Subject: Dungeon Fantasy - Alternate Magic System (long!)
From: "Roberson, Anthony W." <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 11:04:44 -0500

Here is a ROUGH outline of the alternate magic system that I am putting in
Dungeon Fantasy.  It is a mish mash of the Improvised Casting System from
Magic, as well as the Elemental rules of S. John Ross.  Please take a look
and e-mail me feedback outside this list.

Cheers,
Tony R.

Dungeon Magic:

Only mages may cast spells.  A character must have at least one level of the
Magery advantage to cast spells.

Spells require mana to cast.  All mages have a starting "mana pool" equal to
their IQ + Magery level.  This pool is used to pay the cost of the spells
the character casts.  Mana regenerates in this pool at a rate equal to the
normal fatigue recovery rate of 1 point every 10 minutes.

Optional Rule: A mage may spend ST points to fuel spells if his mana pool
has been exhausted.  This counts as fatigue with all the normal effects.  A
mage may NOT reduce his ST to below zero by spending points to fuel a spell.

Spells are composed of one or more Colleges and Realms.  A mage must have a
skill level in all of a spell's required Colleges and Realms to learn that
spell.  Most spells will have only one required College and Realm.   

Colleges and Realms are learned as skills with most learned as (M/H) skills
and a few as (M/VH) skills.  A mage may not gain a skill level in a College
or Realm higher than the sum of his IQ + Magery level. 

Following is a list of the most well known Colleges and Realms:

Colleges:

Breaking		Healing
Communication		Knowledge
Control			Movement
Creation		Protection
Enhancement		Transformation

Realms:

Air			Magic
Animal			Mind
Body			Plant
Earth			Sound
Fire			Spirit
Illusion		Time
Light & Darkness	Water

To cast a spell, a mage takes the lowest skill level he has in a spell's
required Colleges and Realms and makes a skill roll against that number
including the difficulty level of the spell.  If he succeeds, the spell is
successfully cast.

Spells must be learned/bought from other mages or found in scrolls or tomes.
Each spell has its own unique gestures and incantations, as well as any
material components the spell requires.

Each spell has a difficulty level.  The difficulty level of the spell
determines its base mana cost, as well as the base casting time and base
duration.  The base numbers are only a guide and may vary from spell to
spell depending on the GM's discretion.  Following is a list of difficulty
levels and their attributes:

Trivial (+10): Base Casting Cost: 0, Base Casting Time: 1 Sec, Base
Duration: 1 Sec.  Trivial spells can accomplish tasks that the mage could
normally complete without magic.  A trivial spell could tie a shoe lace,
swat a fly, light a candle or any other similar task.

Simple (+5): Base Casting Cost: 1, Base Casting Time ½ D Secs, Base
Duration: 3 Secs.  Simple spells can accomplish fairly ordinary tasks that
the mage could probably complete with some effort.  A simple spell could
light wet wood for a campfire, sweep a small room, dazzle an opponent with a
flash of light or warm a pot of stew.

Ordinary (+0): Base Casting Cost: ½ D, Base Casting Time: 1 D Secs, Base
Duration: 1 Min.  An ordinary spell can complete tasks that the mage would
normally have some trouble completing without magic.  An ordinary spell
could harm or disable a single foe or inconvenience a small group, change
the weather in the immediate vicinity, unlock a locked door or teleport the
mage a short distance.

Complex (-5): Base Casting Cost: 1 D, Base Casting Time: 2 D Secs, Base
Duration: 10 Min.  A complex spell can complete tasks that the mage would
find very difficult to complete without magic.  A complex spell could kill a
single foe with a good roll or injure a small group, teleport the mage a
long distance or a small group a short distance, create a large amount of
food or manipulate the emotions of a small group.

Difficult (-10): Base Casting Cost: 2 D, Base Casting Time: 1 D Mins., Base
Duration: 1 Hour.  A difficult spell can complete tasks that the mage would
find almost impossible without the use of magic.  A difficult spell could
kill a small group, teleport the mage vast distances, create/summon a large
creature or raise from the dead a recently killed creature.

Dangerous (-15): Base Casting Cost: 4 D, Base Casting Time: 2 D Mins, Base
Duration: 1 Day.  A dangerous spell can complete tasks the mage would find
completely impossible without the use of magic.  A difficult spell could
drastically change the weather over a large area, teleport a large group
across an entire country, summon a skilled and dangerous guardian or gain
forbidden knowledge.

Example Spell: 

Fireball

This Spell creates a ball of fire that streaks from the caster's hand and
strikes one foe, exploding and doing damage.
Cost: ½ D plus 1 point for each die of damage up to a maximum of 3 dice.
Time to cast: 1 D seconds.
Prerequisites: College (Creation) and Realm (Fire).
Difficulty: Ordinary (+0).

Example of Spell Casting: Devon the mage wishes to cast a fireball at an
enraged goblin.  The spell has Creation as its College and Fire as its
Realm.  Devon has a skill of 13 in Creation and 14 in Fire and so his base
skill level is 13.  The spell has a difficulty of Ordinary and so Devon must
roll 13 or lower to successfully cast the spell.  The spell has a casting
time of  1 D seconds and Devon rolls and determines he must concentrate for
3 rounds to cast the spell.  Devon concentrates for the 3 rounds and then
makes a skill roll.  He rolls a 10 and so the spell is successfully cast.
The spell requires ½ D mana points to cast plus 1 for every die of damage
the fireball does up to a maximum of 3 dice.  Devon rolls and the spell
costs him 2 points plus he decides to spend 2 more points for 2 dice of
damage for a total of 4 points.  The spell strikes the goblin and Devon
rolls 2 dice for damage.

[Archivist's note: the sequence appearing as \xbd is apparently a 
 non-ascii code for 1/2 - MAL]