Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Sorcery: Refrigeration

Refrigeration!
So, this is an easy ability, but a player asked for it, so why not? I also don't have a lot of time to write, so why not? Refrigeration, keeping things cold so they don't go bad, let's do this.

Assuming a nominal maxima Earth Temperature in the hottest places (I live in Phoenix,) we probably want to be able to lower temperatures to 30 degrees at maximum, and that is Temperature Control, which makes this 5 levels worth. that can only cool things, The radius is fine, the range... is probably fine. I think we need Independent because thinking about a refrigerator is boring, and probably a greatly extended duration, adding the costs fatigue modifier gives a default duration of 1 minute, so let's say at least a day. But, meh, extending the duration 1,440x means we might as well go for pseudo-permanent. Altogether, our Sorcery ability looks like:

Refrigeration

Keywords: Area (Fixed), Obvious
Full Cost: 57 points.
Casting Roll: None.
Range: 2 Yards.
Duration: Until someone specifically says, "burr, isn't it a little chilly in here?"
Cools a 2 yard radius, 4 yard tall cylinder. It can reduce temperature 2 degrees (plus Sorcery talent) a second for up to 50 seconds, at which point the temperature remains until someone is annoyed by how cold it is.
Statistics: Temperature Control 5 (Sorcery -15%; Cold, -50%; Independent 1, +40%; Extended Duration, Permanent, +150%) [57]

Other Thoughts

This is a somewhat expensive ability, so you could potentially make it a bit cheaper in a cooler climate, or if you don't care about how long it lasts. You could subtract 8 points from the cost as well if you would put reduced range on it to make it require touching to work. If you take off independent, the cool area would start to slowly warm up to match the ambient temperature again, but you could save 10 points that way as well.

3 comments:

  1. Stuff like that is -exactly- why I employ my court Wizard. I mean, can you imagine serving ice cold puddings at the height of summer? I'd be the talk of court.

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    1. I love thinking about the weird implications of powerful utilitarian magic! I mean, I don't feel like I have anything useful to say about the topic, but one of the first games I campaigned with Ritual Path Magic, my brain almost froze wondering what a TL4 (I just like that time period) world would be like if people could enchant ships to go super fast or refrigerate supplies to and from the new world. Or if we had efficient artificial lighting then... or if muskets could be converted into magic grenade launchers, or if musketeers would be completely deprecated by nerdy smart guys using charms.

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    2. That last bit is more or less how the main characters of The Phoenix Guard do it. Some kind of stone to my recollection - one shot fireball. Or something to that effect.

      But yeah, the impact of magic is the harder bit to think of. If magic's common, society isn't going to be like we're told, I'd think. That's why I stick to wizards being hermits and cloistered away, where the idea of using such power for mundanity is Apostasy, and to actually DO it? That is death.

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