Verb-Noun Magic variant design discussion.

PTTG · 07-01-2015, 11:55 PM

I'm working on a magic ruleset for a one-off game. Some of these rules are spoilers, so keep that in mind if I've ever met you in person.

As in standard syntactic magic, workings are conjured by speaking a verb and at least one relevant noun. The specifics are worked into the intonation and subtle gestures of the caster.

In rule terms, players would roll against the average of all word skills they use, and Magery (Word Magic) adds. Any working costs 2 FP... as far as the players know. In fact, there is a hidden stat similar to distortion in threshold-limited magic. PCs never know what their distortion count is, and they should not know that distortion even exists until after they start suffering effects!

Distortion tally from a working is the calculated FP cost of the spell. Nothing in specific gives a skill penalty- but every 5? FP a spell would cost incurs a cumulative -1 penalty. A failure, in addition to not producing the desired effect, doubles the distortion tally cost of the working... All in all, attempting Big Things is not a good idea.

Players start with a distortion cap of some large value- perhaps 50- but distortion only decreases by 1 point every 24 hours, and the timer is reset every time you cast, even if your skill allows you to cast a spell for free!

Distortion effects use a custom table and are designed to cause complicated but workable problems. For instance, instead of losing your magery, you gain the limitation (Other people dispel my workings on sight), causing your flying spell to fail as soon as someone sees you...

Roll against the distortion table whenever you cast or are the target of a spell whenever you are above your tally.

Words:
Mind (human and animal minds, thoughts, and emotion/communication)
Sensation (Illusion, sound, and light, plus parts of the otherwise laughable food domain)
Phlogiston (Effectively, air and fire domains, but without overlap from weather and light)
Mineral (Earth domain and metal)
Body (Animal bodies, body control, but no mind)
Plant (yeah)
Craft (Machines and artifacts)
Energy (Kinetic, electric, chemical, magnetic, and spiritual, does not burn directly)
Words (Magic effects)
Water (Water and weather as weather is largely a phenomenon of atmospheric water. Ice is uneasily split between water and mineral)
Cosmos (In a space-time sense, grants access to gate and time control spells)

Perceive
Command (Puppetting someone or something is impossible without imbuing it with Energy, ordering requires a Mind)
Summon (Creates a noun in a crude, unshaped way)
Shape (Gross and fine changes within a noun)
Strengthen (Includes the concept of growing)
Protect
Restore (repairing damage, exhaustion, and injury)
Undo (Weakening and destroying both)
Move
Transform (changes involving multiple nouns)

Going to need to adjust the skill system. I'd like to make it easy to specialize narrowly in a noun OR verb. That is to say, you could be a water mage or a movement mage for cheap, but working with many nouns and many verbs would be difficult. Still needs tweaking. Water-18, Phlogiston-6, and all verbs at 10 gives a flat Move Water-14, Strengthen Phlogiston-8, and Transform Water into Phlogiston-11... possibly reasonable.

07-01-2015, 11:55 PM	#1
PTTG Join Date: Feb 2011	Verb-Noun Magic variant design discussion. I'm working on a magic ruleset for a one-off game. Some of these rules are spoilers, so keep that in mind if I've ever met you in person. As in standard syntactic magic, workings are conjured by speaking a verb and at least one relevant noun. The specifics are worked into the intonation and subtle gestures of the caster. In rule terms, players would roll against the average of all word skills they use, and Magery (Word Magic) adds. Any working costs 2 FP... as far as the players know. In fact, there is a hidden stat similar to distortion in threshold-limited magic. PCs never know what their distortion count is, and they should not know that distortion even exists until after they start suffering effects! Distortion tally from a working is the calculated FP cost of the spell. Nothing in specific gives a skill penalty- but every 5? FP a spell would cost incurs a cumulative -1 penalty. A failure, in addition to not producing the desired effect, doubles the distortion tally cost of the working... All in all, attempting Big Things is not a good idea. Players start with a distortion cap of some large value- perhaps 50- but distortion only decreases by 1 point every 24 hours, and the timer is reset every time you cast, even if your skill allows you to cast a spell for free! Distortion effects use a custom table and are designed to cause complicated but workable problems. For instance, instead of losing your magery, you gain the limitation (Other people dispel my workings on sight), causing your flying spell to fail as soon as someone sees you... Roll against the distortion table whenever you cast or are the target of a spell whenever you are above your tally. Words: Mind (human and animal minds, thoughts, and emotion/communication) Sensation (Illusion, sound, and light, plus parts of the otherwise laughable food domain) Phlogiston (Effectively, air and fire domains, but without overlap from weather and light) Mineral (Earth domain and metal) Body (Animal bodies, body control, but no mind) Plant (yeah) Craft (Machines and artifacts) Energy (Kinetic, electric, chemical, magnetic, and spiritual, does not burn directly) Words (Magic effects) Water (Water and weather as weather is largely a phenomenon of atmospheric water. Ice is uneasily split between water and mineral) Cosmos (In a space-time sense, grants access to gate and time control spells) Perceive Command (Puppetting someone or something is impossible without imbuing it with Energy, ordering requires a Mind) Summon (Creates a noun in a crude, unshaped way) Shape (Gross and fine changes within a noun) Strengthen (Includes the concept of growing) Protect Restore (repairing damage, exhaustion, and injury) Undo (Weakening and destroying both) Move Transform (changes involving multiple nouns) Going to need to adjust the skill system. I'd like to make it easy to specialize narrowly in a noun OR verb. That is to say, you could be a water mage or a movement mage for cheap, but working with many nouns and many verbs would be difficult. Still needs tweaking. Water-18, Phlogiston-6, and all verbs at 10 gives a flat Move Water-14, Strengthen Phlogiston-8, and Transform Water into Phlogiston-11... possibly reasonable. Last edited by PTTG; 07-02-2015 at 01:29 AM.