ftp.ee.pdx.edu/2014.02.ftp.ee.pdx.edu.tar/ftp.ee.pdx.edu/pub/frp/ysgarth/casting

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-03 | 14KB

From: [e-mail] (David Nalle)
Date: 28 Oct 91 21:51:44 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Spell Casting Example

A while ago I posted some sample characters and info on character creation
for Ysgarth.  There were some requests at the time for examples of the game
in play.  What follows is an example of spell casting and spell casting in
combat.

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    In the examples for the following sections of the rules we
will need a character who is rather different from Stanisar.  For this
purpose we will be using his young nephew Leuctar, an apprentice
in the Pyromancer's Guild in the city of Tibrum.
    Given here are Leuctar's basic and secondary
characteristics.  Remember that Leuctar is a straight mage, not a
priest, but many of the aspects illustrated here would also hold
true for priestly characters.

Leuctar the Pyromancer
APP: 15    INT: 17    CON: 16
CHA: 11    JUD: 14    STR: 16
ZEA: 2    WIL: 12    DEX: 22
SOC: 13    TAL: 20    AGI: 10
Size: 13    Height: 5'5"    Weight: 165
DC: 15    AP: 69    HP: 29
FP: 60    MP: 200    WP: 60
SXP: 10    MXP: 17    PXP: 9
SSP: 205    MSP: 191    PSP: 108

    If Leuctar were a priest instead of a mage only a couple of
changes would need to be made.  You would probably switch his
TAL and his ZEA, resulting in fewer Mental SP and more Social SP.
He would then have 60 MP based on Zeal.  Note that with TAL his
MP regenerate at 10 per day, while with Zeal they would
regenerate at 7 per hour of praying.  Otherwise he would be pretty
much the same unless the player wanted him to have a higher CHA
for preaching or something along those lines.
    Leuctar is Aetruvian, so he will choose the following skill
benefits:
    -1 Teaching
    -1 Research
    -1 History
    -1 Short Sword Attack
    -1 on any 1 Language
    He has chosen the standard Elemental Mage package of
professional skill benefits, selecting from those:
    -1 on Somatic
    -1 on Resonance
    -1 Firetravel
    -1 Firesight
    -1 Writing
    For his 5 points of personal skill benefits he is going to
take:
    -1 on Somatic (total -2)
    -1 on Resonance (total -2)
    -2 on Mana Gathering
    -1 on Mana Shield
    This selection of skill benefits should set him up pretty well
for most of the things he needs to be able to do.  He's even got a
benefit on a combat skill for those times when a spell won't do the
job.


Example XIII: Magical Skills
    In addition to learning a variety of other skills, Leuctar will
wish to learn skills specifically relating to magic.  Almost all of
these are only available to be learned with Mental SP.
    As mentioned earlier he has already taken certain skill
benefits which will guide his choices in this area.  There are certain
other skills he may also need.  For example, since he is a
Pyromancer he is likely to use some missile spells.  This means
that a targetting skill will be very important.
    Leuctar's selection of skills, including his more mundane
skills, might look like this:

Social Skills (205)
Skill    Num    SB    Cst    SL    CL    FAC    BR    SR
Teaching    1212    -1    5    10    0    2    14    34
Research    1444    -1    3    11    0    4    16    60
History    1223    -1    2    10    0    4    14    54
Writing    1236    -1    7    10    0    4    17    57
Lost Scripts    1234    0    9    3    1    2    14    22

Mental Skills (191)
Skill    Num    SB    Cst    SL    CL    FAC    BR    SR
Somatic    1212    -1    5    9    0    2    16    25`
Resonance    1444    -1    6    5    0    4    16    -0MP
Mana Gathering    2152    -2    5    4    1    S    S    +5TA
Mana Shield    2151    -1    6    3    1    4    17    29
Mana Sight    2153    0    7    2    1    2    20    26
(64 Mental SP left)

Physical Skills (108)
Skill    Num    SB    Cst    SL    CL    FAC    BR    SR
Short Sword Att    3122    -1    4    7    0    1    17    30
Dodge    3215    0    5    8    0    1    10    24
Hand Aiming    3711    0    5    8    0    2    17    31

As you can see, Leuctar is barely passable in combat, has taken
some difficult intellectual skills and is moderately competent with
them, and probably still needs to do some work on his magical
skills.  He's at a base level of competence as a mage, but not
exactly accomplished.  His 9 SL of Somatic also give him 54
additional Spell AP.  Note that he still has 64 Mental SP to spend
on learning spells.


Example XIV: Learning Spells
    As noted earlier, Leuctar has 64 Mental SP left with which
to learn some spells.  He is a Pyromancer so he will primarily be
limited to Pyromancer spells.  As explained in section 13.2,
because Leuctar is a Journeyman he is limited to spells of Cost 12
or less unless his master has a special need for him to know more
difficult spells.  He also has skill benefits on the spells Firetravel
and Firesight, so those may form the cornerstones of his
selection.  Note that because his skill with Somatic is so mediocre
he may have to work extra hard on being skilled with the spells he
knows, and limit his selection of spells as well.  Leuctar's
selection of spells is given below:

Spell    CLS    SB    Cst    SL    CL    MP    AP    SR
Firesight    GAD    -1    7    2    0    12    72    35
Firetravel    GKD    -1    9    2    0    10    30    35
Ball of Flame    GMG    0    6    4    0    8    24    45
Bonds of Flame    GNC    0    8    1    0    12    130    30

This is a pretty limited selection of spells, but they are all extremely useful,

including  four of five types from the basic selection that every good mage

wants, one perception/information spell, one travel/movement spell, one
attack spell, one immobilizing spell and one defense spell (here Leuctar
misses out).  Most of these spells are fast to cast, but his total SRs (SR
for skill plus 5 times SL of spell) are pretty low so he may have to spend

extra AP, especially if he wants to cast spells at higher Casting Levels.


Example XV: Spell Casting
    In most cases actually casting spells is surprisingly simple.
It is very similar to the use of skills in combat.  Once you've
figured out your SR with a spell (figuring in skill SR and any bonus
for multiple SL of the spell) and adjusted it for the Casting Level (-5
per CL) all you do is roll on the spell casting table and add the
adjusted SR.  This can be modified for time taken and other
factors.
    Let's say that Leuctar wants to cast the spell Firesight to
check on what Arsiela, his master's enchanting teenage daughter
is doing at a party to which he was not invited.  The party is being
held in the garden of Lord Clodabar, the Civic Grain Factor.  Since
it is night there will be torches all around, so there ought to be ideal

conditions for casting Firesight.
    Taking into account his Skill Rating with Somatic and his 2 SL
of the spell, Leuctar has a total SR of 35 with Firesight.  Leuctar
has 123 AP with which to cast spells (69 + 54 Spell AP).  Firesight
only costs 72.  The range of the spell is already sufficient, but
because he wants to watch for 10 minutes instead of the standard
1 minute, and because he wants to be able to shift to more than
one torch, he needs to increase his Casting Level.  Increasing the
duration to 10 minutes will add 1 CL.  Making it possible to use 3
different fires will add 2 more CL.  That will be a total CL of 4 (base
plus 3) which will reduce his SR by 20.  He now has a total SR of
15, which gives him a high chance of failure.  He would like to have
at least a 80% chance of a marginal success result.  Since he is
under no time pressure he can afford to spend additional AP.  So,
when casting the spell, Leuctar spends 206 AP (maximum
increase at 3 times AP) to double his SR to 30.  With his 123 AP
per round the spell still takes under two rounds to cast.  He rolls a
27, adds 30 to it and barely scrapes by with a total of 57, a
Marginal Success result.  A D6 is rolled to determine if he loses an
increment off of duration, range or number of targets.  Leuctar is
lucky and doesn't lose range.  He rolls a 4 (1-2 for range, 3-4 for
duration, 5-6 for number of targets) and his duration drops by one
increment from 10 minutes to 1 minute.  This will require a quick
check instead of the more leisurely examination he had planned.
    In addition, since casting the spell cost 206 AP he loses 5
Fatigue Points (round up).  Since it was a 4th CL spell the Mana
Point cost was 48 (4 times the standard MP cost of 12).
    Leuctar gazes into the fire he lit before casting his spell, and
looking out through the first torch he finds at the house of Lord
Clodabar and gets lucky.  It gives a lovely view of the arbor at the
base of the garden, and there is Arsiela, woman of his dreams,
apparently struggling with the handsome but loutish Kais Bulenos
who seems to be trying to force his attentions on her.  No sounds
comes through with Firesight, but Arsiela seems to be attempting
to scream around the muffling presence of Kais' hand.
    Leuctar needs to act fast and he's magically equipped to do
it.  To get to the scene of the crime he will cast Firetravel, using
the same torch he was seeing through.  His SR is the same in this
case, but he doesn't need to use a higher CL of the spell for any
reason so the costs will be low.  The AP cost of Firetravel is only
30.  He spends 90 (still only a matter of seconds) to increase his
SR.  It is 35 less 5 for the 1 basic CL he must always use, for a
total adjusted base SR of 30 before modification for AP spending.
He is spending to double his effective SR to 60.  This gives him a
guarantee of at least marginal success.  Fortunately he rolls a 72
and that gives him a total of 132, so he steps into his fire and
bursts out into the garden from the convenient torch in a shower of
sparks.  This cost him 10 more MP.
    Needless to say, Kais Bulenos is quite surprised.  He rises
from where he has thrown Arsiela to the ground and whirls to tower
over Leuctar, drawing his daggar.
    A combat is about to ensue.  Leuctar doesn't want to kill
Bulenos, but his spells can do a lot of damage if used
indiscriminatly.  He considers Bonds of Flame, but realizes that if
it works too well it could kill Bulenos and there wouldn't be much
Leuctar could do about it.  He figures that the intimidation value of
Ball of Flame and the more easily controlled damage is a more
attractive choice.
    Kais Bulenos has 60 AP.  Dagger Attack costs him 18 with a
SR of 40.  Dodge Defense costs 24 with a SR of 32.  Leuctar has
123 AP including SAP.  Casting Ball of Flame costs 24 AP and
Hand Aiming costs 20 AP for his SR of 31.  Dodge Defense costs
Leuctar 24 for a SR of 24
    As Kais approaches, Leuctar has a full combat round to
prepare for the attack.  He will use this time to fire off a couple of
quick spell attacks.  His standard Ball of Flame is going to be at CL
3 for three times normal damage.  This will give him an effective
Maximum Damage of 30.  He will spend 24 AP on casting the spell
and 20 on aiming it each time he casts it.  That means that at 44
AP for the combination he can fire off two per round and have 35
AP left over.  In the first round he will spend these on an attack to
be completed in the second round.
    Round 1: Kais spends 30 AP moving forward and 30 AP for a
DR of 36.  Leuctar spends no AP on defense and fires two balls of
flame.  He rolls a 62+30 for a Marginal Success with the first one.
It ends up with damage reduced by 1 increment so that it is only
20.  He aims for the chest and rolls 78, hitting in the Left Forearm.
He rolls for damage, gets a 4 and a 7.  Because it is a magical
attack he takes the high die and so does 14 points of damage.
Kais isn't wearing armor and has 55 HP, which means he must roll
within DEXx3% or lose the use of the arm.  Kais makes this roll
successfully.  Leuctar rolls a 73 for a normal success with the
second attack.  He then rolls a 66 to hit, again aiming for the chest
and hitting the groin.  He rolls a 3 and a 5 for damage, doing 15
points of damage, just enough that Kais has to roll within CONx3%
to remain conscious.  He succeeds and reaches Leuctar at the
end of the round.  Remember that Leuctar has spent 35 AP on a
spell to be completed next round.  So far he has spent 48 MP
(2/spell) and 2 FP (1/spell).
    Round 2: Kais chooses to make two attacks this round and
spend one times on dodging.  This gives him two attacks with
normal damage and a SR of 40 and a defensive SR of 32 from
dodging.  His maximum damage with Dagger is 12.  Leuctar
spends 36 AP on dodging with an effective SR of 30.  He only has
to spend 9 total AP to finish casting and aiming his first spell.  He
will have to spend 44 AP for each additional casting and aiming.
He has just enough to do two more spells that round.  Leuctar's
first spell which was started in the previous round goes off before
Kais has a chance to do much of anything, but Leuctar rolls a
23+30 for a marginal result in casting the spell and it ends up
fizzling out a meter from his hand as Kais closes.  His second
spell is successful with a 92+30, but he rolls a 31 to hit and misses
Kais.  His third spell, at the very end of the round, is a success
with a 75+30 and hits in the Left Thigh with a 61.  Leuctar rolls a 4
and an 8 for 24 points of damage.  Kais will have to roll within
AGIx3% to keep from falling at 1x damage in the thigh.
Meanwhile, Kais has stabbed at Leuctar, aiming for the chest,
rolling a 73+10 to hit in the Right Upper Arm.  He rolls a 3 and a 5
for damage, doing 4 points, wounding Leuctar, but not
incapacitating him.  Kais rolls a 56, missing his AGIx3% roll and
falls down, at which point, with Leuctar standing over him and
preparing another spell, he begins to make excuses and whine for
mercy.  This is a good thing, since Leuctar just spent another 72
Mana Points, bringing his total down to only 46, about enough to
throw one more Ball of Flame.
    Leuctar spits on Kais, Arsiela rushes into his arms, and with a
couple of quick gestures he carries her into one of the small brush
fires caused by his previous spells and they reappear at his room
in her father's workshop.  This cost him 20 MP for a double CL
Firetravel, and rolling a 88+30 he makes a full success.  We leave
what happens next to your imagination.


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There are, of course, many other types of magic, but Pyromancy seemed like
a good choice for a relatively simple example.

Comments and feedback are always appreciated.

Dave