Sorcery Manipulation

[rsflett]

Ok, the books are all pretty vague on this topic, so i need to ask.

Let's say my character has a manipulation(magnitude) skill of 75% (this increases the magnitude of the spell to Magnitude 8.)

When i cast my sorcery spell and add the manipulation(magnitude) skill to it, what will happen if i roll a 55%?

Will my magnitude be 6 or 8?

Also, when casting sorcery spells against a defender, do you make opposed skill checks like melee fighting, or is it straight black and white win/lose?

example. If i have a Beam of Cutting skill of 75% and my opponent has a dodge skill of 50%. Which scenario happens?

first scenario: I roll a 60% on my beam of cutting. the spell succeeds. My opponent rolls a 15% on dodge. he dodged my beam and the spell misses.

Second Scenario. I roll 60, he rolls 15. Since i succeeded with a higher number, his dodge success is reduced to a failure and my spell hits him.

 

[RosenMcStern]

Magnitude 8. Manipulations depend on your skill, not the actual roll. The only case when the roll counts is when it is higher than your manipulation skill, which means the manipulation is not applied at all.

Second scenario. This was addressed in the Player's update. It also means that having a skill above 100% gives you an advantage in overcoming the target's resistance.

 

[Itto]

I use Sorcery based on the roll of the dice, so that if the Mage roles 55% he gets a magnitude of 6, costing 1 MP. But if the Mage wants to ramp it up to Magnitude 8 (based on a having a Manipulation-Magnitude of 75%) he can add a further 3 mps to get it.

I *know* that the rules work the way RosenMcStern says, but I find that Sorcery is far to powerful (and cheap) and a bit boring that way. Having the magnitude, range, targets etc based on the roll of the dice is far more interesting and adds to the fun.

 

[RosenMcStern]

In the MRQ games I have run so far, Sorcery is everything but boring, and we play by the rules. The only problem are the couple spells that have flaws, clearly identified.

Frankly, I do not see any reason to introduce rules that enhance the dependence of magic efficiency on MP availability. A skilled mage should be able to cast powerful spells event though he is low on magic points. Raising the MP costs produces effects that long-term RQers know very well (published NPCs having more MP matrices than fingers) and that add nothing to the fun.

 

[Nickbergquist]

Ok, the books are all pretty vague on this topic, so i need to ask.

Let's say my character has a manipulation(magnitude) skill of 75% (this increases the magnitude of the spell to Magnitude 8)

When i cast my sorcery spell and add the manipulation(magnitude) skill to it, what will happen if i roll a 55%?

Will my magnitude be 6 or 8?

Also, when casting sorcery spells against a defender, do you make opposed skill checks like melee fighting, or is it straight black and white win/lose?

example. If i have a Beam of Cutting skill of 75% and my opponent has a dodge skill of 50%. Which scenario happens?

first scenario: I roll a 60% on my beam of cutting. the spell succeeds. My opponent rolls a 15% on dodge. he dodged my beam and the spell misses.

Second Scenario. I roll 60, he rolls 15. Since i succeeded with a higher number, his dodge success is reduced to a failure and my spell hits him.

Your Manipulation skill sets the upper limit possible; the actual skill roll (as you surmised) against your spell skill determines the maximum possible magnitude, unless your magnitude skill is lower than that roll, in which case it sets the magnitude instead. So in your example, it would be 6.

I think (not having books in front of me atm) that pretty much all vs. events in sorcery are opposed rolls (i.e. sorcery skill vs. relevant resillience, persistence, or even dodge as in your case) although I can't recall any spells where you can dodge 'em off-hand (but then I've only used about 2% of the Spell Book and less than half of the core book spells in my games so far).

I've been running the magic system by-the-book so far as well and have had less trouble with sorcery and it's uses than I thought I would. Essentially, I can see it becoming a much bigger deal if I were to run a very high-magic, high-octane style of game where Power-enhancers and magic point storing items were a dime a dozen, or where finding spells was easy, but the reality seems to be much different. In fact, the single most intimidating characters in the RQ game I run are the non-magical guys who pumped all their points in to hitting things really hard and often!