Like most experienced groups of gamers, we rewrote some of the rules in the Dangerous Journeys books. I've played with changing them over the several sessions we've gamed. Here is a partial collection of what we currently use.
The initiative system I use is slightly simpler than the DJ initiative system. If you use the impulse/phasing advanced rules, this system will be less helpful, but it allows the players & JM to use a "high number goes first" system. For initiative, roll 1D10. Add the appropriate Category Spd (PMSpd for melee, PNSpd for range, MMSpd for Magick). Subtract Weapon Speed Factors and Armor Factors as appropriate. High number goes first. This system will usually guarantee a positive number for everyone rolling initiative, instead of a possibly negative value.
My mass combat rules are located on the Mass Combat Rules page.
I am going to use the following system of AP/G rewards:
Instead of starting at a STEEP of 1 for each new skill, the persona will start at the STEEP modifier used at persona generation for the given skill. For instance, someone learning Combat, Hand Weapons would have a STEEP of (PMCap + PNCap) / 2 for an initial STEEP after spending the number of AP/G needed to raise that skill one point. The change will allow a persona to start out with reasonable odds of success without having to spend 20 or 30 or 40 AP/G first.
Considering the huge amount of time required to activate a Casting (at least one CT for minor magicks), Magick is seriously underpowered in this lethal combat system. In more than one instance, I have seen a dweomercraefter suffer enough damage from a single archer in a single CT to fall dead, before said dweomercraefter can even activate a minor offensive or defensive Casting. Only a dweomercraefter who has good defenses in place before the combat happens has a chance of holding up to serious attacks.
To offset this imbalance (especially since few of the Heroic Personae in my campaign have a significant amount of Heka ability), I allow a caster to shift most Castings "down" one or more categories (such as "Cantrip" to "Charm") by taking a commensurate increase in the difficulty and increase in Heka costs. This rules only applies to certain Castings, since some of them have reasons for taking a long time explained in their descriptions.
The mechanism is explained as the caster doing very hasty, inefficient shapings of the magickal energies. For each shift faster the caster wants to gain, he or she must take one step more difficult of a task roll and 2x as much Heka.
Ex 1: Rishala wants to get an Armor, Physical Cantrip up quickly. He's been ambushed by some orcs, and he did not have time before combat began to get his protections in place. The orcs are far enough away that they will not be in melee combat range this CT, but they will be on top of him next CT. Armor, Physical is a Cantrip, so it normally takes 5CT to cast, which is far too long to be of any use to Rishala. However, he can do a hasty casting, changing the Casting from a Cantrip to a Charm, which takes 1CT to activate. Doing so will increase the difficulty of the Casting (for Rishala, this means from "Easy" to "Moderate") and it will cost 2x the normal cost (in this cast, 40 Heka to activate and 2 Heka per point of physical armor).
If Rishala was in serious danger, he could have shifted the Armor, Physical Cantrip from "Cantrip" to "Eyebite", a shift of two categories. Doing so would raise the difficulty two steps, and it would have been 4x the normal cost (very expensive, but better than suffering a substantial injury!).
Priestcraefters are able to sense divine Heka use (priests casting) near them. The more aligned the priest's ethos is to the caster's ethos, the more clear the sense. Diametrically opposed ethoi will allow the detecter to feel a tingling or chill (exact effects vary from person to person). Aligned ethoi will often have some visible component, as well (a subtle aura surrounding the channeler, or a glowing on the hands, or some such). The visible component is sometimes related to the ethos of the priest, but it is more often a whim of the god or gods granting the casting power.
Dweomercraefters are able to sense non-divine Heka use (dweomer castings). The rules are similar, but even opposing schools will have visible components: A Black School mage may see a bit of a whitish glow around a White School mage activating a Casting. And, yes, the glow is directly related to the school.
Other practitioners (those who are able to use Castings but have STEEP in neither dweomercraeft nor priestcraeft) are unlikely to sense another person using Heka near them. They do not have the same formal schooling in the Laws of Magick, and don't know what to look for to recognize Casting use. It is possible that, in close proximity to another person activating a Casting, they will feel something. A visual component would be just about impossible for them to see.
Hekalite is the essence of magick, an elemental gem. As such, it is prized for use as a Heka reservoir, for it can store amazing amounts of magickal energy in a tiny space. Hekalite will function as a standard Heka reservoir of the highest quality, and charge at the highest rates as long as it is near living matter.
Hekalite is normally a translucent material, nearly invisible, that radiates light at all times. The light is normally white, and its radius of illumination varies with the size and level of charge in the Hekalite. Within its radius, illumination is similar to daylight. While normally a clear silver, Hekalite will change color to reflect the school or ethos of a mage or priest who is drawing power from the Hekalite. The Hekalite will glow the color, and a swirling of color will appear within it, filling it solidly if the drawing takes more than one CT. Once the user stops drawing Heka, the Hekalite will once more turn translucent silver.
Not only can a caster draw Heka from the material, but a caster can also direct a casting through Hekalite. This technique, called "Magickal Lensing" or "Heka Lensing", requires that the chunk of Hekalite in question currently contain 10x the amount of Heka that is being cast through it. The effects of Magickal Lensing are stunning: the casting in question is 10x more powerful (10x damage, or 10x range, or 10x time of effect, JM's discretion), but the Hekalite is totally consumed and destroyed. This destruction applies even if the Hekalite currently has, or can have, more than the Heka required for the lensing. Destroying a nearly-priceless elemental gemstone is typically an act of desperation, since Hekalite is extremely rare on Oerth.
I think the basic rules are too complex. I use an interpretation of the magick system as a force of will: the persona shapes flows of Heka into a particular Casting. Higher Grade Castings require more complex shapes, and more Heka, so they are not as easy to invoke. Spellbooks serve only to provide a persona notes on how to shape flows, and they are not important to most casters. Material components are often nothing more than a focus for the Heka flows, and they may not be needed at all, depending on the Casting (some cases, like Healing Poultices, need the component, since the Heka is enhancing the natural properties of the components).
As such, I really have no formal restrictions on the number of Castings a persona may know. Any known Casting is a usable Casting (there is no "known", "recallable", "studiable"). The restriction I do place is that the player needs to keep the persona in mind, and limit the Castings to what would make sense for the persona -- an apothecary from a small, peaceful town is not likely to have powerful offensive Castings. I permit personae to know Castings that are too high of a Grade for the persona to use -- these are Castings the persona knows, but doesn't have the fine skills needed to actually employ.
Personae can learn new Castings from other Heka users - if the casting is one of the many non-major Castings (anything but priestcraeft and dweomercraeft), it is simply a case of watching the Caster invoke the Casting, followed by the player making the appropriate K/S Area roll at Hard. For instance, the apothecary mentioned above may see someone activate the Grade IV Herbalist Painkiller Formula. If the apothecary's Herbalism STEEP is 45, she would have a 45% chance of learning the Casting. If the caster is specifically teaching the Casting and the caster makes a successful Hard Education roll, the difficulty is reduced by one step to Moderate (x2 to the K/S Area).
Personae learning new prayers (priestcraeft) or dweomers (dweomercraeft) from a caster of the same ethos/school use the procedure above. If the caster is from a different ethos/school, a persona can only learn Basic Tutelary (priest) or General (dweomer) Castings, and then it is one step more difficult due to the differences in which the Heka is woven (or the gods are addressed). Thus, a persona has one-half STEEP chance to learn a Casting from a caster of a different school, or a STEEP chance to learn if the caster is specifically demonstrating (and makes a successful Hard Education roll).
"Luck" is an option that allows a player to try to influence events in his persona's favor. It is generally phrased as "Wouldn't it be Lucky if...". The JM can then make a ruling of whether the event is plausible, and how difficult it would be to have such an event occur. The difficulty (Hard, Moderate, Easy, and so on) is applied to the persona's SPPow Attribute. If the roll succeeds, the event happens.
This rule can be used to affect minor occurences. It can not be used to replace role-playing, and it can not be used to influence important (plot-driven) events. Multiple players should not be allowed to make the same roll - once one player suggests it, it is that player who will make the roll. The party may quickly figure out who the "lucky" personae are, and defer all such luck events to that player and his/her persona.
A few examples:
The party has been lost in a desert for days. Supplies are nearly exhausted, and the party is suffering from dehydration. One of the players suggests, "Wouldn't it be Lucky if over the next sand dune, we found an oasis with water..." Assuming the JM doesn't have salvation planned for the party, he may decide that, yes, it is possible. This part of the desert is known for oases, and the party has just been unlucky to avoid stumbling into one. He decides that the oases are common enough that it's a Moderate (x2) SPPow roll.
A persona is in a tavern, nearly destitute after some poor gambling decisions. He really wants a drink, but can't afford one. "Wouldn't it be Lucky if the man sitting next to me doesn't notice his fresh mug of ale right away?" The JM decides this is no big deal, since it's only a couple BUCs value, and decides it's an Easy (x3) SPPow roll. The persona soon has a fresh mug of ale.
The party is in a desperate fight, and the tide is turning against them. One of the personae is outclassed in the fight, and his companions are too busy to help him out. "Wouldn't it be Lucky if the orc I'm fighting tripped and fell?" The JM decides that, since the party jumped into this mess ill-prepared, they deserve to reap what they sowed. He rules that "Sure, it would be Lucky, but you're not that Lucky." and lets the fight fall as it may.
Obviously, this rule is entirely subject to the whim of the JM. It is not intended to replace good role-playing, and it should never be applied to bypass a crucial element of the story. Likewise, it's not needed for events that are utterly trivial to the adventure. Excessive use can lead to the odds getting continually harder, or the JM simply outright refusing to allow players to make Luck rolls in the future.
In contrast to Luck, Joss is a meta-game influencer of dice rolls, pretty much as described in the Dangerous Journeys book (as I've interpreted it, at least). Each persona has a certain amount of Joss, which can never exceed 14. Joss can be purchased at a cost (in AP/G) of the square of the Joss Factor being purchased - 1 AP/G to buy the first Joss point, 4 AP/G for the second, and so on. Obviously, replacing Joss when the persona has a lot of Joss is an expensive proposition.
Joss is used to influence a die roll. One Joss Factor will influence a die roll one step in one direction - with the steps defined (from worst to best): Critical Failure, Normal Failure, Normal Success, Outstanding Success. While Joss is normally used prior to a dice roll, I have allowed players to adjust the roll afterwards, with the understanding that significant opponents who have Joss will do likewise.
The spreadsheet I use for keeping track of the people and places the party have encountered is now available for download. The entries have been deleted, so it is available for other JMs to use in their own campaigns. (PK-ZIP/Winzip, 3 Kbytes; spreadsheet is MS-Excel, 17 Kbytes)
Want a stack of pages to keep track of your Heroic Personae? Check out the Mythus Blank Forms Pack (PK-ZIP/WinZip, 186 Kbytes). It contains Adobe PDF-format files for the following:
These pages use my house rules for initiative, not the standard Mythus/DJ initiative system. If there is demand, I will create some Mythus-canon versions of these pages, as well.
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This page was last updated 3 July 2005
Contact for this page: JourneyMaster@BabylonByCandlelight.com