Magic In The Genesys System
Magic permeates the world of many fantasy settings,
though the ability to harness its power remains
beyond the grasp of most mortals. Of course, both PCs
and their enemies tend to be a cut above, so magic is
likely to feature prominently in your fantasy game.
We’ve described several magic skills already (Arcana, Divine, and Primal, on page 70), and as a GM, you may use some combination of these skills or create entirely new magic skills unique to your campaign. Regardless, magic skills have certain commonalities that require some additional rules, much like combat skills.
For the sake of convenience, we might sometimes refer to actions using magic skill checks as spells, regardless of the source of the magic. Within the campaign world, it can add a lot of flavor if you use various terms to differentiate kinds of magic, especially when it comes to in-game dialogue. For instance, priests using the Divine skill might perform miracles, while druids may summon animal allies, and wizards may use the Arcana skill to fling bolts of fire at their foes.
Spellcasters
Spellcasters, or individuals who can use magic, are anyone who has at least one rank in a magic skill. If your character does not have at least one rank in a magic skill, they cannot attempt to use magic. This includes performing any of the magic actions and maneuvers listed later in this section.
All spellcasters, no matter what type of magic they use, also need to have a certain amount of knowledge concerning magic and its possibilities. For this reason, your character is going to benefit greatly from having a couple of ranks in the Knowledge skill if they want to be a spellcaster.
Magic skills are potent and incredibly versatile. Although we suggest rules restrictions on training magic skills, as the GM you might want to consider imposing additional in-game requirements. Not only does this add more challenge for PCs seeking such power, but it provides an opportunity to underscore the rarity and power of magic and to illustrate how it fits into your setting. A character who wants to advance in Thaumaturgy might be required to abide by the rules of their religious order to receive training. You may require a would-be wizard to seek out a tutor and convince them to accept an apprentice, or to discover and study an ancient tome of spells.
Using Magic in Narrative Encounters
Magic checks are fundamentally handled like any other skill check, and called for in the same circumstances. As with any other skill, you should generally only require a check when there are dramatic results or consequences for failure. For instance, a character who regularly manifests fire-based effects using their magic skill shouldn’t need a check to magically light a torch or campfire. Similarly, a priest who has shown themself to be a master of the healing arts shouldn’t need a check to ease the pain of a dying NPC.
With magic skills being so open ended, judging and resolving magic skill checks may seem challenging, but it really doesn’t need to present much more complication than using any other skill. Instead of looking at the "how" of the spell, focus on the end result to decide on a difficulty for the check. If the spell is basically replicating the effects of a mundane skill, assign the difficulty correspondingly, but consider increasing it by one. Magic shouldn’t be a catchall skill that eliminates the need for any others. Magically levitating over a river is more difficult than swimming across from an objective view, although your character might find it easier if they aren’t trained in Athletics (or don't want to get wet).
Resolving a magic skill check is really no different from resolving any other check. If the check succeeds, the character achieves what they set out to. How exactly that happens is shown by the positive and negative symbols left in the pool, as interpreted by you and your players. One good guideline for magic, however, is that accomplishing something through the use of magic should rarely be as easy as accomplishing the same task by using the skill designed for it. Magic can be a generalist skill, but it shouldn’t be a way to master everything.
Magic is more taxing than other activities in one other respect. When your character casts a spell that requires a check (whether or not the check succeeds), they suffer 2 strain after resolving the check. This limit keeps magicusing characters from using magic indiscriminately. Note that magic-using characters only suffer strain when they need to make a check to cast a spell, so minor and narrative spell effects do not impose this penalty.
Generally, magic also has unique requirements for use. The character may have to make certain gestures, say specific words, or just spend a few precious moments focusing on the spell. If your character can’t do that, casting the spell becomes harder. See Table III.2–3: Penalties When Casting Spells, on the previous page, for some conditions that may make it harder for a character to cast a spell.
Magic can also be risky, and casting it can come with consequences. Table III.2–4: Spending h and d on Magic Skill Checks lays out some of the consequences, and the h and d needed to trigger them. You may note that the consequences tend to be worse than the consequences characters normally suffer for h and d. We did that deliberately, as a balance for magic’s power and flexibility. After all, with great power comes the occasional risk of turning yourself into a toad.
The effects of magic skill checks may be instantaneous or, rarely, permanent. Generally, spells used in structured gameplay either have an immediate effect or a persistent effect for as long as the character uses maneuvers to concentrate on the spell. At your discretion, outside of structured gameplay, some effects may last for the duration of an encounter or scene.
Quite a few of our spells are supposed to be maintained over multiple rounds to provide an ongoing effect. In structured encounters, your character does this by performing the Concentration maneuver. However, in narrative encounters, tracking individual maneuvers can be unnecessarily tedious.
Instead, we suggest taking a more narrative approach to concentration and maintaining spells. You can decide that a character can't perform some activities while also concentrating on a spell, such as tasks that might take a lot of their attention. A character might also start suffering strain if they try to maintain a spell over time. Finally, if something happens that could interrupt a character's concentration, you can have your player make an Average (d d ) Discipline check. Failure means their character loses concentration, and the spell ends.
Resisting Magic
High-level adversaries such as nemeses usually have a rank or three in the Adversary talent, which makes them more of a challenge in a fight. The Adversary talent upgrades the difficulty of combat checks targeting the NPC, and this obviously applies to Attack spells. However, other spells may seem like a way to get around the Adversary talent. Therefore, we recommend that you upgrade the difficulty of any spells targeting an NPC a number of times equal to that NPC's ranks in Adversary. This should be enough to make nemeses feel dangerous.
We’ve described several magic skills already (Arcana, Divine, and Primal, on page 70), and as a GM, you may use some combination of these skills or create entirely new magic skills unique to your campaign. Regardless, magic skills have certain commonalities that require some additional rules, much like combat skills.
For the sake of convenience, we might sometimes refer to actions using magic skill checks as spells, regardless of the source of the magic. Within the campaign world, it can add a lot of flavor if you use various terms to differentiate kinds of magic, especially when it comes to in-game dialogue. For instance, priests using the Divine skill might perform miracles, while druids may summon animal allies, and wizards may use the Arcana skill to fling bolts of fire at their foes.
Spellcasters
Spellcasters, or individuals who can use magic, are anyone who has at least one rank in a magic skill. If your character does not have at least one rank in a magic skill, they cannot attempt to use magic. This includes performing any of the magic actions and maneuvers listed later in this section.
All spellcasters, no matter what type of magic they use, also need to have a certain amount of knowledge concerning magic and its possibilities. For this reason, your character is going to benefit greatly from having a couple of ranks in the Knowledge skill if they want to be a spellcaster.
Magic skills are potent and incredibly versatile. Although we suggest rules restrictions on training magic skills, as the GM you might want to consider imposing additional in-game requirements. Not only does this add more challenge for PCs seeking such power, but it provides an opportunity to underscore the rarity and power of magic and to illustrate how it fits into your setting. A character who wants to advance in Thaumaturgy might be required to abide by the rules of their religious order to receive training. You may require a would-be wizard to seek out a tutor and convince them to accept an apprentice, or to discover and study an ancient tome of spells.
Using Magic in Narrative Encounters
Magic checks are fundamentally handled like any other skill check, and called for in the same circumstances. As with any other skill, you should generally only require a check when there are dramatic results or consequences for failure. For instance, a character who regularly manifests fire-based effects using their magic skill shouldn’t need a check to magically light a torch or campfire. Similarly, a priest who has shown themself to be a master of the healing arts shouldn’t need a check to ease the pain of a dying NPC.
With magic skills being so open ended, judging and resolving magic skill checks may seem challenging, but it really doesn’t need to present much more complication than using any other skill. Instead of looking at the "how" of the spell, focus on the end result to decide on a difficulty for the check. If the spell is basically replicating the effects of a mundane skill, assign the difficulty correspondingly, but consider increasing it by one. Magic shouldn’t be a catchall skill that eliminates the need for any others. Magically levitating over a river is more difficult than swimming across from an objective view, although your character might find it easier if they aren’t trained in Athletics (or don't want to get wet).
Resolving a magic skill check is really no different from resolving any other check. If the check succeeds, the character achieves what they set out to. How exactly that happens is shown by the positive and negative symbols left in the pool, as interpreted by you and your players. One good guideline for magic, however, is that accomplishing something through the use of magic should rarely be as easy as accomplishing the same task by using the skill designed for it. Magic can be a generalist skill, but it shouldn’t be a way to master everything.
Magic is more taxing than other activities in one other respect. When your character casts a spell that requires a check (whether or not the check succeeds), they suffer 2 strain after resolving the check. This limit keeps magicusing characters from using magic indiscriminately. Note that magic-using characters only suffer strain when they need to make a check to cast a spell, so minor and narrative spell effects do not impose this penalty.
Generally, magic also has unique requirements for use. The character may have to make certain gestures, say specific words, or just spend a few precious moments focusing on the spell. If your character can’t do that, casting the spell becomes harder. See Table III.2–3: Penalties When Casting Spells, on the previous page, for some conditions that may make it harder for a character to cast a spell.
Magic can also be risky, and casting it can come with consequences. Table III.2–4: Spending h and d on Magic Skill Checks lays out some of the consequences, and the h and d needed to trigger them. You may note that the consequences tend to be worse than the consequences characters normally suffer for h and d. We did that deliberately, as a balance for magic’s power and flexibility. After all, with great power comes the occasional risk of turning yourself into a toad.
The effects of magic skill checks may be instantaneous or, rarely, permanent. Generally, spells used in structured gameplay either have an immediate effect or a persistent effect for as long as the character uses maneuvers to concentrate on the spell. At your discretion, outside of structured gameplay, some effects may last for the duration of an encounter or scene.
Quite a few of our spells are supposed to be maintained over multiple rounds to provide an ongoing effect. In structured encounters, your character does this by performing the Concentration maneuver. However, in narrative encounters, tracking individual maneuvers can be unnecessarily tedious.
Instead, we suggest taking a more narrative approach to concentration and maintaining spells. You can decide that a character can't perform some activities while also concentrating on a spell, such as tasks that might take a lot of their attention. A character might also start suffering strain if they try to maintain a spell over time. Finally, if something happens that could interrupt a character's concentration, you can have your player make an Average (d d ) Discipline check. Failure means their character loses concentration, and the spell ends.
Resisting Magic
High-level adversaries such as nemeses usually have a rank or three in the Adversary talent, which makes them more of a challenge in a fight. The Adversary talent upgrades the difficulty of combat checks targeting the NPC, and this obviously applies to Attack spells. However, other spells may seem like a way to get around the Adversary talent. Therefore, we recommend that you upgrade the difficulty of any spells targeting an NPC a number of times equal to that NPC's ranks in Adversary. This should be enough to make nemeses feel dangerous.
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