|
|
The magic rules for NAME describe four pairs of magical skills: Tempering and Sapping, Musing and Fortunosity, Laboritry and Chronistry, and Therianthropy and Semblancy. Every PC and most NPCs will have access to one of these eight magical skills.
Every character has one "extra" skill for using the character's racial magical ability. This skill has no associated talent. It seldom has any bonuses, for niether situational advantages nor group efforts apply to using these abilities more successfully. The GM should decide if the setting includes any items that would grant an equipment bonus or special item bonus to these racial magical abilities.
The NAME sample setting includes other types of magic items not created with the eight magical skills described below. The technology rules describe the two magical technologies of Alchemy and Chemstry. The religion rules describe the kinds of items which the Powers sometimes give to their worshippers.
Tempering is a method of crafting a magically superior tool or weapon. Crafting the item with tempering does not take any extra time. A person using tempering is able to sacrifice his or her own morale to imbue an item with extra sturdiness and keenness. The crafter becomes gruff and grim, stuck in a state of grouchiness and depression for a number of days.
A person wielding a tempered tool or weapon gains a 1-point or 2-point equipment bonus to the appropriate skill.
Tempering: Rule Changes
Tempering uses the rules for special item costs but the crafter has very limited options.
The impact can only be 1 or 2. Moreover, the 1-point or 2-point bonus to skills is an equipment bonus, not a special item bonus.
The effect cannot have extra area of effect or range. It cannot develop slowly. Its duration is always the default "minutes".
However, to compensate the duration is measured in weeks instead of minutes. Moreover, when the item's magic is used up it can be "re-tempered" with the same effect for half the cost.
Skill in tempering measures:
Most crafters who know tempering only use it to create their personal tools of their trade. A generous person sometimess uses tempering to create a gift that he or she hopes will become a cherished family heirloom for the recipients. However, a crafter desperate for money will sometimes create and sell tempered items. Also, during times of war a great number of tempered weapons are forged.
A person with a heavy heart (from having used tempering, suffering from depression, in mourning, etc.) cannot use tempering.
Tempering Example
A crafter with a tempering skill of 5 creates a rapier that grants a 2-point equipment bonus to both Melee and Disarm. Because of the crafter's skill this bonus lasts for 5 weeks at a time.
That crafter has sufficient skill to make the weapon's bonus usable 5 times. But he choses to create a less expensive item that is usable only 3 times. An impact 2 effect usable 3 times costs 20 × 3 = 60 coins. The crafter is also grouchy for 5 days.
The crafter can create the item for half its retail cost: 30 coins. After the rapier's third use he can re-temper for 3 more uses for one-quarter price: only 15 coins.
Sapping is a magical attack that drains the morale of a nearby enemy. A sapped enemy temporarily suffers a 1-point penalty on uncontested skill use and a 2-point penalty on contested skill use. The person using sapping becomes giddy for the same duration that the enemy becomes demoralized (this does not affect skill use).
Skill in sapping measures:
If someone who is already sapped is sapped again, he or she suffers no additional penalties but will remain demoralized longer.
When using a battlemat, a character using sapping may only move 1 map square that turn. A character using sapping may sap any target he or she can see (because battlemaps describe small areas—the range of sapping is large enough to encompass normal combat situations but not large enough to include distant targets).
Note that sapping is almost the opposite of tempering. People using tempering give up their own morale to create items that boost skill attempts. People using sapping lower somoene else's morale to hinder skill attempts.
Also note that sapping costs no coins, creates no items, and does not follow the rules for special item costs.
Works of art can be enhanced with magical properities using musing. A person can only use musing to enhance a work of art that he or she owns. Musing can only put a single enchantment on any particular work of art. Musing cannot enhance uncompleted works of art.
The enchantments created with musing can do almost anything but must always be appropriate for the topic or theme of the work of art. Common examples include earrings that aid the wearer's hearing, clothes that protect the wearer from dirt and water, gloves that provide the wearer with immunity to cold or heat, musical intruments that keep another instrument in tune, and paintings that transport a person to the pictured location.
Creating a more powerful enchantment also requires a more expensive work of art.
Musing: Rule Changes
Musing has only one rule change: items enchanted with musing cannot be "recharged". When their last use is complete the work of art vanishes.
Musing otherwise uses all the rules for special item costs. Remember that the work of art to be enchanted must be quite expensive: multiply the cost per use by the number of uses to find the with-enchantment retail price, then divide by two for the crafting price.
Skill in musing measures:
The person using musing enters a meditative trance involving both concentrated willpower and slow, dance-like gestures. Remaining in the trance is exhausting. After the enchantment is made, each use has a duration equal to the length of the trance that created the item.
Musing Example
A character with a Musing skill of 4 wants to enchant a shiny gold ring to glow brightly when squeezed, with light that provides a 1-point special item bonus to Perception. This is an impact 1 effect, which the character has more than the required skill to create.
The impact cost of 10 coins is modified to find the retail price. The character wants the light to fill an square area 12 meters per side (+20 coins) and last for 4 hours instead of 4 minutes (×2 coins). The result is a cost of (10 + 20) × 2 = 60 coins.
The character also wants the ring to have the maximum of 4 uses, so enchanted ring will be worth 60 × 4 = 240 coins. To make this item the character must obtain a ring worth at least 240 ÷ 2 = 120 coins and then spend 4 hours in an exhausting trance.
After the ring's fourth use it will disappear forever.
The restriction that items enchanted with musing cannot be recharged aids game balance. The sources of special items with half-price uses are either more limited in possible effects (tempering) or require obtaining a recipe (alchemy).
Fortunosity is the ability to sacrifice other people's wealth to create a magic statue that can turn into a monster.
Using fortunosity requires precious metals that legally belong to someone else, usually coins or jewelry. Most often this wealth is stolen, plundered or unearthed. But the wealth need not be taken away from its owner: sometimes a wealthy person hires someone who can use fortunosity to change some of his or her savings into magical statues.
Fortunosity is very quick to do. It only requires one second per 10 coins of cost. People who can use fortunosity usually avoid combat but when forced to fight will try to grab their opponent's valuables.
When the statue is created, its creator imagines a kind of monster (often a fanciful, imaginary one) and also picks one magical effect.
The magic effect works exactly the same as an effect created by musing, with the exception that it can only have one use. The statue vanishes if this effect is ever used.
The statue can also turn into a small monster when its owner throws it down onto the ground. The monster is more skilled if the statue is created with a higher impact. The statue can only change into moster form a few times before its magic is used up. After the final time in monster form, the statue vanishes.
Fortunosity: Rule Changes
Fortunosity, like Musing, has the rule change that its creations cannot be "recharged". When their last use is complete the item vanishes.
Skill raing in fortunosity measures:
When creating a monster statue, none of these many factors may exceed the impact. For example, if the person using Fortunosity decides that the one-use effect has an impact of 3 then the effect duration, monster form duration, number of monster uses, monster Melee skill rating, and total monster skill ratings (aside from Melee) must all be 3 or less.
The monster will fight its owner's enemies, focusing first on any other statue-monsters. The owner can also touch the monster to telepathically direct it to attempt other tasks.
If the statue-monster is defeated in combat it immediately reverts to statue form, unless that was the statue's last use of monster form (in which case the statue vanishes). The statue is not otherwise harmed by the defeat.
Fortunosity Example
As an example, a character with Fortunosity skill of 5 wants to create a monster statue with a last-resort power of making a group of foes incredibly nauseous for 5 minutes (an impact 4 effect, increased to a cost of 50 coins to have the effect target a box 6 meters per side).
The value of the item will be 50 coins × 4 monster uses = 200 coins. Since crafting costs half the item's worth, the character needs 100 coins worth of precious metals owned by someone else.
The character decides the monster will look somewhat like an ugly, dog-sized rat. None of the other variables can exceed the impact of 4. So when the statue is thrown down, it will become the monster for up to 4 minutes. The statue can become a monster 4 times, then vanishes. The monster will have a Melee skill rating of 4. The character also plans to give the monster a skill rating of 2 in Perception and 2 in Stealth so the monster can be useful as a scout: this uses up its 4 other skill ratings.
When using a battlemat, a character cannot move when using fortunosity to create a new statue. Fortunosity happens during the "reach effects" timing of resolving the turn.
The word fortunosity pokes fun at how the English word "fortune" describes both wealth and luck.
Fortunosity can add an element of unpredictability to an encounter with a lone enemy. Since enemies might owns statue-monsters then the Player cannot be completely confident about estimating how dangerous the foe is by studying his or her weapons, armor, and physical stature and behavior.
Note that fortunosity is almost the opposite of musing. Musing will eventually sacrifice a valuable work of art that the person owns. Fortunosity immediately sacrifices someone else's wealth.
A type of magic called laboritry allows multiple people who can use it to cooperate to accomplish a laborious task much more quickly than normally possible. Laboritry can only be used to create a gift or perform a service for others (for people besides the two or more who are participating in laboritry).
The Laboritry skill rating measures how many times per month a person can participate in laboritry. Also, when a group uses laboritry, the minimum Laboritry skill among them is multiplied by the size of the group to determine how much faster the work is done.
Each member of the team using laboritry sacrifices some of his or her age, becoming magically aged a week, month, or year. This corresponds to an additional multiplier of 1, 2, or 4 for how much faster the work is done.
Laboritry Example
Four travelers have Laboritry skill ratings of 3, 4, 4, and 5. Their journeys take them to a trading post threatened by bandits, and they decide to use laboritry to team together to build a wooden palisade around the trading post.
There are four participants and the minimum Laboritry skill rating is 3. Thus the team can do the work 4 × 3 = 12 times as quickly as normally possible. The Player and GM discuss the task and decide it would normally take four adults about three weeks to do this work, so the four travelers can complete the job in slightly less than two days. Each is aged one extra week.
If those four had all agreed to each be aged one month they could do the job in less than one day. If they all had agreed to be aged one year they could do the job in less than half a day.
Note that laboritry costs no coins, creates no items, and does not follow the rules for special item costs.
Useful magic pearls can be created with a seldom-seen type of magic named chronistry. Using chronistry requires enchanting a sleeping person, who enters a deeper sleep and cannot be woken until the chronistry ends. A magic pearl forms under the sleeper's tongue. The Sagacious debate whether the a magic pearl is created from a sleeper's dreams or the sleeper's stolen time.
Chronistry does not cause drowsiness or sleep. Legends described communes whose members all agreably used chronistry on each other after going to bed normally. However, such communes no longer exist, and now chronistry is most often used to prey upon innocent victims who are put to sleep with drugged food.
The sleeper always remains in an enchanted sleep for one week. While in this enchanted sleep, the sleeper does not need food, water, or restroom breaks. The resulting magic pearl is powerless until fully formed at the end of the week. When the chronistry ends the sleeper is once again in a normal, unenchanted kind of sleep that usually lasts a few more hours.
There are two kinds of chronistry that create two different kinds of pearls. Both types of pearls vanish when used.
Note that chronistry is almost the opposite of laboritry. With laboritry a team voluntarily sacrifices its own age to accomplish real work. With chronistry someone else's age is stolen to create illusionary scenes.
Chronistry does create an item, but it costs no coins and does not follow the rules for special item costs.
The details of illusion creation are intentionally vague. PCs should never use chronistry. The GM should adapt the size, scope, and effects of illusions as appropriate for his or her setting and adventures.
Because the victim remains asleep after the week of chronisty ends, the user of chronistry can initiate another week of chronistry. Combining this scenario with the second type of aging (one-seventh as much as the time passed) allows traditional stories where someone is captured by magical creatures, put into a long magical sleep, and then returns to the normal world to find that many years have passed by.
There is no restriction about how often someone with chronistry can use the ability. Someone with this ability could cause dramatic havoc in a large dormitory or hospital!
Therianthropy is the ability to change into the shape of a touched animal.
A person in an animal's shape has the animal's size and mass. Clothing and possessions are unaffected by the change: typically these are previously stored or hidden to avoid leaving behind an awkward and vulnerable pile of items. The shape-changer retains his or her own intelligence, mind, and memories but also gains the animal's abilities in perception, movement, and (if applicable) fighting with tooth, beak, or claw. However, these innate animal abilities are unpracticed unless the shape-changer has previous experience in a similar form. Therefore, many users of therianthropy keep one or more pets to provide easy opportunities for repeated practice in adopting those forms.
A person in an animal's shape return to his or her normal form at any time, or may use therianthropy to change into the shape of a different animal without first returning to his or her normal form.
Using therianthropy causes temporary exhaustion. Other magic, such as healing potions or item created with musing, cannot alleviate this exhaustion. Someone who is already exhausted from therianthropy cannot use therianthropy again until he or she has fully recovered.
Skill raing in therianthropy measures:
Therianthropy only works with a creature with "animal intelligence". Many unintelligent monsters count as animals, but these are obviously dangerous to touch. Someone using a monster's shape does not gain the monster's special abilities (breathing fire, teleportation, etc.). Therianthropy cannot copy the shape of an intelligent shape-changer in animal form.
Many stories warn about staying too long in animal shape. After a few days in an animal's form the shape-changer's own intelligence and personality begin to dwindle, being replaced by the animal's. Eventually the shape-changer becomes stuck in the animal's form. This is called becoming a Snag.
A shape-changer in an animal's form will revert to his or her own form if killed, but does not automatically change back if unconscious or asleep.
Therianthropy Example
A PC has a Therianthropy skill rating of 4. The Player picks Ursidae (bears), Corvidae (crows, ravens, and related birds), Canidae (dogs, foxes, wolves, and similar animals) and Muridae (mice, rats, and similar rodents) as the PC's possible animal shapes. If the PC is touching any animal of these four kinds, then it can assume that animal's shape.
When that PC uses therianthropy his or her skills suffer a -2 penalty for 10 − 4 = 6 minutes, and then a -1 penalty for 6 more minutes.
Once the PC uses therianthropy he or she cannot do so again until after all twelve minutes have passed.
When using a battlemat, a character cannot move the turn he or she uses therianthropy. Therianthropy happens during the "reach effects" timing of resolving the turn.
Note that a user of therianthropy is either in his or her natural humanoid form or in the form of an animal; there is no possible "halfway" form of a bipedal monster as seen in traditional werewolf movies. The change is physical, not illusionary.
The rules are purposefully vague about whether a user of therianthropy uses his or her normal skills or a new set of skills derived from the copied animal. It is simplest to keep the character's skill unchanged. However, if both GM and Player agree it can be sensible for some skills to change because of the new shape. For example, a weak person who adopts the form of a large bear could reasonably have increased Wrestle/Disarm skill and talent ratings.
Therianthropy costs no coins, creates no items, and does not follow the rules for special item costs.
Semblancy is the ability to change form to exactly resemble a touched humanoid. Semblancy only allows adopting forms of equal or lesser mass than the user's natural state.
Using semblancy drains the touched humanoid's energy: the humanoid becomes extremely fatigued and collapses, unconscious. A victim of semblancy will sleep for several hours before waking (unless woken earlier using alchemy or other magic).
Skill raing in semblancy measures:
A user of semblancy must pick the same number for the hours/days of the effect. Moreover, using semblancy requires draining the magical power from a touched magic item (an item made with alchemy, tempering, musing, fortunoisty, or chronistry) worth at least ten times that number. All the item's magical power is permanently lost.
As with therianthropy, semblancy is an actual physical change (not an illusion) that does not affect clothing and does not give the impersonator the habits, memories, or skills of the copied humanoid. If someone using semblancy is killed, the corpse reverts to its natural form. Semblancy is not ended by falling unconscious or asleep.
When using a battlemat, a character can use Semblancy while moving two map squares. Semblancy happens during the "reach effects" timing of resolving the turn. Simply touching an opponent is easier than wounding the opponent: the target does not benefit defensively from any equipment or group bonuses that turn, and perhaps the touch attack also receives a situational advantage.
Note that semblancy is almost the opposite of therianthropy. Users of therianthropy give up their own energy to copy the form of an animal. Users of semblancy take somoene else's energy to copy their form.
Semblancy does cost wealth, but creates no items and does not follow the rules for special item costs.