Arcane

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 only do so in well-defined parameters, called "secrets".

Rules

Magic is limited to the Secrets the Wizard knows. Within 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 enormous 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.

"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.

Creating a spell is collaboration between player and GM, with the general idea being that the less permanent the change wrought by the spell is, the easier (and cheaper) it is to create. Short bursts of power or limited short-term effects are generally preferred.

That doesn't mean great permanent changes cannot be wrought by magic, but it requires a lot of preparation in storing "power" (1 point of Requisition per point of Drain lowered)

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 troubles, it will start affecting the Wizard's health). The minimum drain is always 1.

Using your spells is just a skill check, the price is paid immediately afterwards, you can try to absorb the drain (partially), by using your Arcane Lore skill to resist the Drain. To figure the TN you first deduct any components from the calculated Drain, then roll open-ended for Arcane Lore. Your total result will be deducted (or added should you roll negatively), then applied to first your Mental stress, and any left-over to the Physical stress. If there's still leftover drain you start "burning out".Take mental and physical troubles alternatively, and must immediately check for Procursus.

On a burnout the spell may work, go wrong or create a completely unintended effect (up to the GM). A nice opportunity to gain (or spend) some Fate points...

Drain
Permanent creation	1 point per specific energy of mass in MJ/Kg
Permanent effect	2 X points of influence squared
Effect or creation / turn	1 point per point of influence
Effect or creation / scene	1 point per point of influence * 2
Per zone of Effect	X 2 per zone
Instantaneous effect	no extra cost
Combat: Per point of damage	1
Combat: Per point of defence	2
Standard effect	4 (or X 1)
Limited effect	/2
Extremely limited effect	/4
Powerful effect	*2
Extremely Powerful effect	*4
Improbable effect	*2
Impossible effect	squared

Yes, creating a kilo of sugar permanently out of thin air (17 Drain) is an expensive proposition, but there are ways to lower this using Components or Ritual Magic.

Permanent creation

Something out of nothing (well not exactly, the energies involved could strip a world bare), the hardest way to use magic, but sometimes necessary. Generally without expensive components or a giant ritual, it's impossible to do... And usually a lot more expensive than simple buying the material too! Complexity is an issue, making a block out of a simple material is much easier than making an engine, generally the complexity serves as an additional modifier (from +2 to +8, for a little complexity, like specific shape to a fully integrated chipset).

Permanent effect

A permanent effect is a change to a material, location or person, the type of effect is an important modifier. While the effect is "permanent", changing situations (the material wears down) can stop the effect, not to mention, dispelling an effect (generally paying the same cost to remove it, detecting is still an issue).

Effect or creation / turn

A much more economical version, giving an effect for a limited period of time, measured in turns.

Effect or creation / scene

Generally cheaper, technically an "hour", but very malleable, for game purposes assume that it's a scene without interruptions, if a serious rest period (or an hour or so) has passed, the effect is over.

Instantaneous effect

The baseline, the effect is instantaneous and disappears just as fast (though it may leave lasting impressions due to its nature).

Combat: Per point of damage

Your spell causes a single type of damage (related to your Secret).

Combat: Per point of defence

Your spell defends against a single type of damage, from any source (even multiple in the same round), providing a deduction.

Standard effect

Your spell has an effect that can also be done with a single skill-check and is similar to a normal Create Advantage (+2).

Limited effect

Your spell has an effect that is a normal action provided by a skill-check at standard level and provides no more than a +1 advantage (if any).

Extremely limited effect

Your spell's effect is extremely limited and has no real in-game advantage (like changing the colour of something).

Powerful effect

The impact of your spell has a measurable lasting effect, something that could be equal to a permanent Aspect for a scene or person.

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.

Improbable effect

Your spell has an effect that is very unlikely to happen in real-life, except through freak circumstances.

Impossible effect

Your spell has an effect that is physically impossible to happen under the laws of physics as they are.

Components

Components are a short-cut, a way to bend the power required for a spell, and make it easier to handle for the Magician. There are 3 types of components, material components: the building blocks that serve as a form of energy to power a spell, conduits: they serve as a sort of lever that eases the strain on the caster and somatic components: techniques that shape the way the spell comes into existence.

• Material components, like Orichalcum, Aqua Vitae,... and other rare materials with Arcane properties (at a rate of 1 point of Requisition per point of Drain lowered).

• Conduits, like a Wizard's staff, wands, orbs, rings,... The more expensive the component, the greater the drain it resists, but before you load up, every component interferes with the next, so after the first conduit, every next one will be half the power (or double the cost). The Wizard can mix and match as long as he sticks to this logic. The price of a conduit is the power it's supposed to give X 2.

• Somatic components, like verbal (sing, mumble, articulate,...) movement (dance, explicit movements,...), drawings (sigils, seals, stars,...) and so on. As long as they can physically be executed by the caster (and combined) they count towards lowering the drain by 1 point per component (as long as they can physically be done together).

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.

Examples

• Jeff "Otto the Magnificent" Ryze wants to get his team past a sturdy wooden door. He selects his Flames dance and writhe at my command as the most fitting secret. He could go for a Standard Effect + Instantaneous effect and cause the door to burn, for a create Advantage after a few minutes, total drain of 4. But he prefers to go for a much flashier (and faster) exploding the door in a blast of fire. Standard Effect, Instantaneous effectand Improbable Effect, because generally blasts of fire are extremely unlikely, for a total of 8 drain. Jeff elects to wave his hands around and murmer some Latin, and hold his staff (level 2) for a modified total of 4 drain. Jeff's player asks and receives a Fate point for doing it this way, because it's entirely in the style of his High Concept ("Otto, the Magnificent").

• Let's say we want to permanently change an apple. We could change its colour to red (Permanent effect but also an Extremely Limited effect) for a total drain of 4(standard) /4 (extremely limited) X 2², for a total of (4/4 = 1, (1 X 2)² = 4) 4 drain. If we'd want to change its colour to purple permanently, it would be much more expensive as it would be Improbable too (4/4 X 2 = 2, (2 X 2)² = 16) 16 drain! Better do that for a scene only instead of permanently, because that's going to be one expensive purple apple!

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 any leftover drain after both your mental and physical track has been exhausted. If you fail Procursus happens, which can be anything from an enormous explosion, with a force equal to the drain left, to a Demon or worse appearing with a Refresh value equal to the drain left.

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.

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GM's, don't be afraid to make Magic EXPENSIVE as hell. It's supposed to be. If anything, it's probably still too cheap. I've tried to keep the amount of codifying down as much as possible, so there'll be lots of ways to abuse the system, feel free to add extra modifiers to make something ridiculously expensive, and if the player doesn't get the hint, flat out refuse it. Also, the player may have calculated something perfectly, there still may be "uncodified" rules of the universe which apply a modifier, which may not be visible until the player actually casts it (and suffers the drain).