Editing Incarnation of the Black Goat: Magic

These are the magic rules for Fate Condensed and Fate of Cthulhu

== '''Spell casting''' ==


Performing a spell or ritual uses the Lore skill. Characters with high Lore will have an easier time casting spells. That is a double-edged sword, though. 

The Difficulty of a spell determines the target Lore roll. Lore rolls can be enhanced above the caster's basic skill, but this usually requires very special aids or intense preparation. Create Advantage rolls to yield boosts for casting a spell are usually as specific and arcane as the spells themselves. 

'''Backlash'''

Performing magic triggers backlash. When a character does something that triggers backlash, note the effort of the Lore roll (plain or enhanced). After resolving the action, the caster must defend with Will against a mental attack whose rating equals that effort; for instance, if their effort was Great (+4), the backlash will also be Great (+4), whether their action succeeded or failed. This includes any boosts to their original Lore skill. The mental attack can be absorbed with stress and consequences, as normal. If they’re taken out by backlash, they must corrupt (rewrite) an aspect.

'''Learning a spell'''

Learning a spell normally requires an intensive period of study, over weeks or months, and a successful Lore roll against the Difficulty of the spell. There is no backlash for learning a spell. Various modifiers may increase or decrease the Difficulty of this study. GMS are advised to allow the student only one Lore roll attempt between adventures.

'''Creating an Advantage, spell casting and spell learning'''

Spell casters can in principle Create an Advantage to cast a spell, but GMs are advised to restrict this carefully in terms of timing, convenience, etc. For example, a magus with +3 Resources could make a CA roll to obtain a special rare tincture that increases the chance of a successful casting. However, that process needs several weeks to find the rare elixir, and alerts other dark magicians who prize the substance...

A spell cast with an Advantage bonus will trigger a backlash if it fails equal to the total effort, including the CA. 

A Create Advantage roll with a skill like Academics can also enhance the Lore roll needed to learn the spell.


== '''Rituals''' ==

Rituals tend to be used for big magic. They take hours, days, sometimes weeks to perform.

Though rituals have impressive effects, they are safer than spells by far. During a ritual, one participant must be the leader, who rolls the dice, but each other participant with Lore of Average (+1) or better adds a +1 bonus to the leader’s roll. Use of multiple participants reduces the likelihood of catastrophic failure as each person checks the work, so to speak, and the backlash is spread among them, lessening it considerably.

If a sacrifice is used, there is no backlash against those casting the spell. If there is no sacrifice, each participant in the ritual rolls to defend against backlash, but the difficulty is decreased by one step per participant. With enough people, the risk of backlash is effectively zero.

'''Sacrifice and its costs'''

If a living human sacrifice is used in the ritual, the risk drops even further as the backlash is shunted into the sacrifice. Murdering the sacrifice isn’t just some gore fetish on the part of cultists, it has a practical application. If the sacrifice becomes completely corrupted, there’s a very good chance it will end up killing all the participants. 

Each time a human sacrifice is used, the caster loses 1 point from their Empathy skill. They also acquire the aspect "Suspected Murderer," which police forces or hostile characters can invoke against them, until the caster reaches a Milestone by completing a story arc to remove the evidence or otherwise cover up the crime.




== '''Spells''' ==


Spells — with their short casting time and ability to be roughly approximated through rote memorization — tend to be used for more personal magic. Instead of spreading the risk among multiple participants, everything is placed onto a single practitioner. Failures are more likely and can have far more disastrous effects.

The lowest-level spells can be performed without much risk. However, their power is usually so limited (blowing out a single candle flame, etc), that mundane force or knowledge is usually far more effective at accomplishing the same results.


== '''Summonings''' ==


Much magic is done by summoning magical entities whose powers are greater than the summoner's, and who will not face a risk of backlash. Those entities, however, are dangerous in themselves, and often the summoner is simply exchanging one form of risk for another.

Most summonings can be performed either as spells or rituals, and have their own usual costs and risks, regardless of whether they succeed or fail.

'''Working a summoning'''

A summoning is cast with a set Difficulty, usually related directly to the Will of the summoned entity. Some Greater Demons and godlings can have astronomical Wills.

Once the summoning is successful, the summoner can simply attempt to bind it with a Will vs Will conflict which ends when the target is Taken Out (and which risks inflicting mental Stress and Consequences on the summoner), or bargain with it via social conflicts.   Deceit, Provoke and Rapport are typically used to attack; Empathy and Rapport to defend. Even Resources or some other fringe skill can at least Create an Advantage if the entity is, for example, especially avaricious, but this usually requires extensive advance knowledge. 

'''Failed summonings and broken pacts'''

The most reliable way to secure a summoned entity's service is to make an exorbitant but postponed offer, such as the summoner's life or soul. Such entities normally have powerful Deceit skills, and will try to twist the bargain. In any case, the pact is binding, and the entity will collect.

If a pact is somehow broken or a summoning fails, the following consequences can occur:

[[Disappearing]]: the creature returns to its plane of origin.

[[Immobility]]: the creature just sits there in the Pentacle during the entire duration of its pact. It cannot be dismissed; it just sits there.

[[Flight]]: the creature escapes from the Pentacle and flies loose, fully visible, usually until the next dawn.

[[Befuddlement]]: the creature executes the pact the wrong way.

[[Attack]]: the creature turns its powers on the Summoner. This begins Physical Combat. If the summoner defeats the creature, the Summoned returns to its home plane.

[[Capture]]: the creature turns its powers on the Summoner and begins Physical Combat as above.  Should the Summoned Creature Take Out the Summoner, the Summoned Creature will attempt to carry the summoner off to its home plane.

[[Possession]]: the creature turns its powers on the Summoner and begins Mental Combat. Should the Summoned Creature Take Out the Summoner, the Summoned Creature will kick them out of their body and walk off with it. The Summoned Being in the body may stay on the physical plane wreaking havoc until defeated.



== '''Alchemy''' ==


Alchemy is the art of manipulating the physical - or spiritual - properties of matter for magical effects. It is far safer than most other magical techniques, but is also far more drawn-out and impracticable for regular use.

Each alchemical rite or technique learned by characters typically takes uninterrupted time between play sessions equal to the Difficulty of the final rite (e.g. 7 adventures with periods of complete rest and study between each to attempt a +6 Difficulty alchemical rite with a Lore roll). There will be no backlash from the attempt, whether it succeeds or fails. CAs apply as with other magical rites.

'''Potions'''

The culmination of an alchemical rite can be the creation of one dose of a potion equal to the target Difficulty of the final rite, containing whatever spell the caster chooses to place in it. On consuming the potion, the taker can cast that spell, once. (Alternatively, the spell in the potion takes effect on the taker, once.)

'''Enchantments'''

The culmination of an alchemical rite can be the creation of an object permanently enchanted to perform a spell equal to the target Difficulty of the final rite, containing whatever spell the caster chooses to place in it. However, this rite requires double the time normally taken for the target Difficulty.



== '''Magical Effects''' ==

These are rules for the potency of a particular spell, cribbed from the [Mysticism rules for The Black Void: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/the-black-void-mysticism-spheres-explained-provided-with-rules.866494/] and based on the level of Difficulty of the casting / number of shifts in the relevant effect.


'''Force'''

{| class="wikitable"
! Area
! Potency
|-
|2m
|1
|-
|4m
|2
|-
|6m
|3
|-
|12m
|4
|-
|25m
|5
|-
|50m
|6
|-
|}

''Forces definitions
''

* Tiny: warm or cool, ice cube, gentle breeze (8-12 mph), no change of wind or gravity
* Small: Tiny fire, large block of ice, moderate breeze (13-18 mph), change wind by 1 shift, trivial change of gravity
* Moderate: Bonfire, fresh breeze (19-24 mph), change wind by 2 shifts, change gravity or fire size by 1 shift
* Significant: Fire, strong breeze (25-31 mph), change wind by 3 shifts, change gravity or fire size by 1 shift
* Considerably: Blaze, moderate gale (32-38 mph), change wind by 4 shifts, change gravity or fire size by 2 shifts
* Substantial: Conflagration/melt metal or glass, fresh gale (39-46 mph), change wind by 5 shifts, change gravity or fire size by 2 shifts
* Massive: Lava, strong gale (47-54 mph), change wind by 6 shifts, change gravity or fire size by 3 shifts



'''Life''' 

{| class="wikitable"
! Duration
! Metamorphosis
! Healing (physical)
! Potency
|-
|15 seconds
|Slight
|1
|1
|-
|1 minute
|Moderate
|2
|2
|-
|5 minutes
|Significant
|3
|3
|-
|15 minutes
|Considerable
|4
|4
|-
|1 hour
|Substantial
|5
|5
|-
|3 hours
|Complete
|6
|6
|-
|}

''Metamorphosis definitions''

* Slight: Change minor features like hair, eye or skin color or face shape.
* Moderate: Alter appearance to look like anyone with the same number of limbs and of the same size, change apparent sex, and alter height by up to 0.25 m
* Significant: Temporarily gain up to 1 point in Skills
* Considerable: Temporarily gain up to 2 points in Skills
* Substantial: Temporarily gain up to 4 points in Skills, with a maximum of 3 in any one Skill
* Complete: Temporarily gain up to 8 points in Skills, with a maximum of 4 in any one Skill


'''Matter'''

{| class="wikitable"
! Duration
! Potency
|-
|15 seconds
|1
|-
|1 minute
|2
|-
|5 minutes
|3
|-
|15 minutes
|4
|-
|1 hour
|5
|-
|3 hours
|6
|-
|}

''Alteration definitions''

* Superficially: Change surface features like color or texture
* Slightly: Reduce the difficulty of breaking by 2, increase weight by 25% or reduce it by 1/4, increase or reduce heat or electrical conductivity.
* Moderately: Reduce the difficulty of breaking by 3, cause buoyant materials to sink and dense material to float, cause ductile materials to become rigid and rigid materials to become ductile, increase weight by 50% or reduce it by 1/3.
* Considerably: Reduce the difficulty of breaking by 4, drastically increase or reduce heat or electrical conductivity. Make warm wax as hard and rigid as iron and iron as soft and malleable as warm wax, halve or double weight.
* Substantially: Reduce the difficulty of breaking by 5, transform any material into a similar material – ceramic into glass, metal into another metal, rock into gemstone. Reduce or increase weight by a factor of 3. Transforms liquids to solids and solids to liquids.
* Completely: Reduce the difficulty of breaking by 6, transform any material into any other material. Reduce or increase weight by a factor of 4.


'''Mind'''

{| class="wikitable"
! Communicate
! Read Thoughts
! Healing (mental)
! Potency
|-
|Single word
|General emotions
|1
|1
|-
|Simple sentence
|Specific emotion
|2
|2
|-
|Normal sentence
|Surface thought
|3
|3
|-
|Complex sentences
|Specific thought
|4
|4
|-
|Rapid exchange
|Thought history
|5
|5
|-
|Full communication
|Memory
|6
|6
|-
|}

''Communicate definitions''

* Complex sentences: In addition to being able to duplicate all normal verbal communication, the caster can also communicate emotions and both still and moving images for full sensory communications.
* Rapid exchange: Not only can the Mystic communicate thoughts and images mentally, they can do so 10 times faster than normal.
* Full communication: As above, and in addition participants can exchange detailed memories. This won’t increase skills, but does allow for the rapid acquisition of knowledge.

''Read Thoughts definitions''

* General emotions: The caster can determine the subject’s dominant emotion – “they are afraid”
* Specific emotion: The caster can determine both the full range of the subject’s emotions as well as details about these emotions – They are both afraid and hopeful, and they are specifically afraid of being disgraced or humiliated, but hopeful that they may gain some reward if they aren’t.
* Surface thought: The caster can tell what the subject is currently thinking
* Specific thought: The caster can also follow these thoughts to closely associated memories. If something is currently thinking about their boss, the caste can follow that to other major thoughts they’ve had about their boss.
* Thought history: The caster can tell what the subject thought about in the last hour
* Memory: The caster can probe memories, regardless of whether the subject is thinking about them or not.