porting Desolation (Ubiquity) Magic System to BRP

[Harshax]

After reading a few great online discussions on the subject, and going through a number of books these last few days, I think I've finally found a system that I intend to use as the foundation for the magic system of my latest homebrew attempt.

As the title points out, I'm going with Desolation's freestyle magic system. I intend to incorporate some additional elements, side by side, to add some rigidity to the system, such as introducing predefined spells that offer simpler and easier ways to work magic. I also intend to add concepts like special spell components, and I intend to write up various types of magic items of interest to spellcasting characters.

Is anyone else interested in such a thing? Before you respond, a word of caution: This system would be considered pervy, as I fully intend to use Ubiquity's resolution mechanic, alongside BRP's d100 task resolution for everything else. I can understand how this might not appeal to everyone, but I am definitely among the group of people that appreciate a magic system that is not entirely like the predominant task resolution mechanic, as it always seemed to me that many players take interest in watching special rules in play. eg. "Ooh look! Ran's doing magic."

Ubiquity's task resolution mechanic is fast and straight forward, and different enough from d100 mechanics as to be interesting but not distracting. Its nature also adds a little opaqueness to the mechanic as well. While a clever mathematician can probably whip up a spreadsheet faster than I did, most players aren't going to be discussing the probability of successfully using magic as straightforward as he describes his 38% in Sleight of Hand.

[Trifletraxor]

Hmm... I have no familiarity with this system. Could you describe the basics?

:beetle:

[TRose]

I am with Trifletaxor on this . I dont know the system but am always willing to look.

[Harshax]

The Ubiquity game system is one of dice pool vs. X number of successes. The game is only concerned about a die being Even (success) or Odd (failure).

Magical effects are grouped into styles of magic, called traditions. The traditions presented vary, but it is clear that a tradition can be scientific, philosophical, or religious in principle. Spells must fit the tradition being utilized, but is otherwise freestyle, with good/clear examples of the varying difficulties of magical tasks.

To turn a small stone into mud, for example, might require 2 successes.

Each magician has a magic rating, which determines the maximum amount of effort one can put toward casting spells. However, in the Desolation RPG, magic is dangerous and can result in "Burn" which injures a magician.

For each failed die result, a spell causes 1 point of Burn. Therefore, putting forth a lot of effort (rolling a lot of dice), while increasing the potential of success, also runs the risk of causing more Burn. If all dice are successful, then no Burn is incurred.

If all dice result in failure, then a magical mishap occurs.

[fmitchell]

This system would be considered pervy, as I fully intend to use Ubiquity's resolution mechanic, alongside BRP's d100 task resolution for everything else.

There is precedent: WFRP uses percentile rolls for nearly everything, but using magic adds up a number of d10s equal to (or less than?) the wielder's magic ability, usually a low single digit.

A roll in the Ubiquity system will average out to half the number of dice, with a standard deviation of approximately sqrt(N)/2, N being the total number of dice thrown (using the binomial approximation where N >= 10). On average, each spell will cause burn equivalent to the summoned power.

[Harshax]

Here is what I've written so far.

ASSUMPTIONS

Magic is made of many nature forces that permeates the worlds, both mundane and unseen. The understanding of magic begins with recognizing the patterns of these forces, and developing sensitivity to the flow of magic all around us. In many societies, people with the same sensitivities gather to form colleges, traditions, and cults that train members in developing magical skill. Whether these traditions are scientific, religious, or philosophical in nature, magic works the same way. These groups horde even more advanced knowledge which is recorded as spells. Magicians can create a variety of thematically similar magical effects based on their skill and understanding of their chosen style of magic. Magicians can learn to manipulate more than one force of magic.

SKILLS

Each type of magic has an associated skill, which represents a character's total talent and understanding of a body of knowledge surrounding a style of magic. Each 20 percentile, rounded up, in a magic skill represents 1 Magical Rank of power. A journeyman with 67% has a Magic Rank of 4. A character is limited to a total number of Ranks, in all magical skills, equal to his POW. A character who uses magic and gains experience, will continue to slowly increase in Rank, limiting their ability to understand other styles of magic more thoroughly.

MAKING MAGIC

A magician who wishes to work magic, follows the following steps:

1. Describe the magic. Tell the GM what your character is attempting to accomplish with her magic. Feel free to describe how it looks or sounds as well.

Example: An earth magician awakes on a sandy floor to find herself trapped in a cell. She examines the foundation of the cell's bars and notes that they are firmly set in stone. The magician decides she will use magic to change one of the stones to soft mud, hoping she can dislodge one of the bars.

2. Determine the difficulty of the magic to be cast. The GM first judges whether the spell is in keeping with the style of magic to be used. Turning stone into mud certainly fits the style of magic used by the magician in the example above. The GM must now determine the rank of the magic. Turning a solid stone to mud is a Rank 2 magical attempt.

3. Test your skill. Unlike other skills, a player does not roll against their magic skill directy. As previously mentioned, a character has 1 Rank of power for each 20 percentiles known about that style. This in turn translates into a potential pool of dice the character may use in attempting to create a magical effect, and the number of dice decided upon represent the effort the character is making to create magic. If the magician in the example above had an 80% in Earth Magic, then she would have a maximum dice pool of 4 at her disposal. A character must have a number of MP equal to number of dice used in the attempt to create magic.

INTERPRETTING THE RESULTS

It is only important to note whether a die results in an odd or even number. Even numbers are successful results, while Odd represent wasted effort. A player must roll at least as many successes as the magic's difficulty in order to be successful. If the magician gets no successes, then this is treated as a Fumble. The severity of the Fumble is determined by the size of the dice pool used when attempting magic.

COST OF MAGIC

Successful magic costs a number of MP equal to the number of failed die rolls made in the attempt. In the example above, if the earth magician's player rolled all 4 dice, and got 2 Odd and 2 Even results, then the cost of turning stone to mud would be 2 MP. A Failed attempt costs only the number of failed die rolls. A Fumble costs a number of MP equal to the number of failures, plus the result from the Fumble Table.

SPELLS

A spell is a type of magic that can be reliably reproduced. It may be called different things; depending on the tradition that developed the spell; such as formula, prayer, rote, or simply, spell. Formalized traditions usually hoard spells developed by their masters, and teaching spells is common service provided by such an organization. Spells are often recorded for prosterity, but they are not limited to grimoires and liturgical volumes. They may be written as poems, encoded as patterns, heiroglyphics, or statues. Whatever is appropriate to the magical tradition that created the spell.

Characters can memorize a number of spells equal to 1/2 their INT. Characters may learn new spells by voluntarily forgetting a memorized spell, and studying a new one.

The benefits of memorizing a spell is that it adds 1 additional die to the character's magic pool. This die is not counted if the magic attempt Fumbles. A character still needs a base Magic Rank equal to the difficulty of the magic attempted, in order to use a spell. If for example, the earth magician had memorized a magic spell called "Turn Rock to Mud", then her available dice pool would have been 5, not 4.

The overall parameters of a spell are fixed. Components such as range, duration, or number of targets can never be altered when casting a spell.

SKILL AND EXPERIENCE CHECKS

As mentioned previously, a character's total magic knowledge is limited by her POW. When resolving experience checks, characters should test their highest magic skill first. If this test results in a Magic Rank increase that would exceed the character's POW, then the character's lowest unchecked magic skill is reduced a full rank.

A magician with a 11 POW has a 117% skill in Earth Magic, and a 94% in Plant Magic, for a combine total of 11 Magic Ranks (Earth 6, Plant 5). If during the course of her adventures, she earns an experience check in earth magic, that results in her skill rising to 121%, then her Plant Magic skill immediately drops to 80%. This gives the magician ranks of Eath 7, Plant 4.

If every magic skill has an experience check, then drop the lowest skill one rank. Skills reduced this way lose any experience checks the character may have acquired through her adventures.

MAGICAL TOOLS

There are eight broad categories of, permanent or one-use, magic enhancing tools or treasures.

Teaches a Spell

A scroll, grimoire, table, or heiroglyph that contains the details of one spell. Studying with the item allows the magician to store its spell to memory.

Stores a Spells

This item allows the magician to cast the spell as if committed to memory. This may be a one use item that crumbles to dust, or loses potency, or a permanent item, like a magic wand or amulet.

Increase a Magic Skill

This type of item increases a specific magic skill by 1 to 19%.

Increase Magic Rank

This item increases a magician's available dice pool for casting magic. Such items are usually restricted to certain spells or traditions.

Reduce Magic Fumbles

This rare treasure reduces a fumble pool by 1 or more dice.

Reduce Magic Point Cost

Items which reduce MP costs are often tied to specific spells. This power is often tied to spells that are also stored within the item. Temporary items can include special plants, or iconic spell components that are consumed in creating magic, or items which store the true essence of a type of magic.

Store Magic Points

A relatively common magic item. This stores 1 or more Magic Points which a magician can draw on when casting spells.

Universal vs. Tradition Focused Items

Most magical tools are tied to a specific magical tradition, or theme. An Elemental Staff of Earthly Might may, if the GM agrees, be used by the scholarly College of Elemental Enlightenment, or the mighty Cult of Grug the Earth Tumbler. The Crucible of Rare Earths, on the otherhand, might only be of use to the True Alchemists of Aquilonia.

Gamemasters should outline the potency and useability of any magic treasures placed in adventures.

GUIDELINES: MAGIC DIFFICULTY

Damaging Magic - Magic that causes damage has a starting difficulty of 2. If said magic affects a single target and is auto-accurate, then the magic causes 1d6 damage per Magic Rank. If the magic then relies on a secondary skill attempt, such as being thrown, shot, or delivered by a successful melee attack, the damage is increased to 1d8 per Rank. Magic that effects an area, or group of targets does 1 die less damage.

Edited December 16, 2008 by Harshax

[Harshax]

Binomial Probability. x = desired number of successes, y = number of dice rolled.

Example: A character who rolls 3 dice has a 25% chance to get 2 successes.

      1     2     3     4     5     6     7

1     50%   50%   63%   75%   84%   91%   95%

2           25%   25%   38%   53%   67%   78%

3                 13%   13%   22%   36%   51%

4                       6%    6%    13%   23%

5                             3%    3%    7%

6                                   2%    2%

7                                         1%

[Harshax]

ADVANCED TECHNIQUES

Group Casting

Several magicians may work in conjuction to create magic, lending their dice pool to a single group leader. All participants should belong to the same tradition. A GM may allow characters of different tradition to work together if the magic would be thematically appropriate to all participants.

The highest ranking magician usually leads the group. She may be assisted by a number of magicians equal to her Magic Rank. Each participant may lend up to half of their dice pool to the leader's magical attempt. The GM may limit participants of different traditions to less dice.

The cost of group magic is shared by all participants equally. Fumbles however, affect the group leader primarily, although secondary effects could befall other group members as appropriate.

Ritual Magic

Rituals are lengthy procedures that help magicians accomplish magic that strains the limits of their ability at a terrible price. Rituals require preparation of mind, body, and place, and demand a magician's undivided attention.

The amount of time it takes to complete a ritual is dependant on the rank of the spell. 1 - 3, 1 Hour; 4 - 6, 1 Day; 7 - 9, 1 Week; 10 - 12, 1 Month; 13 - 15, 1 year, and so on.

Rituals cost permanent expenditure of one's own life force, in the form of points of POW. At the ritual's conclusion, the character makes a magic attempt using her full dice pool. Additionally, for each point of POW expended, one Success is added to the attempt.

Example:

A death cultist wishes to bring his fallen champion to life. With 140% skill in his tradition, the cultist barely grasps the ultimate expression of his goddess's magic: bring the dead to life. Even with such depth of this dark and mighty knowledge, the cultist has little chance at succeeding. After ritually cleansing himself and the body, and then sequestering himself in a temple hidden far from prying eyes, the cultist begins the ritual. After a week of supplication, the cultist expends 4 points of POW and rolls his full dice pool. If he achieves at least 3 successes, his champion will rise again!

[Harshax]

Sample magic by tradition. (I'm still working on hard numbers)

KYGER LITOR

KL's magic focuses on interacting or calling upon troll ancestors and working with elemental darkness and demons.

Difficulty

1 Increase the damage of lead or bludgeon weapons by 1d8. Heal injuries. Sanctify troll grave. Improve Stealth skills.

2 Grant someone Darksense. Freeze your foe from a distance (1d8 damage). Emulate minor Hero Cult ability, such as Gerak Kag or Stone Biter. Embolden Troll Warriors. Bite Chaos.

3 Absorb incoming enemy magic and convert to MP. Create darkness over a great area. Suppress Chaos in an areay.

4 Summon a Shade, or Demon. Speak with the dead (requires bones).

5 Heal severe injuries, cure deadly poisons or diseases.

6 Speak with/commune with a distant Uz Hero. Bless Troll Pregnancies (Korasting)

7 Invoke the spirit of a great Uz Hero. Commune with Kyger Litor.

[Harshax]

For the time being, I am going to use Nick Effingham's Fumble Tables to illustrate the severity of Fumbles.

FUMBLES

If a magic attempt is a complete failure (no Successes), a Fumble has occurred. Make the entire roll again, as the magician attempts to safely disassemble the unstable magical forces called into being. The number of Failures determine the severity level of the Fumble. If the magician had only attempted 1 die magic, then he loses 1 more MP (Success), or 1 HP (Failure).

Now roll d100 and consult the appropriate table.

Example. A Magician is attempting to summon a small salamander. He attempts the feat with 5 dice and fumbles. He rerolls his 5 dice and gets 2 Successes and 3 Failures. He now rolls a d100 on Table 3, and gets a 28. The magical attempt has paralyzed one of his legs for 2d10 rounds, and he falls prone.

[Trifletraxor]

Sounds pretty good. I like it. Might we add it to the wiki?

:beetle:

[Harshax]

Sounds pretty good. I like it. Might we add it to the wiki?

:beetle:

Let me write up the whole thing, then I'll finally get around to teaching myself how to use wiki.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[fmitchell]

The only part that bugs me is using percentile skills to represent magical lore, especially when you have to divide by 20 to get actual Magic Ranks. How about simply representing Ranks directly?

Here's one possible mechanic for skill checks with ranks: A magician gets a Rank check if he sucessfully casts a spell requiring more than half of his Ranks in that lore. In a Rank Check, roll a number of dice equal to the magician's current rank. If the number of successes is equal to than the magician's current rank, then he advances one rank. That would give a fairly fast progression at first, but quickly taper off at higher ranks.

EXAMPLE: Flamel has Fire Magic 5. He casts a Rank 2 spell, which gets him no check. He then successfully casts a Rank 3 skill, which then permits him a Rank Check. For his Rank Check, he rolls five dice, and only gets three successes, so he fails to go up a rank.

Edited December 17, 2008 by fmitchell
Example

[Harshax]

In a Rank Check, roll a number of dice equal to the magician's current rank. If the number of successes is equal to than the magician's current rank, then he advances one rank. That would give a fairly fast progression at first, but quickly taper off at higher ranks.

That's neat. You're right, the mage would experience a fast progression, but then his progression would seem to virtually stop. Remember, you have slightly better than a 10% chance to roll 3 Successes on 3 dice, and the probability steady drops about 1/2 ever after.

There is roughly a 2% chance to go from Rank 5 to Rank 6, which equates to my suggestion of 100 - 120% Skill range. A character with a very good Skill Category modifier (Say 10%), has exactly that chance to increase his skill over 100%.

[Harshax]

Sample Difficulties:

Damage

This type of magic has a base difficulty of 2, for 1d8 damage per rank.

Heal

Heals 1d8 damage per difficulty. Reduces the POT of diseases, poisons, or toxins by 1d6, and allows the recipient another recovery roll.

1 Heals scars.

2 Repairs minor organ damage, or medical condition, such as poor eyesight, lactose intolerance, or infertility. Cure 1d3 Attribute damage.

3 Revives coma victim.

4 Restores paralysis.

5 Regrow limb or major organ. Restore damaged Attribute completely.

6 Raise the dead.

Increase/Decrease Attribute or Skill

Each difficulty rank alters an attribute by 1d6, or skill by 1d6 x5%.

Mind

1 Cause a mild headache. Slightly alter someone's mood. Know someone's age or race. Communicate with someone at a distance.

2 Fill someone with strong emotion, such as fear, or lust. Cause someone to fall asleep. Create an illusion that effects 1 sense.

3 Reveal a character's knowledge by probing their mind, or forcing them to speak it. Detect lies.

4 Edit a memory. Affect someone's sanity (+/- 1d6). Cure temporary insanity. Force someone to perform a specific action, at 1/2 the target's skill if they are unwilling. Create an illusion that effects all senses.

5 Cure permanent insanity. Make someone go permanently insane.

6 Take complete control of someone, willing or not.

more to come . . .

Edited December 18, 2008 by Harshax

[Harshax]

I should have the completed rules up by next year. (Ha! That joke never gets old).

Finally dug up my Ars Magic rulesbook, and I hope to get some guidance from that book in order to provide a better framework for my magic system.

Hopefully, I'll end up with something that both scales a little better, and provides a wider range of effects than the RAW.