Sounds like a god game. How strong is the player's ship? Decked out with superweapons (compared to modern stuff)? Capable of orbital bombardment? Or is it just a trade cog with a fancy FTL drive?
That being said, starship drives typically qualify as superweapons given how volatile the reactors tend to be on these things. It's basically a manned ICBM.
Here's another attempt at the radio magic system. This time each magic category is explained in a spoiler, for clarity.
The categories are intended to be less of a "here's this element, here's that element, etc" and more "this is a natural extension of the way magic works," sort of like real technology.
In magic, your level in the corresponding category of magic determines the number of sides on your die.
Lv. 0 uses a d4
Lv. 1 uses a d6
Lv. 2 uses a d8
Lv. 3 uses a d10
Lv. 4 uses a d12
At Lv. 5 and up, you get extra dice to roll. You can use these on the same action or you can split your actions.
Lv. 5 gets a d12 and a d6
Lv. 6 gets a d12 and a d8
Lv. 7 gets a d12 and a d10
Lv. 8 gets 2d12
...and so on.
All magical actions require a communication roll into the area that you are planning to cast the spell. The amount of power at your disposal depends on the amount of volume you control, but the more spread out your signal, the more difficult it is to overcome noise. You must roll higher than the
Noise Threshold.
Noise threshold increases based on distance:
+0 within touch distance
+1 within a meter
+2 within ~5 meters
+3 within ~25 meters
+4 within ~100 meters
+5 within ~300 meters
+6 within ~500 meters
+7 within ~700 meters
+8 within ~800 meters
+9 within ~900 meters
+10 within ~1km
and +1 for every 100m past that.
The standard noise threshold is 1 (meaning that a 2+ passes), but the further you get, the more spread out your signal becomes. To counteract this, you can
amplify your signal -- each doubling grants a +1. You can also focus your signal, and each halving of the focus area grants +1. This is referred to as
Gain. However, increasing your gain narrows your beam, and accordingly reduces the power.
Typically speaking, amplification will damage your equipment. Gain is cheaper--but dilutes your power. You also have the time-tested strategy of moving closer, increasing your chance to hit.
If multiple people try to cast a spell on the same volume of mist, only the loudest signal will win. This kind of jamming, in addition to noise sources and metal objects reflecting the signal, all increase the effective threshold that you need to pass.
Wavecraft refers to the application of a Wavegear to cast spells. Typically speaking, a wavegear is like a staff or a gun, and consists of a signal input, an encoder circuit, a crystal holding a spell engram, and an antenna to transmit the encoded signal.
A wavegear can provide gain and amplification. The amplification level is stated in front of the wavegear, while the minimum/maximum gain setting is written in brackets after, like so: +1 Celestial Arquebus [+2=>+4]
The skill involved in wavecraft is not in the use of wavegears, since most people can use one. The skill comes in the programming: To encode a spell into a wavegear's output, you must create a memory map of the signal and store it in a crystal, usually by operating the wavegear in reverse. The engram crystal inside a wavegear is able to copy spells provided it receives a strong enough signal, but the capabilities of an engram crystal are very specific to the crystal itself and it is thus represented separately from the wavegear itself, like the red engram crystal shown after the wavegear itself:
Equipment:
+1 Celestial Arquebus [+2=>+4] (Avalanche-type) (Reverse Protection: 3)
ENGRAM: Lv3+1 Red Resonator (10/10)
The level of an engram crystal determines its plasticity, that is, the level is equal to the internal noise threshold of the crystal; any lower and the crystal won't absorb your spell. Degree of success matters, as the level receives a non-permanent boost based on how much higher you rolled: +1 for every two points above the threshold.
Its durability depends on how much amplification your wavegear has: each point of amplification damages it, and all wavegears amplify the signal to some extent.
Engram crystals can be repaired through Artifice (see the respective spoiler).
Aircasting is the use of the penumbral mist itself as a medium for amplifying your signal. Technically one does not need an antenna--your nervous system acts as one. However, to project spells at long range you need to have some amount of gain, which your body can't provide.
To solve this, aircasters can form Mandalas through direct contact with the mist. A Mandala is a temporary antenna, a circular object whose size determines the level of focus. The Gain of Mandala is based on its total diameter, always one higher than the corresponding value in the Range Table for that distance.
To construct a Mandala, you must communicate to its farthest reaches. The noise threshold to form a Mandala is equal to the equivalent threshold for its diameter (not its radius).
Mandalas are both receiving constructs as well as transmitting constructs. While they can be used to cast all sorts of spells including observation, destruction, or healing, the same can be done in reverse. A Mandala's size counts as amplification in reverse, meaning that against another Magician, a Mandala is really just a fancy way of closing the gap without actually doing so.
Aircasters using their nervous system may amplify their spells by utilizing more than just their knuckles or palms to cast spells. Using the nerves in one's arm, hand, or even body, can provide a great amount of amplification, however if your natural die roll is below the amplification level, you take a Nullification Roll, rolled with your Aircasting die. The result of said roll determines the amount of your body that is left nonfunctioning until healed, up to the numerical value of amplification.
Neural Amplification Table:
+1: Whole hand/foot
+2: Both hands/feet
+3: All four hands/feet, or one whole arm
+4: Two arms or a leg
+5: Both legs
+6: Both legs and half your torso
+7: Everything but your head
+8: Everything.
Spiritseers can talk to spirits, self-propagating entities in the mist. Much debate surrounds whether or not these beings are self-aware. They are more than willing to interact with humans, but humans are unable to perceive them directly, requiring the use of magic to listen to the subtle murmurs of the mist.
What spiritseers do, then, is communicate with spirits and, on a higher level, craft new ones. Detecting a spirit is easy, since all spirits have Levels. A spiritseer will always detect spirits in the area whose levels are equal to or below his level, subtracting from the seer's effective level based on distance in the Range Table. A higher-level, or far away spirit can avoid detection during a turn if it rolls above the seer's effective level.
In addition to seeing them and understanding their speech, a spiritseer can communicate a spell to a spirit and have it recast the spell from its own position. This can happen in the same turn. Spirits can amplify the signal if the spiritseer can meet their demands, but the spirit itself will take damage. Over long periods of time a damaged spirit will eventually fade away, and so a spirit's requests are usually significant. If you renege on the settled conditions, it may come back to threaten your life.
Crafting a spirit is much more difficult than finding one, but a well-crafted spirit is much more loyal and can be tailor-fit to take your orders. A Construct is a spirit embedded within a body, but otherwise acts the same way as a spirit.
Crafting a spirit takes time and requires training, training which you may lack, being a new student and all. In general it involves increasing the level one at a time, passing a check each time and imparting some moral value regardless of success or fail. After failing once, the spirit is incompatible with further changes and is ready to take form.
Harmony refers to the principle of subconscious rhythms that guide human thought. Scholars have long observed that two people casting the same spell at once can project spells to further distances.
Effectively, this means that a synchronized signal can achieve free amplification: Every doubling confers a +1, so two people casting gives +1, four gives +2, and so on.
This method can be used with any form of magic. Even wavegears can be made to fire in sync. A Harmony Mage leads a spell-choir, a powerful instrument of wave amplification. They achieve this through music, a language so fundamental to the human psyche that song, and song alone, can trigger an Engram crystal to give off its signal without direct human intervention.
Harmony mages build Compositions out of one or more actions, a specific recipe of spells. A Composition must be successfully recited at least once to have its full effect, and to successfully recite, the Harmony Mage must roll his Harmony die, and all spellcasters in the composition must roll below that of the Harmony Mage.
A Composition uses only the Harmony Mage's roll, meaning that the constituent spellcasters are free to use another action in the same turn. However a spellcaster may only be a part of one Composition per turn.
Harmony Mages can also use the abilities of Resonance and Antiresonance. When casting a similar spell, the Harmony Mage can roll the Harmony die in addition to the turn's action and try to achieve resonance, adding +1 to both rolls.
Antiresonance is achieved by casting an opposite spell, such as a fire spell to a water spell. If successful, both spells suffer -1 to their rolls.
Ignition is the principle of a self-perpetuating spell. It is the core feature of the spirits and Mandalas, but it is actually a much more flexible concept overall.
Non-ignition spells are only active for a single turn. The mist can be self-configured to transmit a spell, but each mist particle only holds so much energy. To achieve lasting effect, the mist needs to be ordered to signal to signal, a fundamentally more complex operation.
The Ignition Mage concerns himself less with the content of the spells and more with Ignitions themselves, rote patterns memorized to perfection. Whereas a spiritseer crafting a spirit may copy an existing design, the Ignition Mage must apply an abstract type of Ignition onto a specific set of circumstances.
Ignitions are not limited, as the name implies, to self-destructive effects. They rather come in all magnitudes. Ignition magic covers the broad art of curses and enchantments. Indeed, a dancing sword need not be controlled by a spirit, but rather by a very specific set of orders programmed into the hilt.
Igniting a curse rolls the Ignition die. Based on the Ignition in question, the duration of your spell is determined by the degree of success over the Noise Threshold. See, for example, the following:
Curse of the Night Wind [1-5: Degree x 1 hours][6+: Permanent]
In the above case, rolling 1-5 will cause the spell to last 1-5 hours, depending on the degree of success over the Noise Threshold. Gaining a 6+ means the spell is permanent until an Ignition Mage casts a counterspell.
Ignitions, being self-propagating, may whiff at longer ranges but still take effect at shorter ranges, much like a flamethrower, unless the Ignition in question only affects mist in a certain condition, such as within a body or polymer.
Ignition Mages are integral to reversing the negative effects caused by overuse of magic, as disabled body parts are considered to be under a curse of source. Hence Ignition mages learn the following:
Restoration [1-infinity: Apply the Neural Amplification Table in reverse based on the Degrees of success, restoring area of your choosing]
Artifice is the craft of building physical objects using spirits, wavegears, and an integrated set of tools. It is a practical science, required to craft bodies, constructs, wavegears, and spiritgears from scratch. (A spiritgear is a spirit embodied in something other than mist, such as semiconductor circuitry).
When Artificing something, Artificers make all the rolls. Spirits designed for Artificing may perform rolls of their own, but low-level spirits are not usually suited for this task.
Artificers depend on blueprints. Blueprints require materials and a number of successful Artifice rolls. Each blueprint has a level plus a Masterwork threshold. To craft the weapon below, you must pass 2 Lv3 Artifice rolls by rolling above 3:
Lv3x2 Harpoon Gun (Masterwork: +3) (Requirements: Structure, Elastic Alloy)
If your degrees of success surpass the Masterwork threshold, a random bonus will be applied to the item, based on the degrees of success.
When crafting bodies, Artificers must craft body parts one at a time. A human body is an incredibly complex blueprint, and mothers typically spend years designing and perfecting the blueprints of their sons and daughters.
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Topic: Gaming Block (Game Discussion Thread) (Totally Not Roller's Block) (Read 417350 times)