The Gaming Den

Bad Juju: Spiritual Renaissance

A game of animism borrowing many aWoD mechanics

A Council of Mages:

I'm a Coopermancer, I just make barrels

Let's have it clear from the beginning: Bad Juju is a game about using magic. So much so that the rulebook's default term for PCs is "Wizard." You can play a geeky wizard who spends all day building things in his laboratory; you can play a sly wizard who spends his days spinning deals and sneaking around, or a badass wizard who spends his time punching out gods and detonating magical devices, but you are going to be a wizard
The history of Ollam is a history of people using magic to make a difference. Magic IS the technology of this setting, and you should no more expect to succeed as "a mundane" than you would expect to do in a modern game as "a caveman."

A World Unseen

It is whispered that those who enter the Mossgrave are unlikely to return. That's not so bad until you realize there's no one there to do the whispering.

Ollam is a living world. Its weather, seasons, and ecology are regulated by the kami, typically-incorporeal spirits who govern the elements. The greatest of the kami, often called gods, are bound guardians of the elemental sources, from which water, wind, and earth enter Ollam. They are intelligent and often malevolent, but constrained by ancient bargains made with early wizards. There are also Tutelaries, inhuman spirits who rule over geographically constrained dominions, and Fair Folk, animalistic lesser kami bound to physical forms. Finally, there are Ghosts, fragments of deceased humans who have the knowing of glass and steel.

All magic has its roots in the power of these spirits, although it has been hypothesized by some sorcerers that the spirits have themselves only usurped control of some more fundamental property. Nevertheless, it is the spirits who enforce the laws of physics and it is to the spirits that one apeals to change them.

Fantastic Renaissance!

Human? I haven't seen your kind in decades.
The setting of Bad Juju is post-post-apocalyptic. In times long past, the continent, Sekai, was dominated by the Rising Sun Empire. Under the auspices of the emperor, a continent-spanning brotherhood of mages, followers of the Bright and Dark paths alike, ensured the posperity of the people. Harvests were encouraged to gorw, safe trails maintained across countless leagues, and lives extended. Spirits lived peacefully among men. Ultimately, a dark mages' disturbing experiments provided a power-hungry emperor the occasion to provoke a religious dispute between the halves of the Order. Soon there was open warfare between bright mage and dark, which lad to the collapse of the Eastern order and the fragmentation of the empire's outer holdings with it.

In the years to follow, dark mages fled to the inhospitable deserts and caves of Sekai, while bright mages found their survival threatened by the emerging states. Many kami had been killed or arped by the fighting, and without them, the land suffered. Angry spirits made many of the old roads impassable, and famines and shortages followed the collapse of trade. The gods expanded their territories and began plotting to rule over humanity.

At the time of the game, however, this downward spiral has begun to reverse. The surviving human communities have found new ways of coexisting with the kami, and as their populations swell under the resulting surpluses, they seek to reconnect with broader humanity. The spirits begin to calm, and the magical knowledge has been recovered to forge paths through the wilderness.

In the age, bold explorers are needed if civilization is to flourish again, men and women ready to strike into the wild in search of valubable magic and lost comunities. The dangers are grea,t especially when hostile peoples are encountered, but a successful mage can redraw the map, and acquire great wealth and prestige in the process.

Basic Attributes -- the core of your dicepools

Vigor
Science
Piety
Urbanity

Vigor governs athleticism, hand to hand combat, damage resistance, and health

Science governs theory, design, and applicaiton fo physical and magical technologies

Piety governs physical and social perception, wilderness survival and animal handling abilities

Urbanity governs management of troops or goods, adaptation to foreign customs, and sailing and war-riding.

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Qualities

These are like "skills" in D&D or Shadowrun except I think I probably just want them to be Either/Or. Picking one up gives you a specific special ability and a broader die bonus.

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Disciplines

A mage's magical powers come from disciplines, which are learned abilities to wield the powers of the spirit world. Disciplines are grouped into 6 schools:

Wood -- besides wood itself, wood spells also shape soil, and growth, which can
Water -- besides governing literal water, water spells balance the water of the body, banishing weakness and disease
Wind -- apart from wind itself, wind spells can create sparks and fires, and carry speech and though over space

Steel -- steel spells actually shape stone as well, but iron is the most powerful and magical of the minerals
Glass -- glass spells also shape fire, light, and in some cases space
Bone -- bone spells affect specifically HUMAN bones, as well as ghosts and even living people

Discipline List:

Trade Winds
Storm Winds
Zephyr Winds

March of Nettles
Procession of Roses
Durance of Oaks

Waters of Life
Waters of Death
Waters of Change

Hall of Mirrors
Chariot of Fire
Fortress Obsidian

Earthreaving
Ironheart
Ribbons of Steel

Dance of Bone
Song of Heart
Memory of Breath

Bump/Reserve

Tell us what the 18 disciplines do, how the abilities are spread between them and so forth. How many disciplines does a character get?

How are disciplines and skills going to work with the spirit negotiation, Pact and Charm concepts from the old thread?

Damnit. I was going to post an update on this in rules-text a while ago, but have been busy and sick.

Basically, each discipline is a collection of thematically linked magic effects with various tags.

Charms: These are one-shot abilities recharged by schmoozing with spirits. Basic charms are recharged by ubiquitous and weak-willed creatures limited only by geography. At any river you can recharge your basic water charms for like an hour's effort. Advanced charms depend on more intelligent spirits who have agendas, so you need not just any river, but the river near your hometown or one where you have a rep. Elder charms require spirits who are unique setting NPCs and generally recharging them counts as an adventure.

Pacts: These grant a benefit until you violate the condition, at which point they're recharged much like Advanced charms.

Spells: These just work whenever you want them to.

Here's a rough draft of what the spell list might look like:

Procession of Roses

Oaths of Lilac: [Pact] You can change your scent at will, eluding tracking and getting a bonus on social skills. Ends if you are splashed with water.
Sleep Powder: [Charm] a plentiful powder that deals nonlethal damage

Dream Powder: [Charm] powder makes one victim obey simple verbal commands, not remember doing so.
Olive-Bearer: [Spell] Targets you designate cannot be attacked by Elder Spirits.

The Green Sun: [Charm] wooden orb sheds green light in several-mile radius, making plants grow one hundred times speed subject to normal water and soil requirements.
FIXME

March of Nettles

Thivesbane: [Charm] You can brew a colorless lcontact poison which deals nonlethal damage when applied as a door-trap or blade-venom.
Greenwalk Wreaths : [Charm] Circlets which grant protection from obstructing plants and hostile animals

Oath of Thorns: [Pact] Your unarmed attack deal warhammer-level damage and affect incorporeal targets. Ends if you use a metal weapon.
Tangleseed: [Charm] You can throw seeds which instantaneously grow into a thorny web

FIXME
FIXME

Durance of Oaks

Barksalve: [Charm] A salve grants stacking plate armor, destroyed by fire.
Powerstave: [Charm] Your staff shatters steel

Earthworks: You can reshape the earth in skirmish-level areas.
FIXME

FIXME
[/list]

Edit: There's more, will post when I have power again.

Waters of Death

Ice-Eight: [Charm]You can produce a crystalline powder which freezes shit. You can throw it into a body of water to form a shapeable and temporary ice bridge, or use it to condense moisture from the air into a temporary ice wall.
Bright Solvent: [Charm] You can produce a liquid which disenchants charms and ongoing spirit powers

Dark Solvent: [Charm] You can produce a liquid which dissolves flesh and sorcerous spells and artifacts
Banedraught [Charm] You can produce a delayed-action poison which greatly increases the victim's strength

Ice-Nine: You can permanently freeze arbitrary quantities of water into ice sculptures.
FIXME

Waters of Life

Cureall: [Charm] Sacred water ends mundane disease and purifies food and water.

Lifedraught: [Charm] potion cures all wounds to living subject



Waters of Change

Oath of Scales [Pact] You can breath water. Ends if

I would like to voice a minor protest that Ice-Nine does not in fact lead to an Ice-nine scenario.

As a random note, if it is possible for a Pact to have multiple conditions (just hypothesizing here, not sure) then wouldn't many spirits set a series of conditions, such that essentially you gain XYZ benefit until you complete this task or abandon your quest (a certain amount of time passes).

The original idea was that the nature of the pacts was inherent to the magic physics. The officiating spirit doesn't set the terms, more simply notarizes the proceedings.

Who detects the termination of a pact anyways? And how does a pact work if it isn't a grant of the spirit?

Okay, consider the Oath of Thorns. What happens when you take the Oath of Thorns is that you swear to become a protector of the natural world and use your powers to quell ghosts and corrupt spirits.

To take this oath, you need the presence of an Advanced Wood spirit such as a Poppy Prince or Oakwarden. In the religious context of the setting, he's there to honor and notarize your commitment. Alternative traditions in the setting consider him to be a lord and you his vassal. The point is, what the spirit is actually doing is channeling Wood energy to transform you into a being of Wood.

As a consequence of having become a Wood creature, your hands are now magic ghost touch weapons. That's just a property of Wood beings. But ANOTHER property of Wood beings is that they don't use manufactured weapons. If you DO use one, you stop being a Wood being, the wood energy drains out of your now-inhospitable body, and you lose your Wooden powers. If you find an amenable spirit you can later get a re-fill.

So what you're telling me, is that the Poppy Prince can put his Wood in me, and then I'll be able to touch ghosts, as long as I don't try to grab their metal sword or anything.

Ahem. Sorry.

Storm Winds


Shockwand: Your wand fires lightning bolts, shocks melee victims
Oath of Sparks: You can start fire with a touch and your hair always stands up. Ends if

Oath of Feathers: You hover one foot above the nearest surface. Ends if
Ball Lightning

Storm's Eye

Trade Winds

Oath of Breezes
FIXME

Depression
FIXME

Cloud Chariot
FIXME

Zephyr Winds

Speaker's Brooch:
Sailwand

Having trouble deciding how to negate charm effects. Ideas:

--Have a counterspell/dispel charm in each school of magic affecting spells from a particular other school. This runs up against the old "dispel magic sucks" problem. Possibly fix this by adding some non-metamagic direct use for the same ability.

--Have any charm be burnable to negate a charm of an opposing element.

--Have a SPELL which counters charms of an opposing element, thus giving you a resource edge.

--Have a charm which universally dispels and counters, possibly with an additional effect. This is "Bright Solvent/Dark Solvent" currently in Waters of Death.

ETA:

Also, Implements. For thematic reasons I want some magicians to carry wands or staves with stored magic power and use them as implements. But I don't want it to be mandatory.

That means making/using a staff has to be a selectable feature. It has to grant a benefit roughly equivalent to learning another charm. It can't be a FourE style +bonus item. Here are the models I'm considering:

An alternate Charmset: Some charms create talismans, potions, or powders thatmust be shattered, splashed, or whatever. Other charms instead are imbued into permanenet wooden rods that can be "charged up." If you learn multiple staff charms you can use one staff for all of them and possibly even spontaneously use Staff charges to activate whichever one you like.

Spontaneous Casting: Maybe having a Staff or Wand just lets you charge the wand and spontaneously use any charm effect you know, or any charm of the appropriate element. I'm not confident this is worth an ability selection by itself.

Option Three: Something I may have failed to think of.