RE: (TFT) New monster --> Tahquitz --> demigod of guild dues.

["rsmith" <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

	Hi David, everyone.

	I REALLY like the little essay you wrote below.
Hee hee, the god of encumbrance is sleeping in!
(BTW, damn few of my PC wizards ever dodged a magic
school dues payment with out dodging out of town.)

	Tahquitz was intended to be a being of power.
He is like an elemental force, he is there: deal
with it.

	Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: tft-owner@brainiac.com [mailto:tft-owner@brainiac.com]On Behalf Of
David Michael Grouchy II
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 6:39 AM
To: tft@brainiac.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) New monster --> Tahquitz

     'I drive a nail through god's hand.  How much experience do I get?'

     The divine theory of high rent.  By constantly plaguing the characters
with hunger, the need for water, clothing, shelter I find I can siphon off a
lot of cash quickly.  They are beseiged by charges, fees, mandatory tips,
and a complete absence of free information.  Everything costs money, a lot
of it, and constantly.
     The characters really feel the pressure.  Very soon they realize that
the only way they are going to get ahead is to make a big score.  Even
fourty percent of a big treasure will get them to risk life and limb.  Of
course, once they find the loot there are the problems of moving it.
Particularly if it is more than they can carry at once.  And where are they
going to move it to.  Do they really have a safe place to store it?

     This is the impact of divine forces.  All pervasive, unescapeable, yet
basic.  Very basic.  Like being able to eat for the day.

     There are other divine powers like breathing, actual encumberance, the
distance noise travels, even spotting hidden doors.  The key to divine power
is that all of creation is confronted by them.  It's like the guy who made
the bubble gum company.  He became a millionaire.  Five cents at a time.
     My biggest failing as a GM is inconsistency.  Sometimes I would
remember to check encumberance, sometimes I wouldn't bother.  It's like on
some subconcious level I was saying to my players "ahhh, don't worry about
how heavy things are.  The deity of Gravity is sleeping late this day."  I
mean really.  When was the last time a squad of town guard was sent to find
the party and demand back dues for the wizard, merc, and scholar's guilds.
I have a feeling that in most campaigns the wizard characters have gone
their entire lives without paying one cent to the guild.  This is like
saying the desire for money is in a coma, but only for NPCs.

     But none of this is really the point.  What happens if one does attack
the divine.  Can one drive a stake through the heart of high rent?  How does
one bleed dry the weight of gold so it can be moved effortlessly.  Is there
a way to blind thirst, so it can't find you?

     I submit that demi-gods are actually those who have trancended the
neccessities of life.  They never go hungry.  Their clothes are always clean
and new.  And they have lots of money, no one knows where it is, but they
have instant access to it.  This is the fantasy.  That one can just wave
their hand and the broken sword is whole again.  One doesn't need to mount
an armed expedition just to find a smithy.
     This is what makes the spells magical.  A flight spell somehow suspends
the law of gravity.  By making the basics more real it gives greater power
to the spells.  Even the most basic ones.  I feel that Steve Jackson's
aversion to actively played gods is the right move.  At the time he wrote it
most people's ideas of dieties was a D&D package of bigger numbers.  Yet at
the same time Steve Jackson moved away from avatars his game mechanics are
more consistent and intuitive.

     In conclusion I would like to say that the Taqhuitz is just right.  (Of
course I'm not sure if after what I've said above, that Rick Smith would
actually want me to be agreeing with him.)  It's big and strong, yet
strangely weak and fearfull.  It seems to be interested in inscrutable
minuta.  And some how it knows that its demize will come from the most
unlikely and innocent place.  Maybe a seven year old boy armed with a stick
of butter.

     David Michael Grouchy II


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