Tricks
Tricks are custom illusion spells that can be created and shared between witches.
Contents
Requirements
To create a trick, a witch needs an empty large hag stone. Note that a small hag stone will not suffice.
All of the stages involved in making (as opposed to casting) a trick use the magic.methods.mental.convoking skill; this skill in particular determines the maximum number of stages. research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore.
Making a trick
Tricks are made by the following procedure.
Bonding
The witch must first bond the hag stone to herself.
Naming the trick
The witch then tells the stone the name of the trick it is to learn, via the following syntax:
convince <stone> to learn <name>
The name follows the standard spell naming conventions, hence The First Letter Of Each Word Is Capitalised.
Determining the trick's target
The witch now determines what the trick can be cast at, with options of:
- Someone - the trick is cast on a living target
- Something - the trick is cast on an object
- Nothing - the trick has no target
By using the syntax:
convince <trick> [that] it is cast on {something|someone}
<pre>convince <trick> [that] it isn't cast on anything
Note that in the above syntax, and all subsequent stages, it is the trick that is convinced, not the hag stone.
Stages
The witch indicates how many stages the trick has, using the following syntax:
convince <trick> [that] it has <number> stages
Once she has done this, she can then fill out the details of each stage as follows:
- A description for the caster to see must be provided.
- A description for the target or observers to see must be provided.
- The witch must give an indication of how difficult each stage is
- The witch must indicate which skill is required for each stage. This is done by mentioning the name of one of the skill leafs under the magic.methods skill tree in the target/observer description.
- The target/observer descriptions must have the witch's name in.
A witch may ask the trick to forget any stage if she wishes to rewrite it.
The syntax for the all of the above is as follows:
convince <trick> to tell me "<string>" at stage <number>
convince <trick> to say "<string>" at stage <number>
convince <trick> [that] stage <number> is {easy|average|difficult|impossible} [to cast]
convince <trick> to forget stage <number>
The average succeed/failure point for each of the stages is as follows, accoring to the difficulty specified:
| Difficulty | Average bonus required |
|---|---|
| Easy | 100-200 |
| Average | 200-300 |
| Difficult | 300-400 |
| Impossible | 400+ |
Focus tea can give a more precise indication as to the difficulty of each stage, once the witch has educed the trick.
Finale
The witch also needs to indicate what is seen by the caster and target/observer when the trick completes. Unlike the stages, there is no skill associated with the target/observer description given in the finale, and the witch's name also does not need to be mentioned here.
The syntax for setting the finale is:
convince <trick> to tell me "<string>" when finished convince <trick> to say "<string>" when finished
Targets and Unlucky Charlie
Where a trick is cast on either someone or something, the witch must refer to that target as "Charlie". If she needs to refer to the target, she should use the masculine pronouns (ie. 'he', 'his', etc).
Witches should not have 'Charlie' perform actions (ie not use 'Charlie <verb>...') in the stages, as this won't translate correctly from the point of view of the target; they may however get Charlie to perform actions in the finale. This is achieved via tactical use of the '$' character to distinguish between the point of view of the target and an observer.
For example, a witch could write 'Charlie leap$s into the air and watch$es in panic as his skin falls off!' for the finale; if then cast on Alice, then this would be seen as:
- (From Alice's point of view) You leap into the air and watch as your skin falls off!
- (From everyone else's point of view) Alice leaps into the air and watches as her skin falls off!
The rationale for this unusual naming system comes from Unlucky Charlie, a scarecrow to be found in Lancre Town who is traditionally a common target for tricks. Charlie has the unusual property that he can be either a person or a thing, depending on whether he has been put on his pole or not.
Components
The witch can now determine which components a trick requires:
- A trick may require any number of components.
- Any of the components may or may not be consumed, according to the witch's desires.
- The components must be in the witch's inventory when creating the trick, but may otherwise be any item.
- The witch may designate a particular stage at which the components are consumed.
The syntax for controlling components is:
convince <trick> [that] it needs <object> convince <trick> [that] stage <number> consumes <object>
Setting the trick in stone
Once the witch has specified all the stages and the finale, she may 'set the trick in stone'. This fixes the trick inside the hag stone - once this has been done:
- The trick can no longer be modified
- The trick can be educed from the stone.
The syntax for setting the trick in stone is:
set <trick> in <stone>
Acquiring the trick
Once the trick has been set in stone, the witch must educe it from the stone before she can cast it. It is recommended that the witch clears her head of all other spells before doing this, as this point is notorious for the hag stone's tendancy to crumble to dust if insufficient head space is available for the trick.
Cancelling tricks
A witch can cancel the creation of a trick at any stage before it is set in stone, using the syntax:
convince <stone> to forget trick
Exploding stones
Failing a convince skillcheck badly enough can cause the hag stone to explode, destroying it completely. This does not do any damage to the witch, but is still annoying.
Getting information
At any stage of the trick making process before setting it in stone, the witch can use the following syntax to find out the parameters and stages of the trick currently set up:
listen to <trick>
Similarly, the following syntax will tell the witch the name of the trick, if she has forgotten:
listen to <stone>
Finally, Granny Beedle's Cooperative Credits will also give substantial information about tricks.
Sharing tricks
Witches can share tricks with each other by imbuing the trick into a large hag stone and then either:
- Giving the trick to another witch, who can educe it from the stone.
- Selling the stone to Hilta Goatfounder, at which point other witches can buy the hag stone complete with trick from her stall.
The Trials
The Trials are a yearly trick writing competition held by the witches guild, in which witches tricks are cast and judged by a panel as to which are the most impressive. Prizes are often offered.
