Wizards of Shapsar System, The

The Wizards of Shapsar is a homebrew system that has been iterated upon multiple times. It was created by ArchGM. Campaigns in this system were primarily run by Looweeja and ArchGM. The following was modified from Arch's original entry to the wiki, which in turn was adapted from his original drafts of the homebrew.

## System

### Magic

Characters have ten points which can be placed into
various magical disciplines. These disciplines should be of moderate 'width', use
the elements for an example of how 'wide' they ought to be. (Ex - Fire, travel,
charm, animals, scrying, plants.)

Larger areas, such as 'Sky', since they cover so many
things, should stay in theme with what they can do. While 'air' might be
focused into a blast of force for digging, digging into the ground doesn't have
anything to do with the sky, and so cannot be done with that discipline.

#### Invoking Disciplines

Disciplines are added to D20 rolls in order to meet DCs.
Each point in a discipline adds a +1 to the roll. Disciplines also cover any
mundane equivalents of magic - someone with sky will be able to pilot aircraft,
and work as a meteorologist, shadow might be very stealthy and good with
lighting, someone with fire might be able to work with demolitions and
craftwork involving a furnace, and so on.

This becomes very important when dealing with MELTDOWN.

### Meltdown

Each
character has ten boxes of meltdown, and this number never changes. Each time a
character tries to cast a spell and misses the DC, flubbing the spell, the
difference is taken out of these boxes. Say, if someone tried to cast a DC 15
spell, and only got a 13, they would lose two points of meltdown.

#### Regaining Meltdown

Meltdown is regained, to the max of ten, by one every
scene that the character does not use any magic.

#### Effects of Meltdown

Meltdown causes effects based on what magic was being used,
and how severe the meltdown is. A lightly flubbed fireball (Say, two points)
might only cause a character to breathe out steam. Something worse, like a 5
point meltdown for an ice spell, might cause a character to start melting in a
warm room.

Nonlethal meltdown effects do not go away when the meltdown
goes down, but they do become 'healthier-looking' - purple skin will cease to
look like a radiation burn and just become purple skin.

### Death and Dying

Should a character go over their meltdown, they will die
violently and messily, as all the effects caused by their lost meltdown go into
overdrive and consume their body.

Dying 'normally', on the other hand, just involves having
three nasty effects or more (Ex - burnt, boiled, stabbed) or an equivalent
amount of damage done to the character. It's fairly loose, since Shapzar
wizards are very resilient due to their magic, so the GM is advised to use this
as simply a rule of thumb.

### Spells and Magic

#### Components

Spells can be boosted by using either components or foci
to do so Components are items related to a character's magical disciplines, and
are burnt up when used for spells. They add a bonus to the roll based on their
quality. For example, a wizard using fire magic might acquire a +1 bonus to a
spell by using kerosene or a box of matches as a component. Bonuses go up based
primarily on how hard something is to get - a matchbox might get a +1, but
simply raiding the isle at a market won't give you a +1 per matchbox - perhaps
a +2, or a +3 if there's a massive amount of matchboxes present.

Component bonuses should also be given if players attempt
something particularly unusual, clever or unique in their magic - if they're
trying to whip up a tornado, and end up doing a rain dance on a skyscraper
surrounded by lightning rods and offer a prominent meteorologist as a sacrifice,
reward them amply! (Assuming they've put a good bit of thought and creativity
into this ritual, this example is worth at LEAST +10)

#### Foci

Foci are a little different than component bonuses in that
they can be used again and again. As a result, foci should be really hard to
get, and are always inherently magical. Players who start with magical
artifacts might begin with foci worth up to +3 for one discipline only, with no
other powers. Foci can potentially upset what little balance this system has,
so be careful with them.

#### Spell DCs, A.K.A. "The fun bit."

This is a guide to the DCs a character must meet or beat to
successfully cast a spell. A character should define clearly what they want to
do before casting - saying they want to 'slowly channel as much ice magic as
they can' doesn't cut it. Use component rules if someone is casting a spell in
a way that requires special consideration.

Dc 10 - Small spell - Ex - Firebolt, turn a wall purple.

Dc 15 - Medium spell - Ex - Fireball, animate a table.

Dc 20 - Large spell - Ex - Long range teleport, dimensional
portal.

Dc 25 - Huge spell - Ex - Crush house, thrall crowd.

Dc 30 - Epic spell - Ex - Create house golem, lightsaber
barrage.

Dc 35 - Hyperspell - Ex - Melt skyscraper, teleport crowd.

Dc 40 - Gigaspell - Ex - Orbital strike, Deadpool regen.

Dc 45 - Unspeakable spell - Cheesify suburb, survive orbital
strike.

Dc 50 - Spell of ultimate badassery - Call Elder god,
zombify a country, sink island.

### Branches (ie, "Classes")

Each character belongs to a group of wizards on Shapzar
known as a branch, which gives them a little special something to rely on
besides raw magic and their wits.

#### Artifacts

Characters belonging to this branch get a
magical artifact from the group's giant vaults. Artifacts can be quite varied -
anything from magic carpets to staffs that cause people to explode.

#### Creatures

These guys get a magical companion - anything
from phoenixes to three-eyed three-horned zombie-creating giant bugs.
Companions are loyal to their wizard, but are not beholden to carry out their
every order.

#### Medical

These people have something very useful - barring
disintegration or death by meltdown, they are resurrected after death via
spells stitched into their flesh, though if they lose limbs or organs, they may
need to wait a while for them to regrow.

#### Dimensions

These fellows have a gateway leading to another
dimension within them, and can open or close it as they wish. Say, if someone
had a gateway to a dimension of cheese, then they and their companions could
travel there, they could reach through the gate to scoop up cheese off the ground,
or use the gate for storage, as internal gates usually open up in the same
place every time.

#### Guardians

These fellows have runic tattoos that can form
shields and barriers, essentially acting as magical building blocks. They can
conjure these up without risk of meltdown, as long as they don't try to
instantly summon anything larger than they are - such things require time to
set up. Runic barriers dissolve when the wizard leaves if not reinforced with
other spells.

#### Public relations

A silver tongue is what you get here -
any low-level charm effect can be pulled off quite easily. Animals can be
commanded, people will fetch you things, and otherwise take on any task that
doesn't put them to a great deal of trouble or risk quite happily.

#### Navigation

They get a glob of silver-white stuff placed in
their head that grants them visions, and lets them move their senses away from
their body as if they were controlling a camera. While doing this, their body
lies comatose.

#### Curses

These nutters have sealed curses in their own
bodies, and when unleashed, these curses will raise sandstorms, tear apart the
environment, turn people into toads, and otherwise wreak havoc - the only
problem is that the more powerful the curse being unleashed is, the higher the DC
to control it. Unlike spells, curses that become uncontrolled cause no
meltdown, but the GM gets to wreak havoc with them.

#### Anomalies

These guys are ACTUALLY insane. Not only do most
of them follow weird rules with their magic, like only casting random spells or
making every third spell involve a walrus, their bodies are heavily mutated by
meltdown. An anomaly wizard might be able to stretch their limbs like rubber,
be immune to wounds made by metal, or not need to breathe - anything that gives
them a weird physical ability that is practical maybe half the time.

#### Hunters

Hunters of monsters, these fellows can run on
walls, leap through the air, be hurled into walls with only token wounds, and
otherwise follow the rules of an action movie as pertains to physics with no
extra magic used on their part.

#### Architects

They build most of the stuff on Shapzar, and
have a golem assistant that is basically a walking swiss army knife. They can
probably make popcorn, resize clothing, and shoot crossbow bolts - any number
of handy little things, though golems are relatively mundane compared to their
wizards, and cannot do anything overtly magical. They can probably act like a
mundane flamethrower, at their strongest, but cannot instantly grow flowers or
summon monsters.

#### Environmentalists

They control Shapzar's weather. In the
area immediately around them, they have one effect. Maybe it's a personal
rainstorm that follows them, or perhaps flowers bloom when they pass within 20
feet. It's not going to be an aura of mind-slavery or a circle of flames, but
it can be useful - maybe they lower inhibitions, or make all food near them
taste exceptionally good.

### Character Progression

Wizards of Shapzar get 1 point for a discipline per game
they show up in, and retain any foci or other notable acquisitions between
adventures - including meltdown mutations.