Magic in the City in Shadows

City in Shadows

Magick

How it Works?

Magick is the most abundant power in the world. Everything that surround you posses it. Although that doesn't mean that each and every being knows how to draw magick and work with it. quoting those who are great at it.

"Magick is the art to use will and bend the rules of reality"

You can't break the rules of reality at all, but you can work your way around them to create a desired effect. The only beings that can warp reality with their mere presence are The Others and is as toxic as it can get. Warping reality does not only create inconsistencies in the place around you, but also the people and fundamentally the magick of such place.

Magick works in three major ways depending on who is wielding it. Ritual, Sorcery, Evocation. these are the major branches of magic. There may be many more sub-branches; but we'll focus on this for the time being.

Rituals: The way a ritual works is pretty simple; but it's not easy for everyone. A ritual can create powerful magick effects but requires time and preparation. This kind of magick takes Careful preparations in order to works its effects.

As an example let's work through a ritual together.

Name: Ritual of the Ward
Effect: This ritual creates an area protected by a magickal aura that prevents unwanted beings entering or spying on such location.
System: The player declares the area the Ward will take effect on. Then it rolls its magic skill(Core) or Careful(Accelerated) the difficulty level its determined by the area that its being affected.

+3 for a house/appartment
+4 for a small building
+5 for a Manor or Building
+6 anything way bigger than that.

each shift pass the total goal grants additional invokes to the Warding Aspect or additional effects at table discretion.

Sorcery: It's the most available way to the common folk and new wizards. This works more cinematic than let's say rituals. Sorcery requires the Wizard to recite the actual spell. The higher their magic skill the easier their spells may work.

Let's see a sorcery example:

Name: Call of the Storm
Effect: The spell can call a downpour or a storm depending on how good the wizard its at sorcery.
System: The PC determines which kind of rain wants to be summoned. Then it must talk the actual spell. the higher the magic skill the most words they can put into the spell.

Spell: Unto the skies I call for the rain to bless the land.

Difficulty will be determined by Game Master at discretion depending on how plausible the spell is at the moment. It will naturally be harder to call upon a storm if the skies are completely clear and devoid of clouds than if it was already a cloudy day.

Evocation: The hardest to control of the magick ways, but it's the most versatile. it embodies the true nature of a wizard. The use of their will and focus to create powerful effects on reality. From the most common like fireball to the strangest like using tendrils of shadows it all can be cast with evocation.

Name: Shadow Edge
Effect: Use to attack with your magic skill. generates a cutting aura surrounding one of the arms or legs of the user.
System: allows the wizard to use their magic skill instead of fight skill to attack an opponent. if the roll fails, the Effect banishes and they get a stress on their Backlash Track

In the world of City in Shadows magick has a cost when it fails. Which gives chance to the GM to work the backlash in very interesting ways. The Backlash works as the Mental or Physical Stress tracks but this works on magic. The higher the Magic Skill the more backlash a character can take.

Using the previous example of the Shadow Edge if during a defense roll PC fails the roll the most benign result will be it merely disperses and PC has to recast it next turn. if Failing by two or more shifts it may get hit by the disperse of magickal energies, or unable to control its own magick. GM can get creative with this aspect of the game. Nothing is free when dealing with magick