Spontaneous Casting, magic sans training Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Outline Switch to: Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Just Pete]

Shadowrun fiction is ripe with stories of those latent magicians who suddenly express their powers by casting a spell that they have never been trained to use. However, the rules don't provide for this - even the 'Latent Awakening' quality makes this expression a fully arbitrary decision for the GM. This also leaves completely uncovered the concept of the magician who manipulates mana to achieve a specific, but previously uncovered effect.

So, to fill the gap, I propose a set of guidelines that would allow any magician, latent or even fully trained, to cast a spell that they previously did not know. This 'casting on the fly' would be severely limited, as it could quickly become abused.

The rules:

1 - Casting a spell spontaneously requires the expenditure of one point of edge.
2 - Drain for the spell is at full force, not F/2. It's much harder to cast a spell this way.
3 - Due to the expenditure of edge, all spontaneous casting dice are subject to the rule of 6.
4 - Due to the danger of casting spontaneously, all casting rolls are considered to be cursed. It's easier to glitch when casting this way. Note that this stacks with any cursed quality levels the character already has.
5 – Hits on the success test are limited to one-half the force of the spell.

Example 1:

Dane is a budding hermetic magician and doesn't know it. At 10 years of age, he has no training, skills or spells. He has Willpower 3, Logic 3, and Magic 4. His family gets caught in a gang shootout, and he spontaneously casts a lightning bolt when his parents get gunned down.

Because he can't really control it, he casts at the max force he can manage, or force 8.

His spell pool is (Magic 4 + Spellcasting 0)= 4 dice. He rolls 6, 5, 3, 1 (lucky bastiche...). The six rerolls for 5, another hit. With a total of 3 hits, his lightning bolt fries a couple gangers.

Unfortunately, with the cursed effect, he only needs 1 '1' to cause a glitch. The gamemaster rules that he is affected by his the stun effect of own spell. He makes a Body 3 + Willpower 4 (3) test and gets only 1 hit, leaving him stunned for 4 rounds. That's the price for being so lucky with the dice on his first roll....

He also has to resist 11 blocks of drain (Force 8 [not divided by 2] + 3) with 6 dice (Willpower 4 + Logic 4) and gets 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for 2 hits. With his Body of 3, that's enough to keep him alive, but only barely.


Example 2:

Later in his career, Dane has matured a bit. His stats have increased (W=5, L=5, M=5) and he's gotten some training (Spellcasting=5), and some skills (Centering, 1st level initiate). However, he's still missing a few choice spells. While raiding a pharmaceutical store, he needs to find that one drug...amongst the thousands in stock. He decides to extend his abilities to cast that 'catalog' spell he's heard about.

He doesn't want to kill himself doing this, so he's casting the spell at force 5, hoping to get enough detail to find the drug quickly. His dice pool is 10 (Magic 5 + Spellcasting 5), and he gets a total of 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1. The sixes reroll for 5 and 2, for a total of 4 hits – but he’s limited to 3 (5/2 = 2.5 rounded to 3). He now knows exactly where the drugs are, and doesn't waste any time getting them and getting out.

He resists 7 drain (Force + 2) with 12 dice now (5 Willpower +5 logic +1 focused concentration +1 centering) and gets 2 of each number for 4 hits. This highly experienced mage still takes 3 blocks of drain, giving himself a bit of a headache with what should have been an extremely simple spell.


What are your thoughts? Is this too munchkin, or not harsh enough on the drain front? I’d like to refine these rules, and also see how they playtest. The one rule I’m most iffy on is rule #3.