Magic: The Science and Art of Causing Change
Written by Keith Taylor
Published by 93 Games Studio
27 page PDF document
Many gamers are not and have never been satified with the traditional 'Vancian' fire-and-forget magic system that Dungeons and Dragons and many of it's D20 daughters use. Especially when its comes to 'real world' magic or 'low' magic campaigns, the standard SRD spellcasting methods and spell effects just simply don't fit quite right.
The goal of Magic: The Science and Art of Change is to provide an alternate spellcasting method for D20 games. One that better emulates real world magical traditions and legends. These rules also make an attempt to provide a more flexible, but at the same time, more demanding method of spellcasting.
These rules are based primarily on the D20 Modern SRD, and as such, can easily be incorporated to practically any D20 game.
LAYOUT
The layout is clean and clear. Straightforward typefaces, and simple formatting makes it easy to read, even from a computer screen. Minimal color, and no textures, except for the title page, adds to the ease of printing.
The illustrations are sparse and appear to be mostly greyscale images of classical paintings, woodcuts and occult symbols. The illustrations do, however, set the proper tone and never take up more space than needed. This document, on the whole, is more functional than pretty.
Interspersed throughout are several text boxes giving advice, tips and clarifications on how to use the rules and incorporate them into your game.
There were no glaring editorial mistakes. I only noticed a few minor typoes during a modestly thorough read-through. That's good enough for me.
THE THEORY
Magic: The Science and Art of Causing Change begins with several pages discussing the basic ideas behind changing reality through sheer force of Will. Because, in the end, this is what magic boils down to. Just how real is reality? And once a character realizes that, what can he do about it?
The entire section is very important to the overall rules, as it sets the tone and proper point of view. These rules don't have to be used strictly as Magic... They can as easily be used as a substitute for Psionics, The Force, Wire-fu, or Superheroic Powers. It is a very versatile system.
RITUALS
With the foundation laid, Mr. Taylor then delves straight into the meat of the rules: How to cast and create rituals. Rituals being, of course, just another name for spells.
The basic idea behind the mechanic is pretty simple. The character chooses the Casting Time, Range, Target, Area, Duration, Saving Throw and Effect of ritual from a set of tables provided therein. Each selection has an associated DC modifier, and these modifiers are added (or subtracted) together to provide a final DC for the ritual. The character must then successfully make one or more skill checks to complete the ritual, after which the desired effect takes place. In addition, the caster takes hit point damage, with respect to the power of the spell, regardless of the success or failure of the casting.
The tables provided are extensive, though nto all-inclusive, as the author himself admits. They do provide all the most commonly used effects, and any other the GM or player wishes to add can be easily extrapolated. The DCs themselves can also be easily adjusted up or down to make for a more or less magically powerful game.
ADVANCED CHARACTER CLASS: THE MAGICIAN
I am not intimately familiar with the D20 Modern rules. Even though I own the rulebook, I have not had much chance to actually play the game.
This advanced class, as far as I can tell, is roughly balanced with those of the D20 Modern rulebook. It is designed to replace the Acolyte and Mage advanced classes should you be using the ritual magic system. It provides for magic specialties, cooperative casting and crafting magic items.
At first glance, however, this class would not be suitable for use as a prestige class for most other D20 games.
EXAMPLES OF MAGICAL STYLES
Next there is a short section giving a few examples of 'real' world magic styles such as Wiccan and Hermetic. There's nothing extraordinary here, just a few quick blurbs summarizing the style's philosophy, and suggestions for magical limitiations (see below).
FEATS
About a half dozen feats are included. They are all appropriately balanced and useful, but there is nothing exceptional here... Except perhaps for the Siphon feat, which allows a spellcaster to use someone else's hitpoints (either voluntarily or not) to fuel a ritual.
LIMITATIONS
Limitations are self-imposed restrictions on how a magician casts a ritual. Each limitation provides a bonus to the skill check when performing a ritual, but each tends to make it more logistically difficult to casta spell without a particular 'crutch'. The Benevolence limitation, for example, forbids the caster from using any harmful magic, Magicians with the Spellbook limitation must keep and use a spellbook in a manner similar to D&D wizards, and the Sacrifice limitation demands the destruction of some material object to successfully complete a ritual.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
A long list of websites are provided for research when creating 'real' world magical organizations or adventures.
NEW RITUALS
A handful of original rituals are included, including Joy Buzzer, which delivers a mild electrical shock, and Conjure Dagger, which creates a small knife out of nothing. None of these rituals are ground breaking, but all are suitable for use as normal spells in any D&D or D20 game.
CONVERTED RITUALS
This section is a longer list of D20 (Modern versions) spells converted to rituals. Each conversion is broken down piece by piece, with a total DC provided for each. There is also a link to the 93 Games Studio website, where additional conversions can be found. Looking through these conversions gives a quick and intuitive feel for how the ritual construction process works. Assuming you know what you wnat a ritual to do, it should not take more than a few moments (minutes at most) to calculate the DC to cast it.
BE AWARE: The resulting DCs for many of these rituals admittedly does not necessarily correlate to the respective spell levels in the PHB or D20 Modern rulebook. Some, like Magic Missile and True Strike, are much more diffucult to cast than their D&D counterparts, while others, like Darkvision and Levitate, are much easier.
TEMPLATES
These templates are not the usual monster-enhancing templates, but rather partially constructed spells using the most common combinations of range, target, duration and area of effect, that can be quickly modified into a spell. Simply add an effect, and you have a complete spell.
I'd strongly recommend using some form of template, or pre-built spells for the most commonly used spells. Outside of combat, taking a minute or two to customize a new spell normally isn't a problem, but doing that for every spell during a combat will greatly slow down the gameplay.
QUICK REFERENCE
One handy-dandy page with all the options and modifiers you need to build a ritual. This is an often forgotten feature, and I'm glad it was included.
As a bonus, the document also includes an Excell spreadsheet file to assist in designing rituals and calculating their DCs.
SUMMARY
Magic: The Science and Art of Causing Change is a solid, well designed piece of work. It will be useful to any D20 player or GM looking for an alternate skill-based 'magic' system, though some aspects may need slight adjustments to fit a non-D20 Modern game.
The system is easy and intuitive to use. Its versatility is its greatest strength. It allows less powerful spellcasters to use high-powered effects at the cost of casting time or duration, while allowing more powerful spellcasters to conserve their magical abilities, when the situation doesn't require full firepower. The system, however, is no less complicated than the traditional D&D system, only differnt. So some advanced preparation will almost certainly be required to keep gameplay, especially combats, from slowing down.
