Character Creation - Pre-requisites for Magic Use (Part III) - Magic Stunt

Faithful readers of this blog may see that much of the following information looks kind of familiar. That's because the basis for much of SoG's Magic Stunt is based upon what Mike has already written elsewhere in this blog:

http://spiritoftheblank.blogspot.com/2008/04/fantasy-magic-basics.html
http://spiritoftheblank.blogspot.com/2009/03/fantasy-incantation-magic.html

This entry will focus more specifically on the following:

• What differentiates the Magic Stunt from the Magic Skill
• Applications of the Magic Stunt within SoG

First off, within SoG I generically use the term "Sorcery" to describe the generation of magical effects via the use of the Magic Stunt. "Wizardry" is the skill-based generation of magical effects.

In my opinion, the term "sorcery" is probably most used by Wizards as a derogatory term. Sorcerors would likely consider that stunt-based magic is perhaps the purest expression of magic: the instinctual ability to generate magical effects at a moment’s notice, with little or no prior preparation. Wizards would probably scoff at the notion, considering the (ab)use of Magic (with a capital M) without sufficient study as ignorant folly... ;)

Magic Stunt Overview

• The Magic Stunt and the Magic Skill are not mutually exclusive. Someone could choose to take both. In fact, I suspect many of the REALLY powerful Wizards probably do have both, in order to allow them the maximum flexibility in generating magical effects. This would be akin to a "Master" craftsman saying something like, "You have to KNOW the rules, before you can BREAK them..."
  
• The character must still have a Magic-related Aspect in order to generate magical effects.
  
• The Magic Stunt allows the user to create magical effects on the fly, without having to memorize spells.
• Generating magical effects via the Magic Stunt requires the user to roll the normal 4dF (versus the 2dF+2 of the Magic Skill). This also means that Stunt-based magic is also more prone to failure.
• When using the Magic Stunt to generate Magical effects, the user can elect to expend as many FATE points as desired (up to what they have available) per casting to gain the necessary effect. Obviously, this can make things rather easy for a Sorceror to get in over his head in a tough situation.
  

OPEN ISSUE/VARIANT: Should the Magic Stunt require a FATE point to activate the Stunt? Many powerful stunts in SotC RAW require the expenditure of a FATE point to activate them--should the Magic Stunt? My current feeling is NO, the Magic stunt should not require a FATE point to activate it.

• Based upon what little play we've done with SoG and reading other people's experiences, I think I would rather players use FATE points to have fun and bring the awesome, not as the basis of how many spells their character can cast.
• Even if it was a requirement, I would be inclined to give the player the benefit of having expended that FATE point as if they had elected to spend it in the normal fashion.
• This decision might also be dependent upon the realm where this is being applied. In a realm where magic is rarer (or the ability to cast it is rare), it might be more appropriate.
  

Important Difference between the Magic Stunt versus other SotC Stunts
Within SotC RAW, most (if not all) other Stunts are tied to a pre-set Skill requirement. However within the High Fantasy realm of Greyhawk, the PLAYER will determine what skill is tied to the Magical Stunt. Some examples are:

• A Bard capable of generating magic effects via his song would tie his Art Skill to the Magic Stunt.
• A dwarven blacksmith creating magic armor or weapons would tie her Art Skill (broken out as the "Craft" skill in SoG) to her Magic Stunt.
• Healers or Alchemists could generate magical healing effects by combining the Science (known as the "Physick" skill in SoG) to their Magic Stunt.
  
• High "level" thieves with the Magic Stunt could combine the Magic Stunt with Stealth or Burglary
• Rangers could combine the Survival skill with the Magic Stunt.
  
• A "pure" Sorceror would likely combine the Magic Stunt with the Resolve skill--the gift/curse to generate magic effects purely by willpower.
  
• Many powers of the Monk class might be translated by combining the Magic Stunt with Athletics or Fists skills.
  

So I think this provides a convenient method by which we can translate the magical effects attributed to higher levels of a particular class in the source material, without having to get too rule-crunchy.

DESIGN CONSIDERATION: Can a player tie the Magic Stunt to more than one skill? In other words, could a player have a character with both Art Skill and the Craft Skill be able to sing magical songs AND create magic weapons? On the surface, I don't see why not. At least in the High Fantasy realm of common magic. I think it might present some challenges to the player as to having a clear picture of the character--but that would be common to any sort of "multi-class" type.


Gameplay Implications
A Sorceror (or someone using the Magic Stunt as their primary method of surviving combat) could find himself running out of FATE points pretty quick in a conflict.

This was on purpose. Sorcerors (and Wizards) are supposed to be smart folks: whether that's expressed as "book smart" or "street smart" or "crazy to tamper with forces beyond their reckoning" is up to the player.

So if a player is to effectively run this kind of character, this setup encourages a player to really pay attention to Aspects (whether in their opponents, themselves or in the scene) and work to tag them as much as possible and thus avoid having to tap into their own FATE points.

Literary Example: The Dresden Files. Consider how much more effective magic users are in a conflict when they have the opportunity to research their opponent, dictate the conditions, or otherwise are able to "tag the aspects"!

Fantasy: Artifice's Balancing Act

Reader inkylj made this comment on the Artifice entry:

Do you have any thoughts on the balance issue here? Unlike the other magic you've introduced, this one seems like it gives a permanent multi-use bonus -- effectively, it's a free stunt. Or stunts plural, since you can make multiple items, right? I'm pretty fast-and-loose about character balance in FATE but this seems like it's pushing it a bit.

Is the balance here that you can't have another kind of faster on-demand magic like Incantation? Or is it that the characters are finding magic items anyway, so what this gives you is mainly the ability to determine more precisely what you get?

Excellent points. I started to reply with another comment, but then it got so long I figured it deserved its own post.

I agree that there's a potential balance issue here, especially with a certain type of player. My problem is that I'm not that type of player, so I sometimes forget about that guy. The players in our playtest group definitely found some areas in the rules I'd written that were ripe for exploitation -- without purposely trying to min-max -- so I can totally accept that Artifice, as written, fits into that category.

One easy fix, and something that I've gone back and forth on, is reducing Refresh by 1 (or more) per item created with Artifice. That should slow down the magic-wand-factory PCs.

I see the inherent balancing factors as more narrative. If you're making a "standard gadget" -- that is, an item with three improvements -- it'll likely take a few weeks or more of game time. Is it always possible for your character to take that kind of time off? (It does go to the heart of the problem with things like Artifice and Alchemy, though, and that's that the things they let you do pretty much happen "off screen." They're down-time activities.) That's sort of up to the GM, I guess. In practical terms, it could mean cranking out one magic item of some kind between adventures, which doesn't really seem likely to create a glut of magic items. But that is, again, making an assumption about how other players and GMs will operate.

If you spend Fate Points to generate more shifts, you can speed up the process, but then you're also spending Fate Points, which lessens your ability to impact the story in other ways. Next session, you'll get those Fate Points back, so maybe that would render the whole point moot, but I'm considering having Fate Points refresh at the beginning of every story arc instead of every session, which would definitely affect things.

(Now, if you have Great Craft and roll ++++, you not only get it done in just a few days, but, in my games, you'll get a Fate Point to boot. But I'm not opposed to a character pulling off something legendary like that now and then.)

The other narrative balancer (and again, this is totally GM-dependent, so it's not much of a balancer) is that since the item wasn't acquired through a boon, I, as GM, would have no problem taking it away at some point. There's no real investment in it, so it doesn't have the narrative importance a boon-derived item would have. Either it gets irretrievably lost or stolen, or we just "forget about it" at the end of the story arc. This isn't really implied in anything I wrote, but it is in my head -- and is it really so unreasonable that you people should read my mind?

Reducing Refresh, to me, seems like a pretty good all-around adjustment here. However, if Refresh were reduced, I wouldn't be so ready to just take it away. It's too significant a character investment.

Another option, and one that I like, would be to require someone to take a story aspect for the item -- if not the artificer, then the PC who gets the item. It'd mean that you could never acquire more PC-created items than you had available story aspect slots. It also means giving up some flexibility for your character during play, and that if you don't have a story aspect open, then, well, you don't get this magic sword. Think of a reason. I'm not so interested in simulation here; justify it narratively. YMMV.

So here's my proposed fix. When a character makes an item with Artifice, one of two things happens:

• Temporary Item: Either the artificer or the recipient of the item takes a story aspect related to the item. The item has no "narrative protection." It can be irretrievably lost or stolen, and disappears at the end of the story arc in any event. If the player chooses to make the story aspect a permanent one later, which he can do at any time, the item becomes a Permanent Item, as below.
• Permanent Item: The artificer reduces his Refresh by 1, and at the end of the story arc the item automatically becomes the character's next boon... and all that entails.
  

How's that?