Game Mechanics for Simulating Magic

Sensing Magic
Any character with at least 1 die of Magic may spend a turn attempting to sense magic by rolling Spirit + Magic against a Threshold secretly determined by the GM. This Threshold represents the strength and distance of the magic, as well as any arcane protections against detection. Typically, each 10' of distance raises the Threshold by 1 die (round to nearest multiple of 3).

If successful the character senses 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 normally cannot be detected in this way, as part of its power includes fooling rudimentary detection methods of this kind. A high number of victories may, at the GM's discretion, reveal more.

'''Once Bob has sensed magic successfully 7 times, he has a a chance to spontaneously notice when a spell is being cast (or triggered) without making any attempt. This chance is equal to the highest 10% for each die of spirit and magic, minus 5% for each 10' of distance, then multiplied by the number of Victories (if any) which the spell achieved (representing the strength of the spell).'''

Magic Spells
Most magic is done with spells, which are treated as Narrow Skills. Spell are categorized into various colors which represent shared game mechanics, and do not necessarily align with "schools" or "traditions" of magic in the game world. The Basic Die Pool for most spells is Spirit dice + Magic dice + Spell (Narrow Skill) dice.

Spell Chart Abbreviations: “Fat” means Fatigue Damage; “V” means the number of Victories; “SD” means the number of (Narrow Skill) dice in the spell; "VSD" is the total of V + SD.

Learning Spells
Bob must learn a spell from a teacher (or in some cases from a book). After that learning period (3 Blocks of Chore Time) Bob must practice the spell for 27 Blocks of Chore Time. When his practice is complete Bob rolls Spirit + Spirit + Magic against a threshold equal to 9 plus the number of spells already known (round to nearest multiple of 3). If he succeeds, Bob obtains the spell. If Bob fails, he may make additional attempts (30 blocks each). After succeeding, Bob must spend 5 ep to bring the spell (narrow skill) to 1 die.

Local Magic Resistance
A spell's Action Roll must overcome a Threshold value representing background resistance to magic. Special times or places can alter local magic resistance.

In the world of Stonehold, each spell cast will at least slightly lower magic resistance for that time and place. That, however, thins the veil which prevents malevolent entities from crossing into the physical plane. Magic resistance can be raised (in the local area) by enough people firmly disbelieving in magic, and magic spawned monsters.

Boosting Spells
Bob can boost the power of many spells by taking up to 3 Fatigue Damage. For every point of Fatigue taken:
 * Bob adds dice equal to his Magic dice to his roll.
 * Spell damage increases by 1 Fatigue, if the spell does damage.
 * SD increases by 1.

Default Values for Spells
Combat, Travel and Camp Magic are rough categories which suggest default values for spells. Unless otherwise specified, spells do normal (V-1, 1, 3V) damage to humans, intelligent monsters, undead and spirits, normal damage minus 1 victory to most animals, and no damage to non-living items.

Roll Until Ready
This is experimental and may need to be deleted or changed.

Some spells can use a slower, but more careful method of spell casting. Initial casting takes 1 Turn. Bob's initial roll must exceed the threshold. If Bob then doesn’t like his roll, he can spend another 2 turns casting and then roll again with 1 fewer dice in his dice pool. If he doesn't like this second result, he may continue to make new rolls. Each time Bob rolls again, the casting takes 1 turn longer, and Bob's die pool is reduced by 1. When Bob achieves a roll he likes, defense is rolled to determine the result.

Spell Alignments
Local areas may have different background thresholds for different kinds of spells. For this purpose spells are divided into the groups below. (The alignment and alignment group names are not perfect and may need changing.) Note that these alignments do not have any automatic connection with spell types such as "Golden", "Crimson", etc.