http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/tags/botch Gaming Outpost Discussions » Tag: botch - Recent Topics en-US Thu, 24 May 2012 10:27:38 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/search.php http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/a-telepathy-botch-list#post-16896 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:32:10 +0000 M. J. Young 16896@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ <p>Well, Ryan just botched on a telepathy skill roll, and we get to talk about the possible botches. Here are some basic ideas to get the ball rolling.</p> <p>Of course, we have the problems typical of all psionic skills: brain burn (a blinding headache), psionic shockwave (a damaging force radiating outward from the user), neural breakdown (loss of attributes or skill levels or even mental stability). Because this is a botch on a telepathic skill, it is possible for the target character to be the center point, and thus the one who suffers the brunt of the damage.</p> <p>Other possibilities include that the minds become stuck together, melded as it were; and that the bodies swap minds. Also, the user might convey unintended information to the target.</p> <p>I vaguely recall a telepathic botch in which the user accidentally created one of his skills in the target.</p> <p>So, what would you put on such a botch list?</p> <p>--M. J. Young </p> http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/maxx-meditation-botch#post-13757 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:32:37 +0000 M. J. Young 13757@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ <p>In his <a href='http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/maxximum-reality-maxx-starts-play/page/5'>current game thread</a>, Maxx botched on a very unusual skill check. The skill reads:<br /> <blockquote>1@3 Meditation P1@0 one minute of mind relaxation gives +RS/10 to immediately subsequent psionic skill attempt, touching hand to head for focus gives +5SM</p></blockquote> <p>He was doing it to help him learn a new skill, one that has been giving him trouble for months, the ability to use his tactile sense to enhance auditory information. But he didn't botch on the new skill--he botched on the meditation.</p> <p>Making a botch list worked well last time, so we're going to do it again. This is a very minor skill, though--no power is released in his meditation, so we can't have explosions directly. But here are some thoughts to get the ball rolling: <ul> <li>Falls asleep.</li> <li>Catatonic state.</li> <li>Pass through: the skill learning attempt botches (which means we need another botch list).</li> <li>Reverse effect: -10 penalty on skill learning attempt.</li> <li>Psionic shutdown: relaxes his psionic abilities into non-responsiveness for a while.</li> </ul> So, what are your thoughts?</p> <p>--M. J. Young </p> http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/invitation-to-help-create-a-botch-list-for-john-a1nut-cross#post-13139 Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:42:48 +0000 M. J. Young 13139@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ <p>In his game thread, <a href='http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/terrraterraterranova/page/12'>page 12 of <em>John Cross in TerraTerra</em>whatever</a>, he was attempting once again to teach himself to snap instantly from hands raised to boxing readiness, as a steal initiative surprise skill.</p> <p>He botched.</p> <p>Last time he botched, he argued that he should not have been able to knock himself unconscious doing this.</p> <p>This time, I am inviting everyone, including him, to give me botch results, from which a list will be compiled.</p> <p>Understand what he is trying to do: he is attempting to hold his hands above his head in a surrender position, and then abruptly go directly to fighting position without any warning to the opponent. Somehow in attempting to do this, he has botched. Maybe he hurt himself; maybe he broke something; maybe he--well, let me know.</p> <p>Thanks.</p> <p>--M. J. Young </p> http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/prayer-botches#post-3047 Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:34:08 +0000 M. J. Young 3047@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ <p>In <em><a href="http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/kyler-where-ya-at-buddy/page/7?replies=210#post-3044">Kyler, where ya at buddy?</a></em>, John Cross wrote:<br /> <blockquote>Let me guess. A bad dice roll here can mean I botched and killed myself right? How can you botch on praying?? That don't make no sense.</blockquote> Well, I sympathize, but call it a matter of being consistent.</p> <p>First, let me say that the rules specify that holy magic botches are inherently limited, because they are prayers, messages to intelligent beings, and thus it is to some degree in the hands of those powerful beings what happens.</p> <p>Second, let me ask everyone to recognize that not all "prayers" are directed to The God, Creator of All. Not everyone who prays believes that there is such a being (although the cosmology of Multiverser maintains it as a necessary fact for their to be a multiverse in which all imagined things exist). I think that most would agree that a prayer to, say, a demon has a very good chance of going wrong. The same might be said of prayers to other gods who are in competition, such as Baal or Dagon.</p> <p>The problem arises when I, as a player, make the assumption that my chosen deity is infallible. Of course my character believes that about his deity, and I believe it about mine, and the fiction attempts to make these as close to each other as possible--but despite John's suggestions to the contrary, I do not really play God, and I attempt to avoid doing so as much as possible, and thus his prayers to God are answered by what the dice and I guess that our fictionalized version of his God is likely to do in response to that prayer.</p> <p>I am caught by the fact that I don't believe his God would "botch"; that, though, does not prevent him from doing so himself.</p> <p>There is the factor which someone has called "those prayers which heaven in mercy declines to answer," that what you prayed will bring you great misery in the long run and God knows it. A botch might mean getting what you requested and discovering that it is not at all what you expected.</p> <p>There are also the unforeseen consequences factor. King Hezekiah was informed by the prophet Isaiah that he, the king, was going to die within days, and the King then prayed that he might live. God granted that request, and sent Isaiah back to tell him that he would live. The good king lived almost two more decades, but in that time fathered Mannaseh, one of the worst kings in Judah's history--the king who would never have been born had Hezekiah not prayed that prayer.</p> <p>It is also entirely possible that some other entity might become interested in the situation. When the angel Gabriel brought news to the prophet Daniel, he apologized that he had been delayed by some being called the Prince of Persia. It could be that your prayers stir up a supernatural battle in which the enemies of your God take it upon themselves to mess with you, and to keep your God's forces occupied so that they cannot assist.</p> <p>When people tell me that God can do anything, I tell them that they are wrong, that that is a faulty premise which is not at all biblical. It is, for example, impossible for God to lie; it is thus equally impossible for God to renege on His promise. The Multiverser cosmology tacitly includes within it that God made promises to certain created spirit beings, that they would have power and authority over certain spheres within the multiverse for certain periods of time. God can punish those who overstep their authority, but as with Aslan and the White Witch in Narnia, she could not be brought to justice until she overstepped her authority.</p> <p>So there are ways to explain holy magic botches; you just have to be creative to do so.</p> <p>--M. J. Young </p>