The Spheres of Magic

Magic

Magic in Fortunate Blades is very powerful, dangerous, and beyond complete understanding. It should be fantastical, mystic, and frightening. Anyone in our Story can try to use it, but it's extremely risky to do so.

Thus dealing with magic is always risky and requires a Roll to avoid any consequences.

There are Cantrip, Simple, Serious, and Heroic levels of magic.

• Cantrips do one level of effect, and are .
• Simple spells do two levels of effect and cost four Fortune to cast.
• Serious spells do three levels of effect, and cost six Fortune to cast.
• Heroic spells do four levels of effect, and cost eight Fortune to cast.

Some Characters have Talents where they are trained in a particular Sphere of Magic, and can cast spells from that Sphere for two Fortune less than the above cost.

Characters with the proper Talents can cast spells without that risk, and as long as the Character isn’t hampered in some way, the spell happens without needing a Roll. However other circumstances happening to the Character while they are casting a spell might require a Roll, such as to avoid getting hit by an attack while trying to cast their spell, or to see if they can cast it fast enough to avoid some Harm, or if they can resist the evil magic that's trying to corrupt their soul, etc.

So with the right Talents a Cantrip is free, a Simple spell is only two Fortune, etc.

Spells can only come from a single Sphere unless a Character has a Talent that allows them to combine two or more Spheres together into a single spell.

Spheres of Magic

• Fire - All things related to fire, heat, raising temperatures
  • Cantrip examples: Set something on fire that the caster can see that’s able to burn, affect the color and shape of an existing flame, heat up a mug full of liquid the caster is holding.
  • Simple Spell: Instantly call forth a decently-sized bonfire,
  • Serious Spell: Instantly call forth a house fire
  • Heroic Spell: Instantly call forth a massive town-sized fire
• Ice - All things related to ice, cold, lowering temperatures
  • Cantrip:
• Water
• Earth
• Air
• Life
• Animal
• Plant
• Death
• Protection
• Creation
• Destruction
• Time
• Transmutation
• Enhancement?
• Judgment
• Revelation
• Illusions
• Movement
• Summoning

So a Cantrip Fire spell would be to set alight something the caster can see, a Simple spell would be to call forth a bonfire-sized fire, a Serious spell would call forth a house fire, and a Heroic spell would call forth a massive town-sized fire.

Some magic users have a special Talent that lets them combine together two or more schools into a single spell. So a Cantrip combined “Fire Burst” would be a firework-like small explosion, a simple one would be a small fireball, a serious one would be a classic ‘fireball’ spell, and a heroic one would be a massive fire bomb.

Familiars

Some Characters have a Talent that gives them a Familiar, a magical pet. The Player should write down what sort of creature it is, and then write down two things it has been trained to do:

1. Stay and guard / watch
2. Follow someone
3. Sneak into somewhere
4. Attack someone
5. Fly where commanded

Familiars come in four sizes, Small, Medium, Large, and Enormous. A normal sized Character can only ride a Large or Enormous Familiar, a Character with the Tiny Talent (or similar) can ride on a Medium Familiar (or larger), and a Character with the Huge Talent (or similar) can only ride on a Familiar that's Enormous.

When attacking or performing other physical feats of strength, a Small Familiar will only do a Minor effect, a Medium Standard Effect, Large a Greater Effect, and an Enormous Familiar will do a Heroic Effect.

Players don't have to track Familiars food or water (except if they want to for fun story aspects) but a Familiar can be lost or even killed as a Consequence. If this happens, the Player can regain a new Familiar at the start of the next Quest if the GM decides it's feasible for the Character to have found another one.