Thread: [BRP/Magic World] Advanced Sorcery announced!

And, in further exciting news, I just got clearance from Richard Watts to use his magic stuff (spells, demon abilities) from Gods of Law/Chaos as well!

So, all the spells which he and Charles Green cooked up for those two monographs will now be appearing in the Advanced Sorcery supplement, as the titular chapter. Their Demon abilities will be plopped seamlessly into the Demons chapter of the same book.

Yay!

Hi Ben,
Could I have some broad description of how the freeborn magic works in Advanced Sorcery?

Ta

Sure!

Your mage is trained in a selection of "Spheres" and "Elements". Specifically:


THE SPHERES OF INFLUENCE:
EARTH: The first of the elements. This Sphere includes all minerals and metals, be they base or precious, solid or liquid.
FLORA: The spawn of Earth. This Sphere includes all vegetation, from the lowliest fungi to the greatest of trees.
FAUNA: All beasts of subhuman intelligence, including insects, fish, birds and reptiles.
WATER: The second element, including all liquids composed mainly of water or which rely on it for their composition: lakes, rivers, streams, the sea, the rain, wine, milk and dew.
SPIRIT: The Sphere of the senses: Sight, sound, taste, smell and hearing. This Sphere also governs the soul, the base from which all senses are judged to have emerged from to summon forth the inhabitants of other planes.
FIRE: The third element. This Sphere governs all aspects of fire: smoke, heat, and flames. It also covers the associated elements of light and darkness.
FLESH: The Sphere of Man. This Sphere covers all aspects of human intelligence and physical being. Anything that directly affects the flesh and intelli5ence of humans is the province of this Sphere.
AIR: The fourth element. Air governs the movement of the winds, the hurricanes and the tornadoes—elements which have the capability to soothe or to destroy.

THE RUNES OF POWER
INHIBITION: This enables the stopping and prevention of things.
DIMINUTION: The Diminution rune effects the reduction of things in size, shape, mass and density.
SUMMONING: The rune of Summoning allows the mind of a sorcerer to enter into the realms that are unseen and untouchable by ordinary people: it allows the sorcerer to draw forth otherworldly entities.
CREATION: The Creation rune governs the making of things from raw materials and. in some cases, the making of things where no raw materials are available.
DIRECTION: This rune masters the movement and redirection of things, either up, down, side to side or in any permutation possible within the limits of earthly physics.
ENHANCEMENT: The rune of Enhancement is the opposite of Diminution and promotes the growth or acceleration of things.
DISMISSAL: The opposite rune to Summoning. This power allows a sorcerer to dismiss from this world creatures that may have come from others.
TRANSMUTATION: The Transmutation rune allows for the changing of one thing into another-& it water into ice or steam, or flesh into stone or metal. This is the rune of ultimate Chaos and as such is the most difficult rune to master.

You combine a Sphere with a Rune, and then decide what the effect is. Perhaps you want to create "magic beans" ala Jack and the Beanstalk. Mix "Flora" with "Enhancement" and you're all set. Want to make a spring bubble up and provide refreshing clean water for your group? "Water" + "Creation" and you're set.

There's a Magic Point cost associated with whatever you're trying to do. This is based on how 'big' an effect you want to get, with a bit of Player/GM negotiation to be had, as well.

Okydoky...so it is like Ars Magica in it's approach. Good news!

A few suggestions then, (if you are still open to them!):

- Is there scope for a including a sidebar that suggests making up your own 'Spheres'? I say this, because in the Mage; The Ascension Storyteller's Guide there was scope for it (eventually- it wasn't an early release). The major thing is that having Greek Elements and the like very much sets the paradigm up as being medieval in effect. If you were doing a modern setting, having Spheres like Matter, Forces, Life, Time and Space and so on seem more applicable to our contemporary sensibilities about how the Universe works. I'm not suggesting changing the core ones, just make doing your own an option, to suit whatever symbolical aspects of the paradigm you are trying to evoke).

- I'm not sure about the universality of the combinations on offer. How would you speed up Time, for example? Or scry on somebody far away? Ars Magica divides it's 'Verb and Nouns' into 10 Forms (similar to your 8, although you've merged Mentem into other categories and ditched Vim). It's 5 Techniques (Perdo- 'I destroy', Creo- 'I create', Muto - 'I change', Regio - 'I control, Intelligo - 'I perceive'). That is pretty universal in application. You've gone with 8 (symbolically?), which is fine, but some seem more narrow than others, and the borders between some are a bit fuzzy. What about Divination as a category?

- Nomenclature. Making the terms as evocative as they can be gives a lot of flavor to systems like these. Ars Magica used Latin terminology, as an example. That certainly sounds more interesting than 'Diminish' and so on. Using Latin terms isn't necessarily sthe way to go (again, it fixes it towards a particular paradigm), but having a run through the names to come up with he best possible names might be an idea.

Hope this is taken as positive feedback..I might type out a few alternatives to show what I mean later (if I have time!).

Originally Posted by TrippyHippy

Okydoky...so it is like Ars Magica in it's approach. Good news!

A few suggestions then, (if you are still open to them!): ...snip...

Hope this is taken as positive feedback..I might type out a few alternatives to show what I mean later (if I have time!).

I'm not sure about any of the enhancements you are asking about, but there is some difference to ArsMagica. The Spheres and Rune system, as listed, is essentially a modified version of Loz' magic system that appeared in Unknown East. Something like what your after may have been added, but based on Zomben's post above, it doesn't look like it.

As far as other settings such as Modern Fantasy, sounds like John Snead's Enlightened Magic might be the ticket.

But, hell. This is BRP. Mixing and matched and general bodging should not be that difficult.

SDLeary

Yeah, thanks for the suggestions, and neat ideas, but the book's out of my hands at this point.

Originally Posted by SDLeary

I'm not sure about any of the enhancements you are asking about, but there is some difference to ArsMagica. The Spheres and Rune system, as listed, is essentially a modified version of Loz' magic system that appeared in Unknown East. Something like what your after may have been added, but based on Zomben's post above, it doesn't look like it.

As far as other settings such as Modern Fantasy, sounds like John Snead's Enlightened Magic might be the ticket.

But, hell. This is BRP. Mixing and matched and general bodging should not be that difficult.

SDLeary

I will likely buy Enlightened Magic also, and I am aware of it, but it presents a different take on magic - essentially building in classical occult aspects, rather than focussing on free-form abilities.

The source of the system above I'm sure is as you say, although the similarities as such, give an indication that Laurence must have been influenced in part at least by the Ars magica system. So was Mage, and indeed a bunch of magic systems written in the 1990s. There is certainly a common meme.

The 'enhancements' I'm suggesting (if anyone likes to call them that!), really are just about dealing with likely interpretation issues that will be presented by typical game groups and players, while also just being interested in presenting the ideas with evocative descriptions. The latter can be handled personally, while it's always worth considering the former before publication I feel.

Actually some of these concepts first appeared in an RPG back in 1977 with Chivalry and Sorcery.

Man, Magic World and Advanced Sorcery really need to come out, like, yesterday! I want this game now.

Also need to dig up those house rules for loz's magic system. They went a long way in refining it.

How do you think I feel?!?!?