What's all this about? About a year and a half ago Patrick and I came to feel that the division between many role-playing gamers and Magic: The Gathering players was a bit of a pity. More importantly, it seemed like Wizards of the Coast might find it profitable to open up a secondary market for magic cards - and if we wrote a book that made that possible and offered it to them a bit of that profit and publicity might come our way. Besides, it would be fun to write and playtest. So we designed a roleplaying system that used Magic cards as basic elements of the characters, as their minions, and as a library of opposition for them, allowed for the use of both magi and mundane characters of every level - squires or dabbling mage-apprentices on through legendary heroes and mighty planeswalkers - allowed players to make characters of every major race and type in the system at the time, and allowed for full-scale planewalker duels. We even made it nominally d20 compatible (although we preferred the 3d6 option) in case Wizards wanted to tie in that product line as well. Then we recruited a few playtesters, let them build master summoners, fireballspewing sorcerers, noble knights, and insane tinkerers, and had some fun. Judging from the reactions of some of our local magic players it looked like there would be more than enough interest, so we went ahead and submitted it. Sadly, Wizards of the Coast referred us to a submissions agent company - who charged a modest fee and eventually got back to us to tell us that Wizards of the Coast wasn't interested in submissions based on Magic: The Gathering. Presumably they've had years of being flooded with them. Still, that left us with a complete game system with no place to go - and some of our playtesters were already starting to pass around copies of the draft PDF. Since it's out there anyway, here’s a version with an explanatory note. After all, in its current form (a final version published through Wizards of the Coast would be another matter) it's essentially a free fan production designed to boost WTC sales, and certainly does not attempt to compete with or replace any product of theirs that we're aware of. If anyone at Wizards ever sees it hopefully they'll like it or want to comment (If so, try my gaming blog, at http://ruscumag.wordpress.com/), send Email to
[email protected] (I check that every so often), or look for our print products at http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=601512. If WTC feels that it's an infringement - or more of one than any other fan-production revolving around their Magic: The Gathering trademark - they can let us know, and we’ll take it down. On the other hand, if they express approval (or, hopefully, decide that they want to pick it up), we'll see about getting it onto a few of the fan sites as well or - gladly - start in on a print version. It was fun: just because it apparently won't be going commercial doesn't mean that no one else should get to play with it. -Paul Melroy, for Distant Horizons Games
General Index Introduction
2
Characters
2
Basic Character Creation Types
2
Abilities Ability Rank Details
2 3
Cards Lands Creatures Artifacts Enchantm ents Instants & Sorceries Special Card Rules
3 3 3 4 4 4 4
Distinctions Arm sm an Enhanced Sense Good-Looking Im m unity Inspiration Landbond Legendary Legend Master (___) Lord Lucky Magician Magical Talent In MTG:RPG Martial Artist Might Poison Role Sharpshooter Swarm Master (___) Training Undead W arlord
5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Descriptions
7
Disadvantages Sam ple Listing
7 7
Species Angels Aven and Griffins Centaurs Cephalid Dem ons and Devils Djinn and Efreet Dragons Dwarves
8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9
6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
Elves Goblins and Orcs Leonin Loxodons Merfolk Minotaurs Nantuko Nezum i-bito Orochi-bito Soratam i Treefolk Vedalken
9 9 9 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Character Tem plates The Assassin or Spy The Barbarian Hero The Hedge W izard The Lesser Mage The Magelord The Merchant The Planewalker The Priest The Scholar The Thief The W arrior
11 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12
Designing Character Types Character Levels Initial Ability Lim its
13 13 13
Character Advancem ent Opportunity Rewards Fiat Rewards Replacing Characters
13 13 13
The Duel Arcane The Planewalker's Duel Planewalker Distinction
14 15 15
Abilities d6 versus d20 Using Abilities The Base Rolls Success Levels Attacks Com bat Stances Com bat Dam age Critical Hits & Fum bles
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
Exclusive Abilities
17
General Abilities
25
The Landrule Forests Mountains Islands Plains Swam ps
31 31 32 32 33 33
Exotic Lands Gam e Structure Turns and Scenes Tapping
33 34 34 34
Creature Conversions Creature Statistics Creature Com bat Creature Abilities
34 34 34 34
Com bat Turns Surprise Reaction and Initiative Turns and Actions Follower Actions Accounting Mana Burn Tim ekeeping Refreshing Cards
35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35
Movem ent and Position Other sources of dam age The W orkings of Cards Keywords & Definitions
36 36 36 37
Running the W orlds Classifying Creatures Equipm ent Strategic Choices Mana Levels Dynam ic Magic Sam ple Characters Legal Note
41 41 41 42 42 43 44 44
Characters Character creation is sim ple in Magic: The Gathering Role Playing Gam e. The Gam e Master decides on the starting level - usually level 4. You gain ten tim es your level in ability points. Ability points are then spent on skills, but you m ay exhange two ability points for a card slot, or four for a Distinction. You m ay not have m ore Distinctions than your level. You m ay not start play with a skill level above 5. As a recom m endation, invest at least twice as m any points in skills as cards. This gives you a wide base of skills and abilities you m ay need to survive. Card slots represent m ajor spells, fo llo w e r s , a n d m a g ic a l ite m s . Distinctions are innate special abilities and skills. They’re both covered in detail later on. Characters usually start around level 4 because that level indicates they have strong skills, talents, and show prom ise in their chosen field. At the sam e tim e, they are not nearly m asters. A level 1 character has virtually no m agical abilities or talents, whereas a level 7 character is as powerful as m any great heroes. Only the m ajor characters get full write-ups. Minor followers, people on the street, and creatures use an abbreviated system . Major characters get certain special abilities - the skills and abilities included in a full writeup just for being im portant. Mana knows those who have great destinies, and protects them from certain forces.
Introduction
Major characters have five basic attributes - Type, Abilities, Cards, Distinctions, and Description. Som e have Disadvantages and a Species other than hum an or near-hum an. Taking these in order:
MTG:RPG lets you create and play characters in the worlds of MTG:CCG using your MTG:CCG cards without having to settle for short com bat-oriented sessions, having to struggle against each other, or necessarily playing Planewalkers. You can develop your characters over tim e, interact socially, and take on a wide variety of roles within the ongoing saga.
Type descriptions are supplied by type cards or by the gam e m aster. In either case, types have several basic elem ents - their level, ability m odifiers, and special abilities (if any). Just as in MTG:CCG their level is indicated by the num ber of Mana sym bols on the top of the card and their abilities are listed in the text block. As characters grow and gain new abilities they m ay change types and learn new roles.
You’ll need som e six sided dice and a character sheet, and you’ll probably want to have a 20-sided die and som e MTG:CCG cards available.
Abilities are sim ply ratings for how good a character is at particular tasks. For the basic gam e abilities are scored at ratings of 2 (unskilled, the norm al base score) through 10 (grandm aster). Abilities are divided into General and Exclusive categories. General abilities can be rolled even if a character hasn’t allotted any ability
The rules for MTG:CCG are available here, at http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/rules Since alm ost everything in a RPG revolves around the characters, that’s where we’ll start off.
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points to increase their level in them . Exclusive abilities cannot be used for anything except autom atic actions unless you’ve invested som e points in them . The abilities are listed on the basic character sheet.
have been using its power - at least until they pay for the privilege som ehow - lesser m agi often owe fealty to a Magelord. Planewalkers can tap into lands alm ost without lim it while operating in a battle-realm , but - while within a dim ension - operate under the sam e rules as Magelords. Gam e Masters who want to run land-poor gam es m ay opt to m ake initial lands m ore expensive, counting each as two card selections, and m ay or m ay not allow characters to start with any exotic lands in their selection. Since only one Planewalker or Magelord can control a land at a tim e, m ost Magelords are deeply concerned with the defense of their lands and with challenges to their control. Fortunately for them , they can usually leave such defense in the hands of com petent lesser m agi in their service.
Ability Level Descriptions Rank 0 Useless. Rank 1 N o t a b l y i m p a i r e d o r r a c i a l l y disadvantaged. Rank 2 Untrained. Basically a com petent person. Rank 3 Basic training. Rank 4 Ordinary professional level. Rank 5 Talented professional. Rank 6 Expert. Rank 7 Master. As skilled as norm al people ever becom e. Rank 8 Inhum an. O nly a dem igod can possibly m atch your level of m astery. Rank 9 Unbelievable. No one can possibly be that good without supernatural aid. Rank 10 Grandm aster. You have truly unearthly m astery of every possible application of the ability.
Creatures com e in hundreds of specific types but, for our purposes, only a few general ones. These include Beasts (m ore-or-less “natural” creatures), Aberrations (the undead, dragons, horrors from beyond and so on), Minions (knights, druids, elves, and so on), Spirits (nature spirits, elem entals, and related beings), and Constructs (golem s, war m achines, and sim ilar creations). Each is lim ited by a particular ability: a character cannot have m ore Beast cards or any Beast card with a higher level (converted Mana cost) than he or she has ranks in the Beast Mastery ability. Monsters are lim ited by the Aberration ability, Minions by Leadership, Spirits by Shamanism, and Constructs by Artificer. C haracters m ust also have high enough ratings in the relevant m agical attribute or attributes to be able to sum m on or bind the creature in question.
Ranks 11 and 12 are only available to characters with special racial aptitudes or unique enhancem ents. If it should becom e im portant, Rank 11 is Godlike, and is exceeded only by Rank 12 - Suprem acy. At Rank 12, no entity in the m ultiverse exceeds your m astery. Cards represent followers, lands, m ighty artifacts, great spells, and other precious resources gleaned from relics of the past, careful research, lengthy recruiting, and lucky finds. Their power can far surpass that of the abilities - but cards are far harder to com e by. There are several choices to m ake regarding cards.
For exam ple, if the Bringer of Doom is a horrible undead dragon which requires 4 Red and 4 Black Mana to sum m on in a norm al gam e, a character would need Aberration 8, Red Magic 8, Black Magic 8, and enough Mana to call it up. This isn’t easy. Secondarily, Creatures can be designated as Followers or as Conjurations when you acquire the card. Followers are with you all the tim e (leave the card face up on the table by your character sheet), at least unless you send them on an errand or leave them at hom e today and don’t require any Mana to recruit. On the upside, they’re tougher than Conjurations. Followers don’t die until -20 life, just like the player characters. On the other hand, they’re a lot harder to replace; if one dies, you’re going to have to find and recruit a replacem ent. If you have a card-drawing ability this generally only requires taking out som e tim e to go and recruit som eone. If not, it m ay require a m odest adventure. Of course, there are tim es when having a bunch of Followers trailing you is inappropriate - especially if one of them happens to be that Bringer of Doom. If one of your followers is killed, turn the card face down until you can find a replacem ent.
Lands are lim ited by the Mana Tapping ability and by the character’s innate talent. Magelords and Planewalkers actually control the full power of the lands they claim , gaining the powers of Landrule (page 31) and often ruling over their people and inhabitants. Sadly, that m ystical link leaves them open to the dangerous of a full-scale Duel Arcane (page 14). Lesser Magi are lim ited by their Mana Tapping ability and so can only draw Mana (at one point per day) from those lands to which they’re attuned. They cannot draw on the special powers of the Landrule without a Distinction and their Mana supply is subject to the whim s of any Magelord who claim s the sam e land. Magelords can use the special powers of those lands they control, perm it or block the flow of Mana to lesser m agi attuned to those lands on a whim (hence; “Magelord”), and m ay attune additional basic lands according to their level of talent. Unfortunately, their ability to attune exotic lands is still lim ited by their Mana Tapping ability and they can still only tap into Mana on a per-day basis. Since m ost Magelords’ first act on claim ing an area is to lock out any lesser m agi who
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Conjurations are short-term m agical sum m onings. This requires a lot of Mana, m eans that they’re banished or “die” at 0 life, and that they never last m ore than an hour or so, but it also m eans that they’re easy to get back. All a sum m oner has to do is take a brief break to rebuild the pattern of the spell and cast it again. Just like with Followers, once a Conjuration is “Slain,” or the duration of the sum m oning runs out, turn the card face down until your character gets a bit of rest (how m uch depends on the type of card, see page 35). Then put it back in your hand. Conjurations don’t get to act until the turn after they’re sum m oned. Token creatures can be either Followers or Conjurations. In either case, they count against the lim it on the appropriate type of card.
bonus cards they’d norm ally provide per turn at the start of each session. ! Card Draw cards which allow the user to draw extra cards during a turn can be used to refresh exhausted cards before their norm al refresh tim e is up. If the Dynam ic Magic option is in use, they can also be used to draw cards for use with that ability. ! C ards which force the discarding of other cards exhaust one card per card which would norm ally be sent to the graveyard or otherwise rem oved. If a target has no unexhausted cards they have no further effect. ! Cards which allow the user to search for a specified card can be used to fill a card slot which was left vacant at the beginning of the session or can be activated and then discarded to create a vacant slot. They’re useful in getting out a specific card to m eet a specific challenge, but deprive the user of the use of at least one slot in the m eantim e. ! Any card that ends the gam e in som e fashion can only be used by the Gam e Master - usually as part of a plot which the player characters want to stop. ! Epic Spells term inate after the end of the confrontation in which they were used. ! Any “Tokens” a card or spell creates count as cards of the sam e type, and count against restrictions on their m axim um num ber. Otherwise, since a MTG:RPG gam e can cover m any years of gam e tim e, anyone using a card which spawns tokens could have a lim itless num ber of them . ! Legend Cards are subject to restrictions: Since they represent unique places, individuals, and things, only one of each m ay be used in a gam e and the Gam e Master m ust approve them in advance. They’re never Conjurations; they’re always followers or real item s. Finally, any character who wants to control a legend card m ust have either the Planew alker or Legend Master Distinction. The Gam e Master will generally opt to require the com pletion of a special quest or m ission before allowing a Legend card to enter play. ! Global effects only apply to the cards which the user and any opposing Magelord(s) actually control. Other cards, and the world in general, are unaffected. ! Sacrificing lands sim ply m eans renouncing their link with you, not actually destroying them . The Gam e Master m ay rule that this also applies to legendary cards in general, since otherwise they would be perm anently rem oved from the gam e. ! T here are ten official cards (Polar Kraken, Hypnox, Inam e as One, Blinkm oth Infusion, Mox Lotus, M ycosynth Golem , Autochthon W urm , the expensive half of the Big Furry Monster duo, Draco and Gleem ax) with base costs of 11+. These cannot be controlled (although they CAN be unleashed) outside of Planewalker Duels without an appropriate Distinction, although it is possible to collect enough Mana to play m ost of them fairly readily. Secondarily, the Mox Lotus, Gleem ax, and possibly the Big Furry Monster are jokes, and should not be perm itted in MTG:RPG.
Artifacts are straightforward. W hether they’re item s or creatures they’re lim ited by the Artificer ability just as creatures are lim ited by their relevant abilities. Artifacts are usually perm anent item s. Followers can use m ost artifacts, even if they can’t norm ally be equipped to a creature. Enchantments are lim ited by the Enchantment ability. Enchantments which require upkeep require it on a daily basis, hence they’re m ost effective when applied to Followers. The enchantm ent ability can also be used to lay a variety of short-term , low-powered enchantm ents, such as night sight, slight (+1) increases in general abilities, or m aking som eone like you; these also occupy enchantm ent slots. Hence only the m ost seriously power-obsessed m agi try to m ax out their supply of m ajor (card) enchantm ents. Instants and Sorceries are lim ited by the Elem entalism ability. There is one m ajor distinction between them however; Instants work like Conjurations while Sorceries are sim ply powerful spells you happen to have acquired. Once you use an Instant you turn it face down until you have a bit of tim e off. Sorceries can be used as often as you want - as long as you have the Mana to power them . Given that creatures are m ore durable in MTG:RPG, Instants and Sorceries that do dam age inflict 1d6+1 dam age per point that they would norm ally inflict. Card-based effects do not require rolls to hit or Resist Magic checks unless they are instantdeath effects. Certain cards are subject to special rules in MTG:RPG. W hile m ost of these appear in the Keywords section (page 37), som e of the m ost com m on rules include: ! Card Draw cards which allow the user to draw an extra card during the draw step are only useful to reduce the tim e required to replace cards which have been destroyed - slain followers, broken artifacts, or devastated lands. Each card which would be drawn allows the user to replace one destroyed card at the beginning of each session without having to actually play out doing so. Perm anent item s provide whatever 4
Distinctions
it three tim es allows the chosen ability to be shared at up to rank 7, the m axim um possible. A character can share up to seven abilities with his or her followers, but no m ore.
Distinctions are special talents and privileges, the little touches which m ake characters extraordinary in a variety of w a ys . W h ile t h e r e a r e th ousands of p o ssible Distinctions, som e of the m ost com m on include:
Landbond. Landbond allows a Lesser Mage to attune to an additional two lands and to draw on the Landrule powers but does not open them to the Duel Arcane or allow them to keep others from tapping into the lands they’re attuned to. Unlike extra levels of th e M a g ic ia n D is tin c tio n , Landbond can be learned without difficulty after character creation.
Armsman I-IV. Arm sm en are m asters of weapons, arm or, and m elee com bat. Eac h lev el o f Arm s m a n provides +1 Defense (see Attacks under Using Abilities, page 16) and +1 power (1d6 dam age) in HTH com bat. A character who is deprived of his or her prim ary weapons or arm or loses one effective level of Arm sm an, one deprived of all weapons and arm or loses two - three if nothing is available to im provise with.
Legendary. To becom e Legendary a character m ust have at least 8 other Distinctions already and cannot have any level of Magician. It’s the difference between learning to channel Mana and becom ing a natural expression of it. In any case, a Legendary character gains som e exotic special ability, power, or talent unique to them and a +2 bonus to their effective rating in any 3 abilities selected by the Gam e Master (This m ay take their effective score up to a m axim um of 12). Legendary characters are rare and sought-after.
Enhanced Sense. Characters with this Distinction have augm ented sensory abilities. They m ay have a sense of sm ell like a bloodhound, be able to see in the infrared and ultraviolet, be able to operate in the dark by som e sort of “radar sense,” be able to hear the voices of the unquiet dead, or sense the presence of diseases and toxins. The sensory enhancem ent involved m ust be selected when this Distinction is taken and be approved by the Gam e Master - if only because he or she will have to describe what the character detects.
Legend Master. This Distinction lets a character control Legend cards. Unless the Gam e Master gives you special perm ission, you’ll norm ally have to have at least five other Distinctions first. Planewalkers don’t need this Distinction while they’re in a battle-realm ; under those circum stances they can control anything they can get ahold of.
Good-Looking. Good-Looking m akes you extrem ely attractive. Movie-star attractive. You’ll get invited to places sim ply because you’re so decorative, draw obsessed fans and groupies, and need never sleep alone. People will give you presents. Of course, they m ay also try to kidnap you to put you in a Harem or try to force you into m arriage, but there’s a price for everything.
(___) Lord. These Distinctions allow their users to partially bypass the restrictions on the num ber and power level of a particular type of card which they can control, increasing the m axim um level of the cards which they can control by +1 and the num ber of cards which they can control by +2. This Distinction m ay be applied to a particular card type up to three tim es.
Immunity. Im m unity allows the character to sim ply ignore the effects of som e sort of attack. Characters m ay be im m une to poison, to particular types of energy (fire, cold, lightning, etc), to particular colors (this allows a DC 18 Resist Magic check to overcom e), or even to som e effects, such as falls or being surprised. The Gam e Master will probably refuse to allow characters to take im m unity to too m any things.
Lucky. Som e people just get all the breaks. A lucky character gets three chances to reroll the dice per gam e session, dropping the old result in favor of the new one. They m ay even use m ultiple rerolls on a single roll if they’re determ ined enough. Magician I-IV. Lesser Mage (m ay tap into Mana from a num ber of lands equal to your Mana Tapping rank), Magelord I (first 3 basic lands of each type do not count against Mana Tapping lim it), Magelord II (first 5 basic lands of each type do not count against Mana Tapping lim it), Planewalker (see the Planewalker section; only
Inspiration. A character with Inspiration can share one of his or her abilities with his or her followers and Conjurations. If it’s applied to an ability once, the inspiring character can share it at up to rank 4. If it’s applied twice it can be shared at up to rank 6. Applying 5
available with GM approval). As a rule, it is very difficult or near-im possible to upgrade this Distinction after character creation.
Swarm Master. A Swarm Master m ay control four tokens over and above norm al lim its. This m ay be taken repeatedly.
M agical Talent
(___) Training. You possess the special abilities of one card of the sam e basic type as yourself provided that such abilities are arguably learned, that the card in question is not legendary, that the card in question has a converted Mana cost of four or less, and that the Gam e Master approves. For exam ple, a hum an character could learn to spend an action to generate one Black Mana each day (as per a Bog Initiate - a Hum an W izard), to give up your turn to counter a spell once each day (M undungu, an unspecified wizard), or to tem porarily enhance creatures (Nantuko Disciple, which m ay be an Insect, but is still a person and a Druid). Most of the general m onster abilities - Haste, First Strike, Vigilance, and so on, are both valid and encouraged. A full list can be found on page 37 under Keywords. He or she couldn’t learn to put a squirrel token into play each Turn and enhance squirrels like a Nut Collector Druid, since a Nut Collector costs a total of 6 Mana. Only a Dragon is likely to be able to be able to “learn” a breath weapon. Other powers, such as that of a Joiner Adept (lands m ay be tapped for M ana of any color) probably won’t be perm itted by the GM. As usual, any active effect generally works once per day. Any continuous effect is still continuous. This Distinction m ay be taken up to three tim es. Each tim e m ay either add new abilities or increase the level of a set of abilities by +3.
In MTG:RPG there are five basic levels of m agical power - non-m agi, who don’t use m agic at all, Hedge W izards, who practice the lesser m agical abilities but can’t use Mana, Lesser Magi, who can use Mana, but can’t control it’s flow in the land, Magelords, who can control external Mana flows, and Planewalkers, who can control the flow of Mana between the dim ensions. Hedge wizardry requires nothing but study, but actually using the higher levels of m agic requires special talents - although anyone can learn the required skills. Martial Artist I-IV. A Martial Artist gains a bonus of +1 to his or her Defense (see Attacks under Using Abilities, page 16) per level of Martial Artist and +1 power (+1d6 dam age) with Unarm ed Attacks for every two levels of Martial Artist. Might. Might allows you to inflict an extra 1d6 points of dam age with weapons, lift extra-heavy weights, and flex im pressively. It’s a favorite of warriors and m ay be taken up to twice for those who favor the body-builder look. Poison. Poison allows the character to dam age abilities. In general, a character can opt to have lethal poison (reduces the victim ’s Vigor by one point per attack), nonlethal poison (reduces any chosen ability by two points per attack), or a selection of non-lethal poisons (the user m ay select one ability from each group and choose which is reduced by one each tim e he or she attacks; Vigor is not a valid choice). Dam aged abilities recover at one point per Act and, if an ability is reduced to 0, the victim m ust roll a sim ple check for norm ally-autom atic effects using it.
Undead. Your body is either dead or never lived, is anim ated by the sam e m agic which binds your spirit into it, and has no m etabolism . You can’t be poisoned, are im m une to m any form s of environm ental dam age, do not age, and gain an extra 20 Life. You also lose access to the Regeneration and Green Magic abilities, cannot be affected by beneficial drugs and related m agic, and will have a variety of social problem s. This can also be used to represent Constructs, Golem s, and Plant creatures.
Role. Roles are defined social roles which provide special privileges. You don’t have to have this Distinction to claim such a title or include it in your character description. You do have to have it if you want the NPC’s to react appropriately. Anyone can be a priest. If you want to be a recognized priest from a m ajor faith, get special legal privileges, and call on the support of your tem ple, you’ll want to take it as a role. Possible roles include being a Priest, Noble, Diplom at, Guild Leader, Ruler of a City-State, Celebrity, Fabulous Courtesan, Law-Enforcem ent Official, and Heir Apparent.
W arlord. A W arlord m ay designate up to four of his or her cards as exam ples of garrison troops. W hile such cards have a m axim um level of (relevant ability/2) and cannot include Legend cards, a sim ilar set of troops or defenses is presum ed to be present to defend the m ystical nexus of each land a W arlord controls. For exam ple, a W arlord who has Beast M astery 8 and controls several level four Beasts could garrison each of his or her lands with four sim ilar creatures. He or she couldn’t pick a creature with a total Mana cost of 5+ (those are too powerful) or a legendary creature like Shizuko Caller of Autumn even though Shizoko only costs 3 Mana.
Sharpshooter I-IV. Each level of Sharpshooter increases the power of a character’s ranged attacks by +1, thus adding 1d6 points of dam age to a successful attack. Every two levels provides a +1 bonus on the user’s attack rolls.
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Descriptions
characters m ay only start with one disadvantage unless they pick up a second one due to their species - and any they pick up in play don’t com e accom panied by any com pensating Distinction(s). Som e possibilities here include:
There aren’t any gam e m echanics for your character’s description. A character’s age, sex, build, description, m ajor personality traits, religion, background, fam ily, and any other details you care to invent don’t m odify your abilities or dice rolls, just how you apply them . Still, they’re probably one of the m ost im portant things you can provide for your character. W e’ve left the entire back of the character sheet blank for them - and for m any players, that won’t be enough. W e have left a place on the front for som e of the m ost im portant bits; no character is com plete without a nam e. Most of them should have a title - “Enchanter of the Third Circle,” “Ringm aster,” or even som ething m undane, like “Scout” - and m any belong to som e organization, or at least did at one point.
Addiction. You don’t have to have it, but you suffer a penalty of -1 to -3 (the easier your addiction is to fulfill, the worse the penalty when you can’t since you’re less used to doing without) on all die rolls if you can’t get a regular fix. Things like “m ust have coffee in the m orning” don’t count unless you’re pretty m uch useless without it. Bad Luck. For those cursed with Bad Luck nothing ever goes well. If you take this disadvantage the Gam e Master is entitled to m ake your life m iserable in a wide variety of m inor ways and to request that you reroll a successful check up to three tim es per session. This will usually happen just when you got a really good roll, so you’re unlikely to accom plish any legendary feats. Berserker. The character m ay not withdraw from com bat and m ust m ake a sim ple Psyche check to refrain from attacking friends if out of enem ies. On the upside, he or she does gain a +1 bonus on his or her attacks. Crippled. You have an upper lim it of rank five in 2-4 GM-selected skills which should be im portant to your character. (Note that if you can’t live with what the Gam e Master com es up with, you can pick another disadvantage instead).
Disadvantages (Optional) Up until this point, everything about a character has been positive. Characters m ay, however, have severe drawbacks - addictions, com pulsions, m ajor enem ies, and sim ilar problem s. If you want to add such a thing to your character, there are three steps - com e up with a description of your handicap, get the Gam e Master to approve it, and then add it and a com pensating bonus Distinction to your character sheet. Perhaps fortunately,
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Cursed. Som ething nasty happens periodically. Perhaps any building you shelter in for m ore than a few days catches fire or collapses, NPC’s in the area catch horrible diseases, you’re an uncontrollable lycanthrope, or your blood catches fire and does extra dam age to you whenever you’re hit. Honor. The character m ay not decline an honorably offered challenge. Most honorable characters also tend to keep their words, protect innocents, and otherwise be chivalrous, but nastier types often just like to fight. Hunted. Som e large and powerful group, or som e individual enem y with lots of m inions, is after you. Expect to be attacked at the m ost inconvenient tim es. Oversized. You’re huge. You won’t fit into ordinary vehicles or buildings, take double dam age from falls, eat enorm ously, and are extrem ely conspicuous. Prejudice. W hether it’s a racial reputation, an aura of m alevolence, or som e twist of fate, you’re generally despised and prejudged. Merchants won’t deal with you or let you in their shops, the local authorities always assum e the worst about you, and sm all children m ay throw rocks. W ill you suffer nobly and try to overcom e such prejudice or will you return such hatred? Sustenance. You have som e exotic dietary or environm ental requirem ent; if you don’t get it every day you’ll begin taking dam age, fall unconscious, or suffer som e other awful consequence. You m ay need to be im m ersed in fresh water every few hours, devour the essence of a sentient being each day, or need to drink a brew m ade from T ana leaves (sem i-legendary and very difficult to find) each week.
Angel (no cost) Angels are, at least in terms of the system, sim ply humans with Flight (and often Vigilance) and an affinity for W hite Magic. If you want to play one just create such a character. Aven (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Evasion, W hite Magic, and Reaction. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Artificer, Craftsm an, and W hite Magic. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Flying Racial Drawback: Fragile. For all their wingspan, Aven are hollow-boned, light, and m ostly m ade of skin and feathers. They cannot take Arm sm an III or IV and take an extra 1d6 points of dam age from any m elee attack. Adults: Adult Aven norm ally pick up a few points of Movem ent, Perception, and Ranged W eapons. Griffins, creatures of wind and passion, have only a few sentient subspecies, but can use much the same modifiers. Simply substitute Red Magic for W hite Magic and add Unarmed Combat I, for a net cost of one Distinction. A few types use magic to help them fly. These subspecies drop the Fragile drawback in favor of No Hands. Centaur (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Movem ent, Toughness, and Vigor. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Stealth, Evasion, and Finance. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Might I Racial Drawback: Centaurs are very large; they have a hard tim e fitting into m ost buildings or vehicles, eat enorm ously, take double dam age from falls, and are very conspicuous. Adults: Should have a m inim um Movem ent and Vigor of 4, but don’t require anything exotic beyond that, hence m ost centaur characters start off as adults.
Further exam ples can be found under the Species listing below; the racial drawbacks are sim ply exam ples of Disadvantages. It is possible to get rid of a disadvantage; you have to either em bark on som e m ighty quest to do so or, if the problem is purely internal (such as an Addiction or Berserker) spend a distinction to “buy it off” and spend at least one Story doing so.
Cephalid (squid-people) (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Blue Magic, Serpent-Tongue, and Larceny. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to . Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Cephalids com m unicate by a lim ited form of telepathy, and so can both com m unicate silently and bypass language barriers with non-artifact creatures. Racial Drawback: Boneless. Cephalids m ay not increase their Vigor, Fortification, Melee W eapons or Unarm ed Com bat skills above 5 and cannot take Arm sm an III or IV. Adults: Adult Cephalids are usually either dom inated or enslaved by other Cephalids or have an assortm ent of servants of their own. They don’t usually get along with anyone (including each other) who isn’t entirely under their control.
Species (Optional) The vast m ajority of playable species in MTG:RPG are a lot like hum ans - enough so that the differences can be readily represented through sim ply varying the Distinctions and abilities they purchase. More exotic races, or players who want a m ore detailed representation of a hum an-like race, can take a species package - norm ally consisting of 3 abilities with a +1 initial bonus (this m ay raise them above the usual starting lim it) and a racial m axim um of 12, three abilities with -2 penalties and a racial m axim um of 8, an autom atic Distinction and an autom atic disadvantage. More powerful species m ay require the investm ent of additional Distinctions or sim ply start off young and inexperienced. Characters don’t have to start off with the stuff listed in the “Adults” line, but should probably have it by the tim e they’ve gone up a few levels.
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Demons and Devils Oddly enough, Demons and Devils, like Angels, require no special rules. They’re generally evil entities with an affinity for Black Magic and some of them have Flying. If you want to play one, just create such a character. A few are very powerful, and require regular sacrifices to bind them into the material world - but they’re obviously not suitable as characters anyway.
Adults: Adult elves are usually either attuned to a forest or two or have Lifeweaking. In either cast, they also usually have a few Beast followers and often know how to sum m on som e sort of anim al to their assistance. Dark Elves are arguably a separate subspecies, attuned to the powers of the Void rather than Life. Dryads usually have Forestwalk instead of Enhanced Sense, but otherwise use the same modifiers.
Djinn and Efreet W hile many Djinn and Efreet have flying and their special powers are usually considered to be “innate” rather than “learned,” they operate under the normal rules.
Giant (costs 2 Distinctions) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Vigor, Toughness, and Fortification. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Stealth, Scholar, and Reaction. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Might, Arm sm an II Racial Drawback: Giants are very large; they have a hard tim e fitting into m ost buildings or vehicles, eat enorm ously, take double dam age from falls, and are very conspicuous. Adults: Adult giants are even bigger, and norm ally have high scores in Vigor, Fortification, Toughness, and in W eapons skills. M ost such titans will also have Arm sm an IV and various other com bative distinctions.
Dragon (costs 2 Distinctions) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Fortification, Toughness, and Vigor. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Larceny, Leadership, and Stealth. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction(s): Unarm ed Com bat II, Flying Racial Drawback: Dragons have a hard tim e fitting in anywhere due to their sheer size, hoarding instinct, and arrogance. Outside of cities they tend to be m ajor targets. Adults: Should have Unarm ed Com bat 4, Might, one or m ore Enhanced Senses and either Doublestrike (representing a breath weapon) or Poison. High levels of the Elem entalism , Fortification, Finance, “Unarm ed” Com bat, and Evasion abilities are in order as well. Most dragon characters start off fairly young and m ature slowly. Drakes are smaller relatives of Dragons, and often possess interesting magical powers. Unfortunately for would-be players, they’re generally animalistic rather than sentient.
Goblins and Orcs (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Engineering, Sleights, and Regeneration. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Artificer, Scholar, and Finance. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Fool’s Luck. Goblins m ay ignore the consequences of any single event - evading a big attack, using them selves as a sacrifice, or whatever once per Act. Racial Drawback: Utter Incom petence. Goblins have to pay double when purchasing any ability above 4. Player-Characters m ay opt to substitute Cowardice, in which case they m ust flee or hide one round after taking dam age. Adults: Adult goblins tend to dabble in everything, and are good at nothing - except at producing m ore and m ore goblins. Oddly enough, Goblins are actually good at using tools and technological tinkering. Unfortunately for them, virtually everything in MTG is based on magic. They’re also notable for having one of the most potent racial distinctions, and worst drawbacks, on the list.
Dw arf (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Artificer, Engineering, and Red Magic. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Courtier, Politician and Sham anism . Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: The dwarven racial Distinction is not having any racial drawback. Racial Drawback: None. See above. Adults: Adult dwarves are usually skilled in Sleights and have a fondness for devices involving fire, sm oke, and explosions. M ost of them also have a fair level in the Arm sm an Distinction, but this is not a hard rule.
Leonin (and other cat-people) (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Athletics, Evasion, and Reaction. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Artificer, Craftsm an, and W hite Magic. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Vigilance. Racial Drawback: Leonin are extrem ely tribal. They will never abandon their tribem ates or party m em bers. Adults: Adult Leonin generally have an extra point or two in their racial skills and decent com bat skills. Most Leonin characters start off as adults.
Elf (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Beast Master, Green Magic, and Evasion. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Leadership, Politician, and Serpent-Tongue. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Enhanced Sense. Elves can see into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum s. Racial Drawback: Vulnerability; Elves are extrem ely sensitive to toxins. They take double dam age from poison and suffer 1d6 life points of dam age per day spent in a “destroyed” land.
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Loxodon (elephant-people) (costs 1 Distinction) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Fortification, Toughness, and Vigor. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Am bush, Stealth, and Larceny. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Might, any one Im m unity of choice. Racial Drawback: Dedication. Once they’ve given their word or undertaken a m ission, a Loxodon will carry out their task even if it kills them . Secondarily, thanks to its corrosive effects on oaths, Loxodon will never take the Black Magic ability. Adults: Adult Loxodon norm ally possess fair ranks in their racial skills - they are towering elephant-folk after all - and a fair am ount of W hite M agic if they have at least Magician I.
Nezumi-bito (ratfolk) (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Larceny, Saboteur, and Stealth. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Politician, Sham anism , and Enchantm ent. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Clannish. Ratfolk have lots and lots of relatives, and can call on them for assistance. Racial Drawback: Prejudice. Everyone thinks that ratfolk are disgusting little m onsters. Adults: Adult ratfolk are usually very good at being treacherous sneaks, and have decent ranks in their racial skills. Orochi-bito (4-arm ed snake people) (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Green Magic, Stealth, and Psyche. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Aberration, Artificer, and Streetwise. R acial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Poison. Racial Drawback: Cold Blooded. Orochi-bito take a -2 penalty on all ability checks while chilled, including after being blasted with cold m agic. Adults: Adult Orochi-bito belong to either the Kashi (archer), Matsu (warrior), or Sakura (m agician) orders within their society, and are expected to m aster the appropriate skills.
M erfolk (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Enchantm ent, Blue Magic, and Survival. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Artificer, Craftsm an, and Engineering. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: W ater im m unity. Merfolk cannot be harm ed by water, including agents such as acids and corrosives, and can breathe and function without hindrance underwater. Racial Drawback: W aterbound. Merfolk have no legs and cannot breathe above water for long. They usually have the good sense to stay in the water, and so are rarely adventurers. Adults: Other than a tendency towards high Perception and Survival skills (and m astery of Blue Magic if they have the talent to use it) there isn’t that m uch else distinctive about adult m erfolk.
Soratami or M oonfolk (no cost) These characters are essentially simply humans with Flying. Treefolk (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Mana Tapping, Sham anism , and Herb Mastery. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Artificer, Courtier, and Movem ent. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Plant. W hile they do have a very slow m etabolism , their bodies are still anim ated by m agic. This is equivalent to the Undead distinction. Racial Drawback: Methodical. Treefolk are slow to travel, slow to m ake decisions, and slow to act. They always go last regardless of their Reaction check and cannot effectively pilot any vehicle. Adults: Adult Treefolk tend to be huge, have the Might distinction, and tend towards high ranks in Touch of Life, Green Magic, Fortification, Vigor, and Resist Magic. They’re often Scholars as well as Sham ans and Herb Masters. Like any other tree, Treefolk take a long tim e to reach their full potential. Yes, Treefolk need to invest at least one point in Movement to learn to move at all.
M inotaur (no cost) Most Minotaurs are powerful warriors; they usually have Might and at least Armsman II. On the other hand, so does almost any human barbarian. Outside of the funny looks there really isn’t that much difference. Nantuko (insect-druids) (no cost) Racial Modifiers: +1 to Enchantm ent, Green Magic, and Survival. Racial m axim um of 12 in these abilities. -2 to Artificer, Craftsm an, and Engineering. Racial m axim um of 8 in these abilities. Racial Distinction: Unarm ed Com bat I. Their claws and chitinous arm or m ean that no Nantuko is ever truly unarm ed. Racial Drawback: Fragile. W earing their skeleton as a thin layer on the outside of their bodies leaves the Nantuko vulnerable to physical attacks, taking an extra +1 dam age per 1d6 in the attack. Adults: Adult Nantuko are usually attuned to one or two forests and can call on a beast or two to help them out.
Vedalken (4-arm ed aquatic people) (no cost) Vedalken are essentially just really ugly Merfolk and can use the same modifiers. Some of them have power suits which let them get out of the water; these count as a level 3 Technology card effect.
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Character Templates
can be accom plished without it. Classical hedge wizards include W ise W om en and Cunning Men, Seers and Diviners, Druids, W izards, and sim ple Herbalists. Oddly enough, alm ost every Hedge W izard is a bit scruffy, late m iddle-aged or older, and carries around a collection of unidentifiable occult paraphernalia. A Hedge W izard’s abilities usually include Perception, Scholar, Psyche, Resist Magic, Healing, and several of the lesser m agical abilities - T ouch of Life, Magesight, Elem entalism , Phantasm , Artificer, Divination, Slights, Sham anism , Enchantm ent and Herb Mastery. Variants don’t really exist; each Hedge W izard tends to be a variant onto him - or her-self.
MTG:RPG doesn’t have character classes - but there are som e recognizable “tem plates” out there. All of them are a little larger than life; MTG is about m ighty heroes, grand rulers, arm ies sweeping across continents, and legendary artifacts. The RPG does allow for less epic characters, but it really isn’t designed for petty thieves, youngsters just out of m ilitia training, and junior apprentices. Even if you decide to act like a petty con artist or street thug, your talents are alm ost always quite exceptional. Dragons are im pressive - but even a beginning group of player characters can probably take one down.
The Lesser Mage. W hile they do not - or at least do not yet possess the inner spark which m akes a Magelord, m uch less t h e p r im a l p o w e r o f a Planewalker, lesser m agi can becom e quite powerful. W hile they’re com m on as PC’s, they’re rare enough in the gam e world to m ake each one unique. A Lesser Mage’s abilities (pretty m uch by definition) include one or m ore (Color) Magic abilities, Mana Tapping and/or Lifewreaking. They’ll need at least one or two of the lesser m agic abilities as well. Finally, if they expect to survive for long, a bit of Vigor, Resist Magic, Perception and Evasion are probably in order - along with whatever talents are needed to r o u n d o u t th e c h a ra c te r conception. Unfortunately, this usually m eans that their abilities are spread pretty thin. Most beginning lesser m agi are far m ore talented than skilled. Lesser Magi usually have a title for them selves - Necrom ancer, Adept, Forestlord, Channeler, Invoker, or whatever. This m ay or m ay not indicate anything about their specialities.
Som e of the m ost com m on tem plates, and appropriate abilities for them , include: The Assassin or Spy. Unlike real spies, m ost of whom spend alm ost all their tim e being quiet and listening, fantasy spies are flam boyant and sinister. Cloaks and daggers are pretty m uch m andatory. Outside of that all you need is a com pletely ruthless personality. S p ie s u s u a lly need Perception, Stealth, Psyche, Slights , Investigation, Saboteur, Larceny, Persuasion, and som e sort of W eapons ability. If they’re spying on a m age, they’ll probably need Magesight as well. The Barbarian Hero. Star of a thousand tales and really bad m ovies, the Barbarian Hero is big, m uscular, and likes to dress in furs, leather straps, and a supply of sharp objects regardless of sex. They’re usually cunning and loyal, but have a regrettable tendency to go bersek. His or her abilities com m only include Athletics, Evasion, Stealth, Survival, Toughness, Endurance, Vigor, Melee W eapons, and/or Ranged W eapons, all topped off with a point or two in Fortification and Regeneration. Variants include Amazon W arriors (usually only differing stylistically), Rangers (who often know a bit of Green Magic, Beast Mastery, and Mana Tapping), and Beastmasters (Green Magic, Beast Mastery, a few Beast cards, and [usually] Lifewreaking).
The Magelord. Second only to a Planewalker in their raw power, experienced Magelords are laws onto them selves. Beginners, however, no m atter how talented, have only one real advantage over Lesser Magi: whatever powers they derive from Landrule. They m ay not even control any lands; settling for sim ple attunem ent as the Lesser Magi m ust. After all, if you actually claim a land in your own right instead of acting as som eone else’s vassal, you have to defend it. The Merchant. Merchants are rarely especially heroic, but they are very good at com ing out ahead. Oddly enough, virtually all of them are m iddle-aged. In general, a quick look at a Merchant’s clothing will
The Hedge W izard. W hile - like alm ost everyone else - the Hedge W izard cannot m anipulate Mana directly, there are an im m ense variety of feats which 11
suffice to tell you what he or she deals in, their rank in whatever organization they belong to, and how prosperous they are (this can also be m easured by their expanding waistline). Appropriate abilities for Merchants include Scholar, Perception, Land Vehicles, Finance, Investigation, Leadership, Persuasion, and Serpent-Tongue. Those with wide-spread operations often dabble in Divination, Politics, and Repute as well.
The Thief. A sneaky, cunning, fellow who m ay know how to use a knife when he has to, but prefers to get things done in m ore subtle ways. The Thief usually prefers to look like an ordinary person, and so sticks with light - and so readily concealable - arm or, weapons, and equipm ent. They often dabble in m agic, but rarely understand what they’re doing very well. His or her abilities usually include Evasion, Perception, Stealth, Resist Magic, Investigation, Saboteur, Larceny, Persuasion, and Serpent-Tongue. Most also know how to use a weapon or two reasonably well and m any use Sleights. Variants include Pirates (with som e weapons skills and W ater Vehicles), Highwaymen (who often rely as m uch on Repute and Persuasion as on their weapons), Con Men (relying on Persuasion, Serpent-Tongue, and som etim es Phantasm ), and even Minstrels (using Arts and P ersuasion) and Bards (who m ix the Arts with a bit of Scholar and other hedge m agic).
The Planewalker. Superficially, a young Planewalker m ay not com m and any m ore active m agical power than a young Magelord or even a Lesser Mage. However they are far tougher - and have a potential lifespan of m any m illennia. After a few centuries m ortals rarely defeat them . After a m illennia or two m ortals generally don’t even m atter to them any m ore - presum ing that they have any sanity left at all. Even the m ost benign and disciplined m ind m ust eventually give way beneath the ever-increasing weights of power, m em ory, and tim e. Som e of the greatest heroes, and m ost terrible villians of all tim e have been Planewalkers - enough on its own to m ake folk fear and dread them . Inexperienced Planewalkers are probably well-advised to avoid revealing that status.
The W arrior. Your basic hum an tank, usually found with a more cunning com panion t o p r o v i d e d ir e c t io n s . T h e W arrior likes to wear heavy arm or, c a rrie s a w id e variety of weapons, and often leads a s m a ll tr o o p o f lesser fighters. H is or her abilities com m only inc lud e Vigo r, Fortification, E v a s i o n , Endurance, Magic Resistance, Regeneration, Melee W eapons, Ranged W eapons, and Leadership. Those with troops will need a bit of W hite Magic to fulfill the card prerequisites even if they can’t use m agic directly. Variants include Paladins and Holy W arriors (who usually know a bit of actual m agic), Knights (who m ay buy up their m ovem ent or athletics abilities to represent a m undane m ount or actually have the power to control an extraordinary one), Leaders (who concentrate on followers, along with the tactical and enhancem ent abilities needed to use them to their best advantage), Mercenaries (who usually have Am bush, Engineering, a selection of practical skills, and an aversion to actually fighting if they can avoid it), and Blademasters (those characters who represent their Fortification ability as parries and blocks).
The Priest. Servants of som e philosophy or god, priests vary enorm ously - but alm ost all of them carry a selection of holy sym bols, wear a distinctive costum e, and tend to try and govern the behavior of everyone around them . Regardless of whether they’re a good priest or a bad one, their religion plays a m ajor role in their lives. If it doesn’t they’re just con m en, not priests. A Priest’s abilities usually include Perception, Mana Tapping (often attuned to a tem ple or two), Psyche, Scholar, Finance, Politician, Persuasion, and Repute. Most have som e skill in m agic, but the type depends heavily on what he or she serves. Variants include Healers (with Healing or Touch of LIfe), Mad Scientists (“priests” of science with Engineering or Artificer), and eastern-style m artial-arts Monks (with a bit of Unarm ed Com bat and possibly Lifewreaking). The Scholar. Usually either a som ewhat ineffectual young m an or an elderly one, the scholar tends to be bookish and skinny, dresses in robes, and often seem s som ewhat ineffectual. Of course, in a world where m agic works, such an im pression m ay be entirely false. For som e reason the vast m ajority of Scholars are m ale. The Scholar’s abilities usually include Perception, Investigation, P syche, Resist Magic, Artificer, Divination, Scholar, Enchantm ent, and Herb Mastery. Quite a few dabble in m agic, but rarely in any predictable fashion.
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Designing Character Types
Distinctions m ust also be justified by som e event in the gam e, whether that’s being hailed as a hero, getting m arried, bathing in a m ystic pool, or studying with a follower who has the Distinction you want to learn.
W hen creating character types, or if you want to com pare an experienced character to a beginner, the rule-of-thum b is that each Ability point is worth 1, each Card is worth 2, and each Distinction is worth 4. Add these up, divide by 10, and round off the result to obtain the character’s initial level / total Mana cost. Most starting characters have initial levels of 4 to 6. The casualty rate am ong weaker characters tends to be fairly high.
Optionally, Gam e Masters m ay opt to play a m ore active roll in card-based character advancem ent. In this case, each player who wants new cards should file a few - two or three will do - with the Gam e Master, who will then work chances to acquire those cards into the story. Characters m ay also trade out old cards. To do so, they sim ply inform the Gam e Master of their decision at the start of a session and rem ove the card. They m ay then attem pt to fill the open slot norm ally during the next gam e session.
W hile the Gam e Master m ay allow exceptions, few starting characters are superhum an experts. As a rule, low level characters should start with low abilities, although they m ay build them up through experience. Characters of level 1 are usually lim ited to rank 3, those of levels 2-3 are usually lim ited to rank 4, those of levels 4-5 are usually lim ited to rank 5, and those of higher ranks to a level equal to their rank. Non-m agi can exceed these lim itations by one rank; they sim ply have m ore tim e available to develop their other abilities.
Opportunity Aw ards Gam e Masters m ay want to restrict what characters buy with their experience at tim es. After all, if som e poor characters find a horde of treasure it doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask them to each spend a point or two on Finance. On the other hand, a character who knows how to handle m oney probably has som e already, while those who don’t will soon be broke again. Such situations are handled by Opportunity Awards - event-driven chances for easier self-im provem ent. Mechanically they’re pretty sim ple: the characters get a chance to “buy” (and som etim es a chance to try out in advance) whatever the Gam e Master elects to offer for half price. Most com m only, that m eans two ability points per one; those poor characters m ight gain a tem porary +2 boost to their Finance abilities. If they want to m ake that perm anent, it would only cost them one ability point. Those who don’t learn to Manage their finances will thus shortly squander their new wealth.
Character Advancement Characters advance by gaining new Abilities, Cards, and Distinctions. The only real question is how fast such things are acquired. The Gam e Master m ay opt to let characters advance at the end of each m ajor episode or “story” in a cam paign. In this case characters gain 3 ability points, two card slots, and one Distinction at the end of each story - probably once every 3-5 sessions. The only com plication is that raising an ability above 5 costs two points per step. Alternatively, the Gam e Master m ay sim ply base things on the num ber of sessions a character’s been played. In this case we recom m end awarding one ability point per session (double cost to raise abilities above 5 again), one card slot per two sessions, and one Distinction per four sessions. Gam e Masters who want rapid character progressions can sim ply apply both m ethods. Characters m ay opt to reduce the num ber of card slots they’d norm ally have available in exchange for additional ability points or Distinctions; a card slot m ay be exchanged for 2 ability points or for 1/2 a Distinction.
Fiat Rew ards Som e form s of character advancem ent don’t affect the gam e m echanics very m uch, although they m ay affect play quite a bit. These story-based awards are known as Fiat Rewards and usually only affect a lim ited area. Of course, unless you’re a Planewalker, you m ay never leave such an area. Som e of the m ajor item s in this category include: ! Authority. You’re in charge of som ething, usually due to having obtained som e m ore-or-less official position. You m ay have becom e the chief constable of a city, the trusted advisor of a m ajor king, or the kingpin of a band of thieves. ! Contacts. You’ve m et, and are on relatively good term s with, som eone im portant. This m ay be a powerful W izard or even a Planewalker, a m ajor ruler, or sim ply som eone it’s useful to know, like a good fence, expert scholar, or m ilitary leader. ! Fam e. W hether it’s good or bad, the tales of your exploits are widely spread, m instrels sing about you, and you get your own footnotes in the scrolls. They m ay or m ay not be saying nice things, but m ost people seem to regard it as a reward either way.
In either case, advancing a character usually requires a bit of tim e. Abilities usually don’t require m uch beyond an announcem ent that “I’m studying or practicing thus-and-such,” although the GM m ay choose to m ake raising them above level 5 require assistance. Cards m ust be justified; the character m ay have to visit the m ystical heart of a land to attune him or her-self to it, seek out the followers he or she wishes to recruit, or delve into ancient tom es for som e obscure spell.
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! Favors. Having som ebody owe you som ething is always useful. On occasion, having som eone im portant or influential owe you som ething can be absolutely vital. Favors from m ajor supernatural beings are to be treasured, even by powerful m agi. ! Lifestyle. W hether you’ve acquired an estate, are a favored guest of the wealthy, or have a stipend, you can have a good tim e without having to pay for it in at least one area. W hile this doesn’t include spare cash, at least the food, drink, and service are all excellent. ! Marriage. Like it or not, the opportunity to m ake an advantageous m arriage has always been regarded as a notable prize. Player characters, however, m ay well regard this sort of “reward” as som ething exceedingly awkward to deal with. Still, if Urza can do it... ! Recognition. This m ay m ean m edals, awards, or titles, an honorary trium ph, or som e esoteric cerem ony, but it always m eans public acknowledgm ent, at least a brief period of being a celebrity, and a certain am ount of social credit to draw on.
attune to them and pick up a free eight-card advantage? W hy can’t he just teach them that bit of sorcery, hire a few followers, or spend som e m oney buying som e new equipm ent? It’s because attuning yourself to lands, learning spells, and increasing your sorcerous lim its requires im m ense am ounts of tim e and effort. Getting new equipm ent involves learning to use it, new abilities involve training and practice, and loyal followers take tim e and effort to recruit. Your friend the Magelord can certainly open his lands to you - but if you want to attune one you’ll still need an open card slot and a high enough level in Mana Tapping to accom m odate another land. For convenience’s sake, if you’re attuning to a land that someone else holds, simply use a slip of paper with their name and the type of land on it as a token.
The Duel Arcane
Replacing Characters Unlike Lesser Magi, Magelords can link to the land they control so tightly that com plex m agical energy structures can pass over the link. W hile this grants them access to the Landrule and lets them cast spells which take effect at the m ystical center of one of their lands, it also allows them to be arcanely attacked by anyone at the m ystical center of one of their lands (i.e. they can be targeted by Instants, Sorceries, and lesser m agics despite being a very long ways away). Such a battle will continue until the landowner renounces the
Unfortunately, characters som etim es die - and while there are cards which can resurrect the dead, they aren’t always available. Players m ay norm ally bring in a replacem ent character with a level two below the average level of the rest of the group. So why can’t your friend, a Magelord who controls eight lands, just let every lesser m age in the group 14
link (and the control of the land), is slain (and the land, presum ably, claim ed by the new owner), or the interloper is either slain or driven off. In either case, any creatures which were sum m oned to either location m ust still be dealt with or escaped. In any case, the land cannot be tapped for Mana while it’s being fought over. To avoid hit-and-run or gang attacks, m ost Magelords try to conceal which lands they own, seek out lands in rem ote/dangerous/obscure locations to claim , leave guards at each nexus, or arrange for the locals to protect them . Such tasks are a ready source of em ploym ent - and Mana - for Lesser Magi. Such arcane battles tend to erupt out of nowhere at awkward tim es, specifically centered on two opposing, if widely-separated, spellcasters. Given the unpopularity of sudden outbreaks of m onsters and destructive m agic, incautious Magelords m ake unwelcom e guests. Planewalkers are subject to the Duel Arcane, but if the challenger is also a Planewalker the initial challenge-contact autom atically invokes a full Planewalker’s Duel.
Let us hope that no such conflict occurs until long, long, after we are dead and our civilizations have fallen into dust. The Planewalker Distinction has four basic effects: 1) A Planewalker’s body is purely an expression of his or her will. Planewalkers need not eat, drink, sleep (although those who don’t tend to go m ad rapidly), or breathe, do not age, and take only 1 point of dam age per die which would norm ally apply. Sadly, they don’t heal easily either; m agical cures are discounted at the sam e rate. 2) W hen thrown back on their own resources they are reduced, at least at first, to a m ere 20 life. If they draw on the correct forces in a battle-realm , however, they m ay expand this alm ost without lim it. 3) W hen entangled in a battle-realm their m ultiplanar existence allows them to transcend all norm al lim its on the num ber of m agical resources (cards) they m ay control - but they do have an upper lim it; when they reach it their m ulti-planar structure will shatter under the strain
The Planewalker’s Duel Planewalker’s Duels are am ong the m ost devastating of m ortal conflicts, capable of m atching or exceeding anything short of interplanetary war. On the other hand, m any worlds have endured hundreds of such battles - and survived. W hat m akes such survival this possible is the nature of the P la n e w a lk e rs the m s e lve s . T h e ir transdim ensional, polym orphic, natures protect them and allow them to tap into vast energies - but also m ean that when two of them choose to confront each other, the true battleground lies between the dim ensions. Depending on how they choose to perceive it, they m ay be virtually face-to-face, or they m ay be separated by vast distances, m oving troops like chess pieces, but such appearances change nothing. Entering such a com prom ise-plane will m om entarily cut each Planewalker off from their usual resources - forcing them to reach out and draw to them selves whatever resources they find ready for use and are m ost attuned to in the great library of the m ultiverse. Victory in such a confrontation depends som ewhat on luck, but m ostly on who m akes the best use of the resources that com e to hand. W hether for well or ill, the loser is rarely truly slain; m ost often they escape unharm ed, although they occasionally forfeit a sliver of their essence to the victor. Regardless of who achieves the victory, no m atter what forces and spells are unleashed, their effects are inherently limited to the battle-realm and those creatures, items, and areas which have been drawn partially into it. Thus even a “Global Rain of Fire” or a spell of “Arm ageddon” will only affect a few isolated locations, item s, and creatures. Only ancient and vastly powerful Planewalkers of nearly equal power can keep a battle going long enough to draw in any significant portion of a world.
4) Planewalkers who attem pt to directly confront each other are autom atically drawn into a battle-realm as described above for a standard gam e of MTG:CCG. If m ore than two are involved, sim ply use the m ultiplayer rules. Taking the Planewalker Distinction requires prior approval from the Gam e Master. Planewalker-only Distinctions exist. These include the ability to change appearance at will (Metam orph), the ability to sim ply “walk” between dim ensions instead of having to cast spells (Passage), and the ability to extend som e of their personal defenses to their creatures in a battle-realm (Vanguard). In other words, the basic MTG:CCG rules call for starting by building a deck (deciding what you’re attuned to), starting with 20 life, drawing your initial hand (the first resources you can grab), and then continuing to draw whenever you can until you lose and escape (players rarely quit playing magic entirely over a loss), possibly lose an ante card (this is rare, but a few games are still played with the ante rule), or quit playing entirely. If you run out of cards you lose. Of course, now you know how the basic magic rules interact with the world they’re set in - and what kinds of effects they can have on the characters who aren’t directly involved. Knowledge may not necessarily be power, but it is a chance to duck.
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Using Abilities
Optionally, characters can declare that they’re using an Totally Offensive, Offensive, Norm al, Defensive, or Totally Defensive stance. A Total Offensive stance allows the user to attack twice, but he or she is autom atically hit by anyone who attacks him or her. An Offensive stance provides a +2 bonus to attack at the price of a -3 penalty on Defense. A Norm al stance has no m odifiers. A Defensive stance grants a +2 bonus to Defense at the cost of a -3 penalty to attacks. Finally, a Totally Defensive stance provides a +5 bonus to Defense, but does not allow the user to attack at all.
Classical d20 uses a d20 for most rolls. W e recommend using the optional 3d6 rule instead; the resulting bell curve matches reality a great deal better than the linear distribution of a single die. It also means that you don’t need any fancy dice to play: a selection of standard six-sided dice suffices. Abilities can be used both Passively and Actively. All of them can be used passively, without rolling. Unfortunately, passive effects are quite lim ited, and m any abilities don’t offer any at all. By default, all abilities have a base level of (2 + any points spent on the ability) up to a m axim um total of 10. Active effects require a roll, and succeed if the (Roll + Ability Level) equals or exceeds the Difficulty Class set by the GM or by an opponents abilities. Sam ple effects are listed for each ability, divided into:
Dam age is som ewhat m ore com plicated. Characters in general have a base power of 1 - converting to 1d6 dam age - m odified by any relevant Distinctions. They can also gain a bonus for high ability scores: Elem entalism 6+ adds +1 power to attacks using Melee W eapons, Ranged W eapons, or Unarm ed Com bat. Note that anyone with Elem entalism 3+ m ay sim ply m anifest appropriate weapons to use with their com bat abilities. Characters with Am bush who attack unprepared targets gain a bonus of (Am bush Rating/2, rounded up) to their attack attem pt and a dam age bonus of (Am bush Rating/2, rounded down) to the dam age they inflict. Sadly, Am bush is usually only usable on the first attack. Characters with M elee W eapons 4+, Unarm ed Com bat 5+, or Ranged W eapons 6+ gain a +1 bonus to their power when attacking with those abilities.
Automatic. No roll is required to obtain this effect unless the character is currently has an effective ability rank below 2. If a character is so handicapped by m agic, injury, circum stances, or racial m odifier these effects have a DC of 10 for both the D6 and D20 variants. Simple. These effects are pretty easy to obtain. They have a d6 DC of 12 and a d20 DC of 12 Difficult. Highly skilled characters can usually pull off a difficult task, although it m ay take m ultiple tries. These effects have a d6 DC of 16 and a d20 DC of 20. Heroic. These effects are reasonably com m on am ong great m asters, but are pretty rare otherwise. In fiction they usually turn up at clim actic m om ents, when som e great effort is m ade, or when som eone gets very lucky indeed. They have a d6 DC of 20 and a d20 DC of 24. Legendary. These effects are difficult even for great m asters to obtain. They have a d6 DC of 24 and a d20 DC of 28.
Critical Hits and Fum bles If you want to com plicate things, include Fum bles and Critical Hits. These work best with the 3d6 system , since they can resolved with the initial roll. 3d6 Critical Hits and Fum bles Roll of 3 You som ehow M anage to inflict 1d6 points of dam age on yourself, bypassing all defenses save for a Planewalker’s natural durability. Roll of 4 You sm ack a random ly chosen friend, ally, or one of your creatures for norm al dam age. Roll of 17 You hit and do an extra 2d6 dam age. Roll of 18 You hit and do an extra 4d6 dam age.
Opposed checks are sim ply resolve with opposed rolls; if your Perception check beats your opponent’s Stealth check you spot him or her. If not, you don’t. In this case no adjustm ent for die type is required. Attacks are fairly straightforward: Roll using the relevant attack ability (Heavy, Melee, or Ranged W eapons or Unarm ed Com bat) versus the opponent’s (Evasion + Fortification + 2). Characters with Melee W eapons 5+ or Unarm ed Com bat 7+ gain an additional +1 bonus on this Defense score. In any case, the Gam e Master m ay assign bonuses or penalties up to plus or m inus 4, or call for additional checks. Two characters fighting on a narrow ledge probably need Athletics checks to balance there. Som eone trying to do needlepoint in a howling gale will suffer a -4 penalty. Som eone partially hidden behind a tree gains a bonus to his or her Defense - but finds it harder to attack with a sword.
D20 Critical Hits and Fum bles Roll of 1 Roll the attack again. O n a m iss, you cause 1d6 dam age to yourself, bypassing all of your defenses save a Planewalker’s natural durability. On a hit you hit a friend, ally, or one of your creatures for norm al dam age. Roll of 20 Roll the attack again. On a m iss you hit and cause an extra 2d6 dam age. On a hit you hit and inflict an extra 4d6 dam age.
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Exclusive Abilities
Am bush governs setting up blinds and hidden positions, sneak attacks, arranging a tactical advantage, and inflicting extra dam age on unaware opponents. Automatic: Gain bonuses to dam age and attacks against unaware opponents (see Com bat, page 16), Simple: Conceal yourself in the woods in a good spot to snipe from , pick the best available defensive position available, create sim ple snares and traps. Difficult: Conceal a group in a good position for a surprise attack in a reasonable location or conceal yourself in such a position under difficult conditions, m ake an attack on som eone look like an accident, build dangerous deadfalls and pits. Heroic: Organize an attack to give everyone on your side a +1d6 bonus to dam age during the first Turn, conceal an attack on som eone so that even the victim m ust m ake a Perception check to determ ine the source, build com plex m echanical traps. Legendary: Conceal a sm all horde in a flat desert, plan a surprise attack to give everyone on your side a +2d6 dam age bonus during the first Turn, create a m aze full of lethal traps.
Exclusive Abilities (those with a grey background) cannot be rolled unless you buy them , although any autom atic functions still apply. This group includes: Aberration governs the ability to handle inherently m agical “m onsters,” such as dragons, undead, shadow creatures, and sim ilar entities. It controls both the m axim um level and num ber of such creatures the user can control at a tim e. Automatic: Have an Aberration follower or control a personally-conjured Aberration with a total Mana cost equal to the ability level or less (no m ore than one creature per rank in this ability), provide basic care for a fam iliar Aberration. Simple: Identify the general characteristics of an unfam iliar Aberration, recognize com m on types of Aberrations. Difficult: Develop a new Aberration-conjuring spell given several m onths to work in, train unintelligent Aberrations, understand what an Aberration is trying to com m unicate without a com m on language, identify the nature of a fam iliar Aberration’s exotic afflictions (devising an effective treatm ent will also require the Healing ability). Heroic: Control a conjured Aberation with a total Mana cost of up to 5 over the ability level for 1d6+1 rounds, spot the unique special weakness of an Aberration, predict the likely behavior patterns of an Aberration, get a m essage across to an Aberration without a com m on language. Legendary: Determ ine the life cycle, and obscure facts about, an unfam iliar Aberration with a m ere glance, develop a new Aberration-conjuring spell in a few days, identify the nature of an unfam iliar Aberration’s exotic afflictions (devising an effective treatm ent requires the Healing ability).
Artificer governs the creation of m agical devices and the m axim um num ber and level of Artifacts which the character m ay possess. Note that the Gam e Master can, and should, restrict silly com binations: m ost creatures can’t use m ore than one suit of arm or and one or two weapons at a tim e. Note that creating a new Artifact allows it to be brought into the gam e without the usual requirem ent of discovering it som ewhere. Automatic: Have a perm anent Artifact or an Artifact Creature follower with a total M ana cost equal to the ability level or less or control a sim ilar conjured artifact (no m ore than one in total per rank in this ability), provide basic care for a fam iliar Artifact. Simple: Identify the general characteristics of an unfam iliar Artifact, recognize com m on Artifacts in use by an opponent, create very sim ple (Level 1-2) Artifacts given several m onths of work, create m agical charm s and toys given an hour or two, operate an unfam iliar artifact. Difficult: Develop a new Artifact conjuring spell given several m onths to work in, deduce the workings of exotic Artifacts, m ake repairs on low-level (1-3) Artifacts (for technical artifacts this m ay also require an Engineering check). Heroic: Spot the unique special weakness of an Artifact or identify any hidden functions, predict the likely properties of a severelydam aged or partial Artifact, m ake repairs on dam aged m id-level (4-5) Artifacts or create Artifacts of up to Level 4 given som e m onths of work. Legendary: Develop a new Artifact conjuring spell in a few days,
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create m inor Artifacts given a few days, m ajor ones given a m onth or so and extraordinary ones given a few m onths, repair virtually any Artifact.
Black Magic spell (costs 4 Black Mana), Analyze an incom ing spell which uses Black Mana, hold back a notable (level 4-5) Black creature by sheer m astery, design an original Black spell, resist aging for a day. Legendary: Hold back a m ajor (level 6-8) Black creature, or m ake a m ore powerful one hesitate, by sheer m astery, create an original m ulticolored spell that involves Black Mana (this requires sim ilar checks for all other colors involved).
Beast Mastery governs the ability to handle anim alistic creatures and the m axim um level and num ber of creatures which a character can control at any one tim e. If com bined with a point of Green Mana it allows easy com m unication with anim als as well. Automatic: Have an Beast follower or control a personally-conjured Beast with a total Mana cost equal to the ability level or less (no m ore than one creature per rank in this ability), provide basic care for a fam iliar Beast. Simple: Identify the general characteristics of an unfam iliar Beast, recognize com m on types of Beasts, control a frightened horse. Difficult: Develop a new Beast-conjuring spell given several m onths to work in, train unintelligent Beasts. Understand what an Beast is trying to com m unicate without a com m on language, identify the nature of a fam iliar Beast’s exotic afflictions (devising an effective treatm ent will also require the Healing ability). Heroic: Control a conjured Aberration with a total Mana cost of up to 5 over the ability level for 1d6+1 rounds, spot the unique special weakness of an Beast, predict the likely behavior patterns of an Beast, get a m essage across to an Beast without a com m on language. Legendary: Determ ine the life cycle, and obscure facts about, an unfam iliar Beast with a m ere glance, develop a new Beast-conjuring spell in a few days, identify the nature of an unfam iliar Beast’s exotic afflictions (devising an effective treatm ent will also require the Healing ability).
Blue Magic governs how m any points of Blue Mana the user m ay hold in reserve at any one tim e and the m axim um level of Blue m agic card that he or she m ay bring into play. Automatic: Draw Blue Mana from an appropriate attuned land, store Blue M ana, block all Lesser Magi from drawing on the Mana of a land you control (Only available to Magelords and Planewalkers), acquire Blue followers (also requires relevant lim iting ability). Simple: Attune to a land which produces Blue Mana, determ ine the nature of a Blue Magic effect by inspecting it, pick up and shape water (it will rem ain “solid” for several hours), operate a sim ple device. Difficult: Selectively block Lesser Magi’s access to the Mana of a land you control (only available to Magelords and Planewalkers), divine the direction to the m ystical center of a Blue Mana producing land you’re currently in, create a stationary Circle of Protection against Blue Magic with an hour or so’s work, hold back a m inor (level 3 or less) Blue creature by sheer m astery (this lasts as long as you take no other actions, but protects no one else), purify water, produce the correct change, determ ine the quality of goods. Heroic: Devise an on-the-fly counterspell against a Blue Magic spell (costs 4 Blue Mana), Analyze an incom ing spell which uses Blue Mana, hold back a notable (level 4-5) Blue creature by sheer m astery, design an original Blue spell, determ ine who m ade som ething, produce a few coins, solve m ost puzzles. Legendary: Hold back a m ajor (level 6-8) Blue creature, or m ake a m ore powerful one hesitate, by sheer m astery, create an original m ulticolored spell that involves Blue Mana (this requires sim ilar checks for all other colors involved), m ake som ething go suddenly wrong with a m ajor device, triple the productivity of workers you supervise.
Black Magic governs how m any points of Black Mana the user m ay hold in reserve at any one tim e and the m axim um level of Black m agic card that he or she m ay bring into play. Automatic: Draw Black Mana from an appropriate attuned land, store Black Mana, block all Lesser Magi from drawing on the Mana of a land you control (only available to Magelords and Planewalkers), acquire Black followers (also requires relevant lim iting ability). Simple: Attune to a land which produces Black Mana, determ ine the nature of a Black Magic effect by inspecting it, determ ine som ething’s age and general state of health by touch, curse som eone with baldness, barrenness, or sim ilar infirm ities. Difficult: Selectively block Lesser Magi’s access to the Mana of a land you control (only available to Magelords and Planewalkers), divine the direction to the m ystical center of a Black Mana producing land you’re currently in, create a stationary Circle of Protection against Black Magic with an hour or so’s work, hold back a m inor (level 3 or less) Black creature by sheer m astery (this lasts as long as you take no other actions, but protects no one else), exterm inate verm in in an area, curse a field or farm hold so that it will not yield. Heroic: Devise an on-the-fly counterspell against a
Divination governs basic detection and com m unication m agic. Sim ple, im m ediate, questions (“is this trapped?”) can be answered with a 10–15 m inute ritual or a point of Mana. Com plex, im m ediate questions, sim ple ones at som e range, and m essagesending effects require an hour or two or two points of Mana. Com plex, distant, questions of com plex com m unications (such as a seance) can be m anaged with 3 points of M ana or a ritual of several hours duration. Automatic: Determ ine true north or if som ething is actually m agical, locate your personal property within a hundred-foot radius, gain a substantial advantage at gam es of chance, know the tim e, locate where you are.
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som eone lucky or unlucky (no real gam e effect, but nice or bothersom e), change som ething’s color, weave vocal suggestions, influence em otions. Difficult: Boost a general ability by +1, enchant som eone to see in the dark, m ake som eone like you better, grant the ability to see in the dark, insert ideas into people’s heads, get som eone lost, charm a letter so that it keeps getting handed along until it reaches its destination, reduce an opponent’s general ability by 1. Heroic: Cosm etic transform ations, anim ate objects, m ake som ething seem extrem ely attractive or utterly repulsive, enhance secondary senses (such as sm ell), reduce an opponent’s general ability by 2 or an exclusive ability by 1.. Legendary: Love spells, physical transform ations (with a point of Mana), seal an area so that no one m ay leave or so that their steps invariably lead back inside, let som eone walk on water or m ist, proof som ething against the ravages of tim e, reduce an opponents general ability by 3 or exclusive ability by 2.
Simple: Send a brief m essage to som eone within line-of-sight, check on the general status of som eone you have a link to (lock of hair, blood brotherhood, etc), read a letter without opening it. Difficult: Detect poisons, contact the spirit of som e recently-deceased creature, analyze the structure of a lock or trap, gain a clue to som e com plex quest, cast an augury, discover how som eone feels about you. Heroic: Contact the spirit of som eone long-dead, open a com m unications link with som eone on another continent, divine the presence of a poison in a distant location. Legendary: Contact a m ighty entity or open a scrying window across the planes, gain glim pses of the distant future or of m ajor elem ents thereof. Elementalism governs the use of m inor physical spells as well as lim iting the num ber and level of instant and sorcery cards which the user m ay possess. Like m ost of the lesser m agical abilities, elem entalists m ay counter other elem entalists with an opposed check. Automatic: Use Sorcery and Instant Cards of levels up to the level of your Sorcery ability (in conjunction with the appropriate Magic ability), create m inor lightshows, light pipes and cam pfires, cause extra dam age with attacks or create elem ental weapons with sufficient ability. Simple: W ard off rain, dry clothing, purify water, levitate a pencil or key, illum inate a sm all room , heat or chill food, create a cool breeze. Difficult: Create a blinding flash or m assive gust of wind, m end clothing, m inor telekinesis, freeze-dry food, waterproof cloth, sum m on patches of rain or fog, resist 1d6 worth of elem ental environm ental dam age. Heroic: Fireproof leather and cloth, m end m etal objects, extinguish a burning building, telekinetically m anipulate a few hundred pounds, resist 2d6 worth of elem ental environm ental dam age. Legendary: Fireproof paper, forge com plex m etal item s without tools, m aintain a bubble of breathable air underwater or in the m idst of a forest fire resist 4d6 worth of elem ental environm ental dam age.
Engineering governs your ability to design and use high technology and (with Craftsman) your ability to create it. If you want to program com puters, design com plex structures, or m aintain engines, this is the ability to get. If high-technology cards are in use in your gam e the level of this ability governs both the num ber and m axim um num ber of such cards you m ay possess. (no, there aren’t really any “technology” cards in MTG:CCG at this tim e, but if som eone m akes som e of their own or their GM lets them bring in cards from som e other gam e, then this is the ability to use). Autom atic: Use Technology Cards of levels up to the level of your Engineering ability (in conjunction with the appropriate Magic ability), operate sim ple devices, understand basic physical principles, basic m ath. Simple: Operate com puters, replace com ponents in a system , m ake repairs on sim ple engines, design basic structures, build a waterm ill. Difficult: Perform com plex calculations given som e tim e, design industrial m achinery, design com plex structures, program a com puter operating system , analyze a cities water system , crack ordinary com puter security, repair com plex devices. Heroic: Build an industrial base using nothing but raw m aterials and (lots of) your tim e, design cities and arcologies, design com puter chips, m aintain a stardrive, disarm a well-designed bom b. Legendary: Solve com plex m athem atical problem s in your head in m ere m om ents, program an AI, hack a m ilitary secure system with a pocket com puter, solve the unified field equations.
Enchantment governs the ability to create, analyze, and sustain enchantm ents as well as the m axim um num ber and level of enchantm ents which the user m ay possess at any one tim e. Very m inor enchantm ents, such as night sight, a slight (+1) bonus to a general ability, influencing em otions, weaving suggestions or sim ilar effects, can be accom plished with a sim ple ability roll. Sadly, these also occupy enchantm ent slots while they’re active, hence m ost m agi tend to leave a slot or so open for utility effects. Like m ost of the lesser m agical abilities, enchanters m ay counter other enchanters with an opposed check. Automatic: Use Enchantm ent Cards of levels up to the level of your Enchantm ent ability (in conjunction with the relevant M ag ic ability), m aintain lesser enchantm ents, determ ine if som ething, som eone, or som e area is currently enchanted. Simple: Control (in-gam e) gam es of chance, m ake
Fortification governs the m astery of defense, on both the personal, structural, and strategic levels. It adds to Evasion to determ ine how difficult you are to hit with physical weapons and can be rolled to design (or penetrate) castles and keeps or to defend against attacks on any lands which the user controls. Automatic: Add your ability rank to your personal Defense level, add your ability rank to the Defense of
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those protecting your lands (given a few weeks to set up appropriate fortifications), spot obvious weaknesses in defensive designs. Simple: Design a basic castle granting those within a 1d6 bonus on dam age and +2 Defense, reinforce a door, wall, or other structure to withstand a battering (roll your Fortification ability to negate such dam age). Difficult: Design a com plex fortification granting those within a 2d6 bonus on dam age and +4 Defense, negate 1d6 dam age or +2 from the Defense bonuses provided by a fortification. Heroic: Design a m ighty fortification, granting those within a 3d6 bonus on their effective dam age ratings and a +6 Defense bonus, negate 2d6 dam age or +4 from the Defense bonuses provided by a fortification. Legendary: Negate either the dam age bonus or the defensive bonus offered by a fortification or 2d6 dam age and +2 Defense.
anim al, shape wood with your bare hands. Heroic: Devise an on-the-fly counterspell against a Green Magic spell (costs 4 Green Mana), Analyze an incom ing spell which uses Green Mana, hold back a notable (level 4-5) Green creature by sheer m astery, design an original Green spell, cause fields and beasts to flourish (m ay require one or m ore points of Green Mana, depending on the desired scale), link with a “fam iliar.” Legendary: Hold back a m ajor (level 6-8) Green creature, or m ake a m ore powerful one hesitate, by sheer m astery, create an original m ulticolored spell that involves Green Mana (this requires sim ilar checks for all other colors involved), cause plants and anim als to grow and m ature in m om ents, cause dead wood to sprout or roots to split stone. Herb
governs the use of herbs, com pounds, drugs, potions, and toxins. It doesn’t really involve m uch m agic as such, but m ost NPC’s regard it as a m ystical art at its higher levels. Automatic: Make tasty and refreshing use of herbs, spices, and other ingredients, m ake com m on folk m edicines for basic com plaints. Simple: Brew 1d3 doses of poison, cure a cold or other m inor illness, extract hallucinogens and other drugs, create perfum es and scents, brew alcoholic and exotic beverages, produce sim ple drugs. Difficult: Identify a poison, brew an antidote for a known poison, cure a serious illness or prevent infection, extract the essences of m agical plants, brew elixirs which allow sight into other worlds, create healing poultices (can restore 1d6 life per day), extract com plex drugs. Heroic: Identify the likely properties of an unknown m agical plant, cure severe illnesses, induce hibernation, brew m ixtures with com plex biochem ical and m ental effects. Legendary: Cure advanced leprosy, com as, and those near death from various diseases, enable astral projection, brew double-strength poisons.
Green Magic governs how m any points of Green Mana the user m ay hold in reserve at any one tim e and the m axim um level of Green m agic card that he or she m ay bring into play. Automatic: Draw Green Mana from an appropriate attuned land, store Green Mana, block all Lesser Magi from drawing on the Mana of a land you control (Only available to Magelords and Planewalkers), acquire Green followers (also requires relevant lim iting ability). Simple: Attune to a land which produces Green Mana, determ ine the nature of a Green Magic effect by inspecting it, identify the basic properties of an unknown plant, get plants to flourish, analyze soil. Difficult: Selectively block Lesser Magi’s access to the Mana of a land you control (only available to Magelords and Planewalkers), divine the direction to the m ystical center of a Green Mana producing land you’re currently in, create a stationary Circle of Protection against Green Magic with an hour or so’s work, hold back a m inor (level 3 or less) Green creature by sheer m astery (this lasts as long as you take no other actions, but protects no one else), train or dom esticate an
Mastery
Leadership governs the ability to lead NPC’s, troops, and other intelligent (and m ore-or-less norm al) Minions, and controls the m axim um level and num ber of such creatures which the user m ay com m and. Automatic: Have a Minion follower or control a personally-conjured Minion with a total Mana cost equal to the ability level or less (no m ore than one creature per rank in this ability).
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Sim ple: Identify the general characteristics of an unfam iliar race. Dom inate slaves and sim ilar servants. Difficult: Develop a new Minion-conjuring spell given several m onths to work in. Understand what som ebody is trying to com m unicate without a com m on language. Get independent NPC’s to listen to sensible orders in an em ergency. Maintain general control of a sizable arm y. Determ ine what an unfam iliar NPC m ost wants (and so could likely be m anipulated with). Heroic: Control a conjured Minion with a total Mana cost of up to 5 over the ability level for 1d6+1 rounds. Spot som eone’s special weakness or predict their likely behavior. Get a m essage across to som eone without a com m on language. Get sm all children to behave them selves. Inspire troops, granting them a +1d6 bonus to the dam age they inflict. Legendary: Determ ine the origin, profession, and general character of an unfam iliar Minion with a m ere glance. Develop a new Minionconjuring spell in a few days. Get m en to follow you into certain death.
Magesight governs the ability to directly perceive and analyze m agical energies, as well as the ability to determ ine what spell is being cast before it activates. Automatic: Read untrapped m ystical runes, detect ley lines and other powerful Mana sources in the im m ediate vicinity, sense powerful m ystic disturbances. Simple: Detect the m agical energies of a lurking Spirit, determ ine the color of a spell that’s being cast. Difficult: Pick up a m age’s m agical “signature” from observing an active spell, detect the underlying m agic of an illusion, get a rough idea of how m uch Mana a target currently holds, determ ine the general nature of a spell that’s being cast. Heroic: Identify the nature of a spell from the m ystical traces it leaves behind, spot an invisible creature, such as one using Landwalk, by it’s m agical aura, determ ine the exact nature of a spell that’s being cast. Legendary: Detect the Planewalker spark in an infant, determ ine what spells and powers a m age has available from the traces in his or her aura, determ ine the structure of a spell that’s being cast (half the cost of using a counterspell effect).
Lifewreaking governs the ability to transm ute life points into colorless Mana or into any color of Mana the user has the appropriate Magic ability for. Sadly, Life expended on Lifewreaking cannot be regained through supernatural m eans. Automatic: Convert 20 Life into 1 Mana. Sim ple: Convert 15 Life into 1 Mana, ritually sacrifice a com m on, m inor, anim al for a point of Green Mana. Difficult: Convert 10 Life into 1 Mana. Ritually sacrifice a sentient being for a point of Black, Green, or Colorless Mana. Heroic: Convert 15 Life into 2 Mana. Sacrifice a Conjuration for the Mana used to sum m on it less two points. Legendary: Convert 20 Life into 3 Mana. Drain the life-energies of a land while at it’s m ystical center.
Mana Tapping governs the ability to draw Mana from odd sources, such as plan etary conjunctions, crowds of fanatic w o r s h ip e rs , sacrifices, m ystic wells, and other exotica. It also lim its the num ber of exotic lands which a Magelord or Planewalker can control at any one tim e and the total num ber of lands which a lesser m age can attune them selves to. Autom atic: Draw Mana from a stable, attuned, power source. Maintain a link with an exotic land. Accept Mana transferred from som eone else. Simple: Draw Mana from a Mana Font, Node, W ell, Artifact-Battery, or other sem i-stable source. Difficult: Draw Mana from a Ley Line, Upwelling, or Crowd of W orshipers (one per crowd or ritual, color is determ ined by the Gam e Master according to the nature of the crowd and ritual involved). Heroic: Draw Mana from the sun, stars, dawn, and other astronom ical events (1-2 points per day unless som ething special is happening). The character will probably have to enact special cerem onies at particular tim es to tap into this source of Mana and m ay require a Distinction to do so. Characters m ay only attem pt to draw on such events once per day.
Draining a land provides 1d6+4 Mana, but kills or weakens everything in the area and disrupts the lands ability to provide Mana for weeks. If the land is held by a Magelord or Planewalker they may subtract their Fortification ability from the would-be wreakers ability. Hence this rarely succeeds against a defended land and even the attempt is usually grounds for being hunted down by everyone who lives there. Lifewreaking is the presumed source of energy for creatures which can be tapped for Mana. This normally operates automatically at the Difficult success level, yielding one Mana point. Unfortunately, the price of an automatic success is being limited to producing Mana of the color specified in the creature description.
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a very large room (a.k.a “the halls of faerie”).
Legendary: Draw Mana from popular beliefs and/or philosophies and/or “gods” (whatever they are). This usually requires observing a variety of cerem onies, odd taboos, and subscribing to particular beliefs, but can provide 1d6 points of Mana of colors specified by the Gam e Master when it works. Sadly, this technique can only be attem pted once per day.
Politician governs the ability to m anipulate governm ents and organized societies. Note that being a stranger in town m ay m ake this m ore difficult, but it’s still quite possible. Automatic: Function in society, get a general idea of the local laws after a bit of poking around. Simple: Find out who’s running an area, organize a m arch or protest, find out about local laws, convince a lobbyist to spend som e tim e on you. Difficult: Get a license for restricted activities, obtain a m odest grant for som e project, hinder or advance a bureaucratic process, get som eone’s perm its pulled. Heroic: Get in to see an im portant local figure, arrange to have an ordinary person arrested or dealt with, get a relatively sane law passed, get m ajor charges dropped, get som eone offered a good job, or send the police after som eone you dislike. Legendary: Arrange to have a fairly im portant person arrested, arrange a war, arrange an insane law, or cover up alm ost anything.
Movement governs raw speed, the ability to run and leap. This isn’t com plicated but, in a world of m agic, can be quite im pressive. The base of 2 is norm al hum an speed, cheetahs sprint at 6, and (on earth anyway) only vehicles get m uch faster than that. It com plim ents Athletics. For those who want actual num bers, the base lim its are: Running Long Jump: 10 feet x Movem ent, High Jump 2 feet x Movem ent, Sprint at 15 feet x Movem ent/second, Long Distance Running is at 4 x Movem ent MPH, and W alking is at 2 x Movem ent MPH. Olym pic athletes usually have a Movem ent rating of 3. Unless they’re using m agic m ost creatures Movem ent scores are never m ore than one above the species average. Automatic: Crawl, walk, run, and leap with ordinary speed and success. W alk, run, and jum p distances a bit below the base lim its. Simple: M ove at full speed across uneven terrain, reach the lim its given above. Difficult: Move at full speed across rough terrain, slightly exceed the lim its given above. Heroic: Move at full speed across broken terrain, add +1 to your effective Movem ent for a bit. Legendary: Move briefly over water, m ist, or som e other im possible terrain, add +2 to your effective Movem ent for a bit.
Red Magic governs how m any points of Red Mana the user m ay hold in reserve at any one tim e and the m axim um level of Red m agic card that he or she m ay bring into play. Automatic: Draw Red Mana from an appropriate attuned land, store Red Mana, block all Lesser Magi from drawing on the Mana of a land you control (Only available to Magelords and Planewalkers), acquire Red followers (also requires relevant lim iting ability). Simple: Attune to a land which produces Red Mana, determ ine the nature of a Red Magic effect by inspecting it, ignite flam m able objects, m ake everyone nearby aware of your em otions. Difficult: Selectively block Lesser Magi’s access to the Mana of a land you control (only available to Magelords and Planewalkers), divine the direction to the m ystical center of a Red Mana producing land you’re currently in, create a stationary Circle of Protection against Red Magic with an hour or so’s work, hold back a m inor (level 3 or less) Red creature by sheer m astery (this lasts as long as you take no other actions, but protects no one else), cold forge m etal, radiate an em otion (this influences crowds and reactions but has no com bat effects). Heroic: Devise an on-the-fly counterspell against a Red Magic spell (costs 4 Red Mana), Analyze an incom ing spell which uses Red Mana, hold back a notable (level 4-5) Red creature by sheer m astery, design an original Red spell, soften rock and m etal so that it can be shaped like clay, cause wild bursts of poltergeist activity. Legendary: Hold back a m ajor (level 6-8) Red creature, or m ake a m ore powerful one hesitate, by sheer m astery, create an original m ulticolored spell that involves Red Mana (this requires sim ilar checks for all other colors involved), drive a crowd of creatures into a hysterical frenzy, cause a m inor elem ental storm (rocks start flying about, weather goes m ad, etc) in the area.
In chase situations both speed and agility are of great importance: in this case simply make two checks: one for closing the distance, one to keep up with evasive maneuvers (if any). Phantasm governs the ability to weave m inor illusions. Unlike the other m inor m agical abilities, Phantasm does not form the basis for effects beyond those of hedge wizardry; illusions are lim ited by their caster’s skill, im agination, and m ental focus rather than by raw power. Automatic: Create m odest light-show effects, change the color of a sheet of paper, or cover up palm ing som ething, suggest alm ost any kind of dream to som eone. Simple: Disguise som eone’s features, blend into the shadows, disguise the opening of a cave, m ake a good illusion of an opening or door, create an illusory stench. Difficult: Make som eone or som ething invisible, generate illusory pain or other sensations, create a house-sized static illusion or an interactive illusory creature. Heroic: Create a good illusion of a docum ent over paper, create passable illusory currency, m ake an individual target see, hear, and feel alm ost anything. Legendary: Create an interactive illusion covering
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to the ability level or less (no m ore than one creature per rank in this ability), sense and com m unicate with spirits while in a trance. Simple: Identify the general characteristics of an unfam iliar Spirit, enter a trance, recognize com m on types of Spirits. Difficult: Develop a new Spirit-conjuring spell given several m onths to work in, com m unicate with any local spirits, enter a trance so deep that you appear dead. Heroic: Control a conjured Spirit with a total Mana cost of up to 5 over the ability level for 1d6+1 rounds, spot the unique special weakness of an Spirit, predict the likely behavior patterns of an Spirit, com m unicate with the newly dead or with any spirit linked to your current location, project yourself into the spirit world. Legendary: Determ ine obscure facts about an unfam iliar Spirit with a m ere glance, develop a new Spirit-conjuring spell in a few days, contact the m ighty powers of the spirit world or travel there with a group.
Regeneration governs self-healing. Unlike m ost of the other exclusive abilities, all characters use this at the passive, unconscious, level, autom atically regaining one life per day per effective rank in this ability. Automatic: Natural healing, recovery with som e scarring. Sim ple: Recover from serious wounds without notable scarring. Difficult: Recover from m assive wounds without notable scarring. Heroic: Regenerate lim bs and other organs, heal from any survivable wound without im pairm ent. Legendary: Cling to life (with a point of Mana) despite obviously-fatal wounds. Repute governs a character’s reputation. The user is free to specify what his or her reputation is for, and m ay influence a wide variety of social situations with a successful check. Automatic: Get recognized by friends, allies, and relatives. Simple: Im press som e yokel with your boasting. Villagers treat you to beer. Get considered for jobs in your area of expertise. Difficult: Im press the gentry with your rem arkable deeds. Tip the balance in a social situation. Mayors invite you for dinner. Heroic: Im press lords and kings with your incredible talents. Get called on for quests and extraordinary tasks. People want your autograph. Necrom ancers want your hands. Legendary: Im press Dem igods with your awesom e works. No other expert in an area is worth talking to. Urza invites you over for tea and cookies.
Sleights governs m inor technical and m ystical trickery, ranging from sm oke pellets through instant disguise spells and grapnel guns. The user m ay select one such trick per ability level. Optionally, Slights m ay also be used to represent com bat or other special tricks and techniques. Automatic: Escape from Chinese Handcuffs, perform a sim ple card trick you’ve practiced. Simple: Make sm oke bom bs and spring-loaded grapnels, escape from handcuffs. Difficult: Conceal a sm all weapon through a search, escape from ropes, perform com plex card tricks, Heroic: Escape from chains and cells. Legendary: Escape from pocket prison dim ensions. Space Vehicles governs the ability to operate space vehicles of all kinds, ranging from shuttles to ethercraft or the m ost bizarre science-fictional craft. Automatic: Recognize the various types of space vehicles, know the basics of space flight and navigation. Simple: Take off or execute sim ple m aneuvers, get a license. Difficult: Land sm oothly and gently, execute a com plex (but sensible) m aneuver, perform general m aintenance. Heroic: Land during a storm , plot an orbit in your head, execute a clearly im practical m aneuver or a com plex m aneuver under bad conditions, take off in a fraction of the norm ally-required tim e, jury-rig or bypass m ajor system s in an em ergency. Legendary: Perform com plex m aneuvers under horrendous conditions, evade an attack which should certainly have destroyed the vehicle, execute a flatly ridiculous m aneuver (right-angle turn, finding a “crack in the event horizon” to escape through, etc).
Scholar governs book-learning of all kinds, ranging from geography and history on through chem istry, alchem y, and even m ore esoteric knowledges. Automatic: Know the basic, recent, history of your hom eland, recognize com m on working anim als and know their general habits. Simple: Know the general layout of the continent or world, work algebra, know enough chem istry to be dangerous, recognize unusual anim als. Difficult: Mix explosives, acids, and bases, recite an outline of world history, identify the relics of a particular culture. Heroic: Know obscure uses for rare m agical m aterials, sketch a decent m ap of a distant land, recognize and describe exotic anim als, describe m inute historical details. Legendary: Know details about distant dim ensions and worlds, engage in alchem ical transm utation (with a point of Mana. Shamanism governs the ability to call, com m unicate with, and control spirits as well as the m axim um level and num ber of spirit creatures which a character can control at any one tim e. Automatic: Have an Spirit follower or control a personally-conjured Spirit with a total Mana cost equal
Touch of Life governs lesser healing m agic, curing diseases, blindness, and sim ilar afflictions, as well as the ability to transfer your own life into others (to instantly heal their wounds) or into inanim ate objects to tem porarily anim ate them . 23
W hite Magic governs how m any points of W hite Mana the user m ay hold in reserve at any one tim e and the m axim um level of W hite m agic card that he or she m ay bring into play. Automatic: Draw W hite Mana from an appropriate attuned land, store W hite Mana, block all Lesser Magi from drawing on the Mana of a land you control (O nly available to M a g e lo rds a n d Planewalkers), acquire W hite fo llo w e rs ( a ls o requires relevant Automatic: Transfer up to 10 life points to som eone else, determ ine the extent of som eone’s injuries. Simple: Anim ate a length of rope you’re touching for a few m om ents for 1 life. Difficult: Cure ordinary diseases. Anim ate a door to m ake it open or close on com m and for several m inutes for 2 life. Heroic: Cure deafness and serious illnesses, m ake a statue take a few sim ple actions, anim ate a living plant for several m inutes for 3 life. Legendary: Cure virulent m ystical plagues, total blindness, or congenital deform ities, anim ate a group of trees or plants for an hour or so for 5 life.
lim iting ability). Simple: Attune to a land which produces W hite Mana, determ ine the nature of a W hite Magic effect by inspecting it, heal m inor annoyances (bruises, sm all cuts, rashes and sore throats), organize an am iable m eeting. Difficult: Selectively block Lesser Magi’s access to the Mana of a land you control (only available to Magelords and Planewalkers), divine the direction to the m ystical center of a W hite Mana producing land you’re currently in, create a stationary Circle of Protection against W hite Magic with an hour or so’s work, hold back a m inor (level 3 or less) W hite creature by sheer m astery (this lasts as long as you take no other actions, but protects no one else), soothe or m oderate an argum ent, radiate a sphere of peace and serenity that wards off disturbances and calm s those within, cleanse an area (whether physically or of m align influences is up to the user). Heroic: Devise an on-the-fly counterspell against a W hite Magic spell (costs 4 W hite Mana), Analyze an incom ing spell which uses W hite Mana, hold back a notable (level 4-5) W hite creature by sheer m astery, design an original W hite spell, exorcize a possessing spirit, calm everyone in the vicinity, stem a retreat. Legendary: Hold back a m ajor (level 6-8) W hite creature, or m ake a m ore powerful one hesitate, by sheer m astery, create an original m ulticolored spell that involves W hite Mana (this requires sim ilar checks for all other colors involved), inspire a truce during a m assed battle, get a panicky crowd organized towards som e com m on goal.
Toughness governs the ability to resist dam age from any source. Automatic: Reduce incom ing dam age by one point per rank in the Toughness ability (to a m inim um of 1). Planewalkers, who take only 1 point per die, get only one third of this benefit - 1 point less dam age at rank 3, 2 points less at rank 6, and so on. Simple: Snap fishline or a fine wire without cutting yourself on it, sm ash a beer can on your head, avoid being sunburned. Difficult: Clim b a barbed-wire fence without injury, crash through a plate-glass window without being cut, hold a hot coal without discom fort, pierce yourself with various item s without suffering real injury. Heroic: Absorb the im pact of a lengthy fall without serious injury. Legendary: Dive from a speeding car and roll to a halt without injury.
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General Abilities
a chasm , stay afloat going down rapids, lift 500 pounds, dive out of the way of a falling truck, tum ble across a room , swing from vine to vine through a forest. Heroic: W alk a tightrope, lift a ton or two, pull a truck, run down a horse on foot, swim through a raging storm , dive for pearls, dive out of the way of a blast of flam e, perform com plex feats of acrobatics without a choreographer. Legendary: Fight on a tightrope, clim b a greased glass wall, lift several tons, swim through a tidal wave to com e out on the other side.
General abilities can be rolled even if you haven’t purchased any ranks in the ability. Still, training will m ake you a lot better. This group includes: Air Vehicles governs the ability to operate air vehicles of all kinds, ranging from balloons to fighter jets. Autom atic: Recognize the various types of air vehicles, know the basics of flight and navigation. Simple: Take off or execute sim ple m aneuvers, get a license. Difficult: Land sm oothly and gently, execute a com plex (but sensible) m aneuver, perform general m aintenance. Heroic: Land during a storm , execute a clearly im practical m aneuver or a com plex m aneuver under bad conditions, take off in a fraction of the norm allyrequired tim e, jury-rig or bypass m ajor system s in an em ergency. Legendary: Perform com plex m aneuvers under horrendous conditions, evade an attack which should certainly have destroyed the vehicle, execute a flatly ridiculous m aneuver (right-angle turn, flying sideways between two buildings, etc).
Courtier governs etiquette, socializing, recognizing social traps, m aking friends, locating respectable contacts, and gaining access to high society. Automatic: Know basic etiquette for your culture, m ake requests and speak to people without being offensive. Simple: Deduce surface m otivations, get an official to give you a job, speak in a form al style, use the right fork for salad, get people to brag and talk about them selves, m ake subtle insults, spread rum ors without appearing to do so, get a date. Difficult: Make som eone appear foolish, seduce a reluctant target, deduce deeper m otivations, recognize when som eone is setting you up, befriend a highranking aristocrat, get into a private party, get som eone into trouble while appearing to “help,” deflect a noxious com m ent. Heroic: Befriend a m ajor ruler, join any desired clique, acquire a high-status m istress, extract all kinds of inform ation from som eone in conversation, insult som eone without them even realizing it, com pletely warp som eone’s reputation, m ake infam y som ehow chic and attractive. Legendary: Cause hundreds to obsess over you, befriend an ancient, solitary, entity, inspire a festival in the pits of torm ent, counter a horrendous (and welldocum ented) story about yourself, start a rom ance with an enem y in the m iddle of battle.
Arts governs m usical perform ances, dance, painting, sculpting, and a wide variety of sim ilar activities. Automatic: Distinguish between art and trash, m ake crude-but-recognizable sketches of things, sing without actually inflicting dam age on anyone, and appreciate the work of better artists. Simple: Sketch passably, play a recognizable tune on a sim ple instrum ent, avoid looking like a com plete idiot on a dance floor, and decorate your gear in fairly reasonable taste. Difficult: Perform professionally, paint accurate (or salable) portraits, organize and direct an orchestra or chorus, pick up a reasonable days salary perform ing in any town or find a welcom e in the countryside. Heroic: Com pose a scathing, and extrem ely catchy, satire, m ove an audience to tears, entertain spirits of nature and the dead, seduce an em peror with dance. Legendary: Sway a god, com pose an epic that will inspire m illions, com pel the lords of faerie, paint a m asterpiece to awe all who gaze upon it (and possibly, with som e points of Mana, to serve as a portal).
Craftsman governs the ability to m ake nonm agical item s. Most characters specialize a bit, but that’s not really required. A workshop of som e sort usually is. Automatic: Use sim ple tools effectively, select the appropriate raw m aterials for a project, set up a work area, assist m ore skilled craftsm en. Simple: Make basic item s of adequate quality: weave cloth, forge arrowheads, chip usable stone tools, prepare decent leather, or set up an efficient workplace. Difficult: Make com plex item s and/or item s of high quality, weave a tapestry or fine silk, build good furniture, or tailor clothing. Organize a group of crafters to work efficiently. Heroic: Make fine m usical instrum ents, superb tools and weapons, and m arvelous m eals. Create com plex m achinery. Legendary: Craft m arvelous item s (these m ay count as m inor Artifacts), work without tools (this trick costs Mana), craft parts to m icroscopic tolerances.
Athletics governs diving for cover, sprinting, lifting weights, clim bing, balancing, swim m ing, and other sim ple, physical, acts. Automatic: Perform norm al, hum an-level, tasks. Simple: Clim b a tree or easy rock face, walk along a building ledge, carry som eone hurriedly out of danger, stay afloat in m ildly rough water, tip over a sizable boulder, dive out of the way of a rock slide, right a canoe, fall without injuring yourself, turn a som ersault. Difficult: Dash across a tree which has fallen across
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basic tasks, collect eggs, provide basic anim al care, and gather fruit. Sim ple: Fish for your own dinner, locate edible plants in an autum n forest, dry m eat and fruits, select trees for particular purposes. Difficult: Top trees, perform deep-shaft m ining, follow veins of ore, feed a fam ily for a few days by fishing, hunting, or gathering, identify rare plants, refine m etals. Heroic: Feed a village for a few days by hunting or fishing, recognize the signs of the presence of exotic resources, m ake a farm work under awful conditions. Legendary: Extract needed supplies for a sm all group from a barren asteroid belt or m oonscape, find food for a crowd in the desert or other wilderness, refine exotic m ystical m etals, locate “extinct” plants or anim als.
Endurance governs the ability to resist fatigue, pain, and loss of concentration as well as the ability to m aintain efforts and survive inclem ent conditions. Automatic: Ignore m inor wounds and dam age during an em ergency, resist decay, rem ain com fortable despite m inor tem perature variations. Simple: Stay awake for a lengthy guard shift, resist a m inor disease, avoid heat exhaustion, com plete a lengthy ritual. Difficult: Resist a notable disease, cast a spell while severely wounded, reach into a pit of flam es to pull out som ething im portant, labor for a day without resting. Heroic: W ithstand extrem e torture, resist a horrific disease, go for a week without eating or drinking, run for across a desert all day without drinking or slowing. Legendary: Resist a virulent m ystical plague, rem ain awake and alert for weeks at a tim e, walk across a glacier naked without getting cold, com plete a short task despite lethal wounds.
Healing governs first aid, m edicine, surgery, and any available advanced techniques, such as im plant surgery. In general, non-em ergency treatm ents can only be applied effectively once per week. Automatic: Recognize where it hurts you, realize that som eone’s dead after checking on them . Simple: Apply pressure-pads and tourniquets, bandage m inor injuries, recognize broken bones and shock, know which organs are m ost vital, act as a physical therapist. Difficult: Function as a physician, stitch up wounds, deliver babies when com plications occur, evaluate drugs and treatm ents, heal 1d6 life points worth of dam age, perform cosm etic surgery. Heroic: Reattach lim bs, transplant organs, perform brain surgery, awaken som eone from a com a, treat poisoning (restore 1d6 ability points), heal 2d6 life points worth of dam age, rebuild dam aged organs, restructure bones to change apparent race. Legendary: Hook m echanism s to nerve trunks so that the user can control them m entally, em ulate Dr. Frankenstein, transplant brains, keep brains alive and conscious in bottles, rebuild som eone into a m em ber of another species, heal 4d6 life points worth of dam age.
Evasion governs the art of not being hit. In general, it helps set the difficulty for an opponent to hit you, but is used alone against traps and other nonsentient m enaces. Automatic: Add your Evasion ability to your basic Defense. Simple: Dodge a rolling boulder, falling tree, scything blade, or other single-target m echanical trap. Difficult: Advance on a fixed position while staying out of the line of fire, avoid a dangerous anim al in close quarters, dodge a cloud of arrows from a trap. Heroic: Dodge your way through an avalanche or whirling wall of blades. Legendary: Dodge the shrapnel from a m ajor explosion. Finance governs your personal wealth, ability to bargain, and other financial m atters. Automatic: Scrape up a few coins for a cheap m eal, avoid being driven past the asking price, keep track of how m uch m oney you’re carrying. Simple: Balance your checkbook or budget, pay for new clothes or general supplies, take a few days off to go on a trip without risking financial collapse. Difficult: Buy a house or car, m anage a bank, fund an exploratory expedition, figure out an em bezzlem ent schem e, evade your taxes with a good chance of success. Heroic: Pay for building a fortress or arcology, track and control the finances of a m ultinational corporation, evade your taxes legally. Legendary: Pay for building a m ajor m etropolis, track the finances of a m ultinational corporation in your head, get a refund without paying taxes first legally.
Heavy Weapons governs the use of fixed- and vehicle- m ount weapons system s, m achine guns, m issile launchers, m ortars, and sim ilar system s. Automatic: Add your weapons ability to your attack roll, inflict extra dam age with sufficient ability. Simple: Use unfam iliar heavy weaponry, perform basic repairs and m aintenance on a known type of heavy weapon. Difficult: Perform basic repairs and m aintenance on an unfam iliar weapon, evaluate what task a particular weapon is best suited for, teach others to use heavy weapons. Heroic: Speed-load a heavy weapon, m odify a weapon to suit a particular purpose, pick an especiallyvital target point on a vehicle or structure. Legendary: Precisely control the area affected by an area-effect weapon, operate a crew-serviced weapon at norm al speed by yourself.
Harvesting governs Farm ing, Logging, Herding, Fishing, Mining, and other m ethods of extracting natural resources. Most characters don’t actually bother with using this ability, but quite a few have a point in it as a background. Automatic: Assist m ore experienced harvesters in 26
Investigation governs the ability to locate and analyze inform ation, search libraries, and otherwise locate and operate in areas hidden from others. Automatic: Check the index in a book, hunt for som ething in a reasonably organized fashion, realize that the gaping knife wound in the body m ight possibly be related to the bloody knife lying nearby. Simple: Search for crossreferences and alternative titles in a library, reconstruct recent events from a fair am ount of evidence, locate som eone’s phone num ber on the internet, know what the neighbors are up to, put together a brief biography of a celebrity. Difficult: Know what your children are up to, put together a brief biography on alm ost anyone, locate a particular figure in the underworld, put together details on obscure events and places, recognize the signs of a m onster lair. Heroic: Find a brief citation in a m assive library in a single night or research, perform archeological research, reconstruct m onths-old events from m odest am ounts of evidence, put together details on a nearm ythical place or event, find blackm ail m aterial on a squeaky-clean individual. Legendary: Determ ine the cause of death of a m um m y, reconstruct decades-old events from m inim al evidence, deduce m any details about a person or place from a brief glim pse.
Simple: Pick a sim ple lock, locate a fence, forge a signature, disarm practicaljoke booby traps. Difficult: Find rare drugs, sell ordinary loot for near full value, pick a com plex lock, bypass a cam era-based security system , forge a sim ple docum ent. Heroic: Forge a lengthy proclam ation, pick a superb lock, disarm the defenses of a m age’s tom b. Legendary: Sell the crown jewels for near-full value just after stealing them , run a con on the guards around your cell, bypass a full-scale m ilitary security system for a top-secret conference. L in g u i s t ic s governs s p e a k in g , re a d in g , a n d tran s lating languages, creating and breaking codes and ciphers, and the study of language in general. Automatic: Speak any language you happen to know, know one language per Linguistics rank if the Gam e Master happens to have specified languages for his or her world. Simple: Speak “Pig Latin” variants on your native language, translate sim ple ciphers with tim e and effort, present a coherent argum ent. Difficult: Read sim ple ciphers with ease, identify the relationships between languages, decipher com plex codes with tim e and effort, translate an inscription in a dead language. Heroic: Identify som eone from their writing style, decipher com plex codes in a few m inutes, translate an inscription in a lost language. Legendary: Casually read or translate a language that you’ve never seen before, crack “unbreakable” encryption.
Land Vehicles governs the ability to operate land vehicles of all kinds, ranging from skateboards to m ain battle tanks. Automatic: Recognize the various types of land vehicles, know the basics operating them , get a license. Simple: Execute sim ple m aneuvers, get a license, perform sim ple m aintenance. Difficult: Execute a com plex (but sensible) m aneuver, m odify system s, perform a jum p, push for a bit of extra speed, perform a “bootlegger reverse.” Heroic: Execute a clearly im practical m aneuver or a com plex m aneuver under bad conditions, jury-rig or bypass m ajor system s in an em ergency. Legendary: Perform com plex m aneuvers under horrendous conditions, evade an attack which should certainly have destroyed the vehicle, execute a flatly ridiculous m aneuver.
Melee Weapons governs attacking with hand-held close-com bat weapons, whether such item s are designed for the task or im provised. Automatic: Add your weapons ability to your attack roll, inflict extra dam age with sufficient ability, attem pt to disarm an opponent (a resisted check with a +4 advantage to the opponent). Simple: Use an unfam iliar m elee weapon, perform basic m aintenance on low-technology m elee weapons, train novices in the basics of weapon use, attack an opponents weapon instead of the opponent. Difficult: Inflict stunning dam age with a norm allylethal weapon, throw a m elee weapon effectively, recognize the style of another weapon wielder, evaluate what tasks a particular weapon is best suited for.
Larceny governs lockpicking, forgery, bypassing security system s, and sim ilar illegal activities. Automatic: Serve as a thug or runner, locate readily available illegal goods and services, scrawl som ething illegible in place of a signature.
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Heroic: Perform basic repairs and m aintenance on a high-technology m elee weapon, m odify a low-tech weapon to suit a particular purpose, attack two or three targets sim ultaneously. Legendary: Make a sweeping attack targeting everyone within reach, hurl a m elee weapon and catch it again on the rebound. Characters who try for multiple attacks and similar tricks lose their basic attack if they don’t pull it off.
Difficult: W ithstand m inor em otional influences, let a spirit speak through you, conceal inform ation from a telepathic probe of your m ind, sense the presence of powerful spirits, break addictions. Heroic: Sense the presence of lesser spirits, subtly present only the inform ation you desire to a telepathic probe, dispose of beloved offspring who are unsuited to your plans, physically and effectively attack an otherwise im m aterial entity. Legendary: Present false inform ation to a telepathic probe, channel the full powers of a m ajor spirit and push it out of your body afterwards, resist direct neural pleasure/pain conditioning.
Perception governs alertness, sensory acuity, and the user’s ability to accurately interpret sensory inform ation. Automatic: W ake up when an alarm goes off, see and hear obvious things, and enjoy the benefits of norm al sensory perception. Simple: Recognize com m on spices, detect the sounds of com m on activities behind a door, wake up when there’s a slight disturbance. Difficult: Note the signs of a possible am bush, detect the aftertaste of a drug in wine, spot an am bush, evaluate wines, spot lurking anim als. Heroic: Spot a well-concealed trap or security system , detect a subtle poison in a spicy dish, determ ine an ingredient list from a few tastes, m ake out what som eone is whispering to som eone else across a crowded, noisy, room . Legendary: Spot a Landwalker hidden in their favored terrain type, track som eone by scent when it’s not your prim ary sense, detect slight traces of an odorless, colorless, gas.
Ranged Weapons governs the use of thrown, projectile, and energy based ranged weaponry, including lesser m agical attacks. Automatic: Add your weapons ability to your attack roll, inflict extra dam age with sufficient ability, attem pt to m ake a precise shot against a stationary target (the DC depends on how precise you want it to be). Simple: Use an unfam iliar ranged weapon, m ake new projectiles for low-technology ranged weapons. Difficult: Train novices in the basics of using ranged weapons, evaluate what tasks a ranged weapon is best suited for. Heroic: Place two shots precisely in the sam e place, knock an item out of som eone’s hand without hurting them , m ake two shots alm ost sim ultaneously. Legendary: Make a stunning attack with a lethal ranged weapon, skip over friends while spraying an area with autofire, shoot down an incom ing m issile weapon. Characters who try for multiple attacks and similar tricks lose their basic attack if they don’t pull it off.
Persuasion governs the m anipulation of other intelligent beings, usually through verbal m eans. Automatic: Get what you want across to som eone in a com m on language. Simple: Get people to do things which are obviously to their advantage or at least have no downside, seduce an adm iring or im pressionable target. Difficult: Talk people into doing som ething that’s a bit to their disadvantage or is fairly risky with little hope of reward, convince an enem y to talk, m ake an absurd proposition sound at least vaguely reasonable. Heroic: Sway a hostile crowd, talk people into doing som ething obviously absurd and/or dangerous, get an enem y to ally with you, persuade a bunch of defeated troops to go back into the battle. Legendary: Talk people into doing things that they’re specifically instructed or determ ined not to do, get your executioner to let you go, talk a king you’ve just betrayed into letting you serve as regent.
Reaction governs reflex speed, initiative, and stunts such as snatching arrows out of the air or quick-drawing a weapon. Automatic: Make reaction checks in com bat. Simple: Catch a thrown object, grab the railing while tripping down the stairs, jum p in front of som eone else. Difficult: Catch an arrow, grab a handhold while falling over a cliff, successfully interrupt another’s action. Heroic: Deflect bullets, throw a grappling hook to safety while falling. Legendary: Parry a laser beam , catch a spray of autom atic gunfire. Resist Magic governs the ability to resist hostile spells and enchantm ents. Automatic: Resist being warped or transform ed by environm ental background m agic. Simple: Resist “instant death” effects. Difficult: Resist the effects of an enchanted well or sim ilar feature, Hedge W izard m agic, or a creature’s odd m agical abilities. Heroic: Resist the effects of a m agical land or of Magelord m agic, disrupt a m inor enchantm ent with a touch, protect a sm all area from Hedge Magic.
Psyche governs the ability to resist m ental influences and attacks, as well as to detect, interact with, and channel any wandering spirits in the area. Automatic: Make a decision, avoid giving into silly advertisem ents, sit through a horror m ovie without panicking. Sim ple: Resist whining children, choose long-term plans over transient rewards, sense the presence of powerful psychic auras.
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Legendary: Resist Planewalker m agic, break a spell with a m ere touch, seal a dim ensional rift by stepping into it, protect a sm all area from Magelord m agic.
Legendary: Incite an arm y to fling itself against superb defenses in order to reach you, lie so well that even reading into your subconscious will not reveal the truth, discredit a living saint with vicious rum ors.
Saboteur governs the ability to m ake things go very, very, wrong. Automatic: Jam inactive and exposed m achinery, wedge a door, cause random havoc with an exposed control panel. Simple: Jam heavy m achinery without injuring yourself in the process, subtly spoil a dinner, stall a bureaucracy for several days. Difficult: Fix m achinery so that it’ll break down hours or days later, shut down an entire factory, disrupt a relationship. Heroic: Stall an arm y on the m arch for a few days, rig an artifact to backfire, injure, or destroy its user. Legendary: Throw a kingdom into confusion for a week.
Stealth governs being sneaky, picking pockets, stabbing people without perm itting an outcry. Automatic: W alk without tripping over things and knocking stuff over, hide behind walls and trees without sticking out. Simple: lift som ething sm all and unim portant from a target on a crowded street, disguise your identity with a bit of m akeup, m ake effective use of cam ouflage. Difficult: Cam ouflage and conceal a m odest area, keep som eone from m aking any noise if you kill them with a surprise attack, pick a pocket under norm al conditions, blend into a crowd of roughly-sim ilar people, disguise yourself as a typical (whatever). Heroic: Pick a pocket when your victim is on to you and no one else is around, sneak through a brightly-lit and well-traveled area, disguise yourself as a particular individual. Legendary: Pick a pocket without ever seem ing to approach your m ark, sneak down a well-lit, guarded, white corridor, im personate som eone so well that people can’t tell the difference even when you’re standing next to the person you’re im personating.
Serpent-tongue governs insinuation, taunts, lying, and sim ilar verbal m anipulations. It’s com m only opposed to Psyche or Perception. Automatic: Lie clum sily, use com m on insults. Simple: Misdirect city guards, start a rum or without seem ing to do so, get the authorities interested in alm ost anyone. Difficult: Sow doubts and confusion through a city, give som eone a bad reputation, start a fad, let som eone think of som ething “on their own.” Heroic: Generate a riot given a few m inutes in which to talk, turn a city against its rulers or any desired target, get a trial to com e out any way you want.
Streetwise governs fam iliarity with the underside of civilization, locating crim inal contacts, recognizing com m on scam s, reading gang sym bols, and working the streets. Automatic: Swipe office supplies, recognize gangs when you encounter them , run a bait-and-switch scam ,
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m ake com m on illegal purchases, let it be known that you’re looking for illegal services. Simple: Locate the bad areas of town, read sim ple gang signs, recognize the sim plest scam s, get enough food to survive on by begging, locate com m on thugs and gangers. Difficult: Live sim ply but com fortably thru begging, locate professional crim inals, scam a banker, find exotic and highly-illegal m aterials for sale, contact a hit m an without leaving any connection to yourself. Heroic: Locate the local bosses or specialist crooks, run com plex sm all-scale scam s. Legendary: Run a shell gam e on a huge scale, acquire m ost of the loose cash in a city, influence the underworld on a nation-wide basis.
Automatic: Have life points, age at the norm al rate (rather than very quickly). Simple: Avoid a wound becom ing infected under norm al circum stances, resist m inor irritants. Difficult: Self-stabilize if below 0 HP (roll each Turn), resist the effects of lethal poisons, resist an ordinary stunning attack. Heroic: Resist the effects of exotic poisons, take a m assive blow without flinching, resist a powerful stunning attack. Legendary: R esist aging for a m onth, take a final action when you ought to be dead, shrug off a m assive stunning attack. Water Vehicles governs the ability to operate water vehicles of all kinds, ranging from rafts to ocean liners. Automatic: Recognize the various types of water vehicles, know the basics of water behavior and navigation. Simple: Tack, subm erge (in a subm ersible vehicle we hope), or execute other sim ple m aneuvers, get a license. Difficult: Dock sm oothly and gently, execute a com plex (but sensible) m aneuver, perform general m aintenance. Heroic: Dock during a storm , plot a course in your head, execute a clearly im practical m aneuver or a com plex m aneuver under bad conditions, set sail in a fraction of the norm ally-required tim e, jury-rig or bypass m ajor system s in an em ergency. Legendary: Perform com plex m aneuvers under horrendous conditions, evade an attack which should certainly have destroyed the vehicle, execute a flatly ridiculous m aneuver.
Survival governs hunting, tracking, building shelters, and sim ilar basic functions. Automatic: Take advantage of natural cover, build a fire under norm al conditions, set up a tent so that it will stay up for a day or so barring accidents, recognize when it would be best to seek shelter, follow a trail of m uddy footprints. Simple: Set snares or sm all traps, set up a lean-to, follow a trail through the woods, determ ine which way is north, m ake your own trail difficult to follow. Difficult: Set up an igloo, hunt ordinary anim als under poor conditions, navigate by the stars or ocean currents, follow a difficult trail or one which som eone’s m aking efforts to hide. Heroic: Follow a weeks-old trail over rocky, barren, terrain, hunt the largest, m ost powerful, or m ost elusive norm al anim als successfully. Legendary: Follow a spirit-beast through a trackless enchanted wilderness, im provise a shelter to withstand an epic storm , set up a hunt for a legendary beast. Unarmed Combat governs the ability to inflict dam age with your bare hands (or other appendages). Automatic: Add your unarm ed com bat ability to your attack roll, inflict extra dam age with sufficient ability, stretch out properly. Sim ple: Exhibit your skills with kata, bend and flex in a variety of painful-looking ways, m ake stunning attacks. Difficult: Break boards, recognize an opponents style, teach novices, add your m artial arts skill to your Toughness by bracing for an attack, strike creatures which are dangerous to touch without suffering injuries. Heroic: Escape from bonds, break iron bars or sm ash m assive doors, m ake yourself unm ovable and /or resist a m assive im pact, attack two targets at the sam e tim e. Legendary: Break an opponents weapon in battle, engage im m aterial opponents with your bare hands, attack everyone in a sm all area sim ultaneously. Vigor governs your life points. Sim ply m ultiply your total score (2 + Level) by 10 to get them . Characters who are reduced to 0 life points fall unconscious, those who fall to -20 die.
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The Landrule
easily sense whether water is pure or food toxic. W hile the character’s senses are usually lim ited to (num ber of forests controlled) m iles in all directions, the scale of the disturbance m atters. Very sm all problem s m ay not trouble the character at all – while enorm ous changes m ay be felt around the world. Forester grants the user an intuitive understanding of the processes of nature and how to care for the land, as well as a (num ber of forests controlled) bonus on all Survival checks in natural surroundings and an equal bonus on developing and directing land m anagem ent practices (usually Scholar or Harvesting). Tongue of Gaia allows the user to spend a point of Green Mana to com m unicate with natural plants and anim als for the next (num ber of forests controlled) hours. W hile basically friendly, such creatures m ay be erratic, forgetful, or confused about the actions of other creatures and see things from their own perspectives. On the other hand, their natural senses, abilities, and talents m ay com e in very handy. Commune with Nature allows the user to spend a point of Green Mana to speak with the local spirits of nature, gaining a rough m ap/description of the local terrain showing up to (# of forests) item s. Such item s m ay include notable natural resources, sources for food and water, dangerous areas, the locations of powerful and unnatural creatures, routes, anim al populations, polluted or corrupted areas, (extrem ely rough) descriptions of cities, ruins, and other unnatural structures in the area, or sim ilar inform ation.
Attunem ent to the powers of the land offers som e lesser abilities to an adept. They are gained in order, at one ability per land controlled. The basic MTG :RPG does not include abilities derived from controlling m ore than five lands of any given type since such powers are usually unique; Gam e Masters who want to include higher order powers m ay m ake them up or wait for the MTG:RPG Planewalkers expansion.
Forests Green Mana is the surging power of life, the unthinking prim ordial urge to be. It finds its natural expression in the green cathedrals of the forests, where growth, health, and vigor entwine with fury, toxins, and the hunt in the ceaseless com petition of nature. W hat has been is gone, what m ight be is not im portant; there is only what is. W hile Green m agic is the foundation of life and growth, it brings forth beauty and horror in equal m easure. To live is to know pain, sickness, and death as well as birth, joy, and health. Still, without the power of Green Mana, there would be no living things to give m eaning to the m ultiverse. Landsense allows the user to sense disturbances in the natural order, including polluted areas, dam aged ecosystem s, whether or not water is pure or food toxic, and whether natural creatures are healthy or not. As a side benefit, he or she never becom es lost and can
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Pathfinding allows the user to spend three points of Green Mana to seek out a trail which leads to a desired realm , and take along up to a dozen com panions. The destination m ay be in any dim ension, and possibly in any tim e, of which the user has knowledge - but the route is not guaranteed to be safe. After all, this finds paths; it doesn’t create them .
Islands (Ocean M agic) Blue Mana is the m agic of the m ind, of will, creativity, and cold logic. The m ost intricate m agical effects are drawn from its depths. The control of tim e and space, of illusion and dream , of m inds and m agic, are all the province of Blue Mana. At its best, the power of Blue Mana can raise civilizations, bringing art, artifice, science, and creativity to the task of creating wonders. At its worst, those sam e tools can be turned to the task of destruction, creating unim aginable horrors. It is not for nothing that the surface of the seas glints with light while its depths conceal an abyssal darkness.
M ountains Red Mana is the power of the prim al elem ents, of fire, earth, and stone, of instinct and passion. It em bodies the fury of raging forest fire and the endurance of m ountains - and even that is barely enough to allow its wielders to survive the stress of channeling it. W hile m any m ages m ake the m istake of considering Red Mana a purely destructive force, it provides the foundation of worlds, and fuels the suns which warm them . W ithout it, the thousand planes would be nothing except a void. Still, the frail veneer of life cannot long endure the direct touch of the prim al fury of Red Mana.
W eathersense allows the user to predict the weather up to (num ber of islands controlled +2) days in advance. This ability also provides a +(num ber of islands controlled) bonus when piloting sail-powered water vehicles or unpowered air vehicles. Scrying allows the user to engage in sim ple clairvoyance/ clairaudience at ranges of up to one m ile per island the user controls. The effect lasts for up to one hour per point of Blue Mana expended to power it. Countermagic allows the user to spend two points of Blue m agic as an instinctive action to add a +(num ber of islands) bonus to a single Resist Magic roll or three points to extend that resistance to an entire Scene. W izard’s Link allows the user to spend a point of Blue Mana to open a com m unications link with another willing lesser m age or m agelord, regardless of distance or dim ensional barriers. The link will rem ain open for up to (num ber of islands controlled) hours or until dism issed by either party. W eathermonger allows the user to m anipulate the local weather. Minor, Notable, and Major changes cost 1, 2, and 3 points of Blue Mana. Unfortunately, the user does not have any fine control; a storm m ay be destructive, but the sm allest possible “target” is a sizable city. If the weather is not otherwise described, it will tend to suit the user. Minor changes include creating or dispelling breezes, light rain, m ist, or annoying am ounts of dust under fine weather conditions, m oderating a storm , or slightly altering the tem perature. Notable changes include creating powerful gusts of wind, heavy rain, snow, or sleet, dispelling a storm or turning a storm into a full hurricane, or creating wildly unseasonable tem peratures. Major changes pretty m uch cover changing any kind of weather which occurs on the planet into any other kind. You still can’t produce m ethane storm s at -200 degrees on earthlike worlds however.
Earthsense allows the user to sim ply “feel” the forces and structure of the earth. The user can sense the presence of deposits of fuel, m etal, stone, and water, evaluate the fertility of the earth, sense dangerous terrain, locate caverns, and locate the safe paths (if any) through dangerous terrain in a radius of 1000 feet per m ountain controlled. Arcane Bolt allows the user to spend one point of Red Mana to m ake a sim ple elem ental attack (the special effects are up to the user), inflicting (num ber of Mountains controlled - num ber of targets + 1)d6 dam age up to a m axim um of 5d6 per target. This does not require an attack check, but does allow resistance. W arding allows the user to endure natural environm ental extrem es. Norm ally-survivable, if uncom fortable, conditions such as tropical rain, desert heat, and frigid cold, m ay be ignored freely. Conditions which would actually cause dam age, such as lack of oxygen, wading through lava, toxic atm ospheres, high pressure, and subzero cold, cost 2 points of Mana per (num ber of m ountains controlled) days. Binding allows the user to spend a point of Red Mana to try and m ystically entrap any single creature with a level of 2x (num ber of m ountains controlled, 6 m axim um ) or less. Only one such creature can be bound at a tim e and a m agic resistance check at DC 15 by the creature or its controller (if any) will negate this effect. Entrapped creatures are swallowed up by the earth and forced into stasis, but are unharm ed on their release. Realmward allows the user to expend 10 life points to protect up to (num ber of m ountains) lands against any effect which would otherwise dam age them .
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W hat lives, fears death - or it does not live for long. Black Mana appeals to the power-hungry, who wish to share in its inevitable trium ph, to those who fear or wish to exploit fear in others, and to those who wish to com m une with death, but it is not inherently evil; it’s sim ply easily abused. W ithout entropy, the universe would tear itself apart with its own effulgence.
Plains (Steppe M agic) W hite Mana is the power of law and unity, binding beings, places, and people together to create som ething greater than the parts that m ake it up. Societies and civilizations generate, and are bound together by, W hite Mana. Don’t assum e that W hite Mana is inherently beneficial; the unity of a m urderous band and the order of a fearsom e tyranny are just as m uch a product of W hite Mana as the oath of brotherhood of a noble band of paladins.
Gathering allows the user to draw sustenance directly from the long, slow, entropic dem ise of the universe, rather than feeding on it indirectly like all other life. The user m ay support one creature per swam p that he or she draws upon without effort or hindrance. For a point of Black Mana per day the user can support ten creatures per swam p. Venomous Touch allows the user to spend a point of Black Mana to create up to (the num ber of swam ps controlled) doses of deadly poison, either to add to m elee attacks or to a food, trap, or sim ilar item outside of com bat. The user m ay also im bue a creature with poison if it has a way to carry it (such as poison sacs) or it happens to be undead, a construct, or som ething like an earth elem ental, and therefore im m une.
Locate Contact allows the user to find som eone who fits a general description (such as “a skilled thief” or “a m erchant dealing in rare herbs”) in a town or city in an hour or two without cost presum ing that such an individual exists. For a point of W hite Mana the user m ay locate a specified individual within the area or discover that they’re not there in the sam e tim e. Gift of Tongues allows the user to spend a point of W hite Mana to instantly learn a language or decipher an inscription or code. Such instant understanding rem ains for the next 6x (the num ber of plains controlled) hours. Guestright gets the user hospitality in any civilized locale (and often in uncivilized ones). The user is autom atically invited to the best parties, to stay as a guest, and to enjoy the privileges of high status in any place where such things are available. The user m ay even tow along up to (num ber of plains controlled) friends or allies. Sadly, it does cost a point of W hite Mana to activate this in areas dom inated by other races or where people have never heard of you. W orse, enem ies rem ain enem ies - and if you don’t behave like a guest not even this power will m ake people treat you like one. Voice of Command allows the user to give orders which will likely be obeyed by any m inor characters who hear them unless they have a specific reason to disobey. The user will never be hindered by petty bureaucrats, get slow service, or have to argue idiots into doing what’s obviously necessary. For a point of W hite Mana the user m ay also project his or her voice clearly to a m ighty throng or across a battlefield, with a m axim um range equal to (num ber of plains controlled) m iles. Radiant Presence grants the m aster of W hite Mana the aura of an overlord, inviolate to the power of lesser beings. Creatures of level three or less cannot attack the character. Those of levels 4 to (the num ber of plains the user controls) attack at -2 power. Characters and creatures with access to Psyche m ay negate these penalties with a successful check at DC (10 + the num ber of plains the user controls).
Poisons dam age abilities. Most “com bat” poisons reduce the victim ’s Vigor unless he or she m akes a successful Endurance check to resist. More exotic poisons m ay induce weakness, reduce magical abilities, induce sensory trouble (reducing Perception), or cause m any other problem s. Lost ability points recover at one point per day or m ore rapidly with m agical healing. See page XX. W eave of Life allows the user to spend a point of Black Mana to analyze lifeform s, including any constructs which think and act independently. The user gains an accurate, if basic, description of the creature and m ay m ake a Scholar check with a bonus equal to the num ber of swam ps he or she controls to obtain m ore detailed inform ation. Portal Mastery allows the user to spend three points of Black Mana to open or close an existing gate, rift, or portal or to draw a card to replace a lost card or fill a vacant slot, reducing the tim e required just like any other card-drawing ability. Gates of Death allows the user to return from the dead after being “killed.” Unfortunately, this com es at a price; the user m ust give up one levels worth of abilities, card slots, and/or Distinctions - as well as trading one in for the Undead Distinction. He or she does, however, gain a Toughness bonus equal to the num ber of swam ps he or she currently controls from this point on. Exotic Lands (Unique M agics) Exotic lands contribute their special abilities and functions as usual, but do not contribute to the Landrule ability progressions.
Sw amps (Void M agic) Black Mana is the m agic of entropy – power derived from the inevitable destruction and disintegration of all things. At the sam e tim e, death - in all its kindly and terrible aspects - is the foundation of new life. This is m ost easily seen in the swam ps, where flourishing life springs from fetid m ire.
33
Game Structure Events run in Turns and Scenes. A T urn is one full com bat round, where every PC and m ajor NPC acts once (see page 35). Scenes are m erely m ajor events. A 20-second back-alley knife fight is a Scene, as is the ten-m inute chase which follows it. One Scene m ay be com posed of m any Turns, if it involves com bat. Cards which have effects based on Turns act norm ally while in com bat. Their effects norm ally end with the Scene. At the GM’s discretion, som e cards m ay instead act as if Scenes were Turns for them . “Tapping” m eans “to draw upon the resources of.” Tapping a resource or creature in com bat takes a single com bat Turn, not the whole Scene. This activates the indicated effect. Cards which self-tap under certain circum stances, are tapped by other effects, or com e into play tapped do not require you to use a Turn. Som e tap effects m ay be played as Instant effects, at the discretion of the GM. Tapping during larger Scenes when not using com bat Turns uses a few m om ents of tim e – about 6 seconds. Thus, a character can usually tap resources easily outside of com bat.
Creature Combat Attack Ability Dam age Life Toughness
Unlike m ost RPG’s, the MTG:RPG encourages m ultiple Gam e Masters, allowing each to take a break and get in som e play tim e. Each can cooperate in developing the cam paign, handle events in their own specialities, and handle one side when the characters becom e involved in a Duel Arcane or Planewalkers’ Duel.
Statistics = (Total Mana Cost +2) = (Power)d6 = (Toughness) x 10 = (Toughness)
For creature-on-creature com bat don’t bother rolling to hit or adjusting m odifiers; just let the players roll dam age for their m onsters, subtract Toughness, and apply it to their creatures’ targets while you do the sam e. Creatures do possess any special abilities listed on their cards, although any that require Tapping the card to use are only usable once per day. Creatures don’t usually have Resist Magic, Psyche, or sim ilar abilities. Unless they have som e special power, m agic alm ost always works on them . W here the Gam e Master agrees that they should have additional abilties - say Movem ent for a Cheetah or Stealth for a Ninja - these can be assigned as desired or sim ply default to the creature’s (Total Mana Cost). Ability lists for each individual card will be presented in the Card expansion books. Characters with appropriate Distinctions can share som e of their abilities with their creatures. This can m ake them a great deal m ore effective.
It also m akes it easy to handle the perennial headache of the party splitting up and going in different directions.
Creatures Creatures are generally m ost im portant in com bat, and so get abbreviated statistics and a quick-and-dirty system for handling creature-versus-creature com bat. Major enem ies, recurring NPC’s, and sim ilar figures should probably get full writeups like the playercharacters (or at least som e notes on their m ajor abilities). 34
Combat Turns
! Followers can generally be assum ed to have standing orders to protect the boss, while Conjurations protect their m asters autom atically. This doesn’t m ean that they’ll always succeed - or that the player can’t have them do som ething else - but they’ll try if their controller wants them to. Most m ages like to keep a few protectors with delayed actions around (to get in the way of attackers), just in case. Followers probably won’t com m it suicide to protect you; how big a risk they’ll take varies with their loyalty and philosophy.
Since MTG:RPG isn’t a wargam e as such, and has a Gam e Master to resolve any disputes, it doesn’t rely so heavily on a detailed Turn structure. Outside of com bat it really doesn’t need one; discussing a bit of intrigue over a form al dinner needs no Turn structure. Com bat Turns are quite sim ple:
! Once everyone’s done som ething, or has decided not to act this Turn, finish up the accounting. Characters who are unconscious, but not dead (0 to -19 Life) take an extra point of dam age after each Turn until they die or som eone does som ething to stop the process, such as healing them for one or m ore life or binding their wounds. Characters who have som ehow m anaged to wind up with m ore Mana than they can safely store - that’s m ore of any one color than their relevant Magic ability or m ore colorless Mana than they have spare points in their m agic abilities to hold - take 1d6 points of dam age per excess point as the excess Mana flares up out of control and dissipates. Instants and Spells which have been cast, as well as slain Followers, depleted or broken Artifacts, com pleted Enchantm ents, and slain Conjurations, are turned over on the table. Slain or destroyed Followers and other “real” item s are returned to the player’s Library (see page XX) at the end of the Scene, other cards are considered exhausted until they refresh.
! If one or m ore potential com batants are unaware of potential opponents, they m ay m ake an Awareness check; anyone who fails is Surprised during the first round, and doesn’t get to act. ! Each player m akes a Reaction check. The one with the highest total goes first, then the next highest, and so on. Ties m ay be resolved with a second check. The reaction check m ay either be m ade at the beginning of the com bat, and the results retained throughout, or m ay be m ade each Turn. The choice is up to the Gam e Master. In any case, Followers and Conjurations act with their controller. Instant card effects and reactive creature effects are not tied to your Turn; they may be used at any time although a DC 15 Reaction roll is required to do so if the character is surprised. A character can only use one Instant effect per Turn however. ! W hen it’s their Turn, characters m ay do one thing - cast a spell, attack som eone, flee from com bat, attem pt to coordinate everyone else (especially their own creatues) by yelling a series of com m ands, use one of their other abilities, or whatever. Such actions can include a subaction or two, but m ust be relatively sim ple. Som e valid exam ples include:
! Tim ekeeping in MTG:RPG consists of tracking Turns, Scenes, Acts, and Stories. Turns are usually only im portant in com bat and stress situations; a Turn is long enough for everyone to take a sim ple action - anywhere from a few seconds to a m inute or so. Exhausted Sorcery cards norm ally refresh at the end of each Turn. Scenes are best sum m arized as story segm ents “The barroom fight scene,” “The royal audience scene,” and so on. Once the focus of the action shifts, the Scene - and the effects of spells and Conjuration effects - ends. Exhausted Enchantm ent, Creature, or Artifact cards norm ally refresh at the end of a Scene. Acts are the intervals between m ajor breaks in the action - norm ally a full day between rest breaks. Acts can take longer if the characters are on a m ulti-day watch or journey. Instant cards, special abilities, and Mana source abilities norm ally refresh at the end of an act. Also, any available “Draw a Card” effects can be used to replace lost cards at the end of an Act. Stories are linked series of Acts, usually with som e sort of clim ax or resolution at the end. They usually take 3-5 gam e sessions, or about a m onth of real tim e. They’re also the tim e required to replace a lost card without using a “Draw a Card” effect.
1) I close with (whoever) and attack him /her/it! 2) I lean around the tree and cast a Lightning Bolt! 3) I order all of m y creatures to attack him /her/it! 4) I’m healing him /her/it (who presum ably needs it) 5) I hang back and shoot an arrow at him /her/it! 6) I hold m y action, preparing to (whatever)! 7) I try to leap over his head and stab him in the back as I com e down (“OK, but -2 to attack and to your own Defense, but +2d6 dam age if you pull this one off” says the Gam e Master). Characters m ay opt to delay their actions until later in the round. Delayed actions m ay be used defensively or to interrupt another characters action. W hatever a character does, roll as required. If everyone opts to wait you have the good old Mexican Stand-Off. Make an Endurance check; the one with the lowest roll has to do SOMETHING - or faint. Tapping a Mana source is considered a part of a spellcasting action.
35
Movement and Position
2d6 per Event:
W hile com bat can be entirely description-based, m ost gam ers are m ore com fortable with som e sort of m ap. Regardless of whether you’re using a hex grid, square grid, of freeform m ap, the rules for m ovem ent are pretty sim ple.
Turn:
! Each character can m ove a num ber of squares, hexes, or inches equal to his or her Movem ent rank and still do som ething else. ! If they m ove but stay on guard, they can m ore twice their Movem ent rank in squares, hexes, or inches each turn. ! If they do nothing else, they can m ove three tim es their Movem ent rank in squares, hexes, or inches. If they choose to m ove this fast hostile characters they pass m ay m ake a Difficult Reaction check to try and get in a free attack on them . ! If the character is trying to change elevation in com bat while fighting he or she will have to m ake a Movem ent check. Jum ping or clim bing a few feet is Sim ple, Clim bing a flight of steps or scram bling up a brief slope is Difficult, sliding down a slope on your feet is Heroic, trying to fight while swinging from a vine is Legendary. ! Figurines of som e sort m ake the best m arkers. ! Range on the m ap is m ore or less irrelevant. Anything which gets off the m ap is at long range, and gains a +2 to it’s Defense. Anything a long ways off the m ap is at extrem e range, and gets a +5 bonus to it’s defense. Anything further away than that is gone. ! Hedge Magic works out to long range. Card-based m agic is norm ally line-of-sight. ! Unless one side is waiting in am bush, encounters norm ally start when those involved m ove onto the sam e m ap and Perception checks are m ade.
Scene:
Act
4d6 per Event:
Turn:
Scene:
Act 8d6 per Event:
Turn:
Other sources of Damage
Scene:
There are m any ways for character’s to get hurt over and above being attacked. In m ost cases the only real questions are how m uch and how fast. For this, use:
Act
1d6 per Event:
Turn: Scene: Act
Being thrown from a horse without m aking a Difficult Athletics check, falling a couple of floors, having a pile of stones or concrete blocks fall on you, being hurled into a pile of sharp objects. Contact with a Bonfire, breathing Mustard Gas, being pinned beneath a porticullis, being on fire, exposure to vacuum . Breathing grossly polluted atm ospheres, running over broken glass or blades with bare feet. The Black Plague, being a m agical being in an area without m agic.
Contact with a high voltage power line, being hit by an avalanche, falling from a tall tree, being swarm ed by bees (also inflicts one level of deadly poison), being caught in a tidal wave, having a building fall on you. Being covered in hot tar, crushed beneath tons of rubble, exposed to a driven hail of broken glass. Being tortured or slowly im paled, having the bends, running through an area that’s being sprayed with m achine-gun bullets, Horrific supernatural afflictions.
Crashing a jet plane at speed, re-entering the atm osphere without protection, being struck by natural lightning while grounded, falling a couple of hundred feet, exposure to m ilitary nerve gases. Anything no norm al person could possibly survive. W ading through m agm a or soaking in a blast furnace, swim m ing in liquid air, or breathing chlorine gas. Moving through the heart of a raging forest fire, being naked and exposed to an arctic blizzard at -80 degrees windchill, Breathing som ewhat corrosive or other slowly-lethal atm ospheres.
Many cards work a little differently in MTG:RPG. That’s because things are a lot more com plicated. So flying creatures can’t be blocked? W hat if I’m in a cave and I plug up the entrance with a wall or large creature? W hat if there’s a raging storm blowing and nothing can fly? W hat if it’s diving for me and I simply roll under the Mammoth? W hat if the flying thing W ANTS to close with the ground-bound monster? W hat if, what if, what if... Freedom of action is one of the things that defines a role-playing game, and it’s why you need a game master. Still, we’re not throwing you off the deep end here; we’ve provided some guidelines for handling the more common special card abilities under...
Being hit with a gallon or two of boiling water, explosive decom pression from one atm osphere to vacuum , falling at least ten feet (reduce falling dam age one level if falling into water, two levels if falling into a suitable cushioning area). Choking sm oke, Drowning, being attacked by arm y ants. Blizzard conditions, sandstorm s, searing desert heat. Cholera and sim ilar debilitating diseases, dehydration and/or starvation, severe dust storm s.
36
Keywords and Definitions
Rem em ber that that lands with a lot of accum ulated Mana becom e very tem pting targets for takeovers by other Magelords. Cumulative Upkeep: See Upkeep. Cycling: You m ay pay the Cycling cost and exhaust this card to refresh any other card. The cycled card rem ains exhausted until the card it was used to refresh would norm ally do so. Damage: Dam age is persistent in MTG:RPG. Once a creature or other item is dam aged it rem ains so until it is repaired or recovers naturally. In general, each point of Power equates to 1d6 dam age in MTG:RPG. Mana-based card attacks are slightly m ore effective, translating to 1d6+1 per point. Defender: Anything with Defender either won’t attack or can’t m ove (ask the Gam e M aster if there’s any question). Anything which can’t m ove is norm ally only taken as a Conjuration, although a character with the W arlord Distinction m ay opt to give each garrison a perm anent wall. However, he or she is not hauling such a fortification around! Destroyed: Destroyed cards include slain perm anent followers, perm anently broken artifacts, and anything sim ilar. Such cards should be returned to the player’s Library after the gam e session; the character will have to find replacem ent cards to fill those slots. Discard Effects: These norm ally sim ply exhaust the appropriate num ber of cards, usually of the target’s choice. Doublestrike: The creature m ay m ake attack twice during a Turn. If it’s attacked during a Turn and has not yet attacked, it can use one of its attacks against the attacker before the attacker strikes. Dredge: You m ay exhaust the indicated num ber of cards to either im m ediately ready this card for use again (spells and conjurations) or to heal any dam age inflicted on a Follower provided that it’s still alive. Echo: These creatures can only be Conjurations and m ust be paid for twice, as usual. W hile the creature rem ains under the control of its “owner,” other characters m ay take an action to contribute Mana towards its casting cost. Entwine: This operates norm ally. Epic: Epic spells com e to an end at the end of the current Scene, but otherwise operate norm ally. As a rule, few MTG:RPG characters can handle spells of that level; m ost epic spells are very expensive. Equip: Perm anent artifacts can be used by their owner or delegated to his or her creatures without paying the Equip cost. Conjured item s, or perm anent Item s assigned to other people’s creatures or other player characters require the norm al cost to Equip, but either of the players involved can pay it. Exhausted: Cards which are used for m agical effects and would norm ally be discarded, along with m agically sum m oned perm anents, becom e Exhausted after use. They m ay be used again after an appropriate interval. Fading: This creature can only be a Conjuration. There is a chance of it disappearing each Turn: Roll 1d6: Fading 2 disappears on a 1-3, Fading 3 or 4 on a 1-2, and Fading 5+ on a 1. If this is too m uch trouble,
Act: Generally about a day, the tim e between two rest periods. The tim e required to refresh an Instant card or to replace a destroyed card using a “Draw a Card” effect. Affinity: Since players get to build their own hands in MTG:RPG, this has only half effect. Amplify: Since MTG:RPG characters can select what’s in their hand the effect of Am plify is halved: it takes two additional cards of the sam e type to trigger it. Banding: Creatures in a band m ay distribute dam age am ong them selves as their controller desires, rather than as an attacker m ight desire. Basic Land: Forest (Green M ana), Mountain (Red Mana), Plain (a.k.a. Steppes, W hite Mana), Island (Blue Mana, a.k.a. Ocean Magic), and Swam p (Black Mana, also known as Void Magic). Basic Land Cards are generally presum ed to represent substantial chunks of territory. Attuning yourself to a land requires reaching it’s m ystical center and m editating there for a tim e. A character who is actually at the center can draw twice the norm al Mana - usually 2 points - from a land each day. Bushido: This acts as levels of the Arm sm an Distinction. Buyback: Paying the buyback cost bypasses the usual refresh tim e. This is rarely worthwhile without the rapid Mana recovery that occurs in a Planewalker’s Duel. CCG: Collectible Card Gam e. Popular exam ples include Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, and the VS system . Conjuration: The m agically-created m anifestation of a Card from a player’s hand. Most Conjurations persist for a m axim um of one Scene or until dispelled som ehow but Enchantm ents m ay last for considerably longer periods. Convoke: Each additional m age who takes an action to assist in the casting of this spell or the conjuring of this m onster reduces the Mana cost by one Mana of any color he or she has available. The assisting m ages do not actually have to spend any Mana, but all of them share equally in any defensive or healing benefits of the spell. Copying Objects: This works norm ally, although any copied objects are subject to the sam e restrictions as the originals are. Counters: If derived from spells, Conjurations, or Enchantm ents, counters fade with the m agic that created them . If derived from perm anent creatures, they are perm anent - but each two perm anent beneficial counters on a card raise its effective level by 1, which m ay push it beyond the control lim its im posed by the characters abilities. Uncontrolled creatures are returned to the Library, and any counters on them are lost. Counters which accum ulate from Turn to Turn are generally subject to a m axim um of five. Accum ulative Lands - lands which build up a reserve of Mana tokens - gain one counter per week, not one per Turn, and are subject to the sam e m axim um of five. 37
use the standard counter system . Fear. This creature radiates terror (and has no social life). Only Artifact and Black creatures will engage it in m elee voluntarily. All other creatures are at -2 power if forced to do so, but m ay use ranged attacks or other m eans norm ally. Player Characters m ay m ake a Resist Magic check to negate the effect or engage at -2 power. First Strike: The creature gets a free attack as an opponent closes, provided only that he, she, or it is awake and aware of the upcom ing attack. This does not count as its action. Flanking: Creatures with Flanking grant any other creatures who are fighting the sam e opponent a +2d6 bonus on the dam age they inflict. If m ultiple creatures with Flanking are involved this reaches a lim it of +4d6. Flashback: This Conjuration or spell m ay be played again before its refresh period is up for the indicated cost. After its played in this fashion return it the owners library; the character m ust replace it like any other lost card. Flip: This operates norm ally. As usual, if a Flip card leaves play, it returns unflipped. If one side of a Flip card is legendary the usual Legend rules apply. Flying: This creature can fly. This m akes it hard to catch and lets it swoop down on unsheltered targets although anyone nearby m ay attack it as it attacks. Flying is useful in m any noncom bat situations as well. Followers: Creatures associated with a character who actually exist, and therefore don’t cost Mana unless they have an upkeep cost or activated ability. Game Master: The person running the gam e. Graveyard: MTG:RPG doesn’t have a “Graveyard” as such; cards are sem iperm anent character attributes, and aren’t usually discarded. Sorceries, Instants, and conjured Creatures can be reused after enough tim e has passed to refresh them . Followers and perm anent artifacts can be Destroyed, in which case they’re returned to the Library until the character gains a new card to replace them , repairs them , or raises them from the dead. For the purposes of cards which restore cards from the Graveyard, can be used from there, or depend on the num ber of cards there, destroyed item s, slain followers, and all cards waiting to be refreshed are considered to be “in the Graveyard.” Hand: For the purposes of MTG:RPG your “hand” consists of all the cards associated with your character which aren’t currently in play, exhausted, or destroyed. Haste: Conjured creatures m ay attack on the sam e Turn in which they were sum m oned. Followers with Haste gain an extra attack during the first Turn. Haunt: W hen this card is “destroyed” tuck it under another creature card. W hen that creature is destroyed, play the Haunt effect and exhaust this card norm ally. Horsemanship: Creatures with horsem anship gain a +2 bonus on their Movem ent abilities as long as using a m ount is practical. Hunted. W orks norm ally as a Conjuration. If taken on a Follower new hunter creatures will show up periodically even if you killed the last batch. Imprint: Cards that Im print other cards operate norm ally but take up two card slots once the other card
is im printed. Indestructible: Things with this property don’t take dam age. They can’t be sacrificed or destroyed except as determ ined by the Gam e Master (“you m ust take the Ring to Mount Copyright, where it was Tradem arked long ago, and there...”), but can be left behind, lost, sent away, or otherwise incapacitated. Interrupt: An old term for an “Instant” card, but quite appropriate. Kicker: Operates norm ally. Land Destruction: “Destroying” a land definitely involves blasting its m ystical center, thus breaking its link with m ages of any kind. How far the destruction and side effects extend beyond that is up to the Gam e Master. In general, a Magelord’s link isn’t strong enough to create too m any side effects. Planewalkers are another m atter. Lesser Magi don’t have a strong enough link to do anything but break it without affecting the land. Landwalk: This creature can conceal itself nearperfectly in the indicated environm ent even while m oving if it can get out of line of sight for a few m om ents. Creatures with Landwalk can be spotted with a DC 18 Perception check or with Magesight if they’re Conjurations. Creatures which are not spotted m ay appear and strike with autom atic surprise. Level: Total or Converted Mana Cost. Alternatively, the value of an Ability. Ley Line, Mana Fountain, Mystic Node/W ell: These natural Mana flows m ay be tapped (via Mana Tapping) to power m agic. W hile they’re too unstable to be tapped or linked to at range, a m age who’s actually at them can draw on them for two points of Mana per day. Sadly, such sources only contain a total of 4d6 Mana and restore them selves at 1d6 points per day. They’re m ost often claim ed by Lesser Magi who want to set up a business without being beholden to a Magelord for Mana. Note that these are distinct from the Leyline cards. Leyline (Card): These cards are in effect unless countered, but any global effects only apply to the user. Library: In MTG:RPG your “library” consists of every m agic card you own that isn’t currently in use. It’s norm ally only used when you’re creating or upgrading a character, when you’re replacing lost cards, or when you’ve used a card which allows you to either search or draw to fill a vacant slot. Life Points: A m easure of how m uch dam age a creature or character can take. In general, each point of life point gain or loss listed on a card is read as 1d6 or 1d6+1 for spells. W hile it is possible to gain life points above your usual m axim um , such extra points fade away at the end of the Scene. Madness: This card m ay be invoked or activated at its M adness cost if the user also expends 1d6 Life doing so. Mana Burn: Since MTG:RPG characters can store a certain am ount of Mana on a long-term basis, Mana Burn only occurs if they exceed their storage lim its at the end of any given Turn. Mana Production: Mana production effects are norm ally once-per-day affairs. Lands, and other Mana 38
sources, can be tapped as needed, including while you’re in the m iddle of casting a spell. Conjurations of any kind CANNOT supply M ana, although they can store it. Lands norm ally supply one point of Mana per day, but som eone who’s actually at the m ystic center of a land when they tap it gets two points instead. Accum ulative Lands - lands which build up a reserve of Mana tokens - gain one counter per week, not one per Turn, and are subject to the sam e m axim um of five. Rem em ber that lands with a lot of accum ulated Mana becom e very tem pting targets for takeovers by other Magelords. Creatures and spells which can convert Mana from one color to another can only do so once per day. Modular: Modular creatures can only be Conjurations; the +1/+1 counters they produce will - like all other counters or item s that com e with Conjurations disappear at the end of the Scene. Unlike MTG:CCG, the MTG:RPG is open-ended. If counters and tokens could accumulate indefinitely, entire continents should be buried under squirrels and there should be artifact creatures running around at +10,000/+10,000. The setting material doesn’t seem to support this, hence the limitation. Morph: This ability is a boon for follower-creatures, since it allows them to take a m ore-or-less innocuous form . Since you’re generally not hiding anything in MTG:RPG you don’t have to bother turning the card upside down; just set a note or innocuous m iniature on it. Multicolored Cards: Characters who want to control m ulticolored cards m ust have sufficient skill in each color involved to control a card of the appropriate level. Thus weak m ulticolored cards are easy to acquire, but higher-cost ones require high ratings in all of the relevant abilities. Ninjutsu: You m ay exchange this creature with another creature of the sam e nature (Conjuration or Follower) at any tim e by paying the Ninjutsu cost. Yes, you can swap them back later. NPC: A non-player character with a personality and nam e of his or her own run by the Gam e Master. Probably a redundant entry for anyone buying a RPG. Ocean Magic: Another nam e for Island m agic. Presum ably Islands are sim ply the places where Ocean Mana foci can be tapped m ost easily. Offering: Operates norm ally, however Followers generally object to being used as an Offering. Phasing: Creatures with Phasing m ay expend 5 Life to avoid the effects of any single ranged attack or m ultitarget m agical effect or to pass through walls or up to ten feet of solid m atter. Optionally, the Gam e Master m ay rule that a Phased creature can interact with a Shadow creature. The original rules for Phasing called for eliminating all damage dealt to a phasing creature when it phased out, which it did every other Turn. Since combat may continue for several Turns in MTG:RPG this would make tough phasing creatures nearly unkillable; hence modifications are necessary. Poison: W hile poison can cause various ability penalties in MTG:RPG, standard creature poisons
reduce the Vigor ability by 1 per dose adm inistered unless the character can m ake a DC 15 Endurance check. Poisoned Creatures lose 10 life. Characters and creatures recover from poison at 1 ability point or 10 life points per day. Power: A character or creature’s basic ability to inflict dam age. Power can be boosted by various abilities, Distinctions, item s, and m agical effects, all of which are equally applicable to creatures, NPC’s, and characters. Each point of Power equates to 1d6 points of Dam age. Protection: Protection operates norm ally in m ost cases, but can be overcom e with a DC 18 Resist Magic check if a character is extending that ability to his or her creatures. Provoke: This ability allows the creature to force a chosen target to m ove into m elee com bat with it. Both this creature and the target get a free attack on each other as they close. Player Characters m ay resist with a DC 15 Psyche check. Ram page: Creatures with Ram page can strike at each creature engaged in m elee with them with a single attack, albeit at -1 power. Regenerate: Creatures with this quality recover all dam age between Acts (except for Life burnt off to power m agic) autom atically. Their controller m ay pay their regeneration cost to fully heal them at any tim e, but cannot return them from death after the end of the current Scene. Remove from the Game: Cards belonging to a character becom e Exhausted and refresh one level m ore slowly unless som e other return condition is specified. Cards acquired through Dynam ic Magic (see page 43) are returned to their owner’s Library. Return to Hand: This has no effect on followers or real item s. Conjurations, Enchantm ents, and other tem porary effects are dispelled, although the card will once again be ready for use (although few m agi in MTG:RPG have enough Mana for m uch of that). Lands are basically unaffected, but the character’s link with them will be disrupted for the rest of the day. RPG: Role-Playing Gam e. Another one that anyone buying this gam e probably already knows. Sacrifice: Real creatures object to being sacrificed and are considered destroyed if they are. Conjurations can be sacrificed and resum m oned after the usual refresh period. Scene: One battle, the tim e spent exploring a crypt, or another connected series of action sequences. The tim e required to refresh an Enchantm ent, Creature, or Artifact card. Scry: W henever a Scry effect com es into play the Gam e Master should provide the player with som e useful bit of inform ation about the environm ent or an opponent. Shadow: Shadow creatures exist m ostly in other planes of existence. They are im m aterial and can only harm things which exist in m ultiple dim ensions, such as Planewalkers and other creatures with Shadow. They can only be harm ed by spells and light-based attacks. Unless you’re fighting a Planewalker they’re only really useful as scouts and spies. 39
Soulshift: If a creature with Soulshift is a Conjuration you m ay refresh any creature Conjuration card or com bination of creature Conjuration cards of the appropriate cost or less. If the creature with Soulshift is a Follower you m ay revive any other slain Follower of the appropriate level or less. Steppe: Another word for “Plains”. Storm: Spells with Storm take effect once for each Lesser Mage, Magelord, or Planewalker character who participates in the casting by using their action in the Turn of casting to assist the user. Sunburst: Discount the first two colors of Mana used to bring a card with Sunburst into play. Since any mageling in MTG:RPG will probably have several types of Mana available, Sunburst has to be toned down a bit to maintain game balance. Splice: Splice operates norm ally, hence cards in your hand with Splice can be used over and over again unless used on their own. Story: A connected series of acts, usually spanning 3-5 sessions of play or about a m onth of real tim e. The tim e required to replace a Destroyed card unless the character uses a “Draw a Card” effect. Summoning Sickness: (Unofficial). The whatever-itis that keeps a Conjured creature from acting during the Turn in which it was sum m oned. Tap to (X): Cards which can be “tapped” to produce a special effect can norm ally do so once per day. If they’re in com bat, they m ust norm ally expend their action to do so. Technology Card: Technology cards are generally either drawn from other gam es with the perm ission of the Gam e Master or are unique to M TG :RPG. They norm ally deal with the setting, rather than with other players and opponents, and so have no purpose in basic MTG:CCG gam es. Exam ples include Ships that
allow rapid travel between locations, Cyberdecks that m ake it easier to hack com puters, or Bugs used to listen in on NPC conversations. Threshold: This operates norm ally. Tokens: Tokens count as cards of the appropriate type and do apply against the card lim its im posed by the character’s abilities. Toughness: Essentially a creature’s Vigor ability rating. Toughness can be m odified in a variety of ways through cards and other abilities. Trample: If this creature does enough dam age to kill its first opponent it m ay attack a second tim e in one Turn. Transmute: Paying the Transm ute cost allows the user to take a card from his or her library and put it into his or her hand. W hether it’s used or not, the card m ust be discarded at the end of the Scene and the original, transm uted, card will take a full Act to refresh. Turn: A full round of com bat, during which everyone involved gets to act once (usually a m inute or so at the very m ost, m ore often about six seconds). Also the tim e required to refresh a Sorcery card. In MTG:CCG a Turn can usually be assum ed to represent hours or days: this is quite unworkable in a role-playing gam e. Unblockable: This creature cannot be physically attacked by any creature other than the one it’s currently attacking. The Gam e Master m ay allow this creature to be blocked depending on its m ethods, QV; Landwalk. Upkeep: Cards that require periodic paym ents of som e type require them at varying frequencies. Enchantm ents, Lands, and norm al Artifacts require them each Act, Creatures, Artifact Creatures, and any Instants or Sorceries require them each Scene, and so can be held over between scenes if desired. Vigilance: This creature is never surprised, and is always considered alert and ready for com bat. They can also attack and then act defensively or use a special ability later in the sam e Turn. Void: OK, “Swam p” m agic just didn’t sound good. W all: W alls are walls. In general, you can hide as m any other creatures behind them as you like, but once som ething brings down a section of a wall, finds a way around it, or scales it, it’s no longer any help. “Killing” a wall tears a big enough hole in it for one creature at a tim e. W o r l d : W o r l d Enchantm ents affect the party and an y cu rrent opponents. The rest of the world is unaffected.
40
Running the Worlds
Artificer (Constructs): Assem bly-W orker, Carriage, Drone, Expansion-Sym bol, Golem , Pentavite, Prism , Rock-Sled, Ship, Tetravite, Thopter, W all, W irefly,
And finally, some advice on running the game... Sham anism (Spirits): Angel, Avatar, Ball-Lightning, Banshee, Being, Bringer, Dem on, Devil, Djinn, Efreet, Effigy, Elem ental, Faerie, Gaea’s-Liege, Gatekeeper, Guardian, Illusion, Incarnation, Infernal-Denizen, Kirin, Lhurgoyf, Licid, Marid, Mist, Mistfolk, Phantasm , P h o e n ix , R e fle c tio n , S h a d e , S p irit, S p r ite , Thunderm are, W ight, W raith, W retched, and Zubera.
Classifying Creatures Over the years MTG has accum ulated a bewildering variety of creature types. W hile com plete breakdowns along with special abilities and other notes - will have to await the expansion books, here are som e general guidelines for which lim iting skill the various types fall under.
Aberration (Monsters): Abom ination, Aboroth, Avizoa, Basilisk, Blinkm oth, Cam arid, Carrier, Chim era, Cockatrice, Devouring-Deep, Doppelganger, Dragon, Drake, Dreadnought, Eater, Entity, Essence, Fallen, F ien d, Frostbeast, Fungus, Fungusaur, Gaea’s-Avenger, Gargoyle, G host, Ghoul, Giant, Gorgon, Graveborn, Grem lin, Griffin, Hag, Horror, Hydra, Im p, Island-Fish, Kavu, Kraken, Lam m asu, Lem ure, Leviathan, Lichenthrope, Lurker, Lycanthrope, M anticore, M edusa, Mindsucker, Mold-Dem on, Monster, Mum m y, Mum m y, Murk-Dwellers, Mutant, Necrosavant, Nightm are, Nightstalker, Ooze, Orb, Orgg, Pest, Phelddagrif, Plant, Poltergeist, Roc, Salam ander, Sand, Saproling, Shapeshifter, Shyft, Singing-Tree, Sliver, Skeleton, Spawn, Specter, Sphinx, Spike, Spuzzem , Teddy, The-Biggest-BaddestNastiest-Scariest-Creature-You’ll-Ever-See, Thrull, Titan, Troll, Undead, Vam pire, Volver, W alking-Dead, W iitigo, W urm , Yeti, and Zom bie.
Beast Mastery (Beasts): Albatross, Alligator, Ant, Antelope, Ape, Asp, Atog, Aurochs, Badger, Barishi, Bat, Bear, Beast, Bee, Beeble, Bird, Boar, Brushwagg, Bull, Butterfly, Cam el, Caribou, Carnivore, Cat, Cheetah, Chicken, Cobra, Cow, Crab, Crocodile, Dandan, Dinosaur, Dog, Donkey, Dragonfly, Eel, Egg, Elephant, Erne, Ferret, Fish, Fox, Frog, Goat, Hipparion, Hippo, Hornet, Horse, Hound, Hyena, Insect, Jackal, Jellyfish, Kelp, Leech, Lion, Lizard, Mam m oth, Mongoose, Narwhal, Octopus, Ox, Oyster, Pegasus, Penguin, Pig, Poison-Snake, Pony, Rabbit, Rat, Rhino, Scorpion, Serpent, Shark, Sheep, Slug, Snake, Spider, Sponge, Squirrel, Starfish, Strider, Swarm , Tarpan, Tiger, Toad, Tortoise, Turtle, Unicorn, Viper, Vulture, W arthog, W asp, W hale, W hippoorwill, W ildebeest, W olf, W olverine, W olverine-Pack, W olves-of-the-Hunt, W om bat, and W orm .
The "minion" creature type in Magic: The Gathering CCG varies wildly; the GM should adjudicate these cards on a case-by-case basis or refer to a creature manual. Most "minions" are either Aberrations or Minions.
Leadership (Minions): Advisor, Aladdin, Alchem ist, Ali-Baba, Ali-from -Cairo, Am bush-Party, Archaeologist, Archer, Archon, Artificer, Assassin, Avenger, Bandit, Barbarian, Berserker, Bodyguard, Brother, Brownie, Bureaucrat, Caravan, Cavalry, Centaur, Cephalid, Cave-People, Child, Citizen, Clam folk, Cleric, Constable, Crusader, Dervish, Deserter, Designer, Drill-Sergeant, Druid, Dryad, Dwarf, Elder, Elf, El-Hajjaj, Enchantress, Exorcist, Farm er, Flagbearer, Flying-Men, Gam er, General, Goblin, Gnom e, Gus, Gypsy, Harlequin, Heretic, Hero, Hom arid, Horsem an, Hum an, Hunter, Inquisitor, Keeper, King, Kithkin, Knight, Kobold, Lady-of-Proper-Etiquette, Legionnaire, Leper, Lord, Mage, Maiden, Martyr, Master, Mercenary, Merchant, Merfolk, Mim e, Minotaur, Miracle-W orker, Mob, Monger, Monk, Moonfolk, Mystic, Nam eless-Race, Niall-Silvain, Ninja, Noble, Nom ad, Ogre, Orc, Ouphe, Paladin, Paratrooper, Peacekeeper, People-ofthe-W oods, Pikem en, Pirate, Pixie-Queen, Preacher, Priest, Pyknite, Raider, Ranger, Rebel, Robber, Rogue, Sage, Sam urai, Satyr, Scavenger, Scout, Serf, Sham an, Sindbad, Sister, Slith, Sm ith, Soldier, Sorceress, Speaker, Spellshaper, Spy, Squire, Stangg-Twin, Survivor, Tactician, Taskm aster, Thief, Townsfolk, Tracker, Treefolk, Twin, Uncle-Istvan, Vedalken, Viashino, Villain, W aiter, W ar-Rider, W arrior, W itch, and W izard.
Equipment Equipm ent norm ally isn’t a big topic in MTG:RPG. Mundane weapons and arm or are handled by the various com bat Distinctions; if you have the Arm sm an Distinction you’re assum ed to have the arm or and weapons you’ve practiced with. You m ay have to do without them briefly if you’re thrown into jail or are presented at the king’s court, but you’ll certainly have them back for the next storyline. Magical artifacts are handled by cards. W hile cards can be exhausted or “destroyed,” they’re basically character attributes - and characters can replace them without too m uch trouble. “Token” or “Quest Item s” are the province of the Gam e Master and norm ally only function as plot devices. You m ay need the crystal key of Darvinox to open the door of his ancient crypt, but it doesn’t really do anything as far as gam e m echanics is concerned. They’re good for keeping the party running around, but they only represent interm ediate steps towards som e m ore m eaningful goal. 41
Minor item s - food, com m on m ounts, rope, writing paper, tents, and so on - are norm ally assum ed to be available. The only tim e they’re not is when the Gam e Master is setting up a scene - for exam ple:
powered sum m oning for larger battles where you don’t care about conservation, m akes a reasonable package. The strategic options of MTG:RPG are, in m any ways, the com plete opposite of those in MTG:CCG. In MTG:CCG you start off with a lim ited selection of cards, no Mana and nothing ready (although both build up over tim e), the ability to do as m any things as you can m anage on your Turn - and no concern for the next battle or the environm ent. After all, the next battle is a clean start and there are no NPC’s or external environm ent to worry about; you’re only dealing with other players. You’re unprepared, but you have im m ense resources to draw upon - 60, 80, or hundreds of cards. In MTG:RPG you start off with all the Mana you’re going to have for the battle and your full selection of Cards - but you can only do one thing in a Turn, your resources are lim ited and are depleting instead of building up, you have to worry about saving resources for future conflicts or em ergencies, dam age carries over, the environm ent and NPC’s m atter, and you’re generally not fighting other players. You’re dealing with m onsters and NPC’s in hopes of future advancem ent. Sim ilarly, MTG:CCG leans towards single and dualcolor decks; they’re m uch faster, and - in MTG:CCGspeed counts for a lot. In MTG :RPG m agi usually start out with several different colors available, if only because investing a few ability points in the (Color) Magic abilities is a cheap way to store Mana. This is intentional, both because there’s not m uch point in playing a m inor variation of rules you’re already throughly fam iliar with and because RPG’s need lim ited resources - otherwise there’s nothing to strive for - and continuity. Episodic battles m ake good card and strategic gam es, but poor RPGs.
“After your escape from the desert nom ads, they pursue you to the edge of a m ighty chasm . Safety lies on the far side; the desert riders’ cam els will never be able to cross. Since you were stripped of your gear, you have no ropes or clim bing equipm ent. W hat will you do?” W ill they clim b on pure skill and risk falling and the possibility of having to deal with m issile fire while dangling from a cliff? W ill the group Elem entalist shape the stone into a (narrow and perilous) bridge and then hold it against the enem y? W ill the Beastm aster call up a m ighty wyrm and bind it long enough for it to help the group cross? Like m ost good RPG problem s, there are m any possible solutions, any of which m ight work - and any of which will present their own problem s. In a world of m agic there are hundreds of ways to com pensate for the lack of any specific bit of m undane gear. Unless it’s going to be dram atic and entertaining, don’t bother to present a problem . Trivia is nothing but boring filler, and no gam e needs that. If you m ust m ention a trivial problem , pretty m uch any reasonablesounding solution will probably work.
Strategic Choices The choice between Followers and Conjurations can be difficult; Followers are som ewhat tougher, don’t cost Mana, and are im m ediately available. On the other hand, being followed around by a collection of creatures m akes you unwelcom e in cities, pretty m uch elim inates any notion of stealth or concealing your identity, and often won’t even be allowed. No authority or other m age will put up with a horde of m onsters in their presence. Not only do you have to worry about food, lodging, and support for followers, but you’ll often have to leave them behind - m aking them unavailable when needed. W orse, if one of them ’s killed, you’ve actually got to find and recruit a replacem ent. They m ay even argue with you. Conjurations only exist when sum m oned, and if they’re “killed” you can sim ply sum m on them again for the next battle. You don’t have to worry about food and supplies for them , upsetting the locals, or having them get into random argum ents. On the other hand, you do need a few m om ents to sum m on them , they don’t usually show m uch independent intelligence, and they cost Mana - and that’s a strictly lim ited resource. A com prom ise is usually best: a few m ore-or-less norm al Followers, such as druids, usually aren’t too m uch trouble, a couple of low-cost Conjurations (hopefully with som e handy special abilities) for m inor battles when you need to conserve Mana, and a high-
Mana Levels Mana abundance is a m ajor background question in MTG:RPG. Quite a few individual creatures, such as Viridian Acolyte, can be tapped for Mana. A group of Fyndhorn elves of unspecified - but probably sm all size can be tapped for Mana, as can m any other elves. Townships, abbeys, dens, trading posts, springs, and orchards can all be tapped for Mana. Just how big is a “Forest” or an “Island” anyway? A thousand m iles across? A hundred? Ten? One? A sm all grove or am outcropping of rock in a river? How m uch Mana can a village of 500 elves yield per “Turn”? A point? 50 points? 500 points? How long is a “Turn” anyway? W eeks? Days? Hours? Minutes? Seconds? You could m ake a case for any of them . If any elven ham let can yield seven m illion points of Mana a day - 500 points every six second Turn - every other NPC will be a Mana-user of som e sort and the entire world probably runs on it. W hy bother to com pete for som ething as com m on as the air? Alternatively, one can assum e that it takes lengthy 42
and intensive training for creatures to learn to draw on their own Mana consciously, that the Mana of Creatures requires com plex techniques or the raw power of a Planewalker to tap, that natural Mana sources are separated by forty or fifty m iles, and that any given source can only yield one point per day in total. W hile this still gives a planetary capacity of better than 30,000 Mana points per day (presum ing an earth-sized world. A lot would be underwater if the planet does resem ble earth), it m eans that Mana-wielders will be vanishingly rare - and m ost of them won’t be able to obtain m ore than one point a day. There won’t be any m ageacadem ies, the vast m ajority of potential m agi will never receive any training, and any that do will probably reserve Mana for the m ost desperate situations. The basic assum ptions of the MTG:RPG are a com prom ise; Creatures are presum ed to draw personal m agic from burning Life points via Lifewreaking, m aking personal m agic a very lim ited source of power. Lands are presum ed to represent natural m ystical nexi separated by 15-30 m iles and only yield one point of Mana per day to any individual m age - but num erous lesser m agi m ay attune them selves to them , allowing m agic to be a notable part of everyday life, m aking control of nexi well worth struggling over, and providing a reason why the Magelords and Planewalkers don’t m onopolize the Mana. However, since only one Magelord or Planewalker can control a land at a tim e, they have a personal m otive for such struggles. Since they can lock out the lesser m agi at will, Magelords can influence the prosperity and power of kingdom s - but aren’t powerful enough to do so with im punity. Ergo m ost kingdom s are reasonably stable, strongly supported by lesser m agi, and both wary and respectful of the Magelords and Planewalkers. Each Gam e Master is free to m odify these base assum ptions - but should rem em ber that each choice will affect the world background.
Dynamic Magic (Optional) Dynamic Magic. This exotic Distinction opens up the Dynam ic Magic ability to its possessor. It m ay then be built up like any other ability which the user possesses. W ith Dynam ic Magic a character can use “draw a card” effects to draw a card from their own, personal, deck up to a total num ber of cards in-hand equal to the rank of their Dynam ic Magic ability. As usual, the m axim um level of those cards is also equal to the character’s Dynam ic Magic ability rank. Such cards m ay be played norm ally within a Scene, but at its end they m ust be returned to the deck. It’s generally believed that this is version of a Planewalker’s ability to draw external forces partially into their own battle-realm , lim ited by operating on a pre-existing plane, but the process isn’t fully understood. Unlike a Planewalker’s abilities, Dynam ic Magic is still subject to the effects of the various lim iting abilities and cannot provide Mana save by draining it from som e other source. Dynam ic Magic should be considered carefully before it’s allowed into a gam e. W hat is a dynam ic m age actually doing? The quasireality of a Planewalkers Duel is fairly well understood but if Dynam ic Magi are doing the sam e thing within a norm al plane, it’s a recipe for catastrophe; they’re blowing holes in the universe. If they’re not, then where is all that knowledge com ing from ? W ho’s loaning it to them , and why? W hat price are they paying? W hy is it quasi-random ? Secondarily, on the gam e-m echanics side, it’s a relatively cheap way to becom e a fairly powerful and versatile m age. Sim ply pick up a point or two in each m agic ability, a f e w p o in t s in Dynam ic Magic, and enough Mana Tapping to build up your reserves. It’ll take about 10 ability points and a Distinction, but it will give you a pocketful of m ajor spells to draw on when the situation calls for it.
43
Sample Characters
Goblin Suicide Commando “The plan is perfect: I light the fuse and jump on them!” Species Package: Goblin (Fool’s Luck, Utter Incompetence) Distinctions: Haste Training, Magician I (Magician), Martial Artist I Abilities: Artificer 0, Beast Mastery 4, Elementalism 3, Engineering 5, Finance 0, Green Magic 3, Harvesting 4, Leadership 3, Lifewreaking 3, Red Magic 4, Ranged W eapons 4, Regeneration 5, Saboteur 5, Scholar 0, Sleights 3, Toughness 3, Vigor 4 Card Slots (3): Goblin Brigand (Follower), Goblin Grenade, Tarpan (Follower)
Unless otherwise noted, all creature spells are Summons. All spells listed are available for reference on http://gatherer.wizards.com/
Clockwork Master “Tick-tocks, tick-tocks, look at all my magic clocks.” Species Package: Human Distinctions: Magician II (Magelord) Abilities: Air Vehicles 4, Artificer 5, Blue Magic 4, Craftsman 5, Engineering 4, Lifewreaking 4, Mana Tapping 3, Perception 4, Psyche 4, Resist Magic 5, Vigor 3 Card Slots (5): Clockwork Beetle, Ornithopter (Follower), Yotian Soldier (Follower), W elding Jar (Follower), W elding Jar (Follower)
Goblins have very short lifespans. Said lifespans would probably be longer if they didn’t keep killing themselves off. This goblin has turned it into an artform, using the natural species ability to avoid getting blown up by the Goblin Grenade. The Brigand merely follows along and hits anything which might seem dangerous or tasty. The Tarpan also follows along. Of course, convincing any horse to let a goblin ride it may take some doing! One final note: this character is dumb as a rock and flat broke.
The Clockwork Master specializes in fully-real artifact creations. The Clockwork Beetle can appear on a moment’s notice, while the Yotian Soldier uses its excellent defenses to guard the character. The Ornithopter can fly, hence the Air Vehicles ability. W hile the W elding Jars can instantly repair and restore any broken artifact, the Clockwork Master must replace them with hard work, since they are used up permanently.
Guardian Angel “Just because you have a protector is no reason to tempt fate, child” Species Package: Angel (Human) Distinctions: Armsman II, Flying Training, Role (Heavenly Spirit), Vigilance Training Disadvantage: Honor Abilities: Courtier 5, Endurance 4, Healing 5, Fortification 4, Melee W eapons 5, Movement 4, Psyche 5, Repute 3, Toughness 5, Vigor 4
Cunning Rogue “I’m sorry, was this yours?” Species Package: Human Distinctions: Enhanced Sense (Hearing), Enhanced Sense (Sight), Good-Looking, Sharpshooter I Abilities: Athletics 3, Ambush 4, Evasion 5, Finance 4, Investigation 4, Larceny 5, Perception 3, Reaction 5, Saboteur 4, Stealth 5, Streetwise 3, Vigor 4
Refined socially yet brutal in battle, Guardian Angels are more than prepared to boss their charges with both words and swords as the situation warrants. Guardian Angels can put some serious hurt on the enemy, but have enough skills and talents to meet any challenge.
A simple but useful character, the Cunning Rogue is excellent for finding out information, sabotaging the enemy’s plan, or creating an ambush to hit the enemy. As a Scout or Spy, the Cunning Rogue has no equal.
Destined Child
Magic The Gathering: Role-Playing Game Copyright 2006, Paul M. Melroy and Patrick Bryant.
“Destiny is on my side today!” Species Package: Human Distinctions: Magician IV (Planeswalker) Disadvantage: Hunted (Enemy of Destiny) Abilities: Aberrations 3, Black Magic 5, Elementalism 5, Leadership 3, Lifewreaking 3, Mana Tapping 4, Red Magic 5, Vigor 3, White Magic 5 Card Slots (5): Incinerate, Lightning Bolt, Fireball, Razortooth Rats, Zealous Inquisitor
Distant Horizons Gam es Magic: The Gathering and the Mana Sym bols are tradem arked by W izards of the Coast. Since this draft docum ent is intended for subm ission to W izards of the Coast in hopes of enhancing the sales of both their RPG and MTG:CCG lines, their use herein represents no challenge to W izards of the Coast.
A young but promising Planeswalker, the Destined Child uses a variety of card spells. Though specializing in blasting the enemy with Red Mana effects, the character can also summon rats to annoy spellcasters. The Zealous Inquisitor can do more than attack; its special ability can reflect damage back at foes!
All other artwork throughout this docum ent is from classical artists, and is in the public dom ain.
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