Friendship is Dragons
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Page 1420 - Magical Malpractice
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I can't wait to abuse this new feature!
Frankly, this is a little concerning. I feel like someone should call the cops or something.
One where Covid-19 doesn't exist and cops are helpful, I guess?
I suppose we could have 19 crows looking at roadkill and wondering, "do we scavange?". What would you call that?
(now, how long until ratings get displayed?)
(now, how long until ratings get displayed?)
Alright, so! As a GM one job that is super important is being able to communicate clues with context. To paraphrase a character from the old CSI tv show, "A clue without context, isn't a clue."
One way to do this is use consistent color coding for magical effects that tell the players to pay attention; "Sickly green", "Oily black", "Sinister yellow", and "Blood red" convey a decent adjective with the color that denotes something negative about what the player sees. This works well in a pony campaign as the show has been pretty consistent to show that spellcasters tend to each have a signature color aura of the magic, as well as artifacts (like the later season episode where Rarity is possessed by a book and her own aura turns a bright green instead of the usual light blue).
Understandably it can lead to players drawing conclusions early with later clues. If you are using an acid green for an evil changeling, later on when they see the color they might immediately think "oh, this is from that evil changeling." But that's okay! It tells you that the players were paying attention to your mystery. Believe me, this is better than players getting blindly lost in your adventure and losing interest.
At the same time, I don't settle with just the typical "schools of magic". When a wizard uses evocation, part of what that wizard is shows in that magic. Is it evocation magic cast by a necromancer? It's evocation with a hint of necromancy magic. Is it a divination wizard casting an illusion spell? There's a bit of divination magic in the illusion. Gives the players fun little extra hints to what is going on. I've actually found them more interested in what is going on when it's "evocation with a hint of necromancy" because it's powerful evocation magic cast by a ghost, and they strive to find what form of undead or undead-powered enemy is casting such a spell.
That reminds me of the I.M.E. from Goblins. I've been wanting to incorporate that into my own campaigns, but all my spellcasters are... boring, when I ask them to describe their magic.
I can't even remember the last time that I as a player ever got asked to describe my spells. Most players in turn just take that request for spell appearances and stare at me as if I asked them to do differential equations.
Sometimes I get that same face when I ask for their backstory too, but that's a completely different issue.
Sometimes I get that same face when I ask for their backstory too, but that's a completely different issue.
I'm fairly certain the appropriate face to make if your DM started asking for differential equations would fall somewhere between "outrage" and "the Hulk stepping on a lego".
It's eye color or cutie mark color. Real Cadance used cutie mark color (cyan). Twilight started as eye color and then *switched*.
But yeah, green was wrong for both.
But yeah, green was wrong for both.
Andre Norton's Witch World assigned them as
http://andre-norton-books.com/the-witch-world/ww-dictionary/1135-witch-world-dictionary-pt-1-2-section-ii#a142
http://andre-norton-books.com/the-witch-world/ww-dictionary/1135-witch-world-dictionary-pt-1-2-section-ii#a142
I'm so proud of you Rainbow, Rarity.
22nd Aug 2020, 9:32 AM
I never actually looked at my comments after posting them
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So I never noticed that on the occasions when I chose to put something in the "Title" field it didn't do anything.
Well, at least now I know it didn't work.
Well, at least now I know it didn't work.
I don't post super often, but when I do it's usually to say I'm so glad you keep updating and I eagerly await the next upload! I'm loving how this story is playing out!
Edit: Huzzah!
For example, a warrior mid-duel who viewed healing as dishonorable (and perhaps there was a disagreement as to whether the duel was still going on or the warrior had been defeated already), or someone who would rather die than be captured.
I forget if there were actual rolls involved, but one character I had has an evil healing gauntlet.
Touching it gave 500% healing. This would heal you to full, but in the process you would explode and reform five times, and feel it. ...She wore a glove between her and the gauntlet so this effect did not happen to her, and used it to torture people.
...Her other gauntlet was one of the Regalia of Evil in that world, to give an idea of what kind of party we were. ...And she had been forced to wear the regalia, turning her from a LG 'hates causing others pain' monk into a twisted and evil version of her former self. I used that gauntlet SO much for torture. Sometimes of party members!
Touching it gave 500% healing. This would heal you to full, but in the process you would explode and reform five times, and feel it. ...She wore a glove between her and the gauntlet so this effect did not happen to her, and used it to torture people.
...Her other gauntlet was one of the Regalia of Evil in that world, to give an idea of what kind of party we were. ...And she had been forced to wear the regalia, turning her from a LG 'hates causing others pain' monk into a twisted and evil version of her former self. I used that gauntlet SO much for torture. Sometimes of party members!
I used to play in a system where there were two degrees of 'Magic Resistance' as a trait. The first gave a small bonus, and could be 'switched off' at will. The other one basically doubled your regular will save, but you had to make a resist attempt against ANY magic...
Including "Let's put that blood back in you where it belongs" spells.
Including "Let's put that blood back in you where it belongs" spells.
Green being healing isn't a terrible assumption, though the follow up description makes it pretty clear that this is not healing magic.
It's a bit of a case of metagaming, though. Twilight doesn't necessarily know it was an opposed check, unless there was supposed to be some cue that Shining Armor was initially trying to fight whatever it was.
And with those two essentially acting as co-DMs, I wouldn't put it past them to make opposed checks even if it WAS healing or something like that. Just roll unnecessary dice and pretend.
And with those two essentially acting as co-DMs, I wouldn't put it past them to make opposed checks even if it WAS healing or something like that. Just roll unnecessary dice and pretend.
(Thankfully at time of publication the A/C has been repaired. And I did get some site work done. It only took nine years, but... You know that Title field in the comment submission window that never, ever got used in this layout? Well, your posted comment now displays the Title you put in! Retroactively for every past comment, too!)