I think I may have hit upon a way to do a Teleportation Spell in Burning Wheel. (Let me know if it sounds alright)
Facets are as follows.
Origin: Sight. Area of Effect: Caster.
Elements: Anima/Earth/White. Impetus:Transmute Duration: Instantaneous
Caster and all he carries are instantaneously transformed into lightning that streaks to any place the caster could see when the spell is completed (including the use of things like Mage Sight) before reverting back to their normal state.
After Distillation, Compression, and Cap. It worked out to this
Teleportation. Ob 6, 7 actions
Sight, Caster, Anima/Earth/White, Transmute, Instantaneous. Resource Points: 12
(It started out as Ob 17. 49 Actions)
Would this work as a spell in Gold? (not that anyone in my group is close to that level yet, we still get zombies on a Ob 3!)
Visually it’s awesome. However, Magic Burning Page 182 - Limitations of the System. The best you’re going to get is a spell that turns the target into lightning, and then instantly kills them.
Actually, as written it doesn’t work (regardless of page 182). The closest I can figure is that it needs to be Origin: Personal and Area of Effect: Single Target (Origin to affect you, AoE Single Target to pick the destination) but it’s still not legal due to the game expressly forbidding teleportation, the creation of life, and time travel.
The Sight origin includes anyplace the caster can see. As he could see where he is at the moment of casting, he just needs to see his destination to cast the spell (adding Personal origin to the spell as written only increases the actions needed to cast by one, before distillation), Area Effect Caster is sufficient for this spell just as it is for Falcon Skin and Turn Aside The Blade. We only need to add Single Target if we want the spell to effect someone other than the caster. Regarding The Limits of this System listing Teleportation as being one of the popular spells that do not or cannot exist in the scope of these rules as these phenomena are beyond the power of abstractions I say that if a spell could be used to transform a man into a bird, and then back again or his hand into a venomous blade yo attack his enemies with, then why not this? The Limits on page 182 I took to mean it wasn’t possible to use the abstractions process to create a teleport spell (no way to create the spell) as magic is only limited to the idioms of the game world you are in, if the spell can be formulated it can be cast.
I didn’t read it as a “Thou Shallt Not” kind of thing.
There is a precedent for everything. Straying too far from the acceptable boundaries isn’t always a good thing, because it may break things or stretch things out of shape too far. However, if it makes reasonable sense how you’re flexing the rules, and nothing gets broken in play (leave it to a skilled mage player to demonstrate how a spell can be broken), then it shouldn’t be an issue, even if it is against the norm.
I did a re-write as a lot of what cathexis said makes sense. Tabling, for now, the issue of Abstraction Limitations. I still needed to add a control impetus to actually have the spell do anything besides instantly change the caster and all he carries into lightning and back again. Control lets you move.
New Spell: TELEPORT. Ob 7. 6 Actions
Origin: Personal/Sight. Area of Effect: Caster
Elements: Anima/Earth/White.
Impetus: Transmute/Control
Duration: Instantaneous. Resource Points: 14
“Caster and all that he carries are instantaneously transformed into a bolt of lightning that streaks to any location that was within the mages sight at the time of casting. The mage and all he carries revert to normal upon arrival at the new destination, at which point the mage must make a steel test due to the disorientation of teleportation.”
This version began as a Ob 23, 82 action spell.
After distillation, two compressions, cap, and minoris (spell triggers a steel test) it came down to what you see here. Obviously not something any P.C. could abstract from scratch (let alone cast right out of the gate), but for the experianced mage it makes a great get away spell.
Yes, I factored Anima in at Ob 5, actions 5.
I combined White (4/7)and Transmute (3/25) into White/Transmute (7/32) distilled to (3.5/16) I then combined Anima (5/5) and Control (6/32) into Anima/Control (11/37) distilled to (5.5/18.5).
Next, I added both of these to the rest of the list: Earth (1/6), Sight (4/4), Instantaneous (0/1), Caster (0/1), and Personal (0/1). Total before final distillation was 14 (caret) Ob /48 actions (47.5 rounded up) after distillation 7 (caret) Ob / 24 actions. Two compressions made it 9 (caret) Ob / 6 actions. Minoris that causes a steel test upon arrival and a spell cap to remove the caret brought it down to Ob 7 / 6 actions at Finalization.
(in my notes I somehow wrote down 8 actions in my final entry although the prior two lines showed 6. That’s what happens when I run out of caffeine I guess.) I have edited the re-written Teleport spell post to correct this error.
After discussing the rhyme and reason behind the Limitations on Abstractions in Rim of Fire I have come to accept cathexis explanation and agree that Teleportation, no matter how it works out in the math, exceeds the limitations placed upon the standard sorcery of burning wheel.
Usage of this spell is a Hack but it does hack against the grain of the magic idioms baseline.
DO NOT USE IN STANDARD GAME PLAY.