A real quick “micro-rules” post on Preparation Required from stuff I had in one of my own campaigns.
Intermediate Levels of Preparation Required
If we play with the values we can interpolate different required times with a given value for each one:
- Preparation Required, 5 seconds (-5%)
- Preparation Required, 30 seconds (-10%)
- Preparation Required, 1 minute (-20%)
- Preparation Required, 10 minutes (-30%)
- Preparation Required, 30 minutes (-40%)
- Preparation Required, 1 hour (-50%)
- Preparation Required, 8 hours (-60%)
- Preparation Required, 12 hours (-70%)
- Preparation Required, 24 hours (-80%)
- Preparation Required, 1 week (-90%)
- Preparation Required, 1 month (-100%)
- Preparation Required, 1d month (-110%)
Reccurrent Preparation
Some abilities in fiction require you to prepare them (immediately or otherwise) and then keep “preparing” them at a fixed or variable interval. For such powers simply increase the cost by half (round up) and decide if it’s fixed (use half the listed time) or variable (use the Dice+Adds rule to figure out when each preparation period comes due). In all cases, the ability continues, but you are out of commision meditating, chanting, etc. You can still attempt an Active Defenses, but nothing else. If someone scores a hit on you roll Will at -1 per point of penetrating damage. Failure means you lose your concentration, the ability fails, and you cannot access it for a period equal to the original preparation time.
Picking Over the Bones
Both of these have passed muster in my own games, but I’m biased so I may have missed something. Let me know how it works in your own games if you use them. Again, how do you like these little “micro-rules” posts? Silly? More? Less?
I like these micro-rules and tables but they would be greatly more useful if they were collected and curated.