B-Grade Magic, Miracles & Rituals

Founding principles

1. Magic should be fun and easy to use.
2. Spellcasters should be able to cast as many spells as they can (and this can be kept in check with a risk/reward system)
3. Not every can cast spells. Limited to certain templates only. For humans, spells are more ritualistic in nature. For monsters, spells can be more dnd-like

• All spells and miracles are a full round action and cannot be combined with multiple actions.

MAGIC

CASTING SPELLS and PERFORMING RITUALS

• In B-Grade, to successful cast a spell, roll BRAINS + SPELLCASTING and beat the spells intensity rating
• Some spells provide a bonus to dicepool if cast in a ritualistic manner (see spell description)
• There are also circumstance modifiers that affect the chance of casting spells
  • under no/minimal pressure to cast the spell (eg. not in combat and not time critical) +1d
  • casting the spell in a ritual-like manner (with preparation time, ingredients and paraphernalia, etc) - bonus varies (See spell description)

FAILED SPELLCASTING

• If the spell fails, then the spellcaster has a -1d penalty to all future spellcasting rolls (until the caster has rested/meditated). This penalty increases by an additional -1d for every successive failed spellcasting roll.
  • eg. a spellcaster with 7 dice pool fails at casting a magic missile. From now on, his dice pool is 6. He next tries to cast a fireball with 6 dice pool, and succeeds. His dice pool stays at 6. If he then fails at casting a sleep spell, his dice pool would now be 5. After resting for the night, the spellcaster's dice pool resets to 7. (with this system , there is no need for a mana mechanic or fixing the number of spells that can be cast per day. Also, the spells with the greatest effect (greatest width), are spells cast when the spellcaster is his freshest. As he casts more spells in a day, his chance of success lessens, as well as the strength of his spells. i.e. unsuccessfully casting spells is fatiguing).

MIRACLES

Founding principles

1. Miracles should be fun and easy to use. Performing miracles should feel different to spellcasting (i.e. a different mechanic)
2. Faith casters should be a bit more discerning when calling on their god as compared to spellcasters.

PERFORMING MIRACLES

• In B-Grade, miracle workers (such as priests, shamans) roll SPIRIT + FAITH to determine whether they have successful performed a miracle.
• Miracles must beat the miracles intensity rating.
• To successful perform a miracle, roll Spirit + Faith
• There are also circumstance modifiers that affect the chance of performing miracles
  • performed in front of a congregation (at least 20 people) +1d
  • the recipient of the miracle is from the same faith +1d
  • the recipient of the miracle is of a similar faith (e.g an anglican performing a miracle on a pentecostal) OR has no faith (athiest) or is uncommitted (agnostic) +0d
  • the recipient of the miracle is from a completely different faith (e.g. an anglican performing a miracle on a taoist) -2d

FAILED MIRACLES

• If the miracle fails, then the miracle worker cannot perform THAT same miracle again until he/she has communicated with God and performed a penance. After the penance is complete, access to that miracle is restored. The penance is directly related to the Focus difficulty of the miracle. For example, a failed bless miracle with focus3 would need only a nights rest + rosary in the morning (for catholics) or 20min meditation (for buddhists) to be restored. A failed Faith Healing with focus6 would need a more severe penance such as donating a week of community service in the name of your god, or a 3 day fast with nothing but water/juice (with an associated penalty to the body stat while fasting).