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Page name: Burn Up Magic [Logged in view] [RSS]
2007-02-03 19:05:41
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Magic

Divisions

   In most stories, there are many kinds of magic. Often these powers are split between two colors, black and white, which are synonymous with good and evil. However, this clean cut division is boring and who would want to play a pious priest when one can play a kick ass warlock? To keep thinks interesting, Burn Up has three more divisions of magic: red, blue and green. Also, Burn Up does not attach any moral properties to the divisions of magic, though this may vary from game to game. Thus, black magic could be used to good ends and white magic to evil ones.

The five divisions are:
BU Red Magic: powers of fire, rage, physical empowerment and chaos.
BU Blue Magic: powers of knowledge, raw energy, and power over magic itself.
BU Green Magic: powers of life, the elements and the power to become one with nature.
BU White Magic: power of faith, healing, order and the power to protect that order
BU Black Magic: power of darkness, death and decay, drawn out from the cracks of the world.

And yes, my inspiration for this hierarchy came from magic the gathering. It’s a good old game after all.

Caster’s Rank

   A given mage (someone who practices magic) can have power in one or more divisions of magic. This power is gained by using skill points from Luck and Wit to buy ranks in a given division in the same manor as one increases a skill score. Each spell requires that a mage have a certain number of ranks in that spell’s division before the mage can learn it.
   In addition, having more ranks in division of magic increases the power of a mage’s spells in that division. The base Spell’s Power of a given spell is equal to the number of ranks the mage has in that division. After that, Spell’s Power can be increased by knacks, spells, amulets and the ilk. Finally, when casting a spell, a mage can increase the Spell’s Power by spending additional energy.

Spell List

  A given mage can only hold in mind so many spells at once. These spells make up the mage’s Spell List. The base number of slots that a mage has in her Spell List is equal to {wit – 6}. This number can be increased by knacks, spells, amulets and the ilk. To add a spell to her Spell List a mage must have at least the Required Ranks of the spell and, depending on the game, access to or have researched the formulas needed to cast the spell. If the mage has both these things, it takes an hour of study/meditation/prayer for the mage to add the spell to her Spell List. If there are no more empty slots on the mages spell list, she may overwrite an old spell. A mage may have a given spell on her Spell List multiple times.

Description Spell

Information regarding individual spells is recorded in the system described below:
Required Ranks: This is the number of ranks needed to learn the spell.
Energy Cost: This is the amount of energy or mana needed to cast the spell
Casting Time: This is the amount of time that it takes to cast the spell.
Duration: This is the limit on how long the supernatural phenomena produced by the spell last. If a spell has no duration then it the phenomena only last a split second. The effects of the phenomena can last forever.
Range: This is the limit on how far away the supernatural phenomena produced by the spell can reach.
Save: If a save is listed, it is something that the target of the spell can do to protect herself from the spell. If the target succeeds at this, the spell has no affect on her.
Description: This is what the spell does once it is cast.

Auras: An aura is a spell that is always active so long as it is on a mage’s spell list. For this reason aura spells do not have energy costs or casting times. Duration is not so much permanent as constantly generated. If an aura is targeted by as spell that would destroy a lasting spell effect with the aura’s Spell Power, the aura is merely repressed for a day. Range is always caster’s person.

Casting Spells

To cast a spell on her Spell List, a mage must spend the stated casting time of the spell doing... umm... spell casting stuff. After the mage does this, she may spend the stated energy cost. If she does, the spell is cast and has the effect stated in the description.
A mage can cast a given spell multiple times on the same target. When this happens, the spells affects should be taken literally.
It is assumed that the caster is gesturing with at least one hand and speaking magic words when casting a spell. If the mage only does one of these, she can only cast spells as if she had 30 less ranks in all divisions of magic. If she does nether, this penalty increases to 60. These penalties can be counter acted by spending energy.

Mana

Any mage can have a mana pool which functions as an extra battery of energy that can only be spent on spells. A mage’s mana pool starts at 0 and can be increased by knacks, spells, amulets and the ilk.

Spells and Monetary Value

Some spells make reference to monetary values. The listed values assume that the game has a medieval tech level. If this is not so, the GM might want to conceder changing the list values.

Over Powered Mages

Do to the design of the magic system, it is possible for mages to become extremely powerful. This was done intently by the author. If such a mage gets out of hands and is in risk of ruining a game, here’s a rule to stop them: Magic changes its users. With most mages the changes are minor (maybe a pair of glowing eyes or a weird hairdo). With extremely powerful mages the changes can be drastic or even deadly to the mage.

Also:
BU Mage Knacks
BU Spell Vault

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