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[HmH]

Staggering Wizards RTD

Spoiler: Introduction (click to show/hide)

All of you are wizards, masters of the arcane, scholars of the unknown. You are also squishy, nerdy, unused to long walks outdoors and very, very susceptible to alcohol. You haven't been wizards for long, though: until tonight, you were mere apprentices, slaves to your teachers, bound by traditional vows of poverty, chastity and temperance. Once you have graduated, it was all worth it: you were finally free to drink yourselves to death, whore around and accumulate untold riches with your thaumaturgic skills!

However, all things have their price. When the morning comes, you wake up in Hell. Well, technically, you wake up in various places around the city, some of them good, some bad, some merely unfamiliar to you - but you have terrible headaches which get even worse the moment you see bright light or hear loud noises. If this isn't Hell, you think, then it is a very precise rendition. Oh, and you also can't remember what happened last night that put you into this position, so there's the issue of that, too.

Shall you go back to the straight and narrow, or would you rather embrace the path of luxurious depravity? What have you done last night, and do you even want to know? Most importantly, how to cure these headaches? These are the questions this game will place before you. Answer them - or don't. It's not like that vengeful husband will care when he finally tracks you down.

Spoiler: Rolls and Magnitude (click to show/hide)

Disclaimer: the inspiration for this idea was taken from this post by IronyOwl.

Each action has Levels of Magnitude. Most mundane actions start with Level 1. The levels of magnitude change depending on your rolls.

Rolls:
1: Epic Fail. Bad consequences* on the current Level.
2: Fail. No consequences.
3: Incomplete Success. Good consequences one Level lower than your current Level.
4: Success. Good consequences on your current Level.
5: Perfect Success. Good consequences one Level higher than your current Level.
6+: Unforeseen Consequences. Current Level raises by (Roll-5); the dice are rolled once more on that Level of Magnitude. For example, a Level 1 action rolling a 7 will be rolled for again on a Level 3.

Bonuses to rolls are available through various means, but will only apply to the known levels of the skill. For example, if you are a Competent Fire Mage and get a Rod of Fire Control with a +1 to casting, you will only have that bonus on Levels 3 and lower.

Levels of Magnitude:
Level 0: Substandard Mundane. Examples of a personal attack and an AoE knockdown Air spell: prodding a dog's side with your boot, summoning a light breeze.
Level 1: Standard Mundane. Examples: knocking a dog off its feet, summoning a gust of wind that throws things into people's faces.
Level 2: Substandard Supernatural. Examples: kicking a dog into a wall, summoning a strong gust of wind that throws everyone off balance.
Level 3: Standard Supernatural. Examples: kicking a dog through a wall, summoning a strong gust of wind that knocks everyone down.
Level 4: Substandard Miraculous. Examples: kicking a human through a wall, summoning a windstorm that throws people into walls.
Level 5: Standard Miraculous. Examples: kicking an ogre through a wall, summoning a windstorm that throws people through walls.
Level 6: Divine. Examples: kicking a dragon through a wall, summoning a tornado that demolishes nearby buildings.

* In this game, I will try and make sure the [1]'s consequences don't influence the caster directly, so as to not scare people away from higher-level spells and because a world in which people's messing-up results in said people getting punished gives the players no potential for drama.
For example, take a hypothetical wizard inside a warehouse casting a Level 3 Fire spell on a strong monster and rolling a [1]. Does he set his ass on fire? In my game, he doesn't: the monster is powerful enough to kill him already, and him setting his ass on fire will have no impact on the story. Instead, he sets the warehouse on fire, Harry Dresden-style, which opens a whole new set of opportunities to kill the monster, but attracts unwanted attention.

Spoiler: Wounds and Healing (click to show/hide)

Disclaimer: the wound system is inspired by Gatleos's GWSWS, but modified heavily so as to work with my system.

By default, every player has 100 HP. The amount of HP can be changed by the character's Trait or, later in the game, with Flesh Magic.

All attacks have a set Level of Wounds they inflict at their normal Magnitude Level. As such, a Novice Swordsman attacking with a mundane Broadsword will inflict a Level 2 wound, while a Novice Fire Mage exploding his enemy's forehead with a Skin Combustion spell(Level 2 Spell, -1 to hit, +1 Wound Level) will inflict a Level 3 Wound.

Levels of Wounds:
Level 1: [-10 HP per turn], Level 0 Healing is enough.
Level 2: [-20 HP per turn], 1 Level of Healing required.
Level 3: [-30 HP per turn], 2 Levels of Healing required.
Level 4: [-40 HP per turn], 3 Levels of Healing required.
Level 5: [-50 HP per turn], 4 Levels of Healing required.
Level 6+: Instant Death.

Note 1: Levels of Healing stack. As such, if two people perform a Level 1 Healing on someone with a Level 3 Wound, their target's wound will be mended.

Note 2: Each Level of Healing not used to mend wounds heals 40 HP. As such, if a Level 4 Healing is succesfully performed on someone with a Level 3 Wound, 80 HP are restored to the recipient. The only exception is Level 0 Healing: it does not restore one's HP.

Note 3: Level 0 Healing is natural regeneration that occurs automatically every turn. Level 1 Healing is a default healing action performed by a non-specialist. Level 2+ Healing requires a Flesh Magic spell, which, except for specific spells, give the number of Healing Levels equal to their Magnitude, or an application of the Healing skill, which gives double its Magnitude Level in Healing.

Note 4: Apprentices like yourselves do not have knowledge of the Healing skill - or any other skills - at the beginning of the game. You'll have to learn it yourselves. Moreso, Healing requires two or three rolls(Diagnose, Craft Healing Item, Apply Healing Item if the crafting roll turned out bad) which can be brought to one if you have the healing item in question.

Spoiler: Skill Levels (click to show/hide)

Each skill level defines the highest Magnitude Level that you can achieve with your first roll. As such, there are six levels of skill that one can achieve:

Dabbling: Level 0
Novice: Level 1
Apprentice: Level 2
Competent: Level 3
Expert: Level 4
Master: Level 5

You advance your Skill Level by succeeding in actions above your current Level; in other words, you have to roll either a [5] or a [6][4] a set amount of times to advance one Level.

To achieve a new Skill Level, you need an amount of successes equal to the desired Magnitude Level: for example, to become an Apprentice, you need to succeed at two Level 2 actions, and to become Competent, you need to succeed at three Level 3 actions.
Note that it is not necessary to be an Apprentice to become Competent; the only thing that matters is the amount of times you succeeded on a certain Magnitude Level.

Spoiler: Schools of Magic (click to show/hide)

Fire Magic: this school of magic governs the combustion of matter and manipulation of the plasma that the flames consist of. If you see something and there is enough air around it, it usually can be combusted with Fire Magic; some of the widely-known exceptions are water, gold and most types of stone.
Adepts of Fire can use its power not only to set things on fire, but also to transmute matter: for example, even a simple combustion spell cast on iron can turn it to rust, and when air itself is subject to combustion, acrid brown vapors appear in its place. Fire wizards usually mention such unusual behavior in the spellbooks they write, so the adept, undoubtedly, has come across many more of these combinations.

Water Magic: this school of magic governs the manipulation of water and water-based solutions. Two well-known cantrips of this school are drenching someone in water and evaporating a potion so that it may be inhaled.
Aside from the obvious uses such as the ones listed above, Water Magic is particularly handy as a weaker, more controlled alternative to Fire Magic: as evidenced by experiments of countless Water wizards, magic-assisted freezing of boiling water emits enough heat to melt said water's weight in copper.

Air Magic: this school of magic was originally devoted to controlling wind and weather, but with time it has spread out to govern all things airborne. Need lightning to strike down your foes? Talk to an Air mage. Want air to concentrate in a certain spot so that fires in it burn twice as powerful? Air Magic can do that. Or do you wish to drop an anvil upon someone's head? Air Magic has a spell for that, too.
The expansiveness of Air Magic has become both a burden and a boon for its adepts: their understanding of magic is deeper than that other mages have, but they also have gained poor eyesight from years of intense studying.

Earth Magic: this is the school of magic you encounter every day in the form of houses, castles, walls and furniture. It is unknown how any civilization without magic would have such things as cities; historical theorists speculate that these civilizations would either build their houses out of wood and be vulnerable to gigantic fires burning down entire cities, or be forced to live in underground hive-like structures like dwarves do. Earth Magic is a keystone of the modern civilization, and scholars of the Earth are welcomed with open arms everywhere they go.
This school of magic is, however, not only known for its city-building capabilities; its adepts can find ores deep underground, fracture rock and make boulders roll the way they wish, and shape metals into different forms. An Earth mage can as easily demolish a wall as they can raise it. In combat, Earth mages are well-known for crushing their enemies with boulders and penetrating them with spikes.

Flesh Magic: this school of magic governs alterations in living matter. If you ever lose a limb or simply want a bigger, stronger one, Flesh wizards are the people you need.
An unfortunate side effect of the Flesh Magic is that when its adepts fumble, they fumble spectacularly. Tentacles growing out of someone's arse is more or less the staple of a miscast in a commoner's mind; while usually reversible, such things attract a lot of unwanted attention whenever they happen.

Soul Magic: this school governs the art of imbuing inanimate objects with souls. Its most common use is creation of golems and undead to perform simple labor; nearly every mining or lumberjacking operation has a Soul mage controlling the golems or undead who pump out the water from the shafts or haul the chopped-down trees back to camp. Unfortunately, artificial souls used in golem creation are too primitive to allow complex reasoning and thus are incapable of problem-solving or improvising.
Which is an issue that brings us to the less cherished aspect of the Soul Magic: the power to control and capture the living beings' souls. It is taboo to tamper with a non-artificial soul, no matter that soul's nature: it is just as illegal to soul-trap a rat or a manticore as it is to do the same to a human of noble blood. Alteration of a living being's soul, possession of a non-artificial soul and transmission of a soul between two bodies are all crimes punishable by death, but even this doesn't stop liches, body-snatchers and other renegade Soul mages from practicing their dark arts.

Spoiler: Character Sheet (click to show/hide)

Name:
Gender:
Bio: (a short description of your character: their behaviorial quirks, how they look, et cetera, et cetera. Doesn't matter unless you want your character to be envisioned in a certain way.)
Suppressed Desire: (something your character really wants, but was forced to deny themselves during the apprenticeship. Much more important than Bio.)
Apprentice Skill:
Novice Skill:
Trait: (an equal amount of bonuses and penalties. Proficiency in magic cannot be affected by Traits. HP can be altered by traits 20 HP at a time. NOTE: if your penalty/bonus are bigger than -2 or +2, the denizens of the city will accuse you of being older than you look, which implies that you are guilty of transferring your soul between bodies. Minmax at your own peril.)
Inventory: (everything you want your character to have at the beginning of the night. Think clothes, spellbooks, glasses for Air mages, a wand if you feel like it. Note than not all of your belongings will make it through the wild night of debauchery, so your starting items will slightly differ from the inventory in the charsheet.)

Players:
1. dermonster - Derm
2. Spinal_Taper - Mehrik
3. Caerwyn - Murkal
4. Dwarmin - Del Vundi
5. IronyOwl - Vira
6. Orb - Ardimis Maximus
7. Talarion - Nathair Siliar
8. anailater - Bruce Grothinime

Waitlist:
1. Tiruin - Reilin Valinus
2. Theifoftreams - Artr Arctus

[Dermonster]

Name: Derm (Who woulda thunk)
Gender: Male
Bio: A new wizard, he scoffs at the human form and desires to surpass its current limitations. He took to jogging during his apprenticeship. and is a little faster and healthier than his comrades.
Suppressed Desire: Wants to ascend to a higher state of existence. (EX: Become genetically perfect, and probably ageless in the process.)
Apprentice Skill: Flesh Magic
Novice Skill: Water magic.
Trait:-2 to fisticuffs, +1 to movement, +20 health.
Inventory: Robe of +5 Swag, Spiffy hat. Book entitled 'Guide to the alteration of chromosomes, By R.M.' Ancestral dagger made of magically sensitive metal.

[Spinal_Taper]

Reserve me a spot please.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name:Mehrik
Gender:Male
Bio: Narrow, brown eyes, one of which is obscured by a bad-ass eyepatch. He doesn't need it, he wears it for intimidation purposes. He prefers tighter clothes that allow freedom of movement. He has a generic dark past, and acts generically witty because of it.
Suppressed Desire: Generic vengeance
Apprentice Skill:Fire
Novice Skill:Flesh
Traits:
Dedicated: +1 will
Bull-Headed: -1 negotiations
Stealthy: +1 sneaking
Slender: -1 wrestling

Inventory:
Short sword
Robes
Trousers
Flesh Spellbook
A typical dark past
Bad-ass Eyepatch

[Caerwyn]

Name: Murkal
Gender: Male
Bio: Murkal has the attire, and attitude of a beggar. He wears raggedy clothes, and is more than willing to do a dirty deed for a quick coin.
Suppressed Desire: The ability to control the rules of the universe. He wishes to bend things to his will, do the impossible and tear down any barriers in his way.
Apprentice Skill: Air Magic
Novice Skill: Soul Magic
Trait: Murkal is a pretty calm dude.
Magiaka Extraordinaire: Murkal has a certain affinity for magical gear. Whether it be rings, stones, swords, armor or twigs, he has easier times than most enchanting them, potentially to very lethal levels. He can imbue magic, temporary or permanent, into any such sort of usable object. Potions ahoy! +2 to Enchanting.
Rogue Golems: Sometimes, when Murkal creates a golem, it will go rogue, potentially injuring, or killing, anybody nearby. They can also develop a sort of intelligence, and use this to extract vengeance on all living creatures.
Inventory: Well-made, yet raggedy clothing. A few coins, and a book labelled "Advanced Golemistry for the Apprentice Wizard." His comfy, slightly-enchanted (Just to keep them unscratched and on his face) glasses...Oh, and a bottle full of very fine spirits.

[Dwarmin]

Name: Del Vundi
Gender: Male
Bio: Del looks to be a medium height male, with bushy brown hair and blue eyes. He seems fairly well travelled-a heavy green cloak and hood covers his fit body, and he carries a roughly mended wooden hilt sword hung on his left hip, and a fiddle on his back. Has all the looks of a vagabond traveler.

Personality wise, He seems to enjoy debate and wordplay-one could say he has a problem with talking too much, and not noticing his surroundings. Del is also something of a charmer-he always seem to have a flower and a song for a pretty lady.

Suppressed Desire: Love
Apprentice Skill: Earth Magic
Novice Skill: Instrument (Fiddle)

Trait:
Charming/+1 Diplomacy
Foolhardy/-1 Perception

Inventory:
Heavy Cloak with Green Hood, open throated white shirt, thick leather pants, high boots with wooden buckles, tri-corner hat.
Old Sword on hip
Rucksack
-Half Eaten Loaf of bread
-Empty Waterskin
Runed Fiddle and Bow (Del uses is much like a wand would be as a magic focus, but with a more effort, and dramatic effect)

[IronyOwl]

Name: Vira
Gender: Female
Bio: A young witch leaning more towards outright necromancy. She's ambitious but cautious, good traits to have given Soul Magic's limitless potential for both weal and woe.
Suppressed Desire: Servants
Apprentice Skill: Soul Magic
Novice Skill: Flesh Magic
Trait: +40 HP, -2 Grappling
Inventory: Witch Dress, Witch Hat, Gnarled Staff, Black Grimoire of Unpleasant Things, Medical Supplies

[Orb]

Name: Ardimis Maximus
Gender: Male
Bio: Ardimis had always wanted to be a hero. The guy who slays the dragon, frees the town, and has his statue erected in the town plaza. The guy who drinks alcohol all night in the town bar, forms a party that morning, and slays ultimate evil by afternoon, while still under a buzz. He wanted to be that guy.

Unfortunately, he's a little...off. He doesn't always think things through. Old lady's cat in the tree? Burn the tree down. Rat problem? Burn the house down. Insect problem? Burn the field down.
Suppressed Desire: Ardimis wants to be the greatest hero of all, to be admired by all the peasant folk in the land. He wants to slay the biggest dragons, meet with the greatest kings, and overall be known throughout the world for his exploits.
Apprentice Skill: Fire Magic
Novice Skill: Earth Magic
Trait: Heroic: When Ardimis is below 50 HP, he becomes inspired and filled with unnatural determination. He gets a +1 to all rolls that don't involve magic
Socially Oblivious: Ardimis always talks in a low, booming voice, even while inside a closed area. His method of speech is ridiculous and usually tries to emulate stereotypical heroes. "Fear not citizen, Ardimis has come to save the day!" -1 to interaction with NPCs.
Inventory: Blue Cape, Slightly Burnt Clothing. A Bag of Charcoal for Fire Magic.

[Talarion]

Would like to reserve a place.

Spoiler: Changed Character (click to show/hide)

Name: Nathair Siliar
Gender: Male
Bio: Nathair is a young-ish wizard, with dark-coloured hair, with a calm personality. He is the typical picture of a whoring, alcoholic wizard, though his does try to keep control of himself and keep a suave front up. He has always had a fascination with golems and Soul Magic, and thus has made it in his interests to study the two things.
Suppressed Desire: Power, Wealth, Social Standing.
Apprentice Skill: Earth Magic
Novice Skill: Water Magic
Trait: Charismatic|Slow
Crafter|Weak
Inventory: Dark gray/black coloured robes with green highlights, a couple of coins, and a toolkit.

[anailater]

Reserve please on kindle will do it in morning, will places be decided by speed or quality?

Or i could ignore myself and do it anyway.

Name: Bruce Grothinime
Gender: Male
Bio: Wears glasses, younger than he looks, lost his love when pushed towards magic though he dose love magic too.
Desire: his lost true love.
Apprentice Skill: Fire magic
Novice Skill: Air magic
Traits:
Potty mouth: -1 to speech
Stealthy: +1 to stealth
Grey haired: -1 with the ladies
Agile: +1 to movement rolls
Not street smart: - 1 to intuitionish rolls.
Book smart: +1 to intellectish rolls
Inventory:
Clothes(Robes)
House keys
Unkown address
Frying pan

[Tiruin]

FFF-

8 reserves already?!

IN//WAITLIST//RESERVE

Until ~5 hours later for mine sheet.

[Caellath]

Probably watching.

[HmH]

Hmm. Going to point out a couple issues before I finalize your choices:

1) Caerwyn, your choice is not overpowered: there are very few Luck-based actions. The only reason the characters get a 1/6 chance to fumble every action is because they're drunk and hungover. Your bonus will affect your gambling, choosing where to go and other little ways in which gods may help you out, but not much else.

2) I have counted 6 characters with Fire Magic, 3 with Earth Magic and 1 with Air Magic, none with Water Magic.
I'd like to mention that Fire is good for one thing and one thing only: burning things. Meanwhile, Water can be used to heat things, freeze things, evaporate things, drown things, make things not-drown, et cetera: it's weaker than Fire for the purposes of murderating one's neighbour, but it can also be used for many other problems that Fire is incapable of solving.
Is everyone here absolutely sure about their choice of Fire over Water? I care about it because, frankly, having to describe Fire spells all the time would suck.

3) Four people have penalties to diplomacy and persuasion rolls. Unlike other games, Staggering Wizards will use diplomacy rolls that will save your asses.
If you are caught committing a crime, you will have to either kill all witnesses, which is noisy, bothersome and attracts attention, or persuade them to be silent. When you trade, the prices will depend on your Speechcraft. Getting away with what you did during the Graduation Night will require a bit of persuading unless you enjoy half the city gossiping about you. If you are found hanging from some house's window by your fingers, without your pants, and a couple kids see you, you'll need to explain why they must remain silent.
There are lots of skills you can dump without a second thought in this game. Speechcraft is not one of them.

[Dermonster]

I suppose if it really matters I can switch to water.

*Thinks*

Yeah, actually I can think of a few ways that could go really well. I'll switch.

[Orb]

I can also switch around my character later today. I just thought the idea of a wizard trying to be a superhero, but only ends up burning everything, had the potential to be hilarious.

Yah, I'll switch it up. I have a few ideas already. Just give me about 10 hours to sleep. 

[Spinal_Taper]

I can change mine up as well. Are glasses neccesary if air is your novice skill?