From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Re:  A spell...
X-Gated-By: The Black Marble Wombat@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
X-Gated-From: torg mailing list
Organization: University of North Texas
X-Gatemail-Version: 1.0b
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 07:34:56 GMT

Brother Andrak writes:

>   Well, I'd like to thank Kansas Jim for his comments
> on my template...

You're welcome.

>   And, I'd like to explain myself :). I am the GM of
> a group of new TORG players...all of us, even me, are
> new to TORG (been playing for about 3 months). Now
> that we have the basics down, I'm trying out some of
> the more advanced things....creature design....template
> design...and now, spell design.

Heck, I didn't tackle spell design until after almost two years of
GMing the game, and I haven't created any creatures or templates
yet (I fake numbers for most creatures and design NPCs but not
templates).  

>   I post a new spell below...along with the steps I
> followed to design it. I am typing these, because
> I'm not sure if I did it right :).
> 
>   The mage who designed this spell, a NPC, has
> 
>   Conjuration: 9
>   Divination: 10
>   Apportation: 9
>   Alteration: 16 (yes, 16)
>   Folk: 3

Pardon my saying so, but what a wimp!  Next thing you'll tell me is
that he's an ord!  8-)

>   I designed the spell to be Alteration Folk-Living-Folk.
>   Since the spell simply works on a natural event (sleep)
> and extends it, I assigned an axiom level of 7.

Sounds reasonable.

[Note - I don't have any of my spell design stuff with me so all
comments are based off of probably faulty recollections.]

>   I figured the state total to be 11.
>   I set the effect total to 15. Thus the pattern
> total is 15 (no area, volume, or result mod).
>   I wish to control the Duration aspect...and the pattern
> skill cost is 13. Thus the control total is 15 (no
> multi-attributes or disbelief).
>   The range is to be touch, thus the Apportation
> total is 0 (no range, no speed).

Looks good so far...

>   I want the spell to last all night...I assign a
> duration of 22 (6.9 hours).

Might as well just round it up to seven hours.

>   After rolling, I end up with a spell sum of 0.

The wimp rolls well!  8-)  (I shouldn't talk, the spell design example
I posted over the summer had some excellent rolls associated with it.)

>   The magic type is 22, the process maximum is 22, I
> want a casting time of 5 (10 sec), and the spell summ is
> 0, so the basic complexity is 39.

Ok.

>   I apply the Contagion and Touch theorems. However, I
> get unlucky, and end up with only 1 bonus point. The
> final complexity is 38. I split the difficulty and backlash
> evenly (19). Not great....maybe I'll try again :)

The mage could have started over with the theorems and tried for
better numbers; he'd lose time but since you say it's a vampire he's
got plenty of time to tinker on the specifics - he could also have
spent extra time on each theorem, giving him a higher base value for
each theorem before he rolls. 

Given the low Mind of the spellcaster and the much higher Alteration
skill value, you may want to shift more of the complexity into
Difficulty, since failing the spell badly could result in the
character taking a wound of mental damage from the backlash!

>   Manipulation:     Duration

Did you remember to account for this theorem in determining the final
complexity? You didn't mention it above.

Overall, looks pretty good.

Kansas Jim (jogle@aoc.nrao.edu)
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg