Snipe Teleport Guerilla Wafare

[Lloyd Dupont]

I gave my player a trove of Dark Elves spell book last week. And one of them was Teleport.

They have applied it creatively including teleporting 1 enemy at a time to them and hacking him or her.

Now I wonder how the elves themselves would have coped which what can only be one of their own ancient magical guerilla tactics?
One of my own mistake might have been to give them a discreet vantage point (i.e. high up on a hill, can't be seen with tree cover but can easily see the enemy town)

This time I used Neutralize Magic during the conflict phase to prevent the spell from completing and mitigated the attack... But that leave whoever originated the teleport attack safe and around.

I didn't have detect magic on the enemy spell list, which should definitely be more prominent in the future. Yet if cast after the attack, and provided the enemy lay low, wouldn't help that much.

Reading the spell list... Me think that perhaps I could use Second Sight to the trace the Teleport Spell's to its origin, like one would with a magical attack. Actually this last one sounds a good use for that spell that doesn't include any sort of OP divination.

[RosenMcStern]

Hmm, Overcome for unwilling target is not specified, in fact. But it should be a no-brainer: either the teleport target agrees, or a WIL vs WIL conflict starts. And opponents have time to think of countermeasures. Simply hiding the target before the Conflict is over might work. Or not, if the spell is powerful enough to allow a Quick Exit on the first roll - but this would require a very high skill and a very high WIL, so the insta-kill effect is not inappropriate.

Creative use of spells is not a bad thing, provided the players are not "gaming it". Bypassing the requirement of a Conflict when you use a spell offensively is "gaming it", in fact.

 

[RosenMcStern]

On the other hand, if you also use alchemy, teleporting grenades does not require Conflicts, and is also very effective. As is "Teleport venomous snake/spider from its cage". 

[Lloyd Dupont]

I was not complaining about Teleport usage by player (i.e. not "accusing them of gaming it"), that seemed fair use of teleport to me. And I did run the whole conflict phase! (which give enough time use neutralise magic)
Speaking of which... It is it one conflict per round? or one conflict per 5SR (concentration action) of the caster?

I was wondering how would people (Dark Elf) who had a much longer experience with it would deal with it!
Hiding during the overcome phase!  I like it, didn't think of it!  

I also got the idea in bed yesterday night, they could have "grenade" and use it in a kamikase way if teleported.
(work like fireball? which would work like firebolt except all location in an area of effect?)
(thanks to toughness fireball and area effect are more palatable to me in Revolution, yeah)

They did teleport wild animal to the dark elves to avoid raising attention while doing the teleport and create a diversion. I am sure they had fun and they are still afraid of the dark elves "it's like a higher level zone" said one player (which is totally my intent), so everybody got good fun!

Teleporting alchemical grenade, haha! Nice idea, like it!
Also makes me think of one of my legendary grenade in Borderland 3!

Edited October 7, 2019 by Lloyd Dupont

[Lloyd Dupont]

Speaking of hiding...

Smoke grenade become the new low-tech way of mitigating all sort of magical attack!
Go Ninja! 😮  

[RosenMcStern]

Smoke is an essential component of modern warfare. It keeps troops alive and allows them to move undisturbed. You do not see it very often in Hollywood movies* because it would hide the action, but it gets used quite often on real battlefield. It is probably widespread in the Star Wars universe, too, although the directors choose to not show it. There could be no other explanation for the hit rate of storm troopers, otherwise.

As for the offensive use of Teleport.... well, once the caster has made so many rolls I see no reason not to reward the creative use of the spell.

[Lloyd Dupont]

Smoke are grenade are coming, I think it's going to be good!
And yeah, it's good to give them game mechanic value!

[RosenMcStern]

Unfortunately we could not put much "color" in the core book because of space (those two pages of sample deities are really sketchy and it was a pain to squeeze them in), but the science rules let you create both steampunk stuff and "witcher-style" drugs. Smoke grenades should be added as a "freebie" to anyone having the grenade Trait, as they are really easy to make. Unfortunately the rules are in the Quickstart but not in the core, but they are available nevertheless.

Edit: I mentioned color because smoke grenades are really appropriate only if your fantasy includes a minimum of steampunk flavour, but IMO a good depiction of dark elves, and moreso of dwarfs, should include some steampunk elements.

Edited October 8, 2019 by RosenMcStern