Post by Emperor Florin von Marcum on Apr 1, 2023 1:09:47 GMT
Perdita Magic Guide
In this RP, using magic is a fairly involved process. No randomly casting fireball here! Instead you need to put a lot of effort and thought into how and when you use magic, both in character and out of character. So let’s go over some basics!
What can magic do?
Good news! Magic is flexible in this setting. If you can think of some use for magic, you can try and do it in character. From raising the dead to calling a death ray on your enemies and everything in between.
How does magic work?
Magic is not something the races of this setting naturally have. It is a natural power that needs to be harnessed, just like powering a machine. The most common ways of doing this are through the use of rituals, accelerants, or a combination of both.
When looking at the success rate of any magic attempt, there will be several checks performed by the moderator overseeing it. Don’t worry too much about them. Most of these checks are not under player control, though you will realize how some of them work through keen observation as you play.
The most important for a player is your “initiative roll”. The DM will ask for a simple dice roll to determine how successful your initial attempt at magic invocation is. Sometimes you will gain a positive or negative modifier on the roll. This is usually determined by your race and culture. For example, a person who regularly worships fire may get a positive modifier on a roll related to magic involving fire. Note, a bad or great initiative roll does not guarantee success or failure of a spell, merely how well your people perform at the start. Magic in this setting is inherently wild, and a few solid rolls from “behind the screen” by the DM can make a seemingly bad situation end well!
Rituals:
Rituals are a concerted effort (usually but not always religious) from your characters into channeling magic. That can be through prayers, meditation, or whatever flavor you like. If you want to perform a ritual you do need to take into account how many people are performing this ritual, for how long, and with how much focus. That is generally described by the player, but do try and be realistic. Not every attempt to perform magic will have every person in your nation stopping their work to pray for 3 days straight. There would be serious realistic implications to focusing all your manpower on rituals. If a moderator feels you are being unrealistic, they will certainly tell you. Ignoring that might well end up with your people starving or attacked by other players as you ignore the world around you.
Some races have specific rituals as part of their racial trait. When using rituals of this type, the player will generally receive a strong bonus on their initial magic roll. That does not mean players without a ritual as their racial trait are at a disadvantage, merely that their magic use is less specialized.
Having a more involved or longer ritual will generally increase the success rate of your magic, or otherwise make it more powerful. More complicated requests will sometimes require this. For example, if you are trying to spoil the food supply of a city under siege. This is a great request, and so even initial successful rolls may only cause the food to taste off, or spoil only part of the supply.
One final point to note with rituals. You might not always get the outcome you desire. This is intentional. Part of the charm is learning to work with what you get. Even an unforeseen outcome can be leveraged to your advantage with a bit of creative role play.
Accelerants:
An accelerant is essentially a sacrifice or a magical focus. Certain items in this world are naturally imbued with magic, such as the body parts harvested from monsters (typically summoned in an event or expedition). Defeating these monsters is a challenge, but having their parts to use as a magical accelerant can be a game changer. Not every accelerant needs to be inherently magical, as some groups may choose to sacrifice blood, people, or material goods as an accelerant. Expect more of these to be necessary when trying to use them as an accelerant.
Accelerants are generally more potent than rituals in their immediate effect, but they are also generally destroyed in the process. This means the player must take care in deciding when to use them. Just like in a ritual, players using an accelerant will give an initiative roll, but can expect a larger bonus on said roll. Keep in mind magic using an accelerant can still fail or go awry, which is why you may want to use both a ritual and accelerant in tandem if you desire the best chance at a favorable outcome.
Notes
Magic shouldn’t be something you use in mundane circumstances. Not only does it involve a lot of dice rolls, but excessive use of magic does have certain negative effects one might not expect.
Use of magic requires a specific intention. Your people may have a specific ritual involving partying to invoke magic, but that does not mean you should expect a magical event to happen every time someone walks into a pub.
When you want to use magic, write up the specifics of what you are doing and what you want to happen. Firstly, this allows the moderators to respond with specific details. Secondly, this is a world building group! We want to see our players develop their culture and nations. It’s much more interesting to read and respond to a well thought out concept.
Don’t expect every attempt at magic to turn out how you want. Both for lore and gamebalence reasons, magic in this setting can be extremely wild in its results. There are some ways you can improve success chances that need to be discovered as you play, but there is always a degree of chance.
In this RP, using magic is a fairly involved process. No randomly casting fireball here! Instead you need to put a lot of effort and thought into how and when you use magic, both in character and out of character. So let’s go over some basics!
What can magic do?
Good news! Magic is flexible in this setting. If you can think of some use for magic, you can try and do it in character. From raising the dead to calling a death ray on your enemies and everything in between.
How does magic work?
Magic is not something the races of this setting naturally have. It is a natural power that needs to be harnessed, just like powering a machine. The most common ways of doing this are through the use of rituals, accelerants, or a combination of both.
When looking at the success rate of any magic attempt, there will be several checks performed by the moderator overseeing it. Don’t worry too much about them. Most of these checks are not under player control, though you will realize how some of them work through keen observation as you play.
The most important for a player is your “initiative roll”. The DM will ask for a simple dice roll to determine how successful your initial attempt at magic invocation is. Sometimes you will gain a positive or negative modifier on the roll. This is usually determined by your race and culture. For example, a person who regularly worships fire may get a positive modifier on a roll related to magic involving fire. Note, a bad or great initiative roll does not guarantee success or failure of a spell, merely how well your people perform at the start. Magic in this setting is inherently wild, and a few solid rolls from “behind the screen” by the DM can make a seemingly bad situation end well!
Rituals:
Rituals are a concerted effort (usually but not always religious) from your characters into channeling magic. That can be through prayers, meditation, or whatever flavor you like. If you want to perform a ritual you do need to take into account how many people are performing this ritual, for how long, and with how much focus. That is generally described by the player, but do try and be realistic. Not every attempt to perform magic will have every person in your nation stopping their work to pray for 3 days straight. There would be serious realistic implications to focusing all your manpower on rituals. If a moderator feels you are being unrealistic, they will certainly tell you. Ignoring that might well end up with your people starving or attacked by other players as you ignore the world around you.
Some races have specific rituals as part of their racial trait. When using rituals of this type, the player will generally receive a strong bonus on their initial magic roll. That does not mean players without a ritual as their racial trait are at a disadvantage, merely that their magic use is less specialized.
Having a more involved or longer ritual will generally increase the success rate of your magic, or otherwise make it more powerful. More complicated requests will sometimes require this. For example, if you are trying to spoil the food supply of a city under siege. This is a great request, and so even initial successful rolls may only cause the food to taste off, or spoil only part of the supply.
One final point to note with rituals. You might not always get the outcome you desire. This is intentional. Part of the charm is learning to work with what you get. Even an unforeseen outcome can be leveraged to your advantage with a bit of creative role play.
Accelerants:
An accelerant is essentially a sacrifice or a magical focus. Certain items in this world are naturally imbued with magic, such as the body parts harvested from monsters (typically summoned in an event or expedition). Defeating these monsters is a challenge, but having their parts to use as a magical accelerant can be a game changer. Not every accelerant needs to be inherently magical, as some groups may choose to sacrifice blood, people, or material goods as an accelerant. Expect more of these to be necessary when trying to use them as an accelerant.
Accelerants are generally more potent than rituals in their immediate effect, but they are also generally destroyed in the process. This means the player must take care in deciding when to use them. Just like in a ritual, players using an accelerant will give an initiative roll, but can expect a larger bonus on said roll. Keep in mind magic using an accelerant can still fail or go awry, which is why you may want to use both a ritual and accelerant in tandem if you desire the best chance at a favorable outcome.
Notes
Magic shouldn’t be something you use in mundane circumstances. Not only does it involve a lot of dice rolls, but excessive use of magic does have certain negative effects one might not expect.
Use of magic requires a specific intention. Your people may have a specific ritual involving partying to invoke magic, but that does not mean you should expect a magical event to happen every time someone walks into a pub.
When you want to use magic, write up the specifics of what you are doing and what you want to happen. Firstly, this allows the moderators to respond with specific details. Secondly, this is a world building group! We want to see our players develop their culture and nations. It’s much more interesting to read and respond to a well thought out concept.
Don’t expect every attempt at magic to turn out how you want. Both for lore and gamebalence reasons, magic in this setting can be extremely wild in its results. There are some ways you can improve success chances that need to be discovered as you play, but there is always a degree of chance.