Magic as Plot Device -- With Rules

[Raven Crowking]

When I was writing the Magic & Spellcasting chapter for RCFG, I came up with a few quick rules that might be of some use here. And, they are OGC, so you can make use of them if you want!

I'll cut & paste them when I get a chance.


RC

 

[mmadsen]

1) Unusual mishaps: All spell check failures have a chance of creating mishaps rather than failures. These mishaps do things other than just damage (though they can do that too). Spell failures due to disruption ought to be a bigger risk.

Unusual mishaps are fun.

When we look back at older editions, where a 1st-level magic-user has one spell, does that capture the feel of a sorcerer's apprentice? No, of course not. What makes a sorcerer's apprentice is that his spells never quite work as planned.

Sure, you can try that fireball spell from your master's spell book. It might not go exactly where you planned. It might not go off exactly when you planned either. It might not be as big as you planned either. Or as small. So maybe fireball isn't your go-to spell for a while. Maybe turning folks into toads is more your speed...

2) Terrain/Location related spell modifiers: Since 1st edition, its been a common assumption in my games that spells are inherently tied to the land, and that as a result some spells are harder or easier to cast in some places than others. Divine spells are easier in sacred spaces, and harder in profane ones. Certain places are particularly sacred to particular dieties, enhancing the divine magic of their priests and suppressing all others. A spell that conjures fire is harder if you are standing in the middle of a lake, the ocean, etc., than it is if you are standing in a volcano. Good luck conjuring water in said volcano or in the middle of a desert erg or a dry salt pan. And so forth.

The old modules often assumed something similar. Of course, the old-school game didn't pretend to present the rules for how magic worked in the game world, just some rules for how some magic worked.

3E went half-way, providing some specific spells for sacred and profane spaces, without implying something similar for other environments, something simply tied to their nature.

3) Anyone can potentially curse anyone or bring a curse down on themselves: Better watch your words. Evil spirits are lurking everywhere just waiting for an invitation to make the lives of others or your own life miserable. This is not a world where you want to scream, "Go to hell!" to one of your loved ones. Right now I'm using something similar to the Ravenloft curse system. What I'd love to have is a fairy tale style Blessing system, for the consequences of good words.

It seems almost wrong in D&D the first time you see it though, doesn't it? Anyone can curse someone? Anyone?

4) The World is Animistic: Everything has a spirit. Trees, animals, even big rocks, probably have some sort of spirit that you can wake up, talk to, and which, if you offend it, might wake up on its own and express its displeasure. If you are going to have to cut down a tree, it's a good idea to apologize for it and explain how you are going to treat its wood with honor and for a good purpose. If you are going to fireball a monster in the middle of the forest, you might want to think twice about it just because harming and offending the trees might be a worse problem than the threat of the monster.

This is one of the key distinctions between a magical world and a magic-as-science world. In a magical world, context is very, very important, because you're not dealing with the immutable Laws of Nature; you're dealing with Nature Spirits, who are capricious and spiteful.

5) Magic is not fully controllable: Ever since 1st edition, I've tried to avoid dropping swords +1 into the campaign. Most items are unique in some way or the other. A typical item in my 1st edition games might have been a +1 dagger that strikes as a short sword (weapon vs. AC modifiers), has a +5% chance of a critical hit, is +4 on item saving throws, and has some wierd flavor property (always warm to touch, for example), and casts some 1st level spell once per day. In 3e, taking a page from GURPs rules on creating power stones, I assume that all powerful magic items tend to acquire wierd unexpected quirks regardless of the creator's intent. Items tend to be just a little bit wierd and unexpected. If you create some item more powerful than a scroll or potion, don't be surprised if it has some minor but wierd unexpected property. If you were to create a really potent item, don't be surprised if it has alot of wierd quirks.

Yes, that is a wonderful element of GURPS' item-creation system to borrow: things generally go slightly wrong, so an item isn't exactly what its creator intended. That explains all the quirky items out there.

 

[Dausuul]

Celebrim, I like the cut of your jib.

More on the subject of hazards: After some thought, I believe that a well-designed hazard system would present the spellcaster with challenges rather than catastrophes; instead of "Your character will be afflicted with suck for X amount of time, and there's nothing you can do about it," make it, "Your character will be afflicted with suck until you accomplish X task."

The trick is to design challenges which don't require the DM to rearrange the plot of an adventure or make up a side quest.

For instance, a spell might unleash a demonic nemesis, which has a chance to show up and make the PC's life difficult during any given encounter. (There's a bit of metagame going on in the definition of "encounter" here, justified by the argument that the nemesis only intervenes at points where the PC is already engaged in important activities.) The nemesis continues to make trouble until the PC manages to kill or banish it.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Here is some open content from the RCFG Player's Guide:

Magic is a supernatural force that can change or defy the normal laws of physics within the campaign world.

Historically, magic was thought to follow “laws” of its own. The difference between the laws of physics and the “laws” of magic is that magical “laws” are only principles of correspondences – they can be violated at any time.

Magic can create situations that violate the rules, including the normal rules that magic operates by. Usually, these situations are the result of magic used long ago or by weird, non-human creatures, are the results of misunderstanding invocations, or are due to the influence of powerful supernatural creatures.

There are many who would like to claim that magic is simply a force, neither good nor evil, that is directed as the user desires. Those who have delved into the matter know that this is untrue.

In RCFG, magic is sentient in each of its uses. There is magic that desires to be used, and magic that desires to be forgotten. There are spells that, by their casting, further the aims of the Powers of Good, and others that further the aims of the Powers of Evil.

Not every supernatural effect is strong enough to register as magical. Many creatures may have supernatural abilities, including immunities to certain weapons, that are not strong enough to register as magical to a detect magic spell. Any spell-like ability, though, when invoked, can be detected, countered, and dispelled as though it were a spell.

Living Spells​

A living spell is aware of its own existence. It either wants to be cast, or resists being cast. Most living spells want to be cast.

Spells that Wish to be Cast

If a scroll containing a living spell is examined by someone capable of casting the spell, that being must make a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + spell level) or immediately cast the spell.

If the spell is being studied (such as from a spellbook) so as to be memorized, the character must make a Spellcraft check (DC 10 + spell level) or immediately cast the spell.

The character may still attempt to memorize the spell in another, unused, spell slot.

Spells that Resist Casting

If a character attempts to cast a living spell on a scroll, he must make a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + spell level) in order to cast the spell.

If the spell is memorized, the character must make a Spellcraft check (DC 10 + spell level) to cast the spell.

In all of these cases, the Spellcraft check uses a Reaction.​

Optional Rule: Spell Misfire

As an option, if a spellcaster struck in combat fails his Concentration check by 10 or more, the GM may rule that the spell was not completely lost – instead it misfired. The spell is still removed from the caster’s spell allotment, but it did something unexpected. Perhaps it targeted the wrong creature. Perhaps it had the opposite effect from what was expected – harming instead of healing, for instance.

If using this option, the GM or player should roll 1d6.

On a roll of “1”, the spell does something unexpected that greatly benefits the caster. For example, it might be cast as though the caster was twice his current level. A fireball might linger in the air, doing additional damage for 1d3 rounds.

On a roll of “2” or “3”, something happens that is neither helpful nor harmful to the caster. For example, grass might sprout from the ground, a second of bone-numbing (but non-damaging) cold might be felt by all, or tiny twinkling lights might appear in the area and remain there for years afterwards.

On a roll of “4” or “5”, something happens that might be harmful to all in the area. For example, twinkling lights appear that cause a –2 penalty for all attack rolls during the next 1d6 rounds, or a pink rhinoceros appears at a random location on the battlefield and attacks the closest creature each round for 1d6 rounds.

On a roll of “6”, something bad happens to the caster. This might mean that the spell targets him. It might mean that damage healed due to a healing spell is taken from his hit point total. The GM should be careful not to make this too damaging, but damaging enough that the die roll is dramatic!

Because of the extra work this option requires, and the extra risk to PC spellcasters, some groups might want to avoid this optional rule. For others, this option aids in keeping magic unpredictable.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Magical Areas

In addition to magical creatures and spells, there are areas and times in the material world that are magical due to the leakage of ley energy, connections to other worlds, or the pooling of magical residue. This includes the areas attuned to power sources, as described in the sorcerer class. Other magical areas include:

• Feyroads, Sideroads, and Fey Doorways: The material world is dotted with doorways that allow passage to feyroads and sideroads. These doorways are often marked in some way, although they are not always obvious. Doorways that lead to feyroads are used by the fey to travel to Faerie, while sideroads instantaneously connect two points of the material world. Doorways are guarded by powerful fey, and require their permission to use. If a doorway guardian is slain, the doorway closes forever.

• Gates to Other Places: These are doorways that allow instantaneous access from one location on the material world to another. They may or may not be guarded, but are not intrinsically linked to any guardians the way fey doorways are.

• Gates to Other Planes: Such a gate leads to another world, or to another plane of existence (potentially including celestial, elemental, and infernal planes). These gates usually work both ways, providing an easy access for
outsiders and planar energies to the material world.

• Holy Sites: These are sites made holy by their relationship to the actions of either a deity or his most prominent followers. Such a site may have special powers related to the deity or to the event that occurred there.

• Magical Energy Pools: A magical energy pool forms an area attuned to either a school of magic or a particular magical descriptor. Magical energy pools can be as small as a few feet in diameter or as large as several miles. These may affect spellcasting, or may simply affect the environment around them. For example, a necromantic energy pool might spontaneously generate undead, while a healing energy pool might increase the rate of natural healing, or even cause missing limbs to regenerate. There are usually clues as to the existence and nature of magical energy pools.

• Raw Energy Pool: A raw magical energy pool can be tapped into to cast spells without using the caster’s own energy. A raw energy pool has a Spell Level Rating (SLR). When a creature casts a spell within the pool, the spell is not lost from the caster’s mind, and does not use a spell slot. Instead, its level is subtracted from the pool’s SLR. Most pools have a very low SLR, which refreshes at a slow rate, such as a 10 SLR pool that refreshes at a rate of 1 spell level per week. If the SLR ever reaches 0, the pool dissipates, and does not refresh again.

• Other Attuned Areas: The GM may create any form of other attuned area he can imagine. A world might have areas with intense magnetic fields, rivers that flow unsupported through the air, and so on. The only limitations on what is possible are the imagination of the GM and the nature of the campaign world.

 

[mmadsen]

PC witches [in Buffy] can fight about as well as any other White Hat character, or distract the bad guys, assist the heroes, etc. It is not a difference between casting a spell or twiddling your thumbs.

Although I think the game should support the concept of a scholarly wizard who simply cannot fight, I do think the default adventuring wizard should be something much more like 3E's rogue or bard -- minus the lute. Many swords & sorcery villains are masters of traps and trickery, performing many of their "spells" with drugs and poisons. The canonical high-fantasy wizard, Gandalf, does more advising and inspiring than fireballing.

Speaking of Gandalf, the limits on his power seem to come down to (a) fatigue, as when battling the Balrog drains him, and the party has to go without his magical light as they flee, and (b) fear of detection, whether because his fireworks would be visible and obvious to avian spies, or because the Necromancer could detect his magic directly.

Many game systems model spellcasting as fatiguing, but not as many turn spellcasting into magical submarine warfare, where using magic gives up your position and strength.

 

[Pbartender]

Many game systems model spellcasting as fatiguing, but not as many turn spellcasting into magical submarine warfare, where using magic gives up your position and strength.

Now that's an interesting notion.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've done most of that kind of stuff in HERO.

USUALLY, I've done it for my PCs only, so its an integral part of my character concept. In those cases, my PC is one (if not the only) member of a secret society of mages, one of the few beings in the world who actually has the ability to manipulate magic at all. Others encountered over the course of the campaign will typically have different abilities and limitations- their magic is as different from mine as a Wizard's is from a Sha'ir, a Binder, or a Warlock.

When I've run Fantasy HERO campaigns, I come up with a few examples- including D&D emulation packages- and then basically point at my library of RPGs and say that if a player wants to emulate a spellcaster from another system (or come up with something new), I'll help them out.

As for the "submarine warfare" thing, my HERO campaigns ALWAYS include that in the form of auras. All things have auras, readable and alterable by those with the talent to do so, but not everyone does- not even every spellcaster has "Mage-sight."

But, correct me if I'm wrong, don't the various incarnations of Star Wars RPGs have just that kind of thing with Force users? Some kind of ability to sense "disturbances in the Force?"

 

[mmadsen]

But, correct me if I'm wrong, don't the various incarnations of Star Wars RPGs have just that kind of thing with Force users? Some kind of ability to sense "disturbances in the Force?"

I don't know how the various Star Wars RPGs handle sensing disturbances in the Force, but I always got the impression from the films that detecting that the Force was strong in someone was roughly as easy as noticing that they were actually using the Force -- unless they were actively and artfully hiding their strength, like Palpatine.