Using the "Mage" Magic System in BRP

[Merrik]

Hi All

Looking for a little advice.

I really like the Magic System in "Mage: The Ascension" and was considering how to port it to BRP.

My Initial thought was to make each Sphere a separate Magic Skill - Using the 5 Dot system in Mage as divisions of 20% skill ( 1 dot = 01 - 20, 2nd Dot = 21-40% etc)

However, theres a part of me that thinks only 10 Magic skills may mean lots of Master Mages in fairly short order.

I also considered mixing it with the Intensity / Duration / Area skills of Old Runequest Sorcery... not sure.

Any suggestions?

[vagabond]

Can you give a brief summary of the Mage system - it's been

a long time since I looked at it.

However, if you can find them, the Elric! supplement Unknown

East has a "sphere" system that might be worth looking at.

And the Corum supplement has some rules for Intensity and such.

-V

[frogspawner]

However, theres a part of me that thinks only 10 Magic skills may mean lots of Master Mages in fairly short order.

You could say the Magic skills are harder and, instead of the normal +d6% per increase, only give them +d4% (or maybe less, like a straight +1%).

[Thalaba]

You could say the Magic skills are harder and, instead of the normal +d6% per increase, only give them +d4% (or maybe less, like a straight +1%).

Or make them exempt from experience checks altogether and make them trainable or researchable only.

Thalaba

[Merrik]

Thanks for the reply's folks.

I like the "Research only" option - especially if researching means they have to track down those bits of lore

[Dyvim Matt]

As both a Mage gamemaster and a BRP fan, I have a few thoughts to share. First, for those who need a primer on Mage magic, here goes:

[Mage 101]

Magic is using some sort of magical tradition (beliefs/paradigm) to change reality according to your will. Reality is divided into 9 "Spheres" (spatial dimensions is one, time another, lifeforms another one, spirits and the spirit world yet another Sphere, etc.) A mage's influence on reality is limited to his Sphere knowledge. Each one is rated from 1 (rudimentary) to 5 (almost godlike) but the range of effects at each Sphere level is quite broad. Another trait, called Arete (pronounced air-ee-TAY I think) represents the character's "magic skill" rating, and this one ranges from 1 to 10. Arete also limits your Sphere rating maximum: Arete 3 means no Spheres above 3. In BRP terms, Sphere ratings would represent an open-ended "spell list" while Arete would be what you roll to see if you succeed. A "fumble" opens the door to all sorts of of magical backlash (called Paradox) up to and including the Gates of Hell swallowing you or something... Mage works with dice pools by the way, so Arete 4 would mean you roll 4 dice, and compare each one to a difficulty rating (let's say 6): each die over 6 is a success. For obvious reasons, you always want as many successes as possible. Also, no magic point system exists in Mage. Fire at will, and just hope nothing goes wrong!

[/Mage 101]

What I would do is create an Arete skill that rates your % of success, but also limits your Sphere "skills" until reaching 50%, with every 10 Arete points giving you access to 20 Sphere points. Sphere skill ratings would not be rolled, ever, just used to gauge what you can actually do with your Arete. However, the dice pool system allows for graded success levels (you could need to accumulate, say, 5 successes) which might be a little hard to translate into BRP rules. You could make a system where 1-5 "Mage" successes become an Easy Arete roll, 6-10 successes is Average, 11-15 is Hard, etc., but it would lack the tremendous flexibilty of Mage. You could keep counting the needed "successes" for a spell, but they would now be called "complexity points" and be used in the manner above for gauging difficulty.

There is still the effects of Paradox to figure out though. You could decide to go with broad categories based on the "complexity" system presented above: Easy spells get a small Paradox when you fumble, Average ones bite harder, Hard spells even more, etc.

Does this make sense?

[jean]

As both a Mage gamemaster and a BRP fan, I have a few thoughts to share. First, for those who need a primer on Mage magic, here goes:

What I would do is create an Arete skill that rates your % of success, but also limits your Sphere "skills" until reaching 50%, with every 10 Arete points giving you access to 20 Sphere points. Sphere skill ratings would not be rolled, ever, just used to gauge what you can actually do with your Arete. However, the dice pool system allows for graded success levels (you could need to accumulate, say, 5 successes) which might be a little hard to translate into BRP rules. You could make a system where 1-5 "Mage" successes become an Easy Arete roll, 6-10 successes is Average, 11-15 is Hard, etc., but it would lack the tremendous flexibilty of Mage. You could keep counting the needed "successes" for a spell, but they would now be called "complexity points" and be used in the manner above for gauging difficulty.

Does this make sense?

There is a rule in RQIII (dragonewt magic effect of don armor) were the benefits depends on the roll : 1 point per 5% rolled (ie 1 for 01-05,2 for 06-10, ...)

I think it could be used with this magic system

If we want to include the criticals and the specials sucess, then such a succes gives the maximum effects and a small benefits (less MP spent, the opposition is overcomed more easily, less paradox)

Jean