Topic: Lofty bridges

[Archangel]

Have you considered NOT having Teleport at all? I just came out of a truly epic world and it didn't have Teleport, Fly or even the longer ranged Long door. The GM used a lot of ship/boat travel (not quite renaissance tech level)
and a lot of walking (horse are expensive). As a player it was quite challenging to come up with a game plan knowing that if you left an area it was going to better than two months before you could return (port city).
 
just a thought

[Langthorne]

We often play without Lofty Bridge (and similar lists) - one GM especially dislikes it.

Other ways to adjust the power of these spells:

limit it in terms of range and spell duration.

Requiring development of Flying Skill in order to stay under control is a limiting factor

Making Teleport more like Sanctuary spells.

Having vicious flying monsters that object to sharing their air space also tends to cut down on flying magicians

[Dreven1]

I would keep this in mind... I would not fortify my complexes beyond what we do in RL (e.g. security cams (simple glyphs and wards), locks, traps).  I think prevention is good but the TRACKING down of PC's or whatever after the crime should be the real punishment. 

Here is another idea.  If you are specifically hunting or preventing spell casting from a caster.  Have the "hunters" tip their arrows, bolts, mancatchers or gladiator nets woven with "Kregora"(Alchemy Companion page 16) which is an anti-magic type mineral/metal found in a companion I believe. 

I use this idea to "sap" casters PP's so that they are -50 to all actions including spell casting static maneuvers if they are hit with a weapon like this (and if they attempt to cast at this point then good luck with your ESF!!!).  It is also MUCH more common that described in the book (so its not that expensive) however you have to have a specialist alchemist make the equipment and the metal turns ?normal? in just a short amount of time ( a few days or whatever)? so its almost worthless to take magic items made of the stuff.  And the alchemist are mostly hired by a kingdom or whatever to constantly output this junk.  Pretty sweet setup actually.

You could also have them chained in shackles made of the metal which drains PP?s or causes a -100 spell casting static maneuver.

[Langthorne]

and have a metal pot chained onto their heads

[Arioch]

You could also have them chained in shackles made of the metal which drains PP?s or causes a -100 spell casting static maneuver.

Another simple idea:
First time someone is found using magic to break law, they cut one of his hands off.
Second time they catch him it's death sentence.
With a great power comes a great responsability: if you don't demonstrate that you use your power for good, then you're a treath and must be eliminated.  

[rdanhenry]

My Guild Companion articles on magic and society will be addressing this issues soon, but here are a few of my favorite countermeasures:

For invisible intruders: bead curtains come into fashion. Seriously, you can't walk through a bead curtain invisibly without giving yourself away.

For teleporting assassins: same as real-world dictators with lots of powerful enemies, keep changing where you sleep.

High level leaders come into their own here, especially those that are hard to kill: Monks and Healers with their subconscious healing.

Guards stationed in the royal bedchamber (with screening to weed out shape-changers/illusionists). Better a little loss of privacy than loss of life.

A lover who is a high level member of a Profession with good skills for fighting assassins.

Kill your enemies first.

For theft, there are a number of spells that can be triggers by circumstances. Such as "someone not a store employ or owner enters when the store is closed". But I am afraid for the most part, one must rely on the threat of punishment to discourage theft. There are many spells to help hunt down and hurt those who break the law. The thief might also find that you have a security guard he never expected because he always comes to work invisible.

There's lots of countermeasures possible to various threats. Then there are countermeasures for the countermeasures. And so on.

You can Long Door all you want, you have to go somewhere and it won't take you far. If you didn't bother to get out of sight, you didn't even move out of crossbow range. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Goodbye.

If you are running a feudal or semi-feudal society, then guards can search door to door, so teleporting into a private building won't protect you. (Although you can then try to hide.) Even leaving town is less effective than in the historical world, because magic can help your crimes follow you long distances. Constantly having to establish new identities can get to be inconvenient.

[Greyaxe]

I love some of the ideas in here and I'm sure my players wont. HAHAHA

Permit me to join your malevolence MWHHAHAHAHAAHAH.  Yes my players are currently building a fortress on the border of hostile magically proficient territory and were given a virtually limitless budget but told to design the castle themselves.  No one has yet to pickup Castles and Ruins, FOOLS!!! ahahahahahah

[jps]

Have you considered NOT having Teleport at all? I just came out of a truly epic world and it didn't have Teleport, Fly or even the longer ranged Long door. The GM used a lot of ship/boat travel (not quite renaissance tech level)
and a lot of walking (horse are expensive). As a player it was quite challenging to come up with a game plan knowing that if you left an area it was going to better than two months before you could return (port city).
 
just a thought

Actually that's the way I've been doing it until now but I'd like to give these spells a chance 
Until now I've always considered them overpowered but I'm just trying to incorporate these powers in a setting and making it work.
Concerning teleport per se I'm quite strict, considering there's a flat 10% death factor when you use this spell unless you come up with a 24 hour long ritual  in which case you have to teleport in a pentacle you've already crafted. That means Teleport may avoid very long and uninteresting journeys in lands you've already come before, but you'll still have to walk/ride to the "scenario spot". Also, teleport can be a joker you'll use in desperate situations but you very well may end up dead.
Concerning the Flying spell, I require Flying/Gliding skill rolls if you need to do something besides flying. Thus you could certainly fly up to avoid melee attack but you'll need a very good Flying/Gliding skill to be able to cast at all.

[Fidoric]

For a time I used a magical 'law' saying that magic was a kind of current and that to teleport you travel along that current. So it was easy to teleport following the current bur harder if you wanted to go sideways and almost impossible to go against the current.

[Nejira]

In my last campaign I had teleport (and its cousins) be more difficult to master.

Regardless of modifiers a teleport spell is never an automatic success.

Negative spellcasting mods apply double, as well as Spellmastery mods.

The subjects of a teleport spell is nausiated for one round after teleporting. This counts as stun which may not be removed (by skills, spells, etc), other than waiting one round. Unless the caster rolls 126+ on his casting roll, then no stun occurs.

Leaving, Longdoor, and other minor teleport spells
Always 2% chance of a mishap.

Major Teleport Spells (Teleport I+)
Chance of mishap was increased, and a mishap isnt necessary landing the wrong place. It could tear a hole in Reality in my campaign.

[Greyaxe]

Where do these tears in reality lead?  I am deeply interested in using other realms in rolemaster but dont have a comprehensive list of posibilities.

[Nejira]

I didnt use RM cosmology for this, and am not entirely sure what it would be

For this campaign I had a devastating "last war of the gods" which had torn up the fabric between the planes which is basically how I justified the increase in difficulty for teleports.

The rifts (hehe) ledt to either the Elemental Planes which were a hoophole through Cosmos or in some rare cases to Hell/Heaven.

If you want, I can come with ideas for Realms/Planes, etc

[Greyaxe]

I have Fire and Ice so the elemental planes are a given.  I am leary of heaven/hell as these concepts dont really have ground in my game; although each god had their own pocket Dimension where they dwell and their minions go after death.  But that is all i have.  I am interested in different realms but dont want this to become a Rolemaster Version of Rifts.  If i want rifts ill play rifts.  Just interesting ideas where deamons, shadows and monsters of all sorts can be from.  Any Ideas?

[rdanhenry]

Actually, when it comes to infiltration, simply making teleportation loud (after all, it displaces quite a bit of air) would do the trick. You can get into the fortress of Khurl the Brutul, Overlord of the Screaming Lands, but unless you are very lucky, some of Khurl's guards are going to hear you popping in. If you have a stealthy mission, you are better off with climbing, invisibility, and/or flight.

[Arioch]

Just interesting ideas where deamons, shadows and monsters of all sorts can be from.  Any Ideas?

RMFRP Creature & Monsters has a short description of the six Pales from which Demons come (and probably even RMC C&T has it) and in RMQ 7 you'll find a couple of pages on the Void.

[Dreven1]

On the planes topic ... I used Planescape (which allows me to tie in ALL worlds - Shadowworld, Planescape, MERP, etc..) it works well.

On teleport. I LOVE the idea of wind rushing out or "popping" when someone uses leaving, teleport, etc...BRAVO on the idea! This will still keep it useful when in combat or in most situations however it doesnt allow as much "sneaking" which may cause overpowering. NICE!

[yammahoper]

Do not forget to add in visual effects.  Teleporters in my game stretch to a two dimensional image, then stretch out into a rope like efect, then collapse on themselves into a ball that disapears with a loud bang.  It is also quite flashy, bleeding excess mana into the area (leaving a distinct signiture).  I have allowed players to create other special effects (one of my favorites was a spining tornado like vortex that then collapses on itself), but as with all spell, I create or demand the players create the special effects.

lynn

[Greyaxe]

ILM would be proud.

[Nejira]

IMO the pales are useful in portraying demons as very alien to organic/mortal life (humans, halflings, dwarves, yes even elves).

If you use that for demonic entities it will do nicely. DnD has a slightly different view where its a strange mix of races and ascension. EG: Demons are both a race but also something you can become if you are Evil enough.

Shadows can come from the stuff between the worlds.