Syntactic Magic

"Freeform" Magic - extremely flexible!

• Not compatible by default with regular Magery.

Verbs and Nouns
Each Word is a separate IQ/Very Hard skill; mages add their Magery to IQ when learning Words

Multiple Words

• When using more than 2 Words, the player must roll against the lowest verb and noun skills used, with a -1 penalty for every additional Word
• However they may choose which verb and which noun will determine the energy cost and time to cast.
  • Some casters may wind up introducing their specialty in order to benefit from cost or time to cast.
• A critical success on either halves the cost, a crit success on both means no cost.
• If one Word is successful but the other isn't some magical effect occurs, but not the one the caster had in mind; trivial or inconvenient.
• If both rolls fail it costs 1 energy point.
• A crit fail on one is a disaster see Appendix B
• Crit fail on both is spectacular roll twice on Appendix B and combine the results.

Spell Class

• Most syntactic spells are Regular or Area, but some Sense-type are Information spells.
• Melee and Missile are possible
• No Enchantment

Energy Cost

• A spell's cost is equal to the cost of its verb plus the cost of its noun.
• Control spells cost an amount equal to the cost for Control plus double the cost of the noun.
• Transform spells cost an amount equal to the cost for Transform plus the cost for both nouns.
• The resulting cost is appropriate for a Regular spell cast on a SM 0 target, or the base cost of an Area spell.
  • No cost reduction for high skill levels.

Duration

• Usually instantaneous or temporary
• Time to Cast is the Verb + Noun
• One minute, one hour, or one day
• Energy or skill penalties may rise for a longer duration
• Temporary spells can usually be maintained at half the cost to cast

Casting the Spell

• Two rolls, one for the verb, one for the noun
  • Roll individually, minus any penalties, and the usual modifiers for range, touch concentration, etc.
• Use the Alternate Magic Rituals rule on p9

Spell Results

• If both rolls succeed, the spell works
• On a single critical success halve energy cost, on double critical no energy cost
• On one fail there is a result, but not the result intended (however it is not malicious)
• On two fails nothing happens and the caster pays 1 point of energy
• On a single critical fail disastrous effects, on a double critical fail spectacular effects

Resistance

• A Resisted spell uses the worse of the two rolls to determine if the subject resists.
• Most Body and Mind spells should be, but general direct physical damage is not generally Resisted.

Transform

• Requires 3 rolls, one noun, one Transform, and a second noun
• Transform spells do not suffer the -1 penalty for using a 3rd Word.

Block

• If allowed - it costs 2x and takes 0 time
• Changes time to cast to 0 for entire Spell
• The cost to cast is the cost of block multiplied by the noun (2xNoun)

Gming

• Yes, but…

Nouns

Verbs

Range via Margin of Success:

Duration
Can maintain via half cost per additional time increment.

For Margin of Success Rules use
Duration Effect Modifiers Table
and Variant Durations: Conditional Termination rules. Find the modifier there equal
to the margin, and read off the corresponding duration; e.g.,
success by 4 gives a maximum
duration of a day.

Area of Effect
Multiply base cost by radius in yards.
Or -1 to skill by every two yards of radius.

Via Margin of Success use the Size Modifier column for Margin of Success and use Longest Dimension as the resultant yards of radius.

These can be cheapened for light effects, or made more costly for powerful effects.

Damage
Base cost with no modifiers deals 1d.
Multiply base cost by number of dice.
Or -3 skill per die of damage after the first.

Via Margin of Success: damage becomes
1d per 2 points or fraction thereof in the margin; a margin of 0 gives only 1d-2.

Healing
Base cost with no modifiers heals 1d HP.
Multiply base cost by number of dice.
Or -3 skill per die of damage after the first.

Via Margin of Success: healing becomes
1d per 3 points or fraction thereof in the margin, with a minimum of 1d.

Weight Affected
the basic, unmodified version should affect up to about 10 lbs. of matter.
For greater weights, find the relevant modifier on the Weight Affected Modifiers Table (p. 243) and treat it as a skill penalty, energy cost increase, or required margin of success; e.g., 5 tons would give -6 to skill, cost +6 energy, or require a margin of 6.

Multiple Targets
When an effect can be aimed at many distinct targets, find the number of targets on the Multiple Target Modifiers Table (p. 243) and treat the associated modifier as a skill penalty, energy cost increase, or required margin of success.

Countermagic
Roll against the caster's highest skill with a Word or a Realm involved in the magic, and subtract his margin of success from his attacker’s margin. This can cause the magic to fail entirely, or it may simply reduce the potency of magic that depends on margin of success to determine some or all of its effectiveness.

Speed/Range/Size Table