Byron Alexander

Go to the GM's section. Wasn't too sure where they'd fit best so I put them there. If you're looking for real-world traditions you'll probably appreciate the stuff on alchemy.

Yes, I could see that as being very cool. Especially as the crux of a story. I.e. - a character takes it from someone who used to have no skill in swordsmanship at all but picked up that sword and became formidable. Then they realise that the sword fights for them and they lose their natural skill; it won't let them use any other sword, though, so how will they be rid of it?

Ah-ha! I have found my fan. You'll be pleased to know that I have a great illustrator on board and it is all go. Hopefully it will be available by hallowe'en this year.

Well, I must have one. Somebody's been downloading my stuff on alchemy and illusion magic. Anyway... It is early days yet but it appears that I will be writing a monograph entitled BRP : Witchcraft. It will detail the spells witches commonly know, the brewing of magical potions and I'm thinking the making of one-shot magic items like talismans. Also option allegience rules for colouring your magic black or white. It should be a fun supplement, and I thought some of you might be interested to know it's on the cards.

Cthulhu Dark Ages covers the period, I think. If it doesn't it certainly covers 1066 and onwards.

Are you sure you want raise dead? When magic can conquer death you end up with a very different world than when it can't.

Since you're going for broad scope would it be a good idea to expand this to an Influence Emotions spell?

With that sword in his hand Elric is akin to a demi-god and Cthulhu is a demi-god so their POWs being comparable seems reasonable in a way. I take your point, though, the physics of the different worlds colliding could prove a problem. Does Elric's magic even work in real world 1920s and if so, does seeing it cause sanity loss? System-wise, though, they should work fine together.

Nothing yet, but I gather it normally takes quite a while to get a response - I expect the guy gets a lot of email! If nothing comes of it I shall probably continue to release ideas for free here so watch this space.

'Strike thee with my mighty blade'?!?

What about having the players roleplay different spirits and awarding powers depending on how well everyone did with regard to roleplaying their parts? It's late so I don't know how good an idea this is... just putting it out there.

I've been toying with a similar, though somewhat different idea (ritual magic but the power being more inherent in the ritual than coming from spirits). As that's mainly going to change effects rather than potency levels, though, here's how I'd do it... Each ritual requires a certain number of RP (Ritual Points) in order to work. The ritual points are tallied up as follows: POW of main ritualist = points. Each participant of a POW of at least 11+ = 2 points. Each participant of a POW 5 to 10 = 1 point. Participants of a POW below 4 do not count if they are merely participants, however... Sacrificing an animal = 10 points. Sacrificing a being of human-level intelligence = their POW*2 Ritual is performed on sacred ground = 1 to 20 points depending on how suitable and how sacred the site is. Alleigience levels could also be brought into it. Negatives could also be given (in your case, for example, if participants had angered/ignored the spirit in question). If you have enough points then the ritualist must make a successful Perform : ritual check. If that succeeds then the ritual works. This means that a ritual to speak to a spirit could be done by a ritualist acting on his own in his hut as long as they were potent enough (let's say that requires 15 points). A ritual to bring rain spirits during a drought, however, might require 100 points and so could require everything on the list. Bear in mind ritual sacrifice is generally rare even in cultures where it does happen - nobody keeps obeying the priest that kills 5 people a day whatever power they might demonstrate in exchange for that high toll. That's what I'd do, hope it helps.

Hmm, I can see what you mean as earlier on it seems to contradict the idea that a spell's level matters with regard to memorization (and that the magician can choose what level a spell is at the time of casting). If I were to call it, I'd say that a non-magician with an INT of 12 can learn up to 3 spells and is able to cast them at levels 1-3. I'm taking this from the section Spell Level, the section Memorization of Magic and the section Becoming a Magician all of which seem to suggest that INT affects both how many spells you can memorize and how high a level you can cast at, but nowhere else does it suggest that using a higher-level spell limits you to remembering less spells. So that's what I'd go with, I think it should read, "The non-magician character can know up to 1/4 his or her INT (rounded down) spells and is also limited to 1/4 INT (rounded down) in spell levels." It might mean that non-magicians are limited to 1/4 INT spell levels and that they cannot change the level of a spell as magicians can (i.e. if they learn a spell at level 2, they can only ever cast it at level 2) but it doesn't specifically say that, at least nowhere I can find.

Just... had... to... Optional rules used : Sanity and Allegiance. Allegiance is to Angst and Monsterousness. Every time Monsterousness goes up, Sanity goes down. Every time Angst goes up, Sanity goes up. Essentially, if you're the kind of vampire that goes around indescriminately killing people and then bragging about it in seedy goth bars, you'll go mad. However, if you're the kind of vampire who goes around indescriminately killing people and then crying about it to your girlfriend afterwards, you'll be fine. Superpowers are used for the powers, except that you use blood points instead of power points to activate them. You start with 10 points to spend on super-powers. You get one extra point to spend on them for every point of Monsterousness you gain (you can't lose Monsterousness, once you do bad things you've done them, period.). Blood points are also based on Monsterousness, you can have a maximum of 1/2 Monsterousness, rounded down. Those damn power-gaming vampires can also use the magic rules. Elders are all Monsterous to a high degree, but have varying degrees of Angst and Sanity (usually quite low). You gain blood points by biting people and draining 1hp/round for 1 blood point/hp. Occasionally, and mostly at random, your GM will get you to roll against your Monstrousness. If you pass, you enter frenzy and start killing everyone around you. This act can increase your Monstrousness. If it ever reaches 100, you enter frenzy forever. You can elect to roll against your Angst and if you fail you enter frenzy. Vampires that have a high Monsterousness and low Angst spend most of their time angrily slaying random people. So as not to drive this totally off-topic, a dungeon-crawling, dragon-slaying classic fantasy supplement is one that is definitely needed for BRP and this one sounds particularly good. So good on you, 3D6. I like what you've done with magic, making similar spells the same just with varying power points - an excellent way to transfer classic D&D to BRP.

This does sound really good. I might break the habit of a lifetime and buy a PDF (normally, if I'm going to buy something, I'll buy it in hardcopy or not at all - an eccentricity since I objectively consider the PDF market a really good thing for RPGs).

That'd work, yeah.

I thought this at first, but then I thought about the blacksmith making an excellent sword for his lord. He would spend a lot of time on it (+5%) and use his best iron (+5%) maybe even his best tools (+5%). Hopefully, he'd get at least a special roll out of it, but let's say the lord wants as keen an edge as possible (+3 damage), it seems far more reasonable to make an extended roll than to say, "Sorry, you keep that sword handy and have to try for a critical again." Overall, I think these rules are a really good way of giving people who want to play craftsmen a little something to do during downtime. It means they can make that longsword with +3 damage for their party's fighting man (or woman).

Baked beans, water and gruel? You can afford baked beans? You lucky, lucky...

See, that's my problem, no money to do further research into what else Chaosium has done re magic (I have CoC and CoC:Dark Ages, that's it) so I've been sticking to areas that I know haven't been covered. I have contacted them, though, so I'll see what they say.

Well, I'd say that so far the illusionist bit is building on it in a way; if someone wanted they could easily use it to just expand the Illusion spell (in fact I was inspired to write it because I didn't like the idea that illusions could only ever affect sight). Alchemy, though, is completely on its own. It would be interesting to make some schools of magic which would be powerful enough to slot into the existing system - necromancy being the one that springs immediately to mind.

Once, and we never encountered any magic at all (I was playing, not GMing). Despite that it is somewhat up in my mind when I think about grittier fantasy/medieval settings. I agree with you with regard to conjuring mists and commanding animals - that sort of thing would definitely be what nature-boy druid is up to.

Wait... they made D20 Druids more powerful? Yikes. As for the stuff I've done so far, 'minor magic' isn't necessarily the best description (I just can't think of a better one). Alchemists can live forever and illusionists can make any kind of illusion they like as long as they have the pp. What they are, though, is quite limited in scope - specialists if you will - and much more suitable to low-magic worlds than either magic or sorcery as given in the BRP book.

Thanks Bobapple. Well, I've contacted Dustin, so I guess now I sit and wait. By the way, what would people rather see with regard to Druids... The traditional nature-worshipping/part-of-nature kick-ass hippy druid or The semi-historical shadow-ruler, nationalistic druids or Options for both. Personally, though I think nature-boy has been done to death, I think options for both would be the best way to go.

I long ago gave up planning to make a ton of money by writing... but making some money would be nice. Even if all it does is buy me a sandwhich, that's still one sandwhich in exchange for something I'd probably have done anyway.

Just written something on illusionists similar to my thing on playing alchemists. It's available for download under GM's resources if anyone is interested. Which neatly and unsubtly brings me to... Do you guys think there would be a market for a small booklet (or even a large book if I could do it) of low-level magic like this? Alchemists, illusionists, bards, druids etc. Specialist magic-users for low-level magic settings. I ask as part of my continuing quest to try and make some money out of this eccentric hobby of our's. A word of warning to GMs : So far both my thing on alchemy and the rules on illusionists are not playtested. This shouldn't be a problem for alchemy but illusion magic is far more versatile so might contain game-breaking problems I have not forseen. Obviously, if I were to release such rules professionally and not for free they would be playtested.