This is a quick, skills-based game system was designed initially by Alcar. The magic system was conceptualised by Alcar and aslhk. Characters have no stats as such and each player is free to decide how fast, strong, handsome, tough etc. their own PC is, using the skills they choose as a guideline.
Why another game system? Well, why not is hardly an appropriate answer given the sheer profusion of different games already out there. The simple reason is that no existing game system seemed to work with a magic system running the gamut from normal to fairy tale magic in a rules-light enviroment.
GM Note
| Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in the truth that is taught by life. - Schiller, The Piccolomini |
Players PCs are from modern Earth, this Earth (or something close to it, perhaps). The GM requirement is that the pc be from the earth - the game is about (relatively) normal people encountering the unknown, in the form of another world. A world where our myths are real, where magic and wonder exist.
However, players must still make a background for their PCs. Why? Simply because people have lives on the world they leave, as well. "I'm going to remain in Oz!" is less likely as a primary reaction by PCs who have family, jobs etc. back home. As well, be sure to include your PCs views on things like magic, religion, if they'd kill and the like ... or what would be needed to get them to change their views.
Playing a PC who is not "normal" is, of course, allowed. But playing, say, an angel trapped on earth in human form, only works if you have a really, really good reason for wanting to play it and the other players don't mind.
Also, the first session or two will take place on modern (our) Earth, so players get a feel for their PC pre-transfer, as it were. And maybe meet each other, if the players want :)
And now, on to the game system ....
First Things First
| Begin at the beginning, and go till you come to the end: then stop. - Lewis Carrol |
| Note |
| Side notes will occur from time to time, listed like this. They're for help in defining terms and other such things. |
First off, before anything else, have a PC idea. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just something you'd like to play. After that is done, read over the game rules (this web page) and come back up to the top. Now think about how your idea can fit into the system. As the game system in question encourages Player-made skills, you can make some nicely useful skills and creatively build your PC from that. Of course, building, say, a SEAL, might be hard with 50 points it means you could make your PC one in training or someone who half-finished training and had to go home to deal with some sort of family emergency. Be creative.
Along with that thought, make an interesting character you'd like to play. This means making sure your PC isn't boring. What's boring? Well, being invulnerable is boring. being able to kill anyone who looks at you funny is boring if you have social skills that make Beavis and Butthead look like paragons of virtue. What this game is about, at the most basic level, is being able to tell a really good story - and your PC should be able to contribute to that story. Make your PCs broad skilled and, above all else, interesting. This doesn't mean they need to be insane or secretly members of some evil cult: just that they have to be fun for you to role play and fits into the story being told.
Skills
| "It would seem that you have no useful skill or talent whatsoever," he said. "Have you thought of going into teaching?" - Terry Pratchett, “Mort” |
| Yes, this game does have no PC stats beside skills. Feel free to recoil in horror then keep on reading. |
Each player begins with 50 points to divide among their skills. Skills can be background, general, professional, combat or mystical. No starting skill rank can be higher than 10. 20 is the maximum amount of points one can have in skills.
As a rough guide for what a skill can mean based on the points placed in it:
| 1 | Novice. | |
| 2-5 | Beginner in the skill. | |
| 6-10 | Accomplished. | |
| 11-15 | Very proficient. | |
| 16-19 | Mastery. | |
| 20 | Legendary. |
| Skills Note |
| Background, General and Professional skills are the same thing as far as using a Pool. The differing names just help figure out what is more important to your chartacter. |
Background skills are things left over from childhood. Herb lore, swimming, riding a bicycle, knowing how to care for animals and the like would qualify as background skills. In general, background skills are things learned a long time back and seldom get improved.
General skills are the odds and ends your PC (Player Character) has picked up that don't fit into the other categories. Cooking, dancing, etiquette, riding animals, driving cars and the like would fall under general skills.
Professional skills are those relating to the PCs profession (if any). Making a skill professional rather than general just means your character was likely better trained in it or learned it very well. Gambling, being alert, the ability to draw weapons fast or calculate just how big a protective circle should be can be professional skills. The skills chosen as professional ones should explain something about the kind of person your PC is.
Combat skills can include unarmed combat, melee weapons, thrown weapons, ranged weapons and firearms along with anything in between.
Mystical skills are either psychic, magic or faith powers. These will be explained further on, but PCs wouldn't be likely to begin with much magic, and with very little control over it. (Note that a PC might begin with minor psychic powers ("I just get these hunches, you know?") or a low faith power if they're really devout.) Characters can only have only one type of magic (psi, mage or faith).
Lastly, descriptive skills are more interesting. Sure, someone with fighting can hold their own in a fight, but someone with, say, dirty fighting or kick 'em in the nuts can make a much better case for knowing nasty pressure points or cruel holds to pin a foe down. Personalise the skills and have fun.
Rolling The Dice
| Statistics are for losers. - Harry Hayes |
This game uses a nice and simple dice mechanic. Roll 1d10 + your relevant skill. 10 is the base difficulty, meaning that what you want to do is hard but not too hard. The following table lists some sample difficulties.
| 1 | If someone rolls this as a difficulty, they should be shot. | |
| 5 | Not hard, even someone without training could do it. "I swim across the river." | |
| 10 | Hard enough that you need to have the skill. "I grab my staff and swing at his head." | |
| 15 | Now you needed to be skilled in the skill :) "I possess the old woman." | |
| 20 | You're known for your skill now. "I spin around and cut his head off with a quick flourish." | |
| 25 | This is the really tough stuff. "I finish fixing the eagle wing so it contains a small hurricane." | |
| 30 | Maximum difficulty. "I cut his head off and he doesn't notice for a minute or two." | |
| 50 | Not possible without some odd intervention. "I speak the name of a God and make it obey me." |
If someone wishes to use a skill and they don't have any point in it, they just roll 1d10 and either add points from a pool (see below) or hope for the best.
Pools
| Effort only fully receives its reward after a person refuses to quit. - Napoleon Hill |
Each character also has 3 pools to draw upon, a skill, combat and a magical pool.
The skill pool is equal to the PCs Background, General and Professional skills added together.
The combat pool is equal to the Combat skills added together.
I'm pretty sure you can figure out the magic one for your PC.
The pools can be used to re roll the d10 die (1 point) or add X points to the actual roll. The PC must choose which one they're doing after the roll and can't do both. You can only re-roll or add to to a roll once during a round and it must be your own roll.
Each pool rejuvenates itself over a set amount of time. The skill one does every 24 hours, as does the combat one normally. The magic one does once the PC satisfies certain requirements but takes at least 24 hours to rejuvenate as well. These are explained here:
Magic - psychic: Psychic powers rejuvenate the same as the other skills.
Magic - mages: Mages can only rejuvenate their pools if they are not too far in debt (postively or negatively) for using their magic.
Magic - faith: A lot of intense prayer and affirmation of faith is needed (in words and deeds) to rejuvenate this pool.
Pools can also be used to alter Botches (see below). Botched rolls can't be altered by re rolling the d10 die, only by the point addition method at a cost of 2 points for every point altered.
Botches
| The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything. - Roosevelt |
| Optional Rule |
| You can also rule that rolling a 1 any time botches. As this type of botch would be more common than the mechanic used in the game it can make for a more deadly game. |
A botch is a screw up of some kind, and generally worse than simply failing when using a skill. Rolling a 1 is the cause of botches, and works quite simply:
If the PC rolls a 1 and the total roll is half (rounded down) or less than the difficulty of a roll, they botch the roll. For example, if a PC has a gambling skill of 8 and needs to get a Difficulty of 10 and rolls a 1, they fail. If their skill was only 3 and they had rolled a 1 the PC would have achieved half the difficulty (5) or less and botched.
If the PC can't afford to botch (they don't want to drop their weapon or something), they can elect to spend points from their Pools. The PC decides to bring the roll of 4 (gambling of 3 + 1 from the d10) up to a 6. They'll fail, but not horribly. An increase of +2 normally costs 2 points, but since they botched it costs them 4.
Lastly, players are required to keep track of botches on their PC sheet. If a skill is botched too often (GM's ruling), the character gets a -1 (or more) modifier to the skill, in the modifier column of the PC sheet. So if a PC kept screwing up his gambling, the gambling 3 might become a modified roll of 2 until they get their confidence back. Once the botches from a skill have been used to lower it, all the botches are erased from that skill. If a PC had 4 botches in Looking Spiffy, and the GM decided 3 was enough to give a -1, all 4 would be removed.
Successes
| Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. - George Patton |
At the other end of a botch is rolling a 10. In normal game terms, this gives a +1 to the result of the roll (often meaning +1 damage). If a character has maxed their skill and rolls a 10, they get +2 instead of +1 and the result is impressive to others.
Alternatively, a success can be used to erase a botch from your PC sheet with GM permission.
Health
| Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which to die. - Unknnown |
PC health is based on rolling 2d10 (or accepting a default of 11) for Physical Health and Mental Health.
Physical health is how much damage a PC can take from normal attacks and the like. Without healing or other help along that line, it heals at the rate of one point a day. This becomes 2 if the PC doesn't strain themselves too much that day.
Mental health measures a PCs sanity and over all mental well being. It is regained at the rate of one point a day if the GM decides the PC wasn't stressed too much that day.
If physical health reaches 0, the PC is near dead and can't move or react. If it reaches -5, they're dead.
If mental health reaches 0, the PC is in a coma. If it reaches -5, they're dead.
Combat
| In combat there is no sanity, only useful ways of being insane. - Jack Cady |
Combat begins with a rolling of initiative. This is a simple 1d10 roll modified by armour (-1, -2 or -3). Each round lasts as long as it needs too (generally 5 seconds of combat, a minute or more outside it).
Each PC has a defense skill based on 5 + any relevant skill(s). In order to hit you, someone has to roll over this. If they do, they deal damage which can be lessened by armour.
| Optional Rule |
| If people want to roll damage, small do 1d2, medium 1d4 and large 1d6 damage respectively. |
Weapon damage is simple enough. Small weapons do 2 points of damage, medium ones do 4 and large ones do 6. Arrows are considered medium weapons, guns large (in terms of damage).
Magic works on someone if it hits them, so the mage must roll their magic skill over the foe's defense score. Magic does damage based on the skill level. 1-5 acts as a small weapon (2 damage), 6-10 as medium (4) and 11+ as large (6). For magic such as telepathic probes that don't do damage, the subject resists with a roll as the GM sees fit or uses their defense score or health to defend themselves.
Armour reduces the damage of most attacks with weapons (but seldom magical ones). Light armours (leather, really thick clothing) reduce it by 1. Medium ones (hide, chain mail, kelvar) reduce damage by 2 and heavy ones like plate mail or full body armour reduce it by 3.
Faith also acts an amour against magic directed at the person with Faith. Faith of five gives light armour, 10 medium and 15 heavy. A faith of 20 might be immune to magic entirely. Besides that, someone with a faith score higher than a foes magic one simply ignores their magic entirely most of the time if it's the sort that doesn't do damage.
Magic defends against psychic powers on much the same principle, but since psychic powers are often more powerful than magic since they cost less to increase, the other limitation is that botches caused while trying to affect a mage can't be countered by Pools and the point taken off mental health is permanent.
Experience
| Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it. - Anonymous |
Experience is how people improve. Each PC can spend experience to increase skills and stats and pools in between game sessions. No one skill or stat can be increased by more than 2 between games.
The cost system below is how much experience is needed to increase any attribute by one.
| Attribute | Increment Cost | Attribute | Increment Cost | |||
| Background Skills | 1 for 1 | Skill Pool | 3 for 1 | |||
| General Skills | 1 for 1 | Combat Pool | 3 for 1 | |||
| Profession Skills | 1 for 1 | Magic Pool | 3 for 1 | |||
| Combat Skills | 1 for 1 | |||||
| Magic Skills - psychic | 1 for 1 | Defense Rating | 5 for 1 | |||
| Magic Skills - mages | 2 for 1 | Health (either) | 5 for 1 | |||
| Magic Skills - faith | 3 for 1 | Begin new skill | 1 point (skill now at 1) | |||
Characters should get between 0 and 3 experience per session. Good role playing gives 1 experience, accomplishing some goal(s) another and the third based on finishing an adventure or helping keep a party together or whatever else the GM wishes.
PC Sheet
The PC sheet is a simple enough affair.
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PC Name:
Player: GM & Game: Total Experience Earned: Experience Spent: Height: Weight: Hair: Eyes: Sex: Age: Description: Phobias: Physical Health: Current: Mental Health: Current: Initiative Modifier: Defense Score: Damage reduction (armour): | |||||
| Weapon | Size | Damage | Notes | ||
| Armour | Size | Damage Reduction | Notes | ||
|
Skill Pool:
Current: Combat Pool: Current: Magic Pool: Current: | |||||
| Skill | Type | Points | Modified | Notes | |
| Botches | Skill | Day(s) Botched | |||
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Background:
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Game Notes:
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| If one imaginary thing exists, then all imaginary things must exist. - Roger Zalazny and Robert Sheckley |
This game uses several different ideas of magic in order to allow lots of different magic users and add lots of fun to a campaign.
The three types of magic are listed in order of power.
Psychic powers are Telepathy, Empath and Cognition. They only affect the mind and so are counted the least of magics. However, like the other two kinds, they have a price - every time a PC botches using them, their mental health decreases by one. This mental instability is caused by spending time in other's minds and losing a sense of your own identity. Someone who has lost their sense of self begins to lose some sanity and freedom as well.
Magic comes in 4 types: Balance, Congruence, Contagion, Naming. Balance lies in affecting the humours of the body (general health), Contagion means that like attracts like. Once things are together, they're always together. It allows magic to be worked on people by using nail clippings, or making models of someone's home using wood from their home and destroying it to destroy that building. The magic of congruence allows a mage to control someone by touching them, in effect a form of possession. Naming magic is based on being able to control others once you know their names. All four kinds of magic interact and many minor dabblers know bits of each type. All four combined allow the really powerful magics to take place, the things out of legend. The limit of magic is that magic isn't natural, or right. Learning it drives the mage insane over time, given them odd phobias, mental instability to the extreme and an odd compulsion to wear dresses embroidered with stars and moons.
Faith magic is simply faith. Those who truly believe in their deity can call up miracles by invoking their God. The danger of this is that you do invoke your God - the deity controls you and can do whatever it wishes - it's under no obligation to give what was asked. As well, the more one calls upon the deity, the closer they become to it .. eventually they can lose all their free will and become an (NPC) Avatar of the deity. As well, increased faith can (and often does) lead to increased temptations from various demons and the like.
The Triangle
| Faith | ||
| Psychic | Magic |
Psychic powers overcome faith, faith overcomes magic and magic overcomes psychic powers.
Psychic powers can overcome faith because faith is based on belief in your God, and it's hard to gather up that necessary strength of will when someone is causing you to lust over a small dog. ("Oh, mighty dog, who has such a nice tail . .God! Not dog, God!" is hardly helpful in summoning divine aid.) Faith defeats magic simply because it is faith and everyone knows that magic can't stand against it. Faith acts as armour (in the combat section) as a passive defence. Magic can defeat psychic powers simply because mages are insane. Psychics trying to affect mages often simply can't - they're nuts. A successful attempt could well kill both the psychic and mage.
However, magic is still the most powerful force of them all in many ways due to spells, except for the limitations imposed in its very nature. Spells are the magic of fairy tales and mythology, made by combining the 4 types of magic and either finding or creating a spell with them. However, the more times a spell is used, the weaker the spell in question becomes. This even effects existing castings of the spell. So casting Immortality on yourself is good only until other people begin doing it and weakening yours so that in 300 years it's a simple healing charm. Even with this powerful limit, the "real" spells are sought after long and hard since the magics a mage can make by themselves are nothing compared to true faith, but magic invoked by objects (the west wind, a four leaf clover and etc..) and placed into them can make power enough that only direct divine intervention can defeat it.
Likewise, most magic leaves people in a form of debt - if you destroy something, you must create something of equal value in the future. Fairy tale style magics are exempt from this since the caster is completely loony and those magics are outside the positive/negative balance. The debt accrued can be bargained off with others, such as people or demons, but only if they do it willingly and know what they're bargaining from the caster. The GM determines if someone is too far in debt (positively or negatively) and can cause things to happen accordingly, such as spells beginning to work strangely or the caster going insane or dropping dead.
Finally, there is another form of magic, that isn't so much magic as common knowledge. All magic requires sacrifice (psychics of their own mind, mages of sanity, faith of freedom) but sacrifice itself can be a kind of magic. This bargaining magic involves sacrificing something dear to you to some Power or Potentiality of the world in exchange for something else. Magic users know enough to not make that kind of bargain, but the common person sometimes has no choice ... and sometimes has a mage to get revenge against.
Cautionary note: Magic is powerful, and fluid. Setting actual game limits (name mages can only know the name of 4 substances) etc. weakens magic as a wild and chaotic force. While such a limit is needed to starting mages, they can learn more names, or new spells, or ways to focus their psychic powers and improve greatly over time. Assuming, of course, that they survive the prices of their magic that long.
| Knowledge is gained by learning; trust by doubt; skill by practice; and love by love. - Thomas Szusz |
As some kinds of players like having a list of skills to choose from, here is a list of sample ones. Magic skills will be covered in their own section. The only difference between background and general skills is that background ones are skills learned in the past and are also skills the PC is unlikely to improve. Professional skills are ones related to the PCs profession and combat ones are related to combat.
Also note these are sample skills, hence their generic names. Players are expected to come up with mor ecreative manes that help specify how the PC uses their skill and adds flavour to the character. For example, "Running" is bland. "Scream in terror and try to break the sound barrier" says a lot more about your pc (and, let's face it, it sounds neater).
| Background & General Skills | Professional Skills | Combat Skills | ||
| Artistic Skill (pick one) | Artist (pick medium) | Firearms | ||
| Camping | Charming | Machine Guns | ||
| Cooking | Computer Use | Pistols | ||
| Dodge | Degree (college) | Rifles | ||
| Eavesdropping | Demolitions | Shotguns | ||
| First Aid | Disguise | Melee Combat | ||
| Herb Lore | Drive/pilot vehicle | Exotic weapons | ||
| Languages | Evasive manoeuvres | Fexible weapons | ||
| Literacy | History | One handed weapons | ||
| Local History | Investigation | Two handed weapons | ||
| Picking pockets | Leadership | Ranged Combat | ||
| Play (sport, game etc.) | Literacy | Bow and arrow | ||
| Playing an Instrument | Long distance running | Darts etc. | ||
| Running | Lore (one topic) | Spears | ||
| Sign Language | Lucky | Thrown weapons | ||
| Singing | Medicine/Healing | Unarmed Combat | ||
| Sneak | Observant | Brawling | ||
| Streetwise | Ride animal | Dirty Fighting | ||
| Swimming | Seduction | Martial Arts | ||
| Tracking | Survival | Wrestling |
The above sampling of skills gives a rough idea of what kind of skills can go into each classification. For game purposes, professional, general and background are largely the same, but people are more likely to have a degree in, oh, archeology as a professional skill (part of their job) rather than a general one. Players should feel free to invent and add more skills to this list a will. It's very incomplete and exists just as a quick guideline. For example, a player could take unarmed combat as a skill in itself instead of brawling or dirty fighting.
Note that the name you give a skill also tells what the skill can do. An unarmed combat skill can be used to hurt people, but a dirty fighting skill could be used to hurt people far more nastily. It is highly recomended that each PC get some kind of history/legend skill, a dodge skill and at least one combat skill. Specialisation is good, but only to a point. Specialising the PC skill can be very good, but specialising your PC into just one group of skills can be a bad idea.
| Scene: Sigurdir holding up a disturbingly cute dragon's head for an angry Odin. Odin is speaking. Caption: "That was the wrong magic dragon who lived by the sea! I told you to kill Fafnir, not Puff!" |
The three forms of magic can become a wide variety of skills within the types for each section. A brief explanation of each type is below. Note that someone with skill in a given type of magic can attempt anything within that school, but obviously won't succeed as often as someone more skilled would. Generally speaking, the only thing that separates the novice from the master in magic is the master is more subtle and understands what they're doing better - knowledge is the key to all magic.
Psychic Skills
| Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn Indicative that suns go down; The notice to the startled grass That darkness is about to pass. - Emily Dickinson |
Psychic abilities come in three broad skills, these being: Cognition, Empath and Telepathy. Some sample skills based on them are below. The chief peculiarity of psychic abilities is that they only affect the mind: there is no telekinesis or pyrokinisis or teleportation among them psychic powers.
Cognition (common name: seer): This skill covers post-, pre- and present cognition. Postcognition allows someone to see into the past, precog the future and present is clairvoyance and clairaudience and the like. Just naming your skill "cognition" will allow all 3 uses, but specialising in one (or getting all 3 as separate skills) will give better results. Note that there is no future, but futures so precognition is a variable talent and best applied to oneself alone. Cognitive visions can take the form of symbolism or be actual events ... sometimes from the skewed perspective of a participant of the event. This isn't to say that cognition is useless, just that it should be used with a grain of salt.
Empathy (common name: sensitive): The ability to sense, project and alter the emotions of others is powerful, and often underrated. Sensing the emotions of others can be rather easy, at the surface. Getting deeper ones often involves eye contact or touch. Projecting emotions can be used to let other people know what you feel, overtly or in a subtle manner. (You could even let other people know what someone thinks about them, by projecting that persons emotions to a group.) Altering emotions is a dangerous business and most people will sense themselves being changed, even if they are helpless to prevent it for a time.
GM Note: Using Empathy to alter another PCs emotions must be worked out with the other player.
Telepathy (common name: mind reading): The ability to read the minds of others and change their very nature is a powerful and incredible tool. Telepathy can be very easy to abuse but putting too much trust in what others are thinking can be just as dangerous. Generally speaking, a psychic should have at least 10 in this skill before attempting to alter someone's very nature. Most people are very afraid of telepathy but are also protected naturally since their minds are so snarled and cluttered. Psychics minds develop channels for their power so their minds are more open, and hence easier to attack. A mental shielding ability is recommended for most psychics. Note that telepathy (unless you have an xenopathy skill) only works on like minded beings - a human can sense other humans, but not dogs or cats. Xenopaths are also very rare, since they can communicate with anything. As well, taking over minds is possible but works best with a dominance-specific telepathy skill.
And finally, combining the powers to cause effects is perfectly legitimate. For example, telepathy and cognition could be used to read someone's mind in the past, or previous lives or even implant post-hypnotic suggestions. The information above is a sampling of the powers, not a straight jacket.
Limits: Psychic abilities tend to be very common and not as costly to use as the other two forms of magic, at the lower levels. At the higher ones, psychics tend to lose some of their own self and sanity just by spending so much time in the minds (and universes) of other beings - they can lose track of where they end and other people begin. Many of them end up developing different personalities of they are unlucky.
Magic
| Names are magic, names are all the magic there is . . . - Peter S Beagle, “The Folk of the Air” |
While not a type of magic, the first two laws of magic are essential to understanding magic: The law of knowledge basically means that you work magic by understanding it. The more you understand something, the more control you have over it. Likewise, know thyself is a big part of magic. Mages are not insecure: they must know and test their limits all the time. The second law is the law of belief - if you don't believe in magic, it won't work for you.
The four types of magic in the game are Balance, Congruence, Contagion and Naming.
Balance (common name: balance or healing): The law of balance involves knowing the four humours of the body (phlegm, blood, bile, and black bile (which reflect the cold and moist, hot and moist, hot and dry, and cold and dry aspects of the body respectively)). Mages with this skill know that the humours must remain in balance to maintain good health. An excess or deficiency of any single humour may invite poor health or possession by another entity. In other words, balance magic involves healing and harming others. More than any other mages, these ones try and keep themselves between "good" and "evil" as much as possible. Example: A healer heals a hurt child. Wishing to remain in balance, he hurts the person who hurt them. While this is (to the mage and many others) considered a good act, hurting is the other side of healing and so balances out the magic.
Congruence (common name: possession; less common: union): Congruence is the law that states that, by touching someone else, it is possible to become them or co-exist with them in a form of benign possession. If the spirits are equal, both of them share the link and - depending on it's strength - can see through each others eyes, share pain with the other person and other things. If one spirit is stronger than the other, the lesser one often gets consumed and taken over. This is true possession and, if the mage remains in the other person too long, can destroy another persons identity. When using this type of congruence, the mage is entirely in the other person's body and loses all awareness of their own.
Contagion (common name: sympathetic magic): The law of contagion states that things that were once together are always together: they share some sort of link. These links can be used (voodoo dolls being a classic example) to harm others or to do really impressive magic. For example, if you could make a copy of someone's home (with part of the original wood) and their own home would be destroyed if you broke the replica. This form of magic works best if the mage can produce enough energy to cause the effect. Throwing a wooden doll into a small fire to hurt someone will work, but throwing it into a bonfire big enough to hurt the real person causes less problems with balance and energy conservation. This magic also works on the "like produces like" method, so if you had one fish, you could create some more fish.
Naming (common name: naming): The power to name something is a vital component of magic. If you know the name of something you can control it. Namers know the true name of one element of the world for each point in their power and can know the partial names of others at the GMs discretion. Sample names include Iron, Opening, Light, Fire and the like. Things covered by the other three types of magic can't be used as names (such as healing, covered by Balance). If someone gives a namer their true, inner name (which few know themselves) the mage can control them. Even knowing someone's entire outer name can allow this a mage to control you, so people tend to be very cautious about names.
All four forms combined together can create Words of Power, Curses and the Fairy-Tale level magic (covering castles in vines for a hundred years, becoming immortal and the like). These are referred to as real Spells and will be detailed a little later. The limitation of them is that each use of the Spell weakens it, including existing castings of the spell. Immortality is fine, but if 300 other people find the same spell, you're immortality is gone and reduced to, say, a good healing spell over a few centuries.
Limits: Mages are insane. Seeing into dimensions and realities not meant for the mind drives them all nuts. This is RPed in two different and related ways:
The first is Sight. Mages see into other dimensions, the future, other worlds and the like on odd occasions. This ability is not reliable, or predictable or trustworthy. Mage sight seems to mimic the psychic seer abilities but while seers gain their power through training, mages get theirs because their minds are completely out of whack.
The second is that mages see into what some claim is the "real" world - a swirling mad chaos of potentials and madness. This curse means that, to mages, everything is as it appears to be. Behind it there is something worse than nothing, there is Chaos and Void. In game terms, mages tend to stick their hands through trees, people, doors and the like by accident without even realising it on occasion. Walking through a door can be a rather disconcerting experience for any mage. As with mage sight, this ability is not under conscious control.
These visible limitations of mage insanity help RP it as well as convince other people the mage is insane, even if the mage thinks they're not. This also applies to mages views of each other, since they know a special, fundamental law to the universe, the Law of Infinite Universes:
This law states that each person sees his universe or world a different way; so no two people have identical views of the world. Under this Law are two other laws: the Law of Pragmatism and the law of True Falsehoods. The Law of Pragmatism simply states, "If it works, it's true." This is a very useful law because it avoids moral arguments with oneself and others. In this case, therefore, truth has a functional value since it works properly for the person. Such a law allows different responses to the same or similar situations. The Law of True Falsehoods simply stated, "If it's a paradox, the paradox is probably true." This law will hold until a better answer or solution can be found to a problem.
Faith
| The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers, is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience - James Russell Lovell |
Faith magic is the most powerful of the 3 forms of magic in and of itself. The devotee prays to their deity, the deity answers and takes a portion of their free will (over time) and acts, perhaps as they want It to. For this reason, the power to call up miracles is seldom used but it's passive defense against magic more than makes up for that. The effects of faith depend entirely on what the GM thinks makes sense and how faithful the PC has been and how vital their request is.
Optional Variant: Instead of deities, the PC calls upon their ancestor spirits for magic. This amounts to a form of Congruence where you possess your ancestor and force them to possess you in some very odd manner. Ancestors can be called up more than gods but are also less powerful. Use of ancestors drains you of your life energy rather that free will. In game terms, it takes weeks, months or years off of your life span.
Limits: Calling the powers of gods is dangerous. The direct result is that the deity can do whatever it wants - not what you want - when summoned. As well, each summoning binds you closer to the deity and your free will is eventually non existent.
Fairy Tale Level Magics
| Power corrupts, but its usage can be most enjoyable. - Angus Wells, “Lords of the Sky” |
The highest magics in the world are those of stories made real. Brought forth by combining all four of the forms of magic, these objects (and sometimes people) are imbued with the most puissant of spells. And, like the stories of old, all these spells were made by need, and for certain deeds - they are the great magics, and used rarely, for each use of these spells - and sometimes of the objects imbued with the spell - weakens the spell as a whole, and all uses of it in the world. Such is the price of magic.
Words of power, curses, rites and powerful items are considered this level of magic. These spells are very rare and aren't learned as skills but can sometimes be cast if one knows the right skills. Three sample items are below and one phrase of power. Others words of power tend to be so common people forget them, or the old rhymes get mangled and lost to time. The examples below all include some story behind them that explains them.
Clam of Birthing
"In the beginning times, Yehl walked the world alone, calling it out of nothing as he walked. In time, the walkings took Yehl to a clam which whispered, "Let me out! I will be your friend." And Yehl agreed, and opened the clam to free the first men, who were very happy. But after time, they asked to be able to call things as he did. Yehl agreed, because Yehl did not want them to be lonely as well, and gave them magic, and the clam that had made them. And man made the other races, but Yehl grew angry - they were crowding the world, and he was having to make it to fast to keep up. Yehl took the clam away, and the humans fought Yehl and threw Yehl into the clam."
A tale told by ravens since the world began, the clam of birthing - if it truly exists - allows whoever uses it to create any kind of being they wish. Some stories also claim that certain poorly made creatures were placed back inside it and can be freed as well.
Earrings of the Flood
"In the long ago, when the gods still walked the world with men and the great spells were new creations in the world, the people angered one of the gods, who opened the world walls and sent a mighty flood to destroy them. The sea rose and destroyed their lands - a dark night came over the cold waters and the few who were in the boats huddled together in fear. They sacrificed many things, but were heeded not. Finally, a sorcerer stood and whipped the water. "Enough! Enough! We have suffered enough!" His silver earrings were cast into the deep and he repeated his chant twice more. Under his whipping, the waters returned to normal. The folk of the waters were slow to rejoice and never again angered a god."
These earrings - or like ones cast with the same spell - have the power to command the very seas. The whip, or anything uses to whip the seam can be used to subdue storms as a lesser version of the earring spell.
Feathers of the Eagle
"Old man was a wise old man, the oldest in the city and called by no other name. One day he said he needed something new to try, to fill the void where his heart had been. He made a net from the tears of the mothers of all the mice birds had slain and threw they net into the sky. A bird was caught, and old man rejoiced, until he realised he'd caught the king bird. The king spoke to him, and demanded freedom. Long they bargained and old man asked for a cool breeze to fill his empty heart. And the imprisoned king said "Take some of my feathers and cut one open with the fire of the moon. And old man cut it open, and a storm rose from the feather that destroyed the great city. Nowadays, the moon gets it's light from the sun and the birds can no longer kill mice."
An old story, the spell behind it allows great winds to be called forth from the feathers of birds. The more majestic the birth, the more powerful the wind that gets called.
Why The Moon Returns
"One day Le-eyo the wise was given a vision from the ancestors as to how to prevent death. At the next death of a child, he was to say 'Man, die, and come back again; Moon, die, and remain away.' However, the next child he saw died during the full moon and somehow, he spoke the wrong words, saying 'Man die, and remain away; Moon, die, and come back again.' His child died next, and he tried the words of power again, speaking them correctly, but the charm had been lost. So it is that the moon, and not man, has the power to come back again."
This story is seldom told, but serves as a warning to never trust the gifts of dreams, and always be wary of what your spell will do.
Other Magics
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That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion. - Barry Lopez |
Note that anyone, mage or otherwise, can call up beings to bargain with them, if they know the right rituals. In truth, the rituals are just a dressing - the need of someone for a bargain and power is enough to call up Creatures. The kind of bargain made had best be very, very careful however.
Likewise, anyone can name something (such as their weapon) to give it a form of power. They can also sacrifice things they own for power, but this tends to be very costly.
| PC Name: | Holly Mekkonen | ||||
| Player: | Alcar (sample PC) | ||||
| GM & Game: | None and None | ||||
| Total Experience Earned: | 0 | ||||
| Experience Spent: | 0 | ||||
| Height: | 5'1" | ||||
| Weight: | 92 | ||||
| Hair: | Blond | ||||
| Eyes: | Grey | ||||
| Sex: | Female | ||||
| Age: | 19 | ||||
| Description: | Holly is a short, frail girl. The kind who would look like an anorexic if she became a hollywood star, she is beautiful in a lost dog in the window way. She tends to wear lots of blue and grey and wears her hair long and unbound. She rarely smiles. | ||||
| Phobias: | Holly is very claustrophobic and can't stand being underground. She also never, ever lets her bare (or socked) feet touch the ground if she can. | ||||
| Physical Health: | 10 [GM note: Rolled for both] | ||||
| Current: | 10 | ||||
| Mental Health: | 18 | ||||
| Current: | 18 | ||||
| Initiative Modifier: | -1 (coat) | ||||
| Defense Score: | 10 (5 + 5 for defensive martial arts) | ||||
| Damage reduction (armour): | 1 (coat) | ||||
| Weapon | Size | Damage | Notes | ||
| Knife | Small | 1 | Ceremonial | ||
| Armour | Size | Damage Reduction | Notes | ||
| Thick Coat | Small | 1 | |||
| Skill Pool: | 19 | ||||
| Current: | 19 | ||||
| Combat Pool: | 6 | ||||
| Current: | 6 | ||||
| Magic Pool: | 25 | ||||
| Current: | 25 | ||||
| Skill | Type | Points | Modified | Notes | |
| Basic Swimming | Background | 1 | |||
| Riding Lession | Background | 1 | |||
| Dancing | Background | 1 | |||
| Drive Car | General | 1 | |||
| Occult Lore | General | 3 | |||
| Pilot Aircraft | Profession | 5 | |||
| Skydiving | Profession | 5 | -1 | ||
| Scream And Hit Someone | Combat | 1 | |||
| Defensive Martial Arts | Combat | 5 | |||
| Basic Empathy | Magic | 4 | |||
| Precognition | Magic | 2 | |||
| Postcognition | Magic | 2 | |||
| Clairovoyance | Magic | 1 | |||
| Clairaudience | Magic | 1 | |||
| Deep Telepathy | Magic | 4 | |||
| Probe | Magic | 2 | |||
| Mind Scan | Magic | 5 | |||
| Warding | Magic | 4 | |||
| Botches | Skill | Day(s) Botched | |||
| 1 | hand gliding | Once (yesterday) | |||
| Background: Holly has had a relatively normal life, graduating high school and ended up becoming a pilot but the claustrophobic cockpits overcame her love of piloting. She now teaches hand gliding and loves it, but her parents have never really forgiven her. One of her students said he "felt something" about Holly and asked her to come to an occult meeting. Since she felt something for him (he was kind of cute) she said yes. Somewhere during it, she felt something. Not much, but it was enough to shake her faith in the rational world. She shortly began to learn a lot more, but it tends to work erratically. She can also move things around in the air, sometimes, but it really tires her. Family - Her faither and mother (Jim and Grizelda) ae annoyed about the lost education money but still love her. Her brother, Biff, is very good friends with her and they talk a lot. He has never forgiven his parents for his name, tho :). She has some friends in her unofficial coven. | |||||
| Game Notes: Warding is a shield based on projective precognition, projective empathy and a telepathic barrier. It makes people feel uneasy about coming near it. If they persist (get through the precog and empath effects), the actual barrier is there. It is bound by the physical world (a drawn circle works) and prevents intelligent creatures from entering (but not leaving) it. She can keep it up for 20 minutes - any longer and she gets a nasty headache. As well, she has Cloudling blood somehwere in her family line. This is what allows her to lift things sometimes (air magic, basically) and helps keep up her idea that she's doing "real" magic. | |||||
| Introduction | Character Creation |
Players & Campaign Info. |
The World | Contact, Credits & Updates |