The Magical Arts

A game about mages creating a home for themselves in the middle ages of Europe. They must contend with their own dangerous but awesome power, the laws of their organization and all manner of magical and mundane threats.

by Max von Sivers

What is this?

 This is a roleplaying game about powerful mages working together to build a magical home in Europe during the middle ages, research magic and grow their power. They have to deal with their own magical organization, with its complex rules and restrictions, all the people without magical abilities that fear the mages and the very real magical beasts and creatures that inhabit Legendary Europe.

If you’re interested in setting up a game, discussing rules or contribute, join this Discord:

https://discord.gg/p7PGc2rRZX

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Credits

This game is inspired by:

•  Ars Magica (Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen wrote the 1st edition. Ars Magica Fourth edition, by Jeff Tidball and John Nephew, Ars Magica Fifth edition by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen).
• *Blades in the Dark (John Harper, Blades in the Dark)
• Powered by the Apocalypse (D. Vincent Baker, Meguey Baker). It is also heavily inspired
• Wizard World, by Jared Hunt.

Also a huge thanks to the playtesters: Yare, Andres, Nazim, James, Lev and Marco

The Setting, Legendary Europe - Primer

It's Europe in the middle ages and everything people believed in back then is real. Faeries dance in the woods. Dragons hoard treasure in the mountains. Trolls hide under bridges. Angels and devils exist to protect and cheat, respectively. There is definitely a God that hears your prayers. Mages also exist of course. Other than that, medieval Europe looks as it did back then. Christianity is the big religion and feudalism is the system of governance. This setting is called Legendary Europe.

The Mark

The Mark is what makes mages magical. One in ten thousand people are born with The Mark. In short, it's the ability to observe, harness and channel magical energy. Anyone born with The Mark will also gain an aura of untrustworthiness. Everyone who interacts with them assumes the absolute worst about them. People with the Mark can rarely function in a normal society due to this. With time and prolonged exposure to the Mark, people can get used to someone's mark. Apprentices will also stop feeling the effect of their Masters mark when they have been together for a season or two.

How does the magic system work?

In this game, the mages combine a verb and an noun to create spells. For instance, to create a fireball you would use the verb Create along with the noun Fire. There are certain limitations to magic both in which verbs and nouns you can use, but also what you can affect in the real world. You can read in depth about the system in the section called The Scales Magic on page (XX).

There are 15 different magical disciplines to create spells. There are 5 verbs, referred to as

Modus (verbs):

Create: To create from nothing. Magically bring forth something or make something broken whole.

Destroy: Weaken, ruin or destroy something or in other ways make something deteriorate in condition. Remove something from existence.

Change: Change the properties of something like height or weight but also appearance.

Perceive: Change how you perceive something. You can see through a mold/perceive from a mold/gain information from a mold.

Control: Move something in space, both physical and mental. Can be used to move a large rock or a thought in someone's head.

There are 10 different Nouns, called

Molds (nouns):

Beast: Normal animals that exist in the world.

Water:The element of water but also most liquids like beer and milk.

Air: The element of air but also winds.

Body: Specifically human bodies. The medieval paradigm makes a clear distinction between the human body and the beast body.

Flora: Plants like wood, flowers, grass and bushes.

Fire: The element of fire but also heat. Heat can also be removed with the Modus Destroy to create cold.

Sensations: Perceptions that you receive like sights, sounds and taste among others. Can be real or created.

Mood: Considered a person's soul or spirit. Their thoughts, emotions, memories. Also the spirits of dead bodies like ghosts.

Earth: The element of Earth but also most objects mostly made from it. Dirt, stone, metals..

Magic: Magic itself. This includes magical creatures as well as spells. Magic is the form that governs the ability to counter the magic of other magi

The Scale

The Scale is the largest organization of mages in Europe. Several other organizations have existed before but due to the untrustworthy nature of people bearing the mark, the mages have always ended up fighting. The founder of The Scale invented “The Barrier”, a simple spell that protects against magical effects, including the effects of the Mark. The Scale has also developed their own way of using and channeling magic that is taught to apprentices.

The name comes from the founders considering the organization to always take a measured and balanced response, hence the Scale.

The Barrier - Is an invisible magical shield that stops arcane energies from affecting the person protected by the barrier. It also stops the effect of the mark from affecting the user of The Barrier, meaning two people with The Barrier can interact without constantly thinking the other is malicious or devious.

The Scale in Medieval society - The Scale occupies a delicate position in the Medieval power balance. While the Scale holds awesome power, they are not untouchable. Magic can not overcome Holy powers. Priests are hard to affect with magic, and near a church, magic is harder to perform. Devils and beings from Hell are likewise hard to affect with spells. Furthermore, Mages are extremely outnumbered in society and if commons were to meet a mage, they would instantly feel as if the Mage is untrustworthy, due to the mark. If the Pope

was to declare magic to be something Satanic, the Scale would be in great trouble. Thus, the Scale has strict Laws of how it works. Some important Laws are to never slay another mage belonging to the Scale, never intrude in the issues of the commoners (the unmarked humans) and to never do deals with devils.

Pact- magical bases for the mages

 A Pact is a small settlement where magi have gathered to study magic and develop their skills. The game takes place in a Pact that the players will manage. Some Pacts are large and in their prime with scores of mages and some are smaller containing just a handful.

The system in short

The game is played as a conversation. The players will describe what their characters do and say what their characters say. The GM will describe what the world looks like, what NPCs say and what happens outside of the player characters control. following certain rules outlined in the GM chapter (XX). When the players describe their characters taking certain actions, such as casting a spell, figuring out a complicated puzzle or punch someone in the face they will trigger certain “moves”. These moves can be found in the “Basic Moves” section. Each move defines a specific trigger that starts the move ?, for example “when a player casts a spontaneous spell.” Then it will describe what happens, which usually involves a roll of some dice based on a skill. Once the roll is done (or if there was no roll) the move describes the results and play returns to the conversation again.

Rolls

Most moves require a roll. All rolls are done with six sided dice. When you perform a roll, you take as many six sided dice as you have dots in the respective skill. In the following image, if a person used their Create value for something, they have two marked dots and would roll two dice. If they used Change, they would only roll one die due to one marked dot. If they used Perceive, they would roll two dice and take the lowest result due to not having any dots.

There are four possible outcomes.

• Two (or more) sixes: Critical Success. You do everything you set out to do and more!
• One six: Success! You do what you set out to do.
• Four or five: Success with a complication, trouble or stall. You did what you set out to do but there was a complication along the way.
• Three, two or one: Miss! Something bad happens!

If you have no dots in the relevant skill, you roll two dice and take the lowest result. Some moves let you increase the amount of dice you roll, like Exerting yourself.

Skills

Your mage has three normal skills and 15 Disciplines (Magical skills). The normal skills are:

• Body - Your strength, agility and physical fitness.
• Mind - Your knowledge, the application of that knowledge and your research ability
• Spirit - Your courage and convincing character and ability to study others. If you convince through lies or charm, it’s still your spirit that matters.

The 15 Magical Skills can be found, under [Section Name], where the magic system is explained.

How do I start playing this game?

1. To get the gist of how the magic system works in detail, check out The Scales Magic (XX). Knowing that you create magic using a Modus+Mold is basically 80% of the system, but there are certain things magic can’t do, such as create life or change the true form of something. All the details are in the The Scales Magic section at page (XX)
2. Create your Pact by going to Pact Creation (XX) to start creating the central hub where your Mages will live and adventure from.
3. Create your Mage at Mage Creation (XX).
4. Set up a situation using the Hooks of the Pact, your Mages goals and beliefs and start playing using the Basic Moves on page (XX) and maybe cast a spell using the Spell moves on page (XX). You can use this handout with just the moves for easy reference.

Glossary

Amber - Magical essence in physical form. Required to make any magical effect permanent. The most important currency to mages.

Pact - A small settlement usually in a magical place where mages do study and practice magic.

The Mark - The ability to use magical energies. Gives the person an aura of untrustworthiness.

Mage - A person bearing the Mark that is trained to use magic. A player's main character.

The Scale - The largest organization of mages in Europe.

The Barrier - A magical shield that mages of the Scale are taught. Makes it harder to affect them with magic. Negates the untrustworthiness effects of the Mark coming from other mages.

The Disciplines - The 15 Modus’ and Molds taught to the mages of the Scale. This is only one way to sort magic into a theoretical framework, but it’s not the only one. Other organizations have their own views on how magic functions.

Modus - The five verbs that are used in spells.

Mold - The ten nouns that are used in spells.

Companion - A secondary player character that has no magical skills (usually) but is skilled with other things.

Peon(s) - The simple peasants inhabiting the pact that can also be used as player characters.

Blight - Magical residue that is a consequence of magic. Too much can lead to entering the Aurora.

Aurora - It’s unclear exactly what it is, but it could be considered a different dimension that mages sometimes experience as a consequence of using magic. Most mages eventually leave this world to permanently disappear into the Aurora.

Basic Moves

Handout of the Basic Moves for printing.

The Basic moves are the rules that will come into play most often. When characters do something dangerous like fighting, talking their way out of trouble or gathering information, this is where the rules are.

All characters can trigger these moves in the ongoing conversation as long as their description matches the trigger of the move and they are in a fictional position to trigger it and accomplish what they set out to do.

Structure of the Chapter

Each move has the triggers “When you ____” then any roll is defined and what the results mean.

Move in depth explains the move on a deeper level if there are some confusions about it.

Examples provide examples when a move functions as intended and when it can be ignored or another move should be used first.

Overcoming

When you overcome an interesting or dangerous problem, roll + the dots in the relevant stat.

On a critical hit, You overcome and more. The GM will offer you a better outcome, a moment of true beauty or incredible insight into a problem.

On a strong hit, you overcome

On a partial hit You overcome with a complication

Move in depth

Overcome is the catch all move for doing dangerous or hard things without involving magic. It could be jumping over a ravine(body), fighting someone (body), charming someone (spirit), making a deal with a noble(spirit), figuring out someone's motives (spirit), recalling information(mind), applying knowledge to a situation(mind), understanding a complex political issue within the Scales(Mind or spirit depending on how you try to understand it) , knowing the Code and it’s intricacies (mind)

As all moves, this requires following the fiction. There will be situations you can’t overcome with your skills alone. You won’t be strong enough to lift a house (without magic) or be able to talk someone into something they would never ever do. Consider changing your approach or setting a different goal for your overcome.

Examples

Following are three examples where one is a situation a character could overcome, a situation that is impossible to overcome, at least in the way the player wants it at first, and a situation where the player character is at such an advantage, due to prior actions, that there is nothing to overcome.

Sarah’s character, Elric, is fighting a human knight and they are evenly matched in skill. Sarah says “I change tactics suddenly and come at him with huge violent swings of my sword”. Petronalla the GM nods, “Sounds like you’re trying to overcome him in battle, go ahead and roll”. Sarah rolls her body, which is 2. Her highest result is a five. “Describe how you defeat him” says Petronella to Sarah. “After my first swing knocks his sword out of his hand, the second swing cuts him across his left leg, making him unable to move properly and he falls to the ground”. Since Sarah's roll was a 5, which is a partial hit, Petronella adds a small complication, “He falls to the ground but manages to cut you as he falls, take 2 harm”.

Pete’s character, Dara, is fighting a dragon. “I want to kill him with my sword”. Pete grabs the dice but before he starts rolling, Petronella, the GM, stops him. “Your character has just a simple sword against a mighty dragon, there is no way you could overcome him in a fight.”. Pete reluctantly agrees. “I’ll try to even the odds first with some magic…”

Lisa's character, Elddottir has just cast a Perceive Mood spell on a noblewoman to see her desires to get a better deal in a negotiation. The GM, Petronella, has stated that the most important thing for the noblewoman is for her castle to remain standing. “So now that I know exactly what the noblewoman wants, I can seal the deal right? I start talking about how much I could help her with making her castle remain where it is, how with the aid of some magic, it might even become larger and more famous than it is.” Lisa picks up some dice and is ready to roll but Petronella stops her. “Since you’re seeing straight into her mind this doesn’t require a roll. You’ve given her exactly what she wants and there is no resistance to overcome.” “Sweet!” says Lisa.

Aiding/Interfering

When you aid/interfere with another player character who is trying to overcome, give them +1d/-1d and mark 1 fatigue.  Any consequence suffered by the roll will also extend to you. Any number of player characters (mages, companions and player controlled Peons) can aid as long as it makes sense in the fiction.

NPC:s Aiding

An NPC with a suitable skillset can aid a PC character with +1 die if they take a useful action. On a partial hit, they suffer some form of consequence.

Aiding when performing spells^[a][b]

Aiding another mage casting a spell is difficult due to the unpredictable nature of magic and each mage's slightly different way of casting. It is possible to aid only if the caster and the helper's mind are linked, by an Perceive Mood spell or another magical effect such as Perceive Magic. However, most magi are wary of letting another magi read their thoughts, even when it’s just casting a spell.

Gather Information

When you study a situation, person or place to figure something out, roll+

Body: If you’re ransacking a place or threatening someone.

Mind: If you examine a scene, gather clues or observe.

Spirit: If you’re being friendly, reading someone's demeanor or figuring out social standings.

Critical Hit: You see far beneath the surface. The GM will give you very useful and surprising insights. Ask 2 questions about what you’re studying.

Strong Hit: The GM will give you useful information then ask 2 questions about what you’re studying.

Weak hit:The GM will give you troubling but useful information then you may ask 1 question about what you’re studying.

Miss: You’ve discovered something bad.

Example Questions:

Who’s backing your character?

What’s your character hoping to get from ____?

How could I get your character to _____ ?

What does your character worry might happen?

What happened here recently?

What should I be watchful for?

What here is not what it appears to be?

Who’s really in control here?

What here is useful or valuable?

Fatigued

After you’ve performed an action and all your fatigue is marked, choose one:

• You fall unconscious. Take 1 harm and hope your allies can save you.
• Draw strength from the Magic. Mark 4 Blight and remove 6 fatigue.

Exerting yourself

On any die roll while triggering Spontaneous or prepared casting or a basic move you may exert yourself to gain extra dice on the roll.

Mark any number of fatigue (from left going right) and get that many extra dice to roll. You can’t exert yourself more than your unmarked fatigue.

One fatigue marked in the image above.

5 fatigue marked.

Removing Fatigue

Based on your rest you regain different amounts of fatigue:

Clear all fatigue: Resting at the Pact for a few weeks.

4 fatigue: A nights sleep (or a few nights sleep) and a meal at a safe camp or village.

3 fatigue: A night (or a few nights sleep) sleep in the wilderness.

Move in depth

When you exert yourself you focus extra hard or push yourself harder. It increases the risk of you losing control in the long term but might give you the extra boost you need in the moment.

Botching a roll

This move does not trigger on a roll where you exert yourself. When you're fatigued there's a chance of an extreme failure with dire consequences. If your highest die is the same value or lower than the highest number marked on your fatigue track, you get an extreme failure.

Examples:

• Severe harm
• Your tiredness catching up to you
• Enter Aurora
• Being severely outplayed
• Making a big mistake

In this image, a botch would happen if the highest die roll showed a 1.

Here, a botch would happen on a 3.

This would also be a botch on a 3.

Fortune Roll

When you roll for a situation the PC:s aren’t involved in, make a fortune roll. Start with 1 die for pure luck, then add +1 die for each major advantage and -1 die for each major disadvantage. The results are as a standard overcome roll.

Move in depth

This is used when Peons are acting independently or when the GM wants to resolve a situation the PC:s are not involved in by letting fortune decide.

Some examples could include different important tasks the Peons are sent to perform, like trading missions, hunting for a feast or building an important building.

It could also be sending skilled agents spying or performing tasks when the PC:s aren’t present.

Spell Moves

These moves can only be used by mages and all relate to the effects and consequences of magic.

Spontaneous vs prepared spellcasting^[c]

Spell casting can be either spontaneous or prepared.

Spontaneous casting is made up at the spur of the moment to deal with a new problem or a difficult situation. Spontaneous casting has a more wide range of uses but is less powerful and not as safe as prepared casting.

Prepared casting means that the magi uses a spell they have learnt and prepared before. It has a strictly defined effect and is safer to cast.

Spontaneous Casting

When you cast a spontaneous spell roll+ the lowest discipline used.

On a critical hit, Increase a quality of the spell

On a strong hit, it goes off as you want it.

On a partial hit, there will be an arcane mishap.

The baseline is the topmost option in each quality. Spend points equal to your lowest discipline used in the spell to move sections further down. 1 point moves a section one step down

Overcharge: Draw on the natural magic to go above your capabilities. Take 1 Blight (this Blight can never cause a Blight event^[d]) to gain points equal to your discipline again.

Qualities

Casting speed:

• 10 seconds of focus (the default)
• 5 seconds of focus
• 1 second of focus

Subtlety:

• Gestures and clearly enunciated words (the default)
• Only words or Gestures
• Very subtle gestures or words  

Intensity^[e]:

• 0 Intensity
• 1 level of intensity
• 2 Levels of intensity

Size:

• A person or smaller (the default)
• 5 people or so/ size of a wagon
• 10 people or so/size of small cottage
• 25 people or so/ size of a barn
• 50 people or so/ size of a church

Duration:

• Instant/Concentration (the default)
• A quarter of an hour
• One Hour
• A day

Range:

• Touch or Personal (the default)
• In sight within fifteen paces
• In sight within hundred paces
• Sight

Casting Speed

How fast you’re able to cast a spell. It’s important in situations where going first would mean a lot.

Subtlety

How discreet your spell is. The default means you speak in a strong voice with clear enunciation and make large gestures. Anyone who can see you would know something is going on. Only words or gestures still require either a strong voice with clear enunciation or large gestures. Very subtle gestures or words mean that you only do words or gestures in a subtle way. Someone would have to watch you carefully to know that you’re up to something.

Intensity

It’s how much force and pure magic you put into your spell. It’s measured when your magic is being resisted or if your magic is used in a competition with someone else. If you’re trying to penetrate someone's Barrier or magic resistance or in a competition with a Fae prince to see who can make the strangest beast out of a household cat, the intensity of the magic will be the key factor.

Intensity is also the measure of how much harm you inflict. The level of intensity is added onto your standard harm of 2 if a spell is damaging.

Size

How large your target is. You can still target something larger than what the options give you, but you will only affect a part of it corresponding to the size you’ve chosen. For instance, if you’re bold, you could try turning a Dragon the size of a palace into lead, but since the largest size you can target with a spontaneous spell is the size of a church, maybe you could only turn the Dragon's leg into lead.

Duration

Instant means it lasts for a few seconds. Things like: summoning a fireball for a few seconds, stopping someone's heart, creating a small shield to parry a blow etc. When using the Concentration option means it will last until you lose focus.^[f] This can happen if you get hit in the head, go to sleep or are momentarily distracted. The GM can use your lack of concentration as a consequence on a 5-4 roll (if it’s a minor consequence) or on a 1-3 roll (if it’s really bad for you to lose concentration).

Range

Personal means yourself. To touch someone in a fight that is struggling might require you to overcome. If you’re using a Perceive spell to see something that is outside of your eyesight, you can still cast spells using your “extra Amberion” but the range depends on where your person is in regards to the place you’re perceiving. For instance, if you’ve cast a spell on an beast that lets you see through its eyes and the beast, while far away from you, spots the goblin who stole your magical earring, you can cast a spell on the goblin, but the range would be where the goblin is in relation to where your mage is.

Prepared Casting

When you use a prepared spell roll with the highest discipline. 

On a critical hit, You can increase or decrease one of the qualities of the spell this time.

On a strong hit it goes off as detailed.

On a partial hit, The GM will state the consequence of the spell if you choose to go through with it, then Choose: You either let it dissipate without an effect or you go forward with the set consequence.^[g]

Using Amber

When you cast a spell you can spend 1 Amber to do one of the following:

• Count a roll as a critical success, after a roll
• Make an effect permanent

Arcane Mishaps

Arcane mishaps are effects that can come into play on partial hits when you cast spells.

• Smaller effect of the spell,
• Complication occurs,
• Spell creates a problem for an ally,
• Unwanted attention,
• Harm
• Blight,
• Worse position
• Lose concentration (on another spell)

Resource Moves

Chattels

For the purpose of trade, all resources, besides Amber, are counted in chattels. How much one chattel is depends on the resource. Usually, one chattel is enough for:

One week's stay in a simple inn, One night in extreme luxury, The services of a simple worker for a month or so, one small task for an expert craftsman.

If the market is saturated with a resource, one chattel of that resource might only be worth half or one third of it's worth.

If the market is in demand for a specific resource, one chattel of that resource could be worth twice or thrice its value.

One Chattel could therefore be: A few gold coins, a few sacks of grain or common vegetables, a few well skinned hides, a well crafted sword, a barrel of raw resources.

Trade

When you trade one or more chattels for a resource or service roll+chattels traded. On a hit, it's a deal. On a partial hit, they want some more or they will demand something after the deal is done.

Trading Mission

When you send a trading mission to acquire something or someone roll+chattels sent. On a hit, pick 2. On a partial hit, pick 1.

• They return fast
• They return in good condition
• They acquire exactly what you wanted

Example Resources

• Teaching
• Favors
• Craftsmen/workforce
• Mercenaries
• Peasants
• Scribes
• Vassals
• Buildings
• Building materials
• Herbs & Rare minerals
• Wagons
• Architects
• Fodder
• Spices
• Grains
• Managers
• Art & Music
• Land
• Livestock
• Votes at Political meeting
• Gems
• Glasswork
• Worked metals
• Pottery

Aurora Moves

Resisting Aurora

When you try to resist entering Aurora, roll your Blight divided by 2 rounded down. On a miss, you touch Aurora for a few moments and add 1  Blight^[h] but no other effect. On a hit, you enter Aurora.

Enter the Aurora^[i]

When entering Aurora roll + Full Blight If you didn’t resist Aurora, roll -1 die (minimum roll 2 die and take the lowest).

Miss: you fall unconscious for a number of minutes equal to the sum of a roll of your Blight. Your body is still physically present as normal.

Partial Hit: Your body enters a comatose state for a number of days the sum of a roll of your Blight. You cannot be harmed and you cannot interact with the physical world in any way. The appearance of your body changes drastically and for the duration of your coma to reflect the magical event that triggered the move. Take +1 Blight then roll Comprehending The Aurora.

Full hit: your body disappears l for a number of weeks equal to the sum of a roll of your Blight. It returns to the exact place it disappeared from. Take +1  Blight then roll Comprehending The Aurora.

Critical hit: You enter Eternal Aurora. Your body and soul disappear from this world for a number of months equal to the sum of a roll of your Blight. Roll Comprehending The Aurora. If you roll a Miss on comprehending the Aurora, your body never returns.

Comprehending the Aurora

When you attempt to comprehend the Aurora, the GM will ask you some personal questions, answer them and then, roll+Mind. On a critical hit, Gain all three

On a strong hit, pick 2

On a partial hit, Pick 1

• Spontaneous learning -Learn the Formula for a magical effect you have created at least once before as if you Invented the Spell. When you return from Aurora, inscribe it in your spellbook.
• Insight - You will get deeper insight into a problem you’re facing. Ask the GM any two questions about it.
• Magical cleansing - Reduce your Blight by 1d6
• Fast Comprehension - Halve the time you must spend in Aurora

On a miss instead, choose one:

• Epiphany - You see clearly what you must do. Detail your next project and why it’s important and the very serious consequences if you should fail.
• Increase the time spent in Aurora by half of your total time.
• Change - You realize how you are wrong and must change. Detail a character belief your character has that is wrong, why it’s wrong and what you will do to change it.

Regardless of a hit or a miss, your body changes in some way to mark your Aurora experience.

Notes on the move:

Aurora is a unique experience for everyone. Use the questions the GM asks to describe your experience. Maybe you’re reliving a certain moment over and over again or you’re thrown through dimensions, each stranger than the next but they all contain different versions of yourself.

Example GM questions :

When was your weakest moment?

How did your mark first manifest?

Who do you miss the most?

What is your darkest secret?

When did you feel the most powerful?

Peripheral moves

Start of Session

Gm should:

• Summarize last session

Each character may:

Spend experience:

• 4 for a new ability in an asset.
• 8 for a new asset
• 8 for an upgrade to a mold/modus. (Max 10 times)
• 8 for upgrade to mind/body/spirit (max 3 times)

End of Session

Mark XP

At the end of session mark XP if you as a player:

• You worked on a short term goal of your belief. 1xp/goal.
• Your mage completed a short term goal of your belief. 1 XP/ goal.
• Questioned or rejected your mages belief in a dramatic fashion.
• Contributed to the elimination of a major threat to the Pact through a mage, companion or Peon
• Put the pact into danger or hot water by your mages, companions or peons actions.
• Rolled at least one miss this session.

You can only get one XP per trigger, except the first one, even if you triggered it multiple times.

Timeskip moves^[j]

The following moves trigger when you want to make large jumps forward in time. Months, seasons, years even. Working on the Pact should always be triggered in these cases. Dealing with the Scales should vary, depending on how involved the Pact already is in trouble with the Scales. If they already have a lot of business from the Scales already then it can be skipped until a suitable time comes along.

Doing a Timeskip

When the group decides to do a timeskip, decide how long it will last

• A few weeks

Everyone at the Pact gets to do the following:

Copy a Spell OR Brew Potions OR search for something you need.

Remove 1 harm

Remove all fatigue

One person has to:

Perform the “Working on the Pact” Move

• A season or more

If they’ve been adventuring or coming and going to the pact perform two of the following, and remove all fatigue:

Harvest: Gather Amber

Heal: Remove all harm (picking this option mean you can’t perform any lab moves)

Work in the Lab: Perform a Lab move

Scribe: Copy two spells

Travel: Find Something You Need

One person has to:

Perform the “Working on the Pact” move.

If they’ve been working in their lab and doing light duties for most of the time.

Heal 2 harm. Remove all fatigue and gather amber then choose 2:

Work in the Lab: Perform a Lab move

Scribe: Copy two spells

Travel: Find Something You Need

One person has to:

Perform the “Working on the Pact” move.

Working on the Pact

When the group performs a timeskip, choose the player who has rolled this move the least,they roll the relevant stat (body/mind/spirit), depending on how they worked with the Pact.

Critical hit: The results from strong hit and also: You've discovered a new valuable resource near the Pact, the GM will detail.

Strong hit: The Pact has enough to go around and you even have some extra. Gain 1 chattel of any resource you control. Then, pick one:

• You’ve completed a half built building or are halfway completed with a building.
• You have befriended a Peon.
• A Peon has been inspired by you. They want to change their life in a meaningful way. You describe what they want.

Partial hit: Choose one:

• You have some extra resources, 1 chattel of any resource you control,  but some Peons have to go without something they need or work extra to get it.

• You have what you need but nothing more.

On a miss, things bode ill for the Pact, there is bad news, clear signs of trouble brewing or a situation among the Peons that demands attention.

Notes on the move:

The “A Peon has been inspired by you” could mean that they want to expand their life by studying, inventing, becoming a master of something or learning all they can about what they are curious about. They are aiming higher than the typical Peon.

Gather Amber

For each season a timeskip lasts, each mage gains 1 Amber, plus any from Amber sources the Pact controls.

Find for something you need

When you spend a season searching for something you need, make a fortune roll.

The searching is a combination of common and magical means.

Examples: A witness, a specific material, a magical beast or a potential apprentice, evidence, allies, information.

Copy a spell

When you spend some time copying a prepared spell you have access to, add it to your spellbook.

Lab Moves

During a timeskips at least the length of a season, lab moves can be performed. See (XX^[k])

Dealing with the Scales

When you try to resist or barter a demand given by the Scales, or by powerful members within it, roll+:

Spirit: If you meet them to negotiate

Mind: If you leverage contacts, plans or loopholes in the code.

Critical hit, You either manage to avoid it and look clever, skilled or wise while doing it or gain something very valuable in return for doing the demand

Full hit: Choose one:

    Avoid doing the task with a good reason why, keeping your relationship intact

    Do the task but gain something from it

Partial hit: Choose one:

    Avoid doing the task and offend the Scales.

    Do the task

Miss:

You have to do it and it's a trap or way worse than it seemed.

Burdens and Risks of Magic

This section contains rules for the consequences of the Mage's and companions daily lives. Blighting, a light magical residue that will stay with mages, Blighting events, when enough Blight has built up to cause a rift in reality to suck mages into the Aurora, dealing and taking harm and healing it, the potential consequences of partial hits and misses and spending experience.

Magic in this Game is..

Corrupting - casting spells will sooner or later give you blight, which at some point will lead to the end of your characters story.

Unpredictable - The potential outcomes of a spell that goes wrong are hard to predict and how it manifests is completely different from situation to situation.

An art - No one knows all the small details and factors that goes into casting spells. The same spell, in the same location, by the same mage can give widely different results even though they did everything exactly the same as all previous times.

Vast - the amount of magical effects a mage can accomplish are without number, but no one will be able to master them all. Most mages usually focus on certain effects or tasks to accomplish with magic.

Blight

Being exposed to magic can give you Blight. This could be a consequence of a partial hit, when you roll a miss or just being in the vicinity of powerful magic. The GM will tell you when you have to mark Blight. When all of the Blight are marked ( there are 9 of them) mark a full Blight and erase all Blight Marks. Once a full Blight is marked, you can never remove it.

The Aurora

Aurora is a consequence of wielding magic. When exposed to powerful magic, mages may experience an Aurora episode. Aurora affects mages in different ways, but at its base level it’s a different state of consciousness where the mages are outside of their body and experience surreal scenes and landscapes.

Aurora may result in Aurora Scars (minor supernatural effects that remain with the character forever after the episode) and gaining or losing magical powers and insight.

Harm

Harm is a number indicating how much harm you take from something and how damaged you are. The Players Mages and Companions characters can take 4 harm before they are about to die. Peons can take 2 harm.

When you take harm, write down the type of harm in the corresponding lines in the upper most available line. If no lines are available or your harm would exceed the number of lines available, write all the harm you can, then trigger the “About to die” move.

On the first line, there are no mechanical consequences of the harm.

On the second line and further down, you take -1d to any action related to the injury. If you get a broken shoulder as harm on your second line and try to climb for instance, you take -1d.

On the third line, Harm does not become better on its own. It will get worse. If you don’t get medical or magical attention, you will eventually die. You can be temporarily stabilized from magical or medical aid even if you don’t heal any harm. See the section on Healing(XX) for details.

When you’re about to die

When you’re about to die, pick one of the following options. Once an option has been picked, strike it out. It can’t be picked again.

• Crippled -Permanently remove one action dot from Body.
• Magical mutation - Gain a new asset that is a magical ability.
• Die

After you’ve chosen the GM will determine how much harm, if any, remains.

Dealing harm

Mundane Harm

Any weapon, as long as a person is able to wield it with skill, will cause 1 harm in a fight, but 2 harm against an unprepared or defenseless player character.

Examples of harm:

A fall from two stories causes 2 harm. A mob of angry peasants harming a mage would be 2 or 3 harm depending on the mob and their equipment. A fall from a great height could be 3 or 4 harm. Being incinerated by a dragon would be 4 harm.

Magical Harm

Not all spells are damaging, that's up to the caster. If it is damaging though, deal 2 harm + the level of intensity(or less at the mages option) by default.

Protection from Harm

Mundane^[l][m] Armor^[n]

If you have armor and you take Mundane harm, reduce the Harm by your Armor as long as it fits the fiction. The remainder is the harm. If an armor is a flat 1 or 2 armor, it can’t stack with another armor value. If a move specifically states +1 Armor, it’s added to your current armor.

Example: Cinderel of Flambeau gets stabbed by a skilled soldier wielding a spear. She takes 2 harm. Lucky for Cinderel, she is wearing her leather armor which gives her an Armor of 1 thus reducing her harm by 1. In the end, she takes 1 harm.

A solid piece of light medieval armor, such as boiled leather or gambeson would give 1 armor against mundane harm.

A full set of heavy medieval armor, such as platemail with helmet and Amberor gives 2 armor but is expensive, very cumbersome and is hard to see out of. If you're using this while casting spells it's a golden opportunity for the GM to make a move.

Mages and mundane armor

Mages in general don’t wear mundane armor. First of all, it’s cumbersome. Secondly, it’s unnecessary. If you can just summon armor, turn your skin to stone, turn swords to twigs and arrows into butterflies, why would you wear armor? But the third and most important reason is that other mages would judge them harshly. Wearing mundane armor means that you're afraid of mundane weapons and what sort of mage would be afraid of swords and arrows? A weak or unskilled one.

Of course there is always the iconoclast who doesn't mind the snickering behind their backs as they wear their leather armor, but if they want to make a career within the Scales or be respected by their peers, they will leave their armor at home.

Magic Resistance

When you take Magical harm, Add together the Magical Harm and Intensity and reduce that by your Magical resistance. The remainder is your harm.

Example: Remus the Mage gets hit by a magical bolt of Lighting from an angry storm wizard. The spell has a default damage of 2, but the wizard has put 2 levels of intensity into the spell thus dealing a total of 4 damage. However, Remus has his Barrier, which gives him a magical resistance of 3, thus reducing the damage of the Lightning Bolt to 1 harm.

Magic resistance has a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest.

All mages who are player characters have learnt the Barrier and have a Magical Resistance of 3 by default. Some NPC mages have a weaker Barrier and some have a stronger one. Mages outside of the Scale most likely have no magical resistance since they haven’t been taught the Barrier.

Some beings have an innate magic resistance that shields them from all magic. People who truly and deeply believe in God (christians, muslims, jews, etc.), magical beings, faeries, demons and angels all have an innate magic resistance.

Examples of Magic Resistance.

0 Regular people who aren’t praying or extremely religious. Normal beasts.

1 A faithful Mob, a weak faerie.

2 A religious knight, weaker magical beings. A weak Barrier.

3 The "standard" Barrier. A faithful priest. Most magical beings. People hiding in a church.

4 Faerie queens and powerful magical beings. The Pope. A strong Barrier.

5 Angels, Demons and extremely strong magical beings.

Weaknesses of the Barrier^[o]

While the Barrier is one of the cornerstones of the Scale, letting Mages interact without the burden of the mark and without fear of getting killed, it has its weaknesses.

The Barrier functions as a magical shield enveloping the mage. If a projectile propelled by magical force hits the shield, it will slow down and may pierce the shield, if its intensity is strong enough.

For instance, with Move Flora, you could hurl an existing arrow from a quiver at a mage, but the Barrier would interfere.

The Barrier also protects against magically created objects. If you were to summon a stone above someone's head and let it go, the Barrier would sense the magic in the stone and slow it down before it reaches the mage.

However, the Barrier does not interfere with non magical objects propelled by gravity. If you fired a regular arrow at a mage with a bow, the Barrier would not stop it. If you lifted a stone with Move Earth above a mage's head, then ended the spell, Barrier would not stop the stone since neither the stone nor the force propelling it is magical. This way, you can circumvent the Barrier to kill mages. Move spells are useful for this. Another common tactic is Destroy, to destroy the ground a mage is walking on, causing them to fall into a deep chasm to get crushed.

Healing

Removing Harm

When a move tells you to Remove Harm, Remove harm in top down order.

Healing with magic

The only way to permanently heal damage besides timeskips is by spending 2 Amber and doing a spell to heal (Create body, usually). This will heal 2 harm instantly and stabilize someone who needs medical attention.

You can also heal harm temporarily by using magic. Nothing is stopping you from using Create body to rebind your broken body temporarily, using Change Mood to stop you^[p]r thoughts thinking of the pain, Change sensations to remove the sensation of pain or Change body to grow a pair of wings so you don't have to walk in the first place. All of these temporary measures will reduce any mechanical penalties, as long as it works within the fiction.

Healing by mundane means

Rest and not exerting yourself will heal your harm over time. If you are adventuring, getting into trouble or performing dangerous experiments, you are not healing.

You will heal during downtime, as noted by the Downtime options.

Advancing and spending XP

When you gain 4 XP, you can purchase an advancement:

+1 to a Mold or Modus (Maximum of 10 points bought in total from this option)

+1 to a skill for a mage or companion (max 5 points bought in total from this option)

A new ^[q]asset for a mage or companion.

Spend 3 XP to buy a new ability from an asset you already own.

Ten Advancement later you can pick the following.

+1 To an discipline (maximum 15 points)

+1 To a skill for mage or companion (max 5 points)

A move for your mage from another Playbook (No magical abilities) (Max 2 times)^[r]

Retire your character with them becoming:

• A powerplayer within the Scale and an Ally to Pact, as long as your goals align.
• Completely obsessed by their lab work, rarely leaving their lab in the Pact.
• An enemy of the Scale, and possibly the Pact.
• Focused on seeing the world and having adventures. You will probably hear of them from time to time.
• Discouraged with magic and will live out the rest of their days focusing on mundane pursuit.

Lab moves

The lab moves are actions the mages take in their downtime, usually off screen to gain more knowledge and work on their academic pursuits. To start others you need to perform certain actions in the fiction.

Experimenting and writing a treatise

When you experiment with your chosen lab work and summarize your findings in a treatise make a fortune roll.

Name the treatise.

On a strong hit, all three options. On a partial hit, Choose one:

• You don’t cause light consequences to the Pact or yourself as a result of your experiment.
• You learn something new, mark experience.
• Your treatise is of excellent quality.

On a miss, your treatise is of poor quality and there is some minor consequence to the Pact.

Experimenting does not count as a lab move by itself, since it’s always done with another lab move.

Example: You’re inventing a spell turning water into poison. You let the Peons have a sip of some bottles you’ve used the spell on to see what effects it will have. The experiment might be harmless and informative or it might lead to Greta, the farmer's daughter turning blue due to the strange poison. Experiments are described in short vignettes..

Inventing a spell

Requirements:

Unused treatises to spend for points. (max 8 points)

1 Amber

When you spend a season inventin^[s]g a spell for your spellbook, define the concept, give it a name and spend 1 Amber. Spend unused treatises for points to increase the qualities of the spell, Maximum of 8 points.

When you’re done, write it down in your spellbook. At your option, you can also add it to the Pact library for your colleagues to copy.

Spend points equal to the unused treatises you discard for this spell.

Excellent: 6 points. Good: 4 points. Poor: 2 points. 1 point moves a quality one step down.

Qualities

Casting speed:

• 10 seconds of focus (the default)
• 5 seconds of focus
• 1 second of focus

Subtlety:

• Gestures and clearly enunciated words (the default)
• Only words or Gestures
• Very subtle gestures or words
• One specific word, said or whispered
• One specific gesture
• No words or gestures

Intensity:

• 0 Intensity
• 1 Level of intensity
• 2 Levels of intensity
• 3 Levels of Intensity
• 4 Levels of intensity

Size:

• A person or smaller (the default)
• 5 people or so/ size of a wagon
• 10 people or so/size of small cottage
• 25 people or so/ size of a barn
• 50 people or so/ size of a church
• 100 people or so/size of a cathedral

Duration:

• Instant/Concentration (the default)
• A quarter of an hour
• One Hour
• A day
• A week
• Two weeks
• A Month

Range:

• Touch or Personal (the default)
• In sight within fifteen paces
• In sight within hundred paces
• Sight
• Mystic link

The Qualities for Inventing a spell follow the same rules as the qualities for Spontaneous spellcasting. Inventing a spell gives you more options to create more powerful spells.

Range

Mystic link will make the actual distance irrelevant but instead it requires an item intimate to the target. This could be some bark from a tree (mystic link to the tree), hair clippings from a person (mystic link to that person), the cut off paw of a rabbit (mystic link to the rabbit). It’s up to the GM to define if it’s intimate enough to count as an mystic link.^[t][u]

Ritual

When you prepare a large magical effect, describe the effect and define the following.

Target: A City, A Country, The World

Range: Sight (or closer) or mystic link (for something you can't see)

Duration: Month (or less), Year, Permanent (Requires Amber)

Disciplines Required, with the GMs approval.

The GM will list some of the following conditions for you to be able to do it. The only set requirement is 2 Amber and a season of preparation, but the GM should make the requirements harder depending on the desired effect. The GM can connect them with "And," or might be merciful and throw in an "or". When you have all the requirements the ritual will take 1 hour to cast but will not require any roll to carry out successfully. All the things within parenthesis below are examples of requirements in rising order of difficulty.

Example requirements (GM is free to come up with ones suitable to task and situation):

• Cost (At least 2 Amber, but the bigger the effect, the more expensive it will be)
• Time to Prepare (At least a season, several seasons, a year, or possibly longer)^[v]
• Mastery of the Disciplines (A certain amount of dots in certain Disciplines)
• Materials (Chattel of wheat, Magical moss, the still beating heart of a dragon, the last tear of a virgin before being sacrificed to a pagan god)
• Expertise within certain area (An important book on the subject, Assistance from  master, Sacrifice the world's greatest expert)
• Danger for everyone involved
• Buildings (A small shrine to a fae, A complex clockwork machine, A home fit for a king)
• Lab Equipment (A talking skull, A source of great magic, A captured angel or demon, A portal to hell)

A ritual is something much stronger than a spell and requires more time to prepare. It can let you go crazy and create basically any effect imaginable as long as it stays within the limits of Hermetic Magic. The stronger the effect, the more requirements it will require. Acquiring the requirements must happen in the fiction, unless it’s something easy to acquire.

Brewing a Potion

Requirements

1 Amber per 2 types of potion

When you spend a few weeks or a season brewing a few potions, define the concepts and give it a name. Each type of potion has one standard magical effect that can happen through the drinking of a potion. After they are done, roll the mages highest discipline of each type of potion. The highest die rolled (minimum of two potions) is how many doses of the potion you get.

Spend points equal to modus+mold equal to your own knowledge in the discipline(s) or treatises to move qualities further down. 1 point moves a quality one step down.

Qualities

Intensity:

• 0 Intensity
• 1 Level of intensity
• 2 Levels of intensity
• 3 Levels of Intensity
• 4 Levels of intensity

Size:

• A being the size of a person or smaller
• A horse sized creature
• An elephant sized creature

Duration:

• Instant
• A quarter of an hour
• One Hour
• A day
• A week

A potion is a one time use effect which works without a roll on the being that it’s applied to, as long as they are unable to resist the magic. The Barrier does not protect against potions once it’s applied or consumed since it’s an external shield and the potion works from the inside and out. Intensity would only be useful if trying to feed the option to a creature with natural magical resistance or when the effects of the potion is in contest with another magical effect, such as if you’re inAmberible and someone casts a spell to detect you.

Potions can never give someone the ability to cast a spell. Some effects possible with spells are  impossible as potions such as shooting a fireball or creating a bird since neither targets the person who consumed the potion. Setting the potion drinker on fire or turning them into a bird would work though.

Creating schematic for a magical item

Requirements: use the Ritual requirements. The more requirements for the more powerful item.

When you create a schematic for a magical item outline what you want it to do and how safe it should be.

Safety of using

Anyone can activate the item, if they know how. Activating the item will require a Fortune roll. You always roll one die for luck. When you make your item, decide it’s safety rating:

Shoddy: -1 fortune dice.

Unsafe: +0 fortune dice.

Somewhat safe: +1 fortune dice.

Decently safe: +2 fortune dice.

Safe: +3 fortune dice.

You can use the inventing a spell rules or Ritual rules for guidelines. Also define how often you want the item to be able to activate. The GM will offer you requirements that you have to accomplish during the course of the game. Once you have fulfilled those you may complete your work on a magical item.

General guidelines for requirements:

Simple magical effect: Two or three relatively easy requirements.

Complex or large magical effect: three or four harder requirements.

Very large and powerful magical effect: four or five very hard, dangerous requirements.

Making the item unsafer or more troublesome to use (can only be used in rain, can only be wielded by the purehearted etc.) will make the requirements easier.

Complete a magical item

When you complete a magical item, name it, and gain one XP.

Write it down in your inventory.

Forming the Bond

The bond is closely tied between a mage and a magical beast or animal (called the bonded). A mage may only have one such connection through their life. It will make their magic stronger and they will gain a connection much deeper than any human could ever be. But this is a merger of equals, not of a mage and their pet. The magical beast or animal must be willing and respect the mage.

Initiating the bond

(Requirements: The magical beast or animal present and willing to enter this bond)

When you start to form the bond with an unintelligent magical beast or animal, the GM will give you a list of requirements as per the ritual. This takes one season.

Completing the bond

When you have completed all the requirements you may form the bond and take 1 xp.

Your bonded will now be intelligent and have their own personality. They will take on one aspect of your personality and you will take on an aspect of theirs.

As long as you’re close together you may: (choose one)

Take +1 to all spontaneous spells

or

Take +1 to all prepared spells.

You and your bonded also have an extra ability. Roll or choose on the table.

Training your Apprentice^[w]

Requirements: An apprentice

When you train your apprentice for the first time, mark 1 segment of a 12 segmented countdown clock. ^[x][y]When you focus on training your apprentice a season, mark 1 segment. The clock represents when the Apprentice will be fully taught.  At the end of each year, if the apprentice was with you outside of the Pact or if you taught them valuable lessons, mark 1 segment of the clock. If you neglect them, or they have been resentful of your lessons, remove 1 segment.  After 15 years their apprenticeship is done, even if the clock is completed faster and you can assign them their gauntlet. If their clock isn’t completed by then, it will reflect poorly on their Master.^[z]

Apprentice in daily play

Apprentices are NPC:s that are handled by the GM. They have their own goals and motivations. Since Apprentices are usually recruited when they are young, usually between 5-12 years of age, which means their Master often have to teach them how the world works, how to behave and to make sure they become a responsible adult, in addition to learning how to use magic.

Contribute to the Library

Requirements

Adequate mastery of the discipline ( Your character's dots must be the same, or higher as the dots in the library.)

When you spend a season writing about a mold or modus, mark a dot on that discipline on the Pact playbook.^[aa]

The Scales Magic

How to create a spell

A spell always combines one modus with one mold. If you wanted to Create a strawberry plant, you would use Create (Create) and Flora(plants). If you wanted to shoot a fireball you would use Create fire. If you wanted to stop someone’s heart from working you would use Destroy (Destroy) body (The human body). There are several types of spellcasting. In the Basic Moves you can find Spontaneous Casting and Prepared Magic. Spontaneous means you imagine a spell and cast it following the restrictions set by the moves and your skill. It’s risky but very versatile. Prepared Magic is casting a spell you have created during your downtime. It’s safer, more likely to succeed but will not be as versatile.

Modus

Create: Create something or restore something to its “full” form. This includes healing by restoring a physical body to their full strength. What you create must always be a normal specimen of a certain type. Adding things to a normal specimen is Change. Create also includes the creation of thoughts, which is one way to control someone's mind. You cannot create things inside of people to harm or kill them, nor can you perform other tricky maneuvers unless a spell specifies you can. Nothing created by magic is ever permanent unless Amber is used to extend the duration of the spell.

Perceive: When you combine it with different molds, you can see through Earth, peer into the mind of someone or listen in on conversation only the wind was privy to. A Perceive spell can never be permanent.

Change: You can change the properties of something. Shape, substance or both. You can turn someone into a frog, grow giant wings or become mist. Although Change spells are normally of limited duration when Amber is not used, the shape of an object may be permanently changed if the substance is altered, because although the original substance eventually returns, the shape may not. For example, a Change Earth spell can be cast to change a stone wall into dirt, which falls to the ground. The dirt eventually becomes stone again, but is now a pile of stone, instead of the wall it once was.

Destroy: Also the process of destruction such as aging and natural wear and tear. You can destroy thoughts, objects and if you’re skilled you can even destroy spells of other mages. Destroy spells with the duration momentary destroy

something in a moment. The duration does not describe how long the object is destroyed, as the effects of the destruction last until the target regenerates itself (which could very well be never). How much something is destroyed is determined by the intensity of the spell.

Control: Control things both in physical and spiritual space. Make something go flying, keep something in place, move faster than the eye can see. This Modus can produce permanent results even though the duration is shorter. For instance, you can move a boulder from one place to another, and when the magic stops, the boulder would remain in place.

Molds

Beast: natural beasts

Water: water and liquids

Air: air and winds

Body: human bodies. The medieval paradigm makes a clear distinction between the human body and the beast body.

Flora: plants.

Fire: fire, warmth and heat..

Sensations: sensations, illusions, perception.

Mood: thoughts, emotions, memories. Also the spirits of dead bodies.

Earth: Earth, dirt, stone, metals and inanimate objects in general.

Magic: magic itself. This includes magical creatures as well as spells. Magic is the form that governs the ability to counter the magic of other magi.

Limits of Scale Magic

Scale Magic, the magic that is taught to the members of the Scales, has certain limits it can never overcome.

The Major boundaries are clear cut and can never be changed or overcome. The Minor Boundaries often come with certain loopholes and caveats.

Major Boundaries

The Boundary of God

God's creation and his Holy interventions are always more powerful than magic. The same goes for demons and their deceptions.

This means that angels and demons are very hard to affect with magic. God's miracles also can’t be negated through magic.

The Boundary of True Form

Magic can’t permanently change something's true form. A human will always be a human and a beast will always be a beast. You can temporarily alter some things like natural aging, human or beast bodies but other things are impossible to alter like the Aurora and magical areas.

This means you could grow wings or make a person turn into a frog but the duration for this spell can never be permanent, even if it lasts for a while.

Lesser Boundaries

The Boundary of the Soul

Mages can’t change or create an immortal soul. They can’t create human life or bring the dead back to life.

However, they could control spirits with Control+Mood (since mood also controls spirits and ghosts) and use these to their purpose, like making the spirits control a deceased body.

The Boundary of Creation

Magic is incapable of creating anything permanent without using Amber.

The Boundary of Time

Maic can’t alter or change the passage of time in the future or the past. They can’t travel in time, slow or stop time.

The Boundary of the Hellish Illusions

Magic from hell can be more powerful than Perceive magic. The magic of demons is strong enough to “fool” mages performing Perceive magic.

This boundary is not always set in stone. Mages within the Scale debate this and it may be a boundary based on the way the Scale teaches magic and not a boundary in magic itself.

The Boundary of Mystic Links

Scale magic cannot affect an unseen target without a Mystic Link.. See Rituals for some sample Mystic Links.

A mystic link is an object that has a strong connection to a person or being. It can be some hair/nails or a body part of a person or their favorite item or piece of clothing.

The Boundary of True Emotions

Some humans may have friendship, love or faith that are true emotions. They can’t be affected by Scale magic.

The Boundary of Luna

Scale magic can’t affect the Moon, nor anything above it.

The Boundary of Vitality

Scale magic can’t restore a person's physical energy so that one can cast more spells. This means magic can’t be used to unmark Fatigue.

Blighting and Aurora

Mortals fear the coming of the grim reaper in the same way Mages fear the eternal Aurora. The more a mage uses magic, the more magic will leave its toll on them. When a mage casts spells, there is always the risk of “Blight”. It’s remains of the magic that the mage uses which will now cling to them. If too much Blight is gained during a short period of time there is the risk of a “Blighting event” which means Aurora will try to pull the mage in. This happens to all mages at some point and it can have different results. Some might gain a deeper understanding of magic, some might realize the key to a problem they have been facing. For others, it leaves ugly scars as a reminder to tread lightly when casting spells.

The more Blight a mage has collected in their lifetime, the longer they stay in Aurora when they enter it. If you have amassed enough Blight, there is the risk of staying in the Aurora forever. More mages are lost to the Aurora than old age. Hermetic magic does not consider any Mage who has entered Aurora to be dead. Their ghost can not be summoned nor can they be contacted in any way.

What is Aurora?

A unique experience for each mage. Some compare it to consuming copious amounts of hashish, others see it as a deeply religious experience. For some it’s a flight across nightmarish landscapes and for others it’s a pleasant journey through the vast cosmos. No one knows exactly what it is. It’s very possible it’s one or several magical realms that the human mind can’t comprehend and thus the imagery and sensory experiences are so confusing. Some families in the Scale are fascinated by the Aurora and spend their whole life investigating and theorizing about it.

The Scales

The Scales

The Scales is the largest organization of mages in Legendary Europe. It was founded in the 9th century by a small group of mages wishing to work together to grow their understanding of magic. There had been organizations before the Scales but they all had to navigate the troublesome nature of the Mark, which made mages having a hard time trusting each other. The founders of the Scales had one advantage over these other organizations however. They had the Barrier. With this, they could have meetings in person without feeling the effects of the Mark from the other mages.

The founders and their apprentices created an encompassing theoretical framework for magic called the Disciplines. Before this, magic was a very individual art but now it could be taught relatively easily to anyone possessing the Mark.

Through the years, they recruited new members with promises of shared magical knowledge and also the knowledge of how to create the Barrier. Mages that chose not to be a part of the Scales could not compete with their collective strength.

Organization of the Scales in Europe

Region

Europe is divided into several Regions where each Region features important landmarks such as the Stonehenge, Loch Ness, Hills of Rome, Teutoburger forest etc. Each region functions as its own political entity and every third year it holds a Threemoot. Each region usually has a main Pact, which is the most politically significant in the Region from where the Region is controlled. There are a large number of smaller pacts in the region as well.

Leadership of a region

Usually consists of the oldest and most experienced in the region, hopefully made up by a balance of different families so that a region isn’t too one sided. The exact leadership of a region and how it operates can vary from meritocracy, gerontocracy, a council of the freshest apprentice, the eldest mage and the most well traveled mage.

This makes each region distinct and its policies, while following the laws of the scale, very different from each other.

Pacts

All pacts must follow the Laws of the Scales and abide by the decisions of the leaders of the Region. The pacts are also registered and monitored by the leaders of the Region and how much freedom a pact has basically comes down to the whims of the leaders of the Region.

Threemoot

Every three years there is a Threemoot in a region where apprentices graduate and are officially recognized as full fledged mages, conflicts and any mage trials are settled and general dealing and politics happen.

Tenmoot

Every ten years there is a tenmoot where all mages from all of Europe are invited to come together for a large meeting. Trials too complicated for a simple Threemoot take place here and new discoveries within the study of magic are shown off and compared to others. Mages vie for the attention of their peers through magical artifacts, new discoveries or scientific papers.

Problems within the Scales

While the Scales was founded in the spirit of sharing magical knowledge and furthering research together, this is hardly the case.

United front, splintered insides.

The Scales consists of a handful of Families that all stem from the founders, sometimes through an unbroken line of apprentices, sometimes from their philosophies or goals. They usually have their own way of seeing things and their own political goals which splinter the Scales and makes it more factionalized.

Families and pacts competing for resources

The Amber produced and the magical resources in the world are limited and all mages are competing for it. This leads to political infighting, plots and schemes where each mage considers their own research the most important and that they are the most deserving of the resources.

Since there are strict rules about mages in the Scales fighting and hurting each other, these conflicts are usually fought through third parties, where the true string puller is well hidden.

Mages hoarding secrets

While the Scales were founded in the spirit of sharing, usually, mages don’t like to do that. If one mage has discovered or made something important, sharing that knowledge could mean weakening their power. This means mages often share their unimportant discoveries while hiding their truly awesome powers.

Taking Credit

Besides an unwillingness to truly share, if a Mage was to discover something important, they would want the credit. Also, if someone else discovers something important, another mage probably wants the credit for that as well. Credit and fame within the Scales is almost as hard a currency as Amber.

This can lead to an apprentice's discoveries being “stolen” by their master, friends stabbing each other in the back for recognition as the inventor of a new idea within the scales or two Pacts coming into conflict due to trouble sharing the credit.

The Laws of the Scales being open to interpretation

The Scale has very strict laws, although they are usually open for interpretation. If you’re clever you can usually find some loophole, manipulate witnesses or a judge. While the Laws clearly serve a purpose, most Mages consider them something to be creatively interpreted and skirted.

The Laws of the Scales

Each apprentice when fulfilling their apprenticeship swears to uphold the laws of the scale.

The Laws is a large body of work but it’s principal tenets are as follows:

It’s forbidden for a Mage to endanger the existence of the Scales through their actions.

This is the most important law. If a Mage somehow was to endanger the existence of the Scales by causing a war with Christianity, corrupting it through demonic persuasions or similar reckless action, they will face the harshest of punishments.

A mage is forbidden to kill or attempt to kill another mage of the Scales unless sanctioned by the leaders of the Region or in a Mage War.

This does not cover mages that are not part of the Scales. Some Mages make a career of hunting and killing mages that are wanted by the Scales.

A mage of the Scales may declare Mage War upon another mage of the scale.

This war starts one month after the declaration war has been delivered and lasts for one month, where the mages in the war may harm, kill each other and ruin the others property, but not property shared such as the pact. No revenge may be sought after a Mage War.

A mage is never allowed to remove another Mage of The Scales ability to use magic.

This is a similar crime to killing another Mage and it also harms the Scales as whole, since the former Mage can’t contribute research and power to the Scale.

It’s forbidden to magically spy on another member of the Scales.

The nature of the phrasing “to magically spy” has made the creation of spy networks run by powerful mages a common thing.

It’s forbidden to interfere with the business of the Commoners.

What exactly this means is a hotly debated topic. It’s virtually guaranteed that the commoners will try to interfere with the Mages' life. A Noble will claim the new pact is on their land, a famous knight will beseech the mages for a magical sword or an ambitious courtier will need a love potion. What causes the least problem for the mages and the Scales when dealing with these? It will differ in each case and any competing Pact will watch like a hawk for anything that could look like too much interference.

Any dealing with Demons is forbidden.

Demons always come with promises of power and glory which is usually tempting. But they bring risks to the Scales as a whole, especially if the Christian world would find out Mages deal with demons.

It is forbidden to disturb the Fae.

The definition of disturb is constantly debated. In some Regions, it might mean to treat the Fae with respect, honor your word and not encroach on their territory. In other regions it might mean rush into their woods, blast them with powerful magic and steal anything that is remotely valuablel. As long as they are alive, they haven’t been disturbed.

A mage must train an apprentice at some point in their career.

Pretty clear cut and some mages enjoy this process while others find it an annoying chore.

A member of the Scale will share their foes, friends and allies and in turn the Scale will share theirs.

When you are part of the Scales, they are also with you. How much support the Scales actually want to give you can vary a lot depending on your status within the organization. Usually fresh Pacts are left to fend for themselves unless they face a large threat to the Scales.

Peripheral Laws

The above laws are not exhaustive. There are laws regulating the creation of Pacts, magical contracts and most other things that a magical order that has existed for several hundred years would have.

Punishments for breaking the Law

The punishments are usually unique and fitting for the crime. There are some standard punishments that are used, but the list is by no means exhaustive.

Fines of Amber 

A Mage can be forced to pay Amber to the aggrieved party for transgressions.

Aid in Study

A mage may have to serve as a lab assistant to the aggrieved party for a time.

Surrendering of Apprentice

A mage can be compelled to give up an apprentice to someone else.

Sharing of Knowledge

A mage can be compelled to share knowledge that they previously have refused to share.

Banishment

The Mage is permanently banished by the Scales.

Death

The Mage is condemned to death.

Pact Creation

This should be done together, as a group. The Pact should be appealing to all involved in the game, the GM as well. A lot of time will be spent there so make sure everyone has their say.

You should draw a map of the Pact as you're building it to get a sense of place.

Process of making the Pact.

1. Draw maps!

During the creation of the pact, draw a map of the local area near the Pact and another map with the actual layout of the Pact.

2. Name and location

Decide on the name and location of the Pact. Pick a location that fits the stories you want to tell. A Pact in the middle of Rome will have a very different story from a Pact set in the deep Swedish forest. Figure out if you would want a remote “frontier” Pact or a Pact located nearby or in the civilized world.

3. Magical History

Describe the location and regions magical history. You can use oracles at page (XX) to get some ideas.

4. Hooks

Hooks define what starting troubles your Pact will face. All player collectively pick one or two hooks and the GM picks one hook. As the game goes along, feel free to use Hooks as inspirations for new situations for the Pact.

5. Purpose

Based on the Pact you’ve created, what is it’s stated purpose? Why was it allowed to be founded and what does the Scales expect of it? Even though a scale may have a public purpose it uses to justify it’s existence, it’s true purpose might be more secret.

Since all Pacts are governed and exist at the mercy of the Scales, there is always a specific purpose to them.

Name

(Hedera, Carnifex, Rollingbrook, Barepine, Redfall, Grok,

Location

(inside a deep cave, on a mountaintop, below the water in a sunken city, on top of a tree or in a deep crater left by something that dropped from the sky a long, long time ago)

Magical history

(This area has strange magical events happen often,someone from legend passed through here and made their mark, rumors of a legendary artifact is buried around here,

Purpose

(Further study the phenomenon of ____, Hunt fugitive mages, discover the secrets of ___, resolve the conflict with ___, influence the politics of ____, gain control over _____,)

The Pact starts with:

30 or so Peons and a few armed guards.

The labs of the mages and some tents for the Peons.

A simple and small library. Each player puts 1 dot in one discipline.

A plot for farming if the climate allows/traps and hunting gear/ somewhere to forage for roots and berries.

A source of Amber close to the Pact that is under your control.

Amber source nearby, though someone else has already claimed it.

Magical Ritual Completed: Shield of the Pact This is assumed to be cast each New year and last for a year. A standard ritual of all Pacts of the Scale which works the same as the Barrier but for the Pact. Creates a spherical and invisible "Shield" around and the Pact, with a Magic Resistance of 3. Any mage who took part of the ritual can still cast spells freely inside of the Aegis without any trouble. Some small tokens are enchanted during the ritual and those are given to trusted guests, allowing them to perform magic without trouble inside of the Shield.

Hooks^[ab]

Hooks can be both good and bad, but mostly they are sources of drama and trouble and indicate a situation the Pact must deal with. These are all suggestions and are tailored to fit the Pact. Everyone should be interested in the hooks the Pact has taken.

Hooks:

1. Fealty: The land the Pact is on belongs to a powerful common lord or lady that will constantly make demands of the Pact.
2. Special Peon(s): A peon or group of peons in the Pact are especially skilled at some trade or are important in some way. They have demands and want influence in the progression of the Pact for the use of their skills.
3. Powerful human Ally: The Pact has a powerful ally within the Scales, among the commons or the clergy. They happily help the Pact as long as the Pact helps them.
4. Outcasts: The Peons joined the Pact because they had no option. They are convicted criminals, excommunicated or otherwise ostracized from regular society. Expect trouble.
5. Fae/Monster Ally: The Pact has an ally among the Fae or a monster. While they happily help the Pact, they demand just as much from the Pact, if not more.
6. Rival Pact: A Pact in your close proximity considers themselves your rivals and will interfere and try to bring you down through indirect means.
7. Contested Resource: A valuable resource nearby the Pact is claimed by both you and another group or faction.
8. Passive Monster: A powerful mystical creature lives within the Pact. It might not be hostile towards you to start, but some sort of deal must be struck for co-existence.
9. Protector: The Pact is responsible for protecting something that often is put into danger. A village, a magical grove or a smaller Pact for instance.
10. Enemy: The Pact has a powerful enemy (mundane, Faerie, Holy or magic) that will do everything in their power to bring the Pact down.
11. Vassal Pact: The Pact protects another, smaller pact that is beholden to them. They will support you with research and resources but their problems will also be your own.
12. Important Task: The Pact has an important task the must carry out and the Scales support the Pact with this. This means the Pact will face more scrutiny by the Scales but as long as they deliver, they can look forward to favors and credit.
13. Exotic and Mythical Location: The Pact is only accessible through magical means (floating, far underwater, inside a mountain). Common people are constantly searching for it due to the myths surrounding the location.
14. Haunted: Ghosts haunt the Pact. They wish to fulfill their Earthly business before passing on. If not placated, they can interfere and annoy the inhabitants.
15.  Secret Paths: Through some strange means the members of the Pact can travel in the local area very quickly. This could mean they know secret shortcuts in the mountains or through the forest or have some strange magical tunnels that make most journeys in the nearby area faster. You are not the only one who knows of these paths however, and the others in the know want something for the use of these paths.
16. Difficult to defend: The Pact is very hard to defend. It might be overlooked by a cliff, can be flooded by diverting a river or not suitable to be defended by conventional mundane means.
17. Pact has Spies everywhere: The Pact controls some spies embedded in the local region. You usually get advanced warning if something is up in human politics. However, others are suspicious that the Pact is interfering to much with the commons and the local nobles are not happy about their dirty secrets being spread to some mages.
18. “Beneficial” Curse: A curse that sometimes is slightly beneficial like turning people stone skinned every third week or making them hungry, but unable to eat for one month of the year.
19. Unknown: The GM is free to create a hook resembling the ones above or a completely new one (not extreme ones). Pick this if you don't want to know whats going to happen.
20. Mystical road: At a crossroads where a lot of magical creatures pass often.
21. Dramatic Peon(s): A special peon (or a few peons) are extremely dramatic and act as if they were in a play. They always cause drama in the Pact if they can and take any chance they can to be the center of attention.
22. Folk Magic: Some folk magician (witch, hedge wizard, seer, mystic) live near the Pact and are favorable towards it as long as their position in the area isn’t threatened. They have strange magical powers but are very useful.
23. Annoying co-habitants: A weak magical creature or a group of creatures lives in the Pact. Not harmful more than destruction of property but they cause a lot of annoying troubles and can’t easily be rid of.
24. Important and natural defensible location: The Pact is an important defensible location to protect the region. It also has some natural features making it hard to siege through common means. Common Nobles will do anything to steal it from the Mages or in the event of a war, the Pact could be forced to choose sides.
25. Possessed: A Peon is possessed by a powerful demon. It can cross the Shield of the Pact wants to convert people (can be unknown)
26. Important artifact: The Pact holds an important artifact, religious or magical item or one of a kind tome or book. People want to visit, get payment for it, investigate it.
27. Important exile: An important noble is seeking support in the Pact to take back their land. (can be unknown)
28. Werewolf/vampire: A Peon is actually secretly a werewolf (can be unknown).
29. Annoying customs: The Peons have a bunch of annoying feasts, celebrations and traditions that always get in the way of the mages plans and orders.
30. Spies there are spies of the Pacts enemies among the Peons (can be unknown).
31. Ungoverned land: The land around the Pact is ungoverned by commoners. This means there are a lot of conflict to consolidate power where the Pact can play an important part.
32. In debt: The Pact is in debt to someone or something regarding something big, forcing them to act on their behalf.
33. Region Border: Pact is located on the border of a region, making both regions interested in swaying which regions they should join. This can put the Pact into the middle of a complicated political situation.
34. Embattled area: Two powerful nobles are at war and the Pact is in the center of the warzone.
35. Site of Massacre: Unholy ground where a massacre once happened lies near the Pact. Animals act strange, there are spirits and ghosts, demons and other foul creatures drawn to this place.  (Can be unknown)
36. Guardian of scion: Pact is raising the child of a very important noble or magical creature. The safety of the child is of utmost importance.
37. Guild: The Pact is the home of a guild of some trade. Their priority is the protection of their trade and seeing to retirement, medical help and similar services for their members. They know their trade like no one else but have high demands on their employers.
38. Heretical Church: A church inside the Pact. A group of the grogs fervently worships the lord in their own way, risking being branded as heretics if discovered.
39. Unwanted Duty: The Pact holds an important but unwanted role within the Scales, that often leads them to be disliked and ridiculed by their peers. Tax inspectors and overseers of certain research tasks for instance.
40. Dark history: The Pacts founding is built on a dark deed. The consequences of this deed can still be felt and has to be dealt with (can be unknown).
41. Historical Site: A very important historical location lies nearby the pact. Sometimes outsiders come to seek for treasures or artifacts but the history of the site may also come to affect the Pact in inconvenient ways.
42. Heretical: A large number of the people in the nearby area do not believe in God and are considered heretics.
43. Festivals: The area is important for a certain festival that fills the land with commoners feasting.
44. Church governed land: The area where the Pact lies is ruled by a church. They are usually very sensitive to mages who have such strange and strong abilities.
45. Site of Pilgrimage: An important religious location is near or at the Pact meaning there are pilgrims, both rich and poor, coming to visit quite often. The church is also more active and invested in the land.
46. Fae Court: A fae Court is in close proximity to the Pact. Sometimes the fae leave the court to go traveling in the countryside on some form of quest or task.
47. Local tavern: Nearby the Pact is a popular tavern or inn where lots of people from far and wide come to rest, share stories and pass through.
48. Mired in political conflict: The Pact is tied up in a political conflict that divides the Region forcing the Pact to choose sides and gaining enemies.
49. Nearby Castle: Near the Pact there is a strong defensive castle owned by nobles. It’s usually ungarrisoned in times of peace but there is always a skeleton force ready to respond to any trouble.
50. Haunting Prophecies: A strange spirit lives in the area and warns people who are about to die regarding the nature of their death. People who see the spirit try to avoid their death, usually causing trouble for the other commoners they live with.
51. Bad reputation: The Pact has a bad reputation that always precedes them.
52. Public source of Amber: One of the Amber sources of the Pact is public knowledge. It still belongs to the Pact but anyone wanting to harm the Pact could go and steal Amber easily.
53. Undemocratic Region: The Region is ruled by a powerful Pact that cares only for itself.
54. Incomplete Prophecy: This area has a dire prophecy about it’s future, but the prophecy is incomplete. This could be something simple like a sword in a stone nearby the pact or more complex like a ring of stones making an ancient riddle only the most stupid of men can solve.
55. Problematic rumor of wealth: The Pact has a false rumor surrounding it that it contains some huge treasure that commoners want to lay their grubby hands on.
56. Close to Seat of Power: The common seat of power in the land (important castle/city or similar) is situated near the Pact making it hard for the mages to stay above common politics.
57. Sanctuary: A place near the Pact is considered a sanctuary where anyone can seek shelter if accused of a crime. It can be due to ancient practice or because it’s owned by the Church. This makes the area attract desperate people, both innocent and guilty.
58. Guardian(s) of ancient secrets: Near the Pact there are some form of sleeping guardian rumored to either be protecting a rich magical treasure or a monster so dangerous it could not be killed, only trapped. The people living in the area do not want this disturbed.
59. Important waterway and crossing Near (or through) the Pact is a large river or waterway that is the only path through the land if you wish to haul heavy goods by water. It’s also the largest crossing in the area, making it important militarily but it could also be exploited for a suitable toll.
60. Unique Resource: Due to recent events (environmental disaster, other places running dry etc) the Pact is the only place in the area that controls an important common resource. The Nobles of the land all vie to gain access to it by hook or by crook.
61. Troublesome Saint: A saint makes their home in the area and often causes trouble for the Pact. A saint is a patron of a certain trade that they wish to promote while also wanting to lead anyone astray back to the path of the Lord.
62. Unsafe Area: The land where the Pact lies is considered unsafe and is rarely visited by other members of the Scale or commoners.
63. Miraculous Lands: For some reason, Holy miracles happen in this land more often than in others. That makes the people here more religious, happy and prosperous.
64. Royal Hunting Grounds: The nearby forest is the royal hunting grounds where the most prestigious nobles of the land come to hunt game.
65. Caught the Eye of a Demon: This land or nearby area has caught the eye of a powerful demon. They want to claim it for Hell. Usually there are minor demons in service of the more powerful one causing trouble in the area.
66. Renting from Fae: The Pact is on ground claimed by a powerful Fae who wants complicated payment and no trouble. They have many spies and agents in their service.

Extreme Hooks:

The following hooks are not recommended for beginners. They change the starting position heavily and can give a very different feel to the Pact and the game.

• Superiors. The player characters are outranked by one or two NPC:s in the Pact who expect them to obey.
• Beholden: The Pact is beholden to another, more powerful Pact which expects the Pact to follow it's orders, whatever they are.
• Urban: The Pact is set within a large city, where most of the people are suspicious or fearful of magi.
• Constantly Mobile: The Pact is always moving somehow. It could be a fleet of ships or a caravan.
• Evil Custom: For the magic in the Pact to function an evil custom must be performed every so often. It could include ritualistic murder, imprisonment of someone for a certain time, humiliation of the Peons, or extreme sins.
• Unsanctioned. This Pact was established without explicit permission from the Scales. This means that a wrong step could mean declared an enemy of the Scales and marched on.
• Growing. The Pact is growing and attracting more and more people, resembling more a village than a base of operations for mages. Soon enough, it might even be considered a city. For the Mages to actually control a city would be a clear breach of the Laws so the situation must be handled very carefully.

Pact Sheet

Name

Location

History

Purpose

Inhabitants

• 30-40 Peons

• 80 Peons
• 100 Peons
• 150 Peons
• 250 Peons

Military Force

• A few armed guard
• 10 guards
• 20 guards
• 50 guards
• 100 guards

Treatises (Unused):

Excellent

Good

Poor

Pact Hooks

States of the Pact

Mark a state when events transpire that lead to the Peons feeling the stated emotion.

The different states reflect the states of parts of the Peon population. A certain state might affect everyone equally, such as hungry, or some might affect a small portion such as disgruntled. Whichever the case, marking a state means there is trouble brewing within the Pact that the players will have to deal with or get into bigger trouble further down the line.

The Peons are:

Lacking something (Food, shelter, resource)    

        If not dealt with: Peons will leave.

Disgruntled with Mages (due to decisions or actions)    

    If not dealt with: Peons will steal something important or start being lax in their duties

Afraid                (Of something)

    If not dealt with: Peons do something reckless and stupid in panic

Angry    (with Mages or situation)

  If not dealt with: The Peons will take out their aggression on something or someone causing trouble for the Pact.

After the Peons have acted out, unmark that state.

Pact Resources

These are some of the most important things the mages will look to acquire for their Pact. They can be lost, stolen or broken as the fiction demand.

Amber sources:

When you gain Amber during downtime, gain Amber + the amount of Amber sources, besides the starting one, the Pact has.

Starting one (Detail):

Common Resources

Each year, a resource, if worked by the Peons, produce 1 chattel of that resource^[ac][ad][ae].

Mage Creation

Go through the following headlines and answer as well as you can. Some of the options will prompt you to roll on certain tables. You don’t HAVE to roll on tables if you find something cool you would rather pick. Some tables may answer in vague ways, you can use Action + Theme oracles to gain more detail.

Oracles are here: Oracle Tables Magical Arts

Deep Diving in your character

During your character creation (if you’re using the oracles) there will often be prompts that can be elaborated. Certain events, family constellations or people in your background can be elaborated on. You and the GM should try to incorporate as much as possible into the story.

Decide your Magical Experience

Choose a level of experience for your mage. If you're just starting out, I recommend playing as a New mage. Experienced and Elderly are both closer to the end due to starting with Blight.

New Mage, having just passed their masters final exam and being acknowledged by others as a mage, even if they still have a lot to learn.

Experienced Mage 

When creating an experienced mage, you might want to focus a bit more on your accomplishment within the Scale than if you were making a New Mage. Starting with 2 full blight means that the character can meet permanent Aurora a lot faster than a New mage. Caution is advised.

Elderly mage

 When creating an Elderly Mage, you may want to focus more on your recent life, rather than your childhood regarding your beliefs and background. The elderly mage has made it quite far in their life and risks a lot when going on adventures, due to their Blight. They are going to be very powerful but too much magic is riskier for them than the young whippersnappers.

Where were you Born? Roll 1d10 or pick.

1 Scandinavia, Modern day: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland. . 

2 British Islands , Modern Day: Britain, Scotland, Wales, ireland.

3 Iberian peninsula Modern day: Portugal and spain.

4 Italian peninsula, sicily, sardinia, corsica, Modern day italy and surrounding islands.

5 Western Europe: Modern day France, Netherlands and western part of germany.

6 Central Europe: Eastern part of Germany, Hungary , poland, Ukraine.

7 Eastern Europe: Modern day: Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Belarus

8 The balkans, Modern Day greece, Turkey, bosnia- Herzegovina, bulgaria, Croatia, romania,

9-10 Outside of Europe.

What was your given name?

Into what sort of family were you born?

Did you have a common upbringing or an uncommon one?

Roll on the Common or Uncommon family oracle.

What was your growing up situation like?

Roll on Growing up situations.

What age were you when you were given to your master to be trained as a mage?

Roll 1d10

1-5         5-15years. (Roll for one Non Mage event happening before your apprenticeship)

6-9         16-25 years (Roll for two non mage events that happened before your apprenticeship.)

10          Never discovered. ( Roll for three life events/non scale mage events that happened until you joined the Scales.)

What was your master like? (Skip if you had no master)

Roll for a name, personality and first impression.

What did they teach you? (Roll for Mage belief)

How did you end up joining the Scales? (Skip if you had a master)

R1d5

1 The Scales happily accepted you.

2 The Scales reluctantly accepted you.

3 Forced into joining by the Scales

4 Made the Scales let you join them.

5 Traded something in exchange for joining.

What name did you take as you became a Mage?

What is your sign?

A magical sign is a unique and distinct feature of every mages magic. When a mage cast a spell, it always comes with their sign. It can be a special sound, scent or visual flair.

A sign is also a mages signature that they use for research. It’s usually an intricate or simple drawing of their magical sign. Some mages have the same name, that’s why they use their sign.

Example signs: The sound of thunder and a drawn dark cloud, rainbow colors when casting spell and a drawn rainbow, the scent of death and a drawn skull, or the sound of royal trumpets and an intricate drawing of the great castle of Paris.

Did you perform anything notable or something happened to you in the Scales before the game started?

If yes, roll for a Mage event inside the scales.

Write Beliefs

Based on the character you now have created, you will create three beliefs following these criteria.

A belief is something your character is ready to die for and something you would like to see explored and tested in the game.

It has two parts, containing an overarching statement or feeling about the world maybe a drive or a large goal. The second part is a short term goal that could be completed in a session.

When reading the beliefs it should be clear why your character is ready to die for these beliefs

.

Example Beliefs:

Again and again have I witnessed the stupidity of the commoners. The only way they have any chance of survival is through the guidance of mages. I will seek to change the law regarding interfering with the commons by seeking allies who would also want to change this.

Since birth I’ve been drilled in the laws of man and the Laws of the Scale are one of the most impressive works I’ve ever seen. The law is what separates us from animals. If we don’t follow it, there is chaos. I will make sure our pact is the local law enforcers. To start, I will write a proposal and send it to the biggest Pact in the region.

I’ve seen the damage thoughtless use of magic can make. I will write a new law protecting those that would suffer by our great powers. The first step would be to find previous cases of this happening and studying them.

Spending points and choosing assets

New Mage

Gain 2 dots in body, then one dot in either spirit or mind as you choose. 8 dots to divide between the Molds and Modus.

Prepared spells worth 8 points.

Experienced Mage 

2 dots in body, 1 dot in mind and spirit, then one dot in either spirit or mind as you choose.

14 dots in Molds and Modus.

Prepared spells/Magical Items/Familiar worth 12 points. Spend 4 points for a magical item ( Lab Move: Create Magical item) and 6 points for having a familiar (Lab Move: Forming the Bond). Check with your GM regarding the item and familiar.

Start with 2 full blight.

Elderly mage

1 dot in body, 2 dots in mind and spirit.

18 dots in Molds and Modus

Prepared spells/Magical Items/Familiar worth 15 points. Spend 3-7 points for a magical item ( Lab Move: Create Magical item) and 6 points for having a familiar (Lab Move: Forming the Bond). Check with your GM regarding the item and familiar.

Start with 4 full blight.

Gain Assets

Choose three assets from the following list:

Magical Arts Assets

(Note: When this game has gotten further into development, I plan to print these assets as cards to use when playing).

Each asset has a collection of three different abilities. You always start with one of them marked and can get the others by spending experience during play.

A mage Can pick both Mage assets and Assets for everyone.

Pick (or create) Prepared Spells

If you’re new to the game and want to get it running fast, go to the spell example section at the end of the document and pick out spells worth your prepared spell total.

If you want to create your own spells, use your prepared spell total to spend on creating Prepared spells using the lab move “Inventing a spell”. Each prepared spell must use at least one prepared spell point.

Create your Lab

Design (Pick one or two)

• Cozy fireplace and soft furniture
• Luxurious and spacious interior
• Dark and dungeon like design
• Spartan room with a sparring ground
• Plants and weed grows and an indoor stream runs through it
• Dusty and unclean with piles of books strewn around
• Sturdy wood banisters and beautiful carvings
• Different, as you detail

Features (Pick 2-3)

• A testing ground for experiments
• Magical booby traps
• Woodworkers bench and tools
• An object from a far away place
• Some tomes forbidden by the Scales (you detail)
• A scattering of ancient relics, now depowered
• A small but fertile garden and gardening tools
• paint brushes and easels
• a large magical cauldron that stirs itself
• Large armory with all kinds of weapons and armor
• a cold stone slab, a jar of leeches and surgical tools,
• telescope and tools to measure the stars,
• an extremely dangerous self destruct spell activated with a word from you,
• a loom for weaving
• cages of different sizes,
• strong walls and mystical barriers,
• a small but notable collection of art,
• a magical or mystical prison for a few weak magical creatures or one powerful
• hunting gear and traps,
• a collection of living common beasts,
•  the mystic link to someone important and dangerous,
• a hot forge and blacksmithing tools
• an oven with cooking supplies,
• it has a legendary past
• an altar to a deity,  
• a tomb where something or someone powerful lays buried,
• a detailed map of the surrounding area,
• a still for distillation and refinement of compounds,  
• small magical creatures (gnomes, dwarves etc.) use the lab as a thoroughfare and sometimes stop to chat
• wards that warn you of intruders
• A mirror that shows images from a distant land

Relationships

You can roll on the Relationships between PC:s oracle to figure out your relationship with another character or come up with your own ideas.

Make sure that the starting relationship is one where you can cooperate for the good of the Pact.

Gear and Amber

Your character starts with 2 Amber and any non magical gear that would fit their station.

Mage Character Sheet:

Name

Sign

Master

Fatigue:

OO/ OO/ OO/ OO/OO

 1     2      3      4     5

Body O O O

Mind O O O

Spirit O O O

Molds

Create  O O O

Perceive  O O O

Change O O O

Destroy O O O

Control O O O

Modus

beast O O O

water O O O

Air O O O

body O O O

Flora O O O

fire O O O

sensations O O O

Mood O O O

Earth  O O O

Magic O O O

Blight

O O O

O O O

O O O

When all nine Blight are marked, mark a Full Blight: O O O O O

Assets:

Amber:

Gear:

Lab:

Troupe Style play

Troupe style play means one player controls several characters and that the GM role can be floating among characters. The game can easily center around one mage per session, where other mages stay in the Pact doing research. The players whose mages are staying at home can play their companions and Peons who join the mage on the adventure. At the end of the session, the mages who stayed home can still do lab moves and grow in power, even though they were not present in the adventure. In the game, it’s usually rare for all the mages to venture out together. They mainly leave the Pact when they need to deal with a problem, find some resource for their research or to go to a tribunal.

The GM role can change between players on a session per session basis (or some other system, whatever works best with your group) if the group is alright with it. The mage who belongs to the person who is currently the GM will stay at the Pact and do research. When playing this way, try to make each “adventure” at least a season so the mage at home gets to do a lab move.

Companions and Peons

Companions

Companions are characters you create that accompany the mages. Each player gets to make their own companion who will accompany other players mages on adventures if their mages player is staying home.

Playing a companion

In a standard adventuring game where there were no all powerful mages, the companions would be the main characters. They are competent and full fledged characters in their own rights. While they have little mechanical support (right now) you should consider their personality and background. It’s all great fodder for the GM to use.

The companions purpose is to function as a way for you to have a well defined character follow other mages than your own on adventures. That means that your companion won’t spend much time with your mage. In fact, I encourage against playing both your mage and companion in the same scenes. Place them apart and let them interact with other characters instead.

Companion Assets

Creating your companion

Pick a type from below or make your own. If you want to make your own, talk with the other players about what sort of career (broad job description) of Companion you want and what they should be able to do. As long as everyone is okay with it, go ahead.

Place one dot in either body,spirit or mind.

The companion gets one of their moves in their own asset. They also get a second asset that can’t be a magical asset.

A companion has access to all Basic Moves.

Thief (Companion)

When you perform any thieving activity and roll a miss, spend 2 fatigue to count it as a full hit.

When you gather information, you can always ask “What is the most valuable thing here?” even on a miss.

When you disguise yourself as someone, gain 1 point and 1 more for each of the following:

• You know the person you’re impersonating
• No one here knows the one you’re pretending to be

When someone becomes suspicious, spend points 1 for 1 to: Divert their attention elsewhere, Temporarily confuse them, Demand being treated according to your status

Priest (Companion)

You believe in the one true god. You’re a priest, rabbi, nun or imam or similar religious figure.

You can do the one of the following once per day, as long as you perform your morning prayers.

• Gain divine guidance on a difficult matter.
• Heal 1 harm by laying on hands and chanting a prayer
• Bless a small area and protect it from any weak demons

You have a Magic Resistance of 3 as long as you're not inside an Infernal Aura.

If you lead a flock in prayer and their faith is true, you and the flock have a magic resistance of 4.

When you’re near a place of your faith, you’re always welcomed there and under their protection, no questions asked.

Bandit (Companion)

X Crew of Bandits

You got a small band of Bandits you command. When you fight together you're a dangerous bunch (Harm 3) When you give an order, roll+spirit. On a hit, they do what you want. On a partial hit, you need to make an example out of one of them or someone wants a larger piece of the pie.

During downtime, If you and your gang go plundering roll+Body. On a hit, You bring back a valuable resource (Amber, important prisoner, magical item etc). On a partial hit, someone in your crew got captured. On a miss, you and your crew bring something back that spells doom for the Pact.

Dirty Tricks

When you use a dirty trick or a feint in combat, mark 2 fatigue and deal your harm.^[ag]

Knight(Companion)

X My word of Honor

When you make a vow to someone, no one will ever doubt your word.

If you ever break your word and people find out, this character becomes a dangerous NPC.

Noble

You have the right to hospitality in any home of another noble who knows of you or your family.

Charge!!

When you ride your loyal horse in a glorious display of prowess roll + spirit. On a hit, you Impress or Frighten your opposition or someone of your choice. On a partial hit, mark 1 fatigue but no other complication happens.

Big Monster (Companion)

You're some kind of vaguely humanoid monster. An ogre, a troll or similar.

X Immunity and Weakness

Pick a something that can't harm you(Iron, poison, fire etc.)

Pick something that is your weakness (Silver, a certain flower, a song). Some folktales describe your weakness.

Greater strength

When you perform an amazing feat of strength, mark 2 fatigue.

(Notes: A feat of strength can be quite impressive. Lifting a house, wrestling a dragon, etc.)

GET OUT OF MY SWAMP!

When you scare mundanes, roll+spirit. On a hit, they run for their lives. On a partial hit, they run to get help as soon as possible.

Ranger (Companion)

When you gather information by studying a trail or track, you always know what sort of creature made it, even on a miss.

When you return to an old cache of resources you’ve stored, roll+mind. On a hit, you acquire something useful for the situation. On a partial hit, It’s not exactly what you need but it’s still helpful.

When tracking, hiding or sneaking in the wild, take +1 die.

Monster Hunter (Companion)

Years of study

When you Gather Information by studying signs of monster activity, you can ask two of the following questions, even on a miss:  What is the most likely monster to have caused this? What is a potential weakness of this monster? How could I draw out this monster? Who would know more about this monster?

Now pour him some ale!

When you show off a trophy of a slain monster to a settlement the monster previously terrorized, you and your friends will be treated as heroes for one glorious night.

Secret recipes

Potions  (two boxes here)

When you drink a potion roll+body and mark one potion. On a hit take +1 die on any rolls using body until the end of the scene. Partial hit, take 1 harm.

When you have a few weeks of downtime, unmark all the potions if you have some time to brew new ones.

Merchant (Companion)

Buy low, sell high

During downtime a season or longer, if you’re out trading in the region roll+mind. On a hit, pick 2. On a partial hit, pick 1.

• You’ve created a shortage of a certain resource
• You’ve acquired a useful mundane resource for the Pact
• You’ve created a high demand for a certain resource

When you promise to pay someone later as a part of a bargain roll+spirit. On a hit, they accept. On a partial hit, you have to pay extra later.

During the year at some point (you decide when you aquire this move) you get a shipment of an exotic resource. The GM details what.

Bard (Companion)

Tune of Confidence

When a player character is having doubts about their confidence and you play them a song, roll+spirit. On a hit, they will gain a hit on the next move related to their doubts without having to roll. On a partial hit, you can’t use this move for the rest of the session.

Compose

When you have a few weeks of downtime and you spend them composing a tune to affect the hearts and minds, roll+mind. On a hit, pick 2. On a partial hit, pick one.

• It inspires action in the people (otherwise the don’t act)
• It spreads far and wide (otherwise it’s local)
• The message is understood (Otherwise there will be different interpretations)

Tune of the devil

When you play a tune to a crowd roll+ spirit. On a hit, pick 1. On a partial hit, a small part of the crowd tries to get you to stop.

• They start partying hard
• They bring forth someone you name
• They give up some of their belongings

Dashing Hero (Companion)

X “Fire me in that catapult, please”

When you perform a crazy acrobatic stunt, roll+ body. On a hit, pick two. On partial hit, pick 1. Spend 1 Fatigue to pick 1 extra option. Can be done multiple times.

• You get where you’re going
• You’re unharmed/less harmed as decided by the fiction
• You bring someone with you

When you deliver a witty remark, verbal counter or a quip that makes the rest of the players laugh, unmark 2 fatigue.

When you parry the attack of an opponent of similar strength, roll+body. On a hit, pick one.

• You lock blades, keeping their full attention
• You steal a visible item on their perso
• n without them noticing
• You disarm them, sending their weapon flying

Assassin (Companion)

(Preparation 0-4)

When you study your prey before you strike and gain useful information, gain +1 preparation. At the moment you strike, and until you’re safely hidden, you may spend 1 preparation to take +1d.

When your target dies in your arms, they will always reveal useful and true information about past events they regret.

Before you strike, as long as you’re preparing your mission, you may spend preparation, 2 for +1d.

Courtier (Compaion)

When you interact with nobles and important people, take +1d.

When you try find dirt on important nobles roll+spirit. On a full hit, both, on a partial, pick one.

• You find some blackmail worthy dirt.
• You don’t gain an enemy

When you spend a few minutes talking with a noble or important figure, you always know if they are backed by one of the Pacts enemies.

Peons

Peons are the human inhabitants of the Pact who are not magi or companions. They are the ones who collect lumber for the mages chairs, till the farm to bring food for the mages and sweep the soot after a mages experiment goes wrong. While the mages are adventuring and figuring out the higher mysteries of magic the Peons are living their life in the Pact like normal people. Peons can be played by any player and will also come along the mages on adventures from time to time. When they are not adventuring they are under the control of the GM.

Creating a Peon

Give them a name.

Give them a very narrow field of skill relating to their job.

Examples:

Fighting, Farming, Fishing, Potatoes, Sackweaving, Dirt, Manure, Cows, Sheep etc.

Whenever they do an action where their narrow field of skill would be useful, they roll 2 dice.

All other tests count as they have 0 dots in it.

They can fatigue themselves as other characters.

Playing a Peon

Peons are often the supporting actors to the mages and companions. When someone plays a Peon, they can let loose and try some things they wouldn’t dare with their mage or companion. Take crazy risks or act in a strange way. Peons are often uneducated peasants. They know little of the world and are superstitious, like most of the people in Legendary Europe. Just remember that you work for the mages. They are your bosses and if they are displeased they could turn your tongue into a snake. Keeping them happy is a priority.

Game Master section

The players have their moves and rules and these are the rules for the Gamemaster or GM. The GM controls the world and all things within it that are not controlled by the player. When a player rolls a partial hit or a miss, they also get to say what happens to the character that  performed the action that required the roll.

GM Goals

The following are the GM goals, which is what the GM strives to achieve. If these four things were accomplished in a session, you “won” that session.

Bring Legendary Europe to life

Legendary Europe is not middle age europe. While it shares the geography and time period it’s different in a lot of ways. Imagine what it would be like to live in a village with faeries in the forest, priests warning you for actual demons to lead you astray and wizards who could tear down your whole house with a snap of their finger.

Make the Magis' life interesting

Make sure things are going on. While the life of a Magi involves a lot of research, that part should take up the minority of screen time. Focus on the good and juicy dramatic parts.

Play to find out what happens

Never plan for what the players will do and never ever plan for what the players should do. You’re not there to guide players through a pre-set story, you’re more of a director who chucks strange situations and difficult choices to the player characters to see how they react.

Principles

These are the rules you have to abide by to reach your goal.

Be a fan of the Players Characters

Being a fan does not mean to let them have everything they want. As a fan you want to see them struggle and contend with challenges that seem to be above their station. Even though their circumstances can be hard, don’t let them forget how powerful they are or how skilled they are. They are still competent characters that can deal with a lot.

Pressure the Pact

The Pact is what ties all the player characters (mages, companions and Peons) together. When you pressure the Pact with different threats or opportunities, you will see different reactions from different characters. Make sure that there is a lot going on in the Pact that pushes the characters in different directions. Don’t go too far though. The players should all be on the same side when it comes to threats that could end the Pact.

Ask questions, use the answers

Ask the players questions about their characters and use the answers. This lets the whole group think about their characters in new ways and lets them see other sides to characters they didn’t know existed.

Follow the fiction

The fiction is what’s happening in the game. It’s the collective experience that the group has created. Abide by its laws and let it lead you to a new direction. Don’t ignore things that have been established because you think it would be a better story.

Hold on lightly

You’re not the final arbiter of the story and neither are the players. It’s all of you together. Throw things into the mix and see where they go. Don’t plan outcomes, plan situations that the characters have to deal with and let them lead you forward.

Address the characters, not the players

Always say “Augustus, what do you do?” instead of “Janet, what does Augustus do?”.

Display the fantastical, demonic and divine

Show the magic in the world, how demons ruin things and how God can actually protect people. Let the players see the power of the different realms and how they interact with each other and the world.

Bring forth the common

Don’t forget that the majority of people are simple farmers and city dwellers. Their most dramatic moment in their life might be the birth of a child, marriage or the death of a loved one. Let the players see these parts of life as well.

Think dangerous

Put the player characters under pressure. Don’t let their lives become too safe. There is always someone, common, magi or worse who would happily take what the PC:s had if they could.

Think offscreen, too

Ponder what happens in places the PC:s have Amberited but aren’t presently at. What is changing? When will the PC:s see this effect?

Never speak the name of your move

Don’t say “I’m inflicting harm. Take 3 harm” or “The unwelcome truth you discover is that Rollo is actually your father”. Say “Your legs break from the fall and you take 3 harm.” “Rollo looks at you with evil in his eyes. You recognize those eyes. You’ve seen them every time you’ve looked into a clear pool of water or in a mirror. You finally realize he’s your father”.

Draw maps, leave blanks

Draw maps of the Pact, the local area and the world. But always leave room for new things for both you and the players to discover. Neither you nor the players will know what those blanks will contain. The same goes for all pre-session planning. Leave certain things open for players to fill in. Leave certain things open for you to discover during play.

Legendary Europe is not Real Europe

Don’t feel compelled to recreate middle age Europe in perfect detail. Let history inspire you, but don’t try to re-create it. We already know how it turned out, unlike the story we’re telling at the table.

Moves

While the players have their moves, which usually require rolls, you have these moves. They are specific actions you describe happening in the fiction to move the story forward. Most things you say while playing should be a move in some form. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds.

Soft and hard moves.

Each move can be imagined on a scale with soft and hard on either end of the scale. A soft move means the consequences haven't happened and you have a chance to react.

Inflict harm: “The dragon belches fire towards you”,

Offer an opportunity: “She is considering casting a spell to destroy the magical harp, you have time to stop her though”

Put someone or something in danger: “Oskar, the hunter Peon, trips over the root and you can see that the old Mage about to do something horrible to him.”

In each case, the players have the option to react before the consequence has happened and possibly stop it. Not so with hard moves.

Hard moves means the consequence has happened.

Inflict harm: “The dragon's fire burns you into a charred husk. Take severe harm. You’ll die soon without help.”,

Reveal an unwelcome truth: “When you run into the room she has already destroyed the magical charm. You were too late.”

Put someone or something in danger: “Oskar, the hunter Peon, trips over the root and you can see that the old Mage was ready for it. He casts a spell before you have time to blink which turns Oskar into a chicken.”

Between these extremes you can make very soft moves, showing the tiny beginnings of a threat or very hard moves which can change the nature of the story completely.

Make a move when:

• When everyone looks to you to find out what happens
• When the players give you a golden opportunity
• When someone rolls a partial hit (softer move) or miss (hard move).

Moves

• Put someone or something in danger, (political or physical)^[ah]
• Show signs of an approaching threat
• Reveal relationships and old grudges
• Inflict or trade Harm
• Inflict Blight
• Draw them into Aurora
• Tell them the requirements or consequences and ask
• Harm the Pact
• Offer an opportunity, with or without cost
• Make a threat move (from one of your Fronts)
• Reveal an unwelcome truth
• Destroy resources to shift the odds
• Contest an important resource
• After every move you make, always ask, "What do you do?"

The Four realms

There are four real sources of magic and supernatural activity in Legendary Europe. All supernatural events come from these realms. They are Magic, Fae, Hell and Holy. Manifestations of the realm sometimes carry with them an Aura of that realm which affects the surrounding area.

A realm can refer to either manifestations within that power such as Demons(Hell), Churches (Holy), magical beasts (magic) or Fae forests (Fae) or refer to the actual realm from where power comes from. The Holy realm is heaven, the Hell is hell, the Fae realm is Arcadia and what the magic realm is, no one knows. Some theorize it’s Aurora but others argue Earth itself is magical enough.

Magic Realm

The magical realm can take many shapes. Some creatures and beasts can be magic. Some places can have a strong magic aura and that is usually where Pacts are located.

In a strong magical aura everything is more vivid. Colours are purer, sounds are more crisp. The sun is brighter and the night is darker. If a magical aura is too strong, commons will gain Blight by mere exposure and grow strange over time. Only the most powerful mages dare place their Pact in a magical aura that is too strong.

Fae realm

Some creatures are Faes by default. Pixies, elves, goblins and satyrs. A Fae is most often defined as the spirit of a place such as a forest, old tree or a deep lake and they share characteristics of the thing they are associated with.

Weak faerie auras can be found near most human settlements. The faeries that live there are usually nothing more than annoyances and rarely cause enough harm to warrant retribution. In more remote locations like primeaval forests or fields where no man has tread there could be strong Fae auras. Very powerful fae can live there. Strange events often happen within faeire auras. beasts or trees can start to talk. Strange lights can be seen. Something is always watching from the shadows. Faerie auras are often rich in Amber which makes them very tempting for mages to Amberit.

Arcadia is the home of all the faeries and is only accessible through portals in certain places on Earth, usually in very powerful faerie auras. Arcadias geography is always shifting and you can’t really map it out. Time is different from our world. A minute in arcadia might be a hundred years in our world. Or it might be one hour. You can never tell.

Hell Realm

The Hell realm is represented through evil, decay, moral corruption and demons. Places with an Hell aura are not places in which you want to stay long. Plants don’t grow and if they do, they are deformed or misshapen. Predatory beasts are more aggressive and hunt for pleasure rather than hunger. Hell auras can be in places where a dastardly betrayal took place, where diabolists gather to scheme or where demons build churches to be worshipped.

Diabolists are humans who have sold their soul to the devil in return for powers and favors on Earth. They have spell-like abilities and can summon demons, among other things.

Demons are fallen angels. They are evil by nature. They understand the Holy order completely and will never change their perspective. They envy humanity's place in the cosmos and wish to weigh down man's soul with sin. A demon can never die so they have an eternity to plot which means their actions can seem quite opaque. Besides working through diabolists, demons also enjoy resurrecting or starting pagan worship. The bloodier rites the better. The Scales and the church forbids dealing with demonkind.

Hell is not something made up to scare people to act decently. It’s a real place and it’s horrible. Like with Arcadia, there are gates to Hell in several places in the world. One of legend is the one Orfeus used to save his beloved.

Holy Realm

The divine realm is the most prominent one in Legendary Europe. The large majority of people believe in God and the church. Places with Holy auras are most cities, churches and close proximity to an ordained priest. How strong an aura of a city is would depend on the size of the population, their faith and the number and faith of the clergy. A Holy Aura can therefore grow weaker if less people believe in it. Faithful people will feel at peace and will be calmer inside a strong Holy Aura. Those weighed down with sin will feel dread and guilt. Those with the mark or other magical abilities will sense a powerful presence, magnitudes stronger than they are.

The Church itself views all other realms as aligned with hell, with the Scales rejects. The Church and the Scales are often at odds because of this. Some mages are Christians, but most have a problem acknowledging a higher power than themselves. Since the Church is so powerful, it’s influence is pervasive on all aspects of medieval life. It can be a vehicle for the soul to express it’s true beauty through song, art or philosophy. The church sponsors and creates art in all its forms. It can also be a repressor of liberal thought with violence, inquisitions and excommunications. Paganism can be stomped out. Those who speak out openly about the church can disappear. Whole countries can be considered chests to plunder if they get excommunicated.

Miracles are a form of Divine magic but it’s different from Hermetic Magic. Since it comes from God, it can perform things beyond a mages abilities, no matter how skilled they are. Bring people back to life, regress age:ing, fundamentally change someones essential nature. However, miracles are rare and even rarer are they considered miracles. It’s usually expressed through strange urges that a faithful will feel after a prayer. It might be the strange desire to run in a certain direction and if by some strange accident, find exactly what they are looking for.

Common Realm

The common realm is the fifth realm, although it’s not as powerful as the others. Any place in Legendary Europe not covered by any of the other realms belong to the common realm.

Realm specific moves

Hell

Offer your wishes fulfilled

Bring forth the power of hell

Let someone act as their pawn

Try to resist their urge to destroy

Plot for the long term

Holy

Negate the power of the other realms

Protect the true believers

Interfere in subtle ways

Offer redemption

common

Call for allies

Swarm with numbers

Turn to the other realms for aid

Act impulsively without understanding 

Be suspicious of odd folk

Fae

Trick and deceive mortals

Reveal the nature of their origin

Strike with the power of nature

Steal the valuable

Change into someone they know

Scales

Demand progress on a project

Offer magical resources for a deal

Investigate for any breaches in the code

Challenge to certamen

Reveal petty disputes and hoarded secrets

Pact

Aid the Pacts enemies, by accident or by force.

Demand something simple

Change a relationship

Find something interesting

Show how time is changing

NPC creator

All NPC (non player characters) have certain stats. For a regular human you just need a look, name and what they want. For mages or magical creatures though, you can use the lists for inspiration.

What's its name?

What realm is it aligned with?

(common, Fae, Magical, Holy, Hell)

What does it/they want/why are they here?

A safe home for their family, gain riches/glory/power, make sure everyone knows my name, carry out my destiny, avenge my loved ones, destroy those in power, guard a place or person, get justice for a wrong, finish my research at any cost, move up within the Scales, find love, let the world suffer like I have, find my lover/family member, enjoy opulence, make sure I make it out safely, turn the pious to sin, find the guilty, protect my lair.

What does it look like?

Is it from legend? What tales already exist about it? How is it different from the stories?

What's it's unique feature?

Strange color, unexpected size, handicap, wounds related to backstory, surprising location, odd ability, extra limbs or head, likes riddles and mysteries, strange wings, sympathetic family, strange interest, strange amalgamation of beasts and beasts,

How strong defense does it have?

(Magic resistance 1-5) (health)

How dangerous is it?

Not at all: No harm.

A little bit: Light

Quite dangerous:  Medium

Very dangerous: Severe

Extremely Dangerous: Fatal

How intense is it's magic (if it has any)

Penetrates magic? Intensity

Hermetic Mage?

What is their favorite modus and mold? Are they aged masters, intermediates or apprentices?

This creature (pick 1-4 to represent it's abilties and skills)

Steals the breath of those sleep

Regains strength by consuming flesh of the innocent

Vomits poison into bodies of water

Heals their wounds by the darkness of the night

Is made out of shadow and is intangible

Moves as fast as the wind

Has skin hard as steel

Can change their shape into the one their watcher loves the most

Has teeth and claw can tear armor

Spews forth a flame hotter than the forges fire

Carries the secret of their immortality on their person

Is devious, clever or more intelligent than any man

Is already dead, can not be killed again

Takes the form of something else

Returns to hell at death

Tempt pious people into sin

Gives orders to beasts, who will always obey

Can hold someone against their will, with magic means or physical

Makes you feel strong emotions you can't control

Binds people or creatures into service with their eyes

Is terrifying to all who sees it.

Has poisonous fangs

Can use the Scales Disciplines

Creates illusions to fool the senses

Is unable to be damaged by a certain type of harm

Can see in the dark, detect lies or hear magic

Possesses those with sin in their heart

Creates amazing things

Can only die by a mysterious condition

For their powers to work they have to (pick 1-2)

Keep their organs are hidden in a tree and make sure they are unharmed

Consume a whole field of flowers or grass each day

Sing a song every day to a forgotten diety

Learn something new each day

Provide a sacrifice to something or someone

Protect the weakest

Eat bread made from the fine dust of human bones

Never tell a lie

Always remain indoors

Know the name of their victim

Drink from the ocean each morning

Tell their victims their weakness

Weaknessess (pick 1-2)

Certain substance (salt, specific gemstone, specific tree, cold iron)

A handmade ward

A specific sound (the sound of the roosters crow, the sound of torture)

a specific beast

A certain ceremony (bowing and them returning the bow, doing a certain dance, asking a specific question)

Creating Threats

Threats are the things pushing the player characters to act. They threaten something important to the player characters like the Pact, their friends, their research or their own existence. Over the course of the game there will be plenty of threats both big and small to keep track of. This is how you should do it.

Small Threats

A threat can either be big or small. A small threat is a threat that doesn’t require planning or forethought but instead is a constant source of pressure. It’s not evolving or changing. It will stay until it evolves into a big threat or is resolved. Even if a small threat were to succeed it usually won’t lead to a huge consequence for the Pact or the characters. A small threat could be a certain Peon who’s always causing trouble, the forest around the Pact that always leads people astray or the local lord who is annoying the mages whenever they can. It’s something that you can draw on as a GM when you need to throw a complication into the mix. Keep a list of the small threats in your world by writing a sentence or two on your small threat sheet.

(EXAMPLE HERE)

Big threats

Big threats are the stuff of stories. They evolve, change and adapt. Unless they are dealt with, they could lead to terrible consequences for the player characters, their Pact or their friends and allies. It’s good to have a few big threats in action at the same time but don’t do more than three at the same time. Remember, that a big threat should be important to the player characters somehow. If the threat is tangential or uninteresting to the player characters, then consider threatening something else.

 To create a big threat, follow the steps below.

Creating a big threat

• Name

This is for your benefit, to keep track of your threats.

• Catalyst:

Person/Being/Faction/

What is the catalyst for this threat? What is it’s origin? Who or what is behind this and why? Try to involve player backstories, events they were directly involved with or their present situation.

• End result

What is the end result if the threat is able to reach it’s completion? How is it bad for the player characters?

• Stages:

5-6 stages. Write them down.

A threat goes through different stages. This is how the threat will manifest to the players and the direct actions the catalyst takes to achieve their end result. A stage is the same as a GM move, it can be soft or hard, but the longer the threat has gone on, the harder the moves should be.

A stage is either an escalation or a plot. An escelation is a direct move to reach it’s goal. A plot is a setup before making the move to reach it’s goal.

Remember that even if the players stop the threat early, the catalyst might still remain to change the stages to reach their goal.

• Stake Questions

Write down some questions about the threat that you want to see answered. You might have vague ideas about the answers but this means that you will let the fiction decide the outcome and not you.

• Timeframe: common/Mage/Demon or Angel

This is the timeframe of the threat. You don’t need to detail it but it’s important to know if it’s working on a common, Mage or a demon or angel timescale. Since this game can sometimes abstract years in a few minutes of gametime, it’s important to know if a threat is moving forward during that time or waiting for a better chance. Note that these are only namings of timescales. A very patient mundane might work on a Mage timescale or a rushed angel might work on a mundane timescalse. A mundane timescale means that it will be rushed. Time for preperations will be taken only when necessary, otherwise the threat will move forward fast. The Mage timescale is slower than a mundanes since mages have a longer lifespan and time to plan. The timespan of a Demon or Angel is basically eternal and there is no need to rush. Moves from these will happen at opportune moments since time is most likely in their favor.

Example threats

Example Spells

The following section gives a lot of examples of different spells created using the prepared spells.

Beast:

Create:

Perceive:

beast ken (PeBe)

Casting speed: 10 second of focus

Subtlety: Gestures and clearly enunciated words

Intensity: 1 levels (1 points)

Size: 5 people or so/ size of a wagon (1 point)

Duration: Instantaneous

Range: In sight within hundred paces (2 points)

Gain a flash of useful knowledge from nearby beasts.

Change:

Destroy:

Move:

Water:

Create:

Perceive:

Change:

Destroy:

Move:

Air:

Create:

Perceive:

Change:

Destroy:

Move:

body:

Create:

Perceive:

The touch of the Medicant (Library points required: 0)

Casting: 10 Seconds Subtlety: Gestures and clearly enunciated words Intensity: 0 Size: Person Duration: Concentration Range: Touch

Description: The mage touches someone and will instantly be able to know any injuries or diseases afflicting the body of the touched.

Change:

The Strength of Atlas (Library points required: 3)

Casting: 10 Seconds Subtlety: Gestures and clearly enunciated words Intensity: 0 Size: Person Duration: a day Range: Touch

Description: The targets muscles start to bulge and grow making them appear as muscular as Atlas himself. The target becomes much stronger. Also works great as a potion.

Destroy:

Move:

Flora:

Create:

Perceive:

Change:

Destroy:

Move:

fire:

Create:

Perceive:

Change:

Destroy:

Move:

sensations

Create:

Perceive:

Change:

Destroy:

Move:

Mood:

Create:

Perceive:

Change:

(ChMo)

Casting speed: 10 second of focus

Subtlety: Only gestures (1 point)

Intensity: 2 levels (2 points)

Size: A person or smaller

Duration: Concentration

Range: In sight within fifteen paces (1 point)

Change someone's feelings on an issue. It will not make someone fall in love, or instill more than ambivalence in an enemy, but it will make most people more amenable towards the caster's point.

Destroy:

Move:

Earth:

Create:

Perceive:

Change:

Destroy:

The Last fall of the Magus (Library points required: 7)

Casting: 1 second of focus Subtlety: Gestures and clearly enunciated words Intensity: 0 Size: Size of a barn Duration: Instant Range: In sight within hundred paces

Description: 

The mage points at a location with dirt or similar ground, preferably where an enemy stands. The ground falls apart and creates a deep hole the size of a large well where their enemy will fall to their death.

Move:

Mage Shield (MoEa)

Casting speed: 1 second of focus (2 points)

Subtlety: Gestures and clearly enunciated words

Intensity: 0 Intensity

Size: A person or smaller

Duration: A quarter of an hour (1 point)

Range: Touch or Personal

Metal or stone attacks against you are less effective for a while.

Magic:

Create:

Perceive:

Change:

Destroy:

Move: