Magic

[TetNak]

What we know

- Magic is subtle
- Magic requires types of rituals to cast
- Rituals require a good amount of time to use the magic properly
- Rushing rituals likely cause bad results
- Magic is not necessarily divine, but could be

Anything I missed?

[Zorbeltuss]

Not that I can think of.

So in the back of my mind, with a SIFRP structure. We have the following things to work with:

Ability, I would use knowledge as the dice rolling skill, and then maybe have things like cunning and will for support.

There is then specialty dice to round it out.

The way I am thinking is that magic can be divided into schools, each of them being a specialty of the knowledge ability.

Rituals within each school has difficulty levels and training penalties.

Thinking wildly here, this might be one example:

Animate Dead
School: Necromancy
Difficulty: 12

You imbue a corpse with necromantic energy, creating a mindless servitor that follows simple commands. A servitor can never have higher Agility, Athletics or Endurance than the corpse had at the time of death.

Basic:
The servitor has Athletics 3, Endurance 3 and Fighting 3.
+1B training:
The servitor instead has Athletics 4, Endurance 4 and Fighting 4.
+3B training:
The servitor instead has Athletics 5, Endurance 5 and Fighting 5.
+1B training:
The servitor may increase any two abilities by one step each.
+1B training:
The servitor gains three specialty dice.

[TetNak]

I would add that a benefit would be required. "Magic User" or something like that.

[Muskrat]

Here's some initial thoughts about how magic might work in this world. There are multiple forms of magic. One--the one that might fit best with the game mechanics you're proposing above--is wizardry, which is based on a knowledge of arcane lore. This would actually fit well with fictional depictions of wizards, who are usually depicted as knowing a great deal about a wide range of fields. In RPG systems, this is less likely, since for reasons of game balance, they typically specialize in magic and lack a broad range of knowledge skills. The idea here is that to influence something with wizardly magic, you need to know something about it--to have studied it and understand it. This might be through formal education, studying things through books; a tradition of folk knowledge; or a close study of the natural world. Different traditions of wizardry might codify this knowledge in different ways. One might study the correspondences between heaven and earth ("as above, so below"), using their knowledge of the alignment of the planets and stars to manipulate the world around them. Another tradition might teach wizards the secret tongues of the stones, the sea, the winds, fire, the plants, etc., which they can then use to "persuade" the elements of nature to do their bidding. In game terms, they might mechanically be the same, but with different role-playing flavors. Or different schools might get different types of mechanical bonuses to different types of magic.

[TetNak]

Perhaps. What I wouldn't want is wizard colleges, all that type of cliche. I'd have to think about it more. When I think rituals, I was thinking things that were passed down through traditions, etc. 'wizards' makes me think of men with pointy hats, which is far from what I'd like to see, personally.

[Muskrat]

I wasn't thinking wizard colleges or other fantasy cliches either. I see them more organized either in secret societies or solitary practitioners with one or two apprentices. With the sort of knowledge they need to have, most wizards are going to be trained in some philosophical, perhaps mystical or quasi-religious ideas about how magic and the underlying order of reality work. There wouldn't be such a thing as magic as a science, at least as we think of science now. It would be closer to astrology or alchemy.

[MrBlonde]

Oh man a magic in the Chronicle system discussion!?
Is this for a future game possibly? I've got opinions! Possibly valid ones too!

[TetNak]

Potentially. I'd certainly want to eventually run a game with whatever was built up here.

Feel free to shoot out your opinions. Keep in mind, I think everyone is looking for a low-magic setting.

[Muskrat]

The setting is intended to be system-neutral--Tet and Zorb are just talking about how it might work with the Chronicle system. There might be conversations on how to make it work with other systems as well.