A System of Anti-Magic

-

    Sorry for the long delay between posts. Things have been hectic and I have run out of steam a bit after working on the Gygax 75 Challenge. I have one post I am working on, but it is a bit complex and taking some time to work through. In the meantime, here is a recent idea that I had about making magic work in your games. 


    For setting reasons beyond description here, the techniques to counter magic are common knowledge. Therefore, anyone, on seeing someone attempting to work magic can attempt to counter it as a reaction (or interrupt or something that somewhat limits this).


    For "normal folk", they can declare one of three things: the name of the spell, what the spell will do, or the school of the spell. Correctly naming the spell or what it will do automatically cancels it. Correctly naming the school allows them to make an Arcana test to counter the magic. Getting close enough on the name or school will also allow for this Arcana test.


    For wizards or other well-informed folks, if they correctly declare any of the three it will automatically cancel the spell. As before, getting close enough with the name or description of the spell allows for an Arcana test. However, they can also choose not to declare anything and instead attempt to forcefully cancel the spell. They then make an Arcana test at disadvantage to counter the magic.


    Anyone who has read and remembers the formula for a spell will automatically recognize it being cast. For obvious reasons, wizards will be familiar with more formulas than other people. Someone can only be familiar with a number of spells up to their Arcana score (a cap unlikely to be relevant to non-wizards).


    While this system is certainly destructive on magic-users' spellcasting, I also think that it helps answer the worldbuilding question of "why aren't there repositories of spell formulas for me to copy from?" Further, this allows the game mechanics to really indulge in the power of spells because it provides an easy and common method to counter them. And of course, all of this would be in addition to the normal ways of dealing with a caster (like whacking them on the head in the middle of it).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Properties of Hexes and Mapping

-
    One of the most common tools people will come across in tabletop RPGs are hex maps. They divide a map into a number of hexagonal sections to ease measuring distances, plotting trips, and filling in new areas. Obviously, this comes with limitations that a plain map does not have and can sometimes pull people out of the fiction that they play in, but hex maps have their uses, even if only for the DM.     The problem with hex maps is that it is normally important to have several maps at different scales, such as one for nearby areas, one for the kingdom, and maybe a world map. Obviously all of these levels need to agree with each-other, but what scales to put them at is a pertinent question.     Unfortunately, it is one that does not have any single satisfactory answer. Still, I will be working to discover what I believe are the best sets of mapping scales for use in the general OSR space.  For those not interested in reading the article and my reason...
Read more

On Expected Uses of Usage Dice

-
     I do have a page on useful RPG mechanics, ideas, and concepts on this blog and one of the concepts in there that of Dice Chain and Usage Dice. The central idea is this: Roll a die and if you roll at or below a specific number you drop down the chain. It gives a nice element of random chance to how many uses of something you get and makes tracking items like Arrows or Chalk very easy.     However, it can be very unclear how many uses you would expect  to get when you buy a Ud6 or Ud8 item. I have just gotten done doing some math, specifically using Markov Chains, and I believe my math holds up. Thus I have been able to produce this very handy chart: Usage Die Expected Uses Ud4 2 Ud6 5 Ud8 9 Ud10 14 Ud12 20     Now, that chart is certainly handy and can easily be recreated by noticing that each die adds 1/2 of its size to the number of expected use...
Read more

The next stage of D12 Combat

-
    For those who are not a reader of All Dead Generations , not too long ago there was a post about creating an "alternate, alternate" combat system for D&D by thinking about what might have evolved from a different set of wargames (specifically, Strategos ). I found it an interesting read and absolutely love theoretical alternate histories about how D&D could have developed.     So, to keep this idea developing, I am taking it into the next stage: refinement for actual use with OD&D by someone unfamiliar with the original source material.      As a warning, the refined system I am presenting here is just my interpretation of it and it certainly doesn't include everything you could possibly need (it doesn't even include everything from the original post!). Still, I think this is a productive exercise and useful to improve the system and hopefully create something that I can use in my own home game! The Concept      This new ...
Read more