Shattered Kingdoms

What do you guys think about using emotes to sort of broaden the magical horizon of your character... For instance, I have seen Frollith conjure a sort of bubble to shield him from the rain if caught outside in bad weather... And my first priestess would conjure up a pillow before sitting down on a stone floor in for instance...a temple... Also I allowed my necromancer to, for fun only, animate a small pile of bones he carried around, and have a tiny skeleton say...tapdance (crude example) infront of him to entertain himself and others...

Of course emoting flips out and casts a spell that rips you in half. is not a viable option...

Emoted magic within reasonable boundaries... Kosher or not??

JeanV

I always wanted to do emote flips out and rips you in half.

Carefully measured, this can be good. You have to be sure, though, not to broaden your character's horizons too much. (If you can conjure a pillow in your temple, can you also conjure a rock above an enemy monster? Of course not, but there ought to be a reason you can't.)

You also have to play it out gracefully when other people get into the act. We've had a case where someone was emoting a baby, and another character emoted killing it. The mother complained on the forums, but if the one is valid....

I, for one, believe that this shoudl be allowable. However, seeing as most people are assholes, it might turn sour for some reason, such as the baby example.

I, when thinking about it in RPG terms... Consider what I am talking about something alike the thing mages can do in AD&D... Their first spell....fawk, whats it called... The thing that makes Raistlin's coin flip across her fingers... Or gives the mage an ability to knock on a door from a few feet away, or enchant his spoon to stir his tea or the pages of his book to flip...

So basically, I allow it with myself in ways that does not have any affect mechanics wise...what so ever...

JeanV

On Frollith, I have been known to emote small water- or fire-type arcane/divine effects (and occasionally some big ones). I've justified it through the religious spheres (water) and existing spells (flamestrike). One Meissan mage used to always emote creating a red ball to play with, which I thought was awesome.

Such emotes, when done in purely RP ways, can be cool. Just make sure you have justification for whatever you do.

Likewise, emoting that you're carrying a baby is fine. Emoting that you kill a baby is fine, too. Where the baby-killing crosses the line is when it forces a particular action upon another PC. For example, consider the following:


vs.


The first example is poor, because the would-be killer forces his interpretation on the game without any check or dice-roll. The second example is fine, because the Mother PC is given a chance to make the decision that negatively impacts her character. She could likewise have chosen to evade the attack - thats the risk you take when using emotes instead of coded attack commands.

I think it's alright. Simple magic emotes should be very useable. Why shouldn't a high level wizard be able to use a simple cantrip? Or why shouldn't a high level priest who can sanctuary himself against attack not be able to give himself a magic umbrella? Prayers are based of faith and realistically he should be able to pray for anything not just some stock spells.

I'm very much infavor of anything that brings the game to life or makes it more like a book. I'm against self aggrandizing emotes like; So and so pulls back his sleeves and his god like magic powers blast your surroundings with a soul shattering display of the arcane that drops you to your knees trembling.

I've only done that once with Serrion, and it was hilarious. We were alone in the Krychire inn, and just for fun, I 'animated' some bodies that were allegedly under the inn and ripped the floor open. And then he opened the gates to hell and just blasted the floor back together. Or something. All in good fun.

I have always RPd having Shadow Magic. For instance, when Carmen gets bored, she'll gather shadows from the corners of the room (or just call them) and play with them. One time when Synerie put her blade to Carmen's throat, the shadows made a small shield blocking the tip, but I figured that was justified. The actual explanation I had ready was the armor spell.

Unless Synerie then decides to taun and kill you. so much for shadows.

Emoting minor magics, sure! Emoting babies, bleh.