Your First Born, a Goat, and Three Virgins

Making a pact with the Devil for incredible magic powers sometimes seems like an easy route to power. It can hardly be worth it, even beyond the contract's infernal legalese, where the devil really is in the details. If the pact seeker takes for granted that they are indeed dealing with the Devil then it's hard to deny the opposite side of the coin that one is getting into something that is an affront to all that is holy and the real price comes after the witch's death. Still many deny such an idea as divine punishment or see themselves on the side with any power and do not fear the future. Others consider the stance of the pact granter as claptrap to awe the superstitious or misinformation to prevent the less ardent the acquisition of power. Some just do not care, or as psychology may dictate, look to punish themselves in the long term even as they chase current desires.

The contents of a witch's pact will vary depending upon a host of factors. The first of these would be the intermediary involved. It is the rare witch--we are talking about Satanic Witches so far--that gets to deal with Lucifer himself. There are a variety of powers to be granted either as inborn abilities or as spells, or a mixture of the two. There are additional boons such as familiars and other minions that may be granted. There are costs, often at all stages, but most of them come after the power has corrupted the pact seeker and has driven them to do whatever what was agreed upon. All of these are woven into the contract whether it is written and signed in blood or only enacted upon verbal agreement. Enforcement of the pact will be detailed as well. The pact itself is of course long-winded, impossibly complicated, and intended to be unbreakable.

The costs of the pact includes items meant to ensure the seriousness of the initiate, to humiliate and control them, and items and conditions desired by the pact granter. Giving up the seeker's first born is a common cost that covers all three. Sacrifices may be required at such stages as beginning the negotiations, sealing the deal, and regular intervals thereafter. What is sacrificed may be the same every time or different based on the occasion. It may include animals, children, virgins, any random human life, or more intangible sacrifices--use your imagination. There is also the cost that the witch is indentured to the granter to do as bid at any time. The witch might not be the only one asked to pay. One of the conditions may be the enslavement of others. Or the witch might be tasked to build a cult with an ever-growing number of members.

Mood: hopeful.

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Come Together, Coven Me

It's not uncommon. People are social animals. It stands to reason that magic will be a social event for people. Sure there will be loners, there always are, and as with any social context the morality of the majority or at least the strongest personalities will prevail, forcing some to reclusion for their nefarious deeds. There are many advantages to gather multiple spell casters together to work on a shared goal. We've already mentioned pooling points, magical essences, or mass quantities of will focused together as one reason. This is something that can even involve non-casters as well, depending on the setting. So, what are the other reasons for the joining of mystical forces? As with most things the first and easiest answer is logistics. These can be logistics of a martial type, but they can also be a matter of non-violent nature.

The first logistical need anyone might have is coverage. How much of an area does a spell cover? Even boosted the scale has to be less if cast by only one person. Aside from the raw size of the area multiple participants can achieve different shapes or configurations of coverage. The areas need not even overlap; the desired effect may be to affect multiple locations at the same time. Time itself can be another strategic obstacle overcome by more than one caster, especially for prolonged effects. This time-restraint may be a matter of fatigue in the short term or sleep in the long term. It may also be a matter of focus and attention that is mitigated by separate participants in a lengthy casting or ritual. Either the area or time factors are a matter of scale so don't forget to cover truly epic scales, or at least as epic as the setting allows.

Focus and attention are not limited to being maintained for long periods of time. One mind can only handle so many details at one time. Here is an opportunity to craft spells that are really impressive, like the Swiss clocks of spells. Again, consider the epic scale, dozens upon dozens of effects or a handful of effects on numerous targets. This can be devastation or construction, detriment or enhancement. Nuance is a good thing here. Layering might be a consideration as well as the tweaking of effects as they are created. Here the skill of the participants becomes important with less skilled casters doing the simplistic parts and the more skilled ones doing the tweaking, and certainly orchestrating it all. Where normally the novices would be given the grunt work only the more experienced members may have to power to shoulder the power requirements. It all depends.

Mood: relaxed.

Music: Come Together by Aerosmith and Legions by Stratovarius.

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Magic Power Point Presentation

When it comes to the mechanics of magic in a role-playing game two options rise to the top of the list as far as importance. The first is the number of points with which a character has access to for the casting of spells. The second as discussed last week is the time it takes to cast the spell. The points portion of the mechanics can be broken down into several factors that must be considered and balanced. It can be difficult to discern what to deal with first. There is the need to determine the number of points required to cast each and every spell. There is also the number of points to which any single character will have access. It makes sense to determine the spell costs first. Doing that requires starting with the low-end costs and building up to the more costly and thus more impressive and powerful spells, but how to weight them?

The cost of one spell compared to another should be based upon many different factors. These factors can include how long the effect of the spell lasts, how far the effect can be cast away from the spell caster, how large of an area the spell affects, and just how powerful is the effect? What determines how powerful or impressive a spell is? Does it depend on game factors like damage? Is it more powerful if it affects multiple people? Does it matter if it is flamboyant or a spectacle to see? Is it a matter of how much it bends reality and defies the known laws of physics? Is it about the way it can change the playing field and alter the storyline? This last is hard to quantify. Death is a game changing matter when it comes to the players, the protagonists of the story. How does a powerful spell affect the setting if too many can cast it?

Once at least a rough baseline is set for the cost of spells then a look can be taken at how many points to which a single character or player should immediately have access. Factors for consideration include how many spells in rapid succession should a player be able to cast? This will also require knowledge about the other types of characters available so that the spell cast does not run out of options long before his companions. How powerful is a starting spell caster? How should they progress in power? Both of these should be compared to other character types as well, to maintain fairness and promote players to choose a spell caster. From a points standpoint there is an advantage to having more than one spell caster in the player party. Leaving points aside are there other advantages to multiple casters?

Mood: eclectic.

Music: Soma City Ward by Slash and Kill or Be Killed by Twisted Sister.

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The Strength of Magical Times

The use of magic in role-playing games has an additional requirement, beyond those discussed already, that must be dealt with in the mechanics to give it a sense of realism. Stick with us, even if you're not a gamer, because this has as much to do with creating the setting and the effect of magic on that mood, and the mood of any scene or scenario where magic is involved as it does games, numbers, or rules. As with so many other situations this requirement for magic and verisimilitude involves time. It's not just about creating an air of reality though; it's about dynamics and the implications that are spawned by setting out the rules, the physics, of magic and what is involved in its use. The mechanics are a factor of time because magic takes time, how much dependent upon the dictates of the setting which of course are set out in the rules.

In our more realistic setup for magic the ability to cast a specific number of spells per time period is off the table. Instead magic points are used, with each spell requiring a certain number of points to cast. It takes time to regain these points. How quickly they are used is more important game-wise than how long they take to recharge, but for fiction writing the significance is about the same unless magic only takes as long as the time to cast it--there is no need to figure it takes anything more than will and knowledge. The time required to cast spells and the recharge time can affect the pacing of your timeline if not the pace of the story. Often there are also methods by which a spell caster can gain and use additional points, such as rituals with multiple members, and sacrifices. Both of those right there add flavour and mood to the magic, and impact the setting.

There is yet another option for gaining magic points that involves an external source. Some settings have places of magic such as locations where mystic temples were built, lines of magical force that criss-cross the globe called ley lines, and places that are just plain magical whether because of a bleed-over from another dimension, the influence of magical beings like faeries, or at the decree of deities. Beyond that, these locations and others may have increased magic at specific times of the day, month or year, or when certain celestial alignments come about. These places and times can cut short the time required between spells, and allow for stronger spells to be cast than normal. All of these of course change the dynamic of the story or the game without even getting into the nitty-gritty of them. The exact mechanics and number crunching flow from the story elements.

Mood: relaxed.

Music: Can I Play With Madness by Iron Maiden and Watch This by Slash.

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The Risk to Remain Tight in a Bud

Previously on R.G. Male's Dark Corners... I set up some information for those uninitiated in the greatness of role-playing games, particularly the pen and paper kind that come with books and people track things and do everything more or less by hand or keyboard. Last week I discussed the unrealistic method of character advancement known as levels, whereupon reaching a new level of experience the character has an explosion of growth, as opposed to a more natural progression. This leaves us with the need to look at how to bring that sense of realism, or verisimilitude back to the mechanics of the game. Advancement of your playing character within the game is one of the best ways of gauging how well the game is going. It's like winning in a game where there isn't real winning or losing because, as a story shared among friends, the journey is more important than the destination.

Rather than levels where everything advances all at once some games measure progress incrementally. The Game Master takes note of when a skill is used, or the players track it themselves, and after so many successes--or in the best systems a measure of losses as well, since mistakes are important to the learning progress--the skill is advanced. This is a fair simulation of the real world. The same process is applied to powers that the character has whether that is super powers, psychic abilities, or magic. This is particularly useful to magic systems involving learned incantations and rituals. The other side of the coin in this incremental advancement is that the character is required to practice and study. This is especially true of picking up new skills, learning new spells or creating new magic. However it does have its issues with psychic abilities and super powers.

Depending on the setting, and the mood it looks to evoke, psychic abilities may not be something that is learned. The power is either there waiting to be unlocked or it is not there at all. Super powers tend to be dependent upon time for their advancement or exposure to new catalysts that cause new powers to develop. This is not to say that existing powers do not advance just as skills do, and characters should ultimately learn new tricks with use of existing powers even if they are not expressed in the mechanics. For the new powers and abilities a system must be in place that works in parallel with skill advancement or on a time scale. The problem with a time scale is that a game could run only hours at a time within the setting or stretch out for weeks in game. This leads to slow or fast power gain respectively. Tune in next time for some options to deal with this.

Mood: excited.

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A False Sense of Growth

Sometimes a role-playing game will use a set of mechanics, a.k.a. rules, to simulate a facet of the real world in a less than realistic manner. There are a number of reasons for doing this, the primary one being simplicity. The most prominent of these convenience simplifications is the level system. For those that don't know, the level system involves earning points that represent the growth of a character in the game. The points are experience points and many games refer to them as XP with the X standing for experience. XP rules can exist without a level system, but I'm not aware of any level systems without XP or a similar concept because the level system is co-dependent. A character reaches a new level after every so many XP earned. This is where the level system fails.

When characters reach a new level of experience--these are usually characters run by the players--they improve their skills and abilities. This is a vital part of the gaming process. The problem, the artificial quality, is that everything improves all at once. All of the character's skills are raised by a level, even if they haven't been used recently or at all. New powers or spells or psychic abilities, etc. suddenly appear to the character from out of the blue. Bonuses are applied to different combat rolls that didn't have such high bonuses before or maybe no bonuses at all. The changes all occur without training, instruction, or time spent mastering them. The new abilities and bonuses do not even have to have any tie to existing ones or reflect a previous desire for growth in the character.

Players and Game Masters take it upon themselves to fix this falseness to some degree by saying that characters practice their craft, self-teach themselves things, and plan ahead for the future that will be represented when that character gains a new level. Occasionally a game will suggest this as well. Spell casters are known to research books and at times, according to the setting's mood and details, settle down and meditate upon the world and their place in it, and from this they gain insight, which informs their new spells, or the idea to research specific spells. Most of the time though this is a stretch and as something glossed over it lacks a certain depth and feel. It does not deal with the improvement flood all at once either. Next time we'll look at a better way.

Mood: forward-thinking.

Music: The Iron Road by Widomaker and Fake by Motley Crue.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

The cross-generation planning method of harnessing the game-changing power of immortality as noted last time requires good communication. The kind of communication that it requires is about the quality of the communication. It doesn't matter the quantity if it is concise and clear. It also makes no difference in regards to time if preservable writing is an available option in the setting. What does have some impact is the timing. A small impact in this case, but on its own communication times can be their own game changer. As with everything else communication time can be enhanced either by technological or fantastical means. Understanding just how it changes things can be something of a challenge. It is, right now, something still being figured out for real.

Most fantasy settings are set in a time where messages can be relayed by horse riding couriers. There can also be carrier pigeons--the Egyptians and Persians first used them 3,000 years ago. This was a huge improvement over people made to run messages far away carrying only a verbal message and making the use of multiple runners along a longer route. Since this is a fantasy setting, and not a strictly historical one, magic comes into play. It would start with magical carrier pigeons that could fly faster and longer. It would end with the scrying version of video conferencing at the other end of the spectrum. In between are tomes that writing appears in from another copy, telepathic style messages, oracles that know things from far away lands, and lesser deities as couriers.

Information is power when it is put to use. Using it in a timely manner is an important way to capitalise on it. It doesn't matter whether it is intelligence for battlefield planning, trading information, spy work, or organising research. Good speed for information flow negates the importance of distance. It makes the world a smaller place and that changes the dynamic of many things. It also should involve more direct communication, cutting out middlemen who can distort the message. This is because the fast communication form should also be as easy as it is fast, which does add some constraints in the fantasy settings. It is only fitting that the magical method of fast communication is not only fast in passing the messages back and forth, but also fast to initiate.

Mood: vertical.

Music: Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin and Legions by Stratovarius.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #2-20: The Final Conjurations

Let’s continue with our specific spells of horror. The first comes from a self-proclaimed Demon Lord of Pestilence. The spell was always unleashed upon one victim who was initially unaware of the dark magic worked upon them. A lone nomad with no home or tribe was the first victim. The nomad travelled far and wide. All that came in contact with the nomad would fall to the pestilence laid upon him by the spell. Three days after contact, with no warning signs, the disease would strike. It was a deadly wasting. The virulent contagion spread via contact as well as contaminating the water. Animals were not immune to it either. Wherever the nomad went, even taking to a life of hermitage, he killed off all the local game, forcing him to move on and spread it even further.

Spells to raise the dead as a zombie are easy to find. A nasty twist already lighted upon is to tie someone’s consciousness to his or her corpse. A searcher of ancient lore can find something more sinister in dusty forgotten tomes with pages that barely resist crumbling. There is a spell said to come from Mictlantecutli himself. The last to use the spell was a Death cultist. The victim was a traitor to the cult. The traitor was fed to a starving jaguar. The spell brought the traitor to the brink of death and then the traitor was healed within an instant, and given a short reprieve before he began to be eaten again, without the presence of the jaguar. The spell causes its victim’s murder to repeat over and over again in every excruciating detail for seven days and nights.

Blood feuds are as old as people. There is a spell that tries to bring them to an end. This spell curses anyone who kills or murders. The spell attracts non-corporeal entities to the murderer. The entities appear as the slain and are visible only to their killer. Much like a poltergeists these entities throw things, break things, violently--but not deadly--assault the killer, assault those who associate with the murderer, and create a terrible noise and ruckus. The entities cannot affect the physical world constantly and often have to build up to a good tantrum. The true power of this spell is that going forward the killer’s descendents who kill anyone accidentally, on purpose, or even in self-defence will suffer the wrath of a new entity as well as all of his or ancestor’s spectres.

Mood: exhausted.
Music: Day Job by Gin Blossoms and Department Of Youth by Alice Cooper.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #2-19: Spelling Horror

Let’s talk about some actual spells now. Rather than retread the usual ones how about something a little more original? First up, what villain hasn’t wanted to flay someone alive? It needs to be little more interesting though. Some ancient, angry, master of the arcane decided that it would be better instead to have a spell that caused his enemy’s skin to pull away from their muscles and stretch but not to tear open anywhere. The result was beyond painful and continuous. It led to a long agonising death due to internal bleeding. It had two added benefits dealing with the increased fear it caused. No ordinary man could achieve such a bizarre thing; it had to be the work of dark magic. It also looked really terrible, especially as the space between skin and flesh filled with blood.

Curses are popular. There’s endless itching, having no reflection, and permanent bad luck. A vengeful Mayombe (evil voodoo priest) decided to make an enemy’s life an actual living nightmare. He set upon this man a powerful curse to make him forever see everything as if it were dead and rotting. This extended to the man’s senses of touch, smell, and taste. Things that don’t exist capered and leered threateningly from nowhere and circled around in the man’s peripheral vision. Voices whispered constantly, saying terrible things and inviting the man to do terrible acts. The last bit was the worst. It constantly ate at the edges of the man’s sanity and tried to drive him to visit evil upon others. It caused the man great guilt long before he gave in to the voices.

Here is a twist on an old stand by. There is a powerful spell used to turn people into slavering, violent, monsters. However, a great and powerful being from another realm of existence, who was capable of great guile and viciousness, had a better idea. This nameless being came up with an alternative. It cast the spell upon some random man, who upon touching his beloved wife changed her. That night the man was awakened to see his wife change into a monster and run off into the night. He went after her, but the local villagers caught her slaughtering the neighbours. The husband found his wife just as the villagers moved to destroy the monster. The man had to chose to die with his beloved or to fight his friends and neighbours, even as true to the spell’s form she attacked them.

Mood: excitable.
Music: Losfer Words (Big 'Orra) by Iron Maiden and Silver Wings by Bruce Dickinson.

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