Sorcery

[hidajiremi]

I've been kicking around a campaign setting for Fantasy Craft where magic is powered by blood sacrifice. As I was thinking about it, I realized that with the way campaign qualities are set up, there are lots of potential directions for magic in an FC game. I figured I'd post up my idea for blood magic here, and see if I could get any input, or if anyone else wanted to show off what they're doing with magic in their campaign.


Campaign Quality: Blood Magic (2 Action Dice)
Magic does not come without sacrifice--specifically, blood sacrifice. In order to use sorcery, a caster must inflict upon himself or a helpless or willing victim an amount of damage equal to the spell point cost of the spell. Casters still have their usual spell point limit for each encounter; the blood spilled is an additional cost of using magic. Spilling blood is a free action if the caster has a sharp implement in hand, or a half action if he must use desperate measures to draw the blood (such as biting through his own skin, or so on).
If the blood sacrifice causes the death of a sentient creature (either through dealing enough damage or by inflicting a coup de grace on a helpless foe), the spell gains the Potent Magic quality.


Got any interesting ones?


Jeremy Puckett

[Sletchman]

I'm toying with the idea of a Ritual Spellcasting quality, wherin anyone with spell points can contribute said spell points to a ritual spell.  These are huge area, high yield effects [like control weather for an entire landmass, cast a lessor spell on huge numbers of people, or terraform entire regions].

Rituals typically take a long time to cast and require more spell points then a single mage can usually muster.  They also frequently have a Reputation cost, but some / all of this can be offset by the backing of a governmental body [who flavourtext wise supply the costly materials, and foster good opinion of the spell effect among the community].

[Dhampire]

. In order to use sorcery, a caster must inflict upon himself or a helpless or willing victim an amount of damage equal to the spell point cost of the spell.

Would a Mage be able to stab someone else (attack with edged weapon) for the damage?  (or with a weapon with Bleed?)  Or are you specifically talking Wound damage versus Vitality?

[hidajiremi]

Would a Mage be able to stab someone else (attack with edged weapon) for the damage?  (or with a weapon with Bleed?)  Or are you specifically talking Wound damage versus Vitality?

The way I've written it (and the way I envision it working) is that you need a few moments to have access to the blood to do anything useful with it. Thus, you have to take it from yourself or a willing/helpless person (who is, by virtue of being willing or helpless, holding still while you cut them). I could see room for some advanced spellcasting feats that let you use blood spilled as part of an attack, but that's not a default part of the quality. And it's just damage; if you have vitality, it comes off that first.


Jeremy Puckett

[Desertpuma]

I would think that they would need to be killed or at least deliver wound damage probably through a coup de grace. This would also allow you to reinforce the idea of the blood needing to be freshly spilled to be effective, and possibly only evil aligned people might have access.

[Big_Jim]

Yeah, sacrificing someone is a classic of blood magic using a victim's instead of the caster's own blood.

[tenebrae]

In case you haven't seen it yet, the Dark Ritual feat in Call to Arms: The Infernalist grants a coup de grace trick that grants spellcasters a nice benefit for blood sacrifices.

[hidajiremi]

In case you haven't seen it yet, the Dark Ritual feat in Call to Arms: The Infernalist grants a coup de grace trick that grants spellcasters a nice benefit for blood sacrifices.

I saw that! It's cool, I agree. And I think that it doesn't really conflict with my idea for an all-blood-all-the-time sort of sorcery; it just adds another layer to it. ^_^


Jeremy Puckett