Thot

Oh, that's not a secret. The game world in question is Myranor, a German-language continent on the world of the German RPG "Das Schwarze Auge", translated into English as "The Dark Eye" a while back (no longer active, though). It's not the game's default continent, but one vastly larger than the default where there is such magic (which there is not on the default continent). There is now a kickstarter going to publish rules-free Myranor setting books and rule books for playing the setting and its verb/noun magic with DnD 5e, but obviously, I'd rather use the world with something… else, to stay neutral. "Just do this or that" is still one extra step with a special rule. It might simply be doable to cast magic on the previous magic, though (one of the cosmologically defined "elements" or nouns is magic power itself). I have to think more about all that, though. Maybe I'll just allow more verbs to be used within the same spell. Hm. That seems less like a verb, but more like a difficulty increase to me. Like an increase in complexity.

Ah, a bit like in Mythras, where the second skill just determines strength? But doesn't that take away player choice in a verb/noun system?

Not a complete list of verbs, but I have all the nouns, as I am trying to convert a system that exists, but is just too detailed and complex for my taste (and probably also for BRP). The nouns are cosmologically rooted in the setting, so I won't change them. The verbs, however... so far I have "project", "make target obsessed with", "shroud target in", "inspire target with the abilities of" and "make magical item with". Adverbs, I fear, would make the system too complex. Multispell is something that I still contemplating, because some interesting effects I can only find by combining several spells with different nouns and verbs. But I also want to keep it at least somewhat simple.

I like the idea of a partial success, I'll have to think about that.

My issue with two rolls is that they eat up time at the game table, and such a system is unwieldy enough even with one roll.

For reasons, I have been thinking on how to make a verb/noun magic system (you know, like in Ars Magica or Mage: The Ascension) with BRP. Not in the way Magic World's "Avanced Sorcery" does it, with glyphs of power, but a bit more like in the aforementioned games. So far, I have come to the following results. You have nouns (or power sources), like "fire" or "earth" or "demonic plane of mental corruption", or whatever. You learn each such source as a skill. You also have verbs, (or instructions), like "damage with" or "bind with" or "move with". Each such instruction is a skill as well. Now, when you cast a spell, you do so by defining which noun and which verb you want to use, such as "damage with fire". The relevant skills are the two skills for verb and noun. You roll for the lower of the two, and modified by factors such as casting time, targets, range, duration, and complexity of the task. Casting time: an hour or more, two difficulties more. 5 minutes or so, one difficulty or more. About 10 combat rounds, unmodified. About 5 combat rounds, one level more difficult. 1 combat round, two levels more difficult. Targets: Yourself, two levels easier. 1 meter radius, one level easier. 5 meter radius, unmodified. 15 meter radius, one level more difficult. 100 meter radius, two levels more difficult. (and if your magic system allows for effects larger than that, go on). Range: 1 meter, one level easier. Up to 5 meters, unmodified. Up to 100 meters, one level more difficult. Up to the horizon, or out of sight but with some object somehow connected to the target, two levels more difficult. Duration: No more than 10 combat rounds, two levels easier. 5 minutes or instantaneous (like hit point damage), one level easier. One day, unmodified. Up to a year, two levels more difficult. Permanently, two levels more difficult Strength: One point of the affected game stats (such as hit points, stat points, 5 skill points, etc.) is two levels easier. A D6 of the relevant game state is one level easier. 2D6 of the relevant game stat is unmodified. 4D6 are one level more difficult, and 8D6 are two levels more difficult. (If stronger effects are possible in the game world, go on) Complexity: Very simple, two levels easier. Rather simple, one level easier. Average, unmodified. Complex, one level more difficult. Extremely complex, two levels more difficult. All the modifiers are applied, so if you want to cast an exploding D6 fireball (which is probably a bit more complex than average, so 1 level more difficult) with a 5 meter radius at a distance of 100 meters with a casting time of 1 combat round, this will in total be 2 levels more difficult. Magic point cost is tied to difficulty: Automatic success costs 1 magic point. Easy costs 2 magic points. An average roll costs 4 magic points. Difficult will cost 8 magic points, and Impossible will cost 16 magic points. (There might be magic items that reduce difficulty for the casting roll, but not the cost.) This is, obviously, very crude and a first draft. I would like to read opinions about this general approach, or ideas how you would tweak or change this for interesting implications for the game world.

Well, as BRP UGE is free (though I really like the layout and material quality of the book), one will certainly not complain, but adding a more explicit element for this part would have been a good idea. But I am not sure I buy this explanation. In Magic World (and its cloning donor, Stormbringer 5e), the amount of text for these kinds of things is not less than a spell would have been. Using a spell or specialized skill would just have fit into the system more organically. Not a big deal, obviously, as it's trivial to add. But it's odd.

If you use any kind of heavier armor for the NPC's, beating them down to "no longer resisting" will take longer with fixed armor. Random armor will allow the occasional breakthrough with damage, while still conveying the feeling that armor is a potentially very useful thing. But apart from that, I also find bookkeeping much simpler with just one number of hitpoints, and with random armor values, I can do that without sacrificing the setup to have more or less protective armor across the body.

Yes, but my question is: Why are those additional skills not named as skills in the game? Wouldn't that have made sense? Obviously I can just add it, of course. But I am curious as to why that was omitted.

For me, the appeal is that it is just much, much faster.

Isn't it a bit weird that the knowledge to make a Wizard's Staff or a Grimoire is somehow transferred by becoming a Magician, and that there is no skill that actually contains that knowledge? Wouldn't it have been easier and quicker to just define a skill "Magic Lore", and require it to be at xy% to include the knowledge to build these things? What is the rationale there?

It is for us to decide how we regard this situation, and how we spend our money.

Seriously, whatever breach of contract or other commercial sin it may have been, there are ways to amend such things. If one wants to, that is.

So, murder?

I am a fairly imaginative guy, but I fail to come up with a scenario where events that do not involve murder could create insurmountable barriers for further cooperation.