From: Michael Derry (mad@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu)
Date: Wed 26 Jun 1991 - 09:56:33 EEST
Subject: Variant RuneQuest sorcery system
Keywords: RuneQuest Glorantha RQ
I've worked up a variant sorcery system for my RuneQuest game, and decided I'd
done enough on it to post it. I'd appreciate any comments anyone has,
especially any suggestions for improvements. I've currently got 72 spells and
expect to write about 70 or so more before I start playtesting it. My
campaign will be set in Dragon Pass, with the players living in Black Horse
Country under Sir Ethilrist. The game is RuneQuest 3; I'll probably start
people with 8-10 years of previous experience.
I'd also like to hear from anyone who's run a Gloranthan game which involved
Sir Ethilrist. Anyway, here goes. Please excuse any formatting errors; I
originally did this in MS Word on the Mac and had a hell of a time fixing
things in VI on my UNIX system.
Rune-Based Sorcery for RuneQuest
copyright (c) 1991 by Ken McKinney
Rune Based Sorcery is a variant set of sorcery rules for the RuneQuest fantasy
roleplaying game. It is intended to completely replace the RuneQuest 3 sorcery
rules, but does not affect the mechanics of the other magic systems.
Rune Based Sorcery is inspired by the current crop of "advanced" magic systems
in games like Ars Magica and Torg. When designing this system I set the
following goals:
1. Sorcerers should be encouraged to specialize, as this will distinguish
them from each other and make for more interesting characters. They
should be able to cast more powerful spells more easily in an area
of expertise.
2. Spontaneous magic (i.e. spells made up on the fly) should be possible,
though often only at great personal risk.
3. Rare and mystical ingredients should aid in both the casting of spells
and the creation of magical artifacts.
4. The existing hierarchy among sorcerers (student,apprentice,adept,magus)
should be kept. There should be a new set of criteria for admission
to each category.
5. There should be new rules for familiars, as well as innate magical
shielding and magical dueling rules.
Rune Based Sorcery
Each rune in the Gloranthan cosmology is designated as either an
empowering rune or a form rune. Empowering runes are like verbs. They
define an action which your spell performs. Likewise form runes are like
nouns, and define the recipient or scope of your action. Each combination of
empowering runes and form runes defines a unique category of spells, and
every spell fits into exactly one category.
The Runic Skills
Each Rune in Glorantha has an associated sorcery skill. The Runes which
sorcerers have learned to use are listed below. All runic skills are magic
skills with a base percentage of 00%, and can only be increased through
training or research.
Manipulation Runes
These runes facilitate the manipulation of a spell's strength, duration, or
range.
They replace the skills of intensity, duration, and range. Manipulating a spell
using the Chaos rune taints one with Chaos, so most sorcerers prefer to use
the Law rune. Law and Chaos cannot be combined when manipulating spells;
one must use one or the other. Some spells can only be cast using the chaos
rune; these are spells which introduce chaos into Glorantha.
Manipulation runes can increase the affect of a spell; this is specific to each
spell and is included in the spell description. The duration and range of a
spell
can also be increased, at a cost of 2 Law/Chaos pointsper step. Duration and
range increase according to the following progression.
Duration: There are 9 duration steps. The first step is free on all spells. The
cost to increase duration by additional increments varies by spell.
10 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
until Yelm rises or Sets
until Godday
until Truth week
until Sacred Time
until Caster's Death
Forever
Range: Range cost is fixed.
0 10 meters
2 50 meters
4 100 meters
6 500 meters
8 1 kilometer
10 5 kilometers
12 10 kilometers
14 50 kilometers
16 100 kilometers
18 500 kilometers
20 1000 kilometers
22 Anywhere in Glorantha
LAW
The Law rune is invoked by sorcerers who wish to manipulate their spells
without violating the laws of Glorantha or the tenets of the Invisible God.
Since Law is the underpinning of sorcery it can be used to augment or extend
the effect of sorcery spells. Each point of Law can increase a spells range or
duration by one step, or increase its effect as specified in the spell description.
A sorcerer may put as many points of Law into a spell as his Law percentage
divided by 5.
CHAOS
The Chaos rune can be used to augment or extend the effect of a sorcery spell
through the warping effect of Chaos. Since Chaos can violate the physical
laws of Glorantha, more powerful spell manipulations are possible than with
Law. A sorcerer may put as many points of Chaos into a spell as twice his
Chaos percentage divided by 5. However, use of Chaos is not without its
price. If a spell manipulated with Chaos is not successfully cast for any
reason, the caster must roll on the Spell Fumble Table. In addition, using the
Chaos rune to manipulate a spell permanently taints the caster with Chaos.
Example: Sliggoth the Necromancer, a broo sorcerer, has Chaos at 40%. He
can put 16 points of Chaos into the spell (40/5 times 2), but must roll on the
spell fumble chart if he misses his roll. Note that a 96-00 is always a miss, so
casting spells using the chaos rune is inherently dangerous.
Some spells also use Chaos as a form rune.
Empowering Runes
These runes define what a spell does. For example, a spell which creates
something out of nothing and then causes that thing to do something it would
not normally do requires the Infinity rune (for creation) and the Mastery rune
(for control). The effects of the various empowering runes are listed below.
INFINITY
The Infinity rune allows the creation of something out of nothing. Spells
which bring objects or elements into being from nothingness use this rune.
DEATH
The Rune of Destruction. Spells which wound or kill directly use this spell.
The target of the spell doesn't have to be living for the rune to apply; a spell
which caused a stone wall to crumble to dust would use Death and Earth.
Conversely, a spell can kill without invoking Death. For example, a FireBolt
spell Mastery (to direct the bolt to a target), and Fire (the Form to be
manipulated). While death might be the result of the spell, it would be a
secondary effect. As far as the spell is concerned, fire is being manipulated,
and could just as easily be shot into a pond as directed towards a living target.
MASTERY
The Rune of Control. Spells which inhibit free will or cause an element to do
something complicated or unnatural use the Mastery rune. A spell which let
the caster direct the movements of a Troll like a marionette would use the
Mastery rune, as well as the Man and Darkness runes (Trolls are tied to both
the Man rune and the Darkness rune). A spell which called down
Thunderbolts from stormclouds would use Mastery and Air. Spells which
use Mastery cannot bring something new into existence; there is no single
spell which, for example, summons up a ball of fire and hurls it at an enemy.
A mage with no fire source would have to use an Infinity spell to create the
fire, and then use a Mastery spell to direct it.
TRUTH
The Truth rune allows the perception of things. A spell which detected magic
would use Truth and Magic. A spell which allowed one to see in darkness
would use the Truth and Darkness runes. Note that the Truth rune will not
create information out of thin air; you cannot design a spell to tell you the
answer to a question that no one knows. Even the gods are limited to what
they can perceive.
ILLUSION
The Illusion rune allows the user to alter or inhibit the perception of things.
For example, a spell which made all of a person's speech incomprehensible
would use the Illusion rune and the Man rune. Illusion can also be used to
change the appearance of something. A man could be made to look like a
troll, or a cow could be turned orange. Note that sorcery illusions, unlike
divine magic illusions, aren't real or substantial, and cannot directly affect
things in the real world. You can't be harmed by an illusory sword or fireball,
but you might be tricked into walking over an illusory bridge. You can cause
a person to experience illusory pain which may temporarily incapacitate them,
but they take no damage. In general, Illusion spells should trick or deceive
rather than directly harm.
DISORDER
The Disorder Rune changes things from one form to another. A spell which
changes a man to a frog would use Disorder, Man, and Beast. A spell which
changes lead to gold would use Disorder and Earth. All Disorder spells have
limited durations unless made permanent through enchantment.
If you change something into something unnatural to Glorantha (i.e. change a
person into a gorp, or give a person an extra arm growing out of their
forehead) you must use the Chaos rune to manipulate the spell.
Form Runes
These runes define the target or immediate effect of a spell. For Infinity rune
spells they define the nature of the substance created. For mastery spells they
define the target of the spell. Disorder rune spells (spells which alter or
transform) require form runes for both the intended target of the spell and for
the nature of the transformation, though these may be the same. A spell
which transformed a man into a frog would need the Man rune and the Beast
rune as form runes. A spell which transformed a troll into a tree would need
man, darkness, and plant.
BEAST
The Beast rune is the rune of the children of Hykim & Mikym. Spells which
affect or involve animals use the Beast rune. Sometimes it is necessary to
combine the Beast rune with the Man rune, as when casting a spell which
affects ducks or lycanthropes.
MAN
The children of Grandfather Mortal possess the man rune. Any spell which
directly affects a human being must use it. A spell which indirectly affects a
human, such as an earth spell that buries one alive, doesn't need to use the
Man rune. Spells which affect Trolls must use both the man rune and the
Darkness rune.
DARKNESS
Spells which involve darkness, or darkness creatures, use this rune.
Since Darkness has no fixed volume, spells which involve mastery of this
element can call forth a great amount of it from a small source, though they
are typically more difficult to cast than spells which require a large amount
to begin with.
FIRE
Spells which deal with the realm of fire must use the fire rune. Spells which
affect Agimori must use both the Man rune and the Fire rune.
Like Darkness, Fire has no fixed volume. Therefore spells can (and do) exist
which call forth a huge gout of flame from a single torch.
AIR
The Air rune governs the wind and storm, as well as secondary effects such
as lightning. Since air is a common element it is rarely necessary to create
more of it, and most Air spells are Mastery spells. Since lightning is a
secondary effect of storm, a spell which uses lightning to do the same damage
as a fire spell will be more difficult to cast than its counterpart.
WATER
Spells which deal with oceans, rivers, or aquatic creatures use the water rune.
ICE
Spells which deal with coldness. Spells which use Himile's Ice rune can
lower the temperature in an area, and are also useful for dealing with ice
demons.
PLANT
Spells which deal with plants, including elves.
SPIRIT
Spells which affect spirits use this rune. Sorcerers are on shaky ground in the
spirit world, and many Spirit spells are extremely difficult to cast.
EARTH
Spells which affect earth, including stone and metal.
MAGIC
Spells which deal with other spells, or which open gates to other realms, such
as the spirit or hero planes.
UNDEAD
Spells which deal with beings outside of the cycle of death and rebirth use the
Undead rune.
DRAGONNEWT
Spells which affect dragonnewts use this rune. Spells using this rune cannot
duplicate dragon magic, which stems from the Dragon rune.
Hardly anyone in Glorantha knows much about this rune. Its study was
common during the Empire of the Wyrms Friends, but practicioners and
texts were almost completely destroyed during the Dragonkill War.
MOVEMENT
Spells which merely move things from one place to another use the
Movement rune. It is not necessary for such spells to include the form runes
of the target. This rune is almost always used in conjunction with the Mastery
rune.
STASIS
Spells which freeze a thing in one place. This rune has nothing to do with
time. Stasis spells can make an unbalanced building stay up when it should
fall, or freeze a person in place.
OTHER RUNES
Not all Gloranthan runes have been incorporated in this system. All other
runes, if applicable at all, are form runes. Some runes, like the Trade rune,
represent abstract concepts and don't make good form runes. Others, like the
Dragon rune, are beyond even the knowledge of the God Learners.
Sorcery Spells
Each spell is a magic skill. Spells have a base percentage of 0% but can be
increased by training, research, or experience. Each spell also has a difficulty
level, which reflects how difficult that spell is to cast. Thus a spell which
causes a wound will be easier to cast than one which kills someone outright.
Difficulty levels are the primary mechanism for maintaining play balance, and
the gamemaster should take care when assigning them to new spells. The
standard duration of all sorcery is 10 minutes and the standard range is 10
meters. Both of these values can be increased using Law or Chaos; see the
section on spell manipulation for details.
Free Int
Sorcerers no longer need Free Int to manipulate their spells. They cannot,
however, manipulate their spells with more points of Law than their Law skill
divided by 5 or more points of Chaos than their (Chaos skill divided by 5)
times 2. Remember that any unsuccessful casting of a Chaos manipulated
spell requires a roll on the Spell Fumble table! Each spell a sorcerer has
memorized takes 1 point of Free Int.
Learning Spells
There are 3 ways to learn a spell. The best way is to learn from another
sorcerer. It takes 1 week (50 hours) to learn a spell from a teacher. At the
end of this time, a roll of INT times 3 must be made to learn the spell
correctly.
The second way to learn a spell is via a written text containing the spell. It
takes two weeks and an INT times 3 roll to learn a spell from a text.
The third way is to research the spell yourself. To do this, you must possess
all runic skills associated with the spell at a level as high as the difficulty
of the spell. After a season of work, roll your INT times 3. If you succeed,
you have created the spell, and automatically get a percentage in it equal to
5% plus your magic bonus. If you fail, you have pursued a wild goose chase.
If you fumble, you have had a lab accident; roll on the spell fumble table.
Spell Difficulty
Each spell has a difficulty which can be as low as zero and has no upper limit.
This difficulty is a gauge of the power of the spell; more difficult spells are
harder to cast. When recording a spell on your character sheet put its
difficulty in parentheses after the spell name and before your percentage. The
spell difficulty subtracts directly from your chance to cast the spell.
Casting Spells
When casting spells roll percentile dice. If the total is equal or less than
the following formula, the spell has been successfully cast.
( Least of runic skills) + (skill in spell) - (skill difficulty) -(encumberance)
Ceremony can be used to increase this roll. A 96-00 is always a failure.
Fumbles require a roll on the Spell Fumble Table, as do any unsuccessful
castings when using the Chaos rune.
Casting Multiple Spells at Once
Normally a sorcerer casts one spell at a time. A spell takes as many strike
ranks to cast and costs as many magic points as the number of Law/Chaos
points in the spell. After spending the strike ranks, percentile dice are
rolled to see if the spell is successfully cast. If the roll is a critical
success, the spell costs no magic points. On a failure, only one magi point
is spent and the spell fails (unless using Chaos to manipulate the spell,
in which case a failure is treated as a fumble. On a fumble, consult the
spel fumble table, making adjustments for the appropriate manipulation rune
(Law or Chaos)
It is possible for a sorcerer to cast multiple spells at once. For each
additional spell to be cast after the first, the chance to cast all spells
is reduced by 25%.
Each spell is rolled separately, so some may succeed while others fail. The
spells all go off on the strike rank of the spell which costs the most magic
points. Spells may be targetted at multiple targets, and multiple spells may be
targetted at the same person, with each spell being treated separately for the
purpose of overcoming magical defenses and armor.
Improvised Spells
You do not have to know a spell to cast it. You can cast any spell in the book
at a percentage chance equal to your lowest applicable rune percentage minus
the difficulty level of the spell. But if your chance to cast is zero or
negative, you have no chance at all of success; this is an exception to the
rule that 01-05 is an automatic success.
If you achieve a critical success when casting an improvised spell, you gain an
immediate percentage in that spell equal to 5% plus your magic bonus.
The Spell Fumble Table
Sorcery spells cause an (often small) change in the nature of Glorantha. Time
and the Compromise naturally resist this change. When a spell is fumbled,
the forces involved in the spell go out of control. Sometimes the spell is
warped or reflected on the caster, and sometimes a backlash of mystical
energy occurs. Chaotic spells are more likely to cause this, and typically
cause worse effects.
The following table is consulted whenever a spell is fumbled (and whenever a
simple failure occurs, when the Chaos rune is being used to manipulate the
spell) . If Chaos is only used as a form rune, normal failures do not result in
a roll on the Spell Fumble Table.
Note that the table is numbered from -9 to 110. If the spell in question used
Chaos for manipulation or as a form rune, add 10 to the roll. Otherwise,
subtract 10.
Dice Result
-9 to -5 How fortunate! You control the backlash of the spell with only
minimal effects. Lose 5 Fatigue points and 1 personal Magic
point.
-4 to 0 You suffer a minor backlash. Lose 10 Fatigue points and 2
personal Magic points.
01 to 05 As -4 to 0, but lose 15 Fatigue points and 3 personal Magic
points.
06 to 10 As -4 to 0, but lose 20 Fatigue points and 4 personal Magic
points.
11 to 21 You fail to cast the spell and immediately pay its full cost in
Magic points, which may be taken from any available source.
22 to 28 As 11 to 21 but lose twice the spell's Magic point cost.
29 to 32 As 11 to 21, but lose 3 times the spell's Magic point cost.
33 to 34 As 11 to 21, but lose 4 times the spell's Magic point cost.
35 As 11 to 21, but lose 5 times the spell's Magic point cost.
36 to 45 If the spell was targetted on someone else, it affects you
instead.
You get no POW roll to resist it. If it was targetted on you,
it affects an enemy if one is nearby or a random person if no
enemies are near. You pay normal MP cost for the spell.
46 to 55 As 36 to 45 but pay twice the normal MP cost for the spell.
56 to 60 Your spell affects a nearby friend instead of its intended
target.
Pay normal MP cost for the spell.
61 to 65 as 56 to 60 but double the Law points in the spell, increasing
the spell effect if possible and otherwise increasing the spell
duration. Caster pays for this double cost if he has the Magic
points.
66 to 70 Spell fails and sucks all personal magic points from a nearby
friend of the caster (roll randomly)
71 to 75 Caster loses all personal and stored Magic points.
76 to 80 Magic points in spell are converted to poison, which is matched
versus the caster's con for half or full damage to total hit
points.
81 Caster goes blind for 1d10 weeks.
82 Caster goes blind for 2d10 weeks
83 Caster goes blind for 3d10 weeks
84 Caster goes mute for 1d10 weeks, and cannot cast sorcery.
85 Caster loses half his personal magic points; they do not
regenerate for 1d10 weeks.
86 Caster goes catatonic for 1d10 weeks
87 As 86 but permanently lose 10% from the spell percentage in
question.
88 As 87 but also lose 10% from Law Rune percentage
89 As 88 but also lose 10% from each Form Rune involved.
90 As 89 but also lose 10% from Empowering Rune. Roll
POW times 5 or die on the spot.
(note: 91 to 110 are effects that can only happen from Chaos spells)
91 - 95 Spell fails, and caster gains an immediate permanent Chaos
Feature ( 75% curse of Thed, 25% chaos feature chart). Caster
increases his Chaos percentage by 1d10 points.
96 Spell fails and caster gains immediate Curse of Thed feature.
Caster increases his Chaos percentage by 2d10 points.
97 Caster affected by the Pochargno Corruption spell, which caster
may not resist. Caster increases his Chaos percentage by 3d10
points.
98 Caster opens permanent Chaos void in area; void is 3d6 meters
across and 1d6 chaos horrors emerge from it each day until it is
magically sealed or until the next Sacred Time. Caster and all
persons nearby must make POW times 5 rolls or be destroyed
by its appearance.
99 Caster loses 1d6 POW
00 Caster loses all POW, and becomes a vampire, but without the
entrancement ability or the ability to turn into mist.
101 Caster permanently loses all skill in the spell in question.
102 Caster permanently loses all skill in the Empowering rune of
the spell fumbled.
103 Caster permanently loses all skill in all form runes used in the
spell, except for the Chaos rune.
104 Caster permanently loses any skill in the Law rune.
105 Caster permanently loses all sorcery skills.
106 Caster transformed into a gorp of equivalent size. Caster
retains INT and POW, but probably goes insane.
107 Caster transformed into a broo. If already a broo, caster
transformed into a gorp instead. See 106.
108 Caster explodes, doing 4d6 damage to all within 3 meters.
109 Caster affected both by the Pochargno Corruption spell and by
5 Curse of Thed features. Increase Chaos percentage by 5d10
points.
110 Caster totally obliterated by Chaos. Even the memory of
him/her is erased from the world.
An Example
Let's look at an example. We'll create the skills of Tim the Enchanter, a
PyroMancer. Tim would need 4 sorcery skills (Intensity, Duration, Range,
and Multispell) in standard RQ3 sorcery. With this system he needs at least
3, and will need more if he wants to be anything but a very narrow specialist.
Tim the Enchanter
Encumberance: 12 enc
Runic Skills Spells
Law 60% Tim's Circle of Fire(60) 65%
Mastery 40% (Difficulty 60%)
Infinity 60% Empowering: Mastery. Form: Fire.
Fire 75% This spell creates a circle of flames around
the caster, who has to possess a source of
fire. The flames are1 meter wide, 3
meters high and do 1 point of damage to
anything passing through them. Each point
of Law can increase the damage by 1 point
or increase the diameter of the circle by 1
meter. This damage works like a
salamander's fire; the total is matched against
the victim's best armor on the resistance
table and half or full damage is taken.
Tim's chance to cast circle of Fire would be
( Least of runic skills) + (skill in spell) -(skill difficulty) - (encumberance)
(40) + (65) - (60) - (12) = 33%.
Since his Law skill is 60%, he could make the flames do up to 12 points of
damage, or make the circle 12 meters wide, or do any combination of these
things. He could also use some of these 12 points to extend the duration of
the spell past the standard 10 minute duration fo Sorcery spells.
Note that Tim's chance to cast the spell would be 20% greater if he learned the
Mastery skill to 60%. Also, any increases he makes in his spell percentage
directly increase his chance to cast. If Tim were casting a simpler spell, say
Tim's Ring of Oily Smoke (Difficulty 20%) his chance to cast would be 73%.
Obviously, the two things that balance spellcasting are the Spell Difficulty
and the number of Runes associated with the spell. Spells with more runes
are harder to master since you need more runic skills. Likewise the more
powerful the spell, the more difficult it should be. Tim's Spell of Instant
Immolation should have a difficulty of at least 90; you want a sorcerer to
have to master both the appropriate runes and the spell to have a good chance
of casting. An easier spell, like Tim's Spell of the Guiding Light (a simple
light spell )might have a difficulty of around 10,making it easy to cast for
anyone with a reasonable amount of skill. If Tim knows this spell at 40% (he
doesn't practice it much) , his chance will be (assume the spell uses only
infinity and fire) 60 + 40 - 10 = 90%.
[End of part 1 of 2]
======================================================================
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Sat 05 Jul 2003 - 20:28:20 EEST