Aysle Sourcebook Q&A Thread

[Rabbitball]

Regarding the arcane knowledge lists, "shield" doesn't appear on any of them.

Also, "armor" and "speak with dead" only appear on the Necromancy list, when I think every spell should fit into one of the 4 knowledges, no?

To add to the list above, “animate skeleton”, “create zombie”, and “skeletal barrier” are also only on the Necromancy list.

The necromancy stuff was added last-minute, so that explains why they didn't get filed right away. Armor and shield were just oversights. I would assign them as follows:

• Animate Skeleton: Essences
• Armor: Elements
• Create zombie: Essences
• Shield: Elements
• Skeletal barrier: Essences
• Speak with dead: Kindred

[Atama]

Think Dora the Explorer here. "We need to get to the enchanted meteorite! Open the Dynamic Map! (map sings and plots the path) First we need to go to Sherwood Forest, then to the Happy Valley, and then cross the Troll Bridge." (Her map has a quirk.)

I already have a tendency to sing the Map Song when we pull out a map. Now you’re making it an official part of Torg. My GM will want to kill you painfully.

[Spatula]

Regarding the arcane knowledge lists, "shield" doesn't appear on any of them.

Also, "armor" and "speak with dead" only appear on the Necromancy list, when I think every spell should fit into one of the 4 knowledges, no?

To add to the list above, “animate skeleton”, “create zombie”, and “skeletal barrier” are also only on the Necromancy list.

The necromancy stuff was added last-minute, so that explains why they didn't get filed right away. Armor and shield were just oversights. I would assign them as follows:

• Animate Skeleton: Essences
• Armor: Elements
• Create zombie: Essences
• Shield: Elements
• Skeletal barrier: Essences
• Speak with dead: Kindred

Great, thanks!

[Thratchen]

I already have a tendency to sing the Map Song when we pull out a map. Now you’re making it an official part of Torg. My GM will want to kill you painfully.

Only because I then can't get that stupid song out of my head.

[Plageman]

I love the idea behind the specialized Arcane Knowledge Perks but in their current form I will hard times selling them to my players.

In most fantasy RPGs the specialized spell-casters usually gain access to additional abilities sometimes at the cost of an opposed school of magic. The main point here that only -some- spells are restricted for the mage and not that he can only cast spells from -his- school.

What I may try at my table is the following:
- In the prereq section, specify that you cannot learn another Arcane Knowledge Perk.
- You would still get the two spell from the specialized list.
- You will get the Perk spell bonus/effect only for spells on the specialized list.So the +1 from Elemental is only applicable on the Elemental spells, the 1 Shock recovery from Essence only when you cast spell from the Essence spell list, the Kindred TOU bonus would only work for creatures summoned from the Kindred spell list. For the Principle Magic my gut feeling is that the provided ability is very much more situational than the Elemental or Essence Perks. Maybe something less harsh like you have no penalty (but still the increased Mishap range) but can only cast the spell at the Standard Succes Level at best (So no Good or Outstanding Success Level is being possible) ? Also maybe you would need to specify if the spell skill prereq is expected to be respected...

[Rabbitball]

I already have a tendency to sing the Map Song when we pull out a map. Now you’re making it an official part of Torg. My GM will want to kill you painfully.

Only because I then can't get that stupid song out of my head.

When I sing it, I say, "It's a trap..." Maybe it'll get the song out of people's heads.

[utsukushi]

Soft kitty, warm kitty, lethal ball of fur. Happy kitty, deadly kitty, purr, murder, purr.


I was a little bit surprised by the way spell specialization works. I guess I do still think there should be options to specialize in a specific casting Skill - to be a Diviner, Conjurer, Abjurer, or Apporter, and gain some benefit from that.

But I am very, very surprised at how happy I am with the way the Arcane Knowledges were built in, and I quite like the way the specializations in them do work. And if your players want something from outside their list, they can always learn an Esoteric Spell. Thematically, the idea that you can be specialized in, say, Elemental magic, but you can freely learn any other kind of magic and it's just that you only get this bonus with Elemental spells, doesn't feel right. And the lists they give really are pretty effective - especially considering how much we all gripe about how hard it is to ever get a lot of spells, each of those really gives you a pretty big list to work from.

[Wakshani]

I was making a little chart of my own, with the combined bits to create things, and noted "Death + Time" was absent, which I'm guessing is going to wind up being the core of Necromancy.

Which will probably be in the book somewhere, but if not, I can give myself a lil' Wakka Treat for being a smartie.

[pkitty]

I was making a little chart of my own, with the combined bits to create things, and noted "Death + Time" was absent, which I'm guessing is going to wind up being the core of Necromancy.

Which will probably be in the book somewhere, but if not, I can give myself a lil' Wakka Treat for being a smartie.

Actually, that's already in there, but hiding underneath the section on Uthorion, where it discusses that he took that unused pairing and piggybacked necromancy on it.

[Rabbitball]

Actually it's on page 40 at the top, in the section of tenets of Corba'al.