Subject: RQ Discussions 16 First Distribution: June 26, 1991 ====================================================================== From: Subject: Re: Finding Mass. RQ players I'm going to be relocating to the Boston area in the fall (specif- cly, Waltham, Mass) and aside from the weather & college basketball, (I'm currently in Durham, NC) the biggest adjustment may be finding good role- playing. (Well, maybe not the biggest...). Anyway, I'm looking for an RQ campaign that might be willing to take on another player. The campaign I've been in for these past three years (called the Free Sartar! campaign) is an RQ3 campaign set in Dragon Pass (mostly) ranging from 1610-1620. we've made the obligatory adjustments (made casting spirit magic a skill, the like) but I'd be happy to play in whatever variant people have going within reason. I like to think of myself as something of an accomplished role-player, but then again who doesn't. Still, if you might have an opening in the fall, drop me a line at George.Harris@bbs.oit.unc.edu & let's chat. "Everything that exceeds the consumer's requirements is held violently" -Thomas Aquinas George.Harris@bbs.oit.unc.edu Ge|ge [Incidentally, I've been gaming with George for 7 years or thereabouts, so I'll vouch for him being a reasonable gamer -- at the very least, our PCs are in love...] ====================================================================== [Note: Ken said he was still working on this, so I figured I'd put it in a discussion article for now so he can get some responses, and then when he's happier with it I'd put it in the full Digest.] From: Ken McKinney c/o mad@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Michael Derry) Subject: Alternative Sorcery Rules Subject: Variant RuneQuest sorcery system Keywords: RuneQuest Glorantha RQ I've worked up a variant sorcery system for my RuneQuest game, and decided I'd done enough on it to post it. I'd appreciate any comments anyone has, especially any suggestions for improvements. I've currently got 72 spells and expect to write about 70 or so more before I start playtesting it. My campaign will be set in Dragon Pass, with the players living in Black Horse Country under Sir Ethilrist. The game is RuneQuest 3; I'll probably start people with 8-10 years of previous experience. I'd also like to hear from anyone who's run a Gloranthan game which involved Sir Ethilrist. Anyway, here goes. Please excuse any formatting errors; I originally did this in MS Word on the Mac and had a hell of a time fixing things in VI on my UNIX system. Rune-Based Sorcery for RuneQuest copyright (c) 1991 by Ken McKinney Rune Based Sorcery is a variant set of sorcery rules for the RuneQuest fantasy roleplaying game. It is intended to completely replace the RuneQuest 3 sorcery rules, but does not affect the mechanics of the other magic systems. Rune Based Sorcery is inspired by the current crop of "advanced" magic systems in games like Ars Magica and Torg. When designing this system I set the following goals: 1. Sorcerers should be encouraged to specialize, as this will distinguish them from each other and make for more interesting characters. They should be able to cast more powerful spells more easily in an area of expertise. 2. Spontaneous magic (i.e. spells made up on the fly) should be possible, though often only at great personal risk. 3. Rare and mystical ingredients should aid in both the casting of spells and the creation of magical artifacts. 4. The existing hierarchy among sorcerers (student,apprentice,adept,magus) should be kept. There should be a new set of criteria for admission to each category. 5. There should be new rules for familiars, as well as innate magical shielding and magical dueling rules. Rune Based Sorcery Each rune in the Gloranthan cosmology is designated as either an empowering rune or a form rune. Empowering runes are like verbs. They define an action which your spell performs. Likewise form runes are like nouns, and define the recipient or scope of your action. Each combination of empowering runes and form runes defines a unique category of spells, and every spell fits into exactly one category. The Runic Skills Each Rune in Glorantha has an associated sorcery skill. The Runes which sorcerers have learned to use are listed below. All runic skills are magic skills with a base percentage of 00%, and can only be increased through training or research. Manipulation Runes These runes facilitate the manipulation of a spell's strength, duration, or range. They replace the skills of intensity, duration, and range. Manipulating a spell using the Chaos rune taints one with Chaos, so most sorcerers prefer to use the Law rune. Law and Chaos cannot be combined when manipulating spells; one must use one or the other. Some spells can only be cast using the chaos rune; these are spells which introduce chaos into Glorantha. Manipulation runes can increase the affect of a spell; this is specific to each spell and is included in the spell description. The duration and range of a spell can also be increased, at a cost of 2 Law/Chaos pointsper step. Duration and range increase according to the following progression. Duration: There are 9 duration steps. The first step is free on all spells. The cost to increase duration by additional increments varies by spell. 10 minutes 30 minutes 1 hour until Yelm rises or Sets until Godday until Truth week until Sacred Time until Caster's Death Forever Range: Range cost is fixed. 0 10 meters 2 50 meters 4 100 meters 6 500 meters 8 1 kilometer 10 5 kilometers 12 10 kilometers 14 50 kilometers 16 100 kilometers 18 500 kilometers 20 1000 kilometers 22 Anywhere in Glorantha LAW The Law rune is invoked by sorcerers who wish to manipulate their spells without violating the laws of Glorantha or the tenets of the Invisible God. Since Law is the underpinning of sorcery it can be used to augment or extend the effect of sorcery spells. Each point of Law can increase a spells range or duration by one step, or increase its effect as specified in the spell description. A sorcerer may put as many points of Law into a spell as his Law percentage divided by 5. CHAOS The Chaos rune can be used to augment or extend the effect of a sorcery spell through the warping effect of Chaos. Since Chaos can violate the physical laws of Glorantha, more powerful spell manipulations are possible than with Law. A sorcerer may put as many points of Chaos into a spell as twice his Chaos percentage divided by 5. However, use of Chaos is not without its price. If a spell manipulated with Chaos is not successfully cast for any reason, the caster must roll on the Spell Fumble Table. In addition, using the Chaos rune to manipulate a spell permanently taints the caster with Chaos. Example: Sliggoth the Necromancer, a broo sorcerer, has Chaos at 40%. He can put 16 points of Chaos into the spell (40/5 times 2), but must roll on the spell fumble chart if he misses his roll. Note that a 96-00 is always a miss, so casting spells using the chaos rune is inherently dangerous. Some spells also use Chaos as a form rune. Empowering Runes These runes define what a spell does. For example, a spell which creates something out of nothing and then causes that thing to do something it would not normally do requires the Infinity rune (for creation) and the Mastery rune (for control). The effects of the various empowering runes are listed below. INFINITY The Infinity rune allows the creation of something out of nothing. Spells which bring objects or elements into being from nothingness use this rune. DEATH The Rune of Destruction. Spells which wound or kill directly use this spell. The target of the spell doesn't have to be living for the rune to apply; a spell which caused a stone wall to crumble to dust would use Death and Earth. Conversely, a spell can kill without invoking Death. For example, a FireBolt spell Mastery (to direct the bolt to a target), and Fire (the Form to be manipulated). While death might be the result of the spell, it would be a secondary effect. As far as the spell is concerned, fire is being manipulated, and could just as easily be shot into a pond as directed towards a living target. MASTERY The Rune of Control. Spells which inhibit free will or cause an element to do something complicated or unnatural use the Mastery rune. A spell which let the caster direct the movements of a Troll like a marionette would use the Mastery rune, as well as the Man and Darkness runes (Trolls are tied to both the Man rune and the Darkness rune). A spell which called down Thunderbolts from stormclouds would use Mastery and Air. Spells which use Mastery cannot bring something new into existence; there is no single spell which, for example, summons up a ball of fire and hurls it at an enemy. A mage with no fire source would have to use an Infinity spell to create the fire, and then use a Mastery spell to direct it. TRUTH The Truth rune allows the perception of things. A spell which detected magic would use Truth and Magic. A spell which allowed one to see in darkness would use the Truth and Darkness runes. Note that the Truth rune will not create information out of thin air; you cannot design a spell to tell you the answer to a question that no one knows. Even the gods are limited to what they can perceive. ILLUSION The Illusion rune allows the user to alter or inhibit the perception of things. For example, a spell which made all of a person's speech incomprehensible would use the Illusion rune and the Man rune. Illusion can also be used to change the appearance of something. A man could be made to look like a troll, or a cow could be turned orange. Note that sorcery illusions, unlike divine magic illusions, aren't real or substantial, and cannot directly affect things in the real world. You can't be harmed by an illusory sword or fireball, but you might be tricked into walking over an illusory bridge. You can cause a person to experience illusory pain which may temporarily incapacitate them, but they take no damage. In general, Illusion spells should trick or deceive rather than directly harm. DISORDER The Disorder Rune changes things from one form to another. A spell which changes a man to a frog would use Disorder, Man, and Beast. A spell which changes lead to gold would use Disorder and Earth. All Disorder spells have limited durations unless made permanent through enchantment. If you change something into something unnatural to Glorantha (i.e. change a person into a gorp, or give a person an extra arm growing out of their forehead) you must use the Chaos rune to manipulate the spell. Form Runes These runes define the target or immediate effect of a spell. For Infinity rune spells they define the nature of the substance created. For mastery spells they define the target of the spell. Disorder rune spells (spells which alter or transform) require form runes for both the intended target of the spell and for the nature of the transformation, though these may be the same. A spell which transformed a man into a frog would need the Man rune and the Beast rune as form runes. A spell which transformed a troll into a tree would need man, darkness, and plant. BEAST The Beast rune is the rune of the children of Hykim & Mikym. Spells which affect or involve animals use the Beast rune. Sometimes it is necessary to combine the Beast rune with the Man rune, as when casting a spell which affects ducks or lycanthropes. MAN The children of Grandfather Mortal possess the man rune. Any spell which directly affects a human being must use it. A spell which indirectly affects a human, such as an earth spell that buries one alive, doesn't need to use the Man rune. Spells which affect Trolls must use both the man rune and the Darkness rune. DARKNESS Spells which involve darkness, or darkness creatures, use this rune. Since Darkness has no fixed volume, spells which involve mastery of this element can call forth a great amount of it from a small source, though they are typically more difficult to cast than spells which require a large amount to begin with. FIRE Spells which deal with the realm of fire must use the fire rune. Spells which affect Agimori must use both the Man rune and the Fire rune. Like Darkness, Fire has no fixed volume. Therefore spells can (and do) exist which call forth a huge gout of flame from a single torch. AIR The Air rune governs the wind and storm, as well as secondary effects such as lightning. Since air is a common element it is rarely necessary to create more of it, and most Air spells are Mastery spells. Since lightning is a secondary effect of storm, a spell which uses lightning to do the same damage as a fire spell will be more difficult to cast than its counterpart. WATER Spells which deal with oceans, rivers, or aquatic creatures use the water rune. ICE Spells which deal with coldness. Spells which use Himile's Ice rune can lower the temperature in an area, and are also useful for dealing with ice demons. PLANT Spells which deal with plants, including elves. SPIRIT Spells which affect spirits use this rune. Sorcerers are on shaky ground in the spirit world, and many Spirit spells are extremely difficult to cast. EARTH Spells which affect earth, including stone and metal. MAGIC Spells which deal with other spells, or which open gates to other realms, such as the spirit or hero planes. UNDEAD Spells which deal with beings outside of the cycle of death and rebirth use the Undead rune. DRAGONNEWT Spells which affect dragonnewts use this rune. Spells using this rune cannot duplicate dragon magic, which stems from the Dragon rune. Hardly anyone in Glorantha knows much about this rune. Its study was common during the Empire of the Wyrms Friends, but practicioners and texts were almost completely destroyed during the Dragonkill War. MOVEMENT Spells which merely move things from one place to another use the Movement rune. It is not necessary for such spells to include the form runes of the target. This rune is almost always used in conjunction with the Mastery rune. STASIS Spells which freeze a thing in one place. This rune has nothing to do with time. Stasis spells can make an unbalanced building stay up when it should fall, or freeze a person in place. OTHER RUNES Not all Gloranthan runes have been incorporated in this system. All other runes, if applicable at all, are form runes. Some runes, like the Trade rune, represent abstract concepts and don't make good form runes. Others, like the Dragon rune, are beyond even the knowledge of the God Learners. Sorcery Spells Each spell is a magic skill. Spells have a base percentage of 0% but can be increased by training, research, or experience. Each spell also has a difficulty level, which reflects how difficult that spell is to cast. Thus a spell which causes a wound will be easier to cast than one which kills someone outright. Difficulty levels are the primary mechanism for maintaining play balance, and the gamemaster should take care when assigning them to new spells. The standard duration of all sorcery is 10 minutes and the standard range is 10 meters. Both of these values can be increased using Law or Chaos; see the section on spell manipulation for details. Free Int Sorcerers no longer need Free Int to manipulate their spells. They cannot, however, manipulate their spells with more points of Law than their Law skill divided by 5 or more points of Chaos than their (Chaos skill divided by 5) times 2. Remember that any unsuccessful casting of a Chaos manipulated spell requires a roll on the Spell Fumble table! Each spell a sorcerer has memorized takes 1 point of Free Int. Learning Spells There are 3 ways to learn a spell. The best way is to learn from another sorcerer. It takes 1 week (50 hours) to learn a spell from a teacher. At the end of this time, a roll of INT times 3 must be made to learn the spell correctly. The second way to learn a spell is via a written text containing the spell. It takes two weeks and an INT times 3 roll to learn a spell from a text. The third way is to research the spell yourself. To do this, you must possess all runic skills associated with the spell at a level as high as the difficulty of the spell. After a season of work, roll your INT times 3. If you succeed, you have created the spell, and automatically get a percentage in it equal to 5% plus your magic bonus. If you fail, you have pursued a wild goose chase. If you fumble, you have had a lab accident; roll on the spell fumble table. Spell Difficulty Each spell has a difficulty which can be as low as zero and has no upper limit. This difficulty is a gauge of the power of the spell; more difficult spells are harder to cast. When recording a spell on your character sheet put its difficulty in parentheses after the spell name and before your percentage. The spell difficulty subtracts directly from your chance to cast the spell. Casting Spells When casting spells roll percentile dice. If the total is equal or less than the following formula, the spell has been successfully cast. ( Least of runic skills) + (skill in spell) - (skill difficulty) -(encumberance) Ceremony can be used to increase this roll. A 96-00 is always a failure. Fumbles require a roll on the Spell Fumble Table, as do any unsuccessful castings when using the Chaos rune. Casting Multiple Spells at Once Normally a sorcerer casts one spell at a time. A spell takes as many strike ranks to cast and costs as many magic points as the number of Law/Chaos points in the spell. After spending the strike ranks, percentile dice are rolled to see if the spell is successfully cast. If the roll is a critical success, the spell costs no magic points. On a failure, only one magi point is spent and the spell fails (unless using Chaos to manipulate the spell, in which case a failure is treated as a fumble. On a fumble, consult the spel fumble table, making adjustments for the appropriate manipulation rune (Law or Chaos) It is possible for a sorcerer to cast multiple spells at once. For each additional spell to be cast after the first, the chance to cast all spells is reduced by 25%. Each spell is rolled separately, so some may succeed while others fail. The spells all go off on the strike rank of the spell which costs the most magic points. Spells may be targetted at multiple targets, and multiple spells may be targetted at the same person, with each spell being treated separately for the purpose of overcoming magical defenses and armor. Improvised Spells You do not have to know a spell to cast it. You can cast any spell in the book at a percentage chance equal to your lowest applicable rune percentage minus the difficulty level of the spell. But if your chance to cast is zero or negative, you have no chance at all of success; this is an exception to the rule that 01-05 is an automatic success. If you achieve a critical success when casting an improvised spell, you gain an immediate percentage in that spell equal to 5% plus your magic bonus. The Spell Fumble Table Sorcery spells cause an (often small) change in the nature of Glorantha. Time and the Compromise naturally resist this change. When a spell is fumbled, the forces involved in the spell go out of control. Sometimes the spell is warped or reflected on the caster, and sometimes a backlash of mystical energy occurs. Chaotic spells are more likely to cause this, and typically cause worse effects. The following table is consulted whenever a spell is fumbled (and whenever a simple failure occurs, when the Chaos rune is being used to manipulate the spell) . If Chaos is only used as a form rune, normal failures do not result in a roll on the Spell Fumble Table. Note that the table is numbered from -9 to 110. If the spell in question used Chaos for manipulation or as a form rune, add 10 to the roll. Otherwise, subtract 10. Dice Result -9 to -5 How fortunate! You control the backlash of the spell with only minimal effects. Lose 5 Fatigue points and 1 personal Magic point. -4 to 0 You suffer a minor backlash. Lose 10 Fatigue points and 2 personal Magic points. 01 to 05 As -4 to 0, but lose 15 Fatigue points and 3 personal Magic points. 06 to 10 As -4 to 0, but lose 20 Fatigue points and 4 personal Magic points. 11 to 21 You fail to cast the spell and immediately pay its full cost in Magic points, which may be taken from any available source. 22 to 28 As 11 to 21 but lose twice the spell's Magic point cost. 29 to 32 As 11 to 21, but lose 3 times the spell's Magic point cost. 33 to 34 As 11 to 21, but lose 4 times the spell's Magic point cost. 35 As 11 to 21, but lose 5 times the spell's Magic point cost. 36 to 45 If the spell was targetted on someone else, it affects you instead. You get no POW roll to resist it. If it was targetted on you, it affects an enemy if one is nearby or a random person if no enemies are near. You pay normal MP cost for the spell. 46 to 55 As 36 to 45 but pay twice the normal MP cost for the spell. 56 to 60 Your spell affects a nearby friend instead of its intended target. Pay normal MP cost for the spell. 61 to 65 as 56 to 60 but double the Law points in the spell, increasing the spell effect if possible and otherwise increasing the spell duration. Caster pays for this double cost if he has the Magic points. 66 to 70 Spell fails and sucks all personal magic points from a nearby friend of the caster (roll randomly) 71 to 75 Caster loses all personal and stored Magic points. 76 to 80 Magic points in spell are converted to poison, which is matched versus the caster's con for half or full damage to total hit points. 81 Caster goes blind for 1d10 weeks. 82 Caster goes blind for 2d10 weeks 83 Caster goes blind for 3d10 weeks 84 Caster goes mute for 1d10 weeks, and cannot cast sorcery. 85 Caster loses half his personal magic points; they do not regenerate for 1d10 weeks. 86 Caster goes catatonic for 1d10 weeks 87 As 86 but permanently lose 10% from the spell percentage in question. 88 As 87 but also lose 10% from Law Rune percentage 89 As 88 but also lose 10% from each Form Rune involved. 90 As 89 but also lose 10% from Empowering Rune. Roll POW times 5 or die on the spot. (note: 91 to 110 are effects that can only happen from Chaos spells) 91 - 95 Spell fails, and caster gains an immediate permanent Chaos Feature ( 75% curse of Thed, 25% chaos feature chart). Caster increases his Chaos percentage by 1d10 points. 96 Spell fails and caster gains immediate Curse of Thed feature. Caster increases his Chaos percentage by 2d10 points. 97 Caster affected by the Pochargno Corruption spell, which caster may not resist. Caster increases his Chaos percentage by 3d10 points. 98 Caster opens permanent Chaos void in area; void is 3d6 meters across and 1d6 chaos horrors emerge from it each day until it is magically sealed or until the next Sacred Time. Caster and all persons nearby must make POW times 5 rolls or be destroyed by its appearance. 99 Caster loses 1d6 POW 00 Caster loses all POW, and becomes a vampire, but without the entrancement ability or the ability to turn into mist. 101 Caster permanently loses all skill in the spell in question. 102 Caster permanently loses all skill in the Empowering rune of the spell fumbled. 103 Caster permanently loses all skill in all form runes used in the spell, except for the Chaos rune. 104 Caster permanently loses any skill in the Law rune. 105 Caster permanently loses all sorcery skills. 106 Caster transformed into a gorp of equivalent size. Caster retains INT and POW, but probably goes insane. 107 Caster transformed into a broo. If already a broo, caster transformed into a gorp instead. See 106. 108 Caster explodes, doing 4d6 damage to all within 3 meters. 109 Caster affected both by the Pochargno Corruption spell and by 5 Curse of Thed features. Increase Chaos percentage by 5d10 points. 110 Caster totally obliterated by Chaos. Even the memory of him/her is erased from the world. An Example Let's look at an example. We'll create the skills of Tim the Enchanter, a PyroMancer. Tim would need 4 sorcery skills (Intensity, Duration, Range, and Multispell) in standard RQ3 sorcery. With this system he needs at least 3, and will need more if he wants to be anything but a very narrow specialist. Tim the Enchanter Encumberance: 12 enc Runic Skills Spells Law 60% Tim's Circle of Fire(60) 65% Mastery 40% (Difficulty 60%) Infinity 60% Empowering: Mastery. Form: Fire. Fire 75% This spell creates a circle of flames around the caster, who has to possess a source of fire. The flames are1 meter wide, 3 meters high and do 1 point of damage to anything passing through them. Each point of Law can increase the damage by 1 point or increase the diameter of the circle by 1 meter. This damage works like a salamander's fire; the total is matched against the victim's best armor on the resistance table and half or full damage is taken. Tim's chance to cast circle of Fire would be ( Least of runic skills) + (skill in spell) -(skill difficulty) - (encumberance) (40) + (65) - (60) - (12) = 33%. Since his Law skill is 60%, he could make the flames do up to 12 points of damage, or make the circle 12 meters wide, or do any combination of these things. He could also use some of these 12 points to extend the duration of the spell past the standard 10 minute duration fo Sorcery spells. Note that Tim's chance to cast the spell would be 20% greater if he learned the Mastery skill to 60%. Also, any increases he makes in his spell percentage directly increase his chance to cast. If Tim were casting a simpler spell, say Tim's Ring of Oily Smoke (Difficulty 20%) his chance to cast would be 73%. Obviously, the two things that balance spellcasting are the Spell Difficulty and the number of Runes associated with the spell. Spells with more runes are harder to master since you need more runic skills. Likewise the more powerful the spell, the more difficult it should be. Tim's Spell of Instant Immolation should have a difficulty of at least 90; you want a sorcerer to have to master both the appropriate runes and the spell to have a good chance of casting. An easier spell, like Tim's Spell of the Guiding Light (a simple light spell )might have a difficulty of around 10,making it easy to cast for anyone with a reasonable amount of skill. If Tim knows this spell at 40% (he doesn't practice it much) , his chance will be (assume the spell uses only infinity and fire) 60 + 40 - 10 = 90%. [End of part 1 of 2] ====================================================================== The RuneQuest(tm) mailing list is a courtesy of Andrew Bell. 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