Magus Novice Opus

A darkly comedic game about young magi in a college setting.

Overview

Premise

Founded in the mid 1980's, Lapis University is an accredited academic institution with branches in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and a few other cities of note. Its campuses are high-tech, communities closely knit and alumni prestigious and accomplished.

What few people know is that there is actually a single Lapis University that sits at a spatial junction between the Earth and a sprawling multiverse, with the campuses physically connected by shears, warps and eddies in space-time. Students half a world apart sometimes meet, never realizing the distance that ordinarily separates them. This has connected once-disparate magical communities and traditions the world over, although the environment remains byzantine and at times fraught with very real dangers.

Balancing a regular social life with the need for secrecy and the practice of magical excellence can be quite stressing, although all are considered parts of the curriculum.

Welcome to Lapis, freshman!

Setting

The world that humans live in is a labyrinth filled with myriad hidden worlds, from the demesne of monsters that hide in the darkness to shining lands inhabited by high beings of wondrous beauty. Those aware of these worlds within worlds have been known as sorcerers, witches, oracles and sages, acting as intermediaries between the realms and the races. Interbreeding between the denizens of the realms led to the creations of many of the human-like supernatural races such as elves, vampires, giants and deities, which have visited our world over the ages and caused great disasters.

Contracts with these other worlds and the study of their unusual properties is what yielded the first Arts, culminating in the creation of the four processes and the concept of the Magnum Opus based off the concepts of European alchemy. Renaissance naturalists discovered the principles harnessed by the four magics and created a mundane understanding of the universe known as 'science', leading to the technological revolutions in the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries.

For a time, magic seemed to have fallen behind, but an 'industrialization' of the techniques for training magi and the production of wonders has lead to a resurgence of the arts and a period of exploration into other worlds. In a city that exists at the intersection of time and space, the first modern university for magical arts was founded.

Chargen

Your character's mental and physical self are built on 21 CP, 15 CP of which goes to attributes and 6 CP of which to specialties. Unspent attribute CP can be put into specialties, but not vice-versa. Note that in combat, hitting targets with magical effects is actually determined by an appropriate attribute, with net successes over the defense adding to the effect of the roll. In mundane combat, those net successes get rolled as the /only/ damage.

Stats

• Physical: Running, jumping, shooting, etc.
• Smarts: Thinking, general knowledge, etc.
• Perception: Tracking the invisible, spotting clues, reading fine print, etc.
• Integrity: Resistance to enchantments, ability to keep stony faced, etc.
• Charisma: Persuasion, moe, bargaining with demons, etc. Be glad you're a college student and get slightly more respect than higschoolers.

Costs:

• 1: 0 CP - People picked on you about this.
• 2: 1 CP - You're perfectly average, and that's okay.
• 3: 3 CP - You're uncomfortably close to being good at something but sometimes beaten by total amateurs.
• 4: 6 CP - You probably headed up a club or team in high school and might have taken them to a regional something.
• 5: 10 CP - Are you sure you're a normal university freshman, and not a babyfaced Spetsnaz operator with a PHD in disguise?
• Specialities Cost the same as a stat of one level higher. They do not have to be linked to a particular stat.

Magic

You have 21 MP to generate your character's magical abilities and may divide them into any of four Arts that represent different methods of using magic. Magic can be specialized, which grants free ranks equal to the amount specified but creates weaknesses and restrictions to its use. The arts that can be chosen are:

Nigredo (Black Magic)

The blackness creates entropy and chaos in the world. Using Nigredo Arts allows a magus to conjure forth flame or other destructive elements, create illusions or fill things with energy.

• Specialization: Sample specializations for Nigredo first ascribe an image or an element on which they fixate, such as Fire (+1), their chaos is later bound to a single motion such as Destruction (+2) and finally becomes sealed within a specific easily circumvented process such as Incineration or Rotting (+3).
• Techniques: Fireball, Curse, Mental Suggestion, Illusions, Lightning Sword.

Albedo (White Magic)

The whiteness is the art that purifies and orders. Albedo Arts can restore living or inanimate things, protect people and locations and distort time and space.

• Specialization: Sample specializations for Albedo make emphasize a single aspect such as Time (+1) or a narrow but generally useful category of target like Living (+1) that does not significantly alter how the art can be applied, escalating to a specific category of subject such as Humans (+2) or a limited range like Touch (+2). Extremely specialized Albedo could have a personal-only range of Self (+3) or be limited to a single act like Heal (+3).
• Techniques: Heal/Repair, Remove Curse, Barrier/Ward, Time Dilatation, Switch Teleport.

Citrinitas (Yellow Magic)

The yellowness represents the awakening of power, consciousness and spirituality. Citrinitas is used for crafting magical devices for single-shot applications, summoning creatures and turning the mundane into the sublime and supernatural.

• Specialization: Sample specializations for Citrinitas first define the art of the maker to a single craft such as Artificing (+1), then draws it down to a specific type of creation such as Golems (+2) and finally ends with creations with inherent flaws or exploitable qualities such as Flammable Rabits (+3) or Salt Golems (+3).
• Techniques: Summon Familiar (Unique), Imprison, Create Automatons/Create Familiars (Generic), Enchanted Weapon/Ammunition.

Rubedo (Red Magic)

The redness is wisdom, synthesis and excellence. Rubedo is used for augmenting and transforming things in the world as well as the arts of divination.

• Specialization: Sample specializations for Rubedo limit the applications to a specific type of subject such as Living (+1) or branch of effects such as Augmentation (+1) and peak at Self (+2) and Augment Living (+2). Highly specialized Rubedo includes specific techniques such as Augment Physique (+3) or Danger Sense (+3).
• Techniques: Armored Skin, Superstrength, Mind Reading, Doppelganger, Hyperskill (Choose).

Costs

Each new rank costs (New Rating x2) until rank 5, at which point it becomes ([New Rating -5] x5).

• 1: 2 MP
• 2: 6 MP
• 3: 12 MP
• 4: 20 MP
• 5: 30 MP
• 6: 35 MP
• 7: 45 MP
• 8: 60 MP
• 9: 80 MP
• X: 105 MP
• Extra Technique: 1 MP

Techniques

Regardless of their various Arts, all magi are assumed to have the ability to fly and project psychic invisibility, the strength and speed of which are determined by their regular rather than magical attributes.

In addition to these, each magus has a number of Techniques, specialties within their Arts that they excel at. These are refined and natural abilities that are rolled with a bonus of +1d at Art 1, +2d at Art 3, +3d at Art 6 and +3d at Art 9. Since Art X is arbitrarily powerful, any techniques by such a preeminent Magus can instead assume to roll as many dice as it is being opposed with if that number is higher than 14.

A magus normally has a number of Techniques equal to their Art rating. Individual techniques can be upgraded by sacrificing (or buying) extra slots, converting one of the dice into an automatic success on an odd-numbered upgrade and adding another dice on even-numbered upgrades. A single technique cannot be upgraded more than the rating of the Art it belongs to. (Therefore an Art 4 Technique upgraded 3 times would have a total of 5 dice and 2 automatic successes, 4 times would have 6 dice and 2 automatic successes, etc...)

This can also be used to represent extra-strong familiars, magic swords made of fire or even particularly unusual inherent powers like being made of invincible fire.

Magnum Opus

Each magus has a Magnum Opus, the ultimate goal of their practice of magic (or in some cases, the goal of an entire lineage of magi), an ideal that they try embody or the shape of their magic unleashed to its fullest and most uncontrolled.

Magnum Opus is acquired by spending XP in the middle of session at a dramatic moment rather than during downtime and accrues slowly. Every interval of 12 grants a character a Magnum Opus point that can be spent at any time to automatically succeed at a challenge in a way thematic to the character.

NOTE: These points are single use and trivial applications like winning at pachinko or watering the housecats, while hilarious, would also be catastrophic.

Complications

Every character has complications, minor quirks of their backstory that change the flavor of their abilities but have no mechanical effects. Each character has one Complication by default, but can hypothetically have more. Recommendations for other Conplications will be considered by the GM.

Sample Complications include:

• Druid/Witch: You are a member of a magical tradition with only male or female casters. You may receive hostility from 'modern' magus that see you as outdated, although you have an inexplicable allure to people of the same sex. If you are a male witch or female druid you instead have the undivided enmity of your own house, who view you as a usurper, and have great allure to the opposite sex.
• Famous: You are famous, in the sense that people in the mundane world might recognize you or as a consequence of being the scion of an ancient magical bloodline. People will normally treat you better, but some may secretly plot your downfall.
• Half-Human: Unlike someone with unusual ears, you are actually half-human, possibly a mix of a supernatural species such as a djinni or a vampire and a human. Your style of dress and Magnum Opus probably reflect the sensibilities of your inhuman parentage, such as half-djinn granting wishes to end fights and dhamphir ensorcelling their foes.
• Icy: No matter how hard you try, everything you say comes out flat and probably with a ":I" face. This means people can't tell when you're kidding or serious, and it's actually really creepy. On the upside, your emotions can't be read without Rubedo Arts.
• Immortal: No amount of physical punishment can knock you out, although wounds can accrue until you are physically incapable of moving. You regenerate within a few minutes, but the intervening seconds are unpleasant as you lack an immunity to pain.
• Infernalist: You dabble in various maligned magics, convening with alien intelligences on other worlds and imitating them for power. Your arts are harder to identify, but the strange images and smell of fire and brimstone makes others suspicious when they see your magic.
• Likeable: People just naturally like you because of your good looks, cool demeanor or something weird like pheromones and display fanatical devotion in response to minor kindness, although this can backfire as the people you like can become the targets of jealous followers.
• Necromancer: Using corpses as a material for magic is a taboo art, so many necromancers withdraw processed bone from alchemical subdimensions and assemble them into various undead-like constructs. Despite this, the imagery of a walking corpse is intimidating and may make others uneasy around you. Alternatively, you could be the original type of necromancer that only communicates with spirits, but often get mistaken for the former.
• Poor: You have very little money, which has forced you to be resourceful. While a rich person can easily get anything that can be bought, you know where to get some things that can't. On the other hand, you're always hungry unless your friends split lunches or tired from working a lot of part-time jobs.
• Rich: You are fabulously wealthy and most of your problems are distinctly 1st world, leading to some resentment. Purchased twice and you're rich enough to be a kidnapping target by homeless magi.
• Rival: You have a rival who constantly wants to one-up you. They may be a close friend or hated enemy, but however annoying they might be is offset by the fact that you always seem to be at your best trying to beat them.
• Soul Jar: You don't have a phylactery, but you might be the spiritual prison to an ancient horror or a particularly dangerous ancient magus. Each spell to do such a thing is unique, but generally there's a trigger for its release that you have to be careful to avoid (often, this is being killed). Since they reside in your body, you may draw power from them for your Magnum Opus effects.
• Strange Ears: You have animal or elven ears, neither of which are rare enough to raise eyebrows in magus society. They do mean special hats or the risk of being accused of being a compulsive cosplayer by mundane people.
• Technomage: The industrial revolution didn't exactly leave magic untouched. You might be a new postmodern breed of magi that uses demon summoning programs running off a cellphone, projects electrified wires from your fingertips or pilots various-sized giant robots.

Equipment

Finally, a character has a number of magical accessories that add flavor.

• Hat Color/Style: Wide-brimmed hats are in fashion, but uniform style have fallen out of favor of self-expression. This is good news for magi with cat ears, who've always gotten a raw deal wearing normal hats.
• Cape Color/Style: The average magi's cape is bulletproof if enhanced with the right magics and stores a nearly limitless number of utility items for casting spells. It's fairly standard to match cape to hat style in order to avoid committing a fashion faux-pas.
• Personal Accessory: A magic wand, staff, living ermine cape or even a sword in the rare cases such an item isn't a temporary artifice of Citrinitas Arts but a permanent wonder. Each character is allowed a specific example that modifies their usage of attributes and rounds out their abilities.
  • Weapons: Apply the character's Physical (+net successes) in the damage step instead of only rolling the net successes.
  • Wonders: Have a single fixed 'Technique' that applies when activated, dealing d4 +[1] effect dice at chargen and scaling up as the character improves. This can be from an Art the magus does not possess.

Characters

Odelia Lowenzahn

Player: Shrike

Picture: http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=714522

Magnus Opus: Nyaa?

Complications

Strange Ears

Stats

Physical: 4 (6 CP)

Smarts: 2 (1 CP)

Perception: 3 (3 CP)

Integrity: 3 (3 CP)

Charisma: 2 (1 CP)

Specialties

Acrobatics 1 (1 CP)

Karaoke 1 (1 CP)

Hearing 1 (1 CP)

Internet 1 (1 CP)

Style 2 (3 CP)

Magic

Nigredo 1 (2 MP)

Albedo 2 (6)

Rubedo 2 (6)

Citrinas 2 (6)

Clothes

Hat:

Cape:

Accessories:

Asmaa Tahan

Player: FBH

Picture: http://www.anime-th.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/witchcraft-works-transform.gif

Magnus Opus: To create a work of perfect and immortal art through the wishes of others

Complications

Half Djinn

Likeable

Rival (Twin Sister)

Stats

Physical 2 (1 CP)

Smarts 4 (6 CP)

Perception 2 (1 CP)

Integrity: 2 (1 CP)

Charisma 4 (6 CP)

Specialties

Forbidden Knowledge 2

Artistic Achievements 2

Magic

Pure Black 3 (12)

Techniques: Fireball, Mental Suggestion, Wind Storm, Flame Wind, Illusion(2 points)

Pure Red 2 (6)

Hyper Study, Appearance Boost, Mind Reading (1 points)

Clothes

Hat: Tiara

Cape: Green/split

Accessories: Jewelry of shielding d4+[1]

XP: 1

Andre Sermaster

Player: BM

Magnum Opus: Create the Perfect Unlife

Complications

Necromancer

Famous

Rich

Strange ears (cat ears, by popular demand)

Stats

Physical 3 (3 CP)

Smarts 4 (6 CP)

Perception 2 (1 CP)

Integrity: 3 (3 CP)

Charisma 2 (1 CP)

Specialties (7)

Secrets of the Dead 2

Medicine 2

Aesthetic Design 1

Magic

Arts of Transient Life (Albedo): 2 (2) (Health +1)

Healing Essence, Sacrifice the Undead

Arts of Manifest Life (Citrinas): 3 (12)

Conjure Familiar (Death Knight) +1, Conjure Undead (Skeletal Warrior), Bone Knives, Trap Soul (Extra Tech +1)

Arts of Evanescent Life (Rubedo): 3 (6) (Undead +1)

Command Dead, Spectral Commune, Empower Undead

Accessories

Hat: pointed-brim hat with feather

Cape: Long dark-brown coat with cravat

Accessories: Staff of Life Siphon (4d +1 Life Drain)

XP

Prelude: 1

Session One: 1

XP Spending

Upgrade Conjure Familiar (Death Knight) +1

Ajun'#erexa

Player: Peel

XP: 4/4

Pictures:

http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1329059

http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1315397

http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/689574

Image Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SEheHMhtIM

Magnum Opus: Incorporation of the intelligible world

Complications

Half-Human (Pseudonatural)

Immortal

Infernalist?

Stats

Physical 1 (0)

Smarts 3 (3)

Perception 5 (10)

Integrity 2 (1)

Charisma 1 (0)

Specialties

DRR DRR DRR (1)

Incomprehensible 2 (3)

Moe 2 (3)

Magic

The Ideal Calamity (Nigredo of Mind) 5 (20 MP +1)

Techniques (6): Transcendental Objectification (illusion) II, Transcendental Subjectification (mental suggestion) II, Disunity of Apperception (mind blast) II

Accessories

Hat: eyeball hat

Cape: starfield inner lining

Accessories: puzzle box (4d +1 extradimensional prison)

Hans the Thirteenth

Player: Holle

Pictures:

Overall: http://i.imgur.com/j3uUJd9.jpg

With scarf: http://i.imgur.com/jYVAkm9.jpg (also the reason why he's poor)

Magnum Opus: To become the strongest for the sake of love.

Backstory Blurb:

A scion of an ancient and mighty family of shamans, who commune with spirits and work great magics. Is... not quite living up to the expectations, in all kinds of ways.

Has bound the spirit of a destroyed Iraqi Lion of Babylon tank as familiar. (which can transform into a girl when not fighting) Bad ideas and magic that summons large amounts of explosives has resulted in most of the allowance constantly vanishing into the bottomless pit of damage payments for destroyed property, forcing them to work part-time in shady jobs. Always wears gas mask and military-themed clothes; bit of a poser seeking reassurance in traditional symbols of prowess. Gender uncertain despite name. Possibly not actually German.

Also apparently immortal, which lends itself marvelously to surviving various explosive misadventures. Mom evasive when questioned. How shady.

'Complications

Immortal

Poor

Technomage

Famous

Stats (14)

Physical 3 (3)

Smarts 3 (3)

Perception 2 (1)

Integrity 4 (6)

Charisma 2 (1)

Specialities: (7)

Military "Genius" 3 (6)

Posing 1 (1)

Magic

The Gears of War (Citrinitas): 5 (12)

Specialization: Military Equipment (+2)

Technique 1: Steel Rain (Mega Missile Massacre): 3 - bullet hell. Many kinds of missiles. A lot of firepower. Not a lot of aiming.

Technique 2: The Lion of Babylon (Unique Familiar): 3 - the spirit of a Lion of Babylon tank bound to Hans as a familiar.

Technique 3: Army of the Faceless (Generic Familiar Spam): 2 - robotic stormtroopers. Very faceless. Very expendable.

The War Without End (Albedo): 3 (6)

Specialization: Machines (+1)

Technique 1: Mending the Gears (Repair Machines): 1

Technique 2: General's Aegis (Regenerating Shields for Mooks): 2

Extra Techniques Bought: 3

Clothes

Hat: Officer's peaked hat. Black and red is always fashinable. The star is very shiny. Also always wears a gas mask.

Cape: Military-style. Wears a spectacularly gaudy cape with huge golden epaulettes over black trenchcoat. (on closer inspection at least one of the medals is from chocolate)

Accessories: The Scarf (Inherent Barrier: Absolute Defence Line Technique. d4 +[1] personal shield): passed through the lineage ever since the distant time of Hans the First. Can warp space and time to provide defence. Nobody is really sure where it came from or how it works - or at least, they're not telling Hans. A present from mom. Long, red and fluffy.