AMBER: New Sorcery Rules
Dark Mutant
the highest Psyche is generally favored, but the current system fails
to take into account how experienced a character may be with sorcery.
A person could have a high Psyche, just learn sorcery, and then blast
the hell out of someone who has been using sorcery for a long time and
has trained themselves to the limit of their ability.
Sorcery is a skill, but its a skill that can vary in ability from
player to player. In addition, players are often in a position where
their ability in sorcery needs to be compared to that of another
player. Obviously, Sorcery needs to be ranked. There is a precedent.
Warfare is a skill, but its a ranked skill and needs to be auctioned
off as well. Since two characters fighting makes Warfare a skill
significant enough to be ranked as a stat, I feel that Sorcery should
work on the same principles.
On the other hand, we already have Psyche as a measure of raw ability
to play around with fundamental forces, and its already gone through
the auction. Sorcery should in some way be dependent on Psyche and the
results of the Psyche auction. So I have come up with an idea that
will make Sorcery a ranked trait, but make it clearly dependent on
Sorcery. I'm tossing this out for consideration, and with a request
for criticism and suggestions for further ideas.
Theory:
=======
There are two types of magic. There is magic native to a Shadow, and
there is Sorcery, which is more fundamental. Technology is the magic
native to Shadow Earth. Any Amberite may learn the magic native to a
Shadow providing they have points invested in it. The one time Corwin
casts a spell (aside from the death-curse he gave in the dungeons) he
was in a Shadow close to Avalon, where he ruled for centuries and
presumably learned all the tricks to the local magic. Such magic only
works in the Shadow itself, and in Shadows sufficiently close to that
one. How close is a matter of GM discretion.
The Logrus is the wellspring of creation. It is the source of energy
that creates everything. The Pattern acts as a stabilizer. It makes
things stable, defines them, and puts them into relation with each
other. The Pattern absorbs the energy that flows from the Logrus in
order to do this. Effectively there is a current of energy that flows
from the Courts of Chaos, through Shadow, all the way to Amber.
This energy exists as a background undercurrent, occasionally welling
up in places like the Keep of the Four Worlds. The level of background
energy varies from place to place. On Shadow Earth, its at a low
level, but at a place like the Courts, its tremendously high. At
Amber, on the other hand, the background energy is almost nonexistant.
All the energy flowing from the Logrus is immediately sucked into the
Pattern. Other Shadows have varying levels.
Sorcery is the art of using this energy to various effects. It has the
advantage of being just about universal. Only Shadows deliberately
chosen to suppress Sorcery are resistant to it, the same way some
Shadows are resistant to Trumps. This is why Merlin is able to
recognize a spell that Julia is about to cast despite the fact he is a
Logrus magician and she is a Broken Pattern magician.
Sorcerors don't have to be an initiate of the Pattern or the Logrus,
but it helps, a lot. A sorceror who isn't the initiate of a Power can
only use the background energy available. This isn't a problem at the
Courts, where the background level is so high, there are plenty of
non-Logrus magicians around, but on Shadow Earth it is a bigger limit,
and there are no non-Power sorcerors at Amber.
Being an initiate to a Power strengthens the connection to sorcerous
energies all magicians must have. Tapping into the Power, they can
percieve and manipulate these energies much more easily. If necessary,
they can covert their own personal energies into energy for sorcery,
but this is rather draining. In addition, any spell that operates
across Shadow must directly incorporate the Power the sorceror is an
initiate of.
Power supply is crucial. Logrus sorcerors have the natural advantage
there. The Logrus is a natural energy source they all can tap into. In
addition, magic directly involving the Logrus is highly effective at
altering and transmutating things, including Shadow itself. On the
other hand, the Logrus isn't all that effective at dealing with
cross-Shadow effects. The Logrus creates and destroys, its the Pattern
tha places everything in relationship with each other. Logrus magic
also tends to be a lot less effective at gathering information. Logrus
magicians do have information spells, but they don't directly involve
the Logrus other than as a power supply.
Pattern magicians feel the energy crunch. Its a big reason why places
like the Keep of the Four Worlds and devices like spikards are popular
with Pattern sorcerors. Also Pattern sorcerors are more likely to go
find things like the place with the blue stones that have special
properties than Logrus magicians, who just directly enchant something
to the desired effect.
The end result is that Logrus magicians are big on conjuring things
up. Conjury is a local act, and one of creation, which works quite
well with the energy derived from the Logrus. Pattern magicians tend
to go seek out power sources quite a bit. In addition, they tend to
work a lot more magic across Shadow, gathering information, creating
passages, and so forth. They set up spells to find places and objects
with special properties to exploit, rather than directly enchanting an
object for the desired effect. They do occasionally do enchantments,
but more of the scrying variety than otherwise.
In short, sorcerors from the Courts tend to conjure up showy magic and
blast things, while Amber magicians tend to sneak around a lot, know
far more than they should, and have a variety of special Shadows that
contain special properties for them to exploit. Amber magicians simply
go and find the Shadow they want. Court magicians tend to alter a
Shadow until its the way they want it to look.
Sorcery:
========
All characters have a Sorcery trait in addition to the others. Unlike
the other traits, it is not auctioned for rank the way the others are.
The other abilities, especially Psyche, are auctioned off as normal.
This Sorcery trait replaces the powers Sorcery and Conjury.
All characters start off with Human rank Psyche. Human rank Psyche
means absolutely no ability at magic whatsoever. Beings who are not
the initiate of a Power (Pattern, Logrus, Broken Pattern or Corwin's
Pattern) may only buy Sorcery up to Chaos rank, for 15 points.
Characters who are the initiates of a Power must buy Sorcery up to
Amber level for 25 points. In addition, characters may buy up Sorcery
past Amber level up to the limit of their Psyche. They may not have a
Sorcery trait higher than their Psyche trait. If they want to be a
better sorceror, they need to buy their Psyche up. The usual rules for
buying up a trait apply to Sorcery, such as only going up in ranked
steps, etc. Characters with equal Sorcery traits will have their
Psyche traits compared for purposes of ranking.
All spells are considered to have a Psyche ranking equivalent to the
Sorcery of the character who cast them. This means if you try casting
a spell on someone with a high Psyche, they have the chance to use
their Pattern or Logrus Initiation to try to fight it among other
things. That's why sorcerors aren't totally dominant. A spell may have
no ranked effects higher than the ranking of the Sorcery that produced
it. Chaos level magicians may not conjure up beings with Amberite rank
traits. (one reason among many to become the initiate of a Power)
Casting time depends on Sorcery ability. The time to invoke a Power
depends directly on Psyche. For this purpose, if who gets an effect
off first matters, use Psyche for the powers invoked and Sorcery for
the spells. The higher rank gets first crack.
Things to do:
=============
Currently, I tend to take the freeform approach to spells, though a
more formalized system needs to be set up. The system should take into
account the differences between Logrus and Pattern Sorcery. Power
supply is also important, especially for Pattern magic. Pattern
sorcerors should probably have a high Endurance or find a place like
the Keep of the Four Worlds or something like a spikard.
Suggestions?
--
Martin Terman, Mutant for Hire, Synchronicity Daemon, Priest of Shub-Internet
Disclaimer: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but flames are just ignored
mfte...@gnu.ai.mit.edu ter...@pupgg.princeton.edu an17...@anon.penet.fi
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