Post by logan9a on Apr 18, 2018 14:36:23 GMT
DESCRIPTION
This is the combined general spell rules as of 18APR2018. Everything in here is subject to change. I wanted to put these in an easier to read, combined format for the players. Player input is encouraged as this stuff is still in flux. Some ideas may be used, others may not.
INTRODUCTION
The spells in this system are ones I was able to come up with and are ‘as good as I could do alone’. If others become interested in working on various spells and such (not while gaming - do it in off gaming hours) changes to what is written may be negotiated.
COMPLEXITY
The spells are a very complicated (comparatively) part of the game. Simply put, if the player cannot understand the spells, know the rules and know their spells as well or better than the GM they should not be casting them. If you don’t get it, stick to melee or shooting stuff. You can still make a good contribution to any fight. If the player regularly causes combat to slow down due to arguing about spell effects or simply not knowing what their spells do, the character will soon lose the ability to cast spells. Does this mean that clever players can cast spells while ‘not as clever spells cannot’? Yes. Spell casting has long been the domain of the clever. There is no ‘intelligence’ stat for the characters - their intelligence is equal to the players. Sorry but I am not willing to slow down everyone for the sake of the slow trying to do complicated things. Stick with simpler stuff. Spells are complicated. If this causes only NPC’s to be casting spells, I can totally live with that - but don’t think it will actually happen.
DISCLAIMER
These magic rules apply to most of the zones. Should special zone rules be in place for certain zones, those take precedence. [For example: Wearing metal armor normally does not interfere with spell casting. If there is a special ‘D&D parody zone in which it does, then those zone rules apply.]
CASTING SPELLS WHERE YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO
You need a x3 willpower to cast a spell in a ‘non-magic’ zone.
In a hard no (or null) zone, x1 willpower.
CASTING TIMES
Anything with a casting time of more than two rounds is generally an idiotic spell to cast during combat. Better to cast it before or after combat. When casting a spell, ‘casting’ is your full action each round.
Casting time of one round - on your turn they are cast and the effect is done.
Casting time of instant - in the description it will say whether it goes off at the beginning of the round or beginning of your turn. (Though I should examine these spells and see if that can be standardized.)
DURATIONS
Till sunset or sunrise - this is whichever comes next.
Also, killing the caster of a spell is usually a great way to turn off any and all spells they have cast as those spells have no life of their own UNLESS Essence was sacrificed to give the spell life.
Combat: This means the spell ends when there is a ‘lull’ in combat or the GM announces combat is over.
Concentration: Some spells require concentration. That takes one full action each and every round. Unless you are hasted (etc) aside from simple actions and free actions, that is your entire round. Should concentration be broken or given up, the spell ends and must be cast anew in the future. Note - you do not need to be able to speak to maintain concentration - just glare balefully. Note that (unless hasted) moving or being moved breaks concentration. Concentration means ‘you do nothing but keep the spell going’. BEING DAMAGED BREAKS CONCENTRATION.
WEIRD DURATIONS
Certain spells may be broken by certain things - a rooster’s first call (which sucks because they actually often go all night - best to slit their throats ahead of time), first ray of light, water (crossing or getting splashed by), true love’s first kiss, etc.
These are usually odd spells NPC’s cast or special ‘zone specific’ spells.
DUMB VS SMART DEFENSES
These are categories of magical defense. Dumb automatically trigger. Smart defenses trigger when the caster wishes them to trigger.
FAILING OR FUMBLING SPELLS
Fail means half the MP of that spell are gone.
Fumble means you pay the full MP cost of that spell and you may not cast that spell again until the next sunup or sundown. In addition, the GM may have it go off, hit the wrong target, give bonuses to enemies, explode or whatever his sadistic mind comes up with.
LEARNING NEW SPELLS
One hour of someone telling them how a first rank spell works. Only the first spell from the chain may be taught.
The teacher must roll under their spell skill and under their ‘teaching’ skill. You can try once per day till you make it or fumble. Should either roll be fumbled (even if the other is crit) then you can never teach that skill to that student ever again.
Even if the teacher is teaching multiple students the same spell, they must make a teaching roll for each student. It is possible to have some get it and others not understand the material. Despite the teacher failing their teaching roll, it is best to blame the student.
[As always if the teacher forgets what stuff exactly they can’t teach to a particular student, then they can no longer teach ANYTHING to that student. Keep better notes.]
Should the roll succeed (crits don’t really matter) then the PC picks up the level 1 spell at their ‘learn’.
As normal, the only way to get higher ranking spells is to get a crit on casting the one they have. They either then get the next higher rank at ‘learn’ or if it is TBD, they have to (between game sessions) figure out a spell, get GM approval (on a probably nerfed version) then they get that one at learn when they next make a crit. You can’t save up crits. Best to work on the spell as soon as you find out it is a TBD.
One attempt may be made per day to learn a spell, whether that attempt is successful or not. You may not make multiple attempts to learn spells in a single day. One day, one attempt.
LIMITATIONS
In some more elemental lands, the caster can’t do the opposite element of their main and may be limited to half way up the chains on the other two.
Depending on the specific zone, a player that knew opposing magics might either have some of them (usually the lower skill ones) suppressed while they were there or they might be able to ignore the limitation all together.
MAGIC POINTS
When are the magic points spent? When you first begin your spell. Example: If you are casting a spell that requires ten magic points and ten rounds to cast it, you have lost five magic points (same amount as ‘failing’ a spell) even if you stop casting after the first round. If you continue through the whole spell and fail it, you are still down five magic points.
If you run out of MP (IE your MP=0) you fall unconscious and cannot be revived until your Magic Points regenerate (usually 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep). If this happens while casting a spell the spell does not go off. You can also be brought back to consciousness with a 'wake up' spell or card effect. This puts you at 1 magic point. Note - unless the specific zone rules differ, sleeping for four hours does not regenerate half of your MP. It’s an all or nothing thing. For this reason, it is not unheard of for people who imprison casters to have them woken up every few hours by the guards.
In some zones, there may be other ways to regain MP.
MAKING MAGIC ITEMS
Figure out what is needed to make an item that while holding it and using a particular type of spell (or a specific element spell or any damage spell) and it moves up the damage one place on the damage track. We can have it where the ‘wood carving’ (for a staff as an example) needs to be done with a certain type of wood and a ‘crit’ wood carving roll needs to be made to pull it off. Certain things might require an object with a lot of skills put in to it - maybe all of them needing a critical roll, or perhaps just normal successes, depending. Anyone who wants to make magic items (in the event those spells ever get done) will need to get great at lots of crafting skills. Lots and lots. Making magic items (for obvious reasons) will be a huge pain in the ass of such a magnitude that only the most stubborn players even bother with it. If the rules ever get done for it.
Given how often the players lose all of their possessions within the campaign, I doubt this is going to become a huge thing. Unless the players learn what ‘cache’ means.
MERGING SCHOOLS
When someone has two different schools at ‘do it as a living’ they might start making hybrid styles of magic. It is important though to make sure one spell has one and only one effect. (Water plus air might equal steam, for example).
Rules on this have not been made and if they are, it will probably be a ‘zone specific’ thing.
MP COST
Why are they all even numbers? Because if you fail, you lose half round up. Easier to make it so rounding is not required. [Why? Many PC’s suck at simple math.]
If your spell goes off successfully, but someone resists it, you are still stuck paying full MP cost for the spell - it was successfully cast.
SPELL EFFECTS YOU WON’T EVER SEE IN THE CAMPAIGN:
Divination: One day, all of the players may spontaneously decide they want to own, operate and stock a Pottery Barn store. I will then be stuck making Pottery Barn plots. There is no way I could know what the players are going to do ahead of time. Augury works well in books where the author knows what will happen and has a lot more control of the characters. They can then come up with some clever formula. Hell, some cryptic NPC may even give a prophecy from time to time within the campaign but I’m not going to have any magic for it. Within games it is often either useless or over powered. Also never going to happen include spells to locate things or people. Or figure out ‘who dun it’.
Illusion: Not happening. Anyone who has any subtly and brains will quickly make this over powered.
Memory alternating/annihilating: Nothing but fucking trouble and gas lighting down the road. Suck up your own actions and find different ways to get clever.
Spells that compel you to tell the truth. Holy shit does that put a dent in murder mystery adventures.
More effects will get added to this list as time goes on.
PLAYER RESPONSIBILITY
If the player has to stop and look up how their magic spell works - especially during combat - the spell just fails and costs the caster the MP. If they don’t even know how many MP it costs, congratulations the player has only 1MP left. That keeps you conscious and unable to cast more spells and we can all move on with our lives. There is nothing worse than some idiot who can’t remember their own spells dragging all of the action to a stand still because they need to look it up. If you can’t remember your spells without hesitation, use a sword or something instead.
The player must keep a copy of the spell at hand in case the GM wants them to read it or have a question on it. In other words, if you want to do something more complex than swing a sword, it’s your responsibility to be able to know your spells without hesitation.
During the game session is NOT the time to work on magic. This includes both asking questions about how a spell works or trying to develop new spells. Work on magic when the campaign is not going on - contact the GM privately.
RANGE
Unless otherwise stated in the spell, ‘touch’ spells may be cast on oneself. By…er…touching yourself.
Self is understood to mean ‘your self and a reasonable amount of gear’. Many spells will not work if you are holding on to someone else, even if they are dead or unconscious as they are not a ‘reasonable amount of gear’.
Touching someone else takes an action. If they are trying not to be touched, roll ‘unarmed’.
SPECIAL EFFECTS
The GM may choose to add in whatever special effects to any spell they wish. These may change depending on their whim.
No spell may be cast covertly. Otherwise, we get NPC’s sitting around and ‘staring daggers’ at the PC, the PC dying and not even knowing who was attacking them. Or vice versa. Not a good fit. Magic is always obvious. Sometimes super obvious. Some magicians of sufficient power may even be able to tell when someone starts throwing around magic within their area.
Note that in some zones, casting any spell will result in problems - even if you are casting them at hostiles with no neutral parties around. The experienced players know what sort of problems. In general, casting spells is best done in private to avoid these problems.
SPELL CAPABILITIES
All spells have one effect. [Later or in certain zones, there might be some wild chain casting of various spells in order to have different effects but that is down the road a ways.]
SPELL CASTING
All spells have verbal and gesture components. Few have material components as well.
Also, be sure to note that you can always tell who is doing a spell against you - no hidden guy staring intently at you. Possible exception when someone is doing a ritual spell with a connecting thing - they’ve got your hair or something. But those need to be much weaker like ‘your luck is fucked’ type spells.
Note that if you cannot speak and/or make gestures (your hands are tied up and/or you are gaged) you cannot cast spells. There may also be other things (a silence spell) which will keep you from being able to cast spells.
Different other things (Faraday cages, being bound with a silver chain, anti-magic collars, some circles of power, etc) may cause different problems. Anything from completely suppressing someone’s spell casting ability on to ‘if you try to cast a spell your head explodes’.
On the HC deck, some rounds are also marked ‘no magic’. No spells may be cast during those rounds. In addition, any ‘concentration’ or ongoing effects are turned off. Other magic (such as bonus damage which is ‘permanently’ on a weapon) may be suppressed for the round or destroyed permanently. Ask GM. Generally, stuff that has a duration of less than a year is destroyed, greater than a year is suppressed for a round.
SPELL CHAINS
Chain - this starts off with the least powerful spell of the type and leads to stronger spells. Chains may fork. Once a spell is unlocked, the player may be given a choice of two or more spells. If the player rolls a future critical on the same spell, they then get to learn another.
Example: Getting a critical on purple leads to three possible paths - dinosaur, case or soft. The player opts for soft. Later, they are using the spell purple again and get another critical. This time they choose dinosaur to unlock that chain as well.
Certain new spells will be come up with and put into various chains. For example - Let us say with have the chain:
Night - Fox - Ribbon - Ghost - Uncle - Meat
A new spell, Juice is come up with. The decision (GM and players, GM gets final word) is made to place it into this chain and the new chain becomes:
Night - Fox - Ribbon - Juice - Ghost - Uncle - Meat
If the player knew Night and Fox before then yes, Uncle is pushed a little further out. You’ll get over it. Since spells beyond the basic ones will be mostly player made we’re all hoping they’re useful and wanted.
Let’s say the player was up to Ghost however. They then get a choice of their personal chain looking like:
Night - Fox - Ribbon -Ghost - Juice - Uncle - Meat
Meaning they have to learn it next or they can simply ignore and not take Juice. No freebies but no punishment for creating a new spell.
Note that eventually, spells might become more standardized and even get assigned ranks and such. This may break already existing chains apart and make some of the spells unlearnable until some bright spark comes up with a new spell. Example:
Night - Fox - Ribbon -Ghost - Juice - Uncle - Meat
Let’s say the GM has decided Uncle is too powerful and wants to ramp it up two notches.
Night - Fox - Ribbon - Ghost - Juice - [Filler] - [Filler] - Uncle - Meat
Those that already have Uncle and Meat are unaffected but someone at Juice or earlier now needs to invent two spells which are agreed to fit into the sequence before Uncle or Meat may be learned. Yeah, it sucks but game balance and better design trump ‘fairness’.
At the GM’s discretion, new spells may be added to existing chains, branch from existing chains or become parts of new chains.
Spells which do not fit into existing chains but are too powerful to form their own chain will be undiscoverable until weaker spells are created to make the chain.
Some spells may be taken off of one chain and moved to a different chain - or even a whole new school by the GM if they feel it would fit better within a different school. This may prevent the character from working on the next spell in that chain though they will still keep the spell they have. Or, if they are able to learn the new chain, the GM may have them unlock all lower level spells before preceding in that new chain. Example:
Night - Fox - Ribbon - Ghost - Juice - [Filler] - [Filler] - Uncle - Meat
At some future point in the campaign it is felt that Juice would better fit into a different chain so it is removed from the above chain and put into:
Fliver - Nox - Juice - Roman - Roam - Rum
Before being able to learn Roman, the GM may decide the PC must learn Fliver - Nox.
The player may not learn a spell further along a chain unless some weird stuff has happened - see GM - or until they have unlocked it by working their way up the chain.
WHAT IF TWO DIFFERENT CHAINS HAVE THE SAME SPELL?
Though I try to avoid this, I’m sure it will come up. In that case, they already know it. There is no value to learning three different ways to do the same thing. Since all of the spells are meant to be single effect, meh. If you crit that spell, you can pick up the next spell on the chain.
SPELL LEVELS
Each spell has ten and only ten levels per spell. While some people may not consider level 10 to be powerful enough this is by design. Spells need to keep lower powered.
Because I’d rather spend my time working on plots than spells - and most PC’s are unwilling to work on anything unless it directly affects their character (and even then it might be iffy) the first release may have several ‘broken chains’. It will be up to the PC’s to forge new links in these chains if they want to continue on with the spells. If they don’t, then getting those spells may not be possible for PC’s. NPC’s will run around shooting flames out of their rears and so on.
What if spells from one chain are substantially stronger than spells from another? Submit ideas to build something more balanced that the GM likes.
TAKING DAMAGE WHILE CASTING A SPELL
You fail the spell and half the MP of the spell are gone.
TAKING DAMAGE WHILE MAINTAINING A SPELL THAT IS ‘CONCENTRATION’ DURATION
Spell effects end as soon as you take damage.
VARIOUS CREATURES AND MAGIC
Lots of creatures can only cast one school of magic and usually do so decently if not great. The PC’s can learn to cast whatever they can find if someone is willing and able to teach.
WHY SPELLS ARE LOW POWERED
In other systems, like D&D, the power curve is such that after the wizard starts casting third level or higher spells, the fighter is left well behind. That’s bad game design. The only solution? Keep spells low powered. Even then, you will have magic users become more powerful than those who don’t use magic. It will just be by (hopefully) a smaller degree.
Also, unlike that woefully designed system, in this one anyone can learn magic. Realizing that armor isn’t much of a balance to the ability to cast spells (especially when you have magic armor) it doesn’t matter if someone wears armor or not for casting spells in most zones.
In addition, all of my campaigns are fairly ‘low powered’. Magic (and ‘parkour’) are not solutions to everything.
UNLOCKING NEW SPELLS
In order to get the next spell up, the player must roll a critical on their spell. If they do, they unlock the next level at their ‘learn’ skill.
Example - if the spell chain is:
No smell -> No smell other -> Breath -> Breath; other -> Gust of wind -> Summon air elemental
If they have the ‘no smell’ spell and make a critical on it, they unlock ‘no smell other’ at ‘learn’. When they eventually get a critical at that, they pick up ‘breath’ at ‘learn’.
This is the combined general spell rules as of 18APR2018. Everything in here is subject to change. I wanted to put these in an easier to read, combined format for the players. Player input is encouraged as this stuff is still in flux. Some ideas may be used, others may not.
INTRODUCTION
The spells in this system are ones I was able to come up with and are ‘as good as I could do alone’. If others become interested in working on various spells and such (not while gaming - do it in off gaming hours) changes to what is written may be negotiated.
COMPLEXITY
The spells are a very complicated (comparatively) part of the game. Simply put, if the player cannot understand the spells, know the rules and know their spells as well or better than the GM they should not be casting them. If you don’t get it, stick to melee or shooting stuff. You can still make a good contribution to any fight. If the player regularly causes combat to slow down due to arguing about spell effects or simply not knowing what their spells do, the character will soon lose the ability to cast spells. Does this mean that clever players can cast spells while ‘not as clever spells cannot’? Yes. Spell casting has long been the domain of the clever. There is no ‘intelligence’ stat for the characters - their intelligence is equal to the players. Sorry but I am not willing to slow down everyone for the sake of the slow trying to do complicated things. Stick with simpler stuff. Spells are complicated. If this causes only NPC’s to be casting spells, I can totally live with that - but don’t think it will actually happen.
DISCLAIMER
These magic rules apply to most of the zones. Should special zone rules be in place for certain zones, those take precedence. [For example: Wearing metal armor normally does not interfere with spell casting. If there is a special ‘D&D parody zone in which it does, then those zone rules apply.]
CASTING SPELLS WHERE YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO
You need a x3 willpower to cast a spell in a ‘non-magic’ zone.
In a hard no (or null) zone, x1 willpower.
CASTING TIMES
Anything with a casting time of more than two rounds is generally an idiotic spell to cast during combat. Better to cast it before or after combat. When casting a spell, ‘casting’ is your full action each round.
Casting time of one round - on your turn they are cast and the effect is done.
Casting time of instant - in the description it will say whether it goes off at the beginning of the round or beginning of your turn. (Though I should examine these spells and see if that can be standardized.)
DURATIONS
Till sunset or sunrise - this is whichever comes next.
Also, killing the caster of a spell is usually a great way to turn off any and all spells they have cast as those spells have no life of their own UNLESS Essence was sacrificed to give the spell life.
Combat: This means the spell ends when there is a ‘lull’ in combat or the GM announces combat is over.
Concentration: Some spells require concentration. That takes one full action each and every round. Unless you are hasted (etc) aside from simple actions and free actions, that is your entire round. Should concentration be broken or given up, the spell ends and must be cast anew in the future. Note - you do not need to be able to speak to maintain concentration - just glare balefully. Note that (unless hasted) moving or being moved breaks concentration. Concentration means ‘you do nothing but keep the spell going’. BEING DAMAGED BREAKS CONCENTRATION.
WEIRD DURATIONS
Certain spells may be broken by certain things - a rooster’s first call (which sucks because they actually often go all night - best to slit their throats ahead of time), first ray of light, water (crossing or getting splashed by), true love’s first kiss, etc.
These are usually odd spells NPC’s cast or special ‘zone specific’ spells.
DUMB VS SMART DEFENSES
These are categories of magical defense. Dumb automatically trigger. Smart defenses trigger when the caster wishes them to trigger.
FAILING OR FUMBLING SPELLS
Fail means half the MP of that spell are gone.
Fumble means you pay the full MP cost of that spell and you may not cast that spell again until the next sunup or sundown. In addition, the GM may have it go off, hit the wrong target, give bonuses to enemies, explode or whatever his sadistic mind comes up with.
LEARNING NEW SPELLS
One hour of someone telling them how a first rank spell works. Only the first spell from the chain may be taught.
The teacher must roll under their spell skill and under their ‘teaching’ skill. You can try once per day till you make it or fumble. Should either roll be fumbled (even if the other is crit) then you can never teach that skill to that student ever again.
Even if the teacher is teaching multiple students the same spell, they must make a teaching roll for each student. It is possible to have some get it and others not understand the material. Despite the teacher failing their teaching roll, it is best to blame the student.
[As always if the teacher forgets what stuff exactly they can’t teach to a particular student, then they can no longer teach ANYTHING to that student. Keep better notes.]
Should the roll succeed (crits don’t really matter) then the PC picks up the level 1 spell at their ‘learn’.
As normal, the only way to get higher ranking spells is to get a crit on casting the one they have. They either then get the next higher rank at ‘learn’ or if it is TBD, they have to (between game sessions) figure out a spell, get GM approval (on a probably nerfed version) then they get that one at learn when they next make a crit. You can’t save up crits. Best to work on the spell as soon as you find out it is a TBD.
One attempt may be made per day to learn a spell, whether that attempt is successful or not. You may not make multiple attempts to learn spells in a single day. One day, one attempt.
LIMITATIONS
In some more elemental lands, the caster can’t do the opposite element of their main and may be limited to half way up the chains on the other two.
Depending on the specific zone, a player that knew opposing magics might either have some of them (usually the lower skill ones) suppressed while they were there or they might be able to ignore the limitation all together.
MAGIC POINTS
When are the magic points spent? When you first begin your spell. Example: If you are casting a spell that requires ten magic points and ten rounds to cast it, you have lost five magic points (same amount as ‘failing’ a spell) even if you stop casting after the first round. If you continue through the whole spell and fail it, you are still down five magic points.
If you run out of MP (IE your MP=0) you fall unconscious and cannot be revived until your Magic Points regenerate (usually 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep). If this happens while casting a spell the spell does not go off. You can also be brought back to consciousness with a 'wake up' spell or card effect. This puts you at 1 magic point. Note - unless the specific zone rules differ, sleeping for four hours does not regenerate half of your MP. It’s an all or nothing thing. For this reason, it is not unheard of for people who imprison casters to have them woken up every few hours by the guards.
In some zones, there may be other ways to regain MP.
MAKING MAGIC ITEMS
Figure out what is needed to make an item that while holding it and using a particular type of spell (or a specific element spell or any damage spell) and it moves up the damage one place on the damage track. We can have it where the ‘wood carving’ (for a staff as an example) needs to be done with a certain type of wood and a ‘crit’ wood carving roll needs to be made to pull it off. Certain things might require an object with a lot of skills put in to it - maybe all of them needing a critical roll, or perhaps just normal successes, depending. Anyone who wants to make magic items (in the event those spells ever get done) will need to get great at lots of crafting skills. Lots and lots. Making magic items (for obvious reasons) will be a huge pain in the ass of such a magnitude that only the most stubborn players even bother with it. If the rules ever get done for it.
Given how often the players lose all of their possessions within the campaign, I doubt this is going to become a huge thing. Unless the players learn what ‘cache’ means.
MERGING SCHOOLS
When someone has two different schools at ‘do it as a living’ they might start making hybrid styles of magic. It is important though to make sure one spell has one and only one effect. (Water plus air might equal steam, for example).
Rules on this have not been made and if they are, it will probably be a ‘zone specific’ thing.
MP COST
Why are they all even numbers? Because if you fail, you lose half round up. Easier to make it so rounding is not required. [Why? Many PC’s suck at simple math.]
If your spell goes off successfully, but someone resists it, you are still stuck paying full MP cost for the spell - it was successfully cast.
SPELL EFFECTS YOU WON’T EVER SEE IN THE CAMPAIGN:
Divination: One day, all of the players may spontaneously decide they want to own, operate and stock a Pottery Barn store. I will then be stuck making Pottery Barn plots. There is no way I could know what the players are going to do ahead of time. Augury works well in books where the author knows what will happen and has a lot more control of the characters. They can then come up with some clever formula. Hell, some cryptic NPC may even give a prophecy from time to time within the campaign but I’m not going to have any magic for it. Within games it is often either useless or over powered. Also never going to happen include spells to locate things or people. Or figure out ‘who dun it’.
Illusion: Not happening. Anyone who has any subtly and brains will quickly make this over powered.
Memory alternating/annihilating: Nothing but fucking trouble and gas lighting down the road. Suck up your own actions and find different ways to get clever.
Spells that compel you to tell the truth. Holy shit does that put a dent in murder mystery adventures.
More effects will get added to this list as time goes on.
PLAYER RESPONSIBILITY
If the player has to stop and look up how their magic spell works - especially during combat - the spell just fails and costs the caster the MP. If they don’t even know how many MP it costs, congratulations the player has only 1MP left. That keeps you conscious and unable to cast more spells and we can all move on with our lives. There is nothing worse than some idiot who can’t remember their own spells dragging all of the action to a stand still because they need to look it up. If you can’t remember your spells without hesitation, use a sword or something instead.
The player must keep a copy of the spell at hand in case the GM wants them to read it or have a question on it. In other words, if you want to do something more complex than swing a sword, it’s your responsibility to be able to know your spells without hesitation.
During the game session is NOT the time to work on magic. This includes both asking questions about how a spell works or trying to develop new spells. Work on magic when the campaign is not going on - contact the GM privately.
RANGE
Unless otherwise stated in the spell, ‘touch’ spells may be cast on oneself. By…er…touching yourself.
Self is understood to mean ‘your self and a reasonable amount of gear’. Many spells will not work if you are holding on to someone else, even if they are dead or unconscious as they are not a ‘reasonable amount of gear’.
Touching someone else takes an action. If they are trying not to be touched, roll ‘unarmed’.
SPECIAL EFFECTS
The GM may choose to add in whatever special effects to any spell they wish. These may change depending on their whim.
No spell may be cast covertly. Otherwise, we get NPC’s sitting around and ‘staring daggers’ at the PC, the PC dying and not even knowing who was attacking them. Or vice versa. Not a good fit. Magic is always obvious. Sometimes super obvious. Some magicians of sufficient power may even be able to tell when someone starts throwing around magic within their area.
Note that in some zones, casting any spell will result in problems - even if you are casting them at hostiles with no neutral parties around. The experienced players know what sort of problems. In general, casting spells is best done in private to avoid these problems.
SPELL CAPABILITIES
All spells have one effect. [Later or in certain zones, there might be some wild chain casting of various spells in order to have different effects but that is down the road a ways.]
SPELL CASTING
All spells have verbal and gesture components. Few have material components as well.
Also, be sure to note that you can always tell who is doing a spell against you - no hidden guy staring intently at you. Possible exception when someone is doing a ritual spell with a connecting thing - they’ve got your hair or something. But those need to be much weaker like ‘your luck is fucked’ type spells.
Note that if you cannot speak and/or make gestures (your hands are tied up and/or you are gaged) you cannot cast spells. There may also be other things (a silence spell) which will keep you from being able to cast spells.
Different other things (Faraday cages, being bound with a silver chain, anti-magic collars, some circles of power, etc) may cause different problems. Anything from completely suppressing someone’s spell casting ability on to ‘if you try to cast a spell your head explodes’.
On the HC deck, some rounds are also marked ‘no magic’. No spells may be cast during those rounds. In addition, any ‘concentration’ or ongoing effects are turned off. Other magic (such as bonus damage which is ‘permanently’ on a weapon) may be suppressed for the round or destroyed permanently. Ask GM. Generally, stuff that has a duration of less than a year is destroyed, greater than a year is suppressed for a round.
SPELL CHAINS
Chain - this starts off with the least powerful spell of the type and leads to stronger spells. Chains may fork. Once a spell is unlocked, the player may be given a choice of two or more spells. If the player rolls a future critical on the same spell, they then get to learn another.
Example: Getting a critical on purple leads to three possible paths - dinosaur, case or soft. The player opts for soft. Later, they are using the spell purple again and get another critical. This time they choose dinosaur to unlock that chain as well.
Certain new spells will be come up with and put into various chains. For example - Let us say with have the chain:
Night - Fox - Ribbon - Ghost - Uncle - Meat
A new spell, Juice is come up with. The decision (GM and players, GM gets final word) is made to place it into this chain and the new chain becomes:
Night - Fox - Ribbon - Juice - Ghost - Uncle - Meat
If the player knew Night and Fox before then yes, Uncle is pushed a little further out. You’ll get over it. Since spells beyond the basic ones will be mostly player made we’re all hoping they’re useful and wanted.
Let’s say the player was up to Ghost however. They then get a choice of their personal chain looking like:
Night - Fox - Ribbon -Ghost - Juice - Uncle - Meat
Meaning they have to learn it next or they can simply ignore and not take Juice. No freebies but no punishment for creating a new spell.
Note that eventually, spells might become more standardized and even get assigned ranks and such. This may break already existing chains apart and make some of the spells unlearnable until some bright spark comes up with a new spell. Example:
Night - Fox - Ribbon -Ghost - Juice - Uncle - Meat
Let’s say the GM has decided Uncle is too powerful and wants to ramp it up two notches.
Night - Fox - Ribbon - Ghost - Juice - [Filler] - [Filler] - Uncle - Meat
Those that already have Uncle and Meat are unaffected but someone at Juice or earlier now needs to invent two spells which are agreed to fit into the sequence before Uncle or Meat may be learned. Yeah, it sucks but game balance and better design trump ‘fairness’.
At the GM’s discretion, new spells may be added to existing chains, branch from existing chains or become parts of new chains.
Spells which do not fit into existing chains but are too powerful to form their own chain will be undiscoverable until weaker spells are created to make the chain.
Some spells may be taken off of one chain and moved to a different chain - or even a whole new school by the GM if they feel it would fit better within a different school. This may prevent the character from working on the next spell in that chain though they will still keep the spell they have. Or, if they are able to learn the new chain, the GM may have them unlock all lower level spells before preceding in that new chain. Example:
Night - Fox - Ribbon - Ghost - Juice - [Filler] - [Filler] - Uncle - Meat
At some future point in the campaign it is felt that Juice would better fit into a different chain so it is removed from the above chain and put into:
Fliver - Nox - Juice - Roman - Roam - Rum
Before being able to learn Roman, the GM may decide the PC must learn Fliver - Nox.
The player may not learn a spell further along a chain unless some weird stuff has happened - see GM - or until they have unlocked it by working their way up the chain.
WHAT IF TWO DIFFERENT CHAINS HAVE THE SAME SPELL?
Though I try to avoid this, I’m sure it will come up. In that case, they already know it. There is no value to learning three different ways to do the same thing. Since all of the spells are meant to be single effect, meh. If you crit that spell, you can pick up the next spell on the chain.
SPELL LEVELS
Each spell has ten and only ten levels per spell. While some people may not consider level 10 to be powerful enough this is by design. Spells need to keep lower powered.
Because I’d rather spend my time working on plots than spells - and most PC’s are unwilling to work on anything unless it directly affects their character (and even then it might be iffy) the first release may have several ‘broken chains’. It will be up to the PC’s to forge new links in these chains if they want to continue on with the spells. If they don’t, then getting those spells may not be possible for PC’s. NPC’s will run around shooting flames out of their rears and so on.
What if spells from one chain are substantially stronger than spells from another? Submit ideas to build something more balanced that the GM likes.
TAKING DAMAGE WHILE CASTING A SPELL
You fail the spell and half the MP of the spell are gone.
TAKING DAMAGE WHILE MAINTAINING A SPELL THAT IS ‘CONCENTRATION’ DURATION
Spell effects end as soon as you take damage.
VARIOUS CREATURES AND MAGIC
Lots of creatures can only cast one school of magic and usually do so decently if not great. The PC’s can learn to cast whatever they can find if someone is willing and able to teach.
WHY SPELLS ARE LOW POWERED
In other systems, like D&D, the power curve is such that after the wizard starts casting third level or higher spells, the fighter is left well behind. That’s bad game design. The only solution? Keep spells low powered. Even then, you will have magic users become more powerful than those who don’t use magic. It will just be by (hopefully) a smaller degree.
Also, unlike that woefully designed system, in this one anyone can learn magic. Realizing that armor isn’t much of a balance to the ability to cast spells (especially when you have magic armor) it doesn’t matter if someone wears armor or not for casting spells in most zones.
In addition, all of my campaigns are fairly ‘low powered’. Magic (and ‘parkour’) are not solutions to everything.
UNLOCKING NEW SPELLS
In order to get the next spell up, the player must roll a critical on their spell. If they do, they unlock the next level at their ‘learn’ skill.
Example - if the spell chain is:
No smell -> No smell other -> Breath -> Breath; other -> Gust of wind -> Summon air elemental
If they have the ‘no smell’ spell and make a critical on it, they unlock ‘no smell other’ at ‘learn’. When they eventually get a critical at that, they pick up ‘breath’ at ‘learn’.
