Re: SPELLJAMMER-L Digest - 3 Sep 2005 to 4 Sep 2005 (#2005-165)

>
> I am not clear from this description whether you can attempt to
> transfer back to the ship if you don't return to the location you
> arrived at on the planet. If you can't, how close can you be to
> your previous exact location? What if it no longer exists
> (earthquake, landslide, disintegrate, etc)?
>
If you can't get back to your previous location, you are screwed.  Who
ever said
wildspace was safe?  However, I didn't envision that you had to be in
the same
precise arrangement, so that, if Bubba the Barbarian dies, you can get
back without
him (can't take his body, because he is no longer a viable target).

>> If you attempted to teleport to an underground (natural, of course)
>> destination, you will materialize on the surface rather than
>> underground.  Note that you will never materialize inside something
>> solid, nor in mid-air or within any non-breathable location, unless
>> the
>> planet has no breathable atmosphere.  For the catastrophic failure
>> case, you are subject to all the consequences of being lost in the
>> Flow
>> and cannot return to your ship using the Shore Party spell.  If you
>> materialize on a random planet, you also cannot use the spell to
>> return
>> to your ship.
>
> What sort of defences block this spell? Wall of Force? [grin]
>
Hadn't thought about that, but I would suppose that any magical or real
barrier that
provides complete enclosure (windows don't count) would block the spell
if used
to go to a known location.  If used to go to an unknown planet,
however, the spell
would simply bypass the location to somewhere it would work.

> How far can the ship in orbit have moved from the location it was
> in above the plant for the transfer back to it still to work?
>
> Does it need to navigate back to the same position if it has been
> in a fight, or something?
>
> What if the ship drifts away from its orginal position?
The ship would simply have to be in orbit somewhere for the return
spell to work,
the idea being that the departure point is "locked-in" to the caster's
memory to
overcome any distance effects due to the ship being other than overhead
(hey, it's
magic, who said it had to make sense?)

>
> How does the spell check that the arrival point is safe? Precog?
> Some sort of detect? Can it be fooled?
>
It doesn't check that the arrival point is safe, just that it has
breathable atmosphere
(if such a place exists on the planet), isn't in solid material, etc.
Thus, if a character
used the spell to teleport back to a known place which no longer has a
breathable
atmosphere, he'd be screwed.  Furthermore, if the location has changed
significantly
(e.g. now is the site of a temple, flooded, etc), the spell will simply
fail.  As to how the
spell knows this...hey, it's magic....
>
> Some feedback:
>
> Fun spell, bit like a combination of a longer range Dimension
> Door, and a limited range Teleport, with rather different rules
> for the uncertain arrival point. And a fixed return point.
>
> It looks as though you are safer than a Dimension Door or
> Teleport, but cannot arrive indoors. The other restriction is
> that this can only be a transfer between ground and orbit
> (generally outside any atmosphere).
>
> This spell also allows more travellers than either Dimension Door
> or Teleport.
>
Actually, it allows the exact same number of travellers.  This line was
taken straight from the Teleport spell.

> So, plus side:
> * built-in safety (don't appear & instantly die)
> * more travellers
>
I don't think this is any more safe than teleport.  If you use the
variant
of the spell that goes to an unknown location, the only protection you
have is not materializing inside something solid or non-breathable.
You essentially have that protection with teleport, because you'd have
to be stupid to teleport to such a location by choice.
If you use the version to go to known location, the only protection you
have is that the spell won't work if the location has changed to the
point that it is no longer recognizable (as I elaborated above).

[continued]