I posted about my Rune System a few months ago to test the water

[Domiel Angelus]

A couple of months ago I posted a small sample of one Rune from the Rune System I had been working on, it was the Fire Rune as many people use it. I never got around to showing off much more than that so in this posting I'll be showing the rules on how they work further to see if I can get any input on the rules I've built. Whether Constructive or Destructive I'd like the input.

The section I'll be posting on today is a portion called Cantrips. Cantrips on a Rune allow you to cast a certain spell a certain number of times per day and I have many rules that help govern this.


Category A: Hindrances
The following Cantrip types are in the Hindrance category: Attack, Debilitating, Walls and Area Effect Spells. Hindrance: hin·drance /ˈhindrəns/ Noun A thing that provides resistance, delay, or obstruction to something or someone The reason the definition was added was to show that by definition death can be a hindrance, hence direct damage or attack spells fit this category. Category AI (Attack Cantrips)
 Attack Cantrips are granted 2 fatigue points to cast. They may be further fueled by the bearer’s fatigue or energy reserve.
 Attack Cantrips may be used up to your Rune Mastery per day.
 Your Innate Attack Skill is given a bonus to hit equal to your Rune Mastery when you choose to aim, replacing the original spell’s accuracy if your Rune Mastery is higher than the granted accuracy.
Category AII (Debilitating)
 Debilitating Cantrips are granted up to double a bearer’s Rune Mastery in fatigue or the bare minimum required casting the spell. They may be further fueled by the bearer’s fatigue, energy reserve or a power item if one is available.
 Debilitating Cantrips use the speed/range table.
 Debilitating Cantrips may be used up to double your Rune Mastery per day with the following exceptions: Age, Rotting Death, Exchange Bodies, Great Geas, Great Hallucination, Partial Petrification, Permanent Forgetfulness, Strike Barren, Strike Blind, Strike Dumb, Strike Numb, Total Paralysis, Decapitation and Transmogrification. The exceptions may only be used once per week.
Category AIII (Walls and Area Effect)
 Walls and Area Effect Cantrips are granted up to double the Rune Mastery in fatigue or the bare minimum required casting the spell. They may be fueled by the bearer’s fatigue, energy reserve or power item if one is available.
 Walls and Area Effect may be used up to your Rune Mastery per day.
 The Rain of Fire casting time has been rescinded.
 Wall and Area Effect spells that have durations below 5 minutes are brought up to 5 minutes. They may also be dispelled at the caster’s discretion.


Category B: Assistance
The following Cantrip types are in the Assistance Category: Healing, Buffing, Blocking
Category BI (Healing)
 Healing spells that cost 10 or less fatigue are cast at maximum effect, so this does mean Major Healing will heal 8 hit points per casting regardless.
 Spells that would cost more than 10 are cast at the bare minimum point cost; this does include extremely expensive spells such as Resurrection.
 Healing spells may be used up to triple the bearer’s Rune Mastery per day, with the following exceptions: Regeneration, Instant Regeneration, Restoration, Instant Restoration, Youth, Resurrection, Suspended Animation, and Halt Aging. Resurrection may be used up to twice a week, the others may only be used once a week.
 Healing spells use the speed/range table excluding the same exceptions from the previous entry.
Category BII (Buffing)
 Buffing spells are granted either double the bearer’s Rune Mastery, or if it costs more than this it will be granted the minimum to cast. So yes it will fuel spells such as Hawk Flight. They may be further fueled by the bearer’s fatigue, energy reserve or a power item if one is available.
 All Buffing Spells use the Speed/Range Table to affect people beyond the caster.
 Buffing spells with the exception of Alertness, Armor, Shield, Earthly Armor, Flame Retardant, Acidic Resistance, Wind Armor, Rubber Armor, Body of spells, Partial Shapeshifting, Keen Sense, Vision spells, Alter Body, Alter Visage, Alter Voice, Boost Attribute, Might, Grace, Wisdom, Vigor, Walk Through spells, Youth, Shape Shifting, Rider, Rider Within, Plant Form/ Plant Form Other, Enlarge, Ethereal Body, Reflexes, Balance and Great Shapeshift are made area of effect based on the bearer’s Rune Mastery.
 Buffing Spells may be used up to double a bearer’s Rune Mastery per day with the exception of Great Shapeshift, Weapon Self, Halt Aging, Youth, Transform Other, Spellguard, and Slow Time. These exceptions may only be cast once per week.
 Buffing spells that have a duration beyond 1 action (So will not affect Boost) have their durations increased to 1 hour.
Category BIII (Blocking)
 Blocking spells may be used up to a bearer’s Rune Mastery per encounter without fatigue cost. After that if used, the bearer will be charged the one fatigue point for its use whether or not it’s successful.
 Blocking Spells that may affect others on a normal basis, such as Timeslip or Phase Other will use the Speed/Range table. Blocking spells that would normally only be able to affect the caster may be used to defend other people but will use the standard Regular spell rule for ranges, using your innate attack skill to aim.


Category C: Auxiliary
The following Cantrip types fit in the Auxiliary: Create + Destroy, Control+ Shape etc. and Support + Information.
Category CI (Create and Destroy)
 Creation and Destruction spells such as Create or Extinguish Fire are granted up to double the bearer’s Rune Mastery in fatigue to cast. They may be further fueled by the bearer’s fatigue, energy reserve or a power item if one is available. The exceptions are Summoning or Creation spells that Create or Summon a Physical Being, an elemental may be summoned or created with up to a 100 point cost, shades or spirits may be summoned exactly as written, Summon Demon will grant up to a 150 point cost Demon; Create Mount will be paid for up to the second tier of the spell
 Create and Destroy spells may be used up to double the caster’s Rune Mastery per day.
Category CII (Control and Shape)
 Control and Shape spells are granted up to double the bearer’s Rune Mastery in fatigue to cast. The only exceptions are those that control a physical being, such as Control Elemental; these will follow the same rules as Creation, it will allow you to control up to a 100 point Elemental or 150 point demon and so on.
 Control and Shape Spells may be used up to double the bearer’s Rune Mastery.
 Shape spells are also slightly different in that the speed at which something may be shaped depends on the rune’s level. Basic runes will shape at a speed of 6, Advanced will shape at a speed of 12 and Masterclass/ True will shape at a speed of 18.
Category CIII (Support and Information)
 Support and Information Spells will be paid for exactly at their price, even if they do end up being quite expensive.
 Support and Information Skills that require you to use the “regular” spell -1 per yard are placed on the Speed/Range Table.
 Support and Information Spells may be use up to triple the bearer’s Rune Mastery.


Have the Same Cantrip from Multiple Runes?
You will get more uses of a Cantrip from this, but not a full complement of them. If you have Runes with the same Cantrip then increase your multiplier by 1. Cantrips that would be x1 will be x2, Cantrips that would be x2 will be x3, and Cantrips that would be x3 will be x4.
A spell that has been marked as an Exception only gets increased by one use per (day, week etc).


Running out of Cantrip uses?
If you run out of Cantrip uses, fear not for that is not the end. You may fuel any Cantrip your rune or runes have access to with your own fatigue. To determine your skill, do it just as you would if you were using the spell directly from the book, with the following exceptions: substitute standard Magery with your Rune Mastery and use the higher of your IQ or Willpower. Use that number to tell you the base casting level of the spell you're using and if you'd be receiving free points upon casting.

[DangerousThing]

One reason that I might not have responded before is that I really don't like the X per day limitation on spell casting. This is a personal thing. I also think using FP or ER is a much more elegant solution.

I have studied a lot of folklore and read a lot of fantasy fiction, and as far as I know the X per day was started by Vance in his Dying Earth stories, and I'm not even sure you couldn't reload your spells more often if you wanted to. Otherwise this mechanic seems to have shown up in post RPG fiction.

Of course the one exception was for X equals 1. I seem to recall a few abilities that could only be used at most once per day.

If I'm wrong, please let me know.

[Domiel Angelus]

A few of them are X = 1 per day and some are X = per week, such as high level spells like Resurrection. I use the multiples instead of all being X=1 to make sure you don't get totally hosed because to have a decent number of castings a day and not fail you're putting in roughly ~75 points

I'm the only one currently play testing this and I'm getting 12 castings of the average buffing spell with 6 points of fatigue to cast into it for free from the Rune using these current rules. It does make me a far more efficient buffing caster when the other two casting characters in the party are threshold characters that use extremely expensive spells so they're always near exploding.

I prefer the X per day because it gives you flexibility without making "power overwhelming". With a standard caster you have to sit around and wait for 'mana' and with a threshold wizard after their tally is up they're liable to explode.

At the end of it, I placed a stipulation that you may fuel the Rune's Cantrips with your own fatigue once you've expended its daily allotments.

We're playing a High Fantasy game where we end up in long dungeon crawls and we've got an "Evil" GM that rolls for random encounters for every 10 minutes of inactivity or whenever he feels it strikes his fancy. This scheme allows you to have your standard Rune Spells that are X/X/X/X per 24 hours and several Cantrips to help bolster it so you're not totally losing out on magical buffing or information spells should you choose to use this system.

The other way I could have simulated massive amounts of control would have been to use Creation and Control powers but they were far too powerful in my mind.

[Domiel Angelus]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

One reason that I might not have responded before is that I really don't like the X per day limitation on spell casting. This is a personal thing. I also think using FP or ER is a much more elegant solution.

I have studied a lot of folklore and read a lot of fantasy fiction, and as far as I know the X per day was started by Vance in his Dying Earth stories, and I'm not even sure you couldn't reload your spells more often if you wanted to. Otherwise this mechanic seems to have shown up in post RPG fiction.

Of course the one exception was for X equals 1. I seem to recall a few abilities that could only be used at most once per day.

If I'm wrong, please let me know.

I prefer making a system that doesn't collide with all of the other things we're currently using. The game world is a mixed breed of the different versions of Ultima by Richard Garriot.

When I say collide its because we're using all of the extra effort rules and with the FP/ER system as is you'd have to decide whether to cast that spell or use fatigue to boost your dodge and survive a blow. The Rune system I worked out makes it so you can use both hand in hand with little issue on your survival options.

As for Vance, yes, that's actually why its Vancian magic and there were several areas where the characters were allowed to rest or found other means to scoop mana out of the air. That depends on which book you read however. In the case of D&D all spells fall under the Vancian magic rules, where as with this system on the Rune Magic Spells follow those guidelines to the T.

Rune Magic allows the combination of Powers and the regular Magic system without losing out on either one. Many of the Runes grant you very unique abilities such as being able to chain heal to an extent or blast a larger area of enemies. Its extremely cost efficient and makes it so you're not a giant loss when you hit that last level of a dungeon and all of your friends are out of fatigue.

[DangerousThing]

You may be right and X per day is better from a game perspective.

However, that's not my problem with it. I just can't picture any sort of mechanism that makes it work in the setting. Is there a god of magic enforcing this X per day thing? Does sunrise reset your magic?

That's what I meant about not seeing this in fantasy prior to DnD. As far as I can remember (I haven't read the stories in quite a while) you could do the spells as often as you could stuff them into your mind which required training because it seemed as if magic was somewhat alien to humans (or at least conceptually difficult). And frankly, I never liked the concept, though Jack Vance was such a good writer that I did enjoy the stories for the most part.

I like the idea of using FP. And I use Threshold based magic for Wild Magic in my current game; wild magic is not common and is considered a curse.

[Domiel Angelus]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

You may be right and X per day is better from a game perspective.

However, that's not my problem with it. I just can't picture any sort of mechanism that makes it work in the setting. Is there a god of magic enforcing this X per day thing? Does sunrise reset your magic?

That's what I meant about not seeing this in fantasy prior to DnD. As far as I can remember (I haven't read the stories in quite a while) you could do the spells as often as you could stuff them into your mind which required training because it seemed as if magic was somewhat alien to humans (or at least conceptually difficult). And frankly, I never liked the concept, though Jack Vance was such a good writer that I did enjoy the stories for the most part.

I like the idea of using FP. And I use Threshold based magic for Wild Magic in my current game; wild magic is not common and is considered a curse.

The Rune itself is giving the limitation; it can only give you so much before its worn out for the day. Its taken from the game Suikoden, which is an older game by Konami. In that system you would regain your Magical Points by resting for a normal eight hour rest.

If I made them directly from the game, the Fire and Water Runes would have the Create, Control and Destroy Powers from the Powers book and they're A. too expensive and B. not nearly restrictive enough. So instead I gave Cantrips, using the spells already granted from the Magic book

You're not just getting a magic item with a rune; its a semi-sentient being and you're taking from its vast pool of energy to cast a spell it knows. When you take the Rune off, you can't cast spells it knows without re-affixing it to your person. While younger or basic runes cannot control who they are affixed to, the True Runes in the game series were able to pick and choose who they were affixed to in some cases.

This system isn't meant to replace the Magic book or the Magic system in play already in GURPS. It's meant as an alternative to give players more options.

Currently there are three casters in the party I'm playing in, two threshold and one Rune Mastery. When our other casters run out I still have the oomph to get us through some of the harder bits in a dungeon.

As for giving so many limitations on the powers it gives in the form of X per day. If I had just flat out given spells with the "using your fatigue" limitation, we have many people that would loop-hole it into being free castings forever instead of what I've given. Not the populace of GURPS itself but the members of my playgroup as we're all rather seasoned with GURPS and many other RPG titles.