Rune Magic

To effect a spell, the magician has to draw the rune using ink and a pencil onto the object that is to be affected. Thus, the ink has to be prepared (two rounds), and the rune has to be drawn (one round), before spells take effect. Once the ink has been prepared, a rune can be drawn every round.

Design considerations:

Strength

Great flexibility for players. Increased flexibility when combining runes (“chaining” of effects). No spoken words required.

Balancing Forces

Longer preparation times, material components always required, affected objects must be painted upon.

Similarities

The system is similar to the FourByFiveMagic, but without the verb/subject distinction.

Magi start knowing one rune, and gain the deeper understanding required to draw a new rune with every level gained.

Example: The Air 气 rune alone alows the magic user to levitate (and basically air-walk through the bamboo groves), create a soft breeze, and levitate boulders. Should the mage levitate lots of boulders, the Earth rune 土 would be an excellent candidate for the next rune to learn.

The effect is usually one HD affected per spell level, one die of damage done per spell level, or similar. Clever use of magic can increase this at no cost, obviously. Dropping boulders from greater height will cause more damage but take either more time, or an advantageous position.

Combining runes is encouraged for higher level spells.

Magi should prepare a list of rune spells they like to use (including their signature spells!) and use these for quick reference during game play.

Effects labelled with an asterisk (*) are not correct translations but fudged for playability. Note that based on a basic rune on the left, more complex runes on the right can sometimes be “derived”.

Another excellent source of “runes” is the kanjidic file with Japanese kanji & translations.

Magic