Spellcraft

In the FateCORE system a practitioner of Spellcraft uses mnemonics to focus their will and safely draw power from the Shadow Realms before shaping it into the form that they desire.

Costs

You must use one of your aspects to define your magic. Typically this is your High Concept, but it not required. Examples include Fire Wizard, Member of the Circle of Eight, or Black Tower Initiate. This aspect defines your personal method to summon forth and control magic.

Spellcraft can be difficult to use properly in the presence of metal. The presence of metal can be used as a compel against their magic. Anything on the Periodic Table of Elements listed as a metal in sufficient quantity near a caster can be used as a compel. The exception to this rule is that Noble metals (silver, platinum, gold, and mercury) never cause problems.

Spellcraft involves gestures, incantations, and concentration to properly work. Physical discomfort, tiredness, and extreme stress can all be compelled against Spellcraft. A caster must keep their mind ordered and focused or the power they draw into them will be life-threatening.

You must select a Magic Skill that defines your magic. These skills represent the very specific nature of the Shadow Realms that you can control. The skills listed below are meant to serve as an example and not an exhaustive list. Each skill must be defined in what it can and cannot do when it is purchased.

  • Creatures: Natural animals (fauna) of the world
  • Death: Manipulate the un-life
  • Dimensions: Warping boundaries between dominions
  • Divination: Precognition and sensory projection
  • Domination: Mental control and enslavement of the mind
  • Elements: Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind
  • Glamour: Sensory manipulation
  • Life: Rejuvenation of the body, mind, and spirit
  • Nature: Natural phenomenon of weather and flora - non-spiritual
  • Telekinesis: Manipulation of pure physical force
  • Transmutation: Physical alterations
Brizanthimus is a wanderer that has picked up small bits of magic from various people, so Jackie decides that his magic is central enough to him to make it part of his High Concept. She calls it Wandering Magician Storyteller. To go along with his story-telling she decides that his magic is best defined as Glamours and purchases that as a skill.

Jackie also wants Briz to have some inherent understanding to the magical ley lines that crisscross the world. She works with the GM to create another skill called Magical Conduit with an appropriate description of the Four Actions.

Game Play

The skills selected by a caster are used just as non-magic skills are used, to accomplish Actions (Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack, and Defend). Each of the skills explain fully how to accomplish each action using that skill. Not all of the power skills are equally useful to each type of action.

Briz needs to slip by some orcs that have captured prisoners. The orcs represent a Good(+3) opposition because although they are not watchful - there are quite a few wandering around the camp. She rolls a +1 on the dice, combined with Briz's Good(+3) Glamour check means that she overcomes the obstacle. She narrates the effect of creating lights and sounds in the woods, causing the orcs to investigate while she slips past them.