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(TFT) Hanging Magic in TFT.
Hi all,
The D&D style preparing spells in advance was based on the
magic cast in the tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance.
In Roger Zelazny's Second Chronicles of Amber, the main
character, Merlin, is a magician. He could do low powered magic
at all times, but he could construct elaborate spells. He would
put in all the fST and carefully set it up. The spell was said to be
"hanging". The spell had one or a few "triggers" that allowed
limited customization on the spot. Then when he needed it, he
would complete the triggers, which cast the spell instantly for a
trivial cost and the powerful spell would be cast at once already
paid for.
There was a limit to how many spells he could have hanging.
He usually tried to have 3, a defence, an offence and a run away
spell. (This was not clear in the book, but I think a very complex
spell might crowd out others.)
I've thought some on how to do this in TFT and I have came up
with these rules:
Hanging magic in TFT.
By Richard Wayne Smith (c) 2015
There is a new attribute, HM (hanging magic). This is the limit
to how great your concentration is and says how many hanging
spells you can carry. Hanging spells will be maintained while
you sleep, but if you are knocked unconscious they unravel (for
no damage) and are lost.
HM starts at zero. Not all wizards are allowed to improve this
attribute. it is an attribute just like ST, DX and IQ and requires a
full attributes worth of experience to improve it. (Such magicians
are very rare and resented by most regular mages.)
If you are using my Superscript rules, there is no superscript
(yet at least) for HM.
You must put 3 attributes into HM before you can hang any
spells. The number of spells you can hang is HM / 3 round down.
To hang a spell takes at least 10 minutes work. You craft the
spell and spend all fST ahead of time. You must make the DX
roll(s) to cast the hung spell. Then you must roll 3vsHM to hang
it correctly. If you cast the spell slowly and carefully, (20 minutes
to hang) you get +1 to your HM. If you take 30 minutes you get
+2 adjusted HM. And if you take 40 minutes, you get +3 adjusted
HM. (No fST is regained while casting spells slowly & carefully.)
If the HM roll fails, the HM does not take and you have to start
over. All fST is lost. If you get a double or triple effect on the
DX rolls to cast a component spell, there is no bonus. (Unless
the GM WANTS to give you a bonus.)
To be decent at this, you want HM to be 6 or higher.
Let's look at someone with HM 3. To hang a spell, casting slowly
he will take 40 minutes and have a 9.25% chance of success.
Say it will take him about 11 tries on average. Call it about
7.5 hours to hang a spell. If he gets HM up to only 4, casting
slowly he needs an adjusted 7 or less, or a 16.20% chance, say 6
castings on average. It would take about 4 hours to hang a spell.
And these spells are complex, powerful and cool with no casting
cost needed in combat. To trigger the hung spell in combat, at
3vsDX roll must be made. If the roll fails, they may try again
next turn. If they fail 3 times, the hung spell unravels, shocks the
wizard for 1d+1 damage (no armour protects, as this damage is
internal) and the hung spell is lost. If a wizard has failed twice to
cast a spell, he may allow it to unravel slowly at no damage as a
free action.)
To be able to hang spells, the wizard pays a heavy price. Most
wizards who wish to do this, will want to get their HM attribute up to
6 or 9, and that is 6 or 9 attributes which are not going into ST,
DX and IQ.
The only problem was I found it difficult to write rules that would
describe what super spells could be made. I think that the
hanging magicians will have small unique spell books of spells
that they have had approved by the GM. Only do this if you are
willing to do a lot of negotiating with your players.
You may find that after a player has used a spell for a while
that it is too good. Don't be shy about saying, "Sorry, this spell is
too good. For unknown reasons, the spell now costs 10 fST more.)
Also these rules are experimental. I do not claim that they will
improve your TFT game. Only that they will make it different.
The idea was the wizard could take 2 or 3 regular spells that
he or she could cast from memory or from a spell book and
combine their effects. The GM would look over this super
combination spell, and decide if the fST etc. was OK. If it was,
the wizard had a unique hanging spell that they can hang.
These combo spells should have a theme, not just be 3
random effects. If the GM thinks the spell is cool, fun and won't
unbalance the game, hint that with some work, the casting
cost could be reduced, or maybe some effect could be added
or beefed up. (Don't go overboard on this, otherwise the PC
could get wedded to a single spell. We want them to have
several that are fun, and they have to choose which ones to
hang ahead of time.)
It takes a week of study and experimenting to create a new
combination of spells for a hung spell. The new spell is written
up like the examples below and the GM approves it. If approved,
the wizard must still cast the spells and roll to hang it. (If you
want smaller sets of hanging spells, have players start with six
of them and require a couple months study to create a new one.)
A final note. These spells are supposed to be kick ass and fun.
The PC is spending 6 to 9 attributes (or more) on this ability, do
not limit things too far in the name of balance. Wizards who can
hang spells are a rare breed and should be amongst the most
powerful people around. There is a self balancing effect. When
their hung spells are used up, they are down something like 5
attributes over everyone else, which makes them easier to kill.
EXAMPLE ONE:
IQ 10 HELL WOLF (HANGING CREATION SPELL)
This is a combination of Wolf, Aid and Speed Movement. The
speed movement has an IQ of 10 so that is the IQ needed for this
spell.
Summons a ST 16, DX 14, IQ 5, MA 24 wolf. It's ST is +5 from
the Aid spell, which bumps up its damage to 1d+3. Its armour is
1 point. It lasts 4 turns. It may not be maintained longer than that.
Speed movement lasts for 4 turns. In this time, the aid spell
must be cast twice and the wolf must be maintained for 4 turns.
The cost is then 2 + 3fST (wolf for 4 turns), +10 fST (5 point aid
spell cast twice) and +4 fST (speed movement spell) for a total of
19 fST. If a critical success is rolled in hanging this spell, (that is
to
say, on the HM roll to actually hang it), the wolf comes with +2
damage and an extra point of armour. The rule that the spell can
not be maintained is a serious limitation, so the final casting cost
is reduced to 17 fST.
The Hell Wolf spell above requires a wolf spell, two aids and a
speed movement spell to be cast, so while hanging it the wizard
must make 4 DX rolls. (If one is missed, pay the lost fST and you
may retry.) When the rolls have all been made, and all fST spent,
the wizards must roll 3vsHM to hang the spell. You must have
enough fST to cast all 4 of these spells one after the other
(apprentices, strength batteries, etc. may be used).
EXAMPLE TWO:
IQ 15 HIT THEM WHEN THEY ARE DOWN
(HANGING
THROWN SPELL)
This is a combination of Slippery Floor, Hammer Touch (IQ 15) and
Clumsiness. A slippery floor is cast on a central hex and all hexes
adjacent to it. Seven 3 point clumsiness spells are cast on each of
the seven affected hexes. Each person who falls is hit by a 3 die
hammer touch each turn that they remain fallen in this area.
The Slippery Floor lasts 12 turns, and the clumsiness and hammer
touch spells last 3 turns each. The GM agrees that the limitation
that the hammer touch only affects those who have fallen should
allow other parts of the spell to be beefed up. So the spell is written
that the slippery floor, the clumsiness and hammer touch all last
5 turns.
The cost to cast the spell is 3 fST (slippery floor) + 7 * 3 (for the
clumsiness cast 7 times for the 7 hex area affected) + 7 * 3 (for the
seven hammer touches that are cast). Therefore the spell costs
45 fST. (The wizard has 5 apprentices help him cast this spell
before he hangs it.) There are 15 spells needed, 15 DX rolls are
required to hang this spell.
The GM allowed a special effect. By increasing the fST cost to
50 fST, the spell is made so it can selectively target beings in the
area. ALL hexes have the slippery floor cast affect them, but the
wizard can choose to not have the hammer touch and clumsiness
spells affect his friends if they are in the area.
If a critical is rolled while hanging this spell, the slippery floor
requires a 4vsDX to avoid falling.
The Player likes to have purple glows for his spell effects, so for
not extra cost, the GM rules that the visual appearance of the spell
is that purple fists rise from the ground and smash back down on
those fallen on the floor.
EXAMPLE THREE:
IQ 12 FIREY FIREBALL (HANGING MISSILE SPELL)
This is a combination of Fireball, 3 hex fire spell (IQ 12) and Magic
Fist. The idea is that a fireball hits a target. A fire spell appears
in
that hex and radiating away 3 hexes in all directions covering
37 hexes. Finally from the target's hex, 4 magic fists radiate out
targeting the nearest 4 people and knock them down.
(Note, this would be cheaper if the wizard had 7 hex fire spell,
but the wizard is making do with what he has.)
A 10 fST fireball is fired at a target. Based on where it hits the
target hex and all hexes within 3 of it have fire spells cast on it.
(This totals 37 fire spells. With 3 hex fires this is 13 castings of
the spell for 13 * 3 fists to knock down people in the burning area, so he says he
wants magic fists to target the 4 nearest players who must be
within the fire's area.
This effect caused some argument. The GM said that these
magic fists should be unaimed. The PC wanted a better chance
of them hitting than that. Eventually the PC came up with a
spell version that the GM was happy with. The PC would pay
for four 3 point magic fists. These did NO DAMAGE but the four
nearest players felt a magic fist like blow from the fire ball explosion
and had to make the 3vsDX or 3vsST roll (which ever is easier) as
if they had taken 6 points of damage from a magic fist spell. If
there was a tie for who was closest, it was decided by caster.
Fatigue Strength cost is 10 fST + 13 * 3 + 4 * 3 player wonders if a version could be created where the magic fire
only lasts half as long (6 turns rather than 12). After trying several
versions he finds that at 50 fST the spell works as he wishes but
the fires only last 6 turns.
There are 18 DX rolls required to hang the spell.
If a critical is rolled while hanging the spell, the magic fist
effect
(roll or fall) affects EVERYONE within 3 hexes of the point of
impact and the saving throw is vs the lower of ST or DX.
Visually it looks like the fireball explodes filling the area with
fire, which leaves a furiously burning area behind.
_________________________________________________
Let me know what you all think of these rules.
Warm regards, Rick
On 2015-04-24, at 8:22 AM, Meg Tapley wrote:
> Was poking around your blog. Came across the Melanda stuff. I'm
intrigued now; a project I've been considering/working on for a while is
making different "magic modules" for TFT. So you could have a campaign
where magic is based around summoning spirits to do things, or uses a
D&D-style Vancian system (I like the strategic element of having to
figure out which spells you'll need ahead of time), or rune magic. Looks
like Melanda beat me to it by about 25 years.
>
> Unfortunately, after some Googling, it seems that a copy of the
Melanda rulebook is going to be nigh-impossible to find, and probably
ridiculously expensive if I find it. *sigh*
>
> Your scenario does look fun... though a party that included a wizard
with something like Sleep or Freeze to cast on SMACKYOU could make
pretty quick work of it. ST 18 is low enough to use the standard
version, right?
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