by Nakibe » Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:59 am
If you have gotten here you have either lost control of your scrolling function for this particular thread (sorry!) or you have hopefully arrived with half a character and no idea what the hell you can do with it now other than use it for a placemat.
Minor Details: Now would be the time normally when you'd decide where in-setting that you live and thusly get your native languages for free. But whatever.
Here's the real meat. First, choose an occupation. You now have 3 ranks in the related skill. I don't HAVE to know what it is, and I really don't much care so long as it has nothing to do with being the Ultimate Power of the Universe.
Also: You should choose here five skills that suit your character's background. You now have 3 ranks in THOSE skils as well. Before you ask, 3 ranks in a skill is considered "Competent". As in you maybe don't suck at it. Skills are generally split similarly to D&D or other systems. Just add in combat skills (Swords, Unarmed, Bagaga), and an actual skill for dodging and you should be on track. TECHNICALLY you can buy Pillars (Read: Magical Training) here. I'll get to those in a second.
Now, make spot labeled "Magic Points", because you now offically have 1. JUST ONE.
Finally, you get 36 Experience Points to spend on Stuff. What sorts of stuff and how much do they cost, you ask? Why, let me tell you~!
2 points each for a Racial Ability (Ask me about these for your race)
1 x Technique Rank for Techniques (Read: Magic. Ask me about these personally too)
2 x New Rank for Skills.
3 x New Number of Dice for Attributes.
4 x New Total for Magic Points.
Note that you pay for these things one rank at a time. And yes, I know, Magic points cost a LOT. Sucks, don't it?
Anyway, I suppose I should tell you what those things are for, and how spells work here. And get to telling you how you can learn yourself some Magic missiles, too.
First off, if you're a warrior type, even that 1 magic point may be irking you already. "What is it there for?" you ask, "And why should I care?" Excellent questions both, and the answer is fun. Sorta. You have a magic point because everyone does. But more specifically, what everyone can do with magic points even if they have no magic is "spend" it on extra dice to roll on an attempt. If for some reason your current Agility doesn't give you a good enough chance to not-suck against the Horrible Grue, you can spend magic points. 1 point per extra die. As many magic points as you feel like using. If you still fail? Well, sucks to be you. But you tried, right?
Anyway, anyone can do THAT. It takes REAL SKILL to sling spells. Lots of it, in fact. They count as skills here too, you know. Not the actual spells, but the learning required to use them.
Spells require two skills, actually. First, you must have enough skill in a "Primary Pillar" skill. These measure your knowledge of the fundamentals of magic as it works here. There are only 4 Primary Pillar skills to speak of:
Body : Which involves the workings of living beings.
Energy : Which involves the various energies flowing through and around all matter.
Matter : The actual stuff the world is made of. Nonliving material in specific falls here.
Mind : That strange mental realm, the mental workings of people and animals.
Now that you know how things work, you need to pick up another set of skills. These are called "Secondary Pillars", and these skills focus on HOW you direct the magics that you've learned. Of these, there are 8 skills to look forwards to:
Alteration : Involves changing the nature of the thing you're messing with slightly.
Corruption : The art of making bad things go bad faster. If the other guy wants it to work, you ruin it. If the other guy wants it to destroy, you make it build.
Control : Causes things to act against their natures. Combine with mind to make people your meat-puppets, you sick bastard you.
Creation : Make something new whenever you want. That's what this is about.
Decay : All things die, folks. Entropy at work. And now its working for ME.
Harmony : This is about balance. Oddly, this is the class of magic you'd find "Detect Magic" under. But then again, most spells tend to alter the way things work, so...
Life : Rejuvenation. Old things become new again, and objects can take on a bit of extra energy no one knew they had.
War : HUH. HAH! WAR. WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?!? ABSOLUTELY NOTHIN. Well, except for destroying things. Yeah. Its good with that.
NOW. When you have some rank of skill in a Primary pillar as well as a secondary pillar, you can access magic of a rank up to the LOWER of these pillars that is associated with both. That is, if you have Body(3) and War(4), then you can access all Body/War spells up to rank 3. If you gathered another secondary pillar, say, Life(2), then you could add Body/Life spells of rank 2 to your list.
The spells in this book go from rank 1 to rank 6. How many MP do they cost? Why, Their rank is their MP cost, so there you go. A Rank Six spell costs 6 MP. And a hell of a lot of time and effort to get there. A rank 1 spell costs 1 MP. The other nice thing about this system is that you can always spend more on a spell. Why spend more, you ask? Because even 1 more point added to a spell allows you to do a bit more with it.
You can increase the effect-strength of a spell. These are all measured just as stats are (Number and type of dice), and 1 MP can actually be used to give these checks another die, just like with other rolls. HOWEVER, 1 MP can also increase the die type (if applicable) for a spell. One MP can also be spent to double (or more) the duration of certain spells, or to double the range of a spell. Just have to tell me what you want to do extra when you cast. Unfortunately silent-spells aren't really an option here.
Oh, and I WOULD try to put up a list of spells but A) I'm not crazy and B) even the Rank 1 Spell list is MASSIVE. Just at Rank 1 there is an average of 2 avaiable spells for each Primary/Secondary combination. Um, no. Just... no. IM me or something and I can answer questions, but posting them NOW would be insane.
I'd put up a list of skills from the book or racial advantages, but... that's more of a "Lazy Ass" thing. Maybe later.
Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=nakibe>Nakibe</A] at: 12/7/06 4:06