We use advantages to represent the magical abilities that individuals have the potential to use while on the Isles of Wonder. Each ability is loosely defined with some guidelines for what they are capable of at each level as well as some limitations. The particular RP flavor that an ability has is up to the individual who chooses it so long as it operates within the parameters outlined below.
Magic is intentional. It is powered by your raw magical talent (Power) and your will to shape the effect (Grit). Aside from its very first discovery, it requires a conscious decision by the character to use it.
Some advantages may have innate effects that do not require a roll while others may require them in order to determine the outcome. Read each one carefully to understand how it works.
You will never roll the advantage itself. The advantage merely acts as a descriptor of which abilities you have and at what level. Whenever you will be rolling for a magical ability, you will be rolling your Grit + Power. Grit represents your control over and will to shape your magic and Power represents your pure magical potential. Power is tied to Grit in the FS3 system, so you will only need to roll Power.
Magic Roll: Power
You may use luck on magic rolls in the same way that you would any other. You may either spend a luck point to add +3 to your magic roll before rolling or you may spend luck to re-roll a failed magic roll. You may not do both.
If you have an applicable background skill that is very closely aligned with the magic that you are attempting to cast, you may add the dots in the background skill to the power roll to represent your natural non-magical talent and how it helps your magic.
For example: If you are attempting to use Technopathy to control a surgical robot and you have a background skill in Surgical Robots at 2, you can add 2 dice to your Power roll in that instance. The same would go for having a background skill in Costume Design when rolling Clothworking.
You cannot take a background skill in Magic or use broad or vague background skills in this manner. The background skill must be in something that is very closely aligned with the magic that you are attempting to work.
When you fail a magic roll, the effect simply does not happen; however, it does expend energy and willpower to try to cast magic repeatedly.
You may try to roll again the following round, but each subsequent roll will add a stacking -2 penalty to the roll and a storyteller may rule that, at some point, no further attempts may be made for a period of time due to exhaustion.
When you catastrophically fail a magic roll with an embarrassing failure, something goes very much awry. What happens should be based on the magic attempt being made and is at storyteller discretion. Please review the below guidelines.
Some magic can be resisted by NPCs and PCs alike. Abilities that act directly on another individual such as Telepathy may be resisted with a Power roll.
Resisted Roll: Character1/Power vs Character2/Power
The following is the translation table for results in a contested roll:
Whenever there is a contest of wills, there will not be an Amazing Success result. There is always some resistance.
Ritualized magic is not something available to PCs. They are only capable of the innate and spontaneous magic that the Isles have granted them. Assembling spell components and performing any sort of intonations, dancing, burning of incense, etc.. will not affect the outcome of the magic attempted.
Magic is highly individualized and cannot be combined with that of others to greater effect. While each individual may contribute their efforts toward a common goal, each person will only be able to contribute what is within the limits of their own abilities.
Your character can combine their magical abilities in order to create different effects so long as each ability is rolled separately (if a roll is required) and the resulting effect falls within the limitations of the level of ability and the number of successes achieved.
For example: One could use Control Shadow and Prehensile Appendages together to create a shadowy appendage out of existing shadows in the room that can finely manipulate items with Control Shadow level 1 and Prehensile Appendages level 3. The duration of time during which the appendage would last would be limited by the result of the Control Shadow roll which limits duration.
It is at Storyteller discretion whether each roll must be done in a separate round or if they can be done simultaneously. In the above example, it would make sense for these rolls to occur simultaneously since one is creating the limb out of the shadows.
How many effects can be combined is also at Storyteller discretion.
Effects will always be limited by the shortest duration result and the most strict limitations based on the level of the abilities combined.
Where Power is your character's raw magical ability, Attunement is how connected your character is to sensing and understanding the magic around them. Characters will use attunement to detect magic going on around them and discerning the qualities of that magic. They may use it to try to discern what a magical item does or whether a being, object, or place has some magical influence on it. Attunement is a kind of magical intuition and can give characters insights on the nature of magics. Attunement is tied to Perception in the FS3 system, so you will only need to roll Attunement.
Some of examples of its use might be to try to determine how a magical item operates, what sort of a ward might be on a location, who is casting a particular spell, etc.
Attunement Roll: Attunement
At this time we are not looking to add any more magical abilities, though this may change in the future as the story develops.