House Rules for Handling Illusions

by Michael A. Bott, Wyatt R. Lavigne & Gary Renaud

Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 15:53:08 -0400

From: thor!mbott@netcom.com

Reply-To: rolemaster@tower.clark.net

To: Multiple recipients of list 

Subject: Re: RMSS Illusions (was: Illusions & Circles)





> I would like to know those rules. I have, as yet, luckily been spared the 

> embarassment to have players ask "Now, how does this work?", but:

> Better be prepared!

Incidentally, these were fully approved by RMGuru :) Which is why I am the self-proclaimed Illusionist Guru...

1) Illusions and Phantasms (and the like) are NOT capable of giving off their own light. All light MUST be reflected off the "Miraged" surfaces. To have an Illusion or Phantasm actually give off light, the appropriate Light or Light Control or Sudden Light spell must be known, and will take up one of the "Senses" used in the illusion. e.g. Jannock Dunyar, Shay Illusionist, wants to create the illusion of a lantern. He would have to cast (at the very least) an Illusion III. 1 "point" for the appearance of the lantern, 1 "point" to make the lantern "solid", and 1 "point" to make the lantern actually throw light.

2) Phantasms with "feel" mirages are only capable of MASTI attacks, unless the Illusionist Spell Masterys the appropriate list. If this is the case, then the Illusions can deal out any of the standard crits other than Strikes criticals (by standard I mean Slash, Krush, & Puncture. It might take a higher success rate with the Spell Mastery manuver to get Heat, Cold, Electricity, or Impact). I would also suggest that Strikes attack on the Shock Bolt table instead of the MAST table, but that hadn't been decided yet.

3) The above goes for Illusion spells as well with "feel" mirages. If Jannock wanted to create the Illusion of a red-hot poker (undoubtedly to torture an unfortunate bad guy) he would have to cast Illusion V: 1 for the appearance, 1 for the "glow", 1 for the feel itself, one for the "heat", and one for the smell of heated iron (well, the last isn't really necessary, but it's cool). Note that this could only be stuck into someone once, but it would do damage twice (or once and two crits). One for the "feel" (Puncture) and one for the "heat" (Heat). Also, an appropriate Spell Mastery would be required to create the heat portion of the illusion.

4) Feel Mirages are not dispelled by mere weight or force. It requires a sudden positive increase in the amount of force applied to said Feel in order to dispell it. That is to say that anything that STRIKES (hmmm, sound familiar?) the Feel Mirage with enough power behind it to ACTUALLY DO DAMAGE is capable of dispelling the Mirage.

Example 1: Swink the 15th level Burglar lets Jannock Dunyar throw out a quick Illusory bridge...it has 8 feels on it and spans 40' (2xradius:Illusion X) and Swink doesn't feel lucky enough to jump that alligator infested pit. The GM has Swink make a movement maneuver, and allows Swink a bonus of 3xAG to see how lightly he steps across. 101+ means he lightfoots it across in his soft leather boots, no harm , no foul. Of course, Swink has no problem with this.

Example 2: Vero the 18th level Noble Warrior is being chased by a greater demon after breaking his sword over its back. He sees the illusory bridge and thinks to himself "DAMNIT, that's probably an illusion..." Vero is wearing hard leather boots and full Ithloss Plate Armor as he starts onto the bridge, not worrying too much about stepping lightly. The GM rules that Vero would cause damage to someone were he to run them over (say, step on their head or something) with those boots and armor, so one feel is going to be depleted per heavy booted step. How big is your stride, Vero?

Happy, happy.

Joy, joy.

-Mikey



  ***********   

  *         *     Michael A. Bott

  *      ** *     Integrix, Inc.

  *     * * *     2001 Corporate Center Drive

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i n t e g r i x

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Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 05:47:04 -0400

From: "Wyatt R. Lavigne" 

Reply-To: rolemaster@tower.clark.net

To: Multiple recipients of list 

Subject: RE: Grey Worlds and Illusions



On Tue, 9 Jul 1996, William S. Huggins wrote:



> One of the Grey Worlds magazines had an excellent artical on the subject

> of illusions.  I can't recall which one but there wern't that many

> published.

It covers the illusion debate quite well.

My views: Feels can't support more than 5 lbs. plus 1 lbs. per level of the caster without having a chance of giving/breaking a feel spell at a rate of a one % chance of falure per pound over the maximum it can support. If a 25th level illusionist cast a Feel Miarage X then it would only support 30 lbs before brakeage is rolled and if more than 129 lbs. of force is apllied to the object it automatically fails it's check. This removes one Feel from the Feel X. A nice GM could allow a Feel X to multiply the weight or total force it can apply to 5 lbs + Level * Number of Feels. Treat the 50th level spell as 50 lbs base and 100 lbs per level. This is a short version of what to do. In any case the Damage of an attack can't exceed rank 1 MA.

Back to Grey Worlds. I can buy up to four copies of Issue 2, and one of each copy of 1 and 3. It will run who is ever is interested $11.00 US per copy. This includes shipping and handling. Let me know if you are interested and I will double check on avalibility and we will work out an arrangement.

Wyatt

Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 15:31:57 -0400

From: "Renaud.Gary" 

Reply-To: rolemaster@tower.clark.net

To: Multiple recipients of list 

Subject: Illusion True

Setting:

Illusionary bridge, with Sight and Feel (Taste is optional).

If you step on such a bridge, your foot will feel resistance and you will appear to be stepping on it. Others around you will see your foot resting on the bridge.

In reality (if that is the term for a FRPG) your foot would be hanging in open air.

If you then proceded to place your other foot on the bridge, you would see youself standing on the bridge and would feel your weight resting on the planks.

In reality, you would be falling. When you left the AOE of the spell, you would see and feel the truth. Pull your ripcord, quick.

What OTHERS see is kinda tricky. They would see you fall, but the bridge would still be there. They might figure it was a trap door or that you were clumsy, or perhaps Illusionists are a dime-a-dozen and would suspect the truth. If they view from the side, they would probably see you falling after you left the AOE; if they had the illusion between you and them, they would not.

If there were a Phantasm instead of an Illusion, and the caster were nearby, he could make it APPEAR as if you were crossing the bridge, though they'd probably wonder what is going "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

If they poked it with the ubiquitous 10' (3 meter) pole, they would see and feel the pole hit the slats. OTOP, if they DROPPED a pebble, it would fall right through and disappear into the chasm.

Note that there is no RR (though Alertness or Power Perc. or SRW might work) and there is no "belief" factor. If you were absolutely convinced there was a bridge there, it still wouldn't hold you, and if you KNEW it was an illusion, you would still see and feel it.

Once again, this is not how the offical RM rules work, as if I cared.

Gary Renaud      renaud.gary@corona.navy.mil    Genie: g.renaud1

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