1879 Line Developers Blog: Base Spells and KAVs
The magic system is on my mind right now partly because I’m working on the spell creation mechanics for the 1879 Players Companion. I’ve talked about this a little bit before, but let’s dig a bit deeper into how the magic system actually works.
Base Spells are the foundation of spellcasting, the underlying formulae. Nobody ever casts a Base Spell. The one we use most often for an example is Bolt. It’s your basic damage-at-a-distance zap. The problem with Bolt is, it’s formless. Is this concussive damage, or fire? Is it a pulse of water, or an arc of electricity? It’s actually none of these. Here, let’s look at the spell listing from the 1879 Player’s Guide:
Bolt
Tier: Novice
Casting Difficulty: TMD
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: Rank x 2 yards
Duration: Instant
Effect: WIL + Rank
Strain: 6
This spell throws a bolt of damaging energy. The magician makes a Spellcasting test against the target’s Mystic Defense. If successful, the magician makes an Effect Test to determine the damage taken by the target, at +1 Step per extra success on the Spellcasting Test. The bolt may be comprised of whatever the Lodge’s Style calls for – fire, ice, lightning, water, etc. Subsidiary effects from the bolt are handled with Modifications to the Known As Version.
Note the last two sentences. The KAV, or Known As Version, determines what the bolt is made of, and any extra effects from it, like being set on fire or left dazed from the shock. Magicians actually cast the KAVs, the Known As Versions, of the Base Spells. Every Lodge has its own style, it’s own approach to magic, that overlays the Base Spells and produces the KAVs. Let’s look at a KAV from the Ordnung Galvanisches.
Galvanic Arc
Base Spell: Bolt
Lodge: Ordnung Galvanisches
Tier: Novice
Casting Difficulty: TMD
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: Rank x 2 yards
Duration: Instant
Effect: WIL + Rank
Strain: 6
The magician must have a brass rod and silk kerchief or other means of producing static electricity. Target takes a penalty to DEX Tests for 2 rounds equal to the number of successes scored on the Spellcasting Test.
Note the extra effect, and the physical component requirement. The KAV adds in a DEX penalty for the victim of the Galvanic Arc, based on rollover from the Spellcasting Test. It balances this off by adding a physical component requirement, thus keeping the Strain from going up. Without the physical component, the spell cannot be cast. With two adjustments, the KAV has taken a bland Base Spell and turned it into something with flavour. This is the central idea of the KAV / Base Spell system. The 1879 Players Guide provides the foundational toolbox for the spellcasting mechanic, in the Spells chapter. It provides examples of how KAVs are created in the Secret Societies chapter. Instead of having multiple chapters of spells, one for each Lodge, there’s only one chapter of spells, and a mechanic for creating KAVs.
The 1879 Players Companion will provide the KAV mechanic in detail. There’s an Additional Effects Table, for adding in things like the DEX penalty from Galvanic Arc. There’s research costs and time requirements for development of a new KAV from a Base Spell. We toss in the rule for Spell Stacking, which allows you to stack multiple Base Spells to create more complex KAVs. For example, Increase Attack Test, Increase Damage, and Bolt could be stacked to produce a KAV that wraps a sword in lightning, causing it to strike more accurately and effectively, and allowing a second Damage Test for electrical damage if the Attack Test scores more than one success.
Note that you don’t have to play out creating new KAVs unless you want to. In one of the playtest campaigns, a player proposed a KAV of Bind for his character as a starting spell that made so much sense that not only did I allow his character to start with the KAV, it got included in the 1879 Players Companion as an example, with the player getting a credit for additional writing. What was it? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see when the book comes out. This blog is for discussion, but not for giving away all the secrets.
Tally ho!