[RPG][Milieu] The Best of All Possible Worlds (of Magic)-

This is a primer regarding the in-setting explanation of the hows and whys of magic in the milieu, and allows for Daily-Slot, Spell Point, and true Spontaneous Casting (of the Ars Magica/Lords of Fantasy sort) to all exist (among countless other variants and other methods) simultaneously on Urutsk.

LINK

Please let me know your thoughts on this.

Thank you very much,

[RPG] UWoM Blood Magic-

Hi,

I am starting to weigh the pro's and con's of various magic systems I have created over the past ten years, and am currently trying to retain the most D&D-friendly, while still Urutskan, system for the game.

Blood Magic can be blamed directly on Groakes (a subscriber here and a friend from Mike's Moorcock's Miscellany site) when he gave the extant .pdf version a whirl and created a character and a critter, and fought a sample battle.
--It was just the kick in the seat that I needed to solidify the setting's unique qualities, and so I am trying my best to make it my best effort.

So far, I have tentatively rejected my d6 constructive die pool method, due to recent development on my Spectral Index (semi-unified-mechanic colour chart abomination) which operates on an index of one of 16 ratings with a 2d12 roll in place of the flat d100 rolls I had been using.
--Both have their strengths, but I think the 2d12 is fastest and most D&D-friendly, which actually does matter to me. Since both contain the same Colour Logic, it really is simply a matter of design aesthetics.

What I can tell you so far is that the Magic system will be based on pairings of the Sanguine Elements and one of the six character Abilities (Conviction, Agility, Fighting, etc.) in a manner similar to Ars Magica or the slightly pared-down version found in the ultra-rare Lords of Fantasy rpg from the '90's, in which a magicker would combine, let's say, Create and Air to do something defined by what Create entails, and what Air is and can do. However, tying it to the sixteen Sanguine Elements and pairing them with the six Abilities will give a bit more internal consistency to the system's outlook on the setting.

Players of all characters would define six Blood Magics for each character that further their particular character's idiom (perhaps through Tags like, 'grizzled veteran' or something vaguely 'Narrativistic') while providing lateral development potential more than increasing one's rating in any of the six apart from 'super-powers' or the like in the Latter Autumn era.
--This would then reduce the frequency of dedicated magickers ubiquitous in other RPGs.

However, this then diminishes the connection to canned spell lists and the like, which certainly have a lot going for them.
--Hmm.

I know that some of you are decidedly interested in an UWoM that is most-compatible with D&D and the simulaclones of late, while others (Groakes, and perhaps also Rob Kuntz at this point) are more inclined to have UWoM be true to its milieu rather than attempting to shoehorn it into an ill-fitting mould. My own inclination is, of course, a happy medium between the two.

Comments, requests, thoughts?

[Milieu][RPG] Rarity of Magic/k Response to SHARK-

SHARK, my reply exceeded the charactr limit of the comments section, so I have posted it here.

Let me begin by thanking you for continuing this dialogue. :)

The first part of my response will deal with the game as a game: Have you seen how steep the 'XP' curve is for purchasing magic in my system?
--I have a player whose character is perhaps 7th-Magnitude/Level, and he is still only capable of casting 2nd-'Level' spells, and not for lack of trying. Granted, he has slightly diffused his energies by pursuing established spell-use and Shadow Magicks, but when I recently asked him for a ball-park estimate of points he's spent toward the Arts, his answer was roughly 2/3rds the total 'xp' he has earned.
---I designed the system expressly for the purpose of allowing a magicker to gain many low-power spells, but to severely retard their matriculation through the 'spell levels'. Given that, what would you expect a PC or NPC be able to accomplish that would out-live his own existence save create new spells and leave them hidden away in a spell book or a few scrolls? :)

Given that the above applies to NPCs equally, most 'breakthroughs' in magic come in the form of daisy-chaining 0th - 2nd or perhaps at best, 3rd-'level' spells into more costly (although, often more useful) spells than 4th or higher ones, as the casting-costs are cumulative (easier to calculate using a Spell Point system than the so-called Vancian method).

Now, from a setting perspective: Urutsken tend to be fairly bigoted and xenophobic folk, and that is taken to the next level when dealing with individuals pursuing lost arts and mysteries. There is little in the way of inter-cultural exchanges regarding such esoteric subject matter, especially in light of the general populace' fear of aberrations, which mages most certainly are perceived as in all but the most stable of metropolitan areas.
--That, coupled with high death rates due to environmental factors of a relatively unfriendly planet, predation by Humanoids and Monstrous Beings, and human-on-human warfare, most folk of that mental calibre are put to good use reasoning-out the functions of Ancient technology, rather than allowed to selfishly pursue dangerous, unstable, and Monster-attracting practices.
---What few number who do learn more than a few parlour tricks are fortunate if they are able to sequester themselves (almost invariably alone, or at most with manservants and support personnel) in a reasonably safe redoubt in the Humanoid and Monster-infested wilderness, and escape the attention of any of the three (other humans generally see them as complicit in aiding the non-human forces in the world and beyond), and with such little power at their disposal in comparison to mages in other game-systems, often fail to stay alive in the process of their studies.

Now, on an institutional level, there is at least one international group, a true cabal, known as the Kherstic League, who, when they find practitioners, give them one chance to join, or they are slain, and the research absconded with. The League is the only game in town, as it were, and their aims are fairly simple and straightforward: control knowledge of the Imperial Magick which still operates, albeit in a damaged and unstable manner, to this day, and slowly release its applications (perhaps the term 'technomantic' is best, here) as human society becomes more stable and less likely to destroy itself, or summon Lovecraftian-level non-friendlies to dominate or devour humanity's best bastion amid the Shattered Stars.
--The secret of the Kherstic Shards is at once amazingly simple, and on the other hand, such a vast paradigm-shift (Teslan v. Edisonian, with the former being centuries ahead of his time, and the latter being short-sighted and conniving), that its revelation would likely destroy the fabric of global society, undoing thousands of years of reconstruction and re-integration virtually overnight. In essence, the League is willing to sacrifice the lives of (wilfully-)ignorant practitioners to safeguard the hope for a better, stronger future position for all of humanity, and see it once-again take its place as the masters of the sidereal realm.
---Moreover, many folk who (in other games) would become M-U's, instead become involved in technology and restorationist projects, and take great pride in their accomplishments, regardless if they give a hoot about Humanity, or simply enjoy the privileges and notoriety that comes along with serving the temporal leaders who facilitate their research. Now, add the fact that most of these folks are also working with the League, wittingly or unwittingly, and the circle is more or less complete.

If I have not addressed your questions, please let me know, and I will attempt to do so.

Best, :)

[Milieu][RPG] Brief: Rarity of Magic/k in the Urutsk Setting-

SHARK has posted this on his SHARK EMPIRE blog.

My solution was to make magic available to anyone, but make developing its use so costly (XP-wise) so as to dramatically narrow the potential number of dedicated practitioners, as well as retard their rate of matriculation through the 'spell-levels'.
--Urutsk has always had magickers of some sort, due to campaign event specifics, but even in the Latter Autumn era in which vectored thrust air transports, LASERS, and ELF-communications exist, those who could use anything more than the occasional elemental bolt or Mirror Image --both of which are outstripped by technological equivalents-- were a rare breed which kept their knowledge hidden.

As Humanity took to outer space and colonies were founded, many such worlds were used as remote demesnes, and the Art enjoyed a local resurgence, especially when space-age technology failed and the populations became cut off from pre-Imperial society.

It wasn't until Mid-Winter, when the Sphere of Stars/Suns was founded, that Magick was brought to the fore, although that golden 'age' only lasted 111 years. Yet, enigmatically, it is this very period that created what is known as 'magic' in the setting, throughout its full cycle...

[RPG] Players' Manual Revamp Underway-

Blame groakes, if you like. ;).

Blood is receiving its due integration not only with Character Generation, but Combat and Tests. I am converting my previous game system material to the Classic-Play format, although it is pulling C-P into new territory.
--In brief, one's Sanguine Element (Elemental Blood) becomes the character's tie to the mystical reality which underpins the setting. The references to Alignment in the extant Players' Manual are being fleshed out so that one's Elemental Ruler will eventually have actual interaction as one continues to draw upon their power.

I am also making plans to modify the Spell Construction tables from the prior game to this one, which will eliminate the need for lengthy lists of spells, and their descriptions.

groakes has created a character, Qon Qol Kesh <-'I am wisdom's reflection, a trickster'->; created an insectoid monster using the Life Lab tables; and conducted a combat between the two (QQK narrowly escaped having his head bitten-off by the bug). In his e-mail, he also made use of impromptu uses for Blood, which has led to this resurgence of a fuller application of that mechanism.

Hi K - below is the account of the combat between Qon Qol Kesh (with 2 fightdice and two focus points) and the K'Kik K'Ree. A couple of questions which I couldn't find answers to in the published rules:

1. What is the Terminal Threshold (is it Physique + leverage 2M?); and

2. How is damage apportioned across hit locations?

Apart from that, it was quick and brutal. Just the way it should be. I DO like a system tha forces players to look at options beyond hack and slash and I DO think that this system will do that.

On another tangent, I also "made up" a use for the Blood Element. In the description below, Qon Qol Kesh Focuses his Blood Element to sense what is happening in his surroundings. In this case, he creates some smoke which he then picks up some snensations from the waiting K'Kik K'ree. Nothing solid, but just, if you like, an increased awareness of his surroundings.

Anyway, here's want went down:

The trees entered Qon Qol Kesh's dreams and urgently shook him from languid Jhanala’s arms as she dreamed deeply of her lover in the distant Western Isles. He blinked in the pre-dawn dark, the grove awash with a thousand shadows created by the soft blue glow emitted from ruined Thres A’alta at his back. He felt the deep, muzzy thrum through the soles of his travelling boots and wondered for what threat the trees had woken him. The subsonic glow of the ruins was normally enough to keep most beasts at a distance, but perhaps something with awareness had decided to come close to the normally deserted ruin. Anyway, he was glad he had taken the time to make an offering to the trees in the glade last night before he slipped into dreams even though his left hand still stung from the incision he had made. The trees had repaid him well for the blood honour he shared with them.

The trees, mindful of Qon Qol Kesh’s respect, wake him from the lucid shared dreaming with his lover. While he slept a K’Kik K’Rree detected his scent and stalked his sleeping form. The K’Kik K’Rree’s tactics are simple - hide on the underside of a tree branch and grab passing prey with its raptorial arms. Once grabbed, the mantid will lift the trapped prey up to its mandible and attempt to bite its head off, then proceed to feast on the decapitated corpse.

Each raptorial limb does d4. Raptorials are both edged and impaling. A character gripped by the mantid suffers a -2/raptorial to their Balance PM. The mantid attempting to lift a character rolls an attack die +1 for each grasping raptorial versus a characters defence die modified by leverage and constitution PMs. Once lifted, the mantid will attempt to “aim high” to deliver its bite - mandibles do d8 edged).

Normally a day hunter, the K’Kik K’Ree has been injured in a territorial dispute with another of it’s kind losing one of it’s four raptorial arms. Consequently, it’s desperate for food and willing to take a chance in the pre-dawn gloom on a lone, sleeping humanoid.

The K’Kik K’Ree has suffered 3 points damage of a maximum 15 points. It can only attack with three raptorials per round.

He unsheathed his tulwar and crouching, threw a handfull of green leaves onto the small fire he had left burning overnight. A pungent smoke curled into the chill air and he focussed his blood awareness on it. He blew gently and the smoke took on an iridescence beneath the still glimmering stars. The smoke coiled about the glade, caressing leaf and stone, a stream of image and sensation flowing back to him along the incandescent particles.

hunger/eat/pain/hunger/eat/hunger

He gripped his tulwar and peered into the pulsing shadows beneath the limbs of the sky blue Hshtra trees. His eyes adjusted to the ancient blue glare and he moved carefully forward, listening and watching. Through the trees, the first threads of dawn were streaking the indigo sky but no chorus of birds greeted the day. The forest was soft and silent. His sharp eyes picked out diurnals cowering in the flickering shadows. Threat was near.

He draws his tulwar, casts some green foliage on his fire creating smoke and, drawing upon his Blood Element (smoke), uses Focus to determine what the reason for the trees’ warning. His awareness travels on the smokes tendrils and encounters that of the mantid hunter, delivering him a sense of ravishing hunger with a taint of pain. Sword in hand he edges carefully through the shadowy glade.

Having woken, he is wearing his travellling boots 1d4 - to delving boots like a leather vest Is to a studded vest - and leather vest 1d. His tulwar is the equivalent of a longsword.

The K’Kik K’Rree falls back on it’s normal patterns and hangs on a branch underside, grasping the limb with its rear legs, keeping its raptorial limbs free for the strike.

STRIKE/FEED/STRIKE/FEED/STRIKE/FEED

Instinctively he dodged left, pivoting in the Hait Berror manner with his right leg extended behind him and tulwar slicing figure eights through the air as the chitinous claws flashed murderously down. Above, clinging to the underside of a branch with its rear legs, a man sized mantid, it’s blue chitin the same shade at the leaves above it and flickering pale white in the azure light from the ruins, hissed in anticipation as it’s three raptorial limbs clutched lightning fast towards its prey.

The K’Kik K’Ree achieves partial surprise. Qon Qol Kesh knows something is somewhere near but doesn’t necessarily expect an attack from above - he loses his first round actions.

One chitinous limb he blocked with the twirling tulwar. Another flashed over his shoulder clawing the air. The third, though, closed around his outstretched left arm, its wicked striations drawing blood, though its long inner piercing spike missed his arms altogether

Mantid attack rolls 12, 4, 14. QQK defense rolls 10 +2 Balance PM = 12. Roll 2 on hit location. 2 points damage. End of round 1.

The chittering mantid dragged back, trying to lift Qon Qol Kesh up to its hungrily scissoring mandibles, but he set his feet against its strength and engaged in brutal tug-of-war.

(Initiative: Mantid rolls 13, QQK rolls 12 no mods due to being grasped by mantid - mantid with initiative. Mantid rolls 7 on its attempt to lift him, QQK rolls 17 +1 Leverage PM).

Its other raptorial arms lashed out attempting to further grasp the humanoid, but, despite being held in its grasp, he avoided the snickering chitin and slashed into one of the probing left raptorials.

Mantid attack rolls 5, 9, defence 5. QQK attack rolls18 +1 leverage = 19, defence roll 12. Hit location = 3 left fore limb for 3 points damage, 2 of which are absorbed by the mantid’s chitin. End of Round 2

Qon Qol Kesh pressed home his attack dealing a glancing blow to the head of the mantid

(QQK initiative 19, mantid 8. QQK attack 13 +1 leverage = 14, Mantid defence 8, hit location = 7, damage = 3 (-2).

The gripping claw unbalanced him and he was unable to resume his proper stance, his sword arm out of position to parry effectively. Though the mantid failed to lift him (mantid 5+1, QQK 8+1) it’s two savage raptorials both struck home, one gripping the leather of his vest, the other again gripping his left arm.

Mantid attack 17, 18, QQK defense 7, locations 3, 6 his arm taking another point of damage, 3 points damage - 3 for his leather vest. End Round 3

The Mantid hissed again in anticipation of delivering its lethal bite, lifting Qon Qol Kesh (Initiative 15 vs QQK 11, lift attempt 15 vs 6) and lunging forward, it antennae lashing about his face, but the struggling humanoid somehow avoids the mandibles (mantid attack 11, QQK defence 17) His right arm still free, he carefully paused amoment and as the mantid’s head reached its full extension he stabbed into the alien blue eye with the full force of his tulwar.

(QQK attack 18 +1 leverage +2 focus, mantid defence 7, damage 8-2=6) End Round 4.

The mantid shrieked (3 dodge pool points left) dropping the humanoid to the back first onto the ground (Initiative 17 vs QQK 4). He lay there for the briefest moment then rolled into “Hopeful Xarj” stance, peering into the moving shadows above him. In the distance he could hear the K’Kik K’Ree escaping into the foliage, it’s mandibles clattering amongst the tree limbs.

He edged back into the clearing, breathing the smoke that gathered him around him like the folds of winter cloak. The entire encounter had been over in less than a minute. He focussed on the sensations that the smoke brought him. Faintly, he could sense the mantid…pain/pain/pain. He turned and commenced to dress his wounds. Then he would make another offering to the trees. In gratitude.

Thoughts?

[General][RPG] Fiddly D&D Magic Idea-

Hi,

Although I am on vacation through the weekend, I couldn't help but post this half-baked variation on Spell Use.

This is not for UWoM, just an idea:

Caster
Level- | Percent Chance to Retain Loaded Spell-
01-04: (2x Intelligence) as %
05-08: (3x Intelligence) "
09-12: (4x Intelligence) "
13-16: (5x Intelligence) "
17-20: (6x Intelligence) "

:: Above percentage is divided by the Spell Level to determine chance to re-cast the spell. Failure results in the standard Vancian 'use' of the powered spell matrix.

Thoughts?