I’ve been running a 4E campaign since mid-2008. We play every other week. Or so. We’ve missed a fair amount of sessions with things like holidays, vacations, hunting season and the like, so the characters are just 13th level, nearing 14. One thing we’ve all been complaining about for a while is the amount of system in the system. There are hundreds of feats, dozens of powers, and trying to keep current with the rules is just getting burdensome. Combat takes hours, and the whole system is really just a combat engine with a vestigial skills section in the bottom right-hand corner of one of the 5 pages of the character sheet.
I’ve been interested in Fate since I ran across Spirit of the Century, which combines a great setting (pulp adventure – I’m a Doc Savage fan) with an elegant rules system. We played some Spirit of the Century a year or two ago during a D&D break, and I’m running an SotC adventure at Con of the North. So I proposed to the gang last week that we consider ditching the rules but keeping the game going, with the same characters and story.
They all like the idea, so in 2 weeks, we’re going to be giving it a shot.
One thing that is going to be interesting is magic. Magic is big part of D&D, and we have three magic-users in our party: Tantrym, the tiefling wizard, Tym, the changeling sorceress, and Kermit the Hermit, human cleric of Gordo, He Who Bringeth The Approved Apocalypse.
So we are going to need to figure out a way to do magic. Fate Core doesn’t have magic rules per se, and the Magic System toolkit by Rob Donoghue (which is really good, by the way) isn’t aimed at the kind of magic that D&D provides, so I need to figure out how to add it in.
In Rob’s framework, defining a magic system means considering 5 topics: Tone, Cost, Limits, Availability and Source.
Tone: Magic is aligned with forces – mages and sorcerers channel elemental powers, and clerics channel divine power. In Rob’s terms, wizard/sorcerer magic is Flavored and clerical magic is Opinionated.
Cost: Using magic means not doing something else – so there is a tradeoff. Getting access to magic requires both stunts (for Awakening of magical powers) and skill points (to be good at using them). Magic is also hampered by cold iron, so mages can’t wear heavy armor. Clerics can, but have to observe other strictures dictated by the god they serve.
Limits: Each element or domain requires a separate stunt to allow its use, but within that element or domain, it’s fairly open-ended. If Tantrym takes Fire as an elemental affinity, she can create fire, move it, destroy it or command beings who are linked to it, pretty much as she sees fit, with appropriate skill rolls. Operating outside your domain puts you at a penalty, and working with an opposed domain (Water if you are a Fire mage, or Healing if you are a Smiting cleric), puts you at a serious penalty.
Availability: Anyone can study magic, and doing so grants some ability to decipher magical texts, work with magical items and even resist magical effects. Actual spellcasting requires Awakening or Inspiration.
Source: Magic is the fabric of the world itself, the reality that underlies reality. It’s what you see when you gaze into infinity and it looks back into the depths of your being.
Here’s what I have as a first pass.
There is a new skill called Arcana.
Arcana
For most people, Arcana skill represents knowledge of the arcane – magic of all sorts, from hedge magic to summoning to elemental invocations to the miraculous powers of the gods. Characters with skill in Arcana can decipher magical writings, attempt to use magical items, and resist magical effects. For a select few, however, Arcana represents their ability to use their magical powers – either innate or God-given – to bend reality itself to their will. This is represented by the Awakened stunt for mages/sorcerers, or the Inspired stunt for clerics.
Overcome: For anyone, Arcana skill can be used to overcome magical effects placed on them (resist the Sleep spell, for instance) or break through magical barriers. This represents using their knowledge of magic to inform their efforts. In addition, Awakened or Inspired characters can try to bend magical items to their will
Create an Advantage: Awakened/Inspired characters can use Arcana to create an advantage – using cantrips to blind an opponent, cursing them with bad luck, waving Gordo’s Knobby Stick in their face, or what have you.
Attack: Awakened/Inspired characters can use Arcana to make attacks. Choose either melee distance or ranged (1 zone) as the default; making attacks at non-default range incurs a penalty of -1 per zone. Targets can defend with Arcana (if they have it), or with an appropriate skill based on the attack (Athletics to dodge Tym’s chaos bolts, Will to resist Kermit’s Light of Gordo, etc.)
Defend: Arcana can be used to defend against magical attacks in place of other skills, if you desire (presumably, because Arcana is higher than the other skill). It can’t be used to defend against non-magical attacks, unless you’ve taken a stunt to allow that.
Sample Stunts:
Awakening – Your inner magical power is awakened! This grants the ability to use Arcana to make attacks and create advantages. You should choose an element or domain that represents the type of magic that you do: Fire, Earth, Water, Mind, Shadow, Summoning, etc.
Inspiration – You have a connection to a divine entity, who grants you the ability to use Arcana to make attacks and create advantages. You should choose a domain that represents the type of magic that you do: Nature, Destruction, Healing, Justice, etc.
Familiar – You have a companion; it can be used to get into places you can’t see and do things in places you can’t reach. Mechanically, you can use any of your skills that makes sense for the form of the familiar – a cat can’t carry much, for instance – and it can act at least somewhat independently. The more powerful your familiar, the more independent it will be, for good or ill – it may have its own agenda.
Mage Armor – you can use Arcana in place of other defenses.