MartialArtsRelay/Cards

The next challenge is to create a sidereal style that we actually finish. I think the key to doing so is to select something with fairly deep symbolism. Since the relay is now 21, it's ready for Vegas...

This is a Second Edition Sidereal Martial Art based on manipulating reality in ways similar to manipulating cards in card games and gambling. Most charms have an external focus (that is, they manipulate targets, not the practitioner), generally working by manipulating both targets and reality like cards to screw over a mark, possibly with the help of accomplices. It's about winning at any cost, taking advantage of those less awesome than you, ending with more than you started with, and not feeling guilty afterwards. All charms prior to the form are based on symbolism common in gambling and card terms referencing legal actions, such as "shuffling (and/or cutting) the deck", "splitting aces", "double-down", "hit on river", "go fish", "bet the limit", "take the pot", any of the weird card terms ("knock", "trumping", "trick") etc. All charms after the form use symbolism from cheating at cards, such as "stacking the deck", "dealing from the bottom", "mechanic's grip", etc.

This style uses no weapons and only allows armor if it has no effective fatigue or mobility penalties. In the spirit of the style, cheating to get such armor is encouraged (e.g. using gossamer armor, charms, etc.)

My feeling is that this should be a fairly large style, say five pre-form charms and six or seven post.

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Charm Name - Author

Cost:

Duration:

Type:

Keywords:

Minima:

Prereq. Charms:

Effects

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Once, there was a gambling maiden...

Unflinching Many-Faced Bluff - #1 - IanPrice

Cost: 5m

Duration: Scene

Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Stackable

Minima: MA 5, Essence 4

Prereq. Charms: None

...and none could read her face unless she let them.

In games of cards, the cards are left to chance, but the players are free to control each other if they can. An opponent who folds his decent hand, or pushes with his weak hand, is defeated. Therefore, this charm exerts a subtle emotional influence on anyone attacking or defending against the Exalt. Any attacker who inflicts damage or other undesired effects on this Exalt, or any defender who avoids such effects from this Exalt, must make a Morale check at a difficulty of this Exalt's Essence. The penalty from a failed check lasts the entire scene, and multiple failed checks inflict stacking penalties. Any attacker who fails to harm the Exalt, or any defender who suffers harm from him, must succeed on a Temperance roll in order to do anything except move towards and attack this Exalt on his next action. Once a non-Extra has been subject to one of the effects of this Charm (even if the roll went in the subject's favor), she may spend temporary willpower equal to this Exalt's Essence to become immune to this charm for the remainder of the scene (this removes any lingering penalty).

Cutting the Deck - #2 - Wordman

Cost: 9m

Duration: Until DV refreshes

Type: Simple

Keywords: Combo-OK

Minima: MA 5, Essence 4

Prereq. Charms: None

To her, the world was as a deck of cards...

As the connection between cards and fate become more clear, the martial artist realizes that chance has less to do with cards than it first appears. When someone cuts a deck of cards, for example, they make a choice that dictates all that happens after it. As the deck is cut, the fate of two cards is radically altered, one promoted to be first, the other doomed to be last. Similarly, this charm alters the order of those surrounding the artist.

The artist chooses any two visible targets within 100 yards and makes separate attack rolls against each of them using Wits + Martial Arts. These attacks are insubstantial, undodgeable, unblockable and ignore all penalties from cover, shields, range, position and any environmental conditions which do affect visibility. Visibility penalties and other effects (e.g. wounds, target using Snake Form, etc.) apply as normal. Attack rolls typically only need one success to hit and completely ignore hardness and soak, but deal no damage. The artist may issue one of these attacks against herself, which succeeds without the need for a roll.

If the attacks succeed against both targets, at a single point in time prior to her DV refreshing, the artist may reflexively exchange the ticks on which the two targets next act. Only one exchange is permitted with each activation of the charm and motes from this charm remain committed until it is made. This charm has no other effects on actions, only on when they occur. Charms that prevent "undesirable effects" (such as Duck Fate or Bastion of the Self (Cup)) may be used to avoid the effects of the exchange even if the attack couldn't be stopped, but such charms only prevent the exchange from altering the next tick of the target using such an effect, not the other target.

Example: The Artist, Baal and Caine are fighting. Artist acts next on tick 10, Baal on tick 12 and Caine 15. On tick 10, Artist activates this charm as her action but waits to apply its effect. Artist will next act on 16, when her DV will refresh. On tick 12, Baal acts, attacking Caine with a speed 6 action, meaning Baal now goes next on 18. Immediately after the attack, Artist exchanges Baal and Caine's action ticks. Caine now goes on 18 and Baal on 15. If Caine used a charm like Duck Fate to avoid the exchange effect but not the attack, he would avoid his half of the attack and still go on 15, but Baal (not using such a charm) would still be altered to go next on 15.

Betting Against the Odds Approach - #3 - IanPrice

Cost: Varies

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK

Minima: MA 5, Essence 5

Prereq. Charms: Unflinching Many-Faced Bluff, Cutting the Deck

...the wager: herself...

This charm may be used any time a dice roll is made, so long as the martial artist is aware of it and is within (Essence x 10) yards of the person rolling. The charm user names a result of the roll, either an exact number of successes or a range of successes, then spends any number of motes, willpower, and virtue channels, and takes any desired number of health levels of unsoakable damage of any type desired; this payment is the "bet." The minimum bet is 1m, 1w, 1h(bashing). The maximum bet is (Essence x 2)m, (Essence)w, (Essence)hl(any combination of types). There is a catch to this bet, however: it only pays off if the odds are even or better that the bet will be lost. Even odds are defined as a range of successes with a difference no greater than this Exalt's Essence. Long odds (bet will probably lose) exist either when an exact number of successes is named. If the result of the roll is the same as the user of this charm named, then the bet is returned; health levels healed, willpower, virtue channels, and essence regained up to normal maximums. Even odds will return the bet once again (2x payoff), while long odds will add twice the value (3x payoff). This charm may only benefit the martial artist once per tick.

Stake Raising Annotation - #4 - Ambisinister

Cost: 3m/target, 3m/level of damage, 1 wp

Duration: special

Type: Simple

Keywords: Combo-Basic

Minima: MA 5, Essence 5

Prereq. Charms: Betting Against the Odds Approach

...,and knowing that one always wins and one always loses...

Through use of this technique a martial artist is capable of twisting the destiny of a combat so that its fate lies heavily in the house of endings. When activating the charm the character must select at least two targets who must be within line of sight. The character may target herself with this charm. The martial artist then determines the wager by purchasing levels of damage at the rate of three motes per level. Bought damage must be lethal. The next time any of the targets act, the game begins. Starting with the first target, one level of damage is added to the "pot." Every time a target acts, another level of damage is added to the "pot." This process continues until all of the purchased levels have been moved into the "pot." The wager is that one of the targets will hit and damage one of the others. When this happens, the game is over and the charm ends. Whichever target was hit and damaged recieves an additional number of lethal levels of damage equal to the levels of damage in the "pot." Motes spent to power the charm remain committed until its effects end. There is another wager: the character is wagering that one of the targets will win and one will lose. If this does not happen, then the martial artist becomes the loser and the damage in the "pot" is applied directly to her health track and is unsoakable. The total number of targets and levels of damage purchased combined cannot exceed the character's (essence + martial arts + highest rated college in the house of Endings).

Example: Nine-Turning-Mirrors is observing a fight between two Anathema. One of them needs to die and it matters little which it is, so he invokes Stake Raising Annotation. His (essence + martial arts + highest rated college in the house of Endings)=13. He targets both anathema (costing 6m) and purchases 7 levels of damage (costing 21m). Anathema A acts first, and one level of damage is added to the pot. He swings and misses. Anathema B goes and the pot increases by another level. He actiavtes a Simple Charm. Anathema A's turn, the pot increases again. Anathema A aims, and thus gets to act again before B and the pot increases again to a total of 4. A attacks and hits, but inflicts no damage. B gets to go, the pot increases to 5. He attacks and misses and A counterattacks. A hits and damages B. The game is now over, B is the loser and takes an additional 5 health levels of damage. The remain levels of wagered damage that Nine purchased are lost and the essence is not refunded. If A had missed and B ran away, thus ending the combat, then Nine-Turning-Mirrors would have been the loser and he would have recieved whatever damage was in the pot.

One or two more pre-form charms could probably go here.

Ivory Tableaux of Presumption Form - #5 - Wordman

Cost: 15 motes

Duration: One scene

Type: Simple

Keywords: Form

Minima: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5

Prereq. Charms: Stake Raising Annotation, others, one complete lesser martial arts style

...did what she could to get chance on her side.

When playing card-games of chance, the best players make their own luck. For the rest of the scene, the martial artist can reflexively alter the target number by one, up or down, of any combat test made by himself or any visible combatant within Essence * 25 yards, including damage rolls, social combat and unit combat. Targets the user can perceive through supernatural means, such as charms that allow dematerialized spirits to be seen, are valid targets for this effect, provided they are in range. No combination of effects can reduce a target number below 4 or above 10. This charm does not alter the rule of 10.

Reading The Marked Cards - #6 - DiamondMX

Cost: N/A

Duration: Permanent

Type: Permanent

Keywords:

Minima: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5

Prereq. Charms: Stacking the Deck Form

First she knew her opponents...

It is important to examine the stakes of the games you play before risking too much. The martial artist knows the permanent Essence, Willpower, and Exalt type of anyone within sight (Creatures outside fate are perceived as 'undefined' types). Additionally, for 1m she may know the dice pool and TN of any action she perceives before she it is rolled, and before she is required to declare a response.

Card Sharp's Grip - #7 - Wordman

Cost: 20 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: One Scene

Type: Reflexive

Keywords:

Minima: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6

Prereq. Charms: Stacking the Deck Form

...and dealt the best and worst of them...

Many card cheats hold the deck in a particular way, known as the Mechanic's Grip, allowing them to manipulate how cards are dealt without being detected. The martial artist extends this idea, influencing the output of those she grasps.

While this charm is in effect, the martial artist may make clinching attacks with only a touch. A handshake, for example, might look to the rest of the world like a handshake, but its target would suffer all of the effects of being clinched, becoming immobile and being unable to act until escaping the clinch.

Any time a martial artist using this charm controls a clinch, in addition to normal clinch mechanics, they gain additional influence over their target.

• They may prevent any verbalization by the target. The target is allowed to speak normally, but the martial artist's player may veto selected utterances as if they never happened.
• They may manipulate any die rolls made by the target. After the target makes any roll (including one to control the clinch), the martial artist may change the result of Essence selected dice in the roll to be the result of any other die in the roll. If, for example, the target rolled 1,3,3,3,6,6,7,8,8,10, a martial artist with Essence 6 could make this roll 1,3,3,3,1,1,1,1,1,1, forcing a botch. If, instead, the target rolled 2,3,3,3,6,6,7,8,8,10, forcing a botch would not be possible because no die in the actual roll was a one. The worst the artist could do is make the roll 2,3,3,3,2,2,2,2,2,2. Note that the artist could have instead made the first roll something like 10,10,10,10,10,10,7,8,8,10 if they had reason to, though this would be unusual. Note that this charm doesn't change what is or is not possible for the target of a clinch. Also note that effects that achieve success without rolling cannot be effected by this ability.
• Any time the martial artist successfully renews a clinch, she may make a free, unblockable, undodgeable, unnatural social attack on the target, adding her Essence in automatic successes.

Comments

While I can understand the motives, I think there should be some cpossibility for an Exalt to use cards as weapons. There are a few precedents for tha in sources tha fit Exalted (the hellsing manga to name one) Mabery include it as a thing tha masters of this style can simply do? Also, this raises an intredting question. What is a card deck like in creation? I have 2 post form charm ideas and one pre form charm ideas. They are currrently forcallde "Mask of the gabler approach" "Marked deck method" and "Ace Up the Sleeve technique". WHat Essence ranges are we moving in? -Azurelight

It's a Sidereal Martial Art, so likely in the Essence 4-7 range. As for the card thing, I suggest allowing "a deck of cards" to be a form weapon, which basically means that the user can make barehanded attacks out to 10 yards, using Essence and whathaveyou to fling them further and harder than normal. - Moxiane

There are various DecksOfCards in the Exalted world. As for using cards as form weapons, I'm kind of "meh" on the idea. Seems like that turns the style into "that style where you do cool things with throwing cards" rather than the indended "style where you manipulate places/reality/people/attacks/defenses as if they were cards". But whatever, it's your relay. -- Wordman

I agree. If this were a Celestial style, it would attack with cards. That's far too crass for a Sidereal thought excercise. - IanPrice

Unflinching Many-Faced Bluff

I had to read it about four times to follow what it was doing, but neat way to turn the idea manipulating an opponent with bluffing into mechancis, Ian. It allows the possibility of intentionally missing to mess with the target, which is cool. I'm not sure the Essence rating should be 5, though. I think 4 would be enough, particularly because of the "spend willpower to avoid" thing. One question as well: the Morale rules are a bit fuzzy on timing. How long does the -2 internal penalty from a failed Morale check last, and can the target spend willpower as described in the charm to eliminate it? -- Wordman

Changed to 4, and clarified on the penalties. Decided they should stack to match this to the SMA power level. I hadn't even thought of intentionally missing or getting hit... but I guess this would make a good combo with Essence-Gathering Temper, Willpower Enhancing Spirit, etc. Anyway, it made me giddy to read "I had to read it about four times... but neat" - that told me I'd written a good SMA charm. - IanPrice

Cutting the Deck

What do you mean by "can be done reflexively?" Do you mean I can pay 8m again to do the effect again, any time until my DV refreshes? That's not what the current wording says, but it's the closest thing I can make sense of. The current wording says you have to activate the charm multiple times, which is impossible without extra or independent actions due to its Simple type. - IanPrice

Actually, unless I'm reading it completely wrong, activating the Charm as a Simple action leaves a reflexive "trigger" hanging over you, good until your next DV refresh, that allows you to swap out the "next tick" answers for two participants. In other words, nothing happens immediately - the swap waits to be applied later. - Hapushet,who's not much for Sidereal MA, sadly

Yes. That's what I meant. The charm sort of "empowers" you to release this exchange effect at some point before your DV next refreshes. Once. When you choose to do the exchange, it is done using rules for reflexive timing, hense "can be done reflexively". The idea is that this type of delay essentially devorces the artist from constraints of his own timing for a few ticks, to be able to take maximum advantage of the effect (i.e. he can wait for a few extra ticks after his action before lowering the boom). At the same time, making the charm Simple prevents the effect from acting like a true reflexive and thus prevents some hideously overpowered strategies from working. Suggestions for better phrasing most welcome. -- Wordman

Cutting the Deck is rather nasty, as you can continually keep someone from acting, like this.

Sideral, Opponent

1,2

Sidereal uses this charm, which sets his next tick to 6 in the future

7,2

and then swaps with Opponent, to go on 2...do an attack with speed 4 or something, and then uses the charm again to push the opponent back

2,7

6,7 <--Sidereal did speed 4 attack...then. Goto step 1.

I would make it a Shaping or Cripling effect or something. It needs a keyword like that at least.

-FlowsLikeBits

I thought that was troublesome at first, but then I realised that 8 motes isn't actually that cheap a way to get what is effectively an extra action. Um, that's assuming the Sutra discount doesn't apply to the reflexive re-activations, of course...DeathBySurfeit

Yes, you can use it to keep people from acting; however capitalizing on this is harder than it sounds without accomplices. Since it is a Simple charm, you cannot use it and split your pool without a combo, so to be able to attack while delaying your opponent, you either have to spend willpower or do something to gain faster unarmed attacks. Continually keeping someone from acting is something that can be done with clinching anyway, not even using charms. As for "the reflexive re-activations", they don't exist. It's a simple charm that gives you one reflexive trigger. To do it again, you have to spend another whole action. When you do so, sutra discounts certainly apply. This brings the cost for each exchange (in addition to spending an action to do so) to 3m for those that know the form and 1m for masters. If this disturbs people, I think the most "sidereal-like" fix would be to crank the cost up (13m, maybe). I based the cost on Dance of the Hungry Spider, which seems roughly equivilant power-wise to me. - Wordman

Actually, like I showed, it's quite easy to capitalize on. I would actually make the charm faster, like maybe 4 ticks. That way, you don't have a guarunteed point 6 ticks in the future. I mean, you could also use the charm, wait till someone was going to attack you, and them swap with them. I would also add something like "This charm may not be combo'd with EA charms". Personally, I would call it a shaping effect and give it some sort of roll to effect the target. Like Ess + MA with a difficulty of the targets Ess or something. -FlowsLikeBits

In your example, the Sidereal has spent 16 motes, plus whatever on the spd 4 attack. That's a lot of motes for a Sidereal Exalt who typically relies on a lot of committed effects. It would, I think, be quite hard for anyone to maintain this trick for any great length of time. 8 motes is two 2 dice stunts to recover, which isn't too hard to do, I suppose... maybe up the cost to 9 motes to make it a definite losing proposition in the long term without a lot of effort by the character? - nikink

If he'd mastered the style, it would only be 1 mote each time. However, I'm not worried even by that. This is at the same level as Charm Redirection Technique (let alone Soul Fire Shaper Form itself), which could counter it easily. - IanPrice

Well, it's quite easy to have a natural speed 4 attack, so that doesn't cost you motes. It's the 3m student cost that worries me. (Most SMA isn't really usefull without the Students sutra.) You could easily use this trick and then use the next charm to get back the motes with your attack. I do think it should be a little more clear how you defend against it. -FlowsLikeBits

Oh yeah, good points, I'd forgotten the Sutra bonuses. That said, it may be easy to make a natural spd 4 attack, but if you're up against opponents who require you to use this charm, you're probably up against opponents who will not be worried by a non-charm enhanced attack. Anyway, maybe up the Charm prerequisites to Essence 6 and the cost to 12m (or maybe add a wp or hl cost?)... actually, given Betting Against the Odds Approach, I think a hl and / or wp cost would be ideal, as the next Charm up provides a way to recover the cost. But, I'm no Sidereal Martial-Arts Charm guru. B-) nikink

I'm not sure. If you assume someone can perfect away the swapping, I think it's ok. It's a bit unclear though. Perhaps require an attack roll vs the targets Ess or something? Begging against the Odds might be a bigger problem, as it pretty much lets you regenerate any resource you want, and it's not hard to make EASY bets. (You could attack...Scenery for instance. ) BTW: It might be nice to make the Form charm Ess 5, so hopefully we won't go up to much more. -FlowsLikeBits

I made the following changes to Cutting the Deck: 1) Clarified how defences behave against it. 2) Gimped it against uber opponents. 3) Raised the cost to 11m, which keeps the cost the same for masters, but raises it to 6 for lesser sutra, and raises it for non-sutra peons like solars. 4) Against my better judgement, it now has the Shaping keyword. This drastically reduces its effectiveness (Essence 1 solars can defend against it perfectly all day with the right no-prerequistie charm, and tattooed Lunars may be completely immune, depending on how that works in 2E). As for the speed, I thought about that quite a bit before posting the charm initially and realized that changing the speed doesn't actually make the charm any more or less powerful, it just changes the situations in which it is useful. For example, making the speed 4 makes it more difficult while dueling to keep your opponent from acting, but in combats with multiple opponents on both sides, it actually makes it easier because you can do it more often (particularly in the hands of a master). Making the speed longer causes the opposite. There is another way of dealing with it, but I don't like it at all, so won't go into it. BTW, I totally love Betting Against the Odds. I also agree the form should be Essence 5. - Wordman

Hmm. Yeah, your right on Shaping. Thoughts: Drop the shaping keyword(yeah, your right. Sorry about that. I think I was thinking of Crippling actually. ), drop the cost to 9 motes. I don't think the gimping vs uber opponents is needed. (Basicly, so a student is even up with HGD). I think the defence thing covers it. Also, SMA is pretty useless for Solars as written anyway, as the charm costs are just way to much. I wouldn't worry about that to much.

Thought: I would cause the charm to have you make Unblockable/Undodgeable attacks to do the exchance. (Say it has a range equal to that of the charm, but is treated as an Unarmed attack). The reason for making it an attack is: 1)It's clear that it can be defended against. 2)You can take advantage of the DB flaws of Invulnerability.

I think your right on speed also.

-FlowsLikeBits

Good points on the reasons to make them attacks. Another is that charms that affect attacks can also then come into play for both attacker and defender. Revised (a lot) to do so. Couldn't resist a twist surrounding Duck Fate, just to give more opportunities for cheating with accomplices. -- Wordman

Betting Against the Odds Approach

Decided to add a catch to Betting. This way it's still powerful, but limited, and it encourages using Sidereal tricks and the rest of the style to mess with the odds. (note that it doesn't care if you modify TNs) - IanPrice

Nice catch. I see where your going, but the problem is that it seems to make the charm fairly useless. I.e. most opponents will have a perfect defence. Between that and the "requiring even or worse die pools", it makes the situations where you can use the charm pretty small.

How about something like this:

When you bet, name an outcome, and roll a die. IF:

Die , Bet , Outcome

Succ , Corr , Gain 2xBet

2xSucc, Corr , Gain 3xBet

Fail , Corr , Nothing Happens, i.e. lose

Fail , Wrong , Gain 2xBet

Succ , Wrong , Nothing happens, i.e. you lose

2xSucc, Wrong , Lose 2xBet

This takes advanage of the fact that attack outcomes are pretty predictable. You can have a higher chances of success(i.e. invert what you think is gonna happen), or a lower chance, but the ability to get 3x your bet. I think this makes the betting interesting. (As the die roll is independant of the attack), but interesting results can surprise you. One could incorperate your "odds" thing in there also. -FlowsLikeBits

I don't want the charm to be 100% self-contained. That's why it's called betting "against" the odds. As is, you can at least get use out of it once per celestial you see in combat, by betting they'll be missed when you don't know for sure they have a perfect. I have edited and clarified that the charm has no memory outside of each encounter. Also, the "roll a die" mechanic seems gimmicky, not elegant enough for SMA. Sidereals don't really take chances; they make them. That's why this charm is Combo-OK. Put it with Duck Fate, bet the 10m and the willpower the Combo costs you. Hey look! You win. Combo with the Auspicious Excellency. Why look! You beat the odds! And remember: until they use a perfect, betting on the defender is still safe, because any dice pool modifications they declare at step 2 or later aren't tracked by the charm. - IanPrice

I gotta admit, this is a tough one. I LOVE the charm idea. I was trying to come up with a way the Sideral could stack it a bit, but it would still be something of a bet. I admit the die roll is kinda clunky, although I think it would work in play as the Siddie player could do it in parallel with combat resolution. I tweaked the table a bit, so the probabilites balance correctly. :)(oops) It might be that betting on attacks is the problem. At this level, results tend to be fairly predictable till the end, as you REALLY don't want to get hit by an Ess 4-5 charm. Maybe damage rolls? But that's pretty much a straight die roll. Dunno. Toughie - FlowsLikeBits

Just a thought for Ian's charm: what if instead of betting on a hit or miss outcome in combat, the charm allowed the martial artist to bet on the number of successes achieved on a given roll. E.G. a damage roll, a hit roll, an athletics roll, whatever. (The charm would then also have applications outside of combat.) As far as odds go, you could have them bet in a fashion like this: picking the exact number of successes will net you a x3 payout. If you bet on a small spread, something like, 'between 4 and 8 successes' you get a x2 payout. If you bet on a wide spread, like 'between 2 and 10 successes' you get a x1.5 payout. You can probably tighten it up a little. With cannon effects alone, Siddies have a number of ways to affect the outcomes of their own and another's die rolls, and thats barring anything else that comes up in this style. -Ambisinister

That's a darn good idea. I think I'll do it. - IanPrice

Stake Raising Annotation

Unsure about the pricing on my charm, so comments to that effect would be helpful.-Ambisinister

Still digesting this one. One thing I do notice, though, is that theme has migrated more to "gambling" than "cards". Given my crappy introduction, that is not surprising. It's also neither good nor bad, but something to be aware of. - Wordman

Even this charm still has a pot, the process looking much like betting in poker. - IanPrice

Some questions/comments: if a target's action is a flurry containing 4 actions, how many health levels are added? If a target takes a reflexive action (a counterattack, say), does that add to the pot? The line "there is another wager: the character is wagering that one of the targets will win and one will lose. If this does not happen..." is confusing. I think something like "If the combat ends without any target injuring another, then..." would make the mechanic more clear. I'd also mention the health levels are unsoakable, just for clarity. I'm not sure I like the idea of unused health levels being wasted. This makes the charm much less powerful, possibly even out of sidereal territory. I think it would be completely in theme for the caster to be able to "raise the stakes" reflexively after each action, buying damage into the pot as it happens. There could be an alternative way to do this charm as well that would make it more flexible. Instead of a bet that one of the targets will injure another, make it a bet on which target will get injured first, regardless of source. - Wordman

Ivory Tableaux of Presumption Form

I'm not sure this is the right form for the style, but given the "betting" style charms, this seems like it has potential to interact with other charms well. I fascilate between thinking it is too strong and too weak. I'm perfectly willing to withdraw it in lieu of a better idea. - Wordman

It looks pretty good to me. Shouldn't the Form be named after the Style, though? Something like 'Ivory Deck of Legerdemain Form'? ...DeathBySurfeit, who thinks that name sucks, but you get the general idea

Maybe this is Stacking the Deck Style? I dunno. If someone comes up with a good style name, I'll change the form. Maybe someone can reuse "stacking the deck" for a post-form charm. I should have more time to think about this style next week. - Wordman

As it's a Sidereal Style, we should really be using the {Colour} {Noun} of {Concept} Style naming convention. Just a thought...DeathBySurfeit

I'm setting this to be Ivory Tableaux of Presumption until someone comes up with something better. - Wordman

Transparent Card Understanding

As this is the first time I've participated - I'm uncertain if this is the sort of charm that fits in there. Constructive criticism and comments welcomed. DiamondMX

Welcome! I fixed some minor formatting/spelling. I'm still thinking about the power level of the charm. I vacillate between thinking it is too weak and too powerful, so it is probably about right. One minor suggestion I have is in keeping with the idea post-form charms being about cheating at cards, maybe the name should have something to do with marked cards, rather than transparent ones? -- Wordman

I was working on the theory that being able to see through the cards might be cheating, but ... let's see ... hmm - the best I can come up with is Reading the Marked Cards.