Saturday, February 4, 2012

Cast an Ozzy Spell: Whooo's Your Tin Woodman?

I know this is late. Sorry, guys.

Now that I've laid down some guidelines on Transmutation effects, let's see them in action. One of the many Transmutations that we see Mrs. Yoop do in The Tin Woodman of Oz is turning the Tin Woodman himself into a Tin Owl. If this were nearly any other character, this would be a Transformation using those rules. But since the Tin Woodman is made of tin rather than flesh and bone, this spell is considered a Transmutation.

This involves a change to both Form (he now looks like an owl) and Function (he can actually fly like an owl, too), so 2 points of Power there. He also takes a reduction in Size, but his Substance (tin) remains the same throughout. So altogether, it's a Power 3 effect.

Power: Transmutation, Tin Woodman to Tin Owl (3)
Scope: Person/Object (1)
Ritual: Simple (-1)
Duration: Permanent (2)
Effect Power: 5

A pretty powerful spell, really. Mrs. Yoop must have some Oz Points hiding somewhere in order to pull that one off.

6 comments:

The Mayfly said...

Your new transmutation rules make a lot of sense; thanks a lot for them.

One question, though: Wouldn't the size reduction from Tin Woodsman (man-sized) to an owl (small animal) be a 2, rather than 1?

The Mayfly said...

** Correction **

Sorry, I meant 'Tiny sized', not small animal.

F. Douglas Wall said...

It's actually not that clear how much his size truly changed when he became an owl. The illustrations in the book show him as being roughly the same size as Ojo the Green Monkey and the Straw-stuffed Bear. But I included it, since it's very likely that some sort of size change did take place. If I thought he had truly gone to actual owl size, I agree that it would be an extreme change worthy of a 2.

The Mayfly said...

Thank you for that clarification.

I've another question, if I may: In September of last year you posted the Witch's Kiss spell.

Is this an actual Spell, or an ability that the caster had?

On page 34 of the print edition, the rules state... [Hah! Sorry, had to laugh at myself for that nerd Trekkie imitation]... that magic spells are composed of four things: Power, Duration, Scope, and Ritual. The Witch's Kiss does not have a Duration listed, which causes a bit of confusion.

If it is a spell (as written), would I be way off base in assigning...

'Duration: Task - Report any harm that may befall the Kissed (1)'

This would seemingly increase the Effect Power to 2.

The only reason I ask is that my daughter's party is soon to meet the 'Castle That Was Formerly Yoop'. There a certain Green Ape is going to ask them to escort her, er.. it, to the Truth Pond.

Before embarking though, I thought it might be a nice tie-in for the Good Witch of the North to use the same spell on my girl's character (who, through previous adventures, is a hero of the Munchkins).

Thanks!

F. Douglas Wall said...

Glad to help. The "Witch's Kiss" spell actually uses the rules for magic items and powers that start on page 39 (the same page that the Scrying effect is mentioned). Items and powers do not have durations because they are generally permanent.

Though as I said in my September post, if a player's character is the recipient of the effect, rather than the caster, you could just as easily add the caster to the character's Friends List.

The Mayfly said...

Thank you once again for the help.

I owe a lot to you for this game. Much more than I paid for it, that's for sure.

My daughter loves your game so much, so asks to play it just about every night now. And what else can a parent ask for than that?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...