On 24 May 2004 at 13:26, Tim Ellis wrote:
> Well, maybe. I think what Roderick is suggesting is that there are
> times when it makes most sense to say "I attack him with my 'Sword &
> Shield Combat 5W' and augment it with my 'Flickering Blade Feat 17'
> for a total of 7W" - but sometimes you don't have your sword to
> hand, so you use the feat actively "I use my 'Flickering Blade Feat
> 17' to create a copy of Orlanths Lightening Sword and attack with
> that, augmenting with 'Sword & Shield Combat 5W' for a total of 20"
True enough.
> > See, the way I'm now seeing Gloranthan magic, that makes perfect
> sense. If for some
> > reason you need to find out if the magic works on the sword, you
> roll against 14 (not that
> > I would ever really demand that as a Narrator). You then use your
> flickering blade sword
> > like any normal ability.
>
> Of course if you are using the magically created sword in direct
> combat then the chances are that the most appropriate defences will
> be the abilites your opponent would use against a "normal" sword
> anyway (but not always...)
Yes. Absolutely. Because the magic was *to make* the sword. (Or to make it flicker)
How you use the sword in the conflict at hand is what determines the resistance level, since resistance is story-based and determined by the goals of the participants.
> Again, you might normally use this feat to augment your appropriate
> abilities when facing down the attackers (or attempting to
> extinguish the fire/divert the flood/tie down the roof etc etc) in
> which case yo probably don't need to roll, but there are occasions
> when you might want to use the feat actively if you either don't
> have a more appropriate skill or are prevented from using it (eg, by
> being laid up in bed with an injury)
All of which I agree with. What I'm saying is that with this understanding of how Gloranthan magic is supposed to work, combined with reminding myself that the system is set up about conflict resolution, not task resolution, the whole "14" problem resolves itself because it almost never is what you are rolling against. In a way, the 14 represents the world's general resistance to the magic happening. Which means most of the time, it is ignored, because usually what is of interest to the conflict is not whether the magic happens, but what you then use the magic for. It's going to be a very rare day that you use that 14 for anything because it is very rare that the conflict is just a task of whether or not the magic goes off successfully.
Thus, as I said, you are casting Protect the Home on the home, which is an unresisting part of the natural world and would resist at 14 if that was the relevant contest. Which, of course, it almost never is. Because the relevant contest is between what might you are protecting thehouse from and your efforts to save it.
Since in those cases, "rolling to see if the magic goes off" is silly (that's not where the drama is) you don't roll that. (Just as I said from the beginning in that lots of simple contests this would be moot because it is a constellation of abilities all brought together.)
For instance, our problematic jumping tree thing. If I'm running away from someone who is chasing me, and I want to jump over a tree to escape my foe, then I'm either using my Tree Jumping magic as either the primary ability or an augment on some sort of escape ability. But my resistance is my opponent's "Catch enemy" ability, or "Run fast", or whatever it is she is using to catch me. The whole "Trees resist with 14" thing is completely irrelevant because that's not the conflict in question.
The "I jump this tree" is the exception, not the rule, of how magic gets used, which is why the 14 resistance in reality is almost never in play in the system.
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