Wizard School RTD
You're going to teach magic.
Magic assures the safety and prosperity of the many worlds. The golden city-planets of the Yppri system, the glorious solar fleets of Floxian Sunships, the pleasure-domes of the Iridescent Plane and the hallowed libraries of the University World itself, all created and preserved through the tremendous power of the arcane. A huge workforce of Masters maintains and improves the wonders created by humankind, overseen by the powerful Archmages, and assisted by wizards of all descriptions and specialisms. Thousands upon thousands of magic users graduate from the myriad arcane universities every year, and go on to explore new worlds, invent impossible devices, and keep humanity from harm.
This is why you've been sent to a minor world, technologically backward, where magic is almost unknown. You definitely haven't been sent to this unimportant planet in a quiet corner of a largely deserted galaxy in a lesser-travelled plane just because the Arcane Administration wanted to get you out the way. And certainly not because the administration deemed your continued presence a serious threat to the public wellbeing.
It's true that you failed to qualify as a Master of sorcery, largely thanks to an examiner's report full of meaningless buzzwords like "gross incompetence" and "plague of fire eels". Nonetheless, you're a highly accomplished wizard, and not responsible for any magic-related disasters. It's time to show people just how wrong they were.
You're standing next to five of your future colleagues in the pouring rain, the glimmers of the transit portal slowly fading. In a second you're going to have to decide where the school will be, but right now, you're just looking at the highly talented and well-adjusted individuals chosen to work alongside you.
This is a RTD about a group of wizards that run a school in which children are taught magic. Turns will cover the space of roughly one month, so you'll be able to watch your young charges learn and grow as magicians, before leaving after three years to make their own way in the world. As the only scholars of magic on the planet, your actions may have highly significant consequences for the entire world.
There's a very, very slim chance that it won't end in disaster.
If you're confused about anything, want something clarified, or want to know more, please do ask me, either by PMs or in the thread.
If the textwalls in the spoilers scare you or put you off, but you like the concept, just fill out the character sheet picking one of each from the Arts and Affinities.
Your name: Your name here.
Description: What you look like, your personality, your interests and hobbies, whatever might give one a sense of your character. Perhaps a little information about your childhood or magical education.
Art: See below, Arts and Affinities section
Affinity: See below.
Skill: A non-magical skill of some kind, one that isn't directly related to your Art or Affinity. Everyone has something they're good at that isn't their work. Maybe you know something about carpentry, for example, or tailoring. Perhaps you're an excellent storyteller, or lute player, or cook. Or enjoy climbing mountains or gardening or pottery. Anything from hostage negotiator to underwater basket-weaver is acceptable.
Great Work: A crowning magical achievement, perhaps the one that led to your being exiled - sorry, given this job.
Most wizards are most experienced in a certain Art, and have a particular Affinity for particular kinds of magical forces. Your art is the way in which you practice magic, how you channel your power. Your Affinity is the element, force, or category of thing that you are best at dealing with.
Arts
Charms: charm-based magic is simple, quick to use, and well controlled. A charm that goes wrong seldom does anything at all. Charms are the most sensible form of magic, if the weakest.
Potion-making: Magic based on potions, generally for drinking, although those of a more alchemical bent may prefer to spend their time creating powerful and strange concoctions that one should definitely NOT drink. Works even better when practicioners have powerful magical ingredients.
Tinkering: creating insane devices, using a mixture of mechanics and magic.
Combat magic: quick magic specially adapted for combat. Arcane shields, blades and missiles can be summoned by wizards of any affinity, given sufficient proficiency with combat magic. Combat mages excel at both magical and non-magical combat.
Rituals: summoning powerful beings, performing rituals and making deals with devils, gods, the great beings of the natural world, and things for which we have no name.
Wild magic: a heady, elemental form of magic, as quick to use as charms but the opposite in every other way. Wild magic is very powerful, but given to terrifying misfires and far-reaching unintended consequences. Wild mages are seldom liked but always respected, if only for their might.
Songs: slow and simple magic, using arcane songs to imbue objects, persons or places with mystical power. Song mages are unusually powerful but may take weeks on end to complete a spell.
Shapeshifting: transforming oneself into other shapes. Ordinary shapeshifters can turn into a variety of everyday animals, while adepts can transform into stranger creatures according to their Affinity. Masters of shapeshifting may survive a transformation into water, or take the form of a true dragon.
Golem-making: creating new beings from base matter such as mud, animated by magic, ready to do their creator's bidding.
Your idea here: is there a way of practising magic that you'd like your character to have? Explain what it is, and what a few advantages and drawbacks might be, and we'll talk about whether or not it would work.
Affinities
Light: magic based around light. Illuminate things, create illusions, even blind people. Some see light magic as weak, but it has a wide variety of uses.
Fire: working with flame and heat. Doesn't need much explanation.
Water: the magic of seas and rivers, rain and floods. Some wizards specialise in sea magic, captaining ships or running fishing operations. There are even wizards that deal exclusively with the forces of the Deep, the abyssal beings and impossible darkness found at the bottom of oceans.
Air: manipulating the wind and skies, potentially even flying.
Earth: If you're an archmage, mountains and earthquakes. Otherwise, mud and stone. Still nothing to sneeze at.
Metal: summoning and controlling various metals. Working with steel and iron, silver and gold.
Cold: the magic of snow, ice and low temperatures.
Plant: the magic of grass, trees, herbs and flowers. Fungi as well, some wizards going so far as to work with fungi exclusively.
Kinetics: magic of motion and force: messing with gravity, using telekinesis, harnessing motion.
Beast: magic of the natural creatures that inhabit the lands, skies and seas of the many worlds.
Lightning: hurling thunder and manipulating the strange force of electricity.
Flesh: working with bodies and the materials they're created from. Manipulating bone, blood, muscle and fat.
Insect: magic based on ants, bees and other insects, as well as other creepy-crawlies like spiders. In theory a specialism of beast magic, this represents such a refinement of the magics some wizards use to commands wolves or turn into birds that the two bear almost no resemblance.
Dream: the strange forces that dwell beneath the human consciousness drawn into the real world. Magic that uses the twisted logic of dreams, the surreal energy of fantasy, or even the terrifying power of Nightmare.
Your idea here: is there an affinity that isn't listed here, but you'd like your character to have? Or would you like to specialise one of the listed affinities in some way? Explain what it is, and how it would interact with your chosen Art, and we'll talk about whether or not it would work.
Your magical specialism is determined by your art and your affinity, and consists of practicing your Art in a way that involves your Affinity. For example, a Water Song wizard could enchant bodies of water to not drown people, or keep away unwanted ships, or to deposit the bounty of the seas in a specific location. A Fire Shapeshifter could turn into a variety of fire-based creatures such as giant fire-breathing rats, magma crabs, lesser dragons or salamanders, or turn their entire body into fire, if that was something they wanted to do for some reason. A lightning wild mage could do almost anything with lightning, but would have to be prepared for some rather extreme side-effects.
You are most capable with magic that involves your Affinity and is practiced through your Art. Note that you can practice magic that just involves your Affinity, or applies your Art to a different sphere, you'll just have to be less ambitious to have the same chances of success. Due to your comprehensive magical education, you can use any branch of magic at a very basic level - just don't get too ambitious with this. See the Rolling section for more information on this.
Feel free to suggest different Arts and Affinities for your character, though they may be rejected out of hand.
You're welcome to pick any combination, though I have no idea how some would work - you'll have to explain to me what a Kinetic Shapeshifter turns into, or what a Beast Tinkerer builds.
Rolling for player actions will be done with a d6, with overshoots. The mechanics behind non-player actions may be opaque.
The roll for an action will be determined by the difficulty of that action and the skill of the player in the appropriate area.
Although the descriptions only offer examples of what having a given level in a magical discpline might mean, this system applies to both magical and non-magical abilities in a fairly straightforward way. It probably isn't possible to have Archmage level in a non-magical skill, so don't worry about that.
Unskilled: no idea how to even start. An unskilled person is generally not able to perform magic alone.
Novice: A rudimentary understanding of how something works. All players are at least novice in pretty much any magical discipline, thanks to basic training. A novice might be able to alter their shape for a few seconds, sustain a basic illusion for a minute or two, heal minor injuries, create a bit of flame or make plants grow.
Practising: A working knowledge of the field. Adapting your magic for combat, turning into a mundane animal like a cat for a while, magically helping with the construction of a building. Players using magic that uses only one of their Art or Affinity, and would normally use a different Affinity or Art will roll at this skill level.
Adept: Learned and experienced in the discipline. Creating a unique being, taking the shape of a magical creature, single-handedly constructing a grand hall using magic. All players start at this level when using both their Art and Affinity.
Master: The highest proficiency with magic most wizards can achieve. Creating a new race of beings, taking the shape of a true dragon, turning the tide of a huge battle, creating or levelling a city.
Archmage: Magic capable of changing the nature of an entire world.
Rolls will be decided according to the skill level of both the player and the act they are attempting: 1d6 if the levels are the same, max(1d6, 1d6) if the player's level is one higher, min (1d6, 1d6) if the player's level is one lower, auto-fail trying to roll at 2+ above their skill level, auto-succeed at 2+ below their level. You may notice that you automatically succeed any novice-level magic in your specialism, and automatically fail any attempted Archmage magic.
Players are Adept in anything that uses both their affinity and their Art, and Practising in anything that uses just one of the two. They are Novice in pretty much any magical discipline.
Players are also Practising in a non-magical skill.
There are no overshoots when rolling with advantage.
Name: Oak Greensleeves
Description: A tall, slender man with sparkling emerald eyes. His long green hair, tied up in a neat ponytail, reaches his waist.
Art: Shapeshifting
Affinity: Plants
Skill: Calming angry farmers down
Great Work: Transforming the village elder into a rather large oak tree after being called in to soothe a bad cold.
Your name: Dr. Kansei Ifto
Art: Tinkering
Affinity:Kinetics
Skill: Driving. There's nothing better than going head to head against a skilled driver, whether on wheels or broomsticks.
Great Work: HellSteed 3000: An unholy mixture of motorcycle, broomstick and rocket, a monstrosity of metal, fire and arcane energy, it raced through the Manufactorum leaving a trail of destruction behind it. And it continued to race after it drove through the walls of the Manufactorum and through the streets and buildings beyond, throwing Kensei off of it in the process. Based on the lastest news feeds, occasional sightings of it continue racing throughout the Lando system, the most common result of its passage being a slew of broken windows and deafened crowds.
When he was pried out of his impact mitigation suit and asked what he had to say for himself, he declared the ride to have been "bitchin'". The authorities of the Manufactorum however didn't agree, especially given the fact that he had cannibalized an ancient, much more useful and much more powerful Great Work broomstick to construct his own.
Description: Black leather clothing, black racing helmet, racing goggles, black walking cane (he's usually suffering from some sort of injury or pain related to a past injury). Everything had flame decals on them (so that he goes faster), even the cane.
Beneath his clothes he's pale and skeletal, often leading to people mistaking him for a skeleton when the light isn't good.
Despite his physical frailty (or maybe because of it) he is impatient, overenthusiastic, talking quickly and being quick to act. Even the music he likes is quick and powerful. This extends to his current assignment: he can't wait to teach these backwards people the glory that is speed racing. Who knows? Maybe he'll even find one who can challenge him. However his enthusiasm is not necessarily jovial. He can just as easily be enthusiastically grumpy and snide, especially when some injury is bothering him.
He has never managed to stand still and be quiet for more than a few seconds, even for the few hours he wastes on sleep he constantly mumbles and twists and turns, usually due to pain or painful dreams.
Though most of his work revolves around making things go fast, he is familiar enough with the other uses of his field.
Name: Magim Somar'ahneiroDescription: He is a slim man of average height. He keeps his red hair short and away from his green eyes. He eschews the robe worn by some wizards in favor of a greatcoat colored (
███████) like a darkened rainbow.
Art: Combat magic
Affinity: Dream
Skill: Mathematics. The slow, uncompromising rigor of mathematics is a welcome contrast to the quick and bizarre action of his Art and Affinity combined, but the reverse is also true.
Great Work: Thanks to some very good luck, he managed to normalize causality over an area of several square miles. He maintains that it is irrelevant that he was the one who weakened causality in that area in the first place, and also maintains that it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Causality was only
weakened, and what's a few square miles in the grand scheme of things? (It was even worse than it sounds.)
Name: Dalia Hemsworth
Description: Usually wears long sleeved shirts and jeans. She has long hair and brown eyes. She is usually quiet, thinking about ways to make things more interesting, less boring.
Art: Wild Magic
Affinity: Plants
Skill: (since affinity is plants, I think gardening isn’t valid) Entomologist, knows a lot about arthropods
Great Work: She was told to get rid of a large group of mice. She accomplished this by causing nearby plants to grow into giant vines to crush the mice. The giant vines then went after people, wrapping around them and crushing them. She was sent off, before she could make things worse
Name: Vids Iretineulqkin.
Description: A tall and well built man wearing a leather trenchcoat over some simple brown clothing. His clothes are heavily stained, and he perpetually smells horrendous, but he's a very likeable and positive fellow who always sees the bright side of things. He's usually smiling absently as he ponders his latest projects. Loves music, and is a talented dancer, having actually won a couple small competitions back home.
Art: Golem-making
Affinity: Flesh
Skill: Dancing, of all varieties.
Great Work: Creation of the omni-horse, a highly versatile work animal capable of doing virtually all of the jobs usually assigned to domestic servants, be they butlers, maids, chefs, babysitters or wet nurses. It cooks, it cleans, welcomes guests, sets the tables, disciplines your children, and more! Anyone can live like a noble, relying on this masterpiece of organic reconfiguration! Vids sadly only managed to create and sell six specimens before his laboratory was burned down, but he tattooed details of how to construct the creatures on the interior of each individual's skin; he hopes someone else will eventually discover this, and copy his design, perhaps even mass produce it and revolutionize domestic life as we know it.
Name: Hori HeeraDescription: An extremely broad, quite short, sandstone colored lump of a man, extremely jovial on the surface. Attention span is aparently quite limited, rarely shows emotions beyond amusement or pleasure, hobbies: comedic taxidermy.
Art: Rituals
Affinity:Flesh
Skill: A particularly sturdy fella with great stamina. Good at hiking, carrying heavy loads, and lifting heavy objects.
Great Work: Wishing to combine the Excellent practices of the Agricultural World of Marnis V with the energy and enthusiasm of the Creative world of Delba III, Hori made a famously ill fated contract with some rather less than reliable otherbeings and instead of combining practices, ended up combining the people of each world. The contract is ongoing as of last news cycle, the horrible effects spreading at a steady clip across the worlds. Rumor has it the effect is no longer limited to the two worlds of the initial contract. At his trial, ... err, administrative review, Hori giggled incessantly at the images of the various victi- subjects in various states of being.
