Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Pavellius]

Here is where the players from Kingdom of Abaddon: An Evolving RTD may propose some rules for the game, and where new rules will be written. Right now I am limited on time, but feel free to propose some rules on the current topic. (Rules for magic & currency)

[Pancaek]

How about something like this: Magic gets divided by how you're trying to make it work.

On the fly spellcasting, eg. seeing a troll and just going "lightning bolt, lightning bolt, etc" is the simplest, fastest and most dangerous kind. You can just shoot fire from your fingertips and throw lightning around with abandon. The downside being that it would tire you out pretty quickly and if you roll bad, it backfires. badly. On the fly spellcasting should also be limited by the shools a certain mage knows. Ie. you can't raise the dead as a firemage.

Second would be prepared spellcasting. Where you do a ritual/incantation to produce the desired effect. Takes a long time, but can't backfire on you.

Then something like enchanting. Either passive enchantments on weapons/armor/trinkets, think flaming swords or a ring that produces light if you rub on it. And scrolls/those asian prayer slips. The maker basically performs a ritual/incantion by writing down a spell in magic script, which can then be activated at a later time by a keyword/phrase. Upside is that anyone with the keyword/phrase can use it, downside is that it has to be made in advance. Wizard's tips of the day: don't use common words to lock your scrolls. We all remember Red Johnson and his 30 scrolls of fireball that were locked by the word apple when he went to the marketplace. We had to pay for the fruit stall.


How's this sound? It would basically make it so that wizards/mages/whatever are less likely to just cast willy-nilly and promotes coming prepared.

[Pavellius]

How about something like this: Magic gets divided by how you're trying to make it work.

On the fly spellcasting, eg. seeing a troll and just going "lightning bolt, lightning bolt, etc" is the simplest, fastest and most dangerous kind. You can just shoot fire from your fingertips and throw lightning around with abandon. The downside being that it would tire you out pretty quickly and if you roll bad, it backfires. badly. On the fly spellcasting should also be limited by the shools a certain mage knows. Ie. you can't raise the dead as a firemage.

I like it. Speaking of that: what type of wizard are you? I assume you are a firemage from your Character Sheet, is this correct?

Second would be prepared spellcasting. Where you do a ritual/incantation to produce the desired effect. Takes a long time, but can't backfire on you.

Then something like enchanting. Either passive enchantments on weapons/armor/trinkets, think flaming swords or a ring that produces light if you rub on it. And scrolls/those asian prayer slips. The maker basically performs a ritual/incantion by writing down a spell in magic script, which can then be activated at a later time by a keyword/phrase. Upside is that anyone with the keyword/phrase can use it, downside is that it has to be made in advance. Wizard's tips of the day: don't use common words to lock your scrolls. We all remember Red Johnson and his 30 scrolls of fireball that were locked by the word apple when he went to the marketplace. We had to pay for the fruit stall.

So "prepared spellcasting" would imbed the spell in your mind as a "one-shot" that you could use later, at a moments notice? Seems you take your inspirations from D&D.
Secondly, if I understand correctly, enchanting a weapon/making a scroll would have to be a ritual. I like how you have a "passcode" for using a scroll. However, the only advantage of scrolls is that it allows a wizard to cast spells out of his element, or prepare more spells once he has reached his "mental limit." Therefore, making a scroll would have to be harder than pre-preparing a spell. Capische?

[Pancaek]

I guess he is. I hadn't thought about it, but firemage just seems to fit.

And prepared spellcasting isn't quite that. It's more "oh, I want to cast a fireball. Let me rattle of this incantation/rhyme/draw a circle on the ground and meditate/etc while there's a source of fire near me." Not actually one shots that you store up. I feel like that would make scrolls pretty useless for mages.

[Nidilap]

Are the Five Schools of Magic present?

Conjuration: This school lets you summon beasts, demons, and other fun stuff.

Alteration: This school allows you to alter physical entities to your bidding. Stuff like water breathing, oak flesh, paralysis.

Destruction: in DnD, it's called Evocation. You make fireballs, lightning, flames, that kinda wizardy canon stuff.

Illusion: this school allows you to play with the psyches of the NPCs themselves. Force them to fight one another, or to follow you into battle for some time. Maybe disguise yourself in a veil of magical lies?

Restoration: This school is all about keeping you and your friends alive. Heals, revive, buffs, that good stuff.

[Pancaek]

We should probably go with a "schools of magic" system like Nidilap said. sort of broadens what every mage is able to do.

[Pavellius]

Hmm.. I like it. But I think a mage should "specialize" in a certain aspect of a school, so that a healer cannot also do necromancy as easily, or say, a puppy conjurer cannot also summon demons (as easily). Pancaek could specialize in fire, and although he could try, it would be much harder for him to shoot lightning (a ritual would be pretty much required). It would also be extremely hard for him to enchant/enscribe a blizzard rune, as that is a tougher spell-type. And nothing short of a miracle would allow him to cast spells of another school.

[blazing glory]

Maybe we could have sub schools where mage's can specialize in something.

For example:

Destruction: Fire, lightning, water, earth, etc etc.

Mage's who go into a sub school are much more powerful then those who don't but have a great deal of difficulty using other sub schools.

[Pavellius]

Yet another possibility.

There is another subject that has come up:Currency
What do Abaddonians (or whatever they call each other) use as cash.
It could be anything: gold coins, small engraved gems, or maybe something as pointless and mundane as green pieces of paper.\
The rules for magic can be debated side-by-side w/ this.
Toodleloo

[Nidilap]

What about DF rules?

1 [region name here] Copper Coin = 1☼
1 [same] Silver Coin = 5☼
1 [yetagain] Gold Coin = 15☼

If we go to certain regions, a certain other region's coin would be worth more or less, depending on distance of regions. Say, Angolton of the West has a Gold Coin of 15☼ in its borders. Ire Island and Frankia, it would be 10☼. But in Far East Rushia it be 20☼. Carrying too much cash would weigh you down and attract rogues. Eh?

[blazing glory]

What about DF rules?

1 [region name here] Copper Coin = 1☼
1 [same] Silver Coin = 5☼
1 [yetagain] Gold Coin = 15☼

If we go to certain regions, a certain other region's coin would be worth more or less, depending on distance of regions. Say, Angolton of the West has a Gold Coin of 15☼ in its borders. Ire Island and Frankia, it would be 10☼. But in Far East Rushia it be 20☼. Carrying too much cash would weigh you down and attract rogues. Eh?

Feel's like it could get complex, especially if you account for foreigners.

On the subject of magic, we will also have to deal with who become's a mage, can anyone become a mage with training or can only a gifted few become mages?

[Pancaek]

Why not just go with 10 copper coins = 1 silver coin
and 10 silver coins is 1 gold coin?

as for

On the subject of magic, we will also have to deal with who become's a mage, can anyone become a mage with training or can only a gifted few become mages?

Why not do it the discworld way? The eight son of an eight son is automatically a wizard, and any children born of wizards are also wizards. Swap genders for witches. Since wizards tend not to have families this would keep the amount of naturally gifted people low, and you could add people who got granted their powers by gods/dieites/selling their soul etc without ending up with an obscene amount of magic users.

as for

Hmm.. I like it. But I think a mage should "specialize" in a certain aspect of a school, so that a healer cannot also do necromancy as easily, or say, a puppy conjurer cannot also summon demons (as easily). Pancaek could specialize in fire, and although he could try, it would be much harder for him to shoot lightning (a ritual would be pretty much required). It would also be extremely hard for him to enchant/enscribe a blizzard rune, as that is a tougher spell-type. And nothing short of a miracle would allow him to cast spells of another school.

Perhaps we let someone choose their natural talent, and allow them one or two schools that they can study, to allow for enchanting and summoning. For example, say my natural talent is fire. This would give me powers over fire that I can use in every way. I also study the force school, which allows me to use rituals for telekinesis and to enchant my staff to give a harder whallop.

We do have to find a way to not go too narrow with our schools though. Or you get things like one school that has way more options than another school.

[Cheesecake]

I agree with the simple coin system. The DF one will only get more complex as the game goes on.

I also agree with the discworld way of creating wizards. But if the number of wizards are that low, I don't think we can have an academy of magic or the sort. Most wizards would have to be an apprentice or learn on his own.

For schools of magic, my proposals:

Creation (Summoning, Healing, Conjuring, Necromancy)

Destruction (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water) (Special stuff like lightning or something not directly of the four elements would be harder to do, like in Avatar where Princess Azula and General Iroh are the only few who can shoot lightning.)

Divine (Scrying, Divining, Subjugation (mind-control))

Arcane (Enchanting, Alchemy, Scribing (scroll-making))

Basically you can have at most two schools of magic, and you can't choose polar opposites, for example: Creation (Healing) and Destruction (Fire). You can have Arcane + Destruction or Arcane + Creation but no Arcane + Divine.

[Pancaek]

Even with a low number of wizards, you'd still have enough to fill one academy in the capital, methinks. I just favor a low number of people able to do magic. That way they get great powers but low numbers. And mind you, this is just naturally gifted people that would follow those rules. I'm sure our gm will come up with all sorts of ways for someone to gain magic.

As for the schools, I'm not so sure about arcane. I always imagine alchemy as something dependant on the ingredients, not the user. As for scribing and enchant ing, I'd say every mage should be able to do those for his own shools, a passive skill if you wil. otherwise we either get enchanters/scribes who can only enhant/scroll one school, or who get to enchant/scroll from all schools.

[Nidilap]

So Magic is more strange to this world... so shouldn't wizards and witches be a rarity, maybe Insighting some distrust, or even lynching in extreme cases?