No apologies necessary, ever, for wanting to discuss and develop the magic system.
That is a huge relief, because I so value the enthusiasm you bring to the table. I like what you've been doing. When considering developing settings to be published in some form or another (well, it's in the back of my head... I might open
that discussion with you guys down the road), the mechanics are always the part I feel less confident about... so having someone who grooves on that side? Fuck yeah!
You've answered a lot of my questions, and I am lot more comfortable so far. We're getting there.
The only Mana Stress track Cara gets are ones that she takes from the Lesser Boon. She isn't a font of magic, she has to take it from others, and it doesn't renew itself like other people's do. Maybe we should call it Boon Mana?
That is huge! Okay then.
quote:
who decides which Aspect she's going to get?
You are totally welcome to if you want. I'd be more than happy to have to adapt to unplanned Aspects, that kind of goes with her theme of being filled with foreign magic.
That sounds like a discussion for each specific time.
In my head, the Lesser Boon only works on Evokers, and the Aspect isn't stealing one of their Aspects.
Ah, so it's not theft... it's... a mimicing? Cara taking on an Aspect representing the "borrowed" magic doesn't prevent the benefactor from using their powers. It's impact on the benefactor is the exhausted condition.
In theory if you never spent [the borrowed mana/power], you could build up obscene reserves of power.
This is the seed of my issue. Not that she can amass an obscene amount of power--because that's her fundamental concept. Rather, it's that she can amass an obscene amount of power
too quickly. I feel the need to push back on a character who can go out one night and feed on every evoker in the city and become a godlike paragon overflowing with mana
in one night<I>. I don't see what prevent that here.
I expect all of our characters go through Significant and Major Milestones to up their skills and refresh (although, we're probably going to be a lot more fluid on Aspects than in a tabletop game). But the key is that you <i>do get more refresh down the road. And that's got to be the key to Cara's
potential to become a frightening Goddess of mana-consumption...
I'm just not sure how to get there from here, yet.
Hm. We did discuss the Refresh element, earlier... Hold on, let me go look. No, that was regarding the Final Boon, which may be a discussion for a later time I haven't nitpicked through that yet. I'm still focused on the Lesser Boon.
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So, she absorb's nathan's power... Is this another mana-pool? So, she now has two Mana-pools? The Countess at +3 and Nathans at +4. Is that correct?
Correct, that was my hope.
Ah, So,with the removal of "disciplines" we need to find some way to differentiate the types of magic ties to each borrowed aspect. Okay, I see...
I've a few suggestions.
Let's stop calling them "borrowed aspects" and call them conditions instead. Invoking an Aspect costs a fate point, and evokers don't typically pay that to cast magic, unless they want to enhance the effect. These magical
conditions are the gateways to her manifested power.
For a regular evoker, mana is an optional element to increase the power of a magical effect. How would you feel if the Oathsworn needed to peg off a shift of mana to use the power
at all not just to add a boost to the power?
It would mean that if she has "Mike's Power" at +2, she's got two uses on that condition, before she loses it. So, she can do three normal spells, or one normal spell with one-shift spent to boost it, but it burns out if she spends both shifts...
I'm not married to the idea, mind you. But if this was in place, I think that would be an immense cost and we could drop the idea of the long-term depletion entirely. It would also mean that she probably needs to feed more often than I was initially expecting.
Maybe one Boon Mana Stress is inflicted a a session?
I think that's fair, however this would be utterly voided if you buy into the suggestion above. I don't want to over-penalize her.
I had also forgotten that
Burned Out burns out one of the borrowed aspects. I'm still good with that. Technically, if you buy into the one-mana-slot per magical-effect suggestion, it would mean you can apply
Burned Out, then use one shift of Mike's Power to make a magical effect, and the other shift of Mike's power to enhance the effect, effectively giving you a +4 to that one effect... so you
would get to double-up on the bonus for losing that Condition... That doesn't seem unreasonable to me. 'Cause, really, how often are you going to do that?
Of course, this is Aroen, and Cara does not lose the power to do rituals... We
are just talking evocation here.