Fantasy Traveller

[Jame Rowe]

OR, you could just take the existing Psionic rules, expand the powers a bit (Empathic Healing etc) and you are set with a low magic setting that is ready to go, you just need a map!

I know Jame has produced an expanded list of Psionic powers that fit a "magical" setting very well.

I've also created a Spells list which I think would be a slightly better fit (I should point out that several other people created a few of the spells, though). The psionics list, which I haven't worked on in ages, would make a good raiding point though.

THEN, your magical setting could be tied into a SciFi setting very easily (world isolated during a Long Night event, Lost Colony, etc).

Keeping it as Psionic based would also allow you to have these "magical" characters in a standard SciFi (SciFantasy) setting.

Literature abounds with examples of primitives being swept aboard a space ship and discovering that their little world is part of some vast galactic empire...

This sounds good, but look at this for a moment and make your decision: spellcasters have a Magic attribute (MAG) which replaces PSI, and represents their magic strength. Then they have two skills, Spellcasting and Conjuring. Spellcasting allows you to throw fireballs, bestow curses and such, while Conjuring is the art of summoning spirits and demons, and then controlling them, combatting them and banishing them. As for the source of magic, well ... it's really up to the individual referee, but I would suggest that it's a combination of it being generated by the universe and being used by a magician who's sort of a "magic battery" - every person can be affected by magic, although certain species are harder to influence, but fairly few people can actually use magic. Mind the YMMV rule, of course.

My take would be that simple spells, such as Heal, would be fairly easy to cast (I'd reference the MGT tasks list but I let a friend borrow my copy) while a curse can be of moderate to difficult, while dispelling that curse will be related to the difficulty of the curse as modified by the original curser's Spellcasting skill.

 

[Jame Rowe]

Oh, I should ask - how would I submit this to Mongoose, if they're willing to publish it? I'm loath to put up anything before that's determined (though once it is determined, I'd be happy to help make a playtest document).

 

[captainjack23]

So far I'm going on the theory that spells and summoning act as anything else (I have a skill for each: spellcasting and conjuring), and have a difficulty based on which spell you're casting or which spirit type you're summoning. Keep in mind that I haven't assigned actual difficulties to them yet.

I'd start with giving a specific skill for goetry - and then assigning difficulty based on the type of crature being summoned. I'd think that spirits should be -2, shades -4 and demons - 6; I'd make minor effects simple 0 level difficulty.

If one doesn't have the skill, one can possibly learn some minor effects (-3) but not summoning actual Beings (-5 untrained =impossible)

Generally, I like having the result of the summoning be flexible and depend on the effect.

I also like the variables such as time and distance to be more period, and less technological -based on percieved values rather than measured.

So, for spirits and shades, I'd make their available points duration and range a function of the effect - and the caster has to allocate the points.

duration of summons:
0 a heartbeat
1 an hour
2 a day
3 a week
4 a month
5 a year.
6 until dispelled

Range to summoning point
0 personal
1 Arms reach
2 stones throw
3 bowshot
4 eyesight to the horizon
5 days march
6 days sailing

Obviously some uses would require or be limited to specific durations or ranges. Using a spirit to heal yourself would need a 0 time and range, while to push someone off a nearby cliff also need 0 time but say 2 range. -wheras imbuing a sword would require a 6 duration, but 1 range.


So, we need to use the effect to generate a pool of points: the caster must pre specify the range and duration, and the effect is the remainder after the actual roll. If the roll succeeds, but with a low effect, there is no effect.

Initially I looked at squaring the effect -which actually makes things a bit harder as 0^2 is a 0.

(Effect +1)^2 could work but it allows for really strong results at the high end for fast and close spells - a spirit with a str of 36 would need an effect of 5, which would require a minimum spell level of 3, and then only with boxcars and a range of personal and for a heartbeat. Thus, a mage would for an instant be able to tear a gate down. . (12 -2 +3 =13, or effect of 5 ) And, if we have a genius Mage (+3) it's not all that hard; plus an effect of 8 at max would give the mage that strength for an hour (HULK SMASH)).

So, the question is, would it be unreasonable for a level three (skilled professional) to do that ?
The points pool has to be big enough to generate a useful effect and allow for range and duration effects.


Actually, this could work nicely even for a basic Vancian (D&D) style load and fire magic model.....

Thoughts ?

 

[Jame Rowe]

Oh, further thoughts: 1. any sorceror can cast any spell he has memorized (the formula I'm using is Magic Strength*(1/2 Int)) at any time until his magic strength runs out, with his Magic Strength being calculated like Psi points are, and 2. material components are generally subsumed into the cost of casting; any special material components are to be determined by the referee.

 

[Jeff Hopper]

Too tired and drunk to go on...

Larry Niven - The Warlock's Wheel setting - Mana powers magic - Mana is exhaustable - connection with Sicence Fiction Traveller - look it up

And make sure that Dirk Remmicke gets credit if Wanderer is used...


(Damn this Bacardi 151 with Southern Comfort chaser is 'da bomb!)

 

[donm61873]

An old source you might look at...

There was a Fantasy version of Classic Traveller called Aldreth, and in 1992, the author (Nigel Hodge?) converted it to the MegaTraveller skills and tasks system.

All the fantasy races and careers were there though...

I thought it was on the web somewhere... Found it!

AldrethA4.pdf

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Now that I read Aldreth, I remember it from a while ago although I had completely forgotten it.

 

[rgd]

Hey, that's a good supplement. I like the emphasis on egotism in magicians to explain "typical" behaviors. (I think refs would still need some serious consequences for players that flout it ("I don't care what all the other magicians do - my magician will wear a full suit of plate armor and still be able to cast all his spells").)

 

[Xoph]

I thought the -DM for armour and another for non magician cloths and another for carrying a weapon and the bonus DM for being unarmed and unarmoured was enough to convince most PCs.

 

[rgd]

True, maybe armor was a bad example. The other examples of egotism leading to our traditional MU view might not be something a player would want for his PC, and I was thinking enforcing it might require some pushes by the ref. Maybe not (depends on the group - most people I play with would role-play it to the hilt).

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

As a ref, I would let the player run with it, if he could come up with a good explanation why HIS Mage worn all black leather, then maybe I would allow it... but the EGOTISM would be the big thing there.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I would actually expect different schools of magic to dress differently. Indeed, many mages might dress fairly conservatively!

However, the penalty for armor still applies...