New Magic System, Inspired by Resource Points

[Davies]

I was rereading the Advanced Player's Guide last night, and it occurred to me that the Resource Points mechanism could be used for a magic system where spellcasters treat their spells like equipment rather than powers.

 

Characters must purchase a perk, Spellcaster [10 points], to be able to learn spells. This allows them to learn spells built on 40 Active Points or less and cast them if they are present in the character's Memory (renamed from "Kit"). Every 10 points spent on the perk increases the Active Point limit by 20 points.

A Character able to cast spells (having both the Spellcaster perk and at least one Power skill) has a basic Memory of 30 points, allowing them to prepare up to that amount of Real Points of spells from the caster's Grimoire (renamed from "Armory"). Every 1 point spent on Resources increases the Memory by 5 points.

Starting PCs get 1 spell in their Grimoire per point spent on Power skills. There is no limit to the number of spells that can be added to the Grimoire during play.

[Hyper-Man]

First, welcome to the HERO forums Davies!

 

How would this method differ from a VPP or the default 1 for 5 Resource Pool rules?  What defines the maximum Active Points? Does the Real Points define how many 'spell's can be memorized?  I've never built a complex Fantasy Hero spellcaster with any of these methods. I've only used the default 'divide by 3' rule for buying spells individually.  The devil is in the details here.  I've seen several good systems.  If you haven't already, you might want to check out http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/HighFantasyHERO/FantasyHERO.aspx for some ideas as well.

 

HM

[Davies]

First, welcome to the HERO forums Davies!

 

How would this method differ from a VPP or the default 1 for 5 Resource Pool rules?  What defines the maximum Active Points? Does the Real Points define how many 'spell's can be memorized?  I've never built a complex Fantasy Hero spellcaster with any of these methods. I've only used the default 'divide by 3' rule for buying spells individually.  The devil is in the details here.  I've seen several good systems.  If you haven't already, you might want to check out http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/HighFantasyHERO/FantasyHERO.aspx for some ideas as well.

 

HM

 

The major difference from a VPP is that you gain the basic "pool" for free, and increasing it is cheaper than it would normally be. The major difference between this and the standard Resource Pool is that it doesn't deal with things that can be stolen or lost on an individual basis -- someone who steals your grimoire (or one of your grimoires) gets all the spells contained therein.

 

The level of your Spellcaster perk defines the maximum Active Points of any spell that you can learn, with the basic level (40 or less) corresponding to the Weaker Spell versions of most basic spells in the HSG.

 

Yes, the Real Cost (not the Real Cost divided by 3) determines if you can memorize it, allowing a basic caster to memorize two or three spells at most. I don't really like the "divide by 3" concept, as it seems to come out of nowhere, and doesn't reduce the cost of spells nearly enough in the current edition, as witnessed by the fact that Drudaryon's Legion's spellcaster has to have Experience Points when none of his colleagues do.

 

Thank you for the welcome, although it appears that I've been here before and forgotten my own history ...

[Christopher R Taylor]

This is more or less what I did in the Fantasy Codex suggested spell system.  You buy talents based on the maximum power level of what kind of magic you can learn, and then you buy, learn, or figure out the spells like equipment.

[Wardsman]

Sounds like the Gift system in 5th edition

[Davies]

... it does, doesn't it. Except that is cheaper and allows more ...

 

Sigh. There is nothing new under the sun.

[Wardsman]

... it does, doesn't it. Except that is cheaper and allows more ...

 

Sigh. There is nothing new under the sun.

so it is a refinement. nothing wrong with that. WERE IS AT AGAIN. YOU MIGHT YET GET ME TO BY A 6TH EDITION BOOK.

[Killer Shrike]

In the Here There Be Monsters (HtbM) setting, which is HERO System 6e, I set up all of the various special abilities including magic systems to use various special Resource Pools. It is a great leveler of caster / non-caster power creep as it puts exceptional abilities on an even footing. I had originally started using Resource Pools back in the 5e era in the cyberpunk+metahuman setting MetaCyber (http://www.killershrike.com/MetaCyber/MetaCyber.aspx) after Dark Champions was published (where Resource Pools were originally described) and it was hugely successful for actual play, so I knew it would work properly. 

 

The special resource pools available for HtbM are described fully here:

 

http://www.killershrike.com/HereThereBeMonsters/Paradigm_Starting.aspx

 

But here's a snippet:

 

Special Pools: Special Pools control a character's access to various sorts of special abilities and unusual gear. A character's Origin unlocks one Special Pool during character creation, but the other Special Pools are attainable as well with extra expenditure and GM permission. Each type of Special Pool is usable for different things, as described below. The Kit and Armory concept does not apply to the Special Pools, and a character can only change out abilities in their Special Pools with GM permission or as a reaction to events that transpire during the game as the campaign unfolds (such as if special gear is lost or destroyed).

• Mystic Pool: a character pays for enchanted items, spells, mystic powers, and other supernatural abilities they have out of their Mystic Pool.
• Psychic Pool: a character pays for any psychic items or powers they have out of their Psychic Pool.
• Believer Pool: a character pays for any relics and / or faith-based abilities they may have out of their Believer Pool. They can also take something ephemeral like a one-time boon granted by a powerful being.
• Innate Pool: a character pays for any innate Supernatural abilities, such as Lycanthropy or Immortality or other abilities that represent a Supernatural character's normal state of existence from their Innate Pool.
• Professional Pool: a character pays for any special or one-of-a-kind custom gear and / or signature abilities (i.e. Super Skills) they may have out of their Professional Pool. "Mundane" equipment considered to be Military or Advanced Military in a typical Dark Champions campaign can be taken in a Professional Pool by characters who can justify it with their concept.

 

 

As to magic systems, there's something like 9 different detailed magic systems and some variants, linked to from the Mystic origin page. Alchemy, several flavors of Hermeticism (Ars Magicka, Ars Mysteria, Ars Mercuria...basically different flavors of wizards with a mix of rituals, artificing, and channeling), Sorcery (Necromancy, Daemonology, Invocation, Elementalism), Occultism, a skill based system for drawing Wards and such that even non-spellcasters can learn to do, and things like that. The various magic systems involved, many of them are simplified or refined versions of magic systems I wrote up for Fantasy HERO, and are usable in a Fantasy context other than the HtbM setting.

 

http://www.killershrike.com/HereThereBeMonsters/Origin_Mystic.aspx

 

 

There are dozens of sample characters for the setting, including at least one sample character for each origin type and ability set. You can get a good cross section by looking at the "Iconics" which are meant to serve as examples, a way to compare and contract options for relative play balance, to be used in examples across the content of the site, and of course as valid pre-generated starting characters that can be used as is or tweaked for those who don't want to spend time on character creation:

 

http://www.killershrike.com/HereThereBeMonsters/Characters_Iconics.aspx

 

 

I ran a couple different campaigns using the material, and it has some history behind it as a descendant of a setting I co-created many years ago during the 4e era called Demon Hunter: FBI. That sort of info and the people who contributed to the material are described here:

 

http://www.killershrike.com/HereThereBeMonsters/Credits.aspx

 

 

There may be some material there you can use or draw inspiration from, or just some interesting stuff to read if you are bored one day.

[Davies]

 

<snip>

 

There may be some material there you can use or draw inspiration from, or just some interesting stuff to read if you are bored one day.

 

Thank you, I think I definitely will!

[shadowcat1313]

Killer Shrike is being modest... not sure getting through all of his amazing site in one day is really possible... I have tried... and there are a few bits and pieces I contributed to it