Reclaim: lets you unmake an enchantment and absorb that tendril back into your own magic. Difficulty based on how powerful the spell was and how long it's been going on. Probably shouldn't ever be able to be used on an enchantment created by someone else.
Delve: lets you make a link between you and the target so that you can see through their eyes and even work magic through them remotely. If permanent, it creates a magical link that you can cast Delve through no matter how far away the person is.
Animate: lets you summon up dark spirits and bind them into corpses or specially prepared containers (eg- golems).
Infuse: lets you permanently transfer magic from yourself into someone else. This is the spell that was used to make Rats and Jumping Mice intelligent. Two mages with Infuse can pass magical energy back and forth, but you can't use it to reclaim that energy... it becomes part of the target and even the Reclaim spell won't work. Infuse probably isn't all that cost efficient... If two mages Infuse each other, their overall magic should probably drop. It's better for treating Forsaken mice and for imbuing intelligence in animals.
Okay... what do I want?
First, what substances are worth distinguishing?
Liquids: easiest. Even a minor mage should be able to make changes in a few rounds.
Flesh/Soft Wood: a bit harder. Making changes without doing damage to a living tree or person is much harder.
Soft Metal: harder still
Hard Metal: hardest.
How about some decent defaults...
Liquids should take rounds.
Wood should take twice as many.
Soft metal takes minutes.
Hard metal takes 10s of minutes, often hours.
I need a term for rolling a 25 and one for rolling a zero. It'll be easier to refer to those as "criticals" and "botches". Unfortunately, I was planning on using fail by 10+ as "critical failure"... which means that I really shouldn't call a 25 just "critical". Perhaps "perfect?" I dunno, "If you roll a Perfect, blah happens" seems a little odd.
Casting a spell at all requires a Skill Total (skill + Magic) of +1 or higher. Thus, a mage with a negative Magic rating can learn magic, but they have to have a higher skill in order to be able to cast spells at all and their results will tend to suck because Magic determines the effects, too. The minimum difficulty of any spell is 10, because that's how hard it is to extend a tendril at all, no matter what you're trying to do with it.
Damage from a concentrated Spark (fire): Magic + 1d4
Non-concentrated is... Magic/2 (round up) per round.
Remember, you can add your Success Level - 1 to your Magic score, so if you had a Magic of -2 and rolled a Level 4 Success, you'd treat your Magic as though it were +1 for that spell.
Manipulate has a Brawn rating equal to your Magic - 5 (or just Magic if concentrated).
Influence lasts Magic minutes (0 is treated as 30 seconds). Concentrated lasts Magic x 2 rounds (0 is treated as 1 round). Actually, that's backwards, isn't it? I'm not sure. Should concentrated Influence spells inflict a single strong emotion that lasts longer, or should they impose a more overwhelming emotion that works more like a Compel spell (it's obvious afterwards that the emotion was artificially induced).
Compel lasts Magic rounds after you stop concentrating, or Magic minutes (0 is 5 rounds/30 seconds) for a concentrated one.
Influence lasts Magic minutes after you stop concentrating. Concentrated lasts Magic rounds (0 is treated as 1 round), but it's overwhelmingly strong.
Probe... what does your Magic rating have to do with Probe? Is stronger magic really any more sensitive? A "concentrated" Probe... is what? Greatly increased range, maybe, but can only detect a single thing? A normal Provides more info at the cost of forcing your character to use total concentration to maintain it?
Shaping... your effective Magic rating determines what kind of changes you can make.
A simpler way of putting it- list the time (probably in minutes) and say that you get to divide that by your Magic rating with Magic +0 taking twice the base amount of time. Shaping soft stuff: 1 minute (10 rounds). Shaping wood or flesh: 10 minutes (100 rounds). Shaping Stone: 20 minutes (200 rounds). Shaping Soft Metal: 30 minutes (300 rounds). Shaping Hard Metal: 1 hour (600 rounds).
An interesting link about slings.
Apparently, they hit harder than many arrows, but don't penetrate armor as well. Sling bullets (round lumps of lead) are considerably more accurate and probably more deadly as well. Stones are generally hurled with a single motion; spinning it is just for getting the feel for the stone. But it takes a lot of skill to use effectively.
In HM terms, I'd probably make slings do greater damage than bows, but be -2 to hit. Crossbows are +1 to hit, but require a full round to reload, sometimes more.
Slings were cheap, easily carried and less vulnerable to bad weather (particularly wind and rain) than bows. Furthermore, there's even a technique for loading on with one hand that lets you leave your other hand free to use a shield.
So...
Bow: 1d6 damage
Crossbow: 1d6+1 damage, +1 to hit, requires 2 actions to reload
Sling Bullet: 1d6+1 damage, one handed, -1 to hit (with regular rocks, 1d6 & -2)
Heavy Crossbow: 1d8+1 damage, +1 to hit, requires 4 actions to reload with a crank (attack basically once per 2.5 full turns)
Bows and Crossbows can brace and aim. Slings can just aim and can't be fired effectively while kneeling or prone (I mean, you could, but take a -5 to hit).
There may be occasions when a completely random event is called for. For example, if the characters all draw straws, who gets the short straw could reasonably be established by assigning everyone a number and rolling an appropriately-sized die.
For a more generic system for determining how fortunate a given character is, just roll 2d10 and consult the below chart.
Example: when the party starts travelling cross-country, the GM decides to randomly roll to see how good the weather is. He rolls 2d10. A really low roll will indicate bad weather (with a roll of 2 indicating that travel has to halt completely until the bad weather clears) while a higher roll indicates better conditions. A roll of 20 could indicate a really pleasant, nearly perfect day that gives them bonuses for any travel rolls that they have to make.
Don't overuse luck rolls. They should be a source of inspiration for your game, not a way to compensate for lack of direction.
Optional Edge: Lucky
Your character is unusually lucky. Fortune favors them. Whenever the GM asks you to make a luck roll for a random occurance, you get a bonus die for the roll.
Weapon Talent: you have an innate knack for picking up the use of new weapons. You receive 1 XP to spend on each of your melee weapon skills, so you'll start at a minimum rating of +1 with every melee weapon. If your GM introduces a new melee weapon skill into the game, you'll get 1 XP to spend on that skill, too. This Edge can be taken multiple times; each time it grants you another 1 XP to spend on each of your melee weapon skills.
Lost Spell (requires opportunity for training): there are some "secret" or "lost" spells that cannot be cast at all without special training. This Edge grants you access to one such spell (you still have to buy the skill separately). It can be taken multiple times, once for each secret spell you want to learn. Your GM may require you to find a teacher in play before you can take this Edge.
There are four ranges involved in melee combat.
On the other hand, a halberd or pike might be -5, -3, +0, +1. So it can attack at any range, but if an opponent gets in close it's pretty useless.
A combat where you can see your foes coming is going to start at Extended unless you're indoors or in a tight tunnel.
Combat works with opposed combat skill tests. Whoever wins will get one or more success levels. You can spend a success level to shift the range one increment in or out vs a particular foe (provided that you can actually move there) OR you can hit them and do damage (if your weapon can attack at your current range).
Fend: fend is a special maneuver where you mostly try to make your opponent keep his distance. You're at -2 to hit so long as they don't try to move closer to you, but +2 to hit if they do. Note that initiative doesn't affect this; if you go first, they have to decide before you swing whether or not they're trying to close that round.
I'm not sure I'll be using initiative as such, anyway... it may be better to just use opposed rolls and say that it doesn't really matter who swung first.
I've been working on an introductory adventure for the system, tentatively titled "The Curse of Skzentic". I'd love feedback on what I've got so far.
Premise: The mouse-merchant Jargan has just received a ransom note demanding an enormous amount of money for the release of his son and daughter. Rather than pay the ruinous sum, he's decided to hire a band of adventurers to try and rescue his children. The PCs get the job.
Background: The kids are young adults and were travelling from Haven to visit relatives in Dunwattle but never arrived there. They had a couple of bodyguards with them, but apparently that wasn't enough. About two weeks after they disappeared, a box was delivered to Jargan with some of their personal effects and a demand for a thousand gold coins, a ransom that would bankrupt him completely.
The Quest: The PCs are supposed to follow the same route that the kids did and see if they can figure out who kidnapped them. Jargan will pay them 50 gold each for rescuing both kids (half if they can only rescue one). If they're dead, he'll still offer half for the return of their bodies so that they can be buried properly.
Part 1: The PCs travel cross-country and have a few encounters.
- a family with a broken wagon that needs aid. The PCs could ignore them, rob them, help them, etc., based on what their motivations are.
- a river crossing where the PCs will be attacked by a small snake that's wandered into the area and has no experience with mice that can use weapons. Poor snake. It probably won't live to regret its mistake.
- they'll pass a farm where they can ask the farmer about the kids (he remembers seeing them and their guards going along the road).
- a spot of bad weather, probably to emphasize how nasty heavy rain is for tiny mice.
Part 2: The PCs stop in the village of Eltowen.
- the PCs can make multiple social skill checks to get a room for the night and ask folks about the missing kids.
- a few townsfolk seem nervous
- the PCs find a rat kid with a missing leg who's willing to talk for a few coins.
- the kid tells them that the missing mice went off with the town woodsman (who later returned alone), whom he believes is a member of the cult of Skzentic.
Skzentic: the demon-god of pests and vermin. A few rites are intended to ward him away, but outright worship is banned and his cult has a bad reputation for offering intelligent sacrifices to their deity.
Part 3: The Temple
- the kid tells the PCs where to find the Temple of Skzentic. It's in an old Tzarchul ruin nearby.
- when they get there, it's a bit like a monestary... the cultists have actually set up little gardens and such nearby and there are some working here. These are forsaken mice and rats... burly, violent and fairly fanatical.
- this will probably involve a fair bit of fighting with the unarmored and poorly equipped but violent cultists.
- the cult has regularly been capturing travellers and holding them prisoner until the next sacrifice. They're kept in a cell in the depths of the Temple.
- the sacrifice room is a ghoulish chamber of horrors where the High Priest leaves the corpses exposed so that his pet flies can lay their eggs in them.
- due to their being gestated in the flesh of talking mice, his flies are big, black bugs about the size of horseflies with a nasty bite. They buzz about him like loyal pets and the priest often calls them by name and strokes the little maggots while they're gnawing on the flesh of his victims. A few of the flies can actually buzz understandable words in reply to his questions, although it's a strain for them to do so. This sort of stuff really helps establish his dominance over the other Skzentic worshippers, but it's going to be really unsettling to normal mice.
- the battle with the magic-using cult leader and his pet flies will basically be the climax of the adventure; if they can slay him, any other cultists will scatter in terror.
Possible Endings:
There are several possibilities for the ending. The basic "heroic" ending is for the PCs to rescue the boy mouse from the temple prison, then have him direct them to the sacrifice chamber, where the cult leader is already preparing to sacrifice the girl. With luck, they'll be able to stage a last minute rescue.
The "horror" ending is when they're too late to save the girl... her corpse is already bloating up with maggots, surrounded by the cult's previous victims in a horrific display that would merit Sanity checks in Call of Cthulhu.
The "twist" ending is that the kids were never kidnapped at all. One or both of them have joined the cult either willingly or after some magical brainwashing. They told the cult leader about their wealthy father and he hatched a scheme to steal the family's money for the cult. In this case, the PCs may have to subdue the kids and bring them back as prisoners if they want to collect the full reward.
Thorn is the Imperial Blade, an artifact of great power intended to be wielded by the Emperor during times of war. In practice, Thorn has generally been kept in storage and the last two times that it was actually needed, the Emperor gave it to one of his most loyal warriors rather than use it personally.
Physically, the blade is a long, curving fang where the thick end has had hand-holds carved into it. It was enchanted by a mage of great potency and can produce an ongoing Spark effect as though the spell were cast by a Magic +15 mage.
"Gritty" game... everyone gets Drive points equal to their Drive rating, minimum of zero. They are only refreshed after long breaks.
"Normal" game... everyone gets 3 extra Drive points. Used points have a 50% chance of coming back at the end of each session, in addition to being refreshed when lots of time passes uneventfully.
"Heroic" game... everyone gets 5 extra Drive points and they come back automatically at the end of each session.
Okay, let's attempt to write up some characters and see how it looks.
Roko
Concept: Devoted bodyguard / warrior
Race: Jumping Mouse
Agility: +3
Brawn: +2
Cleverness: +0
Drive: +2
Perception: +0
Magic: -3
Drive Points: 5
Movement Base: 8
Edges:
| Skills | Base | Bonus | Skill Level | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climbing (agi) | +3 | +5 | +0 | +8 |
| Dodge (agi) | +3 | +0 | +3 | +6 |
| Heavy Weapons (brawn) | +2 | +0 | +5 | +7 |
| Jumping (agi) | +3 | +5 | +1 | +9 |
| Resolve (drive) | +2 | +0 | +3 | +5 |
| Stealth (agi) | +3 | +0 | +1 | +4 |
| Tracking (per) | +0 | +0 | +1 | +1 |
| Wrestling (brawn) | +2 | +0 | +1 | +3 |
Okay... at the end of each session, you get to put a checkmark next to up to 5 skills that you used. You also get two "free" checkmarks that can be applied to any skill, even one you didn't use or one which you added a checkmark to already.
Optional: the free checks can be saved for future sessions, if desired, and spent then.
This means that you can add up to 3 marks on one skill if you're super-specialized, but you'll always improve at least 5 skills per session.
At the end of major campaign arcs, the GM can give a free Edge. A "Major" Edge should probably be a sequel to a lesser Edge so that you can buy it in chunks.
You get 3 Edges at character creation, and can get a fourth by taking a Flaw (this number may have to change once I actually write the Edge list and see how overpowering they are).
Perhaps it would be better if each "Drive point" expended reduced your Drive by 1 to a minimum of +0... but PCs all get the "Extra Drive Point" advantage 3 times for free.
Weapons should give a "per extra success level" bonus so that skill is really more important than weapon choice.
Weapon classes are Light (+1 to hit), Medium (+1 to damage, can be wielded with both hands for +2 damage instead) or Two-handed (+4 damage, requires two hands). A few weapons like staves get a different bonus instead of another +2 damage for being two handed.