A few questions about the Whisper’s Channel: Use electroplasmic energy to produce supernatural effects. Costs stress equal to the magnitude of the effect (0-4).
1. I assume the electroplasmic energy needs to be in the form of a residue refined from spirits or leviathan blood. A Whisper can’t just pull this energy from within themselves or from spirits floating nearby?
2. Does this move let you skip rolling for action and effect? So like “I’ll pay 4 stress from channelling, which gives a complete effect so I fill in 4 segments of this obstacle.”
3. Why choose a 0 magnitude effect? Can it only have fictional consequences?
Very interested /sub
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Ooh. /sub
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I can see the harvesting energy from themselves and their “friends” in an emergency…
I left the full arcane rules out of the QS, so, technically these answers are just my opinions. You can run the QS as you like.
1. If you don’t have a source of energy at hand (an electric light or a vial of electroplasm, say) then how do you channel it? Ask the player. If they have a means, and it’s blocked by an obstacle or danger, they need to make an action roll. Otherwise, they just do it and take the stress.
2. No. It lets you attempt things a normal human can’t. If the attempt is blocked by an obstacle or danger, you make an action roll, as always.
3. Maybe you want to light up a room or perform some other minor effect. Minor effects have whatever consequences they have in the fiction, which may or may not result in mechanical consequences.
Great thanks John!
Can I clarify 2. further? So say there’s an obstacle with 8 segments, first I make an action roll to see if I can channel, and then if I do I just choose the x magnitude of effect to fill x segments and pay x cost. That is, Channel let’s you skip making an effect roll, and the magnitude of effect determines the numbers of segments filled in obstacle clock? Right?
I can claim no special expertise, but my take on it is that channeling lets you make an action roll. What you’re doing doesn’t need to be otherwise reasonable. You can be tied up naked in a room with access to electroplasm and, if your game’s fiction says you can Channel with pure force of will, you can take some stress and blow everything up. That would be impossible without Channel, but you’d still need the action and then the effect roll to see how thoroughly things explode.
Yep, that’s right, Daniel.
So I still don’t get the meaning of Costs stress equal to the magnitude of the effect (0-4).
So using Channel you still have to make an effort roll (and an action roll) as normal. But last part of Channel means the cost of a complete effect is 4 stress, rather than the normal 1 stress, and a diminished effect is only 1 stress, not 4.
I think that’s a terminology problem. It’s the magnitude of the fictional effect that matters, not the results of the Effect roll. You decide as a group how easy or hard various kinds of magic should be. Maybe explosions are easy, 1 stress, but controlled, precise use like lighting a fuse across the room is 4 stress. Or maybe it’s just by size, so a flame is 1 stress and a big kaboom is 4. Maybe imprisoning a ghost is 2 stress, or 4 stress, or impossible in this game. Keep in mind any of these decisions are the same for future uses and NPCs!
That’s the magnitude. The roll is unrelated.
Ah yes, it’s a terminology problem. Daniel has it right. I’ll revise that text so it’s clear.
Ah ha! That makes perfect sense. Thanks Daniel and John for sticking with me. I completely misunderstood that bit.
It’s my fault! The word “effect” wasn’t a game term when I originally wrote that ability. So it reads strangely now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.