Ideas for Magic World cosmology and magic

Here I will post ideas for cosmology and magic in a MW campaign set in (my version of) the Southern Reaches. Feel free to comment and elaborate upon.

I freely use rules stuff from various BRP sources, most of this stuff will be in Advanced Sorcery. But note that I also plan to use:

- The Big Gold Book (for the Magic rules, in particular)
- The Chronicles of Future Earth (for additional demon powers and sorcery spells)
- RQ3 Creatures (for additional tiny bits that are not in MW)
- Corum (for Chaos Magic and Chaos creature magic)
- Maybe CoC Dark Ages (for additional sorcery spells)
- CoC Dreamlands (for cats, and faboulous creatures, maybe even spells)

Let us start with the planes of existence. Here I take inspiration from various sources (including, strangely enough, D&D4):

1) The Spirit Plane is everwhere around our world. Spirits are summoned from here through the Summon Spirit spells. It borders Limbo and the Feywild.

2) Limbo also called Shadowfell, is a borderland, a prison and a wasteland. A plane of undeath, hunger, envy, sorrow. A bleak malignant place still close to our world, but leading into the Ultimate Abyss. Necromancy draws from Limbo and many of the demons that are summoned hail from here. People aligned with Shadow feel close to it.

3) The Feywild is the plane of the Fey: a place of wild magic, cold beauty, mad dreams and alien, inhuman amoral creatures. A place of sirens and ogres, multicolored birds inging in crystal cages, rainbow bridges, goblin haunted fungus forests, lush jungles under strange stars inhabited by lamias, manticoras and cannibals, headless horsemen, talking animals, ever changing landscapes where time flows in strage ways. Some of the "demons" summoned to our world, are, in fact, Fey creatures, especially if they are summoned through High Magic, the magic that draws its power from the Feywild.

4) The Elemental Fields ...

5) The Ultimate Abyss also known as the Chaos Realm, the Void, etc. ...

6) The Blessed Realms, The Land of Youth, here there is the Mighty Bastion of the Angels and the Houses of the Virtues.

(to be continued)

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Originally Posted by smiorgan

I freely use rules stuff from various BRP sources, most of this stuff will be in Advanced Sorcery. But note that I also plan to use:

- The Big Gold Book (for the Magic rules, in particular)
- The Chronicles of Future Earth (for additional demon powers and sorcery spells)
- RQ3 Creatures (for additional tiny bits that are not in MW)
- Corum (for Chaos Magic and Chaos creature magic)
- Maybe CoC Dark Ages (for additional sorcery spells)

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If you decide that you want to add Familiars in addition to the Sorcerer's Staff, I suggest snagging the cat write up from whatever Dreamlands book it is in.

Once again, poor keetoms are shafted while dogs get all the glory.

Interestingly, I think the Toad and the Hawk write up mention using them as familiars.

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Originally Posted by Chaot

If you decide that you want to add Familiars in addition to the Sorcerer's Staff, I suggest snagging the cat write up from whatever Dreamlands book it is in.

Once again, poor keetoms are shafted while dogs get all the glory.

Interestingly, I think the Toad and the Hawk write up mention using them as familiars.

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Yes! the familiars from BGB have to be in. And Dreamlands can come in handy, for the cats, but also for Fey creatures.

CASTING MAGIC
I like the spellcasting requirement option on page 97. There is no POW requirement for casting magic. Sorcery is a Knowledge skill with 0% base chance. Additionally, all summoning spells require the skill Craft Art (Appropriate summoning ritual) - see Chronicles of Future Earth. Magic spells are each its own skill as in the BGB.

MAGIC AND THE SPIRIT PLANE

Summoning and binding entities from the Spirit Plane is traditionally the province of shamans like those of the Stagali riders or of the orc tribes. Yet, more learned sorcerers and wizards do not disdain the power that comes from the plane bordering our reality.

Using the various SUMMON SPIRIT spells various kinds of spirits can be lured from the immaterial plane.

SUMMONING NEW SPIRITS: To those described in the MW corebook 'Magic Spirits' and 'Spell Spirits' are added from RQ3 Creatures book. 'Magic Spirits' may contain either Sorcery spells or Magic spells. 'Spell Spirits' contain a single Sorcery spell. Illiterate shamans from primitive people do not own grimoires but can learn new sorcery spells from spirits. Magic Spirits cast magic on their own and are appreciated by all kinds of spellcaster.

INCORPOREAL MINOR DEMONS roam the Spirit Plane and can be summoned with the 'Summon Demon' spell. These are the remains of entities that were once more complete, the shadows of other planes, the pale reflection of powers dreamed of, creatures whose body was once destroyed and now are floating full of scorn in a sea of nothingness. They are all too willing to be lured to the world. These minor demons only have INT and POW, they can have any demon power that does not require other characteristics. Summoning only takes 1 hour.

They can be commanded with the Command Demon spell (see Chronicles of Future Earth) or bound into objects. They long for a body, and would gladly possess that of the caster if given a chance!

(to be continued)

Nice! This is cool stuff. Any reason why you're using Craft instead of Art for the Suummoning spells?

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Originally Posted by smiorgan

And Dreamlands can come in handy, for the cats, but also for Fey creatures.

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Plus the best Goblin write up ever.

And agreed. Some great stuff here in this thread.

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Originally Posted by zomben

Nice! This is cool stuff. Any reason why you're using Craft instead of Art for the Suummoning spells?

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Thanks!

No, I do not have any particular reasons for the skill choice. In BRP 'Future Earth' it was Perform (Summoning Ritual). Converting to MW I was exitating between Art and Craft.
Maybe craft makes sense if we imagine that the ritual involves preparing a binding seal? But, no... 'Art' would be fine with me.

Since you're allowing anyone access to Sorcery, maybe both? They have to use Craft to build the summoning "device" and then Art to perform the ritual. This way, there's no POW-requirement, but its not super-easy to become a powerful sorcerer. It takes time and dedication.

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Originally Posted by zomben

Since you're allowing anyone access to Sorcery, maybe both? They have to use Craft to build the summoning "device" and then Art to perform the ritual. This way, there's no POW-requirement, but its not super-easy to become a powerful sorcerer. It takes time and dedication.

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Good idea. I like to have a clear trade-off between being a powerful sorcerer and excelling in other skills - at least at character generation when you have to allocate your skill points.

Also, it's a nifty way to make Power less of an uberstat. Now I'm wondering what Sorcery would look like if there was one skill to cover Sorcery spells and an Arts and a Craft skill to cover Summonings.

Another stat that needs deflated is Siz, which is why I houserule Damage Bonus into two categories; Brawn and Finesse. Brawn is Str+Siz and covers big heavy weapons and Finesse is Str+Dex and covers smaller, lighter weapons.

If you want to add a saint worship or polytheistic vibe I recommend taking a look at the Virtues system in Gods of Law. Also, though Classic Fantasy is a great book in it's own right, it is worth it's weight in gold for the way that it expanded the BGB's Magic system. Worth taking a look at, definitely.

Anyway, I'm enjoying this thread and I do hope that you continue to update it as you further design your Southern Reaches!