From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu
Date: Wed 09 Jun 1993 - 19:08:37 EEST
SORCERY NOTES (C) Paul Reilly and Mike Holliday 1993
Here's a short description of our system, slightly changed from the
We've experimented with several ideas about how sorcery
We also saw that the description of Western people and culture was
version I sent to Oliver Jovanovic. It seems apropos to post it in the
light of the current discussion. I lack the time to polish it
so it may be rough in spots. Let me know what you think.
could work. Our method has been to first look at how we want magicians
to function in the society and then to reverse engineer from there.
We also like the idea that there are laws of nature in Glorantha and
that the different magic systems (Divine, Spirit, Sorcery) have some
underlying similarities that reflect these laws.
not in agreement with the sorcery system. We tried to take the
descriptions as canonical when building a new system. Apparently this was
misleading, for example on the question of Runic Sorcery:
Basically sorcerors could dedicate themselves to a small number of Runes,
increasing say their fire powers at the cost of their magic in general.
Note that we developed this system while RQ III was in force and we
thought that some basic things would have to be kept. Thus we kept
spell descriptions unchanged and we didn't plan to change Range, just
Duration, which was the worst problem. I can easily rebalance this
to go with your system instead of the RQ III system. Also, we thought
that AH would demand that sorcerors could do basically the same kinds of
things, including maintaining several spells.
Our system also has a good reason why the shamans and priests are
against sorcery: it's not just a primitive prejudice.
Well, here's the system:
(for the Introductory section of the Magic Book)
WHAT THE SHAMAN SAYS
Sorcerors are men who might have been shamans had they been born in
a natural society instead of among the Termite people who live in
dead cities of stone. Without the guidance of nature spirits they
live in an unnatural way and when their fetch awakens to help them
they poison it instead of listening and leave it a crippled and
blinded slave. By doing so they have killed the best part of themselves
and are doomed to a fruitless and grey existence. Instead of treating
spirits with respect they condemn them to heartless slavery and are
deaf and blind to the suffering they inflict. Having killed the feeling
part of themselves they are callous to the feelings of all beings,
whether man, spirit, animal, plant, or stone.
A sorceror at some point awakens his fetch. As all know, those who would
walk the spirit worlds must prove their worth by facing the Guardian
(= Bad Man) but instead of doing so and thus gaining the freedom of the
spirit world the cowardly sorceror avoids this confrontation by willingly
crippling his fetch. This evil deed scars the wizard for life, and perhaps
beyond.
WHAT THE SORCEROR SAYS
Shamans are unfortunates born into primitive societies who have not
learned to control their own impulses. When their magic awakens, usually
around the age of adulthood but sometimes earlier or later, they have not
the training to control it with their conscious minds. Instead the
subconscious impulses of the shaman have free rein and the shaman, unable
to control his magic, attributes it to an external being, the "fetch".
This is often visualized as an animal because it represents the untamed
brute impulses of the shaman.
In the Trial, we master our magic rather than being mastered by it.
UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES (Introductory section within Sorcery section)
(What the sorceror says in a quick lecture to Lords)
Magic is performed by manipulating mana [= Magic Points] on the Astral
Plane. Such a manipulation is called a spell. One manipulates mana with
Power. Beings with Power tend to collect all the mana that they can hold
over the course of their natural cycle, which is for humans a day. The
largest spell that can be shaped is limited by one's total Power, and also
by one's skill.
All spells must be maintained with Power or the mana loses its form and
the spell ends. Thus ordinary folk and Apprentices can usually maintain but
one spell. Trained sorcerors learn to maintain some of their Power
as a Presence on the Astral Plane. With this Presence they can maintain
a certain number of spells indefinitely; with more Presence the number and
power of such spells may increase.
Presence also may aid in spellcasting. If your Wizards uses his Presence to
maintain spells he will not be at his full magical strength. This is
an important decision that you should make in consultation with your
court Wizard.
To use one's Presence properly one needs to develop one's magical skills
as well. Those with much power but inadequate training will be able to
maintain many spells but unable to use their full potential to accomplish
the greater magics. Thus as the Wizards in fealty to you grow in power
it behooves you to allow them time for further training and research. In
this way they will serve you better in the long term.
The sorceror may also invest his Presence in an object or being. In
Seshnela this is typically a staff, in Safelster a staff or wand. (Although
splinter groups may use more exotic objects.) Kralorelans use a Mandala.
In Fronela a staff is most often used but the Grand Knights (Wizard-Knights)
of Loskalm may use a sword, shield or even armor. East Isles sorcerors
often use an animal, as do the Wizards of Maniria. The choice of Focus
often reflects the nature of the sorceror or his school.
A quick description of the basic system:
Apprentices are trained in their magical skills and in the self-discipline
necessary to survive the Trial and gain Presence on the Astral Plane.
During their early apprenticeship they must learn to kill
their base animal impulses or these will surface during the Trial, which
can drive the would-be Wizard into various forms of insanity. This is
analogous
Short term spells fall into two categories: Instant and Active. Active
spells must be maintained by a being (may include any creature or spirit
with unfixed INT).
Long term spells are Maintained by a sorceror's Presence. This is
the part of a sorceror's consciousness that he has learned to split off
and assign to specific tasks (such as maintaining spells.)
Those without Presence are thus limited to short-term spells. This includes
Serfs, Knights, and Lords as well as Apprentices before the Trial.
Once a sorceror has learned sufficient Self-Discipline and Ceremony he
goes through the Trial. If successful he will now have Astral Presence.
Presence (PRE) is increased through sacrificing Power in the same manner as
a shaman increases the Power of his fetch. Presence has several uses:
1. Presence can hold Magic Points equal to itself. (Depending on game
balance we may also allow it to regenerate MPs, acting as a second POW
like a fetch.)
2. Presence may be used to shape mana into spells with total points
(intensity + range) equal to the available Presence.
3. One point of Presence can be left on a spell to stabilize it. This
Presence is still connected to the magician and he may Recall it, thus
ending the spell. Presence can be left on spells such as Sense Projection
which require conscious attention to use; in this case the spell remains
dormant until the sorceror returns his attention to the spell. The point
of Presence used to maintain a spell is not available to the sorceror
for other uses such as shaping spells.
[ NOTE: Balanced against RQ III shamans and priests. In your recalibrated
system we might want to say that 1 point of Presence can maintain 1 Point
of Intensity. This is a very simple system.]
Note: All spells are thus magically connected to their casters and as
such may be used to target sympathetic magic back at the caster.
Low Magic
This includes magic designed for Serfs (or Peasants), Knights, and Lords
as well as beginner Wizard magic.
Instant or Active magic: These descriptions work just as they do in
RQ III (Or in RQ IV). There is no Duration skill: Active spells
last until they are released. They may cost additional MPs to use in certain
ways, as in the Lance effect from Form/Set. They may also cost additional
magic points to maintain for long periods.
Task-Specific Magic (Semi-Active? This is a horrible name,
think of something better!)
MusPeasant, Knight and Lord magic is designed to be task-specific and
while the task is being performed normally requires no additional
concentration. That is, the spell may automatically be maintained
while the task is being successfully performed: it is designed to go
with the task. Plow Prayer, for example, can be maintained while
plowing, Sheep Song while herding, etc. No concentration roll is needed
unless the workman is distracted or interrupted.
A knight can fight while maintaining a Knight spell and
only needs to make a concentration roll if hit or otherwise surprised.
(Like the old Fireblade spell from RQ II.) Lord magic goes with Lordly
tasks such as making speeches, etc. Peasant magics typically cost
one MP per hour per point of Intensity to maintain. Wizards can
also maintain certain spells in the same way.
MANIPULATING SPELLS
Instant and Active Spells
Without Presence a sorceror may actively maintain spells with his
conscious attention. Casting an additional spell would
require a concentration roll. Additionally, multiple spells could be
maintained through use of the Multispell skill. His manipulation
is also limited by his Power + Available Presence.
Instant and Active spells are limited by the minimum of a skill limit
and the magic points held by the sorceror's POW and PRE:
Skill Limit:
[Note that this is with RQ III Intensity and we toned down certain spells
such as Neutralize Magic and Damage Boost that were out of balance with the
others.]
Skill limit on total manipulation
= Spell % / 5 (Special Chance) + Related Skill DIV 25*
Skill limit on individual manipulation (Range, etc.)
= Skill / 5%
Power limit on total manipulation = Sorceror's MP's + MP's held in PRE.
Of course the sorceror must also have enough MP's available to cast the
spell.
Further spells can be added but additional castings require a
Concentration roll. Of course a sorceror with Multispell could cast and
maintain several active spells at once, e.g. Illusions.
* Related Skill Bonus:
[ This could be eliminated if it is too complicated.]
We use a bonus for appropriate Lore or other skills:
Best Appropritate Skill DIV 25. (i.e 01-24% = no bonus, 25 - 49 = +1, etc.)
Appropriate skill for a spell would be included in the spell description.
This is not too complicated (we think) and reflects that with a better
abstract understanding of what you're manipulating you can craft a better spell.
Examples of Appropriate Skills:
Elemental Spells use Elemental Speech (Storm Speech, etc.)
Beast Spells use Animal Lore, etc.
Illusion spells could use Sleight.
Maintained Magic (Using Presence)
When casting a long duration spell the situation is different. The
skill limits are the same but the power limit is just the magic points
held in the sorceror's PRE. When he casts the spell he must dedicate
one point of PRE to maintaining the spell, making it unavailable
for other purposes (such as holding magic points) as long as the spell
is maintained.
Example:
Let's say we have a sorceror with POW 10, PRE 6 and 60% in
his Intensity and favorite spells.
When casting an Instant or Active spell he is limited by his skill
to a manipulation of 12. If his personal MPs + PRE MPs is less than
12 then this is his limit.
Now he wants to cast some long duration spells.
At first none of his Presence dedicated to any spells.
Then the first spell he casts with Presence can have six points of
Intensity. He must dedicate 1 point of PRE to maintaining that
spell. Now he has 5 points left, and if he has the magic points
he can start up another spell with 5 points of intensity. Thus
he can maintain a total of 6 spells, with his best spell at 6, his
second at 5, and so on down to 1. Note that if he is maintaining
all 6 long duration spells then his maximum for Instant and Active
spells will be his own magic points.
If the sorceror in this example a Dormali at sea he might want to
maintain Skin of Life on himself and the captain. This would use up two
of his "always-on" spells and cut into his abilities. Or he might decide
that it's more important to be able to throw better spells and only
put up Skin of Life if needed.
Were the sorceror in this example to build up his Presence
to more than 12 without gaining more skill then the best long duration
spells would be limited by skill rather than Presence.
Thus a magician has a strategic decision to make. His best spells
Sorcerors get to make a strategic
The system has a lot less bookkeeping than RQ III. Instead of
will be those cast first. If he is maintaining spells his magical
strength goes down. This aspect of the system was a lot of fun in playtest.
************************************************8
The main advantages of this system as I see it:
decision as to whether they should let their magic be 'out' in running
spells or kept in a reserve. An example would be afforded by Sauron vs.
Gandalf in _The Lord of the Rings_. Sauron has most of his magic 'out'
in running spells while Gandalf has few running spells but instead keeps
a strategic reserve.
tracking the duration of dozens of spells you know the size of your
Presence and apportion it accordingly. For Active
spells you maintain a spell as long as you need it, feeding
it extra magic points as necessary.
Melee rounds never get counted, you just look at whether or not a spell
is being maintained. The main (IMO) important variable of how many
spells you can keep running concurrently is transparent in our system.
This was a (very important) hidden variable in the RQ III system.
[ In your system there would be very
few of these long duration spells anyway, so yours also has less paperwork.]
We playtested this type of system in a Pendragon campaign, with a weak
magician as one of the PCs, and a few medium NPC magicians. (No really strong
magicians in this post-Merlin era.) The player enjoyed the feel of marshalling
his magical resources in the same way that one might marshal an army, making
the decision of whether to commit his magic "in the field" or keep a reserve
instead. We haven't tested it extensively yet in a specifically Gloranthan
setting but the Western culture seemed similar enough to the Pendragon milieu
that I got a feel for the social consequences of such a system in a feudal
society. It worked well for the court magicians, who jealously hoarded their
powers or enhanced the King and his champions, and for the PC, who alternated
between small enhancements on his knightly friends and himself or "gathering"
all his magic if they thought they might face a real magical foe. In this
campaign we used a system where
{One point of Presence = One point of Intensity}
instead of the 5-4-3-2-1 system described above. This might also be the
way to go if we were to use Presence in your system.
I've gone through several iteration of the actual mechanics, with my feeling
being that a power level like that of your system was appropriate. This
seemed so far removed from the RQ III system that I was trying to compromise
on the power level but am now recalibrating in line with the RQ IV draft.
In our system sorcerors have time for ecclesiastical duties, politics
and plotting, research and training, etc. Power in our system goes into
the personal development of the sorceror, not into making a bunch of
gadgets. (Or one-use spells) I feel that Glorantha really seems
to be a world where excellence lies more within individual than in
the collection of gadgets that an institution can come up with. In
the current system the best thing for sorcerors to do with Power is to enchant
a big matrix, which should get handed on to their descendants, potentially
a balance problems against the other two systems (where Power goes into
Rune Magic or Fetches rather than all into Enchantments.) I think
that it is better to have magic based on the person rather than a tool,
in the latter case we are getting back to the situation in our world.
People are also reluctant to throw permanent power into one-time effects.
I've seen this in my campaigns. If I were running a sorceror in this
system I would definitely build one big matrix and then it would be
worthwhile spending POW to throw long duration spells. This is a
winning strategy because duration is still exponential. In my system
one big matrix is less of a win and sorcerors will try to build up
their Presence instead. In a social context, the one-big-matrix approach
has a strong drawback: court sorcerors and schools should have 15-point
matrices lying around. Temples certainly do have big enchantments in
published RQ material, cathedrals should be the same. With one of these
matrices available it's now worthwhile to use POW to cast powerful long
duration spells, and they start to accumulate again. I prefer my system
where the limit is on the number of spells running rather than duration.
Oh, and I think that people enjoy the feeling that their characters
are undergoing a sort of steady personal development. And in our experience
people would rather have weak magic that they can reapportion as needed
than commit everything to one big spell.
Also, in our system sorcerors seem to be using the same underlying laws
Anyway, that's the basic idea. I have skill (Recall Presence, Self-Discipline)
"Western Wizards and sorcerors love to use the standard Gloranthan Runes."
I've deleted the Runic component of this system in this description
- Paul
ps. As I said this is just a rough outline of the system and if you
of nature as shamans and cultists. To me, this makes Glorantha seem more
like a unified world rather than a couple of different worlds stuck together.
However, it now appears that the latter is more in line with Greg's current
views.
and spell descriptions written up and there was also a substantial Runic
component where sorcerors could dedicate portions of their Presence to different
Runes. Each Spell had two or three Runes and you could only use dedicated
Presence on a spell with that Rune. This was based on comments such as:
- p. 21, Player's Book: Genertela, authors Greg Stafford & Sandy Petersen.
since I've heard that Greg is now (perplexingly) of the opinion that
Western magic is not Runic. However, I'm writing it up a variant for
FREE INT, das RuneQuest-Magazin.
.
want polished prose or more details feel free to ask.
I have to get back to the physics mines so I shouldn't really take the
time to edit it into a better form (unless it looks like parts of it
might get accepted.)
0,,
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