A Different Aging Effect

[Judd]

In a Fae game, aging becomes a big deal, chipping away at their immortality.  It is a cup out of the pool of eternity.  Its a big honkin' deal, man.  

This is the color I am thinking of using to give a different flavor to aging.

It isn't an instant process.  When you age, the rest of the world freezes, in a gray haze and the Sorcerer is the only one able to move.  The spell is in living color, effecting those who it has been cast on.  There is little light in this half-dead otherworld.  The only light is the spell and its lines of effect.  You can spend your time there following them if you wish.

You can follow the glowing thread from the guardsman whose helmet you've shrunk, destroying his skull.  You can following a line of cause and effect, seeing his family, waiting for him at home.  You could follow a thinner line to his parents, proud of their son the guard, who has made something of himself.

You can follow a line from the evil Sorcerer, whose magic you just sapped.  You can see his apprentice, eager to see his master die so he can inherit his power.  You can see the lives the bastard has destroyed.

You can't read the letters on the Sorcerer's desk, they are too dim, too inconsequential in this otherworld.  

When you come back to the world it seems like only a second has gone by and now your hair is long and you have a beard.  Not true, the Sorcerer knows better.  It was months of solitude, a lonely and painful time.

Out of game, it is a time for the Seneschal to show a player something they've missed, a tidbit or morsel that might be tasty.

I'm also thinking of getting the players good and used to being alone in this aging otherworld and then seeing what happens when a magical creature isn't asleep with everyone else.

Woops.

Fun.

Comments, ideas, criticism?

[Jasper the Mimbo]

I really like this. It gives even more reason for wizards to be recluses. It also lends a fae-like quality to magic in general. The fae, being all magical in some way or another, would have almost no concept of the normal passage of time. I can see kinds of fae who slip in and out of the greylands without even casting spells. They wouldn't age unless they had, but they would still be there. There could even be ways of these fae learning how to slip in and out volentarily and even move to new locations by doing so. To the rest of the world it would seem like teleportation, to them it would be a normal walk, heck, they might not even realize they were doing it.

I also like the idea of creatures that live there all the time. They wouldn't even be able to be percieved by the rest of the world at all. Living in the spaces between seconds, moving through time like we move through space.

Or walking in the greylands to the den of a dragon or the roost of a sphynx and have it raise it's head and look at you. All of a sudden you realize that you cannot effect anything at all, and you're not sure if that holds true to your new aquaintance.

Fun.

[Judd]

Living in the spaces between seconds, moving through time like we move through space.

The spaces between seconds...

That's purty.

Cool.

[Jake Norwood]

Damn. I'm floored. That's how I run it from now on. 10 points for Paka.

Jake

[Krammer]

dang.... that is cool. Imagine two spells were cast simultaneously. would the sorcerers be able to interact in the skewed otherworld of aging?

[Brian Leybourne]

That's some pretty cool shit.

I'm not reluctant to cast a spell because it'll age me 4 months, I'm reluctant because I have to experience those 4 months in real time, in the cold darkness of the beyond, where I can do nothing but waste away and watch myself age as everyone else remains static. And then, after a tormentous long wait, the crashing return of light, color and sensation as the world returns to normal and I have to force myself to once again begin to care...

Damn Paka, that's cool.

[Lance D. Allen]

Methinks I'm seeing something else that will be going into SatF, with a nice little acknowledgement at the beginning.

Color me impressed too.

[Judd]

Thanks, folks.  It is swell that ya dig the concept.

I also like the idea of using the effect to further story and promote the display of consequences and/or magical shit and/or a story point that the Seneschal wants to put in italics for the players.

[Vanguard]

A superb idea...

Especially in a Solo campaign, all centered round the experiencies of a lone adept.

I wanna run a mage so badly now.

It would have to be tempered well in mutliplay, however, lest aging turns into the 'hacking tortures' that we endured in Shadowrun. Play stops and a six-hour 'hacking the mainframe' session ensues. All other players cease to exist.

Gotta make sure the other players dont end up resenting the mage. If with every spell, action is frozen and the other players are excluded from play, then that mage will swiftly become unpopular.

The idea of sorcery acting as a beacon to other, possibly more powerful, entities, is also a great idea. Too much ripping of the cosmos, and you might as well be announcing your presence to the thousand cackling things which lurk from the fringes of existence, their tentacles a-tentacling.

The amount of aging incurred, over days at a time, or maybe just bound to a specific local (like a house, swamp, etc...), would indicate the level of interest aroused.

several months of aging and maybe the planes are twisted sufficiently to allow a small spirit through (a minor daemon, a poltergeist maybe, or some forgotten soul which had died horribly nearby).

A bit more aging and it's proper daemons being pulled through. Or the awareness of rival mages, bitter and jealous rival mages, being brought to bear on our hapless wizard.

Huge amounts of aging and.... I hardly dare mention. But those tentacly things cum a knocking possibly.


Take care,

Marc

[Ingenious]

*drooools* Paka has just made me want to play a sorceror. That is impressive as hell.
If only I could come up with shit like that.

I also very much like wolfsong's idea about moving through seconds as if they were space. This opens the door to possible time-travel, time-warping, bending, etc. And then there's the pandora's box of going into the past and making a change to history, and see how it alters the present, and so on.

Good god that's interesting.
-Ingenious
:edited to add to Vanguard's concern about cooperative play
Instead of making everything static at that point of casting a spell... have everything become REAAAAAAALLY SLOW. That way people are still moving, and can eventually do something. *shrug*

[Brian Leybourne]

I don't think other players would be so much an issue, to be honest.

The way I see it, you wouldn't force the mage player to roleplay out the down-time every time he casts a spell (because yes, that would annoy other players, and probably the sorcerer player too). But certainly the first time, and occasionally after that. If it's done right, the other players will look forward to what's happening and listen with interest, rather than just say "Oh no, another downtime while Bob mopes aropund in a time stop zone".

And then, as each time you DO actually describe the effect (which doesn't have to take all that long really), but you subtly introduce freaky things, and pave the way for the tentacled horror (or whatever) to eventually emerge, all the players will be hanging on it, not just the sorcerer player.

You could have some serious fun with this. It's a damn nifty idea.

Brian.

[Ian.Plumb]

Hi,

It isn't an instant process.  When you age, the rest of the world freezes, in a gray haze and the Sorcerer is the only one able to move.  The spell is in living color, effecting those who it has been cast on.  There is little light in this half-dead otherworld.  The only light is the spell and its lines of effect.  You can spend your time there following them if you wish.

In principal, I think this is a good idea in the same way as the core concept of spell casters running the risk of aging is a good idea. However, while it adds flavour (and that is a good thing) what are the implications of the change?

Will the spell caster try to gain an unexpected advantage from this? For instance, can the spell caster cast another spell during the period of solitary confinement? Can they heal? Can they in any way use the time productively -- to improve skills, to formularize spells, to work in a world completely free of distraction?

Can the spell-caster follow the spell lines to see who the individual is connected to and use this as an information gathering tool -- discover co-conspirators perhaps or a traitor within the party?

Can the spell-caster, in a tight combat situation, cast a spell with the intent of aging so that they have ample time to walk around and study the scene? Formulate the optimal response?

Is the spell-caster able to contact other spell-casters that are also in the midst of an aging-duration? Can the spell-caster construct an abode in this nether-world and a portal between the real world and this twilight realm?

If you implement this rule the players will attempt to exploit it -- so have your definitions, limits and counter-measures ready!

A neat idea though -- adds depth to the core concept.

Cheers,

[kenjib]

If it occurs at an exact point in time, you would pretty much never freeze at the exact same time as another sorcerer (especially if you can infinitely subdivide units of time), so you don't really need to worry about what you can do with regards to other sorcerers in the space-beyond-time.  Whoever does the spell first would do his time, whoever does it later would do his subsequently.  Similarly, creatures that live in the space-beyond-time would themselves by necessity have a differently relationship to time that could possibly be interesting to examine.

Of course, the existance of something else itself in the space-beyond-time, and the ability of the caster and others to act within that space, means that there is time in the other place, but that it moves similarly but not in relation to real time.  Depending on the metaphysics decided upon, this could potentially invalidate my speculations in the first paragraph as well...

[Ben Lehman]

If it occurs at an exact point in time, you would pretty much never freeze at the exact same time as another sorcerer (especially if you can infinitely subdivide units of time), so you don't really need to worry about what you can do with regards to other sorcerers in the space-beyond-time.  Whoever does the spell first would do his time, whoever does it later would do his subsequently.  Similarly, creatures that live in the space-beyond-time would themselves by necessity have a differently relationship to time that could possibly be interesting to examine.

BL>  Except for cooperative ritual magic, of course.  Choose your ritual partners very, very carefully.

[Judd]

Hi,

Will the spell caster try to gain an unexpected advantage from this? For instance, can the spell caster cast another spell during the period of solitary confinement? Can they heal? Can they in any way use the time productively -- to improve skills, to formularize spells, to work in a world completely free of distraction?

Can the spell-caster follow the spell lines to see who the individual is connected to and use this as an information gathering tool -- discover co-conspirators perhaps or a traitor within the party?

Can the spell-caster, in a tight combat situation, cast a spell with the intent of aging so that they have ample time to walk around and study the scene? Formulate the optimal response?

Is the spell-caster able to contact other spell-casters that are also in the midst of an aging-duration? Can the spell-caster construct an abode in this nether-world and a portal between the real world and this twilight realm?

If you implement this rule the players will attempt to exploit it -- so have your definitions, limits and counter-measures ready!

A neat idea though -- adds depth to the core concept.

Cheers,

My first instinct is no healing, no skill use, no formulizing of spells, no studying the scene too carefully.  Areas of light and dark are very much a part of the Seneschal's tool kit in making this otherworld not a place of combat study but a place of introspection and knowledge of your spell's ramifications.

It would have to be narrated in a brisk but weighty manner to show the player the passing of time in this half-dead, half alive place but not take away from the game's flow.  Ultimately, if it doesn't make the game more magical, drop it.

Contacting other spellcasters and finding a portal from the twilight realm to reality is really interesting and could be the focus of an entire campaign but if it is stalling a combat, nix it.

I hadn't even thought about a group casting.  That would be interesting and makes covens of casters an even more logical and closely knit thing.  Suddenly these are people with whom you will spend months or eventually years of your life in a grey otherworld.  Neat.  That is bonding.

I'd make it perfectly clear what the realm was in order to attempt to avoid too much cheesiness.  But a little eye-balling of the competition wouldn't be a terrible thing.

True, lines would have to be drawn and carefully.