Coronoides

Ok the next iteration... Seafaring Crossing an open ocean like the Pacific or Atlantic is tricky business without a way to measure longitude and with the western Iron Age/medieval ships provided in Magic World. The rules as printed are fine for island hopping and coast hugging but if you want to emulate Columbus or Leif Erikson then some house rules are needed. Firstly, based on historical examples a seaworthiness of at least 22 is recommended and even then if the weather turns bad there is a good chance you will sink. It is a good idea to avoid storm season. Really big warships are not recommended because they lose seaworthiness to fast and can't carry enough supplies to feed and water their large crews for the duration of the crossing. Secondly, recruit the best navigator you can, a good navigator not only prevents you from going off coarse but can also help avoid the worst weather and make use of currents and prevailing winds. House rule: Ocean Crossings While within a day’s sail of the sight of land the usual navigation rules from the core book apply (MW135). When in the open ocean multiple Navigation rolls are needed and Luck plays a part as described below. When considering an ocean crossing the first question is do you have a detailed and accurate chart of a known route that makes use of ocean currents and prevailing winds? In some settings charts are freely available or at least a collection of them is included in a navigator’s starting equipment as ‘trade tools’. In other settings charts might be rare and hoarded secrets as difficult to acquires as grimoires of spells and just as valuable. Another possibility is that an accurate chart to your destination simply does not exist. Each chart is one way, a return journey would use different currents and winds. That said charts are often found in pairs describing a return journey. Navigating with a chart If you have a chart then you need only roll Navigation and the Navigator’s Luck for the first week away from land, for any week immediately after a Whole Gale or Hurricane (MW135), and the last week before you expect to see land. Navigating without a chart Navigation and Luck rolls at sea are made once per week (or part thereof). Making the rolls Out of sight of land longitude can only be figured by error-prone dead-reckoning so halve navigation skill. If out of sight of land and 3 or more days in the week have complete cloud cover then halve navigation skill again. Remember at sea effective navigation skill is never higher than the navigator’s sailing skill (MW42). If out of sight of land also roll Luck. At the end of the week the Chronicler makes all rolls secretly and tracks the ships actual position. Compare the results of the Luck and navigation rolls to the table below: Navigation result Fumble Fail Success Special Critical Luck result Fumble 70% 45% 20% 0% 0% Fail 60% 35% 10% 0% Fair Weather Success 50% 25% 0% Fair Weather Fair weather, No encounter Special 40% 15% Fair Weather Fair weather, No encounter Fair Weather, no encounter, +10% speed Critical 30% 5% Fair weather No encounter Fair Weather, no encounter, +10% speed Fair weather, fortunate encounter, +10% speed. Interpreting the table. %: Figure the distance the ship has travelled that week and multiply by the %. This is how far off coarse the ship is. To determine the direction off-coarse roll a d6: 1 West, 2 East, 3-4 North, 5-6 South. Fair Weather: next week the the ship will find itself in Light Winds (MW133-135). No Encounter: the ship does not encounter any random encounters in the next week. +10% Speed: the ship has made good time add 10% to the distance covered that week. Fortunate Encounter: the ship experiences some good fortune. The Chronicler can invent an event or encounter. Examples include a downpour when the ship is low on fresh water, dolphins ride the bow wave increase the Luck of all aboard by 10% next week, when food is low a dense school of biting herring surround the ship, or they encounter another ship that is somehow helpful. Making a chart. Anyone with an eye for detail can copy an existing chart. To create a new chart first you have to make the journey without one and keep a log in a blank book (MW35). After you have reached your destination the Chronicler makes a Scribe roll for you to create your chart. Remember each chart is one way from a particular departure point to one destination. If the roll is a fail you are told your logs are insufficient to make a good chart. If the roll is a fumble you are told you are successful but anyone using the chart will arrive 100 miles from the destination. On a critical success add +10% to the Navigation roll of anyone using the chart. Navigator Occupation You are a necessary crew member of any ship able to navigate to all the trading ports. Your travels have shown you the known world and plenty of adventure but you long for more. Now you seek to find a voyage of exploration. When you discover new lands your name will be remembered forever. Skills: Sailing, Swim, Navigate, Nature, World Lore, Scribe, one other skill as a personal speciality, and one weapon skill.

Yes, normally for design project I have a pretty clear goal. This time I have become muddled by competing interests. Let me explain. When I get a new game the first thing I do is create a world to see what it can do. I have been doing this ‘off screen’ and trying to keep any house rules setting neutral. When writing the house rules for ocean crossings I’ve been thinking about the historical people who did this regularly. However, a premise of my world is that for a long time the isolationist Western Elves of the Elfland continent where the only ones who could make ocean crossings. However in the last decade of so a human culture has developed the Knorr and is struggling to make its first ocean crossings. In other words I have just realised that one bit of my brain has been writing rules for when ocean crossings are commonplace while another bit of my brain wants them to be something only a few can achieve. The result is unclear goals. Possible solution: If good charts exist to a destination showing prevailing winds and ocean currents etc. you need a navigation check to start and another to finish and even if you wont be too far off. If you don’t have access to good charts then it’s weekly checks and each failure takes you a % of the distance travelled that week off course. In some settings charts are commonplace and even part of a Navigators ‘trade tools’ as starting equipment. In other settings Charts are rare and acquiring them, if they exist, requires gold or adventure like acquiring a new spell. In my Broken Isles setting the rare Western Elves can just buy charts in thier home continent. For everyone else charts are as rare as Grimoires and they need gold or adventure to prize them out of the hands of the Western Elves or they need to cross blind and then make thier own chart.

I have just discovered Magic World in November this year (2018). Like any new love affair I’m obsessed at the moment and I was very pleased to discover all your supplements for the game that give me a lot more options to play with. They are much appreciated and if you make any more there will be at least one person who will enjoy them.

Googles Bart Roberts...ok so still before the solving of Longitude (just) so a good example of what could be done even before John Harrison. Without a history of playing Magic World and a few years since I even played RQ I’m a little out of my depth. Hence my need to get more eyes on it. I’ll keep tinkering. To my mind finding and riding those currents is part of the navigation roll.

So with all your help a revised version looks like this... House rule: Here we assume navigation rolls at sea (MW135) are made once per month (or part thereof) rather than ‘per trip’. Out of sight of land longitude can only be figured by error-prone dead-reckoning so halve navigation skill. If out of sight of land and 14 or more days in the month have complete cloud cover then halve navigation skill again. Remember at sea effective navigation skill is never higher than the navigator’s sailing skill (MW42). If out of sight of land also roll Luck. For navigation out of sight of land compare the results of the Luck and navigation rolls to below: • For each Fumble your location at is 50% of the travelled distance away from the intended end point for the month (or part thereof). • One success negates a fumble and your location at is 25% of the travelled distance away from the intended end point for the month (or part thereof). • Two successes places your location at 25% of the travelled distance away from the intended end point for the month (or part thereof). • A special success reduces the % distance of your error by 10%. • Two specials places your location at 5% of the travelled distance away from the intended end point for the month (or part thereof). • A critical reduces reduces the % distance of your error by 20%. • Two criticals places you exactly where you expected to be at the end of the month (or part thereof). When navigating out of sight of land most errors are in the north-south axis. I’m still happy to hear further suggestions.

I was writing the above as you were writing your reply. So yes as per the way my original proposal was written most of the time you halve navigation once. I really like the luck roll idea and your idea to provide for differing levels of success. Note being 100% out by double fumble would explain all those early Dutch merchants trying to get to India and crashing into the West Coast of Australia!

I’m a bit rough on the history of the American colonies but I thought that Erikson would have had a Knorr (Seaworthiness 22) and Columbus something at least as good as a Small Cog (Seaworthiness 22). A knorr being a merchant ship with good cargo space seems like a more likely exploration and colony ship than a longship built for war. I am trying to model the fact that open ocean crossing, especially before good clockwork enabled the determination of longitude was difficult. Furthermore ocean voyages took a long time, plenty of time to get lost. The Europeans travelled to India in the Middle Ages because that was a coastal route. The Americas across the open ocean even after discovery by Erikson were not frequently travelled to, so much so that Columbus got to discover them again. As written above Navigation skill is halved once for being out of sight of land. It is halved again only if there is complete cloud cover for several days in the week. The per week was to make longer journeys harder than shorter trips. Now as Soltakss pointed out if you sail west and you are just trying to hit the continents of the America’s that’s easy. However, if you are trying to resupply your colony in Vinland or Van Diemen’s Land then ideally you’d sail into the right bay. Magic World provides no standard method of making unopposed rolls more or less difficult, hence my halving but I accept that may be too harsh. Still the idea is it takes a extremely skilled navigator to do it. Similarly, weekly may be too frequent. Perhaps monthly? Remember that all this is only while out of sight of land. I envisage an ocean crossing is an adventure in it’s own right. A single navigation roll, like a single random encounter roll is unsatisfying.

Good points. Thing is during ocean crossings even if you have a destination in mind, say Vinland, you don’t have much to go on. The stars are a help but even then longitude was a notorious issue. the West Coast of Australia was struck by several Dutch navigators trying to get to India. Looking at a map of the globe that’s a big north/south mistake. Open ocean crossings you have the stars if the weather is good. The rediscoveries by later sailors you mentioned show just how hard ocean navigation is. However, as an explorer if you find something good you want to try to get back there so navigation is important.

For me not at all. Adventures are a very distant second to the potential dramas and opportunities written into the setting itself. AS I’m reading the setting book am I getting excited about ideas for adventures I could write for the setting or PCs I could make.

Had a bit of a look. To edit I'll need to upgrade my subscription to $22AUD a month. For something I need just once and am not sure I have the skills to use even then its just not worth it. Looks like pencil and paper is my solution.

Hi. Yes I just mean removing all the base % from the skill totals. However, I’d be happy with all the Java Script removed. I have a very basic Adobe subscription so I can have bookmarks in my publications when I covert to PDF, however my understanding of computers is minimal. I’ll have a look at doing this myself if my minimal subscription is up to it. It’s just deleting right how hard can it be?

Got a lot of use out of this already. Any chance of a *less* automated one for use with non-humans who have different base %’s ? Pretty please.

What were the players points for immunity to Undo Sorcery ?

Watching.

I have Blood Magic but the book itself warns you that allowing blood magic rules is tricky and can get out of hand. I’m on the move so can’t provide quotes from my dead tree copy right now.

The world of the game should make the most of what the game offers. The word essential for me indicates the core book only, which is a stand alone game. Though we know Magic World’s history there is no reason to consider Moorcockian tropes essential, Chroniclers can ignore that history no problem. With that in mind my 5 is: 1: A gritty settting compare to some other fantasy games 2: Dangerous and tactical combat 3: Some representation of the forces behind the allegiance rules even if most of the worlds inhabitants are ignorant of the three forces. 4: low-key magic and no divine magic. All spellcasters use the same streamlined rules and there built in limits to stop magic becoming too common or too potent. 5: Iron age to early medieval pre-gunpowder technology. Believable because the effect of magic on culture is minimal. The authors actively encourage you to build your own world adding or subtracting material to taste.

Crossing an open ocean like the Pacific or Atlantic is tricky buisiness without a way to measure longitude and with the western Iron Age/medieval ships provided in Magic World. The rules as printed are fine for island hopping and coast hugging but if you want to emulate Columbus or Leif Erikson then some house rules are needed. Here is my first pass anyone have any suggestion or spot any mistakes? Firstly, based on historical examples a seaworthiness of at least 22 is recommended and even then if the weather turns bad there is a good chance you will sink. Really big warships are not recommended because they lose seaworthiness to fast and can't carry enough supplies to feed and water their large crews for the duration of the crossing. Houserule: Here we assume navigation rolls at sea (MW135) are made weekly rather than ‘per trip’. Out of sight of land longitude can only be figured by error-prone dead-reckoning so halve navigation skill. If out of sight of land and 3 or more days in the week have complete cloud cover then halve navigation skill again. Remember at sea effective navigation skill is never higher than the navigator’s sailing skill (MW42).

Interestingly, Magic World itself says that demons need not be inhabitants of other dimensions. Origin on another plane is not a necessary attribute of demons. Quote from the Summon Demon spell p125: "The spell contains the key phrases that open a pathway to the other planes (or hidden places within this plane at the Chronicleer's discretion), allowing communication with a demonic entity..." We should remember that other dimensions are a very modern idea and whether it be the underground hell of early christians or the home of the gods on Olympus mountain, or the Land of the Young far across the ocean to the West, for most of history incredible beings lived in unreachable places on our own world, then we reached those places. My worlds tend to use this model.

Hi all, This is a rule I cobbled together last night and am looking for feedback on. Some one else out there might also find it useful. Cheers. Astrology On a world of oceans people pay attention to the heavens. The Moon and Sun draw the tides and the stars are crucial for navigation beyond the sight of land. It is not surprising then that the ancients realised that the dance of the heavenly bodies influences the world, it’s people, and spirits. Astrology is the study of the heavens that reveals the past, present, and future for those who know how to read the patterns and signs. It is not magic, though the uneducated think it so, but mundane observation and lore. Practicing Astrology Anyone with the Art (Astrology) skill can ask some questions, gather some worldly information, stare at the heavens, read the charts and produce a horoscope. Unfortunately, most of these horoscopes are no better than random guesses and take longer to make. Astrology is an art, it requires insight, intuition, and deep understanding. Only those with INT 16 or better can ask the right questions, gather the right details on the subject’s condition, know which heavenly bodies to observe, and finally interpret the charts to produce an accurate horoscope. Those who produce the most accurate insights are sought after by lord, generals and wizards for advise. Astrologers measure success by the wealth and prestige of their patrons. Assuming you have the Art (Astrology) skill, INT 16 or better, and have the proper tools you can cast horoscopes to try to uncover almost anything in this world’s past, present, or future. This is a very broad scope but it does not include information on the surface of the Moon or Sun. Also the precision of the answers revealed varies greatly. The proper tools are an astrolabe, pen, ink, a sheet of blank parchment or paper, and an atlas of the heaven filled with diagrams of the constellations and complicated charts. If you take the Astrologer occupation you begin play with these tools as ‘trade tools’ otherwise you must purchase them. To use astrology: 1. First you or your patron must frame a succinct question of one sentence. Yes/no questions are easier but open questions can give a skilled astrologer more information. Astrologers are aware that much of fate is set by the heavens and there are some questions you don’t want to know the answer to! Better to ask “Will I kill the baron?” than “Will I kill the baron or will he kill me?”. Players, you have been warned. 2. Then try to find out relevant information about the people, places and things relevant to the question, especially important dates and locations on those dates. This may take rolls one World Lore, roleplaying through interviews, finding obscure tomes, and other investigations. However the heavens wait for no-one and all such investigations must be completed within 24 hours of articulating the question or the astrologer must start over. Roleplaying through these efforts and considering the results of the skill rolls made the Chronicler then modifies the future Astrology roll by between -5% and +5%. 3. Then observe the heavens, taking regular measurements with your astrolabe, for a full day, 24 hours. 4. Finally, consider your measurements and the question as you consult your atlas for 1d8 hours then roll against your Art (Astrology) skill. If the required 1d8 hours of time is cut short, penalise the roll by +20% for each hour or part thereof. The Chronicler rolls in secret. 5. The horoscope: a. Critical Success: Tell the player that the signs are especially clear and fate is set. The Chronicler then frames a 1-6 word sentence as an answer based on fact or most likely outcomes of events. If the Chronicler cannot decide roll odds/evens to decide the likely outcome. This sentence willbe or become true even if the Chronicler has to arbitrarily change dice rolls or arrange for unlikely events to make it so. A critical success can be a double-edged sword. In an upcoming even battle a critical success and an unfortunate odd/even roll can doom a PC to death if the question was composed carelessly. b. Special Success: The Chronicler frames a1-6 word sentence as an answer based on fact or most likely outcomes of events. If the Chronicler cannot decide roll odds/evens to decide the likely outcome. c. Success:Treat the question like a yes/no question. If the initial question was open then the answer is either ‘favourable signs’ or ‘unfavourable signs’. Either way the Chronicler answers based on fact or most likely outcomes of events. If the Chronicler cannot decide roll odds/evens to decide the likely outcome. d. Failure:the movements of the heavens are unclear to one of your skill and no information is gained. e. Fumble:Treat like a special success except the information gleaned is based on based on a lie or most unlikely (but believable) outcomes of events. If the Chronicler cannot decide roll odds/evens to decide the unlikely outcome.