The Bridge Hack: Day 4b

There are no predefined spells, but there are four verbs and five nouns to broadly describe the intended spell effect. The player describes the effect of the spell and the GM sets a number of successes required to cast the spell.

As stated in the previous post, the player draws a card when attempting to do something that has a chance of failure. For casting a spell, it is no different. Draw four cards and lay them down face up. Count all cards that are less than the character's INT score. If there are as many or more successes required by the GM, the spell works. If not, the spell fails.

Now count the number of cards that match the suit of the character's INT attribute. Take that number of random cards from the discard pile and put them at the bottom of the draw pile.

Example please!

Gurt the Great has an INT attribute of 9 Clubs.

Gurt wish to detect the presence of magic within a Far-Away range. (About 100 yards)

This is a Sense Magic type of spell. (Sense one of the four verbs, Magic is one of the five nouns.)

Normally a Sense spell only requires one success, but due to the Far-Away range of effect, the GM rules that Gurt requires two successess.

The player draws four cards. The results are: 3 Hearts, Jack of Clubs, 9 of Diamonds, 7 Clubs.

There are two successes (3 Hearts and 7 Clubs) so the spell works!
There are two cards that match the suit of the INT Attribute (Jack of Clubs, 7 Clubs), so the player shuffles the discard pile and takes two cards and places them at the bottom of the draw pile.

After the 14 day challenge, I want to do more with this so that it is more than a rewrite of Fudge Four by Five Magic.

    The Bridge Hack: Day 4

Finally got a manageable magic system that follows the constraints of no predefined spells.

Since the mechanic of my game relies on playing cards, some background before the crunchy details.

Any action that has a chance of failure requires you to draw a card to see the result. Once done, the card is placed face down in a discard pile. Physical damage done to a character requires the player to move a number of cards from the draw pile to the discard pile. If, for any reason, the player has no cards left on the draw pile, the character is exhausted. The character can do nothing.

That said, healing of any kind allows the player to take a number of random cards from the discard pile and return them to the draw pile. To make the selection random, the discard pile is shuffled before selecting cards. Cards that move from the discard pile back to the draw pile are placed on the bottom.

Still With Me?

This took longer than I thought. Next post will have the magic system.

    The Bridge Hack: Day 3

The Mythology has effect on characters. The temple system has two branches, the Hendeciad and the Exo. The Hendeciad is comprised of 8 Major Gods and 3 Major Titans. The Exo is a Kwemara, a third type of deity.

Background Story

As far as background, there was a creator god alone in the universe. Removing the 6th, 7th, and 8th digits from its hands and feet, it mixed its own flesh and blood with elements to create the gods.

Gods were created with stone. Titans followed, created with fire. Kwemara, the youngest, were created with water.

The Gods pursued stability and building, the Titans pursued passion and pleasure, the Kwemara pursued knowledge and wisdom.

Feeling unfavored, the Titans rebelled against the creator God. The Gods and Kwemara defended it. As the titans were losing the battle, a desperate titan killed the creator God. The war between the Gods and Titans waged for hundreds of years. The Kwemara retreated to the skies and the sea to mourn.

For the war, the Gods and Titans made servitor races. This is the origin of the various peoples.

When the Kwemara returned and found that the fighting continued, they put a stop to it. Able to reason with the Gods, the Gods had few casualties. The proud Titans, however, were all but annihilated.

The remaining deities made up of Gods and Titans made peace. The Kwemara again retreated to the skies and the sea, but one remained. Exo is the only worshiped Kwemara.

Mechanical Aspects

There are 51 deities and Exo. Each deity is associated with a card. Players are associated with a deity determined by where they fit into the temple system and which deity they take as a personal patron.

For example. A character may be assigned to the God part of the temple. Gods are associated with Clubs. They may choose the God of Luck (as opposed to a Titan or Exo) as a personal deity. The God of Luck is associated with the 7 of Clubs.

In play, drawing a club has a minor boon while drawing the personal deity card has a major boon.

Optional Aspects

Temple politics can be explored as much or as little as players desire. There's no real game need to explore these matters unless it is fun for everyone playing.