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Some Scriff questions

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Started 2 years ago by Brock
Latest reply from Brock

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Brock
Member

I am curious as to what would happen if scriff were ingested or otherwise enters the body. I have read in most cases an electrical accident happening simultaneously with scriff touching you in some way activates it and you verse out. So, what happens when scriff gets in you without an electrical accident?

From what I know, scriff infects you by binding with you due to electrical impulses. Since bodies produce bioelectricity, would it not then infect you? Would it then make you into a verser without killing you? Or does infection in and of itself kill you? Would it be possible to run a character who gets infected without dying, then gains the anti-aging attributes of a verser and has to figure out what on <insert world name> is happening? If it doesn't kill you upon entering, would it activate immediately or take time?

you must understand that, as one newly arrived, my questions should logically start at the most fundamental elements of the game, which I perceive to be
1)The existence of a pretty much infinite multiverse, bound together in some way by scriff
2)These universes are biased towards or against certain aspects of natural law, where natural law refers to the four bias areas, not just tech and bod
3)There exists a supernatural realm containing a pretty much infinite number of supernatural entities which may have an interest in the multiverse
4)The existence of people who have become almost inextricably connected to scriff, the versers.

naturally, I would start with the nature of the multiverse, which I feel I have a pretty good handle on, and the nature of scriff.

These are the thoughts that keep me from contributing to society in a meaningful way (joking).

EDIT:NOTE: MJ said in John II is Not at Home: "John, I don't think that many people have actually gone missing yet. I could be wrong, of course, but industry seemed to see the benefits of using the stuff and overlooked the risks, which are still relatively small. If the scriff stays contained, the device will work perfectly well for quite some time, until it seeps out into the scriff. Only of the container is broken and someone comes in contact with it while it is still connected to a hot circuit will it actually cause someone to verse out, and it's not even clear that this happens in every case--although I have known a few people who were not electrocuted, but became scriff infected at the moment of some other accidental death. In fact, I was killed by an explosion, but there was scriff in the exploding device and it got inside me. The Scientist {note: this is a misspelling of the name because it's what the listener would assume was said} was electrocuted while carrying a plastic vial of the stuff in his pocket, and it got into him that way. Someone else I know was in an auto accident, but apparently got infected when the new stereo on his dash burst and splattered him. It's really a freakish thing. You get infected with scriff, but it usually clears in seconds, unless you happen also to be killed in those seconds. On the other hand, sometimes people get infected and stay that way for years, and then die and verse out. I've done a lot of experiments with it, and so has Pete Adams, and never seen anyone verse out as long as careful protocols are maintained. On the other hand, I've also seen it misused in a misguided attempt to create a superweapon, and that can be nasty."

This further answers my questions

EDIT: more notes to myself: MJ said-"For my part, I'm not at all interested in anything that would make me less alert or clear-headed--and that includes chemicals that would make me more so in the short term but less so later. That's not just because I've been in enough situations in which I could not know when I would have to be in top form that I want to be there most of the time; I didn't like that fogginess long before I entered the verse. I've alway put a high value on my ability to think clearly."

I identify with this sentiment vastly. In fact, the only mind-fogging medicine I have ever used is Morphine derivative in a hospital (it's weaker than regular morphine), and I could not stand the feeling of detachment (I knew that before it was given me). I wonder how common this sentiment is? I'll ask later.

Thu Jun 18 2009 5:04 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Quick answer: scriff is not poisonous. If it were ingested or injected or otherwise absorbed it would do no harm. There would be a temporary increase in the scriff in your body. However, scriff is the stuff of which quarks are made, so in one sense everything already is made of scriff. It takes a significant electrical jolt--usually strong enough to kill--to bind the scriff to the molecular structure of the body. Otherwise, an imbalance in scriff will simply leak out of the universe slowly and leave the individual quite the same.

However, you could be infected with scriff and then shot, and that might do it.

Also, one thing that is overlooked because of the nature of the game: just because you are exposed to scriff and you die does not mean you necessarily become a verser. The fact that you are a player character means that in your case it happened. There are in some world teams learning to use scriff to travel to other dimensions, but it requires skill to make it work. Most people who die in scriff-related accidents are merely dead. If it were otherwise, it's doubtful that anything would ever have been made using so dangerous a substance.

--M. J. Young

Thu Jun 18 2009 5:17 am #
Brock
Member

Bias questions:

So, if a world has a curve that barely, just barely allows 15@10 skills, they would have a large penalty to use for being hardly within the realm of possibility?

Thu Jun 18 2009 10:37 pm #
johnosevens
Member

Depends on how allowed they are.

A Verser could use a 15@10 skill in a world with a 0@25 Mag bias. The indigs are barely capable of belief in the supernatural, but the Verser could, theoretically, shape the world as he pleases, if he could get the skills to work at all (which isn't sodding likely).

Then again, in 15@10 worlds, magic flows like wine and everybody could be an archmage if he really set his mind to it.

Thu Jun 18 2009 10:51 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

That's the only way to allow 15@10 skills; the curves don't go any higher than 25 (e.g. 15@10, 0@25, -15@40), so if they're allowed at all, it's always just barely. But to answer the question, no.

It's the world bias level that controls the adjustment to skill success, not the curve. (The adjustment is twice the lesser of the world bias level or the character bias level, level being the number before the @ sign.) Once the skill is judged possible or impossible (for a given user), the curve's job is done.

Also, once the skill is deemed possible, the bias of the skill itself does not affect skill success except in the special case of a skill learning check.

Edit: I crossposted with O'Sevens, but I endorse mostly everything he said, so it hardly matters.

Thu Jun 18 2009 10:55 pm #
Brock
Member

Hmmm I wasn't aware the bias intensity could go above 10. All right, Thanks!

EDIT FOR WODIUM:Oh thanks, that really makes it clear!

Thu Jun 18 2009 10:57 pm #
Brock
Member

So the only factor in chance of success is the bias level of both the world and the character, and intensity combines with the world bias to determine what is and is not possible. Did I read that right?

Thu Jun 18 2009 11:05 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Yes. Of course, only one of the world bias level or character bias level adjusts the chance of success at any given time, but both must be known in order that the lowest of them may be selected, so in that sense they both contribute.

Any skill whose bias level is equal to or below the world bias level and whose bias is within the curve (i.e., either has an @0 or @1 bias or whose bias level plus bias intensity are equal to or below the world bias level plus bias intensity) is possible for anyone.

Any skill whose bias level is above the world bias level but whose total bias still falls within the curve is impossible for beings indigenous to the world but remains possible for anyone else (gods, demons, versers, angels, etc.).

Any skill whose bias is above the curve is impossible for anyone, be it a verser, a god, or Samuel L. Jackson.

Fri Jun 19 2009 12:03 am #
Brock
Member

Or even Chuck Norris? lol

Fri Jun 19 2009 3:56 am #
Brock
Member

Is my understanding of these attributes off at all?

Persuasion-Social Finesse and skill
Animal Magnetism-Personal attractiveness and draw
Charisma-Social Strength and Presence, ability to lead

Strength-Muscular power
Stamina -Endurance
Resistance-I took this to be immune system effectiveness

Flexibility-Range of Motion and ability to move well
Agility-Speed and Balance (reaction? I could argue it's both)
Hand/Eye-Coordination and Depth Perception (reaction? I could argue it's both)

Intellect-Cognitive reasoning and critical thought, higher order thinking skills
Intuition-Creativity and the innate, subconscious understanding of the world
Will-Power-Mental resistance and ability to forge on in the face of adversity
Education Level-Degree of academic learning compared to the rest of society

What is Density in the game? is it physical or mental?

I am having an issue trying to determine how one can rate their Willpower relative to others effectively and objectively...Same with Intellect-I have never NOT been smart, and I hang around other intelligent people, I don't know what "average" intellect really is, I just know what "less or more intellect than me" is....

Fri Jun 19 2009 4:40 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Density is physical. It's used a lot for inanimate objects, especially those objects used as cover or armor, but people have it too. Usually they're 1@1, which is the density of normal flesh and bone.

Resistance includes immune response, but it can also be used against the effects of prolonged heat or cold, or against certain magical or psionic attacks when Willpower would not be appropriate.

If by "reaction," you mean "initiative in combat," the answer is that reaction time is not based on an attribute but rather on chance of attack/skill success - those who are more likely to succeed are more likely to succeed first. If you mean something else, I'm listening. (Incidentally, surprise in combat is handled by Intuition - subconscious sensory cues and all that.)

Education Level-Degree of academic learning compared to the rest of society

Education Level is not a relative measure, but rather an absolute one. If the rest of society has doctorates and you've only got a high school diploma, your Ed Lev is 1@10 and the rest of society is significantly better educated than you are (about 2@4 or 2@5). If the rest of society is illiterate, but recently learned how to count, and you've got a high school diploma from your home universe, your Ed Lev is 1@10 and the rest of society is ignorant in comparison (Ed Lev around 0@10). If the score were not absolute, we'd have to change it every time you versed. (I don't think that's what you thought or were saying, but I thought I'd make it clear anyway.)

"Ability to move well" is probably more Agility than Flexibility. Speed is covered by skills (e.g., B3@4 Dash 300'), not attributes.

The social attributes are tricky. If it helps, Persuasion or An Mag (depending on the circumstance, usually An Mag) are the scores you use when making friends; Charisma is the score you use for keeping them. Sometimes "presence" is Persuasion, not An Mag, depending on what you mean by presence. Intimidation would fall under Persuasion, for example, while "stage presence" is likely An Mag.

Everything else is good.

Fri Jun 19 2009 5:48 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

Same with Intellect-I have never NOT been smart, and I hang around other intelligent people, I don't know what "average" intellect really is, I just know what "less or more intellect than me" is....

"Average" intellect is an IQ of 100.

Yeah, Scott is good at explaining things. I think he should become a teacher.

Fri Jun 19 2009 5:53 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

It occurs to me that it would probably help to know how the averaged attributes are calculated, because which attributes feed in to which values could be illuminating.

Target Value is a measure of the difficulty inherent in scoring a damaging blow on your person in combat. It is an average of your Agility, Intuition, and Density.

Ranged Strike Value is a measure of your talent for scoring damaging hits at range. It is the average of your Hand/Eye and Intuition.

Martial Strike Value is the same thing in close combat. It is averaged from your Strength, Hand/Eye and Intuition.

Damage Value is the measure of how much punishment you can withstand before death (or the equivalent for the non-living). It is the average of your Stamina, Resistance, Density, and Willpower.

Fri Jun 19 2009 5:54 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Thanks, John.

Response to the edit concerning Intellect and Willpower (you really ought to mark those somehow, I almost missed it):

I am having an issue trying to determine how one can rate their Willpower relative to others effectively and objectively...Same with Intellect-I have never NOT been smart, and I hang around other intelligent people, I don't know what "average" intellect really is, I just know what "less or more intellect than me" is....

In this case, objectivity is the job of the referee. Your job is to provide useful evidence for his judgments. That can be self-assessment, but it can also be test scores, or anecdotes, or the opinions of others who know you well. For tests, percentiles are particularly useful - if you're in the 98th percentile on a test that the referee accepts as a reasonable measure of native intellect, for example, that's "smartest out of fifty", which is the threshold for 2@1.

Fri Jun 19 2009 6:00 am #
Brock
Member

By reaction, I meant actual physical reflexes-the ability to catch something thrown to you unexpectedly and such. Initiative sounds similar enough to that.

By rest of society's education, I was undergoing tech bias-I meant OUR society's average... sorry for the confusion.

Ummm...yes, the social attributes do sound tricky. By presence, I kind of meant "aura", the sense of natural respect a person is attributed due to perceived station, what's it called....Nobility, grace, etc.

EDIT: actually, I edited that post 4 times, all within a few minutes of looking it over

Fri Jun 19 2009 6:07 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

If you graduated high school, your ed level is 1@10. If you've got college degrees it goes up to 2@ something.

Your best relevant attribute (BRA) is your highest score in a given area that affects what you're trying to do. For bod skills, it's either strength, agility, or willpower. Some people climb the mountain by brute strength, some by dexterity and nimbleness, and others because they would never forgive themselves if they didn't.

Fri Jun 19 2009 6:11 am #
Brock
Member

"others because they would never forgive themselves if they didn't"

That sounds like me, uh-huh. Of course, I would need a reason to be going up the mountain, but you know what I mean.

"In this case, objectivity is the job of the referee. Your job is to provide useful evidence for his judgments. That can be self-assessment, but it can also be test scores, or anecdotes, or the opinions of others who know you well. For tests, percentiles are particularly useful - if you're in the 98th percentile on a test that the referee accepts as a reasonable measure of native intellect, for example, that's "smartest out of fifty", which is the threshold for 2@1. "

OK, that makes my job loads easier. 'Course, I have only taken the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) and the PSAT, and I never got the results for the PSAT back; something I complain about (to those that can fix the problem) often. I have been told they mailed it 4 times; It never showed. I checked that they have my address correct; they do. But I digress.

"Average" intellect is an IQ of 100."

Yeah, I know, but what does that actually mean? I don't know anyone who had taken an IQ test and gotten that result (or even close to it), and even if I did I never had an extended conversation with such an individual to gauge their intellect. See what I mean?

Fri Jun 19 2009 6:21 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Wow, I guess I just completely missed that paragraph on my first two read-throughs. I apologize.

By reaction, I meant actual physical reflexes-the ability to catch something thrown to you unexpectedly and such.

It depends on what you're doing quickly. If it's catching something, sure, that's Hand/Eye. If it's leaping back onto the ledge because the rope bridge was cut, that's Agility. If it's pulling the trigger of the gun you've got trained on door because a goblin just put his head in view, that's your skill with the gun. The speed required is merely an impediment to successful performance of the action; there is no attribute whose province is speed per se.

To the extent that someone claims to have "good reflexes," they probably mean they have a high Hand/Eye, because situations involving Hand/Eye are the ones in which we most commonly talk about reflexes.

To the extent that someone actually has "good reflexes" in game terms - that is, they respond quickly in nearly any situation regardless of the sort of action (catching a ball, jumping back to the ledge, thinking of the answer) - it is probably that they have a high Best Relevant Attribute for a particular bias area (or all four bias areas). This increases their chance of success with everything, which of course increases their chance of doing any given thing quickly. Alternatively, the character could have a specific skill in reacting quickly, such as a B7@1 Fast Draw skill or a B7@1 Steal Initiative, which if successful lets them act or react before anyone else.

Fri Jun 19 2009 6:24 am #
Brock
Member

Oh, I see. So when I mentioned I could argue it is both Agility and Hand/eye, I was pointing out something already covered in the rulebook without knowing it. I guess that means my argument has a certain degree of merit, then neh? Hehe. Thanks guys, thanks much.

Reading John II is not at home-"It's about a hand grenade's throw from here. (A hand grenade's throw if farther than a stone's throw, because you are trying to get rid of the hand grenade)"

John-That is truly priceless.

Fri Jun 19 2009 6:36 am #
Brock
Member

So, how does a character's personal bias level work? From what I am led to believe, it has something to do with the relevant attributes-but what? Is it equal to the best? The worst? average of all relevant attributes?

Fri Jun 19 2009 2:47 pm #
Graham
Member

A character's personal bias is determined by the highest biased skill they know in that bias. For example, my personal tech bias is 11@1 for being able to work with computers.

Now, your best relevant attribute, or BRA, for a bias is your highest attribute that pertains to that bias. This is used in determining success chance for a skill check.

Fri Jun 19 2009 2:51 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

Hey Brock, just an aside. If you post more than once in a row in a thread, it's generally a good idea to label them (two posts, multiple posts, etc) You'll see that I do that. Especially in your game thread. If you don't do that, especially in your game thread, sometimes MJ misses the first post.

Fri Jun 19 2009 3:17 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

And just for completeness, here are the relevant attributes for each area:

Tech: Intellect, Intuition, Ed Level
Mag: Intellect, Intuition, An Mag
Psi: Persuation, Intuition, Willpower
Bod: Strength, Agility, Willpower

Whichever is highest for a given area is your BRA in that area. It's all right to have the same attribute serve as more than one BRA.

__

Personal bias is determined how Graham says: it is equal to the bias of your character's highest-biased skill in that area. To figure out which is highest, you multiply the skill bias level by ten and add the intensity. This gives a number from 0 (for 0@0) to 160 (for 15@10); the process is called decimalization. It's recorded on the sheet as a level@intensity number, though, not as its decimalized value.

In skill learning, one of the elements in the chance of success is the character's decimalized area bias minus the bias of the skill he's about to learn. For example, if Doctor Emmit Brown (character tech bias T15@7 from his time machine design skills) goes on a camping trip and tries to learn how to start a fire (skill bias T1@2), he has +145% to his chance to learn because of the difference in bias.

Fri Jun 19 2009 6:07 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

Scott, that specific example was amazing. Reason being, in Back to the Future 3, Doc became a blacksmith. I couldn't figure out how he could do that on his own. However, with a 15@7 bias, it makes a lot more sense.

Fri Jun 19 2009 6:31 pm #
Brock
Member

Well, that tears it. This game has covered or can cover absolutely anything, just as advertised, and does so in a logical way, which greatly appeals to me. I am now positive I will get this game next month or the one after, whenever cash is sufficient.
Thank you all for your help.

Fri Jun 19 2009 7:56 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Glad to be of service.

Fri Jun 19 2009 7:58 pm #
Brock
Member

Hey John, you seem to be full of interesting sayings, like "It's about a hand grenade's throw from here. (A hand grenade's throw if farther than a stone's throw, because you are trying to get rid of the hand grenade)" and "They do MARINE work (Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Expected)". I got these from your old game threads. Anyway, where did learn these? I've never heard them (which isn't THAT surprising), but since your game thread indicates some kind of military background or just being a gun and outback stuff enthusiast, I'm wondering if these are all old military sayings or something. oh and "KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)".

Fri Jun 19 2009 11:15 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

I used to date a marine, she told me a bunch of those military acronyms.

I like useless trivia, and I memorize movie quotes.

A lot of my sayings I take from TV shows and whatnot.

Never been in the military. Just a gun nut.

"A hand grenade's throw from here" came from an episode of MASH.

I just like sayings like that.

Fri Jun 19 2009 11:20 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Brock, this is why editing posts is discouraged here: I had answered your post and I come back today to find that the post I answered is longer.

It's fine to edit posts for spelling, for coding errors, stuff like that. If you're editing it for something like a dropped word, it's probably good to make a second post that says you changed it from one thing to another (and adequate just to make that post that says you meant this instead of that). If you add stuff to a post you've already written, there's a very good possibility that I won't see it, and you'll wind up not getting the answers you want.

Scott is probably one of the three best people in the world to explain Multiverser stuff--the other two being me and my son Kyler--so don't take any of this as correcting anything he said, because I haven't seen him say anything that needs correcting in a long time.

I wanted to address the flexibility-agility-hand/eye distinction.

Hand/eye is very specifically the ability to coordinate sensory information with physical action. It applies to things like grabbing an object.

Flexibility is entirely about how limber you are--can you touch your toes, put your foot in your mouth literally, do incredible feats of yoga. If you were to fall into a spiked pit, you would be permitted a flexibility check to be able to bend your body into such a shape that you landed between the spikes.

Agility covers everything else normally considered part of dexterity.

A lot of this is rather secondary; that is, Multiverser relies much more on your skills, and mostly uses your attributes to support your skills. So (for a perhaps rather convoluted example) you have a body skill listed among sensory skills called "balance". If you're in a situation where the question of whether you can retain your balance is challenged, you're going to roll that skill. That skill roll will include your skill ability level at balance, because that's the thing being checked; your bod area bias level, because let's face it an acrobat or martial artist or paraglider is going to be much better at these things than a paraplegic; and your best relevant attribute. There are three attributes considered "relevant" to bod skills, and there are ways in which each can be implicated here. If you are very strong, it is possible that simply by virtue of the strength in your legs and your muscle tone you can maintain your balance. If you are very agile, that obviously supports the ability to adjust your body in ways that center your weight. If you are just plain stubborn--a high will power--you can mentally force the mental and physical state necessary to stay upright despite being an inept weakling (indeed, I have done it)--you simply refuse to allow yourself to fall. Thus those three numbers, the SAL, 2xbias level, and BRA, added together give you a percentage, something between 22 and 110, of staying balanced. Now, sometimes I will use an agility check rather than a skill, and in some rare situations (where you have a skill that enables you to do what others ought to be able to do based solely on an agility check) I'll give you both the skill check and the agility check (because having the skill should never make success less likely), but a lot of that is done seat-of-the-pants, as the referee thinks fits the situation.

Concerning education level, that is one of the toughest. We didn't really do it by "our society's average" so much as by trying to figure out what would make sense as a scale. That is, the scale says that the ordinary average intelligent creature has a fifth grade education, and only one in fifty have ever attended college, only one in a hundred have obtained a four-year degree. I doubt that really represents any society, or that it represents all humanity ever born past, present, or future. Indeed, there is an instability in it already, since a fifth grade education today includes a lot more than a fifth grade education did when I was in fifth grade (at least, I think it does), but it gives us a scale.

I wonder if more posts have been added to this thread while I've been answering these; but I guess I'll know in a moment.

--M. J. Young

Fri Jun 19 2009 11:37 pm #
Brock
Member

I find it rather interesting that MV relies so much more on skill as opposed to natural ability, something I have always found flawed with games like Shadowrun. So, is the following analogy correct: Agility is to Hand/eye or Flexibility as Charisma is to Persuasion or Animal Magnetism? As in, Charisma basically covers "everything else" in the social aspect of play?

EDIT: that didn't sound like what I meant. I meant, Shadowrun relies on attributes too much, MV relies on skills, and I like the latter more.

Sat Jun 20 2009 4:04 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

. . . sort of? I don't think Persuasion and An Mag are as narrowly defined as Flexibility and Hand/Eye, but I think that idea can be a useful shortcut when you're making rulings.

Edit to clarify: I think the idea of Agility as a catch-all attribute is more accurate than a similar idea concerning Charisma. I'll concede that it may be a matter of degree.

I find it rather interesting that MV relies so much more on skill as opposed to natural ability, something I have always found flawed with games like Shadowrun.

I take this to mean that you find flaw in Shadowrun and games like it due to their tendency to overly rely on native ability rather than on skill. Am I in the right ballpark?

Sat Jun 20 2009 4:24 am #
Brock
Member

Yes, I realized after posting that sounded vague. I was deciding whether to edit or post again, when I noticed you already answered. I edited anyway, but you understood aright.

Sat Jun 20 2009 4:34 am #
Brock
Member

Magic question:

Magic in this world is inherently supernatural, and comes from another realm of existence than the multiverse, right? So, does that mean that the universes do not have "ley lines", where mana (magical energy) flows through the world? or do they, and the mana flows in and out of the realities, and is not of those worlds? To be entirely specific, I am referring to arcane magic, holy magic's source is obvious (depends wholly on what spirit you call upon).

I want to know if a mage reaches across the realities, or calls upon the ambient energy around them. I feel it is an important distinction (and I always prefer the latter)

Sun Jun 21 2009 9:56 am #
johnosevens
Member

To me, it seems that they rely on the ambient energy around them. It may COME from outside, but it has to FLOW through "here," wherever "here" happens to be. Mana is not "of" any particular world. I suppose you can think of the Mag bias as a valve, controlling how thickly the mana flows through, and thereby controlling what there is enough mana present to do in those worlds. A mage is (usually) not reaching across realities, he's just using what flows through. To continue my earlier analogy, if mana is like water flowing through the Verse, a mage is a bucket, not a pump.

Sun Jun 21 2009 4:08 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Ah, yes, mana.

I confess to having a distaste for mana-based magic systems; I also recognize that they are found in a significant number of universes.

I don't envision there being "ley lines" in any universe, with the exception of those universes in which such "ley lines" are specifically stated to be part of the reality.

The problem as I see it is that if you introduce ley lines, you then have another factor in the probability of success for magic use. The availability of magic energy is based entirely on bias in Multiverser; if the bias is high (and your bias is high enough to tap it) then you have a high chance of using magic; if the bias is low, you have a lower chance. But your chance of using magic is not also affected by where you happen to be standing (unless someone has used some kind of magic blocking or enhancing skill in a specific location, which is skill against skill at that point).

Now, you don't have make an issue about ley lines, whether or not they are there. After all, it's simple enough to roll the dice given the same probability of success wherever the character is, and then say that strong successes indicate powerful conjunctions of ley lines and failures indicate weak or inaccessible lines. That's almost as good an explanation as any.

Almost, though, because once you introduce the concept of ley lines, you introduce the possibility that some enterprising verser will then develop a skill to observe them--and really, a simple Detect Magic variant ought to be sufficient to spot ley lines. That means now that your player character can position himself relative to the ley lines so as to take best advantage of these. That means you have to be determining where the ley lines are, and also adding additional bonuses and penalties based on those ley lines.

Further, it is a fundamental rule of Multiverser that magic you learn in any universe will work in any other universe, and that it will not be impeded by "magic rules" in that other universe except to the degree that such rules impede the use of indigenous magic. That is, you could have a universe in which illusions just do not work (because of power blocking, not that they are biased out), and no one can cast them, and in that case the verser cannot cast illusions. You can also have a world in which any magic user wanting to cast an illusion must include a mirror as a component in the spell--but in that case, it is entirely because the wizards of that world have the expectation that a mirror is an essential component of illusion magic, and so that is what they teach. The verser in that case can still cast his own illusions even though they were designed without including a mirror, because he is not bound by their expectations, and his magic cannot be eliminated on the basis that it does not follow their ritual rules.

Thus you can have ley lines in a particular world, and you can have wizards who are bonused or penalized by their ability to spot and tap those ley lines--but your verser who learned similar magic without ley lines is not affected by those lines, because his rituals do not require that he tap them. Further, I would think that a wizard from a ley line world who went to a non ley line world who looked for the ley lines would see that the entire world was a sort of ley fuzz, and thus that magic was equally available everywhere. This becomes complicated, though, because if he has some sort of draw on ley line power skill which bonuses his spells, that also has to work in a non ley line world.

In general, if there are rules about magic that are specific to a particular world, and they are not of the sort that says that particular categories of effects are forbidden or bonused or penalized, then those rules work through the expectations of the indigenous magicians, and do not apply to outsiders. That means, too, that those rules apply to those same magicians if they become versers, at least until they reasonably overcome their own limitations in conception.

I hope this helps.

Oh, and yes, arcane magicians are drawing power from the supernatural realm, even if they are drawing it through natural world channels.

--M. J. Young

Sun Jun 21 2009 8:10 pm #
Brock
Member

Clarification: I was actually hoping that the supernatural energy was in the world, not necessarily that it is stronger in some locations and weaker in others. Yes, an ambient "ley fuzz" is perfect, and exactly what I wanted-already there. MJ: I love your system!

Sun Jun 21 2009 10:19 pm #
Brock
Member

two posts

Hey, Scott, can you tell me a bit about the Discordian faith (did I spell that right)?
If you'd rather keep it off the forum, my email is genericfantasyname@yahoo.com.

It sounds like a fascinating religion, and I'd never heard of it until I read a game thread with you in it.

Sun Jun 21 2009 11:07 pm #

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