Sniperfox47' and HunterWolf's Variants for WOiN

[Sniperfox47]

A lot of rpgs have books full of rule variants so I thought I'd post a few that have worked for our group. I'll be putting any new variant rules, traditions, and races that we make in this thread.

Licenses will be drawn up for all these pending further development in the game.

Items prefixed with *OGC* would be required by the OGL to be released as open game content and therefore should be treated as if lisenced under said liscense. That is of course assuming the book does eventually get licensed under the OGL.

For now all other content is released free-of-charge for personal private use. Please do not copy or redistribute without permission. (Bla bla bla... Usual legal mumbo jumbo)

Rule Variants:

1) Partial Lists
Rather than learning full spell lists you learn either a target or effect. You may use any spell list for which you have both the target and the affect.

Pros: adds a bit more diversity to spellcasters. It also makes spell lists like weave -ones that need multiple spell lists to be useful- a bit less costly to attain.

Cons: does give a little bit more power to spellcasters. Its not a lot, but may hurt balance.

2) *OGC* volatile and stable weather
Rather than rolling 2 dice for weather roll a different number. Divide the result by the number of dice and times by 2 and divide by the number of die (rounding to the nearest whole number). Rolling less die makes extreme weather more common while rolling more makes it more rare.
[EDIT] multiplying first makes the math slightly easier.

Pros: gives weather options for different settings without needing whole new tables

Cons: calculations are a bit more complicated.

3) ritual casting
In place of innate arcane power, it's possible to substitute an external source of power for spells. In this case the caster must make an INT check as if casting the spell from a spell book, but pays the MP cost with a ritual. The ritual may be anything from sacrificing herbs/alchemy components with an MP value high enough, or performing a ritual sacrifice in a place infused with dark energies, to a ranger attuning themselves to the power of nature. Whether the specific ritual works is up to the DM's discretion.

Pros: gives ways for nonspellcasters to cast spells in settings where magic needs a special spark

Cons: gives ways for nonspellcasters to cast spells in settings where magic needs a special spark

4) mathematically balanced linear progression experience costs
This one probably won't be very popular and the experience system is likely to change again in the future so I won't put it up yet. Its something that drives my OCD crazy though xD

Pros: doing A then B would be the same as doing B then A. Symmetry.

Cons: people don't seem to like that from other threads I've mentioned it in...


Combat Tricks:

1) Magic Circles 250 XP
-MAG 5+; INT 5+
-2 Dice

Multiple people with circle magic can work together to cast spells in a magic circle.
One caster acts as the primary caster. They cast the spell, pay the MP and determine all the characteristics of the spell.

All other casters who contribute to the spell may add up to one effect from below:
-change the target type of a spell list to that of a spell list they know
-change the affect type of a spell list to that of a spell list they know
-add a new spell list to the spell
-contribute up to their MAG in MP to the spell
-increase the spells MP cap by their MAG/3. This cap increase also raises the MP limit of one spell list.
-add MAG/3 attack dice.
-other effects at the DM's discretion.

The casting time for a spell cast with circle magic goes up based on the number of casters contributing. Its casting time is equal to the normal casting time of the spell times 2^the number of extra casters.

Pros: allows mages to work together to create super powerful spells

Cons: may not fit well with some settings and may not be balanced currently.

 

[Morrus]

Your partial lists idea is how it started. Didn't quite work, as there were always a bunch of really off-theme lists folks could form. Stuff like a good cleric being able to summon devils because he took the lists needed to protect from devils and to summon angels. In the end, the partial lists got phased out because there was no good non-clumsy workaround which didn't involve long lists of exceptions.

The weather dice are being adjusted a bit to make extreme weather rare.

 

[Sniperfox47]

Didn't quite work, as there were always a bunch of really off-theme lists folks could form.

That's the thing about variant rules though, they may not be what works for all people but they do work with some. All of the stuff I'll be posting in this thread are variants we've already tried with our group and that have worked well for us.

Specifically about the partial lists, you're right about it not making a good primary rule because of that, but for our group personally it didn't matter because people just didn't *use* those lists, whether they had them available or not, since they didn't fit the character.

 

[Morrus]

That's the thing about variant rules though, they may not be what works for all people but they do work with some. All of the stuff I'll be posting in this thread are variants we've already tried with our group and that have worked well for us.

Specifically about the partial lists, you're right about it not making a good primary rule because of that, but for our group personally it didn't matter because people just didn't *use* those lists, whether they had them available or not, since they didn't fit the character.

You can do anything you like - your game! I just figured you might be interested in the reason why the rules didn't stick with partial lists.

 

[Sniperfox47]

Yeah, I kinda figured it was something to that affect, and I agree, its a good choice especially for a rule-heavy RPG and especially since not all groups and DM's work well together.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

3) ritual casting
In place of innate arcane power, it's possible to substitute an external source of power for spells. In this case the caster must make an INT check as if casting the spell from a spell book, but pays the MP cost with a ritual. The ritual may be anything from sacrificing herbs/alchemy components with an MP value high enough, or performing a ritual sacrifice in a place infused with dark energies, to a ranger attuning themselves to the power of nature. Whether the specific ritual works is up to the DM's discretion.

Pros: gives ways for nonspellcasters to cast spells in settings where magic needs a special spark

Cons: gives ways for nonspellcasters to cast spells in settings where magic needs a special spark
<SNIP>
Combat Tricks:

1) Magic Circles 250 XP
-MAG 5+; INT 5+
-2 Dice

Multiple people with circle magic can work together to cast spells in a magic circle.
One caster acts as the primary caster. They cast the spell, pay the MP and determine all the characteristics of the spell.

All other casters who contribute to the spell may add up to one effect from below:
-change the target type of a spell list to that of a spell list they know
-change the affect type of a spell list to that of a spell list they know
-add a new spell list to the spell
-contribute up to their MAG in MP to the spell
-increase the spells MP cap by their MAG/3. This cap increase also raises the MP limit of one spell list.
-add MAG/3 attack dice.
-other effects at the DM's discretion.

The casting time for a spell cast with circle magic goes up based on the number of casters contributing. Its casting time is equal to the normal casting time of the spell times 2^the number of extra casters.

Pros: allows mages to work together to create super powerful spells

Cons: may not fit well with some settings and may not be balanced currently.

FYI, EOM:R for 3x has an expansion that deals with ritual casting. I don't know if you drew the above from that material.. but you came pretty close! The big difference is that EOM:R rituals are very time consuming.. measured in hours. The basic concept was that a lead caster could accumulate MP into a vessel until they built up enough to cast the ritual spell. Secondary casters could add MP into the ritual, but at a 2:1 trade in. I don't have my pdf with me right now, but it is an excellent expansion on the magic rules and nicely set up the iconic plot of having to interrupt a massive evil ritual before it gets completed
Your 'Magic Circle' combat trick might be the way to do this in OLD.

As a GM, your idea of ritual magic I would not use. Instead I would have one-use magic items that have to have a ritual performed to activate them. That way the non-spellcaster still gets to play with the arcane and magic has a 'special spark', but the control is firmly within the GM's grasp {and built into the plot}

 

[Sniperfox47]

No, I haven't read the original EoM source (I keep meaning to), I completely blackboxed it. I'll have to compare and contrast when I read it.

The main idea behind this was more from a DM's perspective to either justify things the NPCs are doing, or as a way to let a party of nonmagical adventurers access magic. Stuff like that should be in the hands of the DM of course, as always.