Chaot

Stepping back a bit, let's look at the life of the sorcerer. He has to get out there and make things happen. No one is going to just hand him the Seven Sigils of Kor'tha Vardin, nor will he ever discover the true resting place of Ginju without finding and reading the Tome of Dreadful Revelations first. The point is, a sorcerer has to be proactive. He's got to make a name for himself, so that he can get some face to face time with other sallow and foul sorcerers. He needs to have the initiative to get out there and make those pacts and bargains with the creatures of shadow to gain that spell that his fellow sorcerers do not have. He needs to be driven enough to go poking around in those cursed tombs, rotted cities and forsaken corners of the world. He needs to know how to leverage people so that they are afraid of him, but so that they don't come after him in a mob. That's why I like Terror, Contribute to Truth or Break the Will as beginning spells for the sorcerer. All three can be used in roleplaying situations, all three establish the sorcerer as someone not to be trifled with, and none of them actually do physical harm to the opponent. They all have to be played right though. Remember that a check does not occur unless it takes place in a dangerous situation and is against an opponent with a higher POW. (Again, Witch Sight is invaluable in determining who your target should be here). Assuming the sorcerer puts himself in the position of using these spells and getting a check once a session, he'll have a one in five chance of gaining a point of POW. Those are good odds. That means if you're gaming once a week you'll likely to get +1 POW every month or so. One final thought about this stuff. When aggressively pursuing a sorcerous character, make sure you're open and working with the GM. Let the GM know that you're not trying to derail the game, but that you also want to explore a powerful character. Get the other players on your side to. Make sure nobody feels left out. Make them a part of your climb to power. Do not use them or make them feel less important. The games no fun if everyone's not having fun.

We have severl opptionsto choose from when it comes to our lovely minions. There's Demon summonining and elemental summoning, we also have mummies and skeletons and revenants and ghouls. We've also borrowed a bit from our Glorantha brethren and can summon disease, healing and other sorts of spirits, which can be bound with POW. Two of my favorite spells though are Animate Limb (2) and Create Monster (varied MP +1POW). Animate Limb does not need our ridiculously large pool of MP. 2 MP plus 1 POW will get you your own mobile pet hand. Not for every sorcerer maybe, but still worth some respect. Create Monster is my new favorite spell. For this ritual, the sorcerer gathers a number of creatures together to create some horrible mixture that shouldn't exist. A human must be part of this if the final beast is to be intelligent. The sorcerer then spends MP to buy Stats and skills taken from the donor victims. Something large and strong for strength, a horse say. Something quite like a cat for a Move Quietly skill. With some forethought and planning an enterprising sorcerer can create an menagerie of different beasts. Any sorcerer with such a retinue should gain instant street cred.

Since this is Magic World, it seems very appropriate that we explore the systems a bit. Wax poetic about perfect spell pairings, explore the hidden aspects of seemingly straightforward enchantments, pose queiries regarding confusing spell readings or just plot your own Magic World domination! I had planned to start up a Magic World game by this time but work has gotten in the way. In lieu, I've been refreshing myself. I love pushing systems to see what they will give me. I really like what Magic World has to offer. A Sorcerer is Powerful More so than before. In Elric!/SB5 a sorcerer was chained to their Brazier of Power. In MW we get magic staves. While there are some individual spells that pack a whollup, a sorcerer's real strength is in summoning and creation. Magic Staves/Braziers of Power are the key to unlocking this strength. To begin, a sorcerer needs one thing, a POW : POW spell. Now sorcerrers are supposed to be feared, right? For a starting spell the sorcerer is going to want something like Terror (1), Contribute to Truth (1), Agony (2), Break the Will (1), Enthrall (4) or Compulsion (3). None of these are particularly nice to cast on people, but you're a sorcerer, right? Gotta do what you do to climb that ladder. A second spell that would be convenient to have, but not necessary is Witch Sight (1). Having Witch Sight allows the sorcerer to search for worthy challlenges. What is the optimum level of POW for the sorcerer who means business? I would say it is 16 (17 if you are paranoid). If a sorcerer wants to be a world shaker she's got to have extra MP. When she gets 17 MP it's time to make a staff, giving her a pool of 32 MP. When she hits 17 again, another staff, bumping it up to 48. Remember that a 'staff' can actually be anything. She's a stylish sorcerer so she's going to want an amulet, a ring, and a torc. Assuming she does this every time her POW goes to 17 she'll have a pool of 48 and 16 personal MP. That's nothing to sneeze at. If she's patient, she can go for an athame too bumping her pool to 64 MP for a grand total of 80 MP. A magic staff is expensive. If your sorcerer is on a budget, Brazier of Power is your answer. You will definately want a base of operations though because the braziers don't move. Why do we want so many magic points? It's not for us. It's for our minions!

If you are looking for a fly skill write up, there's one in Stormbringer 5. It should fall into Magic World nicely.

The Magic rules are in Classic Fantasy. I would venture to say that yes, you can run Classic Fantasy with CoC5 and the BRP quick start.

I have a strong desire to do a gonzo kitchen sink game with a bunch of different critters for PCs. It looks like New Years Eve is also going to be a game party at the Chaot household. While there's a range of things on the table (Mice & Mystics, Forbidden Island, Arkham Horror, Small Armies, FASERIP, Kill Doctor Lucky) I may take some time to roll up fantasy characters. If it happens, I'll likely try some of the ideas in this thread. Should it occur I shall report back.

I dig it. CoC Skeletons are my favorite flavor of them and it makes sense to extend the rules to Constructs.

I would really love to run a game just using Future World. Really great book.

Gah. Interwebs ate my post. Short of it is, check out gods of law by Charles Green. It's available for free and the Virtues system is fantastic. Also, if you track down Corum there are some great magic systems in there.

Happy holidays everyone. On the BRP front, I just gave my godson a copy of Magic World. It will be his first role playing game.

Hundred percent agreed that rpgs are too much of a time sink in the classroom. However, I would imaging that something like 'Happy Birthday, Robot!' can work in the right setting. Just so happens it's up in a current Bundle of Holding.

That's... incredibly awful.

No worries brother. I got your back.

For those who are interested. Thac0

One more thing that is certainly not to everyone's taste, you could go the blackjack route. When two opponents roll equal successes, take a look at the rolls and see which roll has a higher value. The higher roll wins because it represents use of more refined skill. For example, two characters are tussling. One crits on a roll of 23, the other crits on a roll of 07. The character who rolled a 23 wins because they are able to crit on such a high roll. The second character's crit moves to a success (or the first character's moves to a special). This will have the opposite effect of long combat. Using this method, combat is usually over in a couple of rolls. If you try it, I would suggest loosening up the definition of the combat round as that plenty of action is narrated between the rolls.

Cool. About three months ago I sat down with some players. I wanted to read through and make some characters from the recent Marvel game and sadly discovered they don't contain rules to do that. Out came my neglected copy of Superworld. We went totally random and made character period to when Superworld was published. It was a great time. I need to run a game with them sometime. As to the larger question, I've wanted to mock up a BRP supers game for years. My plan was to take the basic system from Elric!, adjust hit points to reflect durability instead, and ditch most of the skills. If you flip through the Call of Cthulhu book you'll see some wonderfully evocative skills pop up. I see no reason why that idea couldn't be expanded for a supers game.

Sorry this is short, but what I do is switch up the scene a bit when combat starts to drag. There's a great section in Dragon Lines about cinematic fighting. I also allow players to include other skill rolls to change up the fight dynamics. Also, I give bonuses when the PCs narrate something cool.

I used the magic system from Classic Fantasy with Magic World with little trouble. Classic Fantasy is a kind of mash up of RQ and AD&D. I pretty much ran it as is, only using DEX/INT ranks rather than whatever initiative system was in place.

I do something similar, experience wise. I give a certain amount of increases every session. They PCs can increase any skill that they used, whether it was a success or failure. I also don't have them roll, it's just a straight increase. However, if they wish, they can bank the points for stat increases. I use a variant of the Wish system from D&D. If the stat is 8, the PC need the stat number +1 (or 9 banked checks) to get an increase.

Or get them into a situation that gives your opponent a negative modifier to their skill roll, but yes. To a certain extend, combat at the high skill level becomes dicing for criticals. That's why it's good to have a fighting partner mechanically. One of you splits your attacks, bringing the opponent down -60%, then the other goes in for the kill. For in the immortal words of the Wonder Pets, "What's going to work? Teamwork! What's going to work? Teamwork!"

Well enough. More importably, it's internally consistent and it's packed with 'stuff'.

If you can get your hands on '...and a 10 foot pole' you'll have a wealth of equipment at your fingertips.

Have finally had a chance to start browsing. I like how you tied the Balance to Alchemy. I also like the Apotheosis skills. I was thinking to myself that there are a ton of skills that a competent Alchemist would have to learn. Now I'm thinking of alchemical enclaves though. Small communities with a few learned alchemists at the head and a small host of laborers and craftspeople supporting.

I'm excited!

What about having the group of mystics starting out aligned with the balance, but over a generation or so, drift towards law. Suddenly it was not enough to preserve the creatures, but they needed to be the finest specimens. Then that wasn't enough either. The lawful monks began bending their considerable mental powers towards he creatures, molding them to their own standard of perfection. It is then that the mentalists realize that their brothers and sisters do not yet meet perfection and they start in on each other and their is eventually a slaughter at the monastery. The few survivors, forever changed, join their place amongst the creatures of the ark. Now, many generations later, the things are stirring. Strange dreams afflict those who live nearby. The lesser creatures have awakened and are hungry. It is a matter of time until the two or three surviving mentalists rise from their stupor. For the same of all that is same and natural, the mystics must remain in slumber!