Strange Magic is a game about a world awash with and transformed by Magic, ruled over by powerful Sorcerers, filled with strange creatures and plants transformed by ancient and recent magics, and the ruins of past Empires. Players play a cabal of free Talents, people gifted with great magical abilities, living in the borderlands, beyond the rule of any Immortal Overlord, trying to secure their own place in the world.
This game draws heavy inspiration from the Commonweal series by Graydon Saunders (though it is definitely not purely simulating that setting). I’ll probably need to go through and rip out all of his terminology, much like what was done with After Sundown. Mechanics wise it draws from Ars Magica, After Sundown, Fray, and a bit of Dresden Files RPG. Plus there's a lot of math I did to try to make the power scale make sense. I want to represent a very large amount of power scaling in a single mechanical system.
Basic System
To play the game you roll a pool of D6s. Rolls of 4, 5, and 6 count as hits. Any given roll will have a required minimum number of hits to be a success.
| Hits | Difficulty of Action |
| 0 | Totally Pedestrian |
| 1 | Anyone can do it |
| 2 | Requires Training |
| 3 | Trained Professional |
| 4 | Master Class |
| 5 | Expert |
| 6 | Incredibly Difficult |
| 7 | Ridiculously DIfficult |
| 8 | Focused Talent |
| 9 | Purview of the Ancients |
To roll to check for success at an action involves rolling your stat and adding a number of automatic successes equal to your skill in the action. This roll and automatic success number should never be modified. Modifications for difficulty should be applied to the Difficulty Class for the roll.
Stats
There are 6 stats
Body: Physical Strength and Stamina
Agility: Dexterity and Speed
Mind: Intellectual Intelligence
Charisma: Social Intelligence
Power: Raw Magical Capacity
Finesse: Ability to use Power skillfully
For all people, Body, Agility, Mind, and Charisma normally range from 1 - 5, with 2 being Average. The Power stat is handled very differently. Power ranges from 1-15, as either minor or major versions of the stat. In terms of magical energy production provided Major Power 1 is equivalent to Minor Power 16. Each increase of the power stat by 1 represents a doubling of the power level of the character. Therefore someone with Major Power 1 produces as much raw magical energy as 32k people with Minor Power 1. Another way to think of it is that Minor Power 1 represents about 1 watt of output. Therefore, Minor Power X represents 2^(X-1) watts, and Major Power X represents 2^(15+X) watts.
Skills
The following are my rough first pass at a skill list. I honestly haven't put much time into this because, like Ars Magica, the mundane skill list is really not the important engine of this game.
Combat, Stealth, Survival, Athletics, Perception
Empathy, Expression, Persuasion, Tactics, Manipulation
Artisan, Anatomy, Research, Magic Lore
Each rank in a skill provides an automatic hit, providing a raised floor to the basic skill level that the character in question can always achieve.
Damage Tracks
Characters have 2 or 3 Damage tracks. Each of which has length equal to a stat + 1.
Body - Equal in length to the Body Stat + 1.
Brain - Equal in length to the max of the Mind or Charisma Stat + 1.
Talent - Equal in length to the Power Stat + 1 if the character has a Power score.
The last 4 boxes of each track have an associated condition of increasing severity. If a track is of insufficient length to include all conditions then drop them from least to most sever. If a track is longer than the number of conditions then the character can take some amount of damage to that track without suffering any notable consequences. The penultimate condition on the Body and Brain damage tracks result in unconsciousness, and the last condition on every track results in death (though not necessarily permanently).
Conditions:
Body Bleeding, Wounded, Rended, Dead
Brain Dazed, Concussed, Hemorrhaging, Husk
Talent -1 Power, ½ Power, 0 Power, Burnt to Ash
Types of People
There are 2 classes of people based on their type of the Power stat.
Normal: 99 out of 100 births. Born with Minor Power and Finesse 0. May not raise Power. If their power stat is at least 6 they may raise Finesse, if less they may not. The Minor Power stat by default follows a power law distribution. Half the populace has a stat of 1, a quarter has 2, and so on down to power 13 for 1 in 8,192 people.
Talent: 1 in 10,000 births. Born with Major Power and Finesse 0. May raise Finesse normally and can raise Power through arduous rituals. Has access to one Talent flavor to which it’s Power stat applies. Talents tend are the important political forces both within and without major empires, generally sorted in terms of importance by power level. At birth the major power follows the same power law distribution as minor power among those 1 in 10,000 births.
Note that player characters are assumed to be Talents that start at the bottom of the Talent power distribution with Major Power 1. As such they are born with considerable magical capabilities, but there are those who can trivially dominate them in magical contests.
Talent Flavor
(Talent Flavor is basically like Class)
Talent Flavors are how magic comes naturally to a person. Every Talent flavor provides a class of effects to which one can easily apply Power. In the system these are referred to as Guidelines, where each guideline gives ratings for what can be done with different amounts of Finesse and Power. In addition to access to these Effect Guidelines the Talent Flavor also gives the character access to skills for each guideline, representing particular skill with making complicated effects under that class. Total Finesse available within a guideline will be the sum of Finesse and Guideline Skill.
Energy Director
The Energy Director uses the Power to generate and control energy in all its forms.
Fire, Electricity, Kinetic, Gravity, Chemical
Binder
The Binder uses the power to control the world around them, bending it to their will.
Animate, Inanimate, Minds, Energy, Magic
Summoner
The Summoner calls and commands creatures of magic from beyond this world.
Spirits, Demons, Elementals, Ghosts, Magic
Biomancer
The Biomancer uses Power to manipulate life, manipulating existing life and creating new life.
Control, Creation, Mutation, Destruction, Magic
Entropomancer
The Entropomancer uses Power to manipulate Entropy, and through entropy time itself.
Fate, Entropy, Life, Undeath, Foresight
Illusionist
The illusionist weaves fake Matter together out of raw Power
Inanimate, Animate, Sentience, Direct Sensory
Enchanter
The Enchanter binds magic into material things, creating long lasting and powerful effects at the expense of speed.
Terrain, Power Manipulation, Items, Constructs, Life
Generalist Guidelines
Some Guidelines are available to anyone with access to the Power
Direct Energy Wards, Indirect Wards, Detection
Specialist Guidelines
Access to some Guidelines can only be gained by studying mysteries
Spatial Warping, Spirit Form, Long Step
Using Magic
Using Magic is a more complicated subsystem than mundane skills since this is where players will be spending most of their time. Using magic involves 2 basic steps, Determining Effect and Channeling Power.
Determining Effect
Every Effect has a Power rating and a Finesse rating. The Power rating involves the raw amount of Power required to create the effect. The Finesse rating is the skill required to shape that power into the desired effect. The Finesse rating of an effect is determined by summing up the proposed finesse aspects to be applied to the base effect of the guideline. In normal casting a character can attempt to create an effect with a Power rating up to their Power stat. A character is limited to a Finesse rating of their Finesse stat + their Guideline skill.
Channel
Once an effect is chosen the character can attempt to channel the power for this effect. If the effect requires power equal to or less than their Power stat this succeeds automatically. If they wish to use 1 more power level (which represents double the power) they may overdraw power and then roll to control. Roll the characters Power stat and subtract from their power stat. The positive value is the amount of Uncontrolled Overdraw. Soak Uncontrolled Overdraw to damage track(s) of the character’s choice. Now there are two options:
If the character is still conscious:
The Effect happens as desired. Add any Uncontrolled Overdraw to the Environmental Power Pool. (Note that you still get to use Uncontrolled Overdraw)
If the character is unconscious or dead:
Add the total effect power to the Environmental Power Pool.
Ritual Channeling
Ritual Channeling works the same as normal Channeling except that ritual casting takes a prolonged period of time and allows for the use of much higher amounts of Power:
| Ritual Level | Ritual Casting Time |
| 1 | 30 Minutes |
| 2 | 1 hour |
| 3 | 3 days |
Power Available: Power Stat
Overdraw Available: Level + 1
To Channel roll power * (level + 1) and subtract from power * (level + 1) to determine the amount of damage that you need to soak.
Group Ritual
The max number of participants is capped by the finesse + skill of the leader.
Each participant conducts a ritual as above.
Each participant passes half their generated power rounded up to the leader (This means that Power 0 participants still add power).
The leader must Channel all contributed power as Overdraw, but they get to add skill to their control roll.
Note: This can produce truly massive amounts of power which probably breaks the “power” curve of the game. The issue is, when this subsystem involves logarithmic amounts of extra Power the effects are really underwhelming, so I'm still working on this.
Example Guideline - Energy Director - Fire
The continuous output of flame that can be maintained at a given power stat:
Minor Power:
7 - Candle Flame
10 - Hand Flame
13 - Campfire
Major power
1 - Bonfire
3 - Explosion
5 - House Fire
8 - City Block
10 - Minor Forest Fire
14 - Massive Forest Fire
Power Level Modifiers:
+1 Short Range: 10 Meters
+2 Medium Range: 1 Kilometer
+3 Long Range: 10 Kilometers
+1 Continuous Output: Doubles(?) damage, no dodging
+2 Permanent (Ongoing effect, can be dispelled)
Finesse Aspects:
+1 Narrow Focus (-1 Power to determine area)
+1 Guided
+2 Controlled
+2 Shaped
+2 Concentrated (+1 Power for damage, -1 for Area)
+1 Cold
+1 Heat
+4 Powered Flight
+1 Control Existing Fire
+2 Fire Shield
Example guideline specific mysteries:
Fire Spirit: +2 Power, +5 Finesse
Fire Form: 5 Power, 5 Finesse
Linked Fire Communication: 4 Power, 3 Finesse
Note that I will need actual damage rules and rules for all of the available effects here.
Environmental Magic
Environmental Magic will, when present, generate 1 random effect every turn. These will be drawn from a random table, generally involving low Finesse effects. The Power Level of these effects will be determined somewhat logarithmically based on the amount of Environmental Power generated in the turn. Every minute that no further Environmental Power is generated in an area the Environmental Power goes down by one.
| Effect Power | Environmental Power |
| 1 | 1+ |
| 2 | 2+ |
| 3 | 4+ |
| 4 | 8+ |
| 5 | 15+ |
Roll a 2d6 summed together on the following table to pick a guideline
| 2 | Life Created |
| 3 | Entropic Wasting |
| 4 | Demon Summoned |
| 5 | Mental Effects |
| 6 | Earthquake |
| 7 | Fire |
| 8 | Electricity |
| 9 | Animated Environment |
| 10 | Spirit Summoned |
| 11 | Elemental Summoned |
| 12 | Life Mutated |
Note that some of these effects might only matter for flavor. For example a low power roll of Life created might see a nest of some new invasive insect species created. It might destroy crops later, but it isn’t an issue in combat.
Setting
The world is dominated by empires ruled by powerful and ancient Major Talents. When one of these Immortal Overlords dies their realm generally collapses into a vicious civil war, either leading to a new overlord, the formation of splinter states, or the death of almost everyone who lived in said empire.
These empires often have strict feudal hierarchies enforced via mind control or other forms of control via the Power.
The ecology of the planet has been entirely reshaped by the Power. Power has existed long enough that there are no species (including people) that weren’t created by a Biomancer at some point.
The entire economy is run via magic. Even peasants through painful group ritual have access to limited amounts of magic. Blessing crops and burning out parasites are normal farmer activities.
The players are a group of Talents who are seeking to build a place for themselves outside the bounds of one of the aforementioned empires (mostly because role-playing being mind raped is not my idea of a fun time). They might have escaped subjugation from within an empire or they might have simply been born in the same border region or of the same species and found each other for protection.
Adventures can take the form of:
Battling other Talents
Hunting down rogue Demons/Spirits/Elementals
Conquer Territory
Seek out lost Mysteries
Loot the ruins of ancient dead empires
Experiment to develop new mysteries
Trade with other Talents for mysteries.
Note that in terms of adversaries faced most (all?) of them would be built using the same guideline system, either as other Talents or as the way to represent the powers of magical creatures.
Mysteries
Mysteries are the way in which Talents can improve their magic on a fundamental level. They represent magical effects applied to themselves or miscellaneous magical skills learned that don't fit within the bounds of the guideline/power/finesse system
Example Mysteries
Stone Man: +2 Body Soak
Self Healing: Heal 1 Body Damage per minute
Constant Effect: Pick effect with Power equal to or less than Power stat and Finesse Stat: This is always active.
Hammer Space: Access to the spatial warping guideline
Fire Form: Access to Fire Form Fire Guideline
Focused Talent: +1 Power for 1 guideline
Power Well: Allow +2 Overdraw. Must soak against 4x your power stat.
Magically Charged Flesh: Channel overdraw to store ½ power stat in power in a body soak damage box. Can release to use on any effect.
Power Well: Allow +1 Overdraw
Power Battery: Channel overdraw to store ½ power stat in power in a talent soak damage box. Can release to use on any effect.
Broadened Talent: Gain access to 1 Guideline from another Talent Flavor
Raising Power by 1 up to Power 5 requires extensive rituals equivalent to 4-5 other mysteries in difficulty.
Raising Power 1 beyond Power 5 is a massive undertaking equivalent to 10-20 other mysteries.