Difference between revisions of "HearthstoneRelay/Synergy"

Revision as of 00:36, 6 April 2010

The ninth theme is synergy.

Crystals of Wondrous Visions (Nikink)
Sidereal-Aspected
Manse •
Trigger: Concentration

These crystals are the size of eye-balls and appear to have clusters of shimmering points of light within their hearts.

By holding it to their eye, the Exalt may see through another Crystal of Wondrous Vision. This Crystal must belong to a Manse that the Exalt is attuned to. The most common way to generate these Hearthstones is to alter a manse to create more than one. Thus a Level 5 Manse could be set to generate 5 of these, but it is more common to have any given Manse generate one or two, and attune to multiple Manses. The Exalt sees the area as if they were standing where the stone is located. Enterprising Exalts have expanded their vision range by holding one Crystal to another. Only sight is affected.

The Fleeting Stone (szilard)
Air-Aspected
Manse ••
Trigger: Concentration

The Fleeting Stone is a smooth, transluscent stone with a silver-blue surface. Those who stare into its depths will see a number of floating dark spots equal in number to the number of individuals attuned to the Manse that formed the stone.

The Fleeting Stone can be reflexively sent by its holder to any other individual who is attuned to the Manse that formed it. It can carry with it a short message, usually no more than three or four words in length. The stone is sent instantly, and appears in the possession of the recipient in an unobtrusive but easily noticed location. The message is relayed when the stone is first touched. If the recipient has an artifact with an empty hearthstone socket on his person, the stone will appear in it, transferring the message immediately.

Gem of Many Roots (Quendalon)
Wood-Aspected
Manse •••
Trigger: None; constant

Motes of light flow through the veins in this smooth green stone. Once attuned, the Gem of Many Roots doubles the Essence recharge rate of all of its bearer's Hearthstones, including its own.

Formless Stone (ReallyBored)
Lunar-Aspected
Manse ••••
Trigger: Concentration (simple)

The stone appears to be a lump of clay, easily molded into various shapes. It's color shifts slowly, but noticably, through the entire spectrum. In order for it to be attuned, it must be set in a moonsilver item, at which point it hardens into the form of the hearthstone socket and the color shifting speeds into a prismatic shimmering.

Once attuned, it takes but a thought for the stone to mimic any other hearthstone of rating less than its own the possessor is attuned to. All effects of the stone are stacked with the original where appropriate (so duplicating a Gem of Many Roots from above would quadruple essence regeneration). The Formless Stone may only mimic one hearthstone at a time and no hearthstone may be duplicated more than once a day.

Gemstone of Amalgamation (EndlessChase)
Earth Aspected
Manse •••••
Trigger: Contact with another Hearthstone

In its neutral state, the Gemstone of Amalgamation looks like nothing more than a smoky white sphere of glass. When set in a hearthstone setting and attuned, the Hearthstone provides no additional bonus aside from essence regeneration until it is brought in contact with another Hearthstone that the owner is attuned to. Once such contact is made, the stone seems to liquefy and surges around the other stone. Over the course of the scene, the mass of the stone diminishes until it reaches the same size that the Gemstone of Amalgamation originally possessed, though its appearance and coloration will be that of an amalgamation of the original two stones.

Once the combining is complete, the new hearthstone possesses the powers of both hearthstones, while only taking a single setting to use. There is no limit to the number of Hearthstones that may be incorporated into the Amalgamation, though no additional essence recovery is gained beyond that granted by the Gemstone of Amalgamation itself. If the Manse that any of the incorporated Hearthstones is from is damaged, that stone is expelled from the amalgamation as a dead husk. If the amalgamated stone itself or its manse is harmed, all of the hearthstones incorporated are destroyed as well, and will reform in their Manse at the appropriate speed.

Comments

By "synergy," I mean "stones which work together," but it could easily be extended to mean co-operation in general. _Ikselam

Basically reprised my submission to the Advanced Tattoo Charms relay, but it seemed to fit well here. - Quendalon

I thought that the character only gets extra Essence from the highest-rated Hearthstone to which he is attuned and not from all of them? - Moxiane

Indeed, this is true. Still, that's a badass stone. It just has a rather uninspiring and unthematic power. Double Essence Regen. That is all. - Telgar

Maybe another way to approach the idea would be to let every Hearthstone socketed in the same artifact as the Gem of Many Roots would provide Essence regen, or something along that line? - David.

I believe I made up a Sidereal stone which allowed you to gain motes from all hearthstones you carried, instead of just the highest-ranked one. It was level 5. Something which allowed you to get motes from all hearthstones in the same artifact as itself seems like it would be around level-3 usefulness, considering the relatively small number (and high cost) of artifacts with more than one setting. _Ikselam

Did I miss something? Where does it say you only regain motes from just your highest ranked hearthstone? Resplendence

That'd be in the section on Manse, Corebook. - Telgar

I would this hearthstone Formless Stone and Gem of Many Roots are overpowered, instead of this effect, you can make it as Arcanbenzoar from S&S, so it will increase the recovery of essence by 4 motes/hour. - Shiki

I think the Formless Stone should definitely not be able to mimic level 5 stones. _Ikselam

Sorry. I forgot to include the limitation when I wrote it up, since I was thinking of a lvl 5 stone initially. Now that I think about it, this removes the inifite loop problem I was struggling with rather nicely. -- ReallyBored

I agree that the last two stones are overpowered. The Formless Stone is a good idea, but I would've made it so that it can only mimic stones up to level two, and only stones that it has been in contact with. I would even give it a limited hearthstone "memory". Resplendence

I don't think it's praticularly unbalanced to allow it to mimic stones up to its own level. In many cases, having two of the same hearthstone won't really give you much extra benefit; most of the really useful powers aren't things which can stack. I think the only major issue is using it to get extra uses for once-per-time-period powers, then immediately switching it to something else so that it can continue being useful. It should probably remain in each form for a fixed period of time, or have some kind of delay built in. Like, once it switches away from a particular stone, it can't mimic that stone again until a number of days equal to the copied stone's ranking have passed.

As written, it can only do any given stone once per day, so you can't switch to a once-per-time-limit stone then back to the old one. Hrm...there is a problem with hearthstones that have a once-per-time-period limit longer than 1 day. Gotta think about that a little. -- ReallyBored

My main concern is not that you'd cheese by flipping back and forth to "recharge" limited-use gems; that's clearly not meant to be possible. It's that you could use a powerful limited-use ability, then switch to some other useful ability (e.g., a stackable one) instead of having the gem become useless until it finished "recycling," as would be the case with most regular limited-use hearthstones (for which it is a major balancing factor). _Ikselam

Ahh, ok, I get it now. As written now, it's limited to duping rating 3 stones max, but I'm not sure where the really strong limited use stones start appearing. For delays, I'd guess that forcing it to stay in a given form for a time in addition to the once per day per stone limit is the way to go. Having a dead-time or having it unable to recopy for a time feels a little too limiting. -- ReallyBored

I don't think the Gem of Many Roots is massively overpowered, as long as it doesn't also cause hearthstone essence regen to be additive. I think I would be more comfortable with it if its power was something along the lines of, "this stone's essence regeneration is always cumulative with that of the bearer's highest-ranked hearthstone (besides the Gem of Many Roots itself)." _Ikselam