Fantasy

Entities

Equipment

Magic

Studying and practicing magic varies greatly between practitioners: some will cling to tomes and study carefully recorded spells from ages past, while others will embrace the chaos of raw magic itself, preferring to make up effects on the fly. Though approaches may differ, it is effectively the same system beneath the surface.

A new Mind skill, Magic, enables the ability to cast spells. Advancement in Magic requires focused practice with a more highly skilled mage, or intensive study with an adequately advanced source.

Mages can memorize an active number of spells equal to their Magic skill divided by ten, rounded down. E.g., Magic 22% = 2 spells, Magic 49% = 4 spells, etc.

Schools

There are eight schools of magic, grouping various effects together.

• Abjuration prevents, alters, or heals physical and mental harm.
• Conjuration brings imagined matter into reality.
• Divination calls upon fate to answer queries about reality.
• Enchantment infuses magical energy into materials.
• Evocation summons entities to perform actions.
• Illusion creates deceptive sensory effects upon reality.
• Necromancy alters life forces of the dead.
• Transmutation changes forms of matter into other forms.

Each school can be a talent, granting the standard +20% to related casts. Additionally, being talented in a school enables two more memory slots specific to those spells.

Spells

Each spell has a number of properties, outlining what precisely it does when cast, and a final number denoting its rating.

Effect: the most freeform piece of a spell, this is some outcome related to a specific school, described as its intended target and consequence(s).

Degree: a number (1–10) that determines the effect's intensity. For dealing, preventing, and altering damage, this number pertains to how many d10 are rolled for the outcome. Similarly, opposing effects provide the number of d10 to overcome. For other spell effects, degree is usually relative to concept (strength of conjured or evoked entities, items, etc.). Degree is sometimes denoted as a roman numeral with the spell's name, when recorded.

Scale: the affected area, or entity size of the effect.

1. Tiny, a spot on or touching the target; size of a coin.
2. Small, around arms' reach of target; size of half a human.
3. Medium, around lunging distance of target; size similar to a human.
4. Large, around throwing distance to target; size of a large creature, up to 2× human.
5. Huge, around shouting distance to target; size of a very large creature, 3× human or larger.

Range: the relative distance from the caster to the target:

1. Touch, in physical contact.
2. Close, within arms' reach.
3. Near, within lunging distance.
4. Far, within throwing distance.
5. Distant, within shouting distance.

Duration: how long the effect lasts. Roll a d10 for the exact duration amount, if desired.

1. Instant
2. Seconds
3. Tens of seconds
4. Minutes
5. Tens of minutes

Rating: the sum of the spell's degree, scale, range, and duration numbers, multiplied by 5. This number describes how complex the spell is it to perform, record, and memorize.

Spell examples coming soon!

There are two ways to actually cast spells: improvised, and practiced.

Improvised Casts

Improvised spell casting is widely seen as a form of arcane art. It is, however, typically quite dangerous: misusing magic on the fly can backfire, putting the mage and their allies in harm's way of the intended effect. Despite this, it can often prove to be useful.

Improvising a spell involves describing the desired properties with the players, and determining the number values along with the GM to arrive at its rating. The mage then makes an opposed roll between their Magic skill and the spell's rating, representing the threads of reality that resist manipulation. Mind can be spent as effort for this roll.

• If the mage wins the opposed roll, the spell occurs as described.
• If the mage loses the opposed roll, reality resists and the spell backfires: the outcome instead affects them. The exact effect upon the caster depends on the spell details, determined by the GM.
• If both sides fail their roll, the spell fizzles, and the action is wasted.

Practiced Casts

The safer option for casting spells involves using a recorded version of the spell for reference, and helps to stabilize the magical outcome. This can be from a written form of the spell, or a studied, memorized form.

In this case, the mage simply makes a Magic skill check. On success, the spell occurs as intended. On failure, the spell fizzles.

• If the spell's rating is higher than their current Mind score, the check is hard.
• If the spell is being cast from memory and their current Mind score is above the rating, the check is easy.

Recording a Spell

To record a written form of a spell, the character must make a crafting roll using Finesse (Spellwriting), with the complexity equal to the spell's rating.

Memorizing a Spell

Memorizing a spell requires some dedicated time (an hour or so) to study a written version, then succeed at an opposed roll of Mind vs. the spell's rating.

Races

Attributes, skills, and talents can all be modified to build custom races or species. Possible customizations include:

• Free points in an attribute the species has a natural advantage in
• Free points in a skill that the species has a cultural affinity with
• Free talent tied to the species’ expertises
• New skill only accessible to the species
• Situational easy/hard action checks
• Natural protection ratings for attributes (e.g., shell as Body protection, “psionically shielded” as Will protection)

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