Difference between revisions of "Arcane"

Revision as of 02:25, 5 February 2017

Arcane Power, the power to rival God itself. The Arcanist, or Wizard, tries to find and comprehend the secrets of the Universe itself, by codifying it they are able to call upon these powers of creation. The problem is that language is itself imperfect to comprehend and codify these secrets, as is the human mind. Nevertheless approximations seem to work, though they are only manageable in well-defined parameters, called "secrets".

Rules

Magic is not limited to the Secrets the Wizard knows, though secrets make the energies involved manageable. Using a Secret the Wizard can essentially create what he wants, as long as it is related to the secret. The Wizard uses Arcane Lore to shape these secrets into "Spells", by controlling the parameters they are able to wield enormous powers without burning out due to the feedback.

Casting a spell always takes a full round, so the actual spell activates a round after spell-casting started.

Secrets

A Secret is a codified rules-set that establishes boundaries in which the Wizard can safely cast 'spells'. The secret is worded in a specific way that establishes those boundaries. As long as the player can imply, because "*secret's wording" after any description of his spell, and it feels right it should generally be allowed to lighten the drain.

"I throw a ball of fire that incinerates the room, because I have Control over the fires of hell itself" is an example.

Secret construction

A secret should never be more than one sentence. If it contains and "and" or a comma, or the sentence could be logically split, the secret is too powerful. Obviously overpowered sentences are of course disallowed, no 'power over everything'.

Combining Secrets

The best thing about secrets is that they can be combined, following the same rules as above but now the secrets can be linked together with "and".

"The door melts instantly, because I have Control over the fires of hell itself and Mastery over metals"

Magic

When casting a spell, theoretically the more permanent the change, the more enormous the drain is. Creating something permanently out of nothing itself would burn out the wizard instantly and possibly wreak havoc on its surroundings (not to mention that whatever's created would crumble into dust). The laws of Physics apply, you cannot create something out of nothing (the above would probably try to rearrange atoms, something hideously expensive in energy cost). See the Secrets as your tools and the spells as the blueprint to create an effect. Just like you cannot create a car from a tree with your bare hands, you could possibly create something similar with the right blueprint and tools, it might not be a car, but could probably do similar things (a cart for instance).

There are of course short-cuts. You could create a fireball, which is only momentarily in existence, albeit in a very environment-changing way (it might even light some flammable things on fire), whilst creating a huge flame with which you could burn a house down, would be a lot more expensive. While the end-effect may be the same (though the latter would do it a lot more reliable), the way you went about creating it are hugely different in cost and principle.

A spell is basically a skill check. Following all the normal rules for creating advantage, overcome, attacking and defending. The target number will be a logical opposing skill (Physique for Shapeshifting, Athletics for dodging fireballs,... Or environmental TN, depending on how easy the change would be. A modifier for difficulty will be added, this can be situational, but usually involves the difficulty of the effect you're trying to create. Usually it's pretty straightforward but secret modifiers may be in place (which will give you a Fate-point). Whether the spell fails or succeeds, you will always suffer drain.

For spells that don't require resistance, or have a positive effect, double the difficulty modifier.

Drain

The power for Arcana magic comes from within the caster, their years of study and practice have created a very pure and efficient way to bring them into existence without using a lot of their own health to power it. Mostly it comes from the Wizard's mental strength, only when that's depleted will it start damaging their bodies (first damage is mental, after that, instead of creating Consequences, it will start affecting the Wizard's health). The minimum drain is always 1. Only when the drain cannot be averted by a physical or mental stress box will it create consequences. Each time you take drain after receiving your first consequence, or receive a consequence check for Procursus.

Each time you take drain (equal to the your magic skill but you can choose to work at a lower strength) in addition to a difficulty modifier, you roll Will to resist the drain. If you succeed or tie you take the minimum of 1 point of drain, if you succeed with style you take no drain, each point below the TN makes the minimum drain of 1 go up by 1.

Difficulty

Limited effect

Your spell has an effect that is like a normal action that wouldn't require a skill check at standard level and provides no real advantage. (Making you float across a river without getting wet, when not in a conflict.)

Powerful effect

The impact of your spell has a measurable or lasting effect, something that could be equal to a stunt or aspect or a very good or specific tool. (Blasting down a gate without explosives)

Extremely Powerful effect

The impact of your spell is measurable and has a lasting effect on multiple zones or scenes (or a very large impact one scene or zone), or multiple characters. (Blowing away a building)

Improbable effect

Your spell has an effect that is very unlikely to happen in real-life, except through freak circumstances (or very specialised skill-sets and equipment). (Allowing you to fly without wings)

Impossible effect

Your spell has an effect that is physically impossible to happen under the laws of physics as they are. (Teleporting you somewhere, creating something permanently out of nothing.)

The Rules of Magic

Sometimes magic works a bit differently than expected. Magic is an inaccurate way to work with the powers of creation, and this means you stumbled upon such a specific problem. This can give a difficulty modifier that is higher than expected. When you stumble upon such a Rule of Magic you can choose to fail the spell (suffering the original drain without the added Rule of Magic difficulty as you release the powers you've tried shaping. You can choose to power through sucking up the additional Rule difficulty. Either way you gain a Fate point. Additionally if you powered through you can later choose to research this Rule and try to make a Secret out of it.

Ritual Magic

Another way to lower drain is by sharing it with others and possibly over time. Choose a Ritual Leader and that one can share the drain over his followers and himself. (before they try to resist individually). The problem with Ritual magic is that it cannot move, so a direct (visual) link with the subject needs to be kept up, another possibility is an Astral link being established by a familiar or by using a physical link (through a link to the user's body... anything containing a complete string of the user's DNA should work (so hair with a follicle for instance)).

Extending the ritual over time is also a possibility but this requires some resources to contain the energies, at a cost of 1 requisition per division over time. A division over time involves splitting the drain is many parts as you pay for, each division takes one hour. So you could split a drain of 17 over 3 divisions, each costing 6, 6 and 5 drain respectively.

Emergency ritual is a possibility too, sometimes the drain is too large but the caster needs to cast the spell as soon as possible, he can start a Ritual that takes only a "scene", 10 rounds to activate. It counts as a single division BUT his TN will be 2 shifts higher.

Procursus

When a burn-out happens there's a high chance of Procursus, you're dying and will instinctively grab unto any straw to try and survive. From diverting feedback into the vicinity in violent ways, to signing pacts with creatures or demons from beyond our dimension, that suddenly show great interest in you...

This test is a Willpower overcome, with the TN of the highest consequence you suffered. If you fail Procursus happens, which can be anything from an enormous explosion to a Demon or worse appearing, with a force equal to the highest consequence suffered.

Power Source

Arcane Magic is Unnatural. It can be used against and affected by Natural creatures and powers.

Summoning

Wizards are known to summon small entities and bind them with an element as Elementals, they've been known to summon other creatures and even humans to do their bidding. For rules see Summoning.

The Drain for summoning is equal to the Threat of the summon (which cannot be higher than the Summoner's Summoning skill. An Arcane summon basically lasts until the next sun-up or sundown. An Imp is a different matter, as they are bound to the lifeforce of the Wizard.