Before I read the answers others have offered (I have skimmed through them and not noticed any links), I'm going to address the original questions myself; then I might tag in thoughts on the other answers.
1. MJ has mentioned his adaption articles a couple of times, and I've done adaption's of books in other gaming systems before, but I was wondering where his articles on adaption could be found and if they are multiverser specific.
Well, they're here on Gaming Outpost, and they're all fairly recent, and honestly the series is not yet that long. I've got:
- Adapting Introduction, which introduces the series concept.
- Adapting Bujold's Shards of Honor, a sci-fi piece in which interplanetary war and onboard mutiny are parts of the intrigue, and working in the outsider verser is the key issue.
- Adapting Stasheff's Escape Velocity, which is not at all hard to find because it's the article currently posted on the front page of Gaming Outpost. This happens to be the prequel to the world in which your character is currently playing, but as I mention in that article the connection between them is weak enough that it won't hurt you at all to read the entire book and the analysis. It's another sci-fi piece, this one focused on a chase through the galaxy.
And that's all that have made it to publication so far. I was working on the next one last night (a benefit of having cut out so much reading, I think, and of being on top of the temporal anomalies stuff), but it's not going to see publication today. I'm actually working on several at once, because I'm taking notes on them and copying the notes to files that slowly get reformed into articles, so I have several more in the pipeline, but that doesn't really help you yet.
2. I know zygote experiences are supposed to be rare, but is it acceptable for a new verser to experience one? I believe zygoting to be the best entrance to the story for a new verser, although by the virtue of being new he's going to feel even more helpless than normal.
I objected strenuously to using a zygote experience for Maxx when he was insisting on it. He prevailed, mostly because I did not want to lose a new player, but I have regretted allowing it ever since, for many reasons. I do not want a player character to believe he has been reincarnated; I want him to enter a world in which he will, one way or another, come to understand that he is not in Kansas anymore--whether (as with the Tropical Island) by meeting a new verser, or (as with NagaWorld) by recognizing that some things about the world are simply unrealistic. I would not zygote anyone until after he understands that he is a verser, and has some concept of what that means. The Zygote Experience is in too many ways too unlike versing to be a good starting place.
I am guessing from this that you are thinking that the verser has to be the central character, and that the central character has to be born into who he is. It is rarely the case that both of these things are true--even with the Terminator series I'm running, there were a lot of other options I could have followed, but I decided that for John Cross in particular I wanted him to be John Conner and deal with the temporal problems as John Conner. Had it been anyone else, I probably would have ignored much of John Conner's childhood and brought the verser into the story as an added character.
3. How does powerblocking work with magic? This book series is very very magic rich, but the magic operates under strict laws. Is there a way to restrict magic that operates outside those laws? Either a heavy negative SM or a way to curve?
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!
If magic in a world works under strict rules, it is because those who practice magic expect that those rules will control them, and they won't ever attempt anything else because if they were to attempt it they would fail, because they fully expect to fail. If the magic does not work when you are not wearing the hat, it's because you believe the magic does not work unless you wear the hat, your expectation is negated, and you can't work magic.
However, it is ABSOLUTELY AND COMPLETELY UNFAIR to the verser to say that his magic does not work because in this world you have to wear the magic hat, or sing the magic, or use potions, or speak in a specific language, or fire and forget, or anything else. If the verser already knows magic, and magic is possible in this world, he can perform his magic the way he always has, without penalty, even though such magic would be deemed "impossible" by the magic users of that world.
Now, for what it's worth, if you're bringing in a verser who doesn't know any magic, there's a good chance that he'll buy whatever limitations they claim, at least until he encounters a different kind of magic somewhere else. After all, if he doesn't know magic he probably has no idea how it could be done, and he probably will simply do what he is told or what he sees them doing. In that case, you don't really have much of a problem. I would not count on that, though--I find that of gamers at conventions, probably half of them (Adam jokes about this) believe they have magic powers already, and that means that their characters do, and their magic will work in those worlds.
To more directly answer your question, power blocks in magic can block what magic can do (no teleporting, no charms, no transmutations) but not how you do it (can't prevent potions or dance rituals or song rituals). However, you should powerblock specific powers very judiciously: just because no one in this world has ever done something does not mean it can't be done in this world, only that no one has done it.
4. Same as question 3 but with psionics. The reason it is the same is everything is perceived as magic from the standpoint of natives of the world, although some of it comes from internal thought while other is aided by the prophecy(a god of sorts) or actual gods.
I'm less clear on what you mean here. Psionics do not require ritual, and any ritual that is involved will give only the smallest of bonuses to outcome (e.g., you might get +10 if your scrying or precognition requires you to gaze at a crystal or use cards). If it requires ritual, it is probably magic, probably arcane magic in which the caster is channeling the supernatural power through himself. If it clearly is power coming from within himself, then it probably also involves some sort of charging process by which supernatural power is stockpiled within the user to be released later.
If what you mean is that certain areas are "impossible", the same answer applies. You can indeed powerblock anything you think is not possible in this world, and then no one can do it (by psionics), period. On the other hand, just because it has never been done does not mean it is impossible, and you should be reserved in your use of powerblocks.
It does not usually hurt play for the player character to be able to do things no one else in the world has ever imagined doing.
I hope this helps; now I'm going to draw a line and see whether there's anything I should say in response to the other posts.
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It is my understanding, you may not make magic cast in a certain way powerblocked from use, but you can block it from being learned.
Sort of. What you can do is create world rules, treating it as something of a "game world". That is, if you versed into Dungeons & Dragons (prior to 3E) all magic is "fire and forget", and the only way you can learn magic is by being an adherent of a class which studies magic. That means to learn magic in that world you must apprentice with a master and become a member of a magic-using class, because those are the rules of that world. It does not mean you can't use the magic you already know, but it means you can't invent new magic because there are rules in that world for who can invent new magic and how it must be done, so you have to follow those rules in that world.
That means that if there are clear rules in the books for how you can learn magic, then you can only learn it in that world by following those rules. If the rules are broad, though, you have to be careful to be certain you know all the exceptions--e.g., if some people are born with it, some learn by studying with masters, and some pick it up as they get older, then there doesn't seem to be any real restriction on who can learn it or how, and the player is not restricted. But if it's clear that you are either born with it or taught it by a mentor, then the verser not having been born with it must learn it from a mentor. That's a world rule, but once it's in place, it applies to everyone in the world, and indigs cannot have any magic that doesn't fall under the rules. Versers can still use magic they brought to that world.
You can probably just flatline psionics, and replicate all 'psionic' effects with the Will and the Word.
This is suggested in the rules section on designing story worlds from stories: it is better to put a very few skills of one bias area into the other if it's possible. I have two good examples of this:
- In Dune, the world is filled with psionic abilities--mostly precognitive, used by space navigators and of course by the Fremen. Then there is also the Bene Gesserit pain inducer, which looks like a magic device that inflicts pain without causing damage. The immediate temptation is to make it magical; but it is the only thing in the stories that is remotely like magic, and it is easier to make it a psionic device and keep magic out of the story entirely.
- Bill Friant the Friendly Giant was working on adapting a video game (I do not remember which one, and am not certain I ever knew) for game play. It began with the central characters encountering a magic teleporter that carried them to the place where the adventures occurred; but there was no other magic in the entire story, which contained much that was high in technology. My suggestion was to apply Clarke's Law here: the teleporter was not a magical transporter, but a high-tech voice-activated transmat device probably with an artificial intelligence controlling it. That removed the only magic from the world, and resolved all issues about its creation and operation.
All magic would be penalized because motion is not necessary for magic, nor are material components, and I believe you must have two of the three (verbal, somatic, material) to avoid a penalty.
Obviously Brock does know more about the scenario than I, as that was not mentioned. He's right, it's -10 if there is only one component, -25 if it's all done by thought. (Also, if the material component is one of the necessary two, there is still a -2 penalty, because the material component must be worth at least 2 points to negate the "one component" penalty. This prevents you from getting rid of the ten-point penalty by saying you have to spit to make it work, or something like that.)
All magic would be bonused in some fashion by the idea that using too much energy in a spell can literally kill you, as spells cannot be canceled once cast.
I would object to this unless it proves to be particularly common. Instead, I would say that an uncontrolled release of power fatal to the caster is the most common botch in this world, and let the chance to botch cover it. After all, the chance to botch means that any spell can literally kill you if it goes wrong, and too much power is one way in which a spell goes wrong all the time--just ask anyone who ever got an explosion result.
Could I sitmod the magic cast by the limitation that it must obey the properties of Will and the Word (conservation of momentum, changing weather being as tricky as it is,etc)
There are already controls on weather spells which make them more difficult if they are pushing for greater change (from sunny skies to storms is more difficult than getting storms from cloud cover). However, if you're talking about controlling a verser's already known spells by rules of the world, you can't.
If "Will and Word" can be construed as holy magic (which it seems to me it probably can), then you can indeed include sit-mods based on your perception of how well the requested outcome meshes with the will of the god petitioned. That would not affect magic that is not petitioning that god (e.g., magic that petitions a different god, arcane magic that petitions no god). It need not specifically name the god called to be holy magic, if that god does not so require. If it is bound by moral (or "immoral") rules, it is probably holy magic; arcane magic is bound only by the caster's expectations.
Would Silk's secret language be body or psionic? (The sign language one)
The ability to communicate is generally psionic, unless there is a really good reason to think otherwise. There is always an overlap between the bod side and the psi side in such communications, as demonstrated by John 2's recent problems talking, but even communication by pheromone becomes a psionic skill once the bod abilities are in place. So I would say communication by sign language is still communication, and involves psionic skills.
How would I handle the idea that magic users can sense when other people use magic?
Give them all a Detect Magic skill that is always operational, and create a world rule that it always works within that world. If anyone with that skill verses out, they would have to roll for it to work in any other world.
How would I handle the ability to conceal other magic users sensing you and how do I make it harder to conceal larger surges of power?
Use a protection from detects skill and link its protection to RS. I'm not certain whether by larger surges of power you mean higher biased skills or greater successes, but there are several possibilities:
- The roll of the protection skill can create a threshold for the roll of the magic skill, so that if the roll of the magic skill exceeds that of the protection skill it is detectable, but if it doesn't it is concealed.
- The roll of the protection skill can be scaled against the bias of the magic skill. You can make it the decimalized bias, in which case a successful roll of 100 (which only the most powerful mages would be able to get) would block detection of anything through a 9@10 skill, but a 10@1 would not be blocked by any roll. If you want higher, you can simply double the roll, so that a 15@10 (decimalized 160) would be indetectable if the roll was at least 80.
- You could use comparative relative success against the detect skill, such that if the caster is trying to hide the use of magic he rolls his protection skill, and the one who might detect it (who doesn't usually have to roll his "always on" detect magic skill) rolls (or you roll secretly for him so the player isn't alerted to something the character does not know), and if the detect is higher than the protect the skill is detected, but otherwise (including on a tie) it is not.
Is there a telepathic or telekinetic variant in magic?
Yes. For telepathics, usually 7@1 concealed messages, TF is usually twice what it would take to say the message without the concealment. For telekinetics, there are many applications. If you're talking about shaping an object, 3@2 shape liquids and 3@3 shape solids are the simplest. Your 6@ animated forces are the simplest ways to move objects, including 6@4 pushers, 6@7 grabbers, and 6@10 animated forces and force servants. Real telekinesis appears at 12@1 lift object, 12@2 manipulate object, 12@3 manipulate multiple objects, 12@4 lift creature, and a couple other 12@ flight-related skills which can include or exclude the caster. 12@10 rend should also be mentioned.
Magic has a time factor in it right? How penalized is it for being instant?
A lot of magic is RF-based, that is, cast immediately and then again a minute or whatever later, like firing a weapon. If it isn't, there's a -20 penalty to convert from TF to RF, and the RF then is based on the invert of the TF--e.g., if the TF is a minute, the RF is once per minute, and the -20 lets you do it at the beginning of the first minute instead of the end. If the TF is an hour, you can do it immediately, but can't do magic again for an hour. You can of course also reduce the TF by adding ritual, if that's possible. (Remember, there are bonuses for appropriate words, must be audible, must be loud or forceful, and for magical language, so there are ways to bonus a skill without adding materials or movements to it.)
Is morphing magical or psionic? or can it be both?
Morphing can be psionic, magical, technological, or body. If you're talking about a creature that is not otherwise magic-using (e.g., werewolf), it's probably best to use body-based morphing. If you're talking about a "wizard" who has the ability, it's best to put it in the same category as whatever comprises his stronger skills. Both magic and psionics distinguish between taking the shape of another creature and becoming another creature.
Does this help?
--M. J. Young
