A Whole Bunch of Brainstorming

[beejazz]

This is a rough map of how different sections in the dungeon I described upthread will interact. I've kind of refined my idea for the dungeon, including a decent reason for why the party will go there (mostly as a way to start the campaign... if the players don't follow up, other stuff could become more central instead).

I'll start with why there's a dungeon out in the middle of nowhere and move on to what's in it and why the party should care I guess.

Before there was anybody...
Back when the first gods were working on the world and magic was wild, all was not well. For some reason I haven't figured out (though there doesn't need to be much of a reason) awful things with godlike power and the intellect of an insect existed whose only desire was to eat and eat and eat and whose very presence warped magic and the minds of those nearby. For some reason (again I haven't figured it out yet) the gods and creators sealed them down deep in the earth (rather than just kill them), and set their guard dogs (not literal dogs, but more lovecraft ripoffs) up around the area to make sure that no one released these things from the outside. The guard dogs are hibernators and have been asleep since. They'll look like large rocks covered in moss and/or fungus until they are woken up.

In some ancient forgotten kingdom...
People worshiped one of the "guard dogs" closest to the surface as their god. There was a grand temple up in the mountains where they would offer sacrifices to it. The prestigious dead were kept under the temple in a system of elaborate catacombs riddled with traps and now haunted.

When that kingdom was burned to the ground...
Invaders saw the religion as blasphemous. They lopped the faces off the relief sculptures on the wall, cut out certain words from inscriptions on the wall, burned scrolls and texts, and did their best to make the temple inaccessible to outsiders. They made scarce progress in the tombs, where the last of the priests holed up, and instead closed them in from the outside and starved the survivors.

Much much later, during the war...
Goblins reopened portions of the temple and even the tomb for use as a makeshift fortress for a small band operating behind enemy lines. They stayed there even when the war was over, on orders to spy for the goblin kingdom.

After the war...
A certain decorated hero asked for a land grant that happened to include the goblin fortress. He established a manor, had a daughter, and retired.

Years later, a dwarf visited for a month or two before both the knight and the dwarf vanished without a word or a trace, never to be seen again. The knight's daughter was left in charge of the manor.

The dwarf and the knight knew about the goblin fortress, and together with a little hired help took it over. They've forced the goblins to mine within the complex, and are seeking to take advantage of the horrible thing sealed away under the temple (to be more accurate, it's the dwarf mage that wants to take advantage, and he has manipulated the human knight into helping him).

Enter the party...
The king of this small country is a cruel paranoid twelve year old who I really hope gets overthrown by the PCs and friends in the long run.

He sent a loyal supporter (the knight's daughter) a shipment of weapons that was stolen in transit, and he fears revolt. He's even more nervous because the shipment was supposed to be secret. His regent will hire the PCs to investigate the region, looking for bandits or any others that might have stolen the arms shipment. If they don't convince him the knight's daughter isn't a traitor, he'll probably ask them to bring her in and have her executed.

Just a little glimpse of the dungeon and how it might fit into the campaign.

Oh, and I've started on the perks list over in the main thread.

[Ghostman]

Why would any sane deity choose hibernating beasties as guardians for something that dangerous? Wouldn't you rather want critters that never so much as take a nap?

[beejazz]

Why would any sane deity choose hibernating beasties as guardians for something that dangerous? Wouldn't you rather want critters that never so much as take a nap?

Well... there is a bit of a mundane reason for this... they don't need to eat. They are intended to guard for eternity after all. That isn't to say that they aren't aware of their surroundings and won't wake up when needed. In fact, one of their features is a supernatural ubiquitous awareness of the area they are bound to guard. A few of them don't even have any of the standard senses (most of them rely on hearing, scent, tremor sense, or some combination thereof).

I know I know, I could always just say "it's magic" as a way for them to survive without food etc. but it suits the mood better if they wait at the bottom until called for rather than just popping out of the ground the minute the PCs go and investigate a bunch of what they think are bandits.

My thought was more that they'd wake when they were needed (specifically when the wrong button is pushed... I'm thinking you couldn't actually wake or free the "dead god" except with an involved magical process of some kind) and kill everything within a several hundred mile radius before going back to sleep.

[beejazz]

The first adventure
I'm probably going to start the playtest campaign with the characters being hired by the king (not directly but maybe through his regent). Yes it's a bit railroady, but it gets everybody on the same page to start with, and will show them how a quest works (and I'm not saying they can't start with other quests, pick up some in the course of play, and forget to complete this one). So everybody starts with the quest "investigate the missing arms shipment and report back to the king."

The king sent an arms shipment out, including lots of guns and heavy armor, to a loyal supporter of his in secret. It was stolen and its guards were never heard from again. The king isn't well liked and is justifiably paranoid, so he's worried who wants these weapons and for what... and how they knew about the shipment... and whether his loyal supporter is really a loyal supporter.

So the characters will probably go out into the mountains to the manor of this loyal supporter (the daughter of the old knight described above in the dungeon description) and she'll blame bandits or some such who have been raiding occasionally since she inherited the place from her missing father. She may point them to the old ruins she thinks they use for their hideout, leading the party to the dungeon crawl. Now, if the party wants to mill about in town before heading for the mountains or if they want to investigate the manor and the situation there more thoroughly they may not get to the dungeon in the first adventure, and I'm going to fill in some details for both later. For now I'm going to continue assuming the players go for the dungeon.

The Dungeon (NPCs)
I've gone into a lot of detail on how it got there. But for now I'll get into what's really going on with the "bandits" and the lost weapons shipment. To start with, I gotta introduce you to the 4 main (living) movers and shakers down there.

Deposed Head Goblin: This was the guy who was in charge of the goblin fortress before the mutiny and the hostile takeover by the knight and the dwarf mage. When the war ended, the goblin nation gave the goblins orders to stay and spy on the humans. They then promptly forgot about the hidden fortress and sent them no further supplies or anything. The head goblin didn't want to raid for supplies for fear of betraying their location to the humans. He was deposed by the second in command, and imprisoned with all who were loyal to him. The fortress became more of a bandit lair, with the remaining goblins stealing and pillaging under the leadership of the second in command. They did give away their location, as the deposed head goblin predicted, leading to the later change in leadership and mission.

The deposed head goblin is still imprisoned along with some of his loyal goblins in an abandoned shaft. The players may convince him to help them in exchange for his freedom. He is loyal to the goblin nation however, and if freed he may report the presence of the monster at the bottom of the dungeon back home.

The knight: The knight fought in the war way back when, and got a land grant in this area because of it. He had a decent life after that, got married and had a daughter. A year or two after his wife died an old war buddy came to visit (the dwarf). The two disappeared and left the daughter in charge of the area. They and a small group of mercenaries were able to take control of the dungeon from the second in command, who surrendered when they convinced him they aimed to mine for gold there and promised him a share.

The knight believes the thing at the bottom of the dungeon calls to him and wants to be free. The knight is pretty much crazy. Truth is though it isn't the thing at the bottom calling him. The dwarf is just drugging him and using suggestions and such. If the party kills the dwarf but leaves the knight, the knight may still feel compelled to free the thing at the bottom.

Dwarf Mage: The dwarf mage is the guy that's really behind it all. He wants to bind the thing at the bottom of the dungeon so he can use it as a weapon later. He's driven the knight mad and bribed the goblins with promises of gold. He's also experimenting on goblins in the prison, warping them with the local wild magic or something (I'm still working on what's going on in this part of the dungeon). The only person who knows what he's really up to is the deposed head goblin, who's figured it out somehow.

The dwarf mage will do whatever he has to to get what he wants, and will especially try to lie to or manipulate the PCs to accomplish it. If he gets what he wants, he'll probably feed everything in the dungeon to the monster at the bottom... Partly to appease it, partly to tie off loose ends, and partly just for fun. Chances are the thing will just break loose and eat him too though.

Second in Command Goblin: This guy mutinied against the deposed head goblin and has forced those loyal to their original leader to work in the mines. He thinks they're looking for gold. He's the one that stole the weapons shipment, entirely by accident, and is hiding it outside the dungeon. He plans to kill off the human and the dwarf and their hired mercenaries and take the gold the minute they find it.

I'll maybe do a section by section later, or will post a bit about magic and gods and stuff.

[beejazz]

Alright... so I've been thinking of actually giving this game different schools of magic instead of just using a generic magic skill (though there'll be that too).

The way I'm thinking of having it work...

Rituals (Magic) (Int)
Prerequisites: Any two lore skills.
Benefits: You can use this skill to cast any ritual. You can also use this school to identify spells and rituals being cast, and maybe to counter spells or rituals of any type.

Black Magic (Magic) (Will)
Prerequisites: Forbidden Lore, Rituals
Benefits: You can use this skill to cast any ritual on the black magic spell list. Characters with skill focus in black magic can learn those rituals as spells.

Blue Magic (Magic) (Will)
Prerequisites: Arcane Lore, Rituals
Benefits: As black magic, but for the blue magic spell list.

White Magic (Magic) (Will)
Prerequisites: Sacred Lore, Rituals
Benefits: As black magic, but for the white magic spell list.

Green Magic (Magic) (Will)
Prerequisites: Nature Lore, Rituals
Benefits: As black magic, but for the green magic spell list.

Red Magic (Magic) (Will)
Prerequisites: Some Lore (can't think of what would go with this), Rituals
Benefits: As black magic, but for the red magic spell list.

To summarize, the first thing any caster learns is the basics. Then they'll move on to a specialization and learn to cast spells instead of just rituals. Typically mages will be trained in two lores, rituals, one school of magic, and concentration and will have skill focus in their chosen school and concentration (from then on they'll likely pick up a new spell every level). A few mages may be straight ritualists, casting from all school with the power (if not the speed) of a specialized school. I'm still giving dwarves, elves, goblins, and trolls spell lists and unique spellcasting methods, but they won't be required to learn ritual based magic.

I may rename magic schools so they're not obvious M:tG knockoffs too.

Blue magic will focus on knowing, fooling, and travel, with a few utility spells and the summon aberration spell.

Black magic will focus on death, destruction, fear and anger, and a few utility spells and the summon fiend spell.

Green magic will focus on life, healing, plants and animals, and a few utility spells and the summon fey spell.

White magic will focus on healing, light, protection, and a few utility spells and the summon celestial spell.

Red magic will focus on what would normally be evocation, conjuration, transmutation, etc. plus a few utility spells and the summon elemental spell.

Noticing a sort of pattern?

Summoning, Binding, etc.

On summoning in general, there are multiple spells and rituals that are sort of all over the map.

There are summon spells, which summon a monster that obeys you. Each school has one unique summon spell. There is also the summon bound creature spell, which all schools have.

There is also call creature. Call creature is ritual only, and can call any summonable creature. They aren't obedient though. EDIT: Call creature is actually many rituals, each for a different creature. I may also allow this spell to call gods, though finding a way to call and control a god will be EXTREMELY DIFFICULT.

Then there are magic circles for each of the listed creature types. They create a barrier that creatures of a given type can't pass. Each school has 3 magic circles. One against its own creature type and one for each of its "opposed" schools (so green has magic circle: fey, magic circle: fiend, and magic circle: aberration).

Lastly there is bind creature, which is ritual only and binds a creature into a gem, ring, bottle, or other trinket. The creature will obey the owner of the trinket, and can be summoned with the summon bound creature spell. Bound creatures can be used for other things too... you can force them to teach you ritual versions of their powers for example. Some creatures may ask a favor before they can be bound. If you fulfill your end of the bargain, you can successfully bind them without any check (if you failed your check, this will be the only way to bind them).

Creatures with the god subtype can't be called or summoned until they are bound.

Ultimately this means that you start with a default list appropriate to your specialization and can customize your list with some time, effort, and a few quests. Usually you do this by calling monsters into a magic circle and then binding them, but if you can catch a god in the wild, you can obtain a powerful servitor that only you can summon.

[beejazz]

Continuing with my break from the dungeon and immediate setting, I'd like to talk about gods and religion in my setting. The first is getting fleshed out a little in my mind... just a start mind you, and I may go another direction with it later. The second not so much.

See, all I know of religion is that the entire region of the setting shared the same or a similar pagan faith (like Rome did) before the empire collapsed. Towards the end there were many mystery cults (again like in Rome) but no one cult gained dominance in the entire region (which is where this goes a little religious alt-history). The original paganism was banned or marginalized in most places in favor of more recent religions endorsed by the state(s). New, predominant religions share more in common with monotheistic faiths, eastern philosophy, or gnosticism.

I don't know much about the new faiths I'm going to have in the region, but I do know a little about the pockets of the old faiths I'm going to be working with.

The Gods
The pantheon is going to pull cliches out of many polytheistic pantheons, but especially the gods of the fertile crescent (the Babylonian/Sumerian/Akkadian stuff), the Norse pantheon, and the Greek pantheon.

Two ideas I am definitely stealing are  me (in this case I'll modify them heavily, but the important thing is that the powers of godhood can be transferred and/or stolen) and  the tablets of destiny (currently not in the possession of any god, but in some place that even the gods fear to go... play for years and maybe your character can bring these back and rule the universe).

I'm taking other ideas as well.

-Gods are also places sometimes. The planes are sometimes either the corpse of a god, the body of a living god, or the domain of a god.
-There are multiple generations of gods.
-Generations of gods don't get along (the Titans vs the Olympians, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatonchires or the Aesir-Vanir war)
-Older gods are more forces of nature; newer gods are more civilized. Older gods are more powerful, distant, and likely to be dead; newer gods are more involved in human affairs.
-There are redundant gods for specific aspects of the same thing (an old god of the sea and storms... a new god of the sea and sailing).
-Unlike in many RPGs, where good people worship good gods and bad people worshiped bad gods, people who worship gods at all worship all kinds. Praying to a bad god is more of a "please don't kill me" thing.
-Many monsters are descended somehow from the gods.
-There are monsters the gods don't want to mess with out there (Typhos).
-There are smaller local gods. Local traditions will vary based on local gods or spirits.
-People's understanding of the gods and what they actually are won't match up 100%. Local traditions will vary depending on how they see things.

Oh, and while one of the gods might have taught magic to humans (and is probably still being punished for it), since then, humans don't get their powers directly from the gods the way clerics do.

Specific Gods
I should warn you I'm not terribly sure about anything I say below.

I'm pretty sure the first two gods will be Time (the original owner of the tablet of destiny) and Chaos (the only thing in the cosmos that can both create and destroy me... there's gotta be a better name for that stuff).

They'll probably be followed by Earth, Sea, and Sky. In order to rebel each will ask Chaos for a companion. Air gets Death, Water Pestilence, and Earth War.

Death will remain neutral, while the other two new gods are split (one will defend Time and Chaos, the other will rebel with Earth, Sea, and Sky).

At the end, Time loses and is stripped of the tablet. He's imprisoned somewhere, but his escape will mark the end of the universe. Being unable to decide who should take it, the rebellious gods give the tablet to Death. Chaos may be left in Death's care. Whichever companion defended the old gods might be forgiven.

Death isn't any more deserving of the tablet than Time it turns out. The Earth/Sea/Sky bunch keep trying to make new gods with each other (or maybe Earth with War and Sea with Pestilence... maybe even Sky with Death), and each time Death takes them. So they talk to War and Pestilence. And War and Pestilence talk to Chaos. And they ask Chaos for something truly horrible to stop Death.

So now there's something truly horrible running around, and nobody wants that. Death has to use the tablet to seal the potentially universe ending thing away. As revenge, Death puts out a great feast for the gods and tricks them into eating their children. (Children in the earth, sea, and sky are sort of lesser abominations in the world) Death gets sealed away in her own domain pretty quick after that. Chaos too is cast out by the gods, but there's only so much you can do to keep chaos at bay.

And that's the story of the oldest gods at least. I may work on the rest later.

EDIT: Ah crap... forgot to mention why the first rebellion happened. Another stolen idea, time eats any new gods that come from Earth Sea and Sky. There's a whole pantheon of monstrous gods that are eaten by him and taken back after he is defeated. They play a minor role, if any role at all, in the second rebellion. However, they'll probably take over after the second rebellion.

[beejazz]

So I'm figuring out sanity effects.

Players' total sanity will be 10x will score probably, and their sanity threshold will be equal to their will score. If they suffer more total sanity damage than they can handle, they'll likely either lose it completely and become NPCs or they'll go comatose or something. If they suffer damage in excess of their will score in one "attack," they'll roll some random effect on a d10 (for effect) and d6 (for intensity) just like for wounds. Also like wounding, some sanity attacks have more specific effects when this happens. For example, most sanity attacks will be fear effects, and will only ever inflict fear.

The effects thing so far...

1- Stun (just like the wounds)
2- Stun (same)
3- Fear (flee or suffer progressively worse penalties depending on intensity)
4- Fear (same)
5- More damage (+10, +20, or +30 sanity damage)
6- Dissociation (critical failure more likely on perception checks... highest intensity induces insanity quest)
7- Delusion (critical failure more likely on intelligence checks... highest intensity induces insanity quest)
8- Depression (critical failure more likely on will checks... highest intensity induces insanity quest)
9- Rage (critical failure more likely on charisma checks... highest intensity induces insanity quest)
10- ???

I may add another "more damage" result if I can't think of anything else.

An "insanity quest" is a quest that the GM might give you in the event that this result comes up. It's really up to him what it is. As long as you have an insanity quest, you can't gain xp from any other quest until you complete it. It's likely that GMs will roll insanity in secret and hand out quests secretly at the end of the session.

So players can resist the urge to do whatever their insanity compels them to do, but it comes at great personal cost.

[Llum]

I'm not sure about the whole "insanity quest" thing. I like the idea in theory, but I can see it being kind of annoying. What if your about to complete a quest and then in then BAM you go insane. That could really make you miss out on a big chunk of XP.

I take it from the XP penalty you want it to be something fairly severe. Just to note I've never been a fan XP penalties.

[beejazz]

I'm not sure about the whole "insanity quest" thing. I like the idea in theory, but I can see it being kind of annoying. What if your about to complete a quest and then in then BAM you go insane. That could really make you miss out on a big chunk of XP.

I take it from the XP penalty you want it to be something fairly severe. Just to note I've never been a fan XP penalties.

My thought is that XP won't be penalized so much as held back temporarily. On healing/completion of your insanity quest, you gain whatever XP you would've gotten for quests completed while insane.

I realise how much of a pain XP penalties can be, as well as rules that force the players' hands. So I'm a little iffy on it myself.

Just wanted insanity to...
...not literally force anyone to do something. (can't think of an example)
...be inconvenient enough that it's something to avoid. (insanity has benefits in UA)
...still be playable. ('cause being an NPC ala CoC sucks if it can happen on a bad roll)

Thanks for the feedback, btw.

[beejazz]

I've really got to start working on this again.

I'm thinking of changing insanity quests two ways. Firstly, they won't come up randomly. Only when you get insanity equal to 5x will (at 10x will you're irredeemably insane) will you have an insanity quest, and only the one. Secondly, they won't interfere with quest xp. Instead, players will stop getting session xp until the quest is completed. Players may get quests until they get sane again or they may only get the one; I haven't decided. In any case, going crazy is not something you want to do.

Additionally, I've got a little more specific dungeon info and nonhuman races are still problematic for me mechanically. I don't know if I'll keep them, but this dungeon without the goblins might make me a little sad.

[beejazz]

I haven't even been on this forum in a really long time for some reason. Real life and other things. But I have been working still.

I busted out some typing yesterday and today on magic. I've changed this and that, but I'll get into explaining all this later. Still don't have individual spell descriptions for example.

[spoiler=magic stuff]Black Spell I
Prerequisites: Black Magic 20 or Red or Blue Magic 25 or White or Green Magic 30
Benefit: Choose a tier I ritual off the black magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Black Spell II
Prerequisites: Black Magic 25 or Red or Blue Magic 30 or White or Green Magic 35
Benefit: Choose a tier II ritual off the black magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Black Spell III
Prerequisites: Black Magic 30 or Red or Blue Magic 35 or White or Green Magic 40
Benefit: Choose a tier III ritual off the black magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Black Spell IV
Prerequisites: Black Magic 35 or Red or Blue Magic 40 or White or Green Magic 45
Benefit: Choose a tier IV ritual off the black magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Black Spell V
Prerequisites Black Magic 40 or Red or Blue Magic 45 or White or Green Magic 50
Benefit: Choose a tier V ritual off the black magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Blue Spell I
Prerequisites: Blue Magic 20 or Black or White Magic 25 or Red or Green Magic 30
Benefit: Choose a tier I ritual off the blue magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Blue Spell II
Prerequisites: Blue Magic 25 or Black or White Magic 30 or Red or Green Magic 35
Benefit: Choose a tier II ritual off the blue magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Blue Spell III
Prerequisites: Blue Magic 30 or Black or White Magic 35 or Red or Green Magic 40
Benefit: Choose a tier III ritual off the blue magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Blue Spell IV
Prerequisites: Blue Magic 35 or Black or White Magic 40 or White or Blue Magic 45
Benefit: Choose a tier IV ritual off the blue magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Blue Spell V
Prerequisites: Blue Magic 40 or Black or White Magic 45 or White or Blue Magic 50
Benefit: Choose a tier V ritual off the blue magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Green Spell I
Prerequisites: Green Magic 20 or Red or White Magic 25 or Black or Blue Magic 30
Benefit: Choose a tier I ritual off the green magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Green Spell II
Prerequisites: Green Magic 25 or Red or White Magic 30 or Black or Blue Magic 35
Benefit: Choose a tier II ritual off the green magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Green Spell III
Prerequisites: Green Magic 30 or Red or White Magic 35 or Black or Blue Magic 40
Benefit: Choose a tier III ritual off the green magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Green Spell IV
Prerequisites: Green Magic 35 or Red or White Magic 40 or Black or White Magic 45
Benefit: Choose a tier IV ritual off the green magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Green Spell V
Prerequisites: Green Magic 40 or Red or White Magic 45 or Black or White Magic 50
Benefit: Choose a tier V ritual off the green magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Red Spell I
Prerequisites: Red Magic 20 or Black or Green Magic 25 or White or Blue Magic 30
Benefit: Choose a tier I ritual off the red magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Red Spell II
Prerequisites: Red Magic 25 or Black or Green Magic 30 or White or Blue Magic 35
Benefit: Choose a tier II ritual off the red magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Red Spell III
Prerequisites: Red Magic 30 or Black or Green Magic 35 or White or Blue Magic 40
Benefit: Choose a tier III ritual off the red magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Red Spell IV
Prerequisites: Red Magic 35 or Black or Green Magic 40 or White or Blue Magic 45
Benefit: Choose a tier IV ritual off the red magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

Red Spell V
Prerequisites Red Magic 40 or Black or Green Magic 45 or White or Blue Magic 50
Benefit: Choose a tier V ritual off the red magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

White Spell I
Prerequisites: White Magic 20 or Blue or Green Magic 25 or Red or Black Magic 30
Benefit: Choose a tier I ritual off the white magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

White Spell II
Prerequisites: White Magic 25 or Blue or Green Magic 30 or Red or Black Magic 35
Benefit: Choose a tier II ritual off the white magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

White Spell III
Prerequisites: White Magic 30 or Blue or Green Magic 35 or Red or Black Magic 40
Benefit: Choose a tier III ritual off the white magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

White Spell IV
Prerequisites: White Magic 35 or Blue or Green Magic 40 or Red or Black Magic 45
Benefit: Choose a tier IV ritual off the blue magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

White Spell V
Prerequisites: White Magic 40 or Blue or Green Magic 45 or Red or Black Magic 50
Benefit: Choose a tier V ritual off the white magic spell list. You may now cast that ritual as a spell using the skill with which you qualified for this perk.

SPELL LISTS

BLACK
Tier I
summon bound spirit
detect fiend
detect alien
detect celestial

Tier II
magic circle against fiends
magic circle against aliens
magic circle against celestials

Tier III
bind spirit

Tier IV
summon fiend

Tier V
summon unique

BLUE
Tier I
summon bound spirit
detect alien
detect elemental
detect celestial

Tier II
bind spirit

Tier III
magic circle against aliens
magic circle against elementals
magic circle against celestials

Tier IV
summon alien

Tier V
summon unique

GREEN
Tier I
summon bound spirit
detect fey
detect elementals
detect aliens

Tier II
bind spirit

Tier III
magic circle against fey
magic circle against elementals
magic circle against aliens

Tier IV
summon fey

Tier V
summon unique

RED
Tier I
summon bound spirit
detect elemental
detect fey
detect fiend

Tier II
magic circle against elementals
magic circle against fey
magic circle against fiends

Tier III
bind spirit

Tier IV
summon elemental

Tier V
summon unique

WHITE
Tier I
summon bound spirit
detect celestials
detect fiends
detect fey

Tier II
magic circle against celestials
magic circle against fiends
magic circle against fey

Tier III
bind spirit

Tier IV
summon celestial

Tier V
summon unique

SPELL DESCRIPTIONS

Bind Spirit

Detect Alien

Detect Celestial

Detect Elemental

Detect Fey

Detect Fiend

Magic Circle Against Aliens

Magic Circle Against Celestials

Magic Circle Against Elementals

Magic Circle Against Fey

Magic Circle Against Fiends

Summon Alien

Summon Bound Spirit

Summon Celestial

Summon Elemental

Summon Fey

Summon Fiend

Summon Unique
[/spoiler]


EDIT: Ah, screw it, I got time on my hands so I'll explain. If you read this a while ago, some of this will be refresher stuff.

Mages all know how to use rituals. Rituals take a while to cast and have ritual components. Some mages have inherent power from the study and practice of magic. Such mages have a sympathy for one of five schools: Black (evil, death, darkness, fiendish stuff, undead, etc.), Blue (weirdness, knowledge, sight, trickery, control, unreal stuff, travel, etc.), Green (natural, living, strong, plants and animals, etc.), Red (physical, elemental, destructive, chaotic, etc.), and White (goodness, healing, light, aid, protection, etc.). Mages who practice magic of one of the five schools can learn to cast rituals from their school with drastically reduced casting times... these are called spells.

Each school has adjacent schools (blue is adjacent to black and white) that are easier to learn and  opposed schools (in this case red or green) that are harder to learn. But mages who cast spells can eventually learn weaker spells out of all five schools.

So far I've only really detailed spells pertaining to summoning, etc. Early on, in order to summon, you've got to bind creatures you find in the wild one at a time. It's almost like pokemon. Since magic circles (which can be used to hold creatures in place for the duration of the binding ritual) and binding can only be cast as rituals at first, it's a lot of work. Alternately, at low levels, you can summon creatures aligned with your school of magic as a ritual (this limits utility in combat). Also, if you find a ritual to summon a unique creature, you can cast it as a ritual at low levels.

Once you actually attempt a summoning, one of a number of things happen. If you succeed, the monster is summoned under your control (but see notes about monster control below). If you fail, the monster is not summoned. If you have a critical failure, the monster is freed instead, and may cause problems for you in the immediate future (in the case of destructive monsters and those unhappy being bound).

I say that you can control the monster, but it's limited. The monster can not do most things without your permission, and it is magically compelled to honor any agreements it makes with you. It is not immediately compelled to fight for you or teach you rituals (these being the two most common uses for player character mages). Two ways to use summoned creatures are to either use it for things it would do anyway or to make an agreement with it. If you make an agreement with a monster, typically it asks you to complete a quest on its behalf in exchange for its whole or partial loyalty (it might teach you spells, fight on your behalf, give you useful information, do menial labor, possess someone for you, etc... but rarely would one agreement get you all of that at once).

[sparkletwist]

I am intrigued and perhaps a bit confused by your method of dice rolling. I think I've got the basic idea-- you roll a certain number of d10's and have to roll under your skill on all of them in order to succeed. Kind of a "reverse dice pool." Is that about right?

If that's the case, it's really interesting, though I wonder if there will be enough choice for DMs in determining difficulty levels. The probabilities for increasing difficulties are, of course, exponential graphs that get progressively steeper, which does create an interesting progression of where the "50% chance of succeeding" is, but makes actions at lower levels of skill become very difficult very quickly. It also means you can never have more than "your skill * 10 %" chance of success, which would tend to clump ability scores in the 5-9 range unless rolls are very infrequent. It would seem almost more desirable to have an nth-root curve for the lower difficulties, flattening out to linear at some point, and then following your pattern-- which could be accomplished by changing the system from "roll under on all dice" to "roll under on any die" at lower difficulties.

Let's say there are now two types of dice pools. AND dice are the current system, you must roll below the target on all of them (i.e., die 1 AND die 2 AND die 3...) OR dice are new, you must roll below the target on any one of them-- more of a standard die pool. (i.e., die 1 OR die 2 OR die 3...) You can then correlate difficulty to dice pool by saying that difficulties less than 1 roll OR dice equal to the reciprocal of the difficulty level: e.g., you roll 2 OR dice for difficulty 1/2, 3 OR dice for difficulty 1/3, and so on.

That might get confusing, so an alternate scheme is something simpler like:
Difficulty 1 = Roll 3 OR dice
Difficulty 2 = Roll 2 OR dice
Difficulty 3 = Roll 1 die
Difficulty 4 = Roll 2 AND dice
Difficulty 5 = Roll 3 AND dice
and so on...  it might need some tweaking but you get the idea.

I'm particularly intrigued by the combat resolution mechanic of rolling "as many d10s as you'd like." If it's a roll-under system where you have to succeed on every die, what is the incentive of making it more difficult? More damage?

[beejazz]

I am intrigued and perhaps a bit confused by your method of dice rolling. I think I've got the basic idea-- you roll a certain number of d10's and have to roll under your skill on all of them in order to succeed. Kind of a "reverse dice pool." Is that about right?

If that's the case, it's really interesting, though I wonder if there will be enough choice for DMs in determining difficulty levels. The probabilities for increasing difficulties are, of course, exponential graphs that get progressively steeper, which does create an interesting progression of where the "50% chance of succeeding" is, but makes actions at lower levels of skill become very difficult very quickly. It also means you can never have more than "your skill * 10 %" chance of success, which would tend to clump ability scores in the 5-9 range unless rolls are very infrequent. It would seem almost more desirable to have an nth-root curve for the lower difficulties, flattening out to linear at some point, and then following your pattern-- which could be accomplished by changing the system from "roll under on all dice" to "roll under on any die" at lower difficulties.

Let's say there are now two types of dice pools. AND dice are the current system, you must roll below the target on all of them (i.e., die 1 AND die 2 AND die 3...) OR dice are new, you must roll below the target on any one of them-- more of a standard die pool. (i.e., die 1 OR die 2 OR die 3...) You can then correlate difficulty to dice pool by saying that difficulties less than 1 roll OR dice equal to the reciprocal of the difficulty level: e.g., you roll 2 OR dice for difficulty 1/2, 3 OR dice for difficulty 1/3, and so on.

That might get confusing, so an alternate scheme is something simpler like:
Difficulty 1 = Roll 3 OR dice
Difficulty 2 = Roll 2 OR dice
Difficulty 3 = Roll 1 die
Difficulty 4 = Roll 2 AND dice
Difficulty 5 = Roll 3 AND dice
and so on...  it might need some tweaking but you get the idea.

I'm particularly intrigued by the combat resolution mechanic of rolling "as many d10s as you'd like." If it's a roll-under system where you have to succeed on every die, what is the incentive of making it more difficult? More damage?

It's not really like a roll under dice pool if that's what you're saying. You roll a number of dice and add them up and if they're under your total you succeed.

DC 1 or 2 will be pretty challenging for someone who doesn't know what he's doing. But DC 3 will have a reasonable chance of success for someone with max ability and skill focus (for 20 total at first level).

I don't know if I'm explaining this right.

[sparkletwist]

No, I understand it now.  It's more logical than the weird thing I came up with. On the other hand, since that isn't how yours works, I think I am going to use it myself. :D

What is the effect of choosing to roll more dice in combat?

[beejazz]

Mainly more damage, as your damage is your roll plus weapon damage mod. Also, the number of dice you pick is the difficulty of any defense checks.

Most of the basic information is on the threads the links in my sig lead to, if I remember correctly. It's been a while, so I don't know what I have or haven't written down yet, and the stuff in the discussion thread and this brainstorming thread may have changed since.

EDIT: Looks like you've already looked in the sigged threads.