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Gaming Outpost Discussions » Tag: magic - Recent Topics http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/tags/magic Gaming Outpost Discussions » Tag: magic - Recent Topics en-US Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:04:03 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/search.php WilliamTWodium on "Riddle Me Hiss: Paul soldiers on" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/riddle-me-hiss-paul-soldiers-on#post-6354 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:19:01 +0000 WilliamTWodium 6354@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ Once his long-overdue play summary is finished and posted, this thread will continue Paul's game from <a href="http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/omega-academy">Omega Academy</a>. He'll be writing it, or at least most of it, but I've gone ahead and saved him the trouble of starting the thread for his new world. When his story reaches the point of his demise at the tentacles of a sentient cephalopod of mysterious origins, he'll link to this thread and continue the story here. Tadeusz on "World: Magica Materia Manifold" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/world-magica-materia-manifold#post-23575 Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:33:57 +0000 Tadeusz 23575@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ On the Isle of the Dawn, there has been a steady stream of magic users doing many things. And as time passed, the skills of those users increased. When any of the Ten Cities came up with a better way of doing things, a way that increased the power, wealth, and prestige of a city, everyone else joined in, or that recalcitrant city got taken over. There were times when certain classes of people stood in the way of Progress, when some nobles thought that because they were nobles they knew better than the common sort, or some who clung to ancient rights that limited their military service, but in the comptetive swirl of the Isle, such did not last long. So too, corruption and weakness were purged. Being a ruler in this land was always a matter of walking a high wire in a high wind that could change without notice. It bred tough men and women with flexible souls, and hardnosed survival skills and a deep understanding of how cities work. Waves of change washed over the Isle as the centuries rolled on. And as it did, schools sprouted, and companies were formed, and the understanding of magic became both deeper and more widely practised. Until finally Newman the Wizard summoned the first spirit bound to matter. It was a dumb creature, hardly brighter than a rat, but it could move matter in a simple trained pattern tirelessly. Newman used it to chop wood for his wood stove when he could not be bothered to summon a fire spirit to warm his house. Over the next century, a great increase in wealth and health surprised everyone. Newman's spirit/matter creature soon had 'friends' and these friends were brighter than the first. But mostly they were stronger. A revolution in Materia Magica took place. Now everyone could own a wagon pulled by a spirit bound to the wagon. And then one day a clever wizard asked if you could make a Materia Magica that could summon other Materia Magica and could train them in their endeavours. It turned out that humans were needed. Unless the magic was done to an impossible degree of precision, you needed a human mind behind it. But, the wizard needed did not need to move the items or say the words himself. All that was needed was for him to observe and consent. So now one wizard could do the work of a hundred wizards who each could have done the work of a hundred wizards from a century ago. And it was thus easy for a singular King to rise above the others, and to impose his city's Ancient Rights of Man upon all for he grasped the benefit that this could have for war, and for the speed of war faster than anyone else. And so in a short campaign, he became the High King,a nd then passed his crown down to his son, and then grandson. Prices for everything fell through the floor. Now, everyone could have everything they needed and more for the amount of money a day's wage brought in. And then as the Laws of Economics say....when you double the amount of product you produce, you reduce the cost to make it by 20-30%. Prices went down again as the new Materia Magica Manifold Products Companies swung into high gear. People started losing jobs right and left. But their relatives had enough to pay for themselves and the out of work folk. And then the amount produced by the MMMPC's doubled again, and again until pretty much everything on the Isle of Dawn that was produced was produced by the MMMPC's. What had cost a hundred denarii now cost twelve denarii. But the only people with jobs were the wizards employed by the MMMPC's. At this point, the people went to the King, and asked him to take money from the MMMPC's. He smiled gently. "My people, the MMMPC's can easily move overseas and ship their products to us. Far better to have them here." "You could stop this." The king nodded in agreement and drew his sword. "I will." The crowd murmured in approval. "First you have to swear to me on bended knee that you forego your Rights under the Ancient Compact, what few you have left. You have to swear to me that you will obey my every word as if it came from an angel. You have to swear to do my bidding without dissent. And you have to swear to do the same for my sons and all that follow." "That's the ancient tyranny." One man objected. "Aye, sir, it is." The King replied. "But that is what you have asked for." "But we need food for our children." "Indeed you do. How did you get food before the coming of Newman's first Materia Magica?" The King asked and he pointed at someone in the checked red and blue of villager of the deep woods. "Well, we, not like the city folk, we hunted the great cats, and the deer, and gardenned." "Just so." "But our children." The People cried to the king, not understanding. He sighed. "You would have me steal food from him who earned it by his labor? Is that just?" And the people were abashed before their King. "Let us sit down to a feast for I know you are hungry." The king said, and so they sat down to a feast and made merry. And at the end, the King stood and motioned for silence. "Do you know how much this feast cost me?" The people shrugged, and some started to count the loaves of bread, and make estimates in their heads. "Nothing." The King said. The people stated at him in surprise. "I took some of the royal money for upkeep of the castle, and had my new 'servants' plant for me. I had them weed for me. I had them take the corn they grew, and give it to my chickens which I had also bought. They gathered for me. They ground the wheat into flour for me. And they cooked the meal as well for me and you." He clapped his hands, and spoke several words in a magic tongue which all recognized as magic use was as commonplace as owning a bed, and everyone had a bed even if they had to share it with a brother. And in walked and floated a dozen Materia Magica. "And now they will clean the table for me." The King smiled. "I see. But my King, I cannot afford a dozen...." "I am the King, and have a large staff, but you have but a house. You can afford to buy one, even if you must go into debt for it." And so it was that the people began to buy Materia Magica. And the prices for things went down even further. And then the most skilled wizards came to the King. "Mighty One." They said in their very expensive robes that even the King could not afford. "We bring a grave problem to you. There are many households, perhaps one in ten now, but growing in number, who strike at the economic strength of your kingdom." "Dear me,sounds serious." The King said. "Yes, O King, we of the MMMPC's fully support you, but these 'individual artisans' as they call themselves keep us from fully exploiting the marketplace." "I cannot get involved in the economic struggles by favoring one side or the other." The King replied. "If you're not able to keep up, then I'm sorry for you." The wizard huffed a bit. "O King, its not that we are unable to keep up, its that these people...they won't buy. We can offer them goods at cheaper rates than it would take to make them, and still they won't buy." "Cheaper than free?" The King said skeptically. "Now that I'd like to see." "But eventually their Materia Magica will grow homesick and tired from long labor and flee home. Our processes are more efficient, we have better Materia Magica that do the same job in half the time with much less strain on the spirit." the Wizard explained. "Ah, but can't they just get their Materia Magica to make another of its same kind, or slightly better if one of them comes up with something. And then release the tired one to its home?" The King asked looking puzzled. The Wizard bit his lip. "Well, in a way...but, y'see..." "Speak up, man, yes or no." The King said briskly. "We find ourselves with occasional over supplies of product." "You could give that away to the poor." The King replied. "But then the poor would have no incentive to work." The Wizard shot back. The King shrugged. "We need to sell this over supply." The Wizard pointed out. "Well, you could sell it for cheaper." The King replied. "I know you're making a bit on the sale. Not much. You're practically a commodity now. Everything is practically a commodity now. Razor thin margins of profit. Its a tough world." "You suggest we improve and sell for cheaper." The wizard said accepting the sympathy. "But that only pushes us further down the slope. Eventually we reach the point where one denarii can buy a week of ease, and our margin of profit is .01%. And then it will just keep getting worse and worse." "Yes?" The King said blankly looking at the Wizard to make a point. "We'll be poor!" The Wizard exploded. "Ah, not my problem." The King replied. The Wizard paused. "O King. We had thought of a good plan. Beneficial to all." "Ah, excellent, I so enjoy when someone else does my job for me. Leaves me more time to clip flowers in the royal gardens." The King said with a smile. The Wizard gritted his teeth and went on. "You see, many cannot afford the current rates. They get by on charity, and some do services for those with money." "Services?" The King asked innocently. "Yes, they hold doors, soothe horses, march in front of wizards holding banners high, that sort of thing." "M'kay. I used to have to hold a banner for my father when he was King and I was but a Page." The King reminisced. "I still remember dropping the banner on the head of the Merketi Ambassador because I fell asleep in court. Heh. My father whipped me with his belt until one arm got tired and then he shifted to the other arm. But it was worth it, the way that old windbag stopped his dreadfully long speeches ever after whenever I started to do a fake yawn." "Um, right, your Majesty. Just so, an honoured position. We had thought to make these positions permanent. We would take certain of the poor into our households and feed them and in return they would serve us, for a set number of years. You see?" The Wizard smiled hopefully. "Oh, yes, of course. Why didn't you say so? You want to reinstitute feudalism with yourselves as the Great Lords. And ingenious scheme if I do say so myself." The wizard waited until he could wait no longer. "Well, your majesty?" "What?" The King asked absently. "The ah 'feudalism'?" "Oh, that's against the Ancient Rights of Freemen that I have to sign before I take up the crown. Terribly sorry. No can do." "But...?" The wizard bleated. The King looked sadly at him. "I can't help you. The market is going to trim your power one way or the other." "We could stop you." The Wizard snarled. The King's eyes turned glacial. "I'd advise complete silence for a moment, sir wizard. I am not my grandfather who conquered this island in a year and a day, but I am perfectly capable of taking out a couple dozen Mechanique wizards with my war wizards and my enchanted sword, and chopping any survivors heads off in the courtyard." The wizard turned pale, and got down to his knees and began mumbling fervent apologies. After a minute the King walked over to him,a nd helped him up. "Trust me, my friend, I understand. You feel deserving because Fate smiled on you." "But..." began the wizard. "And you worked extraordinarily hard, and took great risks for it. But none of that is a promise from Fate that you will always succeed. But you thought it was." The wizard sagged a bit as he stood next to the king. And then he buried his face in his hands. "What should I do? No one can afford our products. You could make the workers not be able to buy our robots, and that would solve..." The King shook his head, and the Wizard wept a little. "You need to begin conceding the market to these village artisans. They will provide the food and the drink, the house and the clothing for each home." "And so we will have nothing. However, we can have a few good years selling Materia Magica to them. Maybe we can survive as research facilities for high level magics." "Or you can take your great wealth, and begin to buy up strips of land. This will push money back into the economy which will then come back to you. And those strips of land you can cover in marble, and call them roads. Toll roads." "But..." The wizard said and could not find an objection. "The ordinary village artisan could not do that job. Its too big. He's still free to take the dirt roads, but his wife will want to ride in smooth comfort. He will pay you money he gains from his Materia Magica which he gains because perhaps his tomatoes are the best on the street." The king outlined his idea. "And there are other jobs we could do. Not just an Island wide toll road superhighway. We could build giant ships to take our excess to other lands. And we could build a stairway to the Moon." The king nodded in agreement. After all the Moon was only a hundred miles up so the theorists said. "And I bet those druids who have been complaining about how we dump acids from making Materia Magic into the sea and poison the coral reef would be willing to pay for us to strain the ocean...which..." The wizard stared. "Straining the ocean of toxins is a big enough job to even faze you, I see." "Yes, yes it is. But you know, we could do it." "As it happens, the chief druid is in town this weekend. Why don't I set up a meeting for you with him." The King said with a smile. "Yeah, yeah, that'd be good." The MMMPC said with a faraway look as he imagined a glorious future. Tadeusz on "World: Two Stars" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/world-two-stars#post-15000 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:19:46 +0000 Tadeusz 15000@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ Talitheria is lighted by the Green Gem and by the Amethyst Fire that orbit the hollow world at lunar distances and at one half of one Astronomical Unit, respectively. Each gem is five hundred miles in diameter, and sheds light on the planet below, and into the great crevasses in which the Shadowthings breed. Light has a strange quality here, almost touchable, and the shadows are heavy, and the light is green, or purple, or some combination of them both. Honest yellow sunlight and bright blue skies do not exist. The sky is dim, and so is the world to human eyes. The locals are humanoid, and have excellent low light vision. The interior of Talitheria is a place of great darkness where malicious things that cannot stand any light live. But some of their half-breed children can venture up out of the Great Crevasses into the light when it is most dim. The residents of the surface, the Halfworld, bar their doors on these no moon nights, or on nights in winter when the gems are not visible for the clouds. Such things as live in the dark are the great Charcoal Dragons, wise and malicious and hungering, but the merest touch of gemlight is enough to turn them to ash. There are two prominent forms of magic used by the Halfworlders. Each relies on the light of its favored gem. The Purple Magi bind magic to ritual, and to staves, and find mana in things touched by the dawnlight of the purple gem, and not polluted by the green gem. The Green Men are willworkers who if standing in the light of their gem may work magic by will and the word. Great and changing alliances were formed, and then ripped asunder. Kings tried to master these magicians through history with Green Towers and Purple Havens, and the long distant Emperor of the Gold was able to force both Green and Purple to live together in harmony by means of hanging those who disagreed with his royal edicts and burning their towers and havens. In the time of the Emperor, great advances were made on creating mirrored towers that would reflect the light of the gems down into the crevasses to protect the people, and even to make possible an eventual invasion and war of extermination. But one of the mage traditions chose treachery and alliance with the Darkness rather than peaceful coexistence. To hear both tell the tale, it was the other that was guilty. However, most serious historians who also have extremem bravery or means of anonymity agree that it was the Green Men who betrayed humanity. However for a sage to say this in public is to sign his own death warrant as Green assassins are likely to find him. After the Emperor, there were successor states, but neither tradition ever allowed a king to get that powerful again. There were wars as coalitions of Green countries warred on coalitions of Purple countries. And there were times when the Purple or the Green gave over a country to its opposing tradition in order for a restive king to be punished and brought low. But finally, a thousand years had passed, and the Purple Magi succeeded in casting a great spell that cost the life of their greatest arch-magi. They put out the Green Fire. Suddenly, no Green Man could cast a spell. This had the effect of reducing the light hitting the world which hurt crops. It also made a number of settlements unviable as they had required the Green Light to hold back the shadowthings from a nearby crevasse. The Coalition of the Purple rode forth, and smashed the armies of the Green that still existed, and a few towns that revolted and hid behind their walls were reduced to smoking rubble. But the year long campaign served its purpose. All of the Halfworld was united at the Council of Purple. The Twenty Nations were joined, and the Purple Emperor was crowned. Meanwhile, the shadowthings had advanced and grown bold. Crops were having difficulty. However, without the constant harrassment and expenditure of a war, and due to new trade routes opening up, the Emperor was able to stave off starvation, get newer low light crops planted, and drive back the Shadowthings into the great crevasses. Decades passed, and the world stabilized. Much of the power was divided between the Purple Havens, the permanent bueraucracy, and the Emperor's Men. It was not a very good system, but it was markedly better than what had gone before. The Purple Empire was becoming a prosperous nation, and children in the cities learned their loyalty to the Emperor first rather than loyalty to the individual nation they came from. But Fifty Years to the day, the Green Gem flared to life again. Most people rather liked the rule of the Emperor. Some did not. The Purple Havens are faced with a problem. In order to restrain a rogue purple mage, a criminal, all one had to do was to take away their stave and their mana filled bits and pieces, and shut a cell door in their face. But the Green Men are not so easily disarmed. They are creating armies, funding bandits, and striking in the night at the weak ones. A soldier might stay on the wall of his city for the night only to come home in the morning to find his wife strangled in her bed by vines. Some of the Purple wish to try to appease the Green, to grant them some rights, although not equal status. Others note the rumors of the Green Men consorting with the Shadowthings, and the few historians brave enough to say the truth, and lucky enough to dodge Green assassins remind the people of Green treachery. And they note that the only way to really stop a Green Man is to kill him. You can't after all chain a man in complete darkness for if you do, he becomes a Shadowthing. And if a Green Man has the green light, he can cast magic. A number of the Purple might be somewhat sympathetic to the outraged cries of the Green, but they point to history, and they point to pragamatism. The world is objectively better off they claim now that their is an Emperor again. Its a hard claim to refute. The Green Men insist on their rights, and their vengeance. Tadeusz on "World of Political Jokes" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/world-of-political-jokes#post-20869 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:57:11 +0000 Tadeusz 20869@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ I'll start this one, anyone can add on... The verser woke from his transition to dark, empty streets through which a winter blast howled, only letting up to assault from another direction. Wandering the streets between the great towers, he came to one spot of light and warmth. Entering he found it was a polling place. He had arrived in some form of democracy or perhaps a republic. They tried to get him to vote, but he desisted saying he knew nothing of the men. That did not bother them. Being vague, he hinted he was not from the area. Still, nothing deterred, they pressed him. "Look, I'm from the Beyond, okay, pal." He snapped. "Not a big deal. Here in the Windy City, even the dead vote." With that the front doors opened, and the verser felt the hair on his neck rise even before he turned. Looking, he saw a line of zombies with bright No. 2 pencils freshly sharpenned queing up in the polling area. Plops of flesh falling off onto the linoleum flooring chased him outside where he saw the line of undead shamblers extended around the building. Following it, he took himself to the back, across an intersection, and up another street to a graveyard. In front of the graveyard, he saw a man with a thick book and flashlight to illumine the book, clad in a heavy trenchcoat against the wind. He was calling out names the verser realized as he got closer. After each name, he spoke. "You were a patron of the Machine in life, and now, in death, you still must pay your due. For one night, each year, your vote belongs to the Machine. Rise Undead-American, Rise!" The command roared out, and one more zombie was added to the file trudging to the polling place. The verser got to the sorceror, and jerked the book from his hand and summoned his own magic. Fire burst through the book, and suddenly the zombies turned about and began making their way back to their graves with a sense of relief in their postures. "Do you know what you've done?" "I've freed the dead from your chains, sorceror." The verser spat. "You've ensured the other side wins." "So...that's not bad." "They're demons and devils." "Everyone thinks his enemies in politics are kinda evil, or misguided." "No, these guys are literally Incarnate Demons." But the verser saw the look in the dark sorceror's eyes. Many who deal with such magics are not that sound mentally to begin with, and a couple decades of listening to the shadowy words of the dead has cracked better brains than this mans. "Perhaps. Or Perhaps you're just a dark sorceror who's crazy." "Do you think I like working for a Minor Evil Deity like the Machine that runs politics in the Windy City? I don't, but you gotta do what you gotta do. And the Machine is not as bad as the other guys." "Yeah, maybe I'm an idealist, but I'm looking for someone who is actually good to vote for. And in the meantime, the dead can rest, this business of voting is for the Republic of the Living." Tadeusz on "Magic Limits" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/magic-limits#post-20484 Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:49:29 +0000 Tadeusz 20484@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ Magic is wonderful because you can use it to create any kind of metaphor you need. The Wild Mages as most name them, or the Free Magi' as they name themselves, insist that there should be no barriers put upon a Person. Each seeks self-actualization, and frequently a Wild Mage may do some kindness or right some wrong, but according to the Guardians their mere existence is wrong. Wild Mages hate nothing so much as Guardians, and think of them, and their deity, the Horned Lord, as 'barbaric, savage, primitivist, hateful, vicious, unlearned, demonic...' It is only the Right of the Kings of the Forrests that stop the two sides from going to bloody war. Such a war would be relatively short because there are a lot more Guardians than Wild Mages. But a Guardian believes in certain roles and duties, and laws such that it is not his duty to maintain justice...it is the duty fo the King. Plus the typical Wild Mage is stronger than the typical Guardian, not that in a war with at least ten Guardian adepts versus one Wild Mage that's going to matter that much. The Guardians are trying to strengthen the social fabric and stabilize things and promote their vision of the good in the limits they set on themselves. The Wild Mages see no limits but practicality, and they are more than willing to cause bloody revolution in the Forests if they can convince themselves they are likely to win. A Wild Mage typically has showy attack powers, and subtle draining powers. He is studying to find spells of long life, and he knows how to shift form from Man to Woman, and from Human to Hawk or Bear or.... He also tends to have spells of long distance transport. All of these spells are forbidden to a Guardian except for the showy attack powers which they rarely use. Most Guardians enchant objects to 'make them more themselves' so that a wagon is stronger and smoother, or a cornfield is heavy with corn. Most Guardians cast such spells on themselves as well which with their other training makes them very formidable in hand-to-hand combat. A typical Guardian can jump twenty feet, and catch an arrow fired out of the air with his hand. He does not teleport, but he can run for twenty-four hours at twenty miles per hour straight, if he is high enough level...mid-level, that is. They also have considerable defensive spells, and spells which can track weaknesses of all sorts so as to make them stronger. It is said, 'there is nothing worse, nor better to find than a Guardian sitting on your doorstep in the morning.' This is because your problems will be dragged out, but also because they will be healed unless you truly resist. One of the problems of the Wild Mages is that they teleport. Each time one ports, he leaves a hole in reality. Enough holes and bye-bye reality. The high level Wild Mages know this, but they think they can rework reality into a better formation when that happens. One where the Freedom to be whatever you want to be is paramount and unchallenged. One thing about teh Free Mages is they tend to leave destroyed lives behind them. They never force someone to agree to an idea, but they have a good sense for weaknesses themselves,a nd they know how to get people to agree to bad ideas, and then leave th e person to take the consequences while the Wild Mage flits free. ========= I've been reading Mercedes Lackey's 'Elemental Masters' series. In it, if you're unsensitive to magic, perhaps lacking poetry in the soul, you're pretty much immune to Elemental Magic. That does not protect you if someone coerces ghosts and such like to come after you. So...XYZ Elementalist Mag Spell, Only to People with at least a 2@1 Mag Spell themselves. +5 Bonus. Another thing, you can have wards against such things, but there is a possibility of attacks bouncing off your wards and hitting innocent bystanders. Now, this could be a bonus if you're truly Chaotic Evil, but most other alignements would dislike or profoundly hate this. I've just started the first book in Robert Jordan's monumental series. The Aes Sedai may heal others, may relieve the need for sleep for a while from others (at what seems to be a cost to the other's long term stamina possibly unless good rest is gotten), but they cannot do it to themselves. So you could have Save Life Mag Bias 2@1, but only to others +5 bonus. And I've watched Legend of the Seeker, the Mord Sith can give life back to someone who has died, mostly recently. They call it the Breath of Life. I'm tempted to make it Save Life Mag Bias 2@1, only if someone has apparently died....even if that's not quite accurate. +10 bonus. Must bend over and breathe into subject's mouth (full body involvement.) +15. Time...thirty seconds. Another limit is such... The Fire Servants of Kaldora take two extra damage classes from any weapon which is covered in ice or made of ice. In fact, there is the Tale of the Fire Drake, told in the Northlands which has the hero killing a major dragon god with an icicle. Most people, even among the Glacier Fjords down to the Volcano Sea think this is a 'fish story'. Darrin, a verser who had learned magic from the Selighe Court of Greater New York, faced off against a mugger with a dagger in a dark alley, and he prepared to call fire, and then to curse the human thug who did not know who he was messing with....waking up covered in roaches every day for the next ten years sounded good to Darrin...and then the thug sliced Darrin's hand just a bit with a wild knife swing. The knife was stolen from a rich man, and it was cold iron. Darrin had not realized that using the High Court's spells made him equally vulnerable to salt, and four-leaf clovers, and cold iron as the Fae, and of course, his teacher, teh Queen had not told him because what Fae mentions everything? And so Darrin fell over, and versed out from a two point damage cut to his hand by an imcompetent thug. Tadeusz on "World of the Sear" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/world-of-the-sear#post-20249 Sun, 27 Jun 2010 15:23:09 +0000 Tadeusz 20249@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ The Seic (pronounced 'see-ick') Razening destroyed the Old World when they attempted to rise up against the gods, and the gods struck them down with fire and holy light and the Unseen Sear which burns from the inside. The Wasterwater is liberally spotted by giant jutting cliffs of iron that spike from the water, and look as if a great wind bent them back and forth. It has good spots in it where the water is only salt, and not tainted with the presence of the Unseen. A Knowing Man can tell you what types of fish and crabs are created by the gods,and what type were Changed by the Sear. It is most unwise to eat Sear-tainted meat, but some Forlorn Folk have no choice. Of course, their children grow up Sear Tainted, and strange. But there are many spots in the Wasterwater that are healthy if one knows the signs from an Old Grandpa Fisherman (which are few because most people don't live to see forty), or from a Knowing Man (who is expensive). All about the Wasterwater, a long narrow lake (twenty miles wide and eighty miles long) lie the Ruined Lands. But there are places in the Ruined Lands where things are not so desperate, and human life struggles onward in the Tem Marsh, and the Marcy Coves, and in dozens of other areas. Some places are only a village, and even a few are less than that, just a hamlet. But some, like the Tem Marsh and the Marcy Coves have a loose council of ten to fifteen villages, a genuine tribe. Further back from the edge of the Wasterwater, on both sides, the west and the east, are the Hard Lands where Sear Dragons allegedly roam. In any case, no one but the mad goes there, and no one comes back. The lands are scoured clean and glow an evil blue at night. But there is magic in the land, and not all is horrible like the Unseen Sear. High Sorceror--These men (only men) summon spirits to do their work. Wise tribal leaders call them to build levees, and to cleanse the soil, but the less wise try to make weapons of war of them. This the High Sorcerors dislike themselves feeling that war should be a matter of trust in the gods, and the Proof of the Right by Trial by Champion. They do magic by ancient compacts. Magicker--By mystic hand passes, and focused emotional energy they can heal or harm at a few feet range. Waterman--He calls the rain, or stays the flood. Finds fresh springs, and makes war in defense if the Rules of Land War are forgotten. Charm Girl--If you need to be hidden, or to have love, or to walk through Seared Land...go to a wandering charm girl, and she will give you an amulet to protect you. Technomage--Some say they are evil. The illegitamate children of the Sieck some call them. But they know words to speak to old machines. The History,not the Legend. ========================== By the early 22nd Century, the Creche Boom had gotten out of hand. In response to declining birth rates worldwide and outbursts of infertility, especially among the advanced powers, scientists invented the Baby Creche. Give the Baby a Creche, a Robo-Nanny, and a Robo-dog, and you could still be the self-absorbed person you always were, but avert TEOTWAWKI by watching Europe become Eurabia. The Secular Reasonists taught the kids of the Creche their theories,courtesy of the bots, and the kids saw no reason not to 'Do as Alexander Did.' Despite the best efforts, robots lacked the power to give empathy to kids. And without a strong moral code (see China's youth today) you had ambition without restraint. Cold-blooded, ambitious, and willing to do just about anything, the elite of the Creche roared into the Post-Modern Society like a flamethrower meeting papier mache. The Establishment panicked, and threw up barriers, and after that tried to appease at the same time. It was the exact worst response. Angered by the barriers, they then smelled weakness which to these wolves in human skin smelled just like blood. They would have gotten along just fine, the Creche Wolves, with their thousand year old ancestors, the Vikings. Unfortunately, the Wolves had nuclear weapons unlike the Vikings. They shredded teh PoMo Establishment,a dn then went after each other. By the end, most of Europe and England was uninhabitable. Its only near the English Channel, near the Tems Marsh specifically, and near Marseilles that most of the survivors huddled. The Channel became a lake, and the oil tankers became the jutting iron cliffs, and the Channel silted up so that it became far more shallow. But, as tech failed, and as post-modernism had led to a collapse of science....these both opened the door to mysticism which the Razening kicked that door wide open. The Magic Bias went up. Its now 3@5. And there are mutant entities which feed on raditation, and emit radiation, but are invisible....the Unseen Sear. And there is still plenty of radiation...or the Sear. And there are degenerate mutants or The Forlorn Folk. Sometime later I need to come up with a few magic spells for each of the groups. Tadeusz on "World: Order of Swordmages" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/world-order-of-swordmages#post-20117 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:24:23 +0000 Tadeusz 20117@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ The Order protects a dozen worlds against the encroachments of the Dark. Each of these related worlds has a high magic bias, and low psionic bias, and the tech bias varies from world to world. The Swords choose their Bearer. After a Swordbearer is struck down, usually by agents of the Dark, it dissappears/teleports (unless caught in a Swordtrap), and seeks out a proper bearer. There does seem to be some sort of guiding intelligence behind the swords or in all the swords or something. It seems as if it can make mistakes, but then sometimes this is not at all the case. The Tale of the Man in the Wheelchair is told to all new swordbearers after they are found. He had almost no fighting ability, but his valiant and hopeless attempt to protect a storeowner who did not speak his language from rioters enchanted by the Dark's minions was witnessed on international television, and it led to the end of the Dark inspired revolution. MORE LATER... I want to have a list of sword inspired magics including 'cut through the dimensional barriers'. This would be a good way for the hero to learn magic in a 'magic school'...already did this once with one world, but several magic school worlds with differing lists of magic would be a good thing. Tadeusz on "Fifty Magic Limits" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/fifty-magic-limits#post-1812 Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:33:55 +0000 Tadeusz 1812@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ My goal is 50 magic limitations to try to offer a more flavorful magic. Because if its not laid out in front of people, they will tend to choose the most obvious choices. Give them a menu of choices, and their magic will get more varied. I already dealt with this to some degree in a previous post, but I can't find it. So there will be some repeats. Furthermore, I may be doing a lot of outlining which I can fill in later. 1. Bargaining. Forex: "Lord Ares, if you protect me from the Theban's arrows, I will sacrifice a golden arrow to your temple once I get back home." 2. Here I Am!: The caster's position is now known to everyone within a certain, specified distance who is sensitive to magic can sense you. Ranges vary from on the same street to the same county, same state, same continent, same world, and same universe. A special category which is a separate bonus is nearby dimensions. Thus Caitlin Saunders,verser, Demon Slayer, and former Accountant from Earth casts her spell of Disintegration against a Foul Minion of the Shadow. In a neighboring dimension, a Hellworld, the Demon Grz'lak'nik wakes up to the smell of Power, and starts to track the spoor with his Hellhounds. A further limitation is that the smell of magic does not leave you immediately. While close physical proximity to the caster's once location is the typical default, again greater ranges are possible. Grz'lak'nik arrives ten minutes later on Earth with his hounds cloaked in a veil of invisibility. His hounds pick up the spoor, and he spots the smear where a foolish Minion challenged a Demon-slayer. He cackles grimly. He believes in the virtue of ambush. Caitlin will not be so lucky later tonight as he stalks her. 3. Same Alignment: The spell only works on those of the same alignment as the caster. Forex "The blessing of Gaia only affects those who love the Light." 4. Open Door: If the target has been hypnotized, this opens a door for this magic. And such doors are hard to close. 5. Umbrella of Authority: Forex: Joe had been disobedient to his Papa, the Policeman, and his Pastor. Now the Witch of the Woods who lives in a bubble universe with a gate in the thicket behind his school is able to cast Summon Child on him. 6. Trance: The caster must alter her state of mind to match a specific mind state in order to cast spells. This typically goes with concentration. 7. Solitude: Magic can only be cast in complete solitude from other sentients. 8. Sanctum: Magic can only be cast in the special, prepared grounds of a Sanctum. Frequently spells receive bonuses from the spells pre-woven into a sanctum, but this is not that. This spell requires a sanctum. 9. Balance Magic: All forces are balanced, light and dark, cold and heat....use one, and an equivalent, but uncontrolled effect of the other will appear 1d4 rounds later. 10. Wild Magic: The caster is able to generalize a wish, and then a GE roll is made. Based on that roll, and the skill roll, the GM tells the effect of the magic. Forex: "Sarah pulled up the slippery, strand of power from her chakra, and flung it into the world hoping that it would open the door that was locked so she could flee the mugger." GE 3: The door opens, and Sarah flees, and then it closes behind her, and locks. Any other door in front of her will do likewise. 15--It opens. 21--She blows a hole in the wall that can be used to escape. 30--She steps through the dooway into a bubble universe she just created. 11. Code of the War Wizard: The war wizard must follow the code, or lose his powers. He must practise daily, he must embrace the possibility of death for himself and his enemy, he must realize that truth is real, and that morality based on that truth requires action, even violent action. He must not shirk his duty. 12. Code of the Good Witch: She will do no harm to the undeserving by magic or physical action or by word. She will help the helpless who are in need. She will defend the Craft against unjust attacks. 13. Code of the Believer: He will harbor no sin in his heart. He will be obedient to God, and secondly to proper authority. He will promptly seek forgiveness from God, and from other people who he has unjustly offended. If he fails in this code, he will lose his prayer access to Heaven, although he is still a citizen of Heaven. 14. Three-fold Return: What you do with magic especially, come back to haunt you three-fold. 15. Limit of Mercy: If you cry to God to empower a weapon, and the target of that weapone pleads for mercy, you must grant it. See Tom Day granting mercy for the pschyopath Jay in his RPOL.net 'worldwalker' game. 16. Hand Over Control: The caster enters an unusual state of mind most of the time, and then hands over contol of your body and mind to a spirit. The spirit than casts the spell. 17. Fasting 18. Self-Flagellation 19. Twins: Some spells require two casters, others require that the casters be twins, or some form of opposed halves. Forex: "At the end of the week of the Harvest Festival, the Priest, representing Father Sky and the Priestess representing Mother Earth in her aspect as the Crone, broke the binding on the north winds which allowed the rain-bearing, cold winds to come, and Winter to truly begin. This was necessary as the Cycle of Life, represented by Priest and Priestess needed renewing." 20. Some Deities Won't Listen: As hinted at in #19, where Father Sky needs a man to speak to him, and Mother Earth needs a woman to speak to her. There are also Male Secret's and Woman's Mysteries, and to dare to cast one from the other side is to dare the wrath of your deity. 21. Once and Never Again: Some spells can only be cast once by a particular person. A less restricting version would allow the spell to be only cast once in a particular universe. 22. The Time of the Casting is Now: Some spells can only be cast at a particular time which is often separted by great gulfs of time. This is typically used to release bindings, and anniversaries of the original binding are often the time of the potential release. This is usually an unwise spell to cast, but not always. Forex: "The Demon Lord Throatcutter and his minions are imprisoned in a dry well by the Sorceress Shandra. Once every hundred years, on the blackest night of the year, if the blood of an innocent human victim is dripped into the well, and the words of summoning in the Ancient Sumerian are shouted, then Throatcutter and his minions will be released to torment the Earth once more." 23. Sacrifice of Others: There is sacrifice, and then there is sacrifice of animals, and sacrifice of humans. Such sacrifice is generally unwilling, although more power is generated by a willing sacrifice. 24. Held Back Sacrifice: There is also sacrifice where someone thinks they are going to be sacrificed, and then at the last moment is spared, and another is inserted in his place. Forex: "The Case of Abraham and Isaac in the Old Testament which seems to signal Yahweh's dislike of human sacrifice, among other aims." Forex: "The priests of Xorox, a harsh but just god, take initiates, and lay them out on an altar to be killed. Those who flee are banished from the order. The initiates are promised they will rise from the altar. A good deal of sermon follows as the priests attempt to use this moment to impress their beliefs about being reborn as a priest of Xorox means. And then the remaining initiates are released as new made priests." 25. Calm Heart: Casting requires calmness throughout, and emotional strains can cause checks to see if the magic fails. 26. Mental Focus: Casting requires concentration with a Difficult check at the beginning, and Simple checks at decision points along the way. 27. Caster Centered Magic: Magic does not adhere to a target. You cannot throw a fireball at someone, or cast an enchantment on someone. What you can do is clothe yourself in flames, and then touch them, or make yourself awe-strikingly beautiful, and then smile. 28. No Range Attacks: All magic is touch magic. 29. Hypnotic Trance for Caster: Casting requires that the mage place themselves into an altered state of consciousness where their willpower is temporarily reduced @5 thus making them suggestible. 30. Spells Fueled by Lifeforce of Caster: Spells may last as long as the caster likes, but for each five minutes of casting time the caster is required to make Simple Stamina check to continue. Failure may be blocked with a Difficult Willpower check. 31. Mana-Fueled Magic: Certain magics have the caster do a preliminary gathering of magical power in order to provide the oomph for the spell. Forex: "Gregori the Mage walked the battlefield searching for the exact spot where the King of the Normarkans had fallen. Such a spot would be rich in mana, and he carried a Mana Trap. Already, he had found and drained the spot where the King had taken his first wound, but the spell he cast yesterday had taken all that Mana." Typically, the Level of a spell from the skill charts is the number of Mana Points required by this system...if you're going to use Mana Points. Thus in order to cast Do Anything a 15@ skill, you might well require the mana from the King's deathground, and his first wound site, and the mana from a spot where two soulmates met for the first time. Different worlds have different approaches to Mana. Some think that it is difficult to find as in the example above, and others think that it can be gathered and strained from the morning dew. In other words that it is a challenging chore, and not a minor quest to find it. 32. Invisible Magic: Magic is quiet. One does not shout, or cause fire to sprout from one's hands. Magic is subtle and quiet, but it can be unmistakably unnatural. Forex: The old woman stood in the mud of the track facing the young knight and his party of bravos. They had come to her village as before to take sport with the young woman, and to thrash with their weapons the weaponless farmboys. Enough was enough, the old woman had decided. So she spoke a Word of Power under her breath, and the knight found himself fixed to the spot, and unable to move. Neither could any of his bravos move him. He did not glow, nor did he fly, but he never moved for seven days until he died." 33. Magic is Unusual Luck Or So It Might Seem: A skeptic might not see it. An honest observer might feel the hair on his neck rise in the presence of magic because its obvious something weird is going on. But it could just be luck. Forex: The Ranger Prince kissed his mother's ring, and walked out to the orc war party to demand their surrender. They responded treacherously as he expected. They filled the air with dozens of arrows. None hit him, which was....very lucky some said. He used the shock of it to convince the orcs to surrender. 34. Magic is Only Sacred: No one who is not initiated into a school of magic may see, touch, or experience magic without the magic losing its power. Opposing forces may experience it, as long as they are magicians themselves, but skeptics break the spell by their defiling presence. Some traditions allow for the purification of the magic tools. Some traditions require that the purification be done with the defiler's blood. 35. Magic is an Unnatural Thing, and so the usage of such magic always rebounds to the detriment of the user. Jonas Majeerle, verser, AC Tech, and Apprentice Mage opened the Black Book of Forbidden Spells while his master was out. He cast the first spell of entertainment and enjoyed a fine repast with beautiful waitresses, and the ghosts of famous men to converse with. Then he got up, and felt sick to his stomach. He had a stomach flu. Later as he ventured to the latrine, he tripped and fell down the hill. Still later, he came in to see his master who was very angry with him. Inexplicably, he had forgotten to put up the Forbidden Book, and his master was aware of what he had done. A bit humorous, but it gets the idea across. This is not 'no benefit to self'. Instead this is 'Magic is an aberration, and Nature hates it.' 36. Things Man Was Not Meant To Know: To learn magic is to risk your sanity. Every spell you cast threatens to take you further from the realm of normality, and into madness. 37. Magic is Pain, Horror, Corruption, and Madness: Only spells which degrade and terrify the caster can work if they have this limitation. The point of this limit frequently is to achieve pain in the caster's life. And since one tends to become blase' to shock and horror after a time, this means that increasing levels of suffering are demanded of the caster for the same effect. 38. Magic is to benefit others: If you use it to benefit yourself, the Universe will get revenge in creative ways. Generally speaking such limits do allow self-defense, but some do not. However, almost all of them allow one to kill monsters even if they are only threatening you at the moment because its assumed that they will be a threat to others later. Forex: "The Lady Perilous, Sorceress Guardian of the White Order cast fire upon the demonspawn that boiled up in the demonpit in the basement of rancher house. The owner was behind her, a well-meaning magi, not intending to traffic in daemonic forces, but the Universe had rebuked him for his trying to rig the stock market with magic. It was a failing of young and untrained magi to seek a way to use that which was for the good of all, for themselves alone, which is why the Lady supported so strongly the creation of Mage Schools." 39. Magic Backed Up By Science: In order to cast a spell, you have to understand the physical processes you're trying to manipulate. In some cases, this allows the casting of much more powerful spells than before. Forex: The Wizards of Wallingtree, a small trading center on the edge of the dessert, knew enough about wind to create sandstorms. But their visitor from another scientific reality understood the nature of the jet stream, and so he reached with his power, and pulled the jet stream to Earth, and scoured the enemy raiders from the face of the Earth. They had been expecting eighty mile per hour winds, and had prepared. But nothing they had done had prepared them for six hundred mile per hour winds as the jet stream slashed into their faces." 40. Magic vs. a Specific Target: Spells can be rigged to attack certain types of enemies more effectively. In some cases, spells are created that only effect a specific type of enemy, and do no damage to anyone else. What is not the concern of this list is the spell that might have some effect on one person, say a Scream spell, but will affect a specific monster devastatingly because they are vulnerable to loud noises. Be cautious as overly specific spells can actually be beneficial. Forex: "The vampire had grabbed the Red Cross worker, and held her in front of Paul St. Simon, Special Agent on the FBI's Undead Task Force. Paul smiled, and pulled out his vial of Unearthly Flames. The shattered, and the flames spread like a grenade, and the flames covered the both of them. The hostage screamed in fear, but in no pain as the vampire screamed in 'mortal' agony as it turned to ash." 41. Magic by a Specific Caster: Certain spells can only be cast by very specific individuals. Some magics bind the King and the Land he rules together so that health in one is health in the other. Other magics require a virgin. One common limit is 'not born of woman'. I've used the last. It kinda sorta went like this.... Forex: "The Fimbulwinter Chest could only be closed by one not born of woman." The supervillain said with a smirk. "Its impossible for you to close it. The world will be covered by ice." "Um, I'm not actually human. I was born of Chaos in interstellar space." The superhero replied.... 42. Personal: One effect is the gaining of things that are personal. This goes several directions at once. Certain magics, such as Voodoo, require personal items to make the spell. Others require the True Name of the target. The True Name can be one of two things--an innate name that something has, perhaps gifted to it by Adam when that something was nameless, or by some other Namer. Or it can be a secret name which is held closely. 44. Roles must be respected: This is typically holy magic. The Prophet may not call down fire upon the Demon except in certain specific circumstances. Perhaps if the Demon manifests itself in its Hunting Form, a material killing machine, or if the Demon has been thrice rebuked by the Innocent, and it decides that instead of tempting the Innocent, that he will take the Innocent's cat hostage, then the Demon has stepped over his own boundaries, and may be dealt with by any means neccessary. This is more common in worlds with strong codes of behavior and high magic, and potentially archetypical patterns are commonplace. It is a form of Armed Truce between the Host of Heaven and the Forces of Evil. 45. Magic is Crippling: Each spell casts cost in terms of stamina, and/or resistance. Frequently in such a world, the good guys have a serious problem as such magic allows for others to sacrifice for you. Forex: "Gilandor the White stood leaning on his rod of power, old and white-haired, and not even half the age of his opponent who was full of health and vigor. It was because Viradn the Black had a sacrifice tied to his right hand. It was from her innocent body that he would draw the strength to cast the spells while he preserved his own health. She might well die of heart failure, but Viradn would ne'er touch his own health. Unlike Gilandor who figured he had one last fight in him before he had to retire. And that was if he was lucky, and ruthless. He struck fast as he could at the sacrifice to kill her, and take the fight to even terms, but it was not fast enough. This looked to be Gilandor's last fight for sure." 47. Uncontrolled Reactive Magic: You have magic which acts based on certain stimuli. You can't control it. For some, its the Full Moon, for others its Anger, and for others its the sight of a bird which throws their conscious mind into the bird. Forex: "Joel Macross dodged the fire flung by the monstrous machine that tracked him. And as he rolled on the ground, he realized he really did not want to die. But it looked like there was no choice. Might as well go out with style, he muttered to himself, and stood up to charge. The machine was waiting for him, and fire launched at his chest. But it was met five feet away from Joel's chest by a bright, white light which took it, consumed it, and raced back along its path to its source. And there the white light took the demonic machine, and sucked it dry of energy leaving behind nothing but a rusty pile of metal that clanked in the breeze as it fell to the parking lot. This had happened once before, Joel rememebered. He had always thought it had been a dream. There was a power in him, but it came out and did what it wished on its own terms. However, it did seem to have some desire to protect him, at least from demonic machines, anyways." 48. Magic is Illusion and Delusion: If you run through a fire unharmed, you're actually harmed. Your body is burnt, but you believe it not to be true, and so you don't feel it, and others don't see it. You can be so deluded as to be alive when you should be dead. But pierce the veil for one second, and all the weight of truth comes crashing into your self-deluded world. 49. Visualization: You must see clearly what you are trying to do. For some magic, this need extends throughout the whole use of the spell which for some spells can be difficult if they last for an hour or more. 50. Emotion: Some spells require emotion to fuel them. Forex: "The Flaming Fist of Doom covers the hand with fire as the caster feels anger, and allows the caster who spikes his fury to an all-consuming level to throw bolts of fire." This is obviously a Cast Once, Use Multiple Times spell. Many spells are Cast Once, Attack Once. Others are Cast Once, and Continous Use which is common for invisibility spells. The use of COUMT spells allows for the feel of two duelling wizards who have power beams blasting at each other which are met by the other's power beam, and they struggle to move the meeting point toward the other wizard. It also allows a wizard to have what amounts to a hand pistol. You pull out the gun (spell), and each combat round, you try to hit the target. ....MORE LATER Tadeusz on "Yin-Yang" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/yin-yang#post-19588 Sat, 05 Jun 2010 23:57:52 +0000 Tadeusz 19588@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ The concept of Yin and Yang is that of two opposing and cooperative forces that need each other, and yet fight each other. I think its a useful concept in describing reality, but it works at a level less than the ultimate. This is seen in stories which have a Balance which the two sides need to achieve, or which is the goal of the truly wise. This Balance is the Ultimate. Balance is defined as Righteousness which is the Ultimate. An example of this is seen in D&D where Balance=Nature. Now Multiverser is more sophisticated than D&D because the Balance would be any sort of Neutral Hobby, not just Protecting the Environment. And D&D is more sophisticated than Yin-Yang because it has more than just two choices, or one axis, but two axises. But thats not really the to the point here, so we'll slide past that. You can have a wide array of two choices. Law vs. Chaos (Michael Moorcock, L.E. Modesit Jr.) Populism vs. Elitism Man vs. Woman Fire vs. Ice Change vs. Stasis Barbarianism vs. Civilization Statism vs. Libertarianism License vs. Law Morality vs. Libertine There are a number of ways one can deal with this. One side can be represented by Orcs say. The Barbarian Orcs who worship strength, live in tribes, and eat their enemies and enslave the weak vs. the moral city building dwarves. This is a very clear moral choice. Monsters vs. Men. Or Cyberpunk where you have Street Samurai and Deckers vs. the Corporat Scum. This is a little more morally complex, but one side is clearly listed as Evil. Or you can have a situation where neither side is morally superior, innately, although in a particular case one side might be. And of course, there is the Appeal to the Balance set up. ====== One of the ways to deal with this is to have varying levels of dominance or victory for a particular side. ======= Often the way to set this up is to have the two sides have a form of magic different from each other, and give no one else any magic. ======= Lets do an example: Man vs. Women Monsters vs. Men. The Kujorn are brutal war-like monstrous humanoids who average ten feet tall, and are heavily armed with swords and armor. Their opposition is Humanity, and the most effective weapon Humanity has are the priestesses of Lor. With their magic they are able to cause the Kujorn to feel the pain they deal, and to lash them with magic whips, and to coerce them with vocal compulsion magic. ======== I think a Little Multiverse with an Entrance Effect with all the deities in charge of this Multiverse being Neutral, and with all the magic that is arcane being powerblocked (perhaps not about the arcane being powerblocked). And then you Yin-Yang all the universes. And for the Entrance Effect, you have any verser or other visitor arrives through the Prism. The Prism sends them to a universe where their skills will either result in learning magic faster, or will directly jump them into magic. In universes where magic is limited to a few by a powerblock (Only those with Quality X or Quality Y may do magic) the Prism will make sure they can do magic in the universe. A person with a biology degree might be sent to a universe where only people with a deep understanding of biology can do magic, or to a universe where anyone can do magic but all magic is biologically based so that they have a decided edge on others, or even stronger where they get half of their biology skill as a some sort of magic skill just because. There are a lot of different ideas here. Its not completely coherent. Tadeusz on "Different Types of Miracles" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/different-types-of-miracles#post-14090 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:09:34 +0000 Tadeusz 14090@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ This could be the foundation of an interesting novel if I knew enough to handle it. ...Jeanine loped through the darkened street just north of the Winchester City Park. Her form was graceful, powerful even with terror crawling around in her guts which was as it should be. The weak, the unlucky, the despairing, the less than physically outstanding were all dead. Before the Awakening, Jeanine had planned on running the three thousand meter in the Olympics. She had hoped to use it as the springboard for the creation of her career as a public advocate of Christian life. She was in the ninety-ninth percentile in numerous mental and physical traits which merely meant that she had kept running even as others fell. But that did little good when you were faced with the more than human. A clapping noise echoed through the darkness at the top of the street she had just entered. A dozen shadowy shapes strolled out in front of her. She spun about, and doors of nearby tenements, and the Wudgely Metal Factory to her right opened, and more shadowed figures stepped out. "We are all quite impressed, Jeanine." A cultured and commanding man's voice rang out from the darkness. "Two hundred fifty miles by foot, and if our records are correct, nine hostiles." "Eleven." Janine panted. None of the others were even breathing. "So hard to keep track. But even more so. Eleven." There was a pause. "You do know that you're probably the last human alive on the West Coast." "You lie." Janine snapped out. "Tsk, tsk. Perhaps you're right. Perhaps someone is hiding somewhere in the bottom of an abandoned gold mine." The voice turned a mite impatient. "We know your faith. It has sustained you through a very trying week. But its time to give it up. You will be a princess among the Vampyre." With that, the surrounding hordes of undead seemed much closer. "I'm already a princess of Heaven. I don't want your cruel counterfeit of immortality." "Do you trust your God? He left you here, to die, all alone, in the dark." Jeanine gulped, and then spoke what she felt sure would be her last words. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him." "Kill her." The Master snapped, his veneer of civility shorn free. "Your God will not save you from one iota of pain." A sudden rush forward was halted by another voice, a human voice. "Not so fast, friend." The male, human voice was soft, but it had its own edge of power. And the vampires stayed their clawed hands for a moment. A man with a flat, broad hat, and a plain coat walked out to her from a nearby building. "What? How?" The Master knew that building was empty. He had ordered it searched an hour ago. "The ways of God are mysterious, sir." "So you come to rescue her?" The Master asked as signals flowed from his mind to the others nearer the duo. "To strike us down?" Jeanine looked at his calm, and untroubled face with something approaching enthusiasm. But then her hopes were rocked. "Oh, no friend. Violence is wrong. I'm a Friend. I could not do that. I expect I'm here to hold her hand, to be with her as she dies." The man turned and spoke softly although every vampire heard him. "Its really not so bad. In mere minutes, you'll stand before the Throne." Jeanine nodded, encouraged by the deep faith of the strange man. She figured he was an angel come to light her way, and gratitude welled up in her heart. "Kill..." The Master began. "Luckily not all of us are so peaceful, now isn't it?" A lady's voice, Irish, mocking came from the same building. "Now what?" The Master snorted. "Another pacifist to toss on the altar?" "Wouldn't you be listening to my plain and clear spoken words? I hardly think I could have been more simple even for a dull wit like yourself, don't you think?" A whisper of rage surrounded them, and pressed from vile minds onto the trio. "I'm Sister Mary Katherine, formerly of the St. Vincennes Nunnery, and now, a missionary to the many worlds." The nun gave Jeanine a quick smile, and then got down on her knees. As the vampires rushed in, she began to pray. "Saint Jude, Patron of Lost Causes, and don't you know, one of my very favorite people, would you mind being of assistance? Oh. Of course. How silly am I being?" With that the sister pulled out her cross with the Crucified One still on it, and raised it above her head. It gleamed faintly in the dark, and suddenly the sussurus of rage was cut off. The onrush of vampires slowed. "Well, enough, but the stronger ones can brave your..." The sister reached into her robes, and pulled something out, and flung it. Water spun through the air, and the closest vamp was touched by seven drops. They began eating through him, like a red hot wire through butter. He started screaming, and then he began ripping at his muscle, trying to remove the horrrid drops, but he could not rip himself apart fast enough to stop the drops from fall through him, and turning him into a vampire collander. One touched his heart, and suddenly, he exploded. "And wouldn't you know, I have more, now don't I? How lucky for me, don't you think?" The other vampires stared at her with true horror in their face from fifty feet away. Some of them were considered strong, creatures that had feasted on mankind shortly after the Flood when Mankind was still weak. But the cheerfulness in the little Irish nun's face made them tremble. "So..." The Master said, and then it spoke by mind to one of its commanders. And suddenly several hundred lesser vampires, were screaming, fussing, and pleading, but their will had been sworn to a greater, and when that greater decided to use them as cannon fodder, as a banzai attack, they had no will to control their own body. Their minds cringed from the Unveiled Cross, and their hearts misgave them at the thought of being shredded by holy water, but their minds did not control their bodies. Instead, they ran directly at the nun and her two companions. The Amish Friend stood in front of them, and offered his body first. "NO!" A voice roared out from the top of the Wudgely Metal Factory. It was a voice suited to command lightning, to daunt hurricanes, and to boom out over a thousand spectators at a football stadium. "You will not do this." The brute force of the command stayed things for a minute. "And why not?" The Master's culture seemed back, but perhaps it trembled just a bit. "Thus saith the Lord God, the Lord of Hosts, the King of Heaven. You, the so-called Master of the Undead, you have angered me, and I will repay you seven fold for the evils done to my people." "Bring it." The Vampire snapped, and turned to his commander who turned to his screaming, rebellious horde. "Very well." The voice of the man on the top of the building was quieter, and for a moment it seemed sorrowful. "So be it. As Elijah destroyed the altar to Ba'al, so I destroy your pitiful pawns. As he destroyed the men who were disrespectful to him as the agent of God, so do I." And fire plunged down from the sky. It was fifty feet wide in diameter, and several hundred feet tall. Vampires and humans alike except for the prophet and the master lurched back from the inferno. That is, the vampires that were not in the fire. Those perished with hardly time to scream. And the Commander fell to the ground, gibbering of fiery swords and vengeance. Quiet except for the fire which had gouged a hole in the asphalt reigned for several minutes, and the Master began to make plans, but then he saw a loose-limbed man stroll up the street. Which was odd because the man had to have come through the crowds of vampires to the back. "And you?" He said warily to the whistling man. "Oh, just a guy. Name's not really important." He had the same obscene cheerfulness that the Irish nun had, but none of her mockery, or if he did it seemed directed at himself. "If you could keep talking, that would be ever so helpful." He kept walking forward, and past the circle of fire, and outside the protection of the nun's cross, and with mouth agape, the Master realized the man was seeking him out. One of his Mighty, the post-flood born stepped up, and the man somehow had a sword out even though he didn't seem to move very fast, and somehow it sank into the vampire lord's ribs, and then the man was walking past the lord. The vampire turned about, and he fell in half. Still the man kept whistling. Orders were given, and a dozen vampires launched themselves at him. And the Master could hear the whistling stop. And the Bible quoting began. "Yeah, tho' I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death..." And the part about not fearing evil and suddenly the vampires could feel their oppression, the terror they flung with their minds was gone. And then he quoted the bit about how the Lord would guide his feet. And he stepped in a kind of complicated martial dance that would have had Bruce Lee nodding approvingly. Vampires fell around him, crashed into each other, but none touched him. His short blade flicked out, and trollish vampires that could walk in acid, and giantish vamps that could bear sunlight parted ways with large sections of their body. "The sword of the Spirit is sharp enough to cut through practically anything. I wonder if my theology is correct, but God seems willing to let me do it what I started in possible ignorance." "You are?" The Master said horrified as he made plans to back up behind more of his horde. "Just a man who takes the Word of the Lord literally where its meant to be so. If God said I can do something, who am I to disagree?" "Indeed not." The Master said, and quick drew a pistol and shot the Bible Quoter in the head. He vanished, and the Master breathed a sigh of relief. Still, he saw that the others had taken lead from the whistling man, and they were advancing on him. The prophet called down fire, taking the examples of Old Testament prophets. The nun was praying the rosary, and asking that the saints guard them on all side, and one look at his Seer to his right let the Master know what he suspected was all too true. There were some very potent spiritual forces standing guard on the humans. Disgustingly, the Amish man reached out a hand in friendship, and the vampire smiled, and then turned to dust. And others reached out to him, not to strike him, but to accept his cursed gift. They forsook true immortality for the promise of a God who wasn't even there. The Master cursed vilely. And then he saw another man, a long-haired hippie type, walk out with an arrogant swing to his hips, and join Jeanine and her small troupe. He pointed a finger at one of the giantish vampires, and another at a Lexus car. The vampire grunted, not being terribly bright, but enormously strong. He scooped up the car, and then tossed it seventy feet in a great arc. "And wouldn't ya' know it? Just when things were getting good, we die? God sure has a sense of humor doesn't he?" Sister Mary Katherine spoke. "Don't worry ya' head, there none, little lady." The hippie said with an arrogant smile which brought a withering stare to the sister's face. He turned to the hurtling Lexus, and reached up his hands. The Amish man and the Prophet prayed for him, and he barely grunted as he caught it with his hands. "You shouldn't throw things like that. Someone might get hurt." He bellowed out. His voice did not sound fit to challenge a hurricane. It was a hurricane. "If you throw it like this, someone will get hurt." He snapped his arms, and shot the Lexus in a flat shot that sent it scything five feet above the ground through dozens of vampires before it obliterated the giantish creatue who had thrown it in the first place. "My God gave me a Gift. He said to go out and smash the wicked. You look like the wicked. Now I'm not Solomon, and so my Gift is not Wisdom. My Gift is the Strength of Samson." He roared, and if there had been any T-Rex's in the vicinity, they would have protected their ears for he had vast superhuman strength to power his lungs. And with that, he leapt for the edge of the road where a lamppole minus its light waited forlorn. He considered snapping it off, but it seemed more damaging another way. So he ripped it concrete sidewalk and all out of the ground. In the distant way that some mechanical objects have, the fifty foot tall metal lamp post was glad to have a purpose. It was now a club. The Prophet spoke. "Oh, Lord of All, as you slew the firstborn, so slay the eldest abomination of each vampire if they do not turn." And all over the battlefield, there were those who had been the first vampire created by another vampire. With horror, the Master turned to the brilliant and witty friend of his for these last several millenia. Both of them gritted their teeth in denial of the Power. And all over the battlefield, one at a time, some of the brightest and strongest of the vampires turned to dust. "Turn you, turn you this day. Your wickedness need not hold you any longer." The Prophet declaimed, and he saw many vampires kneel, and die, but these died and were reborn in the Light. Enraged a half-dozen of the Master's Knights of the Black Sword lunged at the humans on the street. They were faster than the Man with the Club, and besides, he wasn't aiming for anyone in particular. He merely swatted whoever was convenient. And if his pole was not enough, he jumped at them and kicked them in the chest with a crude kick that would have dented a main battle tank. But the Knights fared no better for suddenly around the humans were luminous figures with staffs and crosiers of light, and a being with eyes that had seen more than humans ever could, and they drove the Knights back with terrible losses and scourgings of light and fire. And then the figures were gone, but the Master knew they merely hid from the eyes which thought bothered him obscurely. He sent some of his chosen assasins, deadly quick, clawed and vicious to deal with the Man with the Club who had changed his weapon. He now used the body of one of the Knights as his weapon of choice and he spun it about his head shattering bones and ripping off faces. Worse, the Knight was still alive, in an undead kind of way. This seemed to amuse the Man with the Club who unlike the Prophet who warned of judgement or the Friend who pled for people to choose well, he never gave thought to mercy. And then if that was not enough, the Master heard singing come from behind him. It was the Battle Hymn of the Republic which he really, really hated. He had thought to get his claws into America during the Civil War, but instead, he had lost several hundred vampires to Yankee and Confederate vampire hunters. It was the one area where they fully cooperated. And then lightning began to fall from the sky, as the singer from over the hill sang of lightning. And each bolt struck a vampire. Most bolts blew the unfortunate into pieces, but a few were strong enough to withstand the damage. The Master spoke to two with his mind, or tried too. He reached out his mind, and heard an old woman's voice in his mind. His attention was drawn to an ancient looking grandmother kneeling in the street next to the nun. "Oh Jesus, I don't know why you put me here. I'm not a warrior like the hippie, or a preacher like Pastor George up there on the building. But I guess I can pray. Oh, Jesus, you can bind up the powers of the evil ones. Turn them back on theirselves. Or is that themselves? Anyways, Jesus. Help us now, we really need it." And suddenly there was silence in the Master's head. He had not felt the like since he woke temporarily after the Flood. It scared him in a way nothing had for over three thousand years since he had fled from Solomon. Dry-mouthed, he pointed to two of his tougher ones who had survived lighting bolts and sent them after the singer. With some return to normal, he saw one of his assasins suddenly leap on the hippie's back, and rip out his throat. Which should have killed the man, but he had enough strength, and enough presence of mind to grab the vampire off his back and throw him like a cannonball through a building. The building collapsed, taking several dozen vampires in its fall. So did the hippie, who fell, dust floating in the air where he had been. Something was wrong, the Master knew it. But his mind could not seem to think clearly with only his barely more than human senses. He could still see in the dark, but he could not reach into the future and snag an answer, nor hear a fly beat its wings at two hundred feet. Curse that prayer warrior, that old woman on her knees. She had wounded him more than realized. And then he felt a razor sharp blade at his neck. And he heard the Bible Quoter reciting the description of the events in Sodom where the angels had blinded the mob to the door. "God wills it that you do not see what He does not wish you to see." The Bible Quoter smiled softly in his voice. "Now call off your people." Behind them, they heard the song change to "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" and the Master knew that the duo he had sent, some of his stronger, had failed. The battle halted. Everyone turned to stare at him, and he giggled. "You fools. You poor deluded fools. You think what you did mattered here. While we fought I sent messages to my subordinates in other lands. Kill the last of them. Then come here." He smiled despite the razor sharp, no more than razor sharp, blade at his throat. "Jeanine, you are the last human alive on the Planet Earth." He waved a hand, and suddenly the blade was away from his throat. A quiet stepping vampire had the Bible Quoter in a full nelson, and another had a hand over his mouth so that he could quote no Scripture. Jeanine fell to the ground. She knew the Truth when she heard it. Some said it was a special thing. She prayed out loud, in Tongues, and while praises fell from her tongue, so did an acknowledgement of prophecy fulfilled. The Prophet nodded for he too had a Gift of the Spirit. He had the interpretation of Tongues. He tore his jacket and wept bitterly. The Master laughed. "Soon, you and whoever, whatever these are will be dead." "True enough." Said a tall, thin man who stepped from the same building back up the street that so many others had. "Now what?" The Master cried exasperated. "I have no great number of abilities. I am not fearless and full of love like our Friend. Nor do I have the authority to use holy water like Sister Mary Katherine. I have no particular Gifts of the Spirit that I'm aware of, and as for special Gifts like Solomon's Wisdom or Strength like Samson's, well, I have a hard time deciding between hamburgers and hot dogs, and toting a golf bag is tough on me. I have a disease that saps my strength. Luckily, I'm an immortal verser,a nd so I didn't have to trade the sun and my soul for immortality." He paused, and coughed. For some reason, everyone held still in deadly silence. Fear of the unknown gripped them. This man seemed afraid and yet unafraid. "I'm not a prophet who can call down fire, but like him, I'd ask you to repent." His voice lacked force, but the offer seemed sincere if dry as dust. "The last time I sang, by cat clawed me in the face. I know little of the Bible, often not quoting it accurately." The Bible Quoter laughed to himself. He sometimes had found himself doing that too in his battles. His laughter discomfited the vampires holding him. "I pray, but unlike Granny Leggings, God doesn't seem that close. Oh, I know He's there, but I only hear from Him from very far away, and quite infrequently." "I don't hear Him that well. I knew someone who did. He took every step in the full assurance that he knew exactly what God wanted him to do." Granny Leggins called from her kneeling position. The tall, thin man nodded courteously back. "So..." "What?" The Master snapped. "Do you give up?" "Let me think about it. A few humans, and fifty million vampires. Hmmm, no." A great gust of laughing rose from the vampires. It swirled up to the stars and touched the edge of Heaven. The man waited for a long moment, and one vampire raced forward and touched the Friend's hand, and vanished. Another long minute, and then the man sighed, and pulled a golden trumpet out of his backpack. "What is that?" The Master asked disturbed. "Just something I picked up in the ruins of another Earth. Its called the Trump of the End." The Master flung himself forward faster than thought, but even though he was but two hundred feet from the Man with the Trumpet, he would never have been close enough, never fast enough. The Decision had been made, the Curtain was already falling. The Man blared out a loud cry, and the Singer over the hill paused. And then the Man began to play soft and slow,a nd faltering with little skill, but with tears in his eyes, he began to play Taps for Earth. And out in the asteroid belt, hundreds of rocks began to move. The vampires surged, and all the versers died, and so did Jeanine. She did not become a verser. She stood before her Maker a mere twenty seconds later. Two weeks later, the rocks smashed into the planet at a quarter of lightspeed. It took nearly an hour for the last vampire to die. Two years later, an alien starship came through the system, and noticed the heavily cratered planet which was lacking a biosphere as the asteroid strike had torn off the atmosphere. "A good spot for a base, I'd think." The Science Officer said to his Captain who nodded and then turned to his Guidance Officer. "O Maker of All, what should we do?" The Guidance Officer prayed. He looked up startled. "He said we should put out a 'Do Not Approach' buoy, and use the red planet instead." "Okay." The Captain said. "Make it so, Helm." WilliamTWodium on "Wingnuts and Wizardry, Ritual Magic for Scott's Game" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/wingnuts-and-wizardry-ritual-magic-for-scotts-game#post-258 Sun, 02 Sep 2007 03:31:26 +0000 WilliamTWodium 258@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ For several reasons, this "spell" will take several posts to hash out, not least of which is my unwillingness to write the whole thing down at one time. I've made this thread so we can hash it out in peace without unduly cluttering or bumping my own game thread, and also as a potential home for other complex rituals I may cook up in the future. This ritual is concerned with the creation of a Discordian holy-symbol, something that will proclaim the power of Eris to any and all who see it - or else just confuse them, which amounts to the same thing. As near as I can tell, no one has ever done this before. There are plenty of symbols and signs associated with the Faith, of course, but no one as taken to blessing one of them and wearing it around his neck. Since I'm breaking new ground - and because V-me has very little else that's interesting to do with his time - the whole thing is going to be as long, as involved, and as complicated as he can make it. It will be absolutely riddled with symbolism and bogus numerology. Riddled, I say. In any case, the core of the finished symbol will be five wingnuts, which will undergo various transmutations and so forth over the course of the ritual; by the end, each wingnut will supposedly contain the summoned essence of one of the five elements (Sweet, Boom, Pungent, Prickle, and Orange). The whole thing will take twenty-three days and will happen in five phases. Twenty-three is a number of power (2+3=5), and the five phases mirror the five seasons of the Discordian year (Chaos, Discord, Confusion, Bureaucracy and Aftermath). The first day of the ritual must be a Setting Orange (the fifth day of the five-day Discordian week), so that each subsequent day falls on the most auspicious day of the week for its particular piece of the performance. The phases follow: 1) Declaration of Intent. One day. The Pope declares his intention before Eris of creating a tangible symbol of Confusion in general and Eris in particular. Activities include personal purification, disambiguation of the Pope from a cabbage or something, ranting, getting Eris's attention in the first place, and preparations for later rituals. 2) Invocation of the Elements. Five days (one per wingnut). The Pope imbues each wingnut in turn with the essence of a different element, giving each the life, vitality, and individual identity necessary for the later steps. Activities include personal purification, preparation of the ritual space, calling upon the elements, transmutation of the wingnut(s), and sequestering each finished wingnut in a special container (in which it will remain, in meditation, for one week). 3) Emergence, Introductions and Attuning. Five days. As the wingnuts complete their five-day periods of meditation (staggered, of course, one wingnut per day), the Pope introduces them each to himself and to each other, taking time to get to know them and for everyone to become comfortable with everyone else. Activities include naming each wingnut, group games, social mealtimes, one-on-one interaction with each wingnut, and bedtime stories. 4) Binding and Formal Affirmations. Eleven days (one day ritual, ten days affirmation). The Pope performs a ritual of unification, binding the five wingnuts together and formalizing their connection to himself. He then makes this Official by filling out and filing an ever-escalating series of forms. Activities include complex transmutations, convoluted symbolic reasoning, tedious hand-copying, repetitive compulsory song, and overuse of paper clips. 5) Dissolution and Emancipation, or, "Screw You Guys." One day. The Pope gets thoroughly sick of forms, the wingnuts, and unity in general. He breaks apart the wingnuts' bindings, discards said wingnuts, and seeks wisdom in solitude. The Holy Symbol is completed when he returns to the wingnuts and once again collects them - this time without all that silly business about eternal, inseparable bonds. Activities include mistreatment of official forms, breaking things, sulking, eating hot dog buns, and awkwardly making up. That's the overview. I think I'll hit each section in detail in separate posts. In terms of mechanics, I'm interested in defining this thing's time factor. I haven't gone through and made an account of how long I spend each day on actual ritual, but I imagine it will average somewhere between one and three hours per day (23 to 69 hours total). As a player, I'm hoping I get full credit for the twenty-three days, but as a referee, I'm hoping to get some insight into adjudicating this kind of situation. Tadeusz on "Pomo World" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/pomo-world#post-9755 Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:06:00 +0000 Tadeusz 9755@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ PoMo or Post Modernism is the notion that texts (books and such) do not reflect truth, but are wholly propaganda for the point of view of the author. One does not read Shakespeare to understand his insights into human nature, but to decipher how his class, and sex based interests were shown in the plays he wrote. There is no truth, there is only power. Now, what about a world based on this idea? Every writer and activist is a magician. They try to get a critical mass of people to agree with them. If they do well (Relative Success roll vs. a Resistance Check) they change what people believe, and they can even change reality (even past reality). These High Scribes (the writers, and activists) usually have greater defenses for themselves so even if the opponent overwhelms them, and rewrites reality, the Scribe is inviolate in himself. However, sometimes some of it leaks through,a nd then the Scribe is said to suffer from 'false consciousness' or to 'have grown'. Scribes tend to cast spells to check if they are whole, and to go on retreats to purify themselves if they are not. The pinnacle of victory is of course when your enemy does not even realize there ever was a war. Graham on "Is Belief Enough?" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/is-belief-enough#post-7628 Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:43:37 +0000 Graham 7628@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ In Multiverser, where do Gods get their power from? It seems logical that some Gods are less powerful than others, and often in fiction we hear of divine wars where one side wins and one side loses. So then, is it the belief of the followers that gives power? Is it the, odd as it is, age of the god? or the time the god has had to perfect its arts? Or is it arbitrary? That leads me to my second question. Is belief in a god enough to have that god exist (in Multiverser mind) and be able to perform holy magic? Could I, in theory, make up a god and follow and belief, and then be able to perform holy magics with the help of this deity? I think these question arise more out of an ignorance of holy magic mechanics than they do from pure curiosity. Tadeusz on "World: Rock, Paper, Scissors" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/world-rock-paper-scissors#post-7541 Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:01:13 +0000 Tadeusz 7541@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ Let me sketch out a world's magic system. Rule of Four ============ There are four schools of magic which compete with each other (and a banned fifth house which is underground). There is magic based on the four elements. There are four types of magic (Animal form, Geometry form, Emotion form, Primal form). Magic is cast by speaking softly the name of the spell. The spell is then made manifest, and then the spell acts on the next action turn as a semi-independent Form. Certain forms can decisively beat other forms. Certain forms can weakly beat other forms. This is known to everyone who is a magician. The typical magician who is not in a protected school is a professional. Magicians duel for the honor of their schools (similar to old Kung Fu movies), and the honor of their particular teacher. In preparation for a duel, they stand fifty feet from each other, and use the spell Auralink. This links their powers to create a battle circle which is a zone that prevents their magic from getting out of hand. It also has the effect at the end of a duel of enabling the winner to much more easily use the spell...Aura steal on the loser. Use of Aura Steal empowers the winner with extra strength and energy both physical and magical for several weeks. It imposes this cost on the loser. It is possible to refuse a duel, and run away. The attacker may then legally try to aura steal, but its more difficult. Such flight gets one a bad rep too as a coward which is important in this culture. It is possible to steal aura from non-magicians. They have little defense or understanding of magic (although most realize it exists, few have the talent and the willingness to become a magi). It offers less advantage than stealing from a magi, and the loser is often sunk in unexplainable gloom for several weeks. This is considered very bad among the four elemental Paths or Schools. Some schools sanction it in emergencies, and others not at all. However, the banned fifth school revels in it. The response of the four schools is to hunt the Five Magi down, and kill them (most normal mage duels do not end with death although that is a possibility). The Sixteen Spells: =================== Animal Form: 1. Water Horse 2. Fire Eagle 3. Earth Rhino 4. Air Cheetah Geometry Form 1. Ball of Fire 2. Arrow of Air (Triangle) 3. Square of Earth (a fortress) 4. Line of Water Emotion Form----actually I'd like a different type than this. As an example Mage A is desperate, he's been forced back and back. His enemy is faster than he is, so his enemy has gotten in four spells to his three...and he's almost beaten so he does what most beginner mages do in dire straits... Square of Earth he sings out quietly. Ten foot high, one foot thick walls of solid clay materialize out of the Nevernever around him. He feels safe. Meanwhile his opponent guessing what he would do says Arrow of Air. And the Arrow of Air is a very weak attack spell, but unless stopped, it will follow you anywhere. And the Square of Earth has an open top. The Arrow arcs over the fortress wall and slams into Mage A. He is rattled, and stunned, and loses his concentration and his Square dissappears. Mage B attacks with Aura Steal as Mage A tries to focus after getting his bell rung. Its too late. The steal takes effect and A's energy and willpower flows out of him to strengthen the already stronger Mage B. Now if B had guessed another spell, and attacked with Line of Water, a blasting roar of water like a fire hose would have appeared in front of him, and seconds later went off in a straight line at Mage A. And the Fortress would have utterly blocked it, and been undamaged. As a verser side note: The verser would have great advantages with his own magic which did not follow the rules. Also, he would attract a lot of attention because magi would think he had discovered one of the fabled Lost Spells. On the bad side, most every mage he met would be a professional who was trained in quick casting. And yes, I know thats pretty sketchy. Feel free to add more or modify... WilliamTWodium on "Magic manipulating magic" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/magic-manipulating-magic#post-6356 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:16:16 +0000 WilliamTWodium 6356@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ I'm in search of game balance advice. In the description for M4@8 Manipulate Magic, it says that if the spell targets magic and there is still a magical effect after the spell succeeds, it's a skill under that heading. It gives suggested baselines for an array of uses, but it doesn't address a spell whose purpose is merely to extend the duration of another effect already in progress. Ordinarily, I'd just eyeball it, but this struck me as something with some serious potential for imbalace. (Let's see, I'll take a +20 sit-mod on the three-hour climate control for cutting the duration down to 7:30:00, then I'll cast my guaranteed-success three-minute Extend Duration spell - that's +40 for the time factor - and I'll do that five times for +RS% to the duration each time . . .) So, I guess I'm looking for opinions in three areas: 1) What should the baseline time factor be? Most M4@8 Manipulate Magic skills run about twelve seconds, but I think this one's atypical. The standard one-to-ten TF-to-duration rule of thumb isn't much help here either. 2) How should the length of the extension be determined - based on the TF of the target skill, based on the TF of the extension skill, or fixed somehow and thus relative to neither? 3) How narrowly, at baseline, should such skills be defined? This could range from, at one extreme, a single Extend Duration skill for any in-place magical effect to, at the other, a separate skill for each specific spell the caster would like to be able to extend. What should be the standard, and what should be craziness calling for ad-hod adjustments to the other baseline values? johnosevens on "Power with drawbacks?" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/power-with-drawbacks#post-6306 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:32:04 +0000 johnosevens 6306@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ We've all seen them in fantasy literature. Ancient wizards, their bodies worn away by the use of their powers. People like Darth Nihilus, so consumed by their magic that they literally radiate an aura of pain and disease. How does Multiverser handle things like that? Is it possible for a Verser to be consumed by magic? We know from previous discussions that lichdom is not closed to Versers (and indeed is a good way to prevent Versing out), but what about a permanent condition that continuously kills you? Is it possible to damage oneself so badly with effects like that that no Verse can sustain you, effectively trapping you in the ether between Verses? WilliamTWodium on "A few questions" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/a-few-questions#post-5532 Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:51:59 +0000 WilliamTWodium 5532@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ These miscellaneous questions are mostly for MJ, having to do with a game I will presently run. If Paul or Graham read this thread, I trust they will keep certain details and implications firmly in the realm of player (rather than character) knowledge. The first two questions have to due with Bah Ke'Gehn, the second two with certain magical skills. First, what do the Bah do for water? Having studied the setting, it seems to me that all the water in the diet of all Bah beyond the Bah Dzen has its ultimate source in the fur of the worms (who in turn synthesized it directly from the magical energies of the grass) - which suggests succulent fur, indeed. Alternatively, the Bah have no need of water, which would suggest a very strange biology and raise questions about the necessity of the yellow liquid the Tingaladek produce. The answer to this seems like it would impact description of the worms and their fur. Second, what units of time do the Bah possess, and how might they be measured? I recall having the scholar Graham met mention measuring time in generations, but it seems reasonable that they might also break generations into smaller chunks, perhaps based on the durations of various parts of the life cycle. Then, too, the Tolo Bran sleep in shifts, so it seems likely they have concepts for units of time on a more immediate level as well - something between a moment and stage of life. Has this come up before, perhaps in games subsequent to publication? (Is it in the book in a section I've forgotten to re-read?) Third, magics which prevent healing are rarely available to fantasy players (despite their frequent occurrence as plot devices), but justly feared, and I find it likely that the baddies of Bah Ke'Gehn would favor them. However, I'm not sure where to place them in the bias grid. Are they subversions of M5@9 Shields Against Magic? Or would it be more appropriate to invent an entry in the M13@ Necromantics to cover them? Fourth, suppose a magical item has several functions which, if they were found in separate devices, would be of several disparate biases - one M1@2 Always, two M1@3 When Worn/Held (one when worn, one when held), one M1@5 On Condition, and perhaps others. How many skills does the device require to use, and how should the skill or skills be classed? M. J. Young on "Prayer Botches" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/prayer-botches#post-3047 Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:34:08 +0000 M. J. Young 3047@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ In <a href="http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/kyler-where-ya-at-buddy/page/7?replies=210#post-3044">Kyler, where ya at buddy?</a>, John Cross wrote: <blockquote>Let me guess. A bad dice roll here can mean I botched and killed myself right? How can you botch on praying?? That don't make no sense.</blockquote> Well, I sympathize, but call it a matter of being consistent. First, let me say that the rules specify that holy magic botches are inherently limited, because they are prayers, messages to intelligent beings, and thus it is to some degree in the hands of those powerful beings what happens. Second, let me ask everyone to recognize that not all "prayers" are directed to The God, Creator of All. Not everyone who prays believes that there is such a being (although the cosmology of Multiverser maintains it as a necessary fact for their to be a multiverse in which all imagined things exist). I think that most would agree that a prayer to, say, a demon has a very good chance of going wrong. The same might be said of prayers to other gods who are in competition, such as Baal or Dagon. The problem arises when I, as a player, make the assumption that my chosen deity is infallible. Of course my character believes that about his deity, and I believe it about mine, and the fiction attempts to make these as close to each other as possible--but despite John's suggestions to the contrary, I do not really play God, and I attempt to avoid doing so as much as possible, and thus his prayers to God are answered by what the dice and I guess that our fictionalized version of his God is likely to do in response to that prayer. I am caught by the fact that I don't believe his God would "botch"; that, though, does not prevent him from doing so himself. There is the factor which someone has called "those prayers which heaven in mercy declines to answer," that what you prayed will bring you great misery in the long run and God knows it. A botch might mean getting what you requested and discovering that it is not at all what you expected. There are also the unforeseen consequences factor. King Hezekiah was informed by the prophet Isaiah that he, the king, was going to die within days, and the King then prayed that he might live. God granted that request, and sent Isaiah back to tell him that he would live. The good king lived almost two more decades, but in that time fathered Mannaseh, one of the worst kings in Judah's history--the king who would never have been born had Hezekiah not prayed that prayer. It is also entirely possible that some other entity might become interested in the situation. When the angel Gabriel brought news to the prophet Daniel, he apologized that he had been delayed by some being called the Prince of Persia. It could be that your prayers stir up a supernatural battle in which the enemies of your God take it upon themselves to mess with you, and to keep your God's forces occupied so that they cannot assist. When people tell me that God can do anything, I tell them that they are wrong, that that is a faulty premise which is not at all biblical. It is, for example, impossible for God to lie; it is thus equally impossible for God to renege on His promise. The Multiverser cosmology tacitly includes within it that God made promises to certain created spirit beings, that they would have power and authority over certain spheres within the multiverse for certain periods of time. God can punish those who overstep their authority, but as with Aslan and the White Witch in Narnia, she could not be brought to justice until she overstepped her authority. So there are ways to explain holy magic botches; you just have to be creative to do so. --M. J. Young WilliamTWodium on "Professional and Expert Use of Magic Devices" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/professional-and-expert-use-of-magic-devices#post-3013 Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:57:43 +0000 WilliamTWodium 3013@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ I'm in seasonal internet quasi-hermitdom, but I'm peeking out to ask this question: what doubles or triples when a character's skill in operating a magical device exceeds level one? Two things prompt me to ask this question. Firstly, the time factors of many devices are either instant or non-existent (i.e., the skill check is merely a game mechanic for bias purposes), and the durations are sometimes dictated strictly by device type ("always active," "when worn/held," etc.). Those are usually the top two candidates for doubling and tripling. It's easy enough to turn to area or whatever RS controls, but that brings me to the second sticky point: Device creation rules specify sit-mods that allow the creator to create a device that will "operate at a skill level of two or three." If the device creator controls the potency of the spell effect, what's left for the device user? Two answers occur to me. The first is that there is no bonus for the character who achieves a 2@ or 3@ SAL in operating an Always Active or When Worn/Held device beyond the increased percentage chance of its operation in low-bias worlds. That's consistent with the printed rules and justifies the efforts of powerful device creators, but it seems poor compensation for the player who devised a double-doubled or triple-tripled training program for such a skill. The second answer is, perhaps the potency of the skill effect is controlled by the higher of either the user's skill or the potency inherent in the device from its creation. This rewards the efforts of the training player, but it saps some of the value from creating inherently powerful devices. A third answer is to allow both creator and user to contribute multiples, but surely that's imbalanced. Isn't it? Tadeusz on "Elements of Magic, Punishments, and Woman's Status" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/elements-of-magic-punishments-and-womans-status#post-1065 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:37:15 +0000 Tadeusz 1065@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ I've got a fall cold, and I'm taking meds so I may not be totally coherent. Elements of Magic: 1. Code of Behavior For some magic, you have to stay within the confines of a code of behavior, or the magic leaves you. A. Paladins B. Good Witches 2. Those sensitive to magic can sense you. 3. You use the magic for an improper use, and you get punished. 4. Balance of elements magic--you cast a laser spell, and shortly there after, you're surrounded by shadow. 5. The traditional time, body involvement, items, and speech. 6. Certain languages get a bonus. More later... WilliamTWodium on "A couple of questions on Magic" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/a-couple-of-questions-on-magic#post-821 Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:13:41 +0000 WilliamTWodium 821@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ I've got two colors of question for this thread. One is "bias & mag devices across sub-universe boundaries," and the other is "which way shall we run a werecoyote." Edit: I'm saving the werecoyote for another thread, like I always seem to do. With magic devices: I understand that while magic device operation is under level one, a device which is operated successfully while the skill it performs is above the bias curve automatically botches. I have questions concerning indigs vs. versers. Consider two devices, a Potion of Healing (performs M2@1 Limited Damage Repair) and Aladdin's Ring (performs a high-intensity 11@ summoning). Let us say that the bias is 1@11 - high enough to support any device, low enough to curve out all summonings above @1, and leaving all healing above the level but within the curve. Now, if anyone successfully uses the Ring, he botches. But can the verser use the potion? I think he can, because he'd be capable of a healing spell of that caliber. Next the bigger question: can the indig use the potion without botching? I believe he cannot - but then again, its effect is within the curve, and the only skill the indig himself is performing is within both the level and the curve. The wording in the rules doesn't resolve this directly, so I'm asking here. The questions I'm more interested in have to do with sub-universe boundaries and how they interact with these restrictions. In brief: *Can a 1@10 Piggyback Device activate contingent on the operation of a device in another sub-universe? *Can a device activated in one sub-universe take its effect in another in which that effect is above the curve? *I know it's possible to travel by time machine to a time in which the bias does not support the return trip; is it possible perform a similar feat with magical teleportation? (Technological teleportation?) To spy on an area with magical clairsentience where the bias is too low to support clairsentience (given that the location from which the spell is cast does support it)? I'm exploring methods by which beings from adjacent sub-universes can be "summoned" into locales with very low (but positive) magic bias, and answers to these questions will help immensely. JohnA1nut on "Yourself VS your game character" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/yourself-vs-your-game-character#post-354 Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:10:26 +0000 JohnA1nut 354@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ I am wondering about something. Kind of a moral issue. If I were really a verser, I would have no problem learning psionic powers. It's just tapping the hidden power of the mind. However, magic is another story. If I were really a verser, I think I would refuse to learn magic, on the grounds that I believe it to be of Satan. However, as a player, I know better, that it is just of the mind of MJ Young. My character would refuse to learn magic, but as a player, I wouldn't. This is kind of a moral issue to me. Should I try to learn magic because as a player I know better, or should I refuse to, because as a character I would refuse to? Does that make any sense?