Re: (TFT) Magic: illusions, cities

[Thomas Fulmer <tfulmer1@gmail.com>]

With the campaign I've been running recently, I am very much a fan of
creatively interpreting rules as opposed to making up new ones or
changing old ones. It's much easier and more interesting that way.

With illusions, I don't have a problem with them in combat scenarios.
If a wizard creates something (especially something for which there is
no common summon spell) it's basically a freebie for the enemy to
disbelieve at their next opportunity and have the wizard waste his
strength. Sure, sometimes they don't think that is important enough to
do that turn, but that means they have to face the consequences of
that choice.

Illusionary scouts are always an interesting subject that I've been
dealing with creatively --

Example 1:
Character casts an illusion to scout out a cave the party is thinking
of entering. Inside the cave, the scout encounters something which
trips a phobia that the Wizard has in the handicap/backstory list. The
character saw stuff and reports it, after spending several turns
vomiting and having a panic attack. The party had a hefty debate about
whether or not it was safe to go in, even after the wizard assured
them the coast was (at least apparently) clear.

Example 2:
((Note that in my world, hypnosis by a dragon does not have to be
permitted, the character just has to have eye contact)). There is a
dragon nearby, a dragon the party is attempting to find and kill. As
it is flying well out of range, the wizard sends an illusion up to
scout the dragon and try to lure it to the ground. The dragon began
speaking to the illusion and the character was speaking back even
though the dragons description said, "While looking into the eyes of
the illusion..." or some such wording. When the character responded
(While looking through the eyes of the illusion), she instantly fell
into a trance. While the party looked at her figuring out what was
going on she suddenly started giving the dragon information about the
party's mission and all their names.

In other words, I choose to use role play settings to make illusionary
scouts (and other such things) have risks within the world that are
not directly the result of new rules. I don't like keeping track of
new rules and many players don't enjoy it either. Interpreting the
world to control situations that might otherwise be abuse is far
easier.

I do the same thing with Gate spell. Many GMs disallow it in their
campaign for obvious reasons, I instead simply make the spell illegal
in many lands and a tightly guarded secret in others. If a player does
eventually learn the spell somewhere, they still have to deal with the
fact that being caught using it in many places (including many of the
lucrative places) is illegal. There is even a major power that many
believe would start a war over the unauthorized use of a gate. The
players are free to find it (eventually) and use it, but they may end
up dealing with the consequences of that choice if they are not
careful in the usage.

--Thomas


On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 12:55 AM, Meg Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Who thinks that Illusion, at IQ 11 and ST cost 2, is overpowered? Sure, it
> can be disbelieved, but opponents have to lose their action while doing so,
> and can be engaged by illusory figures, meaning that illusions can create a
> huge tactical advantage - not to mention the constant use as scouts.
> Solutions could be bumping the ST cost to 3 and/or increasing the IQ level.
>



-- 
"Do not imagine that, if something is hard for you to achieve, it is
therefore impossible for any man: but rather consider anything that is
humanly possible and appropriate to lie within your own reach too." --
Marcus Aurelius
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"