Designing spells - or converting spells from other
systems
The Grimoire contains many
new spells, but there is always room for more. In addition, both GM
and players will always feel the need for new, unique spells. While
any competent GM can easily whip up amazing and interesting spells
off the cuff, here's a few suggestions for those rare times when
inspiration lets you down. You can also use these ideas to help you
convert spells from other
game systems.
Designing spell styles
It is one thing to design rules for how you want magic to work in
your game. But do you want all magic-users to be the same? Consider -
just for example - historical beliefs in magic. Medieval European
magicians had a completely different belief system from medieval
Japanese magic users. You can still - if you wish - use the same
magic system for both groups and try to differentiate them in other
ways (in fact, that's basically what I did with my Gothick
Empires and Sengoku
magic systems). However, you may wish the Purists of Karth to use a
different magic system from the Masters of Aviom. This section thus
offers a few suggestions on doing just that.
Just as with defining magic
systems, specific spell styles are defined by common limitations.
The Grimoire is designed to
be used with such styles, and the spell colleges used in Fantasy Hero
are another example of a spell style. It is basically just an attempt
to give some kind of coherent background to help define a magic-using
character's background. Here's two examples drawn from the Gothick
Empires game. Both styles of magic use the same underlying magic
system (detailed here)
but both are also quite different in their magic styles.
The Vanaquisl are wild and savage barbarians. I wanted their magic
to be as wild and unpredictable as they are - and also to be powerful
and fearsome.
The sorcerors of the Temple of the Great God, on the other hand,
come from an ancient tradition. I wanted their magic to be baroque
and ritualised - but one would assume that over the centuries, most
of the "rough edges" would have been worked out, so that spell-use
would not necessarily be so dangerous.
The Vanaquisl are also superstitious and worship a huge variety of
spirits, both malign and neutral. Thus, I decided that Vanquisl
sorcery is based around the summoning of totem spirits. This gives
both the opportunity for great power (one can easily summon creatures
of a greater points value than one's self) and devastating side
effects (because one can easily summon creatures of a greater points
value than one's self!)
Vanaquisl sorcerors must find and bind a totem spirit, and their
powers reflect that spirit. It can be an animal totem, such as the
powerful Ur-bear, or savage Skereagh. Or it can be the ghost of a
dead hero or even a demon. This will pretty readily define the powers
each sorceror will have access to - and at the same time limit the
range of powers they have access to. There will be no Vanaquisl
"spellbooks" as such - each mage will have his own powers derived
from his totem. And to fit with their barbaric nature, I decided to
give their magic a shamanistic feel. Thus Vanaquisl mages cast their
spells by summoning their totem spirit and allowing it to partially
possess them, so that they may tap its powers. Of course sometimes
this goes wrong and they become fully possessed. All their spells
thus take the limitations:
- OAF or IAF (totem items, trance drum etc.)
- Incantations (chants and invocations)
- Gestures (wild dancing, etc.)
- Extra time (at least 1 turn)
- Side Effect (Possession, simulated by mind control. Such
possession is usually short term, but may last for a very long
time)
In many cases, there will be other limitations as well, such as
Concentration, 0 DCV to simulate the caster sinking into a trance -
but that is not required of all spells.
The mages of the Temple of the Great God, on the other hand come
from a magical tradition characterised by its extreme inflexibility.
No deviation from the spells laid down is tolerated by the schools
that train mages. Thus, all mages will have the same limitations, in
this case:
- Incantations (Invocation of the Eye of the God)
- Gestures (Mystic gestures)
Specific spells might have limitations associated with them - but
the two listed above will be common to all spellcasters of this style
who use that particular spell. A spellcaster with this style, from a
temple in the northern foothills of the Dragonspine mountains, using
an "Incineration strike" spell will cast it the exact same way as a
mage from the sultry southern Delta region. They should thus all take
the "style" disadvantage. Since the Great God is a manichaean deity,
with both a Solar and a Lunar aspect, the mages of his temple will
have spells of darkness, or spells of light and fire - but they all
have access to the same kinds of spells, and the GM should design a
specific Spellbook for this style.
As you can imagine, these two kinds of mage will appear very
different in the game even though both use the same underlying magic
system. Using the same approach, it is easy to define different
schools of magic, using the spells in the Grimoire
and a defined set of limitations.
Converting spells from
other game systems, or creating your own from scratch
Decide what you want the spell to do. I'm not talking about powers
here - first off, think about what it would look like and what effect
you want to have in the game. For example - and totally off the cuff
- here's a spell called "Wind Wall" taken at random from another game
system by opening the rules book and poking my finger at the spell
list with my eyes closed.
The description of the spell reads (more or less) "this spell
calls forth an invisible curtain of wind of considerable strength -
sufficient to blow birds ...upwards, or to tear papers ... from
unsuspecting hands. ... normal insects cannot pass such a
barrier."
Pretty straightforward. This sounds like Telekinesis, since things
are being tossed around at a distance. The reference to "unsuspecting
hands" suggests that it is not strong enough to tear things away
which are being firmly grasped and the fact that it blows "birds"
upwards - but not people - confirms that. Remember, 10 STR
Telekinesis is enough to lift a person into the air. So 5 STR
telekinesis sounds like a good estimate. The spell is a wall - so
area affect, line seems reasonable. Thus we have:
Power: Telekinesis, 5 STR (7 points)
Specific Modifiers: Area affect, line (+1, 1" long)
However, a 1" (2 meters) long wall is not very impressive, so
let's add on another +1/4 to double the area of effect. Hence the
spell is now:
Power: Telekinesis, 5 STR (7 points)
Specific Modifiers: Area affect, line, doubled area (+1 1/4, 2"
long)
That describes the basic function of the spell fairly well - but
it only throws things upwards - unlike normal TK - and moreover, it
"attacks" from beneath when the hex it operates in is entered, while
normally all attacks come from the caster. This is clearly an
Indirect attack. The spell lasts a short period, so it needs an
advantage like continuous, and it is described as "invisible". Touch
would certainly detect it, and it could probably be heard, so this is
merely invisibility to sight. Thus the final version of the spell
might be:
Power: Telekinesis, 5 STR (7 points)
Specific Modifiers: Area affect, line, doubled area (+1 1/4, 2"
long), Indirect (+1/2, always from below), invisible to sight (+1/2),
Continuous, (+1), only to throw upwards (-1/2).
This gives an active cost of 40 points, and a real cost
(currently) of 27 points - this can of course be modified downward by
the addition of extra limitations (see here
for suggestions).
So much for the power itself. It is always a good thing to think
about the effects a spell will have on the world - this will suggest
if there are other things that should be included. As an example,
should the wind wall have an effect on gases? My feeling is that it
is too small to prevent a gas based attack from just swirling around
it, but if you wanted to, you could add a second power - a small
drain versus gas-based attacks. The power of the wind, might also
deflect missile attacks that pass through it. If you wanted this,
then you could add a power to simulate it:
Force wall won't do - otherwise firing an arrow though would
disrupt it, and nothing could pass through without destroying the
wind wall - which is clearly does not match the description of the
power.
Force field won't do - since that is personal, and the wind wall
would protect anyone behind it.
However, what about missile deflection? It fits the description -
although it would probably only affect light missiles like arrows.
However it would need to be continuous, and area affect, just like
the Telekinesis. Unlike normal missile deflection though, it would be
non-mobile once the spell was cast . Normally, continuous is designed
to be applied to attacks, but since the user has to make an attack
roll to use the power this seems reasonable. You could therefore buy
a second power and write the spell up like this:
First Power: Telekinesis, 5 STR (7 points)
Specific Modifiers: Indirect (+1/2, always from below), invisible
to sight (+1/2), only to throw upwards (-1/2).
Second Power: Missile deflection, arrows and thrown objects
Specific Modifiers: Immobile, (-1), linked to Telekinesis
(-1/2)
Combined specific modifiers: Area affect, line, doubled area (+1
1/4, 2" long), Continuous, (+1)
Real cost: 40 + 32. Real cost 27 + 13 = 40 points.
As long as you follow the simple steps of thinking about how the
power you want to simulate would interact with the real world, and
then consider the limitations of specific powers, it's usually pretty
easy to generate the desired effects. Just remember that your first
idea might not be the best and that Hero system powers are well
defined. Think about the effects of countermeasures to your spells,
and it should be obvious whether you're on the right track.