Alright. Time I got to explaining the way things work in the setting.
This time around, I'll be talking about the Ken. It's the idea of "magic" for Agartha and is sort of like a local well. When a Wielder taps into the well, he's drawing out an amount of magic from the surrounding area to fuel whatever his spell needs. Over time this magic replenishes, much like a puddle drying up and filling in again when it rains.
What this means for the game is that casting spells can only be done in areas where there's enough magic to fuel the spell. In D&D, this means that there are areas where there's only enough residual magic to fire off 1st level spells and that there are areas where you could cast 9th level spells all day not worrying about a damn thing. In SAME, it means that available maneuver levels are determined by how much magic there is in the area. Expert to Awesome are the maneuver levels where spells typically fall under, and the Ken is supportive of different levels for different areas. (To make it so that you can still do stuff in the game even in a low-magic zone, you can cast an infinite amount of spells up to the maximum level with only limited Xth spells available. X being the maximum level in that last phrase. There'd also be special items that siphon magic to hold in gems or something.) These low-to-high magic zones are much like precipitous areas of natural climate; where there's a lot of energy being put into an area from flowing water or wind currents, there's going to be a lot of magic. Where there's very little activity, (like a desert) there's not so much. Thankfully, the sun provides a lot of energy to all spots on the planet, so there's nowhere on Agartha you wouldn't be able to cast at least some spells. Except underground. But thankfully there's nothing so stupid as the Underdark to make that all that important. Dungeons are another matter altogether, as they are typically crafted with magic anyway. They'd have residual magic buildup from decades or centuries of going unused and whatever junk was going on in the area (Magic portals, etc.). Anyway, on with these ideas.
For example: Rei has gotten himself into a bit of a mess with some Fyrian Lycans. They assault him on the beach. The area is flush with magical energy, as it is constantly replenished by the sea and winds. He feels pretty confident that he can use his Dark Arts abilities all he likes without worrying about running out of juice.
Obviously there are other little details attached to these general ideas about how magic works, such as below:
You are able to use higher-level magic in low-magic zones, but doing so requires concentration. When you cast a high-level spell without sufficient magic in the area, it takes twice as long to cast. (D&D would be just moving the casting time up one step in actions; Move to Standard, Standard to Full, etc. SAME would just be taking two actions to cast a spell.)
Teleporting is tricky business with the Ken, as you have to do it from one specially prepared high magic area to another. You can get lost in the intermittent space between worlds (eventually ending up at Flotsam, but that's another story.)
There are creatures, instinctively connected to the Ken, that deposit raw magic in their bodies as food or fuel for their supernatural feats of magic. Dragon's breath or the Lycan's transformation would be two readily apparent examples for this natural defense mechanism at work.
But, we'll leave it at that for now.
Here's a picture of somewhere that might qualify as a "diamond in the rough" of sorts. I.E., a high-magic zone in the middle of a large low-magic zone. Plus, it looks really cool.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
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