Magic

One of the hardest forms of power to control, magic presents an opportunity to overturn the existing system. Though the powerful work hard to acquire leverage on the astrally gifted, many slip through the tracks and may find work as a runner or other free agent.

Many theories abound around how magic works, but fundamentally it is the ability to overwrite the rules of the world with your own will. Though stronger will and imagination allow for improved control, the ability to cast magic is dependent on a character possessing an astral soul, called a mana pool.

Awakening, or the initial conversion of essence to mana, is a major life event, usually occurring at birth or during extreme circumstances. However, once a character possesses a mana pool, they can convert additional essence to mana through concerted efforts.

Spells are the primary method for casting magic. Each spell represents a known shortcut to bringing will into being, with reliable results and consequences. Spell recipes are shared within the magical community, though usually at a price.

Characters can know individual spells up to their Casting skill (up to 6) x Logic. Characters can forget spells to enable new spells to be learned. External mana, such as a focus or item, do not increase the number of spells known, but may have spells the caster does not know enchanted into them.

Some spells have variations, which allow for slightly different effects. Each variation must be learned as a unique spell, but take less time and money to learn.

Known spells all have qualities associated with the reliable version of the spell.

See an example list of Sample Spells.

Although magic is ephemeral and fundamentally strange, there is a science to the casting. New spell formulas can be devised through careful adjustment of existing spell properties.

You are able to build your own spells, using the tables below. Coordinate with your DM to make sure that the cost, category, and effects of a spell make sense.

Once cast, spells leave predictable, measurable traces in the astral space around them. A character can make an astral perception attempt to identify details about the spell such as it’s type, specific effect, the caster’s astral signature, and more.

Spells simply work as described. As long as the caster has a single success on the spell, it happens. Additional successes can be used to make spell effects more powerful, overcome resistances, modify the spell effect using metamagic skills, or enchant the spell into an object.

Additional successes can be spent to effectively cast the spell again, doubling effects or extended spell duration. When rolling an amped spell, the caster rolls their Focus + skill, with any modifications from gear or circumstances.

Spells cast on unwilling sentient targets can be resisted, which allows the target to ignore or negate the effect. The number of successes determines how high a target’s threshold can be for the effect to take place. In the case of ties, the effect still takes place.

When rolling a resisted spell, the caster rolls their Wit + skill, with any modifications from gear or circumstances.

When rolling resistance for a spell with an area of effect, all targets within the area can resist the spell. Only those with a threshold the same or lower than the spent successes will be affected by the spell.

Resisting a spell is not a conscious action and happens automatically. All conscious targets that resist a spell can make a perception test to determine if they are aware that a spell was cast on them.

Metamagic allows you to spend success overages to alter the shape or effect of a spell. Metamagic tricks can be taken as a specialization for the casting skill.

The specific metamagic effect must be determined before casting the roll.

Normally spells take effect the instant they are cast, and must be sustained to have an extended effect. Enchanting spells into objects allows the spells to be triggered later with a spoken phrase or specific physical action.

Enchanted objects can be triggered by any character that knows the trigger action. The spell uses the stored magic so that non-magical characters can still trigger the spell.

Enchantments must be cast on magically active, powerful objects.

Each object can hold a number of spells based on their Rating x Mana.

A caster may add several charges of the spell into an object. As long as a single charge remains, the object can be recharged and reused, even if the new caster does not know the object’s spell.

Destroying an enchanted object will dispel the stored spell, potentially violently.

When rolling to enchant an object, a caster rolls their Wit + Skill, with any modifications from gear or circumstances. Enchantments can be cast as extended tests, increasing the power and charges available to fit the object power limit.

Large, powerful enchantments can be pooled through multiple casters, with each mage adding charges or strength to the overall enchantment through an extended ritual.

Enchantments can be cast without a trigger, with a single trigger, or with multiple triggers:

Triggers must involve either touching the object, speaking a predefined phrase, or through a premade triggering device such as the activation module of a magical gun.

A spell can be made permanent through an extended ritual. By repeatedly casting a spell into an object over several hours, the spell becomes paired with some of the Mana within the object. This mana is tied to the spell - it cannot be used to cast or hold other spells as long as the permanent effect is in place.

Removing a permanent spell requires an even more complex ritual, which grows longer as long as the permanent spell is in place. After the permanent spell has been running continuously for a year, it can only be removed by destroying the object or the mana the spell is on.

A common but costly enchantment is a permanent mana barrier. These barriers create restricted spaces to prevent magical intrusions. Mana barriers primarily work to limit traffic of active magical effects, but may also have a monitoring element inherent to their enchantment.

Mana barriers are not physically visible or tangible. These invisible walls only affect astral traffic. For multi-souled creatures such as magically awakened metahumans, their physical body allows them to cross the barrier without trouble. However, the barrier may dispel or interrupt active magical effects. The specific limitations on what magical effects can cross the mana barrier is determined by the people that created the barrier.

Beings that only have a mana-soul with no body, such as most spirits, are unable to cross mana barriers.

Detection effects may be incorporated into a mana barrier during its initial casting. These detection effects are generally designed to send an alarm on specific triggers, such as damage to the barrier, specific creature types, certain spells cast within the barrier, and more. Many controlled areas use nested mana barriers with exclusionary permissions to allow researchers or payrolled mages to cast a broader subset of spells than visitors or general staff.

Mana barriers can be destroyed with extended effort, either through counterspelling or physical damage to the powerful objects storing the barrier.

The background level of magic varies greatly, with some valleys almost completely barren, and others rich with additional mana. In places with low magical residue, casting spells is harder, with effects generally weaker, and sometimes additional successes required for the effect to take place at all.

The ebb and flow of civilization has historically clustered around relatively stable and strong magical backgrounds. Most of the places your characters will visit will have a standard magical background, and the costs and effect of magic listed reflects that standard.

Occasionally there is a place with stronger background magic. When surrounded by very high background magic, casting is easier, with sometimes shockingly large effects. Most of these places with astral connections have been snapped up by magical societies for their own use, but occasionally a surge of magic will create a new one.

More common, leylines, or strong rivers of magic, may run through otherwise ordinary magical spaces. Leylines are hotly defended, but as rivers, these are not stable, shifting across mortal territories regularly. When a caster stands in the flow of a leyline, their spells have doubled effect.

Leylines run like rivers, but are not limited to ground level. Instead, a caster can stand in the flow of a leyline up to 5 kilometers from the physical earth.

Occasionally a powerful object will draw in an astral creature called a spirit. Spirits are sentient astral creatures that are drawn to the physical world because of affinity for specific elements. Each spirit is drawn to unique combinations of elements and will seek out and become stronger around those elements.

Spirits are powerful magical beings, able to create magical effects as easily as physical creatures breathe. However, they are limited in the physical world, only able to enter through powerful objects that function as doorways.

Spirit abilities primarily stem from the element affinities that drew them to the physical world in the first place, but they are also affected by the emotionality and events surrounding their doorway.

Doorway strength will determine the power level of a spirit, from 1-6. Power affects the strength of spirit effects, as well as how many effects they know.

Doorways are always magically powerful objects or spaces.

Most spirits enter the world through a doorway in an uncontrolled area. These spirits are free to roam and move as they wish as they search out affinity elements, but they will generally stay close to their doorway, returning to the astral world to rest and heal. These spirits may take an interest or meddle in the physical world to better suit their natures.

Spirits that enter the physical world through a doorway in a controlled area are trapped to the area, unable to leave through the mana barrier. As spirits don’t generally like to be bound to a restricted space, the creators of the mana barrier usually expend great effort to appease these spirits, persuading them to be allies rather than hassles.

If the doorway object is moved, a spirit will be pulled to the new location. However, as spirits cannot cross mana barriers, if their doorway is moved into a controlled area, the spirit will lose its connection to the doorway.

Spirits do not have a physical manifestation by default, though they can generally inhabit elements that allow them a temporary physical form. Characters can make a perception check using Mana to identify spirit doorways. Summoning or engaging a spirit in conversation generally requires an offering.

The cravings and desires of spirits are often foreign and difficult to fathom for metahumans. They generally want to grow more powerful, and to increase affinity with their surroundings. Spirits are naturally indifferent or ambivalent about metahumans. Metahumans add chaos and complexity to environments that suit spirits, but they can also create a toxic or unwelcoming environment.

Spirits are not social creatures and do not desire companionship. Their dealings with metahumans tend to be purely transactional. A metahuman might bargain with a spirit to trade services for magically powerful substances or improving their environment.

Bargains are binding for spirits. Once a bargain is struck, the spirit must follow the letter of the obligation even if the bargain becomes onerous or was misleading. Power players often abuse this to lock spirits into extended services. Spirits unhappy with their bargain may look for opportunities to stretch or misinterpret the rules of their binding.

If the spirit cannot be appeased, they can be banished by destroying their doorway, stripping the ability to interact with the physical world. In extreme circumstances, spirits can be killed using astrally damaging spells.

New spells are created through extended trial and error. This experimental magic has serious risks, but becomes more reliable over time. Experimental magic requires no formula cost, but will take several casts to become reliable.