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D&D Magic in RuneQuest

Whoah, where did this come from? Well, there's this cute little place called the RQ-RULES list, and its auspicious instigator, Tal Meta, has been posting loads of translated World of Greyhawk info, specifically, cult writeups. Leon Kirshtein mentioned simulating D&D magic (among other things) using RuneQuest and inspiration struck! So, here it is - How To Simulate D&D Magic In RuneQuest If You Ever Wanted To Do That!

Wizardry (0%) Magic
     The apprentice wizard's Magic bonus can only at most double his ability in this skill.
     Learning this skill to 1% takes 50 hours, then 50xcurrent skill (excluding modifier) per 1% increase thereafter, so learning to 10% (the minimum for casting magic) takes at least 450 hours of training, ie. 45 weeks of solid study. This is normally done over the course of three years, with the apprentice gaining two years of normal experience over this time. Once the skill reaches 10%, the apprentice can cast spells on his own, and learning dramatically accelerates.
     Learning the skill over 10% requires one experience tick, followed by one normal training session (1 hour per current %), for the gain of 1d6 points in the skill. Pure training can be done, but only gives 1d6-3.
     Wizardry skill is used to determine what, and how many, spells a wizard may memorise. To be able to cast each level of spell, this skill must be increased by 10%xLevel.

How to calculate how many spells can be learned? Here are some ideas (basically, I came up with them in this order, trying to refine the results to look right).

1.   The number of spells of each level that can be learned is calculated by dividing the skill by the minimum percentage required to learn the level, to a maximum of INT.

Assuming INT=18
 
 
Skill 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10% 1                
30% 3 1              
60% 6 2 1            
100% 10 3 1 1          
150% 15 5 2 1 1        
210% 18 7 3 2 1 1      
280% 18 9 4 2 1 1 1    
360% 18 12 6 3 2 1 1 1  
450% 18 15 7 4 3 2 1 1 1
This math needs some work I think. Maybe for spells above 1st, divide it by 10 less than the number required to learn the level:
 
Skill 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10% 1                
30% 2 1              
60% 3 3 1            
100% 10 5 2 1          
150% 15 7 3 1 1        
210% 18 10 4 2 1 1      
280% 18 14 5 3 2 1 1    
360% 18 18 7 4 2 1 1 1  
450% 18 18 9 5 3 2 1 1 1
No, that's still too extreme at the top end. Is "divide by ( minimum for level - 10 * (level-1) )" too complex? Also, max spells memorised should be INT - highest learnable spell level
 
Skill 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
  /10 /20 /40 /70 /110 /160 /220 /290 /370
10% 1                
20% 2                
30% 3 1              
40% 4 2              
60% 6 3 1            
100% 10 5 2 1          
150% 12 7 3 2 1        
210% 12 10 5 3 1 1      
280% 11 11 7 4 2 1 1    
360% 10 10 9 5 3 2 1 1  
450% 9 9 9 6 4 2 2 1 1
580% 9 9 9 8 5 3 2 2 1
740% 9 9 9 9 6 4 3 2 2
As a wizard gets more powerful, he has to spend more of his time studying the more advanced arts, so his ability to remember low-level spells atrophies.

Wizardry skill must be rolled each time a spell is cast:
 
Critical Spell works
Special Spell works
Normal Spell works, costs 1 MP
Failure Spell works, costs 1 MP per level of spell
Fumble Spell fails, costs 1 MP
The difference between levels of success is deliberately small, as there is no equivalent in D&D at all, but in RQ, skills is skills and they can go wrong.

The skill is ticked on a normal success or better, but requires first a tick, then one training session per increase, gaining 1d6-1. Note that if a starting Wizard with Wizardry at 15% fails his roll, he cannot gain a tick until he re-learns the spell, casts it again, and rolls 15 or less. It is quite possible for a starting wizard to fail to get a tick for several days.

Remember that 96-99 is always at best a failure, and 00 is always a fumble.

Roll INTx5 - 5% per level of spell to be able to know a spell, this roll may be retried once when Wizardry rises high enough to permit the wizard to learn two spells of the same level. A fumble means the spell can never be learned. Alternatively, just use the D&D Know Spell percentage for the INT.
 


Glorantha is a trademark of Issaries, Inc. Gloranthan material is copyright 1998 by Philip Hibbs and Greg Stafford. Glorantha is the creation of Greg Stafford, and is used with his permission.


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