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Rephath
2013-04-10, 04:19 AM
I’m designing a Golden Sun RPG and I wanted to get feedback on what people thought about it. If you’re not familiar with Golden Sun, Imagine if the people from Avatar: the Last Airbender could catch pokemon who taught them how to use bending in new and interesting ways and gave them slight superpowers and slightly increased natural talent.

You shouldn’t need to be familiar with the Golden Sun franchise to make sense of this, so when critiquing never assume that if you’d played the games you’d understand what I’m talking about. The rules are designed to be simple, easy to follow, flexible, and allow for customization. The magic system is designed to be flexible, so that a mage can do anything but not everything. It should parallel the physical skills nicely in power and odds of success.

Rules as I have them are here (http://goldensunrpg.wikispaces.com/home). I will probably start posting the rules in this forum as well, and add in an index in this first post.

The main questions I have are as follows (in order of most important to least important)
-Does this make sense? If you’re having trouble understanding any part, let me know.
-What did I do well?
-Is this open to abuse? If the rules allow for exploitation, I need to patch that hole.
-Is this too complicated? I prefer elegance from simplicity. If something has become so complicated it’s no longer fun, I should find a better way of doing that.
-Did I leave out something important? Is the game missing some crucial piece of information, or a skill for something that should be in there, or a way to do something with magic that a lot of people will want to do?
-Are there any grammatical or spelling mistakes? It’s important to look professional.
-What creative ideas could you add to this?

Rephath
2013-04-10, 04:56 AM
Attributes

There are 5 attributes in this game.

Strength determines how big, strong, and tough you are. It determines how much damage you deal, armor you can carry, and health you have. It is associated with fewer skills, but has a great deal of use in combat. It's also associated with the element earth.

Agility determines how fast, dexterous, and quick you are. It determines how accurate you are and how well you can dodge. It's also associated with the element fire.

Intuition determines how clever and observant you are, how artistic and creative. It determines most of your social aptitude, like your ability to lie or read others as well as your ability to notice important details or be stealthy. It's also associated with the element air.

Intelligence determines how knowledgeable and smart you are, and how good your memory is. It's associated mostly with knowledge and medical skills and determines your concentration. It's also associated with the element water.

Will determines how stubborn and determined you are, and how well you resist magic. It has few skills associated with it, but its main purpose is to increase your magical power. It's also associated with the element spirit.

Your health is equal to your strength plus 10. Your base damage is equal to half your strength, rounded up, and your ranged damage is equal to your strength divided by 3, rounded to the nearest whole number. The heaviest armor you can wear is determined by the following chart. Locate your strength score on the chart to find the heaviest type of armor you can wear.
1: No armor.
2-4: Light armor, such as silk, leather, or cloth.
5-7: Medium armor, such as boiled leather or chain mail,
8+: Heavy armor, such as plate mail.

Your concentration is equal to your intelligence plus half your will, rounded up. It determines how much magic you can cast and how much social pressure you can take.

Rephath
2013-04-10, 04:58 AM
Building a Character
To build your character, you'll first need a high concept. This is your character in a nutshell. The game has no class system, but you can pick a descriptor that suits your character such as "thiefly air magician" or "young bodyguard."

Next you'll pick an elemental alignment. You can choose from the following:
None: You have no elemental alignment.
Earth: You deal +1 damage with all earth attacks and take 3 less damage from earth but 3 more damage from wind.
Fire: You deal +1 damage with all fire attacks and take 3 less damage from fire but 3 more damage from water.
Air: You deal +1 damage with all air attacks and take 3 less damage from air but 3 more damage from earth.
Water: You deal +1 damage with all water attacks and take 3 less damage from water but 3 more damage from fire.
Spirit: You deal +1 damage with all spirit attacks and take 1 less damage from magic but 1 more damage from physical attacks.
Physical: You deal +1 damage with all physical attacks and take 1 less damage from them but 1 more damage from all magical attacks.

(Note: None and physical are not part of the 5 elements. None could be considered the absence of any element while physical could be considered the presence of all 5.)

The GM will set your starting level. It's usually at 1 for starting characters. The total number of stunts and djinn you have cannot exceed your level. Level has no other meaning.

You get a certain number of attribute points. Starting characters get 111 to start with. Read more about attributes here. It costs 1 point to raise an attribute from 0 to 1, 2 to raise it from 1 to 2, 3 to raise it from 2 to 3, and so on. You can't raise an attribute more than one point at a time. This chart lists the cost to raise an attribute from 0 to a certain level and all the steps before that:
1
3
6
10
15
21
28
36
45
55

You can't raise any attributes above 10 with attribute points, although stunts and djinn can work around that. As you gain attribute points (usually 1 per session) over the course of the game, you can increase your attribute scores. So any leftover points are not wasted. If you have an attribute at 0, you are disabled (http://goldensunrpg.wikispaces.com/disabled) in some way.

You also pick your skills. You get 55 skill points to distribute. Unlike attributes, you're assumed to have every skill on the chart at 1, except for spells. It costs 2 points to raise a skill from 1 to 2, 3 to raise it from 2 to 3, and 4 to raise it from 3 to 4. The chart below spells out the cost for having a skill at a given rank:
2: 2
3: 5
4: 9

You can't raise skills above 4. You'll probably gain 1-3 skill points a session, so you can use leftover points later.

You pick two favored skill groups for your character, and get +1 to all skills in that category. This does not increase the cost of skills. So you start with all skills in a favored category at 2, even if they're not on your sheet. It costs 2 points to raise them to 3. You might want to write the actual value of favored skills in parentheses next to the value you're paying to upgrade them at. So if you have melee as a favored skill group, you can write Determination 3 (4).

Rephath
2013-04-10, 04:59 AM
Core Rules
The basic mechanic of this RPG is an attribute times a skill to accomplish a task. For example, if you want to climb a tree, you'll roll strength times climbing. What this means is you pick up a number of dice equal to your strength and roll them. Then, you count the number of dice that came up equal to or lower than your skill.

For example, let's say you have strength of 6 and climbing 3. Your strength is 6 so you roll 6 dice and get: 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6. That's four successes (the 5 and 6 are too high). The GM only required 3 successes, so you succeed. Any extra successes above what you need are called perk. So you also have perk of 1. The GM might explain this as being able to climb higher or faster than you expected, or being able to snag a piece of fruit on the way up..

Opposed rolls have two people roll against each other, rather than one person rolling against a static goal. Higher roll wins, and the amount of perk determines how crushing the defeat is.

The GM can add bonus dice or subtract penalty dice before a roll based on any difficulty factors. In the example above, maybe the tree only has limbs way out of reach, which might subtract from your available dice. Or maybe you have climbing gear giving you a few extra dice to roll.

You can take 1 on any roll where there's no element of chance. For example, if you're trying to lift a heavy boulder, you can take 1. Same if you're attacking an enemy who isn't defending because it's asleep or didn't sense you. Taking 1 means you don't roll any dice, you just assume that all the dice come up successses. So if you're lifting a boulder with strength 6, you automatically get 6 successes. If two characters are arm-wrestling, the stronger one should always win, so they both take 1.
You can support someone by rolling a skill that you think would assist. Each success you roll adds an extra die to the target's next roll that the roll would support.

Types of Rolls

Act: This is your basic roll to do something. If you achieve enough successes, you do what you were attempting. If not, you fail. Alternatively, you can roll and count successes to determine how well you do at something. Magical actions are the same.
Basic Attack: In this, you roll to hit, and your opponent rolls to defend. If you score higher, you deal damage to health or concentration equal to your successes minus the opponent's. Standard magical basic attacks are the same. Using social skills to pressure someone into doing or believing something is usually a basic attack.
Standard Attack: Same as a basic attack, but if you hit you also deal your base damage to the target in addition to any extra successes. Standard magical attacks do the same, except they add your power as bonus damage, not your base damage.
Ranged Attack: Same as a standard attack, except you add your ranged damage instead of your base damage bonus.
Defend: Roll this, and if you get more successes than your opponent, you are not affected by whatever he did. Spells usually take too long to be used to defend, but if they're explicitly stated to be usable this way, then they can be.
Block: You roll this, and if you succeed you keep an opponent from doing something in particular. If they don't roll higher than you rolled to block, they cannot act. If they do roll higher, the block ends. You can use unarmed to pin an opponent, as a block to them moving. You can use stealth as a block to being noticed. In combat, physical and social blocks last until the end of the blocker's next turn. Magical blocks last an entire scene unless the mage ends the effect early.
Support: To support or assist someone, roll your skill and count up all successes. The target takes those successes as bonus dice to their next action that would logically benefit from the support action. Magical effects grant their bonus as extra dice for an entire scene for all effects the spell would normally grant. No one may benefit from more than one support action, although someone rolling to support can himself benefit from a support action.
Interfere: The opposite of a support action, an interference action reduces the dice that an enemy has to roll on a particular action. If the attacker rolls more successes than the defender when trying to interfere, the defender takes TWICE the difference as a penalty to its next action that would be affected by the interference. If it's magically-induced interference, the effect lasts an entire scene.


Note: if a spell acts as a support or interference action against a particular attribute, the target's health and concentration are unaffected, unless the GM and the player really feel like that mess is worth getting into.

Retrying Rolls
If you fail a roll, you cannot just try the exact same thing over and expect to succeed. Failure doesn't just mean you didn't succeed, it means that under the conditions present, you can't succeed. If you fail using counter security to pick a lock, the lock is too tough for you to pick with your current equipment. To try a roll again, you must convince the GM that the situation has changed. The following are ways to change the situation:


Change who's assisting you. If you have a helper, do it without the helper, or with a different helper. If you don't have a helper, get one.
Change your approach. Do what you're trying to do in a different way. Maybe try using a better lock pick or unhinging the door instead.
Do the same thing next turn. In combat, the situation's constantly changing. Trying again on another turn is trying again under different circumstances.
Cast the spell again. Magic is a bit different each time you cast it. The concentration cost is payment enough for trying again.

Rephath
2013-04-10, 05:03 AM
Combat
Initiative and Rounds

Combat happens in rounds. The highest intuition acts first, and so on down the line. If acting first is of highest importance, such as in a duel between two people, and the first to draw blood wins, then everyone can roll their intuition, with all successes added to their base intuition solely for determining who goes first.

If one group of combatants sneaks up on or ambushes another, there's a surprise round. Only those who were ready for an attack act in the surprise round. If both parties are surprised, then skip the surprise round.

Hitting and Damage

If you're attacking a physical opponent with a melee attack, you roll to hit, and the opponent rolls to dodge or block to defend. If the defender rolls higher, the attack misses. If they roll even, the attack hits and deals the attacker's base damage plus his weapon's damage bonus minus the defender's armor value. Any perk the attacker gets adds to damage.

Ranged attacks work the same way, except they add the attacker's ranged damage rather than bonus damage.

Magical attacks have the caster roll to hit and the defender roll resist magic to avoid the spell. If the spell hits, it does the spell's power plus the caster's power bonus from any casting talisman minus the defender's armor in damage.

Basic attacks only do attacker's successes and weapon damage in damage if they hit, minus defender's successes and armor. All unarmed attacks are basic attacks, as are social attacks and called shots that the attacker wants to ignore armor.

If you're attacking with a weapon or fire magic, remember to roll for a critical hit. This is explained below.

The GM will only tell you the type of damage you took (physical or one of the magical elements) and how much you took. He won't factor in your armor or magical vulnerabilities unless he's feeling particularly helpful. Adjust the damage you take accordingly.

Unarmed attacks are basic attacks that deal damage to either health or concentration. Certain bludgeoning attacks can also cause concentration damage, as can mind-affecting spells and social attacks.

Weapons and Casting Talismans

Weapons have several statistics. Accuracy is the bonus dice the weapon gets to hit. Damage is the bonus damage the weapon deals.

Casting talismans have control which increases dice to succeed with spells and power which increases the power of all spells cast through the talisman. If the casting talisman is used on a target that doesn't resist, power can be added as bonus automatic successes instead of bonus power.

Weapons can be two-handed or one-handed. Two-handed weapons are more effective, but take up both of your hands. One-handed weapons allow you to carry a shield or casting talisman in your offhand.

Whenever you attack with a weapon, roll a d6 after hitting. If the weapon is an artifact, and you roll lower than or equal to the weapon's critical value, you score a critical hit and the weapon does its special effect. On a normal weapon, a 1 is a critical hit and does +3 damage.

Artifact weapons may have other benefits.

Position
The game is designed to simulate opponents lining up to fight each other in parallel rows. This makes combat run smoother, with a bit less complexity.

The field is divided into 4 rows. There is the front row where combatants stand to fight with melee and the back row which is shielded from attack by the front row. Let's consider the following diagram:

Enemy Side
D1 D2 D3 D4 D5
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
Middle
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5
A1 A2 A3 A4 A5
Your Side

Rows B and C are the front rows. The party will place their best defenders and melee fighters on row B and their best ranged fighters and mages on row A. The enemy will likely put their melee fighters and blockers on row C and their ranged fighters and mages on row D. The party will probably pick a standard formation for simplicity, one they use in all combat, but they're free to switch it up any time they want. Any character can move one space as a free action, provided that space is not occupied. Otherwise, they can run as a standard action rolling agility times run and moving as many spaces as the roll allows. Diagonal movement and movement into occupied spaces is not permitted. If you try to move more than one space at a time, anyone who would be in a position to melee attack you along your route can roll once to either hit you with a free melee attack or block your movement with a block roll. If you get blocked, you're stopped on the space where you were interrupted.

You can melee attack into any adjacent or diagonal square. For instance, someone at B3 can attack C2, C3, C4, B2, B4, A2, A3, and A4. You can fire a ranged attack into any square you can draw a clear line to (measured from the center of your square to the center of theirs), with no enemies in your way. Allies don't block your attacks, so you can shoot over them. Magical attacks can target any square from any square.

The diagram below shows player characters in green and their enemies below. All the players in the B row can hit all the enemies in the C row. If there were an enemy at C5, B2 couldn't hit it. Let's assume A2 and A4 are shooting bows. A4 can draw a line to all 3 enemies without any other enemies or obstacles getting in his way, so he can shoot any of them. If A2 tries to draw a line to D4 his line will go right through C3. So until C3 is downed, he can't hit D4. If A2 were to switch with magic, he'd could hit anyone.

D1 D2 D3 D4 D5
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5
A1 A2 A3 A4 A5

As for movement, B4 could move forward to be able to hit D4 with melee attacks. B4 can't move anywhere. D4 could try to sneak around to space B5 so he can target A4. That'll take several turns, or it would open him up to an attack or block from both B4 and A4. C3 can do pretty much the same, though she also has to worry about B3. C2 can come around the other side to hit at A2, but it has to worry about B3, A2 and B2. Either A2 or A4 could move to space A3 to be a bit better protected by their blockers.

If your party has a lot of defender types, you can switch them between back row and front row due to injury. Use ranged fighters in the back row as heavy hitters, and to help the front lines attack. If your party has a lot of ranged and mage types, consider putting the hardier ones (usually earth and fire mages) up front, with support from the back row. A weak front row can be made up for with a lot of defensive support spells and blocks cast on the front home row, as well as interference actions and blocks cast against the opponents, all to keep the front row alive longer than possible.

If you manage to get concealment during a fight, you can move without your enemies having a chance to block you or attack you. And you also cannot be targeted by any attack unless detected. Social attacks or area-effect attacks can still hit you. Illusion and invisibility magics are the easiest ways of gaining concealment in battle, but there are others.

Rephath
2013-04-10, 05:04 AM
Social Conflict

Social conflict works much like combat. The attacker makes a social attack, rolling a social skill. The defender rolls determination not to be affected. If the defender rolls higher, the attack doesn't control her. If the attacker rolls higher, the defender takes the difference as social pressure.

Social pressure reduces your concentration just like regular damage reduces your health. There is one difference. If you give into whatever the person was trying to pressure you into doing, you don't take the concentration reduction. So let's say someone is trying to get you to accept the deal. He rolls negotiation and gets 4 successes. You roll determination and get 2. You are faced with 2 social pressure. If the deal is not particularly bad for you, you may prefer to give in rather than take the pressure.

Deceit causes social pressure to believe something, and is opposed by empathy. Empathy and kindness can cause social pressure for you to like the person rolling the skill, or to ask nicely for a small favor, and it's usually easier to give in. Mock is usually used just to sap someone's concentration.

There are certain ways to get social armor. It reduces social pressure automatically. And there are certain ways to add bonus social pressure automatically.

If you run out of concentration, you are incapacitated. This means you can't contribute much meaningful to the game, but how and why that is varies depending on what reduced you to 0 concentration or lower.

If you were hit with an unarmed attack or other blunt attack that did damage to concentration, you're knocked unconscious. You'll restore one concentration per hour until it becomes positive. Casting magic that uses up more concentration than you have or having energy leeched from you also results in unconsciousness. If you were hit with a mind control spell, you're now the mage's brain puppet. Every time she casts another mind control spell on you, it automatically succeeds. If it was a social attack that dropped you down, you may fly into a berserker rage or break down into a crying fit or fly into hysterics. You might also go into insanity for a time if that seems appropriate. In a fight it just might cause you to leave the battle for any of a dozen reasons of justification. Or you might find some other way of working it. Whatever the case, when your concentration runs out, you can't function. Your brain isn't working right and so you can't think straight.

Taking an hour nap restores one concentration. Read the skill rules under the sage category to see how the nap skill works. This represents your ability to fall asleep when you need to.

Getting a good night's sleep restores all concentration and it also restores one health.

Rephath
2013-04-10, 05:06 AM
Skills

Here is the list of skills divided up into their skill categories. You may take any skill from this list. Your character is assumed to have all of them at rank 1, not including any spells she doesn't have the djinn for yet. Note that strength determines base damage, and so is used with all physical attacks even though it's not listed with those skills. Willpower is also used for spell power so it's useful for all spell classes even though the list only associates it with spirit magic.

Athletic
Jump: (agility) Use this for leaping across chasms or over obstacles. It also works to lessen the damage of a fall.
Climb: (strength) Use this for climbing cliffs, trees, and other such obstacles.
Run: (agility) Use this for moving quickly.
Escape Artist: (agility) Use this to escape from being tied up or to tie up others.
Swim: (strength) Use this to move through water.
Endurance: (strength) Use this to keep going despite exhaustion.
Balance: (agility) Use this to keep a firm footing on the ground or to walk across a tight rope or narrow footbridge.

Melee
Short: (agility) Use this for short weapons like knives, saps, and wands.
Medium: (agility) Use this for medium weapons like swords, axes, clubs, and rods.
Long: (agility) Use this for polearms like staves, spears, and glaives.
Heavy: (strength) Use this to hit with heavy weapons like claymores, war hammers, and heavy axes. Requires the Massive Weapons stunt to use them.
Unarmed: (agility) Use this for punching, kicking, wrestling, and so on.
Block: (strength) Use this to block damage from physical attacks with a shield.
Flail: (agility) Use this to hit with chains, whips, three-section staves, nunchucks, and ball and chains.

Ranged
Throwing: (agility) Use this to hit with throwing knives and expendable throwing items.
Archery: (agility) Use this to hit with bows.
Dodge: (agility) Use this to avoid physical attacks.
Crossbow: (agility) Use this to fire crossbows.
Siege: (intelligence) Use this to fire siege weaponry.
Sling: (agility) Use this for slings and atlatls.

Disreputable Social
Deceive: (intuition) Use this to pressure others into believing you or to trick them into into doing something.
Charm: (intuition) Use this to get people to like you.
Voice Control: (intuition) Use this for ventriloquism or to make your voice sound like someone else's.
Performance: (intuition) Use this for public speaking, drama, acting, and music.
Intimidate: (intuition) Use this to frighten or torture someone. You can roll it times strength against someone who would be intimidated by your size and strength.
Mock: (intuition) Use this to crack a joke or annoy a target.

Reputable Social
Empathy: (intuition) Use this to analyze others' personalities and get a read on them. Also used to resist deceive.
Negotiate: (intelligence) Use this for logical debate and striking a bargain.
Kindness: (intuition) You can use this once immediately after any period of social conflict to restore concentration to one ally equal to half the successes rolled, rounded up.
Leadership: (intelligence) Use this to inspire others or to give good tactical advice, usually as a support action, also as a block to others influencing an ally.
Determination: (will) Use this to resist social pressure. Also for general force of will.
Preach: (will) Use this to impart religious teaching and convince others with your dedication to faith.

Medical
First Aid: (intelligence) You can roll this once immediately after any period of combat to restore health equal to successes rolled to the target. After that, it's too late to apply any further aid. Given the short amount of time you have to apply first aid, you may only do so to one person. Using an herb, nut, or other medical treatment allows for use of first aid at other times.
Treatment: (intelligence) You can use this to relieve status effects, cure disease and poison, and so on.
Diagnosis: (intelligence) This determines your medical knowledge and ability to diagnose illness. It's often handy for support rolls and determining how much you know about medicine.
Medicine: (intelligence) You can roll this once per day to restore health equal to successes rolled to the target, and it takes at least an hour. It only covers treating wounds and surgery.
Purification: (intelligence) You can prescribe and carry out the correct treatment for magical afflictions. You may use a combination of acupuncture (earth), moxibustion (fire), qi gong (air), homeopathy (water), or mantra chanting (spirit) to physically manipulate magical energies into leaving the body, ending the affliction.

Stealth
Sneak: (intuition) Use this to move around unseen, concealed by the environment or unnoticed in a crowd.
Disguise: (intuition) Use this to look like something or someone you're not.
Hide: (intuition) Use this to hide an object on your person or the area.
Swipe: (agility) Use this to steal a held object in combat or pick a pocket.
Counter Security: (agility) Use this to pick locks, disable traps, unhinge doors, and so on.
Perception: (intuition) Use this to notice important physical details. Use aura reading for magical details and empathy to read people's character.

Nature
Trapping: (intelligence) Use this to make or set traps.
Herblore: (intelligence) Use this to locate healing and edible plants.
Tame: (intuition) Use this as a social skill on animals.
Animal Knowledge: (intelligence) Use this to know about animals and creatures, including mythological ones.
Survival: (intelligence) Use this for wilderness knowledge and keeping alive in the wild.
Ride: (intuition) Use this to ride and care for mounts. Also for driving wagons or chariots.
Tracking: (intuition) Use this to track someone through the wilderness.

Trade
(You can add other trade skills as you see fit, given GM approval. Nothing that could go under another skill group should go here.)
Blacksmith: (strength) Use this to fashion metal into usable objects.
Woodcarver: (agility) Use this to fashion wood into usable objects.
Tailor: (varies) Use this with agility to make clothes, use with intuition to make those clothes pretty.
Sailor: (varies) Use this to sail ships or act as a crewman on ships.
Artist: (intuition) Use this to create art.
Builder: (strength) Use this to construct buildings. Use with intelligence to design them.
Jeweler: (intuition) Use this to craft jewelry.

Knowledge
(Knowledge skills have the GM tell you what your character knows about a topic. They're rarely used to actually do things. You can make up knowledge skills if necessary, given GM approval.)
Street Smarts: (intuition) Use this to know about criminal elements, the shady side of things, and general poor-level city information.
Political Knowledge: (intelligence) Use this to know about politics, the government, how to get things through bureaucracy, local laws, and who's who in high-society.
History: (intelligence) Use this to know about ancient legends and more recent history.
Science: (intelligence) Use this to know the latest in scientific knowledge.
Area Knowledge: (intelligence) This represents how well-travelled you are. Use it to know about places you've heard about or been before.
Linguism: (intelligence) Use this for known languages, or to interpret languages you haven't encountered before.
Study: (intelligence) Use this to search books, libraries, and other information sources for knowledge.

Earth Magic
Earth Control: (strength) Control the movement of stone and earth.
Force Control: (strength) Levitate objects.
Gravity Control: (strength) Move everything toward or away from points.
Time Control: (strength) Speed up or slow down time.
Barrier Control: (strength) Create force fields from magical energy.
Teleportation: (strength) Teleport.

Fire Magic
Flame Control: Conjure blasts of fire.
Sound Control: Control sound waves and sonic energy.
Light Control: Create, banish, or bend light.
Energy Control: Transfer concentration among allies or siphon it from enemies.
Ray Control: Conjure deadly and mysterious rays of energy.
Judgment Fire: Smite enemies with holy energy or damn them with hellfire.

Air Magic
Wind Control: Change the way air flows, or bind it into airy blades
Mental Defense: Help your allies and yourself think more clearly, and purge their mind of unwanted influences.
Mental Attack: Plant thoughts in others and get past their mental defenses.
Illusion Control: Create
Lightning Control: Control electricity.
Cognition: See into the past and future and gain increased knowledge in the present.

Water Magic
Water Control: Control the flow of water, or create ice.
Healing: Heal others.
Harming: Reduce the health of others.
Animal Transformation: Turn people into animals, or one animal into another.
Bodily Control: Make others stronger or faster, or weaker or slower.
Plant Control: Make plants grow and do your bidding.

Spirit Magic
Chaos Magic: Break things with the power of magic.
Counterspell: Control others' spells.
Empower Magic: Empower your own spells and your allies' spells.
Banish Magic: Reduce the power of others' spells and shield allies from magic.
Combine Magic: Gather magical energies from several allies to create hybrid spells of great power.
Create Golem: Turn dirt into an unintelligent servant.

Sage
Resist Magic: (will) Use this to resist magic.
Resist Status: (strength) Use this to resist any status effect that you are exposed to, or to overcome one once you have it. Includes disease, poison, alcohol, and so on.
Aura Reading: (intuition) Use this to open your third eye and examine the flow of magical energy. Helpful in determining elemental alignment.
Meditate: (will) Use this once immediately after combat to restore concentration equal to half the successes rolled, rounded up.
Magical Theory: (intelligence) Use this to know about how magic works and what it's capable of.
Djinni Knowledge: (intelligence) Use this to know about djinn.
Napping: (will) Roll this to fall asleep for an hour. You must get more successes than your remaining concentration. If you succeed, restore one concentration.

Rephath
2013-04-10, 05:08 AM
Stunts
(This list is incomplete, but gives an idea of stunts that area available)
You may take a number of these stunts equal to your level, instead of a djinn. You may only take each one once, unless it says otherwise.

Combat
Massive Weapons Proficiency: You can wield the largest of weapons that require the heavy weapons skill.
Deadly: Raise damage bonus by 2 and ranged damage bonus by 1.
Armored: You can bear two more points of armor than you normally should be able to.
Sniper: Raise your ranged damage bonus by 2.
Assassin: You increase the critical chance for any weapon by one. You may take this up to 5 times. There is no benefit to raising a weapon's critical chance above 6.



Improvement
Healthy: Gain +4 health.
Calm: Gain +2 concentration.
Talented: You can take this once for each attribute. You get +2 to that attribute.
Mastery: Choose a skill. If the associated attribute is less than 4 you get +4 dice with that skill, less than 7 then +3 dice, less than 10 then +2 dice, and 10 or higher +1. You can take this as many times as you want, each time for a different skill.
Jack of All: Pick an additional favored skill group of your choice. You may take this for as many different skill groups as you would like.




Magical
Powerful: Increase your power by 2.
Innate Power: Pick two elements. Instead of requiring a djinni to supply power for a spell, you generate that power yourself. For example, if a spell requires one Mercury, one Mars, and one Moon djinni, if you take innate power for water and fire, you only need a moon djinni to cast the spell.
Defensive Spellcaster: You can defend yourself with magic even if it isn't stated to be usable that way. This allows you to defend with magic instead of a physical skill.

Miscellaneous
Forsaken: You are immune to magic. You may not cast it or benefit from it, and it has no effect on you.
Lucky: You may take this up to three times. You gain new kudos each game session equal to the number of times you have taken this.

Rephath
2013-04-10, 05:10 AM
Magic

Magic is a natural energy inherent to the universe, a set of laws that complement the laws of physics. The laws of physics are the same at all times for all people and are always predictable. Magic can be controlled differently and is subject to will, belief, and intent. If you do nothing to stop yourself from being hit by a boulder but really wish it won't hit you, you're still going to be hit. If you wish a spell won't affect you strongly enough, it won't.

Magic in this game requires an innate source of power and or the assistance of djinn to pull off. Casting magic varies by type, read the individual descriptions of spell categories to learn more, but for all elements except air it requires obvious gestures and releases energy in very blatant forms. It might look something like this, but with varying moves depending on the spell, the caster's style of casting, and the element. While this is awesome, it is also obvious that you are casting magic. Air magic has no such complications, though you can do the gestures if you want.

All spells by default require 1 concentration to cast. Those that have a higher cost will list it, but if no concentration cost is listed assume it's one. The exception is trivial spells. Creating a flame the size of a candle fire, healing a minor scrape, or nudging something with a force spell are all trivial. If it's not worth even rolling to succeed because the spell is so obviously easy, then it might be a trivial spell.

Spells are divided into skill groups by element, and skills that mention specific types of magic. For instance, the earth control skill is your proficiency with controlling dirt and stone with magic. It's part of earth magic. Force magic allows you to levitate object, also a part of earth magic.

In most games, magic classes and physical classes are at odds with each other. People who focus on being physically fit are not good at magic. People who are magic users don't develop their body. In this game, not so much. Yes, developing your mind will help you with certain types of magic, but the dedication to work hard with your body and develop it as well as your physical strength are determining factors in how good you are with earth magic. Agile people can move their bodies quickly to manipulate magical energies with their fingers and use their own natural chi to power spells.

Long story short, don't assume mage=bookworm. A tough and quick illiterate fighter can still use magic.

That said, willpower and intelligence are useful to all magics, though not essential to many types of spells.

If the target doesn't resist the spell, the spell automatically affects the target. Successes rolled determine whether the target is affected the way you want it to be. For example, if you cast a levitate spell on a rock to throw it at an enemy, the rock will not resist. Whether it travels accurately enough to hit the target depends on whether the target resists the spell (or dodges the rock).

Many spells affect everyone in the area or for an entire scene. You may wish to read the glossary (http://goldensunrpg.wikispaces.com/Glossary) for more information on these terms.

Rephath
2013-04-10, 05:14 AM
Spells

Earth Spells

As you cast earth magic, the bonds of force attach to your arms and legs, and you must force them into the alignment you desire. This requires great physical fitness. You can sacrifice two health in place of one concentration when casting earth spells.


Earth Control
1 Venus

You can manipulate small patches of earth and stone. In many fantasy settings, this allows you to move tons of earth faster than any human can run, or turn stone liquid. In this game, you can move around stones and dirt with a comparable amount of energy to a human. While manipulating earth, you have to have to be touching the same earth as your targeted earth. So you can't cast this spell to levitate earth or when you're airborne or swimming. This can also be used to tunnel through the earth at a number of meters per second equal to spell power. 3 meters per second corresponds to a good jog.

Earth control allows you to make magical attacks, and those attacks deal +2 damage for every extra concentration you spend. You can only spend as much concentration as you have Venus djinn.

Force Control
1 Venus, 1 Jupiter
You can levitate objects with force. This allows you to lift, carry, and move objects at a distance, with magic. To move an object, you roll your strength times your force magic skill, with successes determining precision. Your willpower determines how much weight you can lift with this spell, just as your strength determines how much weight you can normally lift. So if it would take 7 strength to lift a boulder physically, then it would take 7 willpower to lift that boulder with this spell.

Gravity Control
2 Venus
Whereas force control allows you to move anything, gravity control allows you to move everything. You create a gravity well somewhere within range and everything nearby gets your magic power as a bonus to move toward the gravity well or takes your magic power as a penalty to move away from the well. Your rolled successes determine how accurately you can place the well, and this isn't exactly a precision spell. Your gravity well will be off by 64 feet from where you wanted to place it, halved for each success you roll. Direction it's off by is determined at random by rolling a d6, and consulting the chart.
North
South
East
West
Up
Down

Gravity control is handy for knocking flying creatures out of the sky. You can also create anti-gravity wells that push everything away.

Side Note: If you have a Jupiter djinni as well when casting this spell, you can use control magnetism as well, giving you +3 force but only affecting magnetic materials.

Time Control
3 Venus
Time control allows you to slow time down or speed it up for an individual or group. It makes for handy support and interference spells, as well as the ability to slow things down and stop them. No one has yet to move more than a couple seconds through time. Time control also comes with the following spells:

Stop: The target is frozen in time. This acts as an interference action to the target doing anything or to anything being done to the target.
Double Time: The target gets to act twice in one turn and also gets the spell's successes as a one-turn bonus to defense. No target may benefit from double time more than once a turn.

Barrier Control
2 Venus

You can create barriers of magical energy that are mostly transparent, constructing shields, bridges, and other such things. They have hit points equal to your rolled successes plus your magic power, in general. Barrier control also comes with the following spells:

Encircle Armor: You can wrap any worn item with protective wards, increasing its armor value by half the rolled successes rounded up. This can make even the flimsiest of tunics a powerful breastplate, and just imagine what it can do to full plate armor.

Side Note: If you have a Moon djinni as well, you can make the barriers one-way. Objects can pass through in one direction, but once they are completely through they are blocked from the other direction. These barriers cost 2 concentration to create.

Teleportation
1 Venus, 1 Moon

You can teleport as if it were a run action, only ignoring obstacles in the way. You must be able to see where you are teleporting to. You can also teleport enemies or other targets. If teleporting something besides yourself, you must switch the target with a roughly equal-sized target, both of which you must be able to see with your own eyes, and not with magically-enhanced sight. Your intelligence determines the maximum amount of weight you can teleport, and if you can't lift an object with 5 strength you can't teleport it with 5 willpower. If an object is attached to something, unless your magic power is enough to sever the bond, you can't teleport that object. This would require your magic power to be equal to or greater than the damage done to the target. For example, you can't teleport someone's arm off but you can teleport some water.

Fire Spells
Fire magic overflows with energy, leaving impressive flashes of light and sound as you power up. Whenever you cast a fire spell on an enemy, you can choose to roll for a critical hit. On a 1, you deal 3 damage to the target that ignores armor, even if the spell wasn't damaging.

Flame Control
1 Mars

You can conjure fire to illuminate, warm, or destroy. It's handy as a magical attack. You may spend one point of concentration to add +2 damage for each Mars djinni you have.

Sound Control
1 Mars, 1 Earth

You can project painful blasts of sound, make voices seem to come from nowhere, or do other magical tricks. You also get the following spell:

Sonic Blast: This spell is a basic attack that ignores armor.

Light Control
1 Mars, 1 Jupiter

This allows you to brighten up a room, or banish all light and fill it with shadows, to release balls of colorful wonder or shoot forth a focused beam of a single pure color to cut things apart. You can't create complex illusions with this. You can however bend light around a target. This works as a block action to seeing the target or hitting the target with light magic, but also as a block to the target seeing anything.

Energy Control
2 Mars, 1 Water

You can transfer concentration between voluntary subjects equal to successes rolled. This still costs you one energy. You can leech concentration off of enemies by rolling a basic attack to deal damage to their concentration and restoring half of that rounded up to your concentration.

Ray Control
3 Mars

There are invisible rays that magicians have learned to master, rays that cause horrible effects.

Death Rays: Roll a basic attack. If the attack hits, the target is poisoned.

Penetrating Rays: Spend two concentration and then roll a basic magical attack against a target and any targets behind the target.

Heat Rays: This magic attack deals heat damage to the target. Additionally, if the target is holding a weapon with metal near the handle and fails to resist the spell, the weapon gets hot and begins sparking, causing the target to drop said weapon. This makes all metal the target is holding act that way.

Judgment Fire
1 Mars, 1 Moon
This is fire magic that destroys the target based on its sin. Depending on your character you may pick good spells or evil spells, or a mixture of both. You can pick a number of spells from this category equal to your skill rating in the spell class.

GOOD SPELLS

Holy fire purifies things, cleansing them of all that is tainted or corrupted. It does +2 damage against things that show a great deal of taint. It does +4 against the undead and beings of pure evil. Those who are pure, holy, or righteous take half damage, and those that are completely pure take no damage whatsover.

Lightning from on High: Spend 2 concentration to cast this spell and conjure a bolt of pure lightning to smite an unworthy foe. The GM determines the foe's corruption on a scale of 1-10, with undead automatically counting as 10. If the foe is completely pure of heart, the lightning does no damage.

Radiance: This spell conjures blinding white light as an interference action against everyone in an area. Those who have never done wrong are immune while those who have recently done a selfless deed (within the last session) get +3 to resist. The interference penalty ends at the beginning of the next turn of whoever cast it. Those who are weighed down by incredible evil take this spell as a penalty for an entire scene.

Empathy: This spell, when cast in combat, inflicts the same emotional response in the target as the target inflicts on others. If she hurts someone, she feels pain. If she helps another, she feels happiness. In practice, if the target does not successfully resist the spell, the target gains one concentration every time she aids another and loses one concentration every time she harms another. This is defined as the effect the target has on whomever she's focusing on the most currently. The spell ends at the end of the battle, or after it has taken away or restored its power in concentration.

Illumination: This spell illumines the area with the light of truth, at a cost of 2 concentration. Each success rolled lowers the penalty for anyone in the area to see due to darkness, hiding in the shadows, illusion magic, invisibility and so on. There is no penalty to lying, however. The light fills the room, clearing out all shadows and bringing its power to bear against all illusions.

Last Rites: Every undead creature in the area with health less than or equal to the spell's power has to roll to defend against this spell. All that fail are immediately passed into the afterlife.


EVIL SPELLS

Hellfire is the physical expression of the evil to drag others down with them. It does +3 against the corrupted or exceptionally evil and takes no penalty to harming the righteous.

Damnation is rolled as a basic attack against all undead in the area, dragging their souls to the afterlife.

Brimstone is rolled as a basic attack against all targets in the area that need to breathe, conjuring poisonous gas from the pits of hell. Any enemy target that is hit is poisoned. Allied targets are protected from the poison effect but not from the initial damage. The caster alone determines who he considers an ally at that particular moment. Creatures without a need to breathe, or who are immune to poison, or who are accustomed to gaseous brimstone (demons and other hellspawn) are immune.

Blood Sacrifice: This is a basic dark magical attack that deals damage equal to magic power plus health expended.

Blight: This is a magical attack that cannot be healed for the duration of the fight by any means.

Air Spells

Air spells are subtly cast, by thinking thoughts and visualizing rather than doing anything external. As such, without aura reading there's no way to tell an air caster just cast a spell.

Wind Control
You can control the winds, forming them into wind blades or just blowing things around. While this lacks the power and fine manipulation of force magic to move things, it's handy for dealing with large collections of light objects or gasses that are too hard to levitate. Wind control is also excellent at clearing leaves.

Wind control allows you to make magical attacks, and those attacks deal +2 damage for every extra concentration you spend. You can only spend as much concentration as you have Jupiter djinn.

Mental Defense
1 Jupiter, 1 Moon

This allows you to aid another's thinking, helping them think more clearly, removing any harmful mental status effects they might have like confusion, and buffing their intuition or intelligence as a support action.

Mental Attack
2 Jupiter, 1 Moon

This allows you to cloud another's thinking, placing harmful mental status effects, changing their emotions, and debuffing their intuition or intelligence as an interference action. This also includes mind control, as a basic attack that deals social pressure if your target doesn't comply with your wishes. This also allows you to get an idea of what's going on in someone's mind, but the less they think like you the more jumbled the thoughts are. You could also use this to put thoughts or dreams in someone's head.

Illusion Control
2 Jupiter, 1 Mars

You can roll illusion control mainly as a block to perceiving reality, or as a support or interference spell. Anything you can conceive you can make appear to be reality to the eyes. Other senses are not fooled. Roll perceive to overcome an illusion, not willpower times magic resistance.

Lightning Control
1 Jupiter, 1 Mars

You can control lightning, shocking enemies.

This also lets you use the following spell:
Conjure Lightning: You call a huge bolt of lightning from the sky, spending 3 concentration. It deals a magical attack to an enemy and a basic attack to all adjacent creatures on the same side of the field.

Cognition
1 Jupiter, 1 Earth

You can know things you shouldn't be able to. This allows you to predict the future with vague accuracy or peer into the past. It works handily as a support spell in combat so the target has superior reflexes. It also allows you to scry at a distance equal to a good bowshot, even through walls and other obstacles. Cognition can also be used to see through illusions. You also get the following spell:

Total Awareness: You get this as a support action to any sense rolls within a number of meters equal to spell power, but cannot perceive anything beyond that. You and any allies you wish to include are immune to any illusion magic in the area with less spell power than the power of this spell when cast.

Water Spells

You cast water magic by loudly chanting memorized phrases that organize the water energy. Water magic flows with life. Whenever you wish, you can roll for a critical hit when casting water magic, and on a 1 you heal three damage on the target.

Water Control
1 Mercury
You can control the flow of water to lash at enemies, propel a boat, or simply to wring water from the sky to quench your thirst. As the opposing element of fire, water can also cool the target. You can conjure ice or freeze your enemies as a magical attack. You can also spend 1 additional point of concentration to do two extra damage for each Mercury djinni you have.

Healing
2 Mercury

You can use this to restore health equal to successes rolled or the power of the spell, whichever is lower. This style of magic can also relieve harmful status effects.

With 4 Mercury djinn you can spend 10 concentration minus your magic power to revive someone who is dying or has recently died, provided their body is mostly intact. This revives the target with health equal to successes rolled.


Harming
1 Mercury, 1 Mars
You can use this to inflict damage directly to the target, or to cause various status effects. Besides interference actions, this can do the following spells:
Rupture Kidney: Roll this as a basic attack. If any damage is done, the target is poisoned. Variations on this spell will poison creatures that lack kidneys.
Paralyze:
Cancel Immunity: Roll to affect the target. If you beat the target's magic resistance roll, the target is overwhelmed with the petty diseases it had been successfully fighting off until you deactivated his immune system.

Animal Transformation
1 Mercury, 1 Moon
You can transform your target into an animal of your choice, even yourself. This acts as a support action to anything the target does that the animal would be better at than a human and an interference action to anything the animal would be worse at than a human. In general, animals have no hands so using weapons is out, although this can work as a support action to unarmed damage. This does not affect the target's ability to cast magic. It usually affects social skills, since animals can't talk well. A cute rabbit is going to get a bonus to charm but a penalty to intimidate (for obvious reasons) and negotiate (because it can't talk well).

If this spell is cast on an unresisting target, it adds successes rolled as a bonus to animal-compatible actions and takes away successes rolled as animal-incompatible actions.

The transformation is never 100% complete. The higher your magic power, the more the target looks like the animal and the less it looks like its human form, and also the more animal traits the target takes on. It requires a perceive roll with more successes than the spell's power to notice that the target is not a normal animal, and is possibly a transformed human.

Only animal targets and people can be affected by this spell. The non-living are unaffected.

Bodily Control
1 Mercury, 1 Venus
You can roll this as a support action or interference action to add bonuses or penalties to the target's agility or strength.

Plant Control
1 Mercury, 1 Venus, 1 Mars
You can roll this to cause plants to grow a way you want, filling them with life energy and bending them to your will.
Successes rolled determine how precisely you can control the plants' growth. Power determines how many or how big of plants you can control:
1: A small sapling or a square meter of grass or weeds.
3: A large bush or three square meters of grass or weeds.
6: A small tree or six square meters of grass or weeds.
8: A large tree or eight square meters of grass or weeds.
10: A giant tree or ten square meters of grass or weeds.

Spirit Spells

Spirit magic is cast by slowly going through meditative poses, even in the midst of combat. For this type of magic, the same attribute determines spell power and spell control, as well as partially determining how much concentration you have.

Chaos Magic
1 Moon

This is your basic magical attack. By overriding the laws of physics with random magical energies, you introduce chaos, causing things to break, fail, collapse, and malfunction. Imagine Murphy's law turned up to 11. You can't cause something to fail predictably in a specific way, but it'll do general damage to anything.

Counterspell
2 Moon

After an enemy casts a spell, but before an ally rolls do resist, you can shout "counterspell!" out of character and then spend one concentration and roll your counterspell. If you don't get more successes than the opponent, your counterspell does nothing and your ally may roll to resist the spell. If you do get more successes than your opponent but your spell power is less than the opponent's spell, you unravel the spell and the energies dissipate. If you do get more successes you can do one of several things:
Return to sender: The enemy rolls to resist its own spell. If it fails it is hit with the full effect.
Spell eater: Restore 1 concentration and increase your magic power by 1 for the remainder of the scene.
Store spell: You capture the spells energies in a quartz crystal, to be used later. You can only capture a number of spells equal to your intelligence, and you may only cast a stored spell once. When casting a stored spell, roll willpower times counterspell to cast and use your own magic power to determine the spell's power. Doing so costs one concentration. All of this overrides the original concentration cost, spell power, spell attribute, spell skill, djinn requirements, and so on of the original spell.

Counterspell is one of the few spells that can be cast on someone else's turn, as a defensive action. You can't counterspell after your ally has already rolled to resist, hence the need to interrupt quickly to get your spell in.

Empower Magic
2 Moon, 1 Mars

You can use this as an assist action for other casters in their casting ability or spell power. Empower magic generally increases the effectiveness of spells. You also get this spell:

Assistance: Roll this spell as an assist action, on an ally's turn, adding successes rolled to the target's dice to control the spell as a one-time bonus. Your magic power is also added to the target's magic power for that single spell.

Banish Magic
2 Moon, 1 Venus

You can use this as an interference action against enemies casting magic or against enemies' magic power. If their power is reduced to 0, they cannot cast at all. You can also use it to shield allies from magic or as magical armor, which gives allies your magic power as armor against magical attacks only.

Combine Magic
1 Moon, 1 Venus, 1 Mars, 1 Jupiter, 1 Mercury
This branch of magic allows you to cast only a single spell, combine magic. However, that spell is exceedingly useful.

Combine Magic: You spend 2 concentration and create a vortex of magical energy in front of you, a vortex that other casters can help you by casting spells into it. You can include extra casters in the spell equal to your magic power, but they have until the beginning of your next turn to act. Each assistant casts a single spell and adds half their successes rounded up as a bonus to your available dice when you finally cast this spell. The spell's final power is equal to the combined power of everyone who assisted you, plus any of your unused points of power. You can also counterspell enemy spells and, if your spell power is greater than the enemy's, you can add their spell to the mix. The caster has to explain how all the combined magic that went into this create a single, unified spell. You can also take an extra turn to include a stored spell you counterspelled earlier. Each one counts as another participant as if another caster had

Example:
Alice wants to cast a volcano spell. She has will of 6 and power of 3, so she can include up to 3 people. She spends 2 concentration and opens the vortex. Bob rolls earth control for 3 successes, and half that rounded up is 2, so she gets +2 dice for the final casting. Bob's power is 2 so her final spell has +2 power. Charlie rolls fire control for 6 successes, giving her +3 dice for the final casting. His power is 4 so the final spell has +4 power. No one else chips in, so Alice has 1 leftover power, to which she adds 6 for a total of 7. She then rolls her willpower plus 5 bonus dice times her combine magic rating. If she hits, she'll deal her perk plus 7 in damage, probably half earth an half fire.

Create Golem
1 Moon, 1 Venus, 1 Mercury
You can craft a golem from the earth. Doing so costs 2 concentration, one for the spell, one for a piece of your mind that is temporarily given to the construct. You also need to put some of your blood into the golem, to give it a portion of your life energy. This costs 1 hit point and bonds the golem to you.

Golems are made of dirt and clay. They have hit points equal to the successes you rolled to create them plus your magic power. They have strength equal to your willpower, agility equal to your magic power, and intuition and intelligence of 1. They have no will. They should be immune to social skills, as they lack the intelligence to be affected by them. But should they be afflicted by social pressure or something that lowers their concentration, they must either give in, dispel their energy and crumble, or have their owner take the concentration loss on their behalf. The owner can order the golem to disperse itself. Golems disperse automatically at the end of a scene.

Golems obey all verbal commands you give them, but they tend to interpret them in the most literal way possible, and they never get bored, tired, or distracted. It is said that Mount Chumori was created when a golem's owner told it to make a pile of dirt and then died of a heart attack.

Rephath
2013-04-10, 05:26 AM
Djinn

Djinn are elemental spirits that are embodiments of magical energy. The singular form of "djinn" is "djinni." "Djinn" is pronounced like "gin" as in the alcohol or the card game or cotton-processing device.

Those familiar with the genie may recognize the term. Those more familiar with genies will remember that genies were shape-shifting spirits that were not primarily in the business of wish granting, but if you bound them under magical control they could be forced to do whatever you wanted. Your wish was their command. All of that only partly relates to this game.

Djinn each represent a particular element. Every djinni you are bonded with grants a +1 to a particular attribute, without increasing the cost to raise that attribute. For instance, fire djinn increase your agility. So if you have agility 7 it'll cost 8 attribute points to raise it to 8. If you have 3 fire djinn you can write your agility as 7(10). 7 is your natural agility. 10 is your agility for all practical purposes, so when you roll dice equal to your agility by default you'll roll 10 dice. It still costs 8 attribute points to raise agility by 1, giving you agility of 8(11). Djinn can allow you superhuman attribute ratings.

In addition, djinn can allow you access to more spells. For example, lightning control requires one Mars and one Jupiter djinni while time control requires 3 Venus djinni, unless you can find other sources of elemental energy, usually from stunts. So, to repeat, each djinn grants +1 to an attribute, increased access to spells, and a unique special ability. The following chart lists associations:
Venus: +1 to strength, earth magic, abilities related to being strong and tough.
Mars: +1 to agility, fire magic, abilities related to being energetic, strong, fast, and damaging.
Jupiter: +1 to intuition, wind magic, abilities relating to being clever, fast, intuitive, and socially apt.
Mercury: +1 to intelligence, water magic, abilities related to being smart, healthy, and having concentration.
Moon: +1 to willpower, spirit magic, abilities related to control of magic and the spirit.

Read more in the various magic sections to learn more about elemental associations with magic.

You can have a number of djinn equal to your level minus the number of stunts you've taken.

You can set the djinn you won at the beginning of each session as active or passive. A passive djinni grants you the three bonuses mentioned above. An active djinni grants you no bonuses except its magical energy for you to cast spells, and it acts as a familiar. A familiar is a helpful spirit that manifests physically and performs actions on behalf of its companion/owner/pet/friend. See djinn as characters for more information as to what they do as familiars.

An active djinni can also be used to summon. Once used to summon, it is exhausted for the remainder of the session and also requires a full 8 hours of sleep in-game to recover. Once both of these conditions are met it returns to active or passive role.

Djinn as Characters

Djinn are physical creatures who are mostly magical. They can do things physically, but they prefer to use magic to solve issues. They never run out of concentration from casting spells. They typically have 8 in their favored elemental attribute and 5 in all others, as well as skills appropriate to their personality. Most of them are quite versed in spells from their favored category or element type. A djinn always has power of 5 with its own element, regardless of willpower.

Djinn will form a bond with people, a permanent alliance in which the djinni returns to the spirit world and uses the human to interact with the physical one. Djinn may interact with the world to get their goals across, but once they find a human they like who they trust to carry out that goal in some fashion, they'll usually lend their power to that human and return to the spirit world.

If a player picks a djinni as a familiar, he can roleplay it. The djinn might earn a couple experience per session if it's roleplayed well, especially when its actions are contrary to its master's desires.

Djinn can speak. Some do. Some don't.

Djinn have their own goals and desires, often ones which only make partial sense to humans. Here's a listing of typical priorities they might have, usually one to a djinni:

Set everything on fire.
Find suckers to play tricks on.
Find some heroes who're willing to save the world from imminent doom and help them save it.
Pie!
Learn everything.
Teach people something.
Inspire artists to create great works of art.
Find the fastest animal it can and ride it.
Watch everything that goes on as a dispassioned observer.
Provide mocking commentary to everything that goes on.
Disguise self as baby. Get adopted. Hilarity ensues.
Run a profitable business.
Turn lead into gold
Turn gold into lead.
Steal panties.
Dance like there's no tomorrow.


Djinn List

(The djinn list is incomplete, but should probably include a dozen or so by the time I'm finished)

Venus Djinn

Venus djinn are associated with the attribute strength, the element earth, and the forces of space and time that govern all matter. The more earth djinn you possess, the more you can control time and gravity, force and pressure.

Here are some of the Venus djinn of legend:

Quartz
Tough
You have +2 health.

Shale
Strong
Your base damage is increased by 1.

Iron
Thick-skinned
You gain +1 to armor.

Brick
Stubborn
You have +1 armor against social pressure.

Mars Djinn
Mars djinn are associated with the attribute agility, the planet Mars, and balance which governs the flow of energy energy. The more fire djinn you possess, the more you can control light, sound, heat, electricity, and others.

Flash
Heat Vision
You can see heat, like this.

Stoke
Burning Rage
Every time you are hit by an enemy in combat, increase your base damage by 1. This bonus ends immediately after combat.

Glare
Fury
Increase your base damage by 1.

Ember
Energize
Once per session, you can restore two concentration to every ally.

Kindle
Energetic
You have +1 concentration.

Jupiter Djinn
Jupiter djinn are associated with the attribute intuition, the element of air, and psyche which governs the mind. The more air djinn you possess, the more you can alter the perceptions and thoughts of others.

Gust
Tail Wind
All your ranged attacks do +1 damage.

Breath
Vicious
You inflict +1 social pressure when dealing social attacks.

Zephyr
Flight
Your jump skill also functions as a fly skill. When you spend one concentration, you become airborne, able to fly with invisible wings for one turn/action. It costs another point of concentration each turn to maintain flight. If you run out of concentration in midair, it is not good.

Mercury Djinn
Mercury djinn are associated with the attribute intelligence, the element of water, and chi which governs all living things. The more water djinn you possess, the more you can heal, injure, or change living creatures and plants.

Spritz
Regeneration
After every combat session, regain one health

Physic
Healthy
You have +2 health.

Blood
Vampirism
Whenever you kill an enemy, gain 1 health.

Moon Djinn
Moon djinn are associated with the attribute will, the element of spirit, and the power of soul that governs magical energy. The more spirit djinn you possess, the more you can control the power of psyenergy and other magics.

Love
?

Joy
Double Power
If this djinni isn't used in casting a spell, it makes another djinni count twice. For example, if a particular spell requires 2 Mars djinn to cast and you only have one, you can make that Mars djinni add its power twice to the spell.

Peace
Inner Peace
You have 1 armor against all social pressure.

Patience
Long-suffering
You have +2 dice to resist all social pressure.

Kindness
?

Goodness
Helpful Wild Card
This djinni can act as a djinni of any type for the purposes of determining which spells you can cast. For instance, if you need two fire and one air djinni to cast a spell, but only have one of each, you can have this act as a fire djinni for that spell, and later act as a different type when you want to cast a different spell.

Faith
Confidence
You have +1 die for casting all spells, even with other elements.

Gentleness
?

Self-control
Reservoir of Will
Gain +1 concentration.

Wrath
Combat Caster
In combat, all your spells do +2 damage if you have this djinn with you. This also means that the spells do at least 2 damage even if the target's armor would otherwise nullify that. Furthermore, any spells that would not deal damage, or would even be beneficial to allies, still deal 2 damage. This djinn can be deactivated or activated once per session.

Sloth
Naptime
You restore one point of concentration per turn in combat that you are asleep.

Envy
Mimic
Once per session, choose another character's djinni and copy its ability. If active, you may pay the concentration cost for the ability and use it once that session. If passive, you may benefit from the ability for an entire scene.

Gluttony
Spirit Eater
Every time you kill an enemy, gain one point of concentration.

Pride
Powerful
Add +1 to your power.

Lust
Glamorous
Subtle illusions increase your attractiveness, giving you +2 dice to dealing with people of the opposite gender.

Greed
?

Rephath
2013-04-10, 05:42 AM
I have yet to post my items list and glossary. I have yet to write rules for summoning. I have yet to figure out exactly how I want summoning to look. I have also not posted rules for kudos yet.

Kudos

Kudos are points the GM gives out as a reward to players. She rewards them whenever she feels like for actions she wants to see more of. Some examples are below:

A player does something hilarious WHILE STAYING IN CHARACTER.
A player roleplays his character to his detriment while making the story better.
She offers a kudo or two as a bribe for a character to do what she wants, provided it doesn't have the character acting out of character.
A player moves the story forward when it's come to a standstill, or causes it to become more interesting.


A kudo can be spent to get 3 extra dice for a roll, or to reroll all failed dice. Your character can never have more than 3 kudos at any given time.

Temotei
2013-04-10, 06:25 AM
Magic power is mentioned several times, but I haven't found out how to calculate it. The closest I found was that talismans raise your magical power.

There are also a few typos here and there (such as typing "Earth" instead of "Venus" when referring to djinn requirements in spells).

Also, you'll need to elaborate on actions every round. Do you get to perform only one action per round or are you allowed (for example) to perform a support action and a basic attack in the same round?

A character would look something like this, correct?

Concept: Gish
Element: Water
Strength: 7
Agility: 7
Intuition: 3
Intelligence: 6 (7)
Will: 7

Health: 17
Base Damage: 4
Ranged Damage: 2
Armor: Medium or lesser
Concentration: 11

Favored Skills: Athletic; Sage

Run 2 (3), Endurance 3 (4), Balance 2 (3), Medium 4, Dodge 4, Deceive 2, Determination 2, First Aid 2, Treatment 2, Purification 2, Perception 2, Water Control 3, Healing 2, Bodily Control 2, Resist Magic 3 (4), Resist Status 2 (3)

Djinn: Blood - Vampirism - Kill enemy, (re)gain 1 health


You should really change Blood to say "regain" 1 health instead of "gain." Gain implies that you permanently gain 1 health every time you kill an enemy.


Anyway, with the above character, using a normal Medium weapon, I make a Standard Attack (because there's no reason to ever Basic Attack) against an enemy with Agility 5 and 2 points in the Dodge skill.

Rolling 7d6 with success being on a 4 or less, I roll 5, 6, 2, 6, 2, 5, 1 for 3/7 successes. I roll no 1s on the critical confirmations.

The enemy rolls 5d6 with success being on a 2 or less for 4, 2, 6, 6, 2 for 2/5 successes. This means that I succeed in beating the enemy's defense and I am able to deal damage equal to my successes (3) minus the enemy's successes (2) plus my base damage because it's a Standard Attack, for 4 + 3 - 2 = 5 damage this round.

Did I do that right?

Rephath
2013-04-10, 06:55 AM
Okay. The magic power thing was a stupid oversight. Fixed in the original (it's half of willpower).

Will fix djinn. Will clarify actions per round.

Your character looks great. I'm too tired right now to do the math on your skills but they look about right and your attributes are correct. You included a djinn on your sheet thinking you got to pick whatever djinn you wanted. The GM will allow you to recruit djinn as you find them over the course of your campaign. You don't normally start with them. There is no reason in the rules I have written for you to think that was the case and I will adjust them tomorrow.

You only roll 1 die to determine if you crit. Yes, there is generally no reason to do a basic attack, as they automatically do less damage. Occasional side benefits allow you to do things with a basic attack you can't do with a standard attack. (Knives can ignore armor with a basic attack, unarmed attacks are only basic attacks, certain spells are basic attacks with benefits. Much of this hasn't shown up in rules I've posted.)

Temotei
2013-04-10, 11:21 PM
Okay. The magic power thing was a stupid oversight. Fixed in the original (it's half of willpower).

Cool.


Will fix djinn. Will clarify actions per round.

Good.


Your character looks great. I'm too tired right now to do the math on your skills but they look about right and your attributes are correct. You included a djinn on your sheet thinking you got to pick whatever djinn you wanted. The GM will allow you to recruit djinn as you find them over the course of your campaign. You don't normally start with them. There is no reason in the rules I have written for you to think that was the case and I will adjust them tomorrow.

Ah. What happens if a level 1 character takes a stunt and then acquires a djinn before the GM says he/she is level 2? Can he/she give up the benefits of the stunt to gain the benefits of the djinn? Can he/she switch between them at will? Does he/she just have to wait until level 2?


You only roll 1 die to determine if you crit.

Ah. Okay. I thought it was for every successful hit.


Yes, there is generally no reason to do a basic attack, as they automatically do less damage. Occasional side benefits allow you to do things with a basic attack you can't do with a standard attack. (Knives can ignore armor with a basic attack, unarmed attacks are only basic attacks, certain spells are basic attacks with benefits. Much of this hasn't shown up in rules I've posted.)

I see. That works.

If you need help, I can provide some.

Rephath
2013-04-11, 12:31 AM
I'm open for suggestions; you can post them here. Apply for permission to edit the wiki if you really want to help.

GunbladeKnight
2013-04-11, 12:59 AM
I glanced over most of it, but I do have a few questions:
Why use your method over Shadowrun's dice pool (Roll stat + skill dice, 5 and 6s are successes, add or subtract dice based on difficulty, etc)?

What is the spirit affinity represent (people either had one of the four elements or no psynergy at all)? How will you handle people changing affinities based on set djinn (as it does in the games)?

Will you do anything with the summons from the games?

Why emulate the battle system if it's supposed to be a tabletop? It is very unrealistic as people will want to move around to get the best attacks and such.

And is it required to have an old guy follow you around while stating the obvious? =P

Rephath
2013-04-11, 01:21 AM
I glanced over most of it, but I do have a few questions:
Why use your method over Shadowrun's dice pool (Roll stat + skill dice, 5 and 6s are successes, add or subtract dice based on difficulty, etc)?
I wanted to try something a bit different. It seemed an interesting way of doing things. Do you see any major reasons why Shadowrun's system would be better?




What is the spirit affinity represent (people either had one of the four elements or no psynergy at all)? How will you handle people changing affinities based on set djinn (as it does in the games)?

Spirit is affinity with the fifth element, moon djinn, the power of magic itself. Spirit control the spiritual but has minimal effect on the physical. It's main purpose is to manipulate other spells.



Will you do anything with the summons from the games?
I haven't figured out entirely how I want to run them. I don't want them to be simply super-powerful attacks. I'm thinking summons have goals and personalities, and if you do them a favor, act according to their principles, or go on a quest for them they'll allow you to summon them a certain number of times. For example, you might summon an angel to revive a party member if you've done a selfless and sacrificing deed since the last time you summoned that angel. Or Thor might agree to come and shock the stuffing out of your enemies once you've gone on a quest to retrieve Mjolnir. But it's only half thought out.



Why emulate the battle system if it's supposed to be a tabletop? It is very unrealistic as people will want to move around to get the best attacks and such.

The hope was to focus on formation than position. I can always scrap that part without uprooting much of the rest of the game if people think it's more of a hindrance and a pain than a simplification and an improvement.

Again, I wanted to do something different. But the reason it might not have been done before is it's a bad idea.



And is it required to have an old guy follow you around while stating the obvious? =P
Not required, but strongly suggested. You also need to roll really high on your determination roll to interrupt the bad guy's monologuing or ready yourself for battle while he's talking. Roleplaying is usually limited to saying "yes" or "no," and then the GM ignoring what you said and going on with his predetermined path. On the plus side, the GM is strongly discouraged from throwing a party of non-boss enemies at you that it takes more than one turn to completely annihilate. A severely difficult fight might take 2 rounds and have party members lose up to 10% of their health. If you can't regain enough energy to heal your party from a dozen battles after walking around for a few minutes, the GM's causing too much trouble.
(for those of you unfamiliar with the games, this last paragraph is entirely sarcasm)

GunbladeKnight
2013-04-11, 02:40 AM
I wanted to try something a bit different. It seemed an interesting way of doing things. Do you see any major reasons why Shadowrun's system would be better?
It depends on whether you can raise a favored skill to 4(5) or not, but other than that, it seems okay.




Spirit is affinity with the fifth element, moon djinn, the power of magic itself. Spirit control the spiritual but has minimal effect on the physical. It's main purpose is to manipulate other spells.
Ah, I just don't remember that from the games.



I haven't figured out entirely how I want to run them. I don't want them to be simply super-powerful attacks. I'm thinking summons have goals and personalities, and if you do them a favor, act according to their principles, or go on a quest for them they'll allow you to summon them a certain number of times. For example, you might summon an angel to revive a party member if you've done a selfless and sacrificing deed since the last time you summoned that angel. Or Thor might agree to come and shock the stuffing out of your enemies once you've gone on a quest to retrieve Mjolnir. But it's only half thought out.
Good luck with that, then. Unfortunately I have no ideas other than super powerful attacks.



The hope was to focus on formation than position. I can always scrap that part without uprooting much of the rest of the game if people think it's more of a hindrance and a pain than a simplification and an improvement.

Again, I wanted to do something different. But the reason it might not have been done before is it's a bad idea.
It just seems contrived for this format (and even for RPGs. That's why I prefer more Real time based games and tactics games fighting engines).



Not required, but strongly suggested. You also need to roll really high on your determination roll to interrupt the bad guy's monologuing or ready yourself for battle while he's talking. Roleplaying is usually limited to saying "yes" or "no," and then the GM ignoring what you said and going on with his predetermined path. On the plus side, the GM is strongly discouraged from throwing a party of non-boss enemies at you that it takes more than one turn to completely annihilate. A severely difficult fight might take 2 rounds and have party members lose up to 10% of their health. If you can't regain enough energy to heal your party from a dozen battles after walking around for a few minutes, the GM's causing too much trouble.
(for those of you unfamiliar with the games, this last paragraph is entirely sarcasm)
Glad you got the joke, though you forgot to alternate between 2 djinn to reduce all damage by 50-90% and simply use attack.

Temotei
2013-04-11, 03:15 AM
It depends on whether you can raise a favored skill to 4(5) or not, but other than that, it seems okay.

I don't think you can as the rules are written currently.


You can't raise skills above 4.

It doesn't say skill ranks, so I assume it's impossible to have skills with a bonus of 4 (5). The above quote should really be iterated again in the skills section, though. Clarification on the rule would also be good.

Rephath
2013-04-11, 03:29 AM
Tem, you agree with Gunblade about the position system?

I added moon djinn. They are not in any Golden Sun game. I'm thinking as a campaign setting someone blew up the moon. Many shards fell to earth, and the big chunks are still in orbit, at least those that didn't crash into the earth or drift off into space. Same with the element spirit. It added functionality and balance that I liked. Plus, you can't do a summon ritual for Captain Planet without heart.

You can raise a skill to 4 (5). I clarified the rules so they make sense on that part.



You pick two favored skill groups for your character, and get +1 to all skills in that category. This does not increase the cost of skills. So you start with all skills in a favored category at 2, even if they're not on your sheet. It costs 2 points to raise them to 3. You might want to write the actual value of favored skills in parentheses next to the value you're paying to upgrade them at. So if you bought medium weapons at 3 and have melee as a favored skill group, you can write medium 3 (4). If you also have long weapons at 4, you write 4 (5), to reflect that while you paid for it to be at rank 4, it acts as if it's at rank 5.

Temotei
2013-04-11, 04:07 AM
Tem, you agree with Gunblade about the position system?

Sort of. The combat seems like it would quickly get stale. Perhaps a number of grids could be created so that for certain terrains and areas, the grid would be different.

For an example, let's use a snowy tundra terrain template on an open field.

{table]F8|F7|F6|F5|F4|F3|F2|F1
E8|E7|E6|E5|E4|E3|E2|E1
D8|D7|D6|D5|D4|D3|D2|D1
C8|C7|C6|C5|C4|C3|C2|C1
B8|B7|B6|B5|B4|B3|B2|B1
A8|A7|A6|A5|A4|A3|A2|A1[/table]

Bold spaces are considered snowy terrain. Any movement out of these spaces allows an enemy in melee range to attack or block you, regardless of how far you move.


Additional possible snowy terrain effects:


You are considered to have 1 less rank in all weapon skills while in snowy terrain.
Fire magic used while in snowy terrain costs 1 more concentration.
Fire magic used in snowy terrain deals 1 less damage.
Water magic used in snowy terrain deals 1 additional damage.
You are considered to have 1 less rank in certain skills while in snowy terrain.


This idea can extend to other types of terrain, as well, such as volcanic terrain, mountainous terrain, forest terrain, and so on. Plains would likely be the base template.

The size of the template would likely be based on multiple factors, such as area available to fight (tight corridors and small rooms being smaller, fields being larger), type of terrain, whether it's a city or non-city combat, or altered terrain, such as if a monster destroys much of the surrounding area on a plateau to create an arena of sorts.

My ideas for other types of terrain below:


Forest terrain would have trees populating some spaces, making them impassable without the climb skill. With it, players (and enemies) could attempt to climb to gain higher ground. This climbing would allow nearby creatures to attack or block as if the climber had attempted to move more than one space.
Forest terrain would likely have brush to provide concealment.
Volcanic terrain might have geyser spaces, where every round or two, a geyser bursts, forcing anyone in that space to an adjacent space (roll 1d8 or have player/GM decide) and dealing (water/fire/combination) damage.
Volcanic terrain might have some spaces that are very hot to step on even with footwear, forcing anyone using magic in that space to use 1 additional concentration for each spell and forcing anyone attacked in that space to be treated as if the dodge skill was 1 rank lower.
Mountainous terrain might have possible avalanche spaces, where the space would slip away and force the character to make a balance check to avoid damage/going prone/falling out of combat.
Underwater terrain could be really interesting, with three-dimensional movement and bubble spaces, where air is provided to those who need it, but in those spaces, you rise at a rate of two spaces per round or something.


Anyway. Just ideas. I think you could keep the current system if the combat didn't get stale, but it's likely to if the grid stays the same all the time.

Rephath
2013-04-11, 03:26 PM
Yeah. I think that was a unique and clever idea that needs to die. Words are cheap. Ideas are cheaper. I'll rebuild from scratch rather than try to fix something with an endemic flaw.

Rephath
2013-04-15, 05:31 PM
New Movement System

Combat is divided into zones. A zone is a distinct area of the combat field. A room, a balcony, a section of a cave, a clearing in the forest, and a hill on a plain would all be zones. A melee attack strikes an enemy within the same zone. Ranged attacks usually can't hit within the same zone, but can strike several zones away. Social attacks and magical attacks can strike in either the same zone or a zone far away.

Zones can have several characteristics.
Cover: This is protection from ranged and magical attacks. It adds its bonus to the defender's ability to avoid ranged and magical attacks.
Obstacles: This adds a penalty for attacks and combatants to move through the zones, as if they had to travel through extra zones.
Concealment: This acts as a penalty to spot anything in the area. If the zone has any concealment, it's possible to use stealth in the zone. You can't sneak through a zone with no concealment; there's nowhere to hide. Exceptions can occur if you have magical concealment or an applicable stunt that grants concealment.
Mess: This is a generic modifier that combines the above three into a single statistic. If a zone has mess 3, it has cover, obstacles, and concealment at 3.

When making long-distance attack, whether ranged, magical, or social, the successes you roll must not only match or beat the target's defense, they must also match or beat the number of zones away you are attacking plus the obstacles of any zones your attack passes through. You also must have line of sight to the target, or if attacking an entire zone than the area where the target is. For social attacks, this isn't necessarily the case. You only need a plausible explanation of how your social attack will affect the target. Your voice will bounce along cavern walls, but your combat mooning will require the target to see you and is a more directional attack. So with social attacks, mess and line of sight aren't as important.

Similarly, an agility times run roll needs to match or beat the number of additional spaces you want to travel through, with extra left over to meet any obstacles you come up against.

Certain magical attacks can cover an entire zone. Unless specified otherwise, the affect everyone in the zone, friend, or foe. You roll once to hit, and all targets roll individually to defend. Those that succeed are immune while those that fail are hit.

Daracaex
2013-04-16, 06:50 PM
Ah, I just don't remember that from the games.


That's because there isn't anything like that in the games.

I'd be very careful about adding it. Especially if you build other aspects of the system around its existence. For one thing, people may wish to play games set earlier in Weyard's history, such as during the events of the games, or just after the rising of the Golden Sun, or even before the Lighthouses were built, meaning they would not have access to this fifth element.

Also, as of Dark Dawn, there may well already be a fifth element. We don't really know yet. Only that Dark Adepts are a thing.

Finally, remember that Weyard is a flat world. There may not be such a thing as an "orbit." :P

Rephath
2013-04-18, 01:26 AM
The fifth element allows me magic that controls other magic. Right now, there's no other place to put that. I'd have to divide up these spells among the other four, and that doesn't make sense to me. I mean, I could see fire empowering magic and water dispelling it, but it's still hard to divide up.

I'd also have to divide up all the trappings of willpower into the other attributes. Since willpower has few uses outside of spell power, I'd probably put it all into intelligence. I'm debating whether that would be way too overpowered, or if willpower is way too underpowered at the moment.

Draconi Redfir
2013-04-18, 01:31 AM
i am unfortonately illitirate when it comes to rule systems and the likes, however i would like to say that i'm well aware of Golden Sun and am infact re-playing the seccond game for the third time now:smallbiggrin: So just letting you know that your not the only Adept in the playground!