Re: (TFT) Reliability of flickering Gates

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/1/2003 9:37:49 PM Central Standard Time, 
rsmith@lightspeed.ca writes:

> "Hey
> gates only fail on a 18, that's a 1/216 chance of
> failure.  We can build a set of gates in a 
> warehouse with a good wizard in the middle.  They
> will last long enough for him and his apprentice
> to run that far, and still have time to cast the 
> spell twice incase he fails on the first try.  We
> can then put this trade family out of business..."
> etc.  I did not want my NPC's to seem stupid by
> comparison so they HAD to get with the times and
> start using dependable magic.

I can understand your annoyance, but I'm wondering about the great heaps of 
fatigue St your characters were apparently able to throw around. By the book, 
stablizing a Gate costs 50 St - that's either one *hefty* apprentice, or a 
*huge* St battery. 

And... If a Gate is used once per turn, and has a 1/216 chance of going 
unstable with each use, then it go unstable every 18 minutes on average. 
You're going to want a good wizard backed up by *50* apprentices casting Aid 
spells in order to keep a warehouse-Gate functioning. 

That's why I decided to resort to GM Whim wrt Gates. The standard malfunction 
rules aren't enough to keep characters from putting up Gates in ways that 
annoy me as GM, but they're too much for the viability of the occasional 
Gates that I *want* to keep around as major fixtures of my world. 

-- 
Erol K. Bayburt
ErolB1@aol.com
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