Aborted

There's a tag over there on the sidebar called "Magic Returns".

I was making a fantasy setting with a strong ancient Greek influence and while I liked what I was coming up with, I bogged down in the research of Greek Gods and delineating what powers a priest or priestess should have based on their patron deity.

The Greeks had a LOT of Gods.

Worse, from my perspective, The Greeks were very observant and had lots of petty little Godlings all the way down to personal Gods of their homes.

Rome did this too.

The thing that made me quit was the realization that teaching the damnable players how their characters should treat the Gods in everyday life was a combination of Pyrrhus and Sisyphus.

So it's sat for the past eight years unfinished.

But I found my notes.

It'd still be a good setting if I get it sorted.

Motive

In lots of fantasy campaigns there's just no reason for the dungeon crawl; or for continuing to adventure once a certain level of wealth is attained.

When you're richer than the king, do you care if you're just fifth level?

In Magic Returns, I'm working on motive.

First.  Why are there dungeons?  First, they're not dungeons.  They are vaults.  The cyclical nature of the mana level created a need to store valuable magic items while the mana dropped to zero to prevent them from being damaged or lost because they were confused for something mundane.

The exceptionally long zero period the previous cycle had caused the collapse of society and the loss of many of these vaults.

Second, other than greed, why adventure in the first place?  It's an open secret of the mage's guild they seek very high mana zones to occupy.  Cash and knowledge rewards are given to mages who find and secure such zones.  Animals with magical metabolisms also seek such areas as they tend to not give up all of their magic during the zero times.

The Gods mandate the spread of civilization.  It is the duty of the priests and acolytes to bring the proper methods of worship to the barbarian wilderness.

This Holy Mandate has an effect on the mundane as well.  If you can carve a place out of the wilderness, secure it and hold it for five years the Princes will ennoble you and create your fief out of your holdings.

Of course, there's always good old fashioned greed; unfortunately this is a society without a middle class.  Social statuses of 0 or 1 are still commoners and cannot own land except under very limited circumstances.  A commoner's rights to own property and wealth are somewhat truncated compared to most nobles (taxation is very high).  But don't despair; there are several paths to nobility and one of them is flat buying a title.

The campaign TL is 1, bronze age.  One of the principality city states has achieved TL2 and there are a fair amount of TL3 items surviving from before the last zero time.

TL2 iron armor is made (x2 cost) but bronze armor is far more popular despite its 4x cost.  The reason (motive) is status.  Iron armor is more suited to mass issue to soldiers and city guards; bronze is a status symbol.  Recall that dressing and acting below your present social status can easily result in you becoming a member of that lower rank.

Iron weapons, on the other hand, are prized.  As are steel.  The TL3 steel weapons that have survived are nearly all highly decorated so will be far more expensive than the mere x4 TL differential.  This is because the weapons that are issued en masse aren't status symbols like swords but rather things like spears.

Material Components

Mage's spells require the consumption of material components.

Magical energy is liberated from the special materials brought together.

Exactly what these materials are is deliberately vague because they range from esoteric to mundane.

The cost is $1 x the square of the prerequisite count.

If the prerequisite count is 0, then there is not material component.

If the spellcaster lacks the proper components add the prerequisite count to the energy cost of the spell.

Fireball, for example, has a prerequisite count of 4 it would cost $16 for the materials or add 4 fatigue to the cost of casting the spell (making it 5 per die of burning damage).  Note, that in the case of missile spells the material cost is per casting and the fatigue cost is per increment of damage.  It's a lot easier to just have the materials!

No additional materials are required to maintain a spell, but note that the fatigue costs are based on what you used to cast it; so the penalty continues for as long as you keep the spell going.  For spells with a fixed cost to maintain, add the penalty each time.  For spells listing the same or half casting cost; do the math normally from the penalized casting cost.

For ceremonial castings, like enchantments, the lack of components multiplies the time required to perform the rituals by the prerequisite count.

The material components are specific to each spell, but each spell in the prerequisite count includes the materials for the prior spells; so you could raid your ingredients for fireball from the materials for explosive fireball.

Clerical magic, being literally miraculous, doesn't require material components but this is offset by the limited number of spells available and the requirements to adhere to a particular lifestyle.  The Gods are fickle and what they give they may also take away.

Sanctity

In GURPS...

Sanctity is the clerical magic's equivalence to mana level.

Power Investiture is clerical magic's equivalent to magery.

Every God will have Its own list of spells that are appropriate to them.  This is a tedious GM chore.

On the plus side, there's no prerequisite tree to follow and some of the spells can be very powerful.

On the down side, there are far fewer spells to choose from.

The ability to use these spells is subject to the capricious whim of mercurial Gods.

The major Gods: Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Hades, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus can grant up to Power Investiture 5.

The primordial Gods: Aether, Ananke, Chaos, Chronos, Erebos, Eros, Gaia, Hemera, Hypnos, The Nesoi, Myx, Uranus, The Ourea, Phanes, Pontus, Tartarus, Thallassa, and Thanatos can grant up to Power Investiture 3.

The Titans: Asteria, Astraeus, Atlas, Aura, Clymene, Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Dione, Eos, Epimetheus, Eurybia, Eurynome, Helios, Hyperion, Iapetus, Lelantos, Leto, Menoetius, Metis, Mnemosyne, Oceanus, Ophion, Pallas, Persus, Prometheus, Phoebe, Rhea, Selene, Styx, Tethys, Theia, and Themis can grant up to Power Investiture 2.

Any and all other Greek deities (but not Gigantes or any Mortal, Hero or Deified Mortal) can grant up to Power Investiture 1.

The Fates: Atropos, Clotho and Lachesis, although very powerful, grant no powers or spells.

Did I mention that Magic Returns is a Greek Myth Parallel?

It's emphatically not Greece.

I'll be revisiting this with spell lists afore too long, but not anon.

The Mage's Guild

The Users of Mana, Order of Mages and Society of Magi is a guild/union of spellcasters who cast use the magic provided through mana and magery.

They do not include in their order those who've been granted a divine gift, such as an innate power or the acolytes and priests (and priestesses) of the Gods.

First.  If you have Magery 1 or highter or learned any spells at all you are required to join the guild.  This is mandated by the princes, the councils and ratified by the various High Priests and Priestesses in the names of the various Gods.  Persons with Magery 0 who know no spells are not required to join.  The punishment for casting spells outside of the guild is death, to be administered summarily by any guild member in good standing upon becoming aware of the transgression, as circumstances permit.

Because of this first rule, it's exceedingly rare for anyone to have learned a single spell without being inducted into The Guild.

The formal induction into the guild begins when a child not older than 13 and no younger than 9 is accepted as an apprentice.  Aura is cast upon the applicant and if they have Magery, they can be accepted for training.

The first step in the training process is to procure a silver dagger or small knife.  Because this will be a badge of membership for the rest of the mage's life and because their lives can be very long it is almost always decorated and will nearly always have sockets for powerstones to be set into it (even if the stones are glass or merely precious gems at the time of enchanting).  $400 buys a plain silver dagger with no provisions for setting gemstones.  $480 is actually the minimum price for an elaborately impressive decorated dagger made from silver.  This is why undecorated daggers are so rare, the price difference is small.  The first $480 is included with the price of Magery mentioned in this post; if the player wants a fancier dagger, they can spend more but it comes out of their personal wealth.  Small knives are 50% more expensive than daggers, so even a plain one will need some out of pocket expenditure.

Now the apprentice is sworn into the secrets of The Guild and Magical Imbuement is cast upon them and their dagger; forever binding them together.

Next the master begins teaching their new pupil the spells that are part and parcel of the mage's trade.

The Guild is an extremely powerful organization with minimal intervention and appear quite rarely (9 or less).  [7] points.

They impose a Duty, but rarely ask anything of their members past the policing of non-mages from casting spells (6 or less), [-2] points.

Apprentice mages (Magery 1 to 2) will have a patron in the form of their master (cost determined by the actual NPC's point value) who is responsible for them and an almost all the time duty (15 or less), [-15] points.

Journeyman mages (Magery 2 to 3) have completed their apprenticeship and are employed by a master mage.  This employment might rise to the level of patron and duty, but it doesn't have to.

Master mages and Magi (Magery 3+) are generally self employed or working for an entity outside of the guild, such as a court magician.

The casting of Magical Imbuement on an apprentice to make them a journeyman is at the discretion of the apprentice's master.  Going from a Journeyman to Master mage requires the consent of the local council of mages.  In the case of Magi the spell can only be performed on candidates who show particular talent to the Guild-Masters of the High Council.  The Journeyman and his employer are usually surprised when the offer to elevate someone to Magi is made.

The Cost Of Magery

Base cost of Magery is [5] for 0 and [10] for each subsequent level.

The staff/soul jar dagger is the focus of that magery.  That should make it a gadget.

A silver dagger is breakable, can be stolen and your dagger is the only one you get, so it's unique.

The dagger gets DR 6, HT 11 and 5 HP; so the breakable limitation is -10%.

If we figure it's 8" overall then it's a -6 size; so another -10%.

Since it can be stolen and a quick contest of DX or ST is needed to steal it, -30%; but since it's just a silver dagger to a thief, halve that to -15%.

Unique is -25%.

So a total of -60%.

This drags the price of magery to [5] for 0 and [4] for each subsequent level.

Now, the soul jar.

It's very close to the Unkillable advantage.  So Unkillable 1 [50] with the Special Limitation (Soul Jar -50%) for a total of [25].

Thus.  Magery 0, [5]; Magery 1, [34]; Magery 2, [38] and Magery 3, [42].

However...  If you're a Magi...  You get Magery 3 for [17]; the Special Limitation (Soul Stone -50%) is applied to your Resistant (Metabolic Hazards, Immune) [15]; Unaging [8] and Unkillable 2 [50] for a total of [90].

This is to start the campaign with these levels.  Time and money are what you need to get everything but Magery 0 after play starts.

The next hurdle is that to be a Magi at the start of the game means your master considered you worthy of being promoted from journeyman to master.  In a 150/50/5 game, that's far fetched since you're not going to be able to afford many spells on the 60/50/5 remaining.

Magical Rituals

For this bronze age fantasy world...

Magery 0 is inborn.
Magery 1-2 is obtained when your master binds your soul to a silver dagger by casting Magical Imbuement.
Magery 3 is obtained by casting either Magical Imbuement or Create Magi.
Magery 4+ is a gift from the Gods and can be obtained through divine quests.

Magical Imbuement (VH) Enchantment; Resisted by Will + Magery

When cast upon a person with Magery 0-2 it gives them an additional level of magery.  A solid silver dagger is required for the spell and the recipient's soul is bound to that dagger as if Soul Jar had been cast; this dagger also gains the Staff enchantment with the Limit enchantment (can only be used by the person whose soul is trapped in the soul-jar.

On a critical success, two levels of magery are granted; on a critical failure one level is removed.  A critical failure on a recipient with Magery 0 gives five levels of Magic Resistance.

Magical Imbuement cannot be cast upon oneself; this is a master to apprentice sort of spell.

Duration: Permanent.
Cost: 250  per level.
Prerequisites:  Restore Mana, Soul Jar, Staff.

Create Magi (VH) Enchantment; Resisted by Will + Magery

When cast upon a person with Magery 2+ it gives them an additional level of magery and changes the effect from that of Soul Jar to Soul Stone; if the spell fails, the recipient dies.

Duration: Permanent.
Cost: 800.
Prerequisites:  Magical Imbuement, Soul Stone.

The above describes the process of becoming a mage.  If the character is a mage from the start of the game, purchase the desired levels of magery normally (5 for 0 and 10 each for 1-3).  The silver dagger is $400 for a plain one but ornately decorated is more the norm.

Someone who got to Magery 3 using Create Magi should also purchase Resistant (Metabolic Hazards, Immune) [30]; Unaging [15] and Unkillable 2 ( [100].

Status within the guild:  Magery 1 is an apprentice, Magery 2 is a journeyman, Magery 3 is a master and Magery 4+ is a grand master.

Magical Rituals on Magic p. 8-9 are modified as follows:
Skill 9 or less - Use of the soul dagger is mandatory.  It must be drawn and used in the mage's weak hand.
Skill 10-14 - The dagger must be on the casters person.  -4 penalty unless an item with Staff enchantment is used as part of the gestures.
Skill 15-19 - The dagger must be on the casters person.  -2 penalty unless an item with Staff enchantment is used as part of the gestures.

Skill 20-29 - -2 penalty unless an item with Staff enchantment is used as part of the gestures.  +2 bonus if the gestures are made with the soul dagger.

Skill 30 or more - No penalty for not using a staff enchanted item.  +4 bonus if gestures are made with the soul dagger.

While mages are free to wear armor they are penalized to the sum of the holdout number for the pieces they are wearing until skill 15+.  For skill 15-19 they are only penalized by hand armor and at skill 20+ there is not penalty for wearing armor at all.

Beware the man in full head-to-toe armor carrying a mage's staff!

This is a recreation of a post I foolishly deleted at the "Pay Attention To Me" swing of the drama whore pendulum (the other side is ever more elaborate creation of purity tests).

Hey, I'm binary and explosive, keep me away from myself...

;)