[Torg] Occult Magic w/Cyberpapcy

[Dominick Riesland]

On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 9:30 PM, Steve Crow<crow_steve at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Does the Law of Heretical Magic affect Occult Magic casting?

Only when the spell is being cast by a Cyberpapist or in the Cyberpapacy...

> The law for most forms of magic is seemingly "balanced" as much as it gives
> a +3 diff & +3 backlash, but +5 effective value.
>
> However, if you take backlash out of the equation (as Occult Magic does),
> then it actually seems to work out slightly in favor of the occult type.
> Which, given the nature of heretical magic vis a vis the occult, seems kinda
> odd...

This can be handled in several ways (and thanks for the question, as
it involves yet another chapter I need to write for my project). One
is to take the two +3 modifiers and combine them into either a +6
modifier, or into a +5 by adding them logarithmically. Another is to
leave it as is (just the +3) and modify the result of the failure by a
proper amount to compensate. The third thing I can think of is to
reduce the benefit to +3 effect value, to reflect the fact that the
Cyberpapacy can't understand the effect enough to give the full value.

As for the demon arriving, it makes flavor sense to say that such a
spell nearly always triggers the demon, given the nature of the magic
involved. I could see a rule that the demon appears unless the
caster's die roll is a natural 7 or the occult total is exactly equal
his faith value, or something like that, to reflect a divine grace
imparted to this spell, or other such possibilities. This is one of
the things that Torg deals with that other games just don't fathom.

Dominick Riesland, aka Rabbitball
Creator of the Cosmversal Grimoire
"There are always possibilities, my sergeant told me. But he never had
his possibilities torn away like wings from a fly."