TEXT: Tattooing Spells in HARP 
   
  Written by Tero Oksala and edited by Mario M. Butter  
  Posted  Jan 27, 2004 on HARPHQ.com and in the February issue of The Guild Companion online magazine 
   
  Krell entered the cave, it was dark and scary. Krell knew that somewhere here lived the spider 
  queen, Queen of the Webs as local villagers named it. The Spider queen terrorized the area around 
  her lair, the villagers were terrified because recently three hunters disappeared near the cave. 
  Many brave men had entered into this frightening cave, but no one has returned. 
  Just few seconds later the Spider Queen attacks. Krell receives a deadly wound from Spider 
  Queen’s attack. Krell activates one of his tattoos which should neutralize spider’s poison, mage 
  who placed those said that it will help quite quickly. This was his last chance to neutralize the 
  poison, so Krell hopes now that the Spider Queen cannot hit him second time. 
   
  The character who is going to make tattoos needs Artistic Tattooing skill and Paint Tattoo 
  talent. Tattooing needs some materials. Approximate tattooing costs are 10 gp + (spell casting 
  rank/2 + total PPs spent) x 5 gp. Using the skill, the character paints the tattoo and with the talent 
  he can bind spells into it. Tattooing time is dependent on the PPs placed into the tattoo. Creation 
  time is: Total amount of PPs x 2 hours. 
   
  After the tattoo is made, the caster places a spell into the tattoo. The character can cast the Bind 
  Tattoo spell before he casts some other spell and this should be added to the total cost of the tattoo. 
  Attack spells or spells that don’t affect the target or the caster directly cannot be cast into a tattoo. 
  Tattoos cannot be activated if the target is not a living being and casting the spells into the tattoo 
  takes twice the normal PP cost. 
   
  The spells in the tattoos can be used only once. Activating the tattoo takes the same time as it 
  takes when cast normally. Only the owner of the tattoo and the maker of the tattoo can activate it by 
  touch. Energy in the tattoo cannot be seen with spells until it is activated, then the tattoo glows 
  during the duration of the spell, after which the tattoo disappears. 
   
  If the skin from the tattoo area is destroyed badly, the spell vanishes. It cannot be fixed, but a 
  new tattoo can be placed. Cut wounds don’t destroy the tattoo, but bad burnings and so on will 
  destroy the spell. 
   
  Because the tattoo grows bigger every time PPs are spent on the tattoo, there are some 
  limitations to the total PP amount. 
   
   
   
   
   
  Creature 
  Size 
  Max. Number of 
  PPs 
  Tiny 
  10 
  Small 
  15 
  Medium 
  20 
  Large 
  25 
  Huge 
  30 
   
  Brendan the Cleric is going to tattoo her friend. First Brendan decides that she is going to cast 
  Minor Healing spell into the tattoo. She is going to use scaling options as well. He decides to 
  increase healing rating a little bit (Increase Healing +2PP). Her friend, Gerax the Dwarf, is of 
  
  small size so no more than 15 PPs can be spent. The spell takes 5 PPs to cast, so there are 10 PPs 
  left for other spells. Brendan also decides that the spell should include bleeding reduction and 
  healing. She also decides that part of the spell (there are now two different options) will activate 
  automatically when bleeding occurs and another part of the spell is activated only when her friend 
  so decides. At this moment spell takes 7 PPs (Minor Healing spell 3 PP+ Scaling Option 2 PP+ 
  Bind Tattoo Spell 2 PP= 7 PP) and there are still 8 PPs left for other spells. 
   
  Brendan should buy the necessary equipment to paint tattoos. Cost of those is 10 gp + ( 5/2 + 7 
  PP) x 5 gp = 60 gp. Then Brendan buys the necessary equipment and makes his Tattooing skill roll 
  and succeeds. Making a tattoo takes 10 hours (5 PPs x 2 hours = 10 hours), after tattoo is ready 
  Brendan casts the spells into the tattoo. Every spell takes twice as much PPs as it usually will take, 
  so Brendan has to spent 14 power points for the tattoo. After the long and tiring process the tattoo 
  is ready and now her friend Gerax can use it when he wants. 
   
   
   
   
  New Talent 
   
  Paint Tattoo 
   
  With this talent the character can bind spells into tattoos. The character alters a tattoo’s form 
  so that it can contain magical properties. This talent has to be taken separately for every spell 
  sphere. 
  Cost: 15 
   
  New Spell 
   
  Bind tattoo 
   
  PP Cost: 2 
  Range: Touch 
  Duration: Special 
  Spell Type: Utility 
  RR: - 
  Spheres: Universal 
   
  Description: Caster can bind tattoo activation to when certain situations happen. For example the 
  caster wants that a minor healing spell to activate when a bleeding wound occurs. This spell has to 
  be cast before actual spell to imbed into the tattoo. 
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Harp/1st Edtion/HARP Tattooing Spells.pdf