From: Simon Hibbs yfcw29@castle.ed.ac.uk
System: Elric!
I am using the Elric! rules as the basis for a fantasy campaign, but not one tied to the Million Spheres/Eternal Champion milieu. Chaos, Law and Balance points have no meaning in this campaign. However, I like the idea of sorcerer characters having to make moral choices about their use of sorcery. Also, I want sorcery to be much rarer than Elric! implies. The following rules bring back a term familiar to Stormbringer players, but substantialy changed. INSIGHT Insight is bought from the character's initial allocation of 250 points, just like skills. It represents the degree of spiritual enlightenment of the character. Only characters with a score in Insight can cast magic, with a chance equal to their Insight on percentile dice. Learning to cast magic is a very vulgar use of metaphysical discipline and hinders the character's advancement towards enlightenment. To reflect this, learning a spell costs points of Insight. 1. Learning a new spell costs Insight equal to three times the points of the spell. Variable point spells always cost their maximum point value. 2. There is usually no Insight cost to casting a spell, but summoning an elemental costs 1D4 Insight and summoning a demon costs the demon's POW in Insight. 3. Insight may be used to meditate and thus regain MPs more rapidly than usual. For every hour the character spends meditating, roll percentile dice against the character's Insight score. If successful add 1D3 points to the character's MPs (so long as this does nor raise the character's MPs above current POW). 4. Insight can be used as a defence against hostile magic. If a character's Insight divided by 5 (rounded down) is greater than the character's POW, then the character may resist spells with this instead of POW. These rules mean that it is only really practical to be a sorcerer if you are prepared to specialise. The sorcerer also has to trade off between having a broad battery of spells and being proficient in their use. This reflects the fact that they must choose between spiritual enlightenment and mundane power. Notes: I don't want to make sorcery complicated; the ELRIC! rules are an admirable example of clarity and simplicity. But, I think this modification has a lot of potential for enhancing the roleplaying of sorcerers. Idealy I would like to tailor the Insight cost to the nature of the spell, but for the moment the three to one ratio should be enough to test the concept. The choice between learning a spell and conserving Insight should be a tough one. Thus, having a high Insight should have real benefits which reflect the enlightened state of the character, hence the option to use high Insight to resist hostile spells. Is this enough of an incentive? Does anyone else have any ideas how Insight could be used? Simon Hibbs yfcw29@castle.ed.ac.ukBack to Eternal Index