Beyond Vancian Magic: Applied Arcana

 I was already planning to make a post about the "Arcana" of Kith and Kin, as a demonstration of how Arcana can be used to color the magic of a world and shape its structure. Then the blog carnival started and what do you know, its about non-vancian magic! Neat!

If you're unfamiliar with my "Arcana" design philosophy of magic, here's a whole post explaining it. In short, "Diegetic Magic" is a good enough summary.

Idk what I'm supposed to do to get this to count for the carnival. Guess I'll just post it where most of those are.

General warning for some stuff that is typical to magic. Animal (and human) sacrifice, mental effects (mostly under the "possession" section) and discussions of sympathetic and similar magical connections that can agitate some elements of psychosis and OCD. Take care of yourself.

Kinds of Arcana

For the purposes of Kith and Kin I am going to split Arcana into three major classifications. This is not how arcana in general, that is "across games", work. This also isn't strictly a recognized in-universe split.

Also in-universe these will probably be called something along the lines of "Wisdoms" or "Magical Secrets". "Arcana" feels too "modern" a term.

Regardless, its a useful way to approach them from a design standpoint.

Root Arcana are some basic facts about the world. Core assumptions that build the rest of the magic system in this case. They are like the "laws of physics" or the "fundamental forces" of magic, or possibly more like "Themes."

Branch Arcana are any arcana that result from the former. They are learned or developed individually, and suggest at at least one Root Arcanum. These are examples of actual magical activity.

Leaf Arcana are specific, distinct magical things, rather than broader skills or consequences like Branch Arcana. Listed examples are more akin to game spells, though some powers are listed in the examples.

A Note on Consistency and Fairness, I generally will require 3d6 rolls for magical actions, with the ranges of 3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-12, 13-15, 16-17 and 18 corresponding to different levels of success. Context and skill with increase and decrease the number of d6s added, though only the top or bottom 3 will be counted. What is possible is thus a bit context-sensitive. Its more important that this system feels consistent and fair than it actually being those.

Root Arcana

There are five, listed and described in no particular order. Magical workings can be subtle or flashy. Subtler magic is easier and more common (and is more "real" in that it feels possibly coincidental or circumstantial) but flashier magic does exist.

Altered States: The cosmology of Kith and Kin is psycho-spiritual, and in order to tap into the intrinsic power held in the cosmos it is sometimes necessary to uproot oneself (even if temporarily) from some basic perceptions and assumptions. Thus, altered states of mind are (generally) necessary. These can naturally peel back the perceptions of the world to reveal the spiritual realms entwined with it, and that is one of the core benefits of these, but it is often necessary to dip into them in order to access truly flashy magic.

There are five rough levels of these for game purposes. Minimal (Minor, Tone-altering), Weak (Minor, Minuscule game effects, slight hallucinations), Powerful (moderate bonuses/maluses, flashes of other realms, can see spirits), Heroic (Entering other realms entirely) and Extreme (cutting straight to the heart of another realm).

The levels are a combination of Pariahs measurements, with the first two instead becoming three akin to this Altered States system.

Importantly, this means there is a certain level of subjectivity in the cosmology and metaphysics of Kith and Kin. Its not entirely "post-modern", but individual experiential phenomena are Important in a cosmological and metaphysical sense.

Spirits: Kith and Kin is animistic, but its also weird. Spirits have no true universals, other than that everything is technically a spirit (or multiple spirits) and that they are more beings of their own nature than anything else, obeying their own structure over any "physics." A spirit of the land can do "spirit of this land" things quite easily, especially within the space it occupies, but beyond that it might struggle. A free spirit on the other hand, may be capable of acting just about anywhere, but might be limited to some phenomena. Spirits (much like spiritual realms) are not limited in what they can be. They can be ghosts, elementals, animal souls, your own souls, dream characters, shadows, people from other realities, alien consciousnesses, animate concepts, stories that have taken on a life of their own, elements of personal subjective experiences and many more things.

Spirits can be called upon for magic (invoking them in a ritual), or targeted by it (as with summoning and binding). Generally they are limited by their nature and whatever cycles (if any) they follow. They are not omnipotent but they are potent. Magic users who mostly rely on spirits are something like paleolithic diplomat-priests, negotiating with spirits on behalf of their community (or just themself, as the case may be).

A detail that also applies to the next arcana, is spirits explain a sort of "inertia" the world(s) have. Subtler magic is easier because spirits (including ones own souls) resist changes from outside.

What they do can be subtle, flashy or anything in between. Depends on the character of the spirit really.

Souls: Your own spirits. At least five are widely recognized, those being the physical shell (body), the vital breath/blood/movement (life force), Free-Spirit (subtle body) and Waking-Spirit (the mind). These might have further subdivisions, or be classifiable, but as with other realms and spirits there is a certain subjectivity to this.

Your souls are part of you, so you have a certain level of assumed power over them. Your souls also generally explain any magical talents you might have. Prophetic visions, Ghost-Walking, natural tendency to slip into altered states/other realms... These can also often be described by naturally existing in a semi-altered-state at all times (or falling into them easily).

These can be a path to power. There might be a part of your soul that relates to simply "Magical power". It would be extremely weak at first if you have no talent for it (i.e. no Trait relating to it), and even then it wont be anywhere near extremely impressive. Twists to ones soul can also encode mystical powers, "spells" of a kind. These are less like "wizard spells" and more like "Things you can now do and train up in power."

These can also be affected by magic, of course. Most "curses" or "talents" are some twist or distortion to ones soul(s).

Esoteric And Exoteric Connections: Binding everything together are connections both obvious (Exoteric) and subtle (Esoteric). An Exoteric connection is simple. If A causes B then A and B are connected, much the same if B causes C. An obvious causal connection.

Similarly, physical contact is about the most obvious physical connection possible.

Esoteric connections consist of those less obvious connections via some subtle aspect of reality. Some basic examples are sympathetic (like affects like), correspondent (things look like what they are), contagious (once together always together), symbolic (the image is the thing, representation grants power), composition (the part can affect the whole) and so on.

These connections exist by default but can be protected against (often by using other connections). They weave into spirits and souls, thus summoning spirits requires objects, times, activities, locations and so on that are "linked" to them in some abstract way.

This is the principle that also allows you to call upon spirits to help with magic, and is why you cant just use any damn thing to do anything.

 

Sacrifice: The balancing principle. Put simply, "You get what you put in." This is the element that suggests the more time, blood, sweat, tears, lives and so on put into a work the stronger, broader, deeper and so on it will be. This doesn't mean you need sacrifice to do magic. A circle scratched in the earth with a prayer of protection (or a promise of protection) will hold some power, albeit only enough to protect against the most impotent spirits and/or animals. This is similar to altered states not strictly being "required", but helping a lot.

Some costs can be easier. Some souls beings have might have natural power or energy to expend, but this is not strictly default (except for some spirits perhaps).

This is less conservation of mass/energy and more conservation of "fairness". A "curse" or pain or a "trial" can be a cost. Sometimes the "Cost" is paid to some specific thing directly, such as a spirit, and sometimes it is simply fuel for the magic itself. This isn't thermodynamics we're talking about. Its magic.

Branch Arcana

Branch Arcana are constructed from the assumptions of the Root Arcana. There are infinitely many, but some examples in no particular order might be...

• Spiritual Sensitivity: Some individuals have a natural tendency to slip into altered states of mind, as a consequence of some spiritual sensitivity in their souls. This allows for ease of entering magical mindsets and seeing spirits. This will combine with other "talents".
• Soul Flight: Often when the natural altered state enters a "heroic" dose, it often allows for soul-flight rather than simply entering another realm, though that can still be a consequence.
• Divination: A skill. Using some mild spiritual sensitivity and possibly lower altered states to read subtle connections across space and time.
• Prophetic Visions: Altered states up to Heroic, with Heroic slipping fully into the vision. Can be drug-induced, or a consequence of spiritual sensitivity. Rely on subtle connections and altered states more severely.
  
• Bestial Communion: Subsisting off the entire body of an animal of moderate size (or a sufficient number of smaller, or portions of a larger that have the preserved ratios of tissue varieties) ritually, often in an altered state, one can take on the aspects of various beasts, birds and even crawling things like insects and worms.
• Therianthropy: Physical transformation into a beast or beast-hybrid. A curse, so "sticky" magic tied to the self and thus soul. Often done as punishment, but due to the dynamic nature of the soul it can twist and warp from a curse to simply a thing you can do. May be possession by an external spirit instead. 
• Summoning Spirits: Conjuring spirits requires reagents and actions, contexts really, related to the spirit. A bloody spirit of the moon for example might require the reflection of the moon and blood dissipating in water. Often an altered state of mind is required, to more properly tune oneself to alternate realms, and sacrifices to lure or draw their attention. Rarely, simply calling their name can be enough, if the relationship is deep enough.
• Realmwalking: The ability to bring ones physical body into spiritual realms is a rare capability indeed. One possibility is allowing some spirit to summon you, as you might summon them. This is rare, as few spirits want to summon something that combines impotence and capaciousness as well as a mortal does, and most mortals loathe to grant that kind of power over oneself, but it is done sometimes. Other methods involve altered states and similar kinds of magic to summoning. Im sure you can develop your own ideas at this point.
  
• Binding Spirits: Bindings require using some sorcerous method to restrict the available actions of a spirit. A basic example is a circle scratched in the dirt charged with some sacrifice, which restricts the movement of a spirit. The circle demarcates an interior and exterior and the sacrifice charges it with some power beyond simply time, effort and hope. Other forms of binding are possible.
• Living-Dead: Binding spirits to a corpse-vessel, granting the spirit control over the dead body. If bound properly, a loyal and possibly powerful servant can be gained. Weaker ones are easier to bind, obviously. Sometimes spirits will let themselves be bound to vessels to gain bodies.
• Possession: Often times spirits (and magic in general) cannot simply overwhelm the will and mind of a host, due to the spiritual inertia of ones own souls. The exceptions are particularly powerful spirits and magic, and contexts in which the will of the host is compromised, such as sleep or some altered states. Instead, warping emotions, sensations and memories are often required to shape the behavior of the host, but the host still has inertia and can often resist these.
• Hauntings: Possession often requires either extreme power or extreme subtlety, which most spirits cannot provide in the required amounts to actively impose themselves. Even the subtler manipulations require one to possess enough power to redirect the inertia of the hosts soul in some way. Thus, hauntings are often the preferred dominion of spirits and most will want to simply possess a dead or "vacant" body if possession is required. These cause effects to the host, but are more akin to things happening around them, such as poltergeist activity. Still, small changes to the host (such as bouts of pain, twitching or brief hallucinations) often occur.
  
• Curse-Dolls: A representation of someone, built from cloth and stick and charged with locks of hair, blood or even small bones taken from the target. If the link is extreme enough, it can act as a stand-in for the person themself. Subtle connections such as these are incredibly useful, and despite the name curse-dolls can be used in a way beneficial to the target.
• Magical Languages: Languages spoken not with the physical tongue, but with the subtle elements of ones soul. Often allow for communication with inhuman spirits (or folk who do not share a language) without an altered state. This consequentially allows one to communicate, and thus attempt to change their behavior. This is done very similarly to how one does with other people. Threats, bribes, offers and so on. Some examples are:
  
• Fur-Tongue: Mystic language of beasts with fur and fang.
  
• Scale-Tongue: Mystic language of the scaled creatures of the land. Includes landbound feathery things.
  
• Wing-Tongue: Mystic language of the things that fly and the winds they ride.
  
• Shell-Tongue: Mystic Language of things with hard exoskeletons.
  
• Water-Tongues: Mystic languages of the aquatic spirits and beasts that occupy them. Split into Rivertongue, Laketongue (Includes ponds), Seatongue (Includes near the surface of the oceans) and Oceantongue (primarily the vast lightless depths).
  
• Root-Whispers: The whispering language of the forests and all that compose them, including the fungal threads. If understood can be "heard" (smelled?) as a faint murmur if one head is close to the ground.
  
• Celestial-Thundering: Thundering language of celestial spirits, quite literally thunder. Dangerous to speak. Storms may provide some information, but are often just involving warcries.

 

 

Leaf Arcana

The provided examples are more akin to "spells" from other games. Think of them like dnd "cantrips" that can be trained to be stronger, more complex, and so on. They can also be enhanced by increasing whatever cost is built in to them. Other "Leaf Arcana" exist, but most of the ideas I had are more akin to these. Summoning and binding rituals for specific spirits would also be examples. The names are just for flavor. Most of these involve twists to ones souls allowing one to cast them naturally, but leaf arcana are not restricted to just "spells". Its just a name for any very specific magical thing one does.

• Fires of the Heavens: A gift given by (or stolen from) celestial spirits of the upper air. Heavenly fire is infused into the flesh. When called upon, one may unleash the pure power of lightning, and the thunderous after effects. The sorcerer is only mostly protected from the effects. The cost is that calling upon it may cause seizing, electrifying pain and burns, depending on the power.
• Dead Flesh Obeys Me: Casting off small parts of ones own souls to animate dead flesh with the mere motes of spiritual power one has birthed. Painful and exhausting, often involving sweating blood or layers of skin stripping away to fuel it. Crudely animates dead flesh for as long as one can withstand the pain and remain focused. More like disparate body parts clawing and flinging themselves around than anything sapient.
• My Own Breath, Commanded: Using ones own spirit to sieze control over ones breath, something which is already "under your power" and thus easier to control. Allows very mild control over the winds to begin with, honestly like a large number of people blowing fairly hard, but greater exhaustion and training can improve this. Requires one breath out if it blows away from you, and breathing in if it blows towards.
• My Pain Wounds You: Forcing a causal sympathetic connection to a target, and magically altering what actually carries between the two. Pain transformed into actual wounds. Can be made easier by suffering actual wounds in the casting.
• The Cold Touch of Death: Ritually allowing ones hand to become frostbitten, and binding deathly power to the dead flesh of the hand, magically preventing it from causing horrible infections and necrosis. The hands still functions as a hand, but is crude, numb and slow, unable to precisely move. Its touch carries the horrible chill of death and frost with it, to any who touch it, regardless of intent.
• My Dreams Laid Bare: Using ones power over their own dreams to project glamours of sensation, emotion and memory into the world. Flimsy and easy to "wake up from" at first. Effectively no cost, except for the focus required, but very very weak at first, requiring training to bring forth greater effects than prickles of sensation, bursts of intrusive emotion and subtle deja-vu.
  
• The Glory of Daylight: Minor celestial spirits of the daylight sky are bound to ones own souls, carrying a mere fragment of the suns brilliance. A bright aura of light springs forth from the sorcerer, carrying the mystical effects of daylight for a small area. Unfortunately, the temperature of the sorcerer will increase with each moment, faster the brighter the light. This will only stop and begin to reduce when it ends.
  

 

 

 Questions?

I welcome questions about this since they'll help me define this better and better, while keeping the magic system abstract enough to still "work" as magic rather than science.

A Magic System: Arcana (Secrets With Power)

I don't even know how you'd define this magic system. Its not quite freeform but its not quite limited either. Maybe "Diegetic Magic"? It definitely is a magic system that works with FKR games thats for sure.

The origins of this magic system lie in my enjoyment of the game "Noita" and its magic system. Its spells have properties that you can learn and exploit to ridiculous effect. The game is kinda about that.

However, while generic spells and modifiers work for Noita, Tabletop games require a bit more work. And so, after some time, this "Arcana" system was born.

The idea is to incentivize exploration and experimentation, and to make magic feel like something truly embedded in how the world works, rather than a game abstraction.

Making a potion can be easy, but it can also be like if chemistry really wanted to eat your soul. (Source)

Arcana

Arcana is anything that knowing about can grant some form of supernatural advantage. That isn't to say that knowledge of it is inherently powerful (conversely, thats not to say that knowledge of it isn't inherently powerful either), rather knowing about it opens up the capacity to interact with it or make use of it in some way.

Arcana can be anything, but as a list of examples they can be supernatural skills, languages, esoteric energies, otherworldly forces, groups of entities, anomalous mathematical principles, systems of logic, beliefs, states of consciousness, other realities, subtle aspects of this reality, gods, concepts, substances, processes, properties of otherwise natural things, psychological complexes, a series of specific actions, anomalies in how the world works, natural laws taken in bizarre directions and basically anything else you can imagine.

Arcana aren't spells. They're not rituals. They're not magic items. They're not (strictly) powers and they're definitely not a "class feature." They're meant to be the building blocks of these things, however (except for class features, maybe). Think about how during a ritual the magician calls upon various entities, draws magical circles, and more. Arcana are like these things rather than the ritual itself.

Whats important is that Arcana have properties and that these properties can potentially interact under the right circumstances. This doesn't mean you need to have a huge list of how different arcana interact, just that there needs to be at least consistency. If one arcana is an altered state that involves extreme self-awareness, and another is a psychic parasite, these can probably be used together in some fashion (perhaps as a way to control the parasite? It depends on how the two work exactly).

There's no hard categories of Arcana. Some are more broadly applicable, some are more useful in specific contexts, some are quite dangerous, some are relatively benign. The point is they can be theoretically anything that has supernatural properties that can be learned and made use of.

Some actual examples of Arcana might be

• A species of psychic parasite, existing on a "Psychic" or perhaps "astral" layer of reality. They have specific things they feed on, byproducts, favorable environments and behaviors, all of which might be useful in some contexts.
• The Astral Plane (And Astral Projection in general) and how it interacts with the world. Things probably can't physically step into the astral plane, it probably requires specific mental states.
  
• An "otherworldly sense" that doesn't correspond to any of the major or minor senses known by science, but might be interpreted as "feeling" at a distance. It can probably be honed and trained to provide more information, and training synesthesia into it might have some interesting effects.
• Clearly unnatural mathematics.
• Any of these things really.
• A set of beliefs that, when reinforced through ritual repetition of important aspects of the beliefs, can be treated as true by participants and temporarily enforced via certain methods.
• Languages that let you speak to things that normally cannot understand or act.
• A method of lucid dreaming that allows one to escape the confines of their dream and access others. Perhaps it can let you access a collective experience shaped by all dreamers, or perhaps things stranger even than this.

This could continue forever, but you get the idea. A true list would have more details and useful information, though some Arcana might be deceptively simple in their presentation.

Ideally as well this allows for competing or otherwise paradoxical magic systems to exist without rendering a setting completely incoherent. Entire perpendicular or parallel cosmologies could exist, separated only by the relative ignorance of those who have yet to discover a way the relevant Arcana bridge the gap.

Generally speaking the user of an Arcana should not know everything about it, and if a new one is discovered they should know just about nothing about it. The idea is to incentivize experimentation and discovery, after all.

 

God damn it I forgot to account for microcosmic-macrocosmic correspondence. (Source)

Applying Arcana

By this system, "Magic" isn't just one thing. Its not a single "energy" or "force" but rather the application of (typically multiple) Arcana to achieve an effect.

Lets run through a few examples of how this might go.

Taevalis, a practitioner of the Arts, prepares a silver pentacle engraved with specific sigils. They then place the pentacle in the center of a ritual chamber and begin to chant prayers and exaltation to the great one Vo-te-na-shu, a deific consciousness native to a realm of pure mind and logic (of which it itself is the primary component, akin to "space-time" for our own reality). Taevalis expertly enters an altered state of consciousness that allows their mind to cross the boundaries of realities, allowing the great one to use their mind as a channel of influence to our reality.

The sigils on the pentacle serve to communicate to the channeled aspect of Vo-te-na-shu that it is to reinforce the pentacle with its own psychic might, allowing it to serve as a protective object for the duration of the ritual. This works because Taevalis knows that the great one can understand the meaning of the sigils by way of its access to Taevalis' own mind and that Vo-te-na-shu is a perpetually curious being, which Taevalis is exploiting to orchestrate its willing participation in the ritual.

Taevalis then shifts their mental state slightly, and directs a degree of channeled entropic energy against the boundaries between their reality and one they have been studying for some time. The pentacle, due to geometric properties, the double-meaning of several of the sigils engraved on it and how silver interacts with the forces of the accessed reality, serves as a magnetic "net" for a being composed of illusion, flame and roaring sound from this reality. The ritual is successful, though there is a moment of uncertainty as the being strains against its bindings. Taevalis concludes the ritual by "imprinting" Vo-te-na-shu's power into the pentacle, exploiting how psychometry works to allow an "echo" of the power to remain without constantly channeling the great one.

At the conclusion of the ritual, Taevalis has successfully bound an otherworldly being to the object. Now they just have to figure out how to get it to do what they want, when they want it.

In the above example, the Arcana involved are Vo-te-na-shu, the state of consciousness that allows Taevalis to access other realties, the entropic energies utilized to break down the barriers between other realities (this might count as two, the entropic energies themselves and the barriers themselves), the other reality with its various inhabitants and the properties of Psychometric imprints left on objects.

The pentacle itself is a mundane tool. Its only by how this mundane tool interacts with the distinctly not-mundane elements that it gains its mystical importance. Without any of the Arcana involved, it would be a pretty trinket perhaps, but little more than that.

Modern doctor strange stuff has some cool (weird) stuff in it. Can't remember the exact issue this is from.

A second example, set somewhere (and when) very different.

Thalia and Zoe are two magicians who have been wanting to cooperate on a project for some time, but utilize very different sets of Arcana to accomplish things. However they have discovered a way to work together to further both of their knowledge of Arcana.

Thalia knows a specific method of lucid dreaming that allows her to wander metaphorical realms, and even into other realities via their more dream-aligned aspects, such as by entering the dreams of its inhabitants. Unfortunately she's not particularly capable of determining how dangerous it might be to access a given realm.

Zoe has a variety of psychic powers, developed through specific practices and disciplines geared towards developing such things. Most important to their goals are Telepathic and Extrasensory capabilities.

Thalia falls asleep while Zoe remains awake, using Telepathy to scan for when Thalia begins lucid dreaming. When she does so, Zoe telepathically weaves herself into the dream, effectively linking their minds and falling asleep as she does so, while remaining lucid.

Together they explore a variety of metaphorical landscapes over the night, using Zoes extrasensory abilities to determine if they should steer clear of a given location, experience, realm, mental construct and so forth. This is aided by Zoes moderate specialization into specifically "danger sense" ESP.

When they awake they quickly write down what they remember that they consider worthy of further investigation and experimentation. These include realms, locations, mindstates, entities, experiences and far more abstract things.

In this example, there's only two main arcana that are being used. The lucid dreaming method, and the psychic powers, but together they allow the two magicians to accomplish far more than they could individually.

 

Not every magical working is capable of succeeding, however. Which the next examples should demonstrate.

Nathan has downloaded a number of PDFs that, unfortunately for him, do contain genuine occult and Arcane information. He wants to perform a ritual to summon one of the Eye-Theives of Ovolomithia, a relatively small faction of otherworldly humanoids composed of layers upon layers of leathery tissue. They are known for stealing eyes, but also giving strange other eyes if they feel generous.

Unfortunately, Nathan has no knowledge of the Arcana that the writer of the PDF assumes the reader is familiar with, and is unable to truly perform the more abstract mental exercises involved in the ritual as a result, as well as having no ability to truly gather or shape the necessary energies involved. Nathan attempts to perform the ritual, and gets only a fascinatingly bizarre experience with psychoactive substances as a result.

The exact ritual isn't important in this context, just that the lack of understanding of the Arcana involved means that the ritual is, mystically speaking, not really doing anything. Granted such rituals might have a more mundane but profound effect on the participants, and there's always the vague chance that despite lacking knowledge one might accidentally tap into something real, but these are very distant possibilities. Akin to a one-in-billion chance.

However, knowledge of Arcana but an incomplete understanding of them can be far, far more disastrous than simply a ritual not working. Lets revisit Nathan at a later date...

Nathan now has a more genuine understanding of the Arcana involved in mystical practices, though he's not really done much to experiment with their limitations and interactions yet. This is unfortunate as he attempts to perform a ritual granting him passage through the All-Hallways, a bizarre realm consisting of hallways, backrooms, linked rooms and various other building interiors, all seemingly growing off of each other. The realm technically can lead anywhere, and this is an enticing possibility to Nathan.

The All-Halls is, unfortunately, fairly easy to access. Nathan prepares a closet door appropriately, by engraving the statement "To All Places" or its equivalent in several dozen languages, setting a resin that has been ritually prepared with energies associated with movement, otherworldly passage, space and time, and exploits an associative property of these energies to easily open a doorway to the All-Halls. Nathan has underestimated the All-Hallways, however, and does not realize just how confusing and disorienting of a realm it is.

Nathan enters the now-open passage to the realm and attempts to find his way to a door that leads into a hotel, somewhere, but the shifting halls and rooms over the next half-hour unsettle him. He attempts to find his way back to his entrance, but the pathways have closed off. Panicking, he tries to find a doorway that might lead somewhere familiar and accidentally falls down a flight of stairs, spraining his ankle.

He decides to leave through the closest doorway he can find, and emerges from an closet in an abandoned home, on the other side of the city he calls home. Thankfully, the All-Halls have some small measure of co-spatiality with reality, meaning that you're not likely to find yourself across the planet or in completely alien worlds with just a short stroll through it. Nathan, thankfully, did not encounter any other visitors of the All-Hallways, nor any of the deeper anomalies of the place.

In the above example, Nathan clearly understands the useful mechanisms of the various energies he treats the resin with, and demonstrates a creative use of their properties and associations between the phrase he engraved and the result he desired and how to exploit that to achieve it, but he did not have sufficient knowledge of the All-Hallways to usefully exploit them as a travel medium. He didn't know how to use what he got.

This is still an optimistic failure. If Nathan were to learn magical ways of finding directions to a goal, or found some way to influence or predict the nature of the shifting paths in the All-Halls, he could very easily render them into a useful medium.

Of course, not every failure is this much of a teaching moment. Some simply reach too far too soon, and find themselves at the mercy of forces they wished they understood better.

Some Arcana interact in clearly detrimental ways. If two classes of spirits hate each other, would you really want to invoke them in the same ritual? Probably only if you have some way to keep them from knowing about each other. What about mutually destructive energies? Forces which prohibit certain effects? Entities which you overestimated your capacity to bind and command?

Next post should be a list of more in-depth Arcana, and some more examples! Everyone loves examples, right?

Lord Mountain-Roc: A pariah NPC

Lord Mountain-Roc was named for the mighty spirit of the mountains that exist close to his home jungle.

His exact age is unknown, as his troop does not keep track of moons or seasons, existing in a quixotic timeless state of mind.

Mountain-Roc was initially seen as the weakest of his many siblings, however he was clever beyond his fellows.

He learned that the other wandering people utilized strange plants to contact the spirits that his troop feared and did not understand, and so he found the Mystics Mushroom and the Sorcerers Vine and learned of the realms of Dawn and the ancestral There.

From the inhabitants, he forged a covenant, learning the secrets of sorcery in the process.

Lord Mountain-Roc is also a very very big Gorilla. Just like his family.

Among his peers, Lord Mountain-Roc is a legend already, a great culture hero. Among the settled people, he is a great forest demon who conducts raids against their food storage.

Lord Mountain-Roc has great ambitions, plans that would sound alarmingly human to anyone who heard them.

He has a Goal. It is the indefinite survival of his troop, and its expansion into a major jungle power. He does not want to be seen as a dumb beast. He is not a dumb beast. He wants his troop to become too powerful for the settled people and their ilk to consider threatening. He speaks softly, but he would like a much larger stick.

He has a Plan. It is alarmingly clever. He knows of the mystical properties of the Mystics Mushroom. He can be understood with its power. He will offer it. He will offer alliances. He will offer protectors and he will offer resources. They are bribes, he is honest about this. He wants to establish trade with other nomads as well as the settled people. He wants to incorporate other troops, and create a true culture. He does not revel in violence, but he considers it a tool as any other. Don't piss him off.

He has an Itch. His children are grown up, and he wants to pass on his knowledge of sorcery and mysticism. He wants his troop, his culture, his people to learn and know the arts he considers sacred. He is frustrated by their lack of interest. If any Pariahs can convince his children, or at least the children of his troop, to ignite their spark of curiosity, he would be deeply indebted to them.
He also desires to know of the other Realms. He is familiar with Dawn and There (as well as the Here and Now, clearly) but Sun, Moon and Dusk confuse him. If any Pariahs can share knowledge and access to these realms, he would be deeply indebted, but that knowledge could be quite dangerous...

The legendary Beast-King.

His troop count as a major nomad tribe, with the following Strengths, Weaknesses, Hopes and Fears.

• Strengths: They're god damn gorillas. They're strong and have a strong internal structure. One of them could take on several warriors and come away alive and ready for more. They also have a surprising willingness to negotiate.
• Weaknesses: They can't communicate without the Mystics Mushroom. Despite the troop having incorporated several other gorilla troops, it still has relatively low numbers, making establishing themselves difficult. They lack a certain amount of curiosity, and technology.
• Hopes
• To establish trade with settled people and nomadic people.
• To gain knowledge of (or at least access to) the Dusk, Sun and Moon.
• To incorporate the remaining gorilla troops throughout the region.
• Fears
• Internal struggles will tear them apart.
• External threats will remove their power.
• Violence will consume the humans, and them.

The following stat blocks are for Mountain-Roc and generic Gorillas. The first ones will be for Pariah as written, the second ones are for my own heavily edited system.

Note that "Mutant Pariah Clone" just refers to my house-ruled version of Pariah.

Generic Gorilla, Pariah

No Appearing: 2d6
HD: 4d10+8
Defense: 15
Attack: 1 Bite/ 2 Punches (16, 1d8/1d8/1d8)
Speed: 30' (90')
Morale: 9
Size: Humanoid
Mind: Bestial, Curious, Sapient, Social, Territorial

Treat as strength 18 skill 1d8 for grapple.

Generic Gorilla, Mutant Pariah Clone

No Appearing: 2d6
Flesh: 2d10+6
Grit: 2d10+4
Defense: +5
Attack: 1 Bite/ 2 Punches (+6, 1d8/1d8/1d8)
Speed: 30' (90')
Morale: 9
Size: Humanoid
Mind: Bestial, Curious, Sapient, Social, Territorial

Treat as strength 18 skill 1d8 for grapple.

Lord Mountain-Roc, Pariah

No Appearing: Unique, found among 2d6 Gorillas as part of a gathering/pathfinding party, or found among his tribe (Him + 45 gorillas, 5 of which have bound spell-spirits.
HD: 6d10+12
Defense: 15
Attack: As gorilla or bound spell-spirit.
Speed: 25' (75')
Morale: 7
Size: Humanoid
Mind: Curious, Sapient, Social

Lord Mountain-Roc is an NPC that you probably won't start out fighting. He's not unreasonably violent. He's likely to be a quest-giver or the like. Directly fighting him is unlikely. His tribe is immensely protective of him. He has a bound spell-spirit of the Dawn, a necklace with 5 stones, one of which has 3 bound spell-spirits of the here and now, another having 2 bound spell-spirits of There. The other stones are empty. He's saving them for other realms.

Lord Mountain-Roc, Mutant Pariah Clone

No Appearing: Unique, found among 2d6 Gorillas as part of a gathering/pathfinding party, or found among his tribe (Him + 45 gorillas, 5 of which have bound spell-spirits.
Flesh: 2d10+8
Grit: 4d10+8
Defense: +5
Attack: As gorilla or bound spell-spirit.
Speed: 25' (75')
Morale: 7
Size: Humanoid
Mind: Curious, Sapient, Social

This part involves actually hashing out my magic system, so until I get that done just use it as pariah.

The Cost of Magic (Aka, Oh god another magic system).

Oh boy yet another god damn magic system

Magic sure is fun, isn't it? Doing things which would otherwise be impossible through whatever means. And there are a lot of really good magic systems out there.

There's the classic spell slots system, with its endless permutations within mainstream D&D and Retro-clones. That's a familiar system and one that offers a genuinely interesting system to work with, as long as the rules and rulings cover more than just "point at x to blow it up."

The GLOG has a wonderful magic system, as I'm sure 95% of people who read this will agree. The magic dice, mishaps and dooms all characterize magic as potentially extremely dangerous and unpredictable, as well as ensuring that the casters don't quite know how many spells per day they have, adding to the whole mystique.

Buuuut for my own personal system, these feel a bit inadequate. There are probably more magic systems out there (in any form of media) than there are species of beetle. Do you know how many species of beetle there are? If you guessed anything lower than 100,000 you're going to be terrified when you look it up.

Aaaanyways. The previously mentioned two magic systems are good, but mechanically they convey very different styles of magic. Magic mechanics occupy this weird space in game design where they can't just be an abstract mechanic. The way the rules operate is very tied into how it works, and I was kind of dissatisfied with the different systems presented in games.

I think magic should have a price, and I want anyone capable of using magic to be able to somewhat gauge what they can do, but I don't want players to spend an abstract easily-regained resource for huge dramatic effects, at least not within my current system.

Then, I found this post. Its like... Less than a hundred words and basically just musings on a topic, but I wanted to build off of this core idea. So I did. Quite a bit.

Some important details going forward.

1. My homebrew game system is classless and level-less (mostly. see below). Based off the lovely "Die Trying" and "Pariah" systems.
2. It also takes inspiration from Esoteric Enterprises. There is a Grit/Flesh/Horrible Wounds system. This is somewhat relevant.
3. I prefer freeform but somewhat intuitively understandable magic systems. Magic Words is good, but also not quite what I want to do.
4. Despite there being no classes in my system, there are Glog-Like templates. Δ Templates to be exact. Only Δ Templates. Its going to be extremely rare to start off with one in my games, and many things are locked behind these. This leads directly into the magic system.

I want to do the impossible.

Alright, first, you need a Delta Template. I'm going to come up with a list of these, and they all have conditions, but long story short you need to undergo a fairly rigorous initiation. It doesn't have to cause permanent damage, or be morally repugnant (though it can be), but it does have to be extreme. Like, drugging yourself into another dimension and half-burying your body under a tree for a few days.

Once you fulfill the requirements for the template, congratulations! You can do magic! Though you may have to perform some form of maintenance to keep it "active."

(Side note: Inactive templates within this system do not give certain benefits, but may still give others. It varies and is a mechanic I want to explore in more depth.)

So, in addition to some sweet perks, maybe a some required maintenance, you can now do the impossible!

Okay but what can magic do?

Anything!

Well kind of.

You see, all magic has a price. It can be personal, or it can be something else. It all depends on the context. Its a freeform system after all. The only real restriction I have is that they must be thematically linked to the desired outcome in some fashion.

Lets list out some examples.

• Summoning something requires a sacrifice of 1 flesh dice per flesh dice summoned. Whatever is summoned probably has grit dice equal to their flesh dice (or it may be broken between many summoned entities). Flesh dice can also be spent to give it magical abilities.
• Animating a corpse isn't extremely difficult. Bringing it back to full life is nearly impossible, but simple animation is fairly easy. Living things require food to survive (2 rations/day in my system, minimum). So by burning rations, you can animate a corpse. Each ration is 12 hours of animation, and the corpse may still perish.
• Animating parts of a corpse is easier. crawling hands are relatively easy to make.
• Animating constructs is similarly simple, requiring food.
• Permanent animation may require summoning a spirit of some kind. Binding a spirit will probably require a sacrifice equal to or more than its flesh dice, but you could just... Talk to the spirit. Its an NPC after all, and not totally unreasonable (barring some extreme examples).
• Grit is worth less than flesh, and so sacrificing it allows for only minor magics, often things you could already do but in impossible ways. Summoning a small flame, picking up a keychain, etc. These are basically cantrips.
• Time is also a sacrifice. Time spent performing rituals can be used to offset other sacrifices. I'd say an hour = A flesh dice but you can probably eyeball it.
• Like the example in the link above, digging a key into your hand (dealing 1 flesh damage and disabling that hand for the rest of the day) could unlock a door, but so could destroying a lockpick. (you might just want to use the lockpick on a door, but if it requires a passcode then the lockpick would still probably work)
  

And you can probably see the sorts of things this can do. Every impossible action carries a cost. I would probably come up with a table of relative costs and the sorts of things they can do. What dice equal how much time equal how much action and such. Generally thats going to vary from system to system though so I'll include it in the full document of my system or its own post.

But what about divination? Potion making? Artifice?

Urg, okay.

Divination is a skill in my system, using the same skill system as Pariah. Its not magic, at least not in the same way as the above system is.

In Pariah you roll a 1d6 and add it to your stat to see if you succeed at any given goal. If its over the target number you succeed. Skills just increase the size of the dice, up to a maximum of 1d12.

For divination you just roll the appropriate skill dice, no target number, and compare it to the following table (adapted from here). Each type of divination has its own separate skill dice.

    1-4: Vague, extremely cryptic and symbolic. Very very hard to interpret.
    5-8: Cryptic, but less vague and with obvious clues.
    9-12: Clear answer, but still a little bit mysterious. Details are vague, the rest isn't.
    13+: Clear as crystal. No need to interpret anything.

Certain things add bonuses to this, and some forms of divination require tools. I'll make a list of that later. Each time you do this, the maximum roll on your dice is reduced by 1. A full day without divining anything will clear this malus.

Herbalism, Brewery and other such things are also skills in my system, but how they work is a bit different. There are ingredients, with a variety of effects and interactions. I have a format for it in my head so I'll just make that its own post.

Artifice is just making real things. Swords and such. Making enchanted things or otherwise magical objects requires a sacrifice as above. Probably a long ritual too (which is a sacrifice, of time). Again, I'd eyeball it based on your system.

Other Ideas

Permanent magic powers require further initiation, or permanent sacrifice, or both. They're less versatile than the above system but they can be done basically at will. They may still have some freeform elements to them, depending on the ritual or sacrifice.

Restricting certain senses can expand other senses. Or a specific sense. Either improving them or adding supernatural ones.

Some monsters and forces may have an easier time with magic, especially Godlings.

Getting power from faith and religion requires an initiation rite (obviously, love me some initiation rites) and certain rites and devotions can do specific things. These are ritualized and often easier than the above system, but joining a faith comes with complications (both political and magical). Or you can just have religion work differently, like insulting a god giving a chance of being cursed. That works too.

Going into the Otherworld (or other worlds in general) requires drugs. Psychoactive entheogens. Taking lower doses of those can also count as a sacrifice.

The death of an entire town isn't because of the curse, it probably caused it.

This won't be the last I talk about this system, but this concludes my current thoughts on it. Ciao for now.

Magic User Origins

 The Clever Folk come from many walks of life and learn in many different ways, and are called many different names. Collectively they are feared and respected and beloved and reviled, though attitudes will differ from kingdom to kingdom, hell even village to village.

(If you couldn't tell by the Wikipedia link this is for my pre-Christian pseudo-European setting. Any anachronisms are either intentional or stuff I don't care about. these tables are sort of designed with that "kind" of setting in mind, but you could probably use a slightly reskinned one in any game.)

In terms of rules, I'm trying to keep this system-agnostic, but they are sort of designed with my own magic system in mind. these are things you add onto your magic user characters that provide an additional benefit.

Roll 1d6

1. You read a scroll and accidentally changed your perception of the world forever. Start with Wizard Vision.
2. You studied under a learned master. The specifics of your relation to the master are up to you and the referee (antagonistic? understanding? apathetic?), but you start off knowing of them and being able to contact them. They are level 3+1d6, if that ever becomes necessary.
3. You studied in a guild/college of magic. The total number of students any given year probably weren't higher than a few dozen and the passing rate is fairly low, so you know of a handful other Wizards. You probably have a debt though, which is probably why you adventure.
   
4. You are self-taught. Perhaps you were a servant sneakily stealing books from an incompetent noble or you found the ruins of another wizards stronghold and managed to learn the basics from there. Maybe you learned the way the first magic users did, whatever that is. You have a bit of a charm compared to other magic users. The distrust most feel regarding magic users doesn't touch you as much as anyone else.
5. You were born the seventh child of a seventh child (or the fifth child of a fifth child, or something else equally mystical.) This seems to be a bit of a big deal with certain entities and other magic users.
6. Someone or something meddled in your birth/conception. Weather you are a failed antichrist, the child of a strange creature or an experiment of some sort, you are distinctly "other" than most. Start with a mutation relevant to whatever it was, and a lingering sense of unease.

This is what i can think of for now. Whatever the final version of this table is will probably be bigger as I pour over different stories and superstitions.

Anyways check out these sick as shit magic users I found while procrastinating actually posting this.

You wish you were this cool. (Can't find the artist and a reverse image search brings up pokemon stuff.) 

Check out his sick as shit armor. Its useless I love it so much. (Adventure Time)

Thats all I found.