regency

[finnsson]

Hi,

got some questions about bloodlines.

1. If an intelligent tree killed a blooded person, would that tree then
become blooded (like the boar that killed a noble, but this time it's a
tree...)?

2. Around how strong is a god's blood strength? 1000 for great and 300
for lesser?

3. Who's bloodline did the old gods have? Their own or did they gain
their bloodline like the new gods received their bloodlines?

4. Don't you think the spell "blood drain" is a bit to powerful? Let's
say the Magian would like to increase his blood strength. Then he'll use
some spell to find a person with a bloodline (to find a noble person
would probably be enough, since most nobles got a bloodline). Then he'll
cast "teleport without error" (in the middle of the night when the
person is asleep) and then he'll cast "blood drain".

//Finnsson

[Gary V. Foss]

finnsson wrote:

> Hi,
>
> got some questions about bloodlines.
>
> 1. If an intelligent tree killed a blooded person, would that tree then
> become blooded (like the boar that killed a noble, but this time it's a
> tree...)?

Man, I'm really curious about the story behind this! What happened? A treant
committed bloodtheft? Man, that's beautiful.....

Anyway, unless you have something special in mind for this event, I would say
no it would not become blooded. IIRC, the description of the Boar describes
the events that gave that creature a bloodline as "unique". Of course, there
seems to have been a few other "unique" events that created similar blooded
creatures, so if you have something in particular in mind for the blooded tree
then go ahead with it.

> 2. Around how strong is a god's blood strength? 1000 for great and 300
> for lesser?

Personally, I think gods have bloodlines starting out at 101 for a new
demi-gods and ranging up to 1,000 for a greater god who is the head of a
pantheon.

> 3. Who's bloodline did the old gods have? Their own or did they gain
> their bloodline like the new gods received their bloodlines?

I think the old gods got their bloodlines the old fashioned way. That is, they
either went through the ranks of godism (or whatever it is called) or simply
were born with them.

> 4. Don't you think the spell "blood drain" is a bit to powerful? Let's
> say the Magian would like to increase his blood strength. Then he'll use
> some spell to find a person with a bloodline (to find a noble person
> would probably be enough, since most nobles got a bloodline). Then he'll
> cast "teleport without error" (in the middle of the night when the
> person is asleep) and then he'll cast "blood drain".

Yeah, blood drain is a bit much. But the big problem is with teleporting in
general when it comes to BR. I mean, just about anyone who can teleport
(relatively few people thankfully) could teleport into the bedroom of a blooded
person and commit bloodtheft on them, right? They could do something like that
right and left if they wanted to get their blood strength up. People try to do
this all the time in PBeMs. It's never been a problem for me in a face-to-face
game, but everyone seems to want to do it all the time on-line. Weird, huh?

Gary

[Pieter Sleijpen]

Gary V. Foss wrote:
>
> finnsson wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > got some questions about bloodlines.
> >
> > 1. If an intelligent tree killed a blooded person, would that tree then
> > become blooded (like the boar that killed a noble, but this time it's a
> > tree...)?
>
> Man, I'm really curious about the story behind this! What happened? A treant
> committed bloodtheft? Man, that's beautiful.....
>
> Anyway, unless you have something special in mind for this event, I would say
> no it would not become blooded. IIRC, the description of the Boar describes
> the events that gave that creature a bloodline as "unique". Of course, there
> seems to have been a few other "unique" events that created similar blooded
> creatures, so if you have something in particular in mind for the blooded tree
> then go ahead with it.
>
> > 2. Around how strong is a god's blood strength? 1000 for great and 300
> > for lesser?
>
> Personally, I think gods have bloodlines starting out at 101 for a new
> demi-gods and ranging up to 1,000 for a greater god who is the head of a
> pantheon.
>
> > 3. Who's bloodline did the old gods have? Their own or did they gain
> > their bloodline like the new gods received their bloodlines?
>
> I think the old gods got their bloodlines the old fashioned way. That is, they
> either went through the ranks of godism (or whatever it is called) or simply
> were born with them.
>
> > 4. Don't you think the spell "blood drain" is a bit to powerful? Let's
> > say the Magian would like to increase his blood strength. Then he'll use
> > some spell to find a person with a bloodline (to find a noble person
> > would probably be enough, since most nobles got a bloodline). Then he'll
> > cast "teleport without error" (in the middle of the night when the
> > person is asleep) and then he'll cast "blood drain".
>
> Yeah, blood drain is a bit much. But the big problem is with teleporting in
> general when it comes to BR. I mean, just about anyone who can teleport
> (relatively few people thankfully) could teleport into the bedroom of a blooded
> person and commit bloodtheft on them, right? They could do something like that
> right and left if they wanted to get their blood strength up. People try to do
> this all the time in PBeMs. It's never been a problem for me in a face-to-face
> game, but everyone seems to want to do it all the time on-line. Weird, huh?
>
> Gary

Luckily you can only teleport into an area that you know and I would
never invite a wizard of that magnitude into my sleeping room :-) Of
coarse, they could scan the room, but that would be easy to block
(though expensive). Most of the time I assume any regent with a
reasonable powerfull court wizard (around 8th lvl or higher) knows about
this and will have made some minor preperations. Besides, a really
paranoid regent just places loyal bodyguard in his own sleeping room or
just that simple alarm spell. The fuss that that creates, might give any
regent enough time to flee through a secret exit. By then it would be to
late for the powerful wizard to do anything without causing a lot of
destruction.

Remember, that most other regents would react quite aggressive to such
tactics. Probably more agressive then the USA to the fact that India and
Pakistan have nuclear weapons. The Magian wants to form alliances before
striking either Min Dhousai or Khourane. There is no way that someone
would ally with him if he was known to use such tactics.

Pieter Sleijpen

[Gary V. Foss]

Pieter Sleijpen wrote:

> Luckily you can only teleport into an area that you know and I would
> never invite a wizard of that magnitude into my sleeping room :-) Of
> coarse, they could scan the room, but that would be easy to block
> (though expensive). Most of the time I assume any regent with a
> reasonable powerfull court wizard (around 8th lvl or higher) knows about
> this and will have made some minor preperations. Besides, a really
> paranoid regent just places loyal bodyguard in his own sleeping room or
> just that simple alarm spell. The fuss that that creates, might give any
> regent enough time to flee through a secret exit. By then it would be to
> late for the powerful wizard to do anything without causing a lot of
> destruction.

I generally assume that non-magic users or non-priests are unable to work magic, but
they have a basic understanding of how it works, especially nobles. That is, that
spellcasters must spend time memorizing spells and that once they are used they are
forgotten, that certain things block spells, what spell components are, etc. I can't
waterski, for instance, but I understand how it works. Similarly, a mage may not
know how to fence, but he understands the basic concept of fencing, so I think it
makes sense that a fighter would be able to understand the basics of what a
spellcaster does without understanding the intricacies of actual spellcasting.

Despite the fact that BR is a "low-magic setting" (I've argued that it isn't really
low-magic at all, but that's an already well-debated topic, so let's skip it, eh?) I
think magic is still common enough for people to understand the basics of how
spellcasting functions, even if they cannot practice it themselves. Especially
nobles who would have some sort of education process as part of their upbringing.

> Remember, that most other regents would react quite aggressive to such
> tactics. Probably more agressive then the USA to the fact that India and
> Pakistan have nuclear weapons. The Magian wants to form alliances before
> striking either Min Dhousai or Khourane. There is no way that someone
> would ally with him if he was known to use such tactics.

These are good points. A mage doing stuff like that would probably start earning a
lot of ire. IF he was found out, that is.... If *I* were a high level mage and
going to commit such an act, I'd cast a couple of preperatory spells on myself to try
to keep that from happening. Things like invisibility, alter self, maybe even
polymorph self to help hide my identity. The Magian is already a pretty powerful
guy, so attacking him might be kind of tough, but if he used a little sublety he
could probably get away with a lot for a long time. If I were the Magian I'd try to
make it look like someone from Djafra or Merasa did it, or one of those enigmatic
elven nations. Those elves often hate humans and they use a lot of magic..... That
way he could gain bloodstrength, dispose of one potential threat, and sow distrust
amongst his opponents.

The other thing to consider is that there are quite a few (relatively speaking)
blooded individuals running around who aren't regents. If a mage was out to increase
his bloodstrength by bloodtheft, why bother picking on guys with all the protection
and resources of a domain ruler? I'd go after the "lesser" blooded nobles. Sure,
you might only get a point from the act, but you may be able to scrag the whole
family in a single night.... That might make it worthwhile (from a hideously evil
standpoint, that is.)

Gary

[Alexander MacLeod]

>> 4. Don't you think the spell "blood drain" is a bit to powerful? Let's
>> say the Magian would like to increase his blood strength. Then he'll use
>> some spell to find a person with a bloodline (to find a noble person
>> would probably be enough, since most nobles got a bloodline). Then he'll
>> cast "teleport without error" (in the middle of the night when the
>> person is asleep) and then he'll cast "blood drain".
>
>Yeah, blood drain is a bit much. But the big problem is with teleporting in
>general when it comes to BR. I mean, just about anyone who can teleport
>(relatively few people thankfully) could teleport into the bedroom of a blooded
>person and commit bloodtheft on them, right? They could do something like that
>right and left if they wanted to get their blood strength up. People try to do
>this all the time in PBeMs. It's never been a problem for me in a face-to-face
>game, but everyone seems to want to do it all the time on-line. Weird, huh?
>

You must remember, that even with Teleport Without Error, the
Magian can't just say, "Hmm, think I'll teleport into Queen Banira
bint Hamilah el-Reshid's bedchamber tonightÅ*." He has to know exactly
where her castle is, and exactly where her bedroom is in that castle,
and it couldn't hurt to know how the furnature is arranged in the
room. This doesn't prevent teleportation, but should cause it to be a
little less frequent (and have Espionage actions as precursers).

Alexander


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[Mark A Vandermeulen]

On Sun, 18 Apr 1999, Gary V. Foss wrote:

> Man, I'm really curious about the story behind this! What happened? A treant
> committed bloodtheft? Man, that's beautiful.....
>
> Anyway, unless you have something special in mind for this event, I would say
> no it would not become blooded. IIRC, the description of the Boar describes
> the events that gave that creature a bloodline as "unique". Of course, there
> seems to have been a few other "unique" events that created similar blooded
> creatures, so if you have something in particular in mind for the blooded tree
> then go ahead with it.

I agree--if it makes sense for your story, then run with it. I would,
however, suggest that sap runs slower than blood, and so it might take
some time for any overt sign of "change" to come over the tree/treeant,
just to give you a reasonable excuse for leaving your PC's in suspense
about the outcome.

> Yeah, blood drain is a bit much. But the big problem is with teleporting in
> general when it comes to BR. I mean, just about anyone who can teleport
> (relatively few people thankfully) could teleport into the bedroom of a
blooded
> person and commit bloodtheft on them, right? They could do something
like that
> right and left if they wanted to get their blood strength up. People
try to do
> this all the time in PBeMs. It's never been a problem for me in a
face-to-face
> game, but everyone seems to want to do it all the time on-line. Weird,
huh?

I've always thought that BR needed a Mason kit, either as a magician or as
a priest. That is, someone that a regent or wealthy person could hire to
construct their houses/castles/towers etc. using certain tried and true
magical methods for preventing just this sort of nastiness. Afterall, if
PC's can think of it now, no doubt they could have thought of it 1000
years ago, and in that time SOMEONE would have researched a way to prevent
it.

My idea is to either have priests enscribe sigils on the doors/threshholds
of people's houses to keep ghosts and magic away for a year (probably used
mostly by the middle and lower classes), or to have a cadre of
specially-trained alchemist-magicians who have researched a wide variety
of Abjuration spells so that they can be cast at 1st or 2nd level in
exchange for greatly exagerated casting times and material components. And
therefore, you can build a castle whose keep is resistant to ghosts,
immaterial and etheral creatures, whose council chamber is Proofed against
Divination, and whose master bedroom is Designed around the Sigil of
Anti-teleportation. Would also introduce the proficieny Mason Lore or some
such, which would allow you to "read" a piece of architecture to tell what
penalties or bonuses different kinds of magic would have there.

But, like so many others of my ideas, I just haven't had time to flesh it
out. Anyone want to help?

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu