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Is Flash Teleport meant to be able to be used with Arcane Eye?

Teleport is, so I don't know why Flash Teleport wouldn't be

Pyrotechnics – 3/Day
Preparation Time: 30 Seconds
Turn a fire into either a burst of blinding fireworks (blinding all creatures that see it within 120-ft of the fire source) or a thick cloud of smoke (expanding 20 feet in all directions from the fire source and lasting 18 seconds).

Spyrotechnics (2) - At Will
Preparation Time - 6 Seconds
Characters of your race can turn a flame into either a burst of blinding fireworks (blinding all creatures that see it within 120-ft of the fire source) or a thick cloud of smoke (extending 20 feet in all directions from the fire source and lasting 18 seconds).

Why do these two versions of well the same thing that more or less have the same cost have different prep times and usages?

A utility talent costs 1.5 racial points, this ability is worth 2 racial points, so to account for being 1.33 times as strong as the equivalent utility, they made it easier to use and unlimited uses.

Is there a metric for determining what the preparation time, duration, and number of uses should be for a utility talent?

That gets tricky. When dealing with utility talents that have hard numbers, there can be a bit more rigidity, but at current there is no surefire formula for balancing a utility talent. Only through testing, feel, and comparison to other talents can the true worth of a utility talent be determined. There are easy ones to balance, but some can be more difficult. For example, Magic Drain is difficult to balance because you have to give someone a very powerful bonus for giving up something so inherent to the system as magic points, and determining what is both cool, useful, and balanced for that is nightmarish. Hence why it was released with only two talents. There were two other Magic Drain talents on the table at certain points, but both were scrapped.

Preparation Time only exists to limit DM headaches as a reason why certain things can't be used mid-combat or to auto-escape from time-sensitive traps. If a talent, like a group teleport, is likely to be too much of a get-out-of-jail-free-card if the group  is falling into lava or running from a boulder... Simply tacking on a prep time solves those issues.

If your talent isn't going to cause many headaches, give it a really short prep time. If it's going to cause issues in these sorts of things, give it a longer one.

Obviously, anything explicit or adult in visual nature is worth banning the offending user. This, I understand. However,

In roleplay itself, (and thus only text,) what limitations are in place regarding the nature of elements in gameplay? (Potential understandable answer would be akin to a movie rating such as PG.)

Gah... As a writer, I hate to limit this but... Since there isn't any way to make a thread private that I know of - stick to PG-13 (never know who might be reading it). Adult encounters and themes are fine, but have them happen "off-screen" to continue with the television analogy.

Understandable. So implied and vaguely referenced is okay but not really recommended, while outright showing such is wholesale wrong, from what I understand.

Are we at least allowed to not need to use Frothy Mugs of Water?

PG-13 content isn't all that "clean" these days....

Just saying, you probably don't need to completely avoid adult subject matter. Just don't paint the more offensive aspects of it in vivid detail.

Mind Gamer wrote:Understandable. So implied and vaguely referenced is okay but not really recommended, while outright showing such is wholesale wrong, from what I understand.

Are we at least allowed to not need to use Frothy Mugs of Water?

Precisely. PG-13 manages to get away with a lot these days. Alcohol is fine, mild profanity, even bringing in drug elements and similar. But keep anything that would clearly get an R rating "offscreen" if you really need to include it for the sake of the story.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:

Mind Gamer wrote:Understandable. So implied and vaguely referenced is okay but not really recommended, while outright showing such is wholesale wrong, from what I understand.

Are we at least allowed to not need to use Frothy Mugs of Water?

Precisely. PG-13 manages to get away with a lot these days. Alcohol is fine, mild profanity, even bringing in drug elements and similar. But keep anything that would clearly get an R rating "offscreen" if you really need to include it for the sake of the story.

Ironically, this would make the original AoH campaign too much for this forum.

What about campaigns with stuff like murder and death and similar "dark" themes? A setting like One Piece or Shadow Walkers might have problems with such.

Worth to mention as well, that the owner of the campaign/thread could mark his thread as potentially being inappropriate for "younger viewers".

The original AoH campaign wasn't on this site. Skype games can do whatever they want. =)

Though that campaign also kept things very much offscreen when possible. Naturally, hearing violence described isn't as big a deal in books or stories compared to seeing ultraviolence in movies. "He stabs you in the chest and blood spurts out." Is fine. Actually seeing it is a larger issue.

Terrific Transforming Thingamajigicator - Item:

Can you use any Magic Point for this? I.E., could your party members spend one of their Magic Points to activate this item?

Probably not. Effects that allow players to share magic points have been explicitly avoided in the past, and if there had to be effects in place in order to do it, then that means you can't in general.

Build a Boon Workshop:

Considering it states "any", would Build a Boon Workshop allow you to select things that are prerequisites of each other such as the flight talent progression or Magical Tricks + Magecraft.

Quick question.

Thus far, we've resisted adding extra elements to the pony system (the way LL has extra virtues) because it would clash with the flavor of the show. What if we were able to slip some new ones in via...

"Not all characters have a personal affinity for one of the Elements of Harmony. However, there are other, personal virtues that characters hold dear. Instead of taking an element, your character can select one of the following virtues instead..."

Thoughts?

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Quick question.

Thus far, we've resisted adding extra elements to the pony system (the way LL has extra virtues) because it would clash with the flavor of the show. What if we were able to slip some new ones in via...

"Not all characters have a personal affinity for one of the Elements of Harmony. However, there are other, personal virtues that characters hold dear. Instead of taking an element, your character can select one of the following virtues instead..."

Thoughts?

I see no reason this can't work out awesomely. And would allow new suggestions for the Virtues and junk.

Explicitly state that they are separate from the six Elements of Harmony and it's fine. The show itself sorta does that since Discord is effectively the Element of Chaos (well, "disharmony" is probably more accurate) and Cadance x Shining Armor is the Element of Love. Naming them Virtues may be the way to go with it to highlight their difference (and lack of jewelry weapon).

*shrug* I don't see any reason why not. That said, it seems like a pretty universal agreement right now that Honesty is a bit weak.

You know, there's nothing in show canon that says or even suggests that everyone must resonate with one or another of the Elements. I'd be fine with Elements and "Virtues" being part of a larger class of things ("Resonances?"). My only request would be that things be added to this class slowly and carefully, after being sure that they don't fit elsewhere.

Edit: and the naming thing that every else brought up. Canonically there are exactly 6 Elements, but I'd be fine with extra "Virtues" or some such.

Philadelphus wrote:My only request would be that things be added to this class slowly and carefully, after being sure that they don't fit elsewhere.

Agreed; it'd be too easy to reach for a new quasi-element when it actually should be a regular utility, or a racial ability, or even a cutie mark skill.

But in general, the underlying idea that there are "other, lesser elements" has been played with in the fan-fiction universe to good effect. Alternate virtues for those never expecting to be on the next mane-six team has definite potential for this system.