The Addenda consist of a variety of supplementary material for FUDGE.
Chapters 2 through 5 represent plain, vanilla FUDGE - here you can find and create fancier fare. If you pass FUDGE around, please add any customization to this chapter (quoting Section number and name, such as 2.33, Gifts), rather than change the original. Suggestions for a specific genre also go in the Addenda. Examples: a list of sample superpowers, or a list of guns and their damage.
Please include a date and credit (your name) for the change, and, if
possible, notify Steffan O'Sullivan, the original author of FUDGE, via
the Internet (to sos@oz.plymouth.edu) or via the Post Office (c/o Wild
Mule Games, P.O. Box 838, Randolph, MA 02368).
7.1 Sample Magic System: FUDGE Magic
Date: November, 1992 to November, 1993
By: Steffan O'Sullivan
Here is a sample magic system, based on the following premises mentioned in Section 3.5, Magic:
Who can cast: Magicians only (supernormal power needed).
Levels of Power: yes. There are two game effects: the greater the power, the easier it is to cast more powerful spells; and power levels act as a reserve in case of severe failure, which temporarily drains Power. Voluntarily draining a level of Power can also guarantee success for one spell.
Source of Power: manipulation of local area mana.
Reliability: Fair.
Time to cast spells: depends on potency of spell (one minute to days). This can be speeded up by taking a penalty to the roll.
Spells: improvised. Exact wording isn't important, so magic books tend to be collections of effects, not formulae.
Material Components: none needed, but good use can give a +1 bonus to skill.
Drawbacks: casting non-trivial spells is fatiguing; severe failure causes distress.
Societal constraints: none - magic is rare, but not unheard of.
This system is based on the conviction that a player using magic should never be blase: there should always be some tension and excitement when a character casts a spell, or the magic has gone out of the game. Too often in a roleplaying game, the player running a magician uses tried-and-true spells so regularly that spell-casting becomes mundane. Since "mundane magic" seems a contradiction in terms, FUDGE Magic attempts to instill a little excitement into spell-casting.
There are many ways to achieve this. FUDGE Magic has chosen the following limitations:
See Section 6.31
for sample characters using FUDGE Magic.
7.11 Magic Potential
Magic Potential is a Supernormal Power. (A suggested cost in the Objective Character Creation system is two gifts for each level of Magic Potential. This can be reduced in a magic-rich campaign.) A character with at least one level of Magic Potential (usually abbreviated to Potential, sometimes simply called Power) is referred to as a "magician" in these rules - substitute your favorite word. Only magicians may cast spells. (However, see Section 7.192, Magicians & Non-Magicians, for other options.) Magic Potential may be taken more than once, but each level counts as a separate supernormal power.
Each level of Magic Potential must be bought as a specialization. Specializations can be suggested by the player or set by the GM. (In the latter case, she should make a list of acceptable magic specializations.) The categories can be as broad or as narrow as the GM wishes - the broader the terms, the more powerful the magicians.
Examples of specialized Potential: Alter Inanimate Material, Augury, Combat Magic, Communication Magic, Defensive Magic, Elemental Magic, Flying Magic, Healing Magic, Illusion, Information-Gathering Magic, Mind Control, Necromancy, Only Affects Living Beings, Only Affects Sentient Beings, Only Affects Technological Items, Shapeshifting, White Magic (cannot harm anyone, even indirectly), etc.
A character may have Power levels in more than one specialization, unless the GM disallows it for some reason. Certain disciplines may have societal constraints: in most cultures, studying Necromancy is offensive and probably illegal. Mind Control, Invisibility, Teleportation, Illusion Magic, etc., might all be limited to government-approved magicians, at best. It's even possible that such magicians will be outlaws. Anything that can be used easily to commit a crime (especially assassination or thievery) will be difficult, if not impossible, to learn openly in most cultures. If a given culture allows such magic openly, it is sure to have powerful defenses against being damaged by it.
Very narrow specializations should probably cost less than one supernormal power: perhaps each very specialized Potential is worth one gift.
In order to cast a spell of a given result, the magician must have at least +1 Potential specialized in that type of magic (on the character sheet, that is: he may be temporarily reduced to 0 Potential). Someone with +1 Potential: Combat Magic and +2 Potential: Information-Gathering Magic could not cast a spell to control someone's mind, for example.
Failing a spell miserably causes the temporary loss of a level of Magic Potential (see Section 7.15, Resolution). When this happens, the magician faints for at least one combat round. He needs a Good Constitution roll to wake up (roll each round). When he comes to, the magician may function normally, even attempting to cast the same spell again - if he hasn't dropped below 0 Potential.
If a magician has two or more types of Potential that are appropriate for the spell being cast, and a loss of Potential is called for, the GM decides which type of Potential is reduced. For example, if a magician has one level of Combat Magic and two levels of Fire Magic, and fails miserably on a fireball spell, the GM could say that he has lost either his one level of Combat Magic or one of his Fire Magic levels, but not one of each.
If a magician drops to -1 Potential in any given specialty, he immediately falls into a coma, lasting anywhere from an hour to a day (GM's decision). When he wakes, he must roll against his Constitution: on a Mediocre or worse roll, he takes a point of damage. He checks Constitution again at the end of every day he is active - a failed result means another point of damage. These wounds cannot be healed until he recharges his Magic Potential back up to level 0.
A magician with 0 Potential may still cast spells; a magician at -1 Magic Potential, however, cannot attempt any magic spells that would involve that specialty. He may still cast spells of another specialty. For example, a magician who falls to -1 Encyclopedic Magic can no longer cast a spell that allows him to open his blank book and read the encyclopedia entry on a specified topic that would magically appear. But he can still cast spells using his Animal Empathy Magic, allowing him to call and converse with wild animals, provided that Potential is still 0 or greater. He must still make a Constitution check for every day he his active, however, to see if his -1 Encyclopedic Magic Potential is causing him wounds.
Magic Potential may be recharged only by resting for one week per level. (GMs may alter this time to taste, of course: resting for one day might be sufficient for more epic campaigns.) For example, a magician falls to -1 Potential. Resting one week will bring him up to 0 Potential (and cure any wounds incurred by being active while at -1 Potential). A second week of rest will bring him up to +1 Potential.
However, no character may gain Magic Potential levels beyond his
starting level (except through Character Development - see Chapter 5).
7.12 Spells
When a magician wishes to cast a spell, he describes the result he has in mind. The GM assesses how powerful such an effect would be, based on how prevalent magic is in her campaign. In a low-magic campaign, even a simple spell such as levitating the jail keys to an imprisoned character would be taxing. In a high-magic campaign, however, that would be a trivial spell, and even shooting forth a flash of lightning from a fingertip wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
The potency of the spell also depends on the magician's appropriate Power level. A recommended medium is three levels of Power in a given specialization. This means a magician with three levels of Power governing the spell in question has no modifier. (Note that the levels of Power in question do not have to be all of the same specialization so long as they all govern the spell in question. For example, a spell to make a sword fly up and attack a foe could be governed by Flying Magic, Combat Magic, and Control Inanimate Material. If a mage had one level of each of those types of magic, the spell would be of average potency for him.) A spell is more difficult for a magician with less than three levels of an appropriate Power. Likewise, a magician with four or more appropriate Power levels treats a spell as more trivial than it would be for an average magician.
Spells may then be either Trivial, Average, or Potent. (They may also be Very Trivial, or Very Potent, if the GM wishes. In fact, the players will undoubtedly propose truly awesome spells, which should be labelled as Extraordinarily Potent, or with some other impressive adjective.) The GM tells the player what the potency of a proposed spell is - any magician character would have a fairly good idea of a spell's potency.
The spell's potency determines the Difficulty level. A spell of average potency has a Fair Difficultly level, while a Potent spell has a Difficulty level of at least Good. Likewise, a Trivial spell has a Difficulty level of Mediocre or Poor.
The GM also decides the duration of the spell, if it succeeds - seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc. The character may try to adjust this, subject to GM approval. For example, the magician can voluntarily take more fatigue or reduce the scope of the effect - or accept some other penalty - to lengthen the spell's duration. Rolling a higher relative degree can also mean the spell lasts longer. Some spells might have permanent effects: healing (until wounded again), busting a hole in a wall (until repaired manually or by magic), teleporting to a distant place (until you come back), and so on. Of course, even these spell effects may be temporary in a given GM's world: healing only lasts a day and the wound reappears, or a hole in the wall fixes itself after a few minutes, or a teleported person automatically returns after an hour in the other location . . .
The GM also needs to determine if there are any drawbacks to casting a spell. FUDGE Magic assumes that spells are tiring to cast, and a magician reduces his Fatigue attribute when casting. The more potent the spell, the more the fatigue. (Fatigue is regained by resting, of course. If Fatigue goes below Terrible, the character passes out. The GM may have separate Fatigue attribute, or base it on Endurance, Constitution, Strength, etc.)
A GM who dislikes the idea of keeping track of fatigue can change the
drawback to something else. Perhaps a magician has a limited number
of spells he can cast in a day (or in an hour). In this case, he may
have a Spell Point attribute, which is drained by spell casting and
regained simply by the passage of time. (A trivial spell might not
drain any Spell Point levels, while an average spell might drop a
magician from Good Spell Points to Fair, for example, and more potent
spells drain 2 or more levels at a time.) Draining spell points would
not necessarily make the magician tired in this case, and Spell Points
would regenerate whether the magician was resting or not. (Or they
might only regenerate with sleep.) Or maybe each spell affects his
Sanity attribute, and he needs to convalesce to restore it. (Reduced
Sanity can manifest in many amusing ways in the meantime, of course!)
7.13 Mana
Mana is an energy source capable of manipulating matter, time and space. It can be tapped only by those with Magic Potential.
The GM determines the availability and density of mana in a given game world, just as she does the average potency of a spell. Mana density can affect two things: how large an area is needed to fuel a given spell effect, and (optionally), how easy or hard it is to cast a spell.
When a spell of a particular effect is cast, the magician draws a specific type of mana to him to create the effect. The next time this same effect is desired, it will be harder to do: he has drained some of that mana type in the local area.
The size of the area is defined by the GM. For most fantasy worlds, assume it's about 50 yards or meters in diameter. In a low-level magic campaign, the area might be the size of town or even city. (This would give meaning to the old line, "This town ain't big enough for both of us" - dueling wizards!) On the other hand, a high-level magic campaign might be so mana-rich that the magician can simply take a step or two and be in a new area. Note that the area governs which spells can be cast without penalty: if one magician casts a healing spell, a second magician will be at -1 to cast a healing spell in the same area within the next 24 hours. (Mana may recharge at a different rate in a given game world, of course.) Note also that a magician may be unaware of what spells were cast in an area before he arrived . . .
In a mana-rich area, spells may also be easier to cast: +1 or +2 to skill level. Likewise, in a mana-poor area, spells can be harder to cast: -1 or more. The GM decides if this rule is in effect.
Mana is probably very dispersed and weak in a world such as modern Earth. The average fantasy game world will have much stronger mana, and some high-magic campaigns will simply reek of mana. But even in a given world, it is possible to vary the amount of mana. Some lands may be mana-rich, while neighboring countries are mana-poor. Mana may flow in currents, or tides with the phases of the moon. There may be "rogue" mana streams that change course and invade new areas, or a mana drought may afflict a given locale. Astrological alignments can affect mana, too - thus even here on mana-poor Earth there will be places and times of the year when cultist gather to call forth unseen powers . . .
A PC magician would know the general mana level for at least his home
area. He may or may not know whether it fluctuates periodically, or
if far lands have different mana levels. In order to determine the
mana level of the local area at a given time, a magician must cast a
spell specifically to that end.
7.14 Skill
Spell-casting is a skill that must be learned. The default is Non- Existent, and, due to the element of uncertainty in FUDGE Magic (mentioned in Section 7.1, FUDGE Magic), the maximum base skill level is Fair. This cannot be raised permanently - but see Section 7.193, Spell-Casting Skill Alternatives.
One generic Spell-Casting skill is assumed, but the GM may require more if she breaks magic down into different types. It should cost one level just to get a Spell-Casting skill at Terrible.
Spell-casting skill may be modified (to a maximum of Great) by the following:
Other modifiers may also apply, such as in a spell to search the
mountains magically for someone you love (+1) or searching for
someone you've never met (-1).
7.15 Resolution
Each spell is then resolved as an Unopposed action: the Difficulty level is dependent on the spell potency. Spells of average potency have a Difficulty level of Fair, while more trivial spells have difficultly levels of Mediocre or Poor. (No spell has a Difficulty level of Terrible - magic just doesn't work at that level.) More potent spells have Difficultly levels of Good to Superb, or even beyond Superb if a truly powerful effect is desired.
If the magician surpasses the Difficulty level, the spell occurs as he described it. The better the relative degree, the better the result. The magician suffers -1 (or more) to his Fatigue attribute if the GM deems the spell is fatiguing. (If the GM has chosen some other drawback, of course, that is applied instead.)
Sometimes a skill roll is then needed to do something with the end result of a spell. For example, a fireball needs to be thrown accurately: use the Throwing Skill and Ranged Weapon rules in Chapter 4.
If the magician equals the Difficulty level, then a watered-down version of the spell occurs. Either it will have a very short duration, or reduced potency, or there is a time lag before the spell takes effect, etc. There may be an unexpected side effect, though it won't be harmful to the magician. There is no penalty for the magician beyond a possible -1 or -2 to Fatigue, at worst.
If the magician rolls below the Difficulty level, however, he is adversely affected. The energy inherent in mana lashes out at the magician's psyche instead of being focused as desired. There may (or may not) be some visible magical effect, but it will not be the desired effect, and, if he rolled poorly enough, it may even be inimical to the magician's goals - or health. . .
On a failed roll, the magician is stunned for one combat round (no actions or defense) and takes at least -1 Fatigue. A Terrible result always fails.
If he rolls a result of -4, the spell automatically fails (no matter
what the resulting level) and he also temporarily
drains one level of his Magic Potential - see Section
7.11, Magic Potential, for effects. (This is the "riskiness" of
magic mentioned in Section 7.1, FUDGE Magic.)
Examples: Barney casts a spell, Create Pizza, of Average potency in a
normal mana area and gets -3: a Terrible result. The spell fails and
Barney is stunned for a combat round, but he does not
drain a level of Magic Potential because he did not roll a -4. Later,
in a mana- rich area (+1 to cast), Barney takes a long time (+1) to
cast Detect Food, a very Trivial spell (Poor result or better needed
for success). He has temporarily raised his skill to Great, the
maximum allowed. He rolls a -4 result, which is a Poor rolled result.
Although the rolled degree is good enough to cast the spell, Barney
still fails because he rolled a -4 result. Barney not only doesn't
detect any food, he also exhausts 1 level of Magic Potential - ouch!
7.16 Personal Magic Resistance
If the spell is one which attempts to Control another being - either mentally, physically or spiritually - Opposed action rolls are also called for. First, the magician casts the spell (as above); then he has to overcome the Personal Magic Resistance of the subject. Magic Resistance may be an attribute or gift (Willpower is a good choice, if there is no specific anti-magic trait), as the GM desires. Magic Resistance may even be a different attribute for different types of spells (a mental attribute for attempts to control the mind, etc.). Note that this second roll is Opposed - the subject of the spell gets a chance to resist it, and so can influence the result.
If the GM is willing, the magician may use the result he just rolled as his skill level for the Opposed action. That is, if he rolled a Great result on the spell, he rolls the Opposed action as if his skill were Great. Otherwise, he uses the same level he rolled initially against.
Control can mean many things to different GMs. Personal
Magic Resistance would resist an attempt to read someone's mind to one
GM, but not to another. Magic Resistance does not
resist any spell that calls or creates physical energy to lash out at
another being, though. If the magician successfully creates lightning
at his fingertips to blast at the subject, that is not resisted by
Personal Resistance; it is treated as a physical weapon.
7.17 Certain Spell-Casting
Sometimes a magician desperately needs a certain result. In this case, he may opt not to roll the dice at all, and simply drain one level of Magic Potential for a guaranteed success. He takes the usual penalties for losing a level of Potential - see Section 7.11, Magic Potential. This means he'll faint - be unconscious - after casting the spell, which limits the utility for certain spells. You can't control someone's mind when you are unconscious, for example . . .
The GM may restrict this to Trivial spells, or non-Potent spells, or
have no restrictions at all, beyond requiring the normal fatigue (or
other) penalties. If the spell is one that could logically be
resisted by the subject, however, the subject still gets a Resistance
roll. In this case, the magician rolls as if his skill were Great.
7.18 Enchanting Items
Items may be permanently enchanted in this system. The magician works for a number of weeks or months (as required by the GM), depending on the number and potency of the spells desired, and the general availability of magic items in the campaign. At the end of each month (or week), the magician rolls against two skills: Spell-casting, and the appropriate Craft skill for the material being worked. The usual penalties apply on failing a spell roll. If he surpasses the Difficulty level on each roll, the spell is slowly being set into the item, one stage at a time. On a roll that only matches the Difficulty level, the work counts as only half a time period, but does progress the enchantment.
Obviously, a mana-rich area will attract magicians, especially
enchanters.
7.19 FUDGE Magic Options
These options offer ways to make FUDGE Magic more sweeping, more
reliable, less risky, and even make it available to non-magicians.
7.191 Generalized Magic Potential
Some GMs may want the players to have sweeping powers. In this case, each level of Magic Potential allows a character to try any magic effect desired. This is in keeping with certain fictional settings in which learning magic involves general principles rather than specific spell effects. This makes for a very free and open game, which may or may not be to your tastes.
Note that specializations can still be handled in this system. Simply use faults to limit a mage's ability to cast certain spells. See Section 6.311, Character Examples, Brogo the Scout.
7.192 Magicians & Non-Magicians
The GM may allow non-magicians to cast spells. In this case, it is very risky, as there is no Magic Potential "cushion" - one severe failure is enough to devastate the character. Still, in an emergency, it may be worth the risk. Such a character would still need to have some Spell-casting skill, however. (But see Section 7.193, Spell-casting Skill Alternatives).
As a substitute for Magic Potential specialization, the GM looks over the character sheet (checking traits, personality, and character background) and decides if a proposed spell would be appropriate for the character. The character must have some aptitude in the proposed spell subject, or he may not cast such a spell. For example, a trained fighter with no knowledge of book learning or foreign languages could conceivably try a combat spell, but not a spell to translate a book written in an unknown script.
Of course, the same spell is of greater potency for a non-magician
than for a magician. This probably means that a non-magician will
only have a chance of casting a spell that a magician would consider
trivial.
7.193 Spell-Casting Skill Alternatives
Since tastes differ, and FUDGE Magic tends to be undependable (see Section 7.1, FUDGE Magic), three options are provided for more reliable spell-casting:
To make spell-casting less risky (not necessarily a good thing - see Section 7.1, FUDGE Magic), make it harder to drain a level of Potential.
Examples (apply as many or as few as desired):
Here is a sample miracle system (not generic), based on the following premises mentioned in Section 3.6, Miracles:
Divine Favor is a supernormal power that can be taken more than once. Each time Divine Favor is taken, it is dedicated to a single deity. It is possible to have Divine Favor from more than one deity in a polytheistic world, or you can have multiple steps of Divine Favor from a single deity. Each step of Divine Favor counts as two supernormal powers (recommended).
Divine Favor can be temporarily lost if the character does not act in
accordance with the deity's desires. Usually a period of atonement is
required to regain Divine Favor. This may be instantaneous for a very
merciful deity, or it may take up to a month for stricter deities.
All steps are lost and regained as a unit when this happens.
7.22 Petitioning a Miracle
A character may petition a miracle at any time. However, some deities do not like to be disturbed for trivial matters, and may ignore requests when it is obvious the character hasn't even tried to help himself.
In FUDGE Miracles, the petition should be fairly precisely worded. Rather than a simple, "Please help me," the character should focus the plea: "We are starving, please feed us," or, "My friend is dying, please heal him." A holy character can petition for any miraculous result desired, however - there is no established list of miracles.
Characters without Divine Favor have a Petitioning skill of Poor (or Mediocre, if the GM wants a more deity-active game). Those with one or more steps of Divine Favor have a Petitioning skill of Fair. Petitioning skill cannot be raised. (If the GM wants a high-level deity-active campaign, Petitioning skill can be raised to Good at the cost of one supernormal power.) Petitioning skill can be modified, however - see the next section.
To resolve a petition, make an Unopposed action roll against Petitioning skill. Each step of Divine Favor grants the holy character one extra chance to roll the dice in a petition to his deity.
On a Fair or worse result, the roll is a failure. If the character has any steps of Divine Favor from the same deity, he may roll again for each step (this does not count as a separate petition). He can stop at any point - only the last result rolled counts. This means a character with two steps of Divine Favor can try one, two, or three rolls. If he gets Good, Fair, and Mediocre results, in that order, the result of the petition is Mediocre.
On a Fair or Mediocre result, the petition isn't answered by the deity, but the deity isn't annoyed by the petitioner. On Poor or worse result, however, the deity is angry with the character, and there will be a -1 on the next petition attempt. If the deity is evil, a miracle may actually occur, but not one the petitioner is likely to enjoy . . .
On a Good or better result, the petition is granted. The better the
rolled result, the better the answer to the prayer. For example, a
Good result might heal one wound, while a Superb result would totally
heal the character. A Good result might call a wolf to defend the
petitioner, while a Superb result might call three lions. And so on.
7.23 Modifiers to the Petitioning Skill Level
The GM decides modifiers. The following modifiers are suggested: