by Fred Wolke | Feb 14, 2015 | Foci
You are either a Mavin, Mafact, or Madia; similarly to other magic wielders, you have a connection to magic on a cellular level, but the element you manipulate is life. Tier 1: Healing Touch (1 intellect point). With a touch, you restore 1d6+1 to either the might or speed pool of any creature. This ability is a difficulty 2 Intellect task. Each time you attempt to heal the same creature, the task difficulty increases by one step. The difficulty returns to 2 after that creature rests for ten hours. Action. Class Privilege: Any Thunian who knows you wield magic will treat you with a certain minimum of respect. Social consequences that befall you will not be as severe as they could be; praise that comes your way will be amplified. However, in order to benefit from this effect, you must not be seen to be actively undermining the social order. All actions using the Community skill are one difficulty level easier. If you are a Mavin, you receive a further +2 on the roll. Tier 2: Restore (3 intellect points). With a touch, you can attempt to cure one poison or disease in one creature. The difficulty of the task depends on the lethality of the condition. Tier 3: Pay the Price. With your approval, a mage who is touching you may transfer the cost of casting to your intellect pool instead of her own. You use your own intellect edge instead of the caster’s for this purpose. Tier 4: Combat Transformation (4 intellect points). You, or a willing creature you touch, becomes stronger, faster, tougher, and takes on...
by Fred Wolke | Feb 14, 2015 | Foci
You are either a Mavin, Mafact, or Madia; similarly to other magic wielders, you have a connection to magic on a cellular level, but the element you manipulate is magic itself. You can disrupt, enhance, redirect, and transform the magical workings of other people. Tier 1: Counterspell (1 intellect point). You are able to disrupt magical workings. If you take a “wait” action (see page 113 of The Strange) specifically to watch for enemy spells to disrupt, you can attack the spell itself, disrupting its connection to the caster. On a successful attack roll against the caster, the spell is spoiled. They still must make whatever expenditure is required to cast the spell. This has no effect on spells which have already been completed. Tier 2: Support. You can make your intellect pool available to a person you are touching when they spend intellect for working magic. The edge applied to the expenditure is the lowest of yours and your target’s. You can extend this effect to any ally within immediate range by spending an extra 2 intellect. The effect lasts for as long as you are touching, up to two minutes. Tier 3: Dispel (3+ intellect points). You designate one target within short range. Make an attack roll against each spell currently active on the target. The difficulty of the check is equal to the tier of the caster. For an extra 4 points, all spells within immediate range of the target can also be attacked. Tier 4: Anchor (4 intellect points). You can link a magical working, as it is being cast, to ambient sources of magic...
by Fred Wolke | Feb 14, 2015 | Foci
Every cell of your body is tuned to interact with one of the primal forces of magic. Casting a spell is less a matter of formula and ritual, and more of reaching inside yourself and focusing your will. When you take this focus, pick one of the following elements to represent the dominant mode where it operates: Earth, Air, Fire, or Water Tier 1: Elemental Touch (1 intellect point) You channel your magic into your hands, turning them into deadly weapons. Earth: Your fists are covered by a layer of hard, jagged stone that does 3 points of damage. Air: Your hands crackle with lightning. Your touch does 2 points of electrical damage. Targets wearing metal armor take a minimum of 1 point of damage. Fire: Your hands burst into flame. Your touch does 3 points of damage from heat. Water: Your touch drives water away, causing flesh to become dessicated. When used against creatures of flesh and blood, this causes 2 points of might damage that ignores armor. Class Privilege: Any Thunian who knows you wield magic will treat you with a certain minimum of respect. Social consequences that befall you will not be as severe as they could be; praise that comes your way will be amplified. However, in order to benefit from this effect, you must not be seen to be actively undermining the social order. All actions using the Community skill are one difficulty level easier. If you are a Mavin, you receive a further +2 on the roll. Tier 2: Elemental Construct (2 Intellect Points). You can shape your element into a semi-permanent, visible...
by Fred Wolke | Feb 14, 2015 | Foci
You bear the Thunian “T” chromosome for mind magic. For you, the thoughts and feelings of the people around you are open books. You occupy a special place in Thunian culture, simultaneously essential to the smooth operation of politics and trade, but also distrusted for the subtlety of your influence. Tier 1: Silent Sendings (1+ intellect point) You can speak telepathically with others who are in short range. Communication is two-way, but the other party must be willing and able to communicate. You don’t have to see the target, but you must know that she is within range. You can have more than one active contact at once, but you must establish contact with each target individually. Each contact lasts up to ten minutes. If you apply a level of Effort to increase the duration rather than affect the difficulty, the contact lasts until you sleep. Action to establish contact. Class Privilege: Any Thunian who knows you wield magic will treat you with a certain minimum of respect. Social consequences that befall you will not be as severe as they could be; praise that comes your way will be amplified. However, in order to benefit from this effect, you must not be seen to be actively undermining the social order. All actions using the Community skill are one difficulty level easier. If you are a Mavin, you receive a further +2 on the roll. Attempts to persuade, intimidate, or influence people who are below you on the social hierarchy are one difficulty level easier. Tier 2: Urge Projection (2 intellect points). You strengthen the primal needs of one...
by Fred Wolke | Feb 14, 2015 | Recursions
Bonus Focus: Shapes Living Things Why come to Thunia? A mysterious wizard, fleeing equally mysterious pursuers, comes to Earth and contacts the PC’s looking for protection. Before she can meet up with them, however, she disappears. But she leaves behind a portal key leading to the realm that has kidnapped her. Geography Thunia is an octahedron of fundament that was settled and engineered in ages long past. Its faces are largely flat, covered mostly with farmland and small towns, with a centrally located city. Each face has its own gravity, oriented perpendicular to the surface. The edges have sharp peaks of fundament stretching miles above the surface, creating barren mountain ranges that are very difficult to cross. Gravity can shift over short stretches and storms are commonplace. The city-states expend considerable effort pin keeping trade routes open under these barriers, resorting to tunnels rather than attempting to traverse the dangerous surface. At the six points where these edges meet, huge spires of fundament project miles above the mountains. Gravity near a spire is oriented toward the spire’s shaft, allowing structures to be built along its length. Traversing further out on the spire, gravity becomes weaker and weaker, until one can simply drift off into the Strange. Thunia spins on its axis once every thirty-two hours. It receives warmth and light from a construct that hangs in the sky a few thousand miles away, an icosahedron of glowing fundament that is believed to have been created at some point in the distant past. Time Each region has a thirty-two hour day. “Night” is when the Thunian “sun” is not visible...
