Realm of the Powers II - University of Guelpheldar.mathstat.uoguelph.ca/dashlock/ROP/core.pdf ·...

Realm of the Powers II

Daniel Ashlock Colin Lee Andrew McEachern

Contents

Introduction 6Designing Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Descriptions of Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Agility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Intellect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Endurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Material Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Material Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Mystical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Intuition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Mystic Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Mystic Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Celestial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Ascendence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Omniscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Essence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Chi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Celestial Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Celestial Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Character’s Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Addiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Bound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Curse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Dependent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Extraordinary Appearance . . . . . . . . . 11Hidden Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Impaired . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Mental Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Physical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Reputation and Notoriety . . . . . . . . . 11Serves a Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Susceptibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Tick or Quirk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Viewed as Treasure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Watched . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Building a Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Skills 12Celestial Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Blessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Bind Essence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Extend Essence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Place Essence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Warp Chance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Combat Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Blind Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Deadly Blow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Deflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Dive for Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Fight Wounded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Garrote Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Group Fighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Gruesome Blow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Heave Opponent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Lassoing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Mighty Blow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Noose Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Parry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Precision Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Shield Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Special Blow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Two hand fighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Unconsciousness Attack . . . . . . . . . . 16Weapons Proficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Whip Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

General Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Acrobatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Brew Poison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Enhanced Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Food Taster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Hack System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Ice Skating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Improved Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Improve Celestial Statistic . . . . . . . . . 18Improve Material Statistic . . . . . . . . . 18Improve Mystical Statistic . . . . . . . . . 18Medic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Mimic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Poisoner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

1

Rider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Steed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Strongman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Intuitive Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Apprehend Desires . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Sense Possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Sense Spirits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Zen Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Magical Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Alchemist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Donate Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Embed Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Evade Wards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Expand Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Expand Summoning . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Extend Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Focus Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Force Mystical Device . . . . . . . . . . . 21Hang Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Intensify Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Mass Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Mix Potions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Item Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Maintain Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Mental Trace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Mine Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Recharge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Spell Proficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Steal Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Social Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Confidence Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Courtesan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Fast Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Intimidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Seduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Streetwise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Spiritual Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Activate Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Bind Spirit Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Multiple Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Sense Spiritual Awareness . . . . . . . . . 24Soul Weapon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Spirit Weapon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Stealth Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Climbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Conceal Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Disguise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Escape Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Finding and Hiding . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Force Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Forgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Highwalking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Listen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Read Lips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Slight of Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Sneaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Talents 26Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Celestial Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Avatar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Avoid Compulsion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Celestial Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Celestial Spellcaster . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Celestial Statistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Corpus Mundi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Compulsion, Celestial . . . . . . . . . . . 28Domination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Essential Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Glamor, Celestial . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Invulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Multiple Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Postulate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Recognomen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Subordination, Celestial . . . . . . . . . . 30Temporal Mastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Dweller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Eidetic Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Hysterical Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Intuitive Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Arcanhorama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Clairsense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Displaced Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Empathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Forecast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Intuitionist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Intuitive Grasp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Immediate Precognition . . . . . . . . . . 32Intuitive Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Pass Obstructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Psychometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Remote Viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Resist Compulsion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Tongues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Sensory Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Lightfoot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Luck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Magical Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Blast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Compulsion, Mystic . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Glamor, Magical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Inapparance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Mage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Mystical Statistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Mystical Subordination . . . . . . . . . . 34Parallel Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Scramble Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Sense Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2

Share Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Photographic Memory . . . . . . . . . . . 35Refusal to Die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Spiritual Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Astral Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Avatar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Centering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Charismatic Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Compulsion, Spiritual . . . . . . . . . . . 37Cute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Direct Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Dream Sending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Forget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Glamor, Spiritual . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Knockout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Manifestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Mental Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Metabolic Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Mind Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Mindspeech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Override Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Rulership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Shield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Spirit Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Spirit Scream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Spiritual Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Spiritual Subordination . . . . . . . . . . 40Telekinesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Telepathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Teleportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Truth Sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Intrinsic Abilities 41Absorb Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Added Mental Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Added Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Added Chi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Added Endurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Added Essence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Added Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Added Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Alter Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Alternate Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Animal Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Animal Empathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Animal Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Animal Mastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Ablative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Area Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Aura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Continuing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Controllable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Gaze Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Fire-and-forget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Highly Effective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Large Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Line of Sight Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Multiple Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Napalm Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Penetrating Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Poison, Insinuative . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Ranged Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Slow Acting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Specific Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Trace Based . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Triggered Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Unobtrusive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Barrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Blinding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Body Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Added Reach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Denser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Distributed Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Larger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Limbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Pliable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Pouch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Smaller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Tiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Two-dimensional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Breathes Alternate Medium . . . . . . . . . . . 48Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Darkness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Deflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Dematerialize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Demiplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Disbelief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Dismissal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Drain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Duplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50End Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Expend Endurance Quickly . . . . . . . . . . . 50Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Forget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Free Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Hard to Dispel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Hard to Knock Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Hard to Hit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Hard to Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Healing and Regeneration . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Hidden Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Hide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Invisibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Life Bond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Magic Shield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

3

Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Molding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Drifting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Gliding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Hypermovement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Leaping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Phasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Swimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Teleportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Tunneling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Wall Walking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Multiple Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Patterning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Penalty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Planar Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Prison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Push . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Regain Endurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Regain Essence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Regain Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Restraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Seeming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Animate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Combat Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Linked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Overlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Solidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Triggered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Willful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Senses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Share Senses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Sleep Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Sleepless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Slip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Slow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Stasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Stink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Strike Bodiless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Summoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Suspended Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Tie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Time Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Transformation Costs and Modifiers . . . 61

Examples of Transformations . . . . . . . 61

Petrifaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Unconsciousness Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Generic Modifiers 62Amendment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Autonomous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Avoidable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Causes Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Costs Endurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Costs Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Cycle Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Hard to Resist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Hit Requirement Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Immunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Limited Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Linked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Parasitic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Slow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Usable by Cognate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Combat 64Order of Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Hitting your opponent . . . . . . . . . . . 64Defensive Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Expending Endurance . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Taking Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Initiative Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Damage from Being Thrown . . . . . . . . 65Getting Knocked Out . . . . . . . . . . . 65Damage Penalty Table . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Diving for Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Area Effect Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Mind and Madness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Mild Insanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Strong Insanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Total Insanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Other Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Magic 67Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Spell Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Spell Duration Table . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Casting Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Rituals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Personal Traces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Example Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Arrowsafe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Blend In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Bravery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Bull’s Hide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Command Animate Dead . . . . . . . . . 69Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Darkness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Darksight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

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Detect Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Detect Undead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Dispel Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Doorpopper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Doorward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Dust Bolt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Electric Skin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71False Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Faster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Fireball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Fleximo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Frost Fingers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Hidden Missile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Ignite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Inner Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Inner Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Inner Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Invisibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Jack Pocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Levitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Lightning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Magewind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Minor Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Poison Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Polish Metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Protection from Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Protection from Lightning . . . . . . . . . 73Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Smell Poison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Soot Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Spellwoven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Steal Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Sticky Foot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Summon Monster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Summon Servant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Tail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Telekinesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Tiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Ventriloquism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Water Breathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Youme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Zap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Example Rituals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Animate Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Bless Weapon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Bradley Marble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Crafting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Deathward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Melvin Marble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Rune of Smiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Spell Ring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Stone Golem Construction . . . . . . . . . 77

Thobox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Alchemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Alchemical Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Awaken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Binary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Counteraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Distill Venom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Identify Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Resonant Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Seal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Alchemical Rituals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Brew Antimana Vapor . . . . . . . . . . . 78Brew Arabane Potion . . . . . . . . . . . 79Brew Blinding Vapor . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Brew Brimstone Vapor . . . . . . . . . . . 79Brew Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Brew Bug Repellent . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Brew Bulkiness Potion . . . . . . . . . . . 79Brew Clinging Potion . . . . . . . . . . . 80Brew Confusion Potion . . . . . . . . . . . 80Brew Cold Resistance Potion . . . . . . . 80Brew Elider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Brew Fire Resistance Potion . . . . . . . . 80Brew Flaming Vapors . . . . . . . . . . . 80Brew Flying Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Brew Frog Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Brew Grace Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Brew Greater Healing Potion . . . . . . . 81Brew Healing Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Brew Lesser Healing Potion . . . . . . . . 81Brew Impulse Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Brew Light Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Brew Mana Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Brew Mapping Vapor . . . . . . . . . . . 82Brew Omniaquis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Brew Opyrus Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Brew Petrifaction Potion . . . . . . . . . . 82Brew Poison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Brew Poison Resistance Potion . . . . . . 82Brew Sleeping Vapor . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Brew Strength Potion . . . . . . . . . . . 83Brew Swiftness Potion . . . . . . . . . . . 83Brew Transformation Potion . . . . . . . 83Brew Whipped Potion . . . . . . . . . . . 83Brew Water Breathing Potion . . . . . . . 83Create Alchemical Servant . . . . . . . . . 83

Campaign Color 84Armor, Shields, and Weapons . . . . . . . . . . 84

Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Shields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Blunt Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Bolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Bows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Darts, knives, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Garrot’s, lassos, and nooses . . . . . . . . 85

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Spears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Whips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Example Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Brigand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Sorceress-in-Training . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Thug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Poison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Poison Cost Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Example Poisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Arrow Anointer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Assassin’s Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Black Lotus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Final Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Harrowtoad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Ipsotoxin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Jolly’s Joke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Red Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Example Potions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Bulkiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Clinging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Confusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Cold Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Dog Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Fire Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Flying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Levitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Poison Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Swiftness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Example Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Alarm Wand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Beauty Earring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Belief Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Better Blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Bradley Marble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Clinging Choker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Consciousness Earring . . . . . . . . . . . 93Darksight Ring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Disguise Ring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Dispel Magic Wand . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Dust Wand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Electric Skin Token . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Fire Elemental Rod . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Fireball Wand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Grace Earring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Invisibility Ring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Levitation Bracelet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Light Stone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Lightning Protection Ring . . . . . . . . . 94Magic Detection Bracelet . . . . . . . . . 94Melvin Marble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Running Boots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Sash of Blending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Sleep Wand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Soot Ball Wand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Strength Gauntlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Ventriloquism Bracelet . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Water Breathing Bracelet . . . . . . . . . 95

Zombie Command Amulet . . . . . . . . . 95

Introduction

This document is the core rules for the second version ofthe game Realm of the Powers. Theses rule cover manyof the game mechanics, but other details, like the type ofcharacters that are available and the areas of magic thatare present in a given campaign are in sourcebooks.

Designing Characters

Characters in Realm of the Powers are defined by theirstory and their statistics. The story explains who thecharacter is, where they came from, what their motiva-tions are, and why they have the abilities they do. Thestatistics follow from the character’s story and substan-tially determine the character’s potential abilities. Thestatistics are divided into three groups: material, mys-tical, and celestial. The material statistics are strength,agility, intellect, knowledge, personality, and beauty. Themystic statistics are magic, spirit, and intuition. Thecelestial statistics are ascendence, resilience, and omni-science. For each of the three groups the character has abase allowance of points and the statistics within eachgroup start at that base value. The points, within agroup, may be moved around so long as no statistic ex-ceeds the minimum or maximum value for the character’stype.

A character starts with a base of 16 character points.Within a character’s story the character may embed prob-lems that grant additional character points. These pointsare used to purchase skills, talents, and intrinsic abili-ties. A character’s expenditures of character points areall justified within their story.

Descriptions of Statistics

In addition to establishing the basic level for statistics, acharacter’s base allowance determines their status withrespect to a type of statistics. The table below givesthe effect of very low levels of base allowance. A char-acter with no celestial statistics, for example, is invisi-ble to senses the perceive celestial characters and powersand attacks that do celestial damage simply pass thoughthem.

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BaseAllowance Status

0 Invisible to senses, transparent todamage.

1 Barely visible to senses, 10 harderto hit, damage -3.

2 Translucent to senses, 5 harder tohit, damage -1.

3+ Normal interaction with senses andcombat.

Material

The material statistics are those that arise from the crea-ture’s material body. Constructs and primitive animalsmay have only material statistics.

StrengthThis statistic represents a character’s ability to lift,

pull, crush, punch, or otherwise exercise physical power.It contributes to a character’s ability to hit in combatand to perform feats of strength. Exceptional values fora character’s strength should be reflected in their story.The section on intrinsics gives a cost for having naturalweapons (claws, teeth,etc). A character’s strength givesthem a base damage class for their hand-to-hand attacks.

Damage ThrowStrength Class Size 0

0 no attack can’t1-3 -3 can’t4-7 -2 can’t8-10 -1 0-1”11-13 0 1”14-15 1 2”16-17 2 4”18-19 3 7”20-21 4 11”etc. +1 etc.

A normal character is size zero. Characters with highstrength can throw a size zero creature a substantial dis-tance. For the purpose of heaving, another character’sadded density is counted as added size. Each point ofsize decreases the distance a character may throw anothercharacter by one. Negative size moves the character’sability to throw the smaller opponent up one strengthcategory. A character may add +1” per endurance ex-pended to the distance they can heave another character,but this added amount may not be more than the basedistance they can heave the other character. Look also atagility for bonus throwing distance.

AgilityThis statistics represents a character’s deftness,

physical coordination, and speed. It aids in both hitting

in combat and in avoiding being hit. The damage class ofa ranged weapon is also derived from a character’s agility,though weapons also have a maximum damage they cando. Especially agile characters can throw opponents theyhave grasped farther - but the bonus is no more than thebase distance possible because of strength. Especiallyklutzy characters can overcome this with their strengthbased ability to heave others.

DamageAgility Class Throw

0 no attack Size 01-3 -3 -3”4-7 -2 -2”8-10 -1 -1”11-13 0 +0”14-15 1 +1”16-17 2 +2”18-19 3 +3”20-21 4 +4”etc. +1 +(+1)”

IntellectThis statistic represents a character’s intellectual

processing power. Their ability to perceive and to in-tegrate information and reach conclusions. It aids in re-sisting some forms of mental assault.

KnowledgeThis statistic represents the amount of information

a person has in their memory and also how good thatmemory is. Low knowledge may be caused by youth,lack of experience, or bad memory. Which knowledge acharacter has is shaped by their story.

PersonalityThis statistic represents the degree to which a per-

son can dominate, or interact well in, a social situation.Low personality can cause a person to be overlooked orignored. High personality lets a person steal a scene, con-vince a person of something, or draw the attention of agroup by speaking to them. Personality controls the waypeople react to a character when the character is activelytrying to shape their response.

BeautyThis statistic is the measure of a person’s attractive-

ness. It controls the way people react to a character whenthe character is making no effort to shape the response.Beauty is context dependent and its interpretation is of-ten in the eyes of the beholder.

EnduranceEndurance is used to perform physical feats and pos-

sibly to help perform other actions. A character’s unmod-ified endurance is their base allowance plus their strength.

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Endurance is a consumable derived statistic. It typicallyreturns at a rate of one per minute.

BodyBody represents the total amount of damage a char-

acter can take before they die. The typical amount ofbody is 3 plus one third of the character’s material baseallowance, rounded normally. If a character has a mate-rial allowance of zero then they have no body. Body isa consumable derived statistic. See the rules for combatfor details.

InitiativeInitiative determines the number of actions a charac-

ter gets per round. It is equal to one fourth of the sum ofthe character’s agility and intellect, rounded normally. Ifa character’s magic or sprint exceeds their agility then thelarger of the two is used in place of agility. If a character’sascendence exceeds the character’s intellect, it is used in-stead. Characters with material base allowance belowthree compute their initiative as one-third of the sum ofthe character’ mystical base allowance with the better ofspirit or magic or, if this total is better, one-third the sumof the celestial base allowance and ascendence.

Material AttackThis is the value added to a roll to hit an opponent

with a material attack. Its value is one fourth the sumof the character’s strength and agility. See the section onCombat for details.

Material DefenseThis is the value subtracted from a roll to hit the

character with a material attack. Its value is one fourththe sum of the character’s personality and agility. See thesection on Combat for details.

Mystical

The mystical statistics are those that arise from the crea-ture’s interaction with the metaphysical level of the world.Spiritual beings, such as spirits or ghosts, may be primar-ily or entirely mystical.

MagicThis statistic reflects the character’s ability to con-

trol the physical world with metaphysics and to grantexceptions to its natural rules. Magic comes in the formof spell, rituals, and intrinsic abilities. The former twomay be learned the latter must be inborn in a creature.

SpiritThis statistic reflects the character’s ability to act

on the metaphysical plane. Spirit powers permit char-acters to control or defend themselves from spirits, tointeract with other characters in a purely mental way.Mind control, telepathy, spiritual projection, and actingas a medium or mediator are all examples of spirit basedabilities. A character that pays two points may have a

mystic attack analogous to a natural weapon. Its freedamage class is based on the character’s spirit, using thetable under strength. Targeting such an attack requiresa mystic base allowance of three or more.

If a character has a mystical base allowance of three ormore then they have a base mystical attack based ontheir spirit using the same table as strength for natu-ral weapons. This is the type of attack that does dam-age against mind. A character typically does not havea “natural” mystical attack, but they may activate thisfree mystic damage by buying any sort of intrinsic mentalattack.

IntuitionThis statistic represents the characters ability to

both sense the metaphysical level or reality and toperceive the material world though the metaphysicalworld. Intuition based abilities permit a character to per-form feats like distant viewing, psychometry, foreseeing,retrocognition, and to draw knowledge from reservoirs ofcollective knowledge.

ManaMana is used to perform mystic feats and possibly

to help perform other actions. A character’s unmodi-fied mana is their base mystic allowance plus their magic.Mana is a consumable derived statistic.

MindMind represents the total amount of spiritual damage

a character can take before they go permanently insane.The typical amount of mind is 3 plus one third of thecharacter’s mystical base allowance, rounded normally.If a character has a mystical base allowance of zero thentheir Mind is zero. Mind is a consumable derived statistic.See the rules for combat for details.

Mystic AttackThis is the value added to a roll to hit an opponent

with a mystical attack. Its value is one third the charac-ter’s mystical base allowance plus two.

Mystic DefenseThis is the value subtracted from a roll to hit the

character with a mystical attack. Its value is one fourththe sum of the character’s mystical base allowance andthe better of their magic or spirit. See the section onCombat for details.

Celestial

The celestial statistics are those that arise from the crea-ture’s interaction with the the forces that exist beyond theworld in the higher planes. Gods and demigods, demonsand devils may have primarily celestial statistics.

AscendenceThis statistic represents the character’s ability to,

temporarily or permanently, rewrite the nature of the

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physical and metaphysical world to obey their will insteadof the usual rules. Ascendence can be used for creationor destruction and represents the active power of a celes-tial being. A character that pays four points may have acelestial attack analogous to a natural weapon. Its freedamage class is based on the character’s ascendence, us-ing the table under strength. Targeting such an attackrequires a celetial base allowance of 3 or more.

If a character has a celestial base allowance of three ormore then they have a base celestial attack based on theirascendence using the same table as strength for naturalweapons. This is the type of attack that does damageagainst chi. A character typically does not have a “nat-ural” celestial attack, but they may activate this free ce-lestial damage by buying any sort of intrinsic celestialattack.

ResilienceThis statistic represents the character’s tie to the

eternal, outside the tides of time. Resilience can be usedto ignore material or metaphysical damage and to ignorethe ravages of time. Immortals must have high resilience.This statistic may also be used to preserve or sustain ma-terial or metaphysical constructs against the ravages oftime.

OmniscienceThis statistic represents the character’s ability to

perceive reality on all of its levels. A character with highomniscience finds it easy to know anything relevant tohimself or his current concerns, to send their perceptionswhere they wish, to directly sense almost anything, andto know anything that is known by a being to whom theyhave a connection. The ability to hear your name spokenby anyone, anywhere, is an omniscience based ability asis the ability to read the minds of your worshippers or theability to pay attention to multiple streams of attentionat once.

EssenceEssence is used to perform celestial feats and possi-

bly to help perform other actions. A character that iscelestially aware may assign their essence as if it werecharacter points for any material or mystical ability. Acharacter’s unmodified essence is their base celestial al-lowance plus their ascendence. Essence is a consumablederived statistic.

ChiChi represents the total amount of celestial damage a

character can take before they cease to exist. The typicalamount of chi is 3 plus one third of the character’s celestialbase allowance, rounded normally. If a character has acelestial allowance of zero their Chi is also zero. Chi isa consumable derived statistic. See the rules for combatfor details.

Celestial AttackThis is the value added to a roll to hit an opponent

with a celestial attack. Its value is one half the character’sascendence.

Celestial DefenseThis is the value subtracted from a roll to hit the

character with a celestial attack. Its value is one halfthe character’s Resilience. See the section on Combat fordetails.

The Character’s Story

In the super-hero idiom a characters story is his origin.In any genre the character’s story determines what abili-ties the character has or may buy. A cave-man, recentlythawed from a glacier (preserved by some unsuspectedproperties of herbs he ate just before falling into theglacier) has no idea how to run a car. A character na-tive to the early twentieth century can run a car unlesstheir story specifically gives a reason they can’t. Storiesalso justify and explain the way a character arranges theirstatistics and explains the skills, talents, and abilities theychose.

To avoid vast lists of cheap skills like auto mechanic,cheese maker, or file clerk, skills of this sort are completelyfree. You have them if your story suggests that you oughtto have them and their base roll is an appropriate statis-tic. After the start of play, skills of this type can belearned by allocating character points to such skills dur-ing a learning or apprenticeship period. The more pointsare allocated the faster a character can learn such a mun-dane skill. Once they have learned the skill, the characterpoints may be reallocated. This includes such things aslanguages and cultures as well as more traditional skills.

At this point some fraction of the people readingthese rules will be insulted at the thought that auto me-chanic (or file clerk) is an inconsequential skill. This is notthe implication. Relative to the game, being a routinelycompetent auto mechanic has no particular dramatic im-portance, and so costs nothing to include in character de-sign. There are possible campaigns where being a reallygood auto mechanic could matter a lot. Such mundaneskills may be improved by +2, +3, or +4 per charac-ter point depending on how narrow they are. No mun-dane skill may be used to substitute for a skill that has anonzero base cost.

Many of the abilities in Realm of the Powers give amaximum rate, distance, output, result or other quanti-tative measure. These are not absolute and a character’sstory may require that abilities function below their max-imum ability; this is permitted. Likewise small variationsin the action of a talent or power, advantageous or dis-advantageous, may follow from the character’s story. Asimple story with veritas and coherence grants a characterpower of a sort available no other way.

There are other properties a character may have thatare low cost abilities in other gaming systems. A char-acter who is ex-military and still has good contacts in

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the military is an example. A character whose immenseskill founded a movement or discipline and is well known.Contacts, fame, wealth, hereditary or meritorious officeetc. are all covered by the character’s story. The storyis written collaborative by the character and referee. If acharacter’s story is very helpful, advantageous, or conve-nient then the referee may assess any charge in characterpoints he feels is needed to maintain game balance. Theseare called excellent story charges. Most characters, thosethat are not as rich as Warren Buffet or the Monarch ofan obscure kingdom, should not be assessed any excellentstory points.

Problems

A problem is anything that, on average, handicaps orobliges the character. The point value of a problem isproportional to the degree of inconvenience. The list ofproblems that follows is thus not exhaustive. The pointsvalues given for problems are approximate and may betuned by the referee for a particular character’s story anda particular campaign. Being a woman, for example, isa serious problem in some cultures and not a problem atall in others.

Addiction

An addiction can be a simple as an inability to func-tion without coffee that can be cured by a month’s absti-nence. Another form of addiction is classical alcoholism,opium addiction, or more modern addictions like crack ormeth. An addiction is worth up to three points, at thereferee’s discretion, and depending on how much troubleit causes for the character. Expensive or rare substancesare probably worth more points, likewise disabling sideeffects or withdrawal symptoms add to the points a prob-lem is worth. The addiction must be woven into the char-acter’s story. Addictions that are sufficiently disabling tobe worth more than three points should not appear in aplayer character. Inability to function (a -2 penalty torolls) without coffee is worth one point. Classical alco-holism is worth 2 points. Withdraw symptoms typicallyimpose a penalty of -2 per point the addiction is worthto a character’s rolls.

Bound

This problem is only available to characters that do nothave a physical body. The character, in spite of beingbodiless, is bound to a physical object. If the object isdestroyed the creature is also gone – the type of gone-ness depends on the character’s story. If the creaturemust remain within a kilometer of its object this prob-lem is worth one point. If the creature is restricted toone hundred meters it is worth two points. Ten metersis a three point disadvantage. If the spirit can only af-fect characters touching or inside his object the problemis worth four points. If the spirit sleeps until triggered

or summoned then the problem is worth one more point.This requires that a resolution of the trigger or summon-ing place the character back into a sleeping state.

A spirit haunting its bones, bound to a building, or placedinto a cursed item by a ritual are examples of standardversions of this problem. A spirit might also be boundto a descendant of the characters material antecedent, itmight be the guardian of a sacred grove or temple, itmight be bound to an object it was killed creating.

Curse

A curse like the curse of the mummy, a malign undeadthat follows the character, should be structured as an en-emy. A curse like the curse of the werewolf should bestructured with the alternate form power but is worthpoints depending on the level of inconvenience. Thisproblem works best for curses like Cassandra’s curse thather (accurate) prophecies would not be believed until itwas too late. A curse like never being on time is anotherpossibility. A curse to never be lucky in love, a curse ofill luck, a curse that causes a character to look weird bythe light of the morning sun, are all examples that thisproblem covers. The curse should be woven into the char-acter’s story and is worth from 1-3 points depending onits impact in the referee’s opinion.

Dependence

This problem represents a need that is disabling if notmet. It is similar to an addiction, but has a larger impactwhen not met. A vampire’s need to drink blood fairlyoften or go into a homicidal frenzy is an example. AnAtlantean that needs to return to the sea fairly often orcollapse is another example of a dependence. A depen-dence is worth 1-5 points. The points are granted for thedegree to which the dependence inconveniences a charac-ter, the difficulty of meeting the needs of the dependence,and the level of disability it causes.

Dependent

This problem concerns having a non-player character as-sociated with your character that you are responsible for.Such a dependent is worth 1-5 points depending on howinvolved with the character’s life they are and how muchtrouble they are. Either the dependent must be rela-tively helpless or it must be substantially inconvenient.Examples might include a child of the character that isplaced into danger by elements of the character’s story,e.g. as a potential kidnap victim. Lois Lane, at leastbefore she learned several martial arts, is another exam-ple of a relatively helpless dependent who is sometimesinvolved, worth about two points. Tinkerbell, from Pe-ter Pan, is an example of a highly competent dependentwho is a lot of trouble, also worth about two points. Sois Diefenbaker, the wolf, from the television show DueSouth. If an associated character is completely able to

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take care of themselves then they should be written intothe character’s story as a companion or sidekick ratherthan (or as well as) a dependent.

Enemy

A friendly or predictable enemy, e.g. the CIA and KGBstation chiefs in Egypt during the cold war, is worth onepoint. An enemy that wishes to discredit, maim, or killthe character is worth 2 points. If the enemy is an en-tire organization, clan, race, that adds one or two to thevalue depending on how hard it would be to eliminateor confound the entire enemy organization. If the enemyis fanatical and does not care about collateral damage itdoes in taking out the character that is worth +1 point.If the enemy is unknown to the character that is worth+1 point. Enemies are a staple of the genre and shouldbe more likely to show up if they are worth more points.Characters should avoid having too many enemies, simplybecause this overworks the poor referee.

Extraordinary Appearance

This problem represents having an appearance far enoughfrom the norm to be memorable and remarkable. It isworth 1-3 points depending on its impact. Being thehottest person at most parties is worth one. Lookinggood enough to be a super model might be worth two.Unearthly beauty raises to the level of three. Likewisescars, suppurating wounds, or unearthly grotesquenessare worth points under this problem. The cause of theappearance, from misfortune to simple genetics to faerieblood, should be woven into the character’s story. Utterlyhideous monsters may take this problem for more points,but it should typically be associated with involuntary at-tacks that reduce the target’s sanity if they succeed.

Hidden Past

This problem covers problems lurking in the character’spast that cause him to need to hide his identity, that causehim to be pursued in some fashion, or which could createvast scandal if they came to light. Examples would in-clude being a lost prince, a (possibly unjust) murder con-viction, having Jewish grandparents while living in NaziGermany, or even owing vast amounts of money in an-other persona. A hidden past is worth 1-5 points depend-ing on the inconvenience or potential for inconvenience.A hidden past may be known or unknown to the char-acter with unknown typically being worth an additionalpoint.

Impaired

This problem represents the inability to function at fullefficiency in some circumstance. An impairment is apenalty to the creatures hit, skill, and talent rolls. For acondition that almost never occurs this problem is worth

one point per three points of penalty. From somethingmoderately common but avoidable the problem is worthone for each odd level of penalty. For something at leastmoderately common that the creature must encounterregularly the problem is worth one per point of penalty.Example: a demon that was -5 on hit, skill, and talentrolls in the light of the sun would be worth 3 because thedemon is good at avoiding the sun and there are threeodd levels of penalty (1,3,5).

Mental Problems

This category of problem includes phobias, codes of con-duct, cultural conditioning, operant conditioning, andany other mental state that limits a character’s freedom ofaction. Mental limits include a need to bring malefactorsback alive, a need to slaughter anyone who looks like astorm trooper, patriotism carried to excess, claustropho-bia, fear of snakes, or any of a host of other possibilities.Mental problems are worth 1-5 points and must, of course,be woven into a character’s story.

Physical Problems

Physical disabilities range from minor problems like red-green color blindness and anosmia to blindness or inabil-ity to stand. This problem can also generically encapsu-late age. Physical disabilities are worth from 1-5 points.The same disability is not always worth the same num-ber of points. Blindness in a person with no real com-pensatory abilities is worth 5 points. In a person withbat-like sonar it is worth 3. Physical limits should bewoven into the character’s story in a manner that givesa sense of how limiting they are and so helps the refereeset the point total for them. The campaign setting mayaffect the worth of various physical problems. Being re-stricted to a wheelchair is a 3-4 point limit depending onthe handicapped accessibility of the campaign universe.

Reputation and Notoriety

This problem includes any reputation that might, on av-erage, inconvenience a character. Examples include in-subordinate, loose cannon, maverick, coward, ditherer,poltroon, pompous, or blabbermouth. This problem alsoincludes the problem of celebrity, being a rock star orwell-known politician. This problem is worth 1-3 pointsdepending on how much it inconveniences the character.

Serves a Master

A character may receive up to five practice points for serv-ing a master. The master may be a person or an organi-zation. One point would be for a master that commonlysent the character out to do what he would want to doanyway, like the museum that Indiana Jones worked for.Two points would be granted for a master with the rightto set the character’s agenda, like a superior officer in a a

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police force. A three point master would be like a tradi-tional Sensei or master mage that has the right to orderthe character around even in matters of personal conductor dress and deportment. Three points is typically thehighest level this problem has in a player character. Fourpoint masters are served blood and bone and the charac-ter will die to serve the master’s ends. At this level thecharacter is a fanatically devoted follower. A five pointmaster can command the character’s death at a whimand the character will gladly obey. Think Thulsa Doom’srelationship with his cultists.

Susceptibility

This problem represents taking damage from a conditionthat does not normally do damage. The disadvantageis for the level of damage that character takes on firstexposure and the rate, in rounds, at which the damageaccrues again. Points are granted for how common theproblem is as well as how fast it does damage. An alienthat dissolves in salt water could get 5 points for takinglevel 3 damage each round they are in salt water. A goblinthat takes level 1 damage from initial exposure to sunlightbut then no more damage would get one point.

Tick or Quirk

This problem is worth 1-2 points depending on the sever-ity. A tick or quirk is a habitual behavior that the char-acter does not notice. Examples might include havingnostrils that flare whenever you lie, a twitch of the fa-cial muscles whenever you are talking to someone youdislike, a habitual lisp, a slight limp that yields a mem-orable stride, or always tapping your pen in a particularrhythm.

Viewed as Treasure

Being viewed as treasure means you are worth a lot tosomeone else. This problem covers everything from hav-ing a high price on your head to the way people wantto kill dragons because their hide makes awesome armor.Being viewed as treasure is worth more points dependingon the amount of damage people will do to you to cashyou in and the diligence with which they pursue you. Be-ing chased by bounty hunters that have trouble findingyou is worth one point. Being chased by bounty huntersthat know your friends, family, and associates is worthas much as three. Being hunted by demons that can findyou using a mystic ritual and want to rip your heart outis worth the maximum of 5. A dragon would get 3 pointsbecause, even though it faces death, people are going tohave trouble catching it or killing it once they catch it.Player characters are seldom viewed as treasure in a man-ner worth more than 3 points.

Vulnerability

A character with a vulnerability takes added damage fromcertain attacks. Points are figured as follows. Boostingthe level of damage an attack does and is worth one pointper added level of damage, to a maximum of five, and anadditional -2 to +1 points for how common the attack ison the scale very rare, rare, uncommon, fairly common. Ifa character declares a type of attack to be highly effectiveagainst them then that is worth six points before rarityof the attack is considered.

Watched

This problem covers anything from aggressive paparazzito surveillance by MI-5 to make sure you are staying onmission. Being watched is worth 1-3 points depending onhow inconvenient being watched is. The watchers mayintervene or forward their observations to other people.

Building a Character

A charter starts by reading the campaign backgroundsupplied by the referee. This defines what types of char-acters are possible. The player then writes a story fortheir character in collaboration with the referee. This in-cludes selecting the character’s race or type. The race ortype of the character determines their material, mystical,and cosmic base allowances. The character’s story bothdetermines the total character points and mostly deter-mines what skills, talents, and intrinsics they have.

Skills

Skills are abilities that any character may teach another.Character points may be moved in and out of skills be-tween adventures representing improvement and decay ofthe skill. Skills have a base cost in character points, abase roll derived from one or more statistics, and a costto improve the roll which may have a maximum expendi-ture of points after it in parenthesis. The margin on a skillroll is the amount below the skill roll that the charactergets on a roll of three dice.

Skills with a cost of zero are skills that anyone thatthinks of them, and meets the prerequisites, have. Thesealso cover everyman skills that anyone in a given cul-ture would have. These skills typically require practiceto become useful. Examples are dive for cover, precisionattack, and donate mana.

Typically a character may not learn a skill without atutor or strong example; a character may spontaneouslylearn or invent skills in remarkable circumstances, withthe referee’s permission.

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Celestial Skills

Blessing

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: AscendanceAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This ability permits a celestial to bless a mortal crea-ture by granting them the talent celestial statistic or mys-tic statistic. The character must have an unspent char-acter point for the ability to work, the roll may only beattempted once by a given celestial for each statistic. Theroll is -2 for each mystic or celestial statistic the characteralready has.

Bind Essence


This skill permits a celestial to bind essence, his ownor that of a cooperative character, into a physical object.The essence may be left free or it may be pre-spent on askill, talent, or intrinsic. If it is left free it adds to the storeof whoever possesses or wears the physical object. If theessence is spent on an ability then it immediately grantsthe ability to the person wearing or possessing the object.The celestial binding the essence may place conditions onit to activate the abilities or to permit them to function.

Extend Essence

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: AscendanceAdded Roll: +2Details:

A character must be celestially aware to learn or usethis skill. It permits the character to extend their freeessence (essence not bound up as if it were characterpoints) into a material object, usually a weapon. Thishas a number of effects. First of all, material damagedone by the weapon affects creatures with a base ma-terial allowance less than three normally, doing mind orchi, whichever is the creature’s main damage type. Theamount of essence that may be moved into the materialobject is one plus one per three margin on the skill roll.

Each odd point of essence grants one additional mate-rial attack with the weapon. Each even point adds onedamage class to the damage done by the weapon. Thecharacter may withdraw the essence while touching theweapon. If the weapon is separated from the characterthen the essence stays in it, as do the bonuses. If theextension of essence is done over a long period of timethen essence bound as experience may also be placed inthe weapon and benefits the wielder as if the wielder hadexpended it. Such a weapon is deemed holy or unholyas appropriate. If the object is not a weapon then the

essence may be used at 3:1 as mana to enhance the ob-jects mystical properties. The slow version of this skillpermits the character to place limits on the use of theobject’s powers similar to triggers.

Place Essence

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: AscendanceAdded Roll: +2Details:

A character must be celestially aware to learn or usethis skill. Essence may be expended, as if it were char-acter points, by a celestially aware creature. This skillpermit a character to place the essence of a creature thatis not celestially aware into skills, talents, and intrinsicsas if they were character points. That this has been doneis obvious to the celestially aware and the points may beunplugged or moved with another application of the skill.

Use of this skill takes a few seconds to a few minutes oftime with the characters involved touching one another.The skill may expend the essence on anything the char-acter already has spent character points on or any skill,talent, or intrinsic the character with the skill has.

Warp Chance


This skill permits the character to spend essence tomodify a die roll used for a hit roll (in either direction) ora skill or talent roll. The character can spend one essenceif they make the warp chance skill roll and one more perthree points of margin. Each point of essence changes thevalue of the die roll by two.

Combat Skills

The skills in this section are related to combat and aretypically valuable to warriors.

Blind Action

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Intellect/2Added Roll: +3(4)Details:

This skill represents training in fighting while un-able to see (or use your primary sense, whatever it is).Hearing, touch, and a knowledge of one’s own body areintegrated to permit a character to fight blind. Makingthe skill roll permits a character to fight normally whileblind against opponents they are in close combat with.

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Deadly Blow

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: agilityAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill may be used against a helpless opponentor against an opponent that is not expecting the attackand cannot see the attacker. The skill is also useful onlyagainst creatures for which the attacker has at least mod-est anatomical familiarity and which posses anatomicalweaknesses. The skill represents the ability to strike atjoints, vital organs, and other weak points. The skill thuswould not work against an animated stone statue. If theroll is made it adds one damage class to the attacker’sattack, one more per four points of margin.

Deflection

Base Cost: variesBase Roll: AgilityAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This ability permits a character to deflect missileweapons. This skill may be performed as a defensive ac-tion. This might be done with bare hands, by contortingthe body, or using bracers or a sword. The way a char-acter performs deflection is embedded in their story. Ifthe base cost of the skill is one, the character can deflectslow missiles (e.g. rocks, sling bullets, Molotov cocktails,beer bottles). At a base cost of two the skill permits thecharacter to deal with medium velocity missile (arrows,low tech black powder bullets, crossbow bolts, some spelleffects). At a base cost of three the character can deflecthigh speed missiles (modern bullets, ray blasts, most non-area spells that do direct damage).

The skill is not certain to work, rather the skill’s marginis added to the character’s material defense. If this addeddefense generates a miss then the missile was deflected. Acharacter may catch a weapon with this skill by declaringthey wish to and then making the roll with a margin ofthree or more, if, of course, the missile is one that canbe caught. This skill may be used against hand-to-handattacks with long weapons which strike at a small area; itmay not be used against missile that are large enough thatthe character would have trouble lifting them, though thisdepends on the exact reason the character can deflectmissiles.

Dive for Cover

Base Cost: 0Base Roll: AgilityAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill is one all characters naturally have. It maybe used as a defensive action and is described in the sec-tion on combat. This skill is present to permit character’s

to improve their ability to dive for cover, half the mar-gin is added to the roll to dive for cover. This is a rollagainst a character’s agility with the distance to cover asa penalty.

Dodge


This skill permits a character to dodge, makingthemselves harder to hit. This skill may be performedas a defensive action. The character’s material defense isincreased by half the margin on the roll until their nextaction. This is a skill requiring training and often learnedby professional warriors.

Fight Wounded

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Strength or PersonalityAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill represents learning to fight effectively inspite of being wounded. The margin on this skill reducespenalties due to wounding for attack, defense, skills, andconsciousness. It may, at referee discretion, apply to tal-ent rolls. It does not apply to movement penalties. Thisskill requires no time to use but must be re-rolled eachsegment a character fights while wounded.

Garrote Use

Base Cost: 0Base Roll: aglility-2Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

A garrote or strangling cord is -4 to hit if the oppo-nent sees it coming; it has normal hit probabilities whenused from surprise. Successful use places the characterwielding the garrote behind the character they are stran-gling. The character being garroted must make a rollagainst the better of strength or agility in competitionwith the strangler’s garrote-use roll to be able to attackthem; making this roll by four or more breaks the garrotewielder’s hold. Note that any character who picks up agarrote and thinks of it as a weapon has the skill at zeropoints.

Group Fighting


This talent requires a group of people to train to-gether and the skill only helps members of the group whenthey are fighting together. When standing in formation,

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a person may add the number of people standing adja-cent to him in the formation that make their skill rollto his material defense. When multiple members of thetraining group are able to attack a single opponent theyadd the number of other attackers (people attacking thatopponent) to their material attack.

Gruesome Blow

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: StrengthAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a character, when they happento do damage, to do it in a spectacularly messy way.A wound might be accompanied by a spray of blood,a killing blow could send the creatures head hurtlingamongst is allies. The skill does not cause added damagebut it may be a huge help in backing personality-basedattacks like intimidation.

Heave Opponent


This skill represents the ability to throw heavy ob-jects farther. A shot-putter might use this skill to enhancehis distance. The distance a character can throw a heavyobject, including an opponent, is +1” plus +1” per threepoints of margin on the roll. The added distance maynot be more that the distance a character could throwsomeone based on their strength.

Lassoing


A lasso is a large loop of rope with a slip not. A lassois -4 to hit if the opponent sees it coming; it has normalhit probabilities when used from surprise. The lassoinguse roll is also used competitively against the better of thevictim’s strength or agility to prevent them slipping out.The referee will supply a number for the strength neededto break the noose with strength. Some values are cord13, silk cord 16, regular hemp rope 19, and heavy hemprope 22.

Mighty Blow


This skill permits a character that makes the skillroll to expend two endurance to increase the damage done

by an attack by one damage class. Failing to make theskill roll means that the endurance is not expended, butthat endurance may not be expended otherwise in thesegment in which the mighty blow is performed. If theskill roll is made, then the endurance is expended if theblow connects or not. If a mighty blow is performed witha weapon then damage exceeding the weapon’s damagelimit may break the weapon, but the details are left tothe referee.

Noose Use


A noose is a loop of rope with a slip not. Dependingon how it is used it not only does damage but potentiallyrestrains the target. A noose is -6 to hit if the opponentsees it coming; it is -2 when used from surprise. Mak-ing the noose use skill roll reduces these penalties to -4and zero. The noose use skill roll is also used competi-tively against the better of the victim’s strength or agilityto prevent them slipping the noose. The noose may beplaced around the neck or body; in the latter case it doesnot do damage. The referee will supply a number for thestrength needed to break the noose with strength. Somevalues are cord 13, silk cord 16, hemp rope 19, and heavyhemp rope 22.

Parry


This skill permits the character to interpose an ap-propriate physical object between themselves and a phys-ical attack. This can be a shield, a weapon (in whichcase the skill is generating a parry) or some object thecharacter picked up. Objects used to parry either deflectthe attack or break. These objects take the damage in-stead of the character. This skill could, for example, beused to jerk someone else into the way of an attack. Theroll is normal for a shield currently worn or a weaponin hand. Picking up an improvised shield may involvea penalty; grabbing a dupe and interposing him will in-volve a penalty base on the way the dupe tries to resist.Shields and weapons break if they fail to roll their intrin-sic strength at a minus equal to the damage done.

Precision Attack

Base Cost: 0Base Roll: (Agility+Intellect)/2Added Roll: +2(5)Details:

This skill permits a character to launch an area ef-fect attack so that the boundary has special properties

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like “just missed Throndar”. Players trained in moderngeometry often think of spells as exactly filling an ideal-ized geometric zone whose placement they trivially con-trol; they are wrong. This skill permits a character toachieve these somewhat implausible effects. For an at-tack that has a consistent size and shape and with whichthe character is quite familiar the roll alone is enough toposition the attack to miss one person or object. Each ad-ditional condition (“just miss Throndar and also don’t hitthe scroll on the wall”) subtracts two from the skill roll.This skill also permits a character to correctly estimateand exploit blast channeling by environmental features,e.g. dropping a fireball against a wall. A character alsotakes -6 in the first gaming session using an attack in com-bat with this novitiate penalty going up one per gamingsession.

Blowing the skill roll causes it to violate one or more con-ditions by moving the attack zone a small distance in adirection selected by the referee or chance. If a charac-ter’s story justifies it then they are already familiar withattack they have at the start of play. An important point:the number of conditions used to determine the skill rollis not the minimal number that would do the job, it isthe number the character declares. This is because it ispossible to set up a shot wisely or stupidly. Use of thisskill improves with practice in more than one way.

Shield Use


This skill permits a character to use a shield as addedarmor. The shield’s size is added to the character’s roll,its mass is a penalty. Making the roll exactly stops onepoints of damage, for each four margin on the roll stopsanother point of damage. The shield must roll its intrinsicstrength at minus damage done by the attack or it breaks.A broken shield may lose size, mass, and strength whenit takes damage, the amount of each is up to the referee.

Special Blow


Some monsters have a type of attack that is highlyeffective against them (instant kill) but which requirestraining to use. An example is a wooden stake throughthe heart for vampires in the Buffyverse. This skill per-mits a character to learn one type of special blow re-sponding to a particular monster’s problem. The skillroll represents having performed the attack correctly if anormal combat hit also connects.

Two hand fighting


This skill permits a character to strike twice, oncewith a weapon in each hand. The first attack is launchedautomatically, the second requires that the skill roll bemade. For each point after the first spent on the skillthe character may manage another attack for each fourpoints of margin on the skill.

Unconsciousness Attack


This skill may be used to attempt to knock out an-other character without injuring them or may be stackedonto a normal attack. If the skill roll is made, and isagainst a creature that the attacker might know how toknock out, then the must make an unconsciousness rollwith half the margin as a penalty. This penalty stackswith wound-based penalties. A character’s story mustexplain why they have their unconsciousness attack andmay modify its action. Unconsciousness rolls are ex-plained in the intrinsic ability Hard to Knock Out. Uncon-sciousness attacks that do not do damage include thingslike choking out an opponent or the Vulcan nerve pinch.

Weapon Proficiency

Base Cost: Weapons’s Damage ClassBase Roll: +2 to attackAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill represents familiarity with a type ofweapon like small blades, large blades, bows, crossbows,or clubs. The character may buy proficiency with a spe-cific weapon and gain +3 per point instead of +2 perpoint. Familiarity with different types of weapons arepurchased separately. If a character is proficient withsmall blades the referee may permit half the bonus to ap-ply to a similar weapon, like large blades with which thecharacter is not proficient. The class of attack a weapondoes in included in the weapon description; the base costof proficiency with a weapon is weapon’s damage class.

Whip Use


A character with a whip can use it to do damage– that is not what this skill is for. This skill permits acharacter to do cool tricks with their whip. The base skill

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roll is to knock something out of a person’s hand, this andother feats are listed below with penalties or bonuses.Feats require that the whip have sufficient reach and awhip is -1/2” within its reach – full hit roll for the first2”, -1 in the next 2”, and -2 in inches 5 and 6 - which isone heck of a long whip. In general the whip hits defense3 against large inanimate objects – like when it is used toswing across a chasm.

Feat ModifierKnock an object out of an oppo-nents hand

+0

Grab an object from an opponent -3Use rope to swing +0

General Skills

Acrobatics


This skill represents the ability to move a character’sbody effectively. They nature of the acrobatics dependson the character’s story. The skill roll permits a charac-ter to perform feats of acrobatics including diving throughbarriers, around or over opponents, landing on their feet,as well as the usual flips and rolls. The character mayor may not have formal acrobatic training. The skill maysubtracts its margin from distance fallen before determin-ing falling damage.

Brew Poison

Base Cost: 1 or moreBase Roll: intellect+intuitionAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This skill permits a character to know the generalsteps in making poison. The skill includes one of the fourtypes of poison (insinuative, ingestive, contact, or inhalla-tive) for one point, two for two points of base cost, andall four for three points of base cost. The character maylearn how to make specific poisons if they have someoneto study with or detailed directions by making a skill rollat minus twice the poison’s cost, a roll at minus four timesthe poison’s cost and the referees permission are neededto research a poison without a tutor or detailed directions.

A source book will have a list of which poisons are avail-able in a given campaign and which the character’s haveheard about. The ability to brew poisons is not the sameas knowing how to skillfully deploy it. That involves theskill poisoner. Typically a batch of a poison consists ofsix doses. A batch may be increased by three doses witha -1 penalty to the skill roll.

Enhanced Will

Base Cost: 0Base Roll: personalityAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill represents the ability to exert personalityto control or dominate another character or mystical ob-ject more effectively. All characters have this skill at acost of zero - practicing using your personality permitsthe expenditure of points on getting better at it. Thisskill enhances personality rolls not covered by other skillsincluding rolls to resist mystical attacks.

Food Taster

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: intellect+intuitionAdded Roll: +3(3)Details:

This skill permits a character to tell is food has beenadulterated, possibly by a poisoner. The roll is compet-itive against the skill of the poisoner at disguising thepoison. The skill also permits the character to assess thequality of the food and determine if it was prepared cor-rectly, relative to their own life experience.

Hack System


This skill must be bought for a specific type of sys-tem, like the controls of an steam ship or locomotive ora mystic throne that controls the guards and wards of asorcerer’s tower. A modern computer system is anotherspecific object this skill could apply to. A roll permits thecharacter to achieve and unexpected or original functionfrom the system. The skill does not permit the charac-ter to obtain effects the system cannot otherwise do andeffects at the edge of the systems capabilities may dam-age it, e.g. overdriving an engine at 110% of rated powerfor an extended period might end in failure of the engine.This skill might permits magical skills like expand spell orextend spell to be used on magical items that do not havethose properties embedded in them and it may be usedto slightly modify the effect of spells, intuitive abilities,or mental skills.

Ice Skating

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: agility+2Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a character to use ice skates. Onclean ice moving in a strait line, skating triples a char-acter’s running movement. The character starts with his

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running movement the first action, increasing by anothermultiple until triple speed is reached. A skill roll is typi-cally needed to maneuver at high speed or in difficult cir-cumstances. Rough or rolling ice may require skill rollsand have a lower top speed, at referee discretion.

Improved Defense

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: one betterAdded Roll: +1(3)Details:

This skill permits a character that has practice in anarena of combat (material, mystic, or celestial) to improvethe corresponding defense. The improvement is one perpoint spent and the three domains are treated as distinctskills.

Improve Celestial Statistic

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Base Celestial AllowanceAdded Roll: +2(6)Details:

There are three version of this skill, one each for as-cendance, resilience, and omniscience. The skill permitsthe character to improve the value of the statistic theskill is associated with. The character may make the rollonce a week. If the margin on the roll is at least equal tothe current value of the statistic then the value goes upone. If the character has an enhanced value of the statis-tic they must make the roll every week and the statisticgoes down if the margin on the roll is not at least equalto the base value of the statistic. This latter type of rollrepresents the need to maintain the enhanced levels. Us-ing this skill requires appropriate practice. A characterthat is incapable of appropriate activities, e.g. is in sta-sis, will lose one point per week of the enhanced statistic.Statistics, skills, and talents dependent on the improvedstatistic are also improved.

Improve Material Statistic

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Base Material AllowanceAdded Roll: +2(6)Details:

There are six version of this skill, one each forstrength, agility, intellect, knowledge, personality, andbeauty. The skill permits the character to improve thevalue of the statistic the skill is associated with. Thecharacter may make the roll once a week. If the mar-gin on the roll is at least equal to the current value ofthe statistic then the value of the statistic goes up one.If the character has an enhanced value of the statisticthey must make the roll every week and the statistic goesdown if the margin on the roll is not at least equal to thevalue of the statistic. This latter type of roll represents

the need to maintain the enhanced levels. Using this skillrequires appropriate practice, e.g. weight lifting, workingpuzzles, study, spending time socializing, or whatever isappropriate to the particular statistic. A character thatis incapable of appropriate activities, e.g. is locked up ina dungeon, will lose one point per week of the enhancedskill. Statistics, skills, and talents dependent on the im-proved statistic are also improved.

Improve Mystical Statistic

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Base Mystical AllowanceAdded Roll: +2(6)Details:

There are three version of this skill, one each formagic, spirit, and intuition. The skill permits the charac-ter to improve the value of the statistic the skill is associ-ated with. The character may make the roll once a week.If the margin on the roll is at least equal to the currentvalue of the statistic then the value goes up one. If thecharacter has an enhanced value of the statistic they mustmake the roll every week and the statistic goes down ifthe margin on the roll is not at least equal to the value ofthe statistic. This latter type of roll represents the needto maintain the enhanced levels. Using this skill requirespractice, spell casting, using psychic powers, scrying, orwhatever is appropriate. A character that is incapable ofappropriate activities, e.g. is knocked out, will lose onepoint per week of the enhanced skill. Statistics, skills,and talents dependent on the improved statistic are alsoimproved.

Medic

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Knowledge+IntuitionAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a character to treat physicalwounds. The skill roll takes the level of wounding as apenalty. Making the skill roll restores damage as a classI attack, making it by more than the wounding level re-stores as a class II attack. This skill may be used multipletimes, but takes roughly 5-10 minutes per roll. This skillalso typically requires supplies, e.g. bandages, disinfec-tants, butterfly closures, needle and thread, etc.

Mimic

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: IntellectAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a character to mimic naturalsounds or voices he knows. The referee should imposea penalty for harder sounds and disallow ones that arecompletely impossible. This talent may be used with a

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character’s natural voice, with sound generating equip-ment if it is available, or with mind speech.

Poisoner

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: (Intellect+Agility)/2Added Roll: +2Details:

This skill is the knowledge of what poisons are andhow to use them correctly. There is a separate versionof the skill for each of the four types of poisons. Yourmileage may vary – the skill is culturally dependent.

Rider

Base Cost: 0 or 1Base Roll: AgilityAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits the person to know how to ride.The skill is purchased separately for different types ofsteeds (e.g. horse, camel, giant eagle, Pegasus). The basecost depends on the source book. In the old west, horseriding is a very common skill with a cost of zero. In 21stcentury Manhattan the skill is a bit rare and costs onepoint. The skill transfers somewhat, a person who knowshow to hide a horse will do okay on a mule, for example.This skill permits a character to ride automatically duringroutine situations – the roll is used to control the animalin unusual circumstances. The skill is synergistic withsteed.

Steed


This skill permits a character to carry and work witha rider efficiently. This covers both generic skills, like ahorse’s ability to keep a wounded or drunken rider in thesaddle, but also covers things like setting up a sword strikeor bringing a rider alongside a cart and matching velocity.A steed may use this skill to help with actions that it isfamiliar with or which can reasonably be signaled by therider. This skill is synergistic with rider.

Strongman


This talent represents the ability to focus onesstrength so as to perform a feat of strength more effec-tively. The types of feats of strength a character canenhance can depend on the reason, in the character’sstory, that the character has the strongman skill. Feats of

strength include strength-versus-strength rolls, attemptsto break out of restraint, and feats such as forcing a door,bending the bars of a cage or prison, or lifting a greatweight. If the character makes the strongman skill theyare permitted to expend points of endurance on a one-to-one basis to increase their strength for the duration of thefeat or one round, whichever is shorter. A single attemptto break a restraint is considered a feat of strength. Themaximum number of endurance that may be spent is oneplus one more per two margin on the skill roll. In addi-tion the number of endurance may not exceed the normallimits on expending endurance.

Intuitive Skills

The skills in this section are those dealing with or pe-ripheral to use of the intuition statistic. Many of themdepend on the talent Intuitionist. Skill rolls based on theintuitionist talent use INT to denote the value of this skillroll.

Apprehend Desires

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: INTAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits the character to figure out whatanother character wants or desires. The margin on theskill roll is related to how complete the information ob-tained about the targets desire’s is. The skills base roll isthe character’s intuitionist talent roll.

Sense Possession


This skill permits the character to tell if anothercharacter is possessed or under the control of come out-side force or entity. The margin on the skill roll is relatedto how complete the information obtained about the pos-sessing entity is. A margin of two or less amounts to meredetection. A margin of 3-5 permits the character to intuitthe type of possession, e.g. “demonic” or “spell based”.A margin of 6-8 permits the character to identify the pos-sessing entity if it is nearby. Rolls above nine reveal more,at the referee’s discretion.

Sense Spirits


This skill permits the character to tell if spirits arepresent. The margin on the skill roll is related to how

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complete the information obtained about the spirit is.A margin of two or less amounts to mere detection. Amargin of 3-5 permits the character to intuit the type ofspirit, e.g. “ghost” or “astral projection”. A margin of6-8 permits the character to see the spirit. Rolls abovenine reveal more, at the referee’s discretion.

Zen Strike

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: INT or AscendancyAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits the character to focus intently ona target against which it is to use a weapon or spell thatdoes damage. To use the skill the target must have a mys-tical or celestial base allowance of three or more. Use ofthe skill requires a full action during which the characterdoes nothing but concentrate. This reduces the charac-ter’s material defense to zero - they are concentrating ina still but ready state. The character’s hit roll gains abenefit of one per three margin and the damage class ofthe attack goes up one if the skill roll is made and onemore per four points of margin.

Magical Skills

The skills in this section are those dealing with or pe-ripheral to magic. Unless otherwise stated they have thetalent mage as a prerequisite. The base roll MT meansmage talent.

Alchemist

Base Cost: 0Base Roll: MTAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent stacks onto mage talent adding theknowledge of signatures and alchemical proceduresneeded to make potions and other alchemical substances.Brewing of potions in particular is performed with thistalent. The time to make a potion may be reduced upto 50% at a rate of 5% per point of penalty taken withthe alchemist talent roll. The time reduction is not avail-able when some intrinsic process, like waiting for dawn,is required by the potion’s brewing ritual.

Donate Mana


All characters have this skill at zero points. It re-quires one endurance to make a skill roll. It permitsthe character to donate mana to another mage with thetransferred mana being equal to the margin on the roll.A character using this skill is highly vulnerable to steal

mana if the person they are donating to has this skill anddecides to use it. Mana transfer is the total for both skillrolls in this case.

Embed Spell

Base Cost: 3Base Roll: magicAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a character to pack a spell into thespirit of another creature. If the embedding roll is blown,the spell goes off immediately. If it works, the caster thenthrows the spell, placing it into the other creature’s spir-itual space. The spell lasts for about a week then bleedsoff. When the spell is embedded, the caster establishes asimple condition for the release or triggering of the spell.A dispel magic can remove such an embedded spell beforeit is triggered. Multiple spells may be embedded, but thenumber of already embedded spells is taken as a penaltyto the roll.

Evade Wards

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: magic+2Added Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This skill is the magical analog to the stealth skillsneak. A skill roll permits the character to sense and failto trigger magical traps, wards, or sensors. The power(mana cost or reasonable substitute) of the ward is ap-plied as a penalty to the skill roll. The referee should alsoapply bonuses or penalties for familiarity ranging fromabout +4 (the mage built the ward himself) to roughly-8 (totally alien area of magic). Bonuses also accrue if themage can “see” the wards in some fashion, e.g. using adetect magic spell.

Expand Spell

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: MTAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This skill is rolled before making the mage talent rollto cast a spell that fills an area. If the roll is made, thecaster may expend additional manna (which makes thecasting roll worse, one per added mana) to increase thearea of effect. For each mana, spells with radial effectincrease their radius by 2”; cones get 4” longer; spellsaffecting a pattern of hexes add 6 hexes. The referee maydisallow specific spells from this skill.

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Expand Summoning


This skill is rolled before making the mage talent rollto cast a spell that summons or creates a creature or ob-ject. If the roll is made, the caster may expend additionalmanna (which makes the casting roll worse, one per addedmana) to increase the number of creatures summoned orobjects created. For each mana, the number of created orsummoned things up to triples. The referee may disallowspecific spells from this skill.

Extend Spell


This skill is rolled before making the mage talentroll to cast a spell. If the roll is made the caster mayexpend one additional manna (which makes the castingroll worse, one per added mana) to increase the durationof the spell. The duration of instantaneous spells, likea levin bolt, cannot have their duration increased. Thespell increases to the next position on the duration tablefor each mana expended: 1 round, 5 rounds, 10 min., 1hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, indefinite. Thereferee may disallow specific spells from this skill.

Focus Will

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: MagicAdded Roll: +2(5)Details:

This skill permits a character to replace some num-ber of mana with their own personal energy in the formof endurance when powering a magical effect. Poweringan ability that costs mana must cost at least one mana.Points of endurance substitute for points of mana on aone-to-one basis. The maximum endurance used to re-place mana is subject to the normal limits on enduranceexpenditure and also may not be more than the marginof the focus will skill roll, plus one.

Force Mystical Device


This skill is the magical analog to the stealth skillforce device. It permits a character to understand the ac-tivation conditions of a magical device and to (de)activateit without all the necessary conditions and ingredients.Substitute ingredients may be needed. The skill roll takes

a referee-generated penalty based on the complexity ofthe device and the characters familiarity (or lack thereof)with the type of magic used to create the device. A typ-ical use would be firing a wand without the commandword.

Hang Spell


This skill permits a character to cast a spell andthen place the spell into an ethereal “ready reserve”. Ifthe character fails the roll to hang a spell then the spellgoes off immediately. The roll for hanging spells takesa penalty of one per spell already in the ready reserve.A spell in the reserve, other than an attack spell, maybe used as a defensive action. Attack spells in the readyreserve may be used immediately.

Intensify Spell


This skill is rolled before making the mage talent rollto cast a spell that does damage, in the sense of rolling“damage classes”. This includes not just damage but alsohealing and penalties. If the roll is made, the caster mayexpend additional manna (which makes the casting rollworse, by one per added mana) to increase the damageclasses of the spell. One added damage class costs onemana, two costs three, three cost six, four cost ten mana.The referee may disallow specific spells from this skill.

Mass Spell


This skill is rolled before making the mage talent rollto cast a spell that grants an ability or benefit to a singlerecipient. It extends the benefit of the spell to all within aradius of the standard recipient. If the spell requires thata (non-expendable) token be worn then the spell onlyaffects those wearing that token. If the roll is made, thecaster may expend additional manna (which makes thecasting roll worse, by one per mana) to purchase radiusof effect. The initial radius of 1” costs one mana, +2” peradded mana. Examples of spells that can be affected bythis spell include invisibility, water breathing, or healing.The referee may disallow specific spells from this skill.

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Mix Potions

Base Cost: 2Base Roll: AlchemistryAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This skill permits a character to combine multiplepotions into a single potion that combines their effects.The roll takes a penalty that is the sum of the base costsof the potions being combined. The base cost of the newpotion is the highest of the base costs of any of the po-tions involved plus one per each other potion added. Rolld6 if the skill roll fails: 1 - both potions spoiled, 2 - onepotion survives other becomes poison with a class equalto its base cost, 3 - one potion survives, 4 - one potion hashalf effect, 5 effect of one potion whimsically modified, 6the potion has a single effect that is a whimsical combi-nation of the effects of the original two. The roll is +5 tocombine two potions of the same type, but their effectsare concurrent nor serial. The referee has wide latitudeto interpret the result of mixing potions. The term “po-tion” is interpreted broadly, including poisons and ardentspirits, for example.

Item Smith

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: MagicAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This skill permits a character to create magic items.This means create a physical object in which a spell orspells are embedded. The default item permits someonewith mage skill to cast an embedded spell using their ownmana. Making such an item requires about three hoursper mana in the spell and takes the minus to mage talentto cast the spell as a penalty. The roll for this skill is onebetter or worse for each three-fold increase or decrease inthe time it takes.

If this skill is used to embed a non-attack spell with aneffect duration of at least one round, and the points ofmana are supplied by permanently draining some otherreserve, a magic item that causes the spell’s effect whenworn or triggered may be made. This extends the spell’sduration to “indefinite”. Doing this takes five off of theroll to perform the skill.

If external points are available to power the item, thenthe item may fire a spell, as a single attack or for oneeffect duration, a number of times that grows with thenumber of points spent charging the item, as follows: 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 14, 20, 24, 28, 33, 38, 43, 48. The manain the item is the number of charges times the mana costof the spell. Mana is put back into the an item is donewith the skill recharge.

For a penalty to the item smith roll of two plus one perprevious spell this skill may graft new spells into an itemthat has mana already. This requires the mage to amend

the activation conditions to select among the spells. Ac-tivation conditions are, by default, use of a mage talentroll. More complex conditions are possible and the refereewill assign a minus to the skill roll for them.

External sources of mana include the following. The in-ternal reserve of the person making the item smith rollor voluntary donations from willing colleagues, expendedpermanently into the item. Mana stones, which are de-scribed in a source book. Points siphoned from anothermagic item. Points of mana ripped from a victim or vic-tims, half of which are wasted; this requires immobiliza-tion and a ritual. Body from slain victim(s), each body isworth two mana, this also requires immobilization and aritual or that the item be used to take the life of a personas a means of powering it. By default one of these threemethods is known by a mage smith, the base cost of theskill increases by one for each additional method known.

Maintain Spell

Base Cost: 0Base Roll: personality, intellect, or magicAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill, which all characters with the talent magehave at the zero point level, is used to hold concentrationon a spell when a character is distracted, startled, hit,etc. Damage taken is a minus to the skill roll and thereferee may impose penalties for extreme distractions. Ifa caster has multiple spells running at the same time thisroll is made for each spell and takes the number of otheractive spells at the instant the roll is made as a penalty.The base roll is based on the best of three statistics listed.

Mental Trace


This skill may permit a character to perform a cast-ing that requires a personal trace without a personal trace.It will work, with a skill roll, for any character the mageknows well; a longtime acquaintance, well-known enemy,or a good friend.

The mage may also make a mental trace skill roll in thepresence of another character, while closely observing ortalking to him, to used the skill to acquire a ‘mental’ tracethat can be used once within a short duration. This use ofthe skill requires an interaction of at least several minutes.

This skill can only compensate for the lack of a nonspecifictrace. If a ritual requires fresh blood or a lock of hairtaken in a tryst, that precise trace is the only thing thatwill do. The following is an exception to all limits onthis skill. If a mage knows the true name of a character,this skill will permit that knowledge to substitute for any

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trace at all. This requires that the true name mechanicbe the part of a source book’s world description.

Mine Mana

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: MTAdded Roll: +2Details:

This spell permits a character to recover mana bydraining a magic item. The mana from a consumable ar-tifact is not hard to mine; the character gets one mana perpoint of margin up to a maximum of the mana presentin the item. Any mana not mined is lost and the arti-fact is discharged. Failing to make the skill roll leaves acharged item intact. A durable item remains intact un-less the character’s margin exceeds its mana content (andpossibly other penalties). If the margin is sufficient themana transfer is as with a charged item.

Recharge


This skill permits a character to transfer their ownmana into a magic item that holds a charge. The amountof mana transferred is at most the margin on the roll,or one if the role is made exactly. It takes one round toattempt a roll with this skill. Notice that the base costof this skill is zero; anyone that tries to learn to rechargean item can figure out roughly how to do it. Those withlow magic skill will find it quite difficult to put in morethan one mana occasionally unless they spend points toimprove their roll.

Spell Proficiency

Base Cost: 0Base Roll: Mystic AttackAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill is similar to weapon proficiency. It repre-sents practice hitting with spells in combat. It typicallyis learned through practice throwing spells in combat.

Steal Mana


This skill can steal mana from a mage. It requires acombat hit before the skill roll can be made. The manatransferred is equal to the margin on the roll. If the targetalso has the steal mana skill they may use the skill as adefensive action to reduce or reverse theft. In this latter

case mana transferred is the difference in the margins andthe flow may go in either direction.

Social Skills

The skills in this section deal with interaction betweencharacters. When the referee thinks it is appropriate asocial skill may be used defensively with the margin onthe defensive roll applied as a penalty to the roll of someother character’s social skill.

Confidence Man

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: PersonalityAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a character to know how to playconfidence tricks consistent with their story. Well thoughtout tricks receive a bonus, badly improvised ones apenalty. This skill covers confidence tricks for whichthe character has done background research on and hasneeded props and preparation in place. Improvising a conmight better be done with fast talk skill.

Conversation

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: PersonalityAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits the character to maintain andcarry on a conversation in a manner that is engaging andentertaining. The skill roll is used when someone in thegroup holding the conversation is attempting to derail theconversation, to introduce an awkward topic smoothly, orto elicit information that another person is reluctant totalk about. This skill may also be used to derail a con-versation.

Courtesan

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Personality+IntuitionAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a character to make an amorous orerotic encounter to the liking of their partner. It involvesnot only the physical aspects of such an encounter but thepsychological ones and the ability to read the partnersdesires and preferences from nonverbal cues.

Fast Talk

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Personality-2Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

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This skill permits a character to explain the almostinexplicable. It can be used to get guards to let you ineven if you don’t know the password or are not on “thelist”. It can be used to make people believe you are on thelevel when you are actually doing something outrageous.It can be used to convince people of a patent untruth inareas where they are ignorant. The character would roleplay the fast-talk and the referee can grant bonuses andpenalties based on both their performance and the storyof the character being fast-talked.

Intimidation

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Personality+2Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a character to intimidate another.Intimidation is an attack against personality. If the othercharacter also has the skill intimidation then they mayuse their skill roll instead of their personality. The ref-eree also grants bonuses and penalties based on the cur-rent situation. If the character being intimidated is tiedup, the skill gets a bonus. If the person attempting in-timidation is tied up there is a penalty (though not to thedefensive use of the skill). A character that is intimidatedmust react appropriately. This reaction depends on thecharacter’s story.

Seduction


This skill covers both the stereotypical seductionbased on attraction but also things like conversion to areligion or philosophy. The referee assigns bonuses basedon the difficulty of the seduction. This skill may be pur-chased multiple times to cover different types of skills.

Streetwise


This skill permits a character to “know a guy”, to beable to find the black and gray markets, to be in touchwith the seamier side of life. The exact effect of the skilldepends strongly on the character’s story. This skill isspecific to a particular city, region, district, or profes-sional environment and may be purchased multiple times.

Spiritual Skills

Skills in this section can only be learned by characterswith the talent spiritual awareness.

Activate Magic

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: SpiritAdded Roll: +3(3)Details:

This skill permits a spiritually endowed person toactivate or trigger magical devices. The degree of controlis related to the margin on the skill roll; the control ofcomplex devices is more difficult and the referee will statea penalty to this skill’s roll for such attempts.

Bind Spirit Patterns

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +3(no limit)Details:

This skill permits a character to bind a spiritualpattering into a physical object. Anyone with spiritualawareness will be able to tell the pattern is there. Thebasic skill lets the character adorn the physical object, aswith spray paint, with symbols visible to the spirituallyaware, but no others. A margin of two lets a charac-ter bind an audible message that plays to any spirituallyaware person to encounter it. Two more margin can makethe message trigger only for persons know to the binderthat he intends the message for. Two additional margincan also make the message full-sensory. Such a messagestays bound for about a week at zero margin (margin usedto improve the type of message may no be used for addedduration. Two added duration, each, moves the durationup the time scale month, year, and until removed. Thebind spirit pattern skill can be used to remove patterns.

Multiple Attention

Base Cost: 2Base Roll: Spirit+2Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

This ability permits the character to have more thanone attention stream. This permits a single character tocontrol more than one body, though they must pay forthem in some way. The added attention streams mayeach hold onto spells without penalty or to use multipleskills or talents that requires concentration. The skill rollis used to add an additional attention stream and is -2per previous attention stream after the first.

Sense Spiritual Awareness


This skill permits a character to tell, at short visualrange, if another character has spiritual awareness. The

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skill also can be used when the character is using an spir-itual talent on another character. This skill functions asa sense and so may be used with other skills and talents.

Soul Weapon

Base Cost: 2 or moreBase Roll: Spirit+2Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a character to summon up aweapon of solid light with shape and color appropriate totheir character. The weapon can only be wielded hand-to-hand. The damage class of the weapon is determinedby the characters spirit statistic using the strength-to-damage-class table under strength in the introduction.The value looked up on the table on the table may be en-hanced two points for each point of additional base costof the skill.

Spirit Weapon


This skill permits a character to infuse spiritual forceinto a weapon. This permits the weapon to do its fulldamage to creatures that have a material base allowanceof less than three but a mystical base allowance of 3 ormore. If the skill roll is made, then spiritual force isinfused into the weapon and remains there for about anhour plus an hour per point of margin the skill roll ismade by. It takes a full action to infuse mystical forceinto a weapon.

Stealth Skills

The skills in this section are useful to thieves, assassins,and spies.

Climbing

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: agility+2Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits the character to climb efficiently, atone-forth their running movement. The skill roll is usedto deal with difficult situations like cracks in a otherwiseflat wall or a ice-coated tree. In this latter case the rateof progress will be degraded. For one added point of basecost the character may climb at one-third their runningmovement; two added points of base cost permit climbingat a rate of one-half their running movement.

Conceal Self

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: intellectAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This skill permits a person to stand in shadows, be-hind curtains, etc. so that they are as hard to see aspossible. Difficult acts of concealment will take penaltiesand the skill works best in environments a character isfamiliar with. A back-alley footpad would excel in ex-ploiting shadows in an urban environment while a forestbandit would be at his best disappearing into the bushes.

Disguise

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: (Agility+Personality)/2Added Roll: +2(5)Details:

This skill permits a character to make themselveslook like someone or something else. Careful study, goodprops, and a referee supplied penalty will permits thecharacter to imitate someone specific. The basic skilllets you do types of character soldier, guard, streetwalker,beggar, etc. The referee may also give bonuses or penal-ties for circumstances (“aren’t you a little short for astorm trooper?”)

Escape Artist

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: (Agility+Intellect)/2Added Roll: +2(5)Details:

This skill permits the character to slip out of ropes,wriggle out of restraints, exit through very narrow open-ings, and otherwise leave from places that they shouldnot be able to. The exact type of escapology of which thecharacter is capable depend on the reason they have theskill.

Finding and Hiding


This skill represents the ability to figure out how tohide something or find it. The skill with which somethingis hidden is a penalty to a roll to find it, but the refereewill set some limits on the maximum margin for hidingan object if the proposed location is difficult or absurd.Hiding an elephant in a market is very hard, hiding a ringin a curio shop is easy. This skill can be used with slightof hand and can be used to defend against slight of hand.A good idea, for hiding or finding, can yield a bonus tothe roll in either direction. Example uses of this skillare noticing the trigger to a trap, placing a holdout key

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where strangers cannot find it, seeing a bandit lurking inthe shadows.

Force Device


This skill permits a character to force a device towork in spite of lacking a part, like a key. The skill canbe used to pick a lock, trigger a trap prematurely, or oth-erwise jigger mechanical devices to perform as the charac-ter, rather than the devices creator, wishes them to. Theproposed way the device should perform must be possibleand their deviation from normal function may require apenalty to the skill roll if it is too large.

Forgery


This skill permits a character to make official look-ing documents, from banknotes to contracts. The writtenand electronic versions of this skill are distinct. The ref-eree will impose penalties or bonuses as appropriate.

Highwalking


This skill permits a character to run with confidenceon the tops of walls, to use a taut rope as if it were abridge, and to generally have confidence when walking innarrow, high places.

Listen


This skill represents the ability to pick out one con-versation or sound in a difficult circumstance. This canrepresent situations as varied as listening to see if thereis anything on the other side of a door to eavesdrop-ping on one conversation while twenty others are goingon. The referee should assign appropriate environmentalmodifiers.

Read Lips


This skill permits a character to read lips. The abil-ity requires a -1/3” skill penalty and also in no help un-less the lips being read speak in a language the characterknows.

Slight of Hand


This skill permits a character to pick up and putdown things without being noticed or in a manner thatcauses observers to mistake what is going on. The skillcould be used to pick a pocket, place a dose of poison ina drink, or perform card tricks. The exact capabilities ofthe skill are determined by the character’s story.

Sneaking


This skill permits a character to move quietly. Typi-cally the skill works well in the character’s home environ-ment and may take penalties elsewhere. A character thatlearned to sneak in the back alleys of a city might havesome trouble not snapping twigs in the woods. Makingthe roll represents quiet movement with margin givingthe resulting degree of unobtrusiveness or penalty to thesensory roll to notice the character.

Tracking


This skill is used to track a person or animal. Theskill is specific to terrain types. Tracking someone inforest, desert, or across a city are just different tasks.The referee should give bonuses and penalties for circum-stance, e.g. rained last night, lots of mud +3; trackingacross a landscape that is mostly stone, -5. This skillmay be used to conceal tracks with the margin serving asa penalty to the tracker’s roll.

Talents

Talents are abilities that may or may not require teachingto learn to use effectively but which require some intrinsicability. Talents have a minimum requirement of one ormore statistics, a base cost in character points, a baseroll derived from one or more statistics, and a cost toimprove the roll which may have a maximum expenditureof points after it in parenthesis. Character points spenton the base cost of talents may not typically be moved

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out of the talent. It may or may not be able to movepoints for improved rolls in or out of talents as points forskills can be moved.

Calling

Requirement: Intuition+personality.Base Cost: 1Base Roll: intuition+personality.Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits the character to call one sort ofcreatures (wolves, crows, children, crickets, etc.) that arein an area near to him. The effect has a range of about100”, three times as much per +1 point of base cost. Therange of creatures that may be called grows with addedpoints of additional cost. The details of and limitationson calling must be part of the character’s story. Unlessmodified by the story, calling engenders neither good norill will but the cost may be modified appropriately if itdoes.

Celestial Talents

This part of the talents lists those skills available to char-acters that are celestially aware.

Avatar

Requirement: Celestial allowance 5Base Cost: 0Base Roll: AscendanceAdded Roll: +2Details:

This talent permits a celestial that is occupying thebody of a material creature to grant it powers. If the ce-lestial with the avatar talent has celestial awareness thenthey may allocate their essence and the essence of thematerial creature as if they were experience held by thematerial creature. In addition, the celestial may uses itsown arcane talents as if they were vested in the materialcreature. Finally, the celestial may purchase skills, tal-ents, and intrinsics it cannot use but that an avatar canfor one point of reduced cost, with a minimum cost ofone. Empowering an avatar requires an attention stream.

Avoid Compulsion

Requirement: Celestial base allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Resilience+OmniscienceAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This talent permits a character to notice and resistthe use of compulsion (Celestial, Mystic, or Spiritual).The roll is made automatically when a compulsion is usedon the character. If the roll is made at all the characternotices that a compulsion is attempted, the roll to compelthem is penalized by the margin of the roll for this talent.

Celestial Awareness

Requirement: Celestial allowance 3Base Cost: 0Base Roll: AscendanceAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This talent permits the character to purchase sensesthe interact with celestial powers and effects. It alsopermits a character to assign their essence as characterpoints. Any character with a base celestial allowance ofthree or more has this skill. The roll is used to moveessence around rapidly, e.g. as a combat action. A char-acter with this talent is considered a celestial character.Being celestially aware also permits a character to senseother celestially aware characters that are nearby and tohear the expenditure of essence like a ringing bell. Thesesenses have relatively short range and are based on in-tellect plus omniscience. Use the roll at -1/10”. Thenotation CA is used for the character’s celestial aware-ness.

Celestial Spellcaster

Requirement: Celestial allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: noneAdded Roll: n/aDetails:

This talent permits the character to place his celestialabilities in the service of his mage talent. A character thathas this talent and mage talent may use one essence inplace of five mana, and adding this mana substitute inplace of mana used for the skills Expand Spell, ExpendSummoning, Extend Spell, Intensify Spell, or Mass Spell,avoids the penalty to the casting roll.

Celestial Statistic


This talent adds the character’s base celestial al-lowance to a material or mystical statistic. This talentmay be used to add twice the character’s celestial baseallowance to endurance or mana, the celestial allowancemay be added to the character’s initiative and half thecelestial allowance may be added to body. The additionmust be justified by the character’s story.

Corpus Mundi


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This ability permits a celestial being to use wor-shipers (followers, cultists, etc.) as a source of power.The followers must have souls to be useful (a celestialbase allowance of one or more). One follower adds oneessence to the creatures total plus one more for each dou-bling of the number of followers. Followers of a beingwith this talent have two points (or all if they have onlyone) of their own essence reserved to be followers. Thispermits the celestial character to locate them, call themto him, and to act through them if they have the Avatartalent.

Compulsion, Celestial

Requirement: Celestial base allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: personality+ascendanceAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This ability permits a celestial creature to lay acompulsion that can be resisted with a roll of personal-ity+resilience if the target of the ability wants to resists.The compulsion must have a single character or goal. Itmight make the target want the celestial to trust it, itmight make the target lust after the celestial, it mightmake the target feel it badly wants the celestial being asan advisor, or it might make the target terrified or re-pulsed by the celestial. Each added point of base costtriples the number of effects that the ability can gener-ate, those these must make sense in the context of thecelestial’s story. This talent works well with the glamorability.

Domination

Requirement: Celestial allowance 6Base Cost: 3Base Roll: AscendanceAdded Roll: +2, no limitDetails:

This ability permits a celestial creature that can per-ceive a character to replace the character’s consciousnesswith his own. This ability requires the celestial to hit witha celestial attack at interpersonal distance unless the tar-get is a worshipers who is asking to be dominated. Anyreasonable form of contact will permit this. If the attackhits, the celestial takes control of the character. The con-trol lasts as long as the celestial maintains concentration.If the celestial does not have an ability like multiple at-tention using this ability places the celestial into a trance.Each creature controlled via this ability uses an attentiontrack. If this ability has very obvious side effects, e.g.glowing eyes and a funny voice, then it costs one pointless.

Essential Defense

Requirement: Celestial allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: noneAdded Roll: +1, see belowDetails:

This talent permits a celestial character to expendessence as a last ditch defense against almost any formof attack. The points paid for the talent are the maxi-mum expenditure of essence that may be made. No actionis required to mount an essential defense. Each point ofessence either subtracts four points from the damage classdone by an a material attack, three from a mystical at-tack, or two from a celestial attack. It also may subtractfour from the skill or talent roll of a material attack, threefrom the roll of a mystic attack, or two from the roll of acelestial attack.

Fade

Requirement: Celestial allowance 3Base Cost: 6Base Roll: noneAdded Roll: +1, see belowDetails:

This ability permits a celestial character to fade awayand vanish without leaving the area. They become invis-ible and insubstantial for some reason - stepping into aslightly different dimensional frame, becoming ethereal,or any of a number of other reasons. While faded thecharacter cannot use their physical, mystical, or celestialabilities on characters or objects on the frame they fadedfrom. Two added points permits the exercise of offensivecelestial or mystical abilities. The ability to communi-cate through each of these channels can be restored forone point each. Faded characters can observe them withany of their senses, but this requires a roll versus the bestof intellect, spirit, or ascendance.

This ability take a full action to exercise and can also beused to reappear. If the ability cannot be rapidly repeatedit is cheaper by one point per rank on the scale round,minute, ten minutes, hour, six hours, day. Two creatureswith similar forms of this ability fade to the same placewhere they interact normally.

Glamor, Celestial

Requirement: Celestial allowance 3Base Cost: 2Base Roll: Personality+AscendanceAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits a celestial being to appear as theywish. This ability covers all senses except those basedon omniscience. A roll with such a celestial sense, or araw omniscience roll, will penetrate a celestial glamor.

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Appearing as you wish includes becoming inapparent toany sense, but not becoming immaterial.

Inspiration

Requirement: Celestial allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Personality+AscendanceAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits those at least touched by the ce-lestial realm to inspire others. This requires some sort ofongoing action and the details of the action depend on thecharacter’s story. Examples include inspiring warriors byleading them brilliantly in battle, inspiration by oratoryor shouted encouragement, inspiration by song as with abard. This character must be trying to inspire a particu-lar type of action, attack, defense, artistic effort, amorouseffort, whatever. The character(s) inspired gain a bonusto relevant rolls of one, plus one more per three points ofmargin on the inspiration talent. The character must atleast understand the action he is trying to inspire.

Invulnerability

Requirement: Celestial allowance 3Base Cost: 1-3, see belowBase Roll: Resilience-damageAdded Roll: +3(no limit)Details:

This talent permits a character to ignore damage,distributing it into the universe rather than being dam-aged by it. The talent costs one each to ignore physi-cal, mystical, and celestial damage. There must be onetype of damage that the ability does not protect against,e.g. Baldur’s vulnerability to mistletoe. The roll takesthe incoming damage as a penalty and so can usually besaturated by a sufficiently powerful opponent. Vulnera-bilities beyond a single, obscure attack reduce the cost ofthe talent.

Multiple Attention

Requirement: Celestial allowance 5Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Omniscience+2Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits a character to have more thanone attention stream. The number of attention streamsa character can support is equal to half the celestial baseallowance plus the square of the points spent on multipleattention. The skill roll is used to establish a new atten-tion stream, if there is room to support it. A characterwith multiple attention streams can have multiple bodies,but they must be purchased separately.

Postulate

Requirement: Celestial allowance 6Base Cost: 1Base Roll: varies, see belowAdded Roll: +3(not limit)Details:

This talent make it impossible to consider taking anaction with respect to the celestial with the talent. Anexample might be that the idea of attacking the celestialwill not occur to characters. This talent functions auto-matically but only works on those in the presence of thecelestial or who are part of the celestial’s corpus mundi.A character may violate the postulate with a roll of per-sonality+ascendance minus the resilience of the celestialwho holds the postulate. The postulate must be a singleclass of actions. For added points, at referee discretion,the class may be broadened.

Projection

Requirement: Celestial allowance 5Base Cost: 1Base Roll: CBA+AscendanceAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits a celestial being to project theirimage to another location. Projecting requires makingthe skill roll. The projection duplicates the celestial’s cur-rent appearance. The projection is transparent to phys-ical objects but appears, sounds, and smells solid andpresent. It can speak and listen, the celestial can usetheir senses from the position of the projection, and itcan originate mystical and celestial abilities. The pro-jection cannot touch things or exert physical strength.For one additional point of base cost the image can ex-ert physical strength but the celestial can take physicaldamage from attacks directed against the projection. Foran additional point of base cost the celestial can projecttheir image in a fashion that permits them to exert theirstrength without risk.

The basic projection talent permits the celestial to projecttheir image only to places they can sense. For an addedpoint of base cost the projection can move, as if it werethe celestial, maintaining its link with the celestial. Foran added point the image may materialize in places ded-icated to the celestial or in response to the speaking ofthe celestial’s name. See the talent recognomen.

Recognomen

Requirement: Celestial base allowance 6Base Cost: 1Base Roll: C.B.A.+AscendanceAdded Roll: +3(no limit)Details:

This talent permits the celestial to hear their namewhen it is spoken so long as the speaker in on the same

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plane of existence with them. The ability can reach intonearby planes for one added point of base cost and toany plane for two added points of cost. The ability takespenalties for partial or corrupted versions of a celestial’sname but any number of names that truly belong to acelestial being are covered by the talent. The celestial’sability to act on hearing their name depends on theirpurchasing other powers.

Subordination, Celestial

Requirement: Ascendance 6Base Cost: 3Base Roll: CAAdded Roll: +2 (no limit)Details:

This ability link the minds of the character exercis-ing the talent and the character the talent is exercisedon. Subordination is established with a celestial attackroll that automatically works if the target is willing tobe subordinated. If the attack roll works then the targetbecomes a part of the character that subordinated them.They still have their own mind and personality, but thedecisions about goals and objectives are made by the mas-ter. The subordinate character cannot disobey their mas-ter and will have whatever attitude toward their masterthat the master wants. Subordination can be broken withcelestial damage applied by a celestially aware character- they can perceive and directly attack the subordination.Otherwise the target character remains subordinate. Sub-ordination permits a celestial to treat the subordinatedcharacter as an avatar if they have that talent.

Temporal Mastery

Requirement: Ascendance 5Base Cost: 1Base Roll: n/aAdded Roll: +1/1Details:

Temporal mastery permits a celestial being to pur-chased up to five added initiative for one point each. Itrepresents being able to make time work for you.

Dweller

Base Cost: 1(2)Base Roll: BA(2x BA)Added Roll: +2(4)Details:

This talent permits a character to be perceived asa dweller or natural inhabitant of an area. It may usephysical, mystical, or celestial base allowance. If the al-lowance is less than eight, the base roll may be doubledfor one added point. The skill roll is to appear to belongto skeptical eyes.

Eidetic Memory

Base Cost: 2Base Roll: IntAdded Roll: +3(max 3).Details:

This talent represents having an incredibly goodmemory. The character can remember anything they onceknew with a skill roll. The referee may impose modifiersto the skill roll for association of memories with trauma orsituations where the character did not understand whathe was remembering.

Hysterical Strength

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: StrengthAdded Roll: noneDetails:

This talent represents the ability to increase a char-acter’s strength by pushing their body beyond their nor-mal limits. A character that makes a hysterical strengthroll expends a point of body to increase their strength bytwo plus one per three points of margin. The enhancedstrength lasts for one segment plus one segment per pointof margin.

Intuitive Talents

The talents listed in this section are connected with theuse of mystical intuition. The talent intuitionist, whichcan have cost zero, supplies the base roll for many of thesetalents. If a character has these talents without the talentintuitionist then they remain latent.

Arcanhorama

Requirement: Intuition 6Base Cost: 1Base Roll: INT or omniscienceAdded Roll: +3/1Details:

This talent is involuntary. It functions while thecharacter that has it is in a trance or asleep. If there is anearby arcane creature then the ability permits the char-acter to share its viewpoint, possibly all the time or morelikely when it is excited or using a lot of magical power.The talent roll is made when the talent could functionand the duration and strength of connection with the ar-cane creature get better with the margin. The talent neednot connect the character to all arcane creatures. Ratherthe connections that can form should depend on the char-acter’s story. A character might, for example, share thesenses of any nearby werewolf that they are related to oremotionally involved with. This talent has many formsand should be shaped to enhance the character’s story.

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Clairsense

Requirement: Intuition 4Base Cost: 2Base Roll: INT+4 or omniscienceAdded Roll: +2/1Details:

This ability permits a sense to function at a substan-tial distance. To use this talent a character must be anintuitionist or a celestial. There are several versions ofthis talent and a characters story will determine whichversions(s) they have. The base cost of the first versionis two; for all the others it is one. The first version per-mits a character to concentrate on a personal trace. Theywill then be able to use the sense as if they were at thephysical position of the source of the trace.

The second permits the character to concentrate on anindividual and/or object well known to them at whichpoint their sense functions at the person or objects cur-rent position. The third permits the caster to chose adirection and cast the sense forth. If there is a creaturein that direction that has the sense then the characterwill “see through the creatures eyes”. The fourth versionpermits the caster to cast their sense on the wind and ac-cept whatever sensory information about a distant placethat comes. Specific instances of this ability should spec-ify their effective range and the reasons for it. Typicallythis ability does not function between planes of existenceand, if it does, the referee will impose an additional cost.

Displaced Viewpoint

Requirement: noneBase Cost: 2Base Roll: INTAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits the character to displace thepoint of view of a sense, usually sight, a number of inchesequal to their intuition. The talent could be used to lookaround a corner, see the other side of a playing card, seeinside a closed box (illumination may be an issue). Thesense the talent acts on may be chosen freely yieldingacross-the-room hearing or distant sense-of-touch. Thetalent may function with an additional sense for an addi-tional point. The range may be increased by double foran additional point.

Empathy

Requirement: noneBase Cost: 1 or moreBase Roll: INTAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This talent permits a character to empathize stronglywith a category of other creatures. For a base cost of onethe character can empathize with one species, e.g. horses,

wolves, humans, etc. An additional base point permitsbroader categories, the speaking peoples, land animals,sea animals. Two added base points permit a characterto empathize with very broad characters, e.g. materiallife with a mind, sentient undead. The margin on the rollgoverns the degree of empathy in a contact.

Making the roll permits a character to sense the outlineof emotions felt by the target. A margin of one gives afairly exact notion of the targets emotions. A margin oftwo permits a character to interpret the targets currentinterest and focus. A margin of three or more permitsthe equivalent of simple speech, to the degree that thetarget is capable of it. A margin of four or more permitssomething like real speech, again if the target is capableof it.

Forecast

Requirement: noneBase Cost: 1 or moreBase Roll: INTAdded Roll: +3(3)Details:

This skill permits an intuitionist to forecast theweather. The margin on the skill roll represents the num-ber of days in the future that the forecast is at all accu-rate. The skill requires several minutes of meditation ina quiet place open to the weather. The character will getvisions, including sight, sound, and tactile components,of what the weather will be like.

Intuitionist

Base Cost: 0Base Roll: intuition+2 x base costAdded Roll: n/aDetails:

This talent represents a character having the abilityto draw knowledge out of the ether. When working ona puzzle or conundrum the talent roll may permit thecharacter to pull a clue out of nowhere. When in a criticalsituation this skill permits the character to get a sense ofwhat the important actor or issue is in the situation. Ingeneral, an intuitionist can guess correctly at an enhancedrate. The degree of utility of this talent depends on themargin on the roll and the complexity of the situation.Note that, with zero cost, any character may declare theyhave this skill. This declaration must be consistent withtheir story.

Intuitive Grasp

Requirement: noneBase Cost: 1Base Roll: INTAdded Roll: see below(5)Details:

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This talent permits the character an intuitive abil-ity to understand a class of objects or processes. Thisis equivalent to having nominal proficiency with the ob-ject or process. For one point the category is narrow,weapons, vehicles, political systems. For three points thecategory may be larger, machines, information systems,or social systems. For five points a character may un-derstand the use or purpose of anything they touch. Foran added point, the talent works on things the characterobserves. This talent requires careful justification in acharacter’s story. The improvement of the talent roll is+4 per point for the specific version, +2 per point for theintermediately general version and +1 for the completelygeneral version.

Immediate Precognition


This talent permits a character to focus on a singleobject or situation and see what will happen near or con-cerning it in the next few second. This ability can be usedin a number of ways. When disarming a trap the abilitypermits knowledge of the action of the trap and adds themargin on the immediate precognition skill roll to theroll to disarm the trap, though by no more than twicethe number of points spent on immediate precognition.Similarly the ability permits the character to focus on anopponent in combat and add the margin on the skill rollto both their material attack and defense. The improve-ment may not be more than the larger of the number ofpoints spent on immediate precognition.

Intuitive Damage


This talent permits the character to strike for weakpoints of a target. This intuitive grasp of another charac-ter’s weak spots adds one damage class if the roll is madeand one more per three points of margin. Such dam-age usually does not count against the damage classes aweapon may deliver without risking a break – but the ref-eree may decide it does if he feels it appropriate, e.g. thecharacter is using intuitive damage to strike at a stonegolem. The improvement in damage classes may not bemore than the larger of the number of points spent onintuitive damage.

Pass Obstructions


This talent permits people to slip through a thicket,pass through a field of concealed pits without stepping inthem, and otherwise go through an obstructed area if itis at all possible. The details of how the intuitive abilitynot to hit obstructions works is something that must bedefined in the character’s story.

Psychometry


Psychometry or object reading permits a characterto read significant events that happened in the presenceof an object. Events with a strong emotional contentare the easiest to read. If there are multiple significantevents the skill homes in on events in proportion to theiremotional strength. The character sees the events as avision that covers all the senses. What is seen dependsboth on the margin of the roll and on the amount of timespend meditating on an object.

Remote Viewing

Requirement: intuition 6Base Cost: 1Base Roll: INTAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This talent permits the character to see things fromlong ago or far away. The talent does one or the other, notboth. For one added point of base cost it does both. Thecharacter’s vision will be drawn to events that are signif-icant to them or based on objects they are holding whenthey attempt the remote viewing. They will see (+1 pointhear, +1 point smell) as if their viewpoint were hangingin the air near the scene they are viewing. Making theroll permits the character to see things up to a kilometeraway or a day in the past. These values are tripled foreach point of margin. For +1 point this multiplier is ten,for +2 it is thirty.

Resist Compulsion

Requirement: Mystical base allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Intuition+ResilienceAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

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This talent permits a character to notice and resistthe use of compulsion (celestial, mystic, or spiritual). Theroll is made automatically when a compulsion is used onthe character. If the roll is made at all the characternotices that a compulsion is attempted, the roll to compelthem is penalized by half the margin one the roll for thistalent.

Tongues


This talent permits the character to understand spo-ken words in spite of the language they are spoken in(they must be meaningful). An added point permits theperson to understand written words in a similar fashion.Another added point permits the character to speak inthe language of a nearby creature. Still another permitsthe character to originate writing in a language known tosomeone nearby.

Sensory Link

Requirement: Intuition 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: INTAdded Roll: +2/3Details:

This talent permits a character to establish a link, bytouch, that permits another character to use their senses.This may be very confusing for the other character unlessthey practice. The link works up to 10” away and withonly one other character at a time. The number of peoplethat can use the link doubles per additional point andthe range is multiplied by ten for each additional point.it the link is specific to a single person it is two cheaper.If the link is specific to a group it is one cheaper, butthe minimum cost is one. This talent works well with thevarious forms of multiple attention.

Lightfoot

Requirement: noneBase Cost: 1Base Roll: noneAdded Roll: see belowDetails:

This talent permits a character to reduce the degreeto which they press on what they are standing on. Theirapparent weight is divided by the larger of their mysticalor celestial base allowance. This can permit a character towalk on snow, thin ice, small branches, or other delicatesurfaces without leaving a footprint. When the divisoris seven or more, the character can walk on water. Attwelve or more, the character can drift with the wind.

Luck

Requirement: noneBase Cost: 1Base Roll: noneAdded Roll: see belowDetails:

This talent represents having uncanny good luck.Each point entitles the character to roll a die. Each fiverepresents things breaking somewhat more the charac-ter’s way. Each six represents a remarkable break for thecharacter - though the referee need not grant more thanone. Ones represent luck going normally, or a break thatcomes with a bad side effect. More than three levels ofluck represents incredible probability exceptions. In allcases, luck must be justified in the character’s story.

Orientation

Requirement: noneBase Cost: 1Base Roll: Material allowanceAdded Roll: +3(3)Details:

This talent permit a character maintain their orien-tation and knowledge of their own position in spite ofdifficulties from being in winding underground passagesto being blindfolded and spun around to disrupt ones ori-entation. The talent roll will take penalties in difficultcircumstances.

Magical Talents

The talents listed in this section are connected with theuse and practice of magic. Many of them have the talentMage as a prerequisite.

Blast

Requirement: Magic 5Base Cost: 1Base Roll: MTAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent is one that spontaneous or untrainedmages sometimes develop. It permits a character to loosea blast of raw magic in all directions from themselves.The amount of mana expended is equal to the margin onthe roll or the character’s remaining mana. The damageclass of the attack is one-half the margin on the roll, theradius is one-third the margin on the roll.

Compulsion, Mystic

Requirement: Mystical base allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: magicAdded Roll: +2(5)Details:

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This ability permits a creature to lay a compulsionthat can be resisted with a roll of personality if the targetof the ability wants to resists it. The compulsion musthave a single character. It might make the target want thecharacter using the ability to trust it, it might make thetarget lust after the character, it might make the targetfeel it badly wants the character as an advisor, or it mightmake the target terrified or repulsed by the character.Each added point of base cost adds an additional effectthat the ability can generate, those these must make sensein the context of the character’s story.

Glamor, Magical

Requirement: Mystical allowance 3Base Cost: 2Base Roll: MTAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits a person to look as they wish tothe physical senses while awake and concentrating. For+1 point the appearance will last during normal sleep aswell. A skill roll is needed to change appearance. Beingknocked violently unconscious will show a character’s trueappearance. Spiritual and celestial senses are not fooledby this ability.

Inapparance

Requirement: Magic 6Base Cost: 1Base Roll: MTAdded Roll: +2(5)Details:

This talent permits a character to avoid the noticeof those nearby - within a number of inches equal to theirmagic talent. The character, while present, will not beperceived. Attempts to see the character require an in-telligence or intuition roll with the margin on the inappa-rance roll as a penalty. The referee should grant liberalbonuses to pierce inapparance if the character using thetalent does anything obvious.

Mage

Requirement: Magic 5Base Cost: 0 or moreBase Roll: Magic+2xBase CostAdded Roll: n/aDetails:

The mage talent permits a character to learn andcast spells, to learn and perform rituals, and to triggeror use magical artifacts not specifically crafted to permitsomeone without the mage talent to use them. This talentmay be purchased at zero points, representing a characterwith magical potential but a very bad chance of learningor performing spells or rituals. The magical power of anindividual goes up directly with the number of character

points expended on the mage skill. A character with twoor fewer points in the mage skill can have at most onespell in their active memory. The number of active spellsfor three or more points invested in the Mage talent aregiven below.

Spells for Points in Mage Talent

Points 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Spells 2 3 4 6 8 11 14

Points 11 12 13 14 15 16 17Spells 20 24 28 33 38 43 48

Most spells list their casting roll in terms of the magetalent roll MT. Be sure to read the section on casting spellin combat. Any character with the mage talent has thesense detect magic. This sense permits a character to tellif an object is magical by touching it.

Mystical Statistic

Requirement: Mystical allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: noneAdded Roll: n/aDetails:

This talent adds the character’s base mystical al-lowance to a material statistic. This talent adds twicethe character’s mystical allowance to endurance. The ad-dition must be justified by the character’s story.

Mystical Subordination

Requirement: Mystical allowance 6Base Cost: 5Base Roll: MT or magicAdded Roll: +2 (no limit)Details:

This ability opens a link to the mind of its target andjoins the minds of the character exercising the talent andthe character the talent is exercised on. Subordinationis established with a mystical attack roll that automati-cally works if the target is willing to be subordinated. Ifthe attack roll works then the target becomes, in effect, apart of the character that subordinated them. They stillhave their own mind and personality, but the decisionsabout goals and objectives are made by the master. Thesubordinate character cannot disobey. Mystical subordi-nation can be broken by dispelling magic, otherwise thetarget character remains subordinate. An exception tothis is if the subordinated character ends up on anotherplane of existence - the subordination ceases but resumeswhen they are again on the same plane of existence astheir master.

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Parallel Attention

Requirement: noneBase Cost: 1Base Roll: Magic+2Added Roll: +1Details:

This ability permits the character to have more thanone attention stream. This permits a single characterto control more than one body, though they must pay forthem in some way. The added attention streams may eachhold onto spells. The skill roll is used to add an additionalattention stream and is -2 per previous attention streamafter the first.

Scramble Magic

Requirement: Magic 3Base Cost: 5Base Roll: MT or magicAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This ability permits a character to attempt to tem-porarily inactivate a magical device or construct by pour-ing uncontrolled mana into it. The talent roll requiresthat the character be touching the object and, if the rollis made, they may pour mana into the object. A roll of11 plus mana expended minus mana used to create theobject (which may need to be approximated) causes theobject to stop functioning normally. Malfunction or ces-sation of function may result at the referee’s discretion.The malfunction lasts for one round if the roll is exactlymade with increased time based on the margin of the inac-tivation roll on the spell duration table (5 rounds, 10 min,1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, indefinite). Thisskill may also be used to try to restore function with theroll taking the margin on the previous roll as a penalty;depending on the delicacy of the object in question, thismay be impossible.

Sense Magic

Requirement: Base Mystical Allowance 3Base Cost: 1 or moreBase Roll: noneAdded Roll: +3(3)Details:

This talent permits a character to tell if an object orand area is magical. For one point of base cost they maydetect magical emanations by touch. For two points theycan also “smell” nearby magic. For three points they gainan imaging sense that lets them see nearby magic. Thesense is -1/3” so magical objects at a distance are veryhard to see.

Share Mana

Requirement: Base Mystical Allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: noneAdded Roll: n/aDetails:

This talent permits a creature to pool its mana withthat of a creature it is touching. The mana is accessibleto either party on a volitional basis. The creature withthe share mana talent decides how mana is divided whencontact is broken.

Trigger

Requirement: Base Mystical Allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: MT or MagicAdded Roll: +4(3)Details:

This talent permits a character to trigger a magicaldevice, item, trap, or other mystic construct that can betriggered. The ability grants no knowledge at all aboutwhat the item does - it simply permits the character toactivate it. If the item has multiple functions then thefunction triggered is the most basic or chosen at random.Once a character becomes familiar with a device, theymay trigger different functions with a penalty to their rollof one to four, depending on the referee’s judgment aboutthe complexity of the device. The skill also takes a refereesupplied minus for the degree to which it is inappropriatefor the effect to be triggered by brute force.

Photographic Memory

Base Cost: 2Base Roll: IntAdded Roll: +3(max 3).Details:

This talent represents having a nearly flawless visualmemory. The character can recall any scene they haveever viewed with a skill roll. The referee may imposemodifiers to the skill roll for association of memories withtrauma or situations where the character did not under-stand what he was seeing.

Refusal to Die

Requirement: Base Allowance 6Base Cost: 5Base Roll: 2x(Base Allowance)Added Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This talent may be based on the material, mystical,or celestial base allowance. It represents a character be-ing unkillable except by some very specific and obscuremeans. Examples include: “killing” a material avatar of acelestial being dismisses it to place of origin (heaven, hell,

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etc.) but it may be summoned again. A powerful vam-pire that is burned to dust by the light of the sun mayreturn if blood falls on the dust. A werewolf may riseagain at the next full moon if the corpse is not carefullyincinerated. The base cost is for an ability that permitsthe character to return from the “dead” with a simpleritual (performed by someone else) or in a few days toweeks. Substantially longer times or unlikely means ofreturning will reduce the cost.

The details of the refusal to die must be consistent withthe base allowance. A werewolf is extremely vital be-cause of the wolf spirit and so has refusal to die basedon material allowance. An arch-demon would base theirdismissal to the abyss instead of death on their celestialbase allowance. A sorcerer that has hidden his heart topreserve his life bases his refusal to die on his mystic baseallowance.

Spiritual Talents

The talents listed in this section are connected with theuse and practice of spiritual abilities. Many of them havethe talent Spiritual Awareness as a prerequisite.

Astral Projection

Requirement: Spirit 6Base Cost: 1Base Roll: SA+2Added Roll: +2(3)Details:

This ability permits a character to detach their spiritfrom their body and let it function as a bodiless spirit.The body is catatonic but living while the spirit is goneand the spirit still have access to intellect, knowledge, andpersonality while the body remains alive. The spirit mustreturn to the body within a number of hours equal to itsmaterial base allowance or there is a danger the body willdie. This can be ameliorated to some extend by havinga caretaker for the body. A disembodied spirit may usesight and hearing on those very near the spirit, but thematerial world looks foggy and is muffled to the spirit. Ifthe body dies or is slain then the spirit loses access to itsmaterial statistics. The spirit has a strong sense of thedirection to its body unless intentionally disoriented by aspell or spiritual entity.

Avatar

Requirement: Spirit 6Base Cost: 1Base Roll: Spirit+2Added Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This talent can only be used by a disembodied spirit.If a material creature is willing, or the spirit is able to takeover its body by other means, this talent permits the spiritto mothball the creature’s own spirit and let it take over

the body. The resulting creature has the spirit’s spiritualstatistics and the creature’s material one. It also has thebetter of the spirit’s or the creature’s celestial statistics.The spirit may use skills and talents it knows throughthe creature it is using as an avatar. Such skills may beones that cannot be used in spiritual form, though thereason the spirit has such skills must be incorporated inits story. The spirit of a deceased soldier, for example,might be able to recall its martial abilities.

In addition, the power of a spirit may enhance its avatarwith intrinsics usable only by the avatar. These are onecheaper (to a minimum cost of one). The avatar skill rollis to establish the link that permits the used of avatarpowers. For two added points this talent may be used asan attack against the best of intellect, personality, magic,spirit, of ascendance. In this case the state of being anavatar is temporary, lasing one minute. Each point theavatar roll is made by increases the time on the scaleminute, five minutes, twenty minutes, hour, six hours,day, week, month, year.

Centering

Requirement: Mystical base allowance 5Base Cost: 1Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This talent is only usable by disembodied spirits.They may travel instantly to the location of a materialcreature with whom they have a bond or who they knowwell. The number of creatures that a character may cen-ter on is one-third of their spirit statistic. This numbermay be doubled for each added point. The ability reachesanywhere in a world but does not cross dimensional barri-ers. It may cross local dimensional barriers for one addedpoints, most dimensional barriers for two points, and maygo anywhere at all for three points.

Charismatic Binding

Requirement: Mystical base allowance 5Base Cost: 3Base Roll: personality+spiritAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This talent requires a binding event such as a re-vival tent sermon, a laying on of hands, or other event inwhich the target finds deep personal meaning. An indi-vidual subject to a charismatic binding becomes uncriti-cal of and obedient to the person that bound them. Thisperson becomes the target’s master. The master may,while within interpersonal distance, draw on the manaand essence of a bound person. Making the talent rollalso permits the master to transfer points of damage tohis followers, through this requires concentration and afull action. The details of the binding event must be

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consistent with the origin in the character’s story of thetalent.

Compulsion, Spiritual

Requirement: Mystical base allowance 3Base Cost: 1Base Roll: spiritAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits a creature to lay a compulsionthat can be resisted with a roll of personality if the targetof the ability wants to resists it. The compulsion musthave a single character. It might make the target want thecharacter using the ability to trust it, it might make thetarget lust after the character, it might make the targetfeel it badly wants the character as an advisor, or it mightmake the target terrified or repulsed by the character.Each added point of base cost adds an additional effectthat the ability can generate, those these must make sensein the context of the character’s story. This ability workswell with the glamor ability.

Cute

Requirement: Mystical base allowance 5Base Cost: 1Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This ability causes a spiritually aware character toproject the sense that it is cute, harmless, and extremelynot to be harmed. Resisting the implications of this senserequires a personality roll at minus half the margin on thecute skill roll. What those implications are depends onthe character that is being affected by the power.

Direct Perception


This talent permits a character to directly perceiveall matter nearby. It is the equivalent of 360 degree colorblind sight in a limited radius. If the talent roll is madethe characters perceives things to a radius of 2”, plus oneadditional inch per two points of margin. This is re-rolledwhen the character moves to the edge of his perceptionor is hit for damage.

Dream Sending


This talent permits a character to send out a broad-cast dream. It will reach a number of nearby sleepersequal to one plus the margin on the roll. This numberof sleepers may be tripled for each additional point. Thedream is crafted by the character and, if he is alien tothe dreamers, may well be horrifying or incomprehensi-ble. The ability requires the character sending the dreamactively craft and experience the dream themselves. Thismeans they must be asleep or assign an attention streamto overseeing the dream. The character creating thedream may appear in the dream and communicate. Thecharacter may cast dreamers out of the dream with a per-sonality roll, competitive if the dreamer wishes to stay.The range of this ability is one kilometer, 10x per addedpoint.

Forget

Requirement: Mystical allowance 3Base Cost: 3Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent is a spiritual attack that causes the targetto forget up to the past five minutes times the margin onthe skill roll or one minute if the margin is zero. Theability requires a hit with a spiritual attack.

Glamor, Spiritual

Requirement: Mystical allowance 3Base Cost: 2Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits a person to look as they wish tothe physical senses while awake and concentrating. For+1 point the appearance will last during normal sleep aswell. A skill roll is needed to change appearance. Beingknocked violently unconscious will show a character’s trueappearance. Spiritual and celestial senses are not fooledby this ability; nor does it fool a creature with a mysticalbase allowance of zero.

Knockout

Requirement: Spirit 5Base Cost: 2Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +2/3Details:

This is a mystic attack that forces an unconscious-ness save at minus the value of a class II attack. Addedpoints of base cost can move this value up and down theattack scale, but the minimum cost is one. This abilitycan simulate anything from a mental crush to a compul-sion to sleep. The attack works at interpersonal distance.

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Manifestation

Requirement: Spirit 6Base Cost: 3Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits a spiritually aware creature, usu-ally a bodiless spirit, to create a manifestation. This is theappearance of a body that has only material stats and amaterial base allowance equal to the better of the charac-ter’s mystical or celestial base allowance plus points spenton spiritual awareness or on celestial awareness. An ex-ception to normal rules is that the manifestation is fragile- it may sell back up to five body for 2 points each. Phys-ical attacks and similar powers purchased for the mani-festation have 2/3rd normal cost. It takes a full action tocreate a manifestation and, if it is destroyed, another tocreate it again. A manifestation may be controlled by thespirit that created it, given to a lesser servant as an entreeinto the material world, or it may function autonomously.This skill permits only one manifestation at a time, threetimes as many per +1 point of added base cost.

Mental Hold


This talent permits the character to focus on an-other character with a mystical base allowance of threeor more and attempt to hold them unable to act. Thetarget may resist with a roll against spiritual awareness,celestial awareness, magic, personality, or intellect. Thehigher roll wins with ties going to the target. The roll toresist may be made each time the target has an action.A character attacking with mental hold may roll again tostrengthen their hold, but this is a new roll. This abilityrequires ongoing concentration.

Metabolic Control

Requirement: Spirit 5Base Cost: 1Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +2(no limit)Details:

This ability permits a character to use their mind tocontrol their own metabolism. The practical effects areas follows. With a skill roll a character may sacrifice abody to regain a class III attack’s worth of endurance.This is accounted as a one body wound. A character mayresist poison at the time they are poisoned, gaining poisonarmor equal to one plus half the margin on the roll, butno more armor than the points spent on the talent. Acharacter may clear a disease if their margin exceeds the

cost of the disease as an attack. Minor diseases like a coldrequire margin zero.

Mind Link


This talent permits a character to have permanenttelepathic linkage with one other creature so that theycan speak or share thoughts to one another whenever theyare both paying attention. The number of creatures withsuch a link can be tripled for one additional point. Foran additional point the power can function as a networkgenerated by pairs in contact. Spiritual skills, talents,and attacks can be transmitted through a mind link andit can be shut down or re-opened with a kill roll.

Mindspeech


This talent permits a character to speak mind-to-mind with any character with a mystical allowance ofthree or more. The ability permits conversation betweenthe character and one other but the number of peopleaffected doubles for each +1 point or the character mayextend the link to twice as many people by expending en-durance. The range for the ability is 10”, multiplied by 10for each added point of cost. If the ability is restricted toa broad group (e.g. elves) it is one cheaper. If restrictedto a narrow group (e.g. blood relatives) it is two cheaper.If restricted to a single individual is is three cheaper. Theminimum cost is one.

Override Perception


This talent permits a spiritually aware individual tooverride the perceptions of a character that they havetargeted with a spiritual attack roll. This permits themto replace the targets sense perception with somethingelse. This requires that they are in the same sensory spaceas their target. The type of effect that can be achieveddepends on the margin on the talent toll. The effectsdescribed are for a single sense unless additional margin isavailable for additional senses. The effects are as follows.

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Margin Effect0 Create blindness, deafness, or the equivalent.

1-2 Blur or confuse one sense leaving some infor-mation.

3-4 Block or insert one character, detail, or qualityin one sense.

5-6 Replace the current sense-scape with another,plausibly.

+1 Add another sense.+2 Add three more senses.+3 All senses the character with the override tal-

ent has.+1 Double number of characters affected.

The “block or insert” can add a character, changethe appearance of a character, or make the character im-perceptible. Thus a margin of 3-4 permits the talented in-dividual to make another character invisible to one sense.This would also permit a character to put different wordson a piece of paper. A complete fantasy landscape cover-ing all senses requires nine points of margin.

Rulership


The talent rulership permits a character to overridethe will of another creature and control its actions. Ruler-ship is rolled as a spiritual attack. If the attack hits thenthe target becomes obedient to attacker’s will. Anythingother than slightly dazed normal behavior requires thatthe character exercising rulership be able to issue com-mands. For +1 point of base cost these commands maybe made through the mental channel opened by the ruler-ship. For +2 points the object of the attack simply acts inaccordance with the attacker’s will. The duration of thecontrol is one segment on an exact hit, increasing on thescale one round, five rounds, ten minutes, and hour, sixhours, a day, a week. The attack is rerolled to maintaincontrol and, if the creature has been made to performabhorrent or distasteful actions then they get a bonus totheir mystic defense.

Normally, rulership can be used on any creature with amystic base allowance above zero, with the normal penal-ties to hit if the allowance is below three. If the talent af-fects a limited group then it is up to three points cheaper.If it affect a broad category: e.g. animals, undead, sum-moned creatures then it is one cheaper. Moderately broadcategories like predators, animated dead, humanoids, ormammals merit a reduction of two points. Narrow cat-egories like other members of your own species, cats, oroath breakers merit a three point reduction in cost. Thesereductions may no reduce the total cost below one.

Shield


This talent permits a character to raise a personalshield of telekinetic force about themselves. It acts as ar-mor against any physical assault. The amount of armoris the one more than half the margin on the talent rollto a maximum of the points spent on the talent. Use ofthe shield requires that a character concentrate on main-taining the shield so they may not use other talents orskills while holding the shield unless they have multipleattention. If the character has the skill multiple attentionthen they may hold the shield with one attention streamwhile doing something else with others.

Spirit Eyes


This talent permits a character to be aware of spirits.Unmanifested ghosts, lost spirits, and spiritual predatorsare visible to them. They can also see the spirit worldas a faint overlay of the real world, if they concentrate.In most places this amounts to nothing, but in an areawhere bloody murder, transcendent joy, horrible torture,or a great epiphany has occurred the spirit world willhave an appearance shaped by the emotional content ofthe act.

Spirit Scream


This talent permits a character to temporarily ob-struct or cut communication by spiritual channels. Thecharacter releases a bust of spiritual force by expending anendurance into the ether. The effect depends on the mar-gin on the talent roll which is two better per enduranceafter the first. The effect is apparent to anyone with spir-itual awareness. Spirits may flee, attack, or come to seewhat is going on when this ability is used.

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Margin Effect0 Communication is impossible during the seg-

ment the character screamed.1-2 Communication is blocked for three segments.3-4 Communication is blocked for a full round.5-6 Communication is blocked for five rounds.+2 Time of blocked communication doubles.

Spiritual Awareness

Requirement: Spirit 5Base Cost: 0 or moreBase Roll: Spirit+2xBase CostAdded Roll: n/aDetails:

The spiritual awareness talent permits a character tolearn spiritual skills and talents and opens their spiritualsenses so that they can be used. The base roll for manyspiritual skills and talents is listed as SA, the value ofthe character’s spiritual awareness roll. A character mayhave this talent at a level of zero base points. This repre-sents a character with spiritual potential but not trainingand with their spiritual “eyes” not yet open. Any char-acter with one or more points of spiritual awareness hasa ranged, directional sense that detects the use of spir-itual abilities and the ability to tell by touch if anothercharacter is spiritually aware.

Spiritual Subordination

Requirement: Spirit 6Base Cost: 5Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +2 (no limit)Details:

This ability is similar to rulership but it opens a men-tal link and joins the minds of the character exercising thetalent and the character the talent is exercised on. Sub-ordination is established with a mystical attack roll thatautomatically works if the target is willing to be subordi-nated. If the attack roll works then the target becomes apart of the character that subordinated them. They stillhave their own mind and personality, but the decisionsabout goals and objectives are made by the master. Thesubordinate character cannot disobey their master.

Subordination can be broken with spiritual damage ap-plied by a spiritually aware character - they can perceiveand directly attack the subordination. Otherwise the tar-get character remains subordinate. An exception to thisis if the subordinated character ends up on another planeof existence - the subordination ceases but resumes whenthey are again on the same plane of existence as theirmaster.

Telekinesis


This talent permits a character to exercise a strengthequal to their spirit at a distance. Starting telekine-sis requires a skill roll and grasping an object requiresa targeting roll at -1/3”. The telekinetic strength canbe increased by +3 per added point of base cost. Useof telekinesis requires concentration. Telekinesis can dodamage based its strength, as per the table after strengthin the introduction.

Telepathy


This power requires the character to make a mysticalattack to establish contact. This requires line of site orsome form of preliminary mental contact. The contact ismind to mind and can be used to target other spiritualabilities. A hit permits conversation. A hit with a mar-gin of three or more permits the character to read surfacethoughts. Margin of six or more permits the character toread thoughts not actively being concealed or repressed.A margin of at least nine permits the character to readeven thoughts being actively repressed of concealed. At amargin of at least twelve the character can read the tar-gets memories. A margin of fifteen of more the charactercan read into the character’s subconscious.

Teleportation

Base Cost: 1Base Roll: SAAdded Roll: +2(3)Details:

This talent permits a character to teleport in line-of-sight an number of inches up to twice the value of hisspirit statistic. Additional points of base cost may addinches equal to the spirit statistic. Failing the skill rollcauses the character to teleport incorrectly. Details aredetermined by the referee.

Truth Sense


This power permits the character that has it to knowis a statement made to them is true. A bald-faced lie

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requires the standard skill roll, subtle lies may garner areferee-supplied penalty. Making the skill roll by eightor more permits the character to detect the intention oflying in a character that is refusing to answer a question.

Intrinsic Abilities

Absorb Magic

This ability permits a character to absorb a spell or mag-ical effect directed at them (e.g. a mind control spell,but not a fireball). The ability has a base cost of threepoints. The character makes a roll of twice their magicstatistic to absorb a spell or magical effect. If the spellis absorbed it has no effect and the character accrues themana the spell cost to power. The mana may go into hismana reserve. If the character supercharges more thantheir magic statistic they lose the mana and take dam-age without armor equal to excess mana minus 4. Addedpoints of base cost can increase the limit of safe super-charge by an amount equal to the character’s magic. Theabsorption roll is +3 per added point spent.

Added Mental Stream

The spiritual skill and celestial talent multiple attentionpermit a character to have multiple attention streamswith a single mind. This intrinsic is intended for creaturesthat have multiple minds, e.g. a hydra with several heads.It costs one point per added mind. These minds typicallyshare their mind statistic. For two points the added mindshave their own, separate, mind statistic. Each mind hasits own attention stream. The creature must still buymultiple attacks to use multiple natural weapons. Eachmind may run its own spiritual, intuitional, or magicalabilities. For spells that require gestures or words, thesupply of hands and mouths must be adequate.

Added Body

A character may purchase added body for two charac-ter points each, but no more than three points. Noticethat added body is available more cheaply with the bodymodifiers density and larger which also are outside of thelimits of this intrinsic ability. A character may also sellback up to three body, gaining two points each.

Added Chi

A character may purchase added chi for four characterpoints each, but no more than three points.

Added Endurance

A character may purchase three points of added en-durance for one character point. No more added en-

durance may be purchased than the character’s base ma-terial allowance.

Added Essence

A character may purchase one point of added essence forone character point. No more added essence may be pur-chased than the character’s base material allowance.

Added Initiative

A character may purchase one point of added initiativefor one character point. No more added initiative maybe purchased than one-third the character’s base materialallowance. Initiative may be sold back for one point each.

Added Mana

A character may purchase two points of added mana forone character point. No more added mana may be pur-chased than the character’s base mystic allowance.

Added Mind

A character may purchase added mind for three characterpoints each, but no more than three points. A charactermay also sell back mind for three points each. If this sellback reaches two or less they must also take an appropri-ate type of insanity - see the combat rules for details.

Alter Reality

This intrinsic is a catch-all for the ability to modify thenature of reality in a particular way. Modifying a nat-ural law or mystical axiom for one object or creature ina temporary fashion costs five points. Area costs addi-tional points for 3” radius, up to 20”, up to 1km, upto 100km, entire world. The alteration lasts for up to aday with increasing cost for week, month, year, century,millennium, eternal. Alternately, the alteration may bevested in a physical focus which ends the alteration whenit is destroyed or broken. Alternations are typically notreversible but, if they are, the cost can go up or downdepending on the utility. Examples include: suspensionof gravity within an area, creating an area where magicdoes not work, granting a wish that modifies a person orplace.

The ability to change anything, in effect a wish, costs tenpoints. Typically wishes are hedged about with restric-tions that limit their power and the cost of the ability.Details are left to the referee.

Alternate Form

This power permits a character to have an alternate form.This covers dragons that have a human or animal form,lycanthropes, or even a creature of the netherworld that

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can assume someone’s form by eating them. It is differ-ent from transformation because it is completely reliable,not reversible by dispelling magic, and substantially morecostly. The base cost is one per five points in the alter-nate form. This assumes instantaneous transformation(one full action) at will. The cost is lower by a point eachas we move up the time scale full round, five rounds, tenminutes, one hour, one day. The cost savings are aver-aged if the time of transformation is different going intoour out of the alternate form.

The power is two cheaper if the forms have no memory ofone another, as in some forms of lycanthropy. The poweris up to three points cheaper if the transformation re-quires circumstances beyond the control of the characteror is forced by circumstances. Can only transform andmust transform during the full moon is three. Cannottransform on consecrated ground is one. Must kill an-other creature to transform is worth two, if that creatureis not trivial to kill. Other limitations on the ability totransform may be worth added cost savings.

Animal Communication

This intrinsic means that a character can speak to a typeof animal, at least as well as the animal can communicatewith other members of their own species. For one point,this intrinsic works on a single type of animal, e.g. dogs,pigeons. For two points it works on a broader categorylike canines or birds of prey. For three points is can reacha broad swath of the animal kingdom and for four pointsthe ability is general across the animal kingdom. Theability is limited to conveying and apprehending thingsthe animals themselves understand and the ability maybe limited by an inability to understand concepts basedon senses or attitudes he does not have. The details of thereason the character has this ability must be embeddedin their story.

Animal Empathy

This talent is similar to animal communication, in partic-ular in its costs, but it is a one way information channelthat permits the character to know what the animals arefeeling and to guess quite well what they might do next.The details of the reason the character has this abilitymust be embedded in their story. This ability works wellwith animal communication.

Animal Integration

This intrinsic permits a character to be perceived by ani-mals as an animal of the same type or another type thathe is familiar with. If the animals have a natural socialunit then this talent grants the character membership ifhe can make a personality roll at +2 per endurance ex-pended and with an animal specific minus. Sheep, which

are just fine with more herd members, would have no mi-nus. A wolf pack, which is a pretty exclusive organization,might have a minus of eight.

For two points, this intrinsic permits the character to in-tegrate as a single type of animal, e.g. dogs, pigeons. Forthree points it works on a broader category like canines orbirds of prey. For four points is can reach a broad swathof the animal kingdom and for six points the ability isgeneral across the animal kingdom. The details of thereason the character has this ability must be embeddedin their story.

Animal Mastery

This intrinsic grants the character the ability to commandthe loyalty and actions of a type of animals. It also grantsthe same abilities as animal communication so that thecharacter can communicate his desires or concerns to theanimals. The ability costs five points for a single type ofanimal, e.g. wolves. It costs eight points for a broadercategory like an ecotype, e.g. desert animals. It coststwelve points to be general for all animals.

Animation

This intrinsic permits a character to bestow minor fea-tures of animation on an inanimate object. For one basepoint the character can may an object that is moved inone way move on its own, e.g. a door that slams itselfshut. The ability permits the character to “charge” theobject to act once. For two base points the object mayactivate itself, e.g. self-lighting candle, or communicate asingle message, e.g. a purse that says “Here now! What’sthis?” when someone other than its owner opens it. Forthree base points the object may be both self-activatingand capable of simple communication. The restrictionthat the object may act once is relaxed for added points.It may act within a period of one week for one added pointand this may be increased on the spell duration table foradded points.

Armor

Armor is subtracted from the value of in an incoming at-tack before it is applied to a character as damage. Thecost of material armor is one for the first point and one perprevious point thereafter. Mystical armor has a cost onehigher than material armor; celestial armor is two pointsmore expensive. All three sorts of armor are purchasedseparately. Armor may be made cheaper for each pointit retards movement or each point it reduces the corre-sponding attack value. These penalties represent thick,cumbersome armor. Armor normally affects all damageof a given type (material, mystical, celestial). Armor thataffects only a broad class of damage is one cheaper; a nar-row class of damage two cheaper; a single type of damageis three cheaper.

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A creature may also pay three points to have a nar-row type of damage or attack be ineffective against them;examples include lightning, necromancy, or hell fire. Fivepoints will cover a broader category of damage such asfire, cold, edged weapons, etc. Armor may be purchasedwith range and area of effect like an attack. This repre-sents a sort of a field that reduces damage in the area ofeffect. This sort of armor may be interpreted as remov-ing source of damage whose maximum damage is smallerthan the armor, e.g. area effect fire armor might extin-guish small fires and cause others to lose intensity.

If an attack has an effect that is not damage based,e.g. a transformation attack, then the armor subtractsfour points from the skill, talent, or intrinsic roll for theattack to succeed. So two points of spiritual armor wouldreduce the margin of a mind-control attack by eight.

Ablative

Ablative armor wears away. Armor that loses a pointfor each four points of damage that gets past gets a costadvantage of one point. If it loses a points for every twopoints of damage that get past it it is two cheaper. If itloses a point for every point of damage that gets past it, itis three cheaper. Armor that can be completely removedby some circumstance, e.g. immersion, sunlight, is oneto three points cheaper depending on how common thecircumstance is.

Attacks

A natural weapon is a weapon that comes with character’sbody. A creature may have up to three natural weapons,three more per added character point. The maximumbase damage for a natural weapon is based on a charac-ter’s strength but they may buy additional damage. Acreature is also not required to use its full base natu-ral weapon damage in its natural weapons, rather theyshould be plausible given the creatures story. The crea-ture pays only for the best attack it has; costs are givenon the damage class table. See the description of thestrength statistic in the introduction.

Unless a creature buys the multiple attack intrinsic it canonly use one attack per segment. The cost of attacks isgiven by the damage class table; points are pair only forthe upgrade above the free initial value or zero, whicheveris better. A creature whose best attack has a negativecost, relative to its strength, gains points.

An attack may do mystic damage for +2 points and ce-lestial damage for +4 points if a character has a base al-lowance of at least 3 in the corresponding type of statis-tics. A character with sufficient base allowance gains abase damage that they get without cost when they buysuch an attack - this includes buying modifiers to the at-tack. See the section on combat for the rules for doingdamage and the effects of damage.

Damage Class Table

Cost 1 2 3 4 5 6

-6 0 0 0 0 0 0

-5 0 0 0 0 0 1

-4 0 0 0 0 1 1

-3 0 0 0 1 1 1

-2 0 0 1 1 1 1

-1 0 1 1 1 1 2

0 1 1 1 2 2 2

1 1 1 2 2 3 3

2 1 2 2 3 3 4

3 1 2 3 4 5 6

4 Best of 2

5 Best of 3

6 Best of 4

7 Best of 5

8 Best of 6

Area Attack

This ability permits an attack to fill an area. The crea-ture’s story must explain why the attack fills an area.One point buys a three close-hex area. Two points buysa diameter of up to 3”, a 60 degree cone of length 6”, a30 degree cone with a length of 9 hexes, or a line of eighthexes. One point adds +2” diameter or +4” on a cone,or +6 hexes in a line. Lines may turn to make more com-plex shapes. Range modifiers for an area effect attack are-1/1”, except for cones which start at the character withthe attack. Additional points may buy the range modifierup to -1/3” or -1/10”. A character may attempt to diveout of the area of an area effect attack with the dive forcover ability; see the section on combat for details.

An alternative form of a line of hexes is to have and effectthat dodges about in a random fashion. The effect startsat the caster and moves to a random adjacent hex notcloser to the caster, up to eight hexes. This costs onepoint and the caster may add an another direction forone point which gains an additional eight hexes.

Close 3 Diameter 3

Eight hexes

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Start

6” Cone. 60◦

Aura

This modifier permits an attack to affect anyone that hits,is hit by, or comes into direct contact with the characterthat has the aura for one added point. For two addedpoints, standing near the character (in an adjacent hex)will permit the character to use the attack. The attackdoes not usually require an attack roll unless the targetis spending an action of actively avoid the attack. Areaauras are permitted and follow the rules for area attacks- a single point is paid for the aura ability and then thearea of the aura is purchased separately. An aura lastsfor the segment that it is used unless some other modifieris used that extends its duration; paying the cost of thebase damage again permits the attack to simply stay on.

Continuing

A continuing attack is one that, once it has hit, auto-matically hits on subsequent actions as long as the crea-ture that made the attack uses its actions to continuethe attack. A continuing attack costs two added pointsif it requires concentration and continued presence. It istypically used to create an attack like that of a tick ormosquito where the creature continues to drain blood af-ter biting. Typically the attack can be ended by takingan appropriate action, e.g. applying fire to a tick or swat-ting a mosquito. A continuing attack may typically onlyaffect one target and only if the creature performing theattack is attached to the character taking damage.

Another use of the continuing attack is to create a woundthat keeps getting worse, like flesh rapidly rotting or awound that continues to bleed. Each instance of the at-tack continues to do damage. For this version of con-tinuing attack, the cost is twice the damage class of thecontinuing attack, to a minimum of one. A wounding at-tack that does a class zero attack every round until dealtwith costs one point; a class III continuing attack wouldcost six points. A continuing attack of this sort must

have a fairly obvious method of stopping it, e.g. bindthe wound, cauterize the wound, dispel magic, or a spellthat ends disease. For two added points, the techniquefor dealing with the wound may be somewhat more es-oteric, e.g. cauterize and dispel magic or cauterize witha heated silver blade. Notice that, unless it purchasespenetration or some similar quality, the initial attack isagainst armor; the continuing effects only kick in if theinitial wound does one point of damage.

An area effect continuing attack may, for two addedpoints, spread so that it fills its base area again eachsegment. This happens in a natural fashion - e.g. firespreading through flammable material or may happen ina preprogrammed shape. The modifier controllable canmake the attack dynamically controllable by the caster.

Controllable

This attack modification costs one point. It represents anattack that that caster may turn on or off at will. This isnot, of course, useful for an attack that hits, does damage,and is over. A continuing attack however can be modifiedto snap-on, snap-off status. This modifier also permits acharacter to shape continuing area effect attacks that canspread.

Explosion

This is an effect added to an area effect attack. It causesthe attack to do damage at the edge of the area of effect.The attack declines one damage class per hex to the near-est part of the explosion for one added point, one damageclass per two hexes for two added points, one damageclass per four hexes for three added points, one damageclass per eight hexes for four added points and so on. Thespending on explosion may not be more than the cost forthe base area. The continuing damage is in the directionthe attack was already going.

Gaze Attack

For three added points an attack may be used on anyonethe caster gazes at firmly. If the gaze must be met the at-tack costs a single point. A gaze attack permits a creatureto attack up to three targets per segment. Gaze attacksare limited to 20” range; the range may be extended 10”for one added point.

Fire-and-forget

This modification to an attack permits the attack toswing back and try again if it misses. It does this eachsegment. For one point the attack gets a second try. Thetotal number of tries to hit is doubled for each addedpoint. This modification is usually be applied to targetedattacks that are attempting to hit a single target. Ballsof fire that, if they miss, fly back the next segment andmake another hit roll.

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Highly Effective

A highly effective attack is one that, if it hits, yields aninstant kill. A highly effective attack with a very narrowrange of possible targets or which works in a very narrowarea (e.g. members of a single blood-line, a single castleor crypt) costs five points. A moderate range of targets(demons, dragons, characters from a single barony or is-land) costs ten points. Wider areas or ranges of targetscost additional multiples of five. A highly effective attackdoes class 0 damage or no damage – depending on thestory that explains it – against targets of the wrong sort.The damage to non-targets may be purchased in the nor-mal manner to raise it above zero. A light-of-the-godsspell that vaporizes demons and does class III damageotherwise, for example, would cost thirteen points.

Large Area

This modifier has a base cost equal to the half the damagedone, e.g. two for a class five attack, three for a classsix attack, but a minimal cost of one. The permits thatfunctions in a radius of 10” or in a line of 40 hexes, with upto three times the radius or linear length per added point.For one more added point the attack may cover a simplesubset of the area; for two it may fill a complex shape.Non-damage abilities that may “buy area as an attack”use their base points as the attack cost. An example of asimple subset is a ring or cone. A complex subset mightbe walls forming a maze of some sort or a pattern ofcircles. This attack modifier may not be combined withthe Area modifier.

Line of Sight Attack

A line of sight attack does damage to anyone that is look-ing at the character that launches the attack and that iswithin range. For one point the radius of effect is 3”, fortwo points it is 10”, for three points it is 30”, three timesas far per +1 point. A line of sight effect can be avoidedby averting the eyes but, if a character is looking, doesnot otherwise need a hit roll. If an attack simply fills anarea then the modifier “Area Effect” and “Large Area”should be used instead. An example of a LoS attack is acharacter that has a form so hideous as to do a mysticalattack, one that damage mind, just from looking on thecharacter.

Multiple Attack

This ability permits a creature, if its story and body areadequate to the task, to make multiple attacks in a sin-gle segment. The creature may make one added attackper segment per character point spent. A creature thatspends two added points on multiple attack could managea claw, claw, bite attack, for example.

Napalm Attack

This ability modifies an attack so that it continues to dodamage after it hits, automatically. For three points anapalm attack does damage for one additional segment.The number of added segments doubles for each addi-tional point. Damage accrues at the end of each segment.The napalm ability is reduced in cost by one point if thereis a, possibly obscure, way to stop the damage early, e.g.rinse the wound in wine or stronger spirits. It is twopoints cheaper if there is an obvious way to stop the at-tack (jump in water). It is three points cheaper if thereare several obvious ways to stop the damage (cover witha tarp, roll on the ground, douse with buckets of water).

For three added points a napalm attack can be made con-tagious. Anyone touching or touched by the character inquestion takes the remainder of the damage the attackdoes.

Penetrating Attack

This ability permits an attack to ignore points of armor.Each point of penetration of an attack causes one of thepoints of damage it does to leak through in spite of armor.Points of penetration cost two points each if they can leakthrough any sort of armor and one point each if they canonly leak through specific sorts of armor, i.e. made ofliving or formerly living materials.

Poison, Insinuative

Insinuative poison is a second attack that only does dam-age if another physical attack does damage to a target.This requirement that a physical attack must hit and dodamage to permit poison to work is cost neutral with theability of a poison attack to ignore normal, physical ar-mor. Poison is considered to be a narrow class of damagefor the purpose of purchasing special armor against it.

Ranged Attack

This ability permits a material attack to function atrange. One point buys a -1/3” range modifier, two pointsbuys -1/10”, and three buys -1/30”. This modifier mayapply to any of a creature’s natural weapons, though thereason this is possible must be a part of the creature’sstory. An attack that can roll a normal hit at any rangecosts five added points. This permits attacks to fly acrossan entire city, for example.

Slow Acting

An attack that requires until the end of the segment totake effect and which may be avoided by getting out ofthe way before then is one point cheaper. If it must beapplied for two segments before doing damage it is twocheaper. Each doubling of the time-to-have effect afterthat decreases cost by one more to a minimum cost ofone.

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Specific Attack

A specific attack damages only a limited class of targets.The cost for this is usually zero. If there is a substantialadvantage or disadvantage then the referee may assess acost of one to three points in either direction. An areaeffect attack that only affects undead, for example, wouldbe a two point advantage because it can be used in amixed crowd and not hurt the attacker’s allies. A singletarget attack of a similar sort with have no added cost;usually it is easy to tell undead from non-undead targets.

Trace Based

A trace is something like a lock of air, a fingernail clipping,or a sample of blood. For three added points, an attackmay act at any distance if a trace is available to targetthe attack. This added feature costs five points if it needsto cross planar boundaries to act. When a trace is usedin an attack, it loses its connection to the target and socannot be reused. A lock of hair, even if separated intoseveral parcels, ceases to be useful when any part of it isused to target an attack.

Triggered Attack

This modifier permits an attack to be bound into a phys-ical object to be released when simply trigger conditionsare met. It costs one point if a single instance of theattack may be bound, two if multiple instances may bebound in; these must be available. Additional points mayalso permit more complex trigger conditions. The exactprice is left to the referee.

Alternatively, an attack may be thrown that does not doits damage until a trigger condition is met. A simpletrigger costs one point, a moderately complex one coststwo points, a very complex trigger condition costs threepoints. For one point an attack may be part of a barrier,affecting anyone that touches the barrier, e.g. a freezingcold wall of ice.

Unobtrusive

This modifier makes it hard to notice an attack that hits.An attack by contact poison or a bite with anestheticsaliva are examples of unobtrusive attacks. The reasonthe attack is unobtrusive must be incorporated into thestory of the character that has it. For one point, a rollof 3d6 against intellect is required to notice the attack.For two points a roll against half intellect is required.For three points the attack can only be notice by spe-cial senses or abilities. If the attack is clearly visible,such as a bite on the forearm in plain sight, this mod-ifier is negated. In general the referee will decide whatadditional circumstance might negate this modifier. If anunobtrusive attack succeeds then the character does notnotice they are taking damage.

Barrier

A barrier fills or obstructs hexes to a height of two meterswith material that prevents progress until it is removed ordestroyed. This material has three body and three pointof armor that works against most attacks. A barrier ofthis sort is roughly equivalent to packed earth, costs onepoint, and fills at most three hexes. Improvements canbe purchased as follows. Additional body costs one-thirdof a point, additional armor costs one-half point up toa value of five and one point thereafter. The number ofhexes that can be filled triples for each added point; eachtwo meters higher the wall is in a specific hex is chargedas an increase in the number of hexes.

If there is a type of not-too-uncommon attack that ishighly effective against a wall (evaporates it) then the wallis five points cheaper; three if the attack is uncommon. Ifthere is a rare attack that evaporates the wall, then thewall is one cheaper. If there is a fairly common or wellknow attack that ignores the armor of the wall and doesbody directly, then the wall is two cheaper. If a commonattack or collection of attacks ignores the armor then thewall is three cheaper. A wall has a minimum cost of one.

Walls may support weight, e.g. used as an improvisedbridge, but this requires roughly 3 body and one armorper fifty kilos of mass in a single crossing character. Thestory about why the barrier exists must also be consistent.Barriers may be transparent, translucent, or opaque; onesided transparency costs a point. Damage equal to thebody of the wall clears one hex, plus one hex per point ofbody beyond that value. The wall lasts indefinitely. If itis gone after a day it is one point cheaper, an hour two,ten minutes, three.

Blinding

A blinding attack deprives a character of the use of asense for one round, by touch. The cost is the same asthe cost of the sense or three, whichever is smaller, butnot less then one. The amount of time the blindness lastsmay be increased for added points one the scale: fiverounds, ten minutes, one hour, one day, one week, untilcured. Blindness may buy range and area of effect as ifit were an attack. Blindness that can be reversed by anarcane method (e.g. dispel magic) is one cheaper, a simpleobvious method (wash out your eyes) is two cheaper. Theminimum cost for a blindness attack is one.

Body Modifiers

The intrinsics in the section modify the body of a charac-ter. Those with negative cost actually grant the charac-ter additional points. A character may also take negativerunning or swimming movement as appropriate to gener-ate more points based on body shape. A body modifierthat can be turned on and off in a single action coststhree additional points; if it can be turned on or off in

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a round it costs two more; if it can be turned on andoff at a timescale beyond that of normal combat it costsone additional point. Nominally body modifiers cannotbe turned on and off.

A character’s size is the number of points spent onthe modifiers Larger or Smaller, the latter being negative.The character’s density is the number of points spent onbeing Denser. Negative density is purchased under plia-bility and is -1 if they can flow like water or -3 if they candrift like mist.

Added Reach

A character’s reach is usually to adjacent hexes only, un-less they buy additional size. This intrinsic increases acharacter’s reach by 2” per added point. The charactermust have a reason for the added reach - a long neck,tentacles, or a strangely shaped body.

Denser

A character normally has a density slightly below thatof water. Each two points spent on this ability doublesthe character’s density. Points spent on increased densityare subtracted from the cost of intrinsic armor againstmaterial damage, with a minimum cost of one for thearmor. A character may buy one point of additional bodyat a cost of one point for each two points of density theypurchase.

Distributed Body

This ability permits a character to have a body made upof a lot of individual pieces like a swarm of insects, apack or rats, or a flock of bats. The reason the characteris made up of (or can transform into) a distributed collec-tion of bits must be in the character’s story. Attacks thathit an area dense with elements of the character’s dis-tributed body hit the character normally, but a charactermay buy armor at a cost reduced by two to represent thefact that the distributed body is harder to damage – ifit is. The total mass and volume of the character is thatindicated by its size and density; the individual elementsmay distribute in a natural fashion.

For two points the distributed character is only awareof itself when the elements are within a relatively shortdistance of one another. It becomes no more than itsparts if it scatters, through it will instinctively come to-gether again, possibly with damage, if some individualsare lost. For three points, the individual is still thereeven when the elements are distributed, but they actindependently without the information available to theother parts, joining memories only when back in prox-imity. For five points, the bits are in continuous mysticalcontact (the nature of which must be specified in the char-acter’s story). Normally the bits are all of approximately

the same size; the top-to-bottom variation in size is pur-chased as the modifiers Larger and Smaller which appliesto only some of the parts of the distributed structure.

If the creature can form a mouth, tentacles, armsor some other member capable of manipulation then thisbody modifier costs five points. A gaseous creature is notharmed by solid weapons unless they are at least half thesize of its body - it just flows around them. Other attackstypically affect the creature normally. Gaseous creaturescan spread out to some degree but should buy size orother intrinsics if this ability grants an advantage.

Larger

A character normally has a height of about 160cm. Eachtwo points spent on this ability adds a meter of heightto a biped or scales other body shapes similarly. Pointsspent on being larger are subtracted from the cost of in-trinsic armor against material damage, with a minimumcost of one for the armor. A character can typically reachonly into adjacent hexes. Each three points spent on be-ing larger, rounded normally, extend this reach by one.Points spent on being larger are added to material sen-sory rolls to see a character. A character may buy onepoint of additional body at a cost of one point for eachtwo positive points of larger they purchase. Each twopoints of larger subtracts one from a creatures materialdefense.

Limbs

Limbs capable of manipulation are worth one characterpoint each and a character may buy more or sell off suchlimbs. Additional non-manipulative limbs are free andloss of such limbs only generates points by selling backmovement. A character may increase the reach of any orall of their limbs with the intrinsic Added Reach.

Pliable

This ability permits a character to squeeze through tightplaces, half the diameter he otherwise could, for one point.The divisor is increased by two for each additional char-acter point. Alternatively for three points a charactermay flow like water; for five they may drift like mist.Liquid creatures may still use their swimming movement;gaseous creatures must have flight of some sort to leavethe ground. Points spent on pliability are subtracted fromthe cost of material armor with a minimum cost of onefor the armor.

If the creature can form a mouth, tentacles, arms orsome other member capable of manipulation when fluidor gaseous, then this body modifier costs two addi-tional points. A gaseous creature is not harmed by solidweapons unless they are at least half the size of its body -it just flows around them. Other attacks typically affectthe creature normally. Gaseous creatures can spread out

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to some degree but should buy size or other intrinsics ifthis ability grants an advantage.

Pouch

This intrinsic permits a character to have a pouch thatcan carry twice as much as the character could carry inboth hands, increasing the volume by a like amount foreach added point. For one added point the pouch is well-hidden.

Smaller

Each two points spent on this ability makes the characterhalf as large and one-eighth as heavy. Points spent onbeing smaller are subtracted from both falling damageand material sensory rolls to see the character. Each twopoints of smaller adds +1 to a character’s material de-fense. A character of size -2 or less has reduced reach; itdoes not reach into adjacent hexes. Really small creaturesmay want to take the body modifier tiny instead.

BipedPts Height0 200cm1 141cm2 100cm3 71cm4 50cm5 35cm6 25cm7 18cm8 13cm9 9cm10 6cm11 4cm12 3cm

Tiny

This modifier makes a character the size of a not terri-bly large insect or smaller. For one point they are 1-5cmacross; two points allows sizes below 1cm but at least1mm; three points allows a character to be below 1mm.The character’s tinyness must be consistent with theirstory. A tiny character has a running or swimming move-ment of at most 1” and this only if it is allowed by theirstory. A tiny character may have normal flying move-ment, but must pay an extra point for it. A tiny charactergains +4 material defense per point spent on tiny – thisis not as good as the bonus for smaller, but the creatureis much less mobile and so gains less of a bonus.

Two-dimensional

This ability costs three points. It causes the characterto become two-dimensional, a shadow, a patch of colors,or a creature that exists on or in a surface. The exact

reason and mechanics of being two dimensional must bepart of the character’s story. The effects of being two di-mensional are as follows. Physical attacks do half theirnormal number of damage classes and the character maynot do physical damage. Magical attacks and those thatare not physical, like lightning or fire, still do full dam-age to the character. The character can move throughthe thinnest openings, cracks under doors for example,but the opening must be wide enough for the character’ssmallest diameter. This body modifier may be combinedwith the modifier pliable.

Breathes Alternate Medium

A character breathes one medium (air, water, etc.) forfree. A creature can breather two media for one point,and any number (or none) for two points. Most constructsmust by “need not breathe” for two points.

Command

This ability permits a character to control other charac-ters. The base ability works on a single category (animals,people, a type of elemental, undead, or demons, etc.) Fortwo points the character may make notions appear in thetargets head as if they thought of them themselves. Threepoints makes the character want to follow through on thesuggestion. Four points compels obedience, through thecreature is given an appropriate roll to resist if the com-mand is something they don’t want to do. Five pointscompels obedience short of death. Six points compelseven suicidal obedience.

The obedience lasts for ten minutes and this may beincreased one level on the spell duration table for eachadded point. Added or broadened categories have costsdetermined by the referee. Command typically affects asingle creature by touch, but range and area may be pur-chased as with attacks. Suggestions are made on a one-ffbasis, but the effects of the command ability typically lastfor five rounds and may be bought up and down levels onthe spell effects duration chart for an additional point perlevel.

Contact

This intrinsic permits a character to contact another char-acter anywhere in the world. The contact may be tele-pathic, come as a vision, or be as simple as a pair oflinked piece of paper so that anything written one oneappears on the other. Contact equivalent to telegraphmessages costs two points, direct speech three points, be-ing able to sense one another and adjacent locations costsfour points. It costs and added point to reach betweenworlds at the same celestial level and two to reach be-tween realms on different celestial levels, e.g. earth andthe netherworld or earth and the realms of brightness.

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Creation

This intrinsic permits the rapid creation of a mundaneobject. For one point the object may be created in tenminutes, e.g. a giant spider filling an normal door (onehex) with thick, tough web equivalent to canvas. Addedpoints may be used to buy area of effect, permitting theobject to be larger. The time of creation may be movedup and down levels of the spell duration table for a pointeach as well. One point permits creation in a minute, twoin a round, three in a segment. Times longer than tenminutes decrease the cost of the power, but not belowone.

Darkness

This ability permits a character to create a zone of dark-ness with a 3” radius. While it is traditional for darknessto block sight, darkness may be purchased that block anysense. Hearing darkness, for example, is a zone of si-lence. Darkness costs one point, plus one point for addi-tional sense it covers. The radius doubles per added point.Nominal darkness either may be centered on a characteror object or left in a fixed location. The amount of timethe darkness lasts depends on the reason it exists. Dark-ness that lasts longer than a round without being activelymaintained will incur an additional cost using the spellduration table.

Darkness that can be removed, e.g. smoke that can beblown away, is cheaper. The shape of darkness may bechanged as long as the area remains roughly constant ordecreases. For one added point darkness may be used asan attack in which case it sticks to the target. Darknessmay buy range as if it were a non-area attack.

If a character is purchasing an attack that affects an areathen they may add darkness to it as a side effect at a costof one point per sense. This sort of darkness inherits therange, area, and duration of the attack it is based on.

Deflection

This ability makes a character harder to hit with a rangedattack. Typically this ability is no help against area effectattacks and affects missiles of one kilogram or less. Rollsto hit the character are reduced by one for one point,three for two points, five for three points, eight for fourpoints, and at five points the ability simply deflects mis-siles automatically. Normally the ability does not deflectsingle-target ranged spells. For two added points the abil-ity can deflect such spells. The mass of missile affectedmay be multiplied by ten for each added point. This abil-ity may also purchase area of effect about the characterthat has is so that missiles that hit the edge of the areaare deflected, like a force shield.

Dematerialize

This ability costs seven points. It permits a characterto become transparent to material attacks of all kinds.A dematerialized creature can walk through walls usingtheir normal movement. They cannot pick up materialobjects, through those objects on their person follow theminto the dematerialized state (if this is not true the abilityis two points cheaper). The character is still visible butlooks different (transparent, glowing aura, etc.) For twoadded points the character can have a normal appearance.

A dematerialized character can still use mystical and ce-lestial powers and can still be affected by them. Theability is one point cheaper if a limited number of kindsof damage can affect them in their dematerialized state.If a broad collection of types of damage can affect themthe cost is three less. If the ability to dematerialize affectsonly a single type of substance, e.h. metal, the ability isfive cheaper. The details of how dematerialization worksdepend on the reasons in the character’s story for havingthe power.

Demiplane

This ability permits a creature to create a small plane ofreality. This ability costs five points and creates a 100”diameter plane with a single entrance that the charactermust craft. The points for this ability become boundin the plane so the character may create only one suchplane. The physics and rules for the plane are chosenby the character, though they cannot grant unbalancedadvantage and must be approved by the referee. Theplane is 10x as large per point of added cost and thenumber of entrances are multiplied by three.

If the character has access to different planes or dimen-sions, the entrances may be placed in different dimen-sions. An entrance may be anything from a pinhole to aboundary the size of the circumference of the plane. Adruid with this ability might create additional woods andplace the boundary as a continuous belt within the exist-ing wood. This would make the wood larger on the insideand create an inner wood where the druid could establishdifferent rules – like “undead take damage every round”or “Healing rate is doubled”.

Viewed as powers, the additional rules in a demiplanethat grant an advantage cost as much as creating thedemiplane. The number of points available may be in-creased by +3 by adding another point of based cost thataffect nothing else. Rules like gravitation or humidityhave no cost and are at the creator’s whim. When thecreator of a demiplane dies the plane either collapses orbecomes stable in its own right; which is established whenthe plane is created.

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Disbelief

All sentient characters have this ability at zero pointsand the roll is the best of their personality, magic, orresilience. It is the ability to tell that an illusion is anillusion and to avoid taking damage from it. The rollassumes the character is concentrating on disbelief; it isfour worse if the character is not concentrating, with thisrising to -2 if they have disbelieved a specific illusion be-fore. This ability to disbelieve to avoid damage does notapply to damage due to use of strength by illusions asthis is a form of real force. The roll is +2 per point spenton this ability. A character that manages to disbelieve anillusion can typically also see that it is fake.

Dismissal

This ability permits a character to send a creature that isnot on its home plane of reality or which was summonedfrom a distant location back to its place of origin. Theability costs five points and requires a combat hit to exer-cise. Dismissal may purchase range and areas of effect asan attack. If the creature may resist with a roll based onan appropriate statistic, at minus the dismissal attack’srelevant margin, then the ability has a cost that is twolower. The ability is typically applicable to a moderatelybroad category like demons or summoned undead. Thebreadth of the categories may be adjusted by modifyingthe cost of the ability at referee discretion.

Drain

A drain attack remove points of a statistic by touch andmay buy range and area as may a damaging attack. Theattack has the same class structure as a damaging at-tack but pays a premium for the type of statistic drained.Draining Mana and endurance has an added cost of zero.Draining material statistics have a added cost of one,body, mind, and initiative have a premium of two, mys-tic statistics have a premium of three, celestial statisticsfour.

The statistics return at a rate of one per round. The timebefore return may be increased for added points on thescale round, ten minutes, hour, six hours, day, month,year, permanent. If there is an easy way to restore thepoints early, the intrinsic is three cheaper to a minimumcost of one. A moderately hard method reduces cost two,a difficult method reduces the cost by one. Alternatively,if the statistic drained is a consumable like mana or en-durance then it comes back the same way it would havehad it been expended; this has no additional cost.

Duplication

This ability is one that permits a creature to make anindependent duplicate of itself. This can be a mysticalevent or something as simple as reproduction by fission.The ability costs one point if it may be used once per year

and results in reduced capabilities for at least a week. Thetime of reduced capabilities can be decrease for additionalpoints on the schedule day, hour, minute, segment. Thefrequency of use can be improved on the schedule month,week, day, three hours, ten minutes. Duplication can bemade cheaper if it requires materials. The decrease incost is proportional to the rarity, value, and difficulty ofobtaining materials.

End Magic

This intrinsic permits a character to end a spell, disen-chant a consumable magic item, or suppress the actionof a durable magic item. This intrinsic costs two pointsand functions by touch with a base roll of the charac-ter’s magic statistic. A character point buys an increaseof three to the roll. End magic may purchase range andarea as may an attack. An area effect end magic abilityis rolled individually against every magical object in thearea.

When attempting to end magic the roll takes the basecost of the spell or ritual that it is attempting to end as apenalty. Making the roll will end a spell or disenchant aconsumable magic item. It will also cause a durable itemto stop functioning for a round if the roll is made exactly,with the time double for each point of margin.

Enhancement

Enhancement permits a character to increase a statis-tic that they themselves have in another character. Onepoint of enhancement permits a character to increase thatstatistic by one while they touch the other character. Ad-ditional points of statistic increase cost an amount equalto the number of previous points of enhancement. Theability can be made to function at range for one addi-tional point. The statistic enhancement can be made tolast for ten minutes after the touch for one point, addi-tional points increase this duration on the scale hour, sixhours, day, week, month, year. This ability may buy areaof effect as may a physical attack. Normally a charac-ter with enhancement may affect one other person. Themaximum number of people affected is tripled be eachadditional point. The mechanism and details of enhance-ment must appear in a character’s story.

Expend Endurance Quickly

Normally a character can expend a maximum of threeendurance per segment. A character may increase thislimit to four for a point, five for three points, six forsix points, seven for ten points, and so on. Similarly, ifthe maximum expenditure is lowered to two a charactergets a one point problem, lowered to one is a three pointproblem, and inability to expend endurance is a six pointproblem.

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Fear

This intrinsic permits a character to make another char-acter feel fear. A basic fear attack costs one point. Thetarget must, in the judgment of the referee, be able tofeel fear. The attack is delivered by touch or at short,interpersonal distance depending on the mechanism thatis used to produce the fear. This intrinsic may purchaserange and area as may an attack. The effects of a fearattack are variable and depend largely on the characterof the target. The table below may be used to generatefear results, but if a result in not plausible, the refereecan re-roll – and he is always free to choose a proper fearreaction.

3d6 Reaction3-6 Cower, shivering5-7 Class VI penalty to hit, skill, talent rolls8-9 Hide, behind someone or inside something10 Class V penalty to hit, skill, talent rolls11 Flee in Terror12 Class IV penalty to hit, skill, talent rolls

13-14 Attack violently in terror15-16 Unconsciousness roll

17 Avoid attacking the character launchingthe fear attack

18 Class III penalty to hit, skill, talent rolls

The effects of fear may be resisted with a personality rollwhich is -3 per added point spent on the fear attack. Non-material characters use the better of magic, spirit, or re-silience to resist. Normally the effects of a fear attacklast for one round – with a good reason in the character’sstory they may points for time increments from the spellduration table.

Forget

This intrinsic is an attack that causes the target to forgetthe immediate past. For one point it wipes out about aminute of memory. Added points increase this to up tofive minutes, one hour, six hours, a day, a week, a month,and a year. Use of the attack requires a touch and affectsa single target. The forget may purchase area and rangeas may an attack.

Free Action

This intrinsic permits a character to move and act nor-mally in what might otherwise be an obstructed envi-ronment. For one point this intrinsic permits motion inone type of environment, e.g. being able to move freelyin woodlands, under water, across rooftops, or througha network of tunnels with partial cave-ins and other in-conveniences. For two points, the ability is more generaland applies to classes of environments. For three pointsthe ability is completely general and may be applied any-where. This intrinsic does not open passages, rather it

makes them easy for the character to find. The abili-ties granted by free action must be consistent with andexplained in the character’s story.

Hard to Dispel

This ability is added to the cost of a magical effect of anytype. In makes the magic affect harder for the intrinsicEnd Magic or the effects based on it like the spell DispelMagic to work. Each point spent on harder to dispelsubtracts four from rolls to end an effect.

Hard to Knock Out

The base roll for consciousness is the best of any baseallowance, strength, personality, or twice resilience. Halfa character’s positive size and density are added to theconsciousness roll. A character may also buy additionalpoints of consciousness roll at a cost of one character pointto improve the roll by two. Typically characters are lim-ited to three points of expenditure on this intrinsic.

Hard to Hit

The material version intrinsic represents anything fromspines that deflect blows and missiles to long experiencewith melee gone subliminal. A character may purchaseone additional material defense for one point. The pointsof additional mystical defense or celestial defense may alsobe purchased for two and three points respectively. Costis reduced by one point if only a broad category of attacksis affected, e.g. missiles, and two points if only a narrowcategory of attacks is affected, e.g. metal weapons.

Hard to Hold

This intrinsic represent some quality - a slick coating, acat’s ability to turn in its skin - that makes it harderto hold onto or restrain a character. Each point grantstwo apparent added brawn, to a maximum of +6, solelyfor the purpose of escaping holding or restraint. This in-trinsic only functions if its justification in the character’sstory makes it reasonable that it would.

Healing and Regeneration

Healing and regeneration are the reverse of taking dam-age. A character normally has healing equivalentto an attack with a damage class of zero that actsonce per day. The damage class of a character’s nat-ural healing may be increased or decreased by one percharacter point; damage classes below zero actually gen-erate points and are considered problems. The time forone instance of healing to take place may be changed oneplace per character point on the scale year, month, week,day, hour, ten minutes, one minute, one round. Times

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longer than one day represent impaired healing and gener-ate character points as problems. Regeneration is simplythe fast end of healing.

Healing is applied as follows. The damage level of thehealing “attack” is rolled. If the corresponding circle onthe character sheet is filled, the healing empties it. If thatcircle is empty, all circles below it are emptied. If thatcircle and all the circle below it are empty then the lowestcircle above it is emptied and all the circles between it andthe damage level of the healing attack are filled.

Healing for material, mystical, and celestial damage arepurchased separately. Enhanced healing in a categoryrequires a base allowance of 3 or more in that category.The points spent on healing in a category may not bemore than the character’s base allowance.

Hidden Form

This intrinsic costs three points. It permits a characterto have an alternate form in which they are unconscious,have three points of added armor, and cannot move. Thiscould represent turning into a large stone, becoming atree, freezing solid, or any of a number of other condi-tions. The hidden form must have conditions that triggerreversion to normal form. The character can buy addi-tional armor that works only in hidden form for half price.For two added points the character can remain consciousand observe his surroundings and manage his own rever-sion.

Hide

This ability permits a character to move an object intoa hidden location, another dimension, dematerialized, orsome other state in which the object is entirely immate-rial. The object vanishes. The object may be recalled ei-ther by the character that sent it or by a trigger such as aword or simple ritual. The object may either be returnedto the location where it vanished or to the same positionit had relative to the character that hid it. The abilitycosts one point if it may be used on only one object, twoif it may be used on as many objects as the character’smystical or celestial base allowance, whichever the intrin-sic depends on. The number of objects may be increasedby the relevant base allowance for each point of addedcost.

Invisibility

This ability represents being inapparent to a sense. Theability costs two points to yield invisibility to a singlesense with a moderate active range (e.g. normal sight).The active range for one sense may be increases for oneadded point; additional senses may be added for oneadded point. Invisibility that leaves a trace or ripple atclose range is one point cheaper. Invisibility that ends ata violent action is also one point cheaper.

Life Bond

This intrinsic creates a linkage between two creatures thatcosts one point. The effect is that the two creatures havethe ability to anticipate and understand one anothersneeds and desires. It substantially increases their abil-ity to cooperate. Added cost permit a life bond to doother things:

• For one point the characters can share their mana.

• For one point the characters can share their en-durance.

• For one point the characters share senses.

• For one point the characters can speak mentally.

A life bond is cheaper by two points if when one memberof the bond must save versus unconsciousness when theother does. An additional creature may be added to thelife bonds for one point; the number of added creaturestriples for each added point.

Light

This ability permits a character to illuminate a 5” radiuswith light bright enough to read by for one point. Theradius illuminated grows by 5” for every added point. Fortwo added points the light may have special qualities thatcommonly occur in nature like sunlight or moonlight. Asalways a character that can generate illumination musthave a good reason for it in their story.

Magic Shield

This ability costs two points. It permits a character tosummon up a shield about themselves that protects themfrom magical spells and effects. The shell absorbs thecharacter’s mana, draining him. Once established, theshield can absorb four times the mana expended in in-coming spells or magical effects. The shield stops manathat is directed at the caster, as long as it has not alreadybeen expended to create damage. The shell cannot thusabsorb a fireball unless it is targeted on the character withthe antimagic. A mind control or blindness spell woulddefinitely be absorbed.

To absorb the spell the character must make a rollequal to their base mystical allowance plus the remain-ing strength in the shield. If this roll is made, the spell’smana is deducted from the shield, and the spell has noeffect. The shield lasts until the character loses conscious-ness or runs out of shield points. Added points of cost forthe ability improve the roll to absorb by three each. Theshield uses up a character’s mana unless the have magetalent or pay an added point of base cost. In that casethey may choose the amount of mana expended.

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Mark

This ability represents the ability to mark another char-acter, making him more noticeable in some way. For onepoint a mark that takes a day to wear off and which isnot debilitating can be purchased, e.g. a skunk’s abilityto spray an enemy. The duration may be moved up anddown the spell duration table for reduced or increasedpoints, but the mark has a minimum cost of one point.For two points, the mark may be obvious to a class ofcreatures but not the marked character, e.g. you smelltasty and obvious to demons but cannot sense that tasti-ness yourself. For three points the mark can be mysticaland bizarre, e.g. making someone clearly visible, as if il-luminated, even when they are in darkness. The reason acharacter has the ability to mark others in some fashionmust be a part of their story.

Molding

This ability permits the character to mold, like stiff clay,a hard, rigid substance that may not normally be molded.Examples include ice, wood, stone, and glass. Oncemolded the substance returns to its former hardness andrigidity. The ability costs two points. For one additionalpoint, the ability permits the character to shape things assoft clay. Two additional points permit shaping by men-tal force. The ability to shape may buy range and areaas may an attack.

Movement

This section lists the base values for different types ofmovement as well as the cost for added movement. Ifa type of movement does not have a base cost then anycharacter whose story permits the type of movement mayhave it. A character may increase their movement in agiven category by expending endurance. Normally thisexpenditure is at most three endurance, each of whichincreases movement as much as one additional characterpoint can buy. All computations of base movement val-ues are rounded normally. Note that creatures with amaterial base allowance of two or less cannot use stan-dard material movement. They use the movement typedrifting.

Drifting

This form of movement is similar to flight, but is basedon the exercise of will. It has a cost of zero for creatureswith a material base allowance of two or less, e.g. spirits.For a material creature the ability to move by pureforce of will costs three points. The base movementfor drifting is the best of spirit, magic, ascendancy, orpersonality. A character may expend one mana to driftfive additional hexes in an action; this is analogous tospending endurance on physical movement. Additionaldrifting movement costs one point per 2”.

Flight

The nominal value for flight is a character’s agility andthe ability to fly costs two character points. A pointof endurance increases the distance a character can fly ina segment by three. A character’s positive (but not nega-tive) size is added to their agility before flying movementis computed. A character’s positive density is subtractedfrom their agility before flying movement is computed.Additional flying movement costs one character point perthree added points of movement. A character that flysby force of will may use the value of their spirit or ascen-dance instead of agility. Flight otherwise requires wingsor some other physical justification. Creature that fly byjust thinking may use the movement type drifting.

Gliding

Gliding costs one point and permits a character to de-scend from a great height. The maximum gliding velocityis equal to twice the character’s agility but is also no morethan the height descended. A character may also rise byone-third of the velocity of a headwind and on a thermalas the referee permits. Added points invested in glidingraise the maximum velocity by three. A character mayalso gain one point of height per endurance expended iftheir reason for gliding permits.

Hypermovement

This intrinsic modifies other movement. Each point spenton hypermovement triples the other form of movement.Hypermovement may not be used simply to increase acharacter’s movement - that is done by purchasing addedpoints of movement for the costs stated in the descriptionof the type of movement. The intrinsic hypermovementis used to simulate a mystic or celestial power from thecharacter’s story. For one added point the character canbe hard to notice while using hypermovement, for twoadded points they may disappear from the world whileusing hypermovement. Examples include moving throughan alternate reality, drawing on the power of the earth torun like the wind, or transforming into wind and blow-ing across the world. A character typically cannot usehypermovement in combat.

Leaping

The nominal value for leaping (laterally) is the sum ofstrength and agility divided by eight. A character’s sizedoes not affect their ability to leap - the positive andnegative effects balance. Four times a character’s den-sity is subtracted from their agility and strength beforethe leaping movement is computed. A character may addone to the distance they may leap for one endurance. Ad-ditional leaping movement costs one character point peradditional point of leaping movement. Vertical leapingdistance is half that of a lateral leap.

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A character may fall safely up to twice its leaping distancewith an agility roll. Blowing this roll does damage with anumber of classes equal to one-third the negative marginon the roll. Each additional leaping distance of fallingdoes +2 DC of attack. Damage from falling does notpermit the character to subtract their armor unless thearmor is against falling damage.

Phasing

Phasing requires a character to have a base mystic orcelestial allowance of at least five. It permit movementthrough solid matter, with one exception like lead or sil-ver, said exception consistent with the character’s story.Typically mystic and celestial barriers can impede or pre-vent phasing. The base cost is one if a character has abase material allowance of three or more, otherwise thebase cost is zero. A character’s phasing movement is one-fifth the better of base mystical or celestial allowance.One point of endurance may be used to increase phas-ing movement by one. One additional point of phasingmovement costs one point. Phasing does not permit acharacter to evade physical attacks; for that the abilitydematerialization is required.

Running

The nominal value for running is half a character’s agility.A point of endurance increases the distance a charactercan run in a segment by one. A character’s size is addedto their agility before running movement is computed.Additional running movement costs one character pointper two additional points of movement.

Swimming

The nominal value for swimming is one fourth a charac-ter’s agility if the character is not native to an aquatic ormarine environment and one half the character’s agilityotherwise. A point of endurance increases the distancea character can swim in a segment by one. A charac-ter’s positive size is added to their agility before swim-ming movement is computed. A character’s density issubtracted from their agility before computing swimmingmovement (and dense characters typically sink). Addi-tional swimming movement costs one character point peradditional point of movement.

Teleportation

Teleportation requires a character to have a base mysticor celestial allowance of at least three. It permits thecharacter to vanish in one place and reappear in another.The base cost for teleportation is three if it requires lineof sight, one more if the character can teleport to knownlocations, and two more if the character can teleport toanything he can perceive. The ability to cross planes of

reality costs two additional points. A character’s move-ment via teleportation is three times the better of theirbase mystical or celestial allowance. For one added pointthis is multiplied by ten, for two it becomes kilometers,and for three the range becomes effectively unlimited.

Tunneling

The nominal value for tunneling is one-tenth a charac-ter’s strength. Tunneling through sand, dirt, or ice has abase cost of one point. Tunneling through stone or ma-sonry has a base cost of two points. Tunneling throughmetal has a base cost of three points. Tunneling mayeither leave a hole on not; the ability to choose eitherpossibility costs an additional base point. Three pointsof endurance increase the distance a character can tunnelin a segment by one. A character’s size and density areboth added to their strength before tunneling movementis computed. Additional tunneling movement costs twocharacter points per additional point of movement.

Wall Walking

This type of movement costs one point plus half of thecharacter’s positive points of density and size. It permitsa character to cling to walls and ceilings and to moveacross them with their running movement.

Multiple Power

This intrinsic requires the character to pay for a reserveof points. The multiple power costs one point more thanthe reserve. These points may be assigned to one of twointrinsics - only one may be used at a time. This intrin-sic must be justified as a single ability that manifests asmultiple powers, e.g. an elemental focusing its power overits home element in different ways or a demon’s arcanepower. The number of powers increases, for added points,according to the sequence: 4,6,9,12,16,20,25,30,36, then42. A power may be multiple intrinsics activated togetherto produce a single effect.

Patterning

This intrinsic represents the ability to embed knowledgeor power into a physical object. When an object has beenpatterned it contains the character’s knowledge or power.The maximum cost of the ability that can be patterned isthe base cost of this intrinsic. A character with five pointsof patterning could embed anything they could do thatcosts no more than five character points into a physicalobject.

The roll to pattern an object is equal to either the char-acter’s base mystic allowance or twice their celestial al-lowance, depending on its basis (mystic or celestial) andthis roll is +2 per added point in either case.

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The base patterning skill permits the character to trans-fer anything they can do, up to the point limit, as knowl-edge or power. When knowledge is transferred there is nocost to the character and the knowledge requires outsidepower, e.g. a psychometry roll with the cost of the skill ortalent as a penalty to the roll. When power is transferredthen the character must actually transfer the points fromsomewhere and the item can grant the ability by contact.These points may be transferred from the character’s ownstore of points, from a willing volunteer, or from an un-willing volunteer in a destructive manner (you have to killor maim them to remove the points). This intrinsic usesonly one of these modes but may use one more for oneadded point of cost. The character’s story must give allthe details of how the patterning operates.

Patterning takes hours; if it takes days or weeks it is oneor two points cheaper. If it takes tens of minutes, a fewminutes, a few rounds, or one segment it is 1, 2, 3, or4 more expensive. Patterning can transfer anything; if ittransfers only a broad class of abilities it is one cheaper, anarrow class lets it be two cheaper, a single skill or talentmakes it three cheaper.

Penalty

This intrinsic represents the ability to impose a penaltyon others. The penalty may be to any or all of attack,defense, skill and talent rolls, or unconsciousness rolls.Penalties are rolled on six sided dice and have the samecost and dice as physical attacks except that when mul-tiple penalties are imposed the worst applies rather thanbeing cumulative. A penalty normally only affects one ofthe four categories of possible penalties, one added cat-egory per added point. A penalty normally requires aphysical touch to take effect. It may be ranged as a phys-ical attack for +1 point. It operates in a 3” radius for+1 point, a 10” radius for +2 points, or in line of sightfor +3 points. A penalty normally lasts for a round. Ifit lasts for 6 segments it is one cheaper, three segmentsis two cheaper. Additional time may be bought at onepoint per level on the spell duration table.

Examples of penalty attacks are clouds of brimstone, amonster that stinks, a demon whose very appearance un-hinges people. Penalties that have easy means of earlyremoval or avoidance cost less. A penalty may be addedto an attack as a side effect, with the penalty having halfits normal cost, as long as the penalty is equal to the at-tack’s damage. The penalty is limited to the damage atarget actually takes.

Planar Travel

The ability to move to another specific plane of existence,defined broadly, in a corresponding physical location coststhree points. Two points permits travel to a single pre-selected location in the other plane. For two additionalpoints, the character can open a gateway that fills three

hexes, twice as large for each added point. If the charac-ter can go to a related group of planes the cost is threehigher. To go to any plane the character knows costs fiveadditional points. For three added points the caster maychoose his arrival point from those he knows. This powermay be used to produce an effect similar to long-rangeteleportation by multiple applications.

Prison

This intrinsic represents the ability to create an impene-trable barrier that a particular type of creature or effectcannot cross. A prison encloses a seven hex area for twopoints, the radius is +2” for added point of base cost. Aprison typically encloses one sort of creature: elemental,demon, corporeal undead, non-corporeal undead, animal,person, etc. Broader categories cost additional points atreferee discretion. The prison can be used to keep thingsin or out. A prison lasts for about an hour; for two pointsless it can last for a duration of concentration. The timecan also be run up or down the spell effect duration chartfor one point per level (shorter is cheaper). Prisons areused to create effects like pentagrams and magic circles.

Push

A push rolls damage the same way an attack does but itmoves the target a number of hexes equal to the “damage”done. The cost for push is the same as for physical attacksand push attacks may purchase range, duration, and areaas an attack. A push attack does an added damage classagainst a flying, drifting, or floating target. The damageclass of a push attack is also adjusted by the target’s sizeand reduced one per two points of added density.

Regain Endurance

A character normally regains endurance at the rate of oneper round in which no endurance was expended. Addi-tional endurance may be recovered per round for a costof one point for the first, two for the second, three for thethird, and so on. The added points are recovered even ifthe character has expended endurance. Most character’shave an action that will restore a class II attack’s worthof points of endurance. For humanoids this is taking adrink of water which requires an action and a source ofwater. These added actions typically may be used onceevery ten minutes.

A character may purchase an intrinsic that permits themto grant others endurance. For each point spent theymay grant one point of endurance by touch. This abilitymay also purchase range and area of effect as an attack.Endurance granted is deducted from the character’s store;this is relaxed for two added points of cost.

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Regain Essence

A character normally regains essence at a rate of one perday, at a time appropriate to a character’s story. Thenumber of essence regained per day may be increased byone per character point. A character that is part of acelestial hierarchy may also have rituals that permit thento regain essence, but this is a function of the campaignstory.

Regain Mana

Mana is expended to power spells and rituals. A char-acter normally regains mana at a rate equivalent to anattack with a damage class of zero that acts once perhour. The damage class to regain mana may be increasedor decreased by one per character point; damage classesbelow zero actually generate points. The time to make aroll to regain mana may be changed one place per char-acter point on the scale week, day, hour, ten minutes, oneminute, one round, one segment. Times longer than onehour represent an impaired ability to regain mana andgenerate character points as problems. The damage levelof the regain mana “attack” is the amount of mana re-gained. The points spent on regaining mana faster maynot be more than the character’s base mystical allowance.

Restraint

This intrinsic permits a character to launch an attackthat restrains another. If the attack hits, then it preventsthe character from motion. The restraint has an intrinsicstrength of ten for one character point, three additionalpoints of strength per one additional character point. Re-straint is a ranged attack with a range of -1/3” that affectsa single character. The attack may buy better range orarea of effect as may an attack. A character may breakout of a restraint with a strength on strength roll usingtheir strength against that of the restraint. The highermargin wins with ties going to the restraint attack.

If a restraint can be removed by an outside attack it istwo points cheaper. If there is some method of remov-ing a restraint attack other than strength or an attackthen it is one to three points cheaper depending on howeasy and common the method is. Water soluble is threepoints; strong spirit soluble is one. A restraint normallylasts for ten minutes after which it fades away. Reducedor increased time on the spell duration table decrease orincrease the cost.

For one added point the restraint attack can use intellector personality instead of strength as the statistic used tobreak out of the restraint, though the reason for this shiftmust be incorporated into the description of the restraint,e.g. a hypnotic restraint might use personality while anillusion-based restraint that overrides the senses mightuse intellect.

For two added points the restraint may be based on themagic or spirit. In this case a method of breaking therestraint (which does not yield a cost advantage) mustbe specified. A dispel magic spell is a reasonable way ofremoving a magical restraint and being knocked uncon-scious and regaining consciousness is a reasonable way ofremoving a spiritual restraint.

Seeming

This ability permits the character to change the appear-ance, to one sense, of a volume filling one hex to a heightof 1” (2 meters) for a base cost of one point. Increas-ing the base cost to two points permits the seeming tocover as many as three senses and at a base cost of threethe seeming to cover all the senses the caster has. Themaximum volume of an object covered by the seemingmay be multiplied by ten per added point of base cost,see the table below. A seeming lasts up to ten minuteswith this time increasing to hour, day, week, month, in-definite for added points of base cost. A seeming thatrequires concentration to maintain is two points cheaper;light concentration is one point cheaper. A seeming maybe used to create the illusion of something that is notthere or to change the appearance of an existing object.In this latter case, the change in appearance moves withthe object.

Illusion Area TableAdded Points 1 2 3 4 5 6

Hexes 10 100 1000 104 105 106

Approx. Radius 1 5 18 60 180 600

There are a number of additional modifiers that a char-acter may buy for a seeming. Their costs are given belowand are assumed to be a mix-and-match set of abilitiesthat can be used to make any seeming at all. If a specificcombination is made and practiced then it is called a setpiece and receives a cost bonus of one per modifier. Anattack may be incorporated into a set piece as one of itselements as well to permit it to do damage. This attackmay be negated by the ability disbelieve.

Animate

A basic seeming may have motion, like grass waving in thebreeze, but not independent actors or creatures. For anadded point a single creature may be part of the seeming,three times as many per added point.

Combat Ability

A seeming that is solid (see: Solidity) can be be hit anddestroyed. Such a seeming has the caster’s initiative andmaterial attack and defense and uses the caster’s statis-tics. A seeming is transparent to non-material attacks.A seeming may add up to three points of initiative forone point each and may buy up to six of added material

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attack or material defense, mixed and matched, at a costof one per two points.

Damage

An illusion may purchase attacks that do damage, but itis required to reduce the cost of the attack by three, toa minimum of one, because the damage can be avoidedby the strong willed and ignored by the mindless. Theroll to “disbelieve” illusion damage is against the bestof personality, magic, or resilience. If the character isconcentrating on disbelief this roll is at its nominal value.If the character is busy, e.g. casting spells, fighting, etc.then the roll is at -4 or -2 if they have disbelieved theillusion before. Illusory damage does not affect mindlessconstructs like golems or zombies.

Linked

For one point, the creator of a seeming that contains ananimate creature may see use the creature’s senses (whichare those the seeming engages) so long as the creatureis within 50” (100 meters). This rage is multiplied byten for each added point. For two additional points thecharacter may launch magical or spiritual effect throughthe seeming. For three additional points, celestial abilitiesmay be projected through the seeming. If attacks maycome back through the linked seeming it is two cheaper.

Overlay

Making an illusion into an overlay costs two added points.An overlayed illusion is cast on a target and the illu-sion comes between their senses and the world. It canbe used to make them see friends as looking different,make them unable to see something or see it everywhere.Those things perceived by the target of an overlay are notperceived by others.

Solidity

A seeming may be made to seem solid. For one point,this solidity is apparent to gentle touch but any actualforce will dispel the seeming. Each added point afterthe first may be used to add points of armor or pairs ofpoints of body to the seeming. The total expenditure onsolidity may not exceed the mystical base allowance ofthe character generating the seeming.

Three points of solidity are enough to bear the weight of anormal human safely if the seeming is of a bridge, plank,or similar construct. Additional points are required toincrease the mass per human footprint by double. Themaker of the seeming may declare such solidity to workonly for or only not for particular characters that theydesignate. This requires a person trace, a personal rela-tionship, or physical presence.

Strength

For one point a seeming may exert strength equal to thecaster’s mystical base allowance, with three additionalstrength per additional point, but no more than threetimes the casters mystical base allowance. A seemingwith strength may do damage directly, as per the attackclass due to strength, and it can wield weapons (with itscreator’s skill) or do damage by means such as topplingphysical objects. A strong illusion may also purchasedadded hand-to-hand attack at the usual cost.

A seeming with strength may act as a steed with a run-ning movement equal to the caster’s magic, +2” per plusone point. It may also have a swimming movement equalto half the caster’s magic, +1” per plus one point. Theseeming may fly for +2 points with a movement equal to150% of the caster’s magic statistic, +3” per +1 point.

Triggered

A seeming may be created that lies quiescent until trig-gered by a simple condition for one point. For two pointsthe trigger condition may be complex.

Willful

For one added point a seeming may be given a scriptedability to respond. For two points it may be given somepart of its creator’s will and act sensibly for a specificmission or purpose. For three points the seeming gains acopy of its creators knowledge and motives and can actas the creator would.

Senses

Characters start with a number of senses. Typically acharacter has a primary sense. Lacking a primary senseis a 4 or 5 point problem, lacking some other sense thatcharacters of your type normally have is a 1-3 point prob-lem depending on the exact importance of that sense. Hu-mans have sight as their primary sense, dogs have smellas their primary sense, with bats the primary senses ishearing. Without spending points a character that has amaterial base allowance of three or more has a primarymaterial sense and up to four other material senses.

Characters with a mystical or celestial base allowance ofthree or more have a primary senses in each of these do-mains as well. They may have one or more secondarysenses. Creatures not meeting the base allowance for asense may be permitted to pay character points to haveit. The reason this is possible must be a fairly significantfeature or the character’s story or of their species origin.

The material senses are sight, hearing, smell, taste,touch, heat sense, vibrosense. Heat senses detects dif-ference in temperature, vibration sense detects changesin pressure in the form of compression waves, typically ata lower frequency than hearing. The mystical senses

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include the ability to detect life, minds, the presence oruse of magic, the use of spiritual abilities, the presenceof undead or beings from outside the world, tings thatare far away, or the presence of spirits. Celestial sensesinclude the ability to detect mystic ability or potential,the use of celestial abilities, the presence of beings withlarge mystic or celestial base allowance, the past historyof a present object, and other planes of existence. Whichsenses a character has is covered in their species descrip-tion.

Senses can have a number of levels of efficiency and func-tion. The following list gives the major divisions.

• At the lowest level a character simply knows the ob-ject of these sense is present and its rough intensity.This is called a basal sense. A photosensitive patchon a bacteria is an example of basal vision. Thesesense cost one point if they must be purchased.

• A sense is directional if it can give a sense of the direc-tion in which the strongest or the emissions it is de-tecting lie. The human senses of smell is directional.Making a smell directional costs one additional pointif it must be purchased.

• A sense is analytical if it can give information be-yond raw intensity. The degree of analysis is ratedfrom one to five. Level one divides information into afew categories (sweet, salt, bitter, savory). Level fiveyields the equivalent of a detailed report. A humansense of smell is a level two; a dog sense of smell isfour or, in the case of dogs like bloodhounds, five.Human hearing is level three or four analytical. Lev-els cost a point each.

• A sense is ranged if it does not require physical con-tact to use. Human touch is not ranged, human hear-ing is. A ranged sense takes a modifier of -1/3” andis the nominal state for a sense; senses that requiretouch are one cheaper. It is possible to buy better orworse range modifiers for senses as may attacks.

• A sense is imaging if it can build a complex and usefulmap of the environment, like human sight. A bat’shearing is imaging. An imaging senses has a field ofview. Human sight has a field of view that is aboutone-third the arc of a circle. A sense has an addedcost of two if it is imaging.

• A sense is targeting if it can be used to accuratelylaunch an attack. This costs one additional point ifthe sense is not already imaging.

• Most senses have an active range, e.g. human sightis restricted to visible light. Many sensory intrinsicsamount to widening the active range of a sense. Thiscosts one or two points for wide and very wide activeranges.

• A sense is passive if it requires the environment tosupply the base phenomena it is detecting. Humansight is a passive sense because it requires a sourceof light. If a creature supplies a source for its ownsense then the sense is active. A bat’s hearing isactive because the bat squeaks to supply sound forits sonar. Most senses are not purely active (a batcan hear normally as well) but active senses are easyto detect. Active senses are one cheaper, two cheaperif they are very obvious.

• The roll to use a sense is equal to the correspond-ing base allowance. A sensitive or insensitive sensemay have a higher or lower roll. In general +3 or -3with the roll are worth a point of cost in the obviousdirection.

Human sight is a primary sense that is passive,ranged, directional, imaging, targeting, and analyticalwith an active range of visible light. Typically senses arenot described in this fashion, rather a species descriptionand story work together to specific the character’s capa-bilities. The sensory enhancement table gives the cost ofbuying properties for a sense that it does not start with.

Modifier CostActive No cost. You can sense more

effectively but are far easier tosense. If emissions are involun-tary, 1-2 point cost reduction.

Active range one point for a modest increase,two for a large one.

Analytical one to five points, based on qual-ity

Field of view one point up to 3/4 arc of a circle,two points for all directions.

Directional one point.Ranged see above.Imaging two points.Sensitive ±3 to a senses roll per point.Targeting one point; included in imaging.

So for example, the ability to see in very dim light is aone point enhancement of normal vision; an imaging senseoperating by vibrations in the air via feathery antennaethat is ranged, directional, level two analytical and tar-geting costs six points. If the antennae are delicate thecost might be reduced by a corresponding problem; ingeneral delicate or easily “blinded” sense organs are prob-lems that can defray the cost of especially good senses.Note that if the vibration sense in the above example wasinstead of sight then it would have no cost. It would bethe creature’s primary sense.

Share Senses

This intrinsic permits a character to use the sense of an-other character. The cost is one for one sense, two for

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three, and three for all senses. The ability to use an-other’s senses is unidirectional unless both creatures havethe intrinsic. If the ability can only be used on one crea-ture it is two points cheaper. If the ability can only beused on a small group of creatures it is one cheaper. Tobegin sharing senses requires a touch, for one added pointit may be begun as a target attack with a range of -1/3”.The ability to allow another creature to use your sensesis two points.

Sleep Attack

This intrinsic works via touch and forces a character toroll against the better of their strength, intellect, or per-sonality or fall asleep. The effect works via a materialmethod like venom or gas. The attack costs one pointand may buy range and area as may an attack. For oneadditional point a sleep attack can work by mystic means,for plus two is can force a roll versus the better of magicor spirit. The attack, if it works, causes the target tofall asleep for about ten minutes. For added points thisincreases to an hour, six hours, a day, a week, a month,or a year. The attack may subtract two from the roll toresist it for one added point. Armor against sleep attacksis highly specialized.

Attempting to awaken a person from the charmed sleepbefore its duration is up permits the character to rollagainst the better of intellect or personality (not strength)to awaken with a bonus of up to +4. Examples of bonus:cold water +1, ice water +2, smelling salts or pain +3,actual damage +4. This roll is separate from the roll toput someone to sleep and may also be penalized by twoper added point.

Sleepless

For one point a character needs sleep only about once aweek or may sleep for two months out of a year. For twopoints a character need sleep no more than once a monthor may sleep for one year in twenty, though the sleep lastsa full year. For three points a character need not sleep atall.

Slip

This intrinsic permits a character to make another char-acter slip or trip and fall. The character hit with theslip attack gets a roll versus agility to not fall over. Theability costs one point if it can only be used in adjacentsquares, two points if it is usable at range -1/3”. Theroll to stay standing is one worse per point of velocity.This intrinsic can buy added range and area as may anattack. The fall/slip effect can last for three segments butmay pay, with one point granting one round, for addedduration on the spell effects duration chart.

Slow

This intrinsic lets a character reduce another charac-ter’s initiative by scoring a touch on them. This coststwo points to reduce another character’s initiative by theamount a class -1 attack would do (011112). The attackclass of the damage to initiative may be increased by onefor one point. The reduced initiative lasts for five rounds.If it lasts one round it is one cheaper, otherwise the dura-tion may be increased on the scale 10 minutes, one hour,one day, one week by expending additional points. Acharacter with zero initiative gets and action every otherround at the end of the round. A character with negativeinitiative is in a state of effective paralysis. Slow attacksare not additive, if a second slow attack hits a person thenthey take the worst slow damage and, for simplicity, theduration is reset.

A slow attack may buy range or area of effect as a dam-aging attack. A slow attack is one cheaper if it is tiedto a damaging attack and only works if the damaging at-tack actually does body. It is common for slowing to be aside effect of venom. Initiative damage done by a woundmay typically be removed by healing, after a character’sbody are all restored. For one added point this ability tobe healed is removed; if there are other ways of restoringinitiative (whiskey, massage) then the the effect may becheaper, consult your referee.

Split

This intrinsic is usually possessed by amorphous crea-tures. It permits the creature to split into two pieces,each with body one less than before the split. The splitmust have a trigger. If the trigger is damage then for onepoint a creature may split on a roll of 8+damage done,for two points on 11+damage done, and for three pointson 14+damage done. If a character with the split abilityhas already taken its highest body pip, one of the blobsdies immediately after they split.

Stasis

The basic stasis effect causes a creature to become com-pletely impossible to change in any way for a set duration.For a fixed duration the cost is one. If the duration is se-lectable then the cost is two. If the duration is “until someevent happens” then the cost is three to five dependingon the complexity and sophistication of the trigger event.This can be a phrase, casting of a spell, or some detectableevent like the death of the caster. Stasis may buy area ofeffect as an attack and it may be used as a ranged attackby purchasing range.

If a character placed in stasis is unwilling, they may rollversus their best mystical or celestial statistic to resist.The cost of stasis is halved if the character in stasis canstill take damage, e.g. they are in frozen suspended an-imation. If this problem with the intrinsic is not taken,

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then a character in stasis is invulnerable until the stasisends. A stasis that can be ended by a character with thestasis intrinsic is three cheaper to a minimum of one.

Stink

This intrinsic is an attack that makes its target smellreally bad. For one point, the stench wears off in abouta day. Additional points increase this to week, month,year, and the indefinite. The stink can typically removedby vigorous, assiduous washing. A stink is one cheaper isthere is a way of removing it early with relative ease, e.g.vinegar rinse.

Store

This effect permits a character to make a target that ithits vanish. The target is typically stored somewhere (amagic bottle, a timeless realm beyond space, within theearth, in a glacier) in a completely suspended state. Theintrinsic also permits retrieval of the target. The intrinsicstore costs five points. If the creature has a small chanceof escape the cost if four, if there is an obvious methodof escape or release, e.g. open or break the bottle, thenthe cost is three. A roll versus a statistic to resist lowersthe cost one or two points depending on if the roll is11 or better or worse than 11 for a typical target. Thisability affects a single creature by combat touch but maypurchase range and area as may an attack.

Strike Bodiless

In the section that describes statistics, there are penal-ties to hit and damage creatures with low base allowances.This intrinsic permits an attack to hit a creature as if ithad a higher base allowance. The increase in base al-lowance for use in computing hit chance and damage isone higher per point spent on the intrinsic. This intrinsichas distinct forms for low material, mystic, or celestialbase allowance. The damage done is the primary sort forthe creature hit.

Summoning

Summoning is the ability to cause a character to appearfrom thin air. The cost for summoning has several parts.The base cost is one-fifth of the character points of thecharacter summoned. The ability takes a combat roundto exercise - 12 segments. The cost goes up or downa point in the time is modified on the time scale seg-ment(+2), three segments(+1), round (0), minute(-1),ten minutes(-2), hour(-3), six hours(-4), day(-4), week(-5), month(-6), year(-7).

Normally a summoned creature is neither hostile norobedient (neutral). The cost of summoning goes up anddown by one point based on the level of obedience of thesummoned creature on the scale:

+4 mindless obedience

+3 obedience short of death or injury

+2 loyal, thoughtful obedience,

+1 reluctant obedience,

0 neutral,

-1 dislike,

-2 hostility,

-3 homicidal rage,

-4 homicidal vendetta.

If the creature must already be in the area, e.g. summon-ing wolves from a nearby pack, the summoning is twocheaper. If the summoning is a request for appearancerather than a compulsion then cost is also reduced bytwo.

Normally a summoned creature remains indefinitely. Ifthe summoned creature must disappear within an hoursummoning is one cheaper, ten minutes two cheaper,one minute three cheaper, and one combat round is fourcheaper. Normally a Dispel Magic spell does not dismissa creature. If it can the summoning is one cheaper if thefull cost, loyalty plus one-per-five, is used as the minusfor dispel magic. If the actual cost of the ability is usedthen the summoning is two cheaper – and that two pointscheaper is lost as defense against dispel magic. The num-ber of creatures summoned is one and can be doubled foreach added point.

Suspended Animation

This ability allows a creature to suspend itself in roughlyits current state until something triggers its revival. Forone point the suspension may last up to a year. This in-creases to decade, century, millennia, and indefinite foradded points. Examples include a bears ability to sleepthrough the winter, freezing a creature in ice until it meltsout, or the ability of an undead creature to remain quies-cent until living blood comes nearby.

Tie

This intrinsic permits a bond to exist between two char-acters for four points. This tie causes the character toact as if one is touching the other. It can be bidirectionalor unidirectional. Usually a tie permits characters to usemystical or celestial abilities at a distance. A tie is estab-lished consensually and by touch. For one added point,the tie may be established non-consensually through typ-ically a statistic roll is permitted to resist. For one addedpoints a personal trace may be used. Consent for a tieneed not be informed consent; a kiss a character wantsto participate in might well also grant consent to a tie.

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A tie is one cheaper if there is a moderate limit on thetotal number of ties, two cheaper if there is a strict limit.A tie is one cheaper if a roll is required to sort out onetie from another. Having a tie as a prerequisite to use anability on another character can reduce the cost of thatability by two. Ties that last for less than a year are onecheaper, mess than a month are two cheaper.

Time Travel

Time travel requires a character to have a base mystic orcelestial allowance of at least five. It permits the characterto vanish in one place and reappear in the same place at adifferent time. The base cost to move up to ten minute inone direction (past of future) is one point. Added pointsmay be expended as follows:

• Each step in the sequence 10 minutes, 1 day, 1 month,1 year, 10 year, century, millennium, no limit costsone point.

• Being able to go both forward or backward costs onepoint.

• Seeking safe landing coordinates costs two points. Agood reason must be given in the character’s story.

• Teleportation with a displacement of less than onekilometer per day traveled costs one, ten kilometersper day traveled two, one hundred three.

• Opening of a portal that lasts one round costs andadded point. Added duration may be purchased onthe spell duration table at a rate of one point perline farther down the table.

If time travel causes a paradox it is entirely the provinceof the referee to resolve it.

Transformation

A transformation imposed by an outside agency is an ex-ternal transformation and is considered an attack. Thistype of transformation is usually instantaneous and typ-ically can be reversed by some means. A transformationthat permits a character to modify its own form is aninternal transformation and usually takes a full action.

A transformation that turns an object or characterinto an inanimate object or an object of mindless intel-lect is an absolute transformation. A transformation thatleaves some or all of a character’s attitude, memories, andpersonality in the transformed object is called a morphictransformation.

All transformation may not work; they have a baseroll that is the larger of twelve or twice the base allowance(mystical or celestial) on which they are based. For abso-lute transforms the roll is -3 per point of cost over fifteenof the character being transformed. Morphic transformsare -3 per point that the transformation changes the cost

of the character. Note that points of armor againsttransformation may be purchased. A transformationmay not increase the cost of the character by more thansix points unless those points are balanced by added prob-lems or added cost of the transformation. While trans-forms may create valuable materials, e.g. lead into gold,the referee should decide in the overarching story what ispermitted by his metaphysics.

Transformation Costs and Modifiers

An absolute transformation costs a base of two points,a morphic transformation costs a base of one point. Allexternal transformations require a hit roll. The followingmodifiers can be applied, though the minimum cost of atransformation is one point.

• A transformation’s roll is +2 per one added point.

• A transformation may increase the cost of the char-acter by three more points for each added point ofcost.

• A transformation that may be used as an attack maybuy range or area of effect as an attack.

• An absolute transformation is usually reversible onlyby dispelling magic or a counter-transformation. Ifa common or obvious technique will reverse a trans-formation then it is four points cheaper. If a nottoo uncommon or not-totally obscure method canreverse the transformation it is two cheaper. An un-common or obscure method of reversing a transfor-mation makes it one cheaper.

• A absolute transformation normally lasts for a day.It cost is modified for one point for each place itmoves up or down on the spell duration table. Longerdurations cost more, shorter ones cost less.

• A morphic transformation usually permits a charac-ter to retain his memory and motivations. If the twoforms have separate memories and personalities thetransformation is two cheaper. If one of the formshas problems (hideous, violent) then half their valueis deducted from the cost of the transformation.

Examples of Transformations

Petrifaction

Petrifaction is a seven point imposed transformationwith a roll of 22, less one per three points above fifteenthe character being transformed has. The transformationlasts for a day. Added points permit it to last for a week,month, or indefinitely. Methods, other than waiting itout or dispel magic may reduce the cost depending on itsease.

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Transfer

A transfer attack costs one point per damage class forendurance, two for mana, three for body or mind, fourfor essence or chi. The nominal attack is hand-to-handbut may buy range and area effect as standard attacksdo. Damage done by such attacks typically ignores armor(hence the high cost for body transfer). Special armoragainst transfer may be purchased. Points transferred re-store points in the character being attacked and may beregained normally by the character that loses them. Thetransferred points may supercharge the character thatthey are transferred to, he loses one per round until hereaches his normal maximum. It is permissible to lowerthe total by expending the points.

No more points may be transferred than the characterbeing attacked has. If an attack transfers more pointthan the character has, then an unconsciousness save atminus the points transferred is required. The transfercan be from one type of points to another with the ratioof endurance to mana to body or mind to essence or chibeing 1:2:4:8.

Unconsciousness Attack

This intrinsic works via touch and forces a character toroll against unconsciousness. It can purchase range orarea of effect as may an attack. The basic power costsone point. For an additional point the roll is minus oneper four margin, for two added points it is minus one pertwo margin and for three added points the margin is thepenalty to the roll. Alternatively, the roll is minus two perpoint of additional cost. The unconsciousness lasts untilthe person is disturbed or for ten minutes after which an(unmodified) roll against unconsciousness may be made.

Generic Modifiers

This section lists generic modifiers that may be taken onintrinsic abilities.

Amendment

This modifier permits a quality or intrinsic ability to beadded to an intrinsic ability after the fact. One could, forexample, have a sleep attack with amendment that couldbe added to any other attack. This modifier could alsobe used to add “trigger” to a spell or intrinsic so thatinstead of happening right away the effect happens whena trigger condition is met. The cost is one to add, asamendments, effects that cost three or fewer points, twofor up to six points, three for up to nine points, and soon. The cost of the amending ability is also paid.

Autonomous

This modifier permits a power that requires will to exer-cise to operate on its own. An autonomous attack, forexample, could damage attackers on its own. Bolts oflightning from the sky that target a character’s oppo-nents, for example. For two points the attack can oper-ate on its own in one, programmed fashion, e.g. hit theattacked closest to the caster. For three points the abil-ity can exercise limited judgment, e.g. attack the personthat the character would imagine to be most likely to hurthim. For four points the autonomous power can operatewith the character’s full judgment. The exact way thatthe power acts will follow from the explanation in thecharacter’s story about why the character has the power.

Normally the power can act once per action the characterhas. The autonomous action can buy additional initiativeat a rate of +2 initiative per added point. For one pointit may attack two targets per action, for three points, itmay attack three targets per action.

Avoidable

Normally an attack, penalty, or other power, once suc-cessfully launched, will affect a target that it hits. Anability that may be avoided even after it hits has a re-duced cost. An ability that can be avoided by rollingagainst half a material statistic or a mystic or celestialstatistic is two cheaper. An ability that can be avoidedby rolling against a material statistic is three cheaper. Anability that has half effect (damage, penalty), rather thanbeing negated, if the avoidance roll is made gains one lesspoint of cost reduction. The statistic in question mustbe one that is logical given the details of the avoidableattack. Examples include rolling against agility to avoida breath weapon or rolling against material allowance toresist being turned to stone.

Causes Damage

If a character takes damage from starting to use an abilitythen it is cheaper by two plus the class of the attackrepresented by the damage. An ability where you take aclass III attack when activating the ability is five cheaper.This type of damage is inside all armor and cannot reducethe cost of an ability below one.

Costs Endurance

The cost of an intrinsic may be reduced if it costs en-durance. The reduction is one point per point of en-durance that one use of the power costs, but with a min-imum cost of one. This use of endurance may exceed thecreatures normal limits – but counts against them for thepurpose of expending endurance in a segment.

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Costs Mana

The cost of an intrinsic may be reduced if it costs mana.The reduction is one point per point of mana that oneuse of the power costs, but with a minimum cost of one.

Cycle Time

Normally an attack or other ability can be used everytime a character has an action. An action with a cycletime must recharge or be reset. The reduction in cost de-pends on the cycle time. Every other action yields a costreduction of one. Once per round yields a cost reductionof two. A cycle time of one minute makes the attack costeither two less or two-thirds of normal cost, ten minutesis one-half cost, and hour is one third. As always, thereason for the cycle time must be part of the character’sstory.

Failure

Normally powers work reliably. The cost of a power de-creases by one point per added degree of probable failure.The discount is given by the largest number that can berolled on 3d6 and still have the power function.

Roll on 3d6 14 12 10 8 6 4Point reduction 1 2 3 4 5 6

The cost of a power may not be reduced below one pointby failure modifiers.

Hard to Resist

If there is a roll to resist or reduce the effects of an intrinsicability then that roll may be made two worse for onepoint, if the referee feels that it is appropriate to havesuch a reduction. This modifier may not override similarmodifiers specified in the description of an intrinsic.

Hit Requirement Modifier

An effect that requires a combat attack hit in order tofunction is one point cheaper. If the attack must do dam-age for the effect to function the effect is two cheaper.For each three points of margin required, the effect is onepoint cheaper. This modifier cannot reduce the cost ofan attack below one-fifth of its normal cost or below onepoint.

An example of the type of effect constructed withthis modifier is an engulfing attack. If a character hitsand does damage with a margin of six on the hit thenthey swallow or partially swallow their target. This typ-ically requires that the creature be two sizes larger thanthe target, a reasonability constraint that does not give acost advantage. “Swallowing” is a 25 strength restraint –normally a 6 point effect – that costs 6-4=2points. Thisis one for needing a hit, one because the hit must do dam-age, and two for needing six points of margin. Creatures

with very strange bodies may avoid the size requirement.One fifth of six is one to two points for the swallowingeffect is inside the permitted reductions for this modifier.

Immunity

This modifier permits a character to be immune to an ef-fect they themselves generate. This can include damage,darkness, penalties, or other effects. The cost depends onthe utility. For an aura attack, immunity is automatic(zero cost). Darkness that you are immune to (can seethrough) costs two added points because of tactical ad-vantage. Being immune to your own damaging attackstypically costs one point.

Limited Uses

A dragon that can only use its breath a limited number oftimes, or a homunculus that explodes, killing itself, gainsa cost advantage on the attack that can be used a limitednumber of times. An ability that can be used six times aday has 2/3rds cost. Four uses per day is half cost, threeuses is two-fifths cost, two uses per day is one-third cost,one use per day is one-fourth cost. Suicidal abilities, onesthat kill their owners, are worth one-sixth cost.

Linked

If an ability can only be used in combination with an-other the less expensive ability reduces the cost of thecheaper ability by two, to a minimum of one. An exam-ple might be a breath weapon that both does poison dam-age and imposes a penalty. The linked limitation may bestacked, but the minimum cost of an ability is one. Thelinked limitations does not apply to poison that followson a physical attack or to the individual components of aseeming.

Parasitic

This modifier costs one point. It permits an object thatcan be used to cast a spell to draw the mana from a non-mage that is in skin-to-object contact with it. This wouldpermit a sword with an enchantment on it to draw thepower from the warrior wielding it. If there is not enoughmana then the magical effect fails and the character mustmake an unconsciousness roll at minus two per missingmana.

Slow

An ability that can normally be activated in a givenamount of time is one cheaper, to a minimum of one,per extra amount of time on the spell duration chart thatit takes to activate the ability.

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Usable by Cognate

For two additional points an intrinsic may be used byanother character. The intrinsic can only be used whilethe character that has the intrinsic is touching anothercharacter and it may only be used by one other character.For one added point the use of the intrinsic can continueafter being conferred without needing continued touch.The number of other characters that can use the intrinsiccan be tripled for an additional point. An intrinsic usableby a cognate is three points cheaper if it can only be usedby the cognate.

Combat

Combat time is divided into rounds and segments. Thesegments that a character can act in are given in the ini-tiative chart. A round has 12 segments in it and thereare five rounds to the minute. Within a segment, charac-ters act in order of their agility, magic, spirit, or ascen-dance, whichever is highest. Ties are resolved by rollinga six sided die. When it is a character’s turn they declarethe action they are trying to perform and the referee de-termines the sequence of rolls required to determine thecharacter’s success. The referee may also declare an ac-tion impossible; in that case if the impossibility is obviousthe character may chose another action; if it is inobviousthe referee will preside over the resulting debacle.

Order of Battle

A character may use their movement at any point in asegment when they act and may space it out. If theyused multiple types of movement these do not add, ratherthey are divided up proportionally. A character can makea fast attack once during a segment; they may use anysensory powers that do not require concentration as manytimes as they like. A character may also wait to act. Thisprevents another character from running up, attacking,and running back to safety. A character that is waitingmay attack as another character approaches them.

Hitting Your Opponent

To hit with an attack, other than an area effect attack,a character you must roll under 11 plus your appropriateattack value minus the other character’s appropriate de-fense value. If an attack fills an area then it hits unlessa target can move out of the area of effect. If a target iswaiting or has unexpended movement in a segment thenthey may use that movement if they react fast enough;typically this is a roll versus the better of agility or intel-lect.

Material attacks or mystical attacks that do materialdamage at range at typically at one worse to hit per threeinches; area effect attacks are one worse per one distance.Mystical attacks that do mystical damage and celestial

attacks typically work in line of sight or through activeperception. Some attacks vary and this variation appearsin their description.

Defensive Actions

Some skills and talents state that they may be used asdefensive action. A defensive action may be used out ofturn in the normal order of battle in any segment in whichthe character has not already acted. The action uses upthe character’s next action. Examples of defensive actionsare dodging, deflection, triggering a non-offensive hungspell, or diving for cover.

Expending Endurance

Endurance has a large number of uses. A charactermay expend endurance to improve their attack or defensevalue. Normally a maximum of three endurance may beexpended in a single segment. A character could thus en-hance their attack value by three, their defense value bythree, or attack by one and defense by two. A charactercan also expend less than three if they wish but not moreunless they have the intrinsic expend endurance quickly.

The movement rules in the intrinsics section contain thedetails of how to expend endurance to improve your move-ment. Most forms of movement can be increased by ex-pending endurance. There are also skills like strongmanand mighty blow that permit a character to expend en-durance to enhance an effect. See Regaining Endurancein the section on intrinsics for additional information.

Damage

A character has body, mind, and chi that represent theirability to take various sorts of damage. An attack hasa damage class; the dice rolled are given in the DamageClass table in the section on intrinsics. The class of anattack is its nominal class minus any armor the target hasthat acts against that attack. When an attack is rolled, itproduces a level of damage in the form of points of body,mind, or chi.

Taking Damage

Points of damage are applied against the character, butin an odd way. A character has an open circle for eachpoint point of body, mind, or chi they have. An attackfills in the circle corresponding to its level. If that circleis already filled it emptied and the next circle up is filled.This process cascades. A character is dead/insane/non-existent if the cascade every passes the last circle. A char-acter with a base allowance of 2 or less cannot “die”; if“dead” they act as if their base allowance in the categoryis zero.

There are three sorts of attack: ineffective, nor-mal, and highly effective. An ineffective attack does

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Initiative ChartCharacter’s Actions

Initiative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 121- 92 63 6 124 4 105 4 8 126 3 7 117 3 6 9 128 3 5 8 119 3 5 8 10 1210 2 4 7 9 1111 2 4 6 8 10 1212 2 4 6 7 9 1113 2 4 6 7 9 11 1214 2 4 5 7 9 10 1115 2 3 5 6 8 9 11 1216 2 3 4 6 7 9 10 1117 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 1218 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 1119 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 1220 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1121 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1222 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

23+ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Figure 1: The segments a character acts in, based on their initiative.

not do damage. The rules above are for a nor-mal attack. A highly effective attack instantly scoresdeath/insanity/nonexistence. Needless to say, highly ef-fective attacks are rare and very expensive.

When multiple dice are rolled in an attack the DamageClass Table says “Best of” some number of dice. This isdone as follows. The specified number of dice are rolled.The damage level of the attack is the highest numberrolled on any of the dice. This level is increased one foreach additional die that rolls that number. Thus threesixes would actually generate eight points of whateversort of damage they do.

Being damaged imposes a penalty on attack rolls, defenserolls, skill rolls, and talent rolls. It also may reduce move-ment at referee option. These penalties are based on thelargest value of a filled in circle. These penalties are givenin the Damage Penalty Chart. The referee also decides,based on the type of wound, which abilities are affectedby which sorts of wounds. A celestial wound, for exam-ple, might not impair a character’s ability to run away inthe material world.

Damage from Being Thrown

A character that is heaved a long distance or knocked along distance can take damage. If they land in feathers,soft snow, or some similar medium they take one damageclass per four inches they fly. Sliding along hard grounddoes one damage class per three inches thrown. Hitting ahard object does one damage class per two inches thrownwith the total rounded up. If a character is thrown ontosomething that impales him then the damage is one dam-age class per inch he is thrown. The damage from hittinga hard object or being impaled may be reduced if theobject where the impact happens, breaks.

Getting Knocked Out

When a character takes damage, of any sort, they maypass out. The intrinsic ability hard to knock out says howto compute the base value of this roll. If you are knockedout then you remain unconscious for an amount of timeweakly proportional to the amount you blew the ruleby. Active attempts to help a character regain conscious-

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Damage Penalty TableWound Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Attack Penalty 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Defense Penalty 0 0 0 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 8Skill Penalty 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Talent Penalty 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5

Consciousness * * 0 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 12Movement 0 0 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 8 9

* no roll needed

ness permit an roll versus unconsciousness with the usualpenalties for the amount of wounding and bonuses for themethod (talk/slap/cold water/smelling salts). This typi-cally requires that another character spend an action.

Healing damage is covered in the section on intrinsics (see:healing and regeneration). Characters typically have nat-ural healing ability; the rules about your healing abilityand having better healing ability are also covered in theintrinsics. Various spells, rituals, and potions can alsoheal characters.

Diving for Cover

Diving for cover is a defensive action. The character mustchoose a destination hex they want to dive to. The char-acter rolls against agility (or spirit or ascendance if appro-priate to the situation) at -1 per hex they are attemptingto dive. If the roll is made the character reaches their des-tination and gains the benefit of cover, if any. If the rollis blown the attack or effect the character is diving awayfrom catches the character in mid-dive and does damagenormally.

Area Effect Attacks

Hitting with an area effect attack, other than an aura orcone, still requires a hit roll, against a material defense ofthree, with range modifiers. If a character misses with anarea of effect attack, the center or beginning of the attackis displaced by an amount equal to the damage done byan attack whose damage class is the margin by which thecaster missed. The displacement is in a random directionand interrupted by physical objects.

A character’s material defense is typically not helpfulagainst attacks that fill an area. A character may tryto dive behind cover or out of the area of an attack theyknow is coming. If the dive for cover was to a hex in-cluded in the area the character is out of luck. Area at-tacks can be screened by natural cover, sometimes. Thereferee will decide if cover that a character has access toprovides complete or partial protection. Partial protec-tion reduces the number of damage classes the attack inquestion does.

Armor

Armor reduces the damage level of an attack by its nu-merical value. Armor may be an intrinsic ability or resultfrom wearing armor. Armor that a character wears mayreduce their movement and attack value; some armor hasa roll of 3d6 that determines its level of protection.

Armor may stop material, mystical, or celestial damagedepending on its origin. Characters may purchase physi-cal armor in the form of items of armor and shields. Thespecific type of armor available in a campaign are givenin its source book.

Example: A character swings a sword and, once relevantskills are assessed does a class V attack. If the target hasno armor this would be a “best of 3d6” attack. The tar-get, however, has two points of armor and so the damageis reduced to class III, a single d6 of body damage.

Mind and Madness

Spiritual attacks to damage to mind rather than body.There is both intrinsic and device-based mind armor. Thelevel of sanity of a creature is the largest circle in theirdamage track that is still not filled in. A creature is amind of three or more is sane and acts normally. Thosewith sanity levels below three act oddly in some fashion,with the exception of those that start there - creatureswith low natural sanity already have that low sanity fac-tored into their behavior. For such creatures, the level ofabnormal behavior is given by levels below their base.

Mild insanity, two mind

A character with mild insanity has a phobia, an obsession,a paranoia. It is usually triggered by circumstances, is notdisabling when not triggered, and is somewhat disablingwhen it is triggered. The phobia should arise out of thecharacter’s story in a natural fashion, including whateverit was that did the sanity damage.

Strong insanity, one mind

A character with strong insanity is barking mad. Thismay be the screaming, drooling sort of obvious madness

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or it might be something like sociopathic paranoia orspontaneous membership in an eldrich cult. As with mildinsanity, strong insanity should arise from the character’sstory.

Total insanity, zero mind

A character with no sanity left may not act rationally andthey are especially susceptible to possession. Catatonia isa likely outcome of total insanity, so is gibbering madness,and berserk attempts to kill everyone in sight. This sortof insanity may arise from a character’s story but is morelikely to arise from whatever ripped away their sanity.

Weapons

Weapons in Realm of the Powers fall into two categories,hand-to-hand and ranged. A hand-to-hand weapon addsone or more damage classes to the damage a charactercan do because of his strength. The available weaponsare given in the source book for a campaign.

A weapon also has a maximum damage class it can safelydo. If a weapon does more damage than its maximumthen it breaks on a roll of 15 or more on 3d6, addingthe number of damage classes it did over its maximumto the roll. Thus, a dagger that adds one damage classand has a maximum of class IV does class VII damage forsome reason then it breaks if 3d6+4 is fifteen or more. Aweapon also cannot more than double a character’s hand-to-hand damage class unless the character’s hand to handdamage is zero or less, in which case the weapon adds oneclass.

Ranged weapons are similar, but their damage class isbased on the agility of the character, rather than hisstrength. A ranged weapon also has an upper bound ofthe damage class it can do.

Weapons of exceptional quality can have exceptionallyhigh damage caps or, if they are extremely well craftedor made from intrinsically magical materials, may gainpoints of penetration. This quality is described in thetext for the intrinsic ability attack.

Other Weapons

Grenades are a type of missile weapon, but they typicallyshatter and so some more complex sort of damage. Atypical sort of grenade is the oil grenade – a ceramic orglass container with about a pint of oil and a wick of somesort, ignited and thrown.

Damage Area of RangeWeapon Class Effect Penet. Mod.

Oil grenade III 1” radius 0 -1/3”

Magic

Magic in realm of the powers appears in a number offorms. Most of these are of the following sorts.

• Spells are mnemonics that permit a character tofocus magical force in a particular way. Their userequires the mage talent. Spells may require vocal-ization, gestures, and consumable or durable compo-nents. These are specified in the individual spell de-scriptions. A character may have many spells avail-able to them, but only a limited number of spellsin their active memory and ready to cast. See thetalent mage for details (it gives the number of spellsin active memory). Spell are often useful in combatand many can be used quickly. They are powered bythe expenditure of mana and may require enduranceas well.

• Rituals are magical ceremonies or processes. Theymay require multiple participants, substantial time,particular circumstances, and consumable or durablematerial components. They are seldom useful incombat. At least one participant must have the magetalent. As with spells the details are given in the de-scriptions of the individual rituals.

• Magic Items are material objects that have beenimbued with magical force or had magical forcebound within them. Magical items may or may notrequire the mage talent to use. Some, like magicalswords, are durable while others, like potions, areconsumable. Another sort of item is the chargeditem. Usually these trow spells with a duration ofinstantaneous, each spell using up a charge. Magescan often recharge items and items have a maximumcharge. Most artifacts are made by mages using rit-uals, some are naturally occurring.

• Natural Magic is source-book specific and includesthings like mana stones, magical berries, or leatherderived from the hide of mystical beings.

Spells

A spell has a cost determined by the effect it produces.The base cost of the spell starts at the cost of the effectit produces, including the premium for spell duration. Ifthe spell requires tokens or components, has limitationson how it may be cast, or takes more than an action tocast it has lower mana cost than its base effect cost. Thedetails of base cost and mana cost are given in the spelldescriptions. The actual mana cost is a modification tothe mage talent roll to cast a spell.

A spell may grant its object a skill or talent, it may en-hance their statistics, it may duplicate an intrinsic ability,or it may steer or suspend the laws of nature and parana-ture. When granting a talent it may use the character’s

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magic statistic in place of the normal statistic on whichthe ability is based.

A spell grants abilities to its caster or to one person. Foradded points of base cost it may grant abilities to multiplepeople with the number of people roughly tripling peradded point of cost. These added points are included inthe points of base cost and increase the mana cost of thespell.

These rules contain a number of example spells that arefairly general and are likely to be available to almost anymage. In a source book there will be specifications ofsources of spells such as being a member of the Guild ofFire Mages or the Priests of Set. A spell that requiresconsumables, physical objects, or has its effect limited insome way costs less. This reduction in cost is both to themana cost and to the skill roll penalty.

Spell Duration

A spell has one or two durations. A spell that permitsthe caster to fire off magical blasts or similar transienteffects has only a spell duration. A spell that permits thecaster to grant someone an ability like running faster alsohas an effect duration. An unmodified spell has a spellduration of one combat round and often may be renewedfor additional combat round by expending a point of en-durance. Added base cost increases the spell durationbetween expending endurance to maintain a spell one thespell duration table.

Spell DurationAdded Base spellPoints duration

1 5 rounds2 50 rnds (10 min.)3 1 hour4 1 day5 1 week6 1 month7 1 year8 ‘eternal’

The effect duration of a spell that grants an ability startsat 5 rounds and may buy up on the spell duration ta-ble; its cost is one less because it starts one place higher.While this rule is the default the referee may levy chargesor bonuses appropriate to game balance. Spell and ef-fect durations are purchased separately when designing aspell.

Casting Spells

To cast a spell a character must be free to move andable to maintain light concentration. Casting a spell isan offensive action and requires that the character rolltheir mage talent with the spells actual mana cost as apenalty. In addition if the spell’s base cost is larger than

the character’s investment in their mage talent there isa penalty of three points per point the base cost exceedsthe expenditure on mage talent. If the roll is made thespell works, otherwise it fails, the mana is expended andnothing, a reduced effect, or a modified effect happens atreferee description.

Once the spell is cast the character may start using iton their next segment. A effects of a spell usually lastsfor a combat round and may typically be continued forone or more additional rounds by expending a point ofendurance. Lacking endurance, the spell ends. The skillmaintain spell is used to hold a spell when a mage isdistracted, e.g. by being hit. The margin on the roll tocast the spell may affect the quality of the results, butthis is covered in the individual spell descriptions. Eachspell a caster currently has in effect causes a penalty of-1 to cast another spell. A caster may drop one of theirown spells at any time.

Rituals

Simple rituals may be kept in active memory like a spell;complex ones require a reference like a book or scroll ora mental ability that duplicates the information storagecapabilities of such objects. Rituals that create artifactsrange from potion receipts to methods for creating mag-ical swords. Rituals typically require an expenditure ofmana, but it is stretched out over time and so is phrasedas a minimum mana required for the ritual leader. Ritualsmay only be possible in a particular place, time, or sea-son. They may require the good will of a celestial beingor the sacrifice of appropriate things. They may requirea particular number and kind of participants or that cer-tain clothes be worn. A ritual typically has a descriptionthat covers all of these points.

These rules contain several example rituals. Source bookswill contain examples of rituals specific to a given cam-paign setting. Rituals list a base cost, but it listed topermit the roll for the intrinsic end magic to be figured;it is not paid.

Magic Items

Magic items can result from rituals, they may be createdby celestial beings who have some shortcuts, or they maysimply occur naturally. It is possible that some artifactsresult from lost rituals, which makes them especially rareand precious. A durable magic item is one that can beused again and again, e.g. a magic sword. A charged itemis one that can cast a number of instances of a spell basedon the number of charges it has; an item has a maximumand current number of charges, accounted in mana anda cost in mana for each spell. The mana matters forrecharging and if an item can cast multiple spells thathave different mana costs. A consumable item is one thatis used once, like a potion.

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Some magic item can be used by anyone that picks themup. Some have activation conditions that are requiredto permit them to function. Some can only be activatedby someone that had mage talent. Some will only func-tion for particular races or individuals. These details arecovered in the description of magic items.

Mana

Spells and rituals are powered by mana; magic items typ-ically have mana bound into them. Characters with anontrivial mystical base allowance have mana and thosewith the mage talent can expend it. See the intrinsic re-cover mana and share mana and the skills donate mana,mine mana, and steal mana for both the default rate atwhich mana returns and possible other methods for re-gaining mana.

Personal Traces

Many spells and rituals can affect a particular characterin some way from modifying a poison or potion so that itonly affects one person to finding that person or permit-ting him to be shown in a magic mirror. Some of thesespells require a personal trace. A personal trace is any for-mer part of a person or object strongly associated withthem. A bit of hair, a fingernail, a drop of dried blood, afavorite ring (long worn). The trace may be usable againafter a casting or the casting may consume it or renderit inert. This will be specified in the description of thespell or ritual. Some castings may require very specifictraces such as fresh blood or a lock of hair cut during atryst. Most, however, will work with any available per-sonal trace.

Example Spells

The spells listed here are ones that are well known andgenerally available in any mystic library or in the spellbooks of experienced mages.

ArrowsafeBase Cost: 6Mana Cost: 4Skill Roll: MT-4Details:

This spell requires the character to make a ring ofa seven fold braid of strands of lead, tin, copper, bronze,brass, silver, and gold set with a chip of adamant over theweld that seals the ring. This takes about an hour andrequires the use of a forge for a few minutes. The spellmay be cast on anyone wearing one of these rings. Oncethe spell is cast it will cause physical missile with massof no more than a kilogram to miss the caster automati-cally. The effect lasts for ten minutes and, if the personwearing the ring has magic skill, may be extended for anadditional ten minutes for one endurance. The spell lasts

for a round and may be extended for an additional roundfor one endurance.

Blend InBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 1Skill Roll: MT-1Details:

This spell causes its target to assume exactly theappearance of whatever they are in front of. It takes asegment for the spell to adopt the coloration and so thisspell is ineffective if a character is moving. The effect lastsfor ten minutes. The spell lasts for a round and may berenewed for an additional round for one endurance.

Bravery

Base Cost: 5Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

This spell requires only a few gestures and words, butit also requires that the subjects of the spell voluntarilymeet the casters eyes. The caster and each person thatmeets his eyes make personality rolls. Each point thecaster is ahead, for a given roll against his roll, stiffens thecourage of the character’s in question. One point of excessis essentially improved morale while three is substantialbravery and five is willingness to face death. The usualuse of this spell is to prepare troops or minions for battle.If the caster is knocked out of slain the spells effects notonly cease, but reverse. The effects of the spell last forten minutes; the spell lasts a round and may be extendedanother round for one endurance.

Bull’s HideBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

This spell requires loud chanting to initiate. It per-mits the caster to increase the armor of themselves oranother person by one, toughening their skin as if it werebull hide. The armor lasts for about an hour. If theperson benefiting from the armor has mage talent theymay renew the protection for an added hour for one en-durance. The spell lasts for a round and may be renewedfor an additional round for one endurance.

Command Animate DeadBase Cost: 5Mana Cost: 3Skill Roll: MT-3Details:

This spell requires a token in the form of a three-layerpentagon with silver and gold on either side of lead. Thelead layer has the rune of command, the name of death,

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and the sigil of the animated dead on it. The commandrune is repeated in the gold and silver layer. The pen-tagon must be rimmed with steel. While wearing thependant the caster gains the ability to attempt to controlany animated dead creature. This ability is targeted at-1/3” and the undead gains a roll against personality, atminus the caster’s margin casting the spell, to resist andmaintain its current master or state of freedom. The spelllasts for a round any may be renewed for an additionalround for one endurance.

ConsciousnessBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

This spell increases the caster’s unconsciousness rollby +4 for an hour. The effect may be renewed for anadded hours for one endurance. The spell cannot be caston others.

DarknessBase Cost: 2Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

This spell creates darkness focused on a physical ob-ject. The darkness has a 3” radius and lasts for ten min-utes. The spell lasts for a round and may be renewed foran additional round for one endurance.

Darksight


This spell permits the person it is cast on to see wellin the dark for an hour. It requires that the caster putdust from a mushroom into the eyes of the person it is castupon. The person is half blind in normal lighting whilethe spell is in effect. If a person that has this spell castupon them has mage talent they may renew the abilityfor another hour for one endurance.

Detect Magic


This spell requires that the caster to have a fivepetaled flower of pewter. When thrown, the spell per-mits the character to feel magic within 10” of him, bothdirection and relative power. With practice they can telldifferent types of magic apart. The ability lasts for tenminutes and may be renewed for an additional ten min-utes for one endurance.

Detect UndeadBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

This spell requires that the caster to have a silvertrefoil knot on their person to cast it. When thrown,the spell permits the character to feel undead within 10”of him, both direction and relative power. With prac-tice they can tell corporeal, non-corporeal, and animateddead apart. The ability lasts for ten minutes and may berenewed for an additional ten minutes for one endurance.

Dispel Magic


This spell permits a character to attempt to end amagical effect. The roll their magic statistic, plus six,minus minus the nominal cost of the effect the characteris trying to end. For spells this is the “base cost”, forintrinsic abilities this is the point cost, as an ability, ofthe intrinsic. The attempt is made from an adjacent hexand requires a segment. This spell lasts for one roundand may be renewed for an additional round by spendinga point of endurance.

Doorpopper


The spell doorpopper requires the caste to preparea token of beeswax powdered saltpeter, powdered coal,together with a small quantity of ardent spirits. The in-gredients are blended and simmered for a few minutesand the resulting wax formed into small brown disks. Abatch typically yields a dozen tokens and takes a couplehours to finish making. To cast the spell the token ispressed across both parts of anything that opens. Whenthe spell is cast, the token melts away. For a day afterthis object will explode doing a class -1 attack (011112)in a 3” radius if opened. The effect is quite loud, like alarge firecracker. The spell lasts for a round and may berenewed for an additional rounds for one mana.

DoorwardBase Cost: 4Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

The spell doorward requires the caste to prepare atoken of beeswax and powdered amber together with anattar of any kind of flower. The ingredients are blendedand simmered for a few minutes and the resulting wax

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formed into small flower-like tokens. A batch typicallyyields a dozen tokens and takes a couple hours to finishmaking. To cast the spell the token is pressed across bothparts of anything that opens. When the spell is cast, thetoken melts away. For a day after this the caster will havea chill or prickling or smell the flowers when the object isopened. The effect may be renewed for an additional dayby expending one endurance while touching the object.The spell lasts for a round and may be renewed for anadditional rounds for one mana.

Dust Bolt


This spell requires the preparation of a wooden wandwith an iron shod base and a chip of petrified wood oragate on the tip. With the wand, the spell may be cast.It throws a grey bolt that expands into a poof of dust thatblinds the target. The bolt is targeted at -1/3”. The spelllasts for a round and may be extended for an additionalround by expending an endurance.

Electric Skin


This spell requires that the caster have a piece ofamber carved with the name of lightning and the runeof shielding on their person. With this token on thecaster’s person they may cast the spell. The spell causesthe caster’s skin to do electrical damage to anyone thattouches them or in an adjacent hex that makes a con-ducting path to the character. The damage is a class IIelectrical attack (122334). The effect lasts for five roundsand may be renewed for an added five rounds for one en-durance. The effect may be ended early but this ends thespell.

False Sound


This spell permits the caster to make a simple sound,a rock falling, a coin being dropped, or a single muffledword. The position of the sound may be targeted at -1/3”in combat or placed with accuracy if the may spends asegment placing it. The spell lasts for a round and maybe renewed for an additional round for one endurance.

FasterBase Cost: 2Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

This spell raises the caster’s initiative by two pointsfor five rounds. It cannot be used on others. The effectmay be extended for an additional five rounds for oneendurance.

FireballBase Cost: 6Mana Cost: 4Skill Roll: MT-4Details:

This spell requires the caster to chant loudly andgesture to initiate the spell. It permits him to throw asmall red spitting ball of fire that is targeted at -1/3”.It bursts filling a 3” radius with a class III fire attack.The spell lasts for a round and may be renewed for anadditional round for one endurance.

FleximoBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

This spell causes the caster to become far more flex-ible, able to squeeze through spaces one-fourth the sizethey normally can. The ability lasts for ten minutes andcan be renewed for an additional ten minutes for one en-durance. The spell does not affect the caster’s gear.

Frost Fingers


This spell permits the caster to chill another charac-ter by touching them. If the caster scores a combat hitit does a class I cold attack (112233) and also imposes astrength 19 restraint that breaks if the other character de-feats it, can be removed by the application of warmth, andfades one per round. The spell lasts for a round and maybe renewed for an additional round for one endurance.

GrowthBase Cost: 5Mana Cost: 3Skill Roll: MT-3Details:

This spell causes the caster to grow 50% taller andbrawny in proportion. It requires a brief chant to acti-vate. When the spell is in effect the caster also has oneadded body and do +1 DC with hand weapons or mis-sile weapons, like boulders, that depend on mass. The

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spell does nothing to adjust the size of the character’sgarments and gear. They may take substantial damageif the spell causes them to burst out of armor or bonds.The added size lasts for ten minutes and may be renewedfor an added ten minutes for one endurance.

Hidden Missile


This spell requires the caster to chant over a missileweapon (dart, arrow, throwing knife) for five minutes.The missile weapon vanishes. Subsequently the castermay snap his fingers and point, causing the weapon toreappear, moving at high velocity. The weapon does itsnormal level of damage. The caster may store as manymissiles as he has invested points in mage skill.

Ignite


This spell permits the caster to ignite a flammableobject by touch. It also does a class I attack (112233) toa target the caster does a combat hit on. The spell lastsfor a round and may be renewed for an additional roundfor one endurance.

Inner Beauty


This spell requires the character to fashion a copperring with the name of beauty in the base of a setting inwhich is a diamond. The character can cast the spell whilewearing the ring. The ring takes three hours to make andcosts about ninety silver talents. The spell lasts for anhour. It adds the character’s mystical base allowance totheir beauty.

Inner Grace


This spell requires the character to fashion a goldring with the name of grace in the base of a setting inwhich is a moonstone. The character can cast the spellwhile wearing the ring. The ring takes three hours tomake and costs about seventy-five silver talents. The spelllasts for an hour. It adds the character’s mystical baseallowance to their agility.

Inner Strength


This spell requires the character to fashion a silverring with the name of strength in the base of a settingin which is a brown agate. The ring takes three hoursto make and costs about forty silver talents. The charac-ter can cast the spell while wearing the ring. The spelllasts for an hour. It adds the character’s mystical baseallowance to their strength.

Invisibility


This spell renders a single character invisible to mostforms of sight for ten minutes. Starting the spell requiresan invocation and anointing the casters eyes with wine orvinegar and then touching the subject of the spell with awand at least ten centimeters long made of a transparentmaterial such as glass or crystal. The spell lasts for around and may be extended for an additional round byspending an endurance.

Jack Pocket


This spell requires the character to prepare a pasteof powdered copper, niter, and chicken fat. To cast thespell the caster swabs a pocket, purse, box, lock or othercloseable object. If the spell is cast successfully the pasteis absorbed into the object and a trap is set. If someoneother than the caster or someone he names during castingopens the object, they take a class II attach in the formof an electrical spark. The victim of this spell may rollagainst personality to avoid crying out. The spell lastsfor a round and may be renewed for an additional roundfor one endurance.

Levitation


This spell permits the caster to rise or lower himselfa number of inches per round equal to his magic statistic.The ability lasts for ten minutes and may be renewed foran added ten minutes for one endurance.

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Light


This spell permits the character to cause a physicalobject to glow, illuminating a 3” radius with light brightenough to read by. The object glows for about an hour.The spell lasts for a round and may be renewed for anadditional round for one endurance.

Lightning


This spell requires the caster to have a token of strawsoaked in saltpeter to cast it. This token is expendibleand vanishes with a crackle when the spell is cast. Thespell permits the caster to throw a class IV electrical at-tack down a line of eight hexes. The spell lasts for around and may be renewed for an additional round forone endurance.

Magewind


This spell summons a wind sufficient to drive a sail-ing craft. It does not work unless the caster is on water ina sailboat and it cannot lower inconveniently high windvelocity. The spell lasts as long as the caster maintainslike concentration.

Minor Healing


This spell requires the wizard to lay his hands on awound and concentrate. The caster expends the manaand the wound knits to some degree. The effect is aclass II (122334) healing spell. The spell lasts for a roundand may be renewed for an additional round for one en-durance.

Poison ProtectionBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

This spell requires the caster to speak the reversedname of poison and sprinkle white sand over the person(s)the spell is to affect. The caster may grant a poison armorof three for an hour to one person per application of the

spell. If that person has magic skill they may extendthe protection for an additional hour for one endurance.The spell lasts for a round and may be extended for anadditional round for one endurance.

Polish Metal


This spell requires the caster to repeat a chant whilethe spell is in use. The spell permits the caster to toucha metal object which will then shed rust and tarnish andbecome as shiny as it can. The spell completely cleans upto one square meter or surface area and can be appliedmultiple times to clean more. The spell lasts for a roundand may be renewed for another round for one endurance.

Protection from Fire


This spell requires the caster to chant loudly, invok-ing the name of fire and rub sulfur powder across the fore-head of the person the spell is cast on. The spell grantsthe person it was cast on two points of fire armor for anhour. The spell lasts for a round and may be renewed foran additional round for one endurance.

Protection from Lightning


This spell requires the caster to chant loudly, invok-ing the name of the storm and rub iron powder acrossthe forehead of the person the spell is cast on. The spellgrants the person it was cast on two points of lightningarmor for an hour. The spell lasts for a round and maybe renewed for an additional round for one endurance.

Running


This spell requires the caster to chant loudly andgesture. It may be used to add +4” to the running move-ment of the person it is cast on. The added movementlasts for ten minutes. The spell lasts for a round and maybe renewed for an additional round for one endurance.

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Sleep


This spell requires the caster to make a wand of alderwrapped with wool, owl feathers, bound with blue threadand tipped with blue wax. With the wand, the castermay project a spell, targeted at -1/3”, that forces thetarget to roll versus the better of their spirit or magic orfall asleep.

Smell Poison


This spell permits the character to detect, as an oddsmell, poison. Ingestive, insinuative, and inhallative poi-sons smell different and, with practice, the character candetect different types of poison. The sense lasts for tenminutes and may be renewed for an additional ten min-utes for one endurance.

Soot Ball


This spell requires and expendable token in the formof a piece of charred wood, soaked in pine tar, and thenrolled in a ball of bee’s wax. Casting the spell requiresexpending such a token and permits the caster to target aball of black soot at -1/3” against an opponent. If it hits,it blinds the opponent for a round. A full action withaccess to water, or some other appropriate fluid, may endthe blindness early. The spell lasts for a round and may beextended for another round by expending an endurance.

Spellwoven


This spell permits the caster to make an object ofcloth up to twelve meters across. It may be created withgrommets and fastenings and the most common uses areto create the cloth for a tent or a sail. The created clothtakes am minute to form, during which time the castermust chant and shape the cloth with gestures. The clothlasts indefinitely, but may be uncreated with a DispelMagic or similar effect.

Steal Mana


This spell grants the character the magical skill stealmana with a roll of Magic+2 or adds +4 to the roll if thecaster already has the skill. The enhanced roll lasts forfive rounds and may be renewed for an added five roundsfor one endurance.

Sticky Foot


This spell requires the person it is cast on to eat aspider. Live or dried, the spell works either way. Thespell grants the ability to cling to walls and ceilings withtheir bare flesh for ten minutes. The spell lasts for around and may be renewed for an additional round forone endurance.

Summon Monster


This spell permits the caster to create a monsterout of solidified magical force. The monster has no ce-lestial base allowance and has either a 10/5 or a 12/3material and mystical base allowance. The appearanceand abilities of this monster are determined when thespell is learned (and multiple versions of the spell may belearned). The monster is obedient to the spell caster thatcreates it and has a base cost of sixteen points and up tonine points of disadvantages selected from the list belowor permitted by the referee. The monster takes one min-utes of concentration for form and remains indefinitely. Adispel magic against a cost of six may dismiss the mon-ster, dissolving it into goo that rapidly evaporates.

Summoned monsters are permitted to have special at-tacks, poison claws, breath weapons, the ability to ex-plode violently, and even arcane talents. For two pointsthe servant may purchase the ability to share its senseswith its master. Typically the mage that creates the ver-sion of the spell in question must, themselves, have theseabilities either as talents or through knowing a spell thatproduces a similar effect.

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Points Disadvantage2 Obedient short of self-destruction (re-

quired).1-4 Odd to disgusting appearance.1-2 Has a lust, craving or need that distracts

the monster.1-3 Irrational fear, e.g. terrified of cats∗.1 Lacks speech.2 Lacks manipulation.2 Extra damage class from common type of

damage, e.g. fire.2 Extra damage class from common condi-

tion, e.g. flowing water, sunlight.* - this must be consistent with the monster’s type.

Summon ServantBase Cost: 8Mana Cost: 3Skill Roll: MT-3Details:

This spell permits the caster to create a humanoidservant out of solidified magical force. This servant has amaterial base allowance of 10, a mystical base allowanceof four, and no celestial base allowance. The appear-ance and abilities of this servant are determined when thespell is learned (and multiple versions of the spell may belearned). For two points the servant may purchase theability to share its senses with its master. The servant iscompletely obedient to the spell caster that creates it andhas a base cost of twelve points and eight points of disad-vantages selected from the list below or permitted by thereferee. The servant takes ten minutes of concentrationfor form and remains indefinitely. A dispel magic againsta cost of three may dismiss the servant, dissolving it intogoo that rapidly evaporates.

Points Disadvantage3 Obedient to the point of self-destruction

(required).1-3 Odd to disgusting appearance.2 Abject cowardice, does not fight well.2 Angered by disrespect to master.2 Kleptomaniac, on master’s behalf.2 Requires a few drop of caster’s blood each

day or falls apart.2 Extra damage class from common type of

damage, e.g. fire.2 Extra damage class from common condi-

tion, e.g. flowing water, sunlight.

TailBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

This spell gives the character a prehensile tail thatlasts for about an hour. The tail has soft brown fur and

looks like it belongs on a (large) spider monkey. Theduration may be renewed for an added hours for one en-durance.

TelekinesisBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 3Skill Roll: MT-3Details:

This spell permits the character to exert a strengthequal to their spirit at range, targeted at -1/3”. Theability lasts for ten minutes and may be renewed for anadditional ten minutes for one endurance.

Tiny


This spell requires the caster to fashion a small dollof themselves made with their own hair and dressed infabric from clothes they have long worn. When cast, withthe doll on their person, this spell reduces the caster toone-quarter their height, one sixtieth their normal weight,adds +2 to their material defense, and subtracts two fromtheir running movement. The spell lasts for an hour andmay be renewed for another hour for one endurance.

Ventriloquism


This spell permits the mage to throw his voice up to10” away so that the sound comes from a distant point.The ability lasts for ten minutes and may be renewed foran added ten minutes for one endurance.

Water Breathing


This spell requires fresh samples of a plant that livesin water. A person can only have the spell cast on themif they have the plant in their mouth. The spell permitsthe person it is cast on to breathe water for an hour (theycan also breathe air). The spell lasts for a round and maybe renewed for an additional round for one endurance.

WindBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 2Skill Roll: MT-2Details:

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This spell grants the character that casts it the abil-ity to expend one additional endurance per segment. Itcannot be cast on other people. The ability lasts for anhour and may be renewed for an added hour for one en-durance.

Youme


This spell causes the caster to appear to be someoneelse. The spell requires three strands of hair or the equiv-alent and this trace falls to dust when the caster caststhe spell. For a day after casting the spell, the caster hasthe appearance, voice, scent, and tactile character of theperson supplying the trace. Touching iron not on yourperson when the spell is cast will end the spell as will anyattempt at dispelling magic. This spell only works whenthe trace is supplied by someone similar in species to thecaster.

Zap


This spell requires the caster make a wand from thewood of a lightning struck tree, carefully sanded and pol-ished. The spell generates a blue spark that can be tar-geted at -1/3”. If it hits the spark does a class II lightningattack (122334). The spell lasts for a round and may berenewed for an additional round for one endurance.

Example Rituals

Animate Dead


This spell permits a mage to reanimate a dead body.If the body is skeletal, or has lost its tendons, he mustfirst wire the relevant joints together with wire that con-tains no silver. This ritual will work on almost any deadcreature, but only if the body was most recently living(not undead or otherworldly). The ritual creates a zombiewith sixteen base points and the ten points of usual dis-advantages for the animated dead. More skeletal undeadmay gain additional disadvantages from missing sensesand high density. The animated creature is without willand will not act unless ordered by its creator, to whomit is slavishly obedient. The ritual requires about thirtyminutes during which the caster must paint sigils in hisown blood on the forehead and over (or near) the heartof the dead creature and invoke the dark powers.

Bless Weapon


This ritual requires the caster to spend three daysforging a silver rune into a weapon. At the end of theforging the caster dumps one mana permanently fromtheir own store or a mana stone into the blade. Oncethis is done, the weapon becomes magical, gaining +2 tohit.

Bradley Marble


This ritual require the caster to craft and sinter redgranite and marble and then saturate it in sulfur andwax. It makes six Bradley marbles. These burst filling a3” radius with a class III fire attack when they are crushedor smashed at high speed into a hard object.

Crafting


This ritual does not actually permit the character tomake any type of thing that he could not already make.Rather it grants him an uncanny ability to see and avoidweakness in construction, materials, and technique whenusing any craft skill he has. The result is that a characterthat knows this ritual can produce unusually high qualitygoods by craft. This includes anything from carpentryand metalworking to baking or cooking.

DeathwardBase Cost: 4Mana Cost: 1Skill Roll: MT-1Details:

This ritual requires two individuals to nick them-selves and mix their blood while chanting a series of ar-cane words together. The chant lasts for about threeminutes. The effect of the spell is that if either characterdies then the other will see the scene of his death at thetime of his death and for a few seconds afterwords.

Melvin MarbleBase Cost: 6Mana Cost: 3Skill Roll: MT-3Details:

This ritual require the caster to craft and sinterquartz and marble and then saturate it in saltpeter and

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wax. It makes six Melvin marbles. These burst filling a 3”radius with a class III cold attack when they are crushedor smashed at high speed into a hard object.

Preservation


This spell requires that the caster prepare a powderof sea salt, niter, and cedar wood dried in a kiln. Theritual require the caster to sprinkle this powder over theobject he wishes to preserve while chanting. The ritualpreserves fruit or meat, milk or green leaves from organicdecay for up to a month.

Rune of Smiting


This ritual requires the caster to spend three daysforging a brass rune into a weapon. At the end of the forg-ing the caster dumps one mana permanently from theirown store or a mana stone into the blade. Once this isdone, the blade becomes magical, gaining an added dam-age class and increasing its maximum damage by one.

Spell Ring

Base Cost: 1 or moreMana Cost: 1 or moreSkill Roll: MT-1 or moreDetails:

This ritual permits a character to make a gold ringset with an emerald that can store spells. The numberof spells that can be placed into the ring is equal to theamount of mana placed in it. This mana is expended per-manently, from the caster’s store or from a mana stone.The spells the ring can store are established when the ringis made - at most the mana expended in the ring. Thering can store each spell once, or multiple copies of someof the spells.

Stone Golem Construction


This ritual takes three months of effort and requiresthat the mage(s) performing the ritual create a stonestatue in the form of the golem he wishes to create. Thestatue is runed and chanted over. A gem costing about1000 silver talents is required with the caster meditat-ing over the gem each day he is making the statue. Themagic of the ritual permits the caster to infuse the stone

with magic, and press the gem into as a heart, animat-ing it. The mana cost of the ritual is one point per fivepoints the golem costs. The golem is an obedient servantof its creator or of a person designated by the creator orit may be forged for a specific task. A stone golem typ-ically takes extra damage from direct magical damage.A golem’s ability to follow orders is related to its intelli-gence. Stone Golems are usually used as guardians, bodyguards, thugs, or terror weapons. Golems typically havevery high armor and great strength.

Thobox


A thobox is a box crafted of aromatic wood that isfinely polished. The inside of all six sides are carved withrunes of concealment and hiding and then the box is linedwith thin sheets of lead into which more runes are cutand filled with silver following which felt or another clothlining is placed over the lead. At this point the wizard ex-pends his mana, binding the box together and activatingit. Such a box completely baffles mystical detection andlocation against those things inside the box. The outsideof the box may be fitted with locks or fasteners withoutdisrupting the spell. A thobox is usually used to concealmagical treasure.

Alchemistry

Alchemists are best known for brewing potions, whichmust be quaffed to have an effect, but they have a numberof abilities including the ability to amend the damagedone by poison. An alchemical vapor is a special typeof potion that is thrown rather than quaffed. A vaporblossoms into a 3” radius of vapor that has an affect onall in the area of effect. Some vapors have an effect oncontact, others must be breathed.

Alchemical Spells

This list contains the known spells and rituals of alchem-istry. Alchemistry is very rich in rituals because that ishow potions are brewed.

Awaken


This spell requires the character to fashion a hollowwooden tube sealed at both ends and filled with urea crys-tals, asafoetida, sulphur, and dry pine needles. The tubeis sealed with pitch or tar and serves as a wand neededto direct the spell. The spell is targeted as an attack

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and permits unconscious character’s a roll versus uncon-sciousness to awaken with a bonus of half the margin onthe mage talent roll made to cast the spell. This spelllasts for one round and may be renewed for an additionalround by spending a point of endurance.

Binary


This spell requires a caster to make a three-lobed vialthat can hold (up to) six doses of an alchemical potionor substance in each of its lobes. The spell requires thecaster fill one of the lobes with a potion and then chantand make mystical passes for a round. When the caster isdone the full lobe will be empty and the empty lobes arefull of new potions. The effect of the new potion obtainsonly if one dose each of the new potions is consumed. Forthe binary effect to work the two halves of the potionmust be consumed within one day of one another. Aftera day the first partial potions effects wear off. This timeto consumption of the second half may be driven up thespell duration for one added mana.

Counteraction


This spell does an immediate class five healing attackthat only affects damage done by poison. It requires thatthe caster forge a silver knife with a mother-of-pearl inlayin the handle in the form of the name of poison. The tipof the dagger must be touched to the wound and then thecaster must press the flat of the dagger over the woundand speak the name of poison, reversed, over and over asa chant. Seven times seven repetitions are made then thehealing accrues. The spell lasts long enough to apply itand may be renewed for another casting by expending anendurance.

Distill Venom


This spell permits the caster to take a potion andreduce its volume substantially so that it can be used toenvenom an arrow or a dagger. The venom distilled fromthe potion will, if the object it is used to envenom it doesat least one point of material damage, have the effectof the potion it was distilled from. The venom remainspotent for several weeks after it is created but does notlast nearly as long as the potion it was made from.

Identify Potion


This spell grants the caster a mystical sense for aboutan hour. This sense permits him to automatically identifyany potion he can make. It also permits the character toget a sense of what other potions can do and to get asense if a substance can be substituted for another in aritual that produces a potion. The degree of accuracyof the sense depends on the degree to which a potion isunfamiliar to the caster, its complexity, and its powerlevel. The referee should assign a penalty based on thesefactors and information in proportion to the degree theroll is made beyond the penalty.

Resonant DetectionBase Cost: 3Mana Cost: 3Skill Roll: MT-3Details:

This spell has one version for each type of potionthat the character knows how to brew. It requires onlyconcentration to cast the spell. When the spell is cast,any nearby bottle or container of the potion the spellcorresponds to will ring with a bell-like tone. The spelllasts for a round and may be renewed for another roundfor one endurance.

SealBase Cost: 5Mana Cost: 3Skill Roll: MT-3Details:

This spell requires that a character prepare a con-tainer with the runes of time and preservation etched orcarved into it. The character must also have beeswaxavailable when casting. The spell is chanted while thecharacter seals the container with the beeswax. The re-sulting seal is airtight and arrests the process of organicdecay within the container. This can be used to keepfood, poison, or other alchemical substances fresh or topreserve potion ingredients or dead bodies in their freshstate. The container may not exceed three cubic metersin volume and is often no larger than a vial or small jar.

Alchemical Rituals

Here are listed the various rituals available to an al-chemist.

Brew Antimana Vapor


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This ritual requires twelve hours to perform and cre-ates six glass ampules filled with a pale gray fluid. Therituals requires a powdered lead, powdered zinc, lotusflowers, the sap of a rowan tree, and a small chip of am-ber. Glass tubing, a lead funnel with the reversed nameof magic engraved on it and continuous access to an openflame are needed to complete the ritual. The antimanavapor is hurled and bursts filling a 3” radius with a faintwhite cloud shot through with violet sparks. Any crea-ture that touches the vapor takes a class IV attack thatis subtracted from their mana. The cloud remains for around doing it damage each segment unless removed bya stiff breeze or similar effect.

Brew Arabane PotionBase Cost: 8Mana Cost: 4Skill Roll: MT-4Details:

This potion requires the caster mix the fresh bloodof a bull, a bear, and a goose or other large wild birdinto pure water. A small amount of powdered amberand seven braided threads of silk are then added afterwhich the mixture is thickened with a roux of wheat flourand hot spices. The caster then expends mana into themixture finishing the spell. It takes three hours to brewthis potion and six doses are produced. The resultingpotion is a transparent red fluid with an unpleasant tasteand a strange smell. The potion, when quaffed, increasesa character’s ability to expend endurance by three persegment (to a maximum of six). When the ability wearsoff the character takes a class 0 wound, ignoring armor.

Brew Blinding Vapor


This ritual requires twelve hours to perform and cre-ates six glass ampules filled with a black fluid. The rit-uals requires a small blind fish, a moleskin, a bat wing,turpentine, iris flowers, and wood alchohol. The ritualrequires glass tubing, an ebon funnel with the reversedname of sight engraved on it and continuous access toan open flame. The blinding vapor is hurled and burstsfilling a 3” radius with a grey cloud shot through withblack streaks. Any creature whose eyes contact the vaporis blinded. Sight returns a round later.

Brew Brimstone Vapor


This ritual requires eight hours to perform and cre-ates six glass ampules filled with a dark red fluid. The

rituals requires sulphur, niter, refined spirits of wine, pow-dered coal, and sap from a pine tree. Glass tubing, a brassfunnel with the name of brimstone engraved on it and con-tinuous access to an open flame are also required. Thebrimstone vapor is hurled and bursts filling a 3” radiuswith a red cloud shot through with yellow sparks. Anycreature that inhales the vapor takes a class IV poisonattack. Holding your breath requires a roll versus agilityand reduces the damage class by two.

Brew BufferBase Cost: 8Mana Cost: 5Skill Roll: MT-5Details:

This ritual requires about a day to perform, and of-ten an assistant to help. The character adds a few dropsof at least ten kinds of magic potion to a mixture or spruceneedles, juniper berries, rabbit blood, and lavender in asilver bowl, heating over boiling water and stirring con-stantly. At the end of the day the caster expends themana, makes the casting roll, and obtains six doses of apale yellow fluid. When used while mixing potions addingthis potion reduces the penalty for mixing by ten. Thispotion itself causes no added penalty.

Brew Bug Repellent


This ritual requires legs, mandibles, or wing casesfrom insects as well as boar fat, nightshade berries, andskunk-cabbage leaves. It creates a grey-and-brown goopthat is activated by smearing it onto ones skin or gear. Ittakes three hours to brew a twelve dose pot of the gunk.When smeared on the gunk makes a mildly unpleasantsmell that makes insects of all sorts avoid the character.The protection lasts for about three hours or until washedoff.

Brew Bulkiness PotionBase Cost: 7Mana Cost: 4Skill Roll: MT-4Details:

This potion requires the caster to brew together bitsof bull beef, stag meat, ants, and snake flesh with pow-dered iron, barley, and mint leaves in red wine in a smallsilver cauldron over a fire lit using oak and ash. It takesfive hours to finish the brewing after which the casterpours mana into the potion, obtaining six doses. It be-comes a deep brown translucent fluid with purple high-lights. Drinking the potion adds two body to the personthat drinks it for a day. It also bulks them up visibly. Atthe end of the day the body fades - if this body is keepingthe character alive they may die.

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Brew Clinging Potion


This potion requires that the alchemist make a stewof the legs of spiders together with powdered goat or cowhooves, allspice, and sour wine. The ritual takes aboutfour hours and produces six deep brown potions with afaint smell of beef broth and allspice. Drinking one ofthese portions gives a person the ability to cling to wallslike a spider for about an hour.

Brew Confusion PotionBase Cost: 6Mana Cost: 4Skill Roll: MT-4Details:

This potion requires the alchemist to mix powderedsulphur, pure water, crushed granite, powdered copper,and the petals of roses and lilies in a small amount ofchicken fat. The mixture is brewed for a full day afterwhich the caster pours in mana and complete the spell.The potion becomes clear, flavorless, and odorless. Abatch is six doses. Drinking this potion imposes a classIII penalty on skill, talent, hit, and defense rolls for tenminutes. This potion is almost flavorless and mixes harm-lessly with other potions and with normal beverages.

Brew Cold Resistance PotionBase Cost: 7Mana Cost: 4Skill Roll: MT-4Details:

This ritual requires that the alchemist compound dis-tilled brandywine, a pinch of sulphur and saltpeter, theclear sap of pine, shavings of cedar, and berrries of ju-niper. The ritual takes about six hours and produces sixpale pink potions that are warm to the touch. These po-tions grant four points of armor against damage done bycold for about a day.

Brew EliderBase Cost: 7Mana Cost: 4Skill Roll: MT-4Details:

This spell requires a character to take the venom ofa snake, a poison spider, poison ivy leaves, an nightshadesap and combine them in brandywine. The mixture issealed in a vial which is immersed in boiling water intowhich bits of powdered lead and silver is place. Oncethree hours have passed the caster expends mana into themixture. The heat in the water, the lead, and the silverall magically move into the sealed vial and it becomesthe elider elixir. One brewing makes three doses. Elidermay be added to any other alchemical potion. It is clear,

odorless, and flavorless. It has the effect of doing a classsix poison attack to anyone that drinks the other potion,triggered when the other potions effects wear off.

Brew Fire Resistance PotionBase Cost: 7Mana Cost: 4Skill Roll: MT-4Details:

This ritual requires that the alchemist compoundpure water melted from winter ice, juniper berries, pow-dered oak bark, and a thin wire of lead braided with twothin wires of copper. The ritual takes about six hoursand produces six pale blue potions that are cool to thetouch. These potions grant four point of armor againstdamage done by fire or heat for about a day.

Brew Flaming Vapors


This ritual requires that the alchemist compoundspirits of wine, sulphur, niter, nettle flowers, pine tar,and cinnabar. It takes six hours to perform the ritualwhich yields six ampules of glowing yellow fluid. Whenthe ampule bursts it explodes filling a 3” radius with aclass IV fire attack that penetrates one point of armor. Itcan be hurled with a -1/3” range modifier. The fluid mustbe stored with great care because of its flammability.

Brew Flying Potion


This ritual requires the ichor of an air elemental ofsize -2 or larger. The ichor is mixed with light wine andpowdered amber in a bowl of polished light wood. It mustbe stirred with a silver rod for ten minutes and left stillfor three hours. The caster then applies the mana andspeaks the name of flight and the rune of binding. Thefluid turns into a pale blue fluid. The ritual makes sixdoses of a potion that grants the person that drinks itthe ability to fly by force of will for ten minutes. Theflying movement is the drinker’s magic statistic.

Brew Frog Potion


This ritual permits the caster to create potions that,when quaffed, transforms the quaffer into a frog. Thefrog is completely a frog with none of the quaffer’s mem-ory and capabilities. This spell works on any creature,

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with 25 or fewer character points, that drinks it, on a rollof 18 of less. At 26-28 points the roll is 17 or less andgoes down one more per three added points. The potionrequires frog spawn, powdered mandrake, pine needles,a pellet made of half brass and half gold, and a scrupleof spruce sap. It takes twelve hours to perform the ritualand the result is six bright green potions. The transforma-tion is permanent but can be reversed by dispelling themagic. The character transformed leaves their clothingand equipment behind. Several version of this potion ex-ist that permit transformation into a toad, turtle, roach,or slug. The ingredients vary somewhat with the metalsused in the pellet and the type of spawn needed changed.

Brew Grace PotionBase Cost: 9Mana Cost: 5Skill Roll: MT-5Details:

This ritual takes twelve hours to perform and re-quires the following ingredients: blood of a deer, featherof a falcon, ginger root, garlic oil, powdered cinnabar, atiny pellet of silver, and a wad of dandelion seeds. The rit-ual makes six grace potions. When consumed in whole,the potion will increase the quaffer’s grace by four forabout an hour. The potion is orange with silver high-lights. This adds a point of material attack, a point ofmaterial defense, a point of initiative, and two points ofrunning movement. The character moves like a moviebeing run too fast when this potion is used.

Brew Greater Healing Potion


This ritual takes a working day to perform and re-quires a selection of herbs including bay leaves, the freshblood of a mystic being, and a well stocked alchemical lab-oratory capable of distillation and fractioning. The ritualmakes six healing potions, each of which does a rank sixhealing attack that takes a single round to achieve itseffect. The potion is pale violet with silver sparkles.

Brew Healing Potion


This ritual takes about three hour to perform andrequires a selection of herbs, including bay leaves, and awell stocked alchemical laboratory capable of distillation.The ritual makes six healing potions, each of which does arank five healing attack that takes five rounds to achieveits effect. The potion is pale blue with copper-coloredsparkles.

Brew Lesser Healing Potion


This ritual takes about hour to perform and requiresa selection of herbs, including bay leaves, a cauldron, andbottles. The ritual makes six healing potions, each ofwhich does a rank three healing attack that takes fiverounds to achieve its effect. The potion is pale greenwith white flecks.

Brew Impulse Potion


This potion requires the dried blossoms of the angerflower, a plant native to the southern plains. Theseblooms are soaked in red wine and augmented with pinetar, powdered sulfur and cinnabar. The mixture is re-duced producing six small vials of a deep red syrup witha sweet flavor. Consuming a dose of this potion reducespersonality rolls to avoid impulse, anger, or temptationby the amount of a class VI attack with the penalty last-ing for about ten minutes.

Brew Light Potion


This potion requires powdered quartz, aqua regia,leaves of tea and bay, and petals of yellow daisy or dan-delion. The ingredients are mixed in a marble bowl witha stone rim in the light of the sun for two hours and thenbottled in crystal vials. The mana is poured in after thepotions are bottled, at which point the potion becomesclear with a faint glow. To use the potion it is opened,resealed and shaken; this activates it causing it to illu-minate a 10” radius clearly and another 6” dimly. Theillumination lasts for about six hours.

Brew Mana PotionBase Cost: 7Mana Cost: 3Skill Roll: AT-3Details:

This ritual takes about two hour to perform andrequires a selection of ingredients including twenty-oneleaves of trillium, two ounces of powdered oak bark, anounce of blue mud dissolved in pure spring water, andtwo ounces of the blood of a creature with at least fivemana (a goat usually works). The alchemist will also re-quire a cauldron, a fire, and lead crystal vials. The ritualmakes six deep orange potions with opalescent highlights.

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Drinking such a potion will restores 4d6 points of mana,but no more than the caster’s maximum.

Brew Mapping Vapor


This ritual requires a full day to perform and createssix glass ampules filled with a quicksiver fluid. The ritu-als requires dust from a magical gem, powdered cinnabar,missletoe berries, hair-fine silver wire, and white sandfrom a dark river. The ritual also requires glass tub-ing, a platimum funnel with the name of magicengravedon it and continuous access to an open flame. The map-ping vapor is hurled and bursts filling a 3” radius with arainbow cloud shot through with light. It settles quicklyfavoring magic and sorting the colored particles in thecloud according to the type of the magic. This vapor isuseful for locating and negotiating magical traps, findinghidden treasure, and other purposes.

Brew Omniaquis

Base Cost: 10Mana Cost: 7Skill Roll: AT-7Details:

This ritual requires the alchemist to crush a whitepearl, a black pearl, an opal, a sphere of silver, and aquail egg together between a plate of iron and a disk ofpolished oak. The debris and then swept into a goldenbowl and then treated with brandywine and slowly heatedwhile the blood of a deer, a dove, and a fish are mixed in,one each hour. The last time the potion comes to a boilthe alchemist pours in mana and the mixture contracts,become a fluid similar to quicksilver, and becomes active.It is poured into a crystal vial and remains active for anhour. During that hour, anyone may cast a spell and,rather than deploying it normally, grasps the flask. Thefluid becomes clear with sparkles of a color based on thespell cast. Drinking the potion will cause the spell towork on the person that does the drinking. If that personhas mage talent then they may, by making a mage talentroll at -10, throw the spell instead of being affected by it.

Brew Opyrus Potion


This spell requires three measures of dragon’s blood,powdered sulphur, an eye from a newt, and the dust of asmall ruby as well as distilled spirits of wine. It takes eighthours to brew the potion. When the caster pours in themana the potion glows with an actinic light and then fadesto pale orange with gold flecks. When quaffed, the potion

gives the caster sixteen classes of damage that can beexpended by simply looking at targets, no more that fourdamage classes per target. The character must make atargeting roll at -1/3” and can attack at most two targets- this does not use up their action for the turn. Thedamage is fire damage. Any damage not expended withina round is lost unless the caster spends an endurance.

Brew Petrifaction Potion


This potion requires the blood of a basilisk, cocka-trice, or other creature with a petrifaction attack. Theblood is mixed with wine, saltpeter, silver, and the petalsof both white rose and lily. This is done in silver bowl withan obsidian rim with runes upon it. The potion is mixedunder the light of the moon for three hours with a silverrod. The resulting mixture turns into an opaque tan fluidwhen the alchemist pours mana into the mixture at theconclusion of the ritual. The ritual makes four doses ofthe potion. When consumed, the potion transforms theperson that consumes it to stone with a roll of 22, lessone per three points above fifteen the quaffer has. Thetransformation lasts indefinitely, but may be reversed bydispelling magic or by leaving the petrified person in thedirect light of the sun for six hours.

Brew Poison


This ritual requires about three hours to perform.It requires the venom of a poisonous snake, white woodash, oil of hot pepper, roasted henbane seeds, and leavesof nightshade. The ritual creates six doses of an ingestivepoison that does a class seven attack when consumed. Inspite of its ingredients, the poison is almost flavorless. Itis pale red, with an oily consistency. The potion dissolveswell in alcohol and remains potent for about six months.

Brew Poison Resistance Potion


This ritual requires that the alchemist compoundthree different sorts of poison (one dose of each) withdifferent methods of action, newly opened wine, a smallpellet of silver, powdered willow bark, and the powderedleaves of an elm or rowan tree. The ritual takes about sixhours and produces six opaque white potions that reflectslight in rainbow patterns like oil. These potions grant fivepoints of armor against damage done by poison for a day.

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Brew Sleeping Vapor


This ritual requires twelve hours to perform and cre-ates twelve glass ampules filled with a pale yellow fluid.The ritual requires cobwebs, fortified wines, dust from agrave, powdered dried crickets, and sap from dandelionsor a similar flower. The ritual requires a silver funnel withthe name of sleep engraved on it and continuous access toan open flame. The sleep vapor is hurled and bursts fillinga 3” radius with a pale yellow cloud. Any creature thatcan sleep and inhales the vapor falls asleep for about fiveminutes. Holding your breath permits personality rolls,each round, to stay awake.

Brew Strength Potion


This ritual takes twelve hours to perform and re-quires the following ingredients: blood of a bear, raw beef,basil, garlic oil, crystallized honey, powdered granite, anda woven circle of linen and hemp. The ritual makes sixstrength potions. When consumed in whole, the potionwill increase the quaffer’s strength by four for about anhour. This adds four endurance and a point of mate-rial attack. The potion also adds two damage classes tothe character’s standard hand-to-hand attacks, either byletting them hit harder or by letting them use a biggerweapon with the same efficiency as a smaller one. Thecharacter’s muscles visibly bulge when this happens. Thepotion is a deep nut-brown color.

Brew Swiftness PotionBase Cost: 7Mana Cost: 4Skill Roll: MT-4Details:

This ritual takes about six hour to perform and re-quires a selection of herbs, red cinnabar, and the bloodof a fast, agile animal like a cat or deer. It also requires awell stocked alchemical laboratory capable of distillationare reformation. The ritual makes six swiftness potions,each of which will increase by three the initiative of some-one who quaffs it for ten minutes. This potion is brightsilver with small blue specks in it.

Brew Transformation PotionBase Cost: 7Mana Cost: 5Skill Roll: MT-5Details:

This ritual takes about six hours to perform and re-quires an ounce of the blood of a living animal to create.

It also requires ginger root, garlic oil, essence of aconite,a dried cocoon of a butterfly, and seeds from an apple. Italso requires a well stocked alchemical laboratory capa-ble of distillation are reformation. The ritual makes sixtransformation potions. When consumed in whole thepotion may transform the quaffer into the animal thatsupplied the blood. The transformation lasts for abouta day and does not transform anything but the quaffer’sbody. The roll to transform is eighteen or less on threedice, with one-third the difference in the character pointsof the original and final form as a penalty to this roll. Thecharacter retains their own mind and motivations but isotherwise the animal that supplied the blood; not only itscapabilities but its exact appearance. If the quaffer hasmage talent they may roll, with the same penalty as theoriginal roll, to return to their normal form.

Brew Whipped Potion


This ritual takes about eight hours to perform andrequires the blood of a character, fresh root of ginger, pin-feathers from an eagle, whiskers from a great cat, refinedspirits of wine, and dust from the grave of a king. Thisritual makes six doses of the potion. The resulting potionis a deep royal purple and can be concealed in wine withease. Someone who drinks the potion must roll againsttheir personality at -4 or they will become fascinated withthe character that contributed the blood. They will wantto please the character and are likely to act on that char-acter’s suggestion. The effects last for about a week butthe duration doubles each time an additional dose is takenbefore the first one runs out. It takes about ten minutesfor the potion to take effect after it is consumed.

Brew Water Breathing Potion


This ritual takes two hours to complete and requiresthe blood and scales of a fish, the roots of a plant thatgrows in water, and a small pearl. The ingredients arestewed in vin ordinare or good beer adding the powderedpearl, crushed to dust, and the mana at the end of theritual. The fluid transforms into a pale blue liquid withdarker blue highlights. When quaffed it grants the abilityto breathe water for about a day. The potion does notdeny the ability to breathe air.

Create Alchemical ServantBase Cost: 5Mana Cost: 5Skill Roll: MT-5Details:

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Armor Table-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Padded Suit 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Leather 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Studded Leather 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2Half Mail 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2Chain Mail 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3Scale Mail 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4Banded Mail 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4

This ritual requires several ounces of blood from acharacter and a collection of alchemical materials includ-ing pine tar, mineral tar, sea salt, freshly slaughteredmeat, a fresh egg from chicken, a fresh egg from a snake,and clay and white sand from a mountain stream. If aservant is to have a mystical base allowance three silver to-kens with special runes must be placed in the mix. Thesecost about 120 silver talents. These materials a combinedand poured into a firing mold and then baked in a kiln likea clay pot. The result is creature shaped as per the moldit is baked in. As it cools, its clay becomes flexible andit animates. This creature is the obedient servant of thecharacter that contributed the blood and that charactercan, at will, sense what the servant senses if the servantpays two points for this ability. The servant’s appear-ance is substantially under the control of the alchemist.The servant may not have more than twenty-five charac-ter points and must have problems to pay for any pointsin excess of sixteen. Alchemical servants have ten pointsbase material allowance and may have five points mysticalbase allowance or they may have twelve material alowanceand no more than three mystical allowance. They haveno celestial base allowance. Each type of alchemical ser-vant represents a different version of this ritual, learnedindividually.

Campaign Color

This section of the rules contains optional game elementsthat a referee mach choose to include or not at his whimas well as examples of chracters and items.

Armor, Shields, and Weapons

This section lists some of the weapons that may be avail-able to characters. A hand-to-hand weapon that doesmore damage classes than its maximum can do the dam-age; it breaks on a roll of fifteen or more on a roll of 3f6plus the number of excess damage classes.

Armor

Armor is structured by the roll of 3d6 to determine howmuch protection it grants. These values are shown inthe armor table. Studded leather is leather armor withbrass or steel studs set in it. Half mail is leather armorreinforced with strips of metal. Chain mail is fairly so-phisticated armor worn over padding. Scale mail is made

of interlinked metal plates. Banded mail is chain withbands of metal welded to it in key areas.

Shields

This is an exemplary collection of shields. See the skillshield use in the core rules for details of how to use shields.

Type Str SizeSmall wooden 16 4Large wooden 17 8

Small wood-and-leather 19 4Large wood-and-leather 20 8

Small brass 22 4Small steel 26 5

Large wood-and-brass 22 8Large wood-and-steel 26 8

Small mithril 28 6

Blades

Blades add to a character’s base damage, but they maynot more than double it. Blades also have a maximumdamage level and may break if they do more damage thantheir maximum.

Added MaxWeapon DC DC Penet.Dagger +1 IV 0Short Sword +1 V 0Full Sword +2 VI 0Large Sword∗ +2 VII 0* - two handed

Blunt Instruments

Blunt instruments are more and more refined versions ofthe club.

Added MaxWeapon DC DC Penet.Wooden Club +1 III 0Staff +1 IV 0Spiked Club +1 IV 0Mace +1 IV 0Large Mace +2 V 0Flail +1 IV 1Brass Knuckles +1 III 0War hammer +2 VI 0

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Bolo

Bolo are odd weapons. They are three weights on shortropes knotted together in the middle. They are throwweapons that wind around an opponent. Their damageclass is negative because they do less damage that a per-son’s strength would. If they hit, however, they tend towrap around the target. A target with manipulation canget lose if they may an agility roll at -4; this takes 1-3actions. Non manipulative targets can break out with acompetitive strength roll.

Added MaxDC DC Str. Range Mod.

Stones -2 III 19 -1/2”Steel Balls -1 III 19 -1/3”

Bows

Added MaxWeapon DC DC Penet. RangeShort Bow IV 0 -1/3”Long Bow +1 V 0 -1/10”Horse Recurve +2 V 0 -1/6”Long Recurve +2 V 0 -1/10”Compound Bow +2 VI 0 -1/10”

Darts, knives, etc.

Added MaxWeapon DC DC Penet. RangeDart +0 II 0 -1/5”Small rock +0 I 0 -1/4”Medium rock +1 II 0 -1/3”Large rock1 +2 III 1 -1/2”Huge rock2 +3 IV 1 -1/1”Gigantic rock3 +4 V 2 -1/1”Throwing knife +1 III 0 -1/3”Throwing star +1 II 0 -1/3”1 - STR 12 minimum1 - STR 16 minimum1 - STR 20 minimum

Garrotes and nooses

A garrote is a wire or strong cord, often with grips orhandles. A noose is a loop of rope, strong cord, or wirewith a slip not; a lasso is a very large noose, usuallyused for capture rather than damaging attack. See theskills use garrote and use lasso. The lasso and noose aretechnically ranged but cannot reach beyond the length ofthe rope of which they are made.

Added Max RangeWeapon DC DC Penet.Garrote +1 VI 0 noneSteel wire garrote +1 VI 1 noneEdged garrote +1 VI 2 noneLasso +0 II 0 -2/1”Noose +1 V 0 -3/1”

Spears

Javelins are designed to be thrown weapons giving themmuch greater range but a better chance of breaking aswell. An atlatl is a curved stick used to throw a smallspear with a stone or steel tip.

Added MaxWeapon DC DC Penet. RangeFire hardened +1 III 0 -1/3”Flint +1 IV 0 -1/5”Obsidian +1 III 1 -1/5”Javelin(Obsidian) +1 II 1 -1/7”Steel +2 IV 0 -1/5”Javelin(Steel) +2 III 0 -1/7”Great spear +2 V 0 -1/1”Harpoon∗ +1 IV 0 -1/2”Atlatl +1 V 0 -1/3”* - carries a line on the head

Whips

Some whips can reach more than one hex. This is encodedin the range parameter. Whips also operate via shockwaves and so find it easier to do penetrating damage.

Added MaxDC DC Penet. Reach

Quirt +0 V 0 0”Whip +1 VI 1 1”Horsewhip +2 VI 1 2”Bullwhip +2 V 2 2”

Example Characters

This section diplays a few example characters.

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Brigand

Material : 12Str Agl Int Kno Per Bty16 16 12 6 14 8

Mystic : 3 Celestial :1Mgk Spr Inu Asc Res Omn

2 3 4 1 1 1

Initiative 7 3,6,9,12 Unconc: 16

Combat ValuesMaterial Mystic Celestial

Atk:8 Def:8 Atk:3 Def:2 Atk:1 Def:1

End: 37 Mana: 5 Essence: 2

Body: 7 © © © © © © ©Mind: 4 © © © ©Chi: 3 © © ©

Movement Run: 12” Fist:II

Pts Ability Roll2 +4” running –2 Fight Wounded 18-2 +4 to hit with small blades A+42 Dive for cover 20-1 Climbing 18-2 Conceal self 14-2 Finding and hiding 14-2 Sneaking 18-1 Fast talk 12-1 Streetwise, Kmeshtown 16-3 +9 endurance ––16

Story: This character is a brigand of the sort that lurks near major roads and raids travelers. He is always trying to makethe “big score” that will let him buy a farm or a shop and get out of briganding – but he does not know how to run a farmof a shop so big scores just set up a situation where he gets cheated – leading to a persecution complex (+2 pts). He is alsowanted by the local equivalent of “the law”.

20 talents

Armor

Roll -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Armor 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

Damage Penalties

Wound Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Attack Penalty 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Defense Penalty 0 0 0 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 8

Skill Penalty 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Talent Penalty 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5

Consciousness * * 0 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 12

Movement 0 0 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 8 9

* no roll needed

1 Dagger (+1/IV)1 Shortsword (+1/V)

Leather armor

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Sorceress-in-Training

Material : 10Str Agl Int Kno Per Bty6 12 12 8 14/19 8

Mystic : 5 Celestial : 1Mgk Spr Inu Asc Res Omn

9 3 3 1 1 1





Body: 6 © © © © © ©Mind: 5 © © © © ©Chi: 3 © © ©

Movement Run: 6” Fist: -2

Pts Ability Roll1 Mystic statistic, personality1 +1 initiative –2 Dodge +margin/2 14-3 +6 mana –6 Mage, six spells 21-1 Donate mana 21-3 Evade wards 13-1 Extend spell 21-1 Expand spell 21-1 Hang spell 21-1 Intensify spell 21-1 Steal mana 21-–22

Story: This character is a archetype of a mage-trainee. She knows just enough magic to be worth hiring to help a merchantship or a guard military unit on a difficult mission. She is very earger for advancement, both financial and professional (+2pts).She is subject to the orders and rules set by her training master, a more senior mage (+1pt). She is extremely greedy formagical power, in the form of knowledge or magical items (+2pts). She is also socially awkward (her society’s equivalent of anerd) (+1pt). More personal details are needed to create a fully defined player character.

Armor

Roll -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Armor 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Damage Penalties

Wound Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Attack Penalty 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Defense Penalty 0 0 0 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 8

Skill Penalty 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Talent Penalty 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5

Conciousness * * 0 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 12

Movement 0 0 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 8 9

* no roll needed

1 Dagger (+1/IV)3 Pouches of stuff

Mage robesWarm cloakPack

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Thug

Material : 12Str Agl Int Kno Per Bty16 17 10 6 15 7

Mystic : 3 Celestial :1Mgk Spr Inu Asc Res Omn

2 2 5 1 1 1





Body: 7 © © © © © © ©Mind: 4 © © © ©Chi: 3 © © ©

Movement Run: 13” Fist:II

Pts Ability Roll1 Fight wounded 16-1 Mighty blow, +1DC/2 end 16-1 Conversation 15-1 Intimidation 17-1 Streetwise 17-1 Climb 19-1 Highwalking 17-2 Read lips 12-1 Sneak 17-2 Sailor 16-2 +4” running –3 +9 endurance ––18

Story: This exemplary thug is on the large side, both tall and portly. He works for whomever will hire him, though he won’thelp with theft unless he is sure that the guy running the thing is member of the thieves’ guild: this thug is scared of them(+2pts). His best thing is loading and unloading ships and he tends to hang out at a sailor’s bar when not working.

This thug is a former member of a number of crews with service as a marine – something that his tattoos reveal. He is aperson of no particular distinction, of the lower classes, and tends to live in the seamier part of town. He practices running –something his friends consider a bit eccentric – but he considers it a job skill. He also practices lip reading, another job skill.

Armor

Roll -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Armor 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Damage Penalties

Wound Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Attack Penalty 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Defense Penalty 0 0 0 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 8

Skill Penalty 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Talent Penalty 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5

Conciousness * * 0 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 12

Movement 0 0 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 8 9

* no roll needed

1 Dagger (+1/IV)1 Club (+2/V)

carryall pouch5m of rope

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Poison

The intrinsics include insiniuative poison as an attacktype that ignores armor but only works if it does damage.Other types of poison, contact, ingestive, and inhallativepoison appear hear as to refinements to insinuative poi-son. The poisons are strutured around a cost which istheir cost as an intrinsic attack. The following list is usedto make a poison. The minimum cost of a poison is zero– really crappy poison may be free.

Posion Cost Chart

• The base cost of a poison is its damage class.

• Ingestive poison is two cheaper and must be swal-lowed.

• Insinuative poison has no added cost and must bedelivered with a blow that does body damage.

• Inhallative poison has no added cost but must payfor an area of effect and direction, both of which musthave positive cost.

• Contact poison is one more expensive and need onlytouch bare flesh to work.

• Poison may continue to do damage for added seg-ments for one added point per segment.

• Inhallative poison that acts only once may linger un-til it acts using the spell duration table – and maybuy additional actions.

• The added points on the spell duration table are re-ductions in cost if they represent the time before thedamage from a poison accrues.

• A poison may take the effects of a spell or intrinsicas a side effect by paying the base cost of the spell orintrinsic if it is more expensive than the poison, orhalf if it is less than or equal to the poison in expense.

• A poison may be binary for no cost, but the mechan-ics of the binary must be explained.

• A poison takes a day to make and is one cheaper eachon the scale week, month, year.

• A poison is cheaper by one if the ingredients are rare,two for very rare, one for highly perishable, one ortwo for dangerous to obtain, and one for illegal withenforcement.

• Poison usually remains potent for about a month.The cost increases or decreases according to the spellduration chart, with longer lasting poisons costingmore and fast-spoiling poisons being less expensive.

• Typically ingestive poison has a modest odor andflavor. Ingestive poison with a very strong smell orflavor is one cheaper, for one additional point it re-quires an intelligence roll to notice, -4 to the roll foreach additional point.

Example Poisons

Arrow Anointer

Cost: 3Intensity: IIIType: InsinuativeSpecial: NoneDescription:

This poison is delivered by envenoming a blade or edgedmissile and so only does its damage if the weapon it is ondoes body damage. In this case it does a class III attack.The poison is made from a fairly common fungus, fat,lye, and powdered chalk, but the fungus is not lawful togather, farm, or posses in most cities. The Society of theDirk maintains a supply of the fungus. Stabilizing thevenom into arrow anointer requires about a day.

Assassin’s Friend

Cost: 4Intensity: VIType: InsinuativeSpecial: NoneDescription:

This poison is delivered by envenoming a blade or edgedmissile and so only does its damage if the weapon itanoints does body damage. In this case it does a class VIattack. The poison is made from the venom of bandedvipers which are somewhat temperamental to keep anddifficult to catch. This poison is not deadly in and of it-self, but it increases the lethality of a weapon it is usedwith. Stabilizing the venom into assassin’s friend requiresabout a week.

Black Lotus

Cost: 6Intensity: XType:ContactSpecial:NoneDescription:

This poison is a powder delivered by a small blowgun –most cautiously pre-loaded, or in a trap that sprinklesthe poison downward. Casting it by hand requires glovesand an agility roll to avoid self-poisoning. The poisonis made from the fabulously rare and incredibly delicate

89

black lotus flower. Possession of this plant merits execu-tion in most cities. Handling the black lotus or breathingits perfume requires a roll versus base material allowanceor the victim falls into a terminal sleep. The poison takesabout a day to compound if fresh black lotus blossomsare available.

Final Friend

Cost: 5Intensity: XType: IngestiveSpecial: Acts three timesDescription:

Final friend is a suicide drug. It takes ten minutes to act,doing a class X attack three times over the course of ahalf hour. Final friend is prepared from a variety of com-mon mushrooms that are beautiful but known to be toxic.Preparation requires a series of mixing and preparationsteps that require about a month. The resulting drug hasa sharp odor and becomes obvious once taken. There isa five minute period where the character that takes thedrug may avoid all but on class VI attack by being forceto regurgitate the poison.

Harrowtoad

Cost: 6Intensity: VIIIType: InsinuativeSpecial: NoneDescription:

Harrowtoad is brewed from the skin of toads native tothe upland parts of the northern forest, spawning in smallpools near dark pinewoods. Lye, spirits of wine, and vi-olet flowers are needed as well and the process takes amonth of slow stewing of the dried skins with the otheringredients. The poison is used to envenom blades andarrows, having a violet-brown color. This poison stayspotent for a full year and is thus valued by those in thebusiness of patient death.

Ipsotoxin

Cost: 6Intensity: VIIIType: IngestiveSpecial: NoneDescription:

Ipsotoxin is made from bear’s blood, deadly aminitamushrooms, spirits of wine, and several common spices.The mixture is brewed slowly for a month in a lead vesselproducing a thick white paste that is thinned with the

spirits of wine into the fully potent ipsotoxin. The poisonmust be ingested to work. It grants +4 strength (+4endurance, +2 DC, +1 to hit) for ten minutes. At theend of these ten minutes the damage for the poison, a classVIII attack, accrues. Most character’s given ipsotoxin areeither ignorant they are on a suicide mission or willing todie for glory.

Jolly’s Joke

Cost: 6Intensity: IVType: ContactSpecial: Long lastingDescription:

Jolly’s Joke is named for the assassin Jolly DelRichard, who used it quite a lot to safeguard his trea-sures. One does of the poison can be sprinkled over a fullhex where is does a class IV attack to anyone that touchesit. The toxin lasts for decades and so is sprinkled overgold coins or boxes of jewels to chastise thieves. Jolly’sJoke doesn’t kill, but it does soften you up for the guards.This poison is made of powdered spiders found in treeson the southern plains.

Red Death

Cost: 4Intensity: XIType: IngestiveSpecial: Copious BleedingDescription:

Red death is made from red skullwort, a small parasiticflower whose blooms resemble a skull. It grows natu-rally only in places where battles associated with the un-dead have taken place. The blooms and the poison areboth unlawful in most cities. Red skullwort is also ru-mored to be relatively common in the swamps of the farsouth. other ingredients include powdered cinnabar, ren-dered fat from a bird, and niter. I requires a month dodistill the small red lumps of red death and they havea strong characteristic odor and so are usually concealedin a food item swallowed whole, like an oyster. About around after swallowing the skullwort, the victim’s breathbecomes fetid and they begin to bleed from all orifices.

Example Potions

Listed here are some of the more common types of potionsthat can be brewed by alchemists.

Bulkiness

Power: 7Effect: +2 body for a day

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Time: 1RDescription:

This potion is a transparent brown fluid with purple high-lights. Drinking the potion adds two body to the personthat drinks it for a day. It also bulks them up visibly. Atthe end of the day the body fades - if this body is keepingthe character alive they may die.

Clinging

Power: 3Effect: Can cling to wallsTime: 1RDescription:

This potion is deep brown potion that smells like spicybeef soup. Drinking one of these portions gives a personthe ability to cling to walls like a spider for about an hour.

Confusion

Power: 6Effect: Class III penalty to skill, talent, hit, and defense.Time: 1RDescription:

The potion is clear, flavorless, and odorless. Drinking itimposes a class III penalty on skill, talent, hit, and defenserolls for ten minutes. This potion is almost flavorlessand mixes harmlessly with other potions and with normalbeverages.

Cold Resistance

Power: 7Effect: Cold Armor 4.Time: 1RDescription:

This potion is pale pink and warm to the touch. Itgrants four points of armor against damage done by coldfor about a day.

Dog Potion

Power: 7Effect: Change into a dog.Time: 1RDescription:

When consumed this potion transforms the quafferinto a dog. It is a deep brown fluid with white flecks.There are a number of varieties of the potion that yield a

variety of dogs. The transformation lasts for about a dayand does not transform anything but the quaffers body.The roll to transform is eighteen or less on three dice, withone-third the difference in the character’s points and thecost of the dog as a penalty. The character retains theirown mind and motivations but is otherwise a dog; notonly its capabilities but its exact appearance. If the quaf-fer has mage talent they may roll, with the same penaltyas the original roll, to return to their normal form andback to dog form at will.

Fire Resistance

Power: 7Effect: Fire Armor 4.Time: 1RDescription:

This potion is pale blue and cool to the touch. Itgrants four points of armor against damage done by fireor heat for about a day.

Flying

Power: 5Effect: Can fly by will.Time: 1RDescription:

This potion is a pale blue fluid. It grants the per-son that drinks it the ability to fly by force of will forten minutes. The flying movement is the drinkers magicstatistic.

Grace

Power: 9Effect: +4 grace.Time: 1RDescription:

This potion is orange with silver highlights. Whenconsumed, the potion will increase the quaffers grace byfour for about an hour. This adds a point of material at-tack, a point of material defense, a point of initiative, andtwo points of running movement. The character moveslike a movie being run too fast when this potion is used.

Healing

Power: 6,8,10,11,12Effect: Heal III, V, VI, VII, VIIITime: 5R, 5R, 1R, 1R, 1RDescription:

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Healing potions are all very similar; the more powerfulones do more healing and act more quickly. Five po-tions are described above. They are pale green, pale bluewith copper sparkles, pale violet with silver sparkles, vi-olet with silver sparkles, and intense violet with silversparkles. Healing potions, at lest the three less powerfulones, are often available in the marketplace of a large city.

Levitation

Power: 10Effect: Let’s you levitate.Time: 1SDescription:

This potion is a version of the omniaquis spell. Itis a transparent fluid with pale yellow and blue sparkles.When quaffed it grants the imbiber the ability to levitate,to rise or fall a number of inches equal to their magicstatistic. Their ability to lift things is with strength equalto their magic statistic. Rolling 3d6 the ability lasts forten minutes on a 3-13, an hour on a 14-16, and a day ona 17-18.

Mana

Power: 7Effect: Restores mana.Time: 1SDescription:

This deep orange potion restores 4d6 mana to thecharacter that quaffs it. The potion cannot superchargea mage – the benefit tops out at the caster’s maximumcharge.

Poison Resistance

Power: 8Effect: Grants poison armor.Time: 1RDescription:

This potion is an opaque white fluid with a rainbowsheen. When consumed it grants five points of poisonarmor for a day.

Running

Power: 10Effect: Let’s you run fast.Time: 1SDescription:

This potion is a version of the omniaquis spell. It is atransparent fluid with pale white sparkles. When quaffedit grants the imbiber +4” of running movement. Rolling3d6 the ability lasts for ten minutes on a 3-13, an houron a 14-16, and a day on a 17-18.

Strength

Power: 10Effect: Increases strength.Time: 1RDescription:

This potion is a deep nut brown color. When con-sumed the potion will increase the quaffers strength byfour for about an hour. This adds four endurance and apoint of material attack. The potion also adds two dam-age classes to the characters standard hand-to-hand at-tacks. The character’s muscles bulge as the potion takeseffect. The effects of this potion last about an hour.

Swiftness

Power: 7Effect: Increases initiative.Time: 1RDescription:

This potion is bright silver with blue specks in it.When consumed the potion will increase the quaffers ini-tiative by three for ten minutes. The character looks likea sped up movie.

Example Magic Items

Alarm Wand

This item is a wand of cedar shod with brass and tippedwith an opal. Expending a charge modifies a solid ob-ject so that when anyone not specifically excluded by thecaster passes within a meter of the the spell will triggerand emit a very loud sound. The alarm also fades if nottriggered in about a week. Roll twice on the table be-low, the larger result is the maximum number of chargesthe wand can hold, the smaller is the number the wandcurrently holds.

Roll: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Charges: 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 4

Roll: 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Charges: 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 12

Beauty Earring

This item is a silver and jade earring in the shape of alily with two leaves. It is often paired with a non-magicalearring to make a set. While worn, this jewelry adds acharacter’s mystical base allowance to their beauty.

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Belief Armor

This item is a pair of silvered bracers, of the type andquality to be used in fine armor, with the sigil of deflec-tion and runes of protection on the inside. While wearingthese, the seeming of silver armor forms about a charac-ter. The armor increases the characters natural armor byfour if they make a roll versus personality with a bonusof four. This roll is made again on each hit.

Better Blade

A blade may be blessed, it may have a rune of smiting,and either of these might be empowered or intensified,granting the weapon a hit plus or added damage classes.Added damage classes also increase the weapon’s maxi-mum damage before it must check if it breaks. Roll on3d6 twice on the table below to see how much better theblade might be. The first roll is for hit plus, the secondfor added damage class. If both are zero, roll again.

Hit DamageRoll Plus Plus

3 0 +04 0 +05 0 +06 +2 +07 +2 +I8 +2 +I9 +2 +I10 +2 +I11 +4 +I12 +4 +II13 +4 +II14 +6 +II15 +6 +III16 +8 +III17 +8 +IV18 +10 +V

Bradley Marble

A Bradley marble is a red sphere made of a chalk-likesubstance. When broken or hurled with great force itbursts on impact filling a 3” radius with a class III fireattack. Rare versions of this sort of marble exist withgreater radii and damage. If one of these is contemplated,roll 2d6 On the first die 1-3 3”, 4-5 5”, 6 7” radius. Onthe second 1-3 class III, 4-5 class IV, 6 class V. Reroll ifboth dice are in the range 1-3.

Clinging Choker

This item is a silver choker necklace with a carved obsid-ian spider at the front. While worn it permits the chartersbear flesh to cling to walls of ceilings like a spider.

Consciousness Earring

This item is a gold earring set with a tiny ruby. Whileworn it increases a character’s unconsciousness roll by +4.

Darksight Ring

This item is a gold ring set with an oval of dark turquoise.A character wearing the ring can see well in darkness butis half blind in normal lighting.

Disguise Ring

This ring is copper with an inset silver wire set witha small, oval opal. When worn it causes the characterwearing it to assume the appearance of another character.This appearance is fixed and tied to the ring. Differentinstances of this ring may yield other appearances.

Dispel Magic Wand

This wand is made of polished oak with a silver tip. Itholds charges of the spell Dispel Magic. Roll twice on thetable below, the larger result is the maximum number ofcharges the wand can hold, the smaller is the number thewand currently holds.

Roll: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Charges: 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 4

Roll: 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Charges: 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 12

Dust Wand

This wand is wooden with an iron shod base and a chipof petrified wood or agate on the tip. Expending a chargethrows a grey bolt that expands into a poof of dust thatblinds the target. The bolt is targeted at -1/3”. Rolltwice on the table below, the larger result is the maximumnumber of charges the wand can hold, the smaller is thenumber the wand currently holds.

Roll: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Charges: 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 4

Roll: 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Charges: 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 12

Electric Skin Token

This item is a 200 gram oval piece of polished ambercarved with the name of lightning. While it is on a char-acter’s person they may use mage talent to activate it.While it is active, the character’s skin does a class IIelectrical attack to anyone that touches it.

Fire Protection Ring

This ring is brass and set with a garnet in a setting ofmolten sulfur. When worn the ring grants two points ofarmor against fire damage.

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Fireball Wand

This wand is made of ceder with a brass tip. It holdscharges of the spell Fireball. Roll twice on the table belowfor charges, the larger result is the maximum number ofcharges the wand can hold, the smaller is the number thewand currently holds. Normally a fireball has a 3” radiusand does a class IV attack. Both these can be increasedby a skilled mage. Roll for damage and radius as well.

Roll: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Charges: 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 4Damage: 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4Radius: 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

Roll: 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Charges: 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 12Damage: 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 7Radius: 3 3 3 5 5 7 7 9

Grace Earring

This item is a silver and opal earring in the shape of a birdwith jeweled eyes. It is often paired with a non-magicalearring to make a set. While worn, this jewelry adds acharacter’s mystical base allowance to their agility.

Invisibility Ring

This item is a ring of lead crystal. It renders a singlecharacter wearing it invisible to most forms of sight whileit is worn. The character is still apparent to other senses.

Levitation Bracelet

This item is a narrow silver bracelet set with runes. Whilewearing it a character may levitate by concentrating. Themaximum speed up or down equals the character’s magicstatistic and the character has no lateral control.

Light Stone

This item is a white rock that, if not enclosed, glowsbrightly enough to illuminate a 3” radius.

Lightning Protection Ring

This ring is steel and set with a sapphire in a clawedsetting that touches the sapphire at five points. Whenworn the ring grants two points of armor against electricaldamage.

Magic Detection Bracelet

This item is a leather bracelet with a five petaled pewterflower set into it. While wearing it, a character can feelmagic within 10, both direction and relative power. Withpractice a character can tell different types of magic apart.

Melvin Marble

A Melvin marble is a blue sphere made of a chalk-likesubstance. When broken or hurled with great force itbursts on impact filling a 3” radius with a class III coldattack.

Running Boots

This boots are made in pairs only one if which is magical.They are made of soft, supple leather with a hard soleand are suitable for running. Various runes are graven onthe sole so that they lie between the sole and the boot.When worn, the magical boot of this pair adds +4” tothe character’s running movement.

Sash of Blending

The item is a red silk sash with silver wire embroiderythat forms runes of concealment. When worn, it permitsa character to assume the appearance of whatever he is inor next to. It takes a segment for the character to blendin so the sash is not useful while moving.

Sleep Wand

This wand is made of alder wrapped with wool, owl feath-ers, bound with blue thread and tipped with blue wax.It holds charges of the spell Sleep. Roll twice on the ta-ble below for charges, the larger result is the maximumnumber of charges the wand can hold, the smaller is thenumber the wand currently holds. The spell is targetedat -1/3” and, if it hits, forces the target to roll versus thebetter of their spirit or magic or fall asleep

Roll: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Charges: 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 4

Roll: 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Charges: 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 12

Soot Ball Wand

This wand is made of ash, painted with soot and pinetar, and then wrapped on its bottom half in soft leather.It holds charges of the spell Soot Ball. It emits balls ofblack soot, targeted at -1/3”, that can blind an opponentfor a round. Washing you eyes can end this early. Rolltwice on the table below for charges, the larger result isthe maximum number of charges the wand can hold, thesmaller is the number the wand currently holds.

Roll: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Charges: 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 4

Roll: 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Charges: 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 12

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Strength Gauntlet

This item is a leather gauntlet with a steel guard of thesort that is part of a suit of armor. It is often pairedwith another gauntlet that is not magical to make a pair.While wearing it, a character’s mystical base allowance isadded to their strength.

Ventriloquism Bracelet

This bracelet is made of three woven strips of metal, cop-per, brass, and silver. It is set with amethyst and garnet.While wearing it a character may, by concentrating, makehis voice come from a remote location up to 10” away.

Water Breathing Bracelet

This item is a bracelet made from copper disks forgedtogether at the edges and painted with the names of airand water on opposite sides in alternation. While worn itpermits a character that normally breathes air to breathwater.

Zombie Command Amulet

This item is an amulet in the form of a pentagram thatis gold and silver on opposite sides. While wearing theamulet a character can attempt to control a zombie byrolling their mage talent at minus three against the zom-bie’s personality. The control attempt is targets at -1/3”.The control lasts until another control attempt works ofthe control is dispelled.

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