The Slumber power (pg 116, Savage Worlds Deluxe) is pretty straightforward: if you manage to activate it (which isn’t that hard, if you have a decent Crystal Channeling skill), then your enemies will probably fall asleep, assuming they’re not very spirited or very lucky.
Trombone is somewhat spirited (with a d8 Spirit) and the valet is a little lucky, so they both manage to resist the power. The main problem, however, is that Raffaela doesn’t have a decent Crystal Channeling skill – she only has the minimum d4. With the Slumber power, as is the case with many other powers, if you get a raise on your activation check then it’s harder to resist its effect – the targets have to roll their Spirit with -2.
Note that the d4 exploded here, yet that wasn’t enough to score a raise; while it’s true that d4’s explode more frequently than other dice (1 in 4 chance), they can’t consistently get high numbers, only rarely getting higher than 7. A d8, on the other hand, doesn’t explode as much, but can consistently get you at least 5 (50% of the time). A -2 penalty is a big deal for a d4, less so for a d8; exploding is cool, but consistency is key.
Lily is obviously going to raise her Crystal Channeling skill – but that’ll only happen after this adventure is over, when our players will get to advance their characters.
On a personal note, have you listened to my new RPG podcast, On the Shoulder of Dwarves? We welcome your opinions, critique, and topic suggestion to show@dwarfcast.net!
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Related RPG article: Crystal Metaphysics
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