Portals: just how immobile?

[mkletch]

So ... I'd say, as long as the Portal is affixed permanently to the wall/floor/wherever, it counts as "immobile" ... you can't come into the room, grab ahold, and walk out of the room, Portal in tow -- that's sufficiently immobile, IMHO.

But what if some creature of colossal+ size (like the mithril golem from Scarred Lands) came and moved the room?! I agree, the room is the key. Since teleport is really the base spell (via TwoE), it cares about the description/surroundings. I would probably even rule that, if you moved the portal and put it in a near-replica of the original location, that would probably work, too.

 

[mkletch]

When in doubt about portals, just watch Stargate. Find a portal in Egypt, move it to the U.S. and it still works.

I really hope the rumors are true that someone has picked up the rights to do a Stargate d20 game. Pretty much as a rule, I play fantasy, but not modern or sci-fi. But for Stargate, I'll make an exception! It's almost an amalgam of fantasy, modern and sci-fi.

-Fletch!

 

[Pax]

What about building a portal on a wagon and adventure with your own portal? Doesn't it sound a bit strange? Perhaps players would find a portal to some hidden underground place, decide, that this place would be fine hideout and try to bring outer portal with them...

They can remove floor too...

Nothing built into a wagon is truly "immobile". Now, if the wagon is a steam-driven, ninety-ton adamantium MONSTROUSITY ... maybe. Just maybe.

IMO, the concept of "immobile" means, you cannot EASILY transport it, wihtout disassembling it ... which essentially means, you have to BREAK it.

Broken magic items don't tend to work.

But what if some creature of colossal+ size (like the mithril golem from Scarred Lands) came and moved the room?! I agree, the room is the key. Since teleport is really the base spell (via TwoE), it cares about the description/surroundings. I would probably even rule that, if you moved the portal and put it in a near-replica of the original location, that would probably work, too.

If something that big came along, then, it could move the portal just fine -- if the portal is constructed of material strong enough to be manhandled (golemhandled?) without breaking. If the portal is made of unmortared stone blocks, then, carrying it as a single piece (read: picking it up without it falling to pieces, also known as becoming broken and thus, nonfunctional) will be next to impossible.

Note, anything big enough topick a Portal up and walk away with it, is NOT small enough to go THROUGH the portal ... so, a Portal that functioned for sicha being, would be truly IMMENSE, perhaps beyond belief! To illustrate this, take a baseball cap that fits your head. Cut the top off, so you have only the sides -- a nice, circular loop of cloth.

Now, climb through that loop. Go on; I defy you to. You are the collossal+ sized creature, and that loop of cloth is the Portal.

With great effort, and greater planning, and the investment of gp/xp to "repair" the protal, a portal should be disassemblable from it's original place, and re-assemblable in a new place. The advantages of doing so are few, however; yes, you get a half-price portal ... but you don't get to choose it's other end.

However, if you LIKE where it leads ... the "moved" portal might have features built-in, which you yourself are unable to craft into a portal yourself, just yet. And, as noted above, you get it for half price (not counting the large amount of labor needed to transport it, etc, etc).

 

[Death]

Where did you find how much a portal weights?
In my opinion it is not necessary to be so heavy.
In all pictures are made from one piece of something, but they can be just a plate...

 

[Pax]

Where did you find how much a portal weights?
In my opinion it is not necessary to be so heavy.
In all pictures are made from one piece of something, but they can be just a plate...

I applied logic. How else could it be immobile?

Also the descriptions in FRCS; no, it -cannot- be "just a plate- .... portals are typically freestanding arches, or, are built into walls / doorways / etc.

FR Portals are -big- things. You can't chuck one in the back of a wagon and cart it away.

 

[mkletch]

Also the descriptions in FRCS; no, it -cannot- be "just a plate- .... portals are typically freestanding arches, or, are built into walls / doorways / etc.

FR Portals are -big- things. You can't chuck one in the back of a wagon and cart it away.

Actually, I believe FRCS says the archways and stuff like that are simply there to mark the portal. The portal itself is like a mathamatical plane, only width and height, no mass, etc.

-Fletch!

 

[Jay Lofstead]

the FR stuff is really unclear on this. In some places they say that they stay if the surrounding area falls (leaving it in mid air, for example). In other cases, it says it moves. I'd just make it a judement call (something defined during construction that cannot change). How much do you want to frustrate the player?

 

[mkletch]

How much do you want to frustrate the player?

I don't. I just want to confirm that my thought process was somewhat kosher, because I will make future decisions in the same or similar manner.

-Fletch!