Tamriel Magic

[Tywyll]

I'm a big fan of the Elder Scrolls Series, but not as big of a fan as a friend of mine. He wants to convert Morrowind, DaggerFall, et al over to a table top game. So, being more knowledgable in systems, I've decided to try and give him a hand.

 

One of the things that bothers me about the world compared to say the Hero system is that in Tamriel, you purchase spells with gold. How effective (how likely they are to succeed in casting and how much End they cost, the effect of the spell itself is set when you purchase it) they are is governed by your skill with that /type/ of spell (or types, if you link multiple effects together). At first of course, I was thinking of suggesting that the spells be bought as 'normal', but then looking at some guidelines for Fantasy Genre, where magic items don't cost points, but in game money, I began to wonder if that same mechanic couldn't be applied to spells (i.e. treat them like magic items you buy, but your skill with magic govern's how good they are).

 

Couple of questions: how unbalanced does this sound? There are six different magic types, so a caster would need all of them to be good with all magic. The END cost of a spell should (idealy) vary based on the skill of the wielder. Is there anyway to do this?

[Eosin]

Sorry, never played elder scolls.

 

Are you buying your spells or are you buying research which gives you the knowledge to cast spells? If you are buying the knowleddge to cast the spell, that is really just research and I would treat it as such.

 

If you are talking about buy a scroll and cast it - I would maybe give them a MPP with each slot representing a scroll that only has one charge. When they come back to town they can get new slots?.......No clue sorry.

[Hisho]

the basic point of the normal tamrielic magic is that the grade of knowledge in one specific area of magic (say, the school of destruction, or thaumaturgy) affect the costs of all spells in this catagory.

 

So say you have Magical Skill: Destruction 11- the basic cost would be END=Cost of the spell in this school, at 14- 3/4 of the cost and so on up to the point where true master mages can cast spells for nerly zero End.

 

I know it would be a little unbalancing maybe but try it to make it by some kind of special limitation, END costs depend on Skill level... well then create an table specific for your game and voila... well, the cost for this limiter is problematic because first you have to pay a lot of magic END points and later you get boni... maybe it's an -0 limitation after all...

 

have you created some kind of map for daggerfall, I will install it the next time and copy all the cities in my drawn map... damn, over 5000 cities... arg... fun... lol

[Tywyll]

Hisho-

Something like what you are suggesting would work, but I agree... since END would be variable based on skill, I have no idea how to scale that. HOwever, I would be fine with dropping that particular aspect of the magic, and just leave the activation roll for chance of success (which the skill also dictates in MW, its easy to not cast spells in the beginning).

[AmadanNaBriona]

I haven't played morrowind (my old and busted computer can't handle it) but from what I recall of Daggerfall, it'd work as a spell skill system... besause you're only buying magic skills (admitedly, 6 of them)with points, then paying for spels with gold, I'd make a couple of recomendations...

All spells require a SR at -1/5 pts (Forces fairly high skill rolls to compensate for the lack of points spent on spells)

Give all spells a limited form of Increased END cost, say, about X5 end, with the multiplier being reduced by X1 for every 2 points you make your spellcasting roll by... so if you have way more skill than the requirements of the spell, the ENd cost goes down, then also allow 1 point levels with casting specific spells

You're still gong to havre to figure out a pricing scale for spells..If I recall right, it was more expensive to add additional effects to a spell than just up the power level...but I'll admit its been a while since I played the game.

The END cost still isn't quite the way it was in game, but may be a workable compromise to fit it into HERO.

Good luck