Bay 12 Games Forum

Well, I've been looking into Knights and Medieval Chivalric Romance lately, so I figured I'd take a shot at a small game about Knight Errants going on possibly valorous, possibly humorous quests. It's been a years since I GMed my, okish, first and last RTD. Not going to lie to you guys, it's going to be a learning experience for me, so I can't promise anything high quality coming out from my end nor particularly quick updates, but hopefully we'll have some fun along the way. 

So: Here is a basic explanation of the magic system, schools of magic usually use one or two primary and several secondary forms to focus their magic. Multiple sets of focuses and forms can do the same thing, no one way is the best way. The specific casting stats and numbers will go up when I get the stat stuff up tomorrow because the stat and combat stuff directly relates to it and I decided that would be the best way to do it. Ask me if you have any questions.

~Magic~

Primary Forms: These are basic ways to focus magic into the world. Some spells use multiple, some schools focus on single or multiple forms.
 Channeling, godmagic, demonmagic, any magic that comes from something else letting you use it, priests usually can channel godmagic, warlocks can channel demonmagic, some other schools use both, chaos prophets use othermagic and draw from entities in from other planes of existence, often the magic directly affects the mind of the channeler, and they often have to do things for the entity, god, or demon to be able to channel the power.
 Ritual Drawn, Ritualized etching, drawing, and scribing, writing scrolls or ritual circles involves this.
 Ritual Spoken, Ritualized chanting speaking or muttering, scrolls use this for casting from them, several schools combine this with others
 Physical Focus, Using an object as a focus, wands, staves, plant matter, organs, blood, part of a tombstone, skeletons, really any sort of thing can be used as one, some schools specialize in specific types. Necromancy uses physical focus with ritual drawn to make permanent undead.
 Mental Focus, Using your mind as a focus, psions use this, some types of magi use this, often used in conjunction with Physical Focus or one or more of the ritual types
 Innate, Natural and instinctual, you just do it, not as powerful as when it is focused through one of the other primary forms but still quite potent, most mages start with innate abilities.
 Uncontrolled, no or little control over the magic but have potent pent up power within, with training, most can learn to control it and focus it, Lunarik have this for example but are unable to learn how to control it.

Secondary Forms: Usually at least two secondary forms are used to create a spell.

Channeling: Channeling grants power by some sort of entity or force providing the power in exchange for service. The better the thing allowing you to channel likes you, the more powerful you are.
 Godly, All forms of priests and clerics use this. Good gods, neutral gods, and dark gods.
 Demonic, Demon grants power in exchange for something, often the channeler's soul or the promise of other souls being sacrificed, in the latter, if the quota is not met upon death, the demon eats the channeler's soul. This is the primary source of Warlock magic.
 Aberration, Cthulhu ring any bells? Pretty much anything that would be found in this universe's version of the Far Realm does this, Chaos Prophets channel from these.
 Extraplaner, Entities and forces that exist outside of the planer structure, who knows what they might want except the channeler and the entity?
 Magus, An especially powerful magic user who allows followers to use some of his power, most intelligent necromantic servants use this form of magic.
 Primal, Druids and shamans sometimes use this and other forms of magic, the very force of nature, it may seem at first to not be sapient, but it is the combined minds of all creatures that aren't self aware. It is quite powerful and quite smart.

Ritual Drawn, The more accurate you are, the better the result.
 Etched (item) runes inscribed on an object, one of the primary forms of enchanting.
 Etched (general material) Similar to item etching but used more for base materials that will be made into something.
 Etched (specific material) Similar to general etching but the spell is focused for a specific material.
 Drawn (soft material) Dirt or similar substances, usually combined with pattern or magic runes.
 Drawn (paper or similar) How you make scrolls and similar things, or just a way to carry a premade pattern or sigla around.
 Drawn (magic runes) Using magic to inscribe patterns and runes on a surface.
 Drawn (magic sigla) Using magic to form sigla and patterns in the air
 Drawn (pattern) Ritual circles are an example of this, usually combined with others.
 
Ritual Spoken, The clearer you speak or sing, the better, the better you space your words, the better.
 Words of power, Specific words that directly affect certain things, tend to be extremely powerful but most cannot comprehend them as the words define the entirety of the subject they state. Hearing one spoken does not mean you will be able to comprehend it to the point of being able to repeat it. All must learn them on their own.
 Sequence, Sequences of words, such as chants or incantations or songs that focus a spell.
 Combination, Words used in combination with another form of focus to amplify or alter the spell.
 Innate, Innate are unique words used to channel magic that specifically are used by a single person or a single race, anyone else using them would accomplish nothing as they require the person's specific mindset, power, and focus to use them.

Physical Focus, The closer to what the spell requires, the more powerful the spell, also if not specified, the higher the quality the better, if a spell asks for a flawless diamond and rose petals dried in the midday sun, and you use a cracked emerald and fresh tulips, the spell will be very weak or might not even work compared to the result from the proper focuses. Spells may or may not use up some or all of the focuses used, depends on the spell. The type of spell you plan on casting changes what you will use. A nature or shamanic spell will likely use Life and Plant as primary focuses, some focuses can be multiple different types at once, if a spell calls for Rock, Jewel, and Metal but doesn't need anything specific, you could use a Beryl crystal (Low quality emerald), as Beryl crystals have a decent amount of Beryllium ore in them and are also considered both rocks and metal also. Beryllium being a rather rare metal makes it a higher quality in the metal bit but lower in the gem and rock bits.
 Plant, Dried or fresh plants, some sort of plant matter, type may vary.
 Implement (large), A staff,  crystal ball, clothing, some types of jewelry, anything that isn't small enough to be a small implement.
 Flesh, We can be reasonable, I mean nobody's gonna eat your eyes. (Basically what it says on the tin, species may vary)
 Fungal, Plump helmets anyone? (some sort of mushroom)
 Liquid, Some form of liquid.
 Blood, Blood, type of blood may vary.
 Gas, Air, or something more specific
 Dead, Something dead, something undead also works, the level of decay preferred varies depending on the spell.
 Bone, Bones or something that represents bone (a carving of a skeleton for example.)
 Rock, Some sort of rock, the rarer the better.
 Jewel, A gem, the finer the better. Masterwork objects are best objects.
 Life, Something living or something that represents life (a cat familiar, a totem of a pregnant sheep)
 Metal, Some sort of metallic object.
 New, Something new.
 Old, Something old. (something borrowed, something blue.. don't kill me, I had to say that.)
 Luck, anything physical relating to luck, dice, a coin, Schrödinger's Cat.
 Time, Something that represents or is affects time, a clock, the skull of an imp of aging, the time god's tears
 Implement (small) Wands, pendants, bracelets, patterns tattooed into the skin, knucklebones, coins, dice, small objects used for focusing magic.
 Magical, Some sort of object that channels the arcane, a mana crystal or the bones of a unicorn, or anything directly imbued with magic would be used.
 (This list goes on for a while. It is literally anything.)

Mental Focus,
 Psionic, Mind to mind magic, usually comes from an innate ability that gets trained.
 Mental Pattern, Same as drawn pattern, but the patterns are formed in the mind's eye.
 Mental Sigla, Same as drawn sigla, the sigla are formed in the mind's eye though.
 Will, Magic is called into the world through shear willpower, extremely rare but very very potent, few have the willpower to completely reject reality and substitute their own.
 Strand, Direct manipulation of the strands of magic, very accurate but not super powerful, great for countering spells as masters of this focus can unweave someone's spell or make it explode in their face.
 Focus, making something happen by focusing on it happening, similar to Will magic but weaker and more of a nudge then a bulldozer. Still quite potent.

Innate, Natural affinity for magic of some or all types.
 Mageborn, Born with great magical potential, with training they will become a master in their field, often several, extremely rare and many are never trained.
 Species, Specieswide innate magic, Elves have innate Nature and Life Physical Focus for example.
 Mental, Naturally gifted with mental magic, telepathy is a very common early manifestation.
 Gifted, Naturally gifted with magic, often starts as uncontrolled.
 Godmarked, A god or similar entity chose this one, they will drift towards the path of the clergy and will quickly manifest basic channeling of godly power.
 Demonmarked, Marked by a demon, the demon will be a constant voice in the person's mind, the person will drift towards evil and they will eventually manifest demonic channeling.
 Chaosmarked, Marked by a chaotic entity, mind will drift towards chaos and will slowly manifest the ability to channel the energy of aberrations.
 Naturemarked, Marked by the primal entity, will naturally manifest the ability to channel with training or over time.

Uncontrolled, Innate magic that was never harnessed or is unable to be harnessed often ends with a magical discharge.
 Species, entire species has magic potential but cannot access it, Lunarik are a good example of this. May manifest in some ways with certain stimulation (moontrances/regeneration for Lunarik are an example.)
 Individual, without training or natural understanding, bad things tend to happen with inborn magic. Often manifests with certain stimulation.
 Manalocked, someone's ability to channel mana is locked, possibly by a curse, likely will not end well if it doesn't get removed. Rarely manifests until it builds to an extremely dangerous level.

~Combat... Sorta~

d20+/-relevant bonuses and maluses to determine initiative for who makes an action first. This defines for entire combat unless someone receives a buff or curse that changes the order or forces a reroll. Being knocked or stunned out dumps the person to the last position and may or may not prevent actions for several turns. Some poisons will do this, some magic will do this.

Attacking is d20, +/- relevant bonuses and maluses vs enemy d20 +/- relevant bonuses and maluses (not all apply to any given combat, magical resistance of specific or any type of magic counts towards the defense bonuses only if magic is used. Physical resistances only count vs physical weapons. Some weapons and spells weaken the bonuses, an average iron sword would have to deal with the full defense bonus from average iron plate armor, an average iron mace would have to deal with half that defensive bonus. Weapon type matters. Attack type matters also, an average iron sword vs average iron chainmail could go several ways: Slash would result in a 50% defensive bonus, stab would mean a time taken malus of -2 for the swordsman, but it would halve the chain's defensive bonus. (chainmail is crap vs puncture damage but great vs slashing) And you could strike with the pommel of the sword, which would be doing blunt damage and as chainmail tends to disperse blunt damage. it would have a full defense, table is as follows.

Slashvschainmail 150% defense.

Bluntvschainmail 100% defense.

Stabvschainmail 50% defense.

If the enemy defense number is overcome by the attack number, then the attack does damage, which will be rolled for depending on the weapon or spell. Both the item used for defense and the item used for offense will be rolled for (d20+damage resistance+/-Superior/Inferior bonus or malus vs d20+Damage Resistance+/-Superior/Inferior Bonus/Malus.). If one material is superior to the other material, then the inferior material has a -5 for each level below the other material and the superior material gets a +5 for every level above it. If an item fails its roll, it loses integrity equal to the leftover opponent item roll. ((This is subject to balancing if weapons break too often.))

For quality level, the base stats are used.

For every level above average, the DR is +2 and there is a +1 to damage.

for every level below average, the DR is -2 and there is a -1 to damage.

Weapons will be added to the system as they become relevant.

Some weapon examples:

Lunarik Claws: Capable of stopping steel blades (Meaning they can parry steel and not have a Inferior Material penalty.) and repair themselves each night if the moon touches them or the Lunarik's hand. They have a base integrity of 37 and a base damage resistance of 12. They do 2d6 bonus of damage if the attack is a sneak attack, flanking attack, or backstab. They do 1d7 if it is a normal slashing attack. They do not have quality levels, are Superior to Spelliron Equal to Steel and Inferior to Spellsteel. Stabs are 2d6, slashes are 1d7,

Average Iron and Red Oak Bisento: Base Integrity of 43, Damage Resistance of 14. Capable of stopping iron blades with the blade and bronze blades with the wood. 2d4 blunt with wood 3d5 slashing with blade, bonus 2d4 if flanking attack. Has reach, allowing attacks from an extra space away.

(For wood I am doing general approximations of strength from This.)

Average Iron Dagger: Short reach -7 to any parry rolls and -4 to standard attacks if the enemy is using a weapon without Short Reach. +3d6 bonus damage for backstab and sneak attack. +1d4 bonus damage for flanking. Damage Resistance of 4, Base Integrity of 27. 1d4 slash, 1d7 stab, 1d3 pommel strike blunt. Fast: If first attack is successful, can attempt to make a second attack that turn.

Average Red Oak Bow with Pig Leather String: Base Range of 21 spaces. Base accuracy of 10% with no skills. Base integrity of 10 (Don't try using it as a melee weapon.) DR of 3 If within five spaces from target, +10% accuracy. If within 1 space from target, -20% accuracy.

Average Chickenfeather Fletched, Iron and Red Oak Arrow. Base Damage 3d6 piercing. -5% to accuracy for every space past 12 that it is fired. (so 21 spaces away would result in -45% accuracy.)

Combat will be done on a grid system, I can give an online program for the grid it if you want and I'll give you guys a quick example of it before we get to actual combat. If nobody wants to run the battles, then I can do all the calculation for them.

For magic:

Different mana types are for different forms. Some manatypes are general and can be used by multiple types of spells but aren't particularly specialized and therefore you will need to use more then if you used a specialized mana

Mental Mana or MENTM is for general Mental Focus spells. Psionic Mana or PSIM is specifically for Psionics. It's a two to one ratio for MENTM. So two MENTM translates to one PSIM. Here are a few examples of spells and casting costs:

Power of spells affect casting cost in terms of various mana and ingredients.

Sleeping Mist.
Greater Physical Focus=>Life==>Fresh Black Rose Petals, Weak Physical Focus=>Gas==>Water Vapor, Mental Focus=>Psionic==>Drowsy.
75% chance of success if you have the base skills required to cast, enhanced abilities in the required skills raises the chance of casting success. If successful, target area of 5x5 become saturated with sleep inducing mist. Any who breathe the mist must roll to save or pass out for four hours unless their species has a resistance to Life magic, in which case roll to save for each turn in the mist. Must get higher then 25 with the save if you lack resistance and must get higher then 25-resistance with resistance.
25 LIFM
5 GASM
15 PSIM

Or 90 MENTM

Also requires water nearby or the air to have water vapor in it.
Also requires several fresh black rose pedals, this spell consumes them.

Moontrance.
Uncontrolled=>Species==>Moonlight.
Requires all mana of all types, kills affected Lunarik and rapidly repairs the body, upon completion of the regeneration, the Lunarik's soul is yanked violently back into its body and they reanimate fully alive. Chance of going insane increases by 5% for every day that the trance lasts.

Requires Species = Lunarik
Requires Direct Moonlight.
Requires Major Injury.
If able to happen, must happen.

Soulfeast.
Innate=>Species==>Hunger.
25% chance of success. Tears a hole in space time that absorbs all nearby matter, not including one who created it. Any souls that are pulled into it are devoured by the demon, for use as energy later. +100 DEMM per sapient soul. +50 per sentient soul +5 per nonsentient soul. AOE is 3x3. All caught within must make a reflex roll to jump out of the absorption zone. Must get at least 20.

Species = Demon of Gluttony.
Requires 150 DEMM

Basic Telepathy.
Mental Focus=>Psionic
Send basic feelings and images to target sentient or sapient.
65% chance of success

10 PSIM

All magic can be practiced, your success rate will increase depending on how much you work at it, the system for training will be the next thing I finish.

So peoples, here are these. Feel free to come up with effects and what not for your spells and equipment. I'll help you balance them out and what not, obviously I don't have a compendium of them. The idea is for this to be as open ended as possible (within reason) Customization is rather high.

~Stats~  ((I'll think of a better name for the spoiler later.))

 Strength: Physical strength, above 40 is enough to jump to the roof of a small building but will make it increasingly difficult to preform fine actions without breaking things (Think Equius Zahhak.) The best of Orcs will cap out at 70. This is very very very rare and you don't want to piss them off. That castle wall you're hiding behind? Not gonna help.

 Stamina: How much energy all forms of tasks you have, magic that draws directly from the body without an external focus is affected by this. Past 40 means you can run for two or more days to a battle and still have enough energy to fight at full capacity for the twelve hours, the best of Dwarves will cap out at 70, don't piss of one of these guys, they will get you. Sleep? Bah! Who needs sleep?

 Endurance: Physical endurance, how resistant to damage the body is, dragons have no true cap for this, it increases as they grow, however few dragons get past 110, they usually die by then, above 40, a mace blow that would splatter a normal person's skull across the ground would just give a rather bad headache and maybe a small fracture in the skull.

 Willpower: How willful someone is, it directly affects any magic requiring a focus, as well as all mental magics. It also directly affects interactions with people when someone is trying to get something from you or when you are trying to get something from them. Above 40 means you will rarely fail to get your way unless interacting with someone with a similar one, almost all magical actions will rarely fail. Lunarik cap at 15 and rarely get above 10. Instincts override this, but they are quite rare.

 Intelligence: A combination of knowledge and learning ability. Lunarik have no cap for this but rarely make it past 110 before they suffer a catastrophic death of insanity causing discharge. Above 40 means effectively a photographic memory. Lunarik have a duel stat for their intelligence. Their learning ability starts at around 60 and rapidly begins decreasing after age 10. Everything else starts at around 50 or 60. Gnomes tend to cap at about 70 or 80 for all intelligence forms but have absolutely no magical ability, they also tend to be insane. Intelligence directly relates to magical ability relating to memory, such as runes or sigla.

 Charisma: Charisma is how likable you are, you can be utterly hideous but your personality can be super likable. People who purely judge based on appearance wouldn't care about the personality. Not the best kind of people to interact with and their scores are likely rock bottom anyways. Above 40 means you can get almost anyone to like you. Kitsune naturally cap out at about 130 but getting this high is very rare, they can augment this with illusion magic however.

 Dexterity: Dexterity is how good you are with fine motor control and also affects balance and climbing ability. Lockpicking, pickpocketing, rune writing, most forms of crafting, and most weapon combat is directly affected by this. You are much more likely to hit vital spots and parry with this as a high score. Above 40 means you can easily hit someone’s vital parts with thrown knives or steal someone’s jacket without them noticing. Lunarik tend to cap at about 70 or 80 but tend to start start at around 16 or 17.

 Agility: How agile you are, directly affects balance and climbing ability, above 40 means that you can easily scale a castle wall with minimal handholds and are very very very unlikely to lose your balance. combine this with a strength of above 30 and you can easily backflip over people during combat. Although if they have a good reaction time, you probably will get slashed rather badly. Kirvek’Ahni (Basically cat people.) tend to cap at about 120ish. They usually start at about 19 or 20.

 Luck: How lucky you are, this affects pretty much everything you do. Gnomes tend to cap at about 140 luck but usually start at around 15-20 luck, above 40 means improbable things will bend to your benefit. The only reason Gnomes have yet to kill themselves off is because they are so abnormally lucky.

This system is meant to be fairly open ended, you peoples set the specific stats for your characters and races based off your backstory, I advise keeping it below 40 unless there is a very good reason for it. Humans tend to cap at about 25 for everything but constant work at one thing will increase their cap slowly.

I’ll be posting how learning skills and increasing stats works tomorrow. Not entirely satisfied with the explanation and I am setting up stuff to boot up Blackspace for a third time and make C:DDA perfectly functional again. Also I am reinstalling windows so I can do this.

Technically this is enough to start the game since from what I understand we aren’t gonna deal with combat for a while. Although I will get the systems for that explained and done as soon as I get back in the groove of things.

Prophet if you have any priorities for early game then PM them to me or post them in the thread depending on spoiler levels for early game stuff.

This system is meant to be rather flexible, the reason behind it is since a lot of the world building will be done by the players, I want making races, items, and other stuff system to be quite easy. This is a adapted form of what I am using for Miasmatic, adapted in the sense that it is explained in detail. Just set your races caps to whatever is reasonable based on the type of race and do the same with your characters, I’m pretty sure Prophet doesn’t plan on killing everybody off early on so there is no reason to start as an OP character unless you want him to have the first encounter be an OP enemy that focuses on killing you.