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Wealding magic


Trifletraxor

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Thanks! :) Are there any glaring mistakes, problems, or little preferences you would like to see changed? I am certainly open for suggestions or other ideas. Wealdling magic was designed for the Green, but may port to other settings rather simply.

I went with Sorcery rather than magic because the spells seemed a little more friendly to what I had in mind. I alway kind of liked Rq II battlemagic anyway. (For some reason it seems strange to me that BRP called Sorcery "Sorcery", and Magic "Magic" and not the other way around if you get my meaning).

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I have been agonizing over a magic system and how it is going to play out. I would very much appreciate any advice, comments or help from more experienced BRPers. So far I was going to have magic based on Runic or totemic realms. Each rune would have a number of spells available within its sphere of influence. Characters could attune themselves to a rune at the cost of a Pow and learn spells from a order or cult that specialized in that particular rune. Where I am having trouble is how the magic system would work from there. The basic options I am messing with are:

1: Sorcery pretty much as written in Brp. Spells are simply learned and then cast with no skill. This is how I already wrote up Totemists and practitioners of the Wealding Rune. This option certainly make the game simple, is easy to write up, and is great for introducing people to the game, and for one or two session adventures.

2: The other option I have been playing with is to attach a skill to each rune or rune realm (roughly 4-10 spells). All spells identified with that particular rune would be cast on the same skill. This could allow for a great deal of other ideas and flavors to be infused into the magic system including bonuses for staffs, components(these could be important to the Green) and other items incorporated from the game world itself making magic as well as the game world more colorful. With all the added details come the price of complication though. I believe this route would be more viable to longer campaigns were characters could grow or develop their skills.

3: another option might be to cast each spell at Pow x5 like the old spirit magic. This would incorporate a little of both worlds. (Possibly Pow x3 naturally, but Pow X5 if they had their components or staff with them).

Any advice?

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It depends what you want to achieve.

Do you want Wealding Magic to change to conform to a particular spell system or do you want the spell system to mimic Wealding Magic?

What I would do is to decide how you would like Weadling Magic to appear in the green, what effects you want it to have and who would be able to cast it.

Then decide on what spell system best allows you to do this.

If you want people of the Cat totem to be able to cast cat-like spells but not to be able to cast other magic then link spells to totems and give a cast chance based on the totem, so people with the Cat Totem have a skill Perform Cat Totem Magic and can cast cat totem spells but can't cast Rat Totem spells.

If you want someone to be able to cast some spells from the Cat totem. some from the Rat totem then give each spell a cast chance and let people learn spells individually.

If you want some people to be able to cast spells of a certain type, for instance Fire-based magic from the Volcano-dwellers, then give them special rules for casting their own spells.

I wouldn't make it too complicated, though, and I'd make the spells pretty much equally as powerful or use the same sort of mechanics otherwise you'll have over-complex rules for a simple setting. But, perhaps that is what you want - a setting where different cultures have vastly different spells.

What I wouldn't do is to use the BRP spells straight from the book. From what I have seen the BRP system has a very limited and not particularly defined magic system. That's fine for what it is as different settings would require different magic systems and a generic rules system shouldn't have all the different types of magic - that's what supplements are for.

But, I wouldn't be afraid of defining my own magic system for the Green, if that's what you want to do.

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It depends what you want to achieve.

A really cool, characterful, detailed magic system that is simple to use. :D

If you want people of the Cat totem to be able to cast cat-like spells but not to be able to cast other magic then link spells to totems and give a cast chance based on the totem, so people with the Cat Totem have a skill Perform Cat Totem Magic and can cast cat totem spells but can't cast Rat Totem spells.

and

If you want some people to be able to cast spells of a certain type, for instance Fire-based magic from the Volcano-dwellers, then give them special rules for casting their own spells.

These are along the lines I was thinking.

Although some cults may teach more than one type of magic; for instance the Volcano-dwellers may have two realms/runes: fire and earth each one learned separately and having a separate skill.

Definitely not....

If you want someone to be able to cast some spells from the Cat totem. some from the Rat totem then give each spell a cast chance and let people learn spells individually.

.....which is more along the lines of BRP magic.

The other option I was seriously considering was the RQII battle magic or BRP sorcery where there is no skill. The way I wanted to write it though only certain spells would be available based on the rune, school, or totem the character belonged to. This is how I wrote the Totemists and Wealding magic.

Hmmn? It is one of those things that as soon as I start writing I am going to second guess myself and find all sorts of reasons that I wrote it the other way. :ohwell:

I am starting to swing to the side of giving each totem, rune, realm a skill though. Skills should go up pretty quick with only having one skill for a bunch of spells and there are other things that can be done with this to give magic a little more flavor.

Thanks...always helpful to hear from you.:)

You may not find magic so bad... I was pleasantly surprised. It is pretty basic but plenty pliable..What is really nice is that I think RQ or II or III magic could both be used with the system without skipping a beat. :thumb:

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