Magnamund- Core Rules

[Manticore]

INTRODUCTION:

Magnamund was the fantasy world of a great series of gamebooks I used to read when I was a kid. It was like a fantasy version of Star Wars. The main character was a psychic ranger/monk/knight named Lone Wolf.

Lone Wolf was the last of his order, the Kai. His mission was to fight all manner of foes. He had to defeat the minions of the evil god Naar at every turn. He was assigned to many daring and dangerous commando missions in which he would thwart the dread Darklords and their immense armies of Giaks and Drakkarim. Astonishingly, the forces of light prevailed. But the power of evil could not be so easily undone...

The Roleplaying Game is set a few years before the destruction of the Kai monastery, and I am prepared to ignore the continuity of the gamebooks. The players really have to believe that if they can't defeat the evils on their quest then the land will be engulfed in a dark tide.

I am currently attempting to convert the Roleplaying game to MURPG rules. It's taking a lot longer than I anticipated. This may take a while. But I'm sure it will be worth it in the end, if I ever get some players. But at least the rules will be available for others to look at.


CORE RULES

What are the Races in Magnamund like?

Races suitable for play:
Humans
Drodarin Dwarves
Drodarin Kloon
Kundi

Good Races (unsuitable for PCs):
Shianti
Elder Magi
Faersteed

Neutral Races (Unsuitable for PCs):
Drodarin Giants
Drodarin Ogron

Evil Races (unsuitable for PCs):
Giaks
Vordak
Najin (flying monkeys! Yeah!)
Helghast
Ciquali
Beastmen
Ghagrim
Vazhag
Agarashi

Annoying Races (if you really must):
Szalls
Noodnicks

And the less said about the Crocaryx the better... (I guess even great fantasy authors have some crap ideas sooner or later)

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NEW RULES:

The rules will stay true to the spirit of the MURPG rules, I hope.

There will be an overhaul of the D&R charts, and I will analyse the abilities and actions to see if they are appropriate for the Magnamund setting.

The strength D&R chart is modified from the one to be found here: murpg.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=House&action=display&thread=1159465473&page=2

0 - lift 20lbs (child or very old human)
1 - lift 50lbs (young or old human, Szall)
2 - lift 100lbs (most normal people without difficulty, Zombie)
3 - lift 150 lbs (strong human, Helghast, Ciquali, Drakkarim)
4 - lift 200lbs (very strong human, Giak, Drodarin Dwarf)
5 - lift 300lbs (Ghagrim, Vordak, Kundi, Kraan,)
6 - lift 500lbs (Agarashi, Najin)
7 - lift 1000lbs (Gourgaz, Tunnel Stalker, Giant Squid)
8 - lift 1 ton (Darklord, Drodarin Giant, Ravager of Kaum)
9 - lift 3 tons (Zlanbeast)
10 - lift 5 tons (Dragon)

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Abilities Redux:

I have been convinced to keep Speed as a separate action. Speed is important, not only for pursuit and fleeing, but can also be deadly, especially if you've read the 'Horsemanship' rules.

New Ability: WILLPOWER

Willpower is pure strength of will and personality. In the realm of Magnamund physical strength will only take you so far. It is also a measure of mystical strength and inner power. Willpower would be used for resisting spells and psychic powers and as a bonus to numerous actions and abilities.

Notes: You may add your Willpower score to your mental defence(instead of Intelligence) in order to defend against mental damage or control.

* All other abilities (Intelligence, Agility, Strength and Durability) remain the same. Agility is now more important than ever.

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Actions Redux:

I have decided that in the Realm of Magnamund you can have as many actions as you like. You are no longer limited to nine. However, remember the old "Jack of all trades, master of none" adage.

The following non-powered Actions are appropriate for the Magnamund setting:

Acrobatics
Animal Training
Close Combat
Climbing
Gambling
Healing
Horsemanship
Hunting/Tracking
Leadership
Merchant (Business Skills by any other name)
Ranged Combat
Social Skills
Statecraft
Spying (Black Ops by any other name)
Thieving
World Lore (General Knowledge by any other name)

Notes:
For those that are disappointed that the "dance" ability didn't make the grade, I will soon be writing up a new "Bardmanship" action to fill the aching gap in their fragile hearts.

For those curious as to why I renamed General Knowledge "World Lore": I will be writing a new "Magic Lore" action for those scholars out there, and an unreliable "Sailor's Lore" action based upon rumours in shanty taverns and crosses scrawled on old charts.

Magnamund encourages creative play. 'Merchant' can be used to negotiate a better price, but it could also be used to detect debased or forged coinage; or even to help an adventurer sniff out a profit in their quest.

And General Knowledge is always an excellent way to get extra information out of the GM. Those parties that don't have at least one player with a decent score in this action will be missing out a lot.

I'm considering using Scriptus' Blacksmithing action: murpg.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=custom&action=display&thread=1114300963

New Advantages:
(+2 CL) Willpower Bonus to Leadership.


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Modifiers Redux:
Some of the modifiers had to be jettisoned too. These are those that made the cut:

Animal Senses (Kundi etc)
Armour Penetration (for some weapons)
Claws/Teeth/Tail etc (Kundi etc)
Magical Defence
Mental Defence
Enhanced Vision
Extended Life/Immortality (free for some races and lifestyle choices)
Prescience
Reflexive Dodge
Self-Contained Life Form (must be justified)
Targeting
Toughness
Various immunities and resistances

SHOCK! HORROR! Yes, there are no healing factors in this game. Don’t bother to thank me for removing them. Also, some characters may seem to be naturally lucky, but they don’t need a modifier for it.

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Challenges Redux:

Many of the Challenges in the MURPG game are unsuitable for a fantasy setting. The following have been approved, so far:

Minor Disability (1 white stone, max)
Losing a Sense (5 white stones)
Being restricted in Movement (5 white stones)
Chronic Disease (3 white stones)
Fatal Disease (5 white stones)
Misogyny/Misandry (1 white stone)
Tendency to stick up for underdog (1 stone)
Deadly Enemies (1-5 stones, personal nemeses only)
Hubris (1 stone)
Haunted Past (1-3 stones)
Psychological (e.g. temper, irritating habits, impetuous) (1-5 stones, 1 per symptom)
Insanity (4 stones)

New Challenges:

Kundi (3 stones)- The Kundi are a peaceful apelike race that have been hunted to near-extinction by the dread Wytch-King of Shadaki. They are uncommon enough that their presence outside their forest home of Azanam will arouse curiosity in most places, and outright hostility within the Shadaki Empire. They are tough and agile and practise a kind of tribal magic.

Superstitious (1 stone): Magnamund is a place of magic and peril. There are horrors in the night that most people wouldn't dream of in their worst nightmares. Many people resort to prayer or small rituals to ward off evil. Sailors are renowned for being a particularly superstitious bunch, and as soon as anything goes wrong they look for ways to appease the many Gods and spirits of the seas.

Illiterate (2 stones): Education in Magnamund is by no means standardised, and there are many people who are unable to read and write. This challenge can be "bought off" with lines of experience later.

Pariah (3 stones): This challenge marks you with a non-fatal but horrible disease, or maybe you have been banished from your homeland on pain of death, or committed some horrible crime that results in you being shunned by the majority of people you meet. Combine with Haunted Past for a mega payload!

Kai Disciple (5 stones): The Kai are noble warrior lords sworn to battle evil wherever they find it. They follow the God of Light, Kai, but are not required to do any worshipping. Before Kai are inducted into the order they must take four vows:
• The Vow of Fire- Kai may own nothing more than that required for their survival. They are taught that material wealth and possessions are of little import.
• The Vow of Light- Any Kai that willingly commits an evil act is stripped of the gifts of the Kai, losing all his disciplines (Kai Actions) until she can atone for the transgression.
• The Vow of Solaris- Kai must fight evil wherever they find it. This vow is the one that is most often ‘bent’ by Kai working undercover.
• The Vow of Spirit- Spiritual purity is derived from moderation. Kai are expected to refrain from gluttony, greed and over-indulgence.
The Kai are expected to uphold these vows at all times or they may have their abilities taken away from them and be expelled from the order. Also they have to contend with the fact that a great deal of Darklord time and ingenuity is spent thinking up convoluted plans to exterminate the Kai.

Dessi Warrior-Mage (3 stones): The blood of the Elder Magi still flows in the veins of the (human) warriors of the Dessi. The Elder Magi are the hated foes of the Agarashi and this ancient enmity has been inherited by their successors. Also, within the souls of the Dessi there is a seed of pure magic that the Darklords would dearly love to possess. The Dessi must remain noble lest the Goddess Ishir desert them and they fall into shadow.

Speaks in riddles (1 stone): This character's speech patterns are unnecessarily convoluted. The character is incapable of speaking directly.

Code of Knighthood (2 stones): The mighty knights of Sommerlund, Palmyrion and Durenor are expected to uphold the code of valour and honour at all times. Disgraced knights suffer harsh penalties until they can regain their honour, and those vile Blackguards that ally with evil are hunted down mercilessly by all righteous knights.

(Note: Most of these require some decent roleplaying.)

Notes:
The "tendency to stand up for the underdog" challenge isn't so appropriate in Magnamund, where Good and Evil are pretty distinct entities and standing up for the weak and innocent is what most heroes do. So it only nets you 1 stone.

Also, Deadly Enemies is only appropriate to people that have sworn personal revenge against the protagonist in question. For example, in one of the Lone Wolf books Lone Wolf made an enemy of a nobleman named Roark, first by humiliating him in a tavern and then by killing his sister. That enmity could prove deadly to Lone Wolf depending on which paths you followed through the gamebook.

A note on sexuality in Magnamund:
Since the Lone Wolf gamebooks were very kid-friendly and didn’t involve much of that icky romance stuff the issue was never addressed. The Lone Wolf novels were more risqué, but all the relationships thus presented were conventionally heterosexual. Still, I always thought Banedon and Lone Wolf had some great homoerotic tension going. Hmm, Magnamund fans, I command you to go out right now and write bad slash-fic! The Darklords command it!

Seriously, I would be very surprised if lesbianism wasn’t encouraged among the Telchoi. And the Kai monastery is not a single-sex institution, but I imagine the pangs of confused adolescent sexuality are just another thing they have to contend with during their training. Erm, I can’t think of any reason why homosexuality, bisexuality or transgender might count as a challenge. The people of Magnamund are pretty tolerant of anything that doesn’t involve conspiring with evil forces. And there are no religious texts that encourage persecution.

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Also, most of the Magnamund books can be found free online here: www.projectaon.org/

Go on and take a look if you want well-written fantasy gamebook goodness! (Also available in Spanish)

[Manticore]

I'll add some more stuff later when I think of it.

New Modifiers! New Actions! New Challenges! All will come.

Oh, this post is a placeholder.

[t0mahawk]

With regards speed as a stat, I'd say it should be different from Agility. Who are the most agile people? Jugglers? Gymnasts? Are they also the fastest runners? they are probably fast, but take an Olympic sprinter - they are the fastest people we know on two legs, but are they all ace marksmen? Great on a high wire? With an extra stats of speed you'll have more diversity - a juggler who is lame, and doesn't move so fast with his limp, but throws daggers with deadly accuracy. The thief who needs to escape because he's not quite as good a thief as he thought he was - if he'd been successful he wouldn't have to run. And so on.

I'd agree on willpower as a seperate stat. Consider the Barbarian, wrapped in furs and striding the earth in iron shod boots, handing out death and havoc with his great axe. He's not bright, but the hardships of his life have dipped him into the fire, and where lesser men might break, he's come out stronger, like steel. An indomitable will so that when the sorcerer in his black robes and skull cap attempts to enlsave him with a spell, cackling and taunting the quivering warrioer, the Barbarian can shout "I say thee nay!" and slash out with the axe, toppling the startled sorcerers head from his shoulders. He ain't smart, but he's no ones' lackey.

That's willpower for ya.

[Manticore]

Yes, you've convinced me. Well done T0mahawk.

[Manticore]

So, the Lone Wolf books are to be republished by Mongoose Publishing. And Joe Dever is rewriting some or maybe all of them. It's hard for me not to freak out in ecstacy over this news. The problem is that all those books will be very expensive. And I must buy them all! And the new RPG book, too! And the Darklands version!

[Manticore]

SPECIAL WILLPOWER-ENERGY RULE:

You can base your energy on Willpower rather than durability or intelligence. In this case you will receive 2 red stones for every stone of Willpower, and you will regenerate 1 stone per level of Willpower per panel. If you are injured your maximum energy pool will be reduced by 3 stones per white stone of damage.

If you choose this option your Willpower will cost double the normal rate.

Note: You may not combine Willpower energy regeneration with any other form of regeneration (e.g. Durability or Intelligence).

This rule is intended to represent those characters who are outwardly frail but have vast reserves of inner strength (and who are not particularly scholarly or mentally agile). For example, in Magnamund the Telchoi warriors are renowned for their fierce strength of will. Under the punishing sun and the scouring sandstorms, it would be easy to give up and die; and those Telchoi who do not have immense willpower soon give up and die. Also, there are many mages and druids who power their spells with their reserves of mental strength.

If you choose to base your energy on your Willpower, then place a (w) next to your energy number on your CAD.

[Neros]

I have no idea why you made a Magnamund- Bestiary topic, and less an idea why you made this, since it sounds like its the rules for a game you are running, then shouldent the rules be posted in the topic for that game??

[Manticore]

I put it in this section because this is the Rules Discussion (i.e. these are rules and I would be really glad if somebody actually discussed them).

And I'm not running the game. I'm trying to come up with some MURPG game rules for the world presented in Joe Dever's Lone Wolf books. Not because anyone asked me to. Just because I thought it should be done.

Yes, I know it's disorganised. But I know what I'm doing. And I really wish you wouldn't comment if you haven't got anything constructive to say and you haven't bothered to find out what it's about.

[Brainstem]

Yeah, don't worry about it manticore. But I may switch these to the Custom Rules sub-board later in the day rather than keep them on the main one. If they disappear, that'll be the reason why.

[Manticore]

Gah, how come you get all these nifty extra powers?

EDIT: Maybe I could get a space on the MURPG board (maybe in ongoing games, even though it's not exactly ongoing) just for Magnamund. Because all these rules and modifiers are being crammed into a few small threads, and it's going to get really, really confusing.

And then you could just delete these threads.

[Neros]

Well that was my main thought when i read it, that it might get confusing.

As for comments, a thing im actually looking forward to, is the Bard action... When i hear/read the name/word Bardmanship, i think of some kind of improved Leadership action, but i get the feeling that you have bigger plans for that action...