Happy merry to all my Canada friends!
Played (Changeling the Lost): Berkeley 94: This episode, Thessaly and Everett and Longfingers help Black Shuck ambush the lizard-pigs in the Hedge by chucking rocks at them and running away to where Black Shuck can grab one and do something unseen but doubtless horrible. It’s a terrible plan, but it works out okay. Siddy and Theophania have a much less exciting time staying ahead of their lizard-pigs until the bells drive them away. Everyone reconvenes at the coffee shop.
Read (manga): Failed Princesses vol 3 (Ajiichi):Still rereading. Now there are four girls all having feelings at each other, while on the school trip and in the hotel bath.
Written (game design): 284:
Spells that don’t do damage are even more unclear. Having two sets of HP
(physical and mental, typically) is something that’s been tried, but the
advantage to focusing on one track is so great that no one ever bothers
with the other. If we want to use the same mechanism, then it has to be
the same pool of HP, so everyone is as resistant to being turned into a
frog as they are to being fireballed or stabbed.
But on the other hand, what does it mean to cast a spell, or to resist a
spell being cast on you? In D&D, most (non-damage) spells fizzle because
there’s always a save to prevent anything from happening at all, as well
as the save to have the effect end after a round or two. Obviously you
can’t have debuffs ruining the calibration, but we don’t care about
that, and we also spurn the concept of to-hit rolls, so do non-damaging
spells just work, at least initially? When the victim’s turn comes up,
they can try to shake off the effect, which might require a roll or
something, but when you cast blindness on somebody, maybe they’re just
blind. Kind of a lame spell otherwise, right?
It should still be possible to resist a spell, but that can be a
specific thing, like casting protection from magic on someone before
sending them to rush the enemy wizard, or being a fireblooded sorcerer
when someone casts wave of icy death. Possibly ties in with my idea that
anybody can buy an amulet that protects against one instance of a
specific harm before burning out. Naturally, if you carry more than one
amulet, none of them work.