Re: (TFT) Exploding/Inflammatory Gems

[Thorn <edt@dopey.ne.mediaone.net>]

John Paul Bakshoian wrote:
> 
> I've played for a number of years with "exploding gems."  They do 2D6
> damage.  Now that I look for it in Advanced Wizards, I can't find it.  Hmmm.
>   Is this perhaps from another game?

The spell is in Advanced Wizard, but not the casting cost.  We always
guessed at that, sometimes 2ST/Die, sometimes 3ST/Die, lack of
apprentices among PCs keeping damage down, and gem costs (higher quality
and cost needed for greater dice) keeping us from carrying bandoliers of
the things.

A favorite trick was the obsidian broadhead, charged to one or two dice
of effect, stopping power being the goal.  These gimmicks were enspelled
at the least sensitive of the two options for 'trigger', which was
jargoned by my PC mage as 'matrix deformation', which means 'break the
gem'.  :)  The other option for trigger was 'touch', jargon being 'aura
deformation'.  This type was just WAY too dangerous for anyone but their
creator to carry around (and judged too dangerous for that by my
overcautious mage).

These broadheads had the annoying tendency to not go off, coming to rest
inside some big badguy (the kind you'd NEED them for) without going off,
only to detonate later, at some inopportune time.  Imagine not being
able to happily butcher those alchemic components, for fear of your own
gizmo.

Another thing the spell failed to define was the manifestation of the
damage.  'Explosive' is enough for most folk, but gamers being what they
are, fiery explosions differing from pure force and all that, we had to
elaborate.

Our mages could ensorcell a gem with any pure damage effect they
otherwise had knowledge of.  Pure Force was the default, but Dar Fannen
had Fire, Lightining, and Disintegration effects in his repetoire, and
so he could produce any of these sorts of gems.
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