At 01:42 AM 2/21/04 -0600, David Michael Grouchy II wrote:
> Oh, great. Save points in a dungeon...From: pvk@oz.net and then the wizard blows his roll to create the gate...He loses 1 fatigue right?
Oh, good point. I'm too used to GURPS Magic, where fumbles tend to cost you full power and result in unpredictable failure results.
Also, I was half-remembering an episode or two from actual TFT play, with somewhat similar circumstances. In one case, there was a daring mission planned to sneak and break into a heavily guarded location and get something rather heavy (I forget what exactly), which would only work if the party could complete a Gate casting once they'd accomplished their mission, or they'd be captured. This was part of the plan, which they figured wouldn't be expected, because it was quite difficult to get the required talent and ST batteries. However it didn't all go completely smoothly, and so to get the full 50 ST, party members had to undergo Drain ST, Aid spells had to be cast, and even healing potion had to be used, because it was a close thing. I think there weren't enough people to cast Aid, so they may have had to cast Aid, Drain some ST, and cast Aid again just in time for the Gate spell to be cast. I think the plan _had_ been to Aid the Gate caster with some DX, too, but there wasn't enough ST for that. Aid spells last two turns though and Drain ST restores fatigue, but at a bad 1/5 rate, so you get two chances to make the Gate roll before the Aid spells wear off, which cuts down the risk of actually blowing the aid.
So it is annoyingly certain to succeed, assuming you have enough people healthy enough or enough people who know Aid to pull it off. That's perhaps where the risk is. An unexpected amount of injury could leave you needing some tents after all, so you'd better bring them anyway. Still, I do like the chance of unpredictable failures in GURPS Magic.
PvK =====
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