MortalSorcery/Fortune

The Path of Fortune

The practitioners of this path, even amongst other sorcerers, are considered slightly mad, because they are meddling with Fate herself, and one slip could lead to death or worse, as Fate often finds particularly horrific punishments for those who attempt to abuse her. The Path of Fortune often superficially resembles the blessings that various spirits can bestow upon their friends (or curses upon their enemies), but as with so much, the Path is both weaker and less certain. Despite this, there are many who learn how to twist fortune to their benefit, or to others’ bane.

System

Standard Test: Wits + Occult (Difficulty varies): The sorcerer who wishes to bend Fate to his will must decide the strength and duration, as well as any conditions, of the effect he wishes to produce. The table below shows the dice-pool modifiers that each of these three categories provide. Please not that the Path does not distinguish between beneficial and malevolent effects.\\

The difficulty for beneficial uses (blessings) of Fortune is always 2. The difficulty for detrimental uses (curses) is the permanent Essence of the target(s) (if there are multiple targets, use the highest Essence).

    +-------------+--------+    +--------------+--------+    +--------------+--------+
    |  Effect     |  Cost  |    |  Duration    |  Cost  |    |  Conditions  |  Cost  |
    +-------------+--------+    +--------------+--------+    +--------------+--------+
    |  Minor      |   1    |    |  Once        |   1    |    |  None        |   0    |
    |  Moderate   |   2    |    |  Day         |   2    |    |  Common      |   -1   |
    |  Major      |   3    |    |  Month       |   3    |    |  Uncommon    |   -2   |
    |  Severe     |   4    |    |  Year        |   4    |    |  Obscure     |   -3   |
    |  Legendary  |   5    |    |  Indefinite  |   5    |    |  Impossible  |   -4   |
    +-------------+--------+    +--------------+--------+    +--------------+--------+

The qualifiers for Effect and Conditions are left deliberately vague, to give the Storyteller some leeway. What may be a major effect in one campaign might on seem a moderate in another. A condition that only allows the character’s bonus dice on Presence rolls to only affect Realm bureaucrats might be obscure in one ST’s campaign, and common in another. The application of common sense is all that can be suggested here.\\

A special mention should be made about curses/blessings with the Duration “Once”. These will take effect the first time the affected target performs an appropriate action, which could take months, years or decades, depending on whether or not any conditions were used.

Example: Barktongue the shaman stands before the warriors of his tribe, as they prepare for the upcoming battle with a neighbouring tribe. The wells have been running dry again, and the one good source of water is contested, so a battle must be fought to determine ownership. He takes the tribe’s champion, Tiger, to one side and calls on the names of his ancestors and predecessors as he tries to improve the fortune of the warrior for the fight. Barktongue wants the champion to have greater fortune in battle (+1 dice to all Melee rolls, a moderate effect, -2 dice) for the duration of the battle (a day, -2 dice). Barktongue’s player rolls the three dice remaining from his Wits + Occult Pool and gets two successes, which is just enough. Tiger has his blessing.

Example:Seryna was furious. Who did he think he was, turning down the head-man’s daughter? She’d show him. Remembering what she could from her interminable lessons with Silver, the town’s magician, she wished Tuoma ill, so that the next time (Once, -1 dice) he tried to lay with a girl that he loved (obscure condition, +3 dice) his member would remain utterly flaccid (major effect, –3 dice). Seryna rolls the four dice remaining from her Wits + Occult pool and gets three successes. Tuoma is in for a nasty shock.

The Death Curse

Perhaps the most feared tool of a sorcerer, the death curse is what protects many of them from murder after abusing their power in a town or village, even at the most outrageous provocation. If a sorcerer is dying (knocked to Incapacitated or below by Lethal damage) he can expend the last of his energy to pronounce a powerful curse on his murderers. The sorcerer must pass a difficulty 3 Stamina + Endurance test which, if successful, allows him the strength to pronounce the death curse. The sorcerer’s Occult score is doubled for the purposes of the maximum dice pool penalties that he can take on the Wits + Occult test. Unsurprisingly, a death-curse cannot be made into a rote.

Botches

Botching when using the Path of Fortune are, even more so than usual, spectacularly horrific for the sorcerer in question, although not necessarily in a way that makes itself instantly known. The best way to handle this sort of mishap is to turn the Astrology rules from the Sidereals hardcover against the sorcerer, treating the botch as both a Ruin Without Failure (+1 difficulty on all appropriate tests) and a Sloped Floor Curse (+1 target number on all appropriate tests) Sidereal astrological effect. This should have a Scope of 1 (the sorcerer alone), a Duration equal to the number of 1’s rolled on the botch, and a Power equal to half that amount (rounded up).

Questions

Just a thought, which thumped on me like a bit of lightning recently. Perhaps Fortune should be modeled a bit after the Sidereal's Astrology? I'm not sure if/how to handle this without interefering in the Sidereal Schtik, but it would be mechanically more definite. DS

That's a possibility. I wrote this way before Sidereals came out (apart from the bit on botches, which is more of an afterthought), but I am open to ideas. Fortune is supposed to be odd, though - the vagueness is deliberate. - Moxiane

>>>because they are meddling with Fate herself,<<< Themselves... not herself.. there are Five of them. Anyway, I do want to mention that I really like the Mortal Sorcery Paths you've got up, even though the Player's Guide has released canon Thaumaturgy rules now. I plan to use your writeups as a framework for Rituals to use in-game :) - Glamourweaver