Three-Dot Color Wheel Magic

[Ancient History]

This is a system idea I've had for a while, but I keep leaving half-finished drafts of it hanging around. The basic conceit is to establish a system of derivative styles of magic with a relatively simple tracking system and a stylistic approach that is more or less intuitive for players - in other words, it's a three-dot (●●●) system where magic is based on a kind of color wheel.

The background is that there are three primitive "source texts" which describe three completely separate and non-overlapping sources or styles. Later traditions took elements from these systems to create three four combinatorial systems; in turn these systems continued to develop and derivative systems, again borrowing elements from other schools or rediscovering fragments from the original primitive schools. The result is a widely diverse array of magical schools and styles, all ultimately derived or based on three basic traditions.

Core Dot Mechanic
A character's knowledge and skill in any given magical school is represtened by a color (Blue, Indigo, Teal, etc.) and a number of dots (●). When attempting to use their magic, the character rolls 1d10 for each dot in the color they are trying to use.

Characters can purchase up to three dots in any given color. Each color category (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Base) has an associated cost for the first dot in one of their associated (see Color Cost); the cost of each additional dot in a color is half the cost of the last one.

Color Cost
Primary: 12 points
Secondary: 8 points
Tertiary: 4 points
Base: 8 points

Example:
Quam of Naal wishes to buy dots in Red, a Primary color. The first dot will cost 12 points, the second dot 6 points, and the third and final dot 3 points, for a total of (12 + 6 + 3) 21 points for Red ●●●.

Virtual Dots
Possessing dots in two or more different colors allows the character to combine elements of different magical styles; this is represented by virtual dots (○).

If a character has at least two dots (●●) each in two different primary colors, they receive one virtual dot (○) in the secondary color that combines those two primaries.

Example:
Yawgy has Red ●● and Blue ●●. This gives Yawgy Purple ○, since Purple is the secondary color combining Red and Blue

If a character has at least two dots (●●) in a secondary color and at least one dot (●) in a primary color, they receive a virtual dot (○) in the tertiary color that results from combining those colors.

Example:
Yawgy has Red ●●, Blue ●●, and Green ●; this gives Yawgy Aquamarine ○ and Ochre ○, since those are the tertiary colors resulting from (Blue + Green) and (Red + Green), respectively.

Finally, if a character has at least two dots (●●) in all three Primary colors, they receive a virtual dot (○) in the Base color White; if a character has at least two dots (●●) in all three Secondary colors, they receive a virtual dot in the Base color Black; and if a character has at least two dots (●●) each in White and Black, they receive a virtual dot (○) in Grey.

A character can only possess a single virtual dot in any given color. Virtual dots do not stack with normal dots for the purpose of determining if a character gains additional virtual dots, but do stack with normal dots for all purposes, and this is the only way to have more than three total dots in any given color. Virtual dots cannot be granted in Hues & Tints.

Example:
Franz the Necromancer has the following colors:

Primary
Blue ●●
Red ●●
Yellow ●●

Secondary
Green ●
Orange ●●●

When his secondary virtual dots are calculated, Franz gains Green ○, Orange ○, and Purple ○; and when his tertiary virtual dots are calculated, Franz gains Amber ○, Ochre ○, and Vermilion ○; and when his base virtual dots are calculated, Franz gains White ○.

Primary
Blue ●●
Red ●●
Yellow ●●

Secondary
Green ●○
Orange ●●●○
Purple ○

Tertiary:
Amber ○
Ochre ○
Vermilion ○

Base:
White ○

Primaries
The "primary" colors are magical styles that derive from three separate and distinct cultural traditions, each with their own philosophy, mythology, and source text. The colors themselves originate from the distinctive apparel worn by the different mages, which reflected the color of the visualizations that accompanied their magic.

Blue
Ten thousand years ago, a blue gem fell from the brow of a broken god as he fell from the heavens, the loser in a cosmic war with the Dark Gods of the outer dark, beyond the ring of light that surrounds and protects this world. The gemstone tablet fell among a tribe of herders, and it is said from its deciphered markings is derived all of their writing, science, and art. Blue magic is called down from extraterrene sources in the outer dark; this additional energy upsets the natural balance of things, adding chaos and entropy into systems enabling terrible elemental transmuations that can destroy or transform nearly any matter.

Red
In the shattered bowl of a city half-swallowed by the earth, one that predated the current race of men, the people of Githa discovered the Scrolls of Blood, which held the secrets of red magic. The doctor-sorcerers of the Red College exploit the knowledge of the power locked in the human form; by drawing on the currents and pulses in living people, red magicians can perform superhuman feats of mind and body, and in close proximity affect others to heal, enhance, or harm.

Yellow
Yellow magic is the youngest of the primitive traditions by most counting, barely a few thousand years old when it became widely known, and derives from the animist traditions of the obscure and isolationist southern continent. It was disseminated by wandering mystical hermits, who carried with them copies of the Azada Mahda, the Map of the Soul. The believe that all living things are illusion, the result of three distinct projections overlapping and intersecting on the screen of the world, so that the soul has seven pieces, which the shadow scholars of yellow magic claim to manipulate. Whether this is true or not, yellow magic deals with the intangible and unreal, manipulating dreams, thoughts, emotions, ideas, concepts, and illusions.

Secondaries
The intersection of different cultures brought periods of warfare and trade; magicians arose among the new cities and new peoples that resulting, mixing the lore of different parents, and deriving new magics from old.

Green (Blue + Yellow)
Green magic arose rather quickly after the introduction of yellow magic, as a by-product of a century-long magical war between the invading hermit-magicians and the terrible painted worshippers of the outer dark. By using a runic script derived from the blue gem, and principles of yellow magic, green magicians learned to more safely and effectively invoke and channel the elemental forces. The runes of green magic trigger and direct other magics.

Orange (Red + Yellow)
By contrast, orange magic arose from academic cross-pollination, as the Red College of Githa welcomed and studied with a score of the outcast yellow mages, and students experimented with the different techniques and philosophies. The focus quickly fell on the interface between the spiritual and the material, particularly in the human form, and the orange-robed doctors of the Red College became the first necromancers.

Purple (Red + Blue)
The oldest of the secondary schools - sometimes called "the Fourth Color" - the origins of purple magic are a matter of dispute, as dozens of different sects and schools claim their primogenitor as the creator. In truth, the color probably arose many times from natural discovery and rediscovery over the millenia. Initiates of purple magic open the channels between the outer dark and their minds, communicating with the things that dwell beyond the rim of stars, and are renowned as oracles and diviners.

Tertiaries
After the secondary colors became established, evidence of the tertiary colors emerged relatively quickly, though mainly in wandering scholars and individual mage-lords than in schools, for it took time to research and master the lore. Most of the tertiary colors became established during the peace-time known as the Age of Pearls, a period of relative prosperity free of wars between the major nations, and when the younger kingdoms became established.

Amber (Orange + Yellow)
The Ghostkillers and Dreamthieves emerged as mercenary sects near the end of the Age of Pearls, arcane thieves who learned to touch what cannot be touched; by selective denial of one of the emanations that yellow magic claims define them, they learn to exist in a half-world where they can kill dreams, steal thoughts, destroy illusions, and walk in the ghosts of dead cities.

Aquamarine (Green + Blue)
The conjurers of Maaz tracked the black stars and dead planets in their orreries of night, and through long decades created tables of conjunctions when the streams from the outer dark merged, allowing untold power to be drawn from the dark heavens - and the Doom of Maaz came when the conjurers did not realize that that power might have a name, a mind, and a voice. The demons of the outer dark rent the city of Maaz and devoured the great stargazers and their orreries, but the fleeing populace took with them the scrolls and star-charts, and in time the conjurers of Maaz learned the sigils and circles to ward, contain, and command the darksome entities as well as summon them.

Brown (Purple + Yellow)
The vampire-women of Tiklakak were the first to cast their minds beyond the outer dark, and so invented true astral travel, the piercing of illusions, and the greater senses. Now their eidolons and avatars flit ghost-like through a twilit half-world, to feed quietly while their bodies remain at rest in the tomb-city. Some children they mark as their own and bring back as substitute daughters, and every generation a few of these return to the greater world with knowledge of brown magic.

Chartreuse (Green + Yellow)
Shadow magic has a dark but vibrant history, as blue magic, even channeled and filtered, tends to taint the aura and wear at flesh, but the chartreause magicians are artist-magicians, and the world is their canvas. Balancing power and idea precariously, these sorcerers create shadow-shapes that can entangle, burn, cut, and drown - but the cost for their power is the slow corruption of their flesh, as patches blanch to a pale yellowish-green with each use.

Magenta (Purple + Red)
The Deniers are students of nothingness, whose communion of the outer dark taught them to open a channel to vast emptiness - not a hunger, exactly, but a void that draws in magic. By meditation the magenta magician can empty herself and become both an attractor of magic, and almost immune it, as the energies are drawn straight into the endless void; by manipulating the channel they can achieve different effects - luring mages and magical beings without destroying them, rendering others temporarily resistant to magic, etc. Deniers often find roles as mage-killers and demon-slayers because of their talent.

Ochre (Green + Red)
Tattoo magic is traditionally a female occupation in Urda, an extension and specialization of the medicine-women of the Urd fishing and farming communities. Ochre magicians set sigils on their patients to strengthen bones, regulate heartbeats, and to enhance the patient's physical attributes - shaping breasts, buttocks, noses, cheeks, etc. with words carven in flesh. Many ochre magicians practice on each others, and few are not dazzling tapestries on the way to their personal perfection.

Umber (Orange + Blue)
The Burning Liches of Old Githa are lambent skeletons, loosely bound to this world, and their umber magic is the art of ascending the failing flesh to be a blazing figure among the belt of stars that guards against the demons of the outer dark. In battle they are typically wreathed in celestial light, slowly consumed by within by the light of a million suns, which they unleash to blind and burn; but when the light is extinguished they resemble dark, greyish husks of men and women.

Vermilion (Orange + Red)
Cancer mages strike a balance within their own forms between regeneration and entropy. They are typically lumpy and mishapen by tumors and growths, but can heal with unsurpassed speed and can become all but immune to disease and toxins as they tinker with the balance of their own bodies. Many terrible and awesome effects have been achieved by vermillion magic--horn-like growths, sprays of acid blood from the eyes, the storing and release of toxins--though all have a toll on the body of the vermilion mage.

Violet (Purple + Blue)
Violet magic is the magic of war, as the full fury of black suns is channeled through the mage's form. It is a violent, explosive magic, and the War Mages that practice its greatest expression can annihilate entire regiments in a maelstrom of dark lightning energies. At the heart of violet magic is a permanent channel to the outer dark - a constant flow of power that causes War Mages to build up a charge of potential magic, which must be periodically dispersed or else it may be released uncontrolled, or even consume the mage. Consequently, violet magic is often paired with magenta magic, to allow the War Mage to safely discharge energies into the void.

Bases
When the disparate theories of the primary colorswere compared, it produces an image of the universe as the magicians understand it - the world, the belt of light that surrounds it, and the outer dark. This unity of vision gave birth to White magic. Later magicians, who had never learned the primitive techniques and schooled themselves only in the secondary colors, developed an alternative model - an expansion of the theories of Yellow magic, with the universe as a model of the self. A few magicians are said to have consolidated or reconciled the two views, and the result is Grey magic - though this is mostly legendary since the end of the Age of Pearls and the rise of the Mountain of Power.

Characters can only purchase dots in White if they have three dots (●●●) each in the primary colors, only purchase dots in Black if they have three dots (●●●) in each of the secondary colors, and purchase Grey if they have at least two dots (●●) each in White and Black.

Black
Black magicians view the universe as an extension of themselves, with sufficient will they can bend and break the rules of magic and reality. Black magic thus affects other magic, changing its arbitrary limits - range, scale, duration, etc.

White
White magicians have a holistic view of the universe and their place in it, with this deeper understanding of the interactions of magic they learn to craft magical artifacts that enhance or contain their power.

Grey (Black + White)
Grey magic is the magic of time, probability, forecasting, and extrapolation; they create and live in dream-worlds to play through different events and their actions in them; as such it is somewhat individual to each magician as they understand both what their place is in the universe, and what it can be. Grey magicians can perceive the effects of their actions and manipulate the results, but cannot undo them once done.

Shades & Hues
One benefit of having at least one dot (● or ○) in White or Black magic is the ability to buy Shades (Black) or Hues (White); these are un-dotted specific powers and cost a flat 2 points to purchase. A magician must possess at least one dot in each of the necessary colors to purchase a Shade or Hue.

[TheWorid]

Although the idea of using dots and making things as conceptually clear as possible is a good one, the execution is a little byzantine. On the other hand, it makes sense to me upon closer inspection, and is rather clever; my main worry would be characters converging in the dots they buy to be able to access the best powers. Did you have a resolution system in mind?

In any event, extremely evocative history of arcane philosophies.

[Ikeren]

I am not good enough with colours to ever run this system. "You have red and blue? That gives you...uh...green?"

My gaming group "No, purple."

Me "Oh, right, purple. Okay, and that green and red gives you a fake dot in...umber? Light-urple?"

Them "Light-urlpe is not funny."

History is cool stuff though.

[Ancient History]

I've played with a half-dozen versions of this, most of which have been erased or lost at some point or another. I've never yet turned it into an executable system.

And part of it is that the colors themselves are only meant to give a general idea of the relationships, it's not by any means literal (true color fanatics would lynch me on some of the combinations).

[Foxwarrior]

Well, it was certainly an interesting read, and I think the implicit multiclassing effects have much potential. However, Yellow is almost completely encompassed by Red (the brain as an organ is part of the human form), and Red is completely encompassed by Blue (ability to alter the human form is part of the ability to alter everything)

What color is Flesh to Stone? Blue, because you're transforming someone into a rock? Red, because you're transforming someone into a rock?

[Ancient History]

Like I said, I've gone through several different versions. Here's an earlier one:

The General Idea
There are traditions of magical thought and practice, which are generally symbolized and exemplified as colors for simplicity. Carrying on the color analogy, the sub-schools, derivative traditions, and hybrid systems are generally noted by mixtures or tints of these colors.

The three original traditions, derived from certain ultimate sources, are “primary colors;” direct admixtures of two of these primary sources gave rise to “secondary color” traditions, and refinement of the secondary techniques with greater understanding of the primary lore gave rise to “tertiary color” schools.

Beyond this, knowledge of all three primary or secondary schools gave rise to gestalt theories – “base colors” – which while of limited use on their own, give perspective and utility to other forms of magic, referred to as “hues” and “shades.” Specific powers, skills, minor spells, or abilities derived from the different schools of magic are known as “tints.”

The Mechanics
Characters buy dots in one or more colors to denote their training and ability in those areas of magic. A character can have up to three dots in each color. Each dot represents a die that the character rolls when casting a spell or using a tint of a given color; if the character has an antecedent color, then the dots add.

Example:
Manej has Blue ● and Purple ●●. She rolls 1 die when using blue magic (Blue ●), and 3 dice when using purple magic (Purple ●● + Blue ●).

If a character has dots in more than one color, they gain a “virtual dot” in any derivative or antecedent color. A virtual dots provide access to spells and tints from those colors, but do not add dice to the pool. Virtual dots are represented by the ○ symbol.

Example:
Manej has Blue ● and Purple ●●. This gives her the “virtual dots” Red ○ and Violet ○. If Manej later learned Green ●, she would gain Yellow ○ and Aquamarine ○.

Primary Colors

The primary colors are the original primitive systems and philosophies of magic, usually attributed to a legendary magician or apocryphal source. Whatever the truth of their origins, they are general systems, the theoretical background upon which magic is built, but lacking in refinement and utility. Primary spells and tints tend to be relatively expensive to use in terms of their effects, but a solid grounding in the fundamentals increases the power of derivative magical systems.

Blue
The practitioners of blue magic believe that the material gives rise to the immaterial; the existence and interaction of matter gives rise to information, and the interaction of information with itself creates more information. The application of information to the material provides feedback, altering the material and giving rise to new information. Blue magicians study this process, analyzing the flow of data through the world, deriving wisdoms and knowledge from it. The practice of blue magic is almost synonymous to the language of Ullu, said to be the primal tongue of sorcerers, which contains within itself the sophisticated linguistic, rhetorical, and mathematical tools to develop the specialized dialects necessary to discuss and utilize blue magic.

Red
The system of red magic, postulates that the world we perceive is created by the overlap of different entities or objects, each with their unique forces and interplay. Humans, for example, are the overlap of three entities: the ka’bat (shade), the ba’bat (lifestream), and Mon (the universal oversoul). The human physical body and spirit are projections of these overlapping entities, which form seven different parts—picture three intersecting circles, with the physical body in the center. Initiates of red magic learn to expand their perceptions beyond the center, until they are able to operate on all levels of reality.

Yellow
Oldest of the three primal sorceries, yellow magic has its roots in the ancient and disparate fire-worship. The yellow magicians believe in the first of days, the immaterial became trapped and wrapped up in the immaterial; the chill of the world froze them in their physical forms, and trapped within all matter are secret fires. Under the right circumstances, some of this fire may be released, and so transform one material to another. The servants of the secret fires work to discover the secret fires of all things, to guide their release and control it. Their mastery of fire has tied the yellow magicians closely with the semi-secretive metalsmith guilds, and many master smiths have some knowledge of yellow magic.

Secondary Colors
As the primary magical systems grew and spread among the peoples, they came into contact with one another, and adherents or students of different systems made efforts to understand or adapt this strange magic into their own paradigm. Scholarly and religious debate gave way to heresies, new magical schools that took their concepts (and spells) from the old systems but which formed inversions of the moral or magical principles of their original systems. Thus, the secondary colors represent the product of rebellious, breakaway sects; the vibrant young sorcery of new masters looking to overcome the limitations of their old teachings and old masters.

Green (Blue + Yellow)

Orange (Red + Yellow)
The first crosspollination of yellow magic and red magic was peaceful, and involved young mystics collaborating in an effort to discern where their studies were compatible, or at least comparable. First emphasis was placed on the physical body, the material form that both sorceries could understand and affect; for safety they began their practice on unloving matter, the bodies of the dead. Death was an enigma to the philosophies of both schools; the physical and spiritual changes left by the process could not be adequately explained by either magical system. The combination of material investigation into the process of death, and the awareness of the missing spiritual elements brought strange results: re-animation. The macabre students attracted to further researches on these lines and postulated a new set of magical theories based on spiritual organization and contamination of physical matter—totally in disagreement to both red and yellow magic. The nascent orange magicians, the necromancers, were outcast/

Purple (Red + Blue)

Tertiary Colors

Aquamarine (Green + Blue)

Chartreuse (Green + Yellow)

Indigo (Purple + Blue)

Saffron (Orange + Yellow)

Vermillion (Orange + Red)

Violet (Purple + Red)

Base Colors

Black (Green + Orange + Purple)

Grey (Black + White)

White (Blue + Red + Yellow)

Tints

Hues

Bronze (Saffron + White)

Cerulean (Violet + White)

Copper (Orange + White)

Cyan (Blue + White)

Gold (Yellow + White)

Fuschia (Purple + White)

Lime (Chartreuse + White)

Jade (Green + White)

Mauve (Indigo + White)

Ochre (Vermillion + White)

Rose (Red + White)

Teal (Aquamarine + White)

Shades

Amber (Yellow + Black)

Amethyst (Purple + Black)

Azure (Blue + Black)

Beige (Saffron + Black)

Brown (Orange + Black)

Cobalt (Violet + Black)

Crimson (Red + Black)

Emerald (Green + Black)

Olive (Chartreuse + Black)

Ruby (Vermillion + Black)

Sapphire (Indigo + Black)

Viridian (Aquamarine + Black)

[Foxwarrior]

Well, in this version, Blue is actually quite distinct from the others, although information and soul have some overlap. However, Red Mon magic seems like it could be taken to do anything (altering the universe is a pretty expansive subset of possible actions), assuming that that's what you meant by "universal oversoul". Yellow appears to be an actually restricted form of transmutation (you can't create something out of nothing, at least).

In order to drastically reduce the amount of overlap between primary colors, you could consider something like:

Primary Colors:

Blue: The magic of information and thought. Observe the minds and souls of creatures, in present, past, and future. Manipulate them in the present. You can only interact with thoughts you are in metaphysical contact with: either through their awareness of you or your proximity with objects of great psychological significance to them.
Detect Thoughts, Legend Lore, Dominate, Scrying (Will save modifier would have to take into account target's knowledge of you, too), Silent Image

Red: The magic of energy and matter. Create things and explosions, transform things into other things.
Fireball, Flesh to Stone (touch range), Create Water, Heal

Yellow: The magic of long-distance interactions; connect the physical properties of distant objects. Make two objects share temperature, momentum, gravity, etc. Think The Name of the Wind's Sympathy, Garry's Mod's Weld, or voodoo.
Message, Mage Armor (make your light clothing or skin absorb the blow evenly), Feather Fall (connect some of your momentum to that of the air)


Then the Base Colors could be:

Purple (Blue + Red): Imbue thoughts into objects. Create homunculi, intelligent items, zombies and so on. I'd expect proper Necromancy (which brings people back to life) to be more Indigo/Violet, since it has more emphasis on returning the original thoughts to their body.

Green (Blue + Yellow): Astral projection. Extricate your mind from your brain and wander the world freely. Alternatively, the magic of literature: separating individual thoughts from your mind and using them to control people.

Orange (Red + Yellow): Teleportation and summoning, by providing the necessary energy to transport objects and creatures long distances.


and so on

Admittedly, there are still some effects that can be fit into multiple colors: Invisibility would be Blue if it worked like a Jedi mind trick, or Orange if it worked by teleporting incoming photons past the concealed creature. Not that they'd be the same; the Orange one would also make you blind and immune to lasers, and the Blue one could have some restriction like "only creatures you are aware of become unaware of you".


Also, any division that puts mind control in a school other than the one that does transmutation has to spend some time explaining why you shouldn't just transform other peoples' brains into copies of your own. I have three possible choices:

You totally can, but proper mind control lets you let them keep their own memories. Unfortunately this means that transmuters get to walk all over other schools even more.

There's this thing called a "soul", and when you transform someone's brain, the soul either leaves their body, making it inanimate, or still has some guiding effect on them, possibly maintaining their motivations, emotional attachments, or goals. Unfortunately, souls don't have any basis in reality, so you have to explain precisely what they're supposed to do. Also, if computers don't have souls, sufficiently advanced technology will let transmuters bypass this whole solution.

Transmutation just isn't that precise. Unfortunately this means you end up restricting transmutation to just explosions and buildings.

Edit: Difference between Orange and Blue invisibility, consideration of transmutation-based mind control.

Edit: Robots without souls are OP.

[Neurosis]

Isn't Veridian silver and green? How did that become Aquamarine and Black?

[Foxwarrior]

There are some things about this color magic system: at least in reality, red, yellow, and blue are not fundamentally special colors, they just happen to be popular among humans because most humans have trichromatic vision.

So, why are the schools of magic divided in this way?

Was the creator of magic an entity with trichromatic vision? If ancient humans developed it somehow, that would support having body and soul as primary colors. If they didn't, I am personally slightly annoyed by the anthropic nature of your setting.

Is magic accessed as a side-effect of being able to perceive certain colors? If so, the Bee Lords would have Ultraviolet, Blue, and Yellow. Becoming blind would either make you exceptionally terrible at magic (because you can't see colors any more), or exceptionally good at magic (because you can only imagine the true essences of colors). There would be evolutionary pressure to have more types of color vision, but writing up all the color combinations for the Leprechauns and their seven primary colors would be both time-consuming and bloat-inducing.

Did people discover three types of magic, and decide that colors would make a neat naming convention? This choice solves the issue cleanly, but only by bypassing it entirely.


Ascribing a different school of thought to each color is a bit dangerous, since most Orange Necromancers are likely to also be decent Amber Ghostkillers and Vermillion Cancer Mages, and you seem to have given strong incentive to not just pick a primary color and use it.

[JigokuBosatsu]

I like this a lot, though I can't quite articulate why. Seems like a great start.

I did something similar recently- just got as far as a basic framework, fluff only. I had colors(primaries, secondaries, black and white) vs. elements- (classical, plus sun, moon, and metal) with no particular system in mind. Prak has seen this one, and I hadn't done too much with so hadn't posted it here.

This is what I have so far- some organizational fluff much like what you have described above.

MAENADS- Red Moon

While women have much greater relative power in this world, there are still many who chafe under their roles in places where society views them as inferior. Housewives, whores, and noblewomen- it is from these that the Red Moon recruits its operatives. Known as Maenads, each month they are granted 10 days of power, and the Red Moon claims 5 of these. During those 5 days the women leave home, don masks and uniforms, and serve anonymously as Maenads. Apart from their 5 spare days of power(enhanced strength, speed, toughness, and senses) the women also gain training in the arts of the assassin. All Maenads wield a wicked crescent-shaped knife, and are particularly dangerous when working together, as they tend to enter an orgiastic trance that removes any inhibition they might hold towards killing. Since during their service they spend communal time together, women from all walks of life trade rumors and secrets. The garb of the Maenads is a plain white cloth mask over the lower half of their face, and a long white diaphanous sleeveless dress that deepens in color starting at the waist, becoming a deep burgundy at the feet.

PRIESTS OF THE LASH- Red Water

Some faiths are more attractive to people of questionable mental health than others- the church of the Lash is one of them. Due to its propensity towards attracting and increasing the madness of its priests, the impenetrability of its doctrine, and the strange toxic wonders it sometimes produces, some theologians have labeled it less of a religion and more of a contagion. The Priests of the Lash are of course flagellants, carrying fringed whips infused with venom for this purpose, and wearing shapeless sackcloth robes. In their more lucid moments, the Priests may dabble in rude alchemy, and many are more knowledgeable about the effects of poison than any sage in the land. Not much of the lore of the Lash is known, only that they venerate the tentacled and stinging beasts of the oceans such as jellyfish, and also venerate the great squids of the deep, though they do not have any particular connection to the Black Water. Some Priests are known to have grafted stinging or grasping tentacles to their bodies by some unknown means, and it is rumored that on occasions of great need the Priesthood of the Lash is able to call down a blight on any body of water, the aptly named Red Tide.

JACKS OF SPEED- Green Metal

It is rumored that at one time the discoverer of the Green Metal had quite a cottage industry making and selling enchanted rings of the stuff. These rings granted the wearer unbelievable speed, and a number of them banded together as the most formidable group of brigands the world had seen. After they were defeated, the legacy of the “Jacks of Speed” lay dormant for ages, until resurrected in much diminished form by a descendant of the original discoverer, who maintains a thriving business in alchemical supplies. This alchemist is busily discovering new uses for the green metal. The Jacks, much less threatening now that their speed magic is mostly gone, find work as trusted bodyguards- one side effect of the modern use of the Green Metal is slowly rendering the user completely mute. There is a Jack center in almost every major city, and it is rumored that enrollment with the Jacks is offered by some governments as an alternative to death for certain criminals and political dissidents.

REENE’S RIDERS- Black Wind

A mercenary company two centuries old, Reene’s Riders are famed as one of the deadliest elite combat units ever, primarily cavalry and rangers. The vast majority of the Riders are simply good at what they do- veteran soldiers with a knack for swift, ruthless attack. Their primary advantage these days is that Reene himself is still with them, in undeath. His brush with the Black Wind has kept him from dying, and while most devotees of the Black Wind are dark wizards or necromancers, Reene has recently begun delegating strategic and tactical responsibilities to his lieutenants, and focusing on more scholarly pursuits. A few Black Wind necromancers have been recruited into the Riders as chaplains, and now there are no more casualties among Reene’s Riders- at least none that stay dead.

[Bihlbo]

As an arty-type this tweaks all kinds of knobs and sounds awesome. It's also super complicated, compared to the basic and mostly nonsensical schools in D&D. But I get the impression this isn't meant for D&D, since you're talking about rolling what is essentially a dice pool. For what system was this intended?

The descriptions of the different colors, how they relate to other colors, how this has been influenced by history, and how this has formed the magical system is excellent, to say the least. This certainly shows the amount of effort you've put into it.

I assume you're using some kind of spreadsheet or algorithm to automatically determine virtual dots. Without that I'd get frustrated.

How does this work when implemented in an action sequence? Let's say my character, Nisbert, has four dots in Brown magic (among others, obviously), and intends to use Brown magic in an encounter. You've stated this means I would roll 4d10, but nothing else about it. What are my options with Brown magic - how do I know what I can do with my 4d10? What happens in the game's reality when I use this magic - what limitations are there and is there a challenge when attempting to interact with a being capable of wanting to stop me?

If you answer with something like "Brown means you can cast this list of D&D spells" then I seriously overestimated you.

[Foxwarrior]

Well, there are a limited number of ways you can do magic.

You can go the D&D spells route, where the things you can do are separated into well-defined, discrete spells. This method is nicely crunchy; if you add in augmentation (such as "for every success you get beyond 1, you can pick one improvement from this list" for example), you get a lot of versatility.

Example Orange Spell: Animate Dead - Casting time 1 minute, targets one corpse. The target is reanimated as a skeleton or zombie, with HD no greater than your level.
Augments:
1 point: Reduce the casting time to a standard action.
1 point: Reanimate any number of targets within Close range. You can't reanimate more total HD of creatures than four times your level.
1 point: Reanimate targets as ghouls or ghosts instead.
2 points: Reanimate targets as liches or vampires instead.
3 points: Raise targets from the dead as what they were before instead.


You can go the build-a-spell route. This worked very nicely for Magicka partly because it's a game primarily about evocation, and partly because it has on nice systems for states such as being wet/on fire. In the end, though, it's generally a lot like D&D spells, with several spells mixed into one and an area of effect chosen specifically to match the current situation.

Example Orange Spell Word: Necrus - Corpses affected by this spell are reanimated as skeletons or zombies.


You can go the skill-MTP route. Just list DCs for a few key things that one can do with the magic, and let the DM use them as guidelines for the actions players actually want to take.

Example Orange Description: The Art of Necromancy - Through your understanding of the interface between the spiritual and the material, you have learned to restore life to the dead. Reanimating a corpse as a zombie takes 1 minute and is DC 1. Making a zombie horde as a standard action is DC 3. Turning someone into a mummy takes seven days and is DC 3. Speaking with corpses, in order to learn some of what they knew in life, is DC 2. Rerouting the spiritual bonds of a mindless undead in order to make it your servant instead of someone else's takes a standard action, is DC 3, and cannot be retried if failed for 24 hours.


If you know of any other methods that don't fall under one of those three, I'm listening. I'd say that generally, the D&D spell route is best for rules-heavy games; the build-a-spell route is more about the novelty value unless you want to go for full-blown programmatical spell-word coding; and the MTP-skills route is for rules-light games.

[Bihlbo]

You can go the D&D spells route, where the things you can do are separated into well-defined, discrete spells. This method is nicely crunchy; if you add in augmentation (such as "for every success you get beyond 1, you can pick one improvement from this list" for example), you get a lot of versatility.

I suppose by "success" you mean the person running the game that uses this system picks a target number(s) for the die and you collect those, right? As I first read this I was thinking about Exalted's sorcery, and it seems to fit that very well.

I could also see further specialization applying to specific spells. Like, "I have special training in flamingtouch, so I have an extra dot when casting that spell." I'm not sure how much of an investment that would require.

Speaking of which, if someone were to use this system with D&D, as an example, how do you think characters should pay for training and dots?

I'm not sure which I like better for your system: improvised magic or discrete spells. On the one hand, with improvised magic you don't have to define everything before-hand, and could simply describe a greater result with more successes. Much less labor that way. With discrete spells like D&D you'd have to define what a success means for each and every spell, which is just terrible. But with a "shopping list" that applies to most spells, or aspects of spells, on which you could spend your successes it would be interesting and slightly less of a development headache.

Frex: This spell is a range Short spell with an Instantaneous duration, therefore the options you have for successes are limited to 9 different options. Thanks to your roll, you have two successes to spend.

No way around it though, this would seriously slow down spellcasting.

[JigokuBosatsu]

The obvious way for this to go would be the Ars Magica/OMage route- spontaneous magical effects can be generated with dots alone, with predetermined spells being easier to pull off.

[Ancient History]

I hadn't gotten quite that far yet, though I've puttered about at adopting something vaguely similar to my old Engines & Reagents effects.