Magic and Might in Nehwon

Magic

In this world, it is important to note that while magic is present, it is not pervasive. In other words, a common citizen of the world does not encounter magical items nor displays of magic on an every day basis. For most citizens, it's quite uncommon and for some, very rare. That said, magic is an extremely powerful force.
As a player character, this may effect you in the following ways:

• While magical items are sold, you won't find any "magic shops".. shops full of magical items. Any vendor who has an item for sale will have come across it by rare opportunity, and the item is therefore likely very costly. It is also possible that a vendor has an item that he is unaware that it is magical in nature. Some vendors specialize in the procurement of magical items: these individuals often hire adventurers to go and collect items of magic so that they can in turn be sold to his select list of clientelle he may be always on the look out for new magical items, or on the lookout for a specific type of item. Follow the Sale of Magic Items as a guide in selling your magical items.

• Obtaining a magical item is one thing -- keeping it is another. Because magical items are relatively rare, the common citizenry would be in the very least, awestruck by what you have if they realize it's a magical item. Others may be envious enough to try and take it from you. Be aware that it isn't always wise to display or use your magical items, especially in seedier places. With the same concept in mind, spell casters displaying magic even as simple as cantrips can cause quite a stir, depending on who is witnessing them and in what setting. Nehwon's spell casters know this very well and keep their abilities hidden as much as possible until they know they are in an accepting environment. Some villages may be filled with citizens who fear magics and deem spellcasters as evil abominations. Other villages know of a local druid and know of her abilities, and accept them readily; these villagers seeing magical abilities displayed by your character would be much less shocked, and possibly even accustomed to certain types of magic. That said, they are still in awe -- it's much the same as witnessing a great artist draw a picture before your eyes. It's an ever fascinating skill no matter how many times you've seen it.

• With the above said, think about how magic would be displayed, whether it be in at item, weapons, or in spell that's been cast. Not everything has "fireworks" with it. For example: A longsword +1 doesn't necessarily look like anything magical. It just looks like a nice long sword. The only person that knows of its special abilities is you, really. A lot of magical rings are like this. They just look like rings, nothing special -- unless of course the description of the item includes something remarkable about it that makes it obvious. Another item like Alchemy Jug may only be obvious if someone was being really observant and notices that the user pours 4 gallons of beer from the same jug that she just poured a gallon of wine from 1 minute earlier. Yet another item like a Wand of Pyrotechnics can be obvious as it can shoot a burst of fireworks from its tip. Some spells, like Cone of Cold, are obvious as a blast of cold air erupts from your hands. The effects of other spells, like Suggestion could be seen as an act of charismatic convicing instead of anything arcane.

Might

Player characters are notable individuals when contrasted against the world's general population. Most people have simple backgrounds, common occupations, and a relatively simple life. Outside of cities, most are involved in agriculture, raising livestock, or running a business that serves people who do. Within cities, you will encounter a greater diversity of occupations that increases with the size of that city. For example, you aren't going to find a jewelry store in Featherdown, but you will find dozens of them in Lankhmar. As such, most people find their niche within this occupational mosaic and stick with it for the majority of their lives, unlessed forced to do something else. Player characters, on the other hand, are individuals who do not choose the mundane life. Instead, they live a life that most would only fantasize about and nearly everyone would fear to live.
With that in mind, Player Characters are exceptional not only in what drives them, but in physical, mental, and psychological traits. In game mechanics, common citizens' stats follow the bell-curve, meaning that their stats tend to gravitate between 9 - 11 (e.g. Strength, Constitution, Charisma, etc). Your player character however is blessed with divine advantage, and as such, when rolling for their stats, advantage and extra chance is given to their outcome. The logic behind this is that the physical, mental, and psychological composition of what it takes to be an adventurer is statistically more remarkable than that of a common citizen. Not everyone has the "grit" that it takes to abandon the relative safety and security of their village and put themselves in the face of danger.

The Divine Advantage System

The following system which I call "The Divine Advantage" system is used to determine your character's statistics. You will note that the system does not guarantee that you will have greater stats than that of a commoner, only that you are given extra chance at it. If your roll is at or below modal averages, it is the will of the Gods and you shall accept it as such.

1. Roll 6d6

1. Separate any dice that rolled a 1 or 2

1. Re-roll those dice that rolled a 1 or 2

1. From all dice results, pick the 3 highest dice and write down the sum

1. Repeat the above process 5 more times. You should now have 6 numbers written down.

1. Apply each one of those numbers to which stat you desire.

1. Be sure to account for your character's class when doing so, e.g. Fighters will likely have Strength as their strongest stat vs. Rogues who would likely have a higher Dexterity. That said, the choice is yours; if you want to create a Fighter that has a higher intelligence than she is in strength, go for it.

Example:

Character: Conan, a split-class Barbarian / Rogue

• First roll of 6d6 results: 6,4,4,4,2,1.

• Since there is a 1 and 2, I'm re-rolling those two dice. I re-roll and get a 6 and 5.

• So now, the results of my 6 dice are: 6,6,5,4,4,4

• I choose the three highest dice, which are 6,6,5

• 6+6+5=17. This is my first stat. I'm not assigning this or any other rolls to a character stat yet until the very end of all rolls.

• Second roll of 6d6 results: 4,4,3,3,3,1

• Since there is a 1, I re-roll that one die. I re-roll and I get a 1 yet again. This time I have to accept the 1.

• So now, my results of my 6 dice stay the same at 4,4,3,3,3,1

• I choose the three highest dice, which are 4,4,3

• 4+4+3= 11

• Third roll of 6d6 results: 2,2,1,1,1,1

• Since all dice are a 2 or a 1, I re-roll all of them. I re-roll and get 6,6,2,1,1,1

• I choose the three highest dice, which are 6,6,2

• 6+6+2= 14

• Fourth roll of 6d6 results: 4,3,2,2,2,1

• Re-rolling all 2's and 1's, my new results are: 5,5,4,3,2,1

• I choose the three highest dice, which are 5,5,4

• 5+5+4= 14

• Fifth roll of 6d6 results: 6,6,5,5,3,2

• I re-roll the 2, and get a 3, making my new results 6,6,5,5,3,3

• I choose the three highest dice, which are 6,6,5

• 6+6+5= 17

• Sixth roll of 6d6 results: 4,2,2,2,2,1

• I re-roll the 2's and 1's : My new results: 4,2,2,2,1,1

• I choose the three highest dice: 4,2,2

• 4+2+2= 8. You'll note that this is lower than the average range of 9-11. The dice gods have determined Conan to have one stat lower than the common citizen, so be it.

So now, I have six numbers that I need to assign to Conan's stats: 17,17,14,14,11,8
Because Conan is a Barbarian and a Rogue, I feel like I want to make sure his Strength and his Dexterity are his strongest traits, so I'm definitely assigning the two 17's to those two stats:
STR: 17 CON: DEX: 17 INT: WIS: CHA:
So now, I'm left with 14,14,11, 8. From here, given that I have a lower than average stat, I'm going to figure out which stat will suffer the most. In gamer culture, whatever stat I assign this number to is called a "dump stat", meaning that stat is either of no advantage to my game rolls, and quite possibly a disadvantage to my game rolls. So which stat should I "dump"? Hm. Well, I don't want the barbarian side of Conan to have a low Constitution. I also don't want the rogue side of Conan to have a low Charisma, so I'm not going to dump either of those. So I'm left with Intelligence and Wisdom. Well, it's feasible that the rogue side of Conan could do better with a better Intelligence, so that leaves me with Wisdom. My dump stat is Wisdom, so I assign the 8 to Wisdom.
STR: 17 CON: DEX: 17 INT: WIS: 8 CHA:
Since Intelligence was the other stat that I was considering as a dump stat, I'm going to assign my next lowest stat number of 11 to that. That then leaves me with the two 14's, which I assign to Constitution and Charisma.
STR: 17 CON: 14 DEX: 17 INT: 11 WIS: 8 CHA: 14
Comparing Conan's stats to that of a common citizen, you can see that he is much more superior in Strength, Dexterity, and remarkably superior in Constituion and Charisma. This makes sense. Conan the Barbarian / Rogue is surely destined to be seen as legendary amongst common folks with great assets like that. In his case, he's also of common intelligence, and not as wise as most folk, so that "humanizes" him to a certain degree as well. All in all, this makes for a great combination. The fact that he gets 6d6 rolls, with a chance to re-roll for higher when he gets a 1 or 2, then chooses the best 3 of those results is better than the average commoner gets, which is a simple 3d6 roll, and they get what they get.
Here's what I mean. I'm now going to roll for Conan like I would for an NPC:

• 1st roll of 3d6: 5,2,2 = 9

• 2nd roll of 3d6: 5,5,3 = 13

• 3rd roll of 3d6: 6,2,1 = 9

• 4th roll of 3d6: 6,6,2= 14

• 5th roll of 3d6: 5,2,2 = 9

• 6th roll of 3d6: 6,5,5 = 17

Using the same thought process on assigning these numbers to his stats, Conan would look like this:
STR: 17 : 0 points higher than 17 CON: 13: 1 point lower than 14 DEX: 14: 3 points lower than 17 INT: 9: 2 points lower than 11 WIS: 9: 1 point higher than 8 CHA: 9: 5 points lower than 14
He still has an excellent strength compared to the every day person, and is remarkable in Constitution and Dexterity, but on everything else, meh. So here, he still would be "better than the average bear", but not quite as "divinely touched" as the first system. All that in mind, it is possible that even with the advantage way to roll, the dice gods could still deem that he is endowed with average stats (9 - 11). In that case, just play your character the best way you can and see where it goes! I've seen the most interesting games played with the most statistically unremarkable characters. Sometimes the lack of statistical advantage makes it so that you have to be more creative and in some cases more cautious in your decision making, which are advantages in and of themselves.