Chaot

ech, ignore me. That didn't sound teh way I wanted it to come out. Though I actually have had arguments on the validity of mook rules in BRP, so I blame that for my twitchy finger.

Cleaned the images up in GIMP. Now on to the next procrastination project!

Below are house rules originally published in the Chaosium Digest volume 15, number 7 on Sunday, August 4, 1996. ___ From: Charlie Seljos Subject: Damage and Multiple Targets for _Unknown East_ Magic System: Elric! SOME COMMENTS ON THE MAGIC SYSTEM PRESENTED IN THE UNKNOWN EAST --------------------------------------------------------------- I was looking over my copy of the Elric! supplement _The Unknown East_, and I found myself wondering how GMs and players might determine the effects a particular spell might have. The magic system presented in _The Unknown East_ allows players and GMs a tremendous amount of flexibility, and has room for plenty of creativity as well. Although the rules provide some excellent examples, they don't seem to cover a few important specifics -- namely damage and multiple targets and/or recipients. MAGICAL DAMAGE Suppose that Aslak of the Withered Peaks casts a spell at an enemy with the intention of rotting his opponent's flesh. Aslak has a POW of 19, and he just happens to know the Sphere of Flesh and the Rune of Diminution, so the spell costs him only 2 magic points. The question is, how much damage does the spell do? The Eastern magic rules discuss damage for spells cast on weapons, but they don't address spells that directly damage their victims. If we simply applied the Rule of Four to One, (spot rules on page 58 of _The Unknown East_) and took one-fourth (rounded up) of Aslak's POW as the strength of the spell, it would 5 points of damage. But, the very idea that a spell would do a constant amount of damage seems inconsistent with the Chaotic nature of magic. Here's what I might suggest: use a variant of the Rule of Four to One and the Roll Table from the Elric! game for Demon powers. Aslak's POW, divided by four, is 5 (rounded up). On the roll table, a Demon Power generated with a 5 magic point sacrifice yields 1d10. Therefor, Aslak's spell does 1d10 points of damage to his target, if the target fails its resistance roll (MP vs MP). This is a bit less damage than an average arrow, since most arrows gain some damage from the STR+SIZ bonus of the archer. Does the target's armor, if any, provide protection? I would say probably not, because the armor was not the target of the spell. [NOTE: The Roll Table utilized above can be found on page 88 of the Elric! rulebook.] I have written to Lawrence Whitaker about this. He did the majority of the writing for the _Unknown East_ booklet, and he seems to think that this is an excellent way to resolve the situation. I have not yet contacted him about the other ideas in this note, but I will do so. MULTIPLE TARGETS I remember in the Elric saga that an Eastern sorcerer, by the name of Drinij Bara fought very well, without benefit of weapons, against a large group of opponents. Although Moorcock didn't go into too much detail, he stated that Bara's incantations shattered bone, shredded flesh, and severed limbs. Drinij Bara also cast a spell that caused many archers' arrows to reverse their course, and return to strike the archers. What kind of combination of Spheres and Runes would one have to use for this kind of effect? Also, would the caster of such a spell have to defeat each archer in a MP vs. MP contest for his or her spell to be effective? Would the sorcerer need to expend an additional magic point for each arrow that he or she wished to return to its sender? In this case, a sorcerer with a POW of, say, 20, could easily reflect 8 to 10 arrows, at a cost of about 14 magic points -- about five for the spell, and nine more for the nine additional arrows. Finally, would such a spell remain in effect as per the Elric! magic rules -- for the sorcerer's POW in rounds (20, in this case) rounds? That would make sense to me. A sorcerer using such a spell might be safe, so long as 10 or fewer arrows were shot at him in a single round, assuming he won all MP vs. MP contests. But if an eleventh archer targeted him... How would a GM want to handle spells that are intended to affect more than one target? Or an area-affecting spell? Investing more magic points, perhaps, and increasing the radius/area of effect... Here are some of my ideas on the subject. Although on page 55 of _The Unknown East_, the rules specifically state that a spell may have no more than one target, this seems to be a rather severe restriction not quite in keeping with the Eastern magic presented in the Elric! saga, in my considerably-less-than-humble opinion. A possible solution for spells that affect a number of objects or targets is, once again, to use a variant of the Rule of Four to One and the Elric! Roll Table. A sorcerer casting a spell that would temporarily induce madness in a group of enemies might be able to affect a number equal to his or her POW divided by four. Again, however, it is unlikely that anything as inherently Chaotic as spell would affect a constant number of targets. To determine the number of targets affected, simply divide the sorcerer's POW by four, and compare the results to the Roll Table. If the sorcerer's POW is 24, then his spell will affect the same number of targets as a demon power which was purchased with (24 divided by 4 = 6) 6 magic points, or 1d10+1d2 targets. Note that in this case, the sorcerer would need to make a successful MP vs. MP against all targets, and he would have no way of knowing in advance just how many targets he would affect -- he might affect up to twelve, or as few as three. Similarly, a missile-reflecting spell might reflect a number of missiles equal to a Roll Table power purchased with one-fourth of the sorcerer's POW rating. In the case of reflecting missiles, overcoming MP is probably not needed, as is noted below. Example: Aslak of the Withered Peaks is in a predicament. Bandits have stolen an artifact before he was able to steal it himself. He successfully sneaks near their camp, but is distraught when he takes a head-count of his opponents -- there are six of them. Aslak must make clever use of his precious magic-points, and so he casts a spell which he hopes will cause as much confusion and in-fighting as possible. Fortunately for Aslak, the GM rules that he can accomplish this with a spell using the Rune of Inhibition and the Sphere of Flesh. Since Aslak already knows the Sphere of Flesh, and the Rune of Inhibition is only one place away from the rune of Diminution (the Rune he was trained in), the spell only costs him 3 magic points. Since he is casting a spell which does not use only the Rune and Sphere he is specialized in, Aslak must also make a special Luck roll to cast the spell (see _The Unknown East_ Magic rules, near the bottom of page 54). Aslak's POW is 19, and his spell costs 3 magic points, so he has an 80% chance of casting his spell successfully (19 - 3 = 16; 16 x 5% = 80%). He rolls a 59, and the spell goes off. Aslak's POW divided by four, is 5 (rounded up). Aslak's spell will affect a number of opponents equal to a demon power purchased with five magic point on the Roll Table, or 1d10. Aslak's player rolls a seven, and so the entire bandit gang could be affected. Unfortunately, two of the bandits successfully overcome Aslak in a MP vs MP contest, and are unaffected. However, these bandits will need to deal with their four screaming companions who are swinging swords and maces at phantoms of their own imagination before they can even consider dealing with the sorcerer. The affected bandits will continue to be plagued by such visions for 19 rounds -- plenty of time for Aslak to make off with the artifact. If, as a GM, you feel that this makes Eastern magic too powerful, you may wish to consider an alternative -- charge the sorcerer the normal magic point cost for the spell, but charge an additional magic point for each target beyond the first that he or she wishes to affect. Note that this will also reduce the sorcerer's chance of casting the spell successfully, if he or she needs to make a special Luck roll to cast the spell. Furthermore, spending the additional magic points in no way guarantees that the additional targets will be affected -- it merely allows the sorcerer to make use of the Roll Table. Using this rule, Aslak would have needed to put 5 additional magic points into his spell if he wished to have any chance of affecting all six of his opponents. His chance of successfully casting the spell would also be considerably lower -- only 55% (19 - [3 + 5] = 11; 11 x 5% = 55%). A GM wishing to further limit such a spell might also rule that, because of the number of targets, the spell does not last as long. He or she might subtract one round from the duration of the spell for each additional target. Again, using the previous example, Aslak's opponents would only be affected for (19 - 5 = 14) 14 rounds, rather than 19. A less merciful GM might rule that each additional target subtracts two rounds from the spell's duration. Finally, a GM might instead simply declare that the spell affects each target for a random duration, and use the Roll Table to determine that number for each target. The GM should use the number of magic points used for the spell to determine what dice he or she will use on the Roll Table. This kind of rule could also be applied when dealing with a spell that reflects a random number of missiles, such as the one employed by Drinij Bara in the Elric saga. The GM would still use one-fourth of the sorcerer's POW on the Roll Table to determine the maximum number of missiles that a sorcerer could reflect, but the sorcerer might also have to spend one additional magic point per missile after the first in order to actually reflect multiple missiles. Of course, he or she would have to spend these magic points when the spell was cast, unless the GM was particularly kind, and allows him or her to mark off a magic point only after a missile was reflected. Finally, it seems unlikely that the sorcerer would need to defeat the victims of such a spell in a MP vs MP contest, since the spell affects the arrows directly, but some GMs may think that this makes such spell too powerful, and allow its victims the resistance roll anyway. Note that the spell would only reflect missiles which would normally have struck te sorcerer -- it would not reflect misses. Example: During the confusion created by his previous spell, Aslak of the Withered Peaks has managed to steal the artifact from the group of bandits. Unfortunately, it took him some time to discover where the item was, and the bandits have recovered from the effects of his spell. As he runs toward his waiting horse, the pursuing bandits, who are armed with bows, begin to launch arrows at him. Noticing the arrows falling near him, Aslak casts another spell to save his hide. Fortunately, his last spell killed or incapacitated two of the bandits, and so only four of them are able to use their bows against him. Aslak casts a spell which he hopes will reflect arrows back at his opponents. Aslak uses the Sphere of Air and the Rune of Direction in his spell. The Sphere of Air is one place away from the Sphere of Flesh, his specialty, and the Rune of Direction is three places away from the Rune of Diminution, which he also knows. The spell cost him 6 magic points. But, because Aslak is facing the threat of several arrows, his player decides to put three more magic points into the spell, to give Aslak the chance of reflecting all the incoming projectiles, bumping the magic point cost of the spell up to 9. He must also make the special Luck roll again. His POW is 19, and his spell costs 9 magic points, so he has a 50% chance of success (19 - 9 = 10; 10 x 5% = 50%). He succeeds just as the four bandits launch their arrows. Two of the arrows score hits, and are bounced back to the surprised bandits, gravely wounding them. The remaining bandits wisely decide to allow the sorcerer to keep the stolen artifact. I welcome any comments and suggestions about these rule ideas.

Not Loz's, though he gave his official approval oh so long ago. The were published in the Chaosium Digest way back in 1996. Excuse me while I feel old for a moment... Anyway, Charlie Seljos was the author. Edit: so as not to clutter up this thread, I'm going to repost Charlie's rules over in the Elric section. Alternatively, you can find them by sorting through the old zipped chaosium digest. The file containing the rules is chaos-digest-v15n07.txt.

I agree with you on the second page. Played around a little more. Upper right hand corner still looks a bit naked. On the other hand, I might be getting too carried away with images.

BRP doesn't need them so much as there presence steers to a different feel in play. Much like BRP doesn't need Sanity points. Dragon Lines utilizes mook rules to great effect. I'm looking forward to seeing Pulp's take on them.

Excellent! Can't wait to take a look. I've still got to see if I have anything I can throw your way to fold in with this. So cool.

Man, Magic World and Advanced Sorcery really need to come out, like, yesterday! I want this game now. Also need to dig up those house rules for loz's magic system. They went a long way in refining it.

I really want to pick up the Laundry books and now would be an ideal time. I'm not sure if my finances are going to permit it though. Also, Mythic Iceland is only available as a pdf right now it looks like. It's highlighted on the front page of the catalogue under Cool New Things.

Very nice example! I actually picked up the MRQ1 Guilds, Factions and Cults during a sale long ago, but haven't really looked at it yet. Was this material moved into Legends? Seems like it could be very useful. Was it you who turned me on to 0one? It was someone on this forum. Man, that stuff is good. Vale of the Mages looks enticing as well.

Man, I just have to stop reading these boards. It would certainly make my wallet happier. I'm now curious as to how organizations are arranged...

I know I have a hoard of tables made in my predawn of gaming. I think even one or two of them are useful.

You're right. I've played with it a little more. I need to clean up some of the images. I am playing with some new rules. Haven't totally nailed them down yet, but they are variations on things that came before.

I love using mook rules for BRP. It really impacts the flow of the game. Looking forward to reading this.

Hot damn that's neat! I tried out the mac version. Very cool. How did you write it? (Don't even know if that's the right question. Not a programmer here.)

Hi all. Over at RPGNet I've been doggedly adapting Ravenloft to BRP. I may actually be in the position soon to run a short campaign, so I've drafted some character sheets. I'm placing them here for comments, feedback and criticisms. I've been looking at the damn things too long. If something jumps to mind, please feel free to speak it.

Very interesting....

Sharp! Really sharp! That looks great. I was going to put this book on the 'purchase at some future date' list instead of picking it up right away, but I think that preview convinced me to pick it up when it comes out. Nicely done.

Here here! I heartily agree. Kludge something together and see if the adjustment does what you want. If so, you're golden. If not, tuck it away and wait for the idea to 'mature.' Cheers to the rules tinker! (Thread reminds though that I still need to pick up and look at Legend.)

Do you use skills over 100%? I allow split attacks at 50% minimum and at 5 DEX intervals. So, a PC running around with 160% Sword and a DEX 16 could attack could attack once at 50% on DEX 16, once at 50% at DEX 11, and once at 60% at DEX 6. Alternatively, and off the top of my head. You want to reward high Dexterity characters with extra attacks? Peg the Dex intervals you want to measure it by. I'm going to use 5 DEX (because I like that number) and say that every 5 DEX above average gets the player an extra attack at a -30% penalty. I'm putting average at DEX 10. So, a character with 15 DEX can attack at full skill on DEX rank 15 and again at -30% skill on DEX rank 10. Completely untested, but it seems like a logical approach to what you want. Does that work?

I love this contest. I hope it's going well.

Ah, you're Tori Bergquist. Didn't put that together before. I'm going to poke around your blog now. T&T and BRP are two of my favorite games.

Thanks! It was inspired long ago by Simon Lipscomb's RQ Dragonlance page, folk magic in particular. Once I get my head around the whole thing I'll do a write up for the download's section (and I won't make the mistake that I made when I expanded and posted the Named section of the rules. ) Here's some more. Questions that came up last time. The POW sacrificed to empower is permanent POW, not pp or mp. When I ran it, I allowed a POW x5% roll for someone handling the object to sense that it was empowered, and an INT x5% roll to figure out what it did, in general. Some really interesting questions regarding investigating the history of a Named Items and slowly ‘unlocking’ powers through play were raised. I’m wracking my brains to remember who posted though. My bad for not making a mental note. Also, another poster posted a brilliant bit about how the items could be developed in interesting ways. An example was something like a sword in a war with the underworld could then gain the ability to transport someone in and out of the underworld. Again, I wanted to come back to it but didn’t make a mental note on who actually said it. Named Items Here’s the basics on named items. When an empowered item reaches it’s maximum empowerment, either a +20% or a +4, it has the potential to become a Named Item. For this to happen, the object must be used or present during an important event. Examples are overthrowing (or being killed by) a despotic tyrant, winning (or losing) a battling in an ongoing war, finding (or losing) your true love, etc. For gaming purposes, the Naming should occur during a pivotal moment during the game or after a major accomplishment. Naming an item costs 2 permanent POW points. The first turns the empowered item into a named item, the second is to pay for the new power that the item has. The new power should be tied to the event in which the item gained it’s Named status. The way I was thinking, actually naming a Named Item is just a conceit to show it’s importance. The name isn’t necessary but is there to show the importance of the item. Effects and consequences of Named Items is the shaky section that needs some work. It’s still pretty sketchy and boils down to ‘Talk with your GM.” Thoughts on POW, Named Items and Sorcery Empowered items fill a magic niche in Elric!. POW 16 is the magic number. Below that POW is used to defend against certain spells and to act as supplementary mp for things like the Chain of Being Spell. Rather limited. Below POW 16 is the prime range for PC to make empowered items. Losing POW isn’t a big deal as such for the potential long range bonus. POW 16 lets you cast spells, which is a significant advantage. You drop POW here and you no longer get to cast spells. When you hit POW 17 and above you get into some serious magical advantages. It’s where a sorcerer should be looking at binding an demon or an elemental if they want to be a heavy hitter. Binding costs a POW, dropping the sorcerer down to 16, allowing them to continue to cast spells. A POW of 18 will let you bind two critters or, in conjunction with something like Brazier of Power, lets you bind a a really big beastie. The point is, empowered items aren’t something that a sorcerer will necessarily be interested in because their permanent POW is far more valuable invested elsewhere. The exception to this is would be for an empowered item that imparts a POW bonus, which is kind of an interesting consequence to this system. If a sorcerer rolls 00 during a POW : POW roll and they have a POW of 16, they can create an empowered item that they then need in order to cast spells. Their actual POW is now 15 but their effective POW is 16 and has the potential to go up to 19 if they roll 00 on three more POW : POW rolls. I think it’s a neat consequence of the system, but it’s something to be aware of if you use empowered items. Beginning play with Empowered Items If you want to let PCs being play with empowered items, I suggest just charging them the point of permanent POW. If they want their item to be a bit boosted (+10% instead of +5% or +2 instead of +1) I suggest charging them additional permanent POW for each increase they want to make, up to expending 4 POW. So, say a player’s character begins play with the spear that his uncle fought with in the dragon wars. Player marks a POW point off and gives the spear a +5% to combat. If the player wants, she can spend up to three more permanent POW on the item. She could boost the spear up to +20% to combat, positioning it to become a named item later in the game. She can split the POW for different effects, 2 POW for +10% combat, 2 POW for +2 STR, or some other variation.

My pleasure.! Like I said before, does no good just sitting on my hard drive. Unfortunately, the examples I posted for the second part, the named items stuff, isn't saved anywhere. I need to write it up again in order to post it.

That's the playtested part. I've got a basic sketch for more powerful items developed in this manner, but it really needs some work. Perhaps the minds of BRPCentral will lend some brain juice?