Fighting Fantasy Luck

The Luck statistic is arguably the most interesting mechanic in the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG system.

In brief, it is a number between 7 and 12, generated at character creation. When something arbitrarily awful or wonderful might happen to you you may roll equal to or under it on 2d6. Much like saves in D&D. The difference here, other than there being only one "save", is that it is reduced by 1 every time it is rolled, successful or not and is entirely optional. The player can decide that he'll just take whatever is coming his way and save his luck for later.

Smart. Your Luck runs out. It's named something that you can even speak about out loud without breaking the tone. "Make a saving throw" or "Test you luck"? One of those is obviously stronger.

In the gamebooks from which the system is derived you would occasionally regain luck when choosing a path that, through no fault of your own, brought you fortune. Essentially you gained luck when you got lucky. This did not translate well into an RPG. In a gamebook there is no ambiguity, no fiat, whereas an RPG has a GM handing out the brownie points. A GM currency that keeps the PC alive encourages an irritating atmosphere of performing for the GM, "I did this thing, do I get a point?" or worse, conscious or unconscious favouritism.

Unlucky mate

The easy path would be to just give it all back when you rest, waking up nice and lucky. But strategic rests are also annoying, and it doesn't fit as nicely as regaining Stamina from naps does. There needs to be a concrete condition for regaining luck. I've already covered the possibility of regaining it through spending time with your family or getting wasted, but this isn't useful for long periods in the wilderness.

In a system where Luck is diminishing there must be a fair economy, or at least an economy which is transparent and controllable. Possible solutions:

• You regain 1 luck every time you interact favourably with a suspicious aspect of the wilderness. For example, the party comes across a gauntlet on a pedestal in the middle of a room. Instead of wisely ignoring it or just stuffing it in a bag, the barbarian thrusts his arm inside. It's just a nice gauntlet. +1 Luck. This mimics the books quite well, is relatively plain and understandable. Encourages players to be a bit bold. Should also allow you to go over starting Luck.
• You regain 1 Luck every time you have a meal. Eating is good for mind and body after all. If you're stuck in a shitty jungle, hounded by pygmy cannibals, a nice quiet meal with your friends can restore some sanity. Further reward for eating and wasting time. Requires thought and risk.
• A good rest regains d3 Luck. Good dreams are important. Also, random encounters.
• Fake-out saves can't be used in Fighting Fantasy. It's incredibly unfair to spend their resources for nothing. Alternative: Use fake-out saves, but if the player takes the bait (remember, testing your luck is optional) give them 1 Luck instead.
• Regain d6 Luck at the start of a session. Represents the optimistic nihilism of the adventurer.

A lot of of these come down to calling the GM's bluff, which I think is appropriate. Rewarding curiosity is never a bad thing.

Nuts & Bolts of Interdimensional Language

Let's call every language a skill, and let's also make a universal language called Portal Pidgin. We'll assume it's so incredibly simple that almost anyone can learn to speak it passably after a couple of weeks immersion. PCs are fully fluent, they've been through Troika, or lived there, or just dealt with those ambiguously foreign traders everyone seems to have been visited by.

Portal Pidgin is almost a Unified Theory of Language, the roiling sweaty pile of interdimensional culture at the centre of the universe has solved communication. Knowledge of it grants a deep understanding of language, a unique vantage point from which to approach new ways of speech. People native to it have little trouble picking up the basics of any new language met.

Every time a PC meets a new language they may test their Skill to fumble through it. If they fail, they get no where, if they pass they manage to communicate basic desires and get an advancement tick in that particular language.

However unlike standard skills, advancement is not a matter of rolling higher than your current skill. Instead each language has an in built difficulty. If you don't have one in mind, just roll a d6. That is how difficult that language is to learn, and with each advancement you must roll equal to or greater than that number.



When talking to some foreign sorts, roll against you Skill. If you pass, you can chat to them roughly, if you fail you get lost.

If you roll a critical on your language check you instantly take an advancement test.

If you fumble your test you must roll below:


1-3 Your audience has become tired with your hooting and pointing and refuse to participate any longer. This goes for the whole party.

4 You have offended them somehow. They respond appropriately, be that with indignation or violence.

5 They have got the wrong end of the stick, thinking you are trying to say the exact opposite of what you meant. This could cause issues while protesting innocence or complimenting someone.

6 You have accidentally been obscene, insulting religion or state. Their response will depend on the context, but assume the guards are being called right now.



Once a PC has 6 in a language they are assumed to be completely fluent to all but its most arcane usages.

In a long campaign the PCs will develop cultural scars. They'll look at the list of languages they can stumble through and see the trail they took up to this point.

Family and Friends and Drinking and Dwarves

I assume a situation of strangers in a strange land. What friends or family the PCs have is what they have made there.

Follows on from this.

Spouse & Children:

If PCs want to start with a spouse let them roll for the privilege. 1 in 3 they already have one, with d3-1 children. Each child is 2d6 years old.

If a child is 10 or more years old you can take them on adventures with you, allowing them to learn on the job. If you get the child killed you lose 10d6 social currency with your family. If it goes below 0 your spouse will never forgive you and leaves with your remaining children.

DOWNTIME FUN: As a downtime action the PC can spend quality time with her family. This will fully restore their Luck & Stamina. Gain d6 social currency with them. On a 6 there is a new child on the way. (if appropriate). Recommend hand-waving pregnant PCs. Baby magically appears later between adventures. Don't make it weird.

DOWNTIME FUN: The PC trains one of their kids. That kid gets a skill advancement check in one skill the PC knows but can't be raised higher than the father. Keep track of this stuff. When a PC dies they may take up playing one of their children instead of making a new character as long as it's old enough. Gain 1 social currency.

ON AGEING: Time differences between planes is weird. If you spend a week in Baator a month might pass in Troika. Age your children a year for every 3 planar trips you take.

DOWNTIME NOTSOFUN: Every downtime you do not spend with your family their social currency reduces by 1. If it reaches 0 they will leave.

DOWNTIME FUN: You may give a gift to a family member. It must be something you have, that you got, you can't just wishy-washy declare a state of giftness. Gain 2d6 social currency.

DOWNTIME FUN: You wanna get married but don't know anyone? Go looking. 1 in 6 chance you meet someone to make friends with. Costs 10 social currency to convince a friend to marry you.

Friends:

DOWNTIME FUN: Friends are able to accompany the PC while carousing. Roll 1d6, if it comes up as anything other than 1, chose the order of numbers in your carousing roll. If it comes up as one, the friend has got you in trouble, the GM chooses the order to use. Regardless, +d6 social currency for hanging out with them.

Other PCs are not friends. Spouses can be, but you need to make it clear to the GM.

Every friend will either have a trade or an association. Roll a background for them.

Friends might be convinced to go on adventures with you. Costs 20 social currency minus their highest fighting or magic skill. Lasts for one excursion.

DOWNTIME FUN: If the friend's background causes her to have some influence or power, it costs 5 social currency to lean on it.

DOWNTIME FUN: A friend will teach you something they know for 3 social currency. Gain an advancement tick in any skill they have.

Carousing in Troika

In between games a PC may aimlessly go out on the town rather than do something constructive. Every major city or other interesting location should have its own carousing table, but smaller less lively places will likely have slimmer ones. It's probably a good idea to replace them when they get used up.

Carousing restores either Stamina or Luck (choose ahead of time) and costs 2d6x10p to have a roll, if you spend more than you own you are in debt to either:

1. The Manticore Bank. They charge 10% interest every day and are happy to let that accrue. It takes a downtime activity to get in to see a representative of the bank, and there is only a 1 in 6 chance that you'll get seen before closing time. If the interest gets out of hand they'll send a manticore after you.
2. The Black Bishops. If not paid 9 times in full they will repossess your entire life. All friends and family and homes and treasures belong to the Black Bishopric until bought back. She's their wife now.
3. A petty gangster who will kidnap a friend or family member if they aren't paid back double in a week. Lacking a family, they'll break your legs.
4. Miss Keansy's Social Betterment Scheme. Miss Keansy's loans only come in bundles of 200p and are measured against a percentage of the benefit it affords you by uplifting your social class. She'll take 5% of all income for the next 5 years.
5. A random friend or family member covers it at the cost of -d6 social currency
6. A Gold Man gives you a bag of his weird gold nuggets. He never seems to want anything for it.

Roll d36 for carousing!

1-2

1. Caught the Time Fever from a beggar. Every game you age 2d6 years in a random direction until cured, dead, or unborn.
2. You cross paths with a group of Brawlers out on the town. Test your Strength or lose 1d6 stamina and lose 1d2 teeth. If you pass you beat them up and are invited to join the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks.
3. You get caught up in a Dwarven art project. Before the peacemakers dismantle it and rescue the participants, you are partially enamelled and menaced with spikes of cobalt. You lose 1d6 Luck but count as wearing plate armour until it all chips off. Should take roughly until the end of the next adventure.
4. You wake up in a pile of skyskiff sailors with a new tattoo. 1 in 6 chance you're (and they're) naked and missing everything you were carrying.
5. You attend a public wine tasting at Miss Keansey's estate. Being the uncultured swine that you are, you delight the members by swilling the latest vintage from the kelp orchards of the demon sea. For the next adventure you must test for random encounters with demons at every convenient opportunity. Only you can see them. They might not be aggressive, instead happy to just cause trouble, but they can also straight up devour you in front of your friends. You do gain a skill advancement check in Second Sight for the experience though.
6. A beggar you were mocking turns out to be a Gold Man in disguise, testing the city for moral turpitude. He curses you by turning everything metal you own into clay and pelting you with nuggets of gold (lose 1d3 stamina). You're luckily carried away by the crowd grasping for the gold before he can really lay in to you.

3-4

1. Wake up in the mortuary. The Dustmen demand you repay the corpse fee they wasted on you (d6p). If you can't pay they will insist you go corpse collecting on your next downtime activity to pay it back, or else.
2. You lost sight of your senses at some point and joined one of the newer cults in town. They seem friendly enough. Randomly generate it, you are now a member.
3. You council an orc out of ending his suffering. He has latched on to you. For good or bad, you have a new friend.
4. Inebriation leads you to agree to test a new Ven cerebro-plug. You gain 1d6p and +2 in a random skill (owned or not). If you ever roll a fumble in that skill the plug will burn out, causing 2d6 damage. A Ven bubble will be sent to collect the wreckage data, regardless of location in time or space.
5. You lost hard at a game of Roly Bones. Lose 5d6x10p. If you can't pay it all, the skyskiff sailors you'd been rolling with rough you up and take whatever else you're carrying as payment. Lose d6 stamina.
6. You just so happen to be holding the key to a little known portal while wandering right through it. You find your way home by the next game, but not before ageing 3d6 years and returning with a child of almost equal age. Time is funny.

5-6

1. You get chatting with a beggar, share a drink, kill some time, only to find out he's the king of some distant land. He never found his way back after he fell through some portal or other, no one had ever heard of his home. For your kindness he gives you his last possession: his crown and his kingdom with it. It's very pretty, made of iron and bronze, worth 50s to the right buyer.
2. You meet a tourist with only rudimentary understanding of the language. They seem nice, and keep buying drinks, so you take them around town with you. At the end of the night he turns to give you a tip for your trouble but, finding he's out of native silver and the bureau de change is shut for the night, he gives you one of his native coins with an apologetic smile. It's roughly 6 inches wide and as thick as your finger, intricately cast and made of pure gold. Worth 1000p
3. Make a new friend on your raucous night out. Make them as a character and get d6 social currency with them.
4. Won big in a game of Roly Bones. 5d6x10p
5. Spend an amorous night in the arms of a stranger. Restore Luck and Stamina. 1 in 6 chance a bastard appears in your future.
6. Meet the love of your life. Can count as a spouse and a friend. Roll a background for him.

And finally, Dwarves and their family

That is to say they don't have one. Just passions and projects. They have no genitals, are all "male", if one was forced to judge.

A dwarf, on their downtime, may choose to work on a mysterious project. Even the player won't know until it's done, since the dwarf's compartmentalised mind is so strong. Secrets are secret! Each time the player works on it they gain d6 social currency with themselves. When they have 15 they finally reveal the project for all to see. Roll to find out what it is.

1. A dwarf! A shiny new fully grown dwarf. This is your son, fashioned from iron and stone, and you may tutor him as with children, above.
2. A weapon, encrusted with rare minerals, menaced with spikes, and only beautiful to a dwarfs gaudy eye. The dwarf gets +1 to their weapon skill while using this weapon. Everyone else gets -1 since it's so spiky and weird.
3. A beautiful piece of furniture, you may choose what sort. It is of course very spiky and almost randomly enhanced with minerals and bones. +1 permanent luck for completing such a project.
4. Armour, made of an obscure or unusual material, and yet completely usable. Better than usable in fact, since the wearer always adds +1 to their armour roll while wearing it. The dwarf player can choose the type of armour and the size (dwarf? human? lammasu?).
5. A statue of transcendent beauty. The topic is up for the dwarf to decide, but it is huge, of unusual construction, and probably spiky. If this is gifted to a group or institution it is worth 10d6 social currency with them.
6. A fey mood has struck, the materials are rare and transgressive. The dwarf makes a public exhibition of flesh and bone, against the laws of man and gods. 1 in 6 chance it's alive and rampant, 1 in 6 the dwarf is arrested for this act of wanton art. It is also spiky.

Planar Cultures

All those noble traits you have? Not inherently noble. All those moral or terrible things you do? Not moral or terrible. Take ambition, for instance; plenty of cultures consider it to be undesirable bordering on anti-social. Some people reading that are sneering and thinking arrogant thoughts. Yes, you would probably be that "leader of men" as the Zuni sarcastically put it. Back in the day they'd stone you as a witch, you know?

To make truly alien cultures we need to accept that what we think is inalienable truth is just a coincidence of time and place. Roll it back all the way to monkeys in trousers, assume the fundamentals go no further and just pick the colour.

The following assumes essentially human. More alien people should be weirder. It is important to remind yourself that these are not people who are repressed, who need to be shown the way, be freed or educated. They are right, what they believe is true, you are weird.

Etiquette

1. Weaponry is obscene and must be covered. Soldiers might fight naked, since they are basically sluts anyway. They whip off their burkas when trouble starts. Polearms upholstered in tasteful flowery linen.
2. Energetic greeting. Headbutts, flailing, psychic probe, elaborate hand shakes. Harmless if both parties are good at it. Test etiquette or take damage as club.
3. To refer to yourself is considered rude. Even doing weird robot talk like "this one" is quite tacky. Huge amount of linguistic acrobatics is required to ask for something "what a handsome sandwich that is" = "can i have that sandwich please". The people are considered very attentive to others' needs, but really they're just being pragmatic since no one can ask for anything.
4. Displays of emotion are rude to the point of being non-existent. People smile and function normally, but showing sincere feeling is not done. Private lives might be rife with exuberant vented emotion, or it may bleed over into the bedroom. Possibility of traditional emotion, such as polite clapping, laughing at set intervals.
5. A body part is considered highly sexual. 1-noses 2-ears 3-eyebrows 4-tongues 5-fingers 6-nails 7-elbows 8-backs 9-knees 10-toes 11-heels 12-rolltwice. 50/50 chance they will kept covered and subject to taboo and modesty, or exaggerated. Think prosthetics, makeup, revealing clothes. Thickly drawn on eyebrows, crotch extensions.
6. Wearing shoes is disgusting. Poor people wear shoes for work, but usually just walk about with filthy, calloused feet. Rich people might have teams of servants picking clean the road ahead of them, taking forever to walk anywhere. Regular foot baths. Every house has at least a small muddy foot bath at the door.
7. Noteworthy peculiarity in greeting. Kissing (consider: kissing foreheads, eyes, noses, ears. Asymmetrical, one kisses the nose, one the chin. Hierarchical implications). Exposure (lifting hats, raising/dropping trousers, flapping aside your cape. These actions may have lost the physical object they were associated with, thus lifting your cap is now an odd salute).
8. Dancing/singing/comedy/theatre as routine parlour entertainment. Performed by attendees of meals or parties as matter of course. They may be improvised or may draw from a rich selection of traditional routines.

Dress

1. Homogeneous. Everyone wears very similar outfits, or of similar materials, or a single colour. Maybe all clothes are made of wound rope or they all wear fezs and blue spectacles.
2. Clothes optional. Nudity is casual and met with indifference. This may be limited to a gender or age group. Naked old ladies.
3. Mutilation is common. Piercings, tattoos, fashionable dismemberment. Removal of nose/ear/eye.
4. Everyone covered everything. One random body part is considered acceptable to be shown. Probably eyes or hands. Consider more exciting things than burkas, like ninjas or thickly wrapped togas where the people look like balls of wool with knitting needles in. This may be due to beliefs in modesty or just fashion.
5. Pets. Common to use live animals as fashion accessories. This may be practical, like having a hawk to keep away pigeons, or purely display, like teaching a ferret to drape around your neck.
6. The sexes are very different. Roll them completely separately. Very distinct look and expectations. In this culture cross-dressing will be possible and more common/prominent. Explore that possibility, consider implications.
7. Hair is manipulated heavily. Held firm with animal blood or specific coloured mud. Total hairlessness as a sign of beauty. Kept huge with elaborate metal frames. Covered in dead animals. Replaced with cloth. Hair topiary, matted into shapely "hats".
8. Nudity as social scale. The rich wear nothing while the poor dress in endless filthy layers. Nudity represents the access to warmth? The opposite may be true, where the rich wear clothes 'cos it's valuable, the poor are prevented. Like the the old Imperial Purple. Origins or traditions may be misty. Skin painting a distinct possibility.

Family

1. Families are communal under a patriarch/matriarch/location/street/date of birth. Blood relatives are not considered noteworthy.
2. Marriage does not exist. Unions are like friendships, improvised, sprawling, personal
3. All social engagement is official. Marriage ceremonies, friend ceremonies, enemy ceremonies. Most significant interactions must be played out within the confines of a relationship or else is considered illegal/immoral.
4. Men/Women collect partners as a sign of fertility/wealth/power. Large families, easily enters hundred of grand children. What do the many single people of the dominant sex do? Underclass? Ruling class? Workers? Exiled? Killed? What are the interactions between families?
5. Clans of extended families. Family name carries a lot of weight.
6. Families have historical subservient families. Complicated interrelations and dependencies. Entire subclass of bureaucrats are needed to maintain this.
7. Gender is determined by familial role. Between 3 and hundreds. Consider the multiple partner marriages: as the Xs marry large numbers of Ys the Xs left without the chance to marry become Zs. Circumcisions can change things, dress can be involved, soldiers might be a gender of their own, renouncing traditional gender states in favour of big soldier orgies.
8. Stringent child screening. Babies aren't named until a certain test (physical or spiritual) is passed. Babies are left out for the wolves, the uneaten are taken in. Babies are submerged in chaos matter, causing them to be peculiar like everyone else.
9. Pregnant women are sent to special pregnant towns, where everyone is pregnant. Run by mothers of miscarriages? Priests? Public pregnancy is likely either taboo, or obscene.
10. Everyone is raised by the government. The king/pope/mayor is their father. Blood ties do not exist. Very patriotic.

War

1. Flower wars. Ceremonial warfare is conducted. This will have different rules to all out war, set places, set traditions, set methods and purposes.
2. Champions. Two individuals fight, or small ceremonial "armies" of 5 guys. With this sytem soldiers would be useless. Hero culture, stables of heroes being trained for war. Small handfuls of them. Live like sumo wrestlers. Maybe they sumo wrestle?
3. Hill of the king. Wars end when the leader dies. Battles are mainly attempts to get to them. Kind of like a rugby match with two balls.
4. Auction. Mercenaries long ago replaced standing armies. You won by having the best mercenaries the longest. In time people cut out the middle man and just competed on who could throw away the most money.
5. No soldiers, only mobs. The leader raises a rabble many thousands strong and they rabble on over to their enemy.
6. Coup only. Assassins are sent to infiltrate and kill en masse. Might be people or just politicians. Carries on until surrender, each side assassinating like mad.
7. Monster hunters. The only military is grizzled monster hunters who track down the gnarliest cthonic beasts to unleash on their enemies.
8. Seasonal. Wars are a matter of course. If you don't have an enemy you make one for a few months and go home.

Cherished Attitude

1. Sincerity. As long as what you do is done sincerely it is considered acceptable. If murder is done sincerely people may sincerely prevent you from doing so, but it is not evil.
2. Hospitality is of primary importance. Welcome to homes, many traditions of protection or service.
3. Peace. Anger, ambition, any conflict is considered extremely harmful. Those pushing too hard against the peace are evil. Retaliation to those breaking peace may be very hostile. Executions, trials, banishment.
4. Ambition. Personal success is a priority. If you must harm others in you ascent it is okey as long as you win. Lots of business, war is common, retention of arms and power is desired.
5. Kindness. The integrity of others' feelings is a priority. Politics is slow and gentle, fraught with frustrations.
6. Secrets. Knowledge shared is knowledge halved. People are respected by the amount of knowledge they might have. Demonstrate it by dripping it out to apprentices. Gain apprentices in exchange for favours. Currency of secrets.
7. Violence. Physical dominence is prime. If you can overpower an opponent you are correct. This may be personal power or the ability to accumilate those with it to your side.
8. Piety. Religious sincerity, or just knowledge or trappings, is important. A good person is religious, perfectly observes tradition and so on.
9. Individuality. Strive for uniqueness. Eccentricity loses its meaning among these people. Encourages taste makers, influencing others to imitate for the chance of mirrored originality.
10. Academic. Being able to talk eloquently on a wide array of subjects. Everyone is learned, or at least capable of appearing so. Problems with half-knowledge being passed off. Pseudo-intellectuals.
11. Renaissance men. Ability to perform many tasks is respected. Variety and vitality.
12. Post modern irony. Roll again for the attitude that has been past. That attitude is parroted and mocked, a pale imitation. Some old people might still adhere to it, young people snear.

More Godly Bits

How much of the way we deal with religion in RPGs is dictated by its american protestant origins?  Probably all of it that isn't orientalism. Daddy-god, looking after me, giving me gifts when I do good things. "Good" things, rather than "evil".

Typically the trappings change but the relationship doesn't, and the relationship is the interesting part.

On top of this list of divine miracles we can add a further layer of mad-libs:

Priesthood's relationship with god

1. Antagonistic - The priests prevent the god from awakening, arriving, sleeping, or some other transformation.
2. Daddy god - He watches over you in a paternal capacity, the priests are bigger brothers to the lay members
3. Indifferent - The god just is, no need to milk it
4. Fearful - God is imminent, angry, harmful, barely contained
5. Paternal - God must be cared for, is weak, dying, wounded
6. Seeking - God is lost, hiding, sending them somewhere
7. Businesslike - An exchange of services, exact costs and measures
8. Intimate - Possession, sex, transubstantiation 
9. Open - Many gods, specific circumstances only
10. Casual - Only on Sundays
11. Shifting - Friendly to violent to indifferent to etc.
12. Roll twice

Source of priesthood's magic

1. Taught - Academic traditions, books, teachers, classes
2. Miracles - Meditation, communing with the deity
3. Relic - Possession of a single or many objects that grant gifts
4. Traditions - Ritualistic acts, rote traditions, repetitive work
5. Drugs - Potions, vision quests, hallucinogenic audiences with the divine
6. Direct - The god physically instructs

Priesthood's primary relationship with lay worshippers

1. Non-existant - Priests are cloistered, separate, physically or spiritually distant
2. Paternal - Guiding, protective, punitive
3. Gatekeepers - They communicate with god on their behalf
4. Psychopomps - Ushering worshipper towards an ideal spiritual state, condition, place
5. Authoritative - Distant leaders, control over every day life, dictators, directors
6. Political - Spiritual and temporal power combined
7. Martyrs - Priests suffer, pray, battle demons, on their behalf
8. Roll twice

Lay worshipper relationship with god

1. Direct - through prayer, messages in bottles
2. Indirect - Through priests, designated representatives, animals
3. Present - Talk directly to a physical god, object, possession
4. Distant - Works in mysterious ways
5. Absent - Force of nature, abstract presence, no direct force on single life
6. Practical - the god is a tangible force that is dealt with as a mundane necessity

Lay worshipper relationship with priesthood

1. Fear - Superstition, tradition, taboos, or they are dangerous
2. Love - Admired, worshipped in their own right, sought out
3. Indifference - The priests do not serve a function for them, only god or other
4. Practical - Serve a purpose, officiate
5. Temporal power - Priests occupy a position of actual power over worshipper
6. Symbolic - maintain temples only, ritualistic engagement
7. None - the priests are separate entirely, a different level of engagement with god
8. Community leaders - Practical engagement as advisers, administrators, landowners, businessmen

And now some weird traditions. 

1. Transubstantiation/symbolic cannibalism
2. Mortification of the flesh - Drowning, burning, beating, bleeding, mutilation, flagellation, circumcision, foot/skull binding
3. Burial rites - Post-mortem consumption, burial, sea, worms, magic, alchemical, mummification etc.
4. Worship of the dead - Saints, mummies, relics
5. Eating habits - rocks, only one thing, everything but one thing, nothing with eyes, nothing above the ground etc.
6. Symbolic god - Popes, caliph, festivals, ritual sacrifices
7. Theatre - Religious recreation, hero quests, passion plays
8. Anchorage - remote meditation, starvation, walling yourself up and taking questions through a letter box
9. Holy sites - crusades, pilgrimage
10. Inherent holiness in a state - Women, men, children, eunuchs, mentally damaged, whores, soldiers, etc. etc.
11. Holy object - an animal, type of animal, specific object or category of objects
12. Roll twice

Character Backgrounds in Troika

Been quiet 'cos I've been busy. Let's talk about a part of that.

Troika is an RPG I'm writing. A revision of first edition Advanced Fighting Fantasy mixed with the Planescape I imagined existed when I only owned a couple of books for it.

It turned out my imaginary Planescape was more exciting than the generally stodgy fare we ended up getting. The early books hinted at vast worlds of weirdness, but then every writer who came after tried their hardest to stomp it into boxes, to categorise and order everything. Labels everywhere, nothing felt far away or mysterious. If you wanted an answer you just needed to buy their next book for it to be explained in painfully uninspired detail. Harumph!

So, ambient story telling. No essays on the definitive categories of demons, just rules and gaps to be filled. Every character made in Troika gets a random background like the two below:





Temple Knight of Telak the Swordbringer
You were once a fanatical monk, set to maintain constant martial readiness in preparation for the end times when all doorways crumble inwards.

Possessions
The blessing of Telak
6 weapons of choice, kept in pristine condition and carried at all times
(Telak will withdraw his blessings otherwise)
Suit of scale armour
Traditional skull plate, affording you excellent vision for watching out for the end of days

Skills
3 in three fighting skills of your choice
3 Awareness

Miss Kinsey’s Diner’s Club

The Eaters know that there are only two worlds: the without and the within. They intend to insert as much of the prior into the later as they can,experiencing the finest culinary delights possible.

All dining experience is open to them, nothing is forbidden at Miss Kinsey’s. Try the other, other, other white meat.

Possessions
Sharp metal dentures (damage as sword) OR forked metal dentures (as knife, but on a critical you may cleanly strip all the flesh from one small appendage) OR blunt metal dentures, for crushing (as knife)
Embroidered napkin

Skills
1 Strength
2 Tracking
2 Trap Knowledge

They're packages, taking away the un-fun hassle of buying skills or making important decisions in a setting that is terribly vague until contact is made. Empirical campaign knowledge only, mechanical knowledge taken out of your hands. Each background gives the player a point to work from, immediately encourages fun (rather than un-fun) decision making on how they interact with the world. They can decide how Miss Kinsey's Diner's Club functions just by rubbing their character against the world. If the GM comes at it with no great vantage point they end up building in the gaps as much as the player. Which is exciting.

What's more, my Diner's Club and others' will differ greatly. It's not pinned down by essays and rules. We know they are stronger than average, they're good at tracking and trapping, and they all have weird mechanical teeth. Why they have these and how they use them is implied broadly enough for the player to come at it however they fancy.

Prompts are powerful and useful. Once there are a couple of hundred of these you'll have a broad spectrum of what the game world is about. We can use sections of it and form our knowledge from just those pieces, triangulate a bit of game world for ourselves without labouring under a weight of words. More is there for you if you want it, and every point you add multiplies the possible interactions between them, until eventually you finally have something that is very much your own. A wider planescape.

Shields are weapons too

I am rebuilding Advanced Fighting Fantasy to be what I want it to be. This requires separating the bits and interrogating them, demanding answers on why they do not excite me. Armour has been twiddling its thumbs and looking at the floor while everyone else engages in vigorous defence.

Weapons in AFF go like this:

Roll a D6 for damage, compare to the weapon's table. Do that damage.

Sword

(7s can be rolled due to miscellaneous potential bonuses)

1. 2
2. 3
3. 3
4. 3
5. 3
6. 4
7. 5

Easy peasy, allows for all sorts of variety and characterisation of weapons without much overhead. A sword is reliable, for instance, whereas an axe is awkward but hefty (below),

Axe

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 3
5. 4
6. 5
7. 6

Not miles away from a sword, but it produces more glancing blows while also having the possibility of hewing your head from your shoulders (or vice versa).

Armour in the first edition wasn't even considered. A short paragraph informed us that the game works out damage under the assumption that the players are wearing something, and that if they are ever caught naked they should take more damage. In the second edition we're given a mirror of the weapon tables, with them reducing damage according to a roll of the dice.

Chain

1. 0
2. 0
3. 0
4. 2
5. 2
6. 3
7. 4

On top of this you'll get shields which add bonuses:

Small Shield

1. 0
2. 0
3. 1
4. 1
5. 2
6. 3
7. 4

But how are shields significantly different to blocking with weapons? Blocking, parrying, same thing. Treating shields like just another bit of armour is terribly dull, plus I reckon I could kill you with a shield pretty reliably.

Shields are weapons.

Shield, Small

1. 1
2. 1
3. 1
4. 1
5. 2
6. 2
7. 3

Which means weapons are shields

Sword

attack/defence

1. 2/0
2. 3/1
3. 3/1
4. 3/1
5. 3/1
6. 4/2
7. 5/3

So you've got some protection from the weapons you use and the armour you wear. Add 'um all together and you have some numbers. Armour applies to wherever you're wearing it, weapons protect you all over. Write them in the little boxes, done.

At first it seems a lot of hassle, but when you consider the rigmarole involved in AC or attack bonuses in any randomly determined edition of D&D and you'll feel a lot better.

When using a shield and a hand weapon you may pick which one to defend with.

The numbers are rough, but now weapons are nuanced enough to enable you to make a million of the damn things without resorting to weirdness, if you're inclined. Everyone can feel like they're making choices past the aesthetic when picking up that spear and shield, know they're being reckless and cool by not wearing a helmet.

Dastardly Wizardry

Wizarding Roll
Roll 2d6 and get less than or equal to your MAGIC + Magic-Wizardry talent. Higher rolls are failures (resources are still spent). Double 6s are catastrophic failures and roll on the Oops Table.

If you are interrupted (take damage, knocked over, etc.) you fail.

Wizardry is never sneaky.

Resisting Wizardry
If a spell can be resisted it will be in the description. Just test your LUCK. The caster can make this harder by spending more resources to cast the spell, giving a -1 penalty per point spent.

Learning New Wizard Spell

• Spells must be taught or stolen
• Takes one week per MP cost of the spell to be learnt
• Tuition costs 250p per week. Theft has its own cost.
• Finally, pay 1xp per MP of the spell to memorise it

To Cast:

Add MAGIC to Magic: Wizardry, this is your Arcane Power. Roll against this to cast spells.

Spells cost varying amounts of Magic Points (MP), which are spent to cast them. You can spend extra MP to gain +1s on the casting roll.

You start with double your Arcane Power in MP.

Wizardry Casting Situation	Modifier
Each round of preparation before casting	+2
Peace and quiet	+3
Not under attack	0
Being shot	-1
Being stabbed	-2

Hard to use while wearing armour, thus a wizard's reputation for being weedy.

Armour Worn	Extra MP Cost
Light	+1
Medium	+2
Heavy	+4
Shield	Additional +4

Starting Spells

You start the game with spells of equal MP value to your total Magic Points. No spells chosen may cost more than 4MP.

1MP

Befuddle

The wizard merely touching someone can shake up their mind like a snow globe.The will take all active rolls at -6 until their head clears (3 minutes)

Natter

As everyone know, wizards are excellent ventriloquists. So good in fact that they can throw their voice inside another's mouth. They can target anyone within sight and can transmit a short sentence.

Darkness

Summon a stationary, perfect sphere of darkness up to five metres from the wizard for up to three minutes. Extinguishes all light sources.

Fear

In the eyes of one poor fellow, the wizard grow into a primal monster from the depths their lizard brain. They will attempt to flee, otherwise they will curl up in a ball and whimper. They may test Luck to resist the illusion, lasts for three minutes.

Fire Bolt

Shoot impressive flames from your fingertips, dealing 1d6 damage to one target within 20 metres unless they test their Luck to dive out of the way.

Flash

The wizard claps neatly, issuing forth the light of a thousand suns. Most unpleasant. All within 20 metres must test their Luck or be blinded for 1d6 turns.

Illusion

Fabricate an illusion that fools one target. They may test Luck when interacting with it to unveil the trickery.

Light

Create an ethereal orb of light that glows like a torch. Lasts 15 minutes and can be extinguished at will.

Lock

Magically lock an object. The object must have a lockable aspect to it, but the lock is now magically sealed. Lasts for 15 minutes.

Open

The wizard chooses a reality wherein the lock was open all along. Can be used to counteract a Lock spell.

Peace

Open up the mind to universal love and cause two subjects to test their Luck or cease hostilities with each other. They will still defend themselves if attacked but will at least appreciate the pettiness of it.

Personalize Spell

Wizards pride themselves on innovation and research, attribute huge prestige to knowing the most unique and rare spells. Others settle for the outward appearance of individuality, with this simple spell. The wizard may tack this on to another casting to make it superficially different.

Ironhand

The common man does not appreciate exactly how close flesh and iron are when considered relatively to, say, flesh and the smell of hot tea. With some slight convincing the wizard may cause a targets flesh to behave as though it had the desirable properties of metal. They get +1 Skill, immunity to modestly proportioned fires, and a bump up in armour for 3 minutes. 

Strength

Endows one with the strength of an ogre. Lasts for 3 minutes or one task.

Thunder

A favourite for impressing locals while travelling the provincial expanses of the Road. The wizard raises his arms and shouts something suitably ominous, then all within 20 metres must test Luck or be deafened by a riotous roll of emphatic thunder. Luck or no, they will be mightily impressed.

Tongue Twister

Beware! For if a wizard screws his nose and twists his fingers at you, then a tongue twister is coming your way. The target must test Luck or have their tongue literally tied in knots. This requires some time and a fair bit of patience to disentangle.

Ward

A handy spell only requiring the flick of a wrist. In response to being fired upon the wizard may cast this spell to have the missile be deflected.

Weakness

Open a small portal to the sphere of hopelessness within the subject's mind. Reduce their Skill by 1d6 for 3 minutes.

2MP

Animate 

Cause inanimate objects to question their place. One object up to the size of a baby can be caused to hop around and do whatever else the wizard wishes of it. To affect more or larger objects simple pay more to cast it. 

Breach

The wizard's hands work elemental material as though it were soft clay. Fire, stone, goo, earth, fog, all of it behaves like clay under his touch for 9 minutes.

Breath

Creates a mysterious and specifically shaped cone of air around a touched targets head. They may continue to breather the freshest of air for 12 minutes.

Combine

A reckless disregard for safety leads the wizard to consider gluing spells together. Pay for this spell to then cast two spells in tandem.

Consume

A simple but effect summoning of fire. Once present it's actions can't be accounted for, however. Summon a fire the size of a small bonfire somewhere within 12 metres of the wizard.

Counter

The wizard works on disentangling a spell from this instance of reality. To do so they must pay 2 MP and suffer a casting penalty equal to the original spell cost. If attempting to confound a spell of a different discipline the wizard must pay MP equal to the unfamiliar tradition's equivalent to Arcane Power (magic+something).

Darksee

The wizard reaches into his sockets and extricates his eyes. Thus freed, the dark void behind them can see perfectly well in pitch blackness and suffer excruciating pain in light (-4 to all rolls). Be careful not to lose those eyeballs though, they are the only way to end the spell.

Thought Vapour

The wizard can cause his nose to exist in multiple alternative planes, travel through various spheres, and enable the olfactory sensation of thought. Emotions, attitudes, underlying feelings can be smelt. No words or images are formed, just impressions. Any suitably strong odour will make this very difficult.

Farseeing

Endows the wizard engorged, plate-like eyes, able to see in minute detail for miles around.

Force Bolt 

An arc of lightning jumps between you and a target with a satisfying crack, dealing d6 damage.

Languages

The wizard forms a mouth with his hands, which can speak any language. He can simultaneously cup his hands to his ear to understand them in return. Lasts for one conversation.

Levitate

Elevates the wizard or another on the backs of tiny invisible sprites who answer only to their summoner. May float about for 3 minutes. 

Mirror Selves

In the mind of one subject, the wizard appears to be, in fact, three wizards. All three will perform the same actions in unison, offering the target inly a 1 in 3 chance of targeting the right wizard, all three of which are able to hurt him in response.

See Through

The wizard rubs a surface, gradually causing it to become see-through from one side. Immensely handy. Lasts until the wizard looks away.

Sentry

The wizard plucks a bit of his mind out like candy floss and leaves it stuck to a wall somewhere. This psychic presence is invisible to the naked eye but extends the wizards senses to that spot for the duration. While it lasts the wizard suffers -2 to all rolls due to the incredible confusion this generates. If the shard is discovered and harmed the wizard will take 2 Skill damage due to the shock.

Shatter

The wizard may wildly gesticulate at a brittle object no larger than an umbrellas and cause it to shatter into a million pieces. To affect larger objects, pay more. Living targets may test their Luck to avoid this unpleasant spell.

Sleep

The wizard convinces a target to forgo wakefulness for a time, causing them to sleep for three minutes unless they are Lucky.

Starry Orb

The wizard creates a 5th dimensional orb above his head. All intelligent beings who look at it must test their Luck or marvel at it for the duration. Lasts 3 minutes.

4MP

Arrow Snake

Turn an arrow in sight into a small venomous snake (10/4).

Find

When wizards need answers wizards mumble to themselves until the answer is made apparent. The thing being sought must be specific and the direction is only given in terms of compass points.

Grow

Cause an item to grow half its size again. Lasts for three minutes.

Invisibility

The wizard turns flesh into refractive crystal sheets. It's very uncomfortable and you make a slight shish-ing sound as you move, but you are quite invisible and don't suffer from the usual limitations of illusions. Mind, it is just your flesh. Lasts for 3 minutes, after which you noisily reform into dull and frustratingly opaque flesh.

Arc

Lightning bursts from the wizard's outstretched fingers, ziping and zaping about. Quite a show. Deals 2d6 damage to one target.

Affix

Cause a subject to be fixed in place. While they are so held they do not move, breath, fall, perspire, acquire or otherwise change. Totally immune to harm, in fact. Lasts for three minutes.

Diminish

Cause something to reduce by half its size. Lasts three minutes.

Explode

A very simple spell. Arguably it's not even a spell, rather a premeditated failure of catastrophioc proportions. The wizard may cause an object of up to one cubic metre to explode as though filled with gunpowder. He must concentrate for 15 minutes per metre, and may stack up uses of this spell to affect larger objects.

Gills

The wizard may permanently gift a touched subject with gills, completely replaceing their usual breathing arrangement. Very useful for underwater excursion, not so useful when inflicted upon a chap in the middle of town. The wizard may end this at will.

Poison

This spell, when cast upon a liquid, causes it to become deadly poison. The liquid deals 4 damage if drunk and may deal an additional 1 damage per extra MP spent in the original casting. The liwuid loses its potency after an hour.

6MP

Cockroach

A popular spell whose only use is to turn troublesome folks into humiliating animals. The target must test their Luck of be permanently turned into a small insignificant creature of the wizard's choice

Assume Shape

The wizard undergoes a distressing transformation into an inanimate object no bigger than a piano and no smaller than a cup. Lasts until ended.

Exchange Shape

What looks like a hug is in fact fell wizardy! The wizard bumps into another and exchanges bodies. Lasts until the wizard chooses to end it, but they must be within sight of each other for this to happen.

Banish Spirit

The wizard explains, clearly, sternly, why it is impossible that the spirit should be here at this time. The spirit must test its Luck or be sent to somewhere less improbable.

Hurricane

The wizard waves his hands in the air like he just doesn't care. Which he likely doesn't, being a wizard. This causes a mighty gust that will knock everyone over within 30 metres who doesn't test their Luck, dealing 1d3 damage and making an awful mess. Lasts for 10 minutes, test Luck every turn if not laying down.

Web

Whether opening a portal to the plane of slime or channelling the sprites of sickness, all can agree that it is quite disgusting when the wizard blows forth the "web" from his nose. All in a cone extending 10 metres in front of the wizard are trapped unless they test their Luck. Each turn anything passing through or out of it must test Luck or become stuck.

Wall of Power

What they call a wall is in fact a dome, but wizards always have worked in mysterious ways. The wall is a shimmering bubble that causes d6 damage when touched. Nothing may pass without the wizards permission (it is recommended they remember to allow air). Lasts for 3 minutes.

9MP

Teleport

The wizard or a target of his choosing may travel to any location, absolutely anywhere, instantly. If they are unfamiliar with the location they must test their Luck or be thrown wildly off course.

Earthquake

The wizard hikes up his robe and stomps his wizzend feet. An area 30 metres around him suffers a massive earthquake. Everyone must test Luck or fall through a crack in the earth, taking 2d6 damage and being stuck in a bloody great big hole. Buildings may be wrecked unless especially sturdy.

Assassin's Dagger

Evocatively named, but actually quite mundane. The wizard whispers to an object, that object then seeks out and vigorously and repeatedly bumps into the target. Obviously if you whisper to a poisoned dagger the results are one thing, while doing it to a letter is another. Travels any distance, always arrives (eventually).

Death

A very simple switch from one adjacent state to another. Kill a being that has less Stamina than you have Arcane Power.

Making New Wizard Spells

Wizards are always making new spells. They are usually gaudy, transgressive, and wilfully ignorant of the laws of reality. 

However, this academic pursuit is outside the remit of the adventuring wizard. If you do insist on making fresh spells assume they take 1 year of intensive study per MP of the spell. At the end of each year the wizard must test their Wizardry, if they fail they hit a dead end and must start over. Each year of study costs 13,000p for room, board, and study materials.

Now you know why wizards are so pernickety.

All effects of the Oops table below are permanent unless obviously not and will require a visit to your local priest or cunning man for disentanglement.

Oops table - d66

11

A flash, followed by an ominous shriek - the caster has turned into a goat.

12

Twenty-five years of the wizards life drop away in an instant, possibly making him a very small child. If younger than twenty-five already then he disappears into cosmic pre-birth.

13

A small shoal of herring and the water they had previously swum in materialises above the caster and everyone else standing close by.

14

The wizard no longer speaks or understands any known tongue, instead favouring a slightly unpleasant language seemingly made up of shrieks and whispers.

15

The most feared of adolescent academy curses: hiccups! Until dispelled the wizard hiccups uncontrollable, suffering -4 to further attempts at magic.

16

The wizard grows an attractive tail.

21

All currency in the wizards' possession turns into beautiful and appropriately coloured butterflies that flap off into the sky in a pleasing manner.

22

A very surprised orc appears beside the caster (7/8 - Sword). Truly, they are the most despised in creation.

23

The casters hair turns white and never goes back.

24

The shoes of a random ally catch fire.

25

The wizard grows a small pair of goat horns.

26

All of the wizard's body hair falls out with an audible "Fuff!".

31

All weapons of war in the vicinity turn into flowers.

32

The wizard changes sex and becomes decidedly handsome.

33

The wizard disappears in a puff of smoke, never to be seen again.

34

The wizard's hands find a mind of their own and take a severe disliking to the tyranny of the mind. They set about choking him to death, only to lapse back into servitude as soon as he passes out.

35

All animals in the vicinity are brought back to life. This notably includes rations and leather armour, which will crawl and flap about blindly.

36

A sickness overcomes the wizard, causing him to cough up a thick black fluid. The fluid flows away as though in a hurry to be somewhere. The wizard will soon hear rumours and suffer accusations due to the workings of a sinister doppelgänger.

41

Everyone in the vicinity turns into a pig, except for one embarrassed wizard.

42

An overflow of plasmic fluid has found its way into your head. Your eyes catch fire, causing flames to shoot forth every time you open them. You are now either blind or incinerating things.

43

All vegetation within a mile withers and dies.

44

A pool of colour opens up under the wizard, sucking him and any other unlucky nearby souls into it. They will be whipped off to a random sphere of existence.

45

All liquid within 12 metres turns to milk. That milk then curdles.

46

A random spectator's bones mysteriously disappear. Even more mysteriously he doesn't seem overly put out by the effect. He can't fight or cast magic and can only very slowly shuffle about as a gelatinous blob of flesh, but he's generally unharmed by it. After d6 hours the bones pop back into place from wherever they went.

51

An inanimate object in the wizards possession gains sentience and a voice. Its attitude is up for the GM to decide.

52

A portal is opened to a paradigmatic battleground, allowing an angelic or demonic figure to pop through.

53

A gout of steam shoots out from the wizard causing them to shoot off in a random direction at great speed.

54

The wizard suffers a coughing fit for d6 turns, after which d6 gremlins (7/4) tumble out and start biting peoples faces.

55

The wizard instantly grows an enormous shaggy beard. It tumbles down to the floor and gets in the way. -2 to everything until you tame that beast.

56

The wizard becomes 20 years older.

61

All metal within 20 metres becomes incredibly hot for d6 turns. Anyone wearing armour or carrying weapons must take d6 damage per turn.

62

The wizards teeth all fall out. The sudden loss causes him to be at -4 to making magic due to his poor diction. After an hour a fresh set grow in.

63

An entirely different and random spell goes off, directed at the same target.

64

The wizard is cursed with poetry. Until cured he can only speak in rhyming couplets.

65

The wizard issues forth a mighty sneeze, knocking everyone over in front of him and dealing d6 damage unless they test their Luck.

66

The spell being cast won't stop. It goes completly haywire, out of control, firing off madly until the wizard is subdued.

The Spellmakers

Sorcerers consider themselves to be more disciplined and academic than wizards. Rather than forcing magic into form they work with what is arround them. Far safer, more predictable. If magic were wood, they say, the sorcerer would scour the shore for driftwood, only working with what he found, while the wizard would take his axe to the trees and still be surprised when they fell on him.

• Spellmaking is equal to Skill+Magic:Sorcery
• Every morning draw scrabble tiles equal to Spellmaking
• To cast a spell, form the spell name
• Discard a tile to cause it to become "wild", standing in for any letter.
• May test Luck to re-draw tiles. E.g. Discard 4, draw 4.

If you don't own a scrabble set use this table. Roll once per point of Spellmaking (Skill+Sorcery). Produces similar effects, less fun.

1-12 - E
13-21 - A
22-30 - I
31-38 - O
39-44 - N
45-50 - R
51-56 - T
57-60 - L
61-64 - S
65-68 - U
69-72 - D
73-75 - G
76-77 - B
78-79 - C
80-81 - M
82-83 - P
84-85 - F
86-87 - H
88-89 - V
90-91 - W
92-93 - Y
94 - K
95 - J
96 - X
97 - Q
98 - Z
99-100 - Wild

Or use this

Sorcerous makings

Sorcerers are subtle makers of magic, using only nimble movements and poses to perform their work. Unless obviously elsewise, their magic is quiet, only requiring free movement of the body. Armour imposes a 1 letter penalty per degree of protection.



BIG

The sorcerer inflates their body to three times their usual size.

DIM

A target of this spell must test their Luck or be dumbfounded. Beware, for a confused creature can be still more dangerous.

DOC

The sorcerer corrects the energies of another, causing them to regain D6 Stamina.

DOP

Unlocks the locked, unbolts the bolted. Any mundane hindrance will be undone.

DOZ

Cause a creature to test its Luck or act as though it were trapped in a dream. Their movements will be one sixth as fast and they will appear as though floating through time.

DUD

The caster can throw a glamour upon an object, causing it to appear as a bountiful piles of riches. The reactions of those seeing it are their own.

DUM

Cause a creature to drop what it is holding.

FAL

The sorcerer may alter his relationship with gravity, causing himself to float gently to the ground for a number of minutes equal to Spellmaking.

FAR

A making of distant sight. The sorcerer may have visions of the near-future, though they are vague and out of his control.

FIX

This making will fix a person or object in time and space, causing it to remain so until the sorcerer leaves the vicinity.

FOF

Creates an invisible barrier in front of the sorcerer, guided by his spread palm. No magic may pass without permission for turns equal to his Spellmaking, but must be maintained.

FOG

The sorcerer issues a billowing fog from his fingers. It will fill enclosed places quickly, causing all those within to be blinded, but outside is will dissipate readily. 

GAK

The sorcerer may cause themselves to appear terrifying. All those watching must test their Luck or become hopelessly intimidated.

GOD

Cause those interacting with the caster to take an instant liking to them. They will not act outside of their manner, but they will treat them like an old friend.

HOT 

Create a flaming ball from thin air. Engulfs one target for 2d6 damage and they must test their Luck of be set ablaze.

HOW

The sorcerer can predict the next step towards the safest route to escape. It can indicate the correct doorway or turning, the left or the right, and so on.

HUF

The sorcerer may huff and may puff and may blow forth a mighty gale. Man-sized targets may tumble and fall, objects can be knocked off shelves and feeble constructions may be toppled.

JIG

Open a subject's mind to the pipping beyond the edge of creation. They will dance madly until they successfully test their Luck.

KID

This versatile making can cause a number of creatures equal to Spellmaking to believe an illusion fabricated by the sorcerer. It can be anything he wishes, but if he or anyone else acts in such a way as to compromise the verisimilitude of the vision, its effect is immediately lost.

KIN

This spell causes a creature from the mirror spheres to pass through and make battle with it's counterpart. Win or lose, it will disappear on the conclusion of their battle.

LAW

When this spell is laid upon an unintelligent creature it's will is enchained by the sorcerer. It may test Luck, otherwise it is obedient for a number of hours equal to Spellmaking.

MAG

The sorcerer may form this spell very quickly in response to magical assault. They may re-roll any rolls to resist the effects, if they were not permitted one they may now test their Luck.

MUD

Cause the floor at an assailant's feet to become soft and permeable. Their feet sink in and there they stay. Depending on the material the floor is made of, this may be a serious predicament. Lasts for a number of minutes equal to Spellmaking.

NAP

A number of creatures equal to Spellmaking must test their Luck or become drowsy and fall asleep. If they are threatened or otherwise disturbed they will awaken, but otherwise will sleep soundly.

NIF

A smell so virulently offensive that all those within a few metres of the sorcerer will be nauseated unless they test their Luck. The sorcerer may be offended but is unhindered by his own stench.

NIP

The sorcerer, while under this making, may think and act three times as fast. It lasts for a number of turns equal to Spellmaking.

NIX

Making this spell causes the sorcerer to shrink to such a miniscule size that their seem to disappear. This lasts for a number of minutes equal to Spellmaking.

PEP

For a number of minutes equal to Spellmaking the sorcerer become six times stronger, able to perform miraculous feats of strength.

POX

This subtle working causes the target to be open to disease. Those subject to this will shortly become feverish, sniffly and sick.

QIS

This spell enables the sorcerer to see life energy as though a dimly glowing light. Lasts for a number of minutes equal to Spellmaking.

RAP

The sorcerer may use this fabrication to understand and talk to intelligent creatures without previously grasping their language. The effect lasts for one encounter.

RAZ

When cast upon a bladed object it becomes twice as sharp, twice as damaging. Lasts for one significant use (a single battle, hacking apart a door etc.)

RES

A corpse may be brought back to life for a number of minutes equal to Spellmaking. It will be dull and dozy, but may answer questions and wander about. Be wary of the hostile dead.

ROK

The target of this casting begins to calcify. Each turn they must test their Luck, each turn they grow slower and slower as more of them turns to stone. If three tests are failed they turn into an inert statue.

SAP

Cause an individual to lose the will to carry on. In a battle this will result in them having a -1 to all rolls due to their new fatalism.

SIX

The sorcerer divides into six mirrored selves. Assailants will not know which is the real one, since they all look identical. In truth, they are all the sorcerer projecting himself as through a sorcerous prism. Lasts for a number of minutes equal to Spellmaking, if projections are killed the sorcerer loses one letter per loss.

SUN

Cause an object to glow brightly. The intensity is under the control of the sorcerer, who may make it blindingly brilliant or just light enough to read by. Lasts a number of hours equal to Spellmaking.

SUS

The suspicious sorcerer may cast this spell to determine whether he is justified in crying danger.

TEL

The sorcerer may view a target's surface thoughts like images on water.

VAN

This renders the sorcerer invisible. Mostly. This is not true invisibility, but an elaborate illusion. Any wishing to see the sorcerer may test Luck to do so.

WAL

Causes a physical barrier to sprout out of the earth in front of the sorcerer. The barrier is as hardy as the material it was born of and last for a number of turns equal to Spellmaking.

XOS

The ordered makings of the sorcerer are not primed for chaos, but they can open the window. A small pinprick hole is made in the fabric of the spheres, allowing a minute amount of raw creation in. All present must test Luck or lose 2d6 Stamina.

YAP

The sorcerer may communicate with most animals and creatures of the lower orders. Lasts for one encounter.

YOB

Reach through and summon an extraplanar creature. What creature it is is not under the sorcerer's control, but it will not be native and may be unhappy.

ZAP

Hurl lightning from your fingertips. Inflict damage equal to your Spellmaking

ZED

An intriguing spell whose effects are not rightly known. What is  known is that all who have cast it disappear and are never seen again.

ZEN

The sorcerer may cause himself to float at any height desired and drift about at a leisurely pace. This lasts as long as desired. 

ZIP

The sorcerer may pass short distances as though they were adjacent. Instantly shift from one point to another within a number of metres equal to Spellmaking. This effect is blocked by thick walls, lead, and silver. Lead and silver may have disastrous reactions if unwittingly passed through.

Vowel based listing, for those of us who are terrible at scrabble. Line up the vowels, add the consonants

FAL
FAR
GAK

LAW
MAG

NAP

RAP
RAZ

SAP

VAN
WAL

YAP

ZAP

PEP

RES

TEL

ZED

ZEN

BIG
DIM

FIX
JIG
KID
KIN

NIF
NIP
NIX

QIS

SIX

ZIP

DOC
DOP
DOZ
FOF
FOG

GOD
HOT
HOW

POX

ROK

XOS

YOB

DUD
DUM
HUF
MUD
SUN
SUS