Difference between revisions of "SolarCraft/GreenLantern"

Latest revision as of 01:17, 6 April 2010

Some Craft charm ideas I wanted to get down, and hopefully get some help with.

Orichalcum Infusing Touch
Essentially, this is a charm, perhaps above Object-Strengthening Touch, that gives an object you 'own' the properties of a low-level artifact. Specifically, immunity to damage as per artifacts, basic 5MM bonus as per an artifact, and the statistics of a basic artifact 2 item. I picture a Solar, fighting his way out of captivity, picking up a mundane knife from a nearby dinner table. Flickering energy pours out of him, and writhes its way up the knife, and where it passes, only the dim golden color of Orichalcum remains. He uses the knife, doing all sorts of amazing things, and at the end of the battle, drops it to the ground, and the light fades.

I'm thinking scene-long, with a cost roughly equivalent to the attunement cost for the artifact equivalent, plus, say, two motes. Reasonable?

Similarly, I've got another one...
Casual Genius Inspiration
A variant on wonder-forging genius, requiring only a Craft excellency as a prerequisite, that allows the Exalt to regularly revolutionize the fields and technologies he works in. Every purchase of this charm allows the Exalt to work one 'generation' ahead of the current technological infrastructure of his surroundings, without penalty. He simply makes breakthroughs, uses techniques, and otherwise develops mundane items that are simply 'beyond' current understanding and structures. A modern-day Exalt might create a net-energy-gain fusion reactor, flying car, or useful voice interface to a PC without difficulty. At the same time, building warp drive would not be possible - this is too far ahead technologically to be feasible. At the same time, enough work by the Exalt, first making fusion, and also subspace radios, and also isolinear chips, etc, bringing the general technology of the world around him to the point that Warp drive was only one generation away. This charm is of course subject to heavy storyteller interpretation, especially in the age of sorrows, where technology has generally stagnated for centuries. As such, the 'leaps' possible by this charm start small, as a generation doesn't get you very much at all.

Comments

I want them. Please, discuss! -- GreenLantern

I think the first Charm is more of a Dragon-Blooded thing. I don't see a Solar picking up a butterknife and turning it into Excalibur with his mind or his glowing aura. I *do* see an Earth Aspect doing that. The Solar would just use the butterknife as an improvised weapon (or a melee weapon with a stunt) and fight his way free using his own innate badassity. What I could see along lines similar to your Charm is a Charm that lets Solars treat mundane objects as combat-ready weapons. A chair leg is treated as a mace, a butterknife is a dagger. I think your Charm is just a bit too "magical" for a Solar.

As one would expect from our history together, I've got to say I disagree fundamentally. I look at the various Summon the Loyal charms, and note that forming weapons out of raw Essence is quite common, and quite reasonable. In all other cases, however, those charms are quite specific about what you form, as they're focused on providing a specific implement you need to use your ability. In the case of Craft, it's a chance to make what you need on the spot, as there are many cases where "Artifacts" are expressly superior to mundane weapons, especially in regards to affecting certain targets, and breakability. Now, having said that, I wonder if your concern has to do with the flavor text, which I envisioned as actually coating the item in Essence. You alternately mention that you can treat mundane objects as battle-ready weapons, which doesn't quite get what I'm looking for. In the first case, I'm not just looking at weapons - I'm considering armor, even vehicles, or pottery. Second, a "combat-ready" item isn't the goal - it's the express, short-term designation as an artifact I'm looking for. I'd be willing to discuss the flavor text separately from the mechanics, as I'm a firm believer that writing alternate flavor text is both simple and helpful ("Charging the item hastily with raw essence, the Exalt briefly gives an item the qualities of an artifact. The particular effect varies from crafter to crafter, with some literally pouring raw essence from their bodies over an item, with others simply knowing that in their hands, it will behave as needed"). -- GreenLantern

The second Charm is just too much. If First Age Solars had that Charm, the First Age would have been endlessly advanced. It's far too open-ended. I appreciate that Solar craftsmen should be able to do crazy Comic Book Mad Science stuff or pull an Ironman suit out of a bunch of scraps in a cave, but this Charm isn't really designed for that. It's more about paying a cost and causing the Industrial Revolution every few hours which isn't very Epic. Possibly a Charm could exist that allows a Solar to cobble together a machine out of components that can't possibly be used to make that machine, with cost varying based on the inappropriateness of the components. Totally bypassing research and development and building a cold fusion reactor out of some rocks and string even though you dont have any idea what a cold fusion reactor is or how it works or what good it would do, that's not really fun. It's "Here, have whatever you want." - Telgar

I can see why you'd think it was too much. It got worse and worse the more I wrote of it, as I realized the same kind of problem. At the same time, I disagree about your 'The First Age would've been incredibly advanced" comment - it was. Before one builds an artifact version of an intelligence, one may build a mundane computing machine. Before building artifact flying vehicles, one might consider building lighter-than-air ships, or even Ornithopters. At the same point, the First Age Solars wouldn't have needed to - they had the infrastructure to build Artifacts to bypass those mundane objects. They could make a teacup fly if they wanted. If they wanted more, they called it Magitech. My claim is that generically, this effect is somehow in the Solar purview. I agree that a permanent effect the way I've described is a bit much. At the same time, yes, I'm explicitly looking for Crazy Comic Book Mad Science, and the Ironman suit. That's essentially where I'm trying to go. I'm trying to explain why Tony Stark, and only Tony Stark,is capable of building an Arc Reactor, or repulsor beams. I'm trying to explain that yes, a Solar can build items that would be post industrial revolution - but not much farther. Until the world catches up with him, he's stuck with the infrastructure available. It's a common theme in engineering research - "Build the tools to build the tools". Before the next generational leap, the first has to be fully ensconced in society. The first alternative you provide, of cobbling together components, is far too limiting, as all you're doing is ignoring raw material availability. The goal is to put, in hard words, that the Solar, given the same thing as any mundane designer, can simply design more - new theories, new devices, etc. What charm explicitly allows the development of the integrated circuit? Of the Jacquard Loom? Solars are those fundamental paradigm-changing designers - how do we make that explicit? -- GreenLantern

That is explicit just in their lore and craft abilities already, dropping 20 successes on design rolls if they feel like it. That charm as proposed would, I would think, lead to a singularity-type scenario very very fast. - TheHoverpope