Avayevnon: The New Discussion Thread

[Seraph]

I've also been making a wiki for Avayevnon.  It is a bit more broken up there.  I think I have everything in the category list that I've put on the wiki, but I might have missed something.

[SA]

Good Lord! I clicked on the icon in your sig, thinking "I wonder how the ol' Avayev' is doing these days" and... POW! Jam-packed with goodness.

The One Roll Engine seals the deal for me. I've been looking for a new setting to play in with that system, and this might be it.

(Just don't ask for play reports. I owe Luminous more than a handful given how often I GM with his setting and I'm yet to make good on that promise)

[Seraph]

Good Lord! I clicked on the icon in your sig, thinking "I wonder how the ol' Avayev' is doing these days" and... POW! Jam-packed with goodness.

The One Roll Engine seals the deal for me. I've been looking for a new setting to play in with that system, and this might be it.

(Just don't ask for play reports. I owe Luminous more than a handful given how often I GM with his setting and I'm yet to make good on that promise)

Wow, thanks, Sal!

Well then, I won't ask you for reports.  IF something STANDS OUT as working particularly well or badly, or any feedback occurs to you, I certainly won't discourage you from dropping me a line, though. ;)

[Seraph]

[ooc]It has been, I guess something like a year since I've done anything with this setting, but I was thinking about skills and spells and whatnot.  I think that I might keep expanding the list of skills, or maybe try to implement a mechanic for specialization in sub-skills.  Not sure if that would be in the form of traits to grant a +1 dice bonus on a subskill, or if I'd allow dice to be put into sub-skills as well as into normal skills.[/ooc]

Regardless, I want to play up spells functioning as (or rather out of) skills.  An Occult skill roll for each spell, and I am thinking of coming up with more spells of more power levels.  Higher powered spells would probably cost more, take longer, and would require a roll with more "Height" for success. 

In order to emphasize the "Renaissance" feel, I think I would play up the idea of the Faustian contract as a means for power.  Whether the Orators with their Thaumaturgic magic from their "One True God" or the Goetia of witches, or a Sorcerer whose magic comes from a bound spirit or daemon, the ability to perform magic is a skill granted through a contract with some higher power.  The nature of the contract will be determined by the GM and the Player, and will depend on the being granting the magic, and the bargaining skills of the character.

Magick

Spells cannot just be cast on the spot.  There is simply not enough magick in the world to fling it around on a whim.  A witch, orator, or other caster must create a magick circle to invoke the power of their deity, familiar, or bound spirit. As they call on this power, their bodies act as the channel for the theurgic power. Powering the circle takes all of one's physical strength and concentration, and as such, the caster must forgo other physical actions while casting spells.

Casting Spells: All spells must be performed in a circle of some kind.  Spells with long casting times allow slow buildup of energy, and can be assumed to be kept up as long as necessary without any further concern.  But spells cast in the heat of the moment drain large quantities of energy from their casters.  Casting a spell requires an Occult skill roll.  A number of d10 equal to the caster's Occult skill added to their Mind stat, Body Stat, or whichever stat the GM deems appropriate, is rolled.  The number of matches (width) determines the speed of casting, and the number matched (height) determines the success or failure of the spell.  Each spell has a power level which must be met or exceeded by the spell roll.  Spells cast during an encounter measure their casting times in rounds, with greater width rolls on the related skill check resulting in faster completions.  Casters can only sustain a magick circle without harm to themselves for as many rounds as their Command stat.  Every round thereafter deals a point of shock damage to the torso.  If for any reason the caster cannot hold up a circle until the end of the casting time, the spell fails and all materials are lost.

Terms for different kinds of Magicians
These are the true spell casters.

Sorcerer: A studious theurgic caster who binds a familiar spirit of some kind to his service, often against this spirit's will.
Necromancer: A Sorcerer or spellcaster whose familiar is a restless ancestor spirit he has called back from the grave.
Thaumaturge: A generic term for miracle workers such as the Orators.
Witch: A spellcaster (male or female) usually the servants of the goddess Lughra, whose familiar serves them freely, and need not be bound.

Magical Non-Casters
These have magical or pseudo-magical talents, but do not cast spells in the traditional sense.

Alchemist: One who experiments with chemical and magically charged reagents and catalysts to learn how to transform one material into another.  Some seek this purely for monetary gain, e.g. turning lead into gold.  Others seek something deeper, and seek a way to change themselves and break the bonds of mortality.
Artificer: One who combines magickal and mathematickal concepts to merge the arcane and mystical with the scientific.  He creates works of technology that are imbued with magick. 

Types of Spells
Blessings: These spells typically come from a deity, and bestow some form of boon or good fortune upon their target.
Divination: Whether by casting lots, consulting the dead, or gazing into a scrying mirror, these are spells that reveal information of some sort to the caster.
Familiar: These spells are those that bind a spirit to you will, compel it to perform an act for you, or banish it from this world.
Healing: Especially common among thaumaturges, but not exclusive to them, these are spells that cure illnesses or heal injuries. 
Hexes: Spells that curse, impede, or remove said afflictions.  Powerful spells of this type could kill people or blight crops.
Projection: Spells whereby the caster's consciousness (and sometimes her Will) is expanded, or removed from her physical form.  This includes sojourning, and remote viewing.
Shielding: Spells that protect the caster against unwanted forces, or against the magick of others.

[Seraph]

[ooc]Alright, I have decided to completely roll "A Sense of Humor" into Avayevnon.  It was an idea I played with in the past, and I already merged parts of my "humors as personality types" in some time ago.  The two gods I created for that setting will be gods that belong to small wandering cults.  PCs could be members, could be people the cults are performing/preaching to, or could be sent to crack down on such heretical teachings, as befits a particular campaign.[/ooc]

Cults

A philosopher once said, the finest harmony is composed of things at variance.  By that estimation, the god entropy and magic is a lovely string quartet.  Any humorist will tell you that the key to a good joke is juxtaposition, and Paride should know; he's always beside himself with glee. Paride (per-É-dÄ") is discord and strife, and he is change.  He is the ultimate order of the universe.  He is the parodic paradox.  His Truth is that there is only change.  Change; the juxtaposition of the old and the new, is the very definition of reality, and reality is biggest joke of all.  Some would think of 'Change is a constant' to be a contradiction in terms, but then, Paride is a contradiction in himself.  The Four Humors of Paride are in constant conflict, defining his changing identity with one of four temperaments, tempering each of four realms of magical thought.

The Comedians
Often dressed in garish clothes of bright and tasteless colors, the comedians wear exaggerated masks with theatrical plastered grins. 

The Grand Joke:  The Comedians are ruled by the central tenet of their philosophy: Life is a joke.  It is an idea they attempt to spread, and they do so by performing grotesque spectacles for the townsfolk, on whom their peculiar sense of humor is often lost.  They display the world in all its ugliness, and all the while make light of it.  Their farces hold a fundamental sense of being incomplete, however, and a Comedian would tell you that this is because the joke isn't finished yet.  Some people cry when they look at the world, but those who know the Punchline on and laugh. 
The Punchline:  The "meaning of life," according to the Comedians: The ultimate secret.  You spend your whole life waiting for the Punchline, but how many hear it?  How many are really listening?  They are always seeking to discover the Punchline, though it is said that, as the last cruel joke of fate,  we only ever learn it at our deaths.

'Who decides?' 'Decides?  It is written!  We are tragedians, you see? We follow directions. There is no choice involved. The bad end unhappily, the good, unluckily. That is what tragedy means.'--Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead The diametric opposite to the entropic force of Paride, Moira'"the spinner of fate'"sees all ends.   She is goddess to a cult called the Tragedians.  She is all order; solemn and sombre, blank, working the mechanism of her loom.  She minds the weave, and writes the tragedy.  Her followers are keenly aware that all ends in tragedy.  That is why they are the Tragedians.  None know her mind; none know her motivations; not even her cult lays claim to that knowledge.  The most one can know of her is one's own fate, and that is knowledge bought at a heavy price.  But is she all powerful, or can Fate be overcome?  Is it truly writ, set down for the players to act out, or can it be made, forged, bent and molded to the Will?   Whether Fate is written or made, Moira is known to appear to those whose doom is upon them.  Holding the unbroken string of cause-and-effect, she is the unerrant judge.  Some would call her callous, some cruel, but she is, by definition, fatal.

Once great men, the Tragedians have suffered a terrible fate and find themselves doomed to repeat it until the end of their days.  Strangely masochistic, the tragedians seek to punish themselves for their flaws, for their errors, and kneel before the architect of their downfall, the mistress of fate herself.  Convinced of her inerrant plan, they have come to the revelation of their error; their peripeteia, that ensured the dread outcome. 
Peripeteia: It takes one who has lost everything, who has seen the tragedy of his existence, to seek out the Tragedians.  It is not comfort they seek, but commiseration.  The peripeteia is the quality which binds all tragedians.  It is the reversal of circumstances; the moment of realization that all is lost.  In the eyes of the Tragedians, all those who have truly fallen are among their number.  Initiation into the cult itself, however, requires a more terrible revelation:  that with Moira holding the strings of fate, there is no choice at all.  Against her there can be no victory.  It is only those that grasp this in its crushing depth and weight that ever reach initiation. 
Initiation: The initiation itself is a grotesque spectacle; a perfectly orchestrated ritual reenacting the downfall of the initiate.  It is always in five acts, with the initiate playing the tragic hero, the High Priests in Support and the remainder filling the role of chorus, chanting our their morbid dirges in Strophes and Antistrophes.  It is in this grim ceremony that the High Priests proclaim the Tragic Flaw.
Hamartia: The Tragic Flaw is unique to each Tragedian.  The fullness of the hamartia contains both the moment of error that sealed the Tragedian's fate, and the internal fault that chose their path.  The Tragedian knows that while a fault alone does not a downfall make, an action cannot be removed from its cause.
Unity of Action:  The Tragedians believe that all life is composed of a single plotline--to use storytelling terminology.  Everything adds up to the ultimate conclusion and all have their part to play.  Therefore, the Tragedians see themselves as each being of a singular purpose.  They are single-minded in the extreme.  Their story ended with their own downfall, now they are without purpose.
Catharsis:  A purging, catharsis is what the Tragedians seek above all.  Having no part left to play in the fate of the world, the Tragedians seek penance for the wrongs they were destined to commit.  They seek to purge themselves of their wrongs, of their passions, wallowing in self-pity and self-loathing, by tempting death experiencing the height of fear.  They seek to purge themselves of their misdeeds through pain and anguish.  They flagellate and torture themselves with hunger, bondage, illness, and pain.  A stoic temperament is best to face eternity, and it is achieved only through catharsis.

[ooc]And lets reorganize magic a bit.  It will take longer to cast spells than in most games, to give a ritualized feel to magic, and in Renaissance fashion, it will involve a familiar spirit (not necessarily of the animal variety, think Mephistopheles in Faust).  But I am also thinking I'm going to play with the humors a bit more in my magic system.

Since characters would also have an associated humor, I think that they would have +1d on Occult checks to perform magic associated with their humor(s), but no schools are off limits to any character.

Don't know yet which school is most appropriate to spells for summoning and binding familiars.  I'd like thoughts and input.[/ooc]

Sanguine Magic
Sanguine Magic has to do with augmentation and giving aid.  As the blood gives life and gives us strength and passion, Sanguine Magic gives the strength of aid and vigor to those who employ it. It enhances, blesses, and cures.  People skilled in this magic sometimes serve as doctors.  The converse is also true, with some physicians adding this brand of metaphysical knowledge to their healing repertoire.

Spell Types: Blessings, Healing
Terms for Casters: Sanguinists, Blood Mages, Bloodletters, Leeches

Choleric Magic
Choleric Magic deals with hexes and curses.  As cholera devastates the body, so Choleric Magic devastates those it touches.  Those who dip their feet in these waters had best be careful lest they succumb to their own poison.  But as the Choleric temperament is the most willful of the humors, this field of magic also includes spells that project the caster's consciousness or will beyond his body.

Spell Types: Hexes, Projection
Terms for Casters: Cholerist, Warlock

Phlegmatic Magic
Phlegmatic Magic, which concerns the holding force and the change which stops motion.  As phlegm backs up in the throat, Phlegmatic Magic stops up the flow of energy in things.  It is, in a sense, the magic of countering.  As such, it sees a good deal of practical use for protection.

Spell Types: Shielding
Terms for Casters: Phlegmage

Melancholic Magic
Melancholic Magic concerns knowledge, communication, and mysteries.  As the melancholy seek their answers inwards, Melancholic Magic seeks to uncover truths and whys.   This school of magic involves divination, especially necromancy, for acquiring information.  It also encompasses magic  that manipulates or enchants.

Spell Types: Divination, Enchantment
Terms for Casters: Darksighted, Black Mages, Seers, Soothsayers

[O Senhor Leetz]

May I just say, that using the old humors as the basis for magic is absolutely genius and I'm very upset that I didn't think of it first.

[Seraph]

May I just say, that using the old humors as the basis for magic is absolutely genius and I'm very upset that I didn't think of it first.

I don't think I am actually the first to do this, but it certainly isn't a usual thing.

Spells by Humor
The following is a list of sample spells broken down into humor "schools."  The list is by no means complete, but this provides examples of the KIND of spells each humor would include.

Spell Template
Spell Name
Skill: The skill needed to cast the spell
Requirements: Material components or special requirements.
Madness: The roll needed to avoid failed madness notches
Target: The target of the spell (Caster, Single Target, Target Area, etc)
Activation Time: How long it takes to cast the spell
Difficulty: The height of a roll needed to successfully cast the spell
Description: An explanation of the spell's effect.


The Sanguine School

Bleeding
Skill: Occult and/or Medicine
Requirements: Athame or a blessed leech
Madness: Unnatural 3
Target: Single Target
Activation Time: 5-width minutes
Difficulty: 3
Description:  Disease are caused by an imbalance of the humors, a condition which can be corrected by ritually cutting and bleeding the target with a blessed blade.  On a successful Occult or Medicine roll, the subject is cured of any natural disease, but takes the width of the roll in shock damage to a hit location chosen by the sorcerer on casting.

Envigorate
Skill: Occult
Requirements: Holy water, tool to draw the Magick circle.
Madness: Unnatural 2
Target: Single Target
Activation Time: 5-width rounds
Difficulty: 2
Description: This spell involves a hastily drawn magic circle, with a central pentagram onto which the target lays.  The caster speaks the words, and sprinkles the target with holy water.  On a successful roll, the caster rolls 2d.  The target is healed an amount of shock damage equal to the sum of the two dice, plus the width of their successful spell roll to any location(s).  This spell also removes fatigue.


True Bloodletting
Skill: Occult and Medicine
Requirements: Silver Athame, Salt for the Magick Circle, a diamond worth 10,000 rings
Madness: Unnatural 6
Target: Single Target
Activation Time: 5-width minutes
Difficulty: 6
Description:  This spell functions as bleeding, except that it cures even supernatural illnesses like Cruentus Contagium. 



The Choleric School

Blight Crops
Skill: Occult
Requirements: A vial of rat's vomit
Madness : Self 5
Target: Target Area
Activation Time: 5-width hours
Difficulty: 5
Description: After chanting and cursing, this hex will cause all of the plants in the given area, which can be up to the size of a farm, to wither and die.  Plant based creatures instead suffer the width of the roll in damage. 

Curse of Atrophy
Skill: Occult
Requirements: A poppet or graven image of the target.
Madness : Self 4
Target: Single Target
Activation Time: 5-width minutes*
Difficulty: 4
Description: Making use of some image of the intended target, the sorcerer saps their strength.  This spell removes a number of points from the target's Body stat equal to the width of the Occult roll used to cast the spell.  One point is lost each day, until the target reaches Body 1.  If there are more points of width left, then for that number of days, the target is bedridden and too weak to take any action other than speaking and resting.  After that time they become active again, but their Body stat remains at 1 until the spell is lifted.

Sojourning
Skill: Occult
Requirements: A casting area of five concentric circles of fire or phosphorus.
Madness : Unnatural 3
Target: Caster.
Activation Time: 5 - width minutes.
Difficulty: 3
Description: This spell consists of a litany that must be intoned within the casting area. The caster's spirit leaves its sleeping body and travels the Sojourn. The caster's spirit must concentrate—requiring an Unnatural check—to not stray and sever the link between spirit and body.

The Phlegmatic School

Counterspell
Skill: Occult
Requirements: Material components or special requirements.
Madness : Unnatural 3
Target: Single Target
Activation Time: 5 – width rounds
Difficulty: Special
Description: Choose a target that is in the process of casting, or had declared the intent to start casting, a spell.  Make your occult roll.  Any matches you receive gobble dice from this target's spell roll matches, possibly resulting in the negating of your opponent's spell.

Pentagram of Protection
Skill: Occult.
Requirements: An effigy shield and sword; marking material such as chalk, paint, etc.
Madness : Unnatural 3
Target: Target area.
Activation Time: 5 - width rounds.
Difficulty: 3
Description: You create a pentagram in a circle surrounded by four circles, then charge the design with the effigy sword and shield. Roll the spell's dice pool. A successful roll gives you a HAR of the height of your roll and adds 1td to your Body+Health and Empathy+Resist checks for the next width minutes. If the spell roll's width is 4 or greater you gain +2 td instead.


The Melancholic School

Casting the Lots
Skill: Occult
Requirements: Divinatory aid, such as a deck of cards, runes, or an open flame.
Madness : Unnatural 2
Target: Caster.
Activation Time: 5 - width minutes.
Difficulty: 3
Description: This spell opens your senses to time and space. In effect you can experience 'a little of the past and a little of the future' in any given location after casting with a successful Sense+skill check.  How far back and far forward you can experience equals the width of the spell roll in tens of minutes.  What you experience may trigger further Madness checks. Unfortunately, this spell often attracts the attention of astral creatures.  They can never be seen but at least one will always dog the caster's footsteps afterwards.

Whisper Message
Skill: Occult
Requirements: Familiar Spirit
Madness : Unnatural 2
Target: Single Target
Activation Time: 5 – width rounds
Difficulty: 2
Description: You give your familiar a message to relay to a companion, associate, or anyone else whose location you can estimate.  Your familiar will take the most direct route possible to reach the target, and will travel at its top speed.  An incorporeal familiar can travel in a straight line from you to your target, ignoring walls, terrain, and other impediments.  If the target is anywhere in the vicinity you provide, the familiar will find them and deliver the message, which is received as a whisper in the ear.  If the target is far from where you specify, the spell fails.  Once the message is delivered (or fails to be delivered), the familiar returns to, again by the most direct route.  Until the familiar returns to your side, you cannot cast any other spells.


Universal

Call Familiar
Skill: Occult
Requirements: Athame, salt, Pentagram of Power (optional)
Madness : Intensity 5, 7 or 9 in Unnatural (summoning a familiar spirit). See table.
Target: Single target.
Activation Time: 5 - width minutes or hours depending on what is being called.
Difficulty: See Below
Description: With this spell a witch intends to summon a familiar spirit.  The exact nature of the familiar can vary; the height of the roll determines what responds to the call.  Casters may specify which type of familiar they wish to call.  In this case if they meet or exceed the height required, the desired type of familiar is called.  If the caster does not specify what type of familiar they desire, then the height of the roll chooses for them. 

Height    Familiar Spirit
4 or less   Nothing Responds
5 or more   Familiar from the Material plane, such as a house cat, frog, or monkey
7 or more    Familiar from the Sojourn (incorporeal ghost-like entity)
9 or more    Creature with near deific power--an angel or a demon

Once a familiar has responded to the call it must be bound to the caster's command. Binding a creature to the caster's will is a Command+Intimidation check. Resisting binding is an Empathy+Resist check. There is a risk that the creature will bind the caster to its will instead; the caster should take protection against that eventuality by only 'calling' from within a Pentagram of Power (see below).

Pentagram of Power
Skill: Occult
Requirements: A sacrifice (the bigger the better); marking material such as chalk, paint, etc.
Madness : Intensity 3 in Self (or 6 or 7 for sacrifice of an animal or a person).
Target: Target area.
Activation Time: 5 - width hours.
Difficulty: 3
Description: Create a pentagram in a circle surrounded by four circles, then imbue the design with power by sacrifice. Roll the occult check.   A sacrifice of cakes and wine, is made normally.  Sacrificing an animal or an anthropic results in adding +1td to your Occult roll.  A successful roll allows you to add 1td to your Command+Intimidation and Empathy+Resist checks when binding summoned familiar spirits. If the spell roll's width is 4 or greater you gain +2 td instead.
 

[Seraph]

An updated (though not final) version of the Avayevnon map that I am making for a contest over at Cartographers:






Also, in some unofficial musings, I was thinking about some of what I would do if I were ever to port Avayevnon back over to d20.   I would probably use Pathfinder's "Samsaran" as my "elves" race, since that fits much better with my concept of them in this setting than standard elves do.  I'd also probably just have Eberron Warforged stand in for the Effigies, though maybe with their size increased to Large.

Pathfinder's Oracle class, when one chooses the right mysteries, better fits my idea of MOST casters than most of the other standard D&D/Pathfinder spellcasters, so I might drop cleric, druid, and sorcerer, and just go with Oracles.  I like the idea of the Wizard as the studious caster though, and I'd reflavor them so their schools of magic are tied to the humors as seen above.  Might drop the Bard as well, and add PF's Alchemist, Gunslinger, Inquisitor, and 3rd party Artificer and Swashbuckler to the class line-up.

[Tangential]

I like the sounds of how you're developing this.

[sparkletwist]

That's a really cool map!

I'm not a big fan of porting this setting back to Pathfinder, but that's mostly because I'm not a big fan of Pathfinder in general. That's just me, though.

What's with the little C-shaped island up in the corner? It reminds me of Startropics. :grin:

[Seraph]

That's a really cool map!

I'm not a big fan of porting this setting back to Pathfinder, but that's mostly because I'm not a big fan of Pathfinder in general. That's just me, though.

What's with the little C-shaped island up in the corner? It reminds me of Startropics. :grin:

It's a hypothetical.  I'm not planning to do so officially, but I was musing on if there was a group that liked the setting ideas, but wanted to stick with a "d20" based system.

The island is "Iluvion," an isle that is almost impossible to find.  It's not literally in that spot, and as I finish the map I will have it sectioned off to show it is separate.

[Seraph]

Ok, this is the final contest entry.  
Speaking of which, for anyone who is in the Cartographer's Guild, voting is up now:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/current-mapping-challenge/24532-august-challenge-voting-redraw-old-map.html
I'd appreciate your votes!

I may at some point fiddle with this some more, for instance, to add a border and a compass, and properly section off The Isle of Iluvion.  It's supposed to be a bit more south and further out west (beyond the scope of the map), but there's not room without using a lot of empty space, so it got put in the corner.  But that will have to take a back seat to life and other stuff, so right now, this is the Avayevnon Map.


[spoiler=Full Size][/spoiler]

[sparkletwist]

It turned out really nice!

I know how long those realistic-looking physical maps can take (I made one once for Asura) so I certainly don't begrudge you saying enough is enough.

[Seraph]

It turned out really nice!

I know how long those realistic-looking physical maps can take (I made one once for Asura) so I certainly don't begrudge you saying enough is enough.

Well, it was also in part because it was for a contest, and the deadline just passed.  So I am relaxing for a while. 

[Elemental_Elf]

I haven't had a chance to delve back into Avayevnon in a long while but I have a question for you - why is it called the Weeping Sea?