Panic is a truly weird spell. It's an area, but the effects last on the people who leave the area. Yet it also continues to affect the area, so anyone coming into the area is also forced to resist.
I struggle to find parallels. You can get lit on fire with the flames in a Create Fire-affected area, leave, and still be on fire. It doesn't go out. And you could be put to sleep with Mass Sleep and be carried out of the area and still be sleeping. But I still find the Panic effect really odd. It both causes an effect on the targets they carry with them - and which is clearly magical, and which would go away if they went into a NMZ - and keeps a lasting effect elsewhere.
One of our current PCs uses it a lot, and did so in Vic's side game, and I've kept the ruling from there. But my original ruling was it stayed on the targets, not the area. Essentially, like Mass Daze or Mass Sleep, it did its thing and then ended on the area . . . but not on those who failed to resist. I felt like that was a more consistent effect with the other spells in the game. Yeah, fire and being set on fire, yes, but the effect wouldn't keep trying to set you on fire . . . you wouldn't need magic or 1 minute to pass without maintainence to have it end. I don't know . . . sometimes I think I should have kept my ruling just to keep the spell more consistent with the rest of GURPS Magic.
Not for nothing, but I want to highlight this rule, which is still in play, even if fodder types generally don't avail themselves of it in my games. As noted, that applies to fear effects, too. So you can Panic some monster and it can just decide to suck up the penalties and fight, if that's better for it.
In DFRPG, the entire Mind Control college has a note that mentions the odd continuing effects outside the original area.
ReplyDeleteYes, it specifically goes with my original ruling - that the spell hits the area, affects whoever is in it, and then stays on them, not the area. It's on Spells p. 53. GURPS Magic isn't quite so clear, though.
DeleteYeah, isn't Spells p. 53 kind of definitive on this? Unless we are not strictly adhering to that... But it says: "Area spells in this college affect subjects in the area *at the moment of casting.* They don’t create persistent effects on the ground. They run for the listed duration on affected subjects who leave the area *instead* of affecting people who enter the area during that time." I do see that GURPS Magic *does not* have that note, although I suspect that's why DFRPG addressed it.
DeleteIn any event, I like Kiva's suggestions on Fear/Panic/Terror below.
It's definitive but it wasn't how we ran it in your game, and then I kept the "affects both the area and the targets" in DF when you guys fought the gnolls. I don't intend to keep running it that way.
DeleteHonestly, the only reason Panic keeps getting pulled out of my toolbox is because the toolbox is so otherwise empty. I'm really quite unsatisfied with how Fear, Panic, and Terror all work and I'd be happy to house rule all three. Something like this:
ReplyDeleteFear: Regular; R-Will; Base Cost 2 to cast, 1 to maintain; Duration: 1 minute.
If the subject fails to resist, they become afraid of the caster. In combat, they suffer a penalty equal to their margin of failure to take any action against the caster other than 'run away'. Outside of combat, the caster gets a bonus to Intimidation rolls (but a penalty to all other social rolls) equal to their margin of success.
Panic: Area; R-Will; Base Cost 3 to cast, 2 to maintain; Duration: 1 minute.
As Fear, but over an area. The area is not persistent; the duration applies to subjects in the area when the spell is cast, but new subjects can enter the area afterward.
Terror: Area; R-Special; Base Cost 4; Duration: Instantaneous.
Subjects in the area must immediately make a Fright Check.
This makes Fear useful, brings Panic in line with your goals, and sets up Terror so it's not resisted twice (my beef with Terror is that you R-Will... then Fright Check, which is R-Will *again*) - it's not quite a buff, since it takes away the -3 penalty on the Fright Check.
I'll have to think about those suggested changes. They do help clean up the spells relative to one another.
DeleteI'm not sure that Terror is really even needed, actually, but that's another discussion entirely.