Sorcery Is Killing Me!

[chaosnet]

@Cam,

So basically a use of Sorcery is legit if it can be given a mystic slant?

I understand the other more elemental control powers...they have limits based on the actual element, but I don't believe it to be the same with Sorcery.

Could Sorcery:

Trap a villain in a ring of fire? (Ring of Fire Complication)?

Levitata a school bus that fell off of a bridge? (Levitate...Asset? Reaction?)

Shoot my Magic Stun Missile? (Stun Missile Asset?)

"I am not the Sorcerer you are looking for." (Invisiblity Asset?)

The complications seem pretty straight forward in that the Watcher may say "sorry dude, no ring of fire but the crimson bands of cyttorak are ok", its the assets that are getting me, especially if said assets don't/can't/shouldn't mimic other powers.

[Duck Call Lass]

I understand the other more elemental control powers...they have limits based on the actual element, but I don't believe it to be the same with Sorcery.

The elemental control powers don't actually have such limits.

As with any other power in the game, the only actual limit is what you're able to narratively justify in the fiction.

Which is why you can make cages out of fire.

[chaosnet]

@DCL,

What I mean by limits is that if my guy, Pulsar has Radiation Mastery he isnt going to use it to put an Ice Cage complication on the baddie. Well, I guess it is possible, though improbable that a narrative would support this.

The limitation is that whatever Pulsar does has to be tied to Radiation:

Making people sick/nauseous (Nausea Complication)
Set something on fire using Infrared Radiation (Fire Asset)
See in the Dark (Infrared or UV Sight Asset)
See through walls (X-Ray Sight Asset)

Pulsar's "Bag of Radation Tricks" would be "limited" to:

Ionized Radiation: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Neutron and X-Ray.

Non-Ionized Radiation: Light, IR/UV, Microwave, Radio Waves, VLF, ELF and Thermal.

This gives him a wide berth in his narrative, but he couldnt use any of these to, say, levitate a falling bus straight away. Could he do something? Sure. He could vaporize the bus (Pewt Pewt!), he could alter the ambient Ionized Radiation to soften gravity (ugh, that sounded phoney even to me), he could alter the neutrons in the ground below the bus to change their atomic structure (is this Transmutation?) so instead of hard earth its more like quicksand.


Like I said, it seems like if I stick to what the other folks are saying as well as what Cam said, then I could say "well, you can't levitate the bus but you could invoke the Nefarious Netting of Nattomb to catch it". Ugh, so would this be an Asset, Complication or some ambiguous "Effect"?

[EldritchFire]

Chaos, you're thinking too mechanically minded. Cortex+ games aren't about the how, but the why.

Why do you want to see through walls? Why are you trying to levitate a bus? Remember that "Sorcery can't usually inflict stress on its own but it can create assets and complications," OM84.

Are you trying to see through the wall to find a hidden safe? I'm sure sorcery could do that. Heck, you don't even need an asset for that, just roll sorcery. The asset just gives you more dice to use.

Also keep in mind that "The descriptive nature of Sorcery makes for flashy effects and interesting stunts, assets, and complications, but the power itself should not be any more potent than others."

-EF

[Newtsy]

Ugh, so would this be an Asset, Complication or some ambiguous "Effect"?

So, are you saying that my spoon metaphor didn't do it for ya'?

[Spatula]

I think that Sorcery could do just about anything, but it's probably more interesting to put some limits on the character. Like Transmutation could be the ability to rearrange all matter into anything (like the Molecule Man), but it's more interesting when it's a specific kind of transmutation (turning people to stone, turning people into animals, etc.). Playing with (and overcoming) those limits is what makes a character a hero. Or being done in by those limits is what makes a character a super-villain.

[windmark728]

Think of any extra powers you give a Sorcerer as being rote spells, ones that require little or concentration to perform. Everything else takes longer because you need the correct materials/to remember the correct words, whatever. System-wise, where a Sorcerer with Flight simply flies, one with just Sorcery has to roll against the Doom Pool in 1 panel, and only gets to use it in the next panel.

As far as limits go, it depends on how you view the sorcery working. If it's drawing from other dimensions you may want to go down the route of the Growing Dread Limit. You're not imposing any limit on what you can do with the sorcery itself (why shouldn't sorcery created fire burn underwater? It doesn't need to follow the laws of this dimension as long as that's the way you want it to work). The Growing Dread just represents the damage done to this dimension by channelling those other dimensional energies into it. Obviously any other powers you take as spells have some sort of filter incorporated into them that prevents the energies causing that type of damage.

The above is where the conversation I had with Chaos was eventually going; although I surmnised that all other things, which could not be explained as Assets or Complications, needed to be rolled vs the Doom Pool.

The Growing Dread Limit is just the perfect icing on the cake.

Remember that "Sorcery can't usually inflict stress on its own but it can create assets and complications," OM84.

Does this infer that if a Sorcerer wants an "Eldritch Blast" that he better have a power trait to do so?

[EldritchFire]

…
Does this infer that if a Sorcerer wants an "Eldritch Blast" that he better have a power trait to do so?

Yes. However, that won't stop you from spending a PP to add your sorcery die to your pool along with blast.

-EF