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althen artren
Senior Scribe
USA
780 Posts |
 Posted - 05 Jul 2012 : 03:42:44
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Anybody want to brainstorm with me about
making the Spellplague more an individual
plague as apposed to a world plague.
Im thinking in 3rd edition mechanics will
saves to keep from losing Wisdom, stronger
the spell the higher the save, more magic you use,
maybe the damage becomes permanent, slight
chance you mutate due to sudden influx of Weave magic
blah...blah...blah...
Any ideas?
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4702 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jul 2012 : 03:47:55
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In many ways it was individual as I understand it, some spell casters and regions damaged far more then others.
Are you talking about, the plague having a higher level of effect when encountering certain characters? |
"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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althen artren
Senior Scribe
USA
780 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jul 2012 : 03:25:03
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I don't have a good idea in my head about what I want to do. I almost
want a Insanity type score aka Cthulu when somebody wants to cast spells, but the
whole assigning a DC score to certain power levels I'm not comfortable with.
I think that there should be no magic healing allowed, because exposure to
magic causes greater chance for insanity. I think that the less you cast and
recommit spells to memory and get magic cast on you gives you a greater rate of return of your sanity.
Then there is the whole idea of making chances that damage is permanent. and
mutation mechanics and lets not even think right now about monsters and their supernatural abilities and spell-like abilities. I'm not comfortable with making my own rules
up for the most part. |
Edited by - althen artren on 22 Jul 2012 03:27:06 |
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Delwa
Master of Realmslore
USA
1272 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jul 2012 : 14:13:27
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If you want to make it a little more iffy, set a DC for the Spell level or Spell-like effect, and have it modified by the caster's spellcasting stat (Int, Cha, Wis)
However, make the Save modify your chances of resisting the insanity.
If you fail the Save, you have a 90% chance of losing some Sanity. If you make the Save, 60%, if you make the Save plus five, you have a 50% chance, if you make the Save plus 10, 45%, etc.
How much you loose when you fail both you Will Save and your percentile roll could be a set ammount or a die roll. If you wanted to add even more chance to it, make the ammount of dice change depending on what your percent chance had been. If 90% like mentioned above, roll d12, but if 50%, roll a d6.
I'm working on something similar in my current game. The Spellplague is still a few months away, so I haven't actually tried out the mechanics yet, but that's the basic idea I have been toying with.
Further brainstorming would be welcome. |
- Delwa Aunglor
I am off to slay yon refrigerator and spoil it's horde. Go for the cheese, Boo!
"The Realms change; seldom at the speed desired of those who strive, but far too quickly for those who resist." - The Simbul, taken from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Conspectus |
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Bladewind
Master of Realmslore
Netherlands
1280 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jul 2012 : 19:43:30
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The d20 SRD has some extensive variant campaign rules on Sanity and Taint.
The sanity rules seem a perfect fit for simulating the spellplagued arcane casters on Fearun at the time. The sanity check for the spellplague could then be a percentile dice throw that needs to score below a characters current sanity score (5 x wisdom - knowledge arcana or knowledge the planes).
Spellcasting without the aid of the Weave could be represented by a period of extreme sanity loss for casting even the more simple spells (1d6 sanity per spell level) in the first few years after the Weave's Collapse. Careful (wise) casters (who have a higher maximum sanity total) will then still be able to cast spells daily, but need to visit someone with the heal skill or restoration spell each night to reduce sanity by 1 or 1d4 respectively. If a character has a negative sanity total, (s)he will become mad (and has to roll on a custom Spellplague Insanity table to see which temporary or permanent mental disorder is contracted).
Some spells will cost more sanity to cast, for example all divination, invisibility, necromancy, summon, calling and compulsion spells cost an extra sanity point (or one or two per spell level) to cast; while some have a reduced cost, like healing spells, divine spells of particular Greater Gods, nature spells and abjuration spells, which reduce their sanity cost by one or more per casting.
_______
The Spellplagued Arcane Storm initially started to form above the Mhair Jungles near Halruua, in the form of a massive blue firestorms in the skies. It quickly grew in size (I think a good pace for the Spell Storms growth is tripling in size each day) untill it touched all of Fearun. By the year of 1395 DR it's effects were largely gone, so it likely discharged major parts of its internal power in the first few months, whereafter it gradually receded back to its current locations (some mountain peaks and other curious locations in Plaguechanged Lands such as Halruua and Sespech still show the blue fires).
Being exposed to the spellstorm itself would work more like a physical taint (i.e. would require not sanity but fortitude to resist), and could resulting in a wild magic effect tailored to change the body, mind and soul of the subject. Perhaps use the Rod of Wonder table and wing some of the effects to your needs. |
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Druidic Groves
Creature Feature: Giant Spiders |
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Quale
Master of Realmslore
1757 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jul 2012 : 16:03:06
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| Rolling the elven high magic consequences table (Cormanthyr) could also work, just this time for everyone |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jul 2012 : 16:06:25
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This is related, but not precisely what the OP intended (sorry in-advance AA). I just hate starting new threads, especially when there are so many Spellplague threads out there already. These thoughts were inspired by several things, but mostly because we have no idea when Elinster's Realms will be set.
I was thinking that if someone wanted to run a 1479+ game, they can still use whatever they want from the old setting, without having to go through the trouble of re-inventing the Realms (like I'm doing elsewhere). In the beginning - before WotC made a mish-mosh of what the Weave is (and isn't), Ed said "the Weave = life". Even though this is suppposedly no-longer canon (just because things didn't die in dead-magic zones... which is stupid), we can still use this.
What if all that energy - both the weave and Shadoweave energy (together forming 'raw magic') - is the basis for life? Basically, its almost like background radiation, which helps with mutation and therefor evolution (but slowly - not like in scify). After the weave fell, and then the Shadoweave, all that raw magic spread across Toril everywhere, like a storm. DSome areas were hit hard, others not so much. Shadowdale may have gotten hit with a 'category 3 spellstorm' while just a few miles away in Mistledale it was pretty-much untouched. So far, I haven't described anything that didn't happen in canon (only embelished what was going on).
So while some things may have been 'warped' (spellscars) by the unleashed energies, and others killed outright (I picture a rapid-aging a'la vampire movies, etc), some folks may have been infused with all that 'life' energy. 
All the hokey 'he absorbed a shade with his sword' and 'he was hiding in an artifact' back-stories to bring favorite Realms characters into the 15th century aren't necessary. While some folks may have died (and many did), we could still save our favorite ones. In fact, if you wanted to, you could say that now on the Weaveless world humans live on the average to 150, and ages over 200 are are even possible. Just assume everything doubles - a 60 year old is like a 30 year old, or a 120 year old is just starting to feel his age like a 60 year old.
Maybe thats why Elves live longer - they have always been closer to these life-giving energies. All I'm doing is applying the phenomena to another fantasy race - fantasy humans. I mean, its such a simple fix, I don't know why they didn't bother to just do that. People in FR live longer, end of story.
Opinions?
EDIT: And this does apply to the OP, in that once an affect is determined for each individual, if that person lives and wasn't altered over-much, their lifespan would double moving forward (in other words, they would age at half the normal rate). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 23 Jul 2012 16:11:00 |
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althen artren
Senior Scribe
USA
780 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jul 2012 : 15:54:31
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Markus, there is a precedent here, at the end of Blackstaff, those who were
participating in the ritual could restore "their youth and vigor"
according to the 3 High Mages of Myritaar. |
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Erik Scott de Bie
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
4598 Posts |
Posted - 25 Jul 2012 : 15:41:20
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My work in the Realms assumes something very close to this "Weave = Life" concept. You'll see what I mean. 
Cheers |
Erik Scott de Bie
'Tis easier to destroy than to create.
Author of a number of Realms novels (GHOSTWALKER, DEPTHS OF MADNESS, and the SHADOWBANE series), contributor to the NEVERWINTER CAMPAIGN GUIDE and SHADOWFELL: GLOOMWROUGHT AND BEYOND, Twitch DM of the Dungeon Scrawlers, currently playing "The Westgate Irregulars" |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 25 Jul 2012 : 19:57:14
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I've been using it too, a LOT. I think Ed must have been a fan of Mary Shelly as well. 
BTW, Mary was way ahead of her time - they've proven life can't form without certain electro-magnetic fields present. Radiation - which the elctro-magnetic spectrum is - is key to life.
Watching a show on the science channel yesterday about "Before the Big Bang" (I thought it had to do with Prom Night  ), I couldn't help but relate some of the energies they were talking about to The Realms and D&D in-general. Science and magic aren't as different as people think they are - magic is just what folks who don't understand the science call those effects. Hell, Jack Vance treated magic as a science, and thats the whole basis for D&D.
The Spellplague is just what happens when the 'local laws of physics begin to unravel'. This happened in miniature in the WotAW trilogy, when Weave Magic (Dark Energy) and Shadoweave (Dark Matter) mix. It causes atomic-like effects, disrupting fundamental particles... and tearing holes in planes (this relates directly to how planes work in an M-theory model).
So every time 'cosmic energy' strikes each other, small, new universes are born. Ergo, whether we use science or magic, the universe is ever-expanding and multiversal in nature.
Now imagine someone who could manipulate those elemental forces - they'd be like an archmage, or a god. Any of you ever read any of the Well of souls novels? That's what happens when mortals find out how the basic principles of everything work (and magic and science become one). Great read BTW - I highly recommend it. It helps you understand how there really is no difference between science and magic.
EDIT: More on-topic, or rather, my own sub-topic. I just read that the slow-(non?) aging thing is what happened to Storm in 4e, so my theory holds water. She can no longer access her Weave(life) magic because her body absorbed it. Because she had so damn much of it, she basically became immortal (despite having no Weave to back-up her Chosen status). This means that different people across the Realms might be aging differently, and just about anyone you want can be alive post-4e. 
In fact, I imagine entire towns cursed to live for an eternity. Kinda like what happened to Tom Hanks' character in Green Mile. Imagine your PCs enter a village where everyone is quiet, and just stares at them with some sort of longing (longing for that final rest that will never come). A village with no children - a sad, sad place where people go about their lives like automatons in a never-ending loop of lethargy and despair.
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"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 25 Jul 2012 20:09:28 |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36971 Posts |
Posted - 25 Jul 2012 : 20:49:11
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
EDIT: More on-topic, or rather, my own sub-topic. I just read that the slow-(non?) aging thing is what happened to Storm in 4e, so my theory holds water. She can no longer access her Weave(life) magic because her body absorbed it. Because she had so damn much of it, she basically became immortal (despite having no Weave to back-up her Chosen status).
Or it could mean that when she first became a Chosen, centuries before -- you know, when she first stopped aging -- that the silver fire altered her genetic structure to make her immortal. And that change wouldn't require the Weave to maintain it -- it was a one-time change that has not been undone. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 25 Jul 2012 : 21:34:12
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Well, according to the Wiki, it didn't just make her immortal (which she already was), it turned back her age to about 19. Thats a bit different then what normally happens with Chosen.
Then again, I myself have pointed-out you can't trust the FR Wiki. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 25 Jul 2012 21:34:41 |
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althen artren
Senior Scribe
USA
780 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jul 2012 : 03:10:36
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So I am thinking so far the Will save is DC 10+[(2 x spell level) + number of levels spell is modified by meta-maagic feats] for casting your own spells. I don't know anything about the insanity rules for d20, and I know only about the Chaosism Cthulu taking your Wisdom and multiply by five.
I think getting hit with arcane magic should necessitate a roll at a rate: 10 + [(1 x spell level)+ levels spell modified by meta-magic feats]
(Should faith based magic be exempt due to dieties granting spells to followers?)
(Should non-casters need an roll of sort for when hit by arcane magics?)
(Do we modify the DC by the amount of spells store in you head, or maybe adjust the rolls on damage? I want more powerful spellcasters to be afraid to use their magics.)
(Should SR offer protection from Wisdom or Sanity loss?)
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Edited by - althen artren on 28 Jul 2012 03:11:56 |
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Alternative Spellplague...
