Re: [HOE] New Miracle proposal

["J A" <danthius@hotmail.com>]

Hey Matt,

     I'm far from what you call a generous GM, no matter how it appears, I 
just believe in giving my players enough rope to hang themselves.  However, 
I do see your points on all accounts.  I'm going to test run this power as 
is today, and see how well-balanced it stays, while still giving the player 
the power that they want.  Afterwards, I may adjust it using some of the 
finer points you have laid out, including success on a raise, and increased 
strain cost.  As always thanks for the opinions, I always like "bouncing" my 
ideas off you guys.

                                Jason Adkins


>From: Matt and Teresa Steflik <grifflik@stny.rr.com>
>Reply-To: hoe@gamerz.net
>To: hoe@gamerz.net
>Subject: Re: [HOE] New Miracle proposal
>Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2000 02:29:24 -0400
>
>Jason,
>
>Hmm.  An "I'm rubber, you're glue"  Doomie miracle that goes across
>other AB powers. Not sure I like the notion.  I think you're being way
>too generous - as written it has the potential to get nasty really
>fast.  Also, there's a problem doing the mechanics this way that might
>make it unusable in several situations...but I'll get to that later.
>Let's assume for discussion's sake that it _will_ work and go from
>there. Here's some balance suggestions...
>
>First off, while this might seem like a "duh", you need to include a
>note in there that the Doomie has to see the attack coming (you have to
>see what's shooting it you to know you're being targeted by it).
>
>I'm assuming this power would only work on powers that utilize Strain,
>correct?  That being the case, in addition to the opposed roll of Faith
>vs. Faith (or whatever), I'd make the Strain requirement variable,
>depending upon what the Doomie is attempting to stop, and also require
>it again for the "bounce" (if successful).  In other words, if the
>Doomie was trying to stop a power with a Strain cost of 2, he'd have to
>take two Strain after a successful opposed roll to stop it - if he
>happened to get a raise on the opposed roll and wanted to bounce it,
>he's have to take an additional two Strain.  This way, you don't have a
>Doomie getting to block hideous things (like MIRV for example, or the
>dreaded and oft debated "targeted" Nuke) and then lob them back at their
>casters for the nothing cost of 1 strain (WAY too cheap).
>
>Here's an easy example of how this would work.  Let's say that Bob the
>Doomie (Faith 3d10) sees a Doombringer nearby (within 10 yards) getting
>ready to throw something at him (let's say it's a TN 3 Cog roll in this
>situation...pretty easy).  Sure enough the Doombringer (who has a Faith
>of 5d12) lobs Atomic Blast at Bill and gets an ace, getting a Faith
>total of 16 (success with two raises, for a total of 3d10).  Bob throws
>his high card and attempts to throw up the shield to keep from getting
>hit.  First he has to make the opposed Faith roll...he rolls, getting an
>ace and a grand total of 18 (no raise above the Doombringer's roll).
>The Blast is successfully stopped and Bob takes 1 Strain (equal to the
>cost of the Blast).  If Bob had managed a raise, he'd have to take
>another Strain (again, equal to the cost of the Blast) to "bounce" it
>back at the Doombringer.  The "bounced" blast would still be 3d10, but
>the hit location would be random and not recieve any modifiers from the
>original raises the Doombringer made (the power follows the same
>trajectory back to it's caster, but there's no aiming involved).
>
>I might even go so far as to say the power works THIS way only against
>Doomsayer miracles.  If used against Sykers and Toxic Shamans, it still
>works but not as well: the Doomie must beat the opposed roll by a raise,
>and get two raises on the opposed roll to bounce a power back. Something
>like that.  I don't think that it should be equal across all of the AB
>powers.  But hey - that's me.
>
>Now that's been said, here's the exception that creates a problem for
>your concept's mechanics: what if the Doomie is targeted by a power
>whose TN  is also an opposed roll (like Microwave for example)?  How
>exactly would one do an opposed Faith roll vs. an opposed Faith vs.
>Vigor roll?  If you say "only make the opposed Faith roll if you
>successfully make the Vigor roll" you defeat the point of the shield
>power (preventing you from being hit) by letting the power hit you and
>thus neccessitating the roll.  If you make the roll, swell.  If you
>don't, it's now too late for the shield.  If you instead say "just make
>the opposed Faith vs. Faith"...you can't.  Without the power's opposed
>Faith vs. Vigor roll first, you have no TN to oppose with your Faith
>roll.  At least I think I'm interpreting this right - I'm kinda tired.
>You could of course just say "the shield doesn't work on powers that
>require opposed rolls to generate a TN" as a messy fix...but, eh. It's
>not great.
>
>Unfortunately, using the mechanics you've chosen, I don't see a way
>around the problem.
>
>So, there you go.  For what it's worth, I hope it makes sense and helps
>a little.
>
>Matt Steflik
>Gimme Shelter - http://www.geocities.com/grifflik/
>
>
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