MythQuest - Announcement Thread and Help Request

[Zenith Comics Presents...]

So I need your help, and here's why...

There are 4 specific types of Magic in my world, but also room for more, but these 4 need to be covered;

1] Spellbinding: The use of spells to cast magic. Harnessing the energy of the universe to perform magic. Covered by most BRP systems.

2] Binding: The binding of demons, elementals, etc... to items to give them magical effects. Covered by Stormbringer/Magic World.

3] Sorcery: The use or freeform magic, to use your energy to make the world do as you wish. Covered by this post here.

4] Channeling: This is where the caster needs to beseech or compel an extra-dimensional being to give them power to do magic. Payment of Power can be covered by payment in blood as well. Think "Channel Energy" from Pathfinder, not so much spells as effects. Anyone got any suggestions on a system for BRP that covers this style of magic?

Thanks in advance.

[Mugen]

8 minutes ago, Zenith Comics Presents... said:

4] Channeling: This is where the caster needs to beseech or compel an extra-dimensional being to give them power to do magic. Payment of Power can be covered by payment in blood as well. Think "Channel Energy" from Pathfinder, not so much spells as effects. Anyone got any suggestions on a system for BRP that covers this style of magic?

Thanks in advance.

It sounds a lot like RuneQuest Divine/Runic Magic, where you trade POW with divine beings to gain powerful spells.

Or Mythras version, where you don't trade POW but reduce your maximum MP.

[Zenith Comics Presents...]

37 minutes ago, Mugen said:

It sounds a lot like RuneQuest Divine/Runic Magic, where you trade POW with divine beings to gain powerful spells.

Or Mythras version, where you don't trade POW but reduce your maximum MP.

Right but I don't want them to have spells, they don't get spells, they get energy that can used for specific things, like healing, or harming, or improving their attributes temporarily, etc...

But I could look at it for sure.

[Mugen]

12 hours ago, Zenith Comics Presents... said:

Right but I don't want them to have spells, they don't get spells, they get energy that can used for specific things, like healing, or harming, or improving their attributes temporarily, etc...

But I could look at it for sure.

But what do spells do if not healing, harming, improving attributes, etc. ?

The only thing using spells will do it put limits on the ways one can use that "energy". It's not necessarily a bad thing.

[SDLeary]

19 hours ago, Zenith Comics Presents... said:

Right but I don't want them to have spells, they don't get spells, they get energy that can used for specific things, like healing, or harming, or improving their attributes temporarily, etc...

But I could look at it for sure.

Sounds like you want Powers rather than Magic, or at least similar effects. That’s where you might want to look.

SDLeary

[Atgxtg]

Sounds like a matter of terms, rather than effects.

What you described above is pretty much how Rune Quest Magic works: "energy that can used for specific things, like healing, or harming, or improving their attributes temporarily, etc..." is exactly how RuneQuest's battle magic/sprint magic spells work. Each "spell" costs Magic Points (energy) and does a specific thing, such as Heal, Disrupt, increase Strength, Con or Dex, etc., and last for a couple of minutes. 

And , as Mugen pointed out, Challenging is similar to RQ's Rune/Divine magic. 

 

But if you want a different take on that sort of magic, I suggest trying something similar to what Kim Eastland did with the old Realms of Magic supplement for Marvel Super Heroes.

There spells were powered by one of three types of energy.

Personal Energy spells were powered by the caster's own magical energy (POW Stat).

Universal Energy spells tapped in this universe's ambient engines and channeled it into a spell (i.e. local POW or mana level). 

Dimensional Energy spells drew power from powerful beings or object's dwelling in mystical dimensions.

It's dimensional energy spells that seem similar to your channeling idea. 

To cast a Dimensional Energy spell a caster has to make an entreaty to the powerful entity who would give them the power for the spell. Generally this happened all the time and most entities would do this on a regular basis and not usually pay to much attention to just who they did this for, as it sort of puts the casters into their debt, but the entity might take an interest, in just who is calling on them and why. So casters would be reluctant to call upon beings with opposing views or goals.

In game terms the GM made a roll to see if they caught the attention of the entity, based on how powerful the Caster was, and the rank (how powerful, i.e. how many POW points) they will using. Typically apprentices and such were beneath notice, and didn't draw much power anyway, while adepts and masters were much more likely to be noticed. If the entity noticed the caster then, depending on what school of magic the caster  was aligned to, and  the entity viewed the caster personally, they might shut the tap off, place restrictions on the caster, require the caster to perform some task for them, attack the caster (or send minions to attack them), do nothing at all, or maybe just pop in to say "Hi". 

In BRP terms you could have the caster make a cast roll to tap the power for the spell, and then have the GM make a reaction roll for the entity to see if he notices/cares, and set the outcome according to the Success level.

You could  use something like the Allegiance/Elan system for the entity to roll for (positive effects in the caster has the right allegiance, negative if they have an opposing allegiance), and you could set the difficulty of the roll by the amount of POW needed for the spell, and maybe a running total of how much POW is being asked for in a week/month, etc. So a caster asking for a Shield spell (1 point) probably doesn't drawn notice, but one who keeps asking for shield spells to cover an entire army would eventually raise the difficulty to the point where the entity will notice. 

Casters could then do things to build up Alligencace Points/goodwill/karma with some entity so that they may call of them more safely/frequently.