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The following is an
example of Geoza Sorcery in action. The game mechanics will be interspersed with a narrative
account of the events. This example uses the same situation as the example of
Mana, to illustrate how different Origins would approach the same effects. Note that
specific spell examples may refer to spells that have been optimized (either fully or
partially) using rules for magical research in Geoza. |
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Jarrett saw the
afternoon sun dropping fast as he rested on the southern slope of an unnamed hill in
northern Pelos. He'd been climbing up and down these hills all day, and still hadn't
found the landmark he was searching for. He sighed heavily, and started to move
upslope again, when movement to his left caught his eye. |
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He looked west,
into the afternoon sun, and saw again what had caught his eye: goblins, moving his
way. There were only three of them, and they were still a ways downslope of him,
but they could probably move faster over this hilly terrain than he could. This was
a definite problem. No use trying to avoid them, or running away. He'd have to
try to take them out before they reached him. He had his walking staff and a good
dirk at his belt, but those goblins would swarm over him in an instant if they could close
with him. |
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Situation |
Jarrett, a Sorcerer, is a
little lost in the foothills of the Skyreach Mountains in Pelos. He spots the 3
goblins headed his way at a distance of about 80 paces west and downslope, and decides to
stand and fight. Jarrett's relevant characteristics are as follows: |
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Insight |
8 |
Sorcery Lore |
8 |
Aura |
6 |
Maximum Conduit Size |
72 |
Willpower |
7 |
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(Availability 3) |
Endurance |
6 |
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Perception |
7 |
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Quickness |
6 |
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Jarrett's Omnessence
Expertises: |
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Conjuration |
7 |
Energy |
8 |
Creation |
8 |
Organic |
7 |
Destruction |
6 |
Physical |
7 |
Divination |
7 |
Reality |
7 |
Manipulation |
8 |
Spirit |
4 |
Transformation |
7 |
Will |
6 |
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As can be seen from his
ability levels, Jarrett is an experienced Sorcerer, with a variety of options as to the
kinds of effects he can create. Jarrett's Option Point total for each Action
Interval will be 8. |
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The Mythguide determines the
local availability of the Ethereal Essence (the power of Sorcery) in this area. He
determines that currently, availability is average (3). |
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Based on that Availability
Level, Jarrett's maximum conduit size is 72 points of Omnessence for one effect. |
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Jarrett spends 16 OPs
preparing the paradigm he has in mind, a Manipulation / Physical Sorcery Paradigm:
Hurl Rock. Jarrett has practiced this spell many times, and has fully
optimized it according to the rules for magical research in Geoza. |
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Scope |
Scope is altering a State (1
point).
Jarrett will have to expand the basic range to Sight, which is an Impressive level of
Scope (10 points). |
Potency |
Just moving the rock is a
minor alteration to the rock's physical state (currently at rest), which is a Moderate
Effect (9 points). The basic spell has a Conflict value of 12 points, which will
give the hurled rock an attack value of 4 - about the same as the average longbow
arrow. Total of 21 points for Potency. Note that Jarrett hasn't optimized any
component of Potency, because he wants to be able to vary the Attack Modifier if
necessary. |
Intricacy |
Intricacy for this paradigm
isn't bad - its only a Slight effect (1 point). |
Temper Aspects |
Jarrett will need to Target
the hurled rock, but that doesn't cost any Essence, just a Targeting Trial.
Jarrett's player doesn't see a need for any other Temper Aspect. He could have picked
Removed, if he had wanted to hurl a rock which was some distance away from both him and
the goblin, but because this rock is lying basically at Jarrett's feet, the player doesn't
think its necessary. |
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Jarrett's player has been
using this spell for awhile. The total cost for this paradigm will be 33
Omnessence. A fairly easy effect, well under the limits of the Sorcerer Jarrett's
abilities - Jarrett has ratings of Manipulation 8 and Physical 7 (and Sorcery Lore is an
8), so Jarrett has an effective Configuration Expertise of 7, and can create an effect of
up to 56 Essence (Manipulation 8 * Physical 7) - quite a bit more than this little
paradigm requires. Also, Jarrett's maximum Conduit Size is 72, large enough to
handle this effect (or just about anything else Jarrett can currently do). |
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Jarrett finishes preparing
the effect, and makes an Effect Trial to determine if the effect works. His base for
an Effects Trial is 4, half of his Insight rank. His rank for the Trial will be his
effective Configuration Expertise, which he knows is 7 for Manipulation/Physical.
That gives him an Effect Trial asset of 11 for this paradigm. His difficulty is the
Affinity of the rock - nothing out of the ordinary, its affinity is 3. Plus, he's
got a level of Fatigue from climbing hills all day (+1 difficulty), so his final Adjusted
Trial Chance is only 7 (11-3-1=7). Jarrett's player rolls another 5 - good enough
for a Complete Success. The effect will work. |
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Now Jarrett makes a Fatigue
Trial. The effort of controlling and releasing the Ethereal Essence can put a strain
on a Sorcerer. Jarrett already has the one level of Fatigue from climbing the hills,
so he's at a +1 difficulty for this Fatigue Trial going in. The base difficulty is
equal to the total Omnessence released, divided by 10 (rounding up). That's a base
difficulty of 4, plus his current fatigue penalty, for a final difficulty of 5. The
base for a Fatigue Trial is 3, and Jarrett's Endurance is rank 6, so his Adjusted Trial
Chance is 3 + 6 - 5 = 4 Jarrett's player rolls a 4 and gets a Marginal
Success. No fatigue from this casting. |
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Jarrett now has to make one
more roll - the Targeting Trial to see if he can actually hit the goblin that this rock is
now whizzing towards. His base for this trial is equal to his Insight, 8. His
rank for this trial is his Perception rank, 7, which gives him a Targeting Trial Asset of
15. Not bad. But added to that is the Attack Value of 4 for the paradigm, for
a total of 19. Difficulty starts at 2 for a Targeting Trial, but again, Jarrett is
Winded, and that can affect his accuracy, so difficulty jumps to 3. The Mythguide
assesses the situation, and says that the goblin is moving at a fast walk, which will add
another +1 to the difficulty. Since the goblin probably isn't expecting a rock to
come flying at him at the moment, the Mythguide decides the goblin won't be dodging
anything, but the goblin's tough hide will add another 2 to the difficulty. So the
final ATC for this trial is 13 - an almost certain success. The player rolls a 0,
followed by an 8, which results in a Complete Success. The rock hits! |
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The Mythguide determines hit
location, and announces that the rock has hit the goblin in the left leg, just above the
knee, giving it a Wound and slowing it down somewhat. |
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This effect is basically the
same as the last one, with a massive increase in Potency. Jarrett's player decides
to allocate 33 points of Essence to Conflict, for an Attack Value of 11. This rock
is going to smash that goblin flat! The total cost for this paradigm will be 54
points of Essence (11 for Scope, 42 for Potency, and 1 for Intricacy). Jarrett
doesn't bother opening another Conduit, since he already has one capable of handling this
effect. He spends 12 OPs preparing the template ("mold") for this effect -
he's cutting down on preparation time, rushing the effect, at the cost of a slight
increase in difficulty to his Effect Trial. |
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Jarrett rolls his Effect
Trial again, and succeeds, then rolls for Targeting. This time, the Mythguide says,
the goblin will attempt to dodge. Jarrett's player points out that this attack is
stronger than the last one, and the goblin is wounded and slower. The Mythguide
agrees, but says the goblin still gets a chance to dodge, since this rock won't be a total
surprise. The Mythguide rolls for the goblin, and announces that the goblin managed
to achieve a Marginal Success on his dodge, despite the slope and his wound.
Jarrett's player grins and rolls his Targeting Trial, which has an ATC of 20. He
rolls a 4, which is a Mythic Success! Even taking away one degree of success for the
goblin's dodge still leaves Jarrett with an Extraordinary Success. The Mythguide
announces that the rock smashed into the goblin's chest and inflicted a Mortal Injury to
the goblin. |
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Jarrett's player rolls for
Fatigue again, this time with a base difficulty of 6 (54 points of Essence released), and
gets a 9. Jarrett now has one more level of Fatigue - he's Tired (+2 modifier to
difficulty). |
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Jarrett spends another 12 OPs
preparing a different effect: Creation/Energy Sorcery Paradigm: Fireball. He's
done this before, but hasn't fully optimized the spell: |
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Scope |
Scope is affecting a Form (3
points)
Jarrett will have to expand the basic range to Sight, which is an Impressive level of
Scope (Jarrett has partially optimized this component to a cost of 14 points).
Additionally, this will be an Area effect, so that's another Slight Scope increase, and
gives him a basic radius of effect of 3 paces (Aura/2). Jarrett has spent enough
time working on this spell to optimize this component to only cost 1 point.
Total for Scope is 18 points. |
Potency |
Jarrett allocates 21 points
of Essence to Potency, which will yield an Attack Value of 7. |
Intricacy |
Intricacy for this paradigm
is a little higher. First, Jarrett is creating an Energy effect, which is a Slight
effect (3 points). Jarrett also needs the fire to have elemental effects (i.e. it
will be fire, not just energy that looks like fire), which is a Moderate effect (9
points). |
Temper Aspects |
Jarrett will need to Target
the fireball, but that doesn't cost any Essence, just a Targeting Trial. Also, he
puts another point of Essence into the Widen Temper Aspect, which increases the radius of
effect for this Shaping to 12 paces in radius (Variation Facility for Sorcery Widen Aspect
is 3 - for each point of Essence allocated to Widen, the area is increased by 3 times the
base increment. The base area in this case is 3 paces, so each point adds 9
paces. 3 + 9 = 12 paces total radius). |
Total Essence
cost for this Shaping is 52 points of Essence. Well under his maximum Conduit size,
and under Jarrett's limit for a Creation Energy paradigm. His expertises in Creation
(8) and Energy (8) limit him to 64 points of Omnessence. Most significantly
for this spell, Sorcery itself has a Configuration Might of 54 in Creation / Energy
(Creation 6, Energy 9). This spell is pretty close to that limit. |
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Jarrett spends the remaining
7 OPs in this Interval, and the first 5 OPs during the next Interval, preparing his
fireball effect. As he Releases the effect (another 1 OP), Jarrett's player rolls
the Effect Trial. Base = 4, Rank = 8 (average of Creation / Energy, limited by
Sorcery Lore). Unlike the Hurl Rock paradigm, where the direct magical effect was
targeting the rock to be thrown, in this paradigm, the two goblins are the direct targets
of the magical fire. So the difficulty for this casting will be the higher Affinity
of the two goblins. The Mythguide rules that they are average, and thus the Affinity
will be 3 (each goblin has an Aura of 5, based on their average Empathy ratings of
5. Sorcery Affinity for living creatures is Aura / 2 (round up). Five divided
by two is three. Pretty average - just like the rock. Of course, that base
Difficulty is increased by Jarrett's two levels of Fatigue (+2), so final Difficulty for
this Effect Trial is 5. 4 + 8 - 5 = 7. Jarrett's Adjusted Trial Chance is
7. The player rolls a 4, which results in a Complete Success for this casting. |
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In this case, the Mythguide
points out, the goblins will get a Passive Resistance Trial to resist the effects of the
fireball. Their base is their Sorcery Affinity (3), and their rank is their
Willpower attribute (the Mythguide again rules that they are average in this regard, and
gives them a 5). The difficulty for passive resistance to a Sorcery effect is the
Effect Might of the casting. The total of potency and intricacy is 33 points, which
from the Effect Might Chart on page 141 in the ARIA Reality chapter gives an Effect Might
of 4. 3 + 5 - 4 = 4. The goblins must roll 4 or less to have any
resistance to this effect. The Mythguide rolls a die for each goblin, and rolls a 4
and a 7. One goblin fails to resist, while the other barely manages a Marginal
Success on resistance. He'll be a little less affected than the one that failed. |
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Finally, Jarrett's player
makes the targeting roll. Selecting a center point about 5 paces behind and midway
between the two goblins, the player adds the factors together. Base 8, Rank 7,
Attack Value 8, Difficulty 8 (base 2, +2 for Fatigue, +2 for movement at a run, +2 for the
tough hides of the goblins). ATC = 15. The player rolls a 4, which is an
Extraordinary Success. The first goblin, who achieved a Marginal Success on his
Passive Resistance Trial, will reduce that effect to a Superior Success - he'll only
receive Major Wounds over every location on his body from the rear. The second
goblin, who failed his Passive Resistance Trial completely, gets hit with the full effect
of the Shaping, taking Mortal Injuries over his entire body. |
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The player rolls for Fatigue
one last time, getting a 7 and another level of Fatigue as a result. Jarrett is now
Weary. |
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