Comments thread for "The Laws of Magic: Part 1 of 8"

[mikeryan]

I just read both articles posted so far. They look fantastic. Really looking forward to this game.

I've read SotC, but haven't had a chance to play it yet. I'm kind of curious about these lawbreaker stunts and how they fit with the stunt structure.

When you take a LB stunt, do you swap out one of your original five? Or does this category of stunt fall outside the regular guidelines? Or does Dresden not follow that structure at all?

[iago]

When you take a LB stunt, do you swap out one of your original five? Or does this category of stunt fall outside the regular guidelines? Or does Dresden not follow that structure at all?

The Dresden Files RPG does not follow the fixed number of stunts structure at all.  Instead, you pay for your stunts by reducing your fate point refresh level (one in the case of most "mortal" stunts, one or more in the case of supernatural abilities).  But you can't take enough stuntage to reduce your refresh to zero or below -- at that point, you become a slave to your nature (an NPC, usually a monster in deed or in flesh) rather than being able to exercise the gift of free will.

So basically Lawbreaker stunts, by being mandatory to take when you break the Laws on a spiritual level, make you more of a lawbreaking badass-- at the cost of your free will.

[mikeryan]

Instead, you pay for your stunts by reducing your fate point refresh level (one in the case of most "mortal" stunts, one or more in the case of supernatural abilities). 

That's a really neat approach. I like.

From the article, it seems that there are variable levels of the Lawbreaker stunts. I think that should mesh well with my own preferences and interpretations. I think (in my game, not necessarily the published version) there should be differences in how you break the law, in addition to intent.

Consider the initial murders in Storm Front. The way Harry describes it, it doesn't just take a pile of energy to do that, it also take a whole pile of hatred. I think that just using kinetomancy to throw someone off a balcony would take less energy and less hatred and therefore leave less of a psychic mark.

I think I would adjudicate it that more casual use of black magic would follow the rules presented. If someone wanted to do a murder like in Storm Front, they would get at least two "levels" of the stunt and further uses of black magic of that magnitude would add up quicker.

[iago]

Yep.  The refresh cost of an individual lawbreaker stunt can increase, I think, by one at some point, but that's it for that axis; but the more you transgress, the more your character's aspects start to get overwritten by the deeds you've done.  You *become* a twisted thing, the life you knew consumed by what you've done.