Re: Re: Questions on Affinities / Feats

From: philip.hibbs_at_...
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 11:14:07 +0100

>Flight may or may not let you fly. Did you win the contest?
>A longer restatement which might be clearer: Orlanth's Run Up
>Cliff feat may or may not let you run all the way up a cliff.

The way I'd interpret Run Up Cliff is like this: It's just as difficult to get to the top as it would be if you were climbing, but much, much quicker. Likewise Jump Over Tree - it's as easy as climbing to the top, but much quicker. Greg thinks it's just a contest vs 14 to jump any tree, or run up any cliff, but I wouldn't go quite that far, I'd at least scale the difficulty to the height of the tree, with an "average tree" of about fifty feet high being difficulty 14. Heroic trees (300'+) would require heroic abilities to jump over, IMO. As a point of reference, the tallest tree in the RW is 367.5' tall.

I'd say there's a difference between interpreting affinities and feats - an affinity does what it says, a feat *may* not. "Jump Over Tree" is clearly what it says, "Salmon Leap" obviously isn't for leaping over a salmon, it's leaping *like* a salmon, so it's actual use is open to interpretation. "Mile Javelin Throw", I'd say, is a poetic name, but it should be feasable to actually use it to throw a javelin a mile with it. The "range" chart for extended magic seems to fit the bill here, 1 mile is D+20, IIRC, so 15w1 gives a 50-50 chance of boosting a throw to a mile. On the other hand, "Flying" categorically allows you to fly, because it's the name of the affinity. Even at 12, you can at least get your feet off the ground on a regular basis.

Philip Hibbs http://www.snark.freeserve.co.uk/ Opinions expressed may not even be my own, let alone those of any organisations, nations, species, or schools of thought to which I may be affiliated.

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