Action: Mastery of Magic (Revised)

[piratespice]

Okay, it should be no secret to anyone that remembers me that I loathe the MURPG magic system. In particular, I dislike the way it is split up into multiple Actions, none of which I feel are worth creating a new Action for, and all of which I feel are ill-defined in as far as what they actually do. I reject the idea that magic can do anything "because its magic." I do recognize that "anything-power" is pretty much Marvel's take on magic, but that's no reason to subject a good game to such a tragically open-ended magic system. As far as I'm concerned, Doctor Strange can do practically anything with magic because he's just that good at it.

The following take the approach of building one's magical knowledge more like a Mastery of Elements. Its still open-ended enough that you're not pinning yourself down to a list of D&D spells, but reins in the Action a bit and puts limits on just what it is useful for. In doing so, it also helps to tailor your magical skills to suit your character, without requiring the creation of a whole new Action (e.g. Voodoo, Asgardian Sorcery) to do it.

EDIT: Just in case the above wasn't clear, this version of Mastery of Magic is intended to abolish Sorcery, Magical Travel, Asgardian Sorcery, and Voodoo. Summoning, however, is still a seperate Action. It is distinctive enough from other magic (both in flavor and game mechanics) to operate on its own. For that matter, Summoning needn't be an inherently magical Action.

MASTERY OF MAGIC
Cost Level = Action Number + Options

Description
This is the basic ability to manipulate magical energies for a variety of effects.

As with Mastery of Elements, all your effects should be related to your branch of Magic. Use the Options below to construct your Mastery. Note that often, the stones of damage done by Magical Actions don’t have an impact on white stones, but rather represent the effectiveness and duration of the magic. When they do have an impact, then magical stones of damage are just the same as non-magical stones of damage. Unless otherwise specified, all effects are Range: 4.

Manipulation of Magic: These are all the minor spells, effects, etc., that magicians in books (including comic books) are able to achieve with little or no effort. It is used to manipulate energy into shapes, effects and other materials — create ice sculptures, make fire (or fireworks), blow smoke rings and the like.

Options
• Magical Barrier (+1 to Cost Level): A specific example of Manipulation of Magic that you may use quite frequently. You may describe your barrier however you wish. Stones spent = effect. If you make a 3-stone wall of ice, it will take 3 red stone for somebody to overcome its Resistance. (And if you made it out of flame, then people would take flame damage if they tried to come through it.) Stones spent for Duration or Range don’t count towards effect. Like Force Field, but without double defensive stones.
• Magic Blast (+1 to Cost Level): Force Blast of raw, magical energy. For +2 to Cost Level, you can use any raw, natural element for your Force Blast (fire, ice, etc., but not plasma, radiation, etc.).
• Illusion/Prestidigitation (+1 to Cost Level): Stones vs. Intelligence (area effect). (Not limited by Restriction #1, below.)
• Astral Travel (+1 to Cost Level): As the Action.
• Flight (+2 to Cost Level): As the Action.
• Phase Shift (+2 to Cost Level): As the Action.
• Teleportation (+2 to Cost Level): As the Action.
• Invisibility (+2 to Cost Level): As the Action.
• Scrying (+1 to Cost Level): Find direction or exact location of specific people/objects, or simply spy on them (Magical Defense will add Resistance to this). Gain Situational Bonus if you use a scrying device/method (crystal ball, scrying pool, tarot cards, tea leaves, entrails, etc.)
• Sleep (+2 to Cost Level): Stones vs. Intelligence + Mental Defense. May not be used in combat. Duration: 5 minutes/stone of “damage.”
• Stun (+1 to Cost Level): Stones vs. Durability. May be used in combat. Duration: 1 Panel/stone of “damage.”
• Curse (+2 to Cost Level): Afflict target with Bad Luck for 1 Panel. “Modifier Number” is equal to stones spent.
• Luck (+2 to Cost Level): Grant target Good Luck for 1 Panel. “Modifier Number” is equal to stones spent.
• Turn Others Into Beasts (+3 to Cost Level): Stones vs. Durability + Intelligence; Duration = 5 minutes/stone of damage.
• Fear (+2 to Cost Level): As the Fear Action.
• Herbalism (+1 to Cost Level): By evoking magical properties of herbs, grant target Fast Healing Modifier for 1 day/stone spent.
• Potions (+1 to Cost Level): Love, sleep, control and more. Stones vs. appropriate Ability.
• Familiar (+1 to Cost Level): You have a psychic link with a small animal that you can communicate with telepathically over any distance, use familiar’s senses.
• Commune With Nature (+1 to Cost Level): Can communicate with the forces of nature, be they beasts, birds or even some wise trees (effect similar to Social Skills). This can include spirits and minor powers, like Summoning, but is more like “requesting their presence” than “Summoning.”
• Weakness (+1 to Cost Level): A curse which can cause the victim to suffer from inexplicable loss of energy. Requires 1 Panel to prepare for each stone of effect. Stones of effects vs. Durability. The victim loses the use of one red stone of energy for every stone of damage. (e.g., 5 stones vs. 3 Durability makes 2 red stones sick and weakened, and will not regenerate until the victim recovers.) Range: 2, Duration = stones affected on Duration Row of the D&R Chart.
• Accumulate Energy (+2 to Cost Level): Add energy to a proposed effect each Panel (storing the stones in your Mastery Action Box), then unleash it all at once. For each additional multiple of AN (round up) you will be stunned for 1 Panel.
• Rituals (+1 to Cost Level): For every hour of preparation, you get 1 free stone to use in any Mastery of Magic Action, up to 2x Action Number. (Not limited by Restriction #1.)
• Necromancy: May purchase any Mastery of Death Options (but not Mastery of Elements Options) for Mastery of Magic.
• Love Charm (+1 to Cost Level): Stones of effect vs. Intelligence for success. Stones of “damage” determine initial duration (on the D&R Chart). Stones may be added subsequently for additional duration. The Enchanted Kiss used by the Enchantress is an example of a Love Charm.
• Transform Others at Range (+3 to Cost Level): Into just about anything you want. Stones of effect vs. Durability. Duration = stones of “damage” on D&R Chart.
• Transform Self (+2 to Cost Level): May assume the form of any existing creature or object. Intelligence, Mental Defense, Magical Defense do not change. Difficulty/Resistance = Durability or Hardness of creature you are changing into. Duration is at will.
• Endowment (+3 to Cost Level): The granting of extreme Abilities, Actions or Modifiers to others to a maximum of Action Number. Spell is temporary or permanent at GM discretion. It can be broken or not, usually a function of story line.
• The following Actions and Modifiers are not included as Options for Mastery of Magic, but may be bought at a discount of -1 to Cost Level if magical in nature: Clairvoyance, Energy Absorption/Reflection, Healing (Magical), Hex-Spheres, Metamorphosis, Shape Shifting, Summoning, Telekinesis, Telepathy (Mesmerism), Magical Defense, Transform Self, Transform Self by Touch, Transform Others.

Restrictions
The following 4 restrictions are very important to the practice of Magic in this game. These apply to everything you do with Mastery of Magic.
1. For Duration of effects, except where specified, add stones according to the Duration row on the D&R Chart. These stones don’t count towards effect.
2. For range or area of effects, except where specified, add stones according to the Range or Area row on the D&R Chart. These stones do not count towards effect.
3. You must spend 1 Panel in preparation for any effect.

Rules for Action Box:
• Manipulation of Magic
• Range: 4
• Split stones for multiple targets
• (Insert Options)


EDIT: Removed rule for only using up to 6 stones for magical effects.

[Neros]

Very good, very good indeed.... Also been a long time since i heard from you spice
Ive always thought that Mastery of Magic was way to cheap for a power that no one had a defense against.
But then comes the fact you can ONLY use upto 6 stones spread around duration, range and the attack itself.

This is something that i cerainly will use... Actully, theres allot of stuff you have made im using...

[piratespice]

Glad you like it. Make certain to look at it closely and be sure its what you want for your game. Some people like a more open-ended magic system. I prefer to know what the rules do without requiring a GM call for every use of a power.

[Neros]

I like it... A Mastery of Elemt gotta pay LOADS of stones to just being able to get close to what magic is capable of...
Actully... Magic can create ANY of the elements there is in the universe...

But all in all, +2 to be able to be able to do what you want is way to cheap. So having to buy all the "Specialities" seems much better.
Only real limiter is the max 6 stones. But then al you gotta do is meditate and you can get over that for 1 every panel... I think... Cant remember...

A thing i notices was Summoning was a Action for itself... Why? Isent that a magic action to?

[piratespice]

neros said:

A thing i notices was Summoning was a Action for itself... Why? Isent that a magic action to?

Must it be? That's the point I tried to make. In my games, Summoning isn't magic unless you want it to be. What if someone has a mutant power to reach into other dimensions and summon forth powerful creatures? The Summoning rules work pretty well for that, albeit maybe with some minor tweaking.

But even if you do treat it as magic, Summoning has some very specific rules attached to it. So specific that its probably best to just leave it seperate, rather than try to blend it into Mastery of Magic. Plus, it helps to keep costs down a little for a magic-based character.

Speaking of which, if people get worried that Mastery of Magic will be too expensive like this, there's an easy way around that. If the GM is willing, I see no reason someone couldn't take Mastery of Magic multiple times, specializing each seperate version of it using Options. For example, you could easily recreate Magical Travel out of Mastery of Magic Options, and still have a separate Mastery of Magic Action to cover your other magical skills.

[Neros]

hmm... If one of the mentioned options for MoM would be made into a action, wouldent that just make it to a "Specialist" of some sort, since the character has a whole action for the option.

But to summoning, havent seen anyone who thought about having a mutant summoner who called forth demons and monsters to do his bidding.... Had one who wanted to have pokemons.......

[piratespice]

neros said:

hmm... If one of the mentioned options for MoM would be made into a action, wouldent that just make it to a "Specialist" of some sort, since the character has a whole action for the option.

That's the beautiful thing about how Masteries are constructed. You can specialize -- and get a relatively cheap Action -- or you can pay out the nose for a broad, all-encompassing Action. If you think about it, all non-Mastery Actions are just that. Masteries just give you the option to build it as you like it.

But to summoning, havent seen anyone who thought about having a mutant summoner who called forth demons and monsters to do his bidding.... Had one who wanted to have pokemons.......

If you ever mention Pokemon in my presence again, I'll remove your spleen through your nostrils!

But seriously, that's why I like to make power less specific. I'd rather let the player decided how and why his powers work the way they do, rather than assuming a player will want to do things a certain way simply because that's how they've always been done.

For a specific example of a mutant summoner, look at Tarot of the old Hellions. While I'd recommend using Animate Objects (is it just me, or do I constantly plug my own submissions? ) to represent her powers, Summoning could have been tweaked just as easily to suit her. Even Pyro has been known to create "flame creatures" that almost seemed to act independantly. While we know this isn't the case, due to our awareness of how his powers work, it just illustrates a point. Someone could take inspiration from either of those characters and want to go the route of a non-magical summoner.

[sphynx]

Some of the costs are still too much. Much like Mastery of other Elements, Flight should really only be +1 (as with other travel actions).

Other than that, I think it looks nearly perfect. I always thought that if you took the total magic Doctor Strange has on his CAD, it should be similar to Power Cosmic (Ie: AN+13). This comes nicely close to that, and I like it very much. Kudos.

Sphynx

[piratespice]

sphynx said:

Some of the costs are still too much. Much like Mastery of other Elements, Flight should really only be +1 (as with other travel actions).

Except Flight isn't an Option for Mastery of Elements. It just grants a discount to another Action, so its a little bit of apples and oranges. But -- despite that I don't agree -- by all means, make it a +1 option in your games if you choose to use this.

Other than that, I think it looks nearly perfect. I always thought that if you took the total magic Doctor Strange has on his CAD, it should be similar to Power Cosmic (Ie: AN+13). This comes nicely close to that, and I like it very much. Kudos.

Thank you. I just hope people can make use of this, and see that magic systems in RPGs don't have to be weighty, confusing things with a bajillion unique rules.

[sphynx]

The problem is that flight only cost +1 if you have a mastery, which is alot cheaper stone-wise than having +1 to an Action to include flight. +2 is too expensive still. However I start to think that 'magical travel' shouldn't be included in the costs. If you want flight, buy the action. Same with PhaseShift and Teleportation. So, no probs with a +2, but I do think it's too expensive were I to want to make such a character. I'd just buy the Action(s) seperately, or create a Magical Travel action to allow seperated cost on a travel package.

Perhaps the problem is that Magical Travel is too cheap. At +2, even needing to take a panel to use it, it's kinda dirt-cheap. +4 seems more workable as a GM, and keeps travel out of Magic.

[piratespice]

sphynx said:

The problem is that flight only cost +1 if you have a mastery, which is alot cheaper stone-wise than having +1 to an Action to include flight.

Not necessarily true. It depends on the AN of your Flight or Mastery of Magic. In the MoE/Flight case, not only do you have to pay the stones for the Mastery, but you also need to buy Flight up to the AN you want. That +2 to Cost Level in Mastery of Magic could cost you anywhere from one or two white stones to ten, but then you're still getting a package deal with a bunch of other Options.

Think of it this way. Force Blast's Cost Level equals its Action Number, but it still requires a +1 to CL when bought with a Mastery. By taking Flight with Mastery of Magic, you're paying for both the privilege of a combined Action, plus the power that flight brings (which is already rated as a +2 by the system).

However I start to think that 'magical travel' shouldn't be included in the costs. If you want flight, buy the action. Same with PhaseShift and Teleportation. So, no probs with a +2, but I do think it's too expensive were I to want to make such a character. I'd just buy the Action(s) seperately, or create a Magical Travel action to allow seperated cost on a travel package.

Half the reason for creating this version of MoM was to cut down on the sheer number of magical Actions. I'm very wary about reintroducing them. But as I stated in an earlier post, there's nothing prevent you (save for a big, mean GM) from taking MoM twice, and making one of them a Magical Travel Action to keep costs down.

Perhaps the problem is that Magical Travel is too cheap. At +2, even needing to take a panel to use it, it's kinda dirt-cheap. +4 seems more workable as a GM, and keeps travel out of Magic.

If you're gonna have magic (especially the ridiculous Anything Power version of magic that exists in the Marvel Universe) I don't see a need to keep travel out of it.

To be clear, I really hate Marvel magic. I hate most RPGs' takes on magic. From D&D to Palladium to the World of Darkness to MURPG...they all eventually resort to Anything Power(tm), which always throws off game balance and creates silly notions about what magic really is. But, in most cases, I'm stuck with it. This is especially true if I want to run games in a classic Marvel setting. This is why this version of the Action exists...to make it more managable, and less of an "Anything Power." Sure, including travel makes it a little more of "anything," but the cost keeps it managable.

[Neros]

hmm... What about the range of the Magic Blast? If a character would have to spend stones for range on that, it would end up with a 4 stone blast or even weaker.
Also the magical barrier would at highest be a 6 stone barrier wich might need some duration, so a 5 stone barrier.
But if it was made of ice, would it then get the 10+ duration as the mastery? What if it was made of Iron?

[piratespice]

neros said:

hmm... What about the range of the Magic Blast? If a character would have to spend stones for range on that, it would end up with a 4 stone blast or even weaker.

Not sure where you're getting that from. Mastery of Magic has a Range of 4. Thus, a Magic Blast bought as an Option for MoM has a Range of 4. Pretty much just like Force Blast.

Also the magical barrier would at highest be a 6 stone barrier wich might need some duration, so a 5 stone barrier.

Again, I'm not sure where you're getting these num-...wait, I just realized. I left in that silly rule about only using up to 6 stones for a magic effect. Please slap me silly now. I'll remove that, posthaste.

But if it was made of ice, would it then get the 10+ duration as the mastery? What if it was made of Iron?

You're asking the wrong person. I don't subscribe to the idea that the examples given under Mastery of Elements are automatic bonuses to those elements (what about all the other, unlisted elements?), so much as good examples of how to build a master around an element. You don't automatically get 2x Damage when you pick fire for a Force Blast; I don't see why you should get it automatically just because its chosen for Mastery of Elements. Same thing here with Mastery of Magic. You get extra benefits if you pay for them. That's it.

[Neros]

Well as i see it, you get a bonus with the element you choose, Also for Forceblasts.
I have however been planing that they could get all those bonuses for a discount IF its related to the element.

[piratespice]

*shrug* That's a personal choice for the GM to make. Personally, I'm not a fan of discounts, especially for something as vague and easily-abused as "related to the element" or "fits with the main power." Its practically an invitation for twinks to squeeze even more power out of the system.

When you keep everything to a nice, clean cost system without obscure exceptions, you avoid so many difficulties later on as a GM.