FORUM

This spell is a tribute to the movie Inception and to the mechanical dream rpg

The house of mind ( hearts spell)

requisite: master in hearts school

You can enter in the mind of the target and modify it. The target must be unconscious and the wizard must be able to touch him.
The target rolls a magic roll against your magic roll to resist. If he fails you can enter in her mind. When you enter in the target’s mind the Gm create a Mindscape that mirrors the personality of the target. A savage’s mindscape can be a dark jungle filled with terrible beasts while the sage’s mindscape can be a ancient library but every mind has the same global geography. It has a library of memories, a garden of passions (where you can find the flowers of inspirations),etc. When you enter in the target's mindscape the mind’s guardian search you to fight for the mindscape control. The appearance of the guardian is never the same. It can be a monster or a angel or a person dear to target. This a GM’s choice. For the fight use the social combat rules with the wizard that uses magic to attack and the target using reason to resist. The description of the fight is free. Remember that you are in a mindscape and you can do things impossible in the real world (see the Cell, Nightmare, Matrix and Inception movies to have good examples of it).
If you win the combat you can enter in the room (for example the garden of passions). You can do 3 things:
1)Read the person ( you can see the target’s inspirations for example)
2) erase a piece of the mind (erase a inspiration or a memory)
3)change the target’s mind (change a inspiration or a memory)
When you want to go out of the target’s mind you must roll a magic roll against the magic roll of the target. If you lose you are lost in the mind. Every day you lose 1 body and you can do another roll to exit.

Advise for the GM: This spell can be very lengthy to roleplay and this can be boring for other players. You have 2 choices.
1)Give the Guardian sheet to another player and give him freedom to roleplay the fight.
2) give other players the chance to enter in the mindscape as a companions of the wizard.

The fight with the guardian can be unlimited. It can be a riddle, a chess game (a la seventh seal), can be roleplayed. The only limit is your imagination.

In my first draft this was a high spell but I think that the many rolls that the wizard must do to win are a good balance to the power of the spell

Edit: 15 may 2012. change the spell's school and requisite

Alchemy
I make some house rules to give more flavor to alchemy. Enjoy
1) Crafting

The time to create a potion is in hours not in days like the corebook says. Example: I want to create a Alchemist’s fire potion. I make the first check. The second check is after 4 hours (not 4 days) and so on. The total time to brew it is 13 hours now, not 13 days like the corebook says.

2) Alchemy is a dangerous thing.

Usually to brew potions you roll reason and a alchemy history. If you roll 1 in both reason and alchemy you have a side effect. Roll 1d20+ the quality of the item created in the side effects table
Side effects table
1-10 no side effects
11-15 light side effects
16-18 hallucinogen
19-20 poisoned
21-24 noxious fumes
25 + explosion

Light side effects: Laxative, or love potion (use bonding syrup rules in pag 146) or contains enough alcohol to get the target drunken. this effect is in addition to the usual effect of the potion

Hallucinogen: in addition to the effect of the potion, the target experiences hallucinations. Use the dream dust rules (pag 146) but the effect last for the entire scene. At G.M choice the hallucination can be a vision of the future.

Poisoned: In addition to the effect of the potion, this is also a powerful venom. Use Asp venom (rules at pag 146) with the same quality of the potion. Example: if you have this effect brewing a lilac delirium the quality of the venom is 5. If the potion is already a venom reroll the side effect

Noxious fumes: the potion became a noxious vapour that rapidly fills the room. Use the Cinnacide rules at pag 146 with the same quality of the potion created. the potion is ruined

Explosion: The potion explodes. Use the fire rules at pag 61 of the corebook. The doom is the quality of the potion created.

3) New talent: Create homunculus (shadow talent)

Requisite: Fixer class 10 lev or more, alchemy history 13 or more
Homunculi are artificial familiars created by alchemy. They are one of the last wonders of Cartonnage’s era and only the most able fixers have the skills to recreate this wonder. The homunculus is created through the mixture of Orichalcum (1 dose) fixer’s blood, carmot powder (2 doses) and ichor (use transfuse ability). The alchemist must create a little human figure, after which is placed in a copper vat that is covered and sealed for a period of 2 months. If the experiment is successful the homunculus will emerge from the vat. To create the homunculus the fixer makes a reason+alchemy check at 8 difficulty. If he makes a fumble the homunculus is created but with a malevolent and indipendent personality. Homunculus start with 0 mood and have 1 body, strength 2, reason 6 and all other characteristics 4. Homunculi are able to speak their master’s native language and are spellbound. At major level increase reason by 2. At Grand level increase reason and another characteristic by 2.

Feedback is welcomed

Edit: 13 may 2012. I modify the create homunculus talent

In spellbound, travel is not very important and is handled with speed. Usually you say: “after a week of travel you arrive in thyre”. Reading The One Ring rpg i think that giving more matter to travel without tedious bookkeeping is possible. My house rules are a mix of One ring, Mouse guard and this wonderful thread http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?601808-100-Hazards-The-One-Ring.
Overview
In a travel the GM presents the players with a series of regions: a deep forest, a mysterious swamp, a plain crossed by traders or a impervious mountain range. The Gm choose a number of trials that the party must overcome (3-10 is the range recommended) divided in the regions. Example: The party want go from Earl Crossing to Thistlehagen and the GM choose 6 trials.The travel start in Earl Crossing continuing in the Trader’s trail (first region 2 trials), Thyre (second region 0 trials but the GM use a classic adventure), and the High Road (third region 4 trials ).

In each trial:

1. The GM describes to players the terrain and chooses a obstacle. A obstacle requires one or more characters to overcome a test. The test is bound with one of the 3 roles that adventurers can perform when on travel (guide, hunter or scout).
2. The GM tells the players the obstacle difficulty. Usually that’s just the Doom. Some particular easy terrains (a plain for example) may have a obstacle difficulty lower than Doom. Particularly hard terrains (high mountain ranges, swamps,etc) may have a obstacle difficulty higher than Doom.
3. The character or the characters rolls against the obstacle difficulty. The obstacle description say what’s happened . A character that makes a critical failure (1 on the check) can’t use mood to gain the maximum result on the test.

Obstacle
These are some examples. In the obstacle’s title is included in brackets the role targeted by the obstacle. The description is in broad strokes and obviously the GM must expand it to fit to the adventure. In many obstacles you see the tired condition. A character tired has a 1 die size penalty until he reach a safe place to rest. The penalty is cumulative. A tired character that receive another tired condition has a 2 die size penalty and so on.

Lost (guide)
The guide makes a perception test. On a failure the party is lost. The characters takes an additional trial to get to its right path.
Bad camp (guide)
The guide makes a reason test. On a failure he makes poor choices regarding where to camp and the party sleeps miserably. All characters are tired.
Obstacle (scout or guide)
The guide or the scout make a reason test. On failure he incurs in an unexpected obstacle (example: a river with the bridge destroyed, a boulder that stops the road, etc ). The party must make a choice: they can either extend their journey by another trial or each character must make a strength or quickness test to overcome the obstacle. Characters that fail the test are tired.
Treacherous ground (scout)
All scouts must make a perception test. If all rolls fail, the party enter in a danger by the wrong choices of scouts. It can be a landslide, mudslide (page 61), a quicksand* ,etc
Separated (scout)
The scout must make a perception test. If he fails the test, he becomes separated from the party. The scout must make a survival test. On failure he is tired. Every character of the party must make a perception test to find the lost scout.
Ambush (scout, hunter)
The party moves close to a enemy (bandits, monsters, wild animals ). The character chosen make a perception test. On a failure the party is attacked by the enemy. If the test is successful the party may decide to ambush the adversaries instead or just bypass them.
Scarce game (hunter)
all hunters make a perception test. On failure the party has no food for some days and is tired.
Bad weather (all characters)
The party is hit by the bad conditions of the weather (snow, rain,etc). Every character must make a strength test. On a failure the character is tired. A character that makes a critical failure (1 on the check) is sick (influenza pag 59 ).
Strange sounds (all characters)
The terrain around the party is dark and dangerous; there are many noises and movements that look threatening but may not be. One character makes a perception test. If he fails, he puts the rest of the party on high alert. The party is tired.
natural disasters
A disaster hit the group. See the disasters rules at page 61 of the corebook for examples of it.
Role playing encounter
The party encounter some npc. They can be other travelers, guards that want a toll, etc.

ACTIONS WHILE TRAVELLING
Remember that the rules I make are only a framework to give Gm a help to make better travels. If a player has good idea or want to make a action, let him doing it and give him automatic success or a bonus to the obstacle’s test.

*quicksand
The player must make a perception test. On a failure he is grabbed by the quicksand. Every round he make a strength test to escape. When he make 3 successes he escape the quicksand. if he make 3 fail he is swallowed. Use the deprivation rules (pag 62 of the corebook). Remember that a players swallowed in a quicksand can exit only with the help of another character.

Notes
My advice is to use every trial with a clear idea of the next obstacle to create a challenge to players. For example many obstacles have the tired condition. A combat where characters are tired is very dangerous and can create a interesting situation. You can use 2 subsequent obstacles with tired condition to give players a hard choice. Do they continue the travel with a strong penalty or is better to rest? I create this system to be mixed with little difficulty with the chase rules. Play with it to give cinematic scenes to players. Remember that if you play with the scene order play travel is only a scene to force players to concentrate on resource management.

Speed of the travel
A character can make 20 miles at day on foot, 40 miles riding on horse and 20 miles using a boat (downstream, 5 miles against the current). Difficult terrains (marshes, woods) can halve the speed. Very difficult terrains (mountains, dense woods, etc) may reduce the speed to a third. Remember that in some terrains you can’t ride but you must dismount and proceed by leading their horse on foot.