Homebrew Rules

FATE Core offer many dials and is meant to be adjusted to fit the game rather than the other way around as it is with many other RPG's on the market.

## **Organizations as Extras**

There are many people working together in an organization to achieve the same goal. That is to say that the explanation for the Dungeon's skills is everybody working together. And I mean **everybody.** The small attack party is not alone. They are supported by our Intelligence, Magic and Crafting Departments and specially trained and hand-picked for the job at hand. Formerly introduced NPCs retain their Aspects and character sheets but have The Dungeon absorb their Skills to represent that fact.

### **Extra:** The Dungeon of Keeper Merlin

**Permissions:** None; assumed as part of the game’s premise

**Costs:** A special pool of aspects, skill ranks, and stunts that increases as the story progresses.

This organization is based in an underground fortress full of evil minions. You rule it; congrats. When acting against other large scale organizations such as nations or other dungeons, use the skills here rather than the ones on your character sheet. In this case, your skills represent the efforts of your spies and researchers, armies, artisans, and bureaucrats respectively.

**Aspects:** Good Leaders, Evil Minions; Private Teleportation Network; Dummy Corporations

**Skills:**

* Great (+4)
* Good (+3) Investigate
* Fair (+2) Fight
* Average (+1) Crafts
* Mediocre (+1) Resources

**Stunts:**

* **The mythical Mist of Albion** The Dungeon is shrouded by the powers of the Spirit of the Mist of Albion. It gets a +2 bonus to defend against other organizations’ attempts to learn its aspects and skills.
* **Traps upon Traps:** Avalon gets an additional +2 to Fight rolls used to defend the Dungeon.
* **Contracted to Silence:** The opposition to discovering information about Avalon is treated as if it was 2 shifts higher.
* **Air Support:** When using a Create Advantage for Fight under a clear sky gain an extra success.
* **My Home Turf:** When using Investigate on Albion you gain a +2
* **Unity among monsters:** When using an enemy uses their Create Advantage action against Avalon their opposition is considered 2 points higher.

## Magic

Magic is an integral part of our game, but also it most complicated.

### Requirements

**Permissions:** One aspect that names what magical Tradition you follow.

**Costs:** Aspect slot (for the permission), skill ranks (for the skill you use to perform magic), 2 points of refresh (in addition to any magic-related stunt you buy).

Your aspect illustrates the fact that you have been taught magic following a specific tradition. Those traditions have a mini-sheet of their own, with aspects, skills, and stunts. Having been taught the basics of that tradition lets you “adopt” part of its character sheet as your own. Only few people spend the effort to learn more than one tradition.

**Aspects:** Depend on tradition. You can invoke or be compelled by the order’s aspects as though they were your own.

**Skills:** Depend on tradition. The magical skills are Create, Destroy, Learn, and Change. Each tradition prioritizes them from Great to Average. Use the lower of the order’s skill rank or your respective magic skill rank when you’re performing magical actions.

**Stunts:** Dependon tradition. You have to buy at least one stunt from among those of your order, and you can get more by spending refresh.

### Using Magic

Magic can typically be used in two different ways: **Rituals** and **Spells** (Similar to Evocations and Thaumaturgy in the Dresden Files). Without stunts magic can only be used to perform Actions to Overcome or Create Advantage.

#### **Spells**

**Spells** are pretty straight forward: Speak the incantation, make the gesture, infuse it with mana and something happens. Spells are designed for speed and immediate effects. But while they are cast within moments, they require a lot of concentration and may leave the careless caster drained or with a raging headache.

To cast a spell you discuss with the GM what effect you desire, what sub-skill to use and how difficult it is to perform. Then you roll the the dice for your effective magic skill and see if you succeeded. Unless you succeed with style you take one point of stress. This represents the concentration and mental work you have to bring up.

If you fail the check though, bad things can happen (in addition to the usual results of a failed check). You can either choose to take the backlash upon yourself and absorb it into your body. This will cause you mental stress equal to the difficulty of the spell. The other option is to release the raw magic uncontrolled. This will cause chaotic effects to manifest around you that range from milk going sour to the creation of small elemental sprites or summoning minor demons. As the effect is chaotic it does not necessarily have the same strength as the empowered spell.

#### **Rituals**

**Rituals** are used when precision or strength is more important than speed. While simple rituals require a couple of minutes, more potent ones often range into the hours – the biggest documented ritual in history was intended to last thirteen days. And that doesn't include the time spent with preparations.

To perform a ritual a practitioner needs at least three things: The **knowledge** how to perform it correctly, a **power source** and a suitably prepared **place** to perform the ritual. If the ritual has a specific target it also requires a **focus** to establish the connection.

**Knowledge:** Many practitioners don't share their knowledge easily, often for good reasons. Thus researching the ritual is not a small feat. For simple rituals a passed Arcane Lore check should suffice, but the bigger the intended scope the more complex acquiring the necessary knowledge will get, demanding excessive research to discover it on your own or a (mini-)quest to find the missing piece in the puzzle. Failing in this step can lead to disastrous results.

**Power:** Most of the time the wizard can power rituals from his own mana supply. If that is not enough, he has to look for other sources of mana. Several practitioners forming a casting circle, using infused items or magic artifacts, hundreds of worshipers joining in the prayer, spirits or demons lending their help (usually for a price), siphoning from natural phenomena (like storms), blood sacrifices or the gods themselves are only the most common examples. A caster should keep in mind that the type of source he uses will always influence the ritual in (sometimes not so) subtle ways.

**Place:** A place can be as simple as a circle of chalk hastily drawn of the floor, but these are likely to give under stress. To help them with their rituals performers of all kind have gone to huge lengths to build places where they can safely perform their art. Examples are a sorcerer's summoning chamber with a circle made of metal worked into the floor, the sanctified temples of any god, a keeper's inner sanctum, the oracle towers of the Shining Concord or the sacred groves of druids. As a general rule: The better the place the more magical energy can be safely handled.

**Focus:** The focus is needed to establish a symbolic connection to the intended target of the ritual, be that a person, a place, an item or something completely different. While a piece of the target often works best (a strain of hair, a few drops of blood, the sapling from the forest, a handful of soil fresh from the field you want to curse with decay, a fragment of the lost painting's frame), other things with a strong emotional or symbolic connection might be used as a substitute (a paper doll with the target's name on it, a miniature model of a city,...). A special case are *true names*.

*The mechanical side of things....how to roll the dice, stacking bonuses, etc.*

## Magic Traditions

Every practitioner of Magic has learned a certain approach to magic that influences how he perceives magic, how he manipulates it and what he can use it for. For example for a priest of the Light his magic is a gift from the gods to help the mortals in their service to them. Thus he cannot (or simply will not) use divine energies in a way that goes against their teachings. Many sorcerers or intuitive casters often say that their magic itself is alive and even speaks to them. They might be disgusted by the wizards who view magic as a lifeless phenomenon, clinically dissect it and force it into a rigid corset of laws.

#### The Institute of Higher Learning of Albion

**Aspects:** We see true; We know that we know so little; What is war?

**Skills:**

* Great (+4) Learn
* Good (+3) Change
* Fair (+2) Create
* Average (+1) Destroy

**Stunts:**

**Masterful Scrying.** Once per scene, you may reroll any Learn skill roll involving crystal balls and keep the best result.

**Speak through the Ether**: You may communicate and relay messages over long distances. You suffer a -2 penalty to any skill checks for not being present in person.

**Swift enchantment**. You may use the Change skill, add an additional free invoke to any situation aspects you make involving enchanted Objects.

### Summoning Magic (Wizardry/Classic version)

One of the oldest schools of magic of the known world. Even before The Light was still separate Gods wizards were calling on the power of creatures from across the world and beyond and borrowing their power.
Specializing in using complex rituals Call the will of of magical beings into vessels made of mana, Summoners use these conjured beings to do their bidding. More advanced rituals can be used to Call the creature to the Summoners side entirely.

**Aspects**:Bargains upon Bargains; In debt to "X"; A Summoners is only as good as his word **Skills:**

* Great (+4) Create (or Change?)
* Good (+3) Learn
* Fair (+2) Change

* Average (+1) Destroy

**Stunts**:

* **Obey My Will:**The Summoner may use Will when instead of Rapport, Device or Provoke during the final stages of the pact creation process.

* **"X"** **Summoner**: The Summoner is specialized in summoning a specific kind of creature and gets gains an additional success whenever he summons that type of creature while using a Create Advantage action.
* **Extra: Familiar -**The Summoner has created a magical bond between himself and a creature that acts as his bodyguard/servant. The loyalty and power of the Familiar depend on the Summoner and the relationship between the two.

### Summoning Magic (Sorcery/Ril Veius version)

It is rare to find a person with a distinctive affinity for Summoning magic, it is rarer still to find a Sorcerer with it. These individuals usually have a peculiar heritage which manifests itself in the ability to make the summoners Call heard far and wide. While some of them approach the art the same way as Wizards do (using their innate magic to assist them) some use their innate magic in more obvious ways that shape the way they use the magic, making no two such Summoners the same.

**Aspects**:None shall ignore my Call; I call upon "X" in the name of my blood; A Summoners is only as good as his word

**Skills** (example**is**specific to Ril, distribution may vary between users**):**

* Great (+4) Destroy
* Good (+3) Create
* Fair (+2) Change
* Average (+1) Learn

**Stunts:** Same as Summoner (classic)

Other traditions are: Keeper Magic, The lost Art of Summoning, The Holy Church of the Light, Warlocks from the Underworld, The Arcane Collegium of Zyreema, Dark Priests, Demonic Magic