Sneaky GM Thing: Healing + other effects with Transform?

[Jkeown]

So I have this Darkness Orb that can, in addition to other darkness-related powers, heal a person. I had at first thought that a simple Healing effect would be sufficient. Upon further reflection, it seems like the Orb should mark the person it healed, with dark tattoo-like images on the areas healed.

 

This seems like a transform. I expressed it thus:

 

Dark Healing: Major Transform 5d6 (Wounded Person into Healed, Marked Person, Being Wounded Again) (50 Active Points); OAF (-1)

 

So you get your 5D6 of Transform, and if it's enough, you get healed and marked up as one who benefited from the orb's power. This last bit is a campaign thing, and will leave PCs and others vulnerable to later influences. I'm thinking of a side effect that marks the user in a similar fashion.

 

Your thoughts?

[Nevenall]

Re: Sneaky GM Thing: Healing + other effects with Transform?

 

I'd build the orb's power with healing with a side effect that the target and the user become marked. I think because healing is a beneficial power it's conceptually ok to add a side effect which affects the target of the power because you mostly likely to be using it on people you wouldn't want to be marked.

[Chimera 12]

Re: Sneaky GM Thing: Healing + other effects with Transform?

 

Sounds to me like the most natural way to build this would indeed be Healing with a Cosmetic Transform Side Effect.

[Old Man]

Re: Sneaky GM Thing: Healing + other effects with Transform?

 

Cosmetic?

 

 

"Hey, why is your arm all bandaged up? Didn't we heal it with that orb thing?"

 

"Yeah, but the flesh was all black, right? And now it's... growing..."

[Chimera 12]

Re: Sneaky GM Thing: Healing + other effects with Transform?

 

Cosmetic?

 

 

"Hey, why is your arm all bandaged up? Didn't we heal it with that orb thing?"

 

"Yeah, but the flesh was all black, right? And now it's... growing..."

 

"t seems like the Orb should mark the person it healed, with dark tattoo-like images on the areas healed."

 

Sounds Cosmetic to me. If the OP wants a significantly more powerful or insidious side effect than just "leaves a mark", then we can talk about a higher class of Transform.

[Matt Holck]

Re: Sneaky GM Thing: Healing + other effects with Transform?

 

staring at the tattoos might be like interpreting clouds in the sky

like Ray Bradbury's Illustrate Man

 

The unrelated stories are tied together by the frame device of "the Illustrated Man", a vagrant with a tattooed body whom the unnamed narrator meets. The man's tattoos, allegedly created by a woman from the future, are animated and each tell a different tale.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illustrated_Man

[AlHazred]

Re: Sneaky GM Thing: Healing + other effects with Transform?

 

Generally, if the effect of the Dark Mark is to make the character susceptible to certain Detects (Creatures of Darkness, Taint of Shadow, or some such) and not much else, it's a Cosmetic Transform.

 

15 Healing Mark Of The Shadow Orb I: Simplified Healing 4d6, Affects Desolidified (creatures of the Shadow; +1/4) (50 Active Points); 4 Charges (-1), OAF (Orb of Darkness; -1), Side Effects, automatic (affects the recipient of the Power; target is marked by the Shadow until the damage would have healed normally; -0), Incantations ("Paean to the Tendrils of the Night"; -1/4)

 

13 Healing Mark Of The Shadow Orb II: Simplified Healing 4d6, Affects Desolidified (creatures of the Shadow; +1/4) (50 Active Points); 4 Charges (-1), OAF (Orb of Darkness; -1), Side Effects, automatic (affects the recipient of the Power; Cosmetic Transform 6d6 [target into Shadow-marked target; heals back by ritual purification by agents of the Light]; -1/2), Incantations ("Paean to the Tendrils of the Night"; -1/4)

 

10 Healing Mark Of The Shadow Orb III: Simplified Healing 4d6, Affects Desolidified (creatures of the Shadow; +1/4) (50 Active Points); Side Effects, automatic (affects both character and recipient of Power; Cosmetic Transform 6d6 [target into Shadow-marked target; heals back by ritual purification by agents of the Light]; -1 1/2), 4 Charges (-1), OAF (Orb of Darkness; -1), Incantations ("Paean to the Tendrils of the Night"; -1/4)

 

If the mark slowly grows and taints the healed character's soul with an open doorway through which Creatures of Darkness can further Taint the character with Shadow, then it's more like a Major Transform.

 

16 Healing Mark Of The Shadow Orb IV: Simplified Healing 6d6, Affects Desolidified (creatures of the Shadow; +1/4) (75 Active Points); Side Effects, automatic (affects the recipient of the Power; Major Transform 8d6 [target into target with Vulnerability: 2 x Effect from powers of the agents of the Shadow (Common)]; -1 1/2), 4 Charges (-1), OAF (Orb of Darkness; -1), Incantations ("Paean to the Tendrils of the Night"; -1/4)

 

13 Healing Mark Of The Shadow Orb V: Simplified Healing 6d6, Affects Desolidified (creatures of the Shadow; +1/4) (75 Active Points); Side Effects, automatic (affects both character and recipient of Power; Major Transform 8d6 [target into target with Vulnerability: 2 x Effect from powers of the agents of the Shadow (Common)]; -2 1/2), 4 Charges (-1), OAF (Orb of Darkness; -1), Incantations ("Paean to the Tendrils of the Night"; -1/4)

 

And if the only purpose of the Mark is to act as a plot element, and does nothing to trigger detects or whatever but rather changes shape under the Moonlight to reveal glimpses into secrets that can act as catalysts for stories of adventure and intrigue, it's not worth any points at all.

 

I usually prefer a combination of the second solution (Healing Mark Of The Shadow Orb V) and that last one.

[Old Man]

Re: Sneaky GM Thing: Healing + other effects with Transform?

 

"t seems like the Orb should mark the person it healed, with dark tattoo-like images on the areas healed."

 

Sounds Cosmetic to me. If the OP wants a significantly more powerful or insidious side effect than just "leaves a mark", then we can talk about a higher class of Transform.

 

Man, what kind of GM are you? Here is a perfectly good opportunity to screw over the players and you're blowing it off on a technicality.