I've been running an ongoing Crystal Frontier campaign using the "Fistful of Crystals" ruleset for the past several months, and at the same time finishing up editing and layout on a larger dungeon for publication - the Iron Barrow. Both projects mean that I've had to take a long look at how I treat spells and magic users.
Below is a set rules and in world explanation for how I see sorcery in my games, and the rules I use to make it more interesting. In the attached document I've also included examples of several starting grimoires and a grimoire of high magic - an necromantic text that effectively provides a "Necromancer" Subclass.
 |
| Stena the Beautiful - Plague Prophet, Lich and Antagonist from Bones of Bronze |
Sorcery on the Crystal Frontier
Standard magical practice comes from many traditions, and each magic user is likely to command only the one they are originally taught or naturally adept at. Only through long study and the discovery of specialized, advanced forms of magic can sorcerers switch this focus, and again, only to a particular field or magic. The nobility of the Empire, would quibble with this distinction, claiming that their academic arcanism is the study and knowledge of magic itself, but this is a theoretical debate - Imperial wizards simply cannot perform the feats of sorcery that other magical traditions excel at.
It is more common to think of the majority of magical arts, including arcanism, as “common spellery”, or simply as “magic”, with numerous distinct, but related traditions. This means that only followers of a tradition may use its spells, but that there is enough similarity in the way the forms of common spellery function for practitioners to transcribe spells from one tradition to another, much as one might translate between languages.
More advanced, or at least unique, fields of magic exist as well. These are sometimes referred to as “Mantia” or incorrectly as “High Magery” and though not always more powerful or complex than common forms, function in unique ways that are antithetical to the forms of common magic. The practice of a Mantia is an all consuming study for a magic user who undertakes it and they such practitioners must rely only on their own research or spells from within the tradition to expand their spellbooks.
Gaining New Spells
Gaining spells is the principle goal of most magical practitioners as it allows them to grow in ability as they grow in raw power. Magic users on the Crystal Frontier don’t automatically gain additional spells as they increase in level, but must find or research spells from other sources. Only a spell that is written in a shared tradition of magic can be directly copied, while those from other traditions must be transcribed into a form that the individual magic user understands, while each discipline of High Magery is limited to its practitioners. Occasionally spells, at least those of common magic, and especially of lower levels and common knowledge, may be sold or traded with notes and in a form that make copying or transcription easier even for those unfamiliar with the source practice. These “Spell Scrolls” are a valuable commodity.
Copying: Copying spells is easy and fast, requiring only basic writing equipment and a “Downtime” between sessions to complete copying as many spells as are available with no chance of failure.
Transcribing: Transcribing a spell requires time and experimentation, taking one Downtime (or 1 week) for each spell and requiring an investment of 100GP x Spell Level plus a 3D6 (+1d6 per spell level) roll vs. Intelligence to succeed. On failure, the magic user can attempt again with a reduction of 1d6 from the roll, but must once again pay the monetary price. Only one spell may be transcribed at a time.
Researching: Making new spells is an arduous process but well within the ability of any magic-user. It just requires time and money. It can be aided by access to a library of arcane works (reducing cost) or special research materials recovered from adventuring. These materials are considered “common”, “rare”, and “superior” and can both reduce costs and chance of research failure.
Researching a spell for scratch costs 1,000 GP x (Spell Level x 1.5). Or 1,500 GP for a first level spell, 3,000 GP for a 2nd level, spell 4,500 GP for a third level spell. Spells of 5th level or 6th level higher require not only 7,500 or 9,000 GP, but also demand a “Superior” special material. Finally, all research also requires a haven with private space for the magic-user to store valuable supplies and conduct experiments, and such libraries or laboratories become increasingly attractive targets to thieves, rival sorcerers, and adventuring parties. The process of research is simple. After initial investment the magic-user rolls a roll under test vs. intelligence. This begins at 2D6+1D6 per spell level of the spell researched. If it fails the magic-user may continue the research with an investment of another ½ the initial base research cost with another roll in the next downtime, but subtracting 1D6 from the roll for each failed effort and additional investment.
Research costs can be reduced by acquisition of a laboratory for experimentation with expensive tools for experimentation, and a library of magical theory and history worth at least 2,000 GP. This library provides benefits depending on the level of the spell researched compared to its size (measured in GP value). A library must have a value of at least 2,000GP x Spell level to be effective, and will reduce the cost of research by ½. Additionally Magic-Users in the same party can use another’s library to supplement their own, but it will always be considered ½ the value for guest researchers.
Likewise, magical regents and artifacts recovered from dungeons that are related to the intended spell (monstrous spider webs would help research a “web” spell for example) can also provide benefits dependent on the rarity of the material recovered. The benefits from regents and artifacts is determined by the referee but can be as high as a 3,000GP and 2D6 reduction to costs and/or research check. The benefits are determined by the referee but generally should be about 500 GP or a 1-2 point bonus for common regents, 500 GP & a 1-2 point bonus, a 1,000 GP, or a 1D6 bonus for rare regents, and 1,000 - 3,000 GP plus a 1D6 bonus for special regents. It is up to the referee if regents can be combined to increase bonuses, but any regent used for research will be destroyed in the process.
Note of Player Designed Spells: Designing and adding spells through player research has always been a difficult task for referees. One wants the player to receive some useful benefit to investing character resources and their own creativity, but also to balance the effects and avoid something game changing or overly powerful. However, it’s possible, many well known spells are the products of player ingenuity in early campaigns, for example. The key is balancing spell level with its effect on the game. For the Crystal Frontier, magic generally will not cause direct damage (this is what “maleficence” is for) so direct damage spells should be limited or simply less effective then their level of maleficence. Likewise spells that have powerful secondary effects should be reviewed closely, as should spells that can induce death (poisoning etc.) This of course includes spells that have secondary effects such as a telekinesis that might be used to crush enemy hearts or summon water used to fill a foe’s lungs. This sort of “unintended” uses can be forbidden when they aren’t appropriate to the spell level, and this is best when they come as a sudden surprise. However this isn’t ideal. The primary use of spells, especially magic user spells, is to trivialize obstacles - knock spells open doors, sleep or fireball destroys groups of enemies. The referee (and designers) shouldn’t be too quick to deny the players that ability, because this is part of why they are playing an otherwise limited magic-user. Additionally one of the great joys of magic in RPGs is using spells in unaccustomed or imaginative ways to solve problems.
The problem is when a spell becomes too simple a solution to multiple problems, and especially when a single spell can be used to solve multiple problems without much player thought. Avoiding this requires a spell designer (or the referee approving a spell design) to think through the alternative uses of the spell. One can then examine the power level of these various uses - does the spell kill, distract, heal, or illuminate in addition to other powers? Once one has a good idea of potential spell uses, compare them to existing spells, for example a spell that can cause near instant death (such as our fill lungs with water spell) should be the same level as “death spell” … 6th. Directly comparing the mechanical effects of the spell is the best way to judge spell power - and then all the referee needs to do is find comparable spells and either offer the spell at the appropriate power level, or provide limitations to bring it down to the level the player is researching.
Types of Magic
Common Spellery: Common Spellery consists of several well known and distinct traditions as well as endless new or lesser known ones. The most common forms are traditional low magic, also known as witchcraft or hedge wizardry but properly labeled sorcery (also confusingly a term used for all Common Spellery) and Arcanism, the academic study of pure magic as a distinct and separate force. The two practices are much the same, and the distinction is primarily one of notation systems and how the power of the Wyrd is manifested (through metaphor and gesture or through recitation of complex highly specific formulae). Other common forms are theugy (which combines sorcery with religious worship), henosis (“nature magic”), alchemy, illusion (an arcane discipline that targets the perceptions of sentients) and various kinds of evocation (calling forth elemental forms and concentrations). Below are several sample spellbooks, representing the most common practices.
High Spellery: Magecraft, the Mantia, the Dark Arts or whatever other whispered euphemism … it has a certain reputation as something that only the most driven and nefarious of sorcerers get involved with. It’s not a good reputation, but this is largely due to the most commonly practiced of the Mantia: Necromancy and Invocation … That is tormenting the souls of the dead by trapping them in their shambling corpses and summoning or binding demons. Both are either illegal or highly suspect in most regions of the Imperial world and even most Resurgent Kingdoms. Necromancy because of general prejudice against hungering shambling corpses or for the more enlightened because it is seen as a form of slavery, and Invocation because of the horrors of the Demon Emperors and subsequent civil war. There are exceptions however, the carceral priests of the Imperial Cult have been known to force those who die before completing a sentence, especially if that sentence is hard labor, to serve the rest of the terms as a “resurrected” corpse. Direct demon summoning is despised and outlawed everywhere, but in the Bull Kingdom, the court of the Warlock King makes pacts with demons for personal power and even binds them into human and animal bodies to form demon hosts such as the famous Taurus Legion or Mantichora.
The technical distinction for these fields (and all Mantia) is that they allow a magic-user to gain permanent or semi-permanent abilities and bonuses in exchange for giving up spell slots. Invocation will replace spell slots with demonic boons and pacts, while a necromancer sacrifices spell slots to raise undead thralls.
Following is a description of a single, foundational Necromantic Grimoire taken from my next release “Bones of Bronze” - a five level dungeon crawl that explores an ancient barrow and the early history of the Crystal Frontier.
Strange Magics: Of course magic isn’t this simple, constant or explicable — even the most complex of arcane treatises or puissant high magery is a shadow of the magical arts known to the wizards of the old empire. Nor do these simple categories offer an explanation of the myriad of sorceries found in the Resurgent Lands. There is always something stranger and more powerful out their in the wide and crumbling world, buried for eons or emerging only now to slouch onward and corrupt the minds of humanity. Monsters and non player characters are rarely bound by the rules of magic listed here, and there is always room for new discovery. DOCUMENT FOR SORCERY ON THE CRYSTAL FRONTIER - WITH GRIMOIRES
No comments:
Post a Comment