Game Mechanics for Simulating Magic

Magic Spells
Most magic is done with spells, which are treated as Narrow Skills. The dice value of the spell can be used alone, combined with your Magic dice to make a Second Roll, or combined with both Spirit and Magic to make an Action Roll. Most spells roll Spirit + Magic + the Narrow-Skill dice of the spell.

Local Magic Resistance
A Threshold value which all magic Action Rolls must overcome. Special times or places can alter local magic resistance. In Burning Sky the default magic resistance is 4 dice.

Restrictions on Learning Magic

 * You cannot have more dice in Magic than you have in Spirit.
 * You cannot have more dice in Magic than the total of all your spell dice.
 * You cannot have more dice in any individual spell than you have in Magic.

Sensing Magic
Any character with at least 1 die of Magic may spend a few minutes attempting to sense magic in Melee Range by rolling Spirit + Magic. If successful you sense there is magic either present or absent, perhaps as a tingling through your spine, a barely perceivable hum in the air, or some other fleeting quality that vanishes after only a moment. The sign is different for everyone, and most commoners are unaware of their own cues. Illusion magic cannot be detected in this way, as part of its power includes fooling rudimentary detection methods of this kind.

Boost Spell
You may boost the power some spells by taking Fatigue Damage. For every point of Fatigue taken, add dice equal to your Magic dice to your roll. If your spell inflicts Damage, boosting increases that damage by 1 Fatigue/Victory (total, not per Fatigue taken).

Take-Away Dice
Some spells can act on several targets, or in several areas, or over several rounds. A roll is made normally for the first target or round. Subsequent targets or rounds use the same roll with the highest die removed after each target or round. Effect ends when highest remaining die < 9. Take-away area effects normally use a 15’ diameter center surrounded by 5’ wide rings.

Roll until Ready
Some spells can use a slower, but more careful method of spell casting. Initial casting takes 10 minutes. Your initial roll must exceed the threshold. If you then don’t like your roll, you can re-roll 1 die for each additional 10 minutes spent in the attempt. When you achieve a roll you like, Defense is rolled to determine the result.

Magic Number
The GM may use your Magic Number to simulate the unpredictability of magic. Your Magic Number is a second random value derived from the same die roll by grouping the dice by the face (eg. 8) that they are showing and determining whether the count of dice in each group is even or odd. If the 10s group is even, the Magic Number is the count of consecutive even groups beginning with 10. If the 10s group is odd, the Magic Number is the negative of the count of consecutive odd groups beginning with 10. (Eg. a roll of 10 10 9 9 9 9 7 7 7 6 ... results in a Magic Number of +3 because 10s, 9s and 8s are even, but 7s are not.)

The Magic Number is always available for use if the GM needs a quick random value, but generally Magic Numbers between -3 and +3 are ignored.

Abbreviations
“Vic” means the number of Victories; “SL” means the number of dice in the spell; “Fat” means Fatigue Damage.

Combat, Travel and Camp Magic
These are rough categories which suggest default values for various spells.