Fudge Sorcery

Sorcery is a form of learned magic that's practiced by sorcerers. Sorcerers are trained in the use of mystical energy (called chi) to create magical effects. Chi is a substance that surrounds and includes all things, and that is most dense around living creatures. Through meditative breathing techniques, a sorcerer is able to absorb ambient chi into his body. This chi can then be shaped through careful hand gesturing and vocalization in order to create a desired spell effect. The gestures and utterances required to create a spell are repeatable, so learning how to cast a particular spell is a skill that can be acquired with training.

It's important to note that there are no supernormal powers associated with sorcery - all of the skills can be learned by anyone with a teacher. This fact may not be common knowledge in a campaign. The more sorcerers there are in a city, the less powerful each one is since there's less chi available for everyone. If everyone knew they had potential to be a sorcerer, there would be far too many of them. Therefore, it will be very common for sorcerers to lie to laymen and tell them that only gifted people can learn magic. It will also be common for sorcerer guilds to form, in order to centralize the tools used to teach apprentices, and in order to regulate the total number of sorcerers in a city.

Skills

Breath Control

Breath Control defaults to Non-Existent. This is the ability to absorb chi from the environment, through special meditative breathing. It takes an hour to use this skill in a city, or 8 hours to use it in the countryside.

Chi Reservoir

This is a Very Hard skill to learn. The skill level determines the maximum amount of chi that can be absorbed by a sorcerer through Breath Control. A character's Chi Reservoir skill defaults to Terrible (1 chi point). Chi Reservoirs recover 1 chi point every day automatically. Excess chi is released to the environment, where it can be absorbed by others.

Feel Chi

The ability to feel chi flow around you like wind. Can be used to detect the amount of chi in the immediate environment (in order to estimate the penalty to a Breath Control roll), or the amount of chi contained within an individual (in order to give an idea of their current magical power). Can also be used to detect the presence of magical items containing chi, as well as the amount of chi they contain. Defaults to Poor.

Interpret Form

Used to analyze the gestures and vocalizations (called Forms, see under Spells) a sorcerer is using, in order to determine what spell he's casting. This skill is feasible because there is an underlying pattern between Forms and the magical effects they produce. Defaults to Non-Existent.

Literacy

The ability to read and write is an absolute necessity if a sorcerer wants to be able to create magical artifacts. Literacy must be learned for each language (some languages may be Very Hard to read/write), and these skills typically default to Non-Existent (although in certain locales and time periods this may not be the case, check with the GM). It's common for sorcerers to learn unusual languages, in order to make it more difficult for others to learn their artifacts' powers.

Spells

A spell is the act of releasing chi in a controlled manner to produce a desired effect. The sorcerer channels chi using a set of gestures and vocalizations called a Form. Each spell has a unique Form required to cast it. Learning a spell is thus a question of learning the Form associated with that spell. In Fudge terms, spell Forms are learned as skills of Easy difficulty. In general, this means that they cost half as much as a normal skill to learn or to improve. It's possible to omit either the gestures or the vocalizations of a Form (but not both), and still be able to cast the spell. However, only experts will be able to do this with regularity.

Spell Colleges

Spells are usually learned in related groups called colleges. A college is a collection of related Forms that produce similar effects. Colleges are skills of normal difficulty, therefore, if a character is planning to have more than one similar spell skill, it's worthwhile to learn the college instead.

Sample colleges include: Air, Astral, Black Magic, Combat, Communication, Creation, Destruction, Divination, Earth, Enchantment, Fire, Healing, Illusion, Light, Meta-magic, Mind Control, Movement, Nature, Necromancy, Protection, Summoning, Water, Weather, White Magic, etc. There are different mystical principles involved in relating types of Forms and different types of effects, therefore there are no set colleges. That being said, the GM is the final arbiter as to whether or not a particular spell is included in a particular college.

Learning Spells

The easiest way to learn a new spell or college is to find a teacher. In a city with an organized sorcery guild, this is very easy -- assuming the sorcerer is a member of the guild -- all it takes is the paying of a reasonable fee. Learning a college from a teacher typically takes a few weeks of intensive study, while it's mere days for a single spell. Sorcerers who are not members may become members in exchange for yearly dues, however, guilds will always have limited space available. The penalty for non-members practicing sorcery within city limits may be very high, so it's advisable to join a guild if at all possible. If a teacher isn't available it's also possible to learn spells from books, although this will proceed more slowly than if a teacher were available (taking a few weeks for a single spell, or a few months for a college). Any self-respecting guild will have a large body of books teaching all aspects of sorcery.

If a sorcerer is unable to join a guild and is consequently stuck without a teacher or a book to learn from, he may have no choice but to research the new spells he wants to learn. Determining which Form will create the desired effect by trial and error may take a very long time: typically many weeks or months for single spells, and many months or years for entire colleges. Since certain types of spells or colleges may be banned by a sorcery guild, sorcerers wanting to learn those secrets may have no choice but to research the spells themselves.

Chi

Knowing a Form is not enough to cast a spell. A sorcerer also needs to accumulate chi inside his body, which he can channel outward to create a spell effect. Chi is absorbed by a sorcerer through the skill of Breath Control. How effectively a sorcerer can absorb chi depends on his skill, and on how much chi is available in the environment. The Chi Reservoir skill delimits the maximum amount of chi a sorcerer can accumulate.

Every living creature has a quantity of chi locked away inside of it. This chi forms its life's essence, and without it the creature will die. Similarly, if a creature is killed, all of the chi inside it is released to the environment. Creatures naturally give off small amounts of the chi they have inside them. As a result, low levels of chi can be found in the wilderness, and large amounts can be found in cities, where high population densities result in lots of free chi. It's the chi that's free in the environment that sorcerers absorb through Breath Control. The chi that's locked inside living creatures is not available for absorption - unless the creature dies.

Most sorcerers rely on the chi naturally released into the environment for their mystical needs. Harvesting chi from the environment requires a sorcerer to wander around, breathing in chi through the Breath Control skill. Gathering chi takes 1 hour in a city, or 8 hours in the countryside. The time difference is a result of the relative densities of chi in the different areas: chi is found in denser quantities around large quantities of human beings, and thus it's much faster to harvest it in cities.

Gathering Chi in the Countryside

Away from centers of human habitation, there is a virtually inexhaustible supply of chi. Unfortunately, at any particular location there are only small amounts of chi, and it therefore takes time and effort to gather significant quantities. After a sorcerer has spent 8 hours gathering chi in the wilderness, he rolls 4dF and adds the result to his Breath Control skill. The sorcerer gains the amount of chi indicated by the rolled degree. The table below should be consulted to discover how much chi corresponds to a rolled degree. The amount of chi that is gathered is added to whatever amount the sorcerer currently has in his reservoir, but the total cannot exceed his Chi Reservoir, any excess is lost.

Correspondence of Fudge levels to Chi

Fudge Level	Chi Quantity
Non-Existent	0
Terrible	1
Poor	2
Mediocre	4
Fair	8
Good	16
Great	32
Superb	64
Legendary	128

Example

Deirdre the sorceress is wandering a desert steppe far from human habitation. She uses her Good Breath Control skill to absorb the chi that surrounds her. She currently has 8 chi (a Fair amount), and her goal is to fill up her Great Chi Reservoir. After 8 hours of wandering, attempting to absorb chi, Deirdre rolls 4dF and adds the roll to her Good skill. If she were to roll a -2, her Mediocre roll would give her another 4 chi, which would bring her up to a total of 12. If she were to roll a +2, her Superb roll would give her an additional 64 chi, but because of the limits of her Great Chi Reservoir, Deirdre would only be able to hold 32 chi, the rest would be lost.

Gathering Chi in Cities

Obtaining chi in cities works like in the countryside, except that it only takes 1 hour, and there are a few extra elements to consider. Chi is found in much greater quantities in cities, but so are sorcerers. Competition for the scarce resource of free chi can be fierce indeed. There are two main factors that will affect a sorcerer's success in harvesting chi:

1. How many sorcerers there are relative to the total population of the city. If there are 5,000 sorcerers in a city of 20,000 people, then 25% of the population are sorcerers, and each will have a -3 penalty to all Breath Control rolls (consult the table below for more information). A person is considered a sorcerer if he has Breath Control and Chi Reservoir skills of at least Poor.

1. The time of day during which the sorcerer is attempting to harvest chi. The early bird gets the worm! With limited quantities of chi present inside the city, and many sorcerers attempting to harvest it (many of whom may be harvesting several times in a row), those who wait until later in the day before harvesting may find that there is virtually no chi left (consult the list below for a list of times and penalties).

Regardless of the penalties that affect a sorcerer's Breath Control roll in a city, a roll of +4 on 4dF will always completely fill up the sorcerer's Chi Reservoir. The sorcerer has lucked out and found a part of the city where nobody else had harvested that day.

Effect of Sorcerer Density on Breath Control

% of Sorcerers	Modifier to Breath Control
6.5% or less	+4
6.6% to 7.0%	+1
7.1% to 8.0%	0
8.1% to 11.0%	-1
11.1% to 17.5%	-2
17.6% to 36%	-3
36.1% to 100%	-4

Effect of the Time of Day on Breath Control

Time of Day	Modifier to Breath Control
Morning (4:00 AM to 8:00 AM)	0
Midmorning (8:00 AM to 12:00 PM)	-4
Afternoon (12:00 PM to 8:00 PM)	-6
Night (8:00 PM to 4:00 AM)	-8

Example

Deirdre is in a city where a sorcerous guild maintains the sorcerer population at 5% of the total. Unfortunately, she is not a member of the guild. Nonetheless, Deirdre needs to cast spells, and in order to do so she must gather chi. It's 6:00 AM, so thanks to the smallsorcerer population and the time she makes her Breath Control rollwith a +4 bonus. At 3:00 PM the same day, Deirdre has exhausted hersupply of chi after fighting a spell duel with irate guild members.She spends the next hour obtaining more chi from the environment.Unfortunately, thanks to the lateness of the day, chi is much morescarce. She now makes a Breath Control roll with a -2 penalty (+4 forthe number of sorcerers, -6 for the time of day).

Straight From the Source

By far the easiest and fastest way to obtain chi is to sacrifice a human being and steal the chi stored inside him. Sorcerers and non-sorcerers alike contain a lot of chi. How much can be absorbed is a question of the murderer's Breath Control skill. The murderer makes a Breath Control roll with 4dF, and the result is the amount of chi he absorbs. The sorcerer must be present at the time of death in order to benefit, as the chi will disperse very rapidly. If more than one sorcerer tries to benefit from the same death, each sorcerer will suffer a penalty to the Breath Control roll equal to the number of sorcerers minus one.

Animals can be sacrificed too, although they will give less chi than a human would. For large animals (cows, bears, etc.) give a -1 penalty to the Breath Control roll, for medium-sized animals (dogs, goats, etc.) give a -2 penalty, and for small animals (rats, cats, etc.) give a -3 penalty. Smaller animals as well as plants don't give off enough chi to make a difference.

Obviously, any sorcerer guilds that are present in a city will take human sacrifice very seriously. It gives the entire profession a bad name (people might think the murders are sanctioned by the guild - then again, maybe they are), not to mention the fact that it takes chi-producing people out of circulation, thus leaving less chi for everyone. Large-scale wars between sorcerer guilds are something to be greatly feared, as the odds become drastically greater that desperate sorcerers will resort to a quick fix in- between battles.

Casting a Spell

Casting spells is a relatively simple process. The sorcerer decides what spell effect he wants, based on his repertoire of spell Forms. By executing the Form, the sorcerer is able to channel his Chi outward into the world in order to create a desired effect. Subtle alterations of the basic Form allow particular spells to be cast. For instance, a sorcerer skilled in the Fire Form, could throw a ball of fire at his enemies. Alternately, he could light a candle instead by adding a nuance to his execution of the Form.

A typical spell takes one round to cast (3 seconds), has a range of 100 meters/yards, lasts for one hour, affects one person, requires a spell casting roll, speaking at a normal conversational volume, hand gestures, and costs an amount of Chi equal to the spell's difficulty. See below for more detail on all of these factors.

If any of the aspects involved in the casting of a typical spell (e.g. range, duration, etc.) does not apply to a particular spell, ignore that aspect. For instance, a spell that puts a target into a natural slumber can ignore the concept of duration -- the spell will end when the target wakes up. Similarly, healing spells typically don't have a duration, as the effects will last until the character gets injured again.

Casting a spell involves considering the following steps:

1. Spell Difficulty
2. Emphasis on the Form
3. Range to the Target
4. Casting Time
5. Skill Roll
6. Enhancement Points

Spell Difficulty

Average spell effects have a Fair difficulty, while Trivial effects have a difficulty of Mediocre or less, and Potent effects have a difficulty of Good or greater (as illustrated on the table below). Whenever a player character wants to cast a spell, the Game Master must tell his player what the spell's difficulty is, based on the power of the spell effect and the overall power level of magic in his campaign.

Spell Power	Difficulty Level
Potent	Good or greater
Average	Fair
Trivial	Mediocre or less

Important: When determining the difficulty of different spell effects, always assume that they will only affect one person (or 1 cubic meter/yard), and last for 1 hour.

Setting spell difficulty is the hardest part of Fudge Sorcery for the Game Master to deal with. Different sets of GMs and players (as well as different campaigns run by the same people) are going to require varying power levels of magic. It's the GM's responsibility to define a set of three benchmark spells for each spell skill a PC has. The GM must give a sample spell for Fair, Great and Legendary difficulty. From then on, whenever a new spell is cast the GM simply has to consult the list of benchmarks to determine a suitable difficulty for the spell. As a GM, don't worry too much about precedent. If you make a mistake once regarding spell difficulty, don't feel compelled to repeat the mistake in order to remain consistent. Also, feel free to modify the benchmarks after the fact to better suit your campaign.

For example, in a particular campaign the GM might define the following benchmarks for the Healing college: Fair: Heal a Hurt wound or poison, Great: Heal an Incapacitating wound or a minor disease, Legendary: Raise the dead.

Emphasis on the Form

Sorcerers are assumed to act out a Form using a voice volume level equivalent to normal conversation, and with noticeable hand gestures. If a sorcerer makes the use of a Form more pronounced by yelling and using strong gestures, then it will make casting a spell easier, but it will also make it easier for opponents to guess which spell is being cast. The reverse is true when a sorcerer attempts to be more subtle. By whispering and using small arm movements, it makes casting the spell more difficult but also gives enemies a significantly harder time figuring out what the caster is doing.

In addition to the emphasis a sorcerer puts on his Form, he can also elect to omit either the vocalization or the gestures. This makes it much harder to successfully cast the spell, but it may sometimes be necessary (if, for instance, the sorcerer's hands are tied behind his back). These concepts are summarized on the table below:

Effect of Form Emphasis
Form	Effect on Skill	Effect on Interpret Form
Pronounced	+1 bonus	+2 to recognize
Normal	None	No effect
Downplayed	-1 penalty	-2 to recognize
No gesture or no voice	-2 penalty (cumulative)	-1 to recognize (cumulative)

To clarify, only one of the first three options can be chosen for each spell that's cast, but the last option can be combined with either of the first three (this is what's meant by cumulative). So for example, a sorcerer could cast a spell by yelling (thus it's pronounced, with no gesture) and get a -1 penalty to cast and give others a +1 bonus to recognize the spell. Similarly, the sorcerer could elect to downplay the spell as well as not use gestures, and get a -3 penalty to cast but enemies will also get a -3 penalty to recognize it.

Range to the Target

All spells normally affect a target within 100 meters/yards of the caster. If the distance to the target is greater (up to 10 times greater), apply a -1 penalty to the caster's skill. If the distance is up to 100 times greater, apply a -2 penalty, and so on. This idea is illustrated on the table below:

Effect of Target Range
Range	Effect on Skill
100 m/yd.	0
1 km/mi.	-1
10 km/mi.	-2
100 km/mi.	-3
1000 km/mi.	-4
etc.	etc.

For Range values that don't appear on the table, always round the value up to the next larger value. For example, casting a spell on a target that's 12 km away would result in a -3 penalty to skill, since the next larger value that is on the table is 100 km.

Casting Time

Normally a spell takes one round (3 seconds) to cast. Taking extra time to cast a spell allows the sorcerer to better focus his Chi, thus allowing him to use his Chi more efficiently. The table below shows the amount of time required to obtain a particular skill bonus. This option will be very useful for novices with low skill or small Chi Reservoirs (to allow them to cast powerful spells), or for sorcerers in the countryside (where it takes 8 hours to recover your Chi, so you had better use it sparingly!).

Effect of Casting Time
Casting Time	Effect on Skill
1 minute	+1
1 hour	+2
8 hours	+3
1 day	+4
3 days	+5

Casting a spell for longer than 8 hours is going to require a Health roll on the part of the sorcerer. The Health roll is at a -2 penalty for the 3-day casting time. If the either the casting roll or the Health roll fails, the spell fails.

Skill roll

The sorcerer should add together all modifiers to his casting roll and then roll his skill at the spell's Form plus 4dF. If the rolled degree is equal to or greater than the spell's Difficulty, the spell has been successfully cast. Deduct the spell's Chi cost from the sorcerer's Chi Reservoir. If the rolled degree is greater than the Difficulty, the spell will be able to have its cost reduced, its duration increased, and/or its area of effect enhanced (this idea is described in detail below). If the rolled degree is less than the spell's Difficulty, then the spell fails with no significant effect, and the sorcerer wastes half the Chi cost of the spell (rounded down).

Spell Cost

Normally, a spell costs a number of Chi points equivalent to the difficulty of the spell (see the table Correspondence of Fudge levels to Chi). For instance, a Fair difficulty spell will cost the sorcerer 8 chi to cast. Enhancements can reduce the spell's cost, allowing more powerful spells to be cast with less Chi.

Overdrawing Chi

It's possible for a sorcerer to attempt to cast a spell that costs more Chi than he has in his Chi Reservoir, in the hopes that he will be able to reduce the cost to level he can pay. If the sorcerer does really well when casting the spell and the gamble pays off, good for him. If he fails, however, the consequences are self-destructive. The Chi Reservoir cannot have a negative value. Therefore, if a risky spell causes the sorcerer to attempt to draw more Chi than he has in his Chi Reservoir, the following will happen:

1. The sorcerer's Chi Reservoir is reduced to 0.
2. Depending on how much excess Chi the sorcerer attempted to draw, he will take a certain amount of fire damage as a part of his life force is torn out of his body. A sorcerer killed in this way will burst into flames.

The table below shows how much damage is suffered:

Overdrawn Chi	Fire Damage
1	Scratch
2-3	Hurt
4-7	Very Hurt
8-15	Incapacitated
16+	Near Death

Enhancement Points

When a spell is successfully cast by a margin of greater than 0, the sorcerer will be able to reduce the spell's cost, and/or improve its effects.

The margin of success of the casting roll is equal to the number of Enhancement Points (EP) that the sorcerer can now use to improve his spell. For instance, if a spell of Fair difficulty were cast with a Great roll, the relative degree of +2 would give the sorcerer 2 EPs with which to improve his spell.

Please note that EPs are not cumulative between spells -- any EPs that are not used to enhance the spell are lost. It takes effectively 0 time to apply EPs, but that doesn't mean that the player can annoy the GM by taking forever to decide what to enhance. :-)

There are three ways that EPs can be used: to reduce a spell's cost, increase its duration, or increase its area of effect.

Reduce Cost

As described above, a spell's Chi cost is normally equal to its Difficulty. However, for each Enhancement Point spent on reducing cost, the Chi cost is halved. This is the same thing as saying that the Difficulty is reduced by one (for cost purposes only).

EPs Spent	Effect on Spell Cost (Difficulty)
1	1/2 (-1)
2	1/4 (-2)
3	1/8 (-3)
etc.	etc.

The minimum cost for a spell is 1 Chi point. Enhancement Points cannot be spent to reduce this further.

Increase Duration

All spells last for one hour unless they are enhanced. Each Enhancement Point spent on increasing spell duration doubles the duration. This is shown on the following table:

EPs Spent	Duration
0	1 hour
1	2 hours
2	4 hours
3	8 hours
4	16 hours
5	32 hours
etc.	etc.

Increase Area of Effect

All spells affect one person or 1 cubic meter/yard unless they are enhanced. Each Enhancement Point spent on increasing spell area of effect doubles the area of effect. This idea is illustrated on the table below:

EPs Spent	Area of Effect
0	1 person or cubic m/yds.
1	2 people or cubic m/yds.
2	4 people or cubic m/yds.
3	8 people or cubic m/yds.
4	16 people or cubic m/yds.
5	32 people or cubic m/yds.
etc.	etc.

Simple Spell-Casting Example

Deirdre the sorceress has Good skill in the Illusion college and a Great Chi Reservoir that's currently full with 32 Chi. She wants to cast a spell to make herself invisible. We'll now walk through the 6-step process of casting the spell:

1. The GM decides that turning invisible has a Difficulty of Great.
2. Deirdre puts a normal emphasis on the Form.
3. The target is herself, so range is less than 100 meters.
4. Deirdre spends the standard amount of time (3 seconds) casting the spell.
5. Deirdre rolls a +1 on 4dF, which gives her a Great roll with her Illusion skill. That's a success! The spell's cost is Great (equal to the Difficulty), or 32 Chi. This drains her Reservoir completely.
6. The relative degree of the casting roll was 0, so this step is ignored.

That's it! Deirdre is now invisible. If the spell had failed (i.e. if Deirdre had rolled a 0 or worse on 4dF) Deirdre would have lost half the normal Chi cost of the spell, or 16 Chi.

Advanced Spell-Casting Example I

Bryth is a sorcerer with Great skill in the Combat college and a Fair Chi Reservoir that currently contains all 8 Chi. Bryth wants to cast a spell that will create a Hurtful explosion in the middle of a crowded room. Now let's walk through the 6 steps:

1. Since the GM is judging difficulty based on an area of effect of 1 person, he decides that the spell's difficulty is Mediocre.
2. Bryth doesn't want people to notice that he's casting a spell, so he Downplays the Form. This gives him a -1 penalty to skill, but gives others a -2 penalty to catch on.
3. The target is under 100 meters away.
4. Bryth spends 1 minute casting the spell. This gives him a +1 bonus to skill.
5. Both skill modifiers cancel out for a net effect of +0, so Bryth's skill is still Great. He rolls +3 on 4dF, giving him a rolled degree of Legendary+1! His spell roll has a relative degree of 6. Normally, the spell's cost would be Mediocre (4 Chi), but we'll wait until after the next step before applying that.
6. Thanks to his spectacular roll, Bryth now has 6 Enhancement Points to spend on improving his spell effects. He spends 2 EP on reducing the cost, while the remaining 4 EP go to increasing the area of effect.

So in the end Bryth's spell inflicts a Hurt wound on up to 16 people, while it costs him a measly 1 Chi to cast.

Advanced Spell-Casting Example II

Joe the sorcerer has Fair skill in the Black Magic college, and a Poor Chi Reservoir with 2 Chi. Joe wants to summon a demon to do his bidding. Let's go through the six steps of casting a spell:

1. The GM judges that summoning a lesser demon has a difficulty of Fair, assuming that the spell range (step 3) is based on the larger of: the distance to the demon being summoned, and where it's being summoned to.
2. Joe is in a sound-proofed room, so he decides to make his use of the Form Pronounced. This gives him a +1 to the casting roll, and since nobody is around the +2 to recognize the spell doesn't matter.
3. Joe is summoning the demon to a spot right next to him, but he doesn't know where he's summoning from. The GM figures that the nearest suitable lesser demon is about 50 km away -- this gives Joe a -3 to skill.
4. Joe spends 8 hours casting the spell, giving him a +3 bonus to skill.
5. Adding up all of the skill modifiers, Joe has a +1 bonus to his spell- casting roll, or a modified skill of Good. He gets a -3 on 4dF, which means that his rolled degree of Poor is a failure (he needed Fair or better). That sucks! Joe now has to deduct half the Chi cost of the spell, or 4 Chi, from his Chi Reservoir.
6. Since Joe failed, this step is ignored.

Joe doesn't have enough Chi to pay for the spell. He's overdrawn from his Reservoir by 2 Chi. Joe's Reservoir is emptied, and he takes a Hurt wound for his trouble.

A Note About Resistance

In general, if a spell's victim uses the correct defense against the spell then he will be able to ignore or reduce its effects. Defending against a spell will take all of the character's attention (an entire combat round if these are being used). If the defender is able to roll equal-to or higher than the attacker's roll with the appropriate attribute or skill, then the spell's effects are reduced or eliminated at the GM's discretion.

The tricky part for the defender is determining which defense to use. Obviously, it would be quite ineffective to dodge a Mind Blast, or clear your mind of all thoughts in order to avoid a Lightning Bolt! Therefore, it will be extremely helpful for the defender to have the Interpret Form skill. If the defender is lacking this skill, he can still guess the caster's intentions and hope that whatever he does helps!

Attributes such as Agility, Health or Willpower, as well as skills such as Mind Block and Dodge will come in handy for resisting spells. The GM will need to judge how well a defender is able to resist a spell, based on the effectiveness of the defense taken, and the quality of the skill or attribute roll relative to the spell roll. Spells can also be stopped by other spells, in fact this is probably the most effective path to take (fight fire with fire). Wise sorcerers will remember that it's much easier to turn aside magical energy then it is to stop it head-on.

Sorcerous Duels

When sorcerers have spell duels, there is an important point for all those involved to consider. Spells are cast by channeling chi through a Form, and Forms produce relatively predictable effects. Therefore the question of who casts a spell first will be an important issue, as the defending sorcerer will be able to use the Interpret Form skill in order to apply the best defense or counterattack.

If the GM uses alternating combat rounds in a battle, this is easy to deal with. Whenever one sorcerer casts a spell, all witnesses to the casting may make an Interpret Form roll to see if they can figure out what the spell effects will be. A roll of Fair or greater means the spell has been successfully interpreted, although the caster's emphasis of the Form will affect how easy it is for onlookers to interpret the spell. Sorcerers may defend themselves from attacks by casting spells of their own, although the GM may certainly apply restrictions on what types of spells can be cast defensively (e.g. only spells of Fair difficulty or lower). In practice, the interplay between attack and defense magic during a spell duel will be much like the interplay between sword and sword, or sword and shield.

If the GM uses simultaneous combat rounds, sorcerous duels will require a slight deviation from the norm. First, we'll consider the situation where two sorcerers are dueling one-on-one. Either sorcerer has the opportunity to seize the initiative and cast a spell immediately, or wait to see what his opponent will cast. If both sorcerers choose to act immediately, then they both cast their spells at the same time just like in a normal round. If both sorcerers choose to wait then nothing happens that round as both opponents face off, each waiting for the other to act first. If one sorcerer chooses to act while the other waits, there's good and bad for either combatant. The sorcerer who has seized the initiative is the active participant in the battle - he's choosing what direction the combat is going to move in. If time is of the essence, a sorcerer will have no choice but to seize the initiative! On the other hand, the sorcerer who has chosen to wait will be able to use Interpret Form in order to learn what his opponent is casting. This will give him an edge in the spell battle. If the sorcerer Interpret Form roll is failed (by getting a rolled degree of Mediocre or less) then he gets a -1 penalty to his subsequent roll that round thanks to his indecision.

In the case where multiple sorcerous opponents are facing off in simultaneous combat, the situation isn't much more complicated. Whichever sorcerers wait will get the opportunity to interpret the spells of anyone casting first, before casting their own spells. For example, in a situation where four sorcerers are dueling each other, many things could happen. All of the combatants could choose to act immediately, or they could all wait. If one waits, he gets to figure out what everyone else is casting before trying a spell of his own. If two sorcerers wait, they can interpret the other two caster's spells before acting themselves. If three wait, then they all get to see what the first sorcerer does before casting their spells. A sorcerer gets a -1 penalty to his skill for each Form he fails to interpret in a round, although he can choose which opponents he will observe.

Group Spell Casting

If there are 2 or more friendly sorcerers in close proximity to one another (or who are mentally connected somehow), they will be able to cast spells as a group. When casting a spell as a group, each sorcerer is only counted as being part of the group if he has the appropriate spell or college at Poor skill or better. For the purposes of the spell, count the group of sorcerers as a single entity, with a skill for the spell equal to the highest appropriate skill in the group. In addition, if the group is made up of 2 sorcerers, there's a +1 bonus to the casting roll. With at lest 4 sorcerers, there's a +2 bonus, and so on. Each time the number of sorcerers doubles, there's an additional +1 bonus. This is summarized on the following table:

Number of Sorcerers	Effect on Skill
1	0
2-3	+1
4-7	+2
8-15	+3
16-31	+4
32-63	+5
etc.	etc.

The spell's Chi cost can be divided among the sorcerers in the group in any way desired by the primary caster (the one with the highest skill). Only the sorcerers that took part in the spell (i.e. sorcerers with a relevant skill of Poor or greater) can help pay the cost. Typically, simply divide the Chi cost by the number of sorcerers and charge that to each, with the remainder being payed by a volunteer.

A few caveats: The spell's range (step 3) is the distance between the target and the sorcerer that's farthest from it. It's the primary spell-caster in the group (the one with the highest skill) who decides how to enhance a spell (step 6).

Group Casting Example

A group of 6 sorcerers want to cast an enchantment spell. Their skills in the Enchantment college are in ascending order: Terrible, Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Good, and Great. The two Terrible sorcerers aren't skilled enough to be able to take part in casting the spell, so we consider this to be a group of 4 sorcerers with a Great Enchantment skill (the highest skill in the group is Great). The fact that there are 4 sorcerers gives the group a bonus of +2 to skill, giving the group a final effective Enchantment skill of Legendary.

Let's say that the group successfully casts a Superb difficulty spell. The 4 sorcerers must now divide a cost of 64 Chi amongst themselves. If the primary caster (the sorcerer with Great skill) decides to divide the cost evenly, that's 16 Chi each.

Creating Magical Items

Often, it will become desirable for a sorcerer to allow someone else to use a spell he knows. Perhaps someone wants a love charm, or a suit of armour that will make him invisible. In cases like these it will be necessary for the sorcerer to create an artifact, such as a spell scroll or a magical weapon. Like with conventional sorcery, spells stored inside artifacts need Chi to power them and a Form to channel the Chi through. This brings up two separate issues regarding the creation of magical artifacts:

1. A spell's Form can be written on the item.
2. The item can be imbued with a Chi Reservoir in order to power spells.

Please note that these two options can be used separately or combined to create a more powerful item, and while several different spell Forms can be written onto an item, each item can only have one Chi Reservoir.

Creating a Form

Language

The mystical basis for creating more permanent magic is the idea that words have power, and that written words have a more permanent form of power. Therefore, it's only natural that Forms should be permanently stored by physically writing them down. When writing a Form, a sorcerer will need to choose a language to use. Anyone else who understands the written form of that language will know which spell Form has been inscribed on the item. Therefore, if a sorcerer wants to keep the effects of his magical items hidden, he must use a secret language. Alternatively, the sorcerer could live in a time period or place where illiteracy is the norm, in which case he doesn't need to worry much about the wrong people reading his work.

While it's easy to write descriptions of Forms for educational purposes (in textbooks, for example), writing them for the purpose of creating permanent magic is working with ancient and unpredictable natural forces. It's a painstaking job that takes a lot of effort to perform properly. As a result, writing spell Forms will take much more work than the simple act of writing would imply. As a master would tell his apprentice, writing a Form takes diligence, clarity of thought and most of all, patience.

The Material and the Method

The amount of effort required depends on just how permanent the sorcerer wants his magic to be. In turn, how permanent a Form can be depends on the Material it's written on, and the Method used to write on the Material. A written Form's permanency is called its Durability. A Form's Durability is equal to the lower of the quality of the Material or the Method used to inscribe it. Consult the tables below:

Materials and Methods of Form Writing
Material	Durability
Paper, wax	Terrible
Cloth	Poor
Leather	Mediocre
Wood	Fair
Clay, glass	Good
Stone	Great
Metal	Superb
Method	Durability
Ink, paint	Terrible
Branding	Fair
Engraving	Superb

For example, if a sorcerer wanted to enhance a stone amulet (Great Durability) by painting (Terrible Durability) a Form onto it, his Form would have a final Durability of Terrible. For a second example, a clay pot (Good) that had a Form engraved (Superb) onto it would have a final Durability of Good.

Also, please note that not every Material and Method combination is possible. For example, paper can't be engraved upon very effectively, and using ink on stone is usually futile.

Time

The greater a Form's Durability, the longer-lasting the Form. However, there's a catch! The catch is that high-Durability Forms take longer to create. Permanent Forms (those with a Durability of Legendary) will also require special materials to create. To know how long it takes to write a Form, consult the table below. Please note that the following times are for writing individual spell Forms. Writing an entire college will take twice as much time and space.

Labour Required to Create a Spell Form

Durability	Man-Days of Labour^^
Terrible	0.5
Poor	0.8
Mediocre	1
Fair	1.5
Good	3
Great	9
Superb	21
Legendary	90++

^^ Double the amount of labour if a college is being written rather than a spell.

++ Special materials are required to make a Form of Legendary Durability.

Aids (such as apprentices) can help in the creation of magical items if their skill at the Form is Poor or better. Divide the normal time it would take by the total number of people working on creating the Form. For example, it would take a sorcerer with two apprentices only 1 day to create a Form with Good Durability, instead of the normal 3 days. Please note that working as a group to write a Form does not give a group skill bonus.

Special, GM-defined Materials/Methods will give a +1 to an item's Durability (maximum final Durability is Legendary). For example, the GM could define the Magic Ore from Mount Doom as giving a +1 Durability bonus. Perhaps the Chisel of the Gods will also give a +1 bonus. Whatever the special materials are, they should be rare and precious, unless magical items are supposed to be commonplace.

Skill

And since we've broached the subject of skill, it's time to mention that a Form's skill level is equal to the sorcerer's skill with the Form. A sorcerer can purposefully write a Form of lesser skill, although this doesn't provide any sort of labour savings. A sorcerer cannot, under any circumstances, write a Form with better skill than what he knows. More specifically, a sorcerer can't use an already written Form to create more Forms of that skill level.

Space

A new Form can be added to an item that already has one. However, there's only so much space on a particular surface for writing Forms. Larger items will be able to hold more Forms.

New Forms can be added to an item that already has forms on it. A college takes as much space as two spells. An old Form may be deleted in order to make room for a new one. The process of carefully deleting an unwanted form takes half the time it took to create it in the first place. Rushing this process may accidentally damage other Forms too (if present) or destroy an otherwise good writing area. If the goal is to destroy the item, then it will probably take a lot less time, although it all depends on how the perpetrator tries to destroy the item.

Remember that writing a college takes as much space as writing 2 spells.

Number of Forms per Item
Size of Item	Typical Item(s)	Max # of Spells
Tiny	Ring, amulet, wand, potion	1
Small	Staff, sword	2
Medium	Suit of armor, polearm	3
Large	Boulder, statue	4
Huge	House, castle	5+

While it may seem strange to some that a ring could hold a whole spell Form, while an entire suit of armor can only hold three, there's a reason: on larger items a spell Form will need to be written more prominently! Otherwise it would be mistaken for a smudge, rather than a spell, which would have a deleterious effect on its power...

Using a Written Form

Assuming he knows the language the Form is written in, an item wielder can use Forms written onto it just as though he knows the spells himself. Follow the normal 6-step process for casting a spell, and consider the wielder to know the spell at the same skill level as the written Form. Ignore step 2 (Emphasis of the Form) unless the item requires a password. Most passwords involve either a vocal message or a gesture. In this case, the possibility of omitting one aspect is ignored. That option is only possible if the password involves both a vocal message and a gesture.

Over time, most written Forms will degrade into uselessness. How long it takes will be a function of the Form's Durability -- the greater the Durability the longer the Form will last. The GM and players may use one of the following two options for determining when Forms degrade completely:

1. Every time a Form is successfully used to cast a spell, a Durability roll must be made to determine if the spell remains intact after it was cast. The difficulty is Fair. If the Durability roll fails, the Form is destroyed (but the spell is still successfully cast). For the GM and players, this method has the advantage of not requiring anyone to write anything down but the Form's Durability. On the downside using random rolls might result in a high-Durability Form failing the first time it's used. The odds of this are small, but it's still possible.

1. Some people may not like the idea of randomly rolling to see if a Form is destroyed. For some people it may be simpler or more satisfying to record the number of uses (or "charges") a Form has. Every time the Form is successfully used, it loses one charge, and when the number of charges reaches 0 the Form is destroyed. When using this method no Durability rolls are required. This method also guarantees that Forms will last a certain minimum number of times, insuring that the time a creator spent making the Form wasn't wasted. Consult the table below:

How Many Uses a Form Gets
Durability	Avg. # of Uses (# of charges)
Terrible	1
Poor	1
Mediocre	2
Fair	3
Good	5
Great	16
Superb	81
Legendary	Infinite

Storing Chi

A sorcerer can create Chi Reservoirs in items through the application of time and effort. Any non-living item can become a storage receptacle for Chi, and all items are equally capable of containing Chi Reservoirs. For example, a gold watch, a pumice stone and a slice of beef all have the same Chi storage capabilities. The only condition is that if the item is destroyed (or eaten, as in the case of the beef) then the Chi Reservoir is also destroyed. For this reason durable, non-edible items are a better choice for Chi storage.

There are 4 types of Chi Reservoirs that can be created (only one of these can be made in a single item):

Temporary Chi Reservoir

Permanent Chi Reservoir

Temporary Specialized Chi Reservoir

Permanent Specialized Chi Reservoir

Once a Chi Reservoir of a given size has been created, a more skilled sorcerer can then improve upon the original enchantment. For example, a Fair Chi Reservoir could be improved to Good by a sorcerer with Good skill. The sorcerer will only pay the difference (in terms of time and/or Experience Points) between the old level and the new level.

Remember that no matter what the type of Chi Reservoir a sorcerer wants to create or enhance, he can never increase an item's Chi Reservoir to a level greater than his own Chi Reservoir skill. For instance, a sorcerer has a Good Chi Reservoir (maximum 16 Chi) and an item containing 10 temporary Chi. If he spends 6 hours of effort he can increase the item to 16 Chi, and no more.

Item Faults

Every time a new Form or Chi Reservoir is created, there's a possibility that a Fault (password, max uses per day, etc.) will be accidentally included with the item. Such is the perversity of the universe. For each Form or Chi Reservoir added to an item, roll 4dF. If the roll is a -4, the item has just received a Fault of the GM's design. Alternatively, the GM can decide to give an item a Fault by fiat.

If the sorcerer purposefully adds a Fault he will be able to create the Form or Chi Reservoir more quickly. It can also make the item more secure, in the case of a password. As a rule, each Fault added to an item will shave off 5%- 15% of the production time/effort. No matter how many Faults are added to an item, the production time can't be reduce beyond 50%. The reduction of time and effort will also apply to attempts to destroy Forms.

Here's a list of sample Faults to give an item:

• The Form or Chi can only be used in a certain situation, for example: during the Full Moon (worth -5% to -15% depending on how common the situation is).
• The Form or Chi can only be used in the absence of a certain situation, for example: when there's no light (worth -5% to -15% depending on how common the situation is).
• The Form/Chi is activated by a password (worth -5%). Passwords include a verbal and/or pantomimic component. Use of the password is subject to the rule on Emphasis of the Form. For example, whispering the password gives a -1 to the skill roll, while yelling it gives a +1.
• The Form/Chi is deactivated by a password (worth -10%).
• Using the item gives the wielder a Fault (worth -5% to -15%, depending on the severity of the Fault transferred).
• The Form is hardwired to only produce a certain precise effect (with a precise difficulty). Worth -15%.

Using a Magical Item

When an item is first discovered, a potential wielder is going to want to know what it does. Discovering what Form(s) the item has is simply a matter of reading the writing on the item. If it's written in an unknown language, the potential wielder is going to need to find a way of deciphering it. Once the language is deciphered, he will be able to learn the spell/colleges contained on the item as well as their respective skill levels.

Discovering the size of an item's Chi Reservoir (as well as whether it's temporary or permanent) depends on the successful use of the Feel Chi skill.

Important Note: Flaws are generally not written down on the item. Therefore, the only way for someone to find out their details is through trial and error. Sometimes, password hints might be written down on the item, or warnings regarding the item's potential dangers, but don't count on it.

A written Form cannot be used until it is deciphered. On the other hand, an item wielder can attempt to use a Chi Reservoir even though he doesn't know how big it is, or even whether or not it's there, but if the Chi Reservoir isn't big enough for the spell then consider the wielder to have overdrawn Chi.

A wielder can certainly join into a group spell, even if he's not a sorcerer, so long as the item he's using contains the appropriate Form at Poor or better. A Durability roll is only required if the item wielder is the primary participant in the group (the one actually casting the spell).

The wielder of an item cannot use it to write more Forms. The writer of a spell must know the spell himself.

The expenditure of Chi is probably going to be the riskiest aspect of using magical items. It's quite possible for an item's Form to outlast a temporary Chi Reservoir designed for it. Thus non-sorcerers take a risk whenever they use a magical item beyond the specified number of charges, since they run the risk of getting (literally) burned when they don't have enough Chi to power the spell.

Magical Item Prices

Like with every item produced in the world, we have to pay for the time to make it and the seller's markup. Using a modern example, we can assume that a Fair enchanter gets paid $10/hour ($80/day), with this number getting doubled for every skill level above Fair, or halved for a skill level below Fair. Multiply the total number of man-days of effort required to make the item by the amount of money the enchanter earns per day. This is the item's cost (or the amount of money it takes to create the item). The item's markup depends on the rarity of magic. If magic is very rare, 300% or greater markups are to be expected. 100% markup would be normal for a regular quantity of magic, while 10%-50% markup would be expected in a campaign where magic is commonplace. Multiply the item's cost by the markup (100% markup means to double the cost) in order to get the item's price. This is the item's market value, and what it will typically be bought or sold for.

This doesn't account for the cost of any materials. Weapons and armour must of course be purchased before they can be enchanted. Also, if Legendary Durability is desired, the enchanter will need to obtain special materials whose cost varies greatly from campaign to campaign. We can assume that special materials will cost $1,000 per Form, although this will certainly vary.

We can also assume that the "adventuring time" required for permanent Chi Reservoirs comes at a cost of $800 per Chi point for a sorcerer of Fair skill (this assumes that it takes 1 month to acquire 1 Experience Point, 1 EP = 3 permanent Chi). Double the cost for every skill level above Fair, or halve for every skill level below Fair.

• Cost = (Cost Of Labour Per Day * Number Of Days To Produce) + Materials Cost
• Markup Multiplier = (Markup/100) + 1
• Price = Cost * Markup Multiplier

Standard Costs for Creating Spell Forms

These spell costs are calculated with the following assumptions:

• A Fair enchanter is payed $80/day. His wages are doubled for every skill level above Fair, or halved for every level below Fair.
• The same enchanter works through the entire process of creating the Form (i.e. the work can't be passed on to another).
• At Mediocre and higher skill levels, it's assumed that an enchanter will have a Poor apprentice to share the workload. This almost halves the cost of the higher-end items.
• The costs indicated for Legendary Durability don't count the extra costs for finding special materials.
• These costs are for spells, double the cost for colleges.

Form Durability	Cost by skill level ($)
	Terrible	Poor	Mediocre	Fair	Good	Great	Superb	Legendary	Legendary+1
Terrible	5	10	15	25	45	85	165	325	645
Poor	8	15	23	38	68	128	248	488	968
Mediocre	10	20	30	50	90	170	330	650	1,290
Fair	15	30	45	75	135	255	495	975	1,935
Good	30	60	90	150	270	510	990	1,950	3,870
Great	90	180	270	450	810	1,530	2,970	5,850	11,610
Superb	210	420	630	1,050	1,890	3,570	6,930	13,650	27,090
Legendary	900	1,800	2,700	4,500	8,100	15,300	29,700	58,500	116,100

Standard Costs for Creating Chi Reservoirs

These Reservoir costs are calculated with the following assumptions:

• A Fair enchanter is payed $80/day. His wages are doubled for every skill level above Fair, or halved for every level below Fair.
• A Reservoir is made as cheaply as possible by passing up the item to more skilled laborers. For example, when started from scratch a Fair Reservoir would be filled to 1 Chi by a Terrible enchanter, then to 2 by a Poor enchanter, then to 4 by a Mediocre enchanter, and finally to 8 Chi by a Fair enchanter.
• At Mediocre and higher skill levels, it's assumed that an enchanter will have a Poor apprentice to share the workload. This almost halves the cost of the higher-end items.
• It takes 1 hour to create a temporary Chi point, and 10 8-hour days to create 1 permanent Chi point.
• These costs are for generalized Chi, halve the costs for specialized Chi Reservoirs.

Chi Reservoir	Amount of Chi	Cost for Temporary ($)	Cost for Permanent ($)
Terrible	1	1	100
Poor	2	4	300
Mediocre	4	11	900
Fair	8	36	2,900
Good	16	125	10,100
Great	32	463	37,300
Superb	64	1,775	142,900
Legendary	128	6,950	558,900
Legendary+1	256	27,500	2,210,100

Sample Magical Items

Scroll of Tongues

This paper scroll has a spell written on it in ink. A Fair Know Languages spell is written on it in a secret language known only to members of a secret society. The Form has a Durability of Terrible, which makes the scroll good for one use. The scroll is meant to be used by sorcerers, and so it has no internal Chi supply. If we assume that the paper the Form is written on was free, then the scroll's price (with 100% markup) is $50. However, this price is what society members would sell the scroll to each other for... the scroll would be useless (and most likely worthless) for anybody else.

Fireball Wand

This wooden wand has sigils burned along its length. A Good Fireball spell is written on it in Latin. The Form has a Durability of Fair, which makes it good for an average of 3 uses. The wand contains enough Chi to power 3 Good spells, or 48 Chi. The Form cost $135 to make, while the 48 Chi cost $1,123 to imbue. If we assume that the wood was free and a 100% markup then the wand would be sold for a price of $2,516.

Armor of Invisibility

This plate armour has letters etched across its surface. The armor has 2 different Forms written on it: a Superb Invisibility spell, and a Good Non-Detection college. Both Forms are written in German. Thanks to the Magic Ore used in the construction of the armour (which is consequently worth $10,000 on its own), the Forms have a Durability of Legendary, meaning that the Forms will not normally run out. The armour also contains a permanent Great Chi Reservoir, which will regenerate Chi on its own. The armour was built with the following flaws: using the Invisibility Form requires the password "Unsichtbar" (-5%), the Non-Detection Form cannot protect against White Magic (-10%), and regularly wearing the armour for more than a week gives the wearer the Paranoid Fault (-10%). In total the armour has -25% worth of flaws. The Invisibility Form is worth $29,700, the Non-Detection college is worth $16,200 (colleges cost double), while the permanent 32 Chi Reservoir is worth $37,300. We then apply the -25% for flaws. Add in the $10,000 armour, and then the 100% markup, which gives us a grand total price of $144,800!!