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These houserules contain quite significant changes from normal Sprawlrunners. The intent is to give players the flexibility to freely create their own magical traditions, beyond the existing archetypes of shaman and hermetic mage.
Note that this entire section assumes a reasonable familiarity with existing Shadowrun rules and canon for magic abilities; I won’t do a full recap of them here.
This is a draft for discussion and consideration only; it is not currently canon for my campaign. It may or may not be playable as-is. It probaby hasn't been playtested.
What I want to achieve:
Why not RAW No Power Points? I strongly dislike the huge negative modifiers it imposes on PCs arcane skill rolls. Consider a Veteran character. Under the Power Point rules, they probably have 20-25 power points in their pool. An 8-10 PP power is well within their grasp, should they choose to use it. It’ll use a chunk of their pool, but they can fall back onto Bennies. Meanwhile, under the NoPP rules, that same 8-10 PP power is imposing a -4 or -5 penalty to the arcane skill roll – making it an extremely difficult roll. This, in turn, makes arcane characters under NoPP feel weak and underpowered, as they get no chance to stack power modifiers onto their powers to juice them up.
Feel like Shadowrun: the primary target audience for these rules are my home game and that is set in the Shadowrun universe. So, I want these rules to leave room for a few Shadowrun-specific details I want to incorporate, such as Drain (fatigue damage from spellcasting), blood and toxic magic, and the idea of less powerful “safer” casting and more potent casting but that comes at a high risk.
These are the Savage Worlds books I am flicking through and drawing ideas from as I try and write these rules.
The act of using magic involves drawing power from somewhere and channeling it through the practitioner’s body. This is tiring and can be very dangerous. Drain is what happens when the practitioner pushes themselves too far.
Drain is usually Fatigue damage, but it can be a Wound in very bad cases.
Drain is resisted just like Soak, costing one Bennie per resistance attempt. Instead of Vigor, the character uses the attribute associated with their arcane or Magic skill - Spirit or Smarts.
Drain cannot be healed by magical or mundane means; only the passage of time and Natural Healing rolls. However, powers or abilities that allow a character to ignore wound or fatigue penalties do function normally against Drain damage.
New concept: Power Limit
New concept: Mod Limit
When using a Power, the arcane skill roll is defined as Controlled Magic or Wild Magic.
Controlled magic works like this:
Wild Magic works like this:
A box of fatigue damage “heals” in an hour, which is the same length of time that it takes to recover PP. Soaking allows the practitioner to potentially trade bennies for the “spellcasting resource pool”, which is fatigue here; this is similar to trading bennies for PP. So controlled casting is intended to be an approximate equivalent to a PP caster just using their pool and then relying on it refilling before they need it next.
At the same time, this reduces the ability of low-level practitioners to go all-in on one massive Bolt with +AP, +damage, +range like they can under the PP system. It smooths out the progression curve by capping modifiers on powers at lower levels.
Fatigue and Wounds taken from use of powers is magical damage dealt to your entire body at the subcellular level; it cannot be treated with the Healing skill or the healing or relief powers. THe character can only recover with time. As normal, Fatigue recovers after an hour of rest, and Wounds heal with natural healing rolls.
Powers with durations measured in rounds can be cast in two ways, chosen when you use the power: either normal, or sustained.
A variation on controlled casting for when time is not a factor; designed to allow practitioners free-er use of powers during non-combat scenes without risking knocking themselves out. (This replaces the concept of “Power Preparation” from the core SWADE NoPP rules.)
Variations:
Alice is a Veteran with a d12 in Spellcasting who has one rank of the Initiate Edge. Bob is her slightly hapless and extremely bumbling apprentice, Novice rank, and a d8 Spellcasting skill.
Alice’s power limit is calculated as: 1/2 of her d12 (=6), -2 to start with (=4), +2 for her Veteran rank (=6), +1 from Initiation (=7). Her mod limit is the base 1, +1 for Initiation (=2). Bob’s power limit is ((1/2 * 8) - 2) = 2, and his mod limit is 1.
During a heated disagreement about rent, Alice and Bob both let fly with bolt at their usurious landlord.
Alice plays it safe and uses controlled casting. She adds two modifiers to the bolt’s base 1PP cost: 2PP for extra damage, and 3PP for AP6. The total PP cost (6) is still within her power limit, so this is definitely controlled. She rolls her d12 Spellcasting without modifiers.
Bob is getting a little carried away and overdoes it. He casts bolt with the 2PP extra damage modifier. That’s within his Modifer Limit, but the total cost of the _bolt is now 3PP - over his power limit. So this is now a Wild Magic cast. He rolls his d8 Spellcasting at a -2 penalty. He gets an 8 on his Wild Die, so the bolt lands. But he rolls a 1 on his Spellcasting die! As the spell rips from his body, he pays a price: he is Stunned and he takes an immediately Wound. He has Bennies, but he can’t try and soak this Wound.
Suppose a typical magic-focussed character starts at d8 arcane skill who takes the initiation edges each rank they are available:
| Rank | Power limit | Mod limit |
|---|---|---|
| Novice (d8 skill) | 2 | 1 |
| Seasoned (d10) | 4 | 2 |
| Veteran (d12) | 6 | 3 (4 with Epic) |
| Heroic | 7 | 4 (5 with Epic) |
| Legendary | 8+ | 5+ (6+ with Epic) |
Easily the most modifiers are for the combat spells blast, bolt, and burst. Considering blast, you might (in extremis!) want add to the 3PP base:
=> 7 modifiers (and 16 PP)
The system as proposed above has players start with 1 modifier, then +3 through initiation => max 4 for controlled casting. Is that enough? Note that the total of 16 PP is a lot, but if the practitioner is willing to go all-in, it’s quite easily achievable for even middling ranks.
RAW Sprawlrunners offers three types of Arcane Background - hermetic mage, shaman, and qi adept (same as physical adepts in Shadowrun). This reflects an approach similar to Shadowrun 1e/2e, where hermetic mages and shamans had very different rule mechanics, but other magical traditions were rather less fleshed out.
I wish to adopt an approach closer to Shadowrun from 4e onwards; what is often called “unified magic theory.” Bring the rules for different magical traditions into closer alignment, then use that as a springboard to make it easier to add new magic traditions. My ultimate goal is to allow players the freedom to define their own traditions, and how their characters interpret them.
For my game, I am using two Arcane Backgrounds for PCs:
Mages start play with three free Powers, and get more via the New Powers Edge, as usual.
There are two variants of this skill, linked to different attributes, reflecting that different magic users have different ways to interact with mana:
For avoidance of doubt: the only difference between Magic (Spirit) and (Smarts) is the role-playing aspect and the choice of linked attribute for the skill. Everything else is the same – available power list, drain rules, etc.
Any character with AB(mage) gets a free Astral Projection power. Adept characters can purchase Astral Perception for 1 Chi Point. Activities on the Astral plane, including assensing and astral combat while projecting, are governed by the new Astral (Smarts) skill.
See Astral Space for more details.
I have not yet fleshed out rules for mystic adepts - characters who combine physad abilities with limited magic abilities. I think this is best modelled by giving physads some ability to learn Powers, similar to the Power racial trait (see SWADE pg 19.) Let me know if you want to play such a character in my campaign and we’ll figure it out.
I have some ideas for how to handle magical traditions that are used for various types of NPCs, although these are not yet fully fleshed out:
All powers in SWADE (pgs 154–171) are allowed as part of the Mage arcane background, except the following:
Note that this overlaps somewhat with the Shielding edge (see Sprawlrunners, pg 17). I won’t stop you taking Arcane Protection, but the edge is arguably more powerful and useful.
Rank: Seasoned (changed from Veteran in RAW)
Power Points: See below
Range: LoS
Duration: Instant
(NB: slightly changed from RAW.)
Forces other summoned spirits back to the metaplanes. Opposed roll of caster’s Conjuration skill versus the target spirit’s Spirit. Success leaves the spirit Shaken; each raise inflicts a Wound. If the spirit is incapacitated, it is dismissed from service and returned to the metaplanes.
If the spirit is a companion (see Sprawlrunners pg 17), then it gets to roll the summoner’s Spirit in addition to its own (choosing the highest dice, as usual.) Additionally, if incapacitated, it will not be permanently banished, but will return to the summoner’s side after 1d4 days.
The power point cost, and hence roll penalty, is determined by the target spirit’s rank, similarly to when it is summoned. Hence:
Healing cannot be used to heal Wounds caused by drain.
By default, Illusions are mana-based; they only appear within the minds of living creatures. Purely technological systems like cameras or drone sensors see nothing. (Living characters with cybernetic senses like cybereyes still see the illusion, however.)
The Strong modifier (+2PP) instead produces a physical illusion, which does affect technological systems.
Relief cannot be used to heal Fatigue caused by drain.
Rank: Novice
Power Points: See below
Range: Smarts
Duration: Instant
Summons a spirit from the metaplanes to do the summoner’s bidding. See Summoning for rules. The power point cost, and hence roll penalty, is determined by the target spirit’s rank:
The summoner rolls their Magic skill, taking a penalty according to the level of the spirit:
Don’t forget that - per the Power Preparation rule (SWADE pg 140) - if a summoner concentrates for an entire round (taking no action, not moving, not being Shaken or Stunned), they can cancel up to 2 points of penalty to any power roll. This applies to practically all summoning done outside of combat and helps offset the penalties listed above.
Take a Drain resistance test on a natural 1 on the Magic die, as usual.
Summoned spirits last for (Spirit die type) hours and can do unlimited things for the summoner in that time. There is no concept of favours as used in spirit summoning in Shadowrun. Remote services - anything that takes the spirit more than (Spirit die type)×10 metres away from its summoner - use this time period up at 10× faster rate.
A summoner can dismiss a summoned spirit as a free action.
On a raise on the summoning roll, the spirit gains the Resilient power, and so it will be able to withstand an extra Wound before being disrupted. If the spirit already has the Resilient power, it is promoted to Very Resilient (two wounds) on a raise.
The spirit enters the world already materialised on the physical plane and can act immediately. In combat, they act on the same initiative card as their summoner. Mages can send mental commands to their summoned spirits as a free action and they can do that immediately after summoning.
By default, summoners can only have one lesser/common/greater spirit summoned at a time. This does not count as maintaining a power, so there is no ongoing penalty to the mage’s rolls. They can also keep one servant/watcher summoned.
Although different magical traditions have the same abilities to learn powers and cast spells, they use draw upon different types of spirits when they use the Summon Ally power.
As in Sprawlrunners and Summoner’s Circle, spirits have defined power levels. I’ve additionally given them explicit names, to make it clearer:
A mage can only summon spirits of their own rank or less.
A mage doesn’t need to do anything to “learn” new ranks of spirits as they increase their own rank. On their 8th advance, when they move from Seasoned to Veteran, common spirits become available to them automatically.
All mages can summon watchers - little more than a blob of magical energy squished into form by the mage’s will. Although the true nature of spirits is hugely debated, most mages agree that watchers are not “summoned” as such but rather created on the spot.
Hermetic mages can summon elementals of the four classic elements: fire, earth, air, water. Each spirit exists at lesser, common, and greater levels.
Compared with other spirits, elementals are somewhat… dreary. They lack intellectual curiosity and are easily confused by unexpected situations. They also seem to have no capacity for boredom, and will carry out the most rote of repeated tasks without seeming complaint or irritation. Hermetic mages treat them as mere servants, and elementals seem content in that role.
Elementals have stats and abilities as per Sprawlrunners.
Shaman spirits take the form of nature spirits. Shamans treat them with great reverence and respect. Nature spirits are more independent than elementals but can be capricious, and sometimes have their own ideas and agendas.
Nature spirits have stats and abilities as per Sprawlrunners. Note that nature spirits can ignore 2 points of casting penalties when in their home environment.
Note also that Sprawlrunners RAW uses “Focus” as the spellcasting skill for spirits. For technical reasons related to FoundryVTT, it’s easier to rename this to “Magic”, so it’s the same name as everyone else uses.
Many other magical traditions are what magical researchers refer to as attuned summoners. These are characterised by having a much smaller roster of spirits to draw on than other summoners, but these spirits are much more closely bound to the summoner and typically demonstrate greater loyalty than other spirit types.
When they first take the Summon Ally power, attuned summoners automatically gain access to two spirits of lesser rank. As they increase their own rank to Veteran and then to Heroic, they gain two common spirits and then two greater spirits.
These spirits can be created freely by the player.
Once a character achieves Initiate status (by taking the Edge), they can take a downtime action to journey to the metaplanes and bond with a new spirit type, of any rank they choose. At that time, the player can create a new statblock for the new spirit type. Afterwards, they can summon that spirit as they please. See downtime actions.
They can repeat this process until they have a total of four spirit types at each of lesser, common, and greater rank. At that time, if they undertake an Attune action again, they must remove one other spirit from their roster to make room for the new one.
In addition to the above, there are other types of spirit that are strongly associated with various magical traditions. There are no game mechanics for these currently.
There are also traditions associated with dark magic:
Players who’s characters follow magical traditions other than hermetic mage or shaman will have to create their own spirit stats as their character learns to summon new spirits. For the main, these will follow the rules in the Savage Worlds Summoner’s Circle supplement. You can freely define everything about the spirit.
All spirits always have the following powers and abilities. Numbers in brackets are the points value from Summoner’s Circle.
Net total: 8 points.
Spirits can have the ability to use Powers (spells), with some notes and caveats:
Rank: Seasoned
Power points: 2
Range: Smarts×2
Duration: Sustained
Causes the target to experience mishaps, slips, and other instances of bad luck at an accelerated rate. Whenever the target rolls a natural 1 on their skill die (regardless of the value of the wild die), they experience a crit-fail or similar effect.
Must be sustained as usual (ie. the spirit takes a -1 penalty on further Magic rolls while sustaining the power.) This -1 also applies to rolls to use magical spirit abilities that roll skills like Shooting or Athletics.
Modifier: +2PP: can effect all targets inside a Medium Blast Template.
Sprawlrunners RAW does not use astral projection and significantly limits astral perception compared to Shadowrun.
Our campaign will allow astral projection as a houserule. Astral perception will work like Shadowrun (long distance) and not Sprawlrunners (where it has a very short range).
Characters with the Physical Adept arcane background can choose to purchase Astral Perception as a power. They cannot astrally project. Full mages can both perceive and project, without having to buy any powers.
A mage can safely astrally project for (Spirit Die/2) hours.
Beyond that, the mage must roll a Spirit test every ten minutes, at a cumulative -1 penalty each time (so -1 after 10 minutes; -2 after 20 minutes, etc.) When the caster fails a roll, they get 10 more minutes, then if they do not return to their body they will fade away and die.
Movement in the Astral has two speeds: ‘slow’ is Pace 100, ‘fast’ is 5 km per initiative turn. At the ‘fast’ rate, everything whizzes past in an incomprehensible blur, so it’s really only useful for long distance travel where the mage knows where they are going. (Mages who do a lot of long-range astral travel get really good at memorising maps!)
Astral beings can fly freely up to the limits of the manasphere (about 80 km). They can pass through any solid objects, but cannot pass through the living earth as that has its own aura.
Astral beings cannot pass through each other. They can pass through the auras of living beings on the physical plane, but the process isn’t very pleasant, and the person being passed through can roll Notice to be aware of it (it’s like an amped-up version of the “someone just walked over my grave” creepy feeling.)
Astrally projecting mages can “manifest” to show themselves to mundanes in the physical world. They appear as a hazy, ghostly version of themselves. They can be seen by people, and talk to them.
This is actually a sort of localised psychic link. They don’t have a real form, and cannot interact with any physical objects. They cannot be recorded by technological devices like cameras. They cannot choose to only be visible or audible to one person in a group.
Manifesting is difficult, and can only be kept up for ((Spirit Die type) * 5) minutes at a time.
If someone moves a mage’s body while they are away from it, they’ll need to make a Dramatic Task to re-locate it before their time on the astral plane runs out!
Roll Astral skill versus TN4. If the target has the Masking Edge and are choosing to use it, they can oppose this test with Spirit. If the target has Masking and the assenser does not, the Spirit roll is made at +2.
Depending on the outcome, you might learn the following:
This is handled very much like melee combat:
Note that - given how fast astral travel is - the back-and-forth of astral combat can easily cover an area hundreds of meters across.
A spell, by definition, is the channelling of mana from the astral plane to the physical one; therefore spells cannot be used when caster, target, or both are on the astral plane. Astral beings who wish to get rid of others must use astral combat as above.