These are some simple house rules on magic that I am playtesting in my current campaign. They aim at reintroducing into the magic system the element of randomness and chaos and the cosmic proportions that characterized the old Stormbringer RPG. Although the new Elric! system is more balanced, I think it lacks some of the chaotic element that made the old Stormbringer so fun. Some simple rule variants can reintroduce the best of the old system without the flaws -- I hope. The main feature of these rules is that they reintroduce the Summoning skill and employ it in new ways, taking advantage of the extended use of "criticals" that characterizes the Elric! rpg. 1. SPELLS Spell casting is too reliable; to add a little uncertainty to it, a POW x5 roll (Luck roll) is required to cast a spell. FUMBLE (99-00) GM should come up with a suitable mishap: e.g. spell backfires, double MP spent and no effect, spell has normal effect but caster loses all MP and faints, jealous Chaos Lord strips the knowledge of the spell from caster. FAILURE No effect. Magic points spent. SUCCESS The spell is cast with the normal effect. Magic points spent. 2. SUMMONINGS 2.1 THE SUMMONING SKILL The summoning skill is reintroduced. This skill represents the sorcerer's general knowledge of the rituals, chants, and runes used to bring otherworldly creatures to the plane of the Young Kingdoms. The base chance for a character with sorcerous background and training is INT+POW. If a character without any previous formal sorcerous training acquires a summoning spell (e.g. the summon demon spell) from a grimoire or somehow else, his/her base chance will be equal to characteric POW. Experience is gained normally when using the summoning skill. 2.2 USING THE SUMMONING SKILL FOR SUMMONING DEMONS AND ELEMENTALS In order to summon a demon or elemental a character must know the appropriate spell and roll her/his summoning skill. The skill roll substitutes for the Luck roll. FUMBLE Magic points are spent. Roll on the Summoning Fumble Table. FAILURE Magic points are spent. Make a Luck Roll; if it fails roll on the Summoning Fumble Table. SUCCESS The entity manifests in 1d8 hours or 1d6 rounds as appropriate. CRITICAL The entity manifests in 1 hour (demons) or 1 round (elementals). Add 25% to any one communication skill roll while negotiating. Add 5 to adventurer's POW in the POW:POW struggle if the sorcerer attempts binding. The sorcerer learns the name of the demon breed. Bonuses to Summoning Skill roll: The following bonuses could apply at GM's discretion: * the demon belongs to a demon breed known to the sorcerer (because he/she already summoned it or did scholarly research on it): +10% * the sorcerer knows the True Name of the demon or elemental: +20% 2.3 INSTANT SUMMONING When a sorcerer knows the True Name of a demon or the name of a demon breed, he can attempt to summon the known demon or a specimen of the known breed in 1d8 rounds. To accomplish this exceptional deed of sorcery the player must declare his/her intentions and roll a CRITICAL SUCCESS in his/her summoning skill. If the player rolls a simple success the entity does not manifest, the MP are gone, but he/she need not make a Luck Roll to avoid a fumble. 2.4 SUMMONING THE BEAST AND PLANT LORDS The chance of success in summoning the Beast/Plant Lords is no longer the ridiculous 01 percent; a CRITICAL SUCCESS in the Summoning Skill is required instead. If the summoning spell succeeds the character's soul is taken to the half-world where the Beast Lord resides. There the character must plead for its help. The fact that the Beast Lord answered the summoning does not mean that it is willing to aid the character or is benevolent towards him/her. Pleading his/her cause before the Lord should be a good role-playing opportunity for the character. The outcome of the bargain could be influenced by Communication skills and by the deeds of the character on behalf of the Balance (the GM might ask the player to roll less than the character's alliegiance points in the Balance box on a d100). Success in poetic and singing skills, as well as the knowledge of rhymes that praise the lords may increase the chance of success of the summoning. However the cumulate bonus should never exceed +10%. 2.5 NECROMANCY "There is sorcery here. She is no reincarnation. You'd bring your lost love's spirit from the nether world to inhabit this girl's body. Am I not right?" -Elric to Earl Saxif d'Aan in _Sailor on The Seas of Fate_ II, 5 It is assumed in these rules that the foul arts of necromancy described in the _Bronze Grimoire_ supplement always involve the summoning of a spirit from limbo or from some other plane of existence (see the "Afterlives" section, page 17, of the _Bronze Grimoire_). If you use the rules in the _Bronze Grimoire_, note that the following spells involve a Summoning skill roll that substitutes for the Luck roll: Animate Skeleton, Create Abomination, Lure Spirit, Raise Mummy, Raise Zombie, Summon Ghoul. A Summoning skill roll will be necessary also for the "Speak with the Dead" spell; the cost in MP for this spell will be equal to the dead person's POW. Whether or not you adopt the _Bronze Grimoire_ necromancy rules you can always employ this general purpose spell: 2.5.1 SUMMON SPIRIT SPELL In general the summoning of the spirits of the dead -- for the purpose of questioning them, binding them or luring them in someone's body -- could be ruled as follows when not otherwise specified: * a successful Summoning Skill roll is required to summon a random spirit; a critical success is needed to summon a particular individual. * If the result is a Failure a convenient mishap occurs. GMs can either use the Necromantic Mishaps Table (_Bronze Grimoire_, page 19) or devise their own tables of ghastly events. * the cost in magic points equals the spirit's INT+POW. * required casting time is 1d6 hours. 2.6 UNUSUAL DEEDS OF SORCERY "You were successful, lady," he said, "in conjuring up a demon?" "A demon? I think not, though he looked to us like a demon with his slanting eyes and his pointed ears -- a face not unlike your own, Prince Corum -- and we were at first afraid for he stood in the centre of our magic ring and he was furious, shouting, threatening in a language which I could not, in those days understand." -Michael Moorcock, _The King of the Swords_ The summoning skill is a useful measure of the general magic proficiency of a character and can be used in a simple way to deal with the summoning of creatures that are predefined as coming from another plane, such as the Creatures of Matik, the Elenoin, the Steeds of Nirhain, or even a Vadagh from Corum's world, an Eldren from the ghost-worlds of Erekose's Earth, or a traveller of the spheres like Wheldrake the poet. Creature summoning procedure: * The character must have some information on the target creature and its plane of existence. She/he should also figure out the proper summoning ritual (which will count as a spell against free INT). This can be done in two ways: 1: The sorcerer has found the relevant spell in a grimoire. 2: The sorcerer creates a ritual based on his/her knowledge of the multiverse (success in the Million Spheres skill), library research, or information that is given during play. * The character must roll a CRITICAL SUCCESS in his/her Summoning Skill and the creature will appear. The duration of the ritual is up to the GM and players to determine. * The cost in magic points is 1d8 + the POW of the creature summoned. * If the creature summoned has human or near-human intelligence the sorcerer can negotiate its services. Otherwise he can always attempt to dominate the creature with a POW:POW struggle: if the sorcerer succeeds he/she can give orders to the creature for a number of rounds equal to the sorcerer's POW. * Predefined creatures from other planes cannot be bound. NOTE: Normal inhabitants of other worlds cannot be dismissed like demons or elementals. They remain on the plane of the Young Kingdoms unless a demon or a special spell (such as Chaos Gate) is used to send them back to their home world. Obviously this might cause trouble to imprudent summoners. 3. INVOKING THE LORDS OF THE HIGHER WORLDS In the Stormbringer RPG servants of the Cosmic Forces could invoke divine intervention rather easily, probably too easily. In Elric!, on the contrary, characters allieged with a Force have in principle no chance of succeeding in an invocation but the minimal 1%. I think this is less fun and contrasts with the cosmic high fantasy feeling a moorcockian rpg should have. Therefore I propose to modify the rules as follows: * The chance of success in invocation for an allieged character is 1/10 (round up) of his/her alliegiance points. * The chance of success for Champions remains unchanged (POWx3) I made this table because I wanted to know what kind of potions my players could make according to their skill in Natural World and Potions. You may change values as you see fit. Skill POT Heal Charact. Effects Effect Time(opt.) 01-10 1d2 1 -- Smells/Colors 1 Hr/Rnd 11-20 1d4 1d2 1 Digestive 1d2 Hrs/Rnds 21-30 1d6 1d2 1 Sedative 1d4 Hrs/Rnds 31-40 1d8 1d4 1d2 Dizziness 1d6 Hrs/Rnds 41-50 1d10 1d4 1d2 Fever 1d8 Hrs/Rnds 51-60 1d10+1d2 1d6 1d4 Catatonia 1d10 Hrs/Rnds 61-70 1d10+1d4 1d6 1d4 -- 1d10+1d2 Hrs/Rnds 71-80 1d10+1d6 1d8 1d6 Illness 1d10+1d4 Hrs/Rnds 81-90 1d10+1d8 1d8 1d6 -- 1d10+1d6 Hrs/Rnds 91-100 2d10 1d10 1d8 Evil Illness 1d10+1d8 Hrs/Rnds 101-110 2d10+1d2 1d10 1d8 Death in: 2d10 Hrs/Rnds 1d6 years 111-120 2d10+1d4 1d10+1d2 1d10 1 year 2d10+1d2 Hrs/Rnds 121-130 2d10+1d6 1d10+1d2 1d10 2d4 months 2d10+1d4 Hrs/Rnds 131-140 2d10+1d8 1d10+1d4 1d10+1d2 1 month 2d10+1d6 Hrs/Rnds 141-150 3d10 1d10+1d4 1d10+1d2 3d6 days 2d10+1d8 Hrs/Rnds 151-160 3d10+1d2 1d10+1d6 1d10+1d4 1d6 days 3d10 Hrs/Rnds 161-170 3d10+1d4 1d10+1d6 1d10+1d4 2d8 hrs 3d10+1d2 Hrs/Rnds 171-180 3d10+1d6 1d10+1d8 1d10+1d6 1 hr 3d10+1d4 Hrs/Rnds 181-190 3d10+1d8 1d10+1d8 1d10+1d6 2d10 min 3d10+1d6 Hrs/Rnds 191-200 4d10 2d10 1d10+1d8 1 min 3d10+1d8 Hrs/Rnds 201-210 4d10+1d2 2d10 1d10+1d8 2 rnds 4d10 Hrs/Rnds 210-220 so on... so on... so on... Instantaneous so on... The effect time must be chosen to be either hours or rounds as the GM judges best for the effect or change. When making a potion, a player must decide whether it will be a healing potion, a potion which increases characteristics, or a potion that has some other effect. The POT is relevent for potions which have some adverse or undesired effect on another. To find the proper ingredients, the PC must roll against Natural World, and will find herbs up to his Natural World skill according to the table above. To prepare a potion with those herbs, the PC must roll against Potions to make one of a power up to his Potion skill, according to the same table. Example: Krean of Org searchs for 2d10 POT herbs (he has 95% in Natural World). He succeeds at the roll. At his lab he tries to use the herbs to make poison but he has only 80% in Potions, so he can only make poison of up 1d10+1d6 POT. The PC may, buy, borrow, steal, or get by any means, herbs whose POT exceeds his Natural World skill level and use them according the above rules. In the same way, he can hire the services of a higher skilled PC or NPC to make good use of herbs whose POT exceeds his own Potion skills. Chaosium's newest game of the Young Kingdoms, Elric!, offers an impressive magic system which allows characters to cast many of the small spells seen in the Elric novels. Although I was originally somewhat leery of the idea, I think the result is a good one. There are sufficient detriments to spell casting, that parties of adventurers are unlikely to wander about the Young Kingdoms, Hell's Razor constantly upon their blades. However, even with the minor magics of Elric!, the system still seems somewhat incomplete. I first hit upon this problem when designing the Melnibonean Spell, The Runesleep [see V3.4]. The normal procedures for spellcasting, which allow for short-lived spells which may be cast very quickly, seemed inappropriate. Since then, I've considered the problem a bit more, and I now offer, as a solution, a new manner of spells: Enchantments. The Elric! rules touch briefly upon Enchantments, saying that they are: "a form of magic which imbued objects and places with one or more qualities that permanently changed its characteristics or behavior" (Elric! rules, page 107). I would suggest that that is only one aspect of Enchantments. More completely, an enchantment is any spell that has some type of permanent effect upon the world. These might be the Armoring, Binding and Matrix Enchantments of RuneQuest, or the ancient enchantments alluded to in Elric! or modern rituals, known by the most powerful of sorcerers. All enchantments have three defining characteristics: * LENGTH OF CASTING - Enchantments take an extended amount of time to cast. Most modern enchantments will take 1D8 hours to cast. More powerful enchantments, such as the ones described on page 108 of the Elric! book could take considerably longer. * DURATION OF SPELL - Universally, enchantments are of a permanent duration, although some of them (such as The Runesleep and The Hidden Soul) may be broken under certain conditions. * EXPENDITURE OF POWER - Due to their strength, Enchantments take something out of their caster. The weakest ones, such as the examples given below, drain but one POW. Greater ones might require the sacrifices of entire villages. As examplse of enchantments, I would first offer two extant spells, Brazier of Power (Elric! pg 77) and The Runesleep (vol.3.4). Clearly, they meet two of the criteria of enchantments already, for they each require a point of POW to be spent and they both have permanent effects upon the world. By naming them enchantments, we also extend their casting time to 1D8 hours. In both cases, it seems appropriate. Finally, I offer one new enchantment, a spell of the East, drawn from the Elric books: The Hidden Soul (4) [Spells of the Unseen World] "He had put his soul into the body of a cat so that no rival sorcerer might steal it when he slept." -The Bane of the Black Sword III, 1 Enchantment. Cost is 1 POW. Range is touch. Chaotic. With this spell, the sorcerer is able to put his soul into the body of an animal, protecting himself from certain foul enchantmants (notable among them, the soul stealing abilities of Stormbringer). However, in turn, the sorcerer also increases his vulnerability. If the animal which holds the sorcerer's soul should die, so shall he. This enchantment may be brought to an end if the sorcerer and the animal exchange blood. Knowledge of this enchantment is limited to the unknown kingdoms of the east. However, it might be known by travellers to the Young Kingdoms who originated in those far away lands.