From: Charlie Seljos azathoth@wam.umd.edu
System: Elric!
SOME COMMENTS ON THE MAGIC SYSTEM PRESENTED IN THE UNKNOWN EAST
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I was looking over my copy of the Elric! supplement _The Unknown
East_, and I found myself wondering how GMs and players might
determine the effects a particular spell might have. The magic system
presented in _The Unknown East_ allows players and GMs a tremendous
amount of flexibility, and has room for plenty of creativity as well.
Although the rules provide some excellent examples, they don't seem to
cover a few important specifics -- namely damage and multiple targets
and/or recipients.
MAGICAL DAMAGE
Suppose that Aslak of the Withered Peaks casts a spell at an enemy
with the intention of rotting his opponent's flesh. Aslak has a POW of
19, and he just happens to know the Sphere of Flesh and the Rune of
Diminution, so the spell costs him only 2 magic points. The question
is, how much damage does the spell do?
The Eastern magic rules discuss damage for spells cast on weapons, but
they don't address spells that directly damage their victims. If we
simply applied the Rule of Four to One, (spot rules on page 58 of _The
Unknown East_) and took one-fourth (rounded up) of Aslak's POW as the
strength of the spell, it would 5 points of damage. But, the very idea
that a spell would do a constant amount of damage seems inconsistent
with the Chaotic nature of magic.
Here's what I might suggest: use a variant of the Rule of Four to One
and the Roll Table from the Elric! game for Demon powers. Aslak's POW,
divided by four, is 5 (rounded up). On the roll table, a Demon Power
generated with a 5 magic point sacrifice yields 1d10. Therefor,
Aslak's spell does 1d10 points of damage to his target, if the target
fails its resistance roll (MP vs MP). This is a bit less damage than
an average arrow, since most arrows gain some damage from the STR+SIZ
bonus of the archer. Does the target's armor, if any, provide
protection? I would say probably not, because the armor was not the
target of the spell.
[NOTE: The Roll Table utilized above can be found on page 88 of the
Elric! rulebook.]
I have written to Lawrence Whitaker about this. He did the majority of
the writing for the _Unknown East_ booklet, and he seems to think that
this is an excellent way to resolve the situation. I have not yet
contacted him about the other ideas in this note, but I will do so.
MULTIPLE TARGETS
I remember in the Elric saga that an Eastern sorcerer, by the name of
Drinij Bara fought very well, without benefit of weapons, against a
large group of opponents. Although Moorcock didn't go into too much
detail, he stated that Bara's incantations shattered bone, shredded
flesh, and severed limbs.
Drinij Bara also cast a spell that caused many archers' arrows to
reverse their course, and return to strike the archers. What kind of
combination of Spheres and Runes would one have to use for this kind
of effect? Also, would the caster of such a spell have to defeat each
archer in a MP vs. MP contest for his or her spell to be effective?
Would the sorcerer need to expend an additional magic point for each
arrow that he or she wished to return to its sender? In this case, a
sorcerer with a POW of, say, 20, could easily reflect 8 to 10 arrows,
at a cost of about 14 magic points -- about five for the spell, and
nine more for the nine additional arrows. Finally, would such a spell
remain in effect as per the Elric! magic rules -- for the sorcerer's
POW in rounds (20, in this case) rounds? That would make sense to me.
A sorcerer using such a spell might be safe, so long as 10 or fewer
arrows were shot at him in a single round, assuming he won all MP vs.
MP contests. But if an eleventh archer targeted him... How would a GM
want to handle spells that are intended to affect more than one
target? Or an area-affecting spell? Investing more magic points,
perhaps, and increasing the radius/area of effect... Here are some of
my ideas on the subject.
Although on page 55 of _The Unknown East_, the rules specifically
state that a spell may have no more than one target, this seems to be
a rather severe restriction not quite in keeping with the Eastern
magic presented in the Elric! saga, in my considerably-less-than-humble
opinion.
A possible solution for spells that affect a number of objects or
targets is, once again, to use a variant of the Rule of Four to One
and the Elric! Roll Table. A sorcerer casting a spell that would
temporarily induce madness in a group of enemies might be able to
affect a number equal to his or her POW divided by four. Again,
however, it is unlikely that anything as inherently Chaotic as spell
would affect a constant number of targets. To determine the number of
targets affected, simply divide the sorcerer's POW by four, and
compare the results to the Roll Table. If the sorcerer's POW is 24,
then his spell will affect the same number of targets as a demon power
which was purchased with (24 divided by 4 = 6) 6 magic points, or
1d10+1d2 targets. Note that in this case, the sorcerer would need to
make a successful MP vs. MP against all targets, and he would have no
way of knowing in advance just how many targets he would affect -- he
might affect up to twelve, or as few as three.
Similarly, a missile-reflecting spell might reflect a number of
missiles equal to a Roll Table power purchased with one-fourth of the
sorcerer's POW rating. In the case of reflecting missiles, overcoming
MP is probably not needed, as is noted below.
Example:
Aslak of the Withered Peaks is in a predicament. Bandits have stolen
an artifact before he was able to steal it himself. He successfully
sneaks near their camp, but is distraught when he takes a head-count
of his opponents -- there are six of them. Aslak must make clever
use of his precious magic-points, and so he casts a spell which he
hopes will cause as much confusion and in-fighting as possible.
Fortunately for Aslak, the GM rules that he can accomplish this with
a spell using the Rune of Inhibition and the Sphere of Flesh. Since
Aslak already knows the Sphere of Flesh, and the Rune of Inhibition
is only one place away from the rune of Diminution (the Rune he was
trained in), the spell only costs him 3 magic points. Since he is
casting a spell which does not use only the Rune and Sphere he is
specialized in, Aslak must also make a special Luck roll to cast the
spell (see _The Unknown East_ Magic rules, near the bottom of page
54). Aslak's POW is 19, and his spell costs 3 magic points, so he
has an 80% chance of casting his spell successfully (19 - 3 = 16; 16
x 5% = 80%). He rolls a 59, and the spell goes off. Aslak's POW
divided by four, is 5 (rounded up). Aslak's spell will affect a
number of opponents equal to a demon power purchased with five magic
point on the Roll Table, or 1d10. Aslak's player rolls a seven, and
so the entire bandit gang could be affected. Unfortunately, two of
the bandits successfully overcome Aslak in a MP vs MP contest, and
are unaffected. However, these bandits will need to deal with their
four screaming companions who are swinging swords and maces at
phantoms of their own imagination before they can even consider
dealing with the sorcerer. The affected bandits will continue to be
plagued by such visions for 19 rounds -- plenty of time for Aslak to
make off with the artifact.
If, as a GM, you feel that this makes Eastern magic too powerful, you
may wish to consider an alternative -- charge the sorcerer the normal
magic point cost for the spell, but charge an additional magic point
for each target beyond the first that he or she wishes to affect.
Note that this will also reduce the sorcerer's chance of casting the
spell successfully, if he or she needs to make a special Luck roll to
cast the spell. Furthermore, spending the additional magic points in
no way guarantees that the additional targets will be affected -- it
merely allows the sorcerer to make use of the Roll Table. Using this
rule, Aslak would have needed to put 5 additional magic points into
his spell if he wished to have any chance of affecting all six of his
opponents. His chance of successfully casting the spell would also be
considerably lower -- only 55% (19 - [3 + 5] = 11; 11 x 5% = 55%).
A GM wishing to further limit such a spell might also rule that,
because of the number of targets, the spell does not last as long. He
or she might subtract one round from the duration of the spell for
each additional target. Again, using the previous example, Aslak's
opponents would only be affected for (19 - 5 = 14) 14 rounds, rather
than 19. A less merciful GM might rule that each additional target
subtracts two rounds from the spell's duration. Finally, a GM might
instead simply declare that the spell affects each target for a random
duration, and use the Roll Table to determine that number for each
target. The GM should use the number of magic points used for the
spell to determine what dice he or she will use on the Roll Table.
This kind of rule could also be applied when dealing with a spell that
reflects a random number of missiles, such as the one employed by
Drinij Bara in the Elric saga. The GM would still use one-fourth of
the sorcerer's POW on the Roll Table to determine the maximum number
of missiles that a sorcerer could reflect, but the sorcerer might also
have to spend one additional magic point per missile after the first
in order to actually reflect multiple missiles. Of course, he or she
would have to spend these magic points when the spell was cast, unless
the GM was particularly kind, and allows him or her to mark off a
magic point only after a missile was reflected. Finally, it seems
unlikely that the sorcerer would need to defeat the victims of such a
spell in a MP vs MP contest, since the spell affects the arrows
directly, but some GMs may think that this makes such spell too
powerful, and allow its victims the resistance roll anyway. Note that
the spell would only reflect missiles which would normally have struck
te sorcerer -- it would not reflect misses.
Example:
During the confusion created by his previous spell, Aslak of the
Withered Peaks has managed to steal the artifact from the group of
bandits. Unfortunately, it took him some time to discover where the
item was, and the bandits have recovered from the effects of his
spell. As he runs toward his waiting horse, the pursuing bandits,
who are armed with bows, begin to launch arrows at him. Noticing the
arrows falling near him, Aslak casts another spell to save his hide.
Fortunately, his last spell killed or incapacitated two of the
bandits, and so only four of them are able to use their bows against
him. Aslak casts a spell which he hopes will reflect arrows back at
his opponents. Aslak uses the Sphere of Air and the Rune of
Direction in his spell. The Sphere of Air is one place away from the
Sphere of Flesh, his specialty, and the Rune of Direction is three
places away from the Rune of Diminution, which he also knows. The
spell cost him 6 magic points. But, because Aslak is facing the
threat of several arrows, his player decides to put three more magic
points into the spell, to give Aslak the chance of reflecting all
the incoming projectiles, bumping the magic point cost of the spell
up to 9.
He must also make the special Luck roll again. His POW is 19, and
his spell costs 9 magic points, so he has a 50% chance of success
(19 - 9 = 10; 10 x 5% = 50%). He succeeds just as the four bandits
launch their arrows. Two of the arrows score hits, and are bounced
back to the surprised bandits, gravely wounding them. The remaining
bandits wisely decide to allow the sorcerer to keep the stolen
artifact.
I welcome any comments and suggestions about these rule ideas.
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