Last night I ran a mini test session where Jip the gnome goblin slayer and his human friend Siggurd are tracked down a party of goblins that were led by a goblin shaman.
We approached magic the way we did when
playing Middle Earth with Spirit of the Century but with some CF specific tweaking.
A magic user's potential casting pool:
- Skill: (Command or Perform depending on the spell)
- Tool: (i.e. Magic staff)
- Aspect: (i.e. Dark Arts D8)
Casting a spell costs a point of Ardor and includes invoking the Aspect: Dark Arts D8.
Casting was handled much like maneuvers and inflicting conditions. Spells are also able to create tools on the fly. A single success creates a D6 tool, double D8 tool, triple D10 pool just like conditions.
As Siggurd's arrows were killing goblins, on the fly the shaman created a magical camouflage cloak D6 that would be crucial for his eventual escape. All the while Jip was sneaking on a flanking maneuver hoping to get close enough to launch an attack on the goblin magic user. The shaman caught Jip's movement out of the corner of his eye and subsequently won initiative for the round. He cast a Disorientation (D8) spell on the gnome that as it turns out would be endured for the entire scene.
As Jip swayed and while Siggurd became bogged down in melee the shaman shot a blast of eldritch energy at Siggurd causing a point of Vigor loss.
Now the shaman is out of Ardor so he turns to run. Jip manages to make chase while Siggurd mops up.
During the chase Jip endures the Disorientation (D8) and the shaman endures his aspect Decrepit D8. Little by little the shaman puts more ground between him and his pursuer. Eventually Jip runs out of Vigor and the old goblin slips behind a massive tree, casts a small spell and flies up out of the forest on a gust of wind.
Magic was resisted by Will or Reflex depending if the magic condition attacked the mind or the body.
We have a
conversation going on over at RPG.net on the subject where the CF author mentions the concept of Dark Ardor that can be used to invoke the Dark Arts aspect at its heightened rank.
As of now my intention is to keep the concept of magic as freeform as possible with the guideline of the effect being ranked. This way magic is powerful but not earth shatteringly so. But it would be cool to get a small spell list put together for inspiration.
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