WOIN New to O.L.D. and Magic Questions

[AiurWarrior1]

Hi all! So I've been GMing for some time now, and am finally making the switch away from 5e to OLD. I've used other games with a similar attribute+skill system, so for the most part it looks familiar. But I'm wondering what advice y'all would have for fine-tuning my magic.

I'm currently looking at using both the Fatigue and Subtle Magic variants, since I want my magic to feel very unexplored and dangerous. Of course, I plan on adding a number of ways to reduce spell costs; I like the casting time cost reductions and the stored MP in implements, and I was also thinking of having ways to pre-cast spells into certain implements during downtime. But even with those, is combining the Fatigue and Subtle Magic going to make magic too costly to be worthwhile?

Also, all spells do require a roll to succeed, correct? Either roll over the 10+MP spent, or roll vs your target. So spells can easily fail, but has anyone ever tinkered with spell misfires/backfires?

Thanks in advance,
AiurWarrior1

 

[Morrus]

Also, all spells do require a roll to succeed, correct? Either roll over the 10+MP spent, or roll vs your target. So spells can easily fail, but has anyone ever tinkered with spell misfires/backfires?

What sort of mechanic did you have in mind?

 

[AiurWarrior1]

What sort of mechanic did you have in mind?

I was thinking that if a spell roll fails, roll your MAG against a set difficulty, and if it fails then a Bad Thing or Weird Thing happens. I've seen "spell goes off on a random target" or "spell goes off centered on caster" in a few instances, but perhaps something akin to the wild magic surge in 5e.

Also, it's super cool to get a response from the author of the system!

 

[Morrus]

I was thinking that if a spell roll fails, roll your MAG against a set difficulty, and if it fails then a Bad Thing or Weird Thing happens. I've seen "spell goes off on a random target" or "spell goes off centered on caster" in a few instances, but perhaps something akin to the wild magic surge in 5e.

I dunno... I'd have to try it but I feel like that would be too harsh. It would be funny the first few times, but it would be happening a lot!

 

[AiurWarrior1]

I dunno... I'd have to try it but I feel like that would be too harsh. It would be funny the first few times, but it would be happening a lot!

Gotcha. Yeah, if it were a different system, I'd have it key off of critical failures, but there's not really an equivalent from what I've read.

What about the combination of Fatigue and Subtle Magic? Is that too harsh?

I'm mostly just trying to capture a sense of magic being sometimes unstable and unpredictable.

 

[Morrus]

Gotcha. Yeah, if it were a different system, I'd have it key off of critical failures, but there's not really an equivalent from what I've read.

What about the combination of Fatigue and Subtle Magic? Is that too harsh?

I'm mostly just trying to capture a sense of magic being sometimes unstable and unpredictable.

For a critical failure, I've sometimes used half or more of your dice being 1s. You can't use 3 dice, as while that rewards big dice pools with more critical successes, it punishes them with more critical failures. But half or more as 1s works OK.

 

[MacD]

Gotcha. Yeah, if it were a different system, I'd have it key off of critical failures, but there's not really an equivalent from what I've read.

What about the combination of Fatigue and Subtle Magic? Is that too harsh?

I'm mostly just trying to capture a sense of magic being sometimes unstable and unpredictable.

Hi there,
I don't think I'd enjoy OLD with subtle ans fatique magic; it greatly reduces the mage's capability. Magic starts very weak if you don't play an full mage elf and mp are rare if your players don't get implements at shops.

For a spell failure feature I'd combine your idea with a activation gap - if a caster rolls less than 5+mp, it's a speöl failure, for example.

If you use fatique and subtle magic they won't caster that often anyways.

 

[AiurWarrior1]

Hi there,
I don't think I'd enjoy OLD with subtle ans fatique magic; it greatly reduces the mage's capability. Magic starts very weak if you don't play an full mage elf and mp are rare if your players don't get implements at shops.

For a spell failure feature I'd combine your idea with a activation gap - if a caster rolls less than 5+mp, it's a speöl failure, for example.

If you use fatique and subtle magic they won't caster that often anyways.

Yeah, I was suspecting that, but I don't have a firm grasp on how many MPs an average character will have yet. I've been building test characters to try and suss-out what averages to expect. Maybe I'll start with just the fatigue and see how that feels.

I like having the simplicity of an activation gap, gives me a static number I can adjust. I think I'll steal that.

 

[MacD]

Yeah, I was suspecting that, but I don't have a firm grasp on how many MPs an average character will have yet. I've been building test characters to try and suss-out what averages to expect. Maybe I'll start with just the fatigue and see how that feels.

I like having the simplicity of an activation gap, gives me a static number I can adjust. I think I'll steal that.

MP are MAG x 3 - until a character gets thatone exploit that will add some (2?)d6 mp.

Starting chars get up to 8 MAG (elves start with MAG 3 + up to 5 MAG from careers); so maximum character MP should be 24.
Additionally there are exploits that mimik magic spells without MP cost.

You should restrict the combination of fire mage and battle mage - AOE - exploits + automatic burning condition is a pain for every fight.

If I ever get the chance to play WOIN I'd build a mage - archer - you can use arrows to transfer spells