Magic System
We have a handful of magic-users in our group, so I wanted to provide a quick-and-dirty look at the Genesys magic system. I'll be running magic as largely improvisational and freeform, as it is presented in the Genesys Core Rulebook. That means that each of the magic skills (Arcana, Divine, Primal, Runes, and Verse) has a limited number of magic actions it can perform.
As for what these actions mean, check these
spell sheets that summarize the info from the book.
For a summary of how the system works, here's Sam Stewart, designer of Genesys:
"Instead of creating a list of specific spells such as 'fireball' and 'ice wall' and 'greater poison cure,' we decided to invent a list of broad magic actions. These actions would govern most of what people wanted to do with a magic system. For example, the 'attack' magic action could represent your character flinging fireballs at foes or trying to spear them with shards of ice.
"If you want your character to cast a spell that you call 'fireball,' for example, you start with the basic magic attack action. This allows you to target an enemy at short range. You’ll make an Easy combat check using a magic skill, and deal damage equal to the characteristic linked to that skill, plus one additional damage per success. So far, very similar to making a ranged attack with a throwing knife.
"Where things get interesting is what happens next. Right now, your fireball spell doesn’t have anything fiery about it. However, you can choose to add the Fire effect to your spell, increasing the difficulty of your check by one and giving it the Burn quality. Do you want your fireball to explode and hit groups? Give it the Blast effect for another difficulty increase. Now your character is casting something that feels much more like a fireball!
"Of course, the check to cast the spell is Hard. While even a novice spellcaster can attempt a complex and powerful spell, only a trained and skilled wizard has a reasonable chance of success. Generally, the more skilled a spellcaster is, the more complex spells they can attempt."
Spellcasting gets easier if you use an implement (like a wand, a staff, or a holy symbol). Various talents also make it easier.
The spell sheets don't discuss the
Utility action, but it's the all-purpose magic ability for things like opening a door, lighting up your wand to see in the dark, or making a frog disappear. This may be a house rule, but I generally won't make you roll for simple Utility spells (like conjuring a light in a dark room). But if you want to use magic to do something that would require a skill check otherwise (like opening a locked door), I'll make the difficulty one higher than it would be to do it the mundane way. That is, if a lock requires an Average check to pick with Skulduggery, it would take a Hard check to pick it with an Arcana spell.
Finally, the
Counterspell maneuver is one any spellcaster can use. When you use the maneuver, your character tries to interfere in magic use around you, thereby upgrading the difficulty of magic-use checks within medium range of your character until the end of your next turn.
