The difference is, as I understand it, "active" vs "passive" defense. If the target is able to resist in any active way (ie it's sentient, it's magic, whatever), then it gets to use an appropriate ability. Otherwise, it uses 14. I think the point of this is to make magic, well, magical. Otherwise, your Chop Down Tree spell is going to be pretty sad, especially since you are probably paying more HP for it.
> >It's a love potion, right? So the target could resist with
>>Love (Someone Else), Hate You, Mistrust Love, Not Ready for a
>>Relationship, Pathetically Slow On the Uptake, Not Interested in Your
>>Gender, Death Magic (with a modifier), Hate (the Group You Belong
>>to), Stubborn, and so on....
>
>But why? Maybe this is just going to fall into Narrator Fiat about
>Appropriateness here.
>But while I buy ALL of those (except death magic) as a resistance to
>a seduction, I don't
>buy them as a resistance to a love potion.
To answer the second part first, why not Death Magic? It's about severing, taking apart, making barriers; it's anti-life and anti-love. If nothing else, a Death theist could improvise some sort of feat ("Maran rejected love; so will I"). Similarly, a Yinkin Devotee might fall in love but still not stick around/do what you want because, well, he's a cat. Half the fun here is getting players and narrator to think of cool ways things could apply.
A lot of what's going on here is nothing in HQ is really about the numbers and abilities; it's about the relationship between the contestants, their abilities, their character conceptions, etc. So the first question is not "what's the rating of my potion?" but "what's going on in the story?" If the potion being used by two former lovers who have fallen out of love? Maybe then it's an automatic success (the fun is going to come from the complications, or the magician's price, or something else). Is the point to get some info out of a garrison sergeant? Maybe it's a simple contest (potion vs his Wary of Love, augmented by his Sense of Duty and Loneliness (that's a negative, by the way). (And does the potion make him fall in love with you or the two of you fall in love? Did you read the usage directions closely?) Is the potion part of an extended wooing contest? Then the potion isn't used as a rating but an augment. Lastly, if the effects of the potion are a major climax in the game session, maybe you want to use the potions rating as the starting point in an extended contest.
>I realize that in some way this is a bit of a moot point, because
>very often you won't be
>using the system to a simple task like that, but rather to a confict
>where there is much
>more of a constellation of abilities in play (and a great deal of
>the above resistance
>suggestions make eminent sense). But sometimes you do have straight
>up tasks, and
>this may just be a YGMV moment, but I don't like magic abilities
>working exactly the
>same as non-magical ones. It seems very odd to me that it is
>*easier* to resist a love
>potion than the ability Seductive of the same rank. (Since anything
>you have that resists
>magic could also be a viable resistance of the potion, and
>everything that would resist
>normal seduction also resists the potion.)
But one might get different modifiers over the other. You might say, a general Resist Magic ability is not much use on a subtle potion (-20). And, of course, a Seduction skill can be used again and again, while a love potion can only be used once (if you have Brew Love Potion, that's a different matter (and a different contest)). One more thing. I cannot imagine much duller than a "love potion." Since this is HQ, how about a more specific name? Is it an Inflame Passions potion? A Restore Marital Excitement potion? The Elixir of the Raging Infatuation of Uleria? Boy Meets Boy? Irresistible Bosom? Overwhelming Charm (you'd use those on yourself, presumably)? Forget Family and Country and Follow Me? Any of those might make the contest clearer than "love potion."
Peter Larsen
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