Game Mechanics for Simulating Magic

Check range and effect, etc. settings for all spells

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.

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 are rough categories which suggest default values for various spells.

Spell Damage
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.

Default Values	Combat	Travel	Camp Casting Time	1 round	5 min or 1 fatigue	1 hour Cost to Cast	1 fatigue	5 min or 1 fatigue	2 fatigue Duration (if any)	4 + (2 x SL) rounds	1 hour per SL	1 day per SLl Range	line of sight up to 200’	1 mile per spell level	10 miles per spell level When Usable	Any time	Not in Combat	Sunset to 2:00 AM Magic Target Types are rough categories which can alter the default values for various spells.

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.

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.

Boosting Spells
Bob can boost the power of some spells by taking Fatigue Damage. For every point of Fatigue taken, Bob adds dice equal to his Magic dice to his roll. If Bob's spell inflicts Damage on May, boosting increases May's damage by 1 Fatigue/Victory (total, not per Fatigue taken by Bob).

Sensing Magic
Any character with at least 1 die of Magic may spend a few minutes 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.

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.

Abbreviations
"V" means the number of Victories; "SD" means the number of dice in the spell; "VSD" means V + SD; “Fat” means Fatigue Damage.

Combat, Travel and Camp Magic
These are rough categories which suggest default values for various spells. V = victories; SD = spell dice (narrow skill dice); VSD = V + SD

New Range 50' per SD

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.

Dangers of Magic (in work, ignore for the present)

 * When magic number = __, a random Horror appears
 * Horror has attack and defense dice = casting dice minus threshold dice (<1 = no horror but threshold still lowered).
 * Horror appears near target on successful casting, otherwise near caster.
 * Appearance of Horror temporarily lowers threshold by 3 dice.

??? Creates beacon and big noise Gold spell summons foe of deity Horror-downed character has special system shock roll Very weak horrors may only be pests, may hang around, even be helpful Could horror be sorcerer-type demon? Increase stats, grant powers? Could there be long-term effects? Stalker, Murphy demon, leave trail?

Need list of random horrors!

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Some spell effects are also categorized as Aggressive or Reactive. Usually Action Rolls are Aggressive and Defense Rolls are Reactive, but Perception is always Aggressive and Stealth is always Reactive. Other exceptions exist.