More thoughts on spirits as magic items.

Revisiting intelligent spirit "magic items", I like the idea of using the ego conflicts with magic swords from AD&D as an element of the system. In those rules, the force of personality of the wielder of the weapon is equal to INT + CHA + level, with level decreasing as the character is damaged. The sword's force of personality is equal to INT + EGO.

I like that well enough, though I think I'd add a d6 to each side to add some randomness during a conflict. Then I would add to a bonus to spirits if the magic-user has bound more than one. Maybe a bonus of +1 for each bound spirit to all spirits bound (bind 2 spirits, they all gain +2; bind 3, all gain +3, etc.) just to keep it scary.

So spirits would use something like this to resist control and be real dangers to their masters. Less powerful spirits might be easier to control, but have lesser powers. More powerful spirits are more dangerous to bind.

Once the binding is defeated, the magic-user might find himself betrayed, attacked, dominated or even possessed, and might have trouble regaining control.

I would also think about giving the spirits powers along the lines of AD&D artifacts and relics or intelligent swords, with minor, major, and special purpose powers, perhaps. And set up a system for determing EGO based on those powers and the intelligence of the spirit.

Low-level magic-users would probably be wise to avoid spirits of all but the weakest sort. High-level magic-users might bind some more powerful spirits, but risk danger if they are injured or weakened.

I feel like that is beginning to approximate a system.

The Problem of Fiddling with the Magic System

As I have noted, I really want the magic in Athanor to feel more like magic in pulp stories. However, I have come to realize after years of play and my experiences with D&D Third Edition that playing with the magic rules in D&D (or a simulacrum game) can really go wrong rather quickly.

The original rules, after all, have a balance of infrequent magic use with very powerful effects. Once you start making magic more frequent (like in Third Edition), then spells that made sense before start to seem less sensible. Magic-using characters begin to be capable of doing things better than almost anyone else, and their spells will be completely reliable. This gets worse if you also add in easy-to-make scrolls and wands and the like. In the end, Third Edition's magic rules suffered from one major flaw: it didn't change enough, and it didn't keep enough the same.

Frankly, I don't want to come up with a new magic system. At that point, I might as well as pick a different rule set. So how to fiddle with things for mood while keeping things essential the same? I'm pretty sure the idea is playing with fluff while leaving the rules intact.

Some more thoughts on spirits and magic-users...

So, thinking a bit about how this could work, I came up with a quick write-up of a potential spirit as a sort-of magic item:

Suruq'esh of the Hundred Eyes

Description: Suruq'esh is a multidimensional spirit whose gifts include the ability to move across the dimensions and to seek out visions for its master. It appears as a formless mass of translucent grey mist in which float many ice-blue eyes that blink in and out of existence, though it may turn invisible at will. Suruq'esh values knowledge and secrets, and speaks in a hoarse whisper that causes chills to all who hear it.

Summoning: Suruq'esh may be summoned by means of the rituals detailed in the Tome of the Azure Eye, an ancient text of which only one copy remains. The pages of the book are stamped bronze plates bound in leather, and inscribed in ancient Aquilan. The ritual of summoning takes five hours and demands the sacrifice to Suruq'esh of a rare book.

Binding: Suruq'esh may be bound by a contract, and will serve willingly any master who speaks the binding spell in the Tome of the Azure Eye, though it may be bound to only one master at a time.

Service: Suruq'esh may be summoned by its master to perform the following tasks:

• Use the Crystal Ball spell at will.
• Detect Invisibility three times per day.
• Wizard Eye once per day

However, binding Suruq'esh also affects the caster. The caster will gain ice-blue eyes like the spirit, and his skin will become cold to the touch.

Suruq'esh has an Intelligence of 14, an Ego of 12, and speaks Common and Ancient Aquilan. If at any point the master's Intelligence + Wisdom + level is less than the spirit's combined Intelligence and Ego, Suruq'esh's service is ended, and the spirit may possess the master.

Summoning Servants for Sorcerers

One of the things that I think is missing from Athanor is the ability for magic-users to call on the services of otherworldly beings with real regularity. Sure there are summon elemental spells and the like, but there's nothing like Melnibonéan sorcerers summoning demons or Vancian archwizards having sandestins at their beck and call. However, I don't think that this works as a sort of spell-based ability. I'm wondering if gaining the services of a powerful entity works better as a sort of magic item, that magic-users must find rituals in a magical book/scroll/tapestry/etc. and bind a specific demon that serves as a powerful magic "item" they can use. Such servants can be destroyed, lost, stolen, bound, or otherwise affected like magic items, and would have unique powers and drawbacks. At this point, it's a loose idea rattling around in my head, but I think this could be fleshed out....

My Appendix N

Zach's "what is your appendix N" meme is making the rounds, asking people to list their version of Gygax's Appendix N: Inspirational and Educational Reading in the AD&D Dungeon Master Guide. I decided that I wanted in on that action, especially since I think doing the exercise will help me think about my influences and directions for Athanor:

Books
Burroughs, Edgar Rice: the Barsoom and Pellucidar novels
Herbert, Frank: the Dune trilogy
Howard, Robert E. : Almuric, the Solomon Kane stories
Leiber, Fritz: the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series
Lovecraft, H.P.: the Cthulhu mythos
Wolfe, Gene: Book of the New Sun

Comics
Dahm, Evan: Rice Boy
Foglio, Phil and Kaja: Girl Genius
Grell, Mike: Warlord
Mignola, Mike: Hellboy

TV & Movies
Thundarr the Barbarian
Pirates of Darkwater

Inspirations for Mood and Weirdness

To give you some insight into the kinds of weirdness I find inspiring, I have recently read through Evan Dahm's Rice Boy webcomics (http://www.rice-boy.com) and been struck by the mix of epic fantasy, surreal strangeness, and terrible strangeness of the world. In many ways, this is the kind of weirdness I want out of Athanor, but with less of a high fantasy feel and more of a sword and sorcery meets Edgar Rice Burroughs feel.

Of course, RPGs are different works than comics or literature, and no DM should feel too attached to things like mood, feel, or themes. Players will trample your favorite ideas and insist on their own, and that's how collaboration just has to work. Still, there is still some value in starting with a vision, so long as you don't go out of your way to cram it down your players' throats.

Alemanian Medical Technology

The people of Alemania are renowned for their medical technology, which reflects arcane secrets they have reconstructed from the ancients. Alemanian surgeons are capable of strange and astounding feats, including transplants, body modifications, and strange types of hybridization.

Body modification is a mark of status among Alemanians, a sign that the recipient of modifications has transcended the boundaries of his humanity. For some, this is an art, achieving aesthetic changes to their faces and bodies. For others, this is practical, with some Alemanians fusing tools to their bodies or enhancements to their eyes, reach, or bodily functions. Still others enhance their bodies for combat, reinforcing their skeletons, attaching weapons to their limbs, or implanting armored plates under their skin.

The price of such enhancements is often the loss of humanity. The cold, distant, and aloof persona of many Alemanians is even more pronounced in those who have had extensive modifications, making them seem more machine-like, cold, amoral and dismissive of "lesser" races. The Alemanians invoke fear and distrust in others in the world, and do so with good reason.

Much of the technology incorporated in these changes seems to be organic, grown in great vats and drawing its nutrients from the host. Much of it seems either organic or like a strange mix of tentacular, pulsing, or jellyfish-like formlessness. Such technology can be strangely beautiful, but is often horrible to behold.

Spinning my wheels but musing about magic items

The reality is, when I'm not actively running a game, I get too caught up in thinking about gaming. Maybe it's my life in academia that leads to such thinking (though I suspect it's the other way around), but sometimes I think too damned much. I know that when I was reading ENWorld a lot, I was thinking about rules and balance and design. Now that I'm reading more old-school blogs, I think about sandboxes and dungeons, whether that should apply to me or not.

So I feel more in mental balance. Now my work life, school life, and financial life are all out of whack, but that's another issue altogether....

Right now, I feel like I have a lot of world material and rule material. Now I need to start thinking about Play Stuff -- scenarios, plot hooks, NPCs, magic items, that kind of thing. At least as much fun as I can squeeze between other commitments....

My current thought is to think about magic. To be honest, I don't want a lot of swords +1 and plate mail +1 sorts of magic items. I think the weird feel I want for Athanor calls for bigger thinking . I want to work it so that most magic items are actually high technology that is misunderstood as magic. Other items will actually be magical, powerful, unpredictable, and either very dangerous or of limited usefulness. And very rare. There might be a magic sword that has as its main power being the only thing that can be used to kill a terrible monster, or a magic staff that has massive power, but contains the sentience of an alien sorcerer who will possess and corrupt a user over time. That's the kind of stuff that I'm thinking about.

Putting that to "paper" though, may take a little longer...

Clearing my Head and Thinking About DMing

Being a player again in a D&D 4e game has gotten me thinking more about running, and what kind of game I want to run. The first thing I have realized is that, while I am having fun as a player, I just don't want to run a 4e game. Unlike vociferous critics of the game, I don't fundamentally have a problem with 4e. But I do think it fails to address what I disliked about 3.x, and remains as cumbersome in many of the same ways. While I don't doubt it is easier to prep for, and even if it may be easier to run than a high-level 3.x game, I think that the game still requires too much cognitive engagement with the rules implementation to really get my DMing motor running.

However, while I'm making notes about dungeons and other stereotypically "old-school" elements of the game, I'm also less than excited about that. But then, I realized that much of my gaming after junior high school eschewed the dungeon crawl and the Judges-Guild/Wilderlands sandbox and approach and really was about ad-libbing plots, dropping interesting characters into the game, and creating a sense of involvement by making it seem like things were happening that were driven by the players and my hints of events. Sure, that may be a bit of a sandbox, but it's mostly story-driven gaming, and I would have to say that that's my strength. Ad-libbed games based on a loose "plot" mostly filled in by the players.

Some would call that not very old-school, but that's how I played since the early 1980s, so it's not exactly newfangled either.

So as I look at prepping for the campaign, I need to keep that in mind and come up with some notes and ideas based on what I like, what I think I can provide for players, and without creating too small a box for it to be fun to play in.

Draft: Another class for Athanor

THE DIPLOMAT

The diplomat uses charm, personality, and knowledge of others to guide, inspire, and influence others. Dipolmats are not strong fighters, but are dangerous political opponents known for their skills at court and in legal circles.

Level XP HD BHB ST
1 0 1 +0 16
2 1500  1+1 +0 15
3 3000  2 +0 14
4 6000  2+1 +0 13
5 12000  3 +1 12
6 24000  3+1 +1 11
7 48000  4 +2 10
8 96000  4+1 +2 9
9 192000  5 +3 8
10 384000  5+1 +3 7

Class Abilities

• Weapon/Armor Restrictions: Diplomats are not trained in the use of armor, but can use daggers, swords and pistols – the weapons of proper courtiers — to defend themselves.
• Saving Throw: Diplomats get +1 on saving throws vs. charm, illusion, or deception.
• XP Bonus for Charisma: This class bonus is due to a high charisma attribute.
• Read Languages: 2 in 6 chance of deciphering any modern language.
• Gossip: 3 in 6 chance of knowing useful gossip. Increases to 4 in 6 at 5th level.
• Charm: once per day per level, the diplomat may attempt to charm one creature through deceptive speech. To succeed, the diplomat must roll a successful Saving Throw. The target may still make a save to avoid the spell. The charm effect lasts for one hour per level of the diplomat.