Time of Wizards: Quill and Parchment

This is a tabletop, pen-and-paper roleplaying ruleset. The ruleset is community-developed - that is, anybody can come in and change this wiki page, and this wiki page is considered the core ruleset.

*Quill and Parchment* is to be played in the style of Dungeons & Dragons and similar fantasy-style roleplaying games. There is one Game Master (GM) who presides over a game session, and multiple players who act and speak within the game as their character (PC).

## Principles

### Choice

Ultimately, the Time Of Wizards games are about choice: the act of making choices and accepting their consequences. Thus, *Quill and Parchment* has to offer choices that matter, without locking in the players and removing choices. For example, choosing a "character class" is a choice with significant consequences in D&D, but defines a narrow range of options for further advancement, thereby limiting the choices open to the players for much of the remaining game.

### Combat

One of the guiding principles behind the Time of Wizards computer games is to create a storytelling experience in a fantasy setting and to give the player command over great magical powers (none of which is new), but to focus on non-combat applications of these powers. Wizard duels almost invariably end with both parties crippled or dead, making *avoiding* battle the most desirable course of action in almost every case. An experienced wizard has no trouble ripping through an entire legion of knights and archers, and stone walls are as smoke, making conflicts with conventional combatants rather unrewarding.

The *Quill and Parchment* ruleset must capture a similar power structure:

* Injuries sustained by combat (magical and conventional) must be grievous and often fatal (i.e. if you are pierced by an arrow, you can't just ignore it until your "hitpoints" drop near zero).
* Casting spells doesn't come with a "mana" cost, nor does it "use up" a fixed number of actions that are replenished by sleep or the passage of time.
* An experienced wizard can construct Wards and active spells that effectively block or negate conventional attacks.

### Aether-Magic

The magic system is really complex and is more suitable to simulation by computer than to emulation by GM or player. Therefore, we adopt the following principle regarding magic:

* Magic users describe the *intended results*, not the method with which they aim to achieve the results (at least, not beyond what's appropriate for flavor). The GM then describes the *actual results*, according to the actual circumstances and the abilities of the PC.

For example, "I whisper *AthOdhTin* and use my left hand to position the phlogista 30 degrees below that vase" is bad. "I cast a spell that gets a gust of wind topple the vase, to water over the hostess" is good.

### Alchemy

Alchemy is fairly simple if you disregard the process of producing an alchemical compound. However, to create a compound, one must have ingredients, and here the player must inform the GM what the intended effect of the compound is (as with magic), and also what ingredients he uses to produce this compound. The GM then notes the actual properties of the compound, according to the actual properties of the ingredients and the abilities of the PC.