[UA] Semi-Magical Skills

[Epoch]

I presume that everyone on this list has read LAST CALL (if you haven't, I
want a note from your parents!) and that most are at least partway through
DECLARE.  Very mild spoilers for both books are below.




Okay.  So in LAST CALL and DECLARE (and, ironically, LORDS & LADIES, by
Terry Pratchett), there are these skills which seem mundane at first
glance, but are, by their very nature, at least partly
magical.  Poker-playing in LAST CALL, radio-telegraphy in DECLARE,
Beekeeping and smithing in LORDS & LADIES.  The basic concept is that,
while the skills involved may be mundane, any action you take with the
skill has mystical repercussions, and so to become truly great with each
skill, you've got to be able to manipulate the mystical factors to some
extent.

Want that kind of stuff in your UA game?  Here's an idea as to how to go
about it:

Basically, a semi-mystical skill is totally ordinary, except for matched
successes and failures, OACOWA and BOHICA's.

For an ordinary person, only OACOWA and BOHICA's are important.  Matched
successes and failures are treated normally.  But on an OACOWA, the
success may have supernatural overtones, and on a BOHICA, you may end up
cursed.

So, to take the poker example, a OACOWA might have effects which linger
beyond the card game -- you might start a winning streak which lasts all
night, or your cancer might go into remission.  On a BOHICA, you might not
only lose the pot, but ten years off your life, or your house might be
struck by lightning at that very moment.

For radiotelography, an OACOWA might allow you to get into radio contact
with someone on the other side of the planet, or a BOHICA might cause your
signal to come through loud and clear on your worst enemy's car radio.


But things get worse and better if you're an obsessed skill user, or if
you're somehow magically "special."  (What does the latter mean?  Well,
it could mean "are an avatar or an adept."  Or it might mean "were born in
Palestine."  Or maybe "has an astral parasite."  Whatever).  In those
cases, the results that we talked about above might come from simply a
matched success or failure, and an OACOWA or BOHICA could be marvelous or
deadly.

For poker:  An OACOWA might lay out the rest of your life to you in the
cards.  A BOHICA might give you an instant heart attack, or leave you
utterly unable to play cards without losing ever again in your life.

For radio:  An OACOWA might get you a response despite the fact that the
person you're trying to contact died 24 hours ago.  A BOHICA might send
your radio signal straight to the Cruel Ones.


An obsessed user can lay out matched successes -- cherries -- just like an
obsessed melee fighter.  Thus, a very skilled poker player might have
something like this:

11 -- get a +20% shift to skill on next poker roll
22 -- win next hand automatically
33 -- get a +10% shift to any skill on next important roll
44 -- win every hand with a pot greater than $20 for rest of night
55 -- Natural lifespan increased by 1 year
66 -- Add 1 to soul

But the GM still controls matched failures, and they'll work against you
-- decreasing your skill for that evening, allowing the GM to maliciously
change either die by 1 in either direction, altering your perception of
the cards and games...  All working to bring you deeper into a pit of bad
luck until you roll more matched failures and BOHICA's and ruin your life.


Supernatural results might also cause minor supernatural occurances
unrelated to the actual effect -- but skilled players could use that as a
sign that something's gone wrong...  When you see the smoke start to pool
like water, put down your cards and leave the table before something bad
happens.

Whaddya think?  Could this work?

Mike


--
"What would you do if your 15 year old had the power of a God?
 Raise his allowance."
	- Phil, on Aberrants Worldwide mailing list


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