Sword&Sorcery

[capmarvel]

We've been on a "Sword&Sorcery" kick lately - no demi-humans, magic is rare and deadly, etc.

We found many games recently (Barbarians of Lemuria, etc, etc, etc).

Wonder if anyone has suggestions on running this type of game with Novus?

We do like the idea in Dungeon Crawl Classics, where a spell failure has a random table that may cause major problems (disfigurement, etc).     Basically a more brutal and unforgiving Snag table perhaps?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[imported_Rasyr]

You could easily replace the spell casting portions of the Snag table with a more randomized, deadlier table for spell failures.

One possibility might be to grab the spell failure table from something like Rolemaster and use it. It is percentile, so perhaps failure means you roll 2d10 on table, if you earned a Snag Point, you rolls 2d10 and add 20, 2 Snag Points is add 40, 3 is add 60, plus you make this roll be allowed to explode as well., so you can get even higher within the 1-100 range.

That right there would make magic MUCH more deadlier.....

[Dorchadas]

The Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay spell mishap tables are perfect for that kind of thing, and include a number of sword and sorcery-esque effects like calling up demons, curdling milk, making all nearby animals flee in terror, briefly reversing gravity, temporarily losing the ability to use magic, mutating, and so on.

There's a fan-made unified table here that would fit perfectly with the exploding open-ended idea FHG_Tim proposed.

[Dorchadas]

Thought of something else, again based on the way Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay does spell failure.

Use two different colored dice when rolling to cast the spell and assign a percentage chance for mishaps. WFRP goes with 10% (though it gets complicated), but maybe higher spells have more chance, or maybe it's modified by skill, or whatever. Anyway, add the dice together to determine if the roll beans the CTN as normal, and then read the dice as a percentile roll to see if it's under the percentage chance for mishaps. That way, things can go wrong whether the spell works or not!   Snags could tie into this too. Like, a Snag with no mishap is maybe just that there's a powerful display of light and sound around the caster, pointing them out as a mage to everyone and eliminating any concealment, and a Snag with a mishap is that the spell goes off but is centered on them. That kind of thing.

[Dorchadas]

WFRP goes with 10% (though it gets complicated)

Just realized the answer to this--use the spell point cost as the chance for a mishap. That way, any Casting Options make the spell more dangerous instead of more expensive.

[imported_Rasyr]

Oh.. that sounds interesting, but I am not sure exactly what you mean. can you give an example?

[Dorchadas]

Alright, I'll use Elemental Bolt.

So the mage is casting Elemental Bolt, and it costs 2 SP. Under the WFRP-style system, SP aren't used. Instead, the spell has a 2% chance of a mishap, so when you roll for the spell, designate one die as tens and one as ones beforehand and read them as percentile dice. If you get a 01 or 02, then there's a mishap and you roll on the mishap table. This is independent of Boons, Snags, and weather the spell works at all or not. Maybe a bolt of cold roars out, but the caster rolls a 02, so a cold wind also sweeps through the area. Or maybe the nearby milk curdles and food spoils. Or whatever.

Then if the caster increase the base damage by 3 and makes it a cone, that adds 10 to the SP cost, so now there's a 12% chance of a mishap. 01,02,03,04...11,12 all lead to a mishap whether the spell succeeds or not.

Does that make sense?

[imported_Rasyr]

Alright, I'll use Elemental Bolt.

So the mage is casting Elemental Bolt, and it costs 2 SP. Under the WFRP-style system, SP aren't used. Instead, the spell has a 2% chance of a mishap, so when you roll for the spell, designate one die as tens and one as ones beforehand and read them as percentile dice. If you get a 01 or 02, then there's a mishap and you roll on the mishap table. This is independent of Boons, Snags, and weather the spell works at all or not. Maybe a bolt of cold roars out, but the caster rolls a 02, so a cold wind also sweeps through the area. Or maybe the nearby milk curdles and food spoils. Or whatever.

Then if the caster increase the base damage by 3 and makes it a cone, that adds 10 to the SP cost, so now there's a 12% chance of a mishap. 01,02,03,04...11,12 all lead to a mishap whether the spell succeeds or not.

Does that make sense?

Ah... Yes, it does... For those here with a Rolemaster background, what you described is essentially how ESF is handled in Rolemaster Classic and in the Rolemaster revision that I penned - where things outside the core basically increase the fumble range of the spell.... In RM as well, we also had the ESF modifiers affecting the fumble rolls as well, so that if your Fumble Range was increased by 15, that meant you also added 15 to your Fumble Roll to determine the results


Note: ESF means "Extraordinairy Spell Failure" which meant extending the spell beyond normal parameters, such as not taking enough time, casting while wearing armor, etc.. -- but the premise is still similar enough that it should be recognizable.