OK, this is the hw-rule list, so in this context, 'how long' means how many actions. Note that the game-world length of an action is NOT fixed. An 'action' could be the blink of an eye, or days in length. You want to know how long in game world terms? Well, sorry, it depends...
If the player says 'I call upon Vinga's magic to run on the treetops', its takes as long as saying a few word and leap through the air: a couple of seconds. If the player says, 'I perform the Spear Grasping Ritual' the action is something more stately: a few hours, perhaps.
...
> Yeah, but I'm thinking along the lines of 'I feel a disturbance in
> the Force' kind of stuff. If you are tuned into a particular kind of
> magic would you feel it being used? Would you have an inkling if it
> was directed at you? If it is a different kind of magic would you
> have a worse or the same chance of noticing it was directed at you?
OK, another thing to bear in mind is that HW (and HQ) will never have a plethora of tables and ability descriptions detailing this and that. Because players can create characters with *any* ability name, no such approach can work.
Sure, people can make some suggestions for the provided keyword abilities, like 'Sense Gods Nearby', but how will that help if someone uses their 'The Sedenyic Secrets', 'Dragon Eye' or 'Sense the Warp and Weft of the World' abilities? And such esoterica can be the norm: all three of those example abilities are currently in play in our game.
Everything of interest comes down to an ability against a resistance (in a simple or extended contest). A Narrator therefore has to develop the skill of determining the resistance for a contest on the fly, rather than relying on some table to provide it for her. I usually do this by asking myself, 'How good would someone have to be with <name of ability> to have a fifty-fifty chance of success?', then make the resistance that level. If an ability seems rather inappropriate ('Devotee of Vinga'), well, you would have to be very good at that ability, so a large resistance, but much smaller if it is appropriate ability ('Sense Magic')
...
> But I'm concerned about consistency.
...
In that case, I recommend that you are consistent in whatever
Narrator choices you make ;-)
Powered by hypermail