Arthur Lives! Fate Edition, Dev Blog #3: Enchantment

Publisher’s Note: Tune in here for our latest Developer’s Blog for Arthur Lives! Fate Edition. Click the link below to hit the books with Jason Tondro and talk about High Concepts and the origins of Arthur Lives!

Welcome to our third dev blog on the development of Arthur Lives! for Fate. I keep forgetting that not everyone knows what AL! is; I’ve been working on it for so long, and talking about it so much, that I presume everyone is sick and tired of it. So here’s the high concept for AL!:

Arthur Lives! is an urban fantasy roleplaying game of occult mystery and cinematic action in which the player characters are modern reincarnations of Arthurian figures.

Everything else is elaboration.

AL! was originally written for Green Ronin’s True20 system, and one of the nice things about True20 was that it already had a well developed set of tools for magic-working characters, including a long list of magical powers of broad utility paired with specific applications. I didn’t have to invent a magic system for that game; I just had to detail how enchantment, the particular style of magic most seen in Arthurian literature, differed from the norm.

My situation now is different. I have to develop enchantment “from the ground up” and, because enchantment is not the only kind of magic in the world, I have to ensure there are some basic ground rules GMs can use for magic in general, at least until more specific plug-ins are developed for things like Hermetic Theurgy, Voodoo, or what have you.

The resulting system has been inspired from many sources. Players of the Dresden Files RPG will see a relationship, especially in the magician’s use of three skills: one for your knowledge, one for your “magical muscle”, and one for control. But this is actually an old concept in RPGs, going at least as far back as West End’s original Star Wars RPG, where Force-users trained Sense (“knowing”), Alter (“muscle”), and Control. The idea was elegant then and it’s reliable now, allowing for character variation without over-burdening the skill list.

Magic is then broken down into talents, each of which has a broad use, possibly augmented by specific spells for narrow applications. For example, Glamour is a kind of temporary reality. Stronger than illusion, glamours are real for their duration but then vanish along with their consequences. You can burn someone with a glamour of fire, but when the spell ends, he will be unharmed. The rules for glamour give broad guidelines on how enchanters might use it, but a player can also rely on pre-made effects like The Blinding Spell or Conjuring the Armored Warrior. This system is inspired by Ars Magica, True20, and Greg Stafford’s rules for magician characters in Pendragon (now in an out-of-print edition of what is surely a master’s masterpiece). Talents are unlocked as stunts, but characters with a magician high concept get free picks equal to their ranks in Occult (the “magical knowledge” skill for AL!).

In some games, magicians have charges or “spells per day,” (My notes on a Savage Worlds version of AL! used that system, for example.) but Fate has stress boxes and consequences for this purpose, and wizards in Dresden’s world take mental stress when they work magic. Enchantment is a little different thematically, though mechanically it works very much the same. In settings like Dresden’s, the magician has to gather power and then direct it. But enchantment is not hard to unleash; it’s all too easy. The enchanter does not struggle to get magic to activate, he works to make it stop. As the enchanter channels magic from the Other Side, from across the Faerie Veil, he rolls dice and accepts enchantment onto himself, represented as stress and consequences. But these consequences are not injuries, they are magical side-effects: computers break when you touch them, animals attack you, your shadow is stolen by pixies. Those who have seen Pendragon or Boorman’s Excalibur will recognize the concept of magical sleep, owed by the magician to faerie powers who fuel his magic. In AL!, owing sleep or service is just one of the possible consequences of what Lord Dunsany called, “too much magic.”

Fate Core works well for enchantment. For example, the idea that a failure can become “success at a major cost” is perfect for enchantment, which never fails in the source literature. That is, if Merlin casts a spell on you, it pretty much always works. This suggests a mechanic in which an enchanter can always turn a failed spell into a success, if he is prepared to accept enough enchantment on himself to make up the difference.

My emphasis is on enchantment, but if you take out the unusual consequences and just inflict all stress as physical or mental harm, the system works for “magic” in a general sense. Even the idea that “Enchantment never fails” is really just a Fate Core rule taken to its extreme. Detailing other magical systems in real occult traditions or literature is not a priority with the initial release of AL!, but the generic system we have will be good enough for now, useful for both player characters who are not enchanters and for GM characters with distinct magical styles.

I don’t want to turn a simple blog post into a chapter on magical mechanics (especially when the current draft will benefit from considerable playtesting), but I also want to give you something concrete. So let’s close with the list of magical talents.

The Magical Talents

• Binding: You can force creatures (usually animals, Faeries, demons or angels) to obey you. The greatest binding spells enslave the victim or trap him in a prison of your own devising.
• Blessings and Curses: You can place positive or negative aspects on a target (individuals, objects, or places), or remove those aspects.
• Dispel: Use your magic to oppose or remove the magic of another magician.
• Divination: Your awareness of the influence of magical forces allows you answer specific questions.
• Emotion: You can manipulate the emotions of others, causing passion, sleep, or other effects. Emotion magic is often channeled through music.
• Glamour: Glamour is the temporary alteration of reality. It is a kind of illusion, but the illusions are real for the duration of the magic. It is used to craft disguises, to create advantages in battle, to add drama to a scene, and more.
• Healing: A magician can hasten the natural healing process or perform miraculous cures, albeit at great cost.
• Necromancy: Necromancers summon the spirits of the dead, forcing them to answer questions, or cause corpses to walk again.
• Refuge: You have access to a magical realm which cannot be entered by ordinary means; you can practice magic in power and safety there, and it makes a handy prison.
• Shapeshift: Many magicians are able to adopt the form of a specific animal, but a few are able to change their shape at will.
• Summon and Banish: You have the power to call or dismiss animals, Faeries, or other supernatural beings from the surrounding region or from across the Veil.
• Travel: Supernatural travel is faster than ordinary travel and skilled magicians can bring many allies with them, crossing impassible terrain at great speed.
• Unseen Hand: You can move objects without touching them; the power of the Unseen Hand can also be used to strike physical blows using only magic.
• Ward: You can use your magic to protect people, objects, or places.
• Weather Control: This is the calling or dismissal of fair or inclement weather, including storms.

I’ll answer all questions, and will see you next time.