The Foot of Blue Mountain

A Modified Sorcery for OpenQuest 3e

Introduction

I ran a game of OQ3e recently and used the following sorcery system in place of the one presented in the core rules. Here it is, basically as it was used during play. The rules are vague and conversational because the goal is to use them to aid in conversation and adjudication of magic.

The genesis of this was when I tried out the Black Company RPG Playtest document and really liked the spells but really disliked how augments worked. I figured it would be easier to tack changes to spells onto MP and try to generalize the changes as much a possible instead of the specific, granular changes you can do in the Black Company Game per spell.

Balance changes are forthcoming. It’s rough around the edges, the sort of thing that’s good enough to finish a game but not without a few battle scars.

The Rules

Sorcerers are unique in the City of Blip, capable of performing wicked feats of powerful magic. The following is a summary of what a Sorcerer can do. More concrete rules for topics like the specifics of Sorcery and Magic Item Creation will follow.

Sorcerers can sense spells, sorceries, and enchantments nearby (within about 10m for large effects and 3m for subtle ones). They can roll their sorcery skill to discern more specific details about the magic in question. They can also use this sense to detect living creatures and read their emotions. Sorcerers of a particularly potent ability are easily detected by all other sorcerers nearby (though these same powerful sorcerers can abandon all their magic in an instant to avoid detection, they rarely do; sorcery is their greatest and only defense against other magicians and even death itself).

Sorcerers may create magic items, imbuing them with the power of one of their spells. The effects may be temporary or permanent depending on the nature of the enchantment.

If you are the party's sorcerer, it is up to you whether you make your abilities known to the party. If you do not (the wisest choice) make your spell rolls and so on using physical dice or in another server and relay your intentions and results to me via DM.

Spell List and Casting Magic

Sorcerers can learn spells (duh). Player Character Magicians start with 3 spells, rolling randomly from the following:

  1. Affliction: A single target is incapacitated by wracking coughs. Target may make a Resilience test each round to overcome the effects.
  2. Animate: Move a small object as though it were alive.
  3. Blast: A blast of energy directed at a single target. Deals 1d6 Damage.
  4. Compel: Plant emotions in the mind of a single target. Sorcerers get a Resilience test to resist.
  5. Divine: Ask the spirits for an answer to a yes/no question about the coming day.
  6. Direct: Enchant a missile with the magical essence of a sorcerer. It cannot miss for the next round.
  7. Focus: Heighten mundane abilities with magical power. Advantage to a skill test in the following combat round.
  8. Fool: Choose two senses on a single person and change what they perceive.
  9. Heal: Double a creature's healing rate for the next day.
  10. Question: Ask a corpse one question.
  11. Pain: A single target is incapacitated by intense pain while the sorcerer chants the incantation. Making this spell cause damage costs 3 times as much MP as usual (i.e. to cast a version with the base damage costs 3MP, takes 1 minute and lasts as long as the caster continues to chant)
  12. Prestidigitate: Make small items like coins, cards, and knives appear and disappear from your hands at will to other places on your person. (Special: costs no MP to perform)
  13. Protect: One target gains +2AP against either mundane or magical effects. When damaged, the AP conferred by the spell decreases by 1.
  14. Project: Leave your physical body and walk the spiritual world (Special: the casting time of this spell is always 6 hours.) Other sorcerers can sense you and use their magic points to attack and kill you.
  15. Scry: Observe the immediate surroundings of a creature or location, provided you have one of its belongings.
  16. Sense: Dive deep into the spiritual world, sensing magic and powerful sorcerers from great distances.
  17. Shape Element: Pick an element (Fire, Water, or Wind) and manipulate it. This spell can be chosen or learned multiple times, learning a new element each time.
  18. Sleep: Pull a sleepy, calm target into the eager embrace of sleep.
  19. Live: Age half as slowly for one day.
  20. Ward: Protect yourself from a single designated creature. Roll your sorcery skill against any attacks they make.

Normally, casting one of these spells takes 1 minute (12 combat rounds), lasts a combat round (when applicable) and costs 1MP. The number of targets, casting time, and casting duration can be increased or decreased by spending additional MP. Here is a handful of general guidelines around changing these effects. The MP cost in parentheses is discrete (that is, you don't have to worry about paying for each subsequent tier's cost, just pay the cost of the effect you want).

Casting Time

Spell Duration:

Number of Targets:

Damage:

Casting Method:

Of course, these aren't the only effects that can be changed in each spell. Some spells, like Scry, have intentionally vague casting costs. Negotiate with the referee for the effect you want to have and come to a consensus on what things might cost.

These spells are largely generic, divorced from any sort of fictional grounding. This is because sorcerers are typically incredibly egotistical, preferring their own personalized variants on these spells instead of the default ones. While making your sorcerer, take the time to give the spell a fitting name and physical manifestation. Pain, for example, could target the nervous system, or boil the skin of the target. Peersonalizing the spells to the sorcerer in question will give them a greater magical personality and lead to a more realized character.

Provided they spend the MP for both, Sorcerers can also blend spells, combininng them in a way that fits the spirit of the two spells. Illusory gas that causes wracking coughs, mustard gas that burns opponents alive, or speaking to a corpse spirit from a great distance. Two sorcerrs working together can split the MP cost of spells like these, provided they pay for one entire spell on their own. For example, Bob and Rob cast a combination of Shape Water, Sleep, and Compel during a rainstorm to put a troop of guards on patrol to sleep through contact with the rain. Bob pays the MP cost for Shape Water, 4MP for the additional targets, while Rob pays the costs of Sleep and Compel, 4MP each for the respective increases in the number of targets.

Outside of combat, if a Sorcerer has sufficient time, quiet, and resources to cast a spell, there is no need to roll Sorcery for casting. In the hectic, life-or-death nature of combat, a Sorcery roll is required to cast spells. Such a roll is made once, regardless of casting time. While casting spells, a Sorcerer cannot dodge or avoid blows in combat; if they are struck, then they must make another Sorcery test to avoid losing the spell. Here's a brief summary of outcomes to refer to when making a Sorcery test:

Magic Point Loss, Recovery, and Death.

You recover Magic Points equal to your Healing Rate each day. Going without something (food, water, sleep) means that you do not recover magic points.

When a sorcerer uses their last Magic Point they must make a Resilience test or fall unconscious for 1d6 hours. If a sorcerer ever exceeds their Magic Point threshold while casting a spell this test is used to avoid death instead, falling unconscious on a success.

Magic Item Creation

Sorcerers can create magic items, binding spells to certain charms or talismans. To do this, a sorcerer pays the MP cost of the spell and its effect, spends 4 hours in intense ritual to embed the spell into the item, and spends permanent points from their Magic Point maximum. The number of permanent Magic Points spent to create the item function as the Healing Rate of that item. An item has as many Magic Points as it cost to create the item.

For example, Rob the Sorcerer enchants a walking stick with the Blast spell, spending 5MP on it to increase the damage dealt, and spending 5 Points from his maximum MP total. The "Laser Stick", as Rob names it, has 5MP and casts Blast for a total of 3d6 Damage. Since Rob spent 5MP from his maximum pool of MP, it recharges every 24 hours and can be used again. A powerful item!

Magic items found in the world can be destroyed by sorcerers, learning either the spell imbued within the item or adding the spent permanent Magic Points maximum to their current pool of Magic Points. To do so, they roll a Sorcery test, modified by -50% if the item was created by a particularly powerful sorcerer or houses a particularly powerful spell. The ritual takes 4 hours just like the process for creation. What follows here is a table that shows the results of the Sorcery test performed by the sorcerer; in all cases, the magic item is destroyed.

For example, Bob the Sorcerer kills Rob and inherits the Laser Stick. Bob already has one, so he decides to destroy the stick. He rolls and gets a critical success on his Sorcery Roll. He already knows Blast, so he decides to increase his current Magic Point maximum by 5, the number of points Rob the sorcerer spent to enchant the item in the first place. In addition, the MP currently within the Laser Stick goes to Bob, boosting his current available Magic Points by 5. In this case, Bob doesn't have to worry about any overflow, since his capacity increased by the amount of Magic Points he just gained, but if he learned Blast instead the excess Magic Points would dissipate by 1 point for every hour (Bob is a sickly guy). While he has all this extra MP to burn, what kind of mischief could he get up to...