This is probably going to lie fallow for a month.
Spell Magnitudes
| Spell Level | Primary Mag. | Secondary Max Mag. | Total Mag. of Secondary |
|
| 0 | 0.25 | 0 | 0
|
| 1 | 1 | 0.25 | 0.5
|
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 1.25
|
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 3
|
| 4 | 4 | 3 | 5
|
| 5 | 5 | 4 | 7
|
Thus, a Fireball (a level 2 spell) can include a Bolt of Fire (a level 1 spell effect) which hits whoever is standing at the center of effect, and can also set fires (a level 0.25 spell effect).
A spell which gives someone wicked magical cat claws (a level 1 spell), could also give them improved balance (a level 0.25 spell) as well as superior hearing (also a level 0.25 spell,) with cosmetic physical side effects (a tail, ears) to match.
General Properties
Range: Spells are assumed to have a range of Short, unless otherwise noted. Each range increment is worth 0.5 levels, unless the MC judges range to be irrelevant. Spells which reach across the world, or strike targets based on ritual links, must generally be rituals, unless they just gather information. A spell which depends on a ritual link, but strikes the target anywhere (or finds the target anywhere) is +2 levels; a spell with a ritual link but which cannot reach beyond the same city (about 60km) is +1 level.
Area of Effect: Spells are assumed to have a single target, unless otherwise noted. Giving a spell an area of effect, up to many meters across (e.g. like a Grenade) is +1 effect level. Every order of magnitude is +1 effect level, so a spell that affected an entire stadium of people (60m splash radius, half a football field per damage increment) would be +2 effect levels, a spell that affected an entire neighborhood (600m splash radius, seven short city blocks per damage increment) would be +3 effect levels, and a spell that took out whole cities (6km splash radius) would be +4 effect levels.
Duration: For some spells, duration is irrelevant. Other spells are assumed to last a Scene, unless otherwise noted. A spell that lasts longer than a Scene (up to and including a spell which is Permanent) is generally +1 level.
A spell which can only be used once before the ritual is repeated (including any requisite spiritual bargaining) is -1 level. This includes those rituals which take effect on the spot. A "Use Once"/”Permanent” spell is generally trivially superior to a “Use at Will”/”Scene” spell, if the spell effects the caster. For the spells below, the headers are of the form:
Level #:Range/AOE/Duration Spell Title
If the Range is given in the style of a weapon,
i.e. with a second parenthetical range, this means that a to-hit roll is required (the dice pool will be given in the text), even if the same range is given twice. The AOE will either be a fixed area, in which case anyone within that radius of the center of effect is targeted equally, or it will be followed by the word “Splash”, in which case the intensity of the effect (typically damage, but can be something else) drops by 1 level for each splash-radius-distance from the center (this will be explained in the spell text if the spell does not do damage.) Some spells may have an exotic area (“onlookers” or “road”) which will be explained in the text; generally any exotic area is the same base spell level as a 6m splash.
General Rules for spells corresponding to each magical skill:
Create: Makes things, by bringing spirits into Reality and having them adopt some form; this form can be abstract, so this can also be used to control things in a course way. The general template is:
Magnitude +1Short/Single/Scene Summong Spell, to summon a spirit of a given Magnitude. Spirits of most mandates do
not have the ability to show up in Reality in a permanent self-sustaining form; that is, most Fire spirits can be a gout of fire, but not a man made of fire who walks around. Note that you can have a spirit of a given Magnitude as a permanent helper for a spell slot of
Magnitude, so your allies will be more powerful if they are permanent.
For transitory phenomena, the magnitude equivalence of various things is of course described in the corresponding Mandate. Technically, every physical effect of a spell is, itself, a realized spirit, but then, so is every other phenomenon.
Destroy: Hampers spirits, or forces them out of Reality. This will have the general effect of damaging things in the physical world. In general, a magnitude 1 effect is roughly as destructive as a firearm, and a magnitude 2 effect is roughly as destructive as a grenade. Yes, that is a lot of destruction.
Some destructive effects (for example, the ever popular Fireball) are actually done with Create, since they Create something which itself destructive.
Control: Forces spirits to do your bidding. In general, forcing a spirit to follow its own inclinations is Magnitude 1, and the Magnitude rises as the action taken by the spirit becomes more drastically opposed to its nature, and the spirit becomes more powerful. Thus, it is easier to fling around a car (which is inclined to movement, even if it is not inclined to flight) than an equally-heavy bedframe (which has a nature of being stationary.)
Moving around in space, or otherwise changing their relationship to other things, is always control, as is any change a thing makes that is intrinsic to its nature. So, for example, Control can be used to make flowers bloom (since flowers bloom naturally), or to make wounds heal. All physical objects naturally exist somewhere and have some natural capacity to have momentum, so moving things around is Control. Iron Bars do not naturally turn into swords – that would require Transform.
Sense: Gathers information from the spirit world. Sense is also used to communicate with and awaken the dormant spirits in the world around you. Information accessible to your own senses, but at increased remove (either in time or space) is generally magnitude 1, as is information in your immediate environment that requires a specialized sense, or uncovers something that has been deliberately hidden from normal senses. Combining the two (specialized senses, into the next building), or greatly increasing the distance, or having passive senses which automatically trigger when something important happens, will increase the Magnitude.
Transform: Alters the obligations and nature of a spirit, which will have some concomitant effect on the associated thing. This can do pretty much anything, and the transformations are often permanent. However, Transform spells have a high Magnitude and tend to be obviously unnatural.
--- Mandate Specialties and Spontaneous Magic ---
Mandate Specialties work quite a bit differently from skill specialties.
In general, within your specialty, you can make up any spell you want, on the spot, and just cast it. The effective magnitude of such
spontaneous spells is increased by 1. You have 2 points of spell magnitude “free” to do this with, which refreshes every scene; if you want a spell higher than magnitude 1 (remember, +1 for being spontaneous), you need either extra free space (which also refreshes every scene), or your effective edge attribute will be reduced by the excess for the Scene in which the spell(s) are used. You still can’t cast any single spell with a Magnitude greater than your rating in the corresponding Mandate (and again remember, the Magnitude of the spell is effectively +1).
Example: Vince has an Edge of 2, a Mandate of Beasts of 3, and a Specialty of Wolves, because he is a werewolf. He doesn’t know any spells, but this means that in any given scene, he can make-up-and-cast 7 magnitudes of spells related to Wolves, with each spell having a maximum magnitude of 3. However, each spell cast in this way counts as being 1 magnitude higher than what is described below.
The most common specialties are: A particular emotion (possibly even the Guiding Passion of the character), a particular “kind” of animal (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_kinds, this is likely to give biologists fits), or a particular material, such as Metal, Stone, etc.
--- Mystic Mandates ---
Mandate of Beasts
Incidental Benefits: Add your Mandate Rating to all Animal Ken checks.
Create Beasts: Spirits of this Mandate are naturally able to enter the material world in Animal form, so this is mostly used to conjure animals. Spirits of this Mandate may also possess
normal humans, giving them a beastial aspect, although the Initiated are immune to further posession.
Level 0.25:Adjacent/Single/Scene Rat in my Pocket: This spell summons a minor (magnitude 0) spirit in the form of a Rat or similar pocket-sized animal. This spell is
covert if onlookers can’t see the rat appear out of nowhere. The spirit isn’t smart enough to do anything useful or follow instructions. Success is ordinarily automatic but Create + Willpower may be rolled to overcome counter-magic.
Level 1:Short/Single/Scene Instakitty: This spell summons a minor (magnitude 0.25) spirit, and entices it into Reality in the form of a Cat or similar physical harmless, but reasonably mobile, animal. The spirit is about as smart as a six-year-old child and can be given useful tasks, which it may actually accomplish; the spirit is friendly, but Animal Ken + Charisma rolls may be required to get it to follow instructions. Given a suitable hiding place from which the Cat may appear, this is
covert. Success is ordinarily automatic but Create + Willpower may be rolled to overcome counter-magic.
Level 2:Short/Single/Scene Roar!: This spell summons a magnitude 1 spirit and entices it into Reality in the form of a Lion, Bear, unusually large Wolf
etc.. The spirit is smart enough to adopt sophisticated tactics if need be; it is friendly and will follow commands, but a Tactics + Charisma roll may be required to convince the spirit of the wisdom and necessity of anything risky. This spell is never
covert on casting, but unless there is something overtly magical about the summoned animal, it can be
covert for the duration. The area of this spell cannot be increased to a “Splash”; a variant where one animal appears per hit on the Create + Willpower roll would be +0.5 level.
Level 3:Range/AOE/Duration Spell Title
Level 4:Range/AOE/Duration Spell Title
Destroy Beasts
Level 1:Short/6m Splash/InstantWolfsbane Inflicts Auspice+Beasts damage, as a grenade with a 6m splash radius, but only to Wolves (so -1 magnitude). This will include any spirit with the
Wolf specialty of their mandate, even if they are in human form or otherwise not visibly a wolf. Pointing at animals and making them die is
overt.
Chaosium rules are made of unicorn pubic hair and cancer. --AncientH
When you talk, all I can hear is "DunningKruger" over and over again like you were a god damn Pokemon. --Username17
Fuck off with the pony murder shit. --Grek
