Post by Rick T.Nash on Jul 29, 2004 19:18:41 GMT -5
After a lengthy discussion on Yog-Sothoth.com about the Mythos and the Internet, we finally ended up considering the possibility of an "Evil Dead" like event: a spell being recorded on a tape (we ruled out all other audio supports)... I ended up writing "rules" for such a situation (which could apply when a player wants his character to write is own spellbook) and I thought I should save a copy here, and allow you to discuss it too 
(I also posted it on the DGml)
Here it is:
If we admit that the mythos tomes have a "magical aura" (which create the 'side-effects' discussed earlier -see the TUO#16/17 article), we could explain this aura by the fact that they contain spells, by admitting that writing/recording a spell means storing part of the MPs necessary for the casting of the spell on the support used.
In the case of a book these MPs are 'lost' (even if the book somehow releases these MPs slowly thus affecting its surroundings). But with a recording, the MPs are "released" when the tape is played and lower the amount of MPs necessary to cast the spell... Just like with "group spells" (which are not that rare in CoC -see the spells in Walker in the Wastes for an example), if enough people are "focusing" on the tape at the moment its is played, they all expand a few MPs and "complete" the number of MPs necessary for the casting of the spell (that might well be the case in Evil Dead where 5 people listen carefully to the tape when it is played)...
Of course, once the spell has been casted the MPs are expanded and the tape is rendered ineffective... Or is it only until it has stored new MPs? We could imagine that the tape (and the books) slowly drain MPs from their surroundings (hence why dead mice and other dead vermin can be found around them) until they "restored" their MPs... I think 1MP/month would be a correct figure.
For example, let's imagine someone records the spell "Contact Star Spawn of Cthulhu" on a tape. This spell requires 9MPs to be casted. To record the spell correctly half the MPs (rounded to the above number) must be "stored" into the tape, hence the person recording the tape must spend at least 5MPs in order to make the spell effective. If 4 people "focus" (by that I mean "listen intently") to the tape they'll each spend 1MP and the spell will be casted; if only 1 person listens to the tape he'll spend 4MPs... Of course, they can be granted, for example, individual POW vs the tape's MPsx3 (5x3=15) rolls to defend themselves against the MP draining. And then, it would take 5 months before the tape could be used again...
Of course, I'm not considering the possibilty that the one who recorded the tape intentionnaly spent the full 9MPs on the tape to make it work "immediately when played" without MP draining the listeners
Some spells (like those described in Walker in the Wastes) need huge quantities of MPs to be casted (45 for example). We should consider that a support can't contain "more than a certain number of MPs", let's say 10 for a tape and maybe 20 for a book... But the people (since they'd have to be a group to be able to record it correctly) who recorded it would nevertheless spend half the MPs to render the tape effective (23 in the above example) hence 'loosing' 13 MPs simply on concentration... Moreover, in the case of such big spells, when the tape is played, it could drain someone from all his MPs (if he's got less and up to 35 MPs) killing him instantaneously!
In the case, like it was in Evil Dead apparently, that the person who records the tape is also casting the spell he should then expand the MPs necessary for the spell plus those necessary to "enchant" the tape (14 total for the "contact star spawn" spell for example)
(I also posted it on the DGml)Here it is:
If we admit that the mythos tomes have a "magical aura" (which create the 'side-effects' discussed earlier -see the TUO#16/17 article), we could explain this aura by the fact that they contain spells, by admitting that writing/recording a spell means storing part of the MPs necessary for the casting of the spell on the support used.
In the case of a book these MPs are 'lost' (even if the book somehow releases these MPs slowly thus affecting its surroundings). But with a recording, the MPs are "released" when the tape is played and lower the amount of MPs necessary to cast the spell... Just like with "group spells" (which are not that rare in CoC -see the spells in Walker in the Wastes for an example), if enough people are "focusing" on the tape at the moment its is played, they all expand a few MPs and "complete" the number of MPs necessary for the casting of the spell (that might well be the case in Evil Dead where 5 people listen carefully to the tape when it is played)...
Of course, once the spell has been casted the MPs are expanded and the tape is rendered ineffective... Or is it only until it has stored new MPs? We could imagine that the tape (and the books) slowly drain MPs from their surroundings (hence why dead mice and other dead vermin can be found around them) until they "restored" their MPs... I think 1MP/month would be a correct figure.
For example, let's imagine someone records the spell "Contact Star Spawn of Cthulhu" on a tape. This spell requires 9MPs to be casted. To record the spell correctly half the MPs (rounded to the above number) must be "stored" into the tape, hence the person recording the tape must spend at least 5MPs in order to make the spell effective. If 4 people "focus" (by that I mean "listen intently") to the tape they'll each spend 1MP and the spell will be casted; if only 1 person listens to the tape he'll spend 4MPs... Of course, they can be granted, for example, individual POW vs the tape's MPsx3 (5x3=15) rolls to defend themselves against the MP draining. And then, it would take 5 months before the tape could be used again...
Of course, I'm not considering the possibilty that the one who recorded the tape intentionnaly spent the full 9MPs on the tape to make it work "immediately when played" without MP draining the listeners
Some spells (like those described in Walker in the Wastes) need huge quantities of MPs to be casted (45 for example). We should consider that a support can't contain "more than a certain number of MPs", let's say 10 for a tape and maybe 20 for a book... But the people (since they'd have to be a group to be able to record it correctly) who recorded it would nevertheless spend half the MPs to render the tape effective (23 in the above example) hence 'loosing' 13 MPs simply on concentration... Moreover, in the case of such big spells, when the tape is played, it could drain someone from all his MPs (if he's got less and up to 35 MPs) killing him instantaneously!
In the case, like it was in Evil Dead apparently, that the person who records the tape is also casting the spell he should then expand the MPs necessary for the spell plus those necessary to "enchant" the tape (14 total for the "contact star spawn" spell for example)