Editing Samsara:Ultramundane abilities (section)

===The Ten Million Gods (Universal Magic)===
This system is the opposite of the “professional wizard” described above.  In this setting, magic is potentially available to anyone in the form of dealings with the innumerable spirits who live in the world.  This is an animistic setting, with gods of the harvest and the rivers and each tree in the forest.  Everyone has learned a thing or two about dealing with some spirits; otherwise life would be impossible.  The farmer knows to leave offerings for the Goddess of Fertility  (to increase his yield) and to the Mouse Prince (to keep vermin out of the crops).  The blacksmith always starts his work with an invocation to the Triple Forge Lords: the Fire, the Water, and the Iron.  Successful interaction with the Ten Million allows humans to successfully endeavor in a harsh world; incurring the wrath of the spirits means trouble.

In this metaphysic, there are no specialized abilities for magic.  Magic and art (in the widest sense of the word) occupy a continuum of human action, with magic being the most efficacious form of art.  Any time an actor attempts to take action against reality (i.e. engages in a Contest), his status with the relevant gods comes into play.  His default modifiers represent someone neutral in the eyes of the spirits.  If he wishes to improve his chances at any endeavor, he must first engage in a prayer-contest with the proper beings.   

Relevant attributes would be PRE (impressing the god), MAN (cajoling the god), and INT (knowing what the god likes or does not like).  The appropriate skill acts as a specialization as normal.  And recall that “art” should be loosely used, so that “Swordplay” might have an associated spirit, as might “Seduction” and “Chess”.   The Contest rating might be based on how the intended action fits into the Divine Scheme: natural actions would be aided by the gods, while unnatural actions would be resisted.  Causing a magical iceberg in the desert to melt would be encouraged by the Sand Daemons, while creating the iceberg would be resisted by them.

It is suggested that this contest be made a Simple Contest, except in dramatically appropriate circumstances.  If the GM elects to have a Full contest, then the subsequent action should be made Simple since successive Full Contests will be very involving. Winning the Contest garners a bonus when the actor makes his attempt.  Simple success garners +1, while a Spectacular success garners +3.  Alternately, one might say that any success in the prayer-contest means that the subsequent attempt automatically succeeds because the relevant gods support it (it would then be appropriate to have the prayer contest be a Full Contest).  

Failure would be penalized similarly or deny the action outright.  If Severe checks are incurred, it is suggested that they do not recover naturally, but can only be restored by making some sort of amends with the appropriate spirit.  On the other hand, they might not apply to all actions within the Sphere, but only to that particular type of action.  The farmer who enrages the Mouse Prince might have a severe check on future farming actions where they relate to predators, but not to all future physical actions.

The issue might be complicated if the actor’s knowledge of the gods is limited.  Maybe not everybody knows all of the relevant sprits in the world (it would be quite a lot of spirits to memorize).  So perhaps the characters only know certain gods: perhaps one god for each ability they possess, or one god for each +1 in INT.  In this case, the characters might call upon gods to do things which they might not normally do.  The Contest rating, in this setting, might be based on the personality of the god: the Maiden in Blue Silk loves all people and eagerly answers prayers to her, while the Lord of the Black Frost hates humanity and only answers prayers that contribute to its destruction.  

It might also be based on how the intended action relates to the spirit’s nature: the above-mentioned Mouse Prince will happily assist in destroying crops and poses a Contest rating of +1 for the artist (+1 because even the Mouse Prince doesn’t want to be bothered all the time); he is less likely to help someone find a lost grimoire since mice don’t care about that sort of thing and poses a Contest rating of +6 for this.  Failure in the prayer-contest in this setting, might result in the gods shutting the character out for some time, or until reparations are made for the rudeness, or even result in attacks by the god.

Yet another variation would organize the gods into a hierarchy of power.  Greater beings can give more aid, but are also harder to successfully petition.  The spirit of the pebble beside you, on the other hand, is very easy to contact, but isn’t a great deal of help.  In this case, the Contest rating will equal the bonus being sought and a relevant spirit must be found.  If you want a +2 to build your bridge, the local river spirit could help you with little fuss (Contest rating +2).  If you want to make the greatest bridge in history and seek a +15 to your effort, you will have to get into the good graces of Harmonia, Duke of Sympathies and Connections, a mighty god who does not easily grant his favours.  

Failure in this setting might result in a simple penalty as above; it might also result in the actors being cut off from that level of the hierarchy.  The zealous bridge-builder who offends Harmonia might find the ranks of the Greater Conceptual Dukes closed off to his entreaties and will have to make do with minor, local spirits for a while.

The same implementation of the mechanic could be used if there is only one god who grants all petitions, but finds it easier to grant small favours than large miracles.  This would call for less creativity on the part of GMs and players, who would not have to keep discovering new spirit-powers every time they try something new.  Failure in this system might have the most severe consequences as angering the One God is probably a bad thing.  Magic becomes another tactic in this system: getting a big favour calls for greater effort and risk.