AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

If someone makes a portal, can those who follow through see where the portal leads to before entering?

Nah. Think of it as a rope which you touch and grab onto, and when it activates you're pulled through the ley to the other side.

I'm fairly sure that's accurate but I'm not an expert and my similes suck.

Depends on the portal. Some portals can show the scenery into the other place, much like a window. Others might be mirrors and some don't show anything in particular before you enter.

In the same it can be mentioned that some portals are one way and others two ways plus can be made to work in certain way.

If you're referring to portal rods, then no, nothing is visible on the 'other side.' The only visual sensation would be a bright cyan light.

Correct. Traditional teleportation spells that create gates, though? Yes, you can usually see the other side pretty clearly.

ley lines =/= regular portals.

Speaking of nothing - We seriously need a viable IC explanation why EVERYOBODY has a portalwand. The "Mystrans hand them out" goes through the Window when you take into account Ud races, ot wild elves. Or enemy churches. Or dwarves? Or half devils?

Very_Svensk wrote:

Speaking of nothing - We seriously need a viable IC explanation why EVERYOBODY has a portalwand. The "Mystrans hand them out" goes through the Window when you take into account Ud races, ot wild elves. Or enemy churches. Or dwarves? Or half devils?

Ever heard of reverse engineering magecraft? :mrgreen:

Every character who becomes a player character on Amia won the Portal Rod Sweepstakes?

Very_Svensk wrote:

Speaking of nothing - We seriously need a viable IC explanation why EVERYOBODY has a portalwand. The "Mystrans hand them out" goes through the Window when you take into account Ud races, ot wild elves. Or enemy churches. Or dwarves? Or half devils?

The Monolith isn't even around anymore!

But you're right. Back when I was we were running the Obsidian Vanguard in L'Obsul, we did have the idea of reverse-engineering portal wands for the sole purpose of having a viable reason for every UDer possessing one. Sadly, good triumphed over evil and we never got that far. But yeah this was sort of pointless, since characters will have the wands regardless... although... now that I think of it our influence would have increased if everyone knew the wands were made by... our guys...

... Excuse me I have to go and do something.

Wash your hands after!

serbiris wrote:

Very_Svensk wrote:

Speaking of nothing - We seriously need a viable IC explanation why EVERYOBODY has a portalwand. The "Mystrans hand them out" goes through the Window when you take into account Ud races, ot wild elves. Or enemy churches. Or dwarves? Or half devils?

The Monolith isn't even around anymore!

But you're right. Back when I was we were running the Obsidian Vanguard in L'Obsul, we did have the idea of reverse-engineering portal wands for the sole purpose of having a viable reason for every UDer possessing one. Sadly, good triumphed over evil and we never got that far. But yeah this was sort of pointless, since characters will have the wands regardless... although... now that I think of it our influence would have increased if everyone knew the wands were made by... our guys...

... Excuse me I have to go and do something.

Sooooooo dirty....

Very_Svensk wrote:

Speaking of nothing - We seriously need a viable IC explanation why EVERYOBODY has a portalwand. The "Mystrans hand them out" goes through the Window when you take into account Ud races, ot wild elves. Or enemy churches. Or dwarves? Or half devils?

That's not even the IC reasoning anymore. Maybe find that out IC, because it is IC.

I have no idea why I have a portal wand. Raise your hand if you have no idea how that got there.

CouncilofAutumn wrote:

I have no idea why I have a portal wand. Raise your hand if you have no idea how that got there.

Must be the genre-savvy wand ninjas, always on the lookout for someone without the blank stare of an NPC. If so, BAM, reverse pickpocketed a wand into your junk.

Simply put, most of you have one because a Mystran attuned it to you at some point. If this does not seem likely for your background, tell us, and we will take it from your inventory. Problem solved.

Could it have only been a Mystran?

No. But the other alternatives are very exclusive.

Is it possible to steal one and then become attuned to it through a mishap like that?...

"Oh, I'm poking my nose through this wizard's trove. What's this? A wand? Doesn't look like any I've seen before... maybe if I just push it here and here and AaaaaaAaaaaaAAaah! Where am I!?..."

Nope.

Yossarin wrote:

Nope.

Correct. Something casual portal wand users may notice is that if they try to use another's portal rod, it simply won't work for them. Only the original user.

CouncilofAutumn wrote:

Could it have only been a Mystran?

Mostly yes. It's commonly assumed that UD races and the like get theirs through shady means. But it should also be noted that the Mystrans who distribute these are not directly affiliated with any of their more morally-inclined PC-counterparts.

Yossarin wrote:

Simply put, most of you have one because a Mystran attuned it to you at some point. If this does not seem likely for your background, tell us, and we will take it from your inventory. Problem solved.

Indeedy. If your character would not accept such a work of artifice from a Mystran, any DM can yoink it from you by request.

Nivo wrote:

Yossarin wrote:

Nope.

Correct. Something casual portal wand users may notice is that if they try to use another's portal rod, it simply won't work for them. Only the original user.

How about if the thief stole an unused, priorly unattuned, 'blank' wand? Or do such not exist?

A Mystran is the one who attunes it.

Yossarin wrote:

A Mystran is the one who attunes it.

Gotcha, thanks.

Yep. Not being snippy with my responses, mind, just posting from a phone so it is terse.

I have a hard time imagining Ahsra having accepted something like that from a Mystran. You think a Sharran could have supplied and attuned it, instead, considering some of the other [REDACTED]? (Serious question.)

Only if you can point me toa Sharran PC who pulled that off.

I can't, really. I imagine Ahsra doesn't actually have a portal rod, at this rate - but I think I'll keep it solely for determining spawn-in location and getting back to places after reset.

What about a Sharran NPC? There are a few that seem like they could be capable of it.

Why deprive an existing Sharran the glory?

Fair enough, that. I was more just thinking in terms of back story situations, since characters begin game with them.

(Also, because deprivation is totally a holy thing for Sharrans. So really, I'd be doing them a religious favor.)

And have also always had the option to give it over to a DM if they could not make it work.

But again, what glory? I mean, there are going to be portal wands regardless. We don't have any incentive to bother with what seems like a very difficult and involved process except to restore a minor plot hole for a certain population of the server and maybe gain a bit of gratitude/exposure from a subset of that population, IC. This is probably why no one has done it before now, and while I doubt I'm the only one who's thought of trying, no one has really made an earnest attempt (well, visibly anyway). There are always better projects to work on (that and last time I tried this, our head mage was a Transmuter arrrgh).

But okay. We'll see.

Are there, really? One day you might wake up andit'll be too late.

Why don't commoners have portalwands then.

I honestly think you should add oliwanders to the module - go there. Pick a wand all harry potter style and bam. Ic/ooc headache solved. I sm serious.

A wand shop.

Very_Svensk wrote:

Why don't commoners have portalwands then.

I believe it's been stated before they are only given to adventurers, mostly because a commoner couldn't afford one. Or something. I just know they are only given to adventurers based on past DM input.

Naivatkal wrote:

Very_Svensk wrote:

Why don't commoners have portalwands then.

I believe it's been stated before they are only given to adventurers, mostly because a commoner couldn't afford one. Or something. I just know they are only given to adventurers based on past DM input.

Errr.

Is it so hard to simply accept that is the way it is?

Don't overthink it. Being nitpicky over something is not a good trait all the time.

Limited supply.

Yossarin wrote:

Limited supply.

My main char doesn't have a portal wand. Because she didn't come on the island the similar way like most of the adventurers/commoners did. Nor I want a portal wand for her. Kinda fun having to run around places instead of portalling, plus if I need a portal she can IC:ly ask other chars to take her there.

I don't see a need for specific explanation as for why some have wands. Consider it part of the starting package, like in D&D, your char bought those items before you really started the adventure. If you want to make a story for it, go ahead and make one and see that the DM's are fine with such story. (If there is need for DM approval for such even.) At least my chars will say they just bought them from local mage store, if there is none for sale, I assume they ran out of them now.

However, I do remember reading that in general portals can vary in size and appearance, some show what is in the otherside, others don't. Some operate by certain key environmental aspects taking place, like during full moon or the person needing to be of certain race, just few examples of what kind of limits there can be. Please correct me if I am wrong. (As comment to Nivo and Yossarin's earlier posts.)

Commoners probably don't have them because if they got one they'd sell it to be able to pay their rent and eat this month.

Heh, actually, the reason commoners don't typically have them is mostly due to limited supply, but there is another impetus behind that even so. When originally constructed, they were intended for a select few. Now they have a broader audience, much to the dismay of the creator, but at the very least it hasn't become so diluted that every common Tom, Dick, & Harry has one.

I still maintain there should be some sort of lowbie quest, by which a character can either obtain a portal wand "on screen" or decline to do so. The current explanation of "some anomymous Mystran attuned you, sometime in the past, whether you remember it or not" seems unnecessarily handwavey to me. Apparently wandering wand-attuning Mystrans are just lurking on every street corner or something?

It is handwavey, but we didn't have a choice. The original implementation had, well...zero rationalization at all. There's no way such a device should, without some kind of reason that supports both its creation and its inevitable demise, exist for the community.

Indeedy. It is not ideal, but it is subject to change in the future, yes.

I do get that any system of lore regarding the wands will be forced to grapple with the fact that they weren't designed to support any lore at all, and that retroactively stapling lore onto them is going to end up clunky no matter how you slice it. I do think, though, that in the years since the wands were added to the game, the breadth and depth of the lore that has grown around them kind of makes the shallowness of the "A Wand'ring Mystran I" number all the more glaring and incongruous. The absurd incomprehensibility of the explanation serves only to trivialize a chapter of Amia lore which is pretty well thought out and detailed, and deserves to be approached with more seriousness. A lowbie quest that awards characters their portal wands on completion could serve to introduce people to the scope and awesomeness of the lore, and purge it of the silliness that currently drags it down.

There are much, much better solutions that I have in mind.

Yes! Still on before ley-king Tormak.

Wand portals

Who is online