How would you mechanically recreate the story in which Merlin learns the name of a specific star and summons it down and binds it as the source of his power?
If I recall, he wrote the name of the star in fire on a lake, sent a dove to the moon with a scroll tied to its leg on which the name of the star was written, and then the star fell.
That depends on what the star does, what the star is, what binding it does, and what summoning it down is and does.
With those answers, I can model it pretty precisely, I think.
Scott has asked a lot of excellent questions, which would probably be necessary. After all, in this universe, bring a star to earth would a) take a very, very long time and b) destroy the entire planet. On the other hand, a spell which did this in that Merlin's world would have to achieve the same purpose in any world in which the mag bias was high enough to support it, so it might be that the light or spirit of the star was captured.
But yeah, it could be modeled pretty well, given the right answers.
--M. J. Young
I think it was the same idea as in Howl's Moving Castle, when the titular magician Howl eats the spirit of a star to gain its power, and I believe that with that, I have answered my own question. He's just summoning a spirit to work his magic for him, or to boost his own magical capabilities, or what not. The concept just seemed strange when I initially thought of it, but with that idea it fits very well in the game mechanics.
How exactly does 'boosting one's magical powers' work in MultiVerser terms?
Could you enact a ritual that thereafter gives you a permanent +10 to all Mag-bias skill use checks? Is that basically what it is?
Isn't that basically the only way it could translate? I mean, anything else (mitigating the bias penalty on new skill learning rolls, for instance) are just variations on that theme.
There's plenty of ways to boost your magical prowess.
- M1@4 Bonus Skill Checks, which at near baseline can affect "all arcane magic." An effect of permanent duration is theoretically possible (but dispellable, of course), though a quickly-cast, long-lasting version renewed on a daily or weekly basis might be more feasible.
- Increase your BRA. There are tons of ways to do that, of course, but magic is often the easiest way to get potent, permanent results.
- Increase the SALs of your existing skills, possibly by large increments, possibly permanently. This has an advantage over sit-mods because it can push you across a level barrier, which can effectively quadruple or sextuple (approximately) the power of the spell.
- Amplify the results of the skills you use directly, as for example with a M4@8 Manipulate Magic. The mind boggles at the prospect of listing out the possible applications of this little trick.
- I could probably go on, but I've probably also said too much already. This kind of thing is where the true power is hiding, and players ought to have to think of it themselves.
Are those M4@8 Manipulate Magic skills where your D&D-style Metamagic Feats get translated? Twin Split Maximized etc etc?
Probably. I've never had to do it, but if a character came out of 3rd Edition D&D knowing a metamagic feat, that would be a good place to start looking for how to translate it.
To clarify: any magic skill which directly modifies the result of another magical effect such that there still exists a magical effect is a M4@8 Manipulate Magic of some description.
Scott overlooks one that ought to be mentioned, although it is not completely "reliable" in a sense: increase your bias.
If you know a 15@1 or better mag skill, your bias is 15@; if the world's bias is also 15@, you get +30 to your mag skills--all of them--because of your advanced understanding of magic.
It doesn't work in a world with a 0@ bias, though, because of course you're limited to the bias of the world; if the world's bias is 7@, your bonus is only +14. But if you have a 15@ bias you will always get the maximum bonus the world bias allows.
Also, and independent of world bias, having a high bias means a high positive on learning new skills. Very few player characters ever having trouble teaching themselves to start fires, because the target skill is somewhere around 1@5 and their tech biases are usually in the 8@ to 12@ range, so you've got something between 81 and 125 minus 15, plus BRA and world bias and any other modifiers, and "learns to start fires from sparks/friction/electricity" is usually automatic.
It can be the same in magic, where the high bias skills are pretty easily learned and the low bias ones are automatic.
You can also take advantage of high bias in designing low bias skills, because you know that you have that +30 bonus when you're in a high bias world, so you can allow a penalty on the skills knowing you will still have a solid chance to learn them and to perform them, and if you can kick them up to professional SALs you'll overcome the penalty that way when you're in low bias worlds.
--M. J. Young