This may have been covered in this forum already but I havn't found it, and it didnt seem to be covered on their website.

Could someone describe the basics of how magic/sorcery works in the riddle of steel.

Thanks

Welcome to The Boards!

Hmm...thats a pretty...massive question. Im assuming you dont have the book so lets see. There are nine vagaries (or schools) of magic such as vision, sumoning ect. You put proficiencies (the same ones you use for weapons) into those vagaries and that determines how well you know that area of magic. You have a sorcery pool which you use dice from to cast spells, resisit the aging your spells cause you, and to resist other spells. Thats basically it. Its dangerous but extremely fun. I dont reccomend using too much of it to start off with though. Jake can give a better description i put very little thought inot this post lol well anyway hope this helps..a little..

btw i really like your name!!

Thanks for the quick reply. I gather from your response that one of the big down sides of magic is that if you push it to far you drain your life force i.e. age.

I noticed on their web site that it did say you could create any kind of spell. Obviously you would need some knowledge in the appropriate "school" but, does it revolve around a set series of spells with adjustable levels. for instance a lightning bolt that has adjustable damage range. or is it more free form than that.

More free form than that. There are 9 "vagaries," which are possible components of a spell. You mix these vagaries in varying proportions to create the spell you're looking for, on the fly, or in advance. It works quite quickly as well.

Sorry for the short reply. I'm a bit scattered with publishing stuff today.

Jake

Well... lightning bolts are kind of a special case. They are not realy even a "spell" more like an ability that all gifted can do.

I am trying to think how a lighting bolt SPELL would even be done? Ideas anyone?

Oh yeah, what would the CTN be for the following spell of one. Check my math:

Grow

CTN= 5
T: 0 (targets the caster)
R: 0 (Targets the caster)
V: 2 (Caster's body < 400lbs.)
L: 3
Vagarity: Growth-3

Grows the caster to 100x his normal size. I don't have the book in front of me, but it boosts his strength and toughness into the 20 range. Is it er... at all troubleing that a CTN 5 spell can turn a 98lb. weakling spellcaster into a 600ft. tall invulnirible killing machine? All he REALY has to do is step on his attackers. His feet are likely about 100ft.x45ft, so it would be hard to get out of the way, and wrecking whole towns is not out of the question in the slightest. Pushing over a castle wall would be like knocking over a sandcastle.

I understand that a reverse spell would need to be used to turn the caster BACK to normal size. (unless it was decided that the effects required the caster to sustain the effect, still no big deal).

If this spell were formilized, the CTN drops to 3, now the caster could likely resist ageing almost every time, with a reasonible number of allocated Spell pool.

I understand TROS magic is meant to be powerfull but dangerous. I see in this case a spell that is powerfull (not "Kill one person every time, no chance to survive", but "Wreck the kingdom" powerfull!) and not particularly dangerous to the caster. Did I do something wrong in my calculation? I guess my question is: Why would a PC gifted NOT take this spell?

Aside from aging, another limitation is that once spent on casting spells your spell pool recharges very slowly, so while you can cast really powerful stuff, you can't fire off very many spells without taking on some serious consequences. The way to get around this is to pre-cast spells and embed them in objects or people. You can then tap these spells later. Thus, if you want to really deploy a lot of magic you need to plan ahead, spend lots of time preparing, and make sure that you don't lose possession of your trusty staff (or amulet, or ring, or whatever).