RQ Sorcery, what would you change?

[Newt]

Ok so I'm working through SimpleQuest's sorcery section, with the aim of making sorcery more user friendly and useful in game.

SQ uses MRQ SRD as a base, and then throws in some BRP and common sense.

So far the changes I've made are

There's only one Sorcery Casting Skill, and this is used to base manipulations of the spell as well by taking the tens to be the maximum pool of points you get to manipulate the spell by. Eg. Tim the Magus has a Sorcery Casting skill of 50%, therefore he gets 5 points to manipulate the spell with

I'm probably going to throw in some of Sandy Petersens' RQ 3 sorcery spells, such as Energy Manipulation, think Fireballs & Icebolts done RQ style, to make Sorcerors more useful in the field rather than just Ritualists who cast boosting spells on themselves and others off screen before the adventure so to speak.

Any other ideas?

[Wolverine]

I think your idea is rather good, actually. Go for it.

My players find it so confusing trying to understand a lot of the rules in MRQ, including Sorcery. Having one skill is a nice, tidy idea. It's something that I've been thinking about for some time. If you have a skill at 30%, then you can place no 3 points of magnitude into a spell. Makes sense. Another thing I've introduced already is that all sorcery spells require a minimum of one magic point to cast, before you apply manipulations. Otherwise, Sorcery is open to abuse - there are some rather ridiculous spells for Sorcery in some of the Mongoose supplements which blow this wide open.

[deleriad]

I think the idea's a good one but then I would. You do need to go back over the sorcery spells one by one though from two perspectives:

1: what happens when I cast this spell at magnitude 1 and

2: what happens when I cast this spell at magnitude 7.

Under your system, 100% in a spell would mean that you could cast it at somewhere between mag 7-10 so that is the level of mastery. The illusions in MRQ SRD are a classic example of someone not thinking through just how useless they are. I do recall you doing this in SQ zero so it shouldn't be a lot of work.

There is a good rationale for letting un-manipulated spells be cast for 0 MPs as it fits in with the current Zeitgeist of ensuring that each character always has something to do on their combat action. However, you have to make sure that base level spells are really no more than the equivalent of cantrips.

[GerallKahla]

There is a good rationale for letting un-manipulated spells be cast for 0 MPs as it fits in with the current Zeitgeist of ensuring that each character always has something to do on their combat action. However, you have to make sure that base level spells are really no more than the equivalent of cantrips.

Excellent point, deleriad!

Cantrip-level spells should be a rich source of amusement for the group, and trouble for low-wattage monsters... Heck, in one RQ3 game I played (a con game, admittedly), the GM had mooks which would wither particularly nicely under the effects of a 1 or 2 Intensity sorcery...

As players' percentages increase, the humor melts away and opponents begin worrying about the PCs.

I've got Summon Zeitgeist at 98%, but I'm still only 21% at Bind...

[Wolverine]

There is a good rationale for letting un-manipulated spells be cast for 0 MPs as it fits in with the current Zeitgeist of ensuring that each character always has something to do on their combat action.

True. However, I find it's rather open to abuse. Even more so since Mongoose released their Spellbook supplement, in which the vast majority of the Sorcery spells are broken. A good example is the Drowning spell. Even if it is un-manipulated, the target has to make a saving throw every round, for a number of minutes equal to the casters POW, otherwise they drown. And that is for a zero magic cost!

[AikiGhost]

Maybe not simple, but Id certainly add a rule allowing spell casters to over extend themselves with a WFRP "Tzeentch’s Curse" like failure effects. But maybe that's just me?

[deleriad]

True. However, I find it's rather open to abuse. Even more so since Mongoose released their Spellbook supplement, in which the vast majority of the Sorcery spells are broken. A good example is the Drowning spell. Even if it is un-manipulated, the target has to make a saving throw every round, for a number of minutes equal to the casters POW, otherwise they drown. And that is for a zero magic cost!

Well the best thing about the MRQ Spellbook is that it's a hardback which makes it useful for bashing any player about the head who brings it with them. Thankfully, it's not OGL so can't be included in SQ anyway.

OGL sorcery does have some problematic spells when used as cantrips, notably smother and fly but I seem to recall Newt fixed them in SQ zero anyway.

Main issue about using one skill for all manipulations is precise wording. E.g. you have Palsy 57% so you can use 5 levels of manipulation. Does this mean 5 in addition to the base parameters (e.g. Could cast Mag 6, duration 1, range 1) or do total parameters have to add up to 5 (e.g. max might be Mag 3, duration 1, range 1.) Probably ought to be the former.

Alternately you could envisage level 0 and add the manipulation levels to it.

Mag 0 = no significant game effect

Duration 0 = POW in combat rounds (or until end of next combat round)

Range 0 = touch

targets 0 = self only.

If you did this then quite a few spells are obviously meaningless at level 0 (e.g. Palsy unless you want to give yourself a quick thrill) but some could have colour effects: e.g. cantrip version of animating stone might be to make some small stones move around a bit.

[Wolverine]

I think "petty magic" or "cantrips" could be included in SQ, costing you zero magic points to cast; spells with very little power or significance, such as making candles ignite, boiling water, or maybe creating a pungent stench.

[Newt]

Cheers for the responses so far.

Couple of points.

Illusion indeed has been simplified. One Illusion spell (or Phantom as its called in Sorcery) which folds up the individual spells and gives a intensity for the 'believability' and 'compelxity' of the Illusion. So zero (default) magnitude would be a rather flimsy static see through effect while 5+ is a a solid, living breathing creature that is hard to distinguish from the original.

Using unmanipulated sorcery spells as Cantrips is something I'll look into, and if I decide to go with it I'll highlight it at the beginning of the chapter. Likewise some spells may not be suitable for this approach.