Powerstone variants

[klingor]

Hi,
I've come up with a few ideas for variants on the Powerstone and I was wondering what you think. The aim is to add a bit of variety to the concept.
As well as Powerstones, I came up with Storestones, Healstones and Spellstones.
Starting with what we know -
Powerstone - fixed fatigue capacity, recharge overnight, user can draw fatigue from them directly as if it were his own.
The new ones -
Storestone - fixed fatigue capacity, non-recharging, user can draw fatigue from them directly as if it were his own. This corresponds to the TFT Strength battery. It differs from a powerstone only in that it has to be manually recharged as it depletes.
Healstone - fixed capacity. may be self-recharging on non-recharging, user can draw on it to heal physical damage.
Spellstone - fixed fatigue capacity, non-recharging, user can cast a stored spell using the fatigue specified.
The spellstone is the most interesting one. A wizard charges it by casting a spell into it and expending fatigue at that point. Later on, the spell may be cast from the stone by whoever is carrying the stone, paying the specified fatigue cost if necessary.
At the charging stage, the wizard simply casts a spell he knows into the stone and pays the fatigue cost he decides to use. He then recovers fatigue at the normal rate. For example, a 6pt spellstone could have Iron Flesh (4pts) and 1 2dice Lightning in it. This combination would cost him 6Fat. The user of the stone (not necessarily the wizard) would, at a later date, be able to cast Iron Flesh once, at a cost of 4 fat, and would still have a 2dice Lightning spell which he could cast at a cost of 2 Fat. Other combinations of spells could be stored, including multiples eg 3 x 2dice Lightning, which would allow the user to cast a 2dice Lightning up to 3 times, costing 2 Fat each time.
The wizard could also elect to pay the fatigue cost himself at the time of charging. In this case, he would recover fatigue as if it were physical damage.
In case you're wondering why the difference, the first scenario is designed to allow a wizard to charge a stone and give it to another member of the party (eg a fighter) so as to allow him rudimentary spellcasting ability in combat. This would make it feasible during an adventure, when the wizard could regain his own fatigue overnight.
The second is so that a wizard can charge a stone but keep it for his own later use. In order to maintain play balance, I came up with a way of effectively making it an inter-adventure option rather than an intra-adventure one.
Please let me know what you think.
Colin

[Deleted]

i love the spellstone! i was actually going to put something similar into an adventure i was writing (but i called it a runestone). i'm curious about your intentions on one thing:
let's say a spellstone had been 'imprinted' with Iron Flesh and charged to 4F. a character gets this spellstone and casts Iron Flesh from it. the spellstone now has 0F stored in it. will the Iron Flesh spell have to be 're-imprinted' on this stone or will simply re-charging be enough to cast Iron Flesh from it again?
as i said, i conceived of this as a 'runestone' so my concept would have required the spell to be 're-imprinted' on the stone. what do you think?

storestone: seems slightly superfluous because it is so similar to a powerstone.

healstone: seems very superfluous. the same thing can be accomplished with a spellstone that contains a healing spell.

[Deleted]

when i think about this, i keep thinking back to The Elfstones of Shannara. i think there were 3 stones that worked together. i'm now imagining how they might have worked. One stone just holds a bunch of spells. Another stone just has a bunch of stored fatigue that regenerates. The third stone acts as a wireless bridge between the other two, allowing the super-spellstone to draw fatigue from the super-powerstone...

[mister frau blucher]

Hey Colin,

The spellstone is a very cool concept. Like ewookie, I am not as sold on the Storestone, seems like it may be splitting some hairs on game mechanics, but the concept is sound. The healstone makes more sense, as it is almost like a rechargeable potion.

The spellstone is pretty cool, though. At first I thought you intended for it to be tied to a single spell, but I see you have them open-ended, anything that fits under the 6 (or whatever) point limit. Very nice concept.

This and the runestone ewookie mentioned have me thinking - what about a stone that casts a single spell (say Fire-3 for example). It casts it once, and then recharges like a powerstone - hmm, that sounds just like a very limited powerstone, though it could be used by non-mages. Recharges itself overnight...maybe it would have a rune on it, identifying it.

Not as cool as your spellstone. I may have to steal this idea!

Bret

[Deleted]

...and perhaps LAW crafting is born...

hehehe...

magic rocks!

[klingor]

Guys,
The whole idea was to give GMs and players different options and materials to work with.

Powerstones are incredibly useful to a wizard; they are secondary staves, but they are of little use to non-wizards.
Storestones are useful to a wizard, but on a one-off basis - like having a fatigue potion you can create befzard to useore you go to sleep and have it available when you wake up. Again, not much use to non-wizards.
Healstones are designed so that characters have access to healing without needing a herbalist to create a potion beforehand or a wizard on hand to cast Healing.
Spellstones - I made a mistake here when I costed the creation for self-powered spells, as it makes them much less useful compared to powerstones or storestones for a wizard to use.
Instead I would suggest that the wizard can charge the stone with fatigue (and recover it as if it were physical damage) while the user could elect to either pay the fatigue cost himself, or use the stored fatigue in the stone instead.
Overall, the idea I have in mind is that value is not absolute, especially in RPGs, An item that is useless to one character type may be priceless to another (to a fighter Magic Plate 5/0 vs 12 Fat Powerstone - which would you choose? And vice versa!)
Cheers
Colin
PS Bret, DCG modules already have something like this - items that cast a single spell that are usable once per adventure. It was DCG that came up with the idea, I just tried to create a way to formalise it.

[Deleted]

colin, give yourself some credit, man. your ideas are significantly different

[mister frau blucher]

Hey Colin,

Yeah, all the powerstones were placed in the adventures by me, so I have seen the concept before! ;D

I really like what you did with the concept, so like ewookie said, give yourself some credit!

Some of the coolest concepts in games like D&D have come from people tinkering with what is there already, to create more options.

And you are right that powerstones are pretty powerful. That is why I have never included one that stronger than 5 FT.

What intrigues me about what you are doing is creating stones that can be used by non-mages. It got me thinking about stones that are spell-specific.

So, a very nice thread!

Bret

[Deleted]

when i was thinking of a 'runestone' (i was influenced by Diablo2) i was thinking of something that non-mages could use to cast spells. it looked basically like a smooth, round rock except it had tiny runes carved into it. the tiny runes contain the same info as a scroll but they would be arranged to form a single, larger rune. when the user held the rock and pronounced the large rune (like pronouncing a letter of our alphabet), the spell would be triggered.
a mage or someone knowledgeable of Sorcerer's Tongue would be required to identify the runestone and instruct the user how to use it (how to pronounce the large rune). i was going to have them 'vanish' after use, like a scroll. in essence, my concept of runestones = 'scrolls for dummies'

[Deleted]

some other ideas (born out of this discussion and create magic item discussions with colin):
if the 'runestones' perish after use like a scroll, we could have a new skill, Rune Smith, that could work like the Alchemist skill. 1 XP to create a scroll, 2 XP to create a 'runestone'...

EDIT: actually, if this skill were implemented, the 'runestone' rune wouldn't even have to be placed on a stone. if you think of the runes as being written with magic ink (not engraved) as they would be on a scroll, someone with the Runesmith skill could spend 2 XP to put a 'magic rune' on anything suitably sized...like a sword, bow, axe, shield, etc. when the rune/spell is used, the ink/rune disappears from the object.

EDIT2: seems like i read about a game that did something similar to this but i don't remember. if anyone can refresh my memory, that'd be awesome.

[klingor]

Hi Guys,
I got the idea for Spellstones from trying to integrate RuneQuest Cults into LAW. (I apologise if This is old hat to you).
Back then, a Runelord (non-magic user) could expend POW (a RuneQuest concept) in order to get his Cult God/Goddess to cast a specified spell on his behalf when he asked for it. It was a one-off deal - once it was cast, you had to re-energise it with more POW to use it again.

What I had in mind was that when you joined a Cult in LAW, you got a Spellstone. You could charge it up with as many spells as you could power. You could only power it using Spirit Points. Spirit Points are awarded like Karma Points but only to Cult members if they act in accordance with the Cult's aims.

Obligations to the Cult are stringent. They may vary between Cults but if you don't meet your obligations, then curses fall on you like rain. It is a lifetime commitment. If you do meet your obligations, the benefits are huge.

Example Cult
Swords of Solarmys.
Obligations -
1) Protect and defend the weak and the helpless.
2) 90% of all treasure should be donated to the Church.
3) All magical items are Church property. (In practice, the character would retain them as personal property unless there were overwhelming reasons otherwise)
4) Cult members must undertake to fulfill any mission commanded by a senior member of the Church eg Bishop, Archbishop, Abbot. In addition, if a junior member of the clergy requested help, the Cult member is obligated to answer that request, unless already on a prior mission.

The benefits are huge, however.
1) Free board and lodging at anywhere where Solarmys has a presence.
2) Immediate free access to healing and cures.
3) Free training in all skills/ talents providing you have the necessary XP
4) All your weapons are consecrated. They can then affect creatures which are normally immune to mundane (non-magical) weapons.
5) You get a Spellstone of Solarmys and also can get Spirit Points for certain actions. Spirit Points purely work as Fatigue points that you can use to charge up your Spellstone so as to cast that spell.
The Goddess always keeps an eye on you. If you do something good, then you will be rewarded. If you do something bad, expect multiple curses (the Goddess giveth and the Goddess taketh away).

Thanks for having read this far,
I hope I haven't bored you.

Colin

[klingor]

Hi guys,
Storestones, as I envisaged them to be, were simply crystals that acted,when charged up by the MU, as Fat potion: they didn't require a turn to use, and didn't need a Herbalist/Alchemist to make them. When prepared, they were immediately on tap until they were used,
at which point they reverted to being just a potential.
A Powerstone is like a well which fills with water at a certain rate; a Storestone is like a canteen which can be filled with a certain amount of water, but when the water is drunk, it has to be refilled.
Cheers
Colin

[falcon]

Hey Colin,
I just wanted to let you know I really like the post. I use powerstones but havn't thought about all the variants you have. I have a world that I'm building that has "dusters". A "duster" is a powerstone used once for it's FP's and then turns to dust. A one shot deal. I hope you don't mind me taking your ideas and putting them in play. A large part of the world is based on harvesting Powerstones (Dusters & Solids),after your post I see I need to do some more thinking on the matter:)

[klingor]

Hi Falcon,
Thanks for that.
Feel free to use, adapt and improvise on any idea I've suggested. If it works in your campaign, then let everybody know; that's what the forum is about.
Cheers
Colin

[klingor]

Ewookie,
When you asked about the game with magic ink, I think it might be Chivalry & Sorcery, except they called it Magicke Ink (with a 'ke' and two capital letters!).
At the time it seemed to be an incredibly tedious process to go through, but I never got into the ethos of the game (TFT had came out around the same time - enough said!!)
Cheers
Colin