best result.
Quantum Twin:	Split into two unstable quantum clones. The first clone to be observed vanishes forever.
Uncertainty Field:	Create an area in which both position AND momentum are unknowable.
Ruins of Carcosa:	Teleport in rubble, wreckage and crumbling walls from a ruined alien city.
Unutterable Visage:	Become impossible for eye witnesses to accurately describe.
Seek Doom:	Identify the nearest object which could potentially kill or destroy the subject.

(Formatting mine)

[Username17]

I was thinking this kind of formatting would suffice:

Green Sorcerer Spells

• Cloud Memory – Alter someone's memories of an event.
  Decipher Script – Divine the meaning of a text or computer archive.
  Dream Speaking – Send messages to or extract information from sleepers.
  Friendly Currents – Travel quickly in water or attract fish.
  Phantasm – Create realistic but intangible illusions.

Green Summoner Spells

• Breath of the Deep – Target supported in hostile environments.
  Dream Step – Travel to and from the Dreamlands.
  Find Weakness – Reduce a target's effective armor in a location.
  Mind Transfer – Shares senses with another creature.
  Visions of Akasha – View events from the past.

Green Witch Spells

• Akashic Syphon – Pull secrets from minds or artificial records.
  Alter Weather – Change the weather.
  Dread Curse of Azathoth – Reduce the target's existence.
  Living Nightmare – Target hallucinates a terrifying narrative.
  Mind Blast – A psychic scream that damages sentient targets.
  Mists of Deception – Creates a thick fog and fills it with distracting illusions.
  River's Curse – Fill or drain an area with water.
  Send Image – Creates a semi-solid duplicate to act as a decoy or messenger.
  Waking Dream – Shift everything and everyone in an area into or out of the Dreamlands.
  Water Prison – Create walls or cages made of water.

-Username17

[Mistborn]

So how does this magic system handle the Manton Effect, aka is there a genral rule about targeting the inside of peoples bodies?

If you can teleport objects are you be able to instantly murderize someone by teleporting a ballpoint pen into their brain-stem? (or a grenade into their anywhere if your less precise). River's Curse can drain or fill water into an area, can that area be the inside of someones body.

[Grek]

In general, no. There's no Manton Effect. Many spells will have targeting rules that make it impossible or impractical to target the insides of people, but that's due to the limits of those specific spells, not magic in general.

In particular, Yellow Sorcery has telefragging as the norm, not as a rare exception. Vacuum Transport will kill most humans or animals teleported that way. Probability Travel can put you inside walls if you don't have an Eldritch Field to vaporize the wall on arrival. Guided Translocation is safe but very limited, while Eruptive Conjuration specifically lets you have your pet Nightgaunt erupt out of someone else's chest, xenomorph style.

[DrPraetor]

That's good, but I think you need concept splats before you buff out the spell lists beyond a few examples to establish what the different colors mean.

So Esau is an uplifted teenage Witch, and he's Blue. How many splats does he choose from and what are they?

I'm thinking:
- Teenage Witch is a splat, Blue is a splat. It implies that you are a High School student and also a Blue Witch. So when he senshi-transforms, he's got glowing blue runes all over him.
- Uplifted could be a witch sub-splat. It means that he's been subjected to horrific experiments, in an effort to create a magically-competent transhuman. In addition to providing an angsty melodramatic hook, this means he's got an (agent-level?) arcanotech device in at least his crown chakra. Alternatively, if he gets a pile of resource points then he can buy whatever arcanotech support his concept?
- Does he need to pick another splat in order to participate as a pilot in the Kaiju subgame, or does that happen at some point in the plot when the Union actually deploys these robots, or...?

Glenn is probably just an Agent, although he might be a supersoldier.
- Glenn is directly modeled on my SR character of the same name. Starting (let alone moderately experienced) shadowrun characters can be extremely competent, and he was.
- Does he even pick splats beyond "Agent" or does he just have a pile of points from which he would need to buy his various skills, hacking tools (if he wants to do green or yellow hacking does this mean he would need to be a sorcerer? Or does it just mean he would need to set aside some Chakra for agent-level hacking support arcanotech? Are non-sorcerer hackers useful at all?) and agent-level aracnotech implants?

[Grek]

Your character isn't a magical girl. You play as an agency which has magical girls as one possible employee. You have a certain amount of budget for hiring agent level personnel, a separate budget for hero level personnel and possibly a high school budget and a kaiju budget if your game is using those parts of the game.

If you want to recruit Esau the Blue Witch, that comes out of your hero budget. So would and witch/summoner spell research scrolls you use your funding to obtain for him. Any high school level stuff you provide for them comes out of the Education budget. Any Agent level skill training comes out of the Agent budget. So do sorcerer spell research scrolls. So do any mundane investigators and support personnel.

[Username17]

Well the basic thing that ultimately needs to be nailed down is a list of challenges rather than a list of spells or splats. Esau is a hammer that is optimized for Yaoguai shaped nails. Having an Eldritch Field and the ability to call the Azure Flame means that a fight against a Fire Vampire or a Dimensional Shambler is a fight that he is expected to win. So a Department that expects to face Dimensional Shamblers or Fire Vampires is a Department that is going to want Esau or someone with a comparable skill set on their team.

Now a Blue Witch brings things to the table that a Hard Trooper does not. The Hard Trooper can, when in full armor, fight it out with a Leng Spider or a Formless Spawn and expect to win with with plasma cannon and his doom siren. But Esau also knows a couple of spells off the Blue list in addition to Call the Azure Flame. So he comes with additional utility that a Hard Trooper does not have. And that means that he can help the Department in some other challenges that a pure combat asset wouldn't help in.

As an example of this sort of thing, let's take a look at the Purple spell list, because I have a first draft of that done.

Purple Sorcerer Spells

• Absorb Heat – Chill an object or area, become resistant to heat and cold.
  Body Weaponry – Transform portions of your body into deadly weapons.
  Form of the Beast – Transform into an animal.
  Inspire Lust – Creates a simple animalistic attraction in the target.
  Mend Flesh – Heal physical injuries in biological creatures.

Purple Summoner Spells

• Arouse the Beast Within – Target becomes stronger, more violent.
  Lure Monster – Entice Yaoguai to a location.
  Pall of Darkness – Suck the light out of an area.
  Plague of Vermin – Draws tiny creatures into an area and gives limited control over them.
  Wither – Weaken the targets.

Purple Witch Spells

• Blood of the Hydra – Heal quickly or create poisons.
  Control Emotions – Manipulate the emotions of the subjects.
  Domination – Issue commands to the target which must be obeyed.
  Find Misery – Locate unhappy creatures and gain insight into their motivations.
  Form of the Horror – Transform into a frightening monster.
  Plant Growth – Direct the rapid expansion of vegetation.
  Shroud of Shadow – Targets become invisible in shadowy areas.
  Tendrils of Shadow – Grasping tentacles of solid darkness grab things.
  Warp Flesh – Permanently alter or repair living tissue.
  Wrack – Cause incapacitating agony to the targets.

So a Purple Witch has some some straight combat powers and can either hulk out or zap down a Hunting Horror or Gnoph-Keh. But by knowing some other spells, she can probably pull her weight in an investigation either by sneaking around under Shadow Shroud or using social spells to get information directly out of people. Also, she might know a spell that makes her a good field medic.

-Username17

[DrPraetor]

A "budget" system is certainly workable, but I worry that it will default to a single-player RPG in which the agency recruit N (where N is the number of players) highly-multiply-competent alter-egos?

Not saying I know for sure this is what will happen, but it is a worry.

Ars Magica doesn't have this issue since all the starting Magi are the same age, and Companions have real drawbacks for being older. A similar system in which you make a stable of starting characters might work better - or at least more easily.

[Grek]

That's as simple as just declaring that the BP cap for new recruits is X and that you get Y BP to recruit with, where X<Y. Optionally, make X somewhat higher (but still <Y) during Agency creation.

[RadiantPhoenix]

If Shub-Niggurath is invading via teleportation, as suggested way back when, Purple Arcanotech needs some form of teleportation.

[Grek]

Not really. Summon Yoguai is obviously going on the Summoner Universal list, so any Summoner or Witch can learn to call up uncontrolled monsters. Shub-Niggurath cultists can just do that, and the diabolical cultist plots write themselves. Abduct a child with the potential to become a Witch for induction into the cult. Perform a grisly sacrifice in order to have the arcane potential of the cult leader unlocked. Steal a magical text on conjuration being shipped in for study.