|
Hmm, the
cleansing power of fire seems to be integral to short-circuiting an adventure. Best example
I have is from a fantasy game. The
GM was not very familiar with the magic system and had the poor sense to have
us awaken to an army encamped outside the town we were in. Just wake up one morning, and boom,
there’s an army who supposedly marched to the town unnoticed. Now, the
magic system has prerequisite spells to get more “advanced” spells, so our mage
had to know how to “create” and “control” fire in order to get the “fireball”
spell. These “lesser” spells are
only limited in their area of effect by how much “fatigue” (or power points)
the mage can put into them. Now,
the first thing the GM didn’t realize is that there is a way to gain “fatigue”
for casting spells from others through ritual, but that it is much easier if
the other participants are “magically active” themselves. In fact, 1 “fatigue” from each is
pretty much automatic. Did I
mention that this town was settled by gnomes, which in this world has a greater
propensity for “magically active” members? That led to one of the great lines of the game… “Give me a
hundred gnomes, and I’ll win this war.” Now, you
may be thinking the GM should have known better, but you see he was thinking
that fire only does minimal damage (like 1d6-1 in this system), and his army
was pretty well armored. Sure, we
could sweep the field with fire, and we might take out some or soften them up a
bit, but he didn’t think we could really wipe out the whole army. Then comes
the second point he missed; armor doesn’t count against fire unless it is
sealed. They may as well have been
naked on the field when the fire was called down upon them. Oh, and to
add insult to injury, when the mage cast his spells, he got critical successes
on both rolls. J Clint Black "You smell that? Do you smell that?
...Ghost Rock, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the
smell of ghost rock in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed,
for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em,
not one stinkin' Yank body. The smell, you know that sulphurous smell, the
whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end..." |