Big always on

[Alan]

Hi all,

Last year, when I played Charnel Gods, I had to come up with several beasts (Imanent Demons) for the game.  When I read Ron's comment about Sorcerer powers being like Champions powers, this immediately clicked as I'd played Hero for 15 years.  That game disconects the mechanical effects from the "in-game" reality of the effect.  So the same power might be used for the ability to spin webs or congeal ice.  The actual in-game explaination of the power is called a Special Effect.

In Charnel Gods (Sorcerer) I wanted a beast who was always a huge monster.  The Sorcerer rules gave me pause for a moment - how do you make Big always on? - until I gave up the literal interpretation of Big.  I decided that being large was just a Special Effect.  The power Big only needed to be on when the mechanic was needed.  This worked very well.

This beast, and several others that flex Sorcerer powers can be found at http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=5940&highlight=charnel+gods" >Beastmasters and Three Beast for Charnel Gods

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Alan's excellent point is split from the older thread Question about reading demon abilities.

Best,
Ron

[Mike Holmes]

Alan, there's another salient point that Ron's made previously. Players are free to limit their character's powers in any way they like (they even have an incentive beyond pure creativity in that it limits how the power can be used against the character, too). This was extrapolated to look at lots of HS limitations and how you could apply them as examples to Sorcerer powers.

Always On is a limitation, but it requires that the power have purchased "No End cost," which has some parallels to the power cost. This comes close to breaking it even, but I think that it's not too abusive to say that an always on Big is fine.

Can anyone think of any problems with it?

Mike