INTRODUCTION:
The following is a summary of how magic works for most of the sentient races of Tolhoth Amlug. The Elves know more, but they're not telling. In a few centuries, maybe you'll be able to understand. Wait, you don't live that long. Never mind then.
This system is designed for use with the FUDGE roleplaying system, and uses the following progression of effect levels, from best to worst:
All rolls use four FUDGE dice (4DF), which returns a range from -4 to +4, with the average being 0. This result is used to shift up or down the scale from the skill level being rolled for, to arrive at the final result.
BASIC MECHANICS: This document refers to such characters as "casters," i.e. one who casts.
A cost must be paid, to produce the power needed for the spell. This cost is different for each race, but always involves life or life-force.
A magic spell is made with a Predicate(s)/Objective(s) syntax. The Predicate is what you are trying to do, the Objective is what you're trying to affect. Here are the Spell Factors, listed with the races allowed.
PREDICATES Create (Elf, Human) Perceive (Elf, Human, Nathi) Control (Elf, Human, Nathi) Transform (Elf, Human) Destroy (Elf, Human) Manipulate (Nathi) Conduct (Nathi) OBJECTIVES Plant (Elf, Human) Fire (Elf, Human) Illusion (Elf, Human) Mind (Elf, Human) Earth (Elf, Human) Power (Elf, Human, Nathi) Animal (Elf, Human) Water (Elf, Human) Air (Elf, Human) Body (Elf, Human)
CHARACTER GENERATION:
Each character has an inherent magical ability, represented by a stat named Magic or Power. During character generation, he may assign a number of skill levels to each Predicate or Objective he wishes. This number depends on the race of the character, and the power level the GM has set for the game. Any Predicate or Objective that does not have a skill level assigned to it is not useable by the character. The first level assigned to any Predicate or Objective sets it to Fair, and additional levels added will raise it higher. Every caster starts with Control and Power at Fair, except for Nathi, who start with Manipulate and Conduct at Mediocre, and Power at Fair.
CASTING:
1. Decide what the spell is trying to do. Tell the GM. Note; Though the spells are described in Predicate/Objective format, that is not the name of the spell, merely how they are constructed. For example, you would say "I cast a fireball using Create/Fire" and not "I cast Create/Fire."
2. The player breaks the spell up into components. For example, "Make an illusion of a Raga that will smack the Elf over there" would be broken up into "create/control and illusion/air" The illusion of a Raga is created, and air is controlled to simulate the smack. If the GM disagrees, he may present his opinion on what components the spell must contain. When possible, the GM should allow the player to make the spell his own way, but the GM has final say.
3. The player averages the levels of all the spell factors the character would use during the spell, and rounds up. That is the caster's effective casting skill for that spell. For the Fireball spell, for example, the caster has a Great Create, and a Mediocre Fire skill. The effective skill level for that spell would be Good.
4. The GM sets the difficulty level of the spell, and the player rolls 4DF for the spell skill. If the roll meets or exceeds the difficulty, the spell works, and the higher the roll, the better it works. If the roll is below the difficulty level, it fails, and the caster takes Strain. In general, a spell should increase one level of difficulty for each two Spell Factors added to the spell. Thus, while a Create/Illusion and a Control/Air spell might both individually be Fair difficulty, the Create/Control/Illusion/Air spell would be Good difficulty.
STRAIN:
Each race has a different stat that determines how they deal with Strain. Elves take strain against Magic. Humans take strain against Constitution, and Nathi take strain against Power. If a spell fails, the caster's Strain stat drops by the number of levels the spell roll missed the difficulty. If the Strain stat drops to Terrible, Bad Things happen, and are more fully described in each race's own section later.
Any spell roll of a -4 is a critical failure, and Bad Things Happen, as per each individual race's Bad Things.
Strain is fully recovered after a good night of sleep.
CASTING TIME:
Spells usually take anywhere from no time to a few seconds to cast, if only one predicate or objective is used in the spell. Double the casting time for each additional predicate or objective in the spell, unless the caster has help. More on that later. If the spell involves more than artifact or other object being charged, it may take longer. The GM has the final say.
SUSTAINED SPELLS:
Some spells need to be continuously cast over a long period of time, such as when several casters power a Frigate over a long journey. In this situation, make an additional spell/drain roll every ten minutes if the spell is complex, or every hour if it is simple. This needs to be playtested.
COUNTERSPELLING AND SPELL INTERACTION:
Each individual caster may only cast or maintain one spell at a time without the use of a specialized spell-focus item. Additional casters may cast spells which interact with a spell being cast. This may either be to aid or to disrupt the target spell.
If the first caster is a willing participant, the second caster may freely intermingle his spell. If the first caster is not willing and the second caster makes his spell roll, beating the first caster's spell roll, the first spell is either altered or disrupted, depending on the second caster's intent. The extent to which the spell is altered or disrupted depends on how well the second caster won the roll.
SPELL RESISTANCE: Targets, if they are the direct target of the spell, inherently resist the spell, based on whatever of his stats is most appropriate to the spell. For example, a "control animal" spell would be resisted by the animal's willpower, but the animal would not be able to resist if the caster were to cast a "control fire" and attempt to burn the animal with a fireball. It is up to the GM's discretion how to interpret the resistance roll.
MULTIPLE CASTERS:
Casters may work together to cast spells, making the spell easier to cast, as well as allowing the casting of more complex spells than a single caster may achieve. This is beneficial in several ways:
a. If a caster wants to cast a spell requiring "Control/Plant", but lacks the Plant skill, a caster with the Plant skill may assist with the spell, rendering it possible.
b. If a caster wishes to cast a spell of Epic difficulty, for example, additional casters may join in the spell to make it less difficult. To drop the spell's difficulty by one level, one additional caster is required. To drop it a second level of difficulty, two more casters are required. To drop a third level of difficulty, three additional casters are required, and so on. Thus, in order to reduce a spell of Epic difficulty to merely Good, eleven casters are required to drop the spell those four difficulty levels.
The difficulty of the spell may not be dropped to greater than one level below the average spell skill for the group.
If multiple casters still fail a spell roll, every caster takes one level of strain, and the remaining levels of strain are divided among the casters, starting with those of lowest ability.
FOCI:
The use of a Focus or Foci can make the spell easier, extend its possible range, or reduce the number of casters needed for a spell. A focus may be bound to another focus or foci, to a person or animal, or to a specific place, or it may serve as a conduit. A focus can be almost anything, even another creature, but the construction and enchantment must be consistent with the use to which it will be put. For example, a properly enchanted iron rod could be used as a focus for a bolt of lightning, but a piece of wood could not. As in all things, it is up to the GM.
RANGE:
A single caster can only cast a spell to take effect as far away as he can see in the direction of the target. Any farther than that, and the caster needs other casters to help him with the spell.
The addition of multiple casters to the spell will affect the possible range as follows: (2^# of casters)x(head caster's LOS range)=POSSIBLE RANGE. Note that the use of a Focus that allows the user to view a far distant location will put that location within line of sight.
SCALE AND SPELL DIFFICULTY:
Use the following rule of thumb: Any spell that can be easily replicated with mechanical means by a normal member of the caster's race is a Mediocre difficulty. The closer to Deus Ex Machina the spell gets, the harder it gets. I'm open to suggestion on how to be less vague.
SPECIAL CASES:
Spells which are of the form "Control Power," which is the manipulation of raw magic, take the following form: For an Elf, the power takes on the form of an ethereal form, be it of a creature, wraith, or physical Objective. For a human, the blood used in the spell becomes animated, and may take on a physical form.
Such forms may pass out of the maximum range for the spell, acting like temporary foci, and remain under the caster's control until they are dispelled or dissipate. These spells will feed upon themselves for power, since the forms are made from the magical reagent itself. The caster may control this spell for as long as he can hold on to it, or until it consumes itself.
Under these circumstances, the caster automatically takes a level of strain for each ten minutes he wants the spell to be able to sustain itself.
RACES:
Elves:
Elves are perhaps the most inherently magical of all the races. The cost of the spell comes from the Elf's spirit, which means that as an Elf ages, his ability to use magic gradually decreases. This has little practical effect on the game. Elves generally only take three levels of strain for every four levels a spell would normally dish out. Thus, as an Elf casts spells, ignore every fourth strain level.
When an Elf's Magic stat reaches the condition of Terrible, he suffers an incredible headache and often starts to retch. These effects last about an hour, and he is unable to cast without emptying his stomach until he gets a good night of sleep.
Elven magic takes the form of a song. The more complex the harmonies of the chant, the more complex the spell will be.
Humans:
The cost of a human's spell comes from blood. A spell will consume approximately one cc of human blood per level of difficulty above Fair. This blood does not necessarily need to be that of the caster. The human providing the blood will take wounds as may be expected.
Some humans are kept as slaves by Elves, who control them via a magical 'hook' in the human's mind. When these slaves cast, the cost from the spell is taken from the human's spirit, which cannot handle this, unlike Elves. Therefore, the slave has a chance of insanity each time he casts. Each time he casts, roll his Magic stat against a Great difficulty, shifting the magic stat down by how much the spell failed, or up by how much it succeeded. A failure on this roll means that the slave becomes insane for a day or so. A failure by three or more levels means the insanity is permanent.
Human magic takes the form of a chant as well.
Dwarves:
Dwarves cannot cast spells as such. However, those dwarves of renown, be they great warriors or great craftsmen, are probably touched by some magic.
Raga:
Raga have no ability to cast spells as such. High magic in a Raga shows itself in uncanny luck. In game terms, this means that at the GM's discretion, the Raga succeeds more often at difficult tasks, especially when the odds are otherwise against him, and most especially when he is showing rrgash, their word for "giving one's all."
Nathi:
They operate differently enough that they get their own appendix. A Nathi's spell requires no gestures and no verbalization.
APPENDIX: Nathi
The Nathi access their racial life-force, to perform acts which strongly resemble what is "Magic" to everyone else. Accessing the life-force causes their irises which are red, to glow.
A Nathi can also perceive other Nathi nearby, if they both are using the Power at the same time. This is somewhat akin to the gravity-well example: two balls being placed on a rubber sheet. An observer on one ball can tell generally how heavy and where another ball is on the sheet by how the sheet stretches around him. The same way, one Nathi can tell where and how powerful another nearby Nathi is, by sensing the perturbations in the Life-force.
When a Nathi uses the Power, observers see a suggestion of a malevolent red haze coloring their perception of what the Nathi is doing. This is nothing that would show up on a photograph.
Nathi have fewer options available to them in terms of magic. They are limited to:
Predicates:
Manipulate (Use the Power with no focus or conduit)
Conduct (Send the Power through a Focus or Conduit)
Perceive (sense other users of the Power, or what they are doing with the Power.)
Objectives:
Power (anything involving the racial life-force)
Thus, what a Nathi can do without any sort of Focus or artifact is extremely limited. Given the right artifact, however, most Nathi can equal the Elves.
Examples of what a Nathi could do with the Power:
Magical Artifacts:
Metal: Power channeled through metal is the intellectual equivalent to living electric current. Metal magic artifacts tend to carry destructive, burning, wrathful, etc type effects.
Crystal: Silma is best. (a blatant Tolkien reference) Power channeled through crystal artifacts is the intellectual equivalent to a living static electricity charge. This is the effect that allows the Nathi to power the Elven lightning-crystals and frigates.
To make a crystal magical artifact, a Nathi artisan takes a piece of silma, and with the power, makes it "live." By application of the power, feeding his thoughts and intents into the crystal, he grows it and fashions it to have the shape and powers it will eventually have. The character of the artisan profoundly affects the magical items he makes. This done with specialized metal and crystal tools. It uses an extended spell of Conduct/Power, and takes about as long as it takes a master of a more mundane craft to create Very Good Quality items of a similar scale.
The life of a crystal artifact is not necessarily life, it is instead that force which allows it to hold its shape and properties. A skilled artisan can reawaken a crystal artifact and change its properties.
As the Nathi life force is what gives a Nathi his power, most of the enchantments worked on crystal involve life of some sort. Healing or warding medallions are fairly common, though not really very effective. More common are traps; daggers, swords, or most often rings. These can be used to trap people, body and soul, inside the artifact, where they will experience a virtual environment, which the artifact's owner may control, and enter when asleep.