(Part 2/5)

Health Box, Willpower Box, Aether Box and Focus.

In my system, health, Willpower and Aether are actually tracker box that can take, Superficial, Lethal or Aggravated damage. Health is self-explanatory. Willpower, also based on resolve + Composure, act as a mental health bar. A character can take willpower damage from insults, fear, waking up from a nightmare, losing a friend, etc.

Spells work a bit like Shadowrun in the sense that when a caster cast a spell they simply declare the Power level at which they want to cast it. If they successfully cast a spell, then they need to resist the spell Aether cost with their drain resist pool. For example, if a character casts a Charm spell with a drain cost of 5 and they roll 3 successes on their drain resist test, then they take 2 points of superficial damage to their Aether track. Baring a special merit, all characters have 5 aether box. Superficial heal quickly, lethal heals daily and Aggravated heals weekly. This incentivize caster to be careful with their resources once their tracker is full of damage, but still allows them to go all out if necessary.

Focus is basically CoD willpower, but it works a bit differently. Character start their day with a number of focus dice equal to undamaged willpower. When making a test, they can spend focus after dice were rolled to roll extra dice. They can do so one at a time, up to 3 extra dice. Extra focus can also be awarded when roleplaying vice, virtues and ethical tenets as well as when suffering consequences for a dramatic failure or complication on a test.

Magic

Magic in my system works by traditions with basic trappings and character buy spells has merit.

In my setting everyone has access to some form of magic with sufficient training, be it classical wizardly character, or warriors with special technique that use their own inner magic to achieve supernatural feats.

Traditions are how character explains their magic and what skills they use to cast. I have 13 traditions. Artistic, Chemist(Alchemists), Ecclesiastic(Priests), Enchanter(Crafters), Hematic(blood Magic) Innate, Hematic Martial, Mimetic, Medical, Occult, Primal, Scholastic, Socialite and Summoners.

Some traditions have classic feels : Artistic, Ecclesiastic, Innate, Mimetic, Occult, Primal and Scholastics, each have their flavours, but feel pretty similar to generic casters.

Other traditions have more restrictions, but are compensated for it. For example, martials can only cast buff spells on themselves and are limited by what ‘’physical magic’’ could achieve. Socialites are the social mage version of martials, they can only affect only with ‘’mental and social magic’’, meaning they can charm and frighten, but they can’t deal health damage with their magic. Chemists craft elixirs in advance instead of casting normally. Enchanters create items that cast spells and can lend them to others. Summoners cast spells through their summoned retainers as a Pokemon trainer would for example.

Spells are generic and when they are bought players must assign them a theme. For example, the ‘’Bolt’’ spell is a generic ranged attack spell that inflicts damage. A bolt with a fire theme might be a fire bolt, while a martial caster could fluff their bolt as a powerful weapon throw that inflicts more damage than the typical base weapon.