Rules update

[Mike Curtis]

I'm currently reviewing the rules, and I'd like what suggestions you may have that could improve the Multiverse rules.

The Herbalism and Alchemy will be updated as indicated in this post, although if you have any ideas, let me know.

I intend to include more background information on how the Multiverse works, including inter-planar travel, and some of the main actors in play.

Any questions or suggestions would be appreciated.

Question: Should you be able to tell that something is a magik item just by looking at it ? Or do you prefer that it is detectable somehow ? Or perhaps magik items are indistinguishable from mundane items, and you have to learn IC ? I'm open to ideas, but am wary of creating a culture of theft on the basis that something might be magikal.

[Xcerus]

Herbalism Ideas: The ability for a herbalist to collect herbs that last for one hour upon completion Eg:
I go foraging for 15 mins as a adv herbalist - that gives me 3hp worth of healing herbs. I can either use them immediatly or bundle them and they will stay fresh enough to use for 1 hour. Perhaps people could use coloured strings for different bundles or even write the time on a small paper tag as well as list what herbs they are in a way a herbalist would list a stock item

Alchemy Ideas: Experimental Brewing - the ability to experiment with various ingreadiants to produce potions that you have not been taught how to make - after all the first ones came from somwhere right? Obviously you throw in a random aspect on what is made - is it even useful - this can be a component thing - how many pp's did you use did you get a herbalist to give you some nice weeds? will it explode etc

Combined Alchemy and Herbalism Ideas: The ability to reduce the power point cost of any potion by the value of the herbs you are putting into the potion. For example a low level herbalist forages for 15mins and then uses those herbs to make a healing potion - by doing it this way they have provided one forage worth of herbs and thus covered the cost of one power point.

The big advantage with alchemy at the moment is any one can use the potions (well... most people... *looks at Vanya and sighs*) the disadvantage is that they take time to prepare and are at least as expensive if not more so pp wise than their casted cousins.

edit: Almost forgot to answer the question:
I have not read alot of the books but wasn't it fairly obvious when combat started who had the magik items?

[Jared]

Question: Should you be able to tell that something is a magik item just by looking at it ? Or do you prefer that it is detectable somehow ? Or perhaps magik items are indistinguishable from mundane items, and you have to learn IC ? I'm open to ideas, but am wary of creating a culture of theft on the basis that something might be magikal.

In my limited experience, being able to tell something is different is the biggest clue to special properties. Obviously a custom made item, say a black sword covered in mystic runes (which glow at night??) and slays enemies at its slightest touch is a bit of a gimme.
In Knightshade, a strip of blue or yellow tape on a weapon designates it as magic. While this might not be what you want to do, a simple marking will allow players to recognise an item as special, if not actually magical. A marker is used because quite simply we don't have the standout items that would otherwise scream "special". If you have items such as black runed swords to hand out, then thats fine, use them. Otherwise, a cryptic label should do you well.
Again in KS, even though an item can readily be identified as magic, it still requires a formal magical identification to find all of its properties. Some items reveal their secrets as they are used but even then, formal identification (using an identify spell) is still required to fully understand an item.
And even then, artifacts of truely unique nature often foil simple identification spells. It is usually another player resource, such as a knowledge or background is required to fully understand an item.
So my advice, make special items identifiable but leave the discovery of any magicks to a more in game means.

[Muppet]

Question: Should you be able to tell that something is a magik item just by looking at it ? Or do you prefer that it is detectable somehow ? Or perhaps magik items are indistinguishable from mundane items, and you have to learn IC ? I'm open to ideas, but am wary of creating a culture of theft on the basis that something might be magikal.

This comes under a main rule of which/how many rules do you want magik items to break? If you can tell a item is magik by just looking at it then you can't have an item which part of its special properities is that it's magik and looks normal.

Personally I think some items should look magical, by their shape, design, colour, or some distinguishing mark (whether it is all done IC or you have a strip of blue or yellow tape kind of thing is up to you). Flaming swords are really cool, but rogue items that may not look magical and disguise their properties are also cool.

How you change the culture of theft is by changing the occurance and/or worth of magik items.

[Mike Curtis]

Thanks for all the ideas...I've been cogitating on these over the last few days.

Herbalism Ideas: The ability for a herbalist to collect herbs that last for one hour upon completion Eg:
I go foraging for 15 mins as a adv herbalist - that gives me 3hp worth of healing herbs. I can either use them immediatly or bundle them and they will stay fresh enough to use for 1 hour. Perhaps people could use coloured strings for different bundles or even write the time on a small paper tag as well as list what herbs they are in a way a herbalist would list a stock item

I'll consider mechanisms to enable you to store multiple sets of herbs.

Alchemy Ideas: Experimental Brewing - the ability to experiment with various ingreadiants to produce potions that you have not been taught how to make - after all the first ones came from somwhere right? Obviously you throw in a random aspect on what is made - is it even useful - this can be a component thing - how many pp's did you use did you get a herbalist to give you some nice weeds? will it explode etc

Yeah, something like this would work, but you'd need to consult GMs during the game to see what your options are. Of course, this means such requests would be limited per game...

Combined Alchemy and Herbalism Ideas: The ability to reduce the power point cost of any potion by the value of the herbs you are putting into the potion. For example a low level herbalist forages for 15mins and then uses those herbs to make a healing potion - by doing it this way they have provided one forage worth of herbs and thus covered the cost of one power point.

Then again, the advantage of being a Herbalist/Achemist is that you don't need to deal with anyone else when you need some herbal components for your alchemical potion...

The big advantage with alchemy at the moment is any one can use the potions (well... most people... *looks at Vanya and sighs*) the disadvantage is that they take time to prepare and are at least as expensive if not more so pp wise than their casted cousins.

They are intentionally more expensive than their casted counterparts because you can:

a) effectively pre-cast the spell
b) not be around when the spell is used

In my limited experience, being able to tell something is different is the biggest clue to special properties. Obviously a custom made item, say a black sword covered in mystic runes (which glow at night??) and slays enemies at its slightest touch is a bit of a gimme.

Perhaps it would be doable that we dis-allow anything rune-encrusted, as this is a clear indicator of high-magik.

In Knightshade, a strip of blue or yellow tape on a weapon designates it as magic. While this might not be what you want to do, a simple marking will allow players to recognise an item as special, if not actually magical. A marker is used because quite simply we don't have the standout items that would otherwise scream "special". If you have items such as black runed swords to hand out, then thats fine, use them. Otherwise, a cryptic label should do you well.

Yeah, that's what I'm leaning towards.

Again in KS, even though an item can readily be identified as magic, it still requires a formal magical identification to find all of its properties. Some items reveal their secrets as they are used but even then, formal identification (using an identify spell) is still required to fully understand an item.
And even then, artifacts of truely unique nature often foil simple identification spells. It is usually another player resource, such as a knowledge or background is required to fully understand an item.
So my advice, make special items identifiable but leave the discovery of any magicks to a more in game means.

For less powerful items, I think I'll make it that the GMs let the players know in due course (I want to avoid GM-necessary spells where possible). For more powerful items, I think it is a good idea for the players to have to figure out what it is ingame.

This comes under a main rule of which/how many rules do you want magik items to break? If you can tell a item is magik by just looking at it then you can't have an item which part of its special properities is that it's magik and looks normal.

Yeah, I think there is an argument for special/powerful items to be treated to your average, easily identifiable, magik items.

How you change the culture of theft is by changing the occurance and/or worth of magik items.

I'm not so worried about theft of magik items per se. Stealing magik items is a pretty normal occurance, IMO. What I want to avoid is someone stealing some funky new Paddywhack latex sword because it looked cool and unusual i.e. looting on the hope that the item is magikal, rather than because it actually is magikal.

[Mike Curtis]

A draft version of the rules update (530kb) is available on the Multiverse site.

Changes include:

* Herbalism is updated
* Alchemy is included
* Apostasy (choosing to be Law in the Young King or Chaos in Europa) is updated
* Magikal items are discussed

The final version will be very close to the draft, and any changes are expected to be minor from this point on, so you can confidently use the draft to create a character. As usual, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Also the Events page on the site will include a brief precis of the previous games. I'll get to this when I have time over the next few days.

[Mike Curtis]

The rules have now been finalised. I actually managed to find some typos to correct ! However, no substantial changes were made from the draft.