Welcome to the newest realm companion book for the Rolemaster Standard System. Before you dive right into the book we'd like to give the standard words of caution and warning where appropriate.
This companion is similar to the other companions in that it is "theme" oriented. Thatis, everything within this book centers around the single theme of Mentalism magic. However, if any ofthe concepts presented in this book are not appropriate to your game, do not use them! Do not presume what is written upon these pages is law. Instead think of it as a text from which you willieam how to incorporate certain new concepts into your game. It is entirely possible that what you learn here will contradict the things that you want to pursue in your game. Remember that when anything is in doubt, you (the GM) and your game and players take precedence—not the rules.
Everything within the Mentalism Companion is optional (the professions, the new spell lists, etc.). As a GM, you must study all of what is presented here and decide if the concepts are appropriate to your gaming world. Adopting certain portions ofthis book into your game could change the power balance in your game. You (as the GM) must decide if this is good or bad for your game.
Although this book is theme oriented, there is no reason why select parts of it cannot be used individually. For example, you may want to use the rules on spell concentration, but not allow the new professions. This will have no serious effect on game balance. Remember that in the end, the GM (not the players) must decide to use (or not use) the material presented herein.
Players should keep the above discussion in mind when reading the Mentalism Companion. The GM may decide that parts of this book are not appropriate for his or her game. Pressuring the GM to adopt pieces of this tome that he does not want might not only result in a fracturing of a delicate game balance, but could weaken or undermine his concepts for the world he has created. There may be things about his world you don't know about that could be drastically affected by them. On the other hand, the GM has an obligation to his players to make clear what the physical laws of his world entail (i.e., the game mechanics).
A GM must strive to be consistent in his decisions and in his interpretations of the rules (this includes decisions about which rules to include and which to exclude). Without consistency, the players will eventually lose trust and confidence in the GM's decisions and his game. When this happens, a game loses much of its pleasure and appeal.
Note: For purposes o f readability, this book uses standard masculine pronouns when referring to persons of uncertain gender. In such cases, these pronouns are intended to convey the meanings: he/she, him/her, etc.
The Mentalism Companion uses the standard notation from the other products in the RMSS; Arms Law, Spell Law, Rolemaster Standard Rules,etc. Those products should be consulted for specific references (e.g., the spell lists all use the Spell Law abbreviations and notation in the spell descriptions).
In the taverns of Cambridge, stories of epic heroism, darkest villainy, and good humor are recounted, future plots are discussed, and counter-plots are prepared. In the summer of 1996, one such conversation turned to the future of Rolemaster; and so was born the Mentalism Companion.
Nicholas forged a partnership with Eran to co-author the book using the Internet to span the distance between Britain and Australia. A proposal was duly submitted to ICE and work began in earnest. By Christmas of 1997, the first draft was complete, and before the end of the winter, the first draft passed to ICE.
And now the final product rests in your hands. We hope you enjoy reading it. We hope it will save you a great deal of long and hard research on various esoteric topics. And most of all, we hope that you will find rules and source material in this work that will enhance your games.
This book would be a much lesser work were it not for the unstinting efforts of the "Inner Circle" of David Bates, Dave Prince, Sean Miller and Laura Trauth. Each of them (and others) contributed not insignificant efforts towards this final product.
The rules in this work have been playtested by an elite cadre ofgamemasters scattered around the world. We would like to pay tribute to Michael Bott, Robert Bott, Steve Danielson, Steve DeBaun, Randy Campbell, Tim Dugger, Cliff Hammerschmidt, Jay Howell, Wyatt Lavigne, Olivier Morelle, Patrick Plummer, Gary Renaud, and Ben Wilson.
The comments of our fellow authors in the Guild of Freelance Writers and the challenging questions posed by the members of the Rolemaster Internet Mailing Lists have assisted in strengthening this work.
Special Thanks (from Nicholas)—I would like to thank Aidan O'Lynn for introducing me to Rolemaster and Andrew Davies for showing me how to be a successful Rolemaster gamemaster. I would also like to thank my players in my present campaign: Owen "Neville" Astley, David "Colwyn" Bate, Stephen "Aran" Gregory, Anthony "Taeryc" Grocock, Scan 'Thomas" Miller, Chris' 'Tora" Osborne, Dave "Halthor', Prince; and from yesteryear, Richard Harris, Gavin Lewis, Declan Logue, Gareth McAleese, and Lesley Rantell (for many enjoyable gaming sessions).
Special Thanks (from Eran)—I would like to thank the gentlemen of my gaming group, particularly our gamemaster Scott, who reintroduced me to the joys of good fantasy gaming. I attempted to contribute to this book from the perspective of an experienced gamer with minimal Rolemaster practice, aiming to input from my years of gamemastering experience. It was a nice idea in principle, but was much harder than I had expected. Thank goodness for Nicholas! His Herculean efforts saved the day, and once again, he deserves the vast majority of the credit for this book.
This section contains an introduction to the concepts held within the realm of Mentalism.
Mentalism—what exactly is it?
This is often a confusing question to Rolemaster players and Gamemasters alike. After all, the nature of the other realms is straightforward—Channeling is the drawing of power from a deity by the devout believer, Essence is the manipulation of the power within everybody and everything of a given world, Arcane is the perilous control of the raw magic from the beginning of Time, and Arms is training in the mundane skills of the world. So, why all the conflicting opinions about Mentalism?
Many people consider it to be the fantasy equivalent of modem-day and future Psionics. Others think of it as purely a combination of Channeling and Essence. Still others believe it is neither of the above options.
Where does Mentalism really stand amidst all this confusion and differences of opinion?
In reality, it's a little bit of all of the above. The introduction to Mentalism in Spell Law describes students of this realm of power as: " ... able to channel the power of the Essence through their own mental corridors; thus, manipulating and bending the reality that surrounds them. In a sense, they act as very minute imitations of the deities above, giving power not to clerics, but retaining it and directing its manipulation. Mentalism users are masters of the Essence within themselves."
The difference between a Mentalism user and an Essence user (for example) is that Mentalism is a much more subtle magic — not for those who crave the "flashy displays of power" one can expect from a Magician. Mentalism is a personal and individual power, rarely able to effect more than the caster or one or two subjects. Unlike the Cleric, the power is not granted at the whim of a perhaps capricious deity for devout belief and obedience to religious tenets, but depends rather on the Mentalism user's confidence in himself. This makes the outlook of a Mentalism user quite different from that of spell users of different realms.
However, this is not to say that a Mentalism user is any less powerful (or dangerous) than students of other realms of magical power. Quite the contrary. It just means that their magical proficiencies lie in a different area to the others, and as a consequence, this requires a different style when it comes to the productive and effective use of their spells. While a powerful Magician can cause much devastation and death with their spells, an equally powerful Mentalist could control the mind of the Magician overtly or by subtle manipulation for good or ill—an ability to be respected, if not feared.
Again to Spell Law:
"Nonetheless, the power of the Mentalism user can reach great heights. They are the masters of thought, gatherers of presence and inner strength. Even though their focus is generally limited to singular targets, their abilities regarding personal confrontations are considerable indeed... for, it is the Mentalism user who seeks to fulfil the destiny of his own mind."
In reviewing the spells and professions available to Mentalism users, one is immediately struck with the similarities they share. All require strength of mind and willpower. They tend to focus on "personal" magics, and have access to only a limited number and variety of spells of mass destruction and "firepower." It is the difference between Sherlock Holmes solving a crime by meticulous observation, careful questioning, quiet reflection and occasional stealth, and a SWAT team who (in the end) "solve" the crime by going in with all guns blazing!
For those players and Gamemasters who enjoy playing a more cerebral style of character, as opposed to the brute force (and massive ignorance) of the muscle-bound barbarian fighter, a Mentalism spell user is the perfect choice. They offer plenty of opportunities for the character to engage in detective work, logical thinking, subtle manipulations, Machiavellian plots and dramas, and sometimes charismatic leadership. For the Gamemaster, they provide excellent possibilities for cold-blooded assassins, wise sages to offer advice and learning which can gently direct the story into more promising avenues and devilish "behind the scenes" antagonists for use against brash and bold characters.
In closing, both players and GMs should be aware of all the exciting possibilities that the Realm of Mentalism offers to increase the enjoyment of their campaign, and should also be more cautious about taking Mentalism for granted!
Upon introduction to the Mentalism-based professions, most new Rolemaster players instantly equate them with Psionics as encountered in most other role playing games. It takes a while to realise that there is a difference between the two, primarily for reasons of game system and flavour reasons. Often, then, the question arises: "What exactly is the difference between the two?"
To answer that question requires some background to the RMSS game mechanics, specifically the rationale behind the spell and magic use systems in place. Most magic ultimately flows from some form of manipulation of the flows of Essence, and in that respect, Mentalism is no different to the other two realms. It is just in its implementation that the obvious (and necessary) differences begin to become apparent. Most of Rolemaster's rule systems rely on creating an effect of balance. For many professions, spell lists and talents, there often seems to be either an opposite, or at least an attempt to create a balancing version of it. This means that there is both variety and flexibility within the RMSS, which allows for greater creativity when populating a given world with interesting people, creatures and magic items.
Because Mentalism is a personal form of Essence manipulation (i.e., magic), it complements the other three spell using realms in a way that mental Psionics could never do. Psionics has always been considered a "mental" power, as opposed to a "magical" power, and as such does not fit neatly into the balance of Rolemaster's "Realms" of magic. In addition, psionics always seems to elicit a feeling of modern-day or futuristic genres, and Rolemaster is, at heart, a fantasy genre. That entails certain assumptions about the "universe" in which the characters reside, including the existence of spells and counterspells, magical artifacts and creatures of a magical nature that are not normally associated with a "mental psionics" setting.
Magical artifacts necessitate the ability to transfer magical energies from a source (typically a spell user) to a device, that can continue to operate without the direct influence of the a forementioned spell user. Psionics normally assumes that any special effects created, whether on creature or device, requires some form of ongoing power or control input from the source. In addition, many magics are brought into being as a result of a summoning or creation of power or creature from an alternative dimension, whereas psionics usually entails modifying what is already available "at the scene." For example, a magician may summon a Flame Bolt from the Elemental Plane of Fire and direct it at his target, whereas a Psionic would excite the surrounding air molecules (via some form of psychokinesis) to heat up very rapidly in the direction of his target. The end result is the same, but the methods of achieving it are substantially different.
Rolemaster players and GMs should make a conscious effort to clarify their perceptions of the differences between Mentalism and Psionics. While it is not inconceivable that a Rolemaster character may encounter true psionics, it is important to be aware of these differences as they effect the world setting with which the characters are interacting. In the end, a Mentalism-based character is of a spell casting profession, and should be subject to all the game-specific effects this brings about.
The purpose of this section is to briefly describe the changes to the realm of Mentalism from previous editions of Rolemaster.
The Seer is reintroduced as a pure spell user of the realm of Mentalism, but the spell lists have been reorganized and revised to better reflect the special information-gathering abilities of the archetypal seer. Three of the original spell lists, namely True Sight, True Perception and Mind Visions, have been collapsed into two spell lists: Far Visions (incorporating the Sight and Long Sense sets of spells) and Mind Visions (adding Presence and Finding spells to the mind-reading spells). New spells have been added and existing spells revised on the Past Visions, Future Visions and Vision Borrowing (formerly Sense Through Others) spell lists giving the Seer scrying and long-term divination abilities. The Scrying Guard and Guarded Sight spell lists (from the old Rolemaster Companion II) have been revised in terms of content and play-balance to produce the Seer's final base list of Vision Guard.
The Astrologer is reintroduced as a hybrid spell user of the realms of Mentalism and Channeling. In previous editions of Rolemaster, the Astrologer was a second-rate Seer and a third-rate Mentalist. The Astrologer has been revised to transform the profession into a first-rate astrologer. Key to this transformation has been the replacement of the Time's Bridge spell list with the Starlore spell list which provides the profession with magical assistance in the casting and interpretation of horoscopes. The Vision Behind spells formerly on Time's Bridge have been displaced to the Holy Vision spell list and revised for compatibility with the Seer equivalents. Spells have been added to the Holy Vision spell list to provide the Astrologer with text-understanding abilities. The Way of the Voice list has been revised with many new spells to enhance the Astrologer's oratory and to extend the range of mental control spells available. The Far Voice spell list now incorporates mental communication and voice projection spells. New spells have been added to the Starsense and Starlights spell lists.
The Enchanter is a new hybrid spell user of the realms of Mentalism and Essence. In Rolemaster Companion IV, there was an Illusionist variant profession also called the Enchanter. The new Enchanter is a master of mental illusions and of mental manipulation, and has no inheritance from professions extant in previous editions of Rolemaster.
The Armsmaster is introduced as a semi spell user of the realm of Mentalism. The Armsmaster is an extensive revision of the Noble Warrior profession (from Rolemaster Companion III) and the Arms Master profession (from Rolemaster Companion VII). The Noble Weapons and Noble Armor spell lists have been rebuilt in terms of RMSS game-balance as the Weapon Mastery and the Armor Mastery spell lists respectively. The Martial Law spell list from the Arms Master has also been properly balanced. A new spell list, Battle Law, incorporates some aspects of the old Commands spell list and the original Battle Law list from Spell User's Companion. The Fortress Law spell list with its emphasis on mentally-powered temporary stronghold and camp defenses replaces the old Encampments. Warrior's Law provides the Armsmaster with important survival abilities.
In the planning of Mentalism Companion, all of the Mentalism professions introduced in previous editions of Rolemaster were considered for reconstruction as RMSS professions. Five of those old professions were deemed to capture valuable character concepts which should not be omitted from the RMSS. However in each case the character concept could be expressed in terms of one or two appropriate spell lists. The character concepts were revised into Lifestyle training packages and the spell lists were extensively revised and balanced for RMSS. The Beastmaster, Houri and Sage professions have become the Beastmaster, Houri and Sage training packages respectively. The Dream Lord profession was fissioned into two distinct and mutually exclusive training packages, the Dream Traveller for use with mystical dream worlds, and the Dreamweaver for manipulating real dreams.
Within the realm of Mentalism, there are currently 12 professions (including the new and revised ones introduced in this companion) available for use. They are:
Pure Spell User: Mentalist, Lay Healer, Seer, Alchemist (Mentalism)
Hybrid Spell User: Mystic, Healer, Warlock, Astrologer, Enchanter
Semi-Spell User: Bard, Magent, Armsmaster
Note: The Zen Monk is discussed in the Martial Arts Companion and the reader is referred to that work for further details.
The purpose of this section is to examine each of the above professions in detail, in order to better understand their strengths and weaknesses, as well as to offer suggestions that players and Gamemasters can use to better understand and play a Mentalism realm character. As mentioned in the introduction, many Rolemaster fans still equate Mentalism with Psionics, hence they may not understand the "truth" behind their profession of choice.
The primary Pure spell users of Mentalism are the Mentalist and the Lay Healer, and now the Seer can be added to the list (courtesy of this companion). Each profession offers a different perspective on their realm. Obviously, the Mentalist is just what their name suggests-a user of Mental spells typically aimed at mind control, mental communication, mental awareness/perception of other beings, etc. However, the Lay Healer is very different in capability to a Mentalist. Their spells deal almost exclusively with the healing, diagnosing and regenerating of wounds and injuries, as well as the creation of prosthetics. Finally, the Seer deals with the gathering of information, focusing their concentration upon magical energies to reveal what is hidden in the past, the present and the future, and in the depths of the minds of others, as well as to obscure such information from the curiosity of others.
While each Mentalism profession is very different, they all have one thing in common: they rely on strength of will and presence to achieve their goals. After all, one cannot imagine a weak-willed Mentalist, a squeamish Lay Healer or a timid Seer. Self-confidence and force of will are both vital assets to their profession, or else they would not have the "courage of their convictions" to do the things they do. A Mentalist must have mental strength and resilience to withstand the horrors they may confront. It would be an exceptionally poor example of a Mentalist if they were "scared of the boogie monster" or lacked the self-confidence to withstand the unknown horrors of peoples' subconscious. To probe the mists of time requires a distinct level of courage as does the sharing of the senses or memories of others or the enhancing of one's own perceptions, for the acquired knowledge is often not to one's liking.
As three divergent professions, the Mentalist, the Lay Healer and the Seer each have their own strengths and weaknesses. A Mentalist is most effective when dealing with living intelligent beings (Humans, Elves, etc ... ) and hence, would most likely be found in a location with a reasonable population. On the other hand, the Undead Hunters Club is unlikely to have many Mentalist members, as they tend to be somewhat ineffective against creatures with no mind or consciousness.
RMSR states that "typical" TPs for Mentalists are: Cloistered Academic, Loremaster, Merchant and Zealot. The latter two of these four TPs are very peopleoriented—even a moderately skilled Mentalist could be quite successful at those occupations. The two academic TPs are simply indicative of a Mentalist's search (or thirst) for knowledge—something very common to people of great mental discipline. The self-confidence and mental powers of the Mentalist would also be of great benefit to those who choose the occupations of Advisor and Vizier (both of these training packages are in Castles & Ruins) in the service of nobles and other leaders. Self-serving Mentalists might easily become the true powers in the land. Skillful use of spells for mental communication could easily enable Mentalists to direct city-wide organisations whether it be for nefarious criminal activities or legitimate policing and espionage services. High-level Mentalists could (with careful planning and co-operation) provide advanced cultures with long-range and almost instant communications allowing monarchs to administer their territories more effectively and respond with greater readiness to the threats of the barbarian hordes.
Lay Healers are a different proposal to the average Mentalist, as their strength draws from their ability to mentally sense the internal damage and suffering of their patient, and by sheer force of will, speed up the natural healing processes dramatically—thereby effecting a cure or relief for their "patient." A competent Lay Healer would be most welcome in almost any place with a gathering of people, as sickness, illness and injury is common in life, particularly in a medieval/fantasy type of setting. However, a Lay Healer could not afford to be squeamish at the sight of blood or injury! They would not last long if they were. In the same way that we rely on the small numbers of men and women who provide the health care for our modem day lives (doctors, nurses, paramedics, surgeons, etc.), a Rolemaster society would come to rely on their Lay Healers, particularly if the availability of a local Cleric or Healer was non-existent. By that very fact, most Lay Healers must realise they hold a great bargaining tool over their fellow beings. It is probable that some would not be overly altruistic in the use of their talents, leading to a position of great power and unpopularity within their society.
A Lay Healer is most useful in a situation where people are under threat from physical injury or health risks. Any self-respecting military force (and many adventuring parties) would consider the availability of Lay Healers as essential as the proper equipping of their troops with good weapons and annor. In addition, Lay Healers offer one additional benefit that can sometimes make the healing-based Channeling professions (such as Clerics) less desirable: their powers do not rely on their faith to a particular religious persuasion. There are many situations where this fact would be most advantageous to the organisation/s served by Lay Healers. As a general rule, religious professions have an agenda to propagate that may not always mesh with the aims and desires ofthe organisation of which they form a part. However, obviously this does not mean that Lay Healers are exempt from following any religious faith—just that their powers do not rely on the whims of a supernatural agency. As for Lay Healer TPs, the typical ones are Cloistered Academic (the "research" medico type), Loremaster (the "expert" on the topic of health, disease and the physical body), Merchant (useful assistance in the "plying" of their mercantile activities) and a Zealot (the equivalent to a "religiously motivated" fanatic who has healing skills). With the inclusion of the new TPs introduced within this new Companion (the Physician), the opportunities for appropriate and interesting variations on the Lay Healer are even greater.
Most importantly, by the judicious and intelligent use of a TP with this profession, the player has an excellent opportunity to create a character of great personality, rather than the typically bland way in which many view this profession. A Lay Healer is neither a non-religious Cleric nor a walking first aid kit! They are a unique and fascinating opportunity for role playing of a complex and exciting individual.
Although the Seer is the weakest of the Mentalism profession in terms of their abilities to directly affect others for good or ill, the supremacy of the profession in the field of gathering information grants the Seer a place among the mighty in any world. Little can be hidden from Seers who are prepared to use every means at their disposal to reveal the truth ... a secret conference in a remote forest glade is observed through the senses of a fox, walls and closed doors enclosing a treasury are no barriers to enhanced vision, memories are drawn from the weak of will, images from the past evoked to recall history's misdeeds, and the possibilities of the future glimpsed in vision and symbolism. Conversely, with intelligence, with alchemical defences, and most easily with a loyal Seer, defenses against such probing can also be maintained, allowing the resourceful to shield thoughts, words and deeds.
The information Seers can provide make them valuable resources to any leader, even if they must exercise caution when interpreting the future, for few like to hear of ill omens and dark days ahead, and the messenger may suffer a ruler's wrath for an unwelcome message. Less ambitious Seers may dispense learning and wisdom as neutral oracles, bemusing all, or may simply dabble as fortune tellers and diviners, leaving the greater threads of destiny for others to unravel. In addition to the training packages considered appropriate for Mentalists, Fortune tellers and Oracles are clearly suitable for Seers. The deeper mysteries of the subconscious as explored by the Dreamweaver would also provide a fresh avenue of understanding, and the learning of the Sage would be an invaluable asset in explaining the unexplained. Those Seers whose warnings and prophecies have been ignored might find refuge in a retreat from the world as a Hermit.
There is a fourth pure spell using profession within the realm of Mentalism, namely the Mentalism-based Alchemist. As a general rule, the Alchemist professions are only available as an NPC profession, unless your GM approves their use for his or her game. The Mentalism Alchemist will be discussed here for completeness but the reader is referred to the Treasure Companion for further information.
The primary ability of Mentalism Alchemists is to create magical items through the intense focus of their will upon magical energies to imbue permanent enchantment to otherwise mundane objects. The harnessing of such magical energies provides such Alchemists with greater control over their own minds, bodies and their surroundings. An understanding of magics for weapons and annor leads to personal abilities in precision attacks and defence. Similarly the ability to build items grants abilities to destroy mundane items. Additional spells further the pursuit of knowledge and the maintenance of the wholeness of the body through healing magic. Typical training packages would include the Crafter (from RMSR) and the Artificier, the Engineer, the Inventor and the Magic Crafter (from Castles & Ruins).
This second major branch of Mentalism professions brings us the Healer, the Mystic, the Warlock, the Astrologer, and the Enchanter. Hybrid professions are a mixture of two or more Realms, often having certain advantages not available to those who only possess access to a single realm. However, this also means that they usually suffer from certain weaknesses not nonnally afflicting their Pure counterparts. The Healer and the Mystic are already standard professions available in the RMSS core rules and the Warlock was introduced in the Channeling Companion, but the Astrologer and the Enchanter are new professions available from this companion. Hence, most of the discussion of the Hybrid professions in this section will be of the two already available before the release of this work, with the reader referred to the descriptions of the two new professions located elsewhere in this book.
The Healer may just be one of the most unusual professions available within the Rolemaster game. To be able to, and, willing to "absorb" another's illness and/or injury into one's own body, and then heal oneself via magic implies both an incredible amount of self discipline (one of the prime stats of the profession) and an unerring sense of self confidence in one's own abilities to successfully cure these afflictions (thanks to one of their other prime stats—Presence). Add in the factor of luck (from Intuition), and you have an individual who is either supremely brave and self sacrificing or suicidal, crazy and masochistic (or perhaps even all of these)!
Healers are a study in self control and bodily strength, as they must be able to withstand the pain and discomfort caused by another's injury or disease, until their own unique magical abilities allow them to cure themselves of the affliction. That means great physical endurance and strength of will, often the only two factors that determine whether a injured person lives or dies. Our entire history is full of tales of the incredible bravery and courage of those rare individuals that survived a horrifying accident or attack that would have killed anyone else, and how after much suffering, they survived, recovered and re-entered into society. This type of individual is a classic example of the mentality and strength of the Healer profession. One would also expect the number of Healers to be fairly rare in average fantasy society, due to the high requirements of their profession (in terms of three prime stats).
The typical TPs of a Healer are: Cloistered Academic (one more interested in the study of health, life and the physical body), the Loremaster (a student of the subject of health, but more hands-on than a Cloistered Academic) and the Merchant (as with the Lay Healer, the ability to heal can be a great business bargaining tool, and perhaps it is healing that a Healer merchant is selling). Many consider the Healer to be one of the most stereotypical and uninteresting professions available in the RMSS game. However, by concentrating on the motivations of the character, rather than the combat and spell capabilities it has in comparison to other professions, a player can really enjoy the opportunity the Healer offers them. Just don't plan on them being terribly gung-ho combat types, as that is not their forte.
The Mystic is a somewhat more subtle profession, relying more on misdirection and modification than obvious physical abilities. A classic Mystic would be a gypsy or con man, as their skills are of more benefit within a population. A loner mystic who did not enjoy or desire the proximity of other beings would either be fairly rare, or in the middle of committing a crime! The Mystic's base spell lists are a most intriguing selection of powers, offering great opportunities for stealth, subterferge and confusion. A Mystic spy, thief or even street magician would be a very capable and confident individual. However, the obvious weakness they suffer is that they are not particularly suited to a life of physical combat. Their armor and weapon skills are among the weakest of all the professions, with the exception of the Essence based occupations.
As for their typical TPs, the Con Man, Merchant and Performer would be very obvious and appropriate choices, while the Diplomat, Loremaster, Philosopher and Zealot would all benefit in one form or another from the abilities a Mystic possesses. Finally, the Cloistered Academic would probably be chosen because their magical abilities could offer many fascinating opportunities for the study of various physical and mental subjects.
The Warlock bridges the realms of Channeling and Mentalism, with a relatively even division of base lists between the two realms. Unlike the other professions described in the section, the particular strengths of the Warlock may mean that it is an inappropriate choice for player characters in some settings. The Warlock draws his power to curse, the physically harm, and the subvert faith of his opponents from the realm of Channeling. His power to meddle with fate, to terrify and command others by his very presence, and to reshape his body, is drawn from the realm of Mentalism. The necessary focus demanded by Mentalism provides some slight comfort for his opponents—many of his spells only affect single targets. In a twist to the traditional Mentalism requirement that a character believe in himself to wield Mentalism powers, the opponents must believe in the Warlock's abilities to succumb to the terror of his presence. Acquiring the necessary reputation to be able to instill such fear is a task for the Warlock.
The Warlock will probably be most interested in furthering his own goals and objectives. This agenda may be pursued overtly or through subtle manipulation. The Manipulator and the Warlock training packages (from the Arcane Companion) are suitable Lifestyle choices. For those who desire to gain predictive abilities (so that they may more effectively manipulate fate to their own ends) they may study as Oracles.
The Astrologer is described later in this work, and so instead we will focus on the training packages that best express the distinct aspects of this profession. The Fortune teller and the Oracle underpin the amateur and professional approaches to astrology as a divinatory tool. The Astronomer is another natural choice for Astrologers devoting their lives to the recording of the celestial movements. Any of the academic training packages would suit those who are concerned with the theory of the art, seeking confirmation of new astrological associations through historical records. Skill in interpretation might lead to a position of influence at court, transforming the diviner into a trusted Advisor or Vizier.
The Enchanter is also described later in this work, both in professional terms and as the implementor of the third philosophy of Rolemaster "illusions", the mental illusion or seeming. In terms of training packages, the fascination with the mind could easily lead to the pursuit of knowledge expressed in an academic vocation or lifestyle. The Enchanter's powers of persuasion might lead to a life of intrigue, as Diplomat, Advisor, Antagonist or machiavellian Political. Perhaps the Enchanter might become corrupted by power as a Manipulator, or for sake society to ponder the illusion of reality in philosophy as a Hermit. Some might pursue more esoteric directions, developing and extending some of their powers as a Houri or Dreamweaver.
The third category of Mentalism based professions are the Semis: the Bard, the Magent and the Armsmaster. These three professions offer plenty of exciting abilities to an enthusiastic player or Gamemaster, as they are very flexible in the range of skills and spell lists they can access. However, the obvious weakness they possess is that they are supreme in power and scope of very little, unless it directly relates to their profession (i.e., Bards are talented musicians and lore collectors, Magents are skilled with subterfuge and stealth and Armsmasters are skilled in war). Their spells are (in general) an order of magnitude weaker than the Pure and Hybrid casters, and their combat skills are weaker than a full Arms profession. A Semi spell user will rarely possess the magical or combat power of a non-spell user, instead relying on their strengths in a small field, and their flexibility of skills.
In a RMSS setting, a Bard should not be thought of purely as a wandering musical encyclopedia, available to entertain the masses, and answer questions of lore and history. Instead, they should be played as very curious students of life, keen to learn more about what makes both people and the world tick. A Bard is often an excellent choice for a player wanting maximum access to all parts of society. Even the richest peoples need, nay crave, entertainment, and who better to provide it than a skilled Bard? Exactly the same can be said for the poorest of folk, or even one's enemies. A Bard can often go undisguised where no others could, and as a consequence, can gain access to both information and people (or creatures) that no one else can without huge amounts of magical and/or physical effort and time. This obviously makes a Bard an excellent choice for a spy!
The typical TPs listed for a Bard should not surprise anyone. Whether it is the information and lore gathering fascination of the Cloistered and Crusading Academic as well as the Loremaster, or the social skills required by a Con Man, Diplomat, Performer, Troubadour or Jester, or the ability to incite the masses via sheer charisma as a Zealot, the Bard is ideally suited to any of these TPs. Finally, the Sailor and Mariner TPs are more in tune with the "old man of the sea" who knows all about his first love, and loves to pass on his knowledge to those younger and less wise about the many moods and hidden secrets of the mighty waters.
The Magent is dramatically different from the Bard, and can be best described as your archetypal spy or assassin-type profession. However, that is no reason to lock a character into a stereotype, as the Magent offers many opportunities for role playing an exciting and intriguing profession. As can be seen from a quick review of their base spell lists, their speciality is gathering information (via stealth and subterfuge), and either assassinating their victims and/or escaping capture.
They are reasonably skilled with one weapon and armor type, thereby offering decent combat capabilities (preferably in a situation of their choosing, to maximise those advantages), and their spells are most useful in aiding in the completion of their mission, rather than a broad spectrum of magics to cover all situations. A skilled Magent would be very much in demand for their abilities as a spy/assassin, most likely being well paid by various different political and financial factions within society. The Ninja of Japanese culture would be considered our real world's equivalent of a Magent, even down to the "mystical" abilities which history and ignorance has attributed to them. However, there is no reason to assume that your average Magent is just a card-carrying member of the local Assassins Guild. They could just as easily be elite member of a religious or political organisation that uses their powers for reasons of justice, right and good. It all depends on their personal outlook on life.
The typical TPs of a Magent are also of no great surprise. The City Guard, Detective, Spy and Zealot are all fairly obvious choices. However, the two Academic types and the Diplomat are all occupations that would take advantage of a Magent's ability to get information in as secretive a manner as possible, usually in a dangerous situation. The Cut Purse is just an extension of the need to gather information and resources in a difficult position, cut offfrom the normal line of supply. After all, if your Magent is on a mission and needs to steal the secret papers from a King's courier, without blatantly mugging him, then what better way than to pick his pockets or subtly steal his purse. Finally, the Performer is an excellent cover for a Magent to adopt when endeavouring to enter the enemy's domicile.
The Armsmaster represents the epitome of military life, whether it be upon the battlefield, manning a border outpost, leading a patrol into hostile territory or guarding the safety of a liege lord. What is less obvious is that regardless of the setting, the Armsmaster should adhere to the martial virtues, whether these be chivalric ideals of medieval knights, the soldiers' principles ("Courage In Battle," "Protection of the Innocent," and "Loyalty to the King") or the simpler esprit de corps and comradeship of a hardened mercenary. The Gamemaster and the player should discuss the implementation of this concept of honour and the associated rules of behaviour within the framework of the Gamemaster's setting and intended story. As the Armsmaster derives his abilities from within himself, rather from a divine source as is the case with the Paladin, adherence to one's honour is a voluntary act and some Armsmasters might live outside the code. Dependent on the nature of the breach with the honour system, the Armsmaster might easily find himself court-martialed and relieved of military responsibility. The sanctions available to the Armsmaster's erstwhile superiors wiII depend on the setting. In all cases, those who lead men to war should remember that they must earn the respect of their subordinates.
The typical TPs for an Armsmaster are combat-oriented: City Guard, Knight, Mercenary, Soldier and Weapons Master. Characters with a maritime tradition should consider a naval career as a Sailor or Mariner. Special circumstances might see an Armsmaster train as a battlefield Physician or a Scout.
Hopefully this section will provide Gamemasters and players with some fresh ideas with which to revitalise their conception of the Mentalism professions.
Infonnation is the lifeblood of the story. Every description, every utterance spoken by a character, every nuance and flourish of the Gamemaster is analyzed by the players on behalf of their characters and used as a basis for the actions and reactions of the player characters. Skills and spells exist within the game mechanics which enable their possessors to breach the nonnal boundaries of space and time and in so doing acquire infonnation which would otherwise be unavailable to the characters. In particular, the Seer and to a lesser extent the Astrologer, are professions which specialize in such techniques.
Special abilities, whether it be great prowess with weapons, exceptional stealth or arcane knowledge, provide players with the opportunities to acquire story share for their characters. Moreover players will often seek opportunities for their characters to employ such abilities. The difference between such abilities and the esoteric information-gathering capabilities is that the fonner can influence the story (by overcoming an obstacle with an ease that surprises the Gamemaster) but the latter can reveal the story in its entirety when the abilities are used to their maximum potential by resourceful individuals.
Player character omniscience is an extremely undesirable outcome of introducing esoteric infonnation gathering abilities. Some Gamemasters, who understand the potential problems posed by divination and related techniques, prohibit players from choosing Seer or Astrologer characters and restrict access to the remaining sources of such abilities. Others allow the professions but impose severe limitations on the effectiveness of the abilities and render the techniques exceedingly dangerous physically, mentally or spiritually to the characters. Some players may relish the challenge of such dangers. Many will become disenchanted with abilities which are relatively ineffective in gathering the desired infonnation, especially if the risks are great.
The aim of this section and Sections 11, 12 and 13 is to assist the Gamemaster in determining the information obtainable using the appropriate methods and establishing a balance between the need to provide adequate story share and the need to limit player character knowledge in both the visible and actual scope of the story.
It has become commonplace in recent times to describe the art of the Gamemaster in tenns of its similarities to storytelling. The analogy breaks down when the degree of authorial control over the future of the story is examined. The storyteller has complete control over the unfolding of the story with each character and event predestined. The Gamemaster has some control over the story's future but the players through their characters will decide the detail of the story and may well exert influence on the broader themes and strands of the story. This lesser degree of control impacts upon the game whenever a character employs a divinatory skill or spell to predict some aspect of the future of the story. Assuming the skill or spell is "successful," the Gamemaster is compelled to issue a prediction, and as the gift of prescience is not nonnally possessed by the Gamemaster, the prediction is at best an infonned guess.
The key issue is then what level of commitment to the future development of the story is entailed by the prediction, or more succinctly, will the prediction come to pass? If there is no commitment by the Gamemaster to the validity of the prediction, then divination is a pointless activity within the setting because it lacks utility. As a consequence, divination would be very unlikely to develop significantly in the cultures of the setting. Such disciplines require some "successes" in order to attract adherents and maintain credibility with the remainder of the populace.
The other extreme is for the Gamemaster to invest the prediction with the force of inexorable fate, by subtle or overt manipulation of the story. Of course, the true meaning of the prediction will be shrouded in a veil of symbolism and ambiguity allowing the diviner to misinterpret the prediction and restoring some story control to the Gamemaster. This level of commitment may encourage the development of divination to a high art within the setting, yet the inexorability of fate will have its own effects upon the societies in terms of fatalistic philosophies, religions denying the individual's (or even the deity's) possession of free will, and perhaps a fear of diviners.
Some of the more popular mythologies used in the construction of settings tend towards this extreme. Norse myth is littered with the corpses of heroes who have failed to heed the pessimistic interpretations of ominous dreams, preferring instead more optimistic interpretations, and as a consequence, take some course of action which leads to a grisly death. In Graeco-Roman myth and literature, the protagonists are at the mercy of the gods and the Fates. Divination, in its original Latin context, is concerned with discovering the will ofthe gods. Those unfortunate enough to see the future would find their predictions dismissed as nonsense by others (thus ensuring that the prediction came to pass) and be unable themselves to prevent the destinies preordained by the Fates.
Although destiny is portrayed as inescapable within Graeco-Roman myth creating a better "story" for the audience to appreciate, the cultures of the early Mediterranean considered fate to be dire, but not always implacable. Through expiation and sacrifice to the gods, it was sometimes possible to prevent or at least ameliorate the destiny. The gods were, however, capricious.
For settings where the Gamemaster wishes to include this degree of predestination, it is recommended that the Seer and Astrologer professions be unavailable to player characters and that most, if not all, other sources of foretelling be also restricted to non-player characters. This is to prevent the Gamemaster from being forced to provide story commitment to predictions instigated by the players. It is similarly recommended that the Gamemaster limit the number of omens, prophecies and the like that directly affect the player characters and can be effected by the player characters. While many players are as obstinate and unheeding as any Norse hero, there are more who will do their utmost to prevent or forestall a destiny if they detect such manipulation by the Gamemaster. Resourceful players need only find one loose thread to unravel the weave of Fate.
Between these two extremes lies a middle ground wherein divination, Seers, and Astrologers can add an exciting new dimension to the game and the story. The critical distinction is to allow divination to reveal a future, but not necessarily the future. This transforms the visualization of the future from a pre-ordained outcome to an infinity of potential outcomes, branching at a myriad of choice points. Actions and inaction in the present, by the individual and occasionally by supernatural agencies, and the element of chance, determine which future comes to pass. The di viner's task becomes two-fold: to predict the most probable future and to determine what actions or inactions are necessary to promote or prevent a given future.
There are precedents for free will against preordained destiny in both fantasy literature and historical cultures. In The Lord of the Rings, which has influenced both fantasy literature and fantasy role playing, Galadriel says that her Mirror "shows many things, and not all have yet come to pass. Some never come to be, unless those that behold the visions turn aside from their path to prevent them." In ancient Mesopotamia, the celestial omens, that were catalogued and interpreted by the proto-astrologers of the time for the royal court, were considered to be indicative rather than deterministic of future events. It was believed that the presaged events could be ameliorated or prevented by ritual means. The omens were used as a basis for rational actions to evade misfortunes.
This middle ground requires the Gamemaster to invest some story commitment to the results of divinations, but does not require the Gamemaster to manipulate the story in order to ensure the predicted outcome. Instead the Gamemaster must determine what is a probable future based on his knowledge of the story and the game world and his best guess of player character intentions. All things being equal and with no unusual actions being taken by (non-)player characters, then the prediction should (probably) come to pass in broad terms, although the exact details will be decided by chance. The commitment is not final as (non-)player character actions or other events or random chance could combine to nullify the prediction in whole or in part. As the characters will often be interested in preventing a future rather than predicting the future, this flexibility should be appreciated by both Gamemasters and players. More details on handling divination will be found in Section 13.
In Mentalism Companion, the future consists of a myriad potentialities. Each decision in the present collapses an infinity of possibilities to a single present, and simultaneously creates a new infinity ofpossibilities. As the future becomes the present, so does the present become the part of the past, a linear immutable sequence of events stretching back to the game world's creation and perhaps beyond.
One of the deliberate design decisions of this Companion was to develop a theory of time and transtemporal techniques (for revealing the past, present and the future) that would not require time travel as the only means by which such transtemporal techniques could be explained. The rationale for this design decision was twofold. First!y, any transtemporal technique which, for instance, allows a character to view the past by sending his psyche or astral projection backwards in time becomes susceptible to all the paradoxes that await physical time travellers. It is only necessary for someone or something in the past to be able to detect a temporal intrusion to trigger an avalanche of paradoxes. Secondly, permitting astral or psychic time travel creates the necessity of defining the effects of physical time travel (the rationales why it is or isn't allowed).
It would not have been difficult to produce spell lists relating to time travel. It is much harder to develop a consistent temporal framework which prevents, or otherwise copes with, the paradoxes of time travel. The very inclusion of such spell lists, regardless of the restrictions placed on their availability, would have eliminated the mystery and peril of time travel. Such spell lists would also have seriously weakened, if not destroyed, overall game balance.
In campaigns where time travel is to play a part, it is recommended that it be the result of unique occurrences, such as magic rituals gone awry, unstable magical gates, divine or demonic intervention.
Divination, in its broadest sense, encompasses more than the historical Mediterranean idea of discovering the will of the gods. Divination is the alleged art of foretelling the future through the use of natural, psychological or other techniques.
Fantasy literature and the influence of several generations of role playing games has corrupted the terminology of divination to better suit the purposes of authors, game designers, Gamemasters and players. This linguistic drift is so firmly entrenched in the genre that attempting to reverse it is a futile exercise. Instead within the context of Mentalism Companion, the differences in terminology will be rendered explicit and discussions involving such terminology will always clarify which meaning is intended.
A proper definition of the term Divination has already been given. Within Rolemaster, the skill of Divination (located in the Power Awareness category, see RMSR A 1-20) enables the possessor not only to attempt to foretell the future, but also to scan the past and the present using the same technique. It would be relatively easy to subdivide the Divination skill into three skills per technique with a distinct skill for the past, the present and the future. However this subdivision is unnecessary because the key aspects involved in the use of the variety of techniques encompassed by the Divination skill are the preparations of diviner and querent, the ritualistic performing of the technique, the symbolism of the results of a reading, and the interpretation of the divinatory symbols. The querent is the person who has posed a question concerning the future (or present or past) to the diviner. None of these aspects are altered by the "diviner" probing the past or the present instead of attempting to predict the future. Indeed many divinatory techniques require the diviner to probe past events and reveal the hidden motives of others in the present where these have a bearing on the querent' s future. A divination which purely concerns the past or the present is merely an extension of the existing methods.
The division of the Divination skill by technique, such that characters must develop each technique separately, is sound as each method possesses its own and often large body of lore and symbology, and demands a distinct mindset from its practitioners.
On the other hand, the equivalent spells, including those introduced in this volume and those existing in other Rolemaster spell compendia, are explicitly limited to probing either the past, the present or the future. This limitation is counter-balanced by the greater specificity and (sometimes!) better accuracy of the results obtained through the spells.
For the purposes of this Companion, the esoteric arts of exploring beyond the normal temporal boundaries will be classified and defined as follows: Evocation, Scrying, and Divination.
Evocation covers the skills and spells which enable the practitioner to reveal past events and occurrences in the lives of beings, and in the histories of places and objects. This includes the use of the Divination skill for scanning the past and the various Vision Behind, Past Visions, Retrocognition and related spells. It does not include spells to probe the memories and other experiences of sentient beings and other creatures. Evocation is discussed fully in Section 11.
Scrying covers the skills and spells which enable the practitioner to reveal unknown quantities and qualities in the present, perceiving the actions of beings or events in both near and distant locations. This includes the use of the Divination skill for scanning the present as well as Scrying spells. Scrying and related techniques for enhancing perceptions of the present by borrowing the senses of others or moving one's own senses are discussed fully in Section 12.
"Scrying" is a technique for predicting the future by interpreting the apparent images perceived in a reflecting surface. This scrying will be discussed in the next section.
Divination encompasses the skills and spells which enable the practitioner to foretell the future. This includes the skill of Divination and the various Anticipations, Intuitions, Augury, and Divinations spells amongst others. Divination will be discussed fully in Section 13.
This section discusses the various aspects of the mantic arts.
The arts of divination are manifold and various practices can be found throughout the world in both historical and contemporary cultures. The diverse skills can be classified according to two different schemes.
The first scheme divides divination into inductive practices, interpretive practices, and intuitive practices. Inductive divination assumes a procedure, freed from mundane manipulation, which yields an unambiguous prediction. Using inductive divination, any diviner who follows the procedure correctly should arrive at the same prediction.
At the other extreme, intuitive divination assumes that the diviner possesses the ability to communicate with supernatural agencies (such as spirits or gods). This style is associated with the oracles of ancient Greece and various North American Indian tribes where the diviners employed drugs, trances and meditative techniques to become "possessed" by a divinatory agency.
Interpretative divination assumes that the diviner combines the use of the correct procedure with a gift of insight into the appropriate meanings of the results of the procedure. Most divinatory disciplines fall into this intermediate class.
The second scheme for classifying divinatory skills is to consider the origin of the signs, in terms of being either characteristic of the querent, obtained from the casting of lots or other random elements, or arising in nature. This scheme will be used in the next three subsections to classify a variety of mantic arts. The conversion of the techniques into appropriate game mechanics and suggestions for interpretations of possible readings will be found in Section 13, unless otherwise stated.
In these techniques, the diviner either utilises very personal attributes of the querent and interprets the meanings of these attributes or taps inherent powers within himself.
Strangely in RMSR, the skill of Dowsing has been added to the Technical Trade • Professional category and has been limited to allowing the practitioner to discover underground water sources. Dowsing is properly one of the divinatory arts and can be used to discover more than underground water. For dowsing outdoors, the dowser needs either a pair of metal divining rods or a Y-shaped twig, and a sample of the material that is to be sought. The dowser then walks over the search area holding the rods or twig, concentrating upon the substance to be located, and noting the positions where a reaction with the rods or the twig occurs.
A variant is to use a pendulum for dowsing. This technique is called radiesthesia, and enables the diviner to search for the substance of interest over a detailed map of the search area. Radiesthesia is also employed to locate the sources of ailments in the body of a patient (the diviner holds the pendulum over the patient's body and reads the pendulum's gyrations) and to ascertain the sex of unborn children. The movements of the pendulum are specific to each individual and the careful diviner will catalogue its movements against known substances. Some diviners can employ radiesthesia to answer specific questions, others can search for people or objects.
Oneiromancy is divination through the interpretation of dreams. Sleep and dreams are so fundamental to human cultures, with dreams serving many purposes other than foretelling the future, that an entire section (see Section 16) has been devoted to the subject.
Scrying is a generic term for divination by gazing into a reflector, and derives its hold over the imagination from the haunting qualities of reflected images. The reflector of choice has varied with culture. The Babylonians sought visions in liquids contained in sacred bowls, the Egyptians gazed into a pool of ink in the hands, the Greeks lowered mirrors into the calm waters of sacred springs and pools, and according to Arab tradition, warriors used the polished surfaces of their swords for scrying. The most popular scrying devices from the Middle Ages onwards have been mirrors (catoptromancy)and crystal balls (crystallomancy).
Crystallomancy has a greater degree of almost ritual preparation than any of the other techniques (excepting ancient oneiromancy) in this class of methods. Some crystallomancers believe that the crystal ball should rest upon a circular and ornate table (called the lamen) flanked by two candlesticks, itself standing within a magic circle. Both the lamen and the circle are supposed to be inscribed with arcane symbols. Less occultly-minded practitioners suggest that a plain black cloth to prevent reflections in the crystal suffices. The crystal itself may be of beryl, quartz, or even glass, but must be unblemished and should be four inches in diameter.
The crystal is also traditionally only ever touched by the diviner, and according to custom, should be washed in a mixture of vinegar and water, and dried by a velvet cloth. In addition to being covered when not in use and kept away from extreme heat and cold, the crystal must not be placed in direct sunlight, as tradition asserts this will remove the crystal's powers. Moonlight is supposed to enhance the crystal.
The actual divination should take place in a north-facing room, with at most two other people at arm's length or further away in the room. The amount of light should be barely sufficient to read by. The diviner should empty his mind of all thoughts and gaze upon the crystal ball, watching as the crystal becomes filled with a milky color. The colors will change until eventually the crystal becomes filled with blackness. The blackness will then disperse revealing colored clouds, symbolic images or sometimes sequences of events in the crystal.
The emphasis on heightened concentration and attaining a receptive frame of mind in crystallomancy lends much credence to the view that the images do not appear within or upon the scrying device as the crystallomancers might suggest. Instead the power of autosuggestion is such, that to the diviner, the reflecting surface disappears into a fog upon which the diviner's mind has tricked itself into preceiving images.
Somatomancy is body divination, where the diviner determines various attributes relating to a part of the body, and interprets these characteristics to reveal information about the individual's personality, potentials, and future. These arts include chiromancy (or palmistry) which considers the shape of the hands and the fingers, the shape and condition of the fingernails, and the multitude of lines on the hand, and phrenology which considers features of the head. Body divination has been practiced for centuries in various parts of the world with references to palmistry as early as 2000 B.C. in ancient India.
The major obstacle to implementing somatomancy in the framework of a fantasy setting is the traditional proliferation of nonhuman races in such campaigns. It is impractical to create systems of somatomancy for each and every possible race as there are simply too many. It is also completely unrealistic to use human systems of palmistry and so forth for every race, and to do so would counteract any verisimilitude that converting such systems into game mechanics would provide. Somatomancy will not be discussed further in this work.
In this class oftechniques, the diviner predicts the future through the casting of lots (whether this be drawing cards from a Tarot deck or throwing dice) and relating the symbolism of the result to the question posed by the querent.
Originally astragalomancy involved the throwing of two astragals, or sheep's anklebones. The astragals had four recognizable faces and so served as precursors of modern dice for games of chance and divination. More recognizable six-sided dice coexisted with the astragals. Loaded dice have even been found in Egyptian tombs!
The dice were normally made of wood, bone, or ivory, although higher quality materials were believed to enhance the divinatory potency. The diviner draws a circle on a table or on the ground, concentrates upon the question, and then casts two or three dice into the circle. The numbers on each die which lands within the circle are totaled; dice landing outside the circle are ignored. The result is then interpreted.
The I Ching, "Classic of Changes", is attributed to the legendary figure of Fu Hsi, a Chinese emperor of the third millennium Be. It was streamlined by the king Wen Wang and further altered by his son, the Duke of Chou, in 1100 BC. Its pedigree was further enhanced by its interpretation by the sage Confucius.
A traditional consultation involves the use of fifty yarrow sticks. The sticks are divided into random piles and then counted. The numbers derived from repeated countings allow the diviner to determine which hexagram (six-sided figure) to consult in the Book of Changes. Each of the sixty-four possible hexagrams has one or more associated sayings from which an advisory message can be surmised. A more modern technique to generate the hexagram is to cast three coins instead, tossing the coins six times in all to obtain the six lines of the hexagram.
Effective use of the I Ching demands an intensive and intuitive grasp of how to relate the mottoes of the hexagrams to the needs of the querent. The saying are very obscure and explaining them to a level which would render them usable with the context of a role playing game is beyond the scope of this work.
The origins ofthe Tarot are shrouded in the mists oftime. The enigma of its origin has added a further mystique to the shadowy symbolism of the richly patterned deck which has drawn generations of diviners to the study of the cards. More details on the Tarot will be found in Section 15.
Cartomancy is a related technique which uses the modern standard deck of 52 cards as the agent of divination. Modern playing cards have evolved from the Tarot deck, with tradition asserting that this was to prevent the Tarot deck from being used in frivolous card games or gambling. The techniques and the card symbolism are also derived from the Tarot originals.
This class of techniques involves the observation of naturally occurring signs (such as meteorological and astronomical phenomena) or the contrivance of signs from nature (such as the movement of sacrificial smoke).
Astrology is the art of observing and interpreting celestial phenomena involving the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars. The earliest forms of protoastrology can be found in the Mesopotamian civilizations. Astrology has survived the centuries, accreting new symbology and being reinterpreted as it was adopted by different cultures. Astrology is so central to the Astrologer profession that a full section is devoted to it (see Section 14).
Augury is the art of interpreting omens and is normally associated with attempts to reveal the divine will through observation of animate nature. Augury was a priestly duty which was performed at the conclusion of proper ritual and sacrifice. Mesopotamian priests would observe the path of the sacrificial smoke and the flight of birds to determine whether the omens were good or ill. Later the term "consulting the auspices" would come to mean divination by interpretation of the flight of birds.
Another branch of augury is haruspication which is divination using the liver and entrails of sacrificed animals. Haruspication is normally founded on beliefs about the importance of portions of anatomy with every aspect of the organ being charted, catalogued and interpreted in an analogous fashion to the various forms of somatomancy.
In Uganda, the Nyoror use the intestines of a chicken for medical divination. The chicken is cut open carefully so that the intestines are not damaged. If the internal organs are found to be in good condition, this augurs well. If not, the portents are mixed. Spots on the organs, swellings and abnormal positions augur ill. If there are no spots and the intestines are in the normal positions, the patient will recover.
Cowrie shells are also used with predictions being made on the basis of the manner in which the shells fall on the ground. A diviner can also ask the shell a specific question and then hold it to his ear to listen for the response.
Given the difficulty of collecting a complete set of interpretations for the arts of augury, the reader will hopefully forgive the authors for not translating augury into game mechanics.
Tasseography, or reading of tea leaves, probably began with the ancient Chinese. They obtained omens from the insides of bells, and handleless teacups (when turned upside down) are very similar in shape to the bells. The patterns of the tea leaves came eventually to have divinatory significance. Other cultures have used other beverages, reading fortunes in the lees of wine or coffee grounds or in the heads of beers.
In tasseography, the querent drinks the beverage, leaving sufficient liquid at the bottom of the cup to allow the tea leaves (or whatever) to swirl. Customarily the querent swirls the leaves three times clockwise while holding the cup in the left hand, ensuring the liquid reaches up to the rim, and then emptying the residual liquid into a saucer by inverting the cup. The diviner then turns the cup the right way up, holding the cup with the handle facing him, and commences the reading. The diviner considers the number of leaves deposited on the cup, and looks for patterns in the leaves. The sizes, clarity, proportions, and relative positioning of the patterns to one another and to areas of the cup are all examined by the diviner before interpreting the complete reading.
This Section provides notes about how to use the Mentalism Companion with the rest of the Rolemaster Standard System.
Listed below are the specific changes and additions to the Rolemaster Standard Rules that should be used when incorporating the Mentalism Companion. If a particular rule is not listed below, then all normal rules apply when using the Mentalism Companion.
There are four new professions presented in this volume. There is now one more Pure spell user of the realm of Mentalism, one more Hybrid spell user of the realms of Mentalism and Channeling, one more Hybrid spell user of the realms of Mentalism and Essence, and one more Semi spell user of the realm of Mentalism.
Seer—The Seer is a Pure spell user who has concentrated on spells which gain information through the use of mental spells. Their spells deal with evoking the past, scrying the present and divining the future, as well as the control and modification of the senses.
Astrologer—The Astrologer is a Hybrid spell user of the realms of Channeling and Mentalism. Their spells deal with detection, communing, precognition and communication, and many are only (fully) usable under the light of the stars.
Enchanter—The Enchanter is a Hybrid spell user of the realms of Essence and Mentalism. They have concentrated on spells of misdirection and manipulation which directly affect the minds of humanoids, beasts, animals and other sentients.
Armsmaster—The Armsmaster is a Semi spell user who combines the realms of Mentalism and Arms. Their base spells deal with all aspects of military life, improving their personal skill at arms, survival capabilities, and assisting with military organization, on and offthe battlefield.
This section summarizes the new skills which are added and/or changed in this volume.
The Communication category is converted from a single category to a category group divided into categories relating to language family or subfamilies. Further modifications are made to the various Language skills. See Section 10.1 for details.
Divination Lore—This skill provides a bonus to recalling the meaning of a given divinatory result using standard or specialized systems of interpretation. This skill must be developed separately for each method of divination. {Me}
Dream Lore—This skill provides a bonus to attempts to interpret dreams within the framework of agiven culture, using personal, cultural and archetypal content as the basis for comprehension. This skill also encompasses knowledge concerning dream incubation and other rituals associated with sleep and dreams for that particular culture. {In}
Dreamworld Lore—This skill provides a bonus to recognizing, navigating and understanding the Dreamworld. It provides knowledge on the inhabitants, geography, naturallaws and so forth of this mystical plane. {In}
This category has two new skills: Mental Control (Assault) and Mental Control (Defense). These skills are used in conjuction with the new rules presented in Section 7.2 (for mental attacks and defenses). As this set of rules is very optional, all the relevant details will be found in Section 7.2.
Dream Control—This skill gives a bonus to attempts to choose the initial subject matter and type ofdreams to be experienced in a sleep cycle, and to control the course of the dream once it begins. {SD}
Dreamworld Control—This skill provides a bonus to attempts to fully enter and to quickly depart the Dreamworld. When fully within the Dreamworld, the skill allows an individual to use real world skills in the Dreamworld. However the skill in question is limited by the Dreamworld Control skill bonus. This skill does not allow the use of real-world magic inside the Dreamworld. {SD}
Spell Concentration—This skill provides a bonus to extending concentration upon a spell, to maintaining concentration in the face of distractions of various kinds, and to regaining the correct state of mind for resuming concentration upon a spell. {SD}
Sanity Healing—This skill provides a bonus to attempts to recognize and treat various forms of mental disorder. This skill must be developed separately for each race. {Em}
In Section 16.1 of the Rolemaster Standard Rules, a character's potential Appearance stat is calculated according to the following formula:
Potential Appearance = Potential Presence - 25 + 5d10
with results of greater than 99 being treated as 100, and results less than 02 being treated as 01.
Although this formula is admirably simple, it allows a character's Presence stat to "over"-determine the Appearance value to the extent that any spell user (Pure, Semi, or Hybrid) with Mentalism as one of its realm (or with Arcane as its realm) will probably have a very high (if not the maximum) Appearance. All of these professions will have temporary Presence stats of at least 90 (and even higher potential stats. With 5d10 dice to roll, the final result will center around the median (27) and so it will only require marginally above average rolls to achieve very high Appearances. While one character with an Appearance of 100 is nota major problem, multiple characters quickly stretches credibility beyond breaking point.
The following alternative formula is suggested:
Potential Appearance =
d100 (not open-ended) + 3 * Pr stat bonus
with results above 99 treated as 100, and results below 02 treated as 01.
This alternative formula allows a high Presence to influence (but not dictate) Appearance to produce striking or memorable visages without always being very handsome.
The two most important system changes introduced are to optionally replace the combination of the Base Spell Casting table and the Resistance Roll table with the Mental Combat rules for spells of sub-type "m," and to limit the duration ofconcentration spells through the Spell Concentration rules.
The spell lists provided in Section 9.0 of Spell Law are now completely obsolescent and are replaced by the new spell lists for the Astrologer and the Seer to be found in Section 17.
Mentalism Companion also provides for a new set of training package spell lists. Training package spell lists are a new category of spell lists within the RMSS. All training package spell lists are classified as Restricted skills unless the character is currently associated with the training package that awards the spell list. Note that "associated with" has no firm definition. The Gamemaster should judge whether it is reasonable for the character to still have normal access to the spells or not. As an example, suppose the character was a mariner and had received the Sea Mastery and Sailing Mastery spell lists through the Mariner training package. If that character decided to retire from the sea to be landlord of a rural tavern, he would probably no longer have the necessary access to learn new spells from those spell lists (and the skills would shift to a Restricted classification).
All training package spell lists are part of the Spell Group (and will receive any bonuses appropriate to that group). There are two new categories that must be added to the Spell Group to accommodate these new spells: Spells • Own Realm Training Package and Spells • Other Realm Training Package. The cost to develop skills in these categories are as follows:
The Section on Insanity (Section 9) expands upon the discussion presented in Gamemaster Law Section 11 on diseases and poisons.
Essence Companion subdivides the realm of Essence into five distinct schools of magic. It is suggested in that volume that the base spell lists of normal hybrid spell users also be subject to the rules pertaining to the schools of magic. It is recommended that the base spell lists of the Enchanter profession should not be subject to these rules owing to the high degree of Mentalism influence on those spell lists.
Some material on Learning and Spell Research is included in Essence Companion and this material can be used for the realm of Mentalism almost as is. Some minor modifications are detailed in Section 7.3.
The Ritual Magic rules presented in Essence Companion are not used for Mentalism spell users, instead a distinct version for Mentalism ritual magic is presented in Section 7.4.
The new rules for Spell Concentration apply to all spells with durations of C or time(C) in the Arcane Companion, the Treasure Companion, the Martial Arts Companion, and the Channeling Companion. Similarly the new rules for Mental Combat (if adopted) apply equally to all spells of subtype "m" in these volumes.
Mentalism Companion presents a number of new additional Talents and Flaws corresponding to rules options in this volume. The cost and Talent Law category for each new talent and flaw is enclosed in square brackets.
Dominant—For the possessor of this talent, the Mental Control (Assault) skill is improved by one classification degree (i.e., if classified as Restricted, it becomes Normal; if classified as Normal, it becomes Everyman; if classified as Everyman it becomes Occupational). If the skill already has an Occupational classification, this talent has no effect. [Special Training Talent; 20 points]
Dream Free—The possessor of this talent is so intimately tied to the real world that he cannot enter the dream world in any way. [Mystical Talent; 10 points]
Dream Walker—By concentrating for one round, the character with this talent may enter the dream world while still awake. [Mystical Talent; 15 points]
Excellent Linguist—The character with this talent may choose one language family in which all of the languages are classified as Everyman (note that languages normally classifed as Restricted become classified as Normal and languages normally classified as Everyman become classified as Occupational). [Special Training Talent; 15 points]
Excellent Memory—The character with this talent is able to retain far more of any material that he has read than normal people retain. This results in a special bonus number of DPs equal to the sum of the character's Reasoning and Memory stat bonuses that may only be spent on skills in the Lore group. [Mental Talent; 20 points]
Great Concentration—You have a greater than normal capacity to concentrate on your spells, it just comes easy to you. Double the character's base concentration time (see Section 7.1) and award a special bonus of +10 to all Spell Concentration maneuvers. [Mental Talent; 15 points]
Mental Agility—For spells with a sub-type of "m," you get a special bonus of +10 to all BARs. In addition, you gain a special bonus of +10 to all RRs versus spells of sub-type "m." You also gains a special bonus of +20 to all Spell Casting Static Maneuvers involving spells with a sub-type of "m." [Mystical Talent; 25 points]
Mind's Eye—The possessor of this talent gains a special bonus of +30 to his Mental Control (Assault) skill if he makes eye contact with a target. [Mental Talent; 15 points]
Neutral Aura—Your magical aura appears so ordinary to detection spells that it is difficult to pick you out from a crowd. You gain a special bonus o f +15 to all RRs versus spells which attempt to identify you magically (i.e., Scrying, Finding spells, etc.). Note that this spell gives no bonuses versus Presence (or similar) spells which detect that an aura is present. It is only effective against spells which try to "home in" on your specific aura. [Mystical Talent; 10 points]
Person Placement—You have a +50 bonus to any maneuver for the purpose of remembering people's names and remembering where and when you last met them. [Mental Talent; 5 points]
Person Recognition—You have a +50 bonus to any maneuver for the purpose of remembering people's names and matching them to their faces. [Mental Talent; 3 points]
Piercing Eyes—When casting spells with a sub-type of "m," the target receives a special modification of -15 to his RR. [Mystical Talent; 7 points]
Strong Willed—The character gains a special bonus of +10 to the Mental Control (Assault) skill. [Mental Talent; 10 points]
Sweet Dreams—When you are asleep your subconscious mind works to protect you. You gain a special bonus of +10 to all RRs versus all spells of subclass "m" when sleeping and a special bonus of +25 to RRs versus spells which manipulate dreams. [Mystical Talent; 20 points]
True Dreamer—When the possessor of this talent enters the dream world, they retain all of their skills and abilities from the real world. [Mystical Talent; 15 points]
Dream Escape—When presented with a potentially life threatening situation or on succumbing to extreme terror (i.e. fails a Fear Resistance Roll) the possessor of this flaw will flee into the dream world leaving a "zombie-like" body behind. [Mental Flaw; -7 points]
Excessive Concentration—Sometimes you concentrate so hard on a spell that nothing can break you out. You must successfully make a Spell Concentration maneuver to end any spell with a duration of C. This maneuver suffers a special modification of -1 for each round already spent in concentration on the spell. [Mental Flaw; -15 points]
False Dreamer—The character does not believe in the existence of a dream world. This belief is so strong that he can never control his dream self and gains a special bonus of +50 to all RRs for spells relating to the dream self (i.e., Dream Empowerment, etc.) [Mental Flaw; -10 points]
Open Book—Your mind is an open book. You are no easier to influence or control than anyone else but your thoughts just leak out. You receive a special modifier of -50 to RRs versus spells of sub-type "m" that attempt to dig information out of your mind (e.g., Telepathy). [Special Flaw; -10 points]
Tongue Tied—The character just cannot master other languages. All languages except his native language are classified as Restricted and he can never develop more than 5 ranks in any language except his native language. [Special Flaw; -20 points]
Uncontrolled Dreamer—There is a 5% chance per sleep period that you will slip into the dream world and be subject to its vagaries. [Mental Flaw; -10 points]
Unusual Aura—Many people have commented that your magical aura is unusual and unique. It makes you easy to spot magically. This translates into a special modifier of -15 to RRs versus magical attempts to find you as an individual. Note that this gives no penalty versus Presence (and similar) spells which detect that an aura is present (only spells, such as Finding, which try and find specific aura). [Special Flaw; -15 points]
Weak Concentration—You have a worse than normal capacity to concentrate on your spells, it just seems harder for you. Halve the character's base concentration time (see Section 7.1) and apply a special -10 penalty to all Spell Concentration maneuvers. [Mental Flaw; -15 points]
Weak Dreams—Your subconscious mind goes to sleep as deeply as you do by night. While asleep you have a special penalty of -1 to RRs versus all spells of sub-type "m" and a special penalty of -25 to RRs versus all spells that manipulate dreams. [Mental Flaw; -15 points]
Weak Mind—While you can operate normally with respect to concentration, you often get headaches and nosebleeds after extended periods. After you finish concentrating on any task that required concentration to complete, there is a chance you will get a serious headache and/or nosebleed. The chance is equal to 1% per round spent in concentration on the activity. This results in a special modification of -10 to all maneuvers for the next hour. In addition, all spells that you cast in the next hour will require a Spell Casting Static Maneuver. [Mental Flaw; -10 points]
Weak Will—The possessor of this flaw has a special modification of -10 to his Mental Defence skill. [Mental Flaw; -10 points]
The material presented in Section 11.1 may be used in preference to the suggestions in the various Races and Cultures volumes.
Spells with duration of C or time(C) to be found on racial training package spell lists are affected by the Spell Concentration rules.
All other books in the RMSS that have not been specifically mentioned above are unaffected by the material in this volume.
This section contains a one-page description for each character profession.
The following information is provided for each profession:
Profession Name: The name ofthe profession is at the top of the page.
Introductory Paragraph: A short paragraph describing the profession. When appropriate, some literary examples of the profession are given.
Prime Stats: Listed here are the two (or three) prime stats. These stats must have a starting Temporary value of at least 90.
Special Notes: Listed here are any special skill bonuses or other notes that are applicable to the profession.
Spell Lists: Listed here are summaries of the base lists that are available to the profession. In addition, a listing ofthe other commonly available spell lists is given.
Profession Bonuses: Listed here are the bonuses that this profession gets in specific skill areas. These bonuses modify the indicated skill category(s) bonus(es).
Skills and Skill Categories: Listed here are the standard skill category costs. After the skill category costs, a list of the skills that classified as Everyman, Occupational, and Restricted (see Section 15.2 in the RMSR) for the profession are given. See Section 15.2 (in the RMSR) for a full discussion ofEveryman, Occupational, and Restricted skill categories (and their associated DP costs).
Spell Development: Listed here are the development point costs for developing skill for certain spell lists at various ranks. The numbers in parentheses are the ranges for the rank(s) being developed.
Training Packages: Listed here are all of the training packages and how many development points each costs. Some training packages are indicated as typical for the profession. Some packages are not nonnally available to this profession (though the GM may decide to allow them).
Seers are the information gathering specialists. Seers are Pure spell users of Mentalism who have concentrated on spells which gain infonnation through the use of mental spells. Their spells deal with evoking the past, scrying the present and divining the future, and the control and modification of the senses of themselves and others.
Master Augustine sighed. The cards foretold death and destruction throughout the Principalities, just as his dreams had earlier shown pilgrims whose arrival would doom the desert cities. Unless someone or something prevented this evil fate.... It was time to leave the rose garden, time to interfere with destiny.
Prime Stats: Self Discipline and Presence
The Seer has six base lists. The full description of all the spells on these lists can be found later in this book.
Far Visions: modifying the caster's own senses.
Future Visions: precognition and divining the future.
Mind Visions: mental detection, lie detection and mind probes.
Past Visions: evoking the past of persons, places and objects in visions.
Vision Borrowing: scrying and sharing the senses of others.
Vision Guard: defenses against evocation, scrying and divinations.
Everyman Skills: Artifact_Lore, History, Divination Lore, Lie Perception, Stargazing, Time Sense
Occupational Skills: Divination, Meditation
Restricted Skills: Channeling
Astrologers are Hybrid spell users who combine the realms of Channeling and Mentalism. They have concentrated on spells which pertain to gathering information, and concentrate on observing the movements of the celestial bodies. Their spells deal with detection, communing, precognition, and communication, and many are only (fully) usable under the light of the stars.
Rylara stood on the battlements of the East Tower, gazingatthestar-filledsky, mentallytracingthefamiliar patterns o fthe constellations as she waitedfor the rising o fthe moons. She reflected on the horoscope that she had earlier castfor the newborn prince and the incomplete and inaccurate interpretation she hadgiven to the Council. Let the Regents believe Prince Joram would be weak-willed and unhealthy, a willing toolfor their ends, rather than their nemesis. In the east, rose the blood-red moon.
Prime Stats: Self Discipline, Intuition, Presence
The Astrologer has six base lists. The full descriptions of all the spells on these lists can be found later in this book.
Far Voice: mental communication and voice projection.
Holy Vision: knowledge through communing with deities and dreams.
Starlights: light manipulation and light-based attacks.
Starlore: assists with casting and interpreting horoscopes.
Starsense: mental detections and modifications of the caster's senses.
Way of the Voice: communication, influencing, and control spells.
Everyman Skills: Basic_Math, Channeling, Direction Sense, Divination, Divination_Lore, Meditation, Time Sense
Occupational Skills: Astronomy, Star-gazing, Weather Watching
Restricted Skills: None
Enchanters are hybrid spell users of the realms of Essence and Mentalism. They have concentrated on spells of misdirection and manipulation which directly affect the minds of humanoids, beasts, animals and other sentients. Their base spells deal with inducing hallucinations (mental illusions), mind control, and memory manipulation.
Arizel had taken the wrong turning in the Maze. The three armed and desperate footpads who were moving to surround her were proof of that. Persuading them to let her pass unmolested would take more than words. With a flash of inspiration, Arizel wove the seeming of a dank sulfurous mist risingfrom the ground in the minds of her assailants. Pausing to ensure all three were in the grip of her hallucinations, Arizel quietly walked past her would-be assailants and proceeded to her midnight assignation.
Prime Stats: Self Discipline, Empathy, Presence
The Enchanter has six base lists.The full description of the spells on these lists can be found later in this book.
Seeming Defenses: concealment from the senses of others
Seeming Enhancement: adding senses and enabling seemings to affect nonhumanoids
Seeming Law: basic mental illusions.
Seeming Mastery: mind control and emotional manipulation.
Seeming Memories: mind probes, memory manipulation, and ability sharing.
Seeming Projection: causing sensory deprivation and illusionary injuries.
Everyman Skills: Meditation, Time Sense, Lie Perception, Spell Mastery, Hypnosis
Occupational Skills: None
Restricted Skills: None
Armsmasters are semi spell users of the realm of Mentalism. They will be found in many milieux, serving as household knights, mercenary commanders, army or naval officers, or in elite "special forces." They will rarely, if ever, be common soldiers or sailors. Their base spells deal with all aspects of military life, improving their personal skill at arms and survival capabilities, and assisting with military organization, on and off the battlefield.
Thomas surveyed the enemy troops from his vantage point. The enemy outnumbered his own forces three to one, but the majority appeared ill-equipped levies. Ifthe levies were deprived o f the leadership o f their officers and the support of the mercenaries, their rout was inevitable. Concentrating on the minds of his underofficers, Thomas relayed the new battle plan to his subordinates. Better tactics and better soldiers would defeat the greater numbers ofthe rebels once again.
Prime Stats: Agility and Presence
The Armsmaster has six base spell lists. The full descriptions of all the spells on these lists can be found later in this book.
Armor Mastery: temporary enhancements to caster's personal armor and shield.
Battle Law: military organization, communication and battlefield command.
Fortress Law: protections for camps and strongholds.
Martial Law: personal and troop movement spells.
Martial Law: personal and troop movement spells.
Weapon Mastery: temporary enhancements to caster's personal weapon.
Everyman Skills: Tactics, Siege Engineering
Occupational Skills: Military Organization
Restricted Skills: Channeling
This section contains a series of special notes for Seer base list Vision Guard.
The purposes of this list, a "subject" is defined as a being, place, or object. With regard to places, only localized areas may be protected (thus, one grove may be protected, but not an entire forest; one house or a castle, but not an entire village, town, or city). Also, the spells cannot proetect an abstract entity (thus, the spells will protect a specific member of the royal line, but would not protect against effects targetting the entire line).
If any of the spells on this list is "pierced" by a scryer, the spell is dispelled. Attempts to pierce the various spells on this list should be resol ved as descrbed in Section 11.5.
This section contains a series of special notes for the Astrologer base list Starlore.
This spell list assumes that heavenly bodies (e.g., the Sun, the planets, the Moon) in some way and to some extent influence the personalities and the lives of thinking beings on a given world. If the Gamemaster does not consider this assumption to be valid for his world, he should replace this spell list with Future Visions (normally a Seer base list).
The Ephemeris spells will only provide information on those celestial bodies deemed relevant by the astrological system used by the spell user.
The Interpret Progression spells provide disclosures or predictions concerning a specific time period. When the time period in question is in the past, the Gamemaster may provide more accurate detail (as his discretion).
See Section 14 for a complete discussion of astrology within the game and within the story.
This section contains a series of special notes for the Enchanter base lists.
The spells on this list will affect any target with at least rudimentary intelligence.
The spells on this list are not Invisibility spells, and none ofthe normal rules for invisibility apply (e.g., the "cloaked" being does not become visible after making an attack or upon being struck).
The target(s) of Seeming spells may make an additional RR if perceptual information gained from unaffected senses suggest that something is amiss, orifthe feedback from the spell (in response to an unexpected action) is wholly in appropriate.
All the sensations are purely mental and will only be perceived in the mind of the target(s) who fail their RRs.
Unless enchaned by an appropriate spell (i.e., Animal Seeming, Plant Seeming, etc.), the Seeming spells on this list will only affect humanoid targets (e.g., Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Centaurs, etc.) but not animals, plants, demons, undead, etc.
It is permissable to attempt to "stack" multiple enhancements (e.g., Beast Seeming, Far Seeming I, and Dual Seeming) on a Seeming or Overlay spell. However, the caster must successfully cast all of the spells within one minute of the first spell.
The target(s) of Overlay spells may make an additional RR if perceptual information gained from unaffected senses suggest that something is amiss, orifthe feedback from the spell (in response to an unexpected action) is wholly in appropriate.
All the sensations are purely mental and will only be perceived in the mind of the target(s) who fail their RRs.
Unless enchaned by an appropriate spell from the Seeming Enhancement spell list, the Overlay or Seeming spells on this list will only affect humanoid targets (e.g., Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Centaurs, etc.) but not animals, plants, demons, undead, etc.
If more than one option can be added to a Seeming or Overlay spell, the same option can be chosen more than once. For example, with a Seeming III, two options are available; the range could be doubled once to 200' and then doubled again to 400'.
Tap Skill spells cannot tap the Body Development or Power Point Development skills of a target.
The person whose skills are "tapped" by the caster does not lose the tapped skill (the skill is simply copied into the mind of the caster).
When using the Tap Skill I spell, the caster must possess adequate sensory and speech organs to communicate in the language of the target.
Unless the target is an exact duplicate of the caster (or vise versa), all tapped skills will suffer a penalty of -15 if they require physical coordination and reflexes (-30 if the caster's race is different thant the target's; -45 if the target is vastly different than the caster, e.g., a Human tapping a Centaur).
a given person cannot be the target of a given caster's Remove Experience, Copy Experience, and Implant Experience spell more than once per level.
This section contains a series of special notes for the Armsmaster base lists.
The caster may only possess one suit of "Personal Armor" at a time. If the caster wishes to "change" his personal armor to another suit of armor, he must break the bond between himself and his other armor. This results in the caster operating at a special penalty of -30 to all actions (however, he may immediately create a new set of "personal armor").
Enchanted Shield spells may not be combined with Shield spells; nor are they cumulative with each other or with any bonuses inherent to the shield. Likewise, Enchanted Armor spells are not cumulative with each other; nor are they cumulative with any other bonuses inherent to the armor.
Mystical Leather I, Mystical Leather II, Mystical Chain, and Mystical Plate may only enchance non-magical garments.
Only one the Fortress Armor, Elemental Armor, or Chivalrous Armor spells may be operative on the caster's personal aromr at any given time. The temporary enchantments provided by these spells are not cumulative with similar enchantments which may be embedded into the caster's personal armor (through normal alchemical rules).
Greaves and helms created through spells on this list may not be the targets of any spells or effects.
Seal Breach, Mantlet, Palisade, and Bastion spells are impassable (until destroyed or terminated) from the outside to the inside only. Attacks and exit may still be made from the inside to the outside. All defenses created by these spells must rest on a solid surface. All attacks against these barriers should be made against AT 20 (with a +0 DB).
The Barrier spells may have their shielding polarities set in one of three ways (chosen at time of casting):
The stated areas of effect for Barrier spells are maxims, and the Barrier may be shaped into a sphere of the given radius centered on the point touched at time of casting.
With the exception of the Mantlet and Mantlet True spells, the spells on this list are designed to aid the spell user in defending a fortress. The key issue is what constitutes a "fortress" for the legitimate use ofthese spells. A "fortress" should be deemed to be any structure (temporary or permanent) in which the spell user has taken residence, and which he either"owns" orhas been entrusted with its defense by the rightful owner. Appropriate structures which may be defended should include castles, towers, forts, temples, camps, ships, etc. The definition of "ownership" of a particular structure may vary according to the specific cultures in a given setting, and should be assessed by the Gamemaster.
This section contains a series of special notes for the training package spell lists.
Animal Bonding may only be cast on living creatures of animal intelligence or less.
When a caster has multiple bonded animals, all bonded animals will suppress any natural instincts of antipathy towards other bonded animals of the caster.
Spells above second level on this list will only effect the caster's own bonded animals.
All Bond Extension spells are not cumulative with each other.
Where a spell has "varies" as its listed range, unless otherwise explicitly stated, the range o f the spell is the current bond range of the caster.
An animal can only be bonded to one caster at a time. If an Animal Bonding spell is cast on a creature that is already bonded to a caster, the animal gets a special RR modification of +25. If the spell is still successful, the original bond is broken (though the animal will not be bonded to the new caster; the spell must be cast again for this occur).
A Bonding spell can be magically detected by Detect Bonding or the appropriate Detect Realm spells.
See Section 12.3 for further details.
The standard rules for Training Packages apply to all Training Packages presented here. For convenience, the key to the Training Package Entries is repeated here.
Four of the following Training Packages are labeled Lifestyle, but they reflect training gained from the various schools of magic. If a character wishes to choose one of these Lifestyle Training Packages, the GM should still allow them to choose any other Lifestyle Training Package if they so desire. This is because these Training Packages reflect the knowledge they would have gained as a basis for learning spell casting, and should not limit the caster from other Lifestyle Training Packages like Demonologist.
Each training package gives a character one or more of the following benefits/disadvantages. In addition, each training package costs a number of development points (based upon the character's profession)
Time to Acquire: This is the amount of time the character needs to train before gaining the benefits of the package. This time should be modified by a percentage equal to triple the character's SD bonus (expressed as a percentage).
For starting characters, total the amount of time spent in training packages and add it to the normal starting age to determine the starting age of the character (See Section 17.1 in RMSR).
Starting Money: Some occupations (or lifestyles) have more or less starting money than others. Most packages list a modification to the "normal" starting money. This includes the starting type of coins (silver, gold, bronze, etc.). For example, if the normal starting money is 10 silver, the Adventurer package would have 10 silver plus dlO (open-ended) silver.
Note: There is one notation unique to the packnges: d10 (open-ended). This means roll d10; if the result is 1 to 9, keep the result; ifthe resultisa 10, roll d10 again and add it to 9; continue until a 10 is not the result.
If the training package is developed after the Apprentice level, the starting money does not apply. When generating starting money, either the GM should make the rolls; orthe player can simply take 51 (for each d100 roll) or 6 (for each d10 roll).
Special: The GM should make a d100 roll (open-ended) for each item, adding the number in parenthesis after the item (the items should be rolled for in the order that they are presented). If the result is over 100, the character gains the special item or quirk. After successfully gaining one item, the chances of gaining any further items is halved (i.e. the number in parenthesis is halved). After successfully gaining another item, the next chance is halved again (repeating each time an item is gained). If no items are gained, the last item on the list is automatically gained (if the GM is unavailable to roll, the player should take the last item). If the package is developed after Apprentice level, the benefits gained here may be inappropriate (GM's discretion).
Note: The GM may choose to allow every character who develops a training packnge to have the last item in the list (even ifprevious items were gained).
Skill and Skill Category Ranks: All packages give some skill ranks and/or skill category ranks to the character. These skill ranks represent special training that comes with the occupation or lifestyle. Occasionally, the package will list Weapon/Attack. This means that the character can choose either a weapon skill rank or martial arts skill rank. In addition, a Training Package cannot raise a skill rank above 10th rank.
Training Package Spell Lists: Certain training packages give ranks in training package spell Lists. Training package spell lists are a new category of skills in the RMSS. All training package spell lists are classified as Restricted skills unless the character is currently associated with the training package that awards ranks in that spell list. Note that "associated with" has no firm definition. The GM should judge whether is it reasonable for the character to still have normal access to the spells or not.
All training package spell lists are part of the Spell group (and will receive any profession bonuses appropriate to that group). There are two new categories that must be added to the Spell group to accomodate these new spells: Spells • Own Realm Training Package and Spells • Other Realm Training Package. The cost to develop Spells • Own Realm Training Package is 8/8/8 for non-spell users, 4/4/4 for pure and hybrid spell users, and 6/6/6 for semi-spell users. The cost to develop Spells • Other Realm Training Package is 16/16 for non-spell users, 8/8 for pure and hybrid spell users, and 12/ 12 for semi-spell users.
Stat Gains: Some Training Packages allow the character to make extra stat gain rolls. This section shows which stats get the extra rolls.
Background Options: You may spend a background option to decrease the cost of a training package for the Apprenticeship Development period only.
Professional Qualifiers: This is a set ofrequirements that, if the character possesses all of the requirements prior to purchasing the training package, the character pays a lesser cost for the training package. The discount to the normal cost is shown after the qualifier.
Lifestyle Skills: Normally, a training package cannot raise a skill above tenth rank. However, if a skill is designated as a Lifestyle skill, the training package ignores this limit and instead may raise the skill as high as fifteen ranks.
Cost by Profession: This section shows how much the Training Package costs (in development points) for each profession. The professions are grouped by the books they were published in (starting with the professions in the RMSR, then Arcane Companion, then Treasure Companion, then Martial Arts Companion, then Essence Companion, then Channeling Companion, then Mentalism Companion, then Black Ops, then Pulp Adventures).
A natural affinity with animals enables the Beastmaster to befriend creatures of the wilds. This friendship is deepened by magic to an almost symbiotic relationship, where each partner pledges loyalty and assistance to the other. Beastmasters will sometimes be ill at ease in the company of members of their own race, preferring the honesty of their animal companions.
Cregan chewed the warmflesh lustily; the juices ran down his chin and glistened upon his hands. The bear Rrgghu cracked the long bone of a leg, and crushed it noisily in her jaws. It had been a magnificent hunt; the sweat had not yet cooled on Cregan's body. But the flight of the deer had brought them close to the baron's park. Too close for Cregan. He could smell the stink ofwoodsmoke in the air. Ifhe met the baron, the baron would want to make words with him. The baron made too many words; words made Cregan's ears buzz. When they had eaten their fill, they would withdraw with their kill....
Time to Acquire: 124 months
Starting Money: normal
Stat Gains: Empathy
Professional Qualifier: none
Misdirection, authentic-seeming tomes, mystical implements, and a glib tongue are the Charlatan's best tools in prising gold from the gullible and the greedy. To one patron, the Charlatan may claim to have uncovered the secrets of transmutation, to another the formula for eternal youth, but to both he will explain his need for monies in order to acquire the exotic ingredients and perform the necessary experiments... And once his prey is adequately fleeced, he will flee before his chicanery is discovered. Some few have added scraps of magic to their repertoire of deception, enhancing both trickery and credibility as well as masking their true intent from real masters of magic.
My greatest success? Undoubtedly that is Lady Fariday. I appeared at her manor as a famed itinerant healer. It just so happend that she had wakened that morning with a dreadful rash on herface, and a mild sweating fever. Gravely, I examined her, and at length announced that she had contracted the dreaded pit-face plague, which wouldleave herskinapocky ruin. The ladydespaired,for she was very beautiful, and swore me halfherfortune if I couldsave her. Two days later, lownedhalfherfortune, and all her gratitude. Can you guess how? You see, I never cured the disease at all: I caused it.... I was the huntsman who, one week prior, had sold her cook some mildly poisoned game. Herface was never in danger at all. And to this day she recommends me to herfriends.
Time to Acquire: 102 months
Starting Money: normal + d10 (open-ended)
Stat Gains: none
Professional Qualifier: none
To the uninitiated, sleep is merely relief from the troubles of the waking world, and bodily rest. To the Dream Traveller, sleep is the doorway into the dream world, a world as dangerous as the mundane world, with its own inexplicable physical laws and mind-bending unreality. Of all the mortal wayfarers in the dream realm, the Dream Traveller is most able to explore in safety, by using magic to strengthen the dream-self with the abilities of the other world; others are unprotected against the anarchy of dreams.
Remember, my girl, in the dream realm things are seldom what the seem. You can't take anything for granted. Events have meaning. Colors have significance. Time follows no rules, and Nature's laws don't always apply. —What you see as a staffmight actually be a snake; what you see a snake might actually be a spear. Things mayfall up; a girl might be a ghoul. and a ghoul might be your friend. Confusing? Indeed so. And then of course some things might be exactly what they seem: in the words ofafamous Dream Traveller, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. " You have to keep your wits about you.
Time to Acquire: 122 months
Starting Money: normal
Stat Gains: none
Professional Qualifier: none
The Dreamweaver has specialized in tapping the power of the mind through dreams, being able to select and manipulate dreams, whether for divination, wish fulfilment, or to increase creativity. He also possesses almost total control of his sleeping pattern. With preparation, he can influence the dreams of others, inducing daydreams of pleasant aspect or nightmares ofhellish terror as he chooses.
I see. You wish to know the dreams ofthe king? A strange ambition, and yet an enlightened one: the king dreams as oft as the next man, and what a man dreams might tell you much ofhim. And yet, Ifeel it my duty to warn you: a king has more than his share of worries, and perhaps more than his share of nightmares as well. Especially this king. Such dreams could prove unpleasant. And yet, ifyou are certain this is what you wish, I am certain I could satisfy your curiosity....
Time to Acquire: 124 months
Starting Money: normal
Stat Gains: none
Professional Qualifier: none
Often self-taught, some Fortune tellers earn their living from reassuring the anxious about the future, to others it is a pastime with which to entertain their jaded friends. Success in prediction is as much due to an eloquent flow of words and understanding the querent as to any true ability.
Some come out of desperation, and some out of hopelessness. Some come in greed or in lust or amibition. Others come to me on a whim, or upon the pricking ofan intuition. They all claim to want the same thing: the knowledge o ftheirfuture. But I know better than that. Of course I read them theirfortunes, but that's seldom what they need. To give them what they truly need, you have to look deeper, and not into the future, but into their heart. You see, it's reading the customer that makes up the greatest part of my art; reading the bones is like breathing.
Time to Acquire: 40 months
Starting Money: normal
Stat Gains: none
Professional Qualifier: none
Retreating from civilization, the Hermit leads a solitary life of unremitting hardship. He makes his abode in the wastes, whether it be in the frozen mountains, under the blazing desert sun or on bleak island haunts. Distanced from the distractions of mundane life, the Hermit searches for spiritual or philosophical enlightenment.
The island was small and bare, but our chart noted a spring somewhere upon its crown. I went ashore with the crew, and found the spring easily. I also found, much to my astonishment, a bare hovel in the lee of the crest, and a very talkative old shrub of a man clad in sailor's garb and skins. I think he said his name was brother Codmi, though his speech was strange and old-fashioned and difficult to understand. He lives there alone, andfunctions as a kind of holy man and healer for the local fishermen. He keeps the spring clear for the sailors, and in return they bring him favors offood and supply....
Time to Acquire: 130 months
Starting Money: normal or none (GM discretion)
Stat Gains: Self Discipline, Constitution
Professional Qualifier: none
Sometimes courtesan, sometimes mistress, the Houri is the foremost practitioner of seduction and a skilled manipulator of all, but most especially members of the opposite sex. With sorcerous arts, the Houri can beguile even the most cold hearted, enhancing innate beauty and adopting the appearance of others, yet the rose is not without its thorn, for the kiss of a Houri can undo even the mighty.
I first saw her as I entered the ballroom. She had arrived directly before me, elegant, in a beaded, silken gown. Her prey was a young rich gallant who was visitingfrom the Continent. When he greeted her at the door every eye was upon them: every man drawn by her grace; every woman transfixed by his presence. When they danced, it was poetry; when they laughed, it was music. Not a soul in the room was uneffected by their passion. That night has been called the greatest mutual seduction in the history o f the kingdom. Six treatises of courtly behavior and numerous romances and "eye-witness" accounts were spawned in its wake. Unquestionably the best, "The Duel of the Houris," can be found in any fashionable library in the kingdom.
Time to Acquire: 108 months
Starting Money: normal
Stat Gains: Presence
Professional Qualifier: none
While a common sailor may find himself at sea thanks to the blandishments and occasional force of the press-gang, the Mariner has chosen a life on the ocean wave. Years of hard training in the skills of seamanship and the arts of navigation transform youthful midshipmen into competent sailing masters, ship's mates and naval officers, who with luck, ability, favour and perhaps hard cash, will one day command their own ship.
When you live upon the sea, she is your everything. She is your mother; she is your foe. She will test you. She is your lover, and your nemesis. She is your goddess. Respect herand learnfrom her. Listen to her lessons, and remember them. Learning the ropes and ranks is another matter, and involves an entirely different kind of respect....
Time to Acquire: 144 months
Starting Money: normal
Stat Gains: none
Professional Qualifier: none
Trained in the divinatory arts and in history, the Oracle's impartial advice is sought by the great and the lowly from near and far to pierce the veil and reveal the future. Ambiguous prophecies, obtained by esoteric methods, must be interpreted by the querent, thus ensuring the Oracle's legendary accuracy.
He was a small man, of middle years and without outward sign of importance. But when he entered the hall, his simple sandals slapping on the tiles, my king stood and bowed before him. I knew at that moment that we had found the Oracle, and that ourjourney was complete. I learned later that it had only just begun.
Time to Acquire: 83 months
Starting Money: normal
Stat Gains: Presence
Professional Qualifier: none
A professional healer, highly trained in the diagnosis and treatment of injury and illness, the Physician will normally be bound by vows and duties towards the patients. Competence is not without its price, and only the wealthy will easily afford the services of the Physician. Some Physicians may be employed on a permanent basis by noble families becoming trusted confidants, while others will set up independent medical practices in the cities.
Rich? So l am. But mark you there is no shame in that. My prices are fair, and even low by the standards of the city. My patients pay me gladly! — I ask you, what is more valuable than one's health? Who will not pay handsomely for that single, priceless commodity? Go to, you can't criticize me for being rich. You might as well criticize the priests for being holy!
Time to Acquire: 147 months
Starting Money: normal + d10 (open-ended)
Stat Gains: none
Professional Qualifier: none
The sole or star pupil of a learned spelI user, the Protege gains deep knowledge of a chosen area of magic, and a thorough understanding of the magical arts. Days spent in learning are repaid later with services rendered in assisting the mentor in his research and goals. Even if student surpasses master, or later rejects the ideals espoused by the mentor to folIow another path, this long nurturing will shape and mold the Protege's world-view and lifestyIe for the rest ofhis career.
When I first met master Grimaud and his pupil, ! thought the boy was his son, or perhaps his younger brother; I would have guessed them twins if their ages had been commensurate. They wore the same style gown, cut their hair the same way, walked the same, spoke the same, held the same opinions, and even cast their spells in the same signal manner. I would have laughed (I assure you, I almost did) but the boy showed such formidable apprehension of his master's art as to be truly remarkable. He is truly gifted. The boy will prove another Grimaud before you know it. With luck he might even improve upon the original....
Time to Acquire: 105 months
Starting Money: normal
Stat Gains: realm stat
Professional Qualifier: none
The Sage is the consummate scholar, with an unparalleled enthusiasm for learning, who acquires and assimilates knowledge from many sources, and can, by dint of special training, discern much from a simple examination of an object, whether it be commonplace or magical. Many Sages dedicate their lives to the preservation of knowledge, and will be found copying manuscripts in libraries or recording scraps of knowledge for posterity in their journals..
What? Speak up! ... Oh. sage. Yes that's me. Come in! I thought you said page. I was going to box you on the ear if you told me to run an errand. I'm too old for that sort of thing....
Time to Acquire: 171 months
Starting Money: normal
Stat Gains: Memory
Professional Qualifier: none
This section adds extra rules for handling spells, ritual magic and learning magic. The first option, namely Spell Concentration, should be considered a mandatory extension to RMSS and will affect all realms of magic. The second set of optional rules, namely Mental Combat, should be considered a very optional rules addition—the remainder of this volume does not assume the Mental Combat rules are in use. The remaining sections on ritual magic and the learning of magic provide complementary material on these subjects for the realm of Mentalism to that presented in Essence Companion and Channeling Companion.
To concentrate in the mundane world is to focus all one's I. attention and mental ability upon a single activity. A smith forging a sword in his workshop, a scribe carefully copying a manuscript, a scout hidden ready to ambush an enemy patrol are all concentrating upon their work. Some have the ability to immerse themselves completely in a given activity, oblivious to their environment unless some stimulus impinges upon them. Others fidget continually, distracted by each and every disturbance. Some can split their attention between engaging in the activity of interest and responding to interruptions, others are only able to focus on one pursuit at a time. Some can switch their concentration between activities with ease, others are hard pressed to renew their single-minded focus after an interruption.
In Rolemaster, concentration is a term principally associated with the marshaling and utilization of magical energies by focused will. A caster will usually spend some time in deep concentration to prepare his mind for the arduous task of spell casting, whether it be to remember the correct gestures and incantations, to achieve the correct mental state, or to rededicate his life to his patron deity. Spell preparation requires fully 90% of a caster's activity and represents almost total concentration by the caster.
Certain spells require the caster to devote some of his attention to their maintenance after a successful casting, and this manifests itself as a concentration component in the duration parameter of these spells. These are called "duration(C)" spells. This can be explained in terms of the desired effect requiring a delicate balance of magical energies whose pattern is so fragile that only continuous attention of the caster's will can maintain it. The other category of spells have a set duration but require the caster to concentrate in order to manifest the desired effect. These are called "Concentration" spells. In the case ofsuch spells, the magical energies form a temporary but stable pattern which can persist without further attention until it disperses naturally. To achieve the desired effect, the caster must stimulate the energies with his will, and once that will is released, the energies resume their quiescent state. By considering spells as patterns of magical energy, it is also possible to explain the need to concentrate in order to cancel a spell prematurely ... the concentration here represents the caster bending his will to disrupt a pattern of energies to restore the status quo.
Concentration for the purpose of controlling magical energies differs from mundane concentration in that a caster need only devote half of his attention (namely 50% of his activity at any given time) to this task. This is sufficient to prevent the caster from preparing other spells simultaneously, and also to prevent the caster from casting most other spells owing to the same portions of the caster's brain being involved with both aspects of magical energy manipulation. These restrictions do not apply to those fortunate enough to possess the Subconscious Discipline background option or talent. However, magical concentration is similar in other respects, in that different persons can concentrate for differing periods, interruptions can still break the caster's concentration, and so forth. Moreover, magical concentration must impose a significant mental strain upon a mortal frame, and so maintaining that willpower over more than short periods will challenge even the most resolute individual.
In Rolemaster, Self Discipline is the measure of a character's ability to concentrate and to focus upon a task, and is an appropriate indicator of the intrinsic ability of a character to concentrate upon controlling magical energies. Innate ability in this area can be increased through practice and training, reflected by characters developing the Spell Concentration skill.
The Spell Concentration skill provides a bonus to extending concentration upon a spell, to maintaining concentration in the face of distractions of various kinds, and to regaining the correct state of mind for resuming concentration upon a spell. The Spell Concentration skill would normally be grouped in the Self Control category. The skill is classified as Restricted for all Non spell user professions, Normal for Semi spell user professions, and Everyman for all Pure and Hybrid spell user professions.
The base concentration time is the number of continuous rounds that a caster may concentrate upon a given spell before requiring a Spell Concentration maneuver (assuming no attempted interruptions). When a caster successfully casts a spell requiring concentration, then the act of successfully casting the spell will place the caster into the right frame of mind to concentrate upon the spell, removing the need for an initial Spell Concentration maneuver.
The definition of the base concentration time (measure in rounds) for a character will be:
SD bonus + # ranks in Spell Concentration skill.
Note that the minimum time is one round. A Spell Concentration maneuver should be required of a caster whenever:
he wishes to extend his attention on a given spell by another unit of base concentration time;
he wishes to resume concentration upon a specific spell;
he wishes to maintain concentration in the face of interruptions.
Appropriate events which might break a caster's concentration could include the following:
an unexpected sensory stimulus (e.g., a loud sound)
a physical prod
sustaining a wound (any strike doing at least one point of concussion hit damage)
attempting to resist a spell
engaging in mental communications, when not concentrating on spells to enable or assist this activity
a call of nature
Note: A Spell Concentration maneuver is not required to break concentration on a spell. A Spell Concentration maneuver is also not required for the purposes of concentrating to cancel a spell.
There are a number of methods by which a caster can assist his concentration on spells, such as meditative trances, appropriate herbs, tranquil environments, and not splitting attention between spell concentration and other activities.
In Spell Law there are a wide variety of mental spells (those listed with a sub-type of 'm') and, unsurprisingly, many more are introduced here in the Mentalism Companion. Some have a utility such that the target will not want to resist, for example Mind Tongue. Most others will not normally be welcome as they could be information gathering like Detect Emotion, Mind Typing, or Telepathy; subtle subversion such as Voice of Caution, Cloaking, or False Credentials; or outright attack (e.g., Sleep, Neurosis True, or Dull Mind).
Some of these spells are passive (e.g., Detect Emotion). This means that they do not actually penetrate the aura of the target (hence no RR to overcome) but detect the mystical and mental emanations coming from the target. As noted in some spells and under the definition of Passive in Spell Law, the Gamemaster may allow a RR to notice the spell. In this case, the spell has brushed close enough for the target to notice.
Many of them, though, are force spells. Such mental spells require the caster not only to overcome the aura, or magic, of the target to get the spell to work but also to overcome their mind. The multitude of possible mental states, the potentials for focused concentration, and the dangers of untimely distractions allow for much excitement and variation in mental spells. This cut and thrust is not reflected by the standard Spell Law base spell attacks and resistance rolls.
This section sets forth new rules to reflect these ideas for the resolution of mental spells as an optional alternative to the existing Spell Law system.
The Mentalism Companion introduces two new skills: Mental Control (Assault) and Mental Control (Defense). Each ofthese two skills are used in the new rules for mental spells. These skills are normally classified as Restricted (see below for exceptions to this classification).
A character's ability to focus his mind to the task of overcoming another mind is represented by this skill. If a successful static maneuver is made (modified by this skill), the character may add his number of ranks in this skill to any BAR for spells of a sub-type of "m."
This skill should normally be classified as Restricted. However, any Semi-spell user or Hybrid spell user with Mentalsim as a realm may classify this skill as Normal. Pure spell users in the realm of Mentalism may classify this skill as Everyman. {SD}
Development of skill ranks in mental defense indicate an extra hardening of the mind's natural defences by the character. This skill is simply added to any RR made against spells with a sub-type of "m" (no maneuver is required).
This skill should normally be classified as Restricted. However, any Semi-spell user or Hybrid spell user with Mentalsim as a realm may classify this skill as Normal. Pure spell users in the realm of Mentalism may classify this skiII as Everyman. {SD}
These rules provide a set of options for GMs who want more detail in resolving mental spells (spells with a sub-type of "m". All ofthe normal procedures for the BAR and RR are followed, except where modified below.
These modifiers to the BAR apply depending upon how the target has been detected. The presence and surprise bonuses are cumulative with one of the sight bonuses (i.e., only one of "No line of sight," "Line of Sight," and "Eye contact" may apply at one time). The eye contact bonus must be two way—it will not work while scrying the target.
Also note that there are no bonuses for direction or elevation (flank, rear, etc.) or for cover, except as it affects line of sight.
These BAR modifiers apply depending upon the relationship between the caster and the target, in terms of how well the caster knows the target's mind. The table descriptions are examples only, the actual bonus depends on how well the caster really knows the target's mind, not how well the caster thinks he knows the target's mind. For example, if the caster has been brought up with a foster sister, but that sister is actually a demon spy who has been acting the last twenty years, no bonus will be gained.
Only one of the relationship modifiers may be used at a time.
A BAR penalty ofbetween 0 and -40 should be assigned if the target is of a radically different mind set, or type, from the caster. This will usually only be applicable when there is a racial difference, however not all races need be of a different mind set and there may be some differences between cultures in the same race. Since this will depend entirely upon the Gamemaster's interpretations of the races and cultures in his game world, no explicit table is provided here but the following guidelines should give an idea of the penalties involved:
Stunned targets can only use half of their Mental Defense skill. Magical defences still count in full (Inner Wall, etc.) but innate talents are still halved.
Sleeping targets are a different matter. In a setting where dreamers enter a separate mystical dreamworld, the Gamemaster may rule that the target's mind is not present to be subject to the attack. In other settings, the state of their mental defenses might depend upon the nature of their dreams. If they are currently dreaming about being mentally assaulted, they can validly claim all their defences and possibly even attempt to bolster them (see below.) If they are unlucky, they could be choosing not to resist a spell at the time. In general, some kind ofluck roll should be called for. Normally there will be no difference but on a very lucky roll (say any open-ended high result) the dreamer can claim more defences and on a very unlucky roll (say any open-ended low) he may accept the spell willingly. The Gamemaster may modify the luck rolls according to the current mental state (paranoia etc.).
Of course, if someone is controlling the target's dreams, luck does not enter into the equation.
Listed below are special cases for mental spells and multiple opponents.
It is possible to overwhelm a mind by force of numbers. For each mental spell successfully cast on a target in a given combat round, that target's Mental Control (Defense) skill is lowered by 5 for all subsequent mental spells in the same round (cumulative to a minimum of zero).
There are two ways a spell can affect multiple targets. The first type is when the spell effects many targets at once, such as Cloaking or the Enchanter's Seeming and Overlay spells. The second is when a spell can only affect one target at once, but that target can be switched from round to round (e.g., the Mentalist base spell Inner Thoughts).
Also see Failed Pushing (see below).
Multiple Simultaneous Targets—When a mental spell affects more than on target at once, either through design, magical enhancement or talents, etc., the ability to effect the targets is inherent in, and powered by the spell, hence no penalties to the Mental Control (Assault) skill are given.
Optionally, depending upon the Gamemaster's view of the Spell Mastery skill, the Gamemaster may choose to use the following extra modifier: Use of Spell Mastery to increase the number of targets or area of effect on the fly is not what the designer intended and a penalty to the Mental Control (Assault) maneuver should be given equal to the penalty under the "Modifying the Area of Effect" section applied to the Spell Mastery roll (see RMSR pp 182).
Switching Targets—Some mental spells allow the caster to concentrate on a different target each round until the spell duration runs out. When switching targets the following rules apply.
When switching to a new target, a new BAR must be made for the new target. The new target's Mental Control (Defense) skill is used, of course, and relationship modifiers etc., may need to be recalculated.
If the caster fails to break into the target's mind (e.g., the spell fails), the caster must recast the spell from scratch to attempt to affect the target.
If the caster has successfully broken into someone's mind and moved onto another target, he can still come back to the former victim for more. He will have to make another BAR to get back in, but target suffers a special penalty of -50 to his RR. Note this only applies within one particular casting of a spell—once the spell duration lapses, this benefit is lost.
A character prepared for mental combat can steel himself up for mental spells (either assault or defense). The rules below explain how to do this.
A character suspecting mental attack can use some of his offensive talent to erect extra shielding around his mind. This allows a character to transfer any part of his Mental Control (Assault) skill into Mental Control (Defense). However, this action requires concentration (and counts as an action in the round sequence).
A character can strip his mental defenses of energy to squeeze a little extra into a mental attack. This does not require a separate action (and requires 0% activity). The caster simply transfer any number of ranks of Mental Control (Defense) into Mental Control (Assault). Note that this lowers the Mental Control (Defense) by 5 for each rank transferred. The transferred ranks only add to the number of ranks of Mental Control (Assault) for purposes of modifying the BAR (i.e., it does not modify the Mental Control static maneuver).
If a pushed attack fails, or a bolstered defense is breached, the character's mental faculties will be disoriented for a short while. The skill is temporarily dropped by -50 (to a minimum of zero). The lost score will be restored at a rate equal to +5 per round (+ 10 if an action is spent in concentration).
The disorientation due to such failure will not normally (of itself) give a penalty to any other actions, it merely reduces the effectiveness in mental combat for a short time.
If the pushed attack was against multiple targets the failure, if any, against each target counts cumulatively towards the duration of the disorientation.
The act of rearranging mental energies from their natural configuration requires a degree of concentration. To effect the skill transfer, the character must successfully make a Spell Concentration maneuver. Failure means the spell goes ahead normally and the caster's skills are unaffected.
If pushing an attack with a spell that has more than instant duration, or whenever bolstering defences, more concentration rolls will be required every round.
If the spell in a pushed attack itself requires continued concentration to operate, Spell Concentration maneuvers will also need to be made for that as normal (in this case, the action requirements should be considered part of the normal spell concentration and no separate action need be declared).
Finally, if in a pushed attack the spell eventually lapses in an uncontrolled fashion (a failed concentration roll), or if augmented defences are breached, the same disorientation of the caster's mental faculties will happen as in the failure of a pushed attack roll.
In the early days of magic, all spell effects were created by means of rituals. Later the rituals became codified into the familiar spell lists, and owing to their speed and reliability, the spell lists now form the bulk ofspell casting. Rituals continue to be used for unique effects which have yet to be codified into spell lists.
In the realm of Essence, the ritualists divide their rituals into a large number of classes depending on the effect and define diverse influences and distractions for each class. This is in keeping with the general tendency of Essence spell users to classify and categorize each potential use of raw essence. Such a reductionist approach is not the way of Mentalism. The Mentalism spell user considers himself as an integral part of the world and the magical matrices, and so manipulation of his own aura can effect the whole. This holistic approach seeking always to unify is characteristic of the Mentalism worldview. For a Mentalism ritualist, rituals are therefore classified according to the intended target, whether it be the caster, another sentient being, a nonsentient animal, an inanimate object, or the surroundings.
As Mentalism is a magic based in the mind of the individual caster, the cultivation of the appropriate mindset is critical. The individualistic nature of the realm also means that it is extremely rare for Mentalism-based rituals to involve more than one person. However with the only true limit on such rituals being the caster's mind, some very unique effects are possible.
This is not to say that herbs, crystals and other paraphernalia have no place in Mentalism rituals. Their purpose is very different. An Essence user utilizes the intrinsic magic of the influence, a Channeling user sacrifices the influence to demonstrate piety and submission to a higher spiritual being, a Mentalism user employs its physical properties merely as an aid in the attainment of the correct state of mind. Herbal relaxants, focusing crystals and selfhypnosis are the standard routes in achieving focus.
There are five classes of ritual magic in the Mentalism realm:
Self: This class covers all rituals that will affect the ritualist;
Other intelligent mind(s): This class covers all rituals that will affect sentient beings. (Intelligence must be defined by the Gamemaster);
Animal mind(s): This class covers all rituals that will affect creatures with animal intelligence (including sentient plants);
Inanimate object(s): This class covers all changes to inanimate objects including rituals for alchemical and item creation effects;
Surroundings: This class of rituals covers modifications and investigation of the ritualist's very surroundings (i.e., gas to air).
The first step in assigning a ritual level is to identify whether the desired effect already exists on a spell list. When employing ritual magic to achieve an effect which exists on an extant spell list, the level ofthe spell is the level of the ritual.
However, when employing ritual magic to achieve a unique effect not available on an existing spell list, it is necessary to assign a level to the ritual. The base level for the ritual should be 10 and should be modified by the factors shown below.
Duration: The ritual's level should increase as the ritual's effect duration increases (as detailed below).
| up to 10 minutes | -5 |
| up to 1 hour | 0 |
| up to 10 hours | +5 |
| up to 1 day | +10 |
| up to 1 week | +15 |
| up to 1 month | +20 |
| Permament | +25 |
Class: The ritual level will be affected by the class of the ritual. "Self' rituals are the easiest (as the mind should be in concert with the body). "Inanimate" rituals and the "Surroundings" rituals are the most difficult.
| Self | -5 |
| Other | 0 |
| Animal | +5 |
| Inanimate | +10 |
| Surroundings | +10 |
Range: The distance between the ritualist (at the point of completion ofthe ritual) and the target to be affected affects the level of the ritual. The range is measured in terms ofthe relationship to the caster. The Gamemaster should feel free to alter these modifiers if the nature of the ritual effect is such taht the caster should not be penalized for the distance. An example would be informational rituals to locate an object or person (in such rituals, the description or degree offamiliarity with the object/person would be more appropriate as a modifier).
| Visible during the whole ritual | 0 |
| Not visible, but known well (more than 5 visits of a day or more in the last year) | +5 |
| Not visible, but has visited | +10 |
| Not visible, but has been described | +15 |
| Not visible, unknown | +25 |
Area of effect/Number of targets: These will have an effect on the ritual level due to the strain on the caster's mind in covering ever larger areas. It is suggested that for each additional target or one cubic foot of volume added to the area of effect (depending on the ritual class) that the ritual level be increased by one.
Rituals creating effects not modelled by existing spells lists must be researched or otherwise learnt by the aspiring ritualist. Although many of the basic concepts can be gained from mentors and gleaned from books, the actual ritual is likely to be very personal. To model this, a caster can know one specific ritual for each skill rank in Magic Ritual. The Gamemaster should determine the details of all the rituals known by characters.
Working out the details of a specific ritual is a time consuming process. The time taken should be determined from the Spell Research Table (see above) using the following modifiers to determine the difficulty.
It is at this juncture that the caster will discover if there are any unusual additions to the ritual beyond forming the correct mindset (subject to the GM's discretion). These may include particular locations, items which must be in contact with the caster's aura during the ritual or auspicious times. These additions are only really appropriate for unique rituals. Those which are often performed, or either mimic an existing spell or are similar to an existing spell should not require such additional components.
It now only remains to perform the ritual. The overall procedure involves the caster firstly preparing his mind in the correct state, by use of meditation, and then building up the magical patterns within his mind in concert with any other parts of the ritual (generally a verbal component to express the mental picture).
To determine the difficulty of the ritual maneuver and the base duration, the following chart should be consulted:
In more detail, the caster must first attempt a Meditation maneuver (with a Hard difficulty). This maneuver suffers a special penalty equal to the ritual level. It is in making this maneuver that the paraphernalia associated with Mentalism rituals are employed. The ritualist can gain a bonus to this meditation by the use of meditation aids. The Gamemaster should assign a bonus, usually between 0 and +20 depending on how well practiced the ritualist is in using the aids. Some possible meditational aids are shown below.
A particular crystal that the caster stares into
Burning herbs or incense and breathing the smoke
Exercises to relax the body
Origami or other repetitive hand movements
Repetitive chants or mantras
The result of this Meditation maneuver will modify the maneuver for the ritual (see the modifiers shown on the chart below).
Once in the trance, the ritual begins. The ritualist will need to make another meditation maneuver every two hours (if the ritual takes longer than two hours).
Note: The ritualist must contribute the level ofthe ritual in Power Points the moment that the ritual begins.
If the ritual has more than one caster, one of the casters is defined as the primary caster, to whom all of the above rules apply (and only he must have researched the ritual). The secondary caster(s) need only make a single Meditation maneuver using the above procedure and expend power points (each participant may contribute any number of PPs to the total, but all participants must contribute at least one PP). They do not need to make any subsequent rolls as they are locked into the primary caster. Being the secondary caster in such a ritual gives a +50 bonus in future attempts to research that ritual. If any secondary caster fails to achieve at least a Near Success on the Meditation maneuver, he ruins the ritual and the ritual must begin again (all preparation must be done again and more maneuver rolls made).
At the end ofthe ritual, a d100 roll (open-ended) is made on the table below adding the ritualist's Magic Ritual skill and any appropriate modifiers below the table.
This section explores some theories of how spell users might learn Mentalism magic.
Mentalism rituals demanded long periods of intense concentration from the aspiring ritualist. Failure to maintain the concentration would ruin the ritual, and could often endanger the life or mind of the caster. Some more cautious early Mentalism users realized that practicing the attainment and maintenance of the required mental states without actively attempting a ritual was a useful exercise. The exercises were pursued with vigor and the would-be ritualists made much progress in entering the correct state of mind more rapidly, and maintaining the state for longer. For some, this was the only result of the exercise, and they returned to the study of ritual magic with renewed confidence. Others ignored the siren song of ritual magic and continued the exercises, despite the unspoken chiding and implicit accusations of cowardice by their colleagues.
It was perhaps the bravest decision in the history of Mentalism magic.
The would-be ritualist continued the exercises, gaining ever greater mastery in transcending the mundane limits of the mind. Where once an hour of deep meditation aided by the crutch of continuous finger exercises, the fumes of incense, the chanting of a mantra, gazing into a crystal or some other focus had been required, a minute or less of a meditation with a snap of the fingers, a sniff of incense, or an equally brief use of another focus now sufficed. The defining moment of the Realm of Mentalism was at hand.
It is not known who first spontaneously entered the basic Mentalism mind-frame without prior meditation and without any crutch for mental focus. Like every Mentalism user since, the first true Mentalism spell user gloried in the liberation from the trappings and crutches of the physical world. Like every Mentalism user since, the mental channels surged with pent-up energies needing only a focused will to shape them into the patterns of spells. Unlike the modem Mentalism spell user, who studies the theoretical patterns representing the spells of the extant spell lists, the earliest spell users improvised the first true spells by experimentally converting the ritualistic equivalences, sometimes with fatal consequences.
The careful translation of the Mentalism rituals into true spells organized in cohesive lists was a painstaking and often disappointing process as some effects could not be safely converted. Nevertheless the spell lists comprising the Open and Closed Mentalism sets were eventually created, as were, in due course, the distinctive spell lists of the Mentalism professions and the specialized lifestyles.
The greater usefulness of Mentalism rituals in accomplishing unique and novel effects combined with the highly individualistic nature of the Mentalism spell researchers has prevented a profusion of Open and Closed spell lists from being developed for the realm. The focus has concentrated on the creation of spells which explore a specific aspect ofthe potential of the mortal mind, and the results of such researches have almost always been zealously guarded secrets of particular professions and mystical orders.
Contemporary Mentalism users may learn their spell lists from a number of sources, including tomes, mentors, a guild, or even self-teaching. A substantial fraction of Mentalism training is the development of the necessary self-confidence and powers of concentration to cast spells. Much of the "teaching" is therefore the cultivation of the appropriate motivation and is a task for the student rather than the teacher. As a result, most Mentalism spell users will actually learn the complete set of theoretical patterns for available spell lists as part of their apprenticeship. This does not mean that a beginning Mentalist can cast the mightiest of spells! The theoretical patterns are not the actual patterns used in casting-each mind is unique and only through the accumulation of experience and insight can the rote patterns be adapted for invocation by a given spell user. However, an adequately trained Mentalism spell user should complete his apprenticeship with a theoretical knowledge of all his base lists and in the case of pure and hybrid spell users, a theoretical knowledge of most, if not all, of the relevant Open and Closed spell lists.
A Mentalism tome is a book or a manuscript which contains the knowledge necessary to learn some or all of a spell list of the realm of Mentalism. The tome will contain information on the key principles of a particular spell list and the specific theoretical patterns of some or all of the spells. The tomes will almost always assume a priori that the prospective practitioner has already mastered the necessary mindset for unassisted spell casting, much to the consternation of spell users from other realms who are invariably thwarted in their efforts to utilize such tomes to learn Mentalism magic.
Tomes are normally used by learned spell users to record their knowledge for posterity and as a teaching aid to assist in the education of apprentices. Tomes will generally be the property of a given spell user or of a given guild, and will not be found in mundane libraries or in the emporia of booksellers. Tomes relating to base and other specialized spell lists will rarely be loaned even to trusted apprentices.
The size (in pages) of a given tome can be found by the following formula:
2d10 +5
+ 1 page per each spell from 1st-5th level described
+ 2 pages per each spell from 6th-10th level described
+ 3 pages per each spell from 11th-15th level described
+ 4 pages per each spell from 16th-20th level described
+ 5 pages per each spell above 20th level described.
Option: If the learning rules from the Essence Companion are being used. the tome quality should result in a special modifier of -15 to +10 to the Learning Static Maneuver.
Most Mentalism spell users are trained by a mentor. The mentor will almost always be a member of the same profession and will normally be of significantly higher level than the student. Some mentors will only train one student at a time, others will train several students simultaneously. Some will train the student by intense philosophical debates, others will swear by a particular concentration aid, and still others willjust hand the apprentice a set of tomes and expect the aspirant to "get on with it."
The Protege training package represents the lifestyle choice of Mentalism spell users who have studied deeply with a given mentor, and whose outlook on life has been profoundly shaped by their training. For the Protege, the apprenticeship period represents a period of obedience to the dictates of the mentor in return for board, lodging, and tuition. Afterwards, the Protege will be forever indebted to the mentor, and this obligation could entail sharing wealth with the mentor, promoting the mentor's reputation or aiding the mentor in times of need. The details should be worked out by the Gamemaster and the player.
Option: If the learning rules from the Essence Companion are being used, any student who learns a spell list under a mentor should gain a special bonus of+10 to the Learning Static Maneuver.
Sometimes like-minded Mentalism spell users will band together to further common goals. The whole is often greater than the sum of the parts, and the resulting organization will have access to greater resources and security than any individual. The organization may form a guild for the tuition of apprentices in the secrets of a particular profession. Membership is usually for life, and members will be oath-bound to provide assistance to fellow members and to follow the strictures of the guild.
Of the Mentalism professions, the most likely candidates to form such organizations are the semi-spell users and the healing professions. These professions are the least concerned with metaphysical debates (and so are less likely to disagree on points ofprinciple) and have the most to gain from organization and formal training. In many situations, the guild will be incorporated within another more mundane guild. For instance, Armsmasters may be trained in a distinct faculty of an empire's war college; Lay healers and Healers may be found in positions of power and responsibility within hospitals or physician's guilds; Bards are likely to be trained in separate institutions as opposed to the rough and ready education gained by traveling minstrels and common actors; Magents may be part of, or distinct from, the underworlds of large cities, but their operatives will quickly insinuate themselves beyond the home territory.
It is possible to learn Mentalism magic without the aid of a teacher or book. It is not a trivial undertaking, but if a would-be spell user is aware of the general nature of the spell list to be developed and has already acquired the ability to achieve the basic mindsets, the task is feasible. Once the first spell on a given spell list has been learned, the remaining spells may be developed with greater ease as the task is one of extrapolation. The principal obstacle is learning the first spell on a hitherto unknown spell list.
Option: If the character has onlya description ofthe spell and its effects or has only ever witnessed the spell. the character receives a special modifierof-50 to the Learning Static Maneuver (from the Essence Companion). If the character has previously successfully used ritual magic to achieve the effects of the desired spell. then the character only suffers a -25 modifier to the Learning Static Maneuver.
The development of later spells on the specific list are subject to a -15 modifier if the character has successfully achieved the desired effect using ritual magic, and at a -25 modifier otherwise.
Illusions as handled in Rolemaster are one of the most unique and difficult aspects of the magical framework of the system. Newcomers to Rolemaster are often bewildered by illusions being modelled as temporary creations of reality rather than as mental phenomena as is the case with other role playing games. Another model of illusions does exist and the purpose of this section is to describe the two philosophies describing illusions and associated spells.
The first philosophy is to model illusions as the creation of temporary reality, and this is the standard interpretation of illusions in Rolemaster. To distinguish these illusions from the illusions modelled by the other philosophies, the term standard illusion will be used. Unless otherwise stated, the discussion concerning standard illusions applies to Phantasm spells. (The reader can find further discussions of the standard interpretation in Spell Law (Section 7.1.27) and Gamemaster Law (Section 10.2).)
Standard illusions do not affect the mind of a viewer directly, but rather affect the reality which is then perceived by the viewer. Standard illusions are spell-created manifestations of light and energy that mimic the five sensory characteristics (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell) of the object or entity that the spell user wishes to portray. Although these manifestations are not actually a version of the object or entity in question, they are physical creations and as such, cannot be disbelieved. The illusion passively tricks the viewer into believing that the visual, auditory, and other sensory manifestations are real.
A reflection of an object in a mirror is a real world example of this principle. The reflection is not the real object, but the light constituting the reflection is real light and as such affects the viewer's eyes in the normal way. Given a sufficiently perfect mirror, it is impossible to tell if the object in the mirror is a reflection or the real object without recourse to another sense other than sight. The suspected object can be proven to be a reflection by attempting to touch it. However the reflected object does not disappear once it is known to be merely a reflection. Instead it remains until the mirror (or the original object) is removed.
Likewise, Rolemaster standard illusions cannot be merely disbelieved. If a spell user creates an illusion of an object, a suspicious viewer must verify with some other sense (or by magical means) that the object is illusionary rather than real. The illusionary object will also not disappear, merely because a viewer has perceived its true nature (the illusion must be cancelled, dispelled or the spell duration must expire).
It is therefore a natural consequence of the above definition that the Illusionist is a pure spell user profession of the realm of Essence. Essence users draw energy, neither from themselves (like Mentalism users) nor from a deity (like Channeling users) but from the world around them. In Rolemaster, this makes Essence users good at manipulating matter and energy, generally in larger and flashier ways than Mentalism or Channeling users. Thus Illusions and related spells are of the type Elemental (E). The spells manipulate the physical elements in a given area to generate the necessary sensory phenomena in the observer, creating the "perfect mirror" of an object or entity, visualized by the spell user at the time of spell casting. The illusion need not mimic a real object or entity-the spell user is only limited by his ability to visualise the images of his imagination. The Mana Molder (introduced in Essence Companion) uses the same principles to create objects, servants and so forth, sacrificing diversity in creative range for durability.
Powerful Illusionists can render the observer's task more difficult by adding additional sensory information to the illusion. This causes the illusion to look, sound, feel, smell, and even taste like the real object or entity which it mimics. In some cases, the only way such things can be revealed as illusions is by waiting for the duration of the spell to end, casting some sort of Detect Essence or Dispel Essence spell, or by using a skill such as Power Perception to detect that a great deal of magic is in the area.
An example will reinforce the understanding of standard illusions, and prepare the way for the other models.
A standard Illusionist casts an Illusion spell to create a "bridge." The size of the bridge is limited by the area of effect of the spell. The illusionary bridge is visible to any being who happens to look in the right direction. It reflects light just like a real bridge. If the Illusionist has added a feel mirage to the illusion, when someone touches the bridge, it will feel like wood or stone. If someone is brave enough to step on to the bridge, then he will feel the wood or stone under his feet. If he is careful, very light and lucky, the feel aspect may last long enough for him to cross the bridge. His companions would see him cross the bridge. If a companion tried the same feat, but through unluck, carelessness or greater encumbrance, overwhelmed the feel mirage, the companion would immediately cease to feel the wood or stone under his feet, would fall through the bridge, and plummet to his death.
It should be remembered that the range at which a given sensory aspect of an illusion can be perceived is limited only by the capabilities of the observer in the given environment. The area of effect limits only the size of the illusion.
Summing up, standard illusions are spells which temporarily create visual and other sensory manifestations. The spell user affects the observer in a completely passive fashion. The spell is cast, the illusionary object is created, and possible observers mayor may not perceive it.
The other philosophy considers illusions to be purely mental phenomena which directly affect the brain of the chosen target(s). The motivation behind the development of this philosophy was a conviction that standard illusions did not properly address the traditional illusionary phenomena to be found in mythology and literature.
To avoid the confusion that would otherwise have arisen, a new terminology has been created to describe the very different effects of these mental illusions: cloaks, projections, overlays, and seemings.
A "cloak" is a mental illusion which will cause the affected target(s) to fail to perceive a chosen object, entity, etc. It is an illusion of absence which removes the information concerning the concealed object or entity from one or more processing centers (concerned with the chosen senses) in the brain(s) ofthe target(s). One subtlety, which applies both to the visual Cloak spells and the Cloaking (Open Mentalism) spell list, concerns what the targets see in place of a concealed being. The concealed being is not invisible which means an affected target cannot see through the concealed being. The answer must be that the target's brain interpolates a background. If the target has viewed the area prior to the concealed being moving into the area, a previous image from short-term memory is reused. If the target has never seen the area before, the target's mind will invent a reasonable image which will not stand up to intense scrutiny (i.e., concentrated use of Awareness skills) but will be swiftly readjusted as soon as the concealed being moves out of the way.
An example will clarify this subtlety further.
A party of adventurers enter a dragon's cave. The sleeping dragon has been temporarily Cloaked to vision by an ally, and is resting on its hoard. The adventurers can only really see the periphery of the treasure hoard, and so their minds interpolate the rest of the hoard. One of the greedier adventurers is sure that the hoard will contain golden weapons from the Royal Armory of the Lost Realm and looks closely for any sign of such items. His mind invents a large golden sword. The dragon shifts and he sees that actually there is a bejewelled mithril torc at that position. The greedy adventurer is allowed another RR. His companions (who did not force their minds to invent the detail of a sword) merely have the true view added to their existing perceptions in a self-consistent fashion; they merely didn't notice the mithril torc at first glance.
A "projection" is a mental illusion which causes the affected target(s) to believe himself to be afflicted with an imaginary injury. One class of projections deprive the target of all sensory input from a given sense; these spells temporarily shut down the relevant processing centers ofthe brain. A second class of projections, namely the Wound spells, cause the target to believe that he has sustained some specific injury; these spells affect the pain center of the brain and add the necessary visual and other information directly to the sensory processing centers. Such projections cannot actually harm the target, but they can induce temporary unconsciousness. On regaining consciousness, the target's mind will be freed from the grip of the hallucination.
Although "cloaks" and "projections" directly affect the mind of a target, both sets of spells may be used against any target with at least a rudimentary mind. The specificity of the effects counterbalances their general applicability.
An "overlay" is a mental illusion which alters how an actual object, entity orplace is perceived in the mind of the target(s). The object, entity or place retains its basic nature, so a rusty knife can appear as a silver dagger but not as a book. An overlay spells acts to transform the information within a sensory processing center regarding the actual object etc such that the object is perceived by the target as the spell user desires.
A "seeming" is a mental illusion which causes the affected target(s) to perceive an object, entity or place which is not real. The object, entity or place is a pure hallucination; a "seeming" spell acts upon the sensory processing centers of the brain to add to, subtract from, or otherwise transform the information such that the affected target perceives what is desired by the spell user.
As both Overlay and Seeming spells can create an infinite variety of hallucinations employing a combination of senses, they normally only affect humanoid targets. These spells can affect targets otherthan humanoids ifthey are preceded with the appropriate catalyst spell from the Seeming Enhancement spell.
Overlay and Seeming spells continuously interact with the affected targets. This is usually accomplished by the spell user concentrating upon the specific spell to adjust the hallucination so that it remains plausible regardless of the actions of the affected target. The spell user can choose instead to set a limited number of reactions to possible actions of the affected target to the hallucination in advance. For example, Aran the Enchanter has successfully cast a Seeming upon a desert nomad. The nomad is now convinced that a vulture is circling his camp overhead. At the time of casting, Aran decided to set up a number of variations, one ofwhich will cause the imaginary vulture to gain altitude should the nomad notch an arrow to his deadly recurve bow, and another will cause the imaginary vulture to dodge out of the way if an arrow is loosed in its direction. Unfortunately the desert nomad actually chooses to cast a long-range elemental bolt at the vulture. The Seeming spell has no preprogrammed response to this unexpected action, and the vulture flies through the bolt unharmed. If Aran is lucky, perhaps the nomad will consider this event to be evidence that the vulture is of supernatural origin and immune to such attacks. In this case, the event is likely to trigger disbelief and terminate the hallucination.
All of the various mental illusions actively engage the minds ofthe chosen targets. As a consequence, these spells can be resisted by the targets (i.e., an RR is permitted). If the target fails to resist, the illusionary effect is real within the confines ofthe target's mind. Targets who successfully resist and bystanders who were not targeted will not be affected by these spells. Moreover, even targets who initially succumb are allowed opportunities to snap out of the hallucination if unaffected senses provide information which is inconsistent with the hallucination or the hallucination becomes implausible (as in the case of Aran and the nomad).
Gamemasters should note that this is neither an invitation to characters to develop an extreme solipsist philosophy (uttering "I don't believe it" at every opportunity), nor carte blanche to spell users to generate wildly implausible mental illusions. In general, people in fantasy settings will be more willing to ascribe the wondrous to magical, supernatural or miraculous causes, but even their credulity can be stretched beyond its limits. Those limits will depend on the nature of the Gamemaster's setting.
The most effective means of explaining some other pertinent features of the spell user's arsenal of mental illusions is to reconsider the bridge example:
Aran, the Enchanter of the previous example, is in a place of concealment, quietly observing a group of four soldiers approaching the river. He decides to induce the hallucination of a bridge spanning the river in the minds of the soldiers. (There is no limit on the size of the bridge that he can create in an observer's mind.) He notes that one of the soldiers is accompanied by a pet bird and hopes that this is not a wizard's familiar or a bonded animal. He casts first a Dual Seeming spell and follows this with a Seeming X spell. He chooses the options of adding sound and feel aspects, three additional targets, doubling the duration and increasing the range to 800'. The soldiers fail to resist the spell and on looking towards the river they observe what appears to be a small bridge. (The pet bird is unaffected by the Seeming and observes nothing) They hurry towards the supposed bridge and are surprised to see that it is of new construction.
One of the soldiers decides rashly to cross the bridge. Fortunately Aran has suitably prepared for this eventuality and his Dual Seeming spell clicks in, allowing him to provide distinct perceptual streams to the rash soldier and his more cautious companions; this enhancement is required because the two groups of soldiers will interact with the Seeming in qualitatively different fashions. The rash soldier can see the other side of the bridge directly ahead, can feel the wooden planks under his feet, and hears the other soldiers discussing how they will report this discovery on their return to the outpost. In reality, the soldier is already falling but for him the Seeming spell is masking the sensation of falling, similarly masking the sounds of the rushing air, and replacing the view of the river with the desired sight. His companions see their comrade walking confidently across the bridge. The pet bird however sees the rash soldier step into mid-air and immediately fall. It squawks in alarm.
The unfortunate soldier plunges into the river, swallowing some water involuntarily as his head goes below the surface. The taste of the water is inconsistent with crossing the bridge and triggers his disbelief. He resurfaces, spluttering somewhat, and swims towards the near bank, while his comrades try to calm their pet. If they look in the direction of the bridge, they would see their companion standing on the other end of the bridge and might wonder why he has failed to step off the bridge. The subject of the Seeming spell was the bridge, not the soldier. Thus Aran cannot project the visual subcomponent (of the soldier beyond the bridge.)
The rather wet and bedraggled soldier clambers up the river bank and squelches towards his companions. One of the soldiers turns at the sound and sees his comrade both standing dry on the bridge and dripping wet on the bank. His disbelief is triggered and the bridge disappears from his view. He swears.
Aran, seeing his victim has survived apparently unscathed, grimly cancels his spell and prepares to escape the wrath of the soldiers.
One final point concerns the classification of the Enchanter as a hybrid spell user of the Realms of Essence and Mentalism rather than a pure Mentalism spell user. Although all of the Enchanter's spells are firmly based in mental concepts, the ability of the Enchanter to simultaneously affect multiple targets and over long distances requires access to more magical power than is justifiable for a pure Mentalism spell user.
Summing up, the mental illusions of the Enchanter actively affect the minds of selected observers, and as purely mental phenomena, may be resisted.
Two distinct models of illusions have been presented. The distinctions amongst the models can be elegantly shown by considering the perception to be a three-phase process:
A reality exists;
The reality is detected by appropriate sense organs which send signals representing it to an entity's brain;
The brain interprets the signals and gives them meaning within the world view of the being.
Standard illusions effect the first phase in that reality is altered. Mental illusions effect the third phase by interfering with sensory signal interpretation.
The choice of which model or models of illusionary spells to include rests as ever with the Gamemaster.
Insanity is a disease of the mind, which can affect all aspects of a person's life from their thinking and their moods to their interactions and relationships with others.
In earlier times, insanity was deemed to be a sign of divine vengeance against an individual, a sign of demonic possession, or the result of malevolent sorcery. In more modern times, the origins of insanity have been ascribed to a combination of factors including genetic predisposition, biochemical imbalances in the brain, and an accumulation ofstressful events and emotional conflicts in the individual's life.
In Rolemaster, insanity can be the result of genetic or environmental factors (normally modeled by the appropriate flaw in a character's background), or the result of a character's failure to resist a mind-affecting spell (especially the spells from the Evil Mentalist base list Mind Diseases).
Demonic possession can of course really occur within the game. When a character is possessed by an unintelligent demon, the consequent chaotic and destructive behavior may lead to injury or death, but the symptoms will be so blatant that exorcism will be the obvious remedy. An intelligent demon who succeeds in possessing a character will be much more careful to keep aberrant behavior to a minimum so that it can achieve its diabolical agenda without detection.
The aim of this section is to provide some guidelines and game mechanics for handling insanity induced by serious trauma. A classification of mental disorders based on severity, as well as role playing and mechanics suggestions for a selection of mental illnesses is also provided. The final part of this section will explain the concept of the Sanity statistic, and provide game mechanics to reflect the loss and recovery of sanity.
A simple system of classifying mental illnesses is to consider the severity of the illness in terms of its effect upon the individual's personality and relationships with others. Illnesses can then be classified as psychoses or neuroses.
A psychosis is a major mental illness which will often involve severe symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and defects in thinking and judgment. The sufferer of a psychosis will sometimes be unable to function in normal society. Even more unfortunate, the sufferer may not even realize that he is afflicted with a mental illness.
A neurosis is a less serious illness. The sufferer may have bouts of anxiety or depression, or be unable to function fully in normal society. The personality is relatively undamaged, and the sufferer either realizes or can be persuaded of the reality of the illness. Neuroses are easier to cure than psychoses.
However, remember that what is considered insane or aberrant behavior in one culture may be considered normal or acceptable behavior in another or a harmless quirk or eccentricity elsewhere.
The reader should refer to Gamemaster Law (Section 11) for lists of sample neuroses.
An anxiety disorder can be the result of some childhood trauma or other experience. The character will have an irrational fear ofa situation or an object (usually associated with the bad experience), and on being confronted with the situation or fear, will suffer from palpitations, sweating, trembling or dizziness (-10 to all actions) until he can escape from the source of his anxiety. The character will attempt to avoid such sources and may literally flee.
A phobia is an intense fear or dread which is associated with a specific situation or object. The character will become anxious (as above) even thinking or talking about the source of the phobia. If confronted with the source of the phobia, the character must make an RR versus a 10th level attack. I f this RR fails, the character will be paralyzed with terror for I round per 10 failure. In any event, the character will be severely anxious (e.g., -25 to all actions) while in the presence of the source of the phobia.
The sufferers of depression are affected by an oppressive mood of sadness and hopelessness. The character's decisions and thinking will be overly pessimistic, and the character will show little interest in and no enjoyment of pastimes that had formerly amused him. In serious cases, this melancholic attitude may extend to life-threatening situations (e.g., the character may fail to parry melee attacks, fail to resist mental spells, act carelessly in dangerous environments, etc.). The character will tire easily (double Exhaustion Point expenditure) and will sleep poorly (i.e., halve Power Point and healing recovery during sleep).
Mania, on the other hand, is an irrational euphoria. The character will have an overly optimistic attitude to life, brimming with unjustified self-confidence, which will lead the character to take risks. The character will be rash, swift in word and deed (e.g., always acting in the Snap phase, using insufficient preparation for spells, etc.).
In both cases, the bouts of depression or mania may last for days before the sufferer returns to a more normal emotional level.
An obsessive disorder is characterized by the seeming invasion of the sufferer's mind by recurrent images, thoughts or words. Some normal event may trigger a recurrent fantasy in the character's mind, or the character will be plagued with interminable mental discussions on the mundane event. At any time when the character is not actively and mentally engaged in some task, there is a 15% chance that the character will be ruminating on the obsession.
With a compulsive disorder, the sufferer is plagued by the urge to repeatedly perform an action, even though it is unnecessary or senseless. Once a character is gripped by a compulsion, he will suffer rising anxiety until the urge is sated by perfonning the action (-1 to all actions for each minute ofdelay). The character will continue to perform the action, regardless of its consequences, until he manages to assert his self-control (i.e., roll greater than 100 on an open-ended d100 roll adding triple the Self Discipline bonus).
Obsessions will often lead to compulsive behavior, afflicting the sufferer with an obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Example: Neville ofBickerton developed an obsessive-compulsive disorder regarding his weapons after his mind was damaged in an attempt to make him believe in magic. Whenever he is reminded of swords, he becomes obsessed with trying to remember if the edge of his sword is sharp and without notches. He then has the compulsion to sharpen the sword even though the weapon is perfectly fine. He has ruined several weapons through excessive sharpening.
Paraphilias are sexual deviations. The character may either succumb to the deviation only when temptation presents itself or may actively seek out opportunities to indulge in the deviation. The character will find it difficult to resist temptation (i.e., roll d100, open-ended, and add triple the Self Discipline bonus). Dependent upon the nature of the paraphilia, the character's habits may be a source of amusement for his peers, a cause for social ostracism, or a cause for secular and/or religious hostility.
There are many different varieties of personality disorder. Some examples include: explosive personality, asthnic personality, and impulse control.
In explosive personality disorder, the individual will react violently, even (and especially) to minor frustrations, attempting to assault others in sudden fits of rage.
In asthenic personality disorder, the individual will be unable to make decisions or assume responsibility (-50 to all Leadership and associated social skills), relying on others to decide for him.
In disorders of impulse control, the individual lacks the ability to resist temptations, even though the desires may be hannful to the individual or others. Examples include compulsive gambling, pyromania, and/or kleptomania.
In all of these disorders, the character may attempt to withstand the urge (i.e., roll d100, open-ended, and add triple the Self Discipline bonus).
The reader should refer to Gamemaster Law (Section 11), for lists of sample psychoses.
Hysteria can come in two major fonns. The first involves the temporary paralysis of a limb, temporary loss of a sense, or an increased sensitivity to pain, in response to a (potentially imminent) stressful situation. An alternative fonn of hysteria involves the individual suffering temporary amnesia in response to a trauma, blotting the bad experience (and surrounding events) from memory. In some circumstances, the amnesia may be total, and the character will wander off, adopting a new identity. If found and treated, the character will rarely, if ever, recall what occurred to him in his other identity.
In manic-depressive psychosis, the individual cycles between bouts of depression and mania, interspersed with periods of normalcy. Each bout may last for weeks, and the highs and lows are much more pronounced than in either depression or manic disorders.
In multiple personality disorder, the individual has two or more separate and distinct personalities, of which only one will be in conscious control of the body at any given moment. In game mechanics terms, the player must develop distinct sets of role traits, interests, and aptitudes for each personality, and may need to generate skills sets for each personality.
In paranoia, the sufferer will believe that others are conspiring, persecuting or seeking to harm him, without justification. The character will be continuously suspicious, perceiving evidence in the most innocent actions of hostile intent, and this will often cause negative reactions in others.
For the sufferer, schizophrenia can mean delusions, hallucinations, incoherence and losing touch with reality.
In game tenns, a choice needs to be made with regard to which type of schizophrenia the luckless character has developed.
In hebephrenic schizophrenia, the character will be incoherent in speech and thinking (reduce all communications skills by five ranks) and will respond inappropriately in emotional situations (i.e., joy when sadness and grief should be the prevalent mood).
In catatonic schizophrenia, the character will remain motionless at random (or in response to stress), possibly for hours.
In paranoid schizophrenia, the character will suffer delusions of grandeur and persecution.
It is all very well to say that mental illness can afflict a character as the result of trauma or a series of stressful events in the character's life, but it is unclear as to when it is appropriate for the character to develop a disorder. Indeed most characters are unlikely to have an appropriate mental flaw in their explicit background. Those that do possess such flaws will already be suffering from the disorder.
One suggestion is to allow players to take a mental flaw at character creation, but not require the disorder to be already manifested at the start of play. Then whenever the Gamemaster deems it appropriate, the mental illness could develop as a result of events in the story.
The above suggestion is not however sufficient to handle the general case of a traumatized character, and so a consistent set of rules is needed.
It is essential to quantify the sanity of a particular individual. To do this, an artificial stat, Sanity, needs to be calculated. As Self Discipline represents the individual's control over the body and general willpower, and Presence represents mental courage, self esteem, and control over the mind, it is appropriate that these stats determine a character's Sanity stat.A character's Sanity stat is generated by adding the character's potential SelfDiscipline and Presence stats together, and dividing the resulting total by two (round up). This generates an artificial stat in the range 1 to 100. The appropriate bonus for the Sanity stat should be determined from the Basic Stat Bonus Table (RMSR, T-2.1).
The calculated Sanity stat is a maximum. Sanity can be reduced through traumatic events and regained through magical or normal cures, but can never exceed the original value.
There are a number of circumstances which pose a potential threat to a character's sanity. These include prolonged stress (at least three months), trauma in terms ofdebilitating injuries, torture, or abuse, and trauma in terms of witnessing death or crippling injury to friends or relatives. Terrors, regardless of whether the source is a frightening event or a fearsome beast, can trigger anxiety disorders and phobias. It is also possible that characters may encounter creatures or beings which are so different to the normal dimensions that any characters who perceive them will have the horrifying images forever etched within their memories. In addition, there are a number of magical events which can also pose a threat to mental health. Two of these relate to divination magic, namely the visions produced by evocation magic (see Section 11.6) and Intuitions spells (see Section 13.3). In evocation magic, the risk is that the caster will evoke images that terrify or horrify him, or will accidentally cause him to relive traumatic experiences. With Intuitions spells, the risk is that the prediction will show the caster or a close friend suffering serious injury or death, and the caster is unable to prevent the event from occurring. A final mentally perilous situation occurs when a character has been compelled by magic to act or believe in a way that is alien to them, but the magic is sufficiently subtle that the character does not realize he has been the victim of magic. When the character is released from the spell, the resulting intemal conflict may be very hazardous to mental stability.
In the event of any of the above situations occurring during play, the player should roll d100 (open-ended) and add three times the Sanity stat bonus. Look up the result on the Mental Stability Chart (below).
Example: Lord Neville of Bickerton has a SD stat of 84 and a Pr stat of 86, yielding a Sanity stat of 85 and a Sanity stat bonus of +4. Neville does not believe in the existence of magic. Unfortunately for him, his companions not only believe in magic but are skilled practitioners, and they are tired of listening to his attempts to rationalize magical events. One of his companions, Aran, knows a spell which can cause the target to believe one fact temporarily. The spell is duly cast, and Neville succumbs. For several hours, Neville believes with absolute certainty that magic is real. The spell wears off during the night, and Neville returns to his disbelief in magic. He however remembers his temporary belief In view ofthe stress, the Gamemaster calls for a roll on the Mental Stability table. The player rolls 67, adds 12 for three times Sanity stat bonus, for a final result of 77. A Partial Success means the character loses d5 -2 Sanity points (the playe r rolls 4, subtracts 2, giving a loss of 2 Sanity points) and there is a chance of a neurosis. The player rolls 3 on d100 and Neville is duly afflicted with a neurosis ofthe Gamemaster's choice.
If a result indicates the character loses d5-2 Sanity points, and the player rolls 1 or 2, no Sanity points are lost. If a result indicates that the character develops a tic, this means that the character will suffer from involuntary jerking of muscles on the face, neck or head. The Gamemaster should choose an appropriate neurosis or psychosis.
The use of the table cannot reduce a character's Sanity stat below zero. Upon reaching zero, the character automatically develops a neurosis or an existing neurosis worsens into a psychosis. Further bad results on the table will automatically add further mental disorders.
It should be noted that spells inducing mental illnesses (such as those from the Mind Diseases spell list) do not require Mental Stability rolls (as they directly induce madness).
Insanity can be cured by therapy or by magic healing. Similarly, Sanity can also be recovered by spell or skill.
A Mind Diseases Cures will restore 5d10 Sanity points within the normal recovery period of the spell. A Mind Disease Cures True spell or the Brain Restorative spell will restore all lost Sanity points.
A new skill, Sanity Healing, can restore lost Sanity points and treat mental disorders (this skill should be classified as Restricted in all genres except for modern). Use the following modifiers for all Sanity Healing maneuvers.
Certain results on Sanity Healing maneuvers will restore Sanity points
Communication is a vital aspect of both the game mechanics and the story of many role playing games, and Rolemaster is no exception. The core rules presented in the Rolemaster Standard Rules Appendix A-1.12 cover the basics needed to allow communication amongst beings from divergent races and cultures.
This section will reconsider languages in terms of their development, their relationships and their structure, and present rules options for incorporating this material. It should be noted that there are so many open research questions in linguistics and that it would be impossible to produce a consistent yet simple framework which handles all of the exceptional cases. The rules presented here are necessarily a compromise between realism and playability.
What is a language? A language can be defined as a system of vocal symbols used by a social group to communicate. This section will not deal with codes, ciphers, signals or computer languages nor will it deal with instinctive communications such as animals' scent markers or coloring. It will deal with the normal spoken and written languages used by sentient creatures.
According to anthropological research, language is believed to have developed after the early hominids split from the apes. It was at about this time that a growth in the brain capacity of hominids and changes in the throat and larynx coincided with a greater degree of community, in the archaeological finds.
Some researchers have trained apes, notably chimpanzees, to communicate using sign language. The chimpanzees have been shown to learn vocabulary but it is uncertain whether they have grasped the notions of grammar. The other primates lack the vocal apparatus for human speech. It has been suggested that it is highly unlikely that humans should be the only species to develop spoken language, further that it is highly suspicious that none of the other primates have developed the apparatus for speech. The suspicion is that our remote ancestors eliminated any primate species able to compete with the hominids in the arena of speech.
The early hominids probably started from the same level of protolanguage where objects had labels. Gradually they associated sound labels (words) with the objects and abstractions. This is believed to have allowed a greater degree of cooperation among these early peoples. Such cooperation allows tribes to survive in marginal terrain such as arctic tundra.
There is no evidence of a written language at this period in human prehistory and so all of this is speculation. The earliest attempts at written language are believed to be the ancient cave paintings, found at many locations around the world. These are believed to have mystic or religious significance beyond just the pictorial representation of the symbol drawn.
True written language was not developed until much later, and it is probable that much of the truly early writing has not survived. Writings from Sumeria (such as The Epic of Gilgamesh) are probably amongst the oldest extant.
Religions and myth attribute the origin of languages to divine intervention. For example, the Bible describes all men as speaking a single tongue until the inhabitants of Babel attempted to build a tower to heaven. God punished them for their arrogance by causing them to speak forever in a myriad of different tongues so that the builders plans would be permanently frustrated.
Once a language has developed, it will not stop developing. No two speakers of a given language speak exactly alike, and so it is unsurprising that communities develop variations on the given language, dialects, which are particular to their region but still understood by speakers of the same language from different regions. Over time, these dialects may separate into distinct related languages.
Historically such changes have been the result of the migrations of the tribes into new territories, sometimes intermarrying with people from the new territories, the result of conquest where the conquerors have imposed their language, or the result of geographical isolation, where communities are isolated from other groups and the sets ofcommunities drift apart. In Hellenistic times, the socalled koine ("common language"), which was actually the Athenian dialect ofGreek, replaced the dialects ofthe other city-states entirely (due to the preeminence of Athens).
Languages are classified (and periodically reclassified!) into groupings based on their similarities and relationships to common ancestors. This grouping is called a language family, and is often sub-divided into branches or subfamilies to show closer relationships. Language families are themselves collected into a "phylum" where each family is descended from some very ancient ancestor tongue.
For instance, the "Germanic" languages form a language family comprising five distinct sub-families in terms of mutual intelligibility, namely English, Frisian, Netherlandic-German, Insular Scandinavian, and Continental Scandinavian. The Netherlandic-German branch includes Dutch, German, Yiddish and Afrikaans. Insular Scandinavian includes Icelandic and Faeroese. Continental Scandinavian includes Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. The "Germanic" language family is only one of the nine surviving families of the Indo-European phylum (the other six European branches include the Romance languages, the Slavic languages, the Celtic languages, the Baltic languages, Greek, and Albanian).
Some languages do not permit classification such as the Basque language, and the dead languages of Etruria and Sumeria. These languages which cannot be related to any other language are called language isolates. The related languages have failed to survive in any form, leaving the isolate as the sole survivor of the language family. In many regions of the world, tribal languages are gradually dying out as the would-be native speakers transfer their allegiance to the international languages and fail to pass on the tribal language to their children.
If a world contains magic, this will effect language development. The level of the effect will be in direct proportion to the level of available magic.
For settings with little to no magic (i.e., few spell users of whom most only have access to spells of up to 5th level), the effect will be negligible and the historical pattern can be used. The only change will be the existence of additional vocabulary to describe the rare but demonstrable magical effects.
For settings with medium levels of magical power, (i.e., one or two spell users in most sizable villages with access to spells of up to 10th level, and other rarer individuals with greater abilities), the existence of people with the ability to memorize texts perfectly, to understand archaic tomes, to travel with greater safety or communicate over long distances would act to slow the effect of linguistic drift transforming dialects into distinct languages.
For settings with high magical power levels, (i.e., all those not covered already), the effect will be to seriously slow down the linguistic drift as long-range magical communication networks become feasible, transportation spells allow rapid travel over great distances and across geographical barriers, and magical assistance with language learning becomes readily available. This will lead to a pool of people who will pass on the 'official' version of the language to the less widely-traveled.
The existence of long-lived or immortal races such as the Dwarves, the Elves or the various fey races will also act to limit language change as they will maintain older dialects.
Technology has had a similar effect of stabilizing languages. The invention of the printing press led to a standardization of spelling in the major world languages. Mass media communication such as newspapers, radio and television deliver standard written and speech dialects to communities that would in earlier eras have suffered linguistic drift owing to geographical dispersion. Indeed many languages, notably North American Indian, African, and Oceanic tongues, are in danger of extinction due to the preeminence of the ex-colonial tongues. There is some evidence already to suggest that even amongst languages such as English, the barrage of mass media is weakening the dialects, rendering the language more uniform. This process is likely to continue for the foreseeable future with the number of distinct languages shrinking, and the surviving languages continuing to grow by borrowing words from other tongues and creating new words to represent new advances in science and technology.
A fully developed language has many aspects, but amongst the most important are phonetics, grammar, and lexicon.
Phonetics covers the range of speech sounds used by a given language. Every language uses a different subset of the vocal and auditory range available to humans. The socalled tonal languages use differences in pitch to indicate different meanings for the same speech sound (or phoneme). For simplicity, phonetic differences will be ignored in these language rules.
Grammar is the knowledge of how to use a language to produce valid sentences, in terms of syntax (the relationship between words in a sentence) and morphology (the internal grammatical structure of words; i.e., agreement of verbs and nounds, tenses, numbers, etc.).
The lexicon is the complete set of all words in a given language. Vocabulary is the subset of the lexicon known by a given speaker. In this discussion, vocabulary will be assumed to mean only those words known and sufficiently well-understood to use correctly. It has been estimated that the average native speaker only uses five thousand words regularly.
Related languages will share much of their phonetics and grammar, and there will be many "cognate" words with similar, often identical, meanings and marginal spelling changes. As the languages diverge, the differences will become more pronounced (pardon the pun), and mutual intelligibility will eventually be lost entirely.
To reflect the realism of language families and the distinction between the grammar and vocabulary known by a language speaker, it is necessary to restructure the Communications skill category as the Communications skill group (in much the same fashion as the Weapons skill group and the Spells skill group).
Within the Communications skill group, there will be a distinct category for each group of languages in the setting. The Gamemaster must decide at which level in the hierarchy of languages to impose the category distinctions. It is recommended that either a conservative approach be adopted, confining categories to language sub-families (e.g., if classifying the "Germanic" family, Netherlandic-German would be a separate category to Continental Scandinavian), or a more liberal approach in allowing categories to embrace an entire language family within the phylum (e.g., the Netherlandic-German branch and The Continental Scandinavian branch of languages would be included in the Germanic category which would be distinct from the Slavic or the Romance categories). The conservative approach should be adopted for use in historical or modern-day genres, the liberal approach is safe for fantasy settings where the language tree is usually much less complex. Under no circumstances should an entire phylum be classified as a single category.
Within each category, each language will have a separate skill for the spoken form and the written form of the language.
A language will be descended from a root language (that is generally not in "active" use, if used at all). Usually, root languages are classified as Restricted (as they are not in common usage by any culture). However, knowledge of a root language helps tremendously when learning "descendant" languages.
If a root language is known (i.e., developed), all descendant languages improve their skill classification by one step (i.e., Restricted becomes Normal, Normal becomes Everyman, Everyman becomes Occupational, etc.). However, this improvement only applies to languages that are currently developed to a lower rank than the root language (though subsequent development may raise the language above the root language; in this case the classification returns to its normal status).
The category ranks in a given language category will represent the grammar known by a given character. This requires the somewhat inaccurate assumption that all languages within a category share the same grammar. The skill rank in a given language also represents the character's (spoken or written) vocabulary with that language. As a rough guide, each rank corresponds to 1000 words which the character can use (except for the first two ranks). The levels of language proficiency represented by the various numbers of ranks is shown in the following chart.
Clearly by combining the two proficiencies it is possible to determine the level of proficiency of any character in a given language. The skill bonus should be used as described in the Rolemaster Standard Rules (Appendix A-1.12) to resolve communications actions involving characters with different ranks in a language. A success in the maneuver will allow both characters to use the higher category and skill rank for the duration.
If two characters wish to converse and do not share a common language, but do share a category, they should each make a maneuver using their bonus in the language (i.e., Category bonus -15). Success means that they can communicate as if they had three ranks of the desired language. Further maneuver rolls will be required at regular intervals to maintain this limited communication.
If two characters wish to communicate and do not share a language or a category, some means other than normal communication should be used.
The ability to read and correctly interpret the shapes of the lips clearly depends upon the language being spoken. The Gamemaster can adopt a conservative approach requiring a separate Lip Reading skill for each distinct language within a skill category or a more liberal approach requiring only one Lip Reading skill per skill category.
Over the years, many trades and professions have developed secret or specialized means of communication either because of the technical nature of their work (e.g., the "jargon" ofcomputer programming) or for increased security (e.g., thieves' cant or the criminal slang of the 1920s and 1930s (see Pulp Adventures)). In the real world, such "languages" are little more than sets of vocabulary or artificial dialects added to an existing language. As such, the Gamemaster should normally insist that learning such a dialect requires the character to increase the number of skill ranks in the parent language by one or two ranks to represent the accumulation of the specialized vocabulary.
Sometimes complete languages will be created artificially (e.g., Esperanto). The esoteric languages ofmystical or criminal organizations are also a firm favorite in the fantasy genre. In such cases, the Gamemaster must decide whether the artificial language is sufficiently different to warrant the creation of its own distinct language "family" category or whether it can be included as a separate language skill within an existing category.
The magical languages (as described in Essence Companion, Section 7.2.2) should be considered a distinct category. For the purposes of determining any special benefits from their use in spell casting, only the number of skill ranks should be considered.
The Signaling skill should be moved to the Technical/Trade • Vocational skill category as it is not a bona-fide linguistic skill.
The modifications to existing professions are relatively minor. In particular, the Development Point cost for Communications skills is unchanged. If a profession has a professional bonus to the old Communications group, this should be treated as applying to the whole Communications Group (in an identical fashion to Weapons Group bonuses). Languages which have Everyman, Occupational or Restricted classifications, are treated in exactly the same way as previously. In training packages, where the Communications skill category receives a bonus, this bonus should be applied to a single appropriate language family category. Where languages are assigned skill ranks, they should only be applied to languages in the language family whose category has been increased.
There are a number of spells within Spell Law and other books in the RMSS which deal with communication and understanding of languages. The only modification required is to treat spells which temporarily award "Rank X" in a given language as awarding X category and X skill ranks.
The changes outlined above have no effect on the Nomenist School (see Essence Companion, Section 6.5). In particular, category ranks are not included in the calculation of a Nomenist's skill ranks in the Primal Tongue as category ranks do not encapsulate words or sounds of power.
Note: In the first printing of Essence Companion, the formula was incorrectly presented. It should read:Number ofSkill Ranks in Primal Tongue =
( # ranks spoken of tier 1 languages (xl) +
# ranks spoken of tier 2 languages (x2) +
# ranks spoken of tier 3 languages (x3) + etc.) / 10
In the lifetime of a character there are three periods when languages may be learned, namely Adolescence, Apprenticeship and during play.
In the Adolescence period, a character should only develop ranks in his native language and the native language family category. This guideline should be waived if the character's family or home environment is truly bilingual. Hobby ranks may be developed in other languages provided there is a sufficient background reason (i.e., his village, while human, was on the eaves of an elven forest, near a dwarven mine, or on the border with another kingdom, etc.).
During the apprenticeship period (the development period prior to the character actually entering play), the character will develop some combination of training packages and skills. Again the Gamemaster should collaborate with the player to determine which languages would have been available to him during this phase of the character's life (e.g., if the player chooses the Diplomat training package for his character, the character could reasonably develop the languages of the places to which he was assigned, and probably would be required to do this).
During play, it may transpire that the characters travel beyond the region with which they are familiar, finding themselves in a region where they share no common language with the natives. The characters will probably need to learn the local language. It is recommended that the time needed to raise a language from rank X to rank X+1 take X+1 days. These days arefull days spent learning the language (apart from eating and sleeping). Meditation should not be allowed to increase this rate as only so much information can be assimilated in a given period, although it will allow the character to undertake other activities. If the language is in a new language family to the character, the skill category will need to be developed as well. Skill category rank development will follow the same time progression as skill ranks.
Example: Maire is shipwrecked on the coast of Kiresh, where the only language the natives know is Nasarine. This is in the same category as Marrain, a language she already knows. So by spending onefull day learning Nasarine, she will reach rank 1, after 2 further days she will reach rank 2, etc. If Nasarine was in a different language family category, Maire would have needed 2 days to reach rank 1 in both category and language. She could then choose to develop just the language or to develop both.
The above discussion assumes that no magical means of assistance is used, such as the Learn Language spells. These spells assist the character in reducing the time taken to learn a language and the Development Point expenditure necessary.
Example: Returning to the example of Maire and her efforts to learn Nasarine, Maire needs three days and 2 DPs to learn the first two ranks of Nasarine. If she has access to the Learn Language II spell, she can double her rate of learning and halve the DP expenditure. In order to acquire those two ranks, she must cast Learn Language II, and maintain concentration as she learns (using whatever training resources are available). So to learn those two ranks would normally require three days, but while the spell is in operation, the learning rate is doubled, and so only a day and a half must be devoted to learning. Note that this will require Maire to spend twelve hours concentrating upon the spell. As the Spell Concentration rules exist to simulate mental fatigue and distractions, it is very likely that Maire will require multiple recastings ofthe spell to meet the learning time requirement.
When using these rules in play, it is necessary for the Gamemaster to consider whether the character can have access to the improved language skill before a level is advanced and the development points spent. To aid enjoyment ofthe game and better represent the learning along the way, it is suggested that the enhanced language skill be made immediately available, but the points must be allocated at the next level of development. Because there is a limit of 3 ranks per level, this should be borne in mind as a practical limit to the speed of language learning (i.e., a character can learn three ranks of a given language in play at second level, but must expend the points on advancing to third level to buy the ranks, and a fourth rank may not be purchased until the character reaches fourth level).
The starting languages allocated in the Rolemaster Standard Rules and Races and Cultures are based on the assumption that all of the races intermingle and it is useful for characters to be able to communicate in other languages.
In many settings, including modern and historical settings, this assumption is invalid. In addressing the alternative linguistic ability, two characteristics of a culture or race should be considered, namely the level of language development and the level ofcontact with other languages.
It is practical to divide cultures into four levels of language development:
Oral tradition: The spoken language is totalIy dominant. It is probable that if writing exists at all, it wiII be in the fonn of simple pictograms and limited to a few key individuals (e.g., high priest, shaman etc.).
Semi-Literate: In these cultures the spoken language is stiII dominant, but there exists an agreed alphabet and written fonn for the language. The number ofpeople able to read and write is larger butis stiII a smalI fraction ofthe population.
Literate: These cultures stiII mainly use the spoken language for everyday business, but writing is used and accepted as a means of recording important infonnation by alI; with even those who cannot write being aware of its value. The groups of people able to read and write is likely to include clergy, nobles (except perhaps the gentry), and high-ranking craftsmen.
Highly Literate: In these cultures, the existence of printing or other means of producing written material has shifted the balance towards the written fonn. In such cultures, being unable to read or write is rare and may be considered a disadvantage or social stigma.
It is possible to identify five levels oflinguistic contact.
Isolated: For some reason (i.e., politics, terrain, or magic), this culture is almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. Members of this culture may not be even aware that other cultures exist.
Distant: This culture is situated so far away from any other culture (note this could be within a huge empire, not just a long distance away) that visitors who speak other languages are a rare event. They will be aware of other languages but wiII expect people to use theirs.
Near: This culture is near to at least one other different culture. Visitors from the other culture(s) are reasonably common but no one from the other culture actually lives in the locality. For trade and diplomacy some individuals wiII know another language.
Close: This culture is within a few days travel of another culture. Travel to and from the regions of the foriegn culture is common and inter-marriage is accepted. Unless there are other strong reasons, a fair number of people wiII know some of their neighbor's language.
Cosmopolitan: The culture is a mixture of many cultures with many languages spoken. It would be expected that individuals would know mUltiple languages to be able to communicate in them.
The table below lists the Adolescence languages for these cultures in all combinations. To use this table, the Gamemaster should detennine the type ofculture and cross reference on the table. The ranks listed are only those given automatically. Hobby ranks used to learn languages can be in other languages not shown below.
The situation wiII arise where using this table will significantly reduce the number of language ranks for some cultures. It may then be appropriate to add some extra Adolescence ranks in culturally specific skills to represent the additional time available to the child who is not learning the other languages. It is recommended that these skills should be in the Crafts, Influence, or Lore categories and that at most 112 of the difference be awarded. A particularly generous Gamemaster might simply add the difference in ranks to the Hobby ranks available for the race.
Example: In the Rolemaster Standard Rules. the Mariner culture has Own language 8/6. other 1 8/6 and other 2 8/6. The Gamemaster determines that the culture is actually LiteratelNear and therefore has own 8/6 and other 16/4. This is a drop of (42 - 23) = 19 ranks. The Gamemaster decides that the time not spent learning other languages was spent listening to stories about their glorious heritage and awards three additional ranks in each of culture lore. region lore and history. The Gamemaster considers that nine ranks extra is all that is needed so that the culture is neither advantaged or disadvantaged relative to its original.
In the table there are always three pairs of numbers (paired for spoken/written) as three languages is the most that any race or culture can learn in this fashion. It should also be noted that only Cosmopolitan cultures can learn languages outside their own family category at this stage. For any culture the GM should detennine which languages are Other 1 and Other 2 (as appropriate for the gameworld).
There are many spells in the Rolemaster Standard System that can aid, or replace, a character's existing knowledge or skills. This brief section describes the various processes that these spells employ.
A cautionary note is in order, as not all such spells have "Lore" in their name and conversely there are many spells with "Lore" in their name which do not fall into this category. As an example, Death's Lore (from the Bard's Item Lore spell list), which gives the caster a vision of how someone died, is properly an evocation spell. Only in very rare circumstances would anyone develop a particular skill covering the nature of and events surrounding a particular death.
A lore spell may utilize one of the following three methods to achieve its effect: contacts, inspiration and information.
All Channeling lore spells (understandably) use this method. Their descriptions say that as long as the spell casting works, and, of course, is not blocked by other forces, the appropriate information is gained.
These spells work quite simply by contacting the worshipper's deity, or more likely, for lower level spells, a representative thereof(angel, spirit etc.). Given this source, the GM can modify the information received somewhat according to the caster's piety, etc., and can embellish and color it with the symbology ofthe faith. Not all deities will be willing to communicate in clear answers.
If a worshipper's lines of communication to their deity are cut for whatever reason, these types of lore spells should not work.
Spells working through this method use the caster's existing knowledge. They aid the caster in correlating and reasoning based upon that knowledge thus giving a greater chance to succeed in the maneuver, but no outright guarantee of success.
An example specific to a certain topic is the Magent base spell Poison Lore. This allows a Poison Lore maneuver with a +25 bonus. More generic, are the spells like Correlation from the Closed Mentalism list Mind Mastery which, for one maneuver, raise the caster's Reasoning stat bonus, and hence any skills the depend upon it.
These spells have information and experience encoded with them that become available to the caster when the spell is cast. These spells also usually give a bonus to a skill roll.
The Armsmaster base list Battle Law contains several spells of this nature (e.g., Battlelore which gives the caster +25 to a History (Battles) maneuver, or Tactics which gives +25 to a Tactics maneuver). It is easy to imagine this list containing a database of battles and generations of Armsmasters' experiences and best practice with each lore spell drawing upon the information relevant to the current situation.
In unusual circumstances, although these spells may still be cast, their results may be irrelevant, misleading or even dangerous. For example, if an Armsmaster is transported to a different dimension Battlelore would be unaffected, but of course would only help when discussing battles in the history of his home culture; use of Tactics in a small unit could lead to the Armsmaster's group being completely wiped out because it knew nothing about the oppositions' automatic firearms; Leadership, however, would be unaffected by differences in technology, but could be seriously compromised by differences in cultural values.
A number of spells (usually with Lore in their name) may appear to directly enhance a particular skill but are actually an indirect enhancement due to some form of scrying. The most popular of these is probably Locklore which is doubly confusing because a Lore • Technical skill of the same name also exists. This spell will be used as an example of how to interpret these in general.
The Lock Lore skill allows one to recognize or guess the type of lock from its visible characteristics. It involves the theory of how manipulating the various levers and so forth will cause the lock to open, and an idea of the layout of those mechanisms inside the lock. An extremely good roll may even result in the recognition of the workmanship if the character had encountered it previously. A successful Lock Lore skill roll gives +40 to an attempt to pick that lock. However merely describing the mechanism to someone else will only give them +10 to pick it (see Picking Locks skill RMSR Appendix A-1.29.)
The Locklore spell, however, will only give the caster a lower value of +20 to pick the lock, but still +10 if described to someone else. This is because the Locklore spell is scrying the interior of the given lock to try to determine the nature of the mechanism. It will give the caster an idea of the layout of the mechanism but it will be up to the caster to imagine how it is supposed to operate (i.e., the spell does not impart any theory to the caster). If this were a true lore spell, (as defined in this section), it would be able to access such theoretical knowledge.
Evocation denotes the use of divinatory skills and spells to reveal the past, in terms of significant events in the history of beings, places and objects. When employed successfully and intelligently, evocation can provide characters with substantial information regarding the past which serves to illuminate the "backstory" of current events. Such knowledge of prior events can help to explain the motivations of characters in the present and potentially assist in predicting future actions.
Evocation can potentially be used as a shortcut to unraveling any mystery. A trained practitioner could evoke the past at the location of a murder or other crime and reveal the identity of the criminal or gain sufficient other information to locate the offender in the present. Thus, a carefully paced mystery story, with subtle clues demanding Holmesian levels of deduction, could be reduced to a single stage of pursuit and final confrontation. Indeed given sufficient Seers, Astrologers, and other spell users, crime could potentially become infeasible, due to the ease of determining the perpetrators
The key is "potentially." The aim of this chapter is to provide a balanced view on the effectiveness of evocation, and techniques which characters can employ to limit the disclosure of information by evocation. Some control measures will also be given to enable the Gamemaster to discourage overuse and abuse of evocation.
Divinatory techniques can be employed solely to seek answers hidden in the past. As the past is immutable, evocation of the past using divination is an easier task than using divination to predict the future. The substitution of a single fixed past for an ever-changing infinity of potential futures enables the diviner to range further into the past in search of knowledge.
Nevertheless evocation using the Divination skill is the least informative means of scanning the past. The ability to use the same preparations, the same rituals, the same body oflore for the past as well as the future has the consequence of couching the evocation in the same symbolic and ambiguous language. The answer must be interpreted in the same fashion as any other reading. Thus, the descriptions of the mantic arts (in Section 3) and the associated game mechanics and potential readings (provided in Section 13 and elsewhere) are all applicable.
There are several issues that should concern the Gamemaster when handling this form of evocation within the story. Although this form of evocation has a reduced risk of causing unwanted alterations to the visible scope of the story, do not assume this is an easy skill for a Gamemaster to handle.
In addition to the issues discussed in Section 13, the Gamemaster should consider firstly what knowledge is actually being sought (as opposed to the question that the diviner player character has actually posed). The evocation will normally involve a "Who," "What," "Where," "When," "Why," or "How" question about an event, place or being. In many cases, the Gamemaster will know the full details surrounding the topic of interest (especially ifthe matter is, has been, or will be integral to the story). In some cases, the query will be tangential to the story or concern some topic in which the Gamemaster has not invested creative resources. When this occurs, the Gamemaster must be ready to improvise an answer that is consistent with the story, and whenever the answer is not critical to the story, improvising such detail is the best course. Occasionally the answer to an evocation may have ramifications for the story and the ramifications may differ depending upon that answer. The Gamemaster should consider the possible answers, and only make a story commitment ifhe is certain of his choice. The Gamemaster should not allow the players to force hasty decisions. Instead the symbolism of the evocation method should be used to provide an ambiguous reading with multiple possible interpretations. By using cryptic and ambiguous readings, the Gamemaster can delay the final decision and story commitment until a more appropriate time such as after the session.
As the past is immutable, the story commitment involved is irreversible once made, and so the Gamemaster should make a note of the newly created detail, however insignificant it may appear at the current moment. Such details may allow the Gamemaster to flesh out other aspects of the gameworld. For example, the discovery by evocation of the origins of a magical weapon could inspire the creation of a now defunct guild with its goals, history and legacies. The characters may encounter other items created by the guild and recognize the similarities in construction or inherit the guild's nemesis merely through possession of the weapon.
It may seem strange to determine the answer to the evocation before ascertaining whether the Divination maneuver has been successful. The rationale is simple: the players having decided that the matter is important will continue to persevere in trying to elicit the information until either the characters are apparently successful or the matter is shown or decided to be unimportant. If the divining proves a fruitless avenue of investigation, other methods will be tried sooner or later. Thus the Gamemaster will need to be able to provide an answer eventually.
The second major issue is to limit the amount of information which the evocation reveals. It is not enough to veil the revelation in cryptic and ambiguous symbology. The complete answer should only be revealed on an Absolute or Unusual Success result of a Divination maneuver. All lesser degrees of success should omit one or two key details, incorrectly emphasize some aspect, or include some irrelevancy. As success shades towards failure, readings should become steadily more inaccurate until eventually the reading is utterly wrong or utterly random. The diviner mayor may not recognize that the reading cannot be relied upon for accuracy. Evocation of the past is therefore probably only reliable for the relatively recent past.
In terms of modifiers specific to evoking the past, the following list is applicable to all divination techniques (except for Astrology; see Section 14).
For example, Colwyn the Seer has stumbled upon a forgotten and ruined temple. His companions have determined that another group has disturbed the ruins. Colwyn decides to divine their identity. As the intrusion occurred eleven days previously, the Divination skill is classified as a Medium maneuver. If Colwyn wished to divine the cause of the abandonment of the temple, an event which occurred some 470 years previously, the Divination maneuver would be classified as an Above Absurd maneuver with a penalty of -140 (fractions of a century being rounded up).
In contrast to evocation by Divination skill, evocation using Vision Behind, Past Vision, Retrocognition, and similar spells provides the caster with visions of events in the past. The evoked visions are factual and concrete, devoid of the symbolism and ambiguity of divination. There are two theories explaining the workings of such spells: temporal projection and memory reconstruction.
In the temporal projection theory, the evocation spells enable the caster to send his psychic awareness backwards in time to an event in the past. Higher level spells enable the caster to travel further back and to utilize more of his senses while in the past.
The major difficulty with this theory is the potential paradoxes which such projection can now provoke. The spells do not allow the caster to act in the past, merely to observe. However, this is in itself sufficiently dangerous. It is a fundamental precept of magic that a countermagic must exist for each and every magic. It is not unreasonable therefore to assume that spells could be developed to detect the caster's psychic awareness and perhaps attack the caster's astral form. Even if such spells have not been researched by mortal mages, it would be sufficient for Demons, Spirits or certain types of Undead to be able to detect the astral projections. Indeed it would be very hard in such cases to justify the absence of such abilities. Then any intrusion into the past, ifdetected by such beings, could alter the past and create a paradox situation.
For instance, Colwyn has divined that the ruined temple was destroyed by a magic ritual gone awry. He uses a Vision Behind spell to travel into the past to observe the details ofthe catastrophe. His psychic awareness arrives as the rebel priests prepare to begin their ritual. A demonic familiar observes his arrival and warns the priests who are understandably reluctant to allow an unknown influence to observe and possibly disturb their delicate ritual. While they debate the issue, a group of other priests rush into the sanctum and prevent the ritual from beginning. The temple is saved from destruction... paradox.
Further paradoxes and difficulties arise for the Gamemaster when the future is taken into consideration. Characters in the present may perform deeds of significance which may interest diviners in the future. In addition to having unwanted observers snooping on events as they happen, any detection of such future activity compels the Gamemaster to determine once and for all how many observers are present. Given that the future of a gameworld could be measured in millennia, millions of years, aeons even, the specter of time becoming filled with diviners at key junctures in history becomes an unattractive certainty.
Thus, we do not believe that temporal projection is a safe (easy to use, balanced, or recommended) mechanism to explain the workings of evocation spells.
The memory reconstruction theory is consistent with all existing and newly introduced evocation magic. It is also free from the potential of paradox and permits evocation magic to be potent without being omniscient. Thus, it is used as the "theoretical" justification for the remainder of this section.
The memory reconstruction theory assumes the existence ofa magical field which pervades the gameworld and this field imbues every being, every object, and every place with their own individual and unique aura. Every event that occurs in the life of a being, during the existence of an object, and in the presence of a place is recorded in the aura for eternity. The aura is the memory of the past.
Evocation is then a process of triggering this aura to reconstruct in the mind of the diviner what occurred at a given time in the past. Older memories are harder to evoke from the aura than more recent memories because the latter are recorded in "layers" above the former. The evocation spells must pass through many layers to reach the memories of the distant past. Significant events in the history of a being, object or place are etched more firmly in the aura and are more accessible to evocation regardless of the age of the memory.
The evoked memories are observed "through a glass darkly," preventing the caster from using all his sensory capabilities to observe the reconstruction. Often the caster can be tricked into perceiving the outward appearance as opposed to the inner reality of an event. In this way, casters may learn what others would wish them to believe rather than the truth
Archaeologists, historians, and detectives amongst others would find evocation magic to be incredibly useful in their chosen careers. The ability to evoke the memory of previous eras would solve the mysteries of history. The ability to evoke the memories recorded at crime scenes could render detecting crime a completely accurate science.
As ever, the task for the Gamemaster is to permit the use of this potent capability without allowing this magic to destroy the story. Evocation magic demands story commitment from the Gamemaster whenever it is employed by a character. The magic accurately reconstructs events that occurred in the history of a being, place or object. The Gamemaster cannot use symbolism or ambiguity to conceal information or delay story commitment; instead the events must be described as they happened.
Naturally the Gamemaster snould pause for a little while to gather his thoughts and decide upon the most appropriate sequence of events which is consistent with the story and compatible with his aims for future story progression. Only then should the vision be presented.
The situation might look rather bleak for the unprepared Gamemaster. In reality it's not, and the first level of story protection comes from inherent (and very deliberate) limitations in the spells.
Evocation magic can be divided into two main types: spells allowing the caster to key into specific time periods (notably the Past Vision and Vision Behind spells) and spells which grant the caster a vision of a random significant event in the history of the target (notably Retrocognition, Item Vision, Location Vision, and Person Vision spells). There are also a handful of support spells to enhance the effectiveness of any of these spells.
According to the theory of memory reconstruction, significant events are etched more deeply in the memory aura and are more accessible to evocation magic. However, the theory discusses significance in terms of importance to the being, object or location. Thus, when faced with providing a vision of a random significant event, the Gamemaster should consider the nature of the target and what events would be considered "significant" to that target.
Example: Colwyn the Seer cast an Item Vision spell on the sword of Sir Thomas (an Armsmaster). Significant events in the history of the sword would include its forging, its bonding as the Personal Weapon of Sir Thomas, the combat in which its blade was notched by the outlaw, etc. If, however Colwyn cast a Person Vision spell on Sir Thomas, significant events would include his achievement of knighthood, his acceptance of the Crusader's oaths, his victory over the pirates, his chastisement of an arrogant Paladin, and so forth. A Location Vision spell in a forest grove might include the combat of Sir Thomas and the outlaw, but is just as likely to reveal the sprouting of the first saplings in the grove, an affliction of the trees, the subsequent healing of the diseased trees by Elven animists, and an ancient druidic ceremony.
It should be noted that the Item Vision spells on the Bard base spell list of Item Lore provide the most significant event in the "item's" history.
Thus, the randomness coupled with the keying of the significance to the target represents salvation for the Gamemaster. It would however be unfair and unwise to never provide a vision which is relevant to the objectives of the caster. Unfair, because randomness should result in useful visions occasionally. Unwise, because player characters will sometimes seize upon irrelevancies, heading off on wild goose chases and leaving the real story behind. When using such spells, it can be appropriate to simulate the randomness by a d I()() roll (open-ended) on behalf of the character. High results might result in a relevant or useful vision, and low results might give a truly arbitrary vision.
The Vision Behind, and Past Vision spells are at first glance under much tighter character control. Nevertheless the spells do have intrinsic limitations.
Firstly, the spells are limited in terms ofthe senses which the vision can manifest. Spells on the Delving spell list, the Item Vision spells of the Bard, and Retrocognition spells should be limited to the visual sense only. Under no circumstances, should the caster be allowed to use Spell Mastery to enable other senses to be used or to enhance the senses through the use of other spells. (The justification by the memory reconstruction theory is that the vision is being directly input to the caster's brain and so bypasses the actual sensory organs.)
The Vision Behind and other spells on the Past Visions and Holy Vision spell lists are more powerful in that visual "and" auditory senses can be employed. However, the only enhancements that should be allowed are those specified in the spell descriptions. Game balance and the integrity of the gameworld will be compromised if the Gamemaster allows characters to employ Spell Mastery to use esoteric senses or to combine sense enhancement spells (e.g., Nightsight, See Invisible, etc.) with Vision Behind and similar spells. Such dangerous enhancements will negate all mundane methods of concealing actions from the scrutiny of curious Seers, Astrologers and others.
In all cases, the character should make Observation maneuvers to notice details in the vision.
Also, in addition to restricting the evocations to specified senses and normal sensory abilities, the Gamemaster should consider how the location of the point of evocation on a target will affect the available manifestation.
A simple example will illustrate this issue. Consider Maire the Astrologer who is interested in the history of a dower chest. If she casts Vision Behind spells with the chest lid closed, the visions might show where the chest has resided during its history and who has approached it over the years. It will not show items being placed within or being removed from the chest. If she casts Vision Behind spells with the chest opened, she will evoke visions of the items being placed within and removed from the chest. There will also be long periods of darkness when the lid is closed and nothing can be discerned in the evocations of such periods.
This limitation is most useful when dealing with items.
The third limitation is that Vision Behind and Past Vision spells have an inherent temporal imprecision in pinpointing events. Unlucky characters can miss interesting events quite easily especially with the higher level spells. This problem can be circumvented by repeated uses of evocation spells or restarting sequences by "locking" into the events using Vision Hold or Past Hold spells. The power point expenditure can easily become extravagant.
The fourth and final limitation is the need to concentrate upon the spells to continue the evocation. Although the higher level spells have very high maximum durations for the visions, the Spell Concentration rules should prevent these maxima from ever being reached. Repeated evocation should be permitted.
In terms of game mechanics, evocation can therefore be prevented from becoming too powerful through limitations in the allowable senses, the precision of visions and reduced actual vision durations.
The limitations discussed in the previous section assist in restricting the effectiveness of evocation. At first glance, they do not actually suggest methods by which characters can conceal activities from future inquisitors. However a careful study will reveal that evocation spells can be deceived. Moreover the same techniques to avert unwanted scrutiny at the time will often be equally adept in confusing magical evocation.
The key to deceiving evocation magic is to remember that the auras record apparent reality and the manifestation of the recorded memories is only possible in selected and unenhanced senses. The diviner will not be able to penetrate through the apparent reality to the actual reality using magical means. The diviner will be pitting his awareness skills and reasoning abilities against the preparations and caution of the target.
To demonstrate some of the useful techniques, let us consider Halthor (a Magent), who has been contracted to acquire some confidential documents from the home of a powerful guildmaster. It is known that the guildmaster has one Seer on his payroll.
Halthor decides to attempt his burglary at night, dresses in suitably dark clothing, and disguises himself. By using the cover of darkness, he will be nearly invisible to any evocation because the seer is limited to normal vision. Of course, a non-human Seer with natural Nightvision will be unaffected. The disguise will conceal his identity from non-human diviners and in areas that are illuminated. If the disguise is poor, then the Seer may recognize him. A disguising spell or a shapeshifting spell would provide a perfect identity. If the Gamemaster allows the use of Power Perception, a Seer might be able to determine that a spell was active, but the Seer would be unable to "see through" the spell.
A good disguise and stealthy movement will stretch the Observation skills of the diviner but ifthe cloaked figure of Halthor is revealed in an evocation, such precautions will be for naught if the diviner can trace Halthor' s movements. If a thief is being pursued through the streets, it is critically important to lose the pursuit either by disappearing into the crowds or taking unexpected routes. Similarly outlaws will try to cover their tracks in order to escape rangers and other outdoorsmen.1t is equally vital to break the trail to prevent adiviner from simply following the shadowed figure either backwards or forwards through time. Halthor must prevent any diviner from being able to trace him back to his hideaway either at the time of preparation for the burglary or after his successful getaway. The visions at those points in time would reveal Halthor's identity.
Useful methods of breaking an evocation trail include unusual movements such as flight, swimming underwater, or any of the various movement spells. These methods can be undone if the diviner is prepared to make exhaustive scans to regain the trail or if the diviner can deduce the intended destination ofthe quarry. Breaking the trail should be combined with a change in appearance as this may confuse the pursuers if they randomly locate the quarry's reemergence. They may fail to identify the quarry.
Invisibility and Unseen spells are also effective in concealing a character from evocation magic. The ability to perceive invisible targets is explicitly disallowed (unless perceiving invisibility is a natural abilty of some race in the Gamemaster's world). Unfortunately for Halthor, Cloaking spells are only effective against real observers, because they only remove sensory input from the minds of selected potential observers, rather than temporarily altering reality in a given radius. Thus, Cloaked persons will still be recorded in the auras of objects, locations and beings.
The utility of illusion magic depends upon which philosophy is used within the game. Standard illusions temporarily alter reality, and for the duration of the illusion, it is the altered reality which is recorded in the auras. Wary diviners may detect the illusion through evoking times before and after the illusion's duration.
For example, the Lady Rowena, an occasional adventuress, is always careful to cast an illusion of a (small) pavilion and to preserve her modesty by changing her clothes within the confines of the illusionary pavilion. If a curious sprite should cast a Vision Behind spell at a point outside the confines of the illusionary pavilion, the sprite will see Rowena enter the pavilion in bloodied hunting garb, and emerge in fresh traveling clothes. If the Vision Behind is cast within the area of the illusion and assuming there is (or was) sufficient illumination, the sprite's curiosity will be satisfied but Rowena may find she has acquired another unwelcome suitor.
Mental illusions only affect the minds of selected targets. They leave no record even in the auras ofthe affected targets. However the unlikely behavior occasionally manifested by the targets of mental illusions can hint at the use of such spells.
If a diviner can acquire an item which was formerly in the possession of the quarry, it is usually a simple matter of going sufficiently far back into the auras to reveal the desired information. Even if Halthor is careful not to leave any of his equipment behind, a determined diviner could use the description of Halthor' s clothing to scry for them in the present. Most diviners will not be sufficiently desperate or powerful to locate items on such flimsy knowledge. If Halthor is being truly paranoid, he should destroy any item that might potentially have been captured in an aura at the crime scene.
If a particular set of spells proves to be effective at either the strategic or the tactical level, then magical countermeasures will eventually be developed to mitigate or eliminate the advantages conferred through the use of the original spells. Seers and Magents have developed countermagic to thwart the use of evocation magic.
The counterspells are Shadow Past, Unknown Past, and False Past (on the Seer base list Vision Guard) and Shadow Assassin, Unknown Assassin, and False Assassin (on the Magent base list Disguise Mastery). These spells temporarily interfere with the recording of reality into nearby auras. Each casting of one of these spells will provide interference for a duration, but the distorted recording is (almost) permanently etched into the aura.
The Shadow Past and Shadow Assassin spells shroud the protected subject in shadow, effectively reducing the recording to an outline without detail. The Unknown Past and Unknown Assassin spells prevent any details about the protected subject from being recorded (i.e., the subject cannot be perceived in evocation visions). The False Past and False Assassin spells alter the recording process such that another being is recorded as performing the actions. In all cases, these spells only protect against evocation.
The Magent spells are limited to protecting the caster whereas the Seer can choose who or what is to be protected from evocation magic.
The interference produced by these spells is almost permanently etched in the auras. It is possible to remove the distortions restoring the auras so that evocation reveals the actual recording. The countermagics can be theorized as adding and interleaving false memories within the true memory of the aura but without being so powerful as to prevent the real events also being recorded.
It might seem that such spells ought to be really permanent, given the potential threat that unrestricted evocation can pose to the story. In fact, permanence would pose an even greater threat to the story as both Magents and Seers could prevent anyone from ever discovering the true sequence of events, and both False Assassin and False Past would be used to pervert the course ofjustice. It would be all too easy for player characters to get away with murder....
Elsewhere, spells will be described which interfere with scrying and divination. These spells (mainly from the Vision Guard spell list) can also be themselves countered. The process involved for evocation, scrying, and divination is called "piercing."
Before diving into the mechanics of piercing, some tenninology is needed.
In what follows, the being, object or place which is being protected is called the "Subject." The character attempting to scry the present, divine the future or evoke the past of a given Subject will be called the "Diviner." The defensive spell which is shielding the Subject will be called the "Guard," and the caster of the Guard will be called the "Protector."
Prior to making an attempt to pierce a Guard, the Diviner must suspect that some Guard spell is defending the Subject. Diviners must have reason to suspect that something is wrong with their scrying, divination or evocation before they may attempt to detect a Guard.
Assuming a Guard is suspected to be active, the Diviner must make an RR against the level of the Protector (or the level of the Guard spell if the Gamemaster prefers). This RR is made at -20 if the Diyiner is a Seer or Astrologer, and at -50 for all other Diviners. If the RR is successful, the Diviner will know whether a Guard protects the Subject (as well as the nature of the Guard). Ifthe RR fails, the Diviner is unaware of the Guard and his infonnation-gathering will be hindered as appropriate by the respective Guard spell. Note he might believe some other cause is responsible for hampering his spells or skills. A Diviner may attempt to detect any given Guard only once (per level of experience), and each active Guard must be detected separately.
Assuming a Guard has been detected, the Diviner may choose to pierce that Guard by focusing his concentration further into his information-gathering spell (or skill). This is resolved by having the Guard spell make an RR (at the Protector's level or the Guard's level if the Gamemaster prefers) against the Diviner's level. The Guard's RR is modified by +0 if the Diviner is a Seer, by +10 if the Diviner is an Astrologer and by +20 for all other Diviners. If the RR is successful, the Guard will continue to protect the Subject (and hinder the Diviner appropriately), although the Diviner will know to treat any infonnation gained "with a pinch of salt." If the RR fails, the Diviner has pierced the Guard, leaving the Subject unprotected by that Guard. Each active Guard must be pierced separately, and the Diviner may only attempt to pierce any such Guard once (per level of experience).
This example is given in tenns of evocation magic—it should be stressed that the same mechanics are to be used to "pierce" scrying and divination defenses.
Colwyn (an 8th level Seer) decides that to protect his privacy from the inordinately curious, he will cast Shadow Past upon himself one evening.
Sometime later, Renar (a 13th level Astrologer) is hired to find out what happened at a certain place on the previous night. He casts Vision Behind III and begins to scan the past, and in the course of the vision, a shadowy figure is revealed at the scene. Being a trained Astrologer, he suspects some form of Vision Guard spell, and concentrates his mind to resist the self-cloaking nature of any Guard spell.
The Guard (Shadow Past) "attacks" at Colwyn's level (8th). Renar needs 38 or higher from the RR Table to identify the spell. The base RR roll is a 65, but 20 must be subtracted because of the nature of the Guard spell, yielding a net result of 45. Luckily, he only needed to roll above a 38. He realizes that a Shadow Past spell has been used to protect the unknown person. If Mahael (an 11th level Mentalist) attempts a similar undertaking with an identical roll of 65, Mahael's lack of knowledge of the intricacies of such spells (reflected in the -50 modifier) would result in Mahael failing to identify the Guard. Mahael would be convinced that the unknown person was using illusion or similar magic to cloak his identity.
Renar decides to attempt to pierce the Shadow Past spell and so concentrates his mind even further upon the Vision Behind spell, using his force of will to reveal the true past. The Shadow Past spell must defend itself (as 8th level) against Renar's 13th level "attack." From the RR Table, the Shadow Past spell needs 62 or more to survive. The Gamemaster rolls 51 for the Shadow Past spell, adds 10 to the roll (because Renar as an Astrologer is not fully familiar with the arcana of another profession's spell lists), yielding a net result of 61. Renar pierces the Shadow Past spell, rending it utterly, and views the now unprotected past. Hopefully Colwyn was not tempted to any indiscretion in the bedroom of the Duke's beautiful daughter.
Careless use of evocation magic can potentially pose two dangers to the caster. The first is aura resonance. The second is the reconstruction of perilous visions. Both of these dangers may be added to the game at the discretion of the Gamemaster.
No vision revealed through evocation can physically injure the observer. For example, a blinding light will not blind the caster. The reconstruction ofthe past bypasses the caster's sense organs and is directly visualized in his mind. Of course, if the blinding illumination is more than momentary, the light will prevent anything else being seen.
Casters should not become blase about evocation because sometimes the visions will be very unpleasant and may cause mental anguish or injury to unprepared or weak-willed individuals. The nature of the effect will depend on what flaws, if any, exist in the caster's sense of self and willpower. A squeamish individual who stumbles upon images of the dying and the wounded in a battlefield hospital may feel faint at the conclusion of the spell (if he does not prematurely end the spell). A caster with a phobia may be terrified if confronted by the object ofthe phobia in the vision. Visions evoking images of the unearthly planes or equally horrifying perceptions may produce lingering and disturbing memories which repeatedly impinge upon the individual in both dreams and wakefulness. The only cure may be to erase the memories.
Such perilous visions should be a rare occurrence unless characters are deliberately seeking out such horrors. See Section 9.3 for guidelines on how to handle such situations.
In evoking the past, the caster is activating the memory aura and reconstructing the impressions made by beings upon the aura in the past. Each being's own aura will have left its imprint upon the aura of the source of the evocation. If any of the beings are still alive when the evocation spell is cast, the triggering of their imprint might induce a response in their actual aura. This is known as "aura resonance." Sometimes this resonance will be perceived by the being as a shiver down the spine, a prickling at the nape of the neck, a cold sweat, or whatever is appropriate for the being's race. If the being later meets the caster, a subconscious intuition may induce a feeling of deja vu (that the being and caster have met previously) or may predispose the being to treat the caster with mild amiability, caution or hostility.
There are two main factors which affect the chances of aura resonance being perceived. The first is the current distance between the subject of an evocation and the caster. The greater the separation, the less likely resonance will occur. The second is the difference in time between the present and the past reconstructed by evocation. As time passes, individuals mature and age, and their auras change to reflect this. Evocations of the distant past are much less likely to induce resonance than evocations of the recent past.
For every being who appears in an evocation vision and who is still alive at the time of casting, the Gamemaster should roll d100 (open-ended high) and modify the result as follows:
+ Triple the Intuition stat bonus of the being in the vision
+ target's level
- caster's level
+/- varies dependent on the distance (see below)
+/- varies dependent on how far back in time the event happenend (see below)
| Distance | Mod | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10' or less | +30 | up to 1 minute |
| up to 100' | +20 | up to 10 minutes |
| up to 1000' | +10 | up to 1 hour |
| up to 1 mile | +0 | up to 1 day |
| up to 10 miles | -10 | up to 1 week |
| up to 100 miles | -20 | up to 1 month |
| up to 1000 miles | -30 | up to 1 year |
| up to 5000 miles | -40 | up to 10 years |
| up to 10000 miles | -50 | up to 100 years |
| up to 100000 miles | -60 | up to 1000 years |
| different plane | -70 | above 1000 years |
Ifthe final total is 101or more, the target perceives aura resonance.
Example: A 12th level Lizardman Seer is trying to determine who abandoned a rowing boat and whether they represent a threat to his unit. He casts a Vision Behind spell and evokes a vision of eight weary humans dragging the damaged boat and their supplies off the beach. He notes that one of the humans is carrying a shield bearing the symbol ofa hated Paladin order.
The Gamemaster rolls on behalf of each of the eight humans to see if aura resonance occurs. In the case of the Paladin, Taeryc von Neustadt, he rolls 90, and adds 8 for the Paladin's level, adds 30 for the Paladin's Intuition stat bonus, and subtracts 12 for the Seer's level, +20 because the party is currently 12 miles away, and afurther +10 because the evocation is reconstructing events two days old. Thefinal total is 86. Taeryc does not notice the aura resonance.
Assuming the aura resonance is detected, this subconscious warning will only modify the target's behavior towards the caster if they meet. The longer between the warning signal and the actual encounter, the less likely that the target's subconscious will affect the target's behavior. To determine if the subconscious warning is remembered, the Gamemaster should roll d100 (open-ended high) and add the following modifiers:
+/- Double the target's Intuition stat bonus
+/- The target's Memory stat bonus
+/- varies depending upon the time between the evocation warning and when the target "meets" the caster (see below)
| +30 | under 1 minute |
| +20 | up to 10 minutes |
| +10 | up to 30 minutes |
| +0 | up to 1 hour |
| -10 | up to 3 hours |
| -20 | up to 6 hours |
| -30 | up to 1 day |
| -40 | up to 1 week |
| -50 | up to 1 month |
| -70 | up to 1 year |
If the final total is 101 or more, the target's subconscious will associate the resonance warning with the caster. The manifestation of this subconscious warning in terms of behavioral predispositions is at the Gamemaster's discretion.
This section has attempted to describe techniques to limit the power of evocation within the story in a balanced fashion. While Gamemasters will doubtless be relieved, players may be somewhat discouraged at this reduction in effectiveness. Players should take heart from the tremendous amount of information which can still be gained through evocation, and naturally should remember to use the restrictions to protect their own characters.
Gamemasters and players should note that the scarcity of Seers, Astrologers and other practitioners of evocation, and the risks of employing them, will mean most interesting events (such as crime) will not be subjected to this scrutiny. Only really important matters will be subjected to full-scale investigations (usually conducted by non-player characters). Similarly, most individuals will not know how to protect themselves from evocation; such knowledge will be the province of diviners, spies, and the top echelon of criminals. In the latter circumstances, the battle of wits between the diviner-sleuth and his quarry can become an intricate story in and of itself.
Scrying, according to the definition, covers the skills and spells which enable the practitioner to reveal unknown quantities and qualities in the present, perceiving the actions of beings or events in both near and distant locations. In itself, scrying is a potent information-gathering method. In conjunction with related abilities such as sense sharing, this class of techniques represents a formidable arsenal for espionage, investigation, exploration, and many other purposes.
These techniques rarely force the Gamemaster into premature story commitments (such as frequently occurs with evocation or divination). On the other hand, they can compel the Gamemaster to alter the visible scope of the story in terms of increasing the size of the gameworld region about which the characters can personally obtain reliable information. The characters are no longer limited by their normal sensory ranges, relying on either rumors, messengers, and other travelers to bring news from distant parts, or having to actually journey to such exotic locales themselves to determine what is currently happening. Instead the characters can spend rainy days in the warmth ofinns, taverns, or homes while they send their perceptions outward. Aerial views of areas of interest can be gained from the perceptions of birds in flight. The safety and whereabouts of friends and allies can be assessed by scrying; the plans and movements of enemies can be similarly observed and evaluated.
Once again, the potential exists for the players through their characters, to eliminate the element of the unknown in the story. The aim of this section is to explain what information may reasonably be acquired by scrying and sense sharing, and to describe limitations and countermeasures to maintain the challenge of the unknown within the story.
The Divination skill can be employed to determine the answers to questions solely concerned with the present. Scrying the present through divination is easier than divining the future but is neither easier nor harder than evoking the past. The difficulties which beset the diviner as he probes deeper into the past or the future are replaced in scrying with increased difficulty in proportion to the range o f the subject to be scried. As is the case with evocation, the Divination skill is the least informative method for scrying, being subject to all the normal procedures, game mechanics, and potential readings described in Section 3 and Section 13.
Scrying and related techniques can create problems which the Gamemaster must address when handling their use within the story and the game.
The Gamemaster must firstly consider the question posed by the would-be scryer both in terms of the actual wording of the question and the knowledge sought by the player through the character. "Pure" scrying should only concern itself with factual questions solely related to the present. Sometimes questions will be posed that are phrased such that they also relate to the past or the future. In such cases, the appropriate modifiers with regard to time (for evocation and/or divination) should also be used.
Scrying is often employed when the characters wish to discover information about a place, an item, or a being without devoting time or other resources to visiting, acquiring or encountering the subject and without exposing themselves to physical risks. Assuming the players are on the right track, the scrying should be on a topic which is relevant to the story. If it is not, the Gamemaster mayor may not have material prepared for the eventuality and improvisation of the relevant details is called for. These details mayor may not have future ramifications for the story (and this will depend on how likely the details are to change in the future). Often the details (such as the number ofguards protecting a merchant caravan) will change quite dramatically by the time the player characters become physically involved. Thus, the future story commitment implied by the result of a scrying may be minimal.
Scrying on topics which are directly relevant to the story is naturally more troublesome for the Gamemaster. In such situations, the players are using scrying as an aid to decision making, and successful scrying will (at the minimum) reveal interesting information (usually weakening the full impact of one of the Gamemaster's surprises) or change the future story progression. The latter may occur when a scrying attempt reveals a location or other key information relating to a character or group goal. The players may instantly decide to pursue this information and the characters head directly towards the goal. This can short-circuit a major portion of the story. Worse yet, the Gamemaster may be unprepared to handle the goal at this time.
An example: Sir Thomas and a company of knights have arrived too late to prevent the raiding of another merchant caravan by the infamous desert outlaw Nasir al-Azrad. Sir Thomas swears an oath that if he but knew where the knave was, he would pursue Nasir to the brink of hell and beyond. Somewhat foolishly, Colwyn attempts to use his tarot cards to scry for the current location of the outlaw. A successful scrying reveals that Nasir is "at home." Emboldened by this success (and abetted by the player's run of lucky dice rolls), Colwyn proceeds to scry out the nature of Nasir's base and its approximate location. After listening to the results, Sir Thomas leads his force directly towards the cave complex. It's going to be a busy weekend for the Gamemaster—he was not expecting to need Nasir's base for at least another four sessions.
In the example above, the Gamemaster outsmarted himself by revealing a fixed location for the outlaw. One strategy (which would certainly have delayed the damaging revelation) would have been to decide that Nasir was actually traveling in the desert, and reveal this. This would have been much harder to pinpoint and less likely to trigger an instant pursuit. By the time, the crusaders reach that location, Nasir should be safely elsewhere.
This strategy will not thwart players who ensure that their characters ask the correct questions. The only solution is to divert the player characters with other more pressing needs or dangers, and in so doing, buy the time to undertake the necessary "out-of-session" preparation.
The information revealed through scrying should be shrouded in ambiguous symbology. The amount of information to be revealed by the Gamemaster should depend on the degree of success (or lack thereof) in the Divination maneuver (as described in Section 11 for evocation attempts). Countermagic (such as the spells available on the Seer base spell list Vision Guard) will also interfere with the results of the skill.
In terms of modifiers specific to scrying the present, the following list is applicable to all divination techniques (except Astrology, see Section 14).
There are three broad classes of "scrying"-type spells (namely detection spells), sense projection spells, and remote sensing spells, which all involve the scanning of a locale or an area in the present.
Detect spells are the most familiar to Gamemaster and player alike, and have the shortest range of any of the spells which move the caster's "senses." Normally the caster will lack a natural sensory ability to perceive magic, evil, etc. The Detect spells are unusual in that they also provide the sense with which the caster scans the areas of interest. The limited range and various magical countermeasures prevent most of these spells from providing too much information to the characters. By classifying such spells as "scrying," the Detect Enemies spells of the Paladin can potentially be thwarted by the set of anti-scrying measures incorporated in the Vision Guard spell list. A Scrying Misdirection spell could cause a Paladin to believe an enemy was at a different location, a Cloud Scrying spell could cause a Detect Enemies spell to omit the location, number or type of the detected enemies, and a False Scrying spell could completely misrepresent the real state of affairs. The Gamemaster should examine the exact spell description of the detection spell in question and suitably alter the detected information depending upon the anti-scrying measure being employed.
Sensory projection spells are much closer to traditional expectations of "scrying" magic. This category of spells involves Conveyance spells where the caster's awareness leaves his body and travels to a location of interest to observe events at that location, and Long Sense and Observe spells where the caster temporarily relocates one or more senses to a different location. These spells are incredibly useful because they enable characters to send their senses to perform magical reconnaissance of unknown, guarded, or enclosed locations rather than risking a scouting mission. Their most important advantage is that they can be employed in situations where the characters are almost completely ignorant of a given region.
For example, a party of adventurers find itself marooned on a tropical island. After a night's rest, Colwyn uses a scrying device with a Conveyance spell to scan the island for coastal villages and other signs of habitation. Colwyn locates the general whereabouts of one village and the party sets off in the hope of finding a ship to take them to the crusades. So much for terra incognito and the hidden mysteries of unexplored lands....
Fortunately, sensory projection does have limitations. With the exception of the Long Sense spells from the Arcane Vision spell list, all Conveyance, Observe, and other Long Sense spells limit the caster's perceptions to the normal ranges of sight, hearing and so forth, and the caster may not combine the sensory projection with sense enhancement spells (such as Nightvision, Sly Ears, Illusionsight, etc.). This restriction enables disguises, invisibility, standard and sensory illusions, darkness, fog, loud sounds and such to hamper the effectiveness of sensory projection just as they would the perceptions of an observer who was physically present at the location (and indeed much as these precautions will hamper evocation). Cloaking spells and mental illusions will not affect the scryer as it is usually impossible to locate the scryer as a target for the spell. The Gamemaster should not allow Spell Mastery to be used to add additional senses or permit sensory enhancement in conjunction with scrying magic.
With spells which require the caster to move the sense to the desired location (namely Long Sense spells), the caster should not be allowed to observe the world while moving the sense. This restriction is relaxed slightly for Conveyance spells and does not affect Observe or similar spells which instantaneously relocate the sense to a fixed location.
This restriction is subtle and powerful. In preventing the caster from making observations while moving his sense(s) or awareness at high velocity, the caster is prevented from observing interesting features en route and reacting accordingly. The caster is thus compelled to select a direction and move in that direction blindly for a time. Of course, without external markers with which to measure the distance travelled, the caster must rely on his own internal clock, represented in mechanics by the Time Sense skill (to measure the times and distances involved). The longer the caster travels without "dropping into real space," the greater the likelihood of overshooting (or undershooting) the destination.
It is recommended that the following modifiers be applied to the Time Sense skill when used to measure times during these spells.
With the exceptions of the results of Unusual or Absolute Success, the caster will always overshoot or undershoot. The percentage error can be determined as shown below.
The direction of the error is at the discretion of the Gamemaster.
Returning to the example of the marooned adventurers, Colwyn's player decides that using five-minute bursts of high-speed Conveyance interspersed with landmark finding and reorientation has a reasonable chance of locating settlements. Colwyn's player makes a Time Sense maneuver roll (at a -40 modifier) for each burst. Unsurprisingly, Colwyn never moves his senses in five mile jumps, and spends much of his observation time relocating the coast. The locating of the single village was just lucky. An attempt to relocate the village a day later (using Conveyance) fails completely. Colwyn's player decides that an investment in development points to buy more skill ranks in Time Sense would be wise.
One aspect not covered in the descriptions of the sensory projection spells is what happens on termination of the spell. In all cases, the return ofthe awareness or sense to the normal confines of the body should require some reorientation. The erstwhile caster should be treated as "stunned" for the round following the end of a sensory projection spell. If the spell is terminated abruptly (by a failed Spell Concentration maneuver or dispelling magic), the effects will be more severe. For Long Sense, Observe and similar spells, the caster should be treated as stunned for dI0 rounds.
If a Conveyance spell is prematurely terminated before the caster can return his awareness to his body, there is an immediate risk of psychic dissolution. The caster must make a Fear RR with the level of the attack equal to the distance (in miles) between the caster's awareness and the caster's body (with a minimum attack level of one). If the caster fails the RR (the terror of death), the caster's awareness will dissipate and the body will suffer brain death. If the caster survives being frightened to death, his awareness must retreat to the body at a fixed rate, and the time to return should be treated as an overstay duration (for the purposes of the Resistance Roll discussed in the spell description).
If the Gamemaster allows the Power Perception skill, characters may make a Hard (-20) maneuver using this skill to notice the magical fluctuations associated with an observer using any sensory projection spell.
The Scrying spells require the caster to be able to uniquely identify or name the intended subject. Ifthe caster is unable to identify the subject, the scrying will attempt to "lock onto" the nearest similar target within range. If there is no appropriate similar target within the range, the spell will simply fail. If the scryer only has a description of the subject and if the description is inaccurate (e.g., of a Magent in heavy disguise), the scrying will miss the intended target. Scrying spells may only have one subject per casting, requiring a recast if the spell goes astray.
Although closed doors, shuttered windows and similar mundane precautions will not stop a Scrying spell from locking onto a target being or location, darkness, standard illusions, invisibility (and so forth) will reduce the information which the scryer can obtain as all such spells are strictly limited to (some of) the caster's normal unenhanced senses. The use of Power Perception or Detect/Feel Scrying spells can alert a subject to the scrying attempt.
All three categories of scrying magic can be stopped or hampered by a number of counterspells. Structures can be protected permanently using antiscrying wardings (as found on the Structure Wardings and the Perimeter Warding spell lists in Castles & Ruins). If a scrying spell fails to resist one of these wards, the spell is immediately terminated. The antiscrying measures on the Vision Guard spell list have a much shorter and temporary duration, but can be used to protect any potential subject. The reader is referred to that list for specific details and reminded that these spells can themselves be pierced (as described in Section 11.5).
Sense borrowing or (more often) sense sharing is not a type of scrying magic. Because of this, sense borrowing is not subject to "anti-scrying" effects. For those with access to such magic and creatures with useful sensory abilities, it can be a very valuable source of information concerning the present, and so it is appropriate to discuss it in this chapter.
The human race can be proud of its senses, yet many members of the animal kingdom have superior capabilities in one or more senses. Some animals have natural senses which humans can only possess through the surrogate of advanced technology.
In Rolemaster, magic can allow characters access to the sensory capabilities of animals, whether it be by the Vision Borrowing spells of the Seer, communication and sense sharing with Bonded animals orfamiliars, or shapechanging to a desired animal form. The motivation behind the use of such magic will often be to gather information which would otherwise be unavailable to the character. Few Gamemasters will be expert biologists and so will frequently be compelled to rely on general knowledge of a given animal's sensory abilities, or will succumb to the most common mistake: describing the animal's perceptions as if it was a human being.
This section aims to assist the Gamemaster by providing a sample of the range of animal senses including some which humans lack, followed by a discussion of how to use this material within the context of animal behavior and the constraints of the various classes of spells. It would be impossible to provide complete details of all the myriad species to be found in any given world. Instead, each class of animals is discussed in general (and interesting members are highlighted).
The sense of sight can be characterized by a number of factors, including eye type, the range of the spectrum of light which is detected by the eye, and eye placement. Eye types can range from simple photosensitive regions (able only to detect the presence or absence of light) to organic "pinhole cameras" (able to provide poor images ofa scene) to organic eyes with lenses (providing adjustable focus and sharp images). All vertebrates and many invertebrates have lenses in their eyes.
Dependent on their environmental niche, many creatures see different wavelengths of light from humans, ranging into both the infrared and ultraviolet portions of the spectrum. Animals also differ in their ability (or inability) to distinguish color.
Eye placement differs according to whether a particular creature is predator or prey. Predators have forward facing eyes, with the binocular vision giving depth perception and advantages in chasing down fleeing prey. Predators do not need to concern themsel ves with other animals sneaking up on them. Prey have eyes on each side of the head in order to provide 360° vision without the need to move the head (and potentially attracting the notice of a predator).
Insects see the world with the aid of compound eyes, with each facet gathering a small portion of the field of vision. Insectoid vision has a much poorer resolution as a consequence and has poor focusing action but this is unlikely to inconvenience the insect as significant objects to an insect will appear near and large. Compound eyes have the advantages ofequal clarity over the whole field of vision and better motion detection. The definition of the final image depends on the number of facets which are combined in a matrix of overlapping points of light, from a mere nine (in the case ofsome underground worker ants), to five thousand in a bee's eye, to thirty thousand in a dragonfly's eye. The last would have the quality of a grainy photograph. Flies and other daytime insects live in a high speed world and so possess a higher "flicker fusion" rate than humans. This rate determines the frequency at which the field of view is updated and is essential for rapid detection of visual stimuli and consequent instinctive reactions (making fly swatting a difficult task).
Most species of spiders have eight eyes, but the eyes are not equally valuable. Two of the eyes serve the spider by creating a picture. The remaining side eyes are much simpler and function as detectors of peripheral movement which guide the main eyes towards prey or potential mate.
Bees have a different set of pigments in their eyes, namely green, blue and ultraviolet. The world according to the bee is a world of very different hues to humans, a world without any shade of red. Some light is polarized as it travels through the atmosphere, and this light can be detected by bees allowing them to navigate using the sun on cloudy days by comparing the received pattern with the stored reference map to locate the hidden sun.
In the depths of the ocean, the only light is blue and so the eyes of deep-sea animals are tuned to utilize such light (unlike land-based animals). In rivers and lakes, the water is often colored green by algae or brown by decaying vegetation. Freshwater fish have their eyes tuned to red as a result. Some species change their color bias during their lifecycle of migration from rivers to the open sea.
Amongst the best eyes in the oceans are those belonging to the squids, the octopi and the sharks. The squids and octopi can equal human vision and have no blind spot (but are limited to monochrome images). Sharks' eyes, in addition to being attuned to the sea, are some ten times more sensitive to light than human eyes. A valuable asset indeed to one of the most feared predators of the dimly lit waters.
One of the few advantages of being cold-blooded is an improvement of vision as the ambient temperature decreases. At low light levels such as late evening and night, heat will affect the pigment cells in the eyes to an equal extent as light. The body heat of mammals interferes with their vision.
The eyes of primitive vertebrates (such as frogs—a favored wizardly familiar) do significant processing of what is seen forwarding only the results to the brain. For example, the frog's eyes respond to moving edges as well as performing pattern matching on objects of particular sizes (such as flies). Its brain is responsible for identifying dangerous or unpalatable insects and preventing such insects from being deemed prey. Motionless insects are effectively invisible to the frog. The sensitivity of a frog's eyes to blue is a natural adaptation to its normal watery environment (frighten a frog and it will instinctively leap for the nearest patch of blue in the expectation that this will be the safe haven of water).
Birds are justly renowned for their acute vision. This is due to their possession of no less than five different pigments in their eyes (compared to the human three) and "oil drop" filters with which to narrow the band of wavelengths to a manageable number. This allows birds to discern from great altitudes the subtle characteristic hues of favored plants and trees, the distinctive and betraying coloration of landbound animals, or even fish swimming rashly close to the water's surface.
Many birds of prey have an additional advantage. On noticing a feature of interestin their field of vision, they can enhance that portion, raising its magnification several times much like a telephoto lens on a modern camera (at the expense of the remainder of their view). If the interesting object proves to be potential prey, then the bird can swoop down from the skies, its approach probably unnoticed by the unheeding animal. Of course, the greater cruising height that such vision affords will enable the hunter to survey much more territory.
Amongst the mammals, the various species of primates are possibly the most favored with regard to vision. Evolution has bequeathed primate eyes with three pigments (blue, green, and yellow/green/red) compared to the mere two pigments available to dogs, cats, squirrels, and most other mammals (causing such less favored mammals severe difficulties in distinguishing between red and green shades). Likewise most other mammals have poor focus.
Nocturnal mammals (such as cats) have even poorer color vision (because of a low density of color-detecting cells), but as they approach an object, their perception of its color improves. Their eyes are better adapted for the night (absorbing half as much light as human eyes) and the irises contract during the day to prevent saturation from the higher light levels.
Human ears, like those belonging to other animal species, enable sounds to be distinguished and their sources to be located. However the human ear is deaf to much of the range offrequencies employed by the animal kingdom and is further disadvantaged underwater.
A useful rule of thumb with regard to the range of frequencies that can be heard by a given animal is to consider its size. In general, larger animals hear lower frequencies, whereas small animals hear higher frequencies. This heuristic is not rigid, as animals must concentrate on the frequencies necessary for survival in their ecological niche.
Instead of ears, insects possess tympanal organs in seemingly unlikely places on their bodies. These stretched membranes can be found for instance on the front walking legs of crickets and the bellies of cicadas. Insects are sensitized to their own survival frequencies.
Spiders have hairs which are tuned to perceive air movements with the size of the hairs determining the frequency detected. Some house spiders have been known to come out of hiding when music is played in a room (though this does not indicate a love of music). The notes which captivate these spiders have been incorrectly recognized as the sound of wings.
The rivers, seas and oceans of the world are filled with sound. Water is a better medium than air for the propagation of sound. Fish are well adapted to the low frequencies common to the waters.
In place of ears, fish possess lateral line detectors which serve to detect water movements. These are arranged along the body such that each organ receives a marginally different impression of a disturbance in the water. Such arrangements allow the source of the movement to be located. Water currents or the fish's own movements can mask other sounds.
Lateral line detectors allow shoaling fish to maintain their position relative to the other members of the shoal. Sharks, as might be expected, possess very sensitive lateral line organs, able to detect the water movements generated by the muscles of swimming fish.
If the vision of the more primitive vertebrates is rather limited, their hearing is equally restricted. Frogs can hear the sounds of other frogs, various predators, and very little else. Those additional detectable sounds are doubtless also survival frequencies or legacies of ancestral threats. The spadefoot toad, a desert dwelling species, lies dormant in burrows under the soil while the weather is dry. It emerges to make the most of wet weather whenever it hears the low frequency sound of falling rain.
Birds are suspected to use infrasound as an aid to navigation. Infrasound is the term given to very low frequencies below the range of human hearing. Such sounds can be used to provide birds with both weather prediction and auditory maps of territories of interest. The mountains, the seas, and the deserts all produce recognizably different patterns of sound which can be detected at a distance. The sands of the desert signal their presence with a resonant hum; the high winds passing over the mountains reveal the great peaks to those who can hear. Infrasound is a contributing factor to the success of the great avian seasonal migrations
Another common companion to wizard and adventurer is the owl. The large eyes of the owl provide excellent vision for nocturnal hunting, but the ears provide hearing which equals or excedes human capabilities. The barn owl not only can determine whether a sound originates from its left or right but also the height of the source. The latter feat is made possible because one earhole is higher than the other causing sounds from differing heights to arrive at slightly different times. Much of its brain capacity is used for sound mapping (a worthwhile investment for the owl).
All mammals have similar ears to humans, and in many cases (such as dogs) have superior hearing. Dogs can hear frequencies twice as high as the upper limit of human hearing.
Desert animals have extremely acute hearing, with low frequency sounds being greatly amplified by their ears. Such amplification is necessary as the lack of sufficient vegetation to provide shade and cover compels these hardy mammals to forage in the cooler night when the stealthy and perceptive owls and snakes hunt. Elsewhere, other mammals such as goats, deer, rabbits and the like have developed tall flexible ears which they can readily move to concentrate their hearing on sounds which might signal danger.
Mice and other rodents communicate using ultrasound, high frequencies above the upper limit of human hearing. Such sounds have a very low penetrating range with an inch of soil serving to shield a burrow's occupants from the ears of the curious and the hostile. Similarly, much elephant communication is conducted in the infrasound band with the low frequencies carrying important messages between the separated animals of the herd.
The insectivorous bats have perfected their hearing in combination with sound generation as a means of echolocation (like sonar). Bats scan ahead, emitting ultrasound pulses at a rate of about ten per second, easily sufficient to detect a midge at over fifty feet. On locating a target, their pulse emission increases up to fifty per second and further increases to two hundred in the last seconds of a kill. The lower frequencies provide distance information regarding the surroundings, the higher frequencies bounce off very small objects such as prey insects, and the use of multiple frequencies supplies the bat with fine detail. Some insects (such as tiger moths) retaliate by issuing their own ultrasound challenge to warn off the bat or disrupt its sonar. Some bats even use echo-location to fish. The ultrasound pulses do not penetrate the water but they do reveal the betraying ripples generated by swimming fish.
The calls and haunting songs ofthe whales are legendary and are rendered possible by excellent hearing attuned to the low frequencies which travel well in the underwater world. The songs of the humpback whale can be heard over many miles, the calls of the fin whale and the blue whale can be heard over hundreds of miles. Water varies in temperature, pressure and salinity, and the whales exploit these gradients to channel their sounds for long distance communication.
The waters in which river dolphins make their home arc very muddy. Sight is a relatively useless sense in such an environment, and their eyes have almost disappeared as a consequence of adaptation. Instead they employ ultrasound as their principal sense, firing bursts of sound at multiple simultaneous frequencies to detect and locate choice fish. The ultrasound bursts pass through the softer tissues of fish but are stopped by the swim bladder and bones. Dolphins and sperm whales have been known to use ultrasound as a weapon, stunning or killing target fish by disrupting their tissues with blasts of sound. Sharks have been killed by the ultrasound attacks of gangs of determined dolphins.
The senses of smell and taste are often difficult to distinguish with many species. The ability to detect both airborne and dissolved chemicals is important to most animals living on or near the ground.
Insects normally have taste sensors on their feet, and smell by attuning their antennae to scents in the air. Mosquitoes are particularly sensitive to carbon dioxide emissions produced by animals exhaling.
Smell is the only means by which the social insects can successfully organize their nests. Termites add a scent to each piece ofmud used in the construction ofa new mound, and this scent serves to guide other termites to the growing nest. Once constructed, the mound will be permeated by the scents of the queen, causing the workers to feed and groom her, and preventing them (while the scents persist) from developing their own ovaries.
Scent is used as a danger signal by bees. In the process of stinging, bees release a scent which, if the bee is close to the hive, will cause bees to pour out of the hive to surround the hapless animal. If the bee is far from the hive, the alarm scent will cause other bees to flee for the shelter ofthe hive.
There is safety in numbers, and the social insects adhere to this motto by leaving trails for other members of their nest to follow. Army ants are an extreme example as they deposit a chemical trail wherever they go. Most other ants only make a trail when they have located a substantial source of food, and deposit their scent as they return from the food site to the home nest. The trail is followed and reinforced by other ants which prevents the scent dissipating.
Fish have separate organs for the senses of smell and taste, but the taste buds are not confined to the mouths of fish. The body of the catfish, for instance, is practically covered with taste buds (perhaps providing a justification for the area of effect of Taste Mirage spells). Sharks can locate injured prey from the scent of the blood at thousands of feet.
The snake uses its forked tongue to gather scent particles from the air and then tastes the particles on a membrane in the roof of its mouth. The Jacobson's Organ (as it is called) is used by reptiles to detect potential food.
Birds have taste buds only on their tongues and smell by sniffing their tongues. In general, the senses of taste and smell are very poorly developed in birds (relative to mammals). There are of course notable exceptions (such as the kiwi which uses its nose to detect buried food or the turkey vulture which can detect and locate a freshly killed carcass across miles of forest).
In the mammalian world, scent is used in hunting, foraging, finding mates, detecting enemies and marking one's territory. Skunks, polecats, and martens even defend themselves with their scent by loosing a spray at their foes.
With the exception of the fastidious humans, mammals flaunt their smells and possess glands to produce their scents or add the chemicals to their waste products. Territorial marking allows the holder of a territory to detect intruders and warns intruders to either travel onward or properly challenge the incumbent, helping to reduce the number of fruitless skirmishes for both.
For grazing animals such as deer and antelope, smell provides an early warning of predators and these herbivores will regularly interrupt their feeding to sniff the air.
The senses of smell and taste in humans are relatively underdeveloped. Fortunately selective breeding has improved the generally excellent noses of dogs, culminating in the bloodhound whose nose is almost a million times more sensitive to scents than its master's. When given an item containing the scent of a human who is to be tracked, the bloodhound's nose may be overwhelmed by the odor. It may take as long as half an hour before the scent has dissipated enough so that the dog can track using the resultant odor gradient. Other clues such as the scent of vegetation crushed by the fleeing quarry aid the hound. Identical twins can sometimes confuse the otherwise unerring nose of the bloodhound as bodily odor is mostly inherited and only marginally affected by lifestyle and diet.
For most animals, the sense of touch is relatively simple. The scorpion employs its sense of touch to determine the suitability of a site for its eggs by checking the consistency of the sand using a pair of "combs" located beneath its body.
Note that many insects (and some reptiles) combine their sense of touch with another sense (usually either hearing or taste). Thus, previously mentioned notes on these senses might apply.
A number of species have evolved sensory organs capable of perceiving heat. Many insects such as fleas are sensitive to heat. The vampire bat detects the body heat of its victims with a patch of heat sensitive skin on its face which is isolated from the bat's own body heat.
Some snakes have heat sensitive facial areas. In pit vipers, these are contained in a large pit on each side of the face. In boas, the cells are located in rows of pits along their jaws. Although these snakes are very sensitive to heat (being able to detect objects fractions of a degree warmer. than the surroundings), the resultant infrared images are of poor resolution compared to the snake's ordinary vision.
Air currents that may seem to be gentle zephyrs to larger creatures can pose serious problems or facilitate movement dependent on their strength and direction. Spiders and scorpions have hairs on their legs and pincers respectively to detect air currents so that they can compensate correctly.
Bees judge their flying speed by how far their antennae are bent outwards by rushing air and alter their wing movements accordingly. Locusts also have hairs on their head for finer speed control. Birds have tiny hair-like feathers called filoplumes which lie alongside each contour feather. Through the filoplumes, the birds perceive the position of their contour feathers and sense air currents.
The ability to sense magnetic fields can be a valuable aid to navigation. Young birds employ their magnetic sense to orient an internal compass on the sun and the stars. As they mature, they rely on their senses of sight, of hearing and their internal maps to navigate, except when poor visibility requires them to resort to their magnetic sense.
Whales employ a magnetic sense to navigate around the oceans. The mysterious strandings occur when their magnetic sense becomes confused with unfamiliar localized anomalies. The less-widely traveled dolphins and porpoises seem to be more familiar with the magnetic oddities of their environment (and rarely find themselves in difficulty).
As animals move, breathe, and think, electrical impulses are generated in the body. A number of aquatic species (notably sharks and rays) have evolved sensory organs to detect such electricity, enabling them to detect the breathing of stationary prey. This scnse may allow them to perceive other fish as somewhat distorted images of hearts, gills and other active muscles. The range is only a few feet and so this sense is most advantageous in murky water or against closely hidden prey.
Electric fish generate an electric field surrounding the fish and its neighborhood. Obstacles such as other fish distort the field. The electric fish can also reveal its sex, age and emotional state to other electric fish through the electric field.
The three principal mechanisms for borrowing the senses ofan animal are: the Vision Borrowing spell list of the Seer, the Sense Through Bonded spell on the Animal Bonding spell list, and various sense sharing techniques for use with normal and true familiars. The mechanisms differ in flexibility and control over the perception in inverse proportion. A Seer can borrow the senses of any creature within range yet has no mental control over the target and so only observes what the creature is interested in observing. A character who has bonded to an animal can only share the senses of his animal(s), but the character can make suggestions to the Bonded animal via mental communication. An Essence spell user with a normal familiar can always share the familiar's senses and can completely control the familiar's actions. Those Essence spell users with true familiars can have the familiar interpret what it sees. The differences between Bonded animals and familiars will be clarified below.
In handling sense borrowing (particularly with spells from the Vision Borrowing spell list), the Gamemaster should remember that animal behavior and intelligence are just as important as the sensory capabilities. Animals possess senses to ensure their own survival, not to provide long-range, unpaid scouts for cautious spell users. What is of interest to the animal may hold no interest for the caster and vice versa. Moreover, the animal will have its own agenda, whether it be seeking a mate, hunting prey or avoiding predators. A Seer may be observing a midnight meeting of conspirators in a moonlit forest glade through the senses of a fox, only to miss the most interesting exchanges as the fox espies an unfortunate mouse and pursues its prey beyond the glade. Bonded animals, although more cognizant of their human partner's interests, have only animal intelligence and thus animal instincts will often modify the Bonded animal's behavior.
The spell user can only observe what the animal chooses to observe. In addition, any sense-borrowing spell users are limited by the perceptive faculties of the creature. The remote observer is sharing the sensory data received by the creature's sensory organs, rather than moving his own point ofperception to the creature's location. The squid can only see monochrome images so the borrower will share a monochrome image; frogs can only hear a few frequencies so the borrower will only hear sounds at those frequencies.
Illusions can alter what a creature perceives or thinks it perceives. Standard illusions alter the surroundings of the creature and so a borrower will perceive the altered reality. However, mental illusions affect the brain of the creature bypassing the sensory organs, and so the borrower will perceive the true reality rather than the hallucinations being experienced by the creature. If the borrower and the creature are conversing (mentally or otherwise), the discrepancy in perceptions caused by mental illusions will normally be revealed quickly and the victim of the mental illusion should be allowed an RR to break free from the illusion.
The borrower's understanding of the shared sensory information is normally limited to the perceptive faculties that he himself possesses. Thus, if a human Seer borrows the electric sense of a shark, the information will be utter gibberish and the mismatch in senses will induce an extreme headache. However if the Seer has access to the Comprehend Borrowed Sense spell, this spell will "translate" the information from the shark's electric sense into a comprehensible format for the Seer's mind. Characters with access to the Animal Bonding spell list lack a spell to translate mismatched senses and so may only usefully share matched senses from a Bonded animal.
Characters who are perceiving the world through the senses of a true familiar will normally form a shared consciousness such that the familiar interprets its perceptions for the benefit of the mage. In other circumstances (or with normal familiars), the mage must attempt a Situational Awareness (Familiar) maneuver to understand the information from the familiar's senses. It is suggested that the following modifiers be applied to the maneuver to represent the mismatch in senses.
Regardless of the spell used to share the senses of another, the caster is effectively in a trance while concentrating on such spells, and is unaware of his immediate surroundings.
These spells are very effective in transmitting sensations to the borrower, sometimes too effective. At the conclusion of a sense borrowing spell, the caster will often suffer residual effects in terms of lingering sensations. The Seer who borrowed the senses of the mouse-hunting fox may have the aftertaste of mouse in his mouth. Cautious casters will only borrow the minimum number of senses, and will often abandon a spell prematurely if the animal pauses to feed (as it is too easy to develop either a craving or an aversion for a particular food). The perceptions from other senses can be equally distressing and perilous.
The Mentalism Companion introduces the Animal Bonding spell list which represents the special abilities of the Beastmaster Lifestyle training package. In Essence Companion, the concepts of the familiars and true familiars are explored. Gamemasters comparing the Beastmaster material with the familiar material will notice a number of differences, and might incorrectly infer that the Beastmaster (with his Bonded animals) is more powerful than the mage with his true familiar. The purpose of this section is to examine the differences and reassure the Gamemaster that both are balanced with respect to each other.
A mage can only ever have a single familiar, and even true familiars are limited to 10% of the caster's mass. This limitation deliberately and explicitly prevents the mage from acquiring an animal which would be effective in combat. The bonding process between mage and familiar takes place over a week. The mage will be in shock for two weeks (and at a hefty penalty to all activity) if the familiar dies.
In contrast, a Beastmaster can have up to one Bonded animal for every rank he has developed in the spell list (with a maximum equal to the Beastmaster's current level) and there is no size limitation on the Bonded animals. Thus, a high-level character with the Beastmaster training package could have a veritable menagerie of animals, all of which could be effective in combat? Well, yes, but size isn't everything. The care and feeding of multiple Bonded animals will demand more of the character's time and resources. Each Bonded animal is a dependent and the death of anyone will push the character into shock. This shock will be worsened if multiple Bonded animals die within a short period. If the number of animals in the menagerie is not in itself a hindrance to entry to civilized settlements, large animals, especially predators, may be sufficient cause for city guards to bar the group's entry. In some cultures, the ownership of certain animal species, such as birds of prey, is restricted by social class. The Beastmaster newly arrived from the wilderness may be declared a criminal!
Although the Bonding process is faster for Beastmasters and their animals, the animals receive an RR against the process if they fear, dislike, or distrust the caster. The caster may only attempt the bonding spell once per level with any given animal.
The Beastmaster offers the animal a pact of friendship and mutual assistance. The mage offers the would-be familiar friendship, increased intelligence and understanding of the world, and access to special magical abilities. He "agrees" to assist the beast in the matters of food and care as well.
Thus, while the true familiar may eventually hold deep philosophical debates with its mage-partner, Bonded animals remain animals with animal intelligence and only mildly modified animal behavior. Beastmasters should expect to spend lots of their time in conversations concerning food, water, shelter, potential mates with their Bonded animals, or the animals will "sulk" in retaliation for being ignored. The Bonded animals will normally be willing to help the Beastmaster but, unless carefully instructed otherwise, may end up doing more harm than good by acting on their own initiative. Patience, forbearance, and vigilance are essential attributes for a Beastmaster. It should also be noted that there is no means of compelling a Bonded animal to act according to the Beastmaster's wishes; the Beastmaster must convince the Bonded animal to accede to his wishes. In contrast, a mage need only concentrate to control a familiar.
As for a final balancing factor, any spell user of the realm of Essence (including hybrids) could acquire a familiar or a true familiar simply by expending the development points to learn either the Gate Mastery, Familiar Mastery or Dark Summons spell lists. On the other hand, the Animal Bonding spell list is only accessible to characters who have adopted the lifestyle of the Beastmaster. This lifestyle choice naturally precludes any other Lifestyle training package and represents a considerable dedication to the animal world. Remember that when the character leaves the training package (to pursue another Lifestyle), the spell lists becomes classified as Restricted.
Divination, in the sense of foretelling the future, presents fonnidable obstacles to the Gamemaster who wishes to balance the opportunities for the divining character to obtain story share against the necessity to limit the information concerning the future direction of the story which is made available to the players. This section will discuss general guidelines and specific game mechanics for handling divination (whether by skill, spell, or other means), provide tables of readings and interpretations for three of the mantic arts, and conclude with a number of control measures to rein in players who are relying on divination as a crutch.
For the Gamemaster, maintaining the distinction between the visible scope and the actual scope of the story, and retaining the flexibility to adjust the future direction of the story, are critical aspects of story control and good Gamemastering. Divination, in all its forms, can imperil those aspects.
For the players, the use ofdivination represents a mechanism by which their characters can increase the visible scope of the story, ascertain the nature of threats and simulate the results of responses to those threats in safety, and compel the Gamemaster to provide story commitment to the results of a divination (if the characters follow through on their putative actions).
The needs of the Gamemaster and the wishes of the players are potentially in conflict. As ever, the key word is "potentially."
In what follows, it is assumed that divination can reveal a future but not necessarily the future (as discussed in Section 3.1). This assumption alleviates the need for story manipulation to ensure that a given future comes to pass, and minimizes the onus on the Gamemaster to detennine in precise detail what will happen if a character perfonns some action. Instead the Gamemaster must consider only the probable future in broad tenns for a given divination (the details can be improvised as required). It is this future which the Gamemaster will have to support with some measure of story commitment. If the player characters follow through on their intended actions, if random chance does not cause unusual events (by lucky or unlucky dice rolls), and if non-player characters or other agencies do not intervene, the future predicted by the divination should come to pass. This level of expected story commitment does entail a certain amount of care on the Gamemaster's part when offering readings.
However if the player characters fail to follow through on their intended actions, the future mayor may not come to pass. If the players or the Gamemaster are blessed with lucky dice rolls or cursed with a run of unlucky rolls, random chance may forestall the predicted future and usher in a much less probable future. If the Gamemaster considers that non-player characters or other powers in the setting will take exception to the player character's intentions or that the plans of such beings will accidentally or deliberately impinge upon the player characters, the intervention of such entities may again be sufficient to alter the future. These other forces may be completely unknown to the player characters and vice versa.
The Gamemaster should warn the players that a probable future predicted by divination is not guaranteed to be the actual future. Moreover, the Gamemaster should not explain why predictions fail to come to pass to players. Such questions are too often veiled attempts to elicit infonnation relating to the actual scope of the story from the Gamemaster.
In handling almost all of the divination techniques and spells (except Anticipations-type spells and Intuitions spells), there are a number of guidelines which the Gamemaster should follow:
Normally the Gamemaster will be presented with a question which is relevant to the story or the characters. In such circumstances, the Gamemaster will understand the motivations behind the divination request. The Gamemaster should firstly consider what knowledge is being sought by the player character (which is not always what has actually been asked) and detennine what the correct answer to the real question should be (e.g., what is the probable future given some action of the characters?).
Once the correct answer has been detennined, the Gamemaster should consider the question that has actually been posed, skewing his response to match any ambiguity, sloppiness, or bias in the question. In constructing the reading, the symbolic language of the particular divination method should be employed to veil and obscure the meaning. Unless the Gamemaster wants to ensure that the reading is correctly interpreted (i.e., to direct the players back to the main plotlines of the story or to warn them off some insanely dangerous course of action), the reading should always be ambiguous.
Sometimes a player will attempt a divination for which the Gamemaster cannot reasonably produce a satisfactory answer. This can occur whenever the player character is looking too far ahead into the future or at an aspect of the story that the Gamemaster has yet to flesh out. In addition, sometimes the Gamemaster will not even understand the motivations behind the divination attempt. In such circumstances (assuming the maneuver or spell is successful), the tables of divinatory readings and interpretations could be consulted until the Gamemaster is suitably inspired. The result of the reading and the associated question should be noted by the Gamemaster for possible later incorporation within the story.
In all cases, the Gamemaster should infonn the player of the divining character privately and verbally. This introduces the possibility of deliberate or accidental misinterpretation of the reading.
Most attempts to predict the future in the game by amateur diviners will involve the use of the Divination skill. A description of how historical and contemporary practitioners employ a selection of the mantic arts was presented in Section 3.4. This section will convert some of those techniques into game mechanics in terms of the General Divination Maneuver Chart and sets of plausible interpretations for various results.
In general, the various techniques have associated procedures which practitioners should follow, whether it be the sacrifice of an animal for haruspication, the Tarot reader's preparatory contemplation, or the almost cabalistic rituals of the crystallomancer. Such methods are also time-consuming and are normally inappropriate for snap decisions in the midst of a battle. The Gamemaster should ensure that all the appropriate bonuses and penalties are applied to the Divination maneuver (see below).
The average player cannot be expected to know the symbolism and the lore associated with the chosen divinatory technique, yet the character would know what meaning was associated with a gi ven Tarot card, cast of the astragals, or tea leaf picture. To reflect this, it is recommended that a new skill "Divination Lore" be added to the Lore • Magical category.
This addition would seem to undermine the entire symbolic approach to divination that has been advocated throughout Mentalism Companion. The skill should only be used to recall the meaning of a constituent of the divinatory reading, not to interpret the whole reading. This limitation should force players to use their brains not their dice.
Example: Colwyn attempts a divination on the question "Will we have a safe joumey?" He draws the Eight of Swords card from his Tarot deck. Colwyn's player has a limited knowledge of the Tarot and has ensured that Colwyn has developed Divination Lore (Tarot). A successful Divination Lore maneuver, and the Gamemaster informs Colwyn's player that the Eight of Swords foretells bad luck and entrapment. The interpretation of this meaning in relation to the specific question is up to the player. (For the interested, the meaning could indicate being captured by pirates, trapped in an anchorage by storms or marooned on a jungle-clad island.)
A separate Divination Lore maneuver should be required for each symbol whose meaning is to be recalled.
Astragalomancy (as described in Section 3.4.) involves the throwing of either two or three six-sided dice with only the dice landing within the circle being counted. Follow the procedures below to simulate an Astragalomancy reading. These procedures should only be followed after the diviner has successfully made a Divination manever. Failure of the Divination maneuver results in no reading (or a meaning that is completely unclear).
Note that you simply choose to have the player roll two or three six-sided dice. However, the advantage of not doing so is that the systems presented below present a buffer of information that the GM can use for dramatic presentation. If the player actually "tosses" some dice, the GM must manipulate the faces to give the reading that he wants (for the story). Use the methods below gives a simulation that can be used in a much more dramatic way.
When using either method, if all the dice fall outside the circle, the diviner may make one further divination attempt. If this also fails, all Divination maneuvers for the next day will suffer a penalty of -50.
First Roll (2d10)*
2-7: Both dice land within the circle—roll two six-sided dice or choose a reading from 2 to 12.
8-10: One die lands within the circle, the other lands outside—roll one six-sided die or choose a reading from 1 to 6
11+: Both dice land outside the circle—no reading
*: Substract the number of ranks the diviner has in Divination (Astragalomancy).
| Result | Meaning of Reading |
|---|---|
| 1 | Commonsense |
| 2 | Fortune |
| 3 | Wisdom |
| 4 | Patience |
| 5 | No |
| 6 | Yes |
| 7 | Caution |
| 8 | Foolishness |
| 9 | Possibility |
| 10 | Doubt |
| 11 | Belief |
| 12 | Certainty |
First Roll (3d10)*
2-9: All three dice lands inside the circle: roll three six-sided dice or choose a reading from 3 to 18
10-11: Two dice lands inside the circle and one falls outside the circle but upon the table: roll two six-sided dice or choose a reading from 2 to 12 but not place all your trust in the reading.
12-13: Two dice lands inside the circle, but one falls outside the circle and onto the floor: roll two six-sided dice or choose a reading from 2 to 12 — future misfortunes are indicated
14-15 One die lands inside the circle and the other two fall outside the circle but upon the table: roll one six-sided die or choose a reading from 1 to 6 — future misfortunes are indicated.
16-17 One die lands inside the circle, one lands outside the circle, and one falls on the floor: roll one six-sided die or choose a reading from 1 to 5 — future misfortunes are indicated
18-19 One die lands inside the circle and the other two fall outside the circle and onto the floor: roll one six-sided die or choose a reading from 1 to 6 — the querent will be beset by great misfortune
20+: All the dice lands outside the circle: No reading
*: Substract the number of ranks the diviner has in Divination (Astragalomancy).
| Result | Meaning of Reading |
|---|---|
| 1 | No reading |
| 2 | No reading |
| 3 | An unexpected but pleasant surprise |
| 4 | Disappointment or misfortune |
| 5 | An unexpected fulfilment of a wish |
| 6 | Material loss and misfortune |
| 7 | Setbacks and scandal |
| 8 | Enemies and injustice |
| 9 | Love, marriage and reconciliations |
| 10 | Birth, domestic happiness and promotions |
| 11 | Partings and illness |
| 12 | Fortunate tidings |
| 13 | Grief and sorrow |
| 14 | Friendships strengthened or created |
| 15 | Temptations |
| 16 | Safe journeys |
| 17 | Changes |
| 18 | Success and happiness in all things |
Three types of readings may be obtained through the use of crystallomancy: images of colored clouds in the crystal, symbolic images or sequences of events. Follow the procedures detailed below to simulate a crystallomancy reading. These procedures should only be followed after the diviner has successfully made a Divination manever. Failure of the Divination maneuver results in no reading (or a meaning that is completely unclear).
First, roll d100 and add the number of ranks the diviner has in Divination (Crystallomancy). The result will tell you whether the diviner sees clouds or symbols (and how many of each). Then roll d10 on the appropriate table to determine exactly what the image is. After determining what the image is, the Gamemaster should determine where in the crystal the image appears (roll on the appropriate table below to determine the location).
Note that the Gamemaster should feel free to substitute any image that he deems appropriate (and assign any meaning he deems appropriate). The lists below are given as examples.
In constructing a random reading using tasseography, a roll should be made to determine how many symbols are present. Each symbol should be randomly rolled or selected from an appropriate symbol table and a further roll should be made to determine if the symbol has any special characteristics. These procedures should only be followed after the diviner has successfully made a Divination manever. Failure of the Divination maneuver results in no reading (or a meaning that is completely unclear).
There are three broad classes of predictive spells in the RMSS, namely Anticipate-type spells, Intuitions-type spells, and Divination-type spells. Each of these types will be discussed separately.
Of all the predictive spells, the Anticipate type of spells pose the least difficulty to the Gamernaster. Such spells can be considered to be a heightening of the caster's danger sense assisting him in the avoidance of specific attacks by predicting the direction of imminent attacks. The caster subconsciously moves or flinches just before the attack connects.
The related Anticipation-type spells are similarly only usable in a tactical situation. The spell description states that "This results in the caster being able to declare his statement of intent for the round after hearing what the target has decided to do." This means that the player of the diviner character is informed by the Gamemaster at the start of the next round of the intended actions of the target for that round. The target may still change the actual IJi actions that he undertakes but the penalties for canceling actions must be incurred. Note the target may still act before the caster if the target has a higher initiative result but the caster will still know what the target intends to do.
The Intuitions-type spells are designed for use in the "operational" environment (something slightly larger than tactical, but still not strategic). Their longer range of prediction coupled with the fact that the caster gains a vision of what will probably happen in the very near future ifhe takes a specified action can make such spells troublesome for the Gamemaster.
The first issue is for the Gamemaster to decide what is the most probable future given the specified action is performed by the caster. Becase the length of time predicted by the Intuitions spells is measured in minutes, quantifying the most probable future can seem to be an impossible task (there are simply too many different ways the future can come out in that time). Moreover, as the caster will probably not perform the specified action anyway, such effort would be wasted. The solution is to decide (in broad terms) what would probably happen, using the assumption that all participants will be neither lucky nor unlucky (i.e., as if all maneuvers that require dice rolls get an average set of dice results). Event sequences requiring good or bad fortune (or involving unexpected decisions by the protagonists) will never be revealed in the visions of Intuitions spells.
The Gamemaster should also remember that the adjective "most" does not mean that the selected future is 51 % or more likely to come to pass. For example, imagine that there is a bag of tiles. There are 100 tiles; 22 of them are blank and the other 78 are each unique. The most likely tile to pull out of the bag is a blank one (even though there is only a 22% chance of that). There is only a 1% chance of drawing any other (unique tile), so the most likely result is that you will draw a blank tile.
Having decided upon the broad shape of the potential future, the Gamemaster should improvise some details with which to embellish it. The Gamemaster should then describe the vision to the player of the diviner character privately. The vision should be described in realistic terms rather than symbolic terms and in terms of the caster's expected vision and hearing capabilities for the future time-frame of interest. Thus, if the caster will probably have Nightvision cast, then the vision should reveal what the caster would probably see within the range of the I, Nightvistion spell. Otherwise, if the caster will probably be unable to see during the time-frame of interest, the "vision" should lack a visual component. The Gamemaster may add other senses (such as smell or taste) to the "vision" at his discretion (to increase the realism). By making the vision so realistic (rather than attempting to conceal information by using symbolism), the Gamemaster can better simulate the descriptions of foresight in literature and myth. Although the players can gain more information from realistic visions, the divining character runs the risk of seeing himself or his allies suffer injury or death. Such visions can be profoundly disturbing for the character and may induce mental stress, nightmares, or trigger insanity (see Section 9.3).
The Intuitions-type spells predict the most probable future if the caster undertakes an action. However, what would happen if the caster casts a low-level Intuitions spell to see what would happen when he casts a high-level Intuitions spell (thereby negating the necessity of casting the high-level spell)? To keep from opening this can of worms, it is much better to adopt the following principle (this principle should be applied to all evocation, scrying, or divination, by skills or spells):
No divination attempt can reveal the result of any other divination attempt (or itself).
The Divinations-type spells are closest in nature to the Divination skill. With these spells, the caster must possess the appropriate apparatus (a set of Tarot cards, astragals, runestones, or whatever). The spell either directs the caster to produce a given reading (guiding the caster in selecting the cards) or causes the apparatus to produce the reading (guiding the throw of the astragals, the patterns of the tea leaves), and the reading is expressed in terms of the symbolic language of the particular technique. While this spell removes the need for the caster to possess a highly developed Divination skill, interpreting the reading may demand significant Divination Lore and player imagination. One notable difference between the spells and the skill is the statement that "The prediction will be accurate 25% of the time plus 1% per level of the caster" when produced by a Divinations spell. This entails some degree of story commitment upon the part of the Gamemaster but has been included to reflect the higher accuracy which should be available through magic. In Section 13.1, it was noted that player character actions, unusual events or external agencies could derail a predicted future. One method of underpinning the prediction with some story commitment without engaging in overt story manipulation is for the Gamemaster to limit the number of unusual events or reactions from non-player characters which might disrupt the prediction. For example, roll a d100, open-ended for each NPC or sentient outside force that might influence the outcome of the event. If the result is low, the NPC will not interfer with the previously predicted outcome (otherwise, a random element has been introduced that invalidates the prediction). The player characters may negate the prediction through their own actions anyway.
The predictive methods represented by the Divination skill (and related spells) are only a fraction of the divinatory possibilities which the Gamemaster can include within the story. Fortunately the other phenomena are much less likely to be instigated by the player characters, and may be introduced at appropriate story junctures by the Gamemaster.
The mildest and most common form is doubtless the premonition. These unfocused sensations nonnally occur while a character is awake, and may foretell fortunate events or mortal danger. Premonitions of good-fortune may find expression in carefree happiness or seemingly unjustified optimism and self-confidence. Premonitions of peril or ill-fortune may range from a sense of foreboding to visceral terror. The event indicated by the premonition will nonnally be unclear to the characters. The Gamemaster should use story presentation to convey the premonition to the players. Characters with Danger Sense (or similar talents) will be frequent recipients of premonitions, other less-gifted characters will receive premonitions at the whim of the Gamemaster.
Pecognitions are more precise and more visual than premonitions. They nonnally occur in states of reverie or in dreams. However, the recipient will nonnally believe himself to be fully awake and alert during the experience. The events in a precognition appear indistinguishable from real events but are actually only precursors of future events.
An example of this phenomena is the Vardøgr (commonly experienced in Norway). Events are prefigured with sounds; for example, footsteps will be heard some time before someone arrives, doors will be heard to open or close before anyone has passed through, etc. Such eerie phenomena could be incorporated within the story in modest amounts to add a touch of the inexplicable to the game.
In earlier ages, the soothsayers interpreted happenings in the natural world and seemingly prosaic actions with ominous significance. Some of these portents passed into the folklore of the ordinary people (becoming reduced in stature to superstitions).
Walking underneath a ladder is considered by the superstitious to bring bad luck. The origin of this superstition can be dated back to the Egyptian god Osiris and the Persian god Mithras, both of which ascended into heaven by means of ladders. The association of ladders with deities led to taboos concerning ladders on the part of the believers lest the gods become angered. The enthusiastic worship of Mithras by the Roman legionaries doubtless led to the spread of this taboo throughout the empire ensuring its survival to the present day.
An old Gennan saying claims that a spider seen in the morning brings illness and sorrow whereas a spider seen in the evening is a harbinger of health and good fortune. In Ireland, a burning coal falling out of the fire onto the hearth foretells a visitor.
Omens vary from culture to culture with the meanings changing sometimes at every border. A black cat crossing one's path is unlucky in the United States but lucky in the United Kingdom. Some typical omens of good and bad fortune can be found in the list below.
Bats flying at twilight
A four-leafed clover
Burning your fingernail parings (stops them being used for hostile "sympathietic" magic!)
Looking at the new moon over your right shoulder
Carrying a rabbit's foot
A strange dog following you home
A peapod containing nine peas
Hanging a horseshoe outside your house
Emptying ashes after dark
Giving away a wedding present
Bringing white lilac or hawthorn into a house
Looking at the new moon over your left shoulder
Mending a garment while wearing it
Meeting a gravedigger
A picture falling or a mirror breaking
Breaking your glass while proposing a toast
As well as such simple omens of good or bad luck, Gamemasters may wish to foretell future events in the lives of the characters through unusual natural phenomena or animal behavior. Such omens are best introduced by incorporating them seamlessly within the nonnal presentation.
Example: A party ofadventurers, temporarily serving as caravan guards, are waiting idly upon the merchants to complete their transactions so that the convoy can return to the road. A flock o f wild geese takes flight, rising into the clouded skies. A falcon swoops down upon the geese, catching one unfortunate bird and scattering the others. The adventurers are interruptedfrom their ornithological musings by the merchants who are now ready to leave. The caravans and the outriders move onward to the next market town. The Gamemaster smiles ... the ambush will occur in three days of game time when the caravan turns for home.
In the grandest sense, prophecy is the divine inspiration of a mortal by a deity (or other powerful spiritual being). The nonnal techniques ofdivination (as presented in this section) neither seek to initiate nor serve as conduits for such intervention. Similarly, the nonnal guidelines concerning the possibilities of derailing potential futures do not apply. Prophets, even if silenced, can sway the masses to hope, to fear, raise faith, or cause upheavals in cultures which forever alter the affected societies. Prophecy has the potential for world-shattering consequences and a single prophecy will often be sufficient to fuel a campaign for years. Be careful.
Some religions have incorporated deities of prophecy within their pantheons, and the shrines have become centers of religious divination. In classical Greece, the priests of Apollo invoked that deity for prophecies concerning the requests of worshippers. The oracle, nonnally a virgin priestess, would enter an altered state of consciousness by a mixture of ritual and drugs, speaking gibberish which was supposed to be the voice of Apollo. The priests would then interpret the voice of Apollo and issue a prediction.
The ambiguity of the oracles is well-established in history. Herodotus records that Croesus, King of Lydia, being unable to come to a decision, sought oracular wisdom. At the time, there were six oracles in Greece, and so Croesus sent messengers to each with instructions to ask the oracle to predict his actions on the same day, exactly one hundred days after the messengers set off. The accuracy ofthe reply ofthe Oracle at Delphi encouraged him to ask about his planned attack upon Persia, ruled at that time by Cyrus the Great. He was informed that if he crossed the Halys River (the border between the two kingdoms), he would destroy a great empire. The emboldened king attacked and destroyed his own empire.
In the context of the game, oracles may be Channeling spell users (employing Commune-style spells to ascertain the will ofthe gods); in which case the donations are likely to be exorbitant. In some settings, the oracles may be priests using their knowledge of the world and caution to tailor readings to the querent's desires.
"With how much ease believe we what we wish"—Dryden
Cold reading is the art of asking provocative questions, of assessing the client's reactions, and then telling the client what he wants to hear. Cold reading has been practiced for centuries by charlatans who have made a livelihood from the anxieties of their clients for the future.
No skill at divining is required, although familiarity with the principles and procedures will lend an air of credibility to the consultation and mask the psychological analysis of the querent.
The cold reader starts work as soon as the client enters the room, looking at the whole person, considering such aspects as body shape (fat or thin), clothing and especially footwear and body posture. Does a female client stick out her breast or curl her shoulders to hide it? Does a male client stick out his stomach or his chest? The reader looks at the face last seeking signs of happiness, unhappiness, tension, or worry.
Three assumptions concerning human nature underpin cold reading: most people unwittingly advertise their social class, wealth, and background through dress, mannerisms, and gestures; most people hear what they want to hear as opposed to what is actually said; and people are more alike than they are unlike. A combination of careful observation and interpretation coupled with stock phrases allow the reader to detect the topics which elicit an eager nod or an unconscious twitch and should be pursued and ignore those which do not interest the client. The reader mutters ganeralities concerning romance, fortune or health, and the client tailors them.
Charlatanry can be a valuable element in the divinatory framework of the story, especially in low-magic settings, in both preparing the way for instances of real divination and accentuating the magical or quasidivine nature of true divination. In some cases, if a client accepts the "reading" of a charlatan, the influence ofthe reading upon the client's subconscious may cause the divination to come to pass. Thus, a fraudulent prophecy can become real if the targets believe....
Unsurprisingly a number of countermagics (most can be found on the Vision Guard spell list) have been developed to protect potential subjects from unwanted divination by skill or spell.
The Detect and Feel Divinations spells in themselves only warn a caster of an attempted divination, but the Divination Analysis spell will reveal the identity and current location ofthe inquisitive diviner, enabling a spell user to send allies to persuade the diviner of the virtues of ignorance and disinterest.
The False Anticipations spell can mislead the caster of any Anticipate or Anticipations spell. It is often commented that the Anticipate Missile and Anticipate Blow spells (which provides a +50 bonus to the caster's Defensive Bonus) are superior to the Turn Missile and Turn Blade spells (which only provide a +20 bonus for the same Power Point expenditure). The seeming disparity disappears when the Anticipate spells are used to fend off the attack of a foe shielded by a False Anticipations spell. The special bonus is not only negated but the caster actually weakens his defensive posture (possibly fatally).
The remaining counterspells (namely Conceal Fate, Cloud Portent, False Portent, and Outside the Weave), allow a spell user to cloak a potential subject from divination, obscure the readings obtained by diviners or even falsify the readings. In the case of False Portent, the player of the character who casts the spell should not only inform the Gamemaster of the desired false reading but should also provide the Gamemaster with the necessary symbolism for expressing the reading in at least one divinatory technique. This will assist the Gamemaster in tailoring symbolism for that player in the future.
All of these countermagics can be pierced using the procedure described in Section 11.5.
Although divination can be one of the most difficult aspects of the game, the guidelines presented in this chapter should assist the Gamemaster in surmounting the problems. The final piece of advice is not to worry about the theory overmuch, and carry on with Gamemastering and the story. You will be pleasantly surprised; even the most hastily improvised divination can come to pass with a few dice rolls and the usual muddling through of the player characters. Then, as the players relate the actual events to the reading, the unplanned connections will be self-evident to them, and they will be justly astonished at your masterful control of the story.
Astrology is a very complicated topic. The material presented in this section is an attempt to address this topic wIthm the terms of simulating Astrology within a role playing game.
To some, the Astrologer profession (as presented in previous versions of Rolemaster) has always seemed to lack a proper professional identity in previous editions of Rolemaster. There was little in the original base lists ofthe profession to suggest any real association with the doctrines of astrology. The only connection with the stars was to prohibit the use of certain spells unless the caster was outside on a clear night when the stars were visible. While such spells have been retained and revised in the new incarnation of the Astrologer, it has been decided to link one entire spell list to the practice of astrology for the purposes of divining.
This decision has an immediate impact upon the introduction of the Astrologer profession into the setting. If the revised profession is to be used (as written), and to serve a useful function within the setting, then the Gamemaster is to allow the celestial bodies to have some mystical influence upon the lives ofsentient beings in the gameworld. In short, the predictions made by astrology must have some real or believed validity in the setting, otherwise the development of the profession would be vastly different.
While the validity of astrology in the real world might be questioned, it is not difficulty to imagine alternate worlds where the celestial bodies do foretell or influence the shape of the future. Many people in prior eras and in the contemporary world have believed or do believe in the utility of astrology.
Assuming the Gamemaster is amenable to introducing astrology within the setting, the effective use of the revised Astrologer profession demands some knowledge of real astrology (far above and beyond what may be gleaned from the horoscope columns in daily newspapers). The purpose of this section is to describe the main types of astrology, gIve an overview of its history, and define and explain the key principles of Occidental astrology. Having prepared the foundation, you will also find guidelines on how to create an unique astrological framework for your own setting and provide a complete example in terms of traditional (western) astrology. Finally, this section will describe the required game mechanics for using astrology wIthm the story and relate astrology to other topics in this volume.
The astral omens of the ancient Mesopotamian diviners represent the precursor of astrology. The omen literature was codified by the start of the 1st Millennium BC and gradually spread outside the Middle East to Egypt, Greece, and India. Buddhist missionaries were responsible for bringing the doctrines to China, Japan and other parts of Asia.
The most fundamental period in the development of astrology was the Hellenistic era (from the 3rd Century BC to the 3rd Century AD). Babylonian diviners began to employ planetary positions and other celestial omens at the moment of birth or supposed conception to predict the future life of an individual (as opposed to the king or the nation). In Egypt, a mathematical mapping between the universe and the human individual was defined, dividing the apparent orbital circle of the Sun into the twelve signs of the Zodiac and associating each zodiacal arc with a given planet. Each sign was attributed to various aspects of the human character in an arbitrary fashion (according to prevalent mystical speculations), and the planetary influences combined the characteristics of the ruling Greek deity for a given planet and the Mesopotamian omens. Claudius Ptolemaeus (more commonly called Ptolemy) of Alexandria completed the rationalization of the astrological phenomena by AD 180 and with a few refinements and additions, western astrological theory has remained relatively unchanged in two millennia.
With the collapse of the western Roman empire, astrology disappeared from western Europe until the start of the Middle Ages (most due to the lack of Latin astronomical tables).
However, astrology survived because of its earlier transmission to India and Iran. In India, the astrologers revised the Greek astrology to make it more applicable to the Indian caste system and societal values, and proceeded to increase complexity of the system by subdividing the zodiacal Signs and introducing imaginary planets (amongst other innovations). In Iran, the major innovation was to develop a theory of astrological history by applying horoscopes to the writing of history of both the past and the future.
The Islamic cultures of the 8th and 9th Centuries AD adapted astrological theories from Greek, Indian, and Iranian sources. Islamic astrology's major contribution was to emphasize "favorable" and "unfavorable" indications (rather than categorical predictions). Astrology was attacked by the theologians for denying both divine intervention and human free will. Under a sustained assault, it swiftly declined in the 13th Century.
Translations of the Arabic texts found their way into western Europe (via Spain) and formed the basis for mediaeval astrology. Christian theologians were divided on the question of whether the prophetic claims of astrology ran counter to the divine will of the Creator. Nevertheless, some of the mediaeval and early Renaissance popes were amongst its most ardent supporters. In the 15th and 16th Centuries, translations of original Greek treatises served to restore astrology to its Hellenistic roots.
With the advent of the Copernican revolution in astronomy and Newtonian physics, astrology lost its intellectual support and was relegated to the province ofcharlatans and fortune-tellers. The discovery of the outer planets of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which were invisible to the unaided eye, compelled astrology to develop theories incorporating the supposed influences of the distant planets. Despite the inability of astrology to provide itself with a theoretical foundation which can be proved correct by scientific investigation, modern western astrology has a large following among the general public (even with only superficial understanding).
This section contains guidelines on how astrology can work in a role playing game (based in some fashion on the way it is supposed to work in the real world).
The basic purpose of astrology was to inform the individual of the future course of his life based upon the planetary and zodiacal positions at the moment of birth or conception. This branch, called genethlialogy, survives today in the calculation of the birth chart and the "progression" of the birth chart to predict trends in an individual's life during a particular year. At its most dogmatic, genethlialogy requires a mechanistic universe where all events are dictated by astrological influences.
"General" astrology studies the correspondence between the significant celestial events (such as eclipses, planetary conjunctions, etc.) to nations and races. Catarchic astrology determines whether the astrological influences will be favorable or unfavorable if a specific course of action is undertaken at a given time. Interrogatory or horary astrology provides answers to a client's question based on the celestial configuration at the time of the query being posed.
The most fundamental horoscope is the birth chart which maps the heavens for a particular time and place, the moment of birth of a specific individual. To simulate a simplified system of astrology in game mechanics, it is necessary to understand in broad terms how a real horoscope would be calculated.
The astrologer first draws a circle, and draws a smaller circle inside this. The circumference is then divided into twelve equal segments. The astrologer then produces an Aspect grid which is essentially a matrix with the names (or symbols) of the astrological "planets" (which includes the Sun and the Moon) in the top row and the leftmost column (see the sample diagram below).
The astrologer then determines the location, date and exact time of birth for the client for whom the chart is being constructed. If the exact time is not known, then noon is assumed (but this will result in many details on the chart being inaccurate or unobtainable).
The Ascendant and the Midheaven must now be calculated for the specified location, time and day. The Ascendant (or Rising) Sign is the zodiacal sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth (and is traditionally placed on the line segment marked A, see below). Given the Ascendant, the other signs follow counterclockwise round the chart. The inner circle can now be divided up into the twelve Houses with the first house occupying the first segment after the Ascendant (the houses are like the little boxes formed by the two concentric circles divided by the twelve lines. Each House represents a specific aspect of the subject's life.
The Midheaven is, in general terms, the overhead point in the sky at the moment of birth. It is the sign that sits right on top of the chart (see below).
Normally, the local birth-time is converted to a standard time such as Greenwich Mean Time. This time is then converted into sidereal time (i.e., the actual period taken for the Earth to rotate once on its axis). The sidereal time at the place of birth is then calculated, and a special table (called an ephemeris; which tabulates the Ascendant and the Midheaven for given latitudes and times in a given year) is then consulted to read off the results.
The astrologer now consults the ephemeris to read off the positions of each of the astrological planets with respect to the zodiacal signs on the birth date. Further calculations are needed if the precise position of each "planet" at the exact time of birth is to be used.
The Rising Sign, the Midheaven, the other zodiacal signs and the houses should be marked on the chart (see above). Then, the positions ofthe planets should also be marked (by placing them in houses in appropriate locations that match their positions at the time of birth). The next step is to determine the Aspects between the various planets. The Aspect is the angle between two planetary positions (and certain angles such as 90, 180, 120,60 degrees etc., are considered important in increasing or decreasing the characteristics implied by the planetary positions). The actual angle can be several degrees off the exact value and still be counted as a conjunction, an opposition, etc. The birth chart must now be interpreted.
To determine future trends in a subject's life, the astrologer will "progress" a birth chart. A traditional method used is the "day-for-a-year" method wherein the positions of the planets of the planets on the day after birth are taken to relate to the conditions during the year after birth, the positions on the twentieth day after birth to the twentieth year after birth, and so forth.
The progressed locations of the Ascendant, Midheaven and the astrological planets must be calculated, and these are recorded on an astrological chart. The aspects made between the progressed planets and the planets at birth, and the aspects made amongst the progressed planets must be calculated. As the Moon moves faster than any of the other celestial bodies in the astrological universe, calculating its position is bit more complicated (its position must be calculated for each month in the year of interest and any aspects noted). The last stage is to consult an ephemeris to determine whether any planet on any day of the year of interest falls on the same degree occupied by any planet in the original birth chart. The wealth of information must now be interpreted.
Synastry deals with the relationships between individuals and attempts to forecast whether business partnerships, marriages and other alliances will be successful based on the astrological influences. The astrologer will first construct birth charts for each individual involved, and will then compare the charts to determine the correspondence between the Ascending and Sun Signs of the individuals, and to discover any aspects between the planets in the respective charts. It is also possible to progress the charts to predict the future trends in the relationship.
Astrology is world-specific, relating the positions of significant celestial bodies to the inhabitants of a given world. If we postulate a future where mankind builds colonies on the other worlds of this solar system, then the astrologers of the future will have to develop systems relating the planetary influences to the new astrological centers, such as defining the influence of the Earth-Moon system upon the inhabitants of Mars. It is probable that extraterrestrial and extrasolar colonies will leave astrology behind as another outdated superstition of the homeworld.
For the Gamemaster, the planetary dependence of astrology is even more problematic. The setting will often be a fantasy world of the Gamemaster's own devising or a published setting and this mayor may not have a fully developed cosmology, describing the number of visible suns, planets. and moons. Unless the Gamemaster is using a historical Earth setting, the astrological system will have to consider different constellations and different planets.
There are three ways of surmounting this difficulty. The easiest method is to arrange that the astronomical details of the setting are broadly similar to Earth, and to use the example astrological system presented in the next section as is. It is sensible to alter the names of the planets and the zodiacal signs to protect the innocence of the players. The next method is viable when the setting's astronomical details are somewhat different such as one less planet or an extra moon, say. In such cases, the example system can be modified as appropriate, by shuffling planetary influences to the extra moon or deleting the influences of a specific solar planet. It involves some additional effort by the Gamemaster but the rewards of a more individualized and intricate setting may make such efforts worthwhile.
The final method is to build a complete astrological system from scratch. This represents a considerable effort on the part of the Gamemaster and should not be undertaken lightly. The Gamemaster must first determine the number of suns, the number of moons orbiting the world and the number of visible planets. It is recommended that the number of astrologically significant bodies be kept as low as possible to reduce the associated complexity. Each celestial body should be associated with characteristics that should become the primary astrological attributes of the celestial body. Next the Gamemaster should divide the planetary orbit into a number of equally sized segments with a constellation in each segment, to produce the equivalent Zodiac for the setting. Similarly the Gamemaster must determine which portions of the human or nonhuman condition are subject to astrological influence and then produce a table describing planetary influence with respect to the positions of the planets with respect to the replacement Zodiac and Houses. Finally, the Gamemaster must decide how the planets interact with each other in terms of significant aspects.
Such bold Gamemasters are free to exploit the example presented in the next section for ideas. They may find that consulting complete astrological textbooks on Western, Oriental, or more esoteric systems may provide useful information and inspiration.
As an example astrological system, a simplified system based on traditional western astrology will now be presented. The Chinese and Indian systems are too complex and too steeped in philosophy to be easily translated into game mechanics (and thus are not addressed here). To convert western astrology into RMSS mechanics, many of the more intricate details and esoteric symbolism have been sacrificed to improve playability. Aficionados of astrology should therefore be warned to expect only a presentation of the basic elements.
The most well-known component of western astrology are the Zodiacal Signs themselves. Most people will know their Sun Sign, which is the zodiacal sign in which the sun falls at the time of birth. For each zodiacal sign, the dual attributes found in individuals born under the sign are concisely summarized below: The sun sign period is given in brackets.
Aries (21 March to 20 April)—Arians are independent, dynamic, brave, direct and above all urgent. They can also be selfish, impulsive, impatient, satirical and unsubtle.
Taurus (21 April to 21 May)—Taureans are practical, reliable, enduring, persistent, strong-willed, and loving comfort. They can also be possessive, boring, inflexible, stubborn, and resentful.
Gemini (22 May to 22 June)—Geminians are intellectual, versatile, lively, talkative, and logical. They can also be inconsistent, cunning, overly inquisitive, and superficial.
Cancer (23 June to 23 July)—Cancerians are sensitive, sympathetic, maternal/paternal, cautious, tenacious, and shrewd. They can also be over-emotional, moody, and manipulative.
Leo (24 July to 23 August)—Leos are optimistic, generous, powerful, magnanimous, and dramatic. They can also be dogmatic, pompous, extravagant, and conceited.
Virgo (24 August to 23 September)—Virgoans are meticulous, analytical, humane, and modest. They can also be insular, fussy, fastidious, and anxious.
Libra (24 September to 23 October)—Librans are charming, romantic, diplomatic, and idealistic. They can also be fickle, indecisive, gullible, and frivolous.
Scorpio (24 October to 22 November)—Scorpios are intense and emotional, imaginative, subtle, and persistent. They can also be jealous, stubborn, secretive, and uncompromising.
Sagittarius (23 November to 22 December)—Sagittarians are optimistic, sincere, open-minded, free-ranging, and questing for new challenges. They can also be tactless, extremists, irresponsible, and capricious.
Capricorn (23 December to 19 January)-Capricornians are reliable, ambitious, prudent, disciplined, and humorous. They can also be pessimistic, conventional, inhibited, and mean.
Aquarius (20 January to 19 February)—Aquarians are friendly, original, loyal, independent, and intellectual. They can also be eccentric, contrary, detached, and opinionated.
Pisces (20 February to 20 March)-Pisceans are humble, unworldly, sensitive, intuitive, and impressionable. They can also be careless, impractical, indecisive, and lacking in purpose.
The more esoteric symbolism mapping the zodiacal signs to the elements, the masculine and feminine principles, and theories concerning the ruling planets and so forth of the signs are omitted (to reduce the complexity).
In western astrology, the human condition is divided into twelve categories known as the Houses. Zodiacal Signs and planets which fall within the position of a given House as represented on a birth chart will influence that portion of the individual's life. Each House will be briefly described:
First House—This covers the personality, identity, health, appearance, and outlook.
Second House—This covers possessions and the individual's attitude towards such worldly goods, and emotions in general
Third House—This covers the family, education, and short journeys. It is also associated with the mind.
Fourth House—This covers the beginning and end oflife, the home, the land, and the individual's private life.
Fifth House—This covers creativity, children, pleasures, enterprises, speculation, and love affairs.
Sixth House—This covers work, attitudes to subordinates such as servants and vassals, and the physical health of the individual.
Seventh House—This covers relationships, including marriage and business partnerships.
Eighth House—This coves birth, sex, and death; it is also associated with crime and large financial enterprises.
Ninth House—This covers intellectual and physical exploration (in terms of distant travels), and is also associated with the conscience and dreams.
Tenth House—This is associated with ambitions, public life, social status, and responsibilities outside the home.
Eleventh House—This is associated with friendships, acquaintances, intellectual pleasures, and hopes.
Twelfth House—This is associated with the subconscious and the hidden secrets of the individual.
Although not one of the Houses, the Midheaven, which may or may not be in exact alignment with the Tenth House, represents those aspects ofan individual's life over which the individual has little or no control.
Traditionally western astrology has numbered seven "planets" as the key astrological influences. The "planets" include the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, and the influence of each "planet" in the Signs and the Houses will now be summarized (with each house shown below each planet). The outer worlds of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto will not be included (for purposes of simplicity).
It is the source of life, and associated with dignity, health, and leadership.
Keywords: Power, vitality, and self-expression
The Sun through the Houses:
Inward-looking, with the potential for selfishness
Ambitious for material gains with possibility of avarice
A lively mind and eager to communicate
Happiness in home and family life with risk of conservative attitudes
Creativity and enjoyment.
Good health
Friends and enemies, and successful partnerships
An interest in the occult and mysticism in general
High ideals and distant travels
A desire for success and status
Clear-cut objectives and success in group activities
Withdrawal from the world.
For information on the Sun in the Zodiac Signs consult Section 14.5.1.
It is the mirror oflife, and associated with cycles, habits, fertility, home and family.
Keywords: Response, instinct, and fluctuation
The Moon Through The Houses:
Imagination, moodiness and changeability
Fluctuations in income and persuasiveness
Restlessness and curiosity
Strong interests in the family and ancestry
Creativity in cycles, and fondness of children
A desire to serve, and occasional illness
Popular, changeable and indecisive
A desire for security with risk of preoccupation with death
Philosophical
Fleeting or long-lasting fame
Membership of societies, and many friends and some enemies
Discomfort in strange environments, and desire for seclusion
The Moon in the Signs:
Aries: Selfish, impetuous, sincere, enthusiastic and prone to accidents
Taurus: Loyal, stubborn, timidity and favorable finances
Gemini: Perceptive, versatile, and indecisive
Cancer: Possessive, totally devoted, and sensitive
Leo: Honesty, affectionate with risks of conceit and over-indulgence
Virgo: Insecure, timid and meticulous attention to detail
Libra: Sociable, courteous, indecisive, and seeking approval of others
Scorpio: Determination with risks of pride and jealousy
Sagittarius: Optimism, independence, naivete and acute judgment
Capricorn: Inhibitions, prudence, gloominess and austerity
Aquarius: Unconventional, detached, and originality
Pisces: Sentimental, gentle, impractical, and self-indulgence
It is the messenger, and is associated with reason, logic, dexterity and emotion.
Keywords: Communication (mental and phusical)
Mercury through the Houses:
Self-conscious and intellectual energy
Over-commitment in financial matters
Communication and education
Thrift and family values
Emphasis on romance and pleasure
Anxious concerning day-to-day problems
Emphasis on partnerships and relationships
Perception of hidden motives
Always new possibilities for advancing learning
Emphasis on status
Emphasis on responsibilities for societies and groups
Guardedness and insecurity
Mercury in the Signs:
Aries: Quick-thinking, inventive, impUlsiveness and insufficient planning
Taurus: Assimilation of facts, practicality, refinement, and inertia
Gemini: Perceptive, versatile, persistent, but sometimes superficial
Cancer: Intuitive, imaginative, tenacious opinions, and looking to the past
Leo: Broad-mindedness, responsible, with risk of rudeness and inattention to detail
Virgo: Analytical, skepticism, hyper-criticality and pedantry
Libra: Diplomatic, seeking compromise, possibly weak-willed
Scorpio: Incisiveness, shrewdness, and potential fascination with darkness and the underworld
Sagittarius: Honesty, bluntness, a constant need for mental stimulus
Capricorn: Rational and serious, aspirations for specific objectives
Aquarius: Good judge of human nature, but eccentric and erratic in decision-making
Pisces: Impressionable, forgetfulness, and secrecy.
It is the goddess of love, and associated with love, partnerships, pleasures, possessions, and morality.
Keywords: Harmony and unison
Venus through the Houses
Great charm and beauty, but may like to be spoiled.
Valuing possessions and talents.
Valuing friendship and family relationships
Domestic comfort and strong ethics
Many love affairs
Good health
Harmony and happiness in family, finances or public life
Valuing life and sensuality
Valuing enthusiasm, and a propensity for travel
Valuing status, and success in career.
Valuing friendship, but risk of over-idealism in group situations
Valuing seclusion, and possibility of secret love affairs
Venus in the Signs:
Aries: Magnetism, idealism, and impulsiveness in finanses
Taurus: Faithful, sensual, possessive and loving luxury
Gemini: Generosity, flirtatious, inconsistent and speculative in trade
Cancer: Instincts to nurture and to cherish, tendency to prudence in finance
Leo: Lavish, romantic, with risks ofjealousy and claustrophobia
Virgo: Inhibited, with a sound business sense
Libra: Attractive and gracious; in love with love itself
Scorpio: Loyalty and passion; risk of self-indulgence
Sagittarius: Idealism and adventurous; dislike of commitments
Capricorn: Reserve and pride; sacrifice in love for other advancement
Aquarius: Detachment in love, though helpful to others
Pisces: Ruled by the emotions, generous to a fault
It is the warrior, and associated with competition, action, aggression, construction and initiative.
Keywords: Energy and initiative
Mars through the Houses:
Self-assertive, competitive, accident-prone
Ambitious for material wealth, and a big spender
Restlessness, risk-taking, debates and arguments
A need for domestic security
Impulsive, falling in and out of love.
A conscientious worker expecting equal efforts from others
Induces strong reactions from others
Importance of money, life, love and death
Desire for physical and mental exploration
Ambition to be the best, and ruthlessness
Helpful to friends, friendships will be easily made and lost
Secret energy, limited or restricted, rebellion
Mars in the Signs:
Aries: Dislike of routine; prone to accidents through haste
Taurus: Obstinate, temper slow to rouse but difficult to control
Gemini: Variety, changes in vocation. failure to finish through impatience
Cancer: Ambitious, tenacious, protective, with risk of tension
Leo: Courageous, dramatic; over-enthusiastic, bombastic
Virgo: Perfectionist, ambitious, but risk of frustration and needing direction
Libra: Fluctuations in energy; paradox in means to ends
Scorpio: Deep emotions, tending to cruelty if thwarted
Sagittarius: Outrageous, skepticism, burning the candle from both ends
Capricorn: Sustained effort, attracted to power, dominating objective
Aquarius: Impulsive, unpredictable, and pioneering
Pisces: Dislike of physical action, indecision, self-sacrifice
It is the prophet, and associated with benevolence, growth, prosperity and distant travel.
Keyword: Expansion
Jupiter through the houses:
Extreme good fortune in life
Fortunate in material matters
Good relationships with siblings and students
A paterfamilias; good relationships with parents
Pleasure, speculation; danger of love of gambling
Usually lucky, contented
Tendencies to extremism in extravagance, over-optimism
Discerning; the possibility of inheritance
Tolerance of others
Self-reliance, a leader with risk of being overbearing
High aspirations and many friends
Successful intellectual efforts conducted in seclusion
Jupiter in the Signs:
Aries: Self-sufficient, risks of bullying and extravagance
Taurus: A love of good living, risk of self-indulgence and dissipation
Gemini: Temperamental, crafty, superficial
Cancer: Kindness, generosity, changeable in important opinions
Leo: Helpful, dramatic, exuberant and arrogant
Virgo: Conscientious, skeptical, risks of conceit and carelessness
Libra: Hospitable, sympathy, but can be indolent and is hopeless without others
Scorpio: Shrewd, strong-willed, perseverance, uncompromising, suspicious
Sagittarius: Optimism, intellectual, recklessness, gambling
Capricorn: Dedication, resourceful, orthodox, with risk of bigotry and self-righteousness
Aquarius: Philanthropic, revolutionary, unpredictable, tactless, superficial friendships.
Pisces: Compassionate, benevolence, impressionable, tendency towards self-sacrifice.
It is the lawgiver, and is associated with responsibility, ambition, truth and experience.
Keywords: Limitation
Saturn through the Houses:
Inhibition throughout the personality. Ill-health
Money earned only through hard work. Anxiety over wealth
Fear of the unknown
Unhappy home life; anxiety about age
Potential for infertility; anxiety about self-expression
A conscientious worker; need to prove oneself
Difficulties in relationships
Anxieties about love, financial responsibilities
Frustration in travel and concerns about new ideas
Ambitions and power; possible ruthlessness or corruption
Anxieties concerning friendships
Isolation; private sorrows and unhappiness
Saturn in the Signs:
Aries: Alternating strength and weakness. Need for tact and cooperation
Taurus: Methodical, cautious; dour, lethargy. Need to reassess values
Gemini: Systematic, adaptable; bitter, skeptical. Need for spontaneity
Cancer: Shrewdness, ambition; pessimism, suspicion. Need to show true emotions
Leo: Honor, authority; haughtiness, megalomania. Need to enjoy life more
Virgo: Precise, prudent; obsessive, severe. Needs to learn what is really important
Libra: Patient, impartial, spirituality; intolerance, insincerity. Needs tolerance
Scorpio: Purposeful, subtle; secretive, brooding. Needs to forgive and forget
Sagittarius: Dignified, fearless; tactless, cynicism. Needs to be less self-righteous
Capricorn: Disciplined, responsible; selfishness, arrogance. Needs to relax
Aquarius: Original, independent; indifference, obstinacy. Needs to be grateful
Pisces: Humility, sympathy; lack of hope or courage, moodiness. Needs to maintain a grip on reality.
The Aspects are specific angular distances between the astrological planets. If the birth time is known exactly aspects should also be calculated between the planets and I the Ascendant and Midheaven. Many angles have been considered significant in the history of astrology but only the six most important will be considered here. Each aspect has a given "orb" which represents the number of degrees by which the relationship can deviate from the exact aspect, yet still qualify as an aspect.
Exact aspect: 0 degrees; orb 8 degrees
Planets in the same sign act to concentrate their influence, either positively or negatively. Conjunctions are traditionally considered to be neutral aspects.
Exact aspect: 180 degrees; orb 8 degrees
Planets in opposition accentuate polarities in the individual's life and personality, and oppositions are traditionally considered "bad" aspects.
Exact aspect: 90 degrees; orb 8 degrees
Squares will indicate tensions in the character, but this may add strength to the individual's personality. Squares are traditionally considered "bad" aspects.
Exact aspect: 120 degrees; orb 8 degrees
Trines have a helpful effect on strong characters emphasizing positive traits but may spoil the weak-willed. Trines are traditionally considered "good' aspects. An excess of trines was interpreted by the ancients as an indication of evil.
Exact aspect: 60 degrees; orb 5 degrees
Sextiles can also serve to emphasize the positive and the pleasant, offering opportunities rather than guaranteed satisfaction. Sextiles are traditionally considered "good aspects".
Exact aspect: 150 degrees; orb 3 degrees
The quincunx is an unpredictable and unorthodox aspect linking together signs which have nothing in common. This may indicate the need to reorganize parts of the self.
A host of other aspects (such as the sesquiquadrates (135 degrees), the semi-squares (45 degrees), the semi-sextiles (30 degrees), and the now largely ignored semi-decile, decile, quintile, and bi-quintile) exist but these will all be omitted from this discussion (to keep things relatively simple).
Owing to space constraints, the exact meanings of particular aspects with reference to specific planets will be omitted
In a progressed chart, the western astrologer notes the aspects made between the new locations of the planets and their original positions in the chart created from the birth date and employs this information to predict trends in a given month or year. To assist the Gamemaster in building progressed charts, capsule definitions of the influences of the progressed aspects will be given. The definitions will refer to conjunctions, and should be modified positively for trines and sextiles, and negatively for oppositions and squares. The quincunx aspect may be improvised if desired.
Aspects made between a progressed planet and itself will emphasize the planet's influence. The progressed planet making the aspect will exert the greater influence, but the prediction will be the same in broad terms and so each progression will be listed only once.
Sun Progressed to the Moon—An important period and a time for major changes in life
Sun Progressed to Mercury—A time for minor changes in life
Sun Progressed to Venus—Indicates marriage, romance and improved social life
Sun Progressed to Mars—A period of hard work, good health, but danger of accidents
Sun Progressed to Jupiter—A time of advances in career and finances, with the risk of over-confidence
Sun Progressed to Saturn—A critical period with increased responsibilities and burdens.
Mercury Progressed to Venus—A period in which new interests will be developed
Mercury Progressed to Mars—A period of additional mental energy, impulsiveness and optimism
Mercury Progressed to Jupiter—A period of good decision-making, study and exploration
Mercury Progressed to Saturn—A period of responsibility, depression and stress
Venus Progressed to Mars—A period for sudden romance, hasty decisions and impulsiveness
Venus Progressed to Jupiter—A period of happiness, social and financial success, and philosophical/artistic insight
Venus Progressed to Saturn—A relationship with an older person, financial hardship and avarice.
Mars Progressed to Jupiter—A period of new enterprise, potential extravagance and impulsiveness
Mars Progressed to Saturn—A period in which new plans will be blocked, and a time of possible ill-health, mental and physical.
Moon Progressed to the Sun—Changes and advancements. Ambitions realized but risk of ill-health
Moon Progressed to Mercury—An opportune time for new interests, travel and home life
Moon Progressedto Venus—A time of social success, love and emotions.
Moon Progressedto Mars—A time ofnew energy, seeking outlets, and vulnerability to accidents and danger
Moon Progressed to Jupiter—A period of opportunity, financial success, and safe travel
Moon Progressed to Saturn—A period of depression, ill-health and inauspicious for beginning new projects.
The progressions to the Ascendant and the Midheaven will be omitted for simplicity. The progressed aspects between Jupiter and Saturn are rare and the influences are over a long period, and so are not significant in game terms.
In western astrology, there are three levels of indicators used in synastry (to assess the viability of a partnership and relationship) and these require a complete birth chart for each individual.
The first level of indicator assesses whether the relationship will be successful. This involves checking three correspondences on the charts:
If the answers are positive, the immediate success ofthe relationship is predicted.
The second level of indicator assesses the tone or overall compatibility of the relationship. This involves checking the aspect made by the Sun in one chart to the Ascendant in the other chart:
The third level of indicator involves calculating the aspects made by planets in one chart to planets in another, and assesses the finer points of the relationship. The material on the planetary influences and on the aspects can all be used.
Even in this concise and ruthlessly simplifIed account of western astrology, it is probable that many Gamemasters will feel overwhelmed by the detail and wonder how they will ever be able to handle the remaining complexity. The following further simplifIcations are recommended for those feeling overwhelmed:
Once the Gamemaster is comfortable with a reduced set of details, additional complexity can be added gradually.
Astrology, like any of the other mantic arts described in this book, can (and will) require some level of story commitment from the Gamemaster with regard to the validity of the predictions, and so all of the advice given in Section 13 is applicable. As ever, this book assumes that the future of the story is not preordained (or to use an astrological cliche "the stars impel; they do not compel").
That said, there are a number of key differences in astrological divination from the other mantic arts, and these must be reflected in the story and the game mechanics.
Astrology is an analytical form of divination. Given valid infonnation concerning the subject, the required astrological data, and a knowledge of the astrological symbolism, the reading is calculated and the result interpreted. Other mantic arts require the diviner to achieve the appropriate mental state, understand the querent, pose the correct question and are limited in accuracy as the diviner attempts to read further into the past or the present. To an astrologer, a prediction concerning ten years into the future is no more difficult than a prediction concerning the trends of the next month, as long as the astrologer has access to the planetary positions for both periods.
Producing an astrological prediction in tenns of the game mechanics adheres to the following process. A spell user with access to the Starlore spell list can use the spells on that list to assist in the creation and interpretation of the horoscope.
The spell user requires three pieces of information concerning the subject whose horoscope is to be created, namely the date of birth, the time of birth, and the location of birth. If only the fIrst is known, the horoscope will not include the Ascending Sign and the position of the Houses, and the interpretation will be limited in terms of information. If the provided date of birth is incorrect, the entire horoscope will be incorrect. If either of the provided time of birth and location are incorrect, the Ascending Sign and the House positions will be incorrect, and the horoscope's validity will be compromised. (See the Astrological Divination Maneuver Chart for modifIers). If the date of birth is unknown, no horoscope can be constructed. The Determine Birth Place and Determine Birth Time spells can be used to acquire accurate birth data for a given individual (but note the range is only 10').
Assuming the spell user has complete birth data, the character must consult an ephemeris for the appropriate time period and detennine the positions of the Ascendant and Midheaven. A Very Hard (-20) Basic Math maneuver should be required to make the correct calculations. If the spell user does not have access to the appropriate astronomical observations recorded in an ephemeris (or other almanac), a Determine House/Sun Sign spell will provide the required positions and eliminate the need for the Basic Math maneuver.
The ephemeris must now be consulted for the planetary positions on the birth date. If the spell user lacks access to such information, an Ephemeris spell will provide the correct positions. Note that modifIers are presented below for incorrect or miscalculated astrological positions.
To randomly generate the positions of the Ascendant and the planets in the zodiacal signs, the following table can be used:
| Roll | Zodiaz Sign |
|---|---|
| 01-08 | Aries |
| 09-16 | Taurus |
| 17-24 | Gemini |
| 25-32 | Cancer |
| 33-40 | Leo |
| 41-48 | Virgo |
| 49-56 | Libra |
| 57-64 | Scorpio |
| 65-72 | Saggitarius |
| 73-80 | Capricorn |
| 81-88 | Aquarius |
| 89-96 | Pisces |
| 97-00 | Reroll |
A real ephemeris would give a result in tenns of a location within the sign exact to the nearest minute (one-sixtieth of one degree). For the purposes of Rolemaster, it is suffIcient to locate the Ascendant or a planet to being somewhere within a sign. The lack of precision makes calculating aspects much easier and allows the Gamemaster more leeway in terms of ambiguity and eliminates much bookkeeping.
A Medium Drafting maneuver should now be required to draw the basic chart, followed by a further Hard (-10) Basic Math maneuver to calculate the aspects, and followed by a second Medium Drafting maneuver to correctly mark all the relevant aspects. The Draw Chart and Calculate Aspects spells will eliminate the need for these maneuvers.
The Gamemaster should draw a circle, divide it into twelve segments and record the infonnation so far determined. This becomes critical when aspects must be taken into consideration (as the Gamemaster needs to calculate the aspects). The abstract planet location rescues the Gamemaster from using a protractor to detennine the angles. Instead the Gamemaster must only count the number of signs that must be passed through to reach one planet from another (for each pair of planets) to detennine if a particular aspect is likely. Finally, he may use the third column of the following table to randomly detennine if the aspect actually occurs. The Gamemaster may ofcourse decide that no aspect occurs.
The character must now attempt a Divination maneuver to interpret the horoscope and may use Divination Lore (Astrology) to recall the specific meanings of the astrological symbols and so forth. The character could opt to employ an Interpret Natal Chart spell to achieve a faster interpretation. In both cases, the interpretation should nonnally be partially veiled in astrological language. For progressions and synastries, the birth charts must first be constructed, and the new planetary positions and so forth must be calculated as above. Again the Starlore spell list provides short-cut spells (in terms of Interpret Progression and Interpret Synastry spells).
With the exception of the Horary of spells, the Starlore spell list achieves by magic what a mundane spell user can achieve by skill and astronomical knowledge. It might seem wasteful for a profession to develop virtually an entire spell list for tasks which can be achieved by nonmagical means. The Starlore spells have two advantages over nonmagical means: the first is speed, and the second is correctness. Attempting to construct a natal chart by hand is an extremely time-consuming process which will take professional astrologers between one and two hours to complete. Progressions and synastries take longer. The Starlore spells can do the same work in a few minutes. The Starlore spells also perfonn each task with complete accuracy, although if the data to be processed by the spell is incorrect, the results will still be wrong. A spell-assisted horoscope is more likely to be accurate within the limits of the astrological system than a mundane horoscope.
The Horary spells are the Astrologer's equivalent of the Seer's Divinations spells, and should be treated as prescribed in the guidelines of Section 13.3. However the Horary spells should provide less detail than a full horoscope and should only provide a limited prediction on the favorable or unfavorable astrological influences during the time-frame checked by the spell. For lower-level Horary spells, the Gamemaster should either determine or randomly generate one or two astrological influences that are pertinent to the type of query. For the higher-level Horary spells, it is appropriate to determine or otherwise generate one astrological influence per significant fraction of the time period. Such influences could be as simple as a given planet is in a given sign; more complex appropriate influences might include an aspect between two planets in the irrespective signs. Alternatively, the Gamemaster may elect to indicate favorable and unfavorable times with the higher-level spells, rather than providing multiple influences. lt is neither necessary nor appropriate for a Horary spell to require the Gamemaster to produce a complete horoscope. The Gamemaster's attention should focus on what story commitment is involved, and how best to express the prediction in astrological symbolism.
For full natal charts and so forth, the amount of effort involved in producing the entire horoscope can seem daunting. There are a number of strategies which can ease the burden (see below).
The Gamemaster should maintain a record of the horoscopes as the players will certainly have their own notes.
Much has been said in previous sections about the use of countermagic to thwart divination of various kinds. The Vision Guard spell list and other scattered defenses cannot protect against astrological divination. Such spells protect an individual, an item or a place, but astrology does not directly attempt to predict the future of such subjects. Astrology attempts to predict the astrological influences at given times and given locations. These influences may impel behavior and events in the world, but cannot compel the future.
This is the first limit upon astrology. Other mantic arts provide predictions that are more personally attuned to the intended subject and hence more likely to be accurate in specifics. Moreover as astrology calculates the influences, two different astrologers working with the same information and the same methods should arrive at the same conclusions. A king's personal astrologer can inform his liege lord of what the influences impel and the king can confound his enemies by acting contrary or differently to the influences. The Roman emperor, Augustus, was a firm believer in astrology, having been informed by an astrologer named Nigidius that he would be "master ofthe world," and actually published his natal chart. At the time, it was believed that the death-date could be calculated from the chart. Shortly afterwards, he issued a law limiting the practice of astrology to prevent malcontents conspiring to assassinate him at times predicted to be dangerous.
The second limit is the need for reliable birth data. Even an inaccuracy of four minutes in the time of birth will alter the Ascending Sign sufficiently to render the horoscope wildly inaccurate.
Even if the birth data is correct, the horoscope is correctly constructed, and the subject does not deliberately attempt to void the prediction, the horoscope could still fail to represent the real astrological influences for two reasons. Firstly the astrological theory could be incomplete. Other unknown celestial bodies may exist which have an influence upon earthly events. Secondly the astrological system could be incorrect. Significance has been attached to heavenly bodies and geometrical arrangements over the centuries by a combination of mythological associations, intuition, guesswork and studies of the horoscopes of prominent individuals. A few erroneous assumptions or atypical individuals could easily introduce serious flaws into an astrological system weakening the accuracy of its predictions. This represents the third and final limit on astrological accuracy within the story.
There are of course other astronomical phenomena such as comets, lunar eclipses, and solar eclipses, which may be astrologically significant in a given setting. As it may not be possible to calculate their occurrence within a given settings, such events will often be seen as portents of great disasters. The inclusion of such events in the story should be a conscious and deliberate act by the Gamemaster rather than a chance roll, and such happenings should be used by the Gamemaster to signal pivotal changes in the world.
The Tarot has been used for divination for centuries. The cards ofthe Tarot and the associated esoteric body oflore have been reinterpreted many times. There is neither agreement nor evidence to locate an origin for the Tarot. It has been variously ascribed to the Romany peoples, the ancient Egyptians, the Greeks, the preChristian religions of Europe, the Jewish Qabbalistic tradition, and even Indian and Chinese sources. History records that in 1378, "ordinary" playing cards were banned by the town council of Regensburg, and that in 1397, the common people of Paris were banned from using playing cards on ordinary working days. In 1415, the Duke of Milan commissioned a set of hand-painted Tarot cards for his own use. The spread of playing cards and Tarot decks was accelerated through Europe by the printing press. The Tarot cards received scholarly examination by occult writers from the end of the eighteenth century onwards.
The Tarot deck consists of seventy-eight cards in total, arranged into four suits of fourteen cards each, known as the Minor Arcana, and twenty-two cards with their own symbolic title and image, known as the Major Arcana. As none of the Tarot cards are double-headed, it is possible for them to be laid upside down, and so traditionally each card has an upright and a reversed meaning. Divination using the Tarot involves the randomselectionofcardsfromthedeck,thearrangementofthe selected cards in a pattern (or "spread"), and the interpretation ofthe chosen cards singly and in combination with respect to the querent's question. Before proceeding further, it is necessary to discuss the traditional meanings of the various cards. The meanings presented here should not be treated as definative, there are as many interpretations as there are Tarot readers.
The Major Arcana possess the greater accumulation of esoteric lore and symbolism of the Tarot. Twenty-two in all, the cards have been associated with the progress of the individual through life from the innocence of the newborn (i.e., The Fool) to the completion (i.e., The World). The first eleven are associated with the outward-looking perspective of the first half of life; the second half are associated with inner development and contemplation (the last half of life).
The Fool is the unnumbered card of the deck. It represents the unexpected and the spirit of chaos, symbolizing innocence, potentials, challenges and new beginnings. Risks should be taken without fear, and the unexpected can be expected.
Reversed: It warns of folly and madness, and the need for thought before action.
At only one step from the Fool, the Magician is entertainer and trickster, with appearances often misleading. It symbolizes new beginnings and progress towards success, a sense of purpose, willpower and initiative, and decisions to be made with confidence.
Reversed: It warns against hesitation, trickery and deception, and urges one to confront the real world.
The High Priestess represents intuition, non-rational thought and knowledge, mystic abilities, the unconscious mind, and the revelation of secrets. In a man's reading, it can symbolize the most important woman in his life. It urges reliance on instincts.
Reversed: It warns against over-emotionalism and irrationality. Plans should be delayed owing to hidden foes and obstacles.
The Empress represents the fertility principle and the Earth Mother. It suggests abundance, security, domestic comfort, childbirth and motherhood.
Reversed: It represents poverty, insecurity, domestic problems, over-protection, and setbacks in career or relationships.
The Emperor is a male symbol representing worldly success, arnbitions achieved, and the triumph o f will. A fortunate card for men, it represents a dominant male influence for women or their achievement of success through force.
Reversed: It warns against weakness, submission, the abuse of power and the failure to achieve worldly ambitions.
The High Priest symbolizes spiritual power, a wise advisor, the influence offaith, and the acquisition ofinsight and knowledge. It can represent a mentor.
Reversed: It warns of poor advice, lies, crises in faith and belief systems, and the need to make one's own rules.
The Lovers symbolizes strong emotions, affairs of the heart, and the conflict between the desires of the flesh and the spirit. It suggests love, a happy relationship, and the need to decide based on the true desire rather than duty.
Reversed: It warns ofunhappy love affairs, separations and the wrong decisions regarding relationships.
The Chariot symbolizes victory and conquest over great odds, and the driving force of destiny. It suggests movement and travel, optimism, and success through self-reliance and self-motivation.
Reversed: It warns of arrogance, temper, ruthlessness, and of travel plans that go awry.
Justice symbolizes both the need for sound judgement and for balance, mercy and punishment. It suggests success in legal affairs and other decisions, harmony, the righting of a wrong.
Reversed: It warns of harsh injustice, ill judgement, and adverse decisions.
The Hermit symbolizes a drawing apart from the world for re-evaluation. It represents caution, experience, age, the need for counsel, and prudent actions.
Reversed: It warns against impatience and obstinacy, and ofioneliness.1t suggests a refusal to listen to advice from older and wiser folk.
The Wheel of Fortune is a symbol of the vanity of man and ofearthly power. It suggests the advent ofchange, with destiny and blind chance bringing good fortune and an end to current difficulties.
Reversed: It warns of ill fortune, unpleasant surprises, and a period of adversity.
This card symbolizes situations of adversity which if approached with resolution and courage will be overcome. Strength and courage will battle with and triumph over hatred and evil. III health will give way to good health.
Reversed: It warns of cowardice and of defeat by unfair means.
The Hanged Man symbolizes a reversal of the expected, representing risk and sacrifice, and the entry into the inner self for enlightenment. It can suggest a need to accept circumstances and may prefigure illness.
Reversed: It suggests a selfish refusal to believe there is more to life, and warns of a desire for martyrdom.
The Death card suggests transformation and a change which is for the better. It can represent harsh fate, a major change in life, and occasionally death.
Reversed: It signifies enforced change and destruction without renewal.
This card represents moderation in all things, the careful control of volatile factors which leads to a successful conclusions, self-control and harmony.
Reversed: It warns of quarrels, competing interests and a lack of harmony.
This card symbolizes the tyranny of materialism, lust, power and greed. It can suggest an immovable obstacle or overwhelming force which may only be worked around, disaster and unbreakable bonds.
Reversed: It symbolizes the beginning of freedom and the escape from addictions and baser impulses.
The Tower symbolizes ruin and calamity, the shattering of hopes and high ambitions, the destruction ofa narrow view of the world, and the inability to stand against divine will.
Reversed: It suggests ruin brought needlessly upon the individual, and may portend false imprisonment and oppression.
The Star symbolizes insight and hope for the future, enlightenment in new directions. It presages good health and the receipt of gifts which may be spiritual rather than material.
Reversed: It suggests tension, pessimism, and an unwillingness to see new horizons.
The Moon symbolizes the time of the irrational mind, suggesting deceptions that may be perceived and overcome through intuition alone. This card portends success in clandestine love affairs.
Reversed: It represents dangers, lies and hidden enemies, and warns against fearing the irrational.
The Sun symbolizes glory and achievement. It suggests joy, pleasure and good health, and illumination in every sense.
Reversed: It suggests a failure, setbacks along the path to achievement, or a fleeting success.
This card symbolizes a time of evaluation. It suggests worthy goals have been accomplished, the start of a period of peace and tranquility, and a new beginning.
Reversed: It suggests regrets and remorse, lost opportunities, the fear of death and illness and an unwillingness to accept change or make decisions when needed.
The World symbolizes the completion of any task, and the rewards of success. It represents fulfillment and the moving into a new cycle.
Reversed: It portends success which is yet to be achieved, and at worst, ultimate failure rather then ultimate success, the inability to ascend to a higher cycle.
The Minor Arcana comprises fifty-six cards arranged in the four Tarot suits: Wands, Swords, Cups and Pentacles. Each comprises ten numbered cards from Ace to Ten, and four Court cards (Knave (Page), Knight, Queen, King). The cards of the Minor Arcana have a different meaning when reversed-this is normally an opposing or an extreme version of the upright meaning.
The Suit of Wands relates to the mind, the world of ideas, and the intellect. The suit is associated with the element of Fire and the spring.
This card indicates inspiration and the beginning of enterprises and business relationships.
Reversed: It indicates restlessness, change for change's sake, and a lack of self-confidence.
This card indicates a successful and prosperous partnership or a meeting of minds.
Reversed: It portends disagreements in existing partnerships and arguments.
This card signifies good fortune in the near future, but the querent must remain patient a little longer.
Reversed: Efforts are hindered by pride, arrogance and self-deceit.
This card represents prosperity and the harvest (of projects, material or spiritual achievements). It may also indicate a change to one's home.
Reversed: It signifies pointlessness, disappointment, and unfulfilled expectations.
This card represents challenges, competitions and opportunities to prove the querent's abilities.
Reversed: It portends quarrels and misunderstandings.
This card foretells success in any project, with greater rewards than expected for the bold of spirit.
Reversed: It signifies anxiety for the future and delayed triumph.
Adversity is foretold by this card, but the obstacles can be overcome by the determined and the resolute.
Reversed: The card foretells indecision and doubts at the critical moment, which make defeat certain unless resisted.
This card symbolizes swiftness, in travel, communications, and in resolving difficulties.
Reversed: It symbolizes delays and rash actions, and misinterpreted messages.
This card symbolizes stability and strength, which will allow the querent to be steadfast against opposition and succeed in the fullness of time.
Reversed: It represents stubbornness, unyielding, uncompromising and wrong-mindedness.
This card signifies heavy burdens laid upon the querent. The tasks, if completed, may exact a high penalty from the querent.
Reversed: It represents hidden enemies and others who seek only to use the querent's willingness.
The Knave suggests a traveler, adaptable, enthusiastic, but impulsive and with a short attention span.
Reversed: The Knave is a complainer, faithless in love, and a messenger of ill tidings.
The Knight is generous, in love, friendship and war, swift in all emotions.
Reversed: The Knight is jealous and belligerent, seeking conflict.
The Queen is creative, active, and accustomed to organizing, reponsibility, and authority.
Reversed: The Queen is possessive, tyrannical, vengeful and ill-tempered.
The King is mature, strong, and honorable, combining compassion with justice.
Reversed: The King is aggressive, intolerant, and bigoted, ruled by baser passions.
The Suit of Cups relates to love, sex, marriage, fertility and the emotions. The suit is associated with the element of Water and the summer.
This card symbolizes the beginnings of love, as romance, marriage, betrothal, or birth.
Reversed: It represents the end of love, and the bitterness and despair in affairs of the heart.
This card symbolizes commitment, with love and understanding between a couple. In less emotional circumstances, it foretells cooperation and mutual friendship.
Reversed: It symbolizes separation, infidelity and betrayal.
This card represents celebrations, in terms of parties, meetings, happy reunions, weddings and christenings.
Reversed: It represents promiscuity and wild passions, and eternal triangles in love.
This card warns against boredom and satiation from an excess of joy or love.
Reversed: It signifies an excess in purely physical pleasures to hide from the fear of loneliness.
This card represents sorrow through the loss of a relationship, but possibilities of new happiness.
Reversed: The card foretells that an unhappy time will soon end and losses will be recovered with interest.
This card represents memory with old acquaintances returning, prior initiatives coming to fruition, or deja vu.
Reversed: It warns of nostalgia, the inability or unwillingness to change, and reopened wounds.
The card heralds choices, with many options open to the querent. Choose wisely and look beyond appearances.
Reversed: It warns of false hopes, wrong choices and inaction.
The card foretells the querent must seek his destiny elsewhere following the wishes of the heart.
Reversed: The card signifies a flight from problems and the abandonment of security for an unattainable dream.
This card foretells pleasure, happiness, health, popularity and social gatherings.
Reversed: It suggests vanity, complacency and carelessness.
This card symbolizes contentment, lasting peace, and happiness within the family.
Reversed: It foretells rivalry where once was happiness, and the weakening of the bonds offamily and friendship.
The Knave is thoughtful and caring, vulnerable and in need of attention.
Reversed: The Knave is spoilt and petulant, manipulating the feelings of others.
The Knight is faithful in love and friendship, of a poetic temperament, and a bringer of opportunities.
Reversed: The Knight is false in love, a breaker of hearts, and of an idle disposition.
The Queen is sympathetic, sociable, and imaginative, being honest and loyal to those whom she loves.
Reversed: The Queen is deceitful, vain and immoral, demanding attention.
The King is sensuous and sociable, intelligent and intuitive. A patron of the arts, he is generous and comfort-loving.
Reversed: The King is cunning and hot-tempered, easily insulted or hurt.
The Suit of Swords relates to activity, strife and the forging of order from chaos. The suit is associated with the element of Air and the winter.
The card symbolizes the attainment of goals, with the force of intellect and courage triumphing over any obstacle.
Reversed: The card foretells abuse, injustice, malice and mental trickery.
The card represents steadfast friendship in adversity, the balance between opposites and the possibility of a duel.
Reversed: The card foretells betrayal by a trusted ally and imminent trouble.
The card represents the ending of a relationship and the clearing of paths. It can indicate surgery in the near future.
Reversed: The card warns of confusion and worries.
The card makes a time of recuperation and temporary respite from struggles.
Reversed: It foretells illness, confinement, enforced rest or exile.
The card signifies defeat and loss, where continuing a course of action will lead to even greater failures.
Reversed: It foretells a refusal to surrender when all is lost, and may indicate a funeral.
The card represents travel, and flight from danger, with immediate difficulties being resolved.
Reversed: It warns of delays, partial success, and ignorance of the next direction to take
The card suggests cunning and even dishonesty are necessary to defeat an enemy or overcome an obstacle.
Reversed: It warns of theft and lies. The querent should guard his possessions and keep his own counsel
The card foretells bad luck and entrapment. Patience is necessary.
Reversed: It warns of frustrations and problems worsened by the querent's own actions.
The card represents cruelty, warning of sleepless nights, suffering, slander and spite.
Reversed: The querent will refuse help and feel overwhelmed by suffering.
This card portends ruin and disaster, betrayal, loss and grave ill fortune.
Reversed: The time of adversity will continue for some time yet.
The Knave is intelligent and quick-witted, eager to learn and able to transform circumstances to his advantage.
Reversed: The Knave is guileful, a spy or slanderer, who manipulates others for his own ends.
The Knight is eloquent and charismatic, impetuous, swift in deed, insight and movement.
Reversed: The Knight is quarrelsome and secretive. Seeming honesty covers treachery and falsehood.
The Queen is independent; clever and calm in crises. The Queen is highly perceptive seeing much that is hidden.
Reversed: The Queen is bitter and jealous; a harsh judge of others.
The King is wise, rational, restrained in displaying emotions, and apt to seek intellectual diversions.
Reversed: The King is suspicious, a master of intrigue and deception
The Suit of Pentacles relates to wealth, finance and land. The suit is associated with the element of Earth and the autumn.
This card represents the foundation of material prosperity, suggesting windfalls and lucky gains upon which stability can be built.
Reversed: It is indicative of greed and insecurity, and warns of unwise speculation.
This card suggests ajuggling of resources, with careful management being sufficient to avoid difficulties.
Reversed: It indicates recklessness with regard to financial matters and gambling leading to possible bankruptcy.
This card symbolizes material achievement through the application of skill and talent, and may foreshadow envy from friend and foe alike.
Reversed: It symbolizes talent wasted and an over-cautious approach.
This card symbolizes secure and stable wealth and possessions.
Reversed: It indicates a miser, envious of others and consumed by avarice.
The card symbolizes poverty and financial ruin for the querent and for others, with fresh opportunities to rebuild elsewhere.
Reversed: It foretells an avoidable bankruptcy or other loss, and the need for a change in attitudes.
The card foreshadows that the querent will benefit from the financial support of others.
Reversed: It prefigures a squandering ofmaterial resources and loss of possessions.
This card suggests slow but steady growth through careful planning.
Reversed: It signifies idleness and vain efforts.
This card symbolizes learning, and achievement of goals through the acquisition of new knowledge and skills.
Reversed: It indicates impatience and a desire for swift success at any cost.
This card foretells comfort achieved through prosperity and shrewd administration of resources.
Reversed: It indicates debts or comfort obtained from the hardship of others.
The card symbolizes wealth and family honor, and may foreshadow an inheritance.
Reversed: It prefigures family disputes over money and outdated traditions.
The Knave is careful and sensible, thrifty concerning money and having a firm sense of duty in other matters.
Reversed: The Knave is a wastrel and a scrounger.
The Knight is conventional, practical, and honorable. Responsibility is accepted with steadfast determination.
Reversed: The Knight is boring and unimaginative, smug in his position and attitudes.
The Queen is a sensible matron combining generosity with a liking for luxury.
Reversed: The Queen is possessive and miserly, disliking change.
The King is practical and successful. He remains unpretentious despite his possessions and is slow to anger.
Reversed: The King is stupid and unimaginative. He may be bribed but will make a tough foe.
For an aspiring Tarot practitioner, the next step in using the Tarot cards is to consider how to combine the individual card meanings in the divinatory patterns known as spreads. The Gamemaster has a much more arduous task—creating the reading in response to a specific question posed by the player of a divining character. Of course, the Gamemaster could just provide a glib answer e.g., "the reading is auspicious, the cards predict temporary setbacks followed by eventual success." Such answers should be a last resort to be used only when the Gamemaster cannot find a suitable combination of actual cards which symbolizes the intended meaning. Providing a divination in terms ofactual card names not only adds verisimilitude and flavor to the story, but also allows the Gamemaster to utilise the ambiguity of the symbolism and compels players to work to decipher the meaning.
A Tarot card table is provided at the end of this section, and this can be used to randomly roll individual card results. The numbers in square brackets [] refer to the required result of a dI00 roll to obtain a specific card. Naturally if the card has already been picked, then a reroll is required. The table assumes the complete Tarot deck is being used. The Gamemaster should choose the cards which appear in a reading, using the table to interject random cards when a Divination maneuver or spell is only I partially successful. The table may also serve as a source of inspiration for plotting future events and microstories in I the lives of the characters.
In terms of the story, there are four aspects of Tarot reading which are germane to the creation of a reading: preparation, the choice of cards, the choice of spread to use, and special meanings to ascribe to the cards.
It is a tenet of the Tarot that the diviner must attune himself to the cards, keeping them with him at all times, meditating upon their mysteries and studying the lore. The deck should be wrapped in silk or stored in a wooden box. The diviner should be the only person to read the deck, and the cards should not be consulted for trivial reasons as this may cause them to reveal unpleasant tidings. If others touch the cards without the diviner's permission or treat them with disrespect, the deck will lose its power. The Gamemaster should note the use and care of the cards and apply the appropriate modifiers from the General Divination Chart to any Divination maneuver.
In using the Tarot, the character will either be seeking a general reading concerning an overall impression of the querent's life and future events or a specific reading which answers a question. (Note the diviner can use the Tarot to ask questions on his own behalf). Depending on the nature of the reading, the diviner will select some or all of the deck, clearing his mind of extraneous thoughts, and the querent will shuffle the selected cards (reversing some), and then will lay out the cards for the diviner to interpret.
The Gamemaster should decide based on the nature of the query which cards to consider using in a reading. Unless the Gamemaster has studied the previous sections carefully, it is likely that searching through all seventyeight cards will be a time consuming and frustrating affair. Instead the Gamemaster should only consider portions of the deck such as the Major Arcana or a single Suit in creating a reading. I f the divination concerns the personality of the caster, the use of the Major Arcana is indicated, whereas if the divination is more "fortune-telling" (per se), the Minor Arcana is appropriate. For specific questions relating to an area of life such as prosperity or love then the relevant Minor Arcana suit (Pentacles or Cups in this example) should be used. The Gamemaster may choose to describe which selection of the deck is used in recounting the divination but such an addition should only add extra realism.
Related to the selection of the cards is the choice of the "spread." In performing a reading, a Tarot practitioner selects a spread which has sufficient slots to provide the desired information and then interprets the combinations of cards. In creating a reading, the Gamemaster should avoid the use of complex spreads involving many cards. Encapsulating the intended meaning in complex spreads is much harder than interpreting a complex spread. Complex spreads require more time to construct as many more cards must be selected to reflect aspects of the meaning and the adjacencies of the various cards must be considered. The more cards involved, the more information that the Gamemaster has to provide, the greater potential story commitment resulting from a successful divination. The smaller the spread, the easier to construct, and the fewer hostages to fortune. Of course, if the divination is using only a very restricted subset of the deck or the query is very specific, a single card may be sufficient to capture the meaning.
The simplest usable spread involves only three cards arranged in the pattern: 1 2 3. This can be used to provide a general reading of the querent with card 1 indicating an important event or circumstances in the querent's past, card 2 reflecting the current status of the querent in the present, and card 3 indicating how the querent will fare in the future. The spread can be adapted to only consider the future: card 1 indicates a future event, card 2 indicates the querent's reaction to the event, and card 3 indicates the querent's actions to the future event. I f using this spread to evoke the past, a suitable reinterpretation of the spread to determine the key aspects of an event would use card 1 to indicate who or what caused the event to occur, card 2 to indicate why the event occurred, and card 3 to indicate how the event came to pass. Dependent on the nature of the question and the information sought by the diviner, the Gamemaster should adapt the meanings of the slots in addition to reinterpreting the capsule meanings ofthe cards to fit the needs of the response.
Two more complex spreads are the Cross Spread (which involves six cards) and the Horseshoe Spread (which involves seven cards). Both of these spreads are useful in deciding upon courses of action. The layout of the cards and the meaning of the positions are shown below.
The next spread (the Calendar Spread or Horoscope Spread) should not be used to provide "off-the-cuff' spontaneous readings for divination attempts within the game (as it involves thirteen cards). Instead it could be used as a set-piece, say a reading provided by a powerful NPC diviner which the player characters must interpret to save the kingdom, or as a means of randomly generating future events in the next year of a character's life.
In some spreads, cards are chosen as significators to represent the querent or occasionally another person of importance in the querent' slife or future. Such significators should be chosen to match the person in terms of gender, complexion and personality where possible. A concise mapping of the significators is as follows:
There are a number of other special meanings which are not captured by the card summaries of the previous sections. In particular, when the entire deck has been used to provide the reading, the ratio of Major Arcana to Minor Arcana cards determines whether the querent's destiny is in the hands of inexorable Fate or whether the querent is in control of his own destiny. Too many Major Arcana cards and the querent will be subject to the whims of fate, too many Minor Arcana cards and the querent is responsible for his own fate.
Adventuring diviners tend to be interested in such questions as "When will an event occur?", "Where is the nearest inhabited human settlement?", "How many enemies will we face?". Shown below are a few sets of special meanings for handling such questions (assuming the Divination maneuver is successful!). In handling the timing of events, the appropriate cards are the Ace to Ten cards of the Minor Arcana suits. The last such card laid in a reading should represent the expected time of the event. The suits have the following meanings:
| Cups=days | Wands=weeks |
| Swords=months | Pentacles=years |
Thus the Ace of Swords refers to an event which will occur in approximately one month from the time of the reading.
In handling direction and distance, a similar rule can be used, except the number of the card refers to either miles (or days) of travel. One arrangement for assigning compass directions to the suits is as follows:
| Swords=North | Wands=East |
| Cups=South | Pentacles=West |
Note in this system, the deck can only reveal directions in terms of cardinal points of the compass.
A final useful system ascribes professional classes to Minor Arcana suits.
| Cups=Channeling spell users |
| Wands=Essence spell users or Arcane spell users |
| Swords=Non-spell users |
| Pentackles=Mentalism spell users |
One final remark that should be made on the subject of constructing readings is that players (through their characters) can occasionally make the Gamemaster's task easier by suggesting appropriate systems for certain types of question (for example, relating Minor Arcana cards to the letters of the alphabet when using Divination to name an enemy). In such cases, the Gamemaster need only try to fit the answer he intends to provide to the player characters' system. Of course if the player characters have not allowed for the Gamemaster' s response in their system, the reading may be profoundly misleading.
Ever since man has been able to articulate his dreams (and throughout the world), dreams have held a special fascination for the human race, shaping the lives of individuals and forming a vital part of many cultures. These enigmatic experiences, though often poorly recalled by the waking mind, have at times been ascribed supernatural origins as messages, warnings and influences from divine and demonic agencies reaching the mortal through the unguarded portals of the sleeping mind. Priests and soothsayers have attempted to interpret the hidden meanings of dreams to divine the future. In the modern era, psychologists have constructed elaborate theories linking dreams to the buried workings of the subconscious, with dream interpretation being a revelation of the inner self.
This section will discuss the beliefs of historical and tribal cultures relating to dreams (to indicate the diversity and commonality of the traditions). This is followed by a sketch of some psychological theories relating to dreams. Also covered are the physiological aspects of sleep and dreaming (describing the different types of dreams). Included next are explanations on how to effectively incorporate dreams within the story and the framework of the game mechanics. Finally, a presentation on an alternative perspective on dreams, namely the Dreamworld is given (a valued component of many fantasy settings).
This section discusses common and historical beliefs and theories about dreams.
The Babylonians considered dreams to be divided into two types, "good" dreams which were of divine origin and "bad" dreams which were of demonic origin. It was the responsibility of the priests of Mamu (goddess of dreams) to prevent bad dreams from becoming reality.
The Assyrians believed that dreams were omens (e.g., a gift of an empty pot in a dream foreshadowing poverty, a gift of a filled goblet presaged children and fame). For them, "bad" dreams demanded deeds and the exorcism of the "demon," which if accomplished would eliminate the problem. The Epic of Gilgamesh, dating from 2000 BC is the earliest known account of a series of dreams.
The Egyptians considered real things, not perceivable by the waking mind, to be the basis of dreams. Part of their dream mythos has been preserved on papyrus scrolls, including the distinction between "good" and "bad" dreams (incantations to protect against the influences ofthe latter), descriptions ofdreams and their interpretations. One scroll interprets a dream about sawing wood as foretelling the death of an enemy and a dream wherein the dreamer's teeth are falling out as indicating that the dreamer's relatives plot his death. They divided dreams into three principal types, dreams of warning (often of illness) and revelation, dreams in which the gods demanded the dreamer to perform actions, and dreams induced by ritual. Like other cultures, the Egyptians employed ritual techniques to attempt to invoke dreams from their gods, "incubating" the dreams by sleeping on "dream beds" in shrines, sometimes fasting or consuming herbal concoctions in advance to further assist the process.
The Greeks continued the traditions of distinguishing between "good" and "bad" dreams and of dream incubation for healing. The petitioner would purify and dedicate himself to the god for two days before entering the temple, abstaining from sex, eating meat, fish or fowl and drinking only water. A sacrifice to the god was demanded before the petitioner would be led to sleep on the skin of a sacrificed animal. It is suspected that the priests (dressed as gods) would treat the petitioner during his sleep. In the morning, a priest would interpret the dreams.
In addition, dreams were also believed to contain warnings and prophecies from the gods. The Greek soothsayer Artemidorous Daldianus (of the 2nd Century AD) produced a book on dreams and their prophetic interpretations entitled Oneirocritica ("oneiros" is Greek for "a dream"). He studied dreamer and dream, inquiring in great detail into the condition, occupation, and background of the dreamer, and using this information to shape the interpretation. The Oneirocritica survived the centuries and with the advent of cheap printing would appear in readily available editions (of variable fidelity to the original) whenever dream interpretation was fashionable.
Despite the prevailing beliefs in dream healing and dream divination, some Greek philosophers held different (and very modern) opinions. Aristotle attributed dreams to sensory impressions (reduced in the sleeping state) and hence susceptible to emotional and subjective distortions. Plato wrote, "There exists in everyone of us, even in some reputed most respectable, a terrible, fierce, and lawless brood of desires which it seems are revealed in dreams".
Dream incubation and divination were also practiced elsewhere. For example, the Japanese emperors would visit a Shinto temple at Usa on the island of Kyushu to incubate dreams when faced with political problems. In ancient India, dream interpretation was highly valued. A chapter of the Atharva Veda (circa 1000 BC) was devoted to dreams, and it notes that the time at which a dream occurs during the night is indicative of when the prediction will come true: dreams before dawn will come true sooner than those experienced earlier in the night.
The diverse beliefs of the world's tribal cultures offer a number of interesting perspectives on the nature of dreams.
Some cultures, such as the Patani Malay people and the Eskimo of the Hudson Bay, teach that the "soul" leaves the body during sleep and enters a special dreamworld. As a consequence, they believe it is extremely dangerous to wake a sleeper due to the risk that the "soul" might be lost in the limbo of the dreamworld, and for the Tajal people of Luzon, such an action will merit serious punishment.
Elsewhere, dream events are believed to be identical with reality. In Borneo, if a man dreams that his wife is an adulteress, he may send her back to her father. An attempt was made on the life of a missionary by a Zulu, who reportedly had dreamed that the missionary had shot at hIm. SImIlarly a friendship was terminated when one tribesman of a Paraguayan Indian tribe dreamed that the other intended harm.
Many Indian tribes of North America believe that dreams are revelations of the dreamer's secret desires and in some cases (such as the Iroquois, and other peoples in other regIOns of the world) demand immediate fulfilment. A Jesuit priest of the early 18th Century reported that one Iroquois Indian, having dreamed that ten friends dove into a.hole in the of a frozen lake and emerged from a dIfferent hole, Informed his friends. Only nine actually survived the execution of the feat. On the other hand, the Huron tribe hold that the soul's desires are satisfied by expression within dreams.
Contact with other cultures can alter the dream mythos of tnbal The Elgonyi of Kenya had, prior to their contact wIth the Europeans, paid great attention to their "big" dreams, whose interpretation guided their important decisions. But as an old medicine man explained to Carl Jung, the Elgonyi no longer needed their dreams because the white man who ruled the world knew everything.
The Senoi tribe of the mountainous jungles of Malaysia have an elaborate philosophy based upon dreams and their interpretation. The belligerent neighbouring tribes even consider the Senoi to possess magic as a result. For the Senoi, dreams dictate both the timing and the conduct of every .important event in their lives. Anthropologists report a socIety where personal aggression and violence are virtually unknown with the source ofthe stability believed to be the dream control and interpretation techniques taught to every member, including toddlers.
The first principle of their dream control is that danger must be confronted and conquered, and in doing so they overcome fears. A child who reports a dream in which he flees from an animal will be instructed to attempt to recreate the dream during his next sleep. This time the child must stand his ground and attack the animal. He may call upon the help of dream friends if required, but must not flee.
The second principle allows the dreamer to transform frightening experiences into uplifting ones by "advancing towards pleasure." The terror offalling becomes the freedom of flying. The doctrine explicitly encourages sexual satisfaction within dreams, regardless of the nature of the desires, viewing the dream images as elements of the self which must be integrated.
The third and final major principle, of achieving a positive outcome, is to spur the dreamer into changing adverSIty Into benefit. Thus, ifone dreams ofbeing wounded by a foe, one should not dwell on the fact or severity of the inJury, but rather that the foe has weakened himself by using up his strength.
The Senoi techniques, in addition to the historical and contemporary traditions of others, have migrated into the western world and are being applied by various experimentalists and "New Age" mystics.
Sigmund Freud firmly considered dreams to form "the royal road to the unconscious." His assertion was that dreams reflected the waking experiences of the dreamer, theorizing both a justification for and a system of interpretation, which part of his techniques of psychoanalysis. Freud divided the human personality into three facets: the id (representing the childish, primitive and instinctive aspects which pursue the "pleasure principle"), the ego (representing the conscious, self-invoking logic, and judgement In interactions with the world, adhering to the "reality principle"; and supposed to restrain the id), and the superego (concerned with morality, and above the ego and the id). He hypothesised that during sleep, the repression and censorship the ego and the superego were relaxed, leaving the sleeping mind under the control of the id.
According to his theories, dreams were manifestations of the desires and impulses of the uninhibited id. He held that dreams had two levels of content, latent and manifest content. The repressed desires of the id form the latent content. The details of the dream form the manifest content. Freud considered the manifest content to be generated from memories (of childhood and infancy forgotten by the conscious mind but still stored within the unconscious mind), fragments ofthe preceding day's experiences (known as the day residues), and physiological stimuli. According to theory, the manifest content represents a symbolic language for the expression of the latent content with t?e enigmatic dream imagery serving to prolong the liberation of the id and veiling the nature of the wishes from the other portions of the psyche once the sleeper awakes (and the sleeping memories come under the scrutiny of the ego and superego).
The analyst's interpretation of dreams is further complicated by. concealment of the latent content by transposItion and ambiguity in the dreaming process (followed by elaboration and rationalization by the conscious mind when reporting dreams). The recommended procedure for enabling the analyst to relate and interpret the dream was to encourage the patient to undertake an exercise in free association concerning the dream which in conjunction with other knowledge concerning the patient would proVIde the analyst with the requisite information to understand the patient.
Freud's caused significant controversy since his earhest publications, and many psychiatrists and psychologists disagree with some (or all) of his work. The very fact that his research was the result of observations of his highly neurotic patients rather than a representative sample of the general population has been suggested as the cause of the central preoccupations with sex and aggression In his explanations of the human psyche.
Alfred Adler (a one-time disciple of Freud) posited a theory of "individual psychology" wherein the individual was supposed to be driven by a desire for power, moving from the inferiority complex arising from the child's lack of control to the superior position of the adult. In this theory, the ambitions of the individual were reflected in dreams.
Carl Jung, another sometime disciple of Freud, agreed that dreams involved a symbolic language, but disagreed on the source of the symbolism and the purpose of dreaming. To Jung, the unconscious could be divided into the personal unconscious (consisting of partial remembrances of ideas and thoughts), and the collective unconscious (comprising "racial memories," independent of culture, present in each individual). The collective unconscious contained a number of universal archetypes, each symbolising some portion of the psyche, including the horse (the wild and untamable animal aspect such as the unconscious mind), the mother (instinct, the womb, and nature), the shadow (the unrecognised and ignored portion of the dreamer-ignored because the dreamer dislikes what that portion represents), and the mandala or magic circle (the self and its quest for unity and completion). The archetypes constitute the symbology of dreams.
Dreaming, rather than being complementary to waking experience as supposed by Freud, was held to be compensatory by Jung, balancing the traits ofthe dreamer that were underutilised in the course of waking life. Moreover the dreaming process is considered a continuous process throughout the day and the night which normally only surfaces during sleep. The waking life of the dreamer may be adversely affected whenever aspects of the personality are denied in waking behaviour.
In Jungian therapy, the failure of dreams to direct the dreamer's attention to the ignored aspects and modify the dreamer's waking behaviour manifests itself in bad moods and later other symptoms in waking. Only at this stage, dream interpretation is called for with the analyst considering not a single dream but a series of dreams so that repetitive elements symbolising the areas of concern become evident.
The Gestalt therapy (developed by Fritz Perls) aimed at integrating the alienated aspects of the personality into a healthy and harmonious whole. An extension ofthe therapy considered dreams to be projections ofthe personality with aspects of the psyche and views relating to oneself and others (ignored or denied by the waking mind) becoming symbolized in the detailed dream content. As such content came purely from within the self, no universal language of symbology could exist within this theory.
This section discusses the nature of sleep and dreams.
Sleep can be analytically defined as a normal, readily reversible, recurrent and spontaneous shift to a state of decreased and less efficient responsiveness to external stimuli relative to the state of wakefulness. It may be considered an active process combining "bodily repair" with "brain repair," where the latter may consist ofcerebral stimulation and the integration ofexperiences and learning from the previous day within the individual's memory. This "definition" avoids a commitment to anyone of the psychological theories and in its tentative wording reflects the uncertainties within the scientific community.
In an average human lifetime, some twenty years will be spent in a state of sleep. The duration and the frequency of that sleep varies with age. A newborn infant may spend as much as sixteen hours per day in sleep, with each period of sleep followed by a period of wakefulness (each measured in hours). As the child reaches his first and second birthday (and beyond), the total amount of time spent in sleep will decrease to between nine and twelve hours. Fortunately for the long suffering parents, this will also be accompanied by a shift from multiple sleep periods to a single continuous nocturnal period of sleep. These trends will be firmly established in older children (reflecting both maturity and societal pressures to be active in the day and rest at night). Adults will normally sleep for between six and nine hours per night, with seven and a half hours being the probable norm. The decrease of total sleep continues slowly throughout life with six hours of total sleep being reported in the elderly. The elderly also may return to a pattern of nocturnal sleep and daytime naps, possibly a consequence ofthe absence of motivations for continuous sleep such as the need to go to work at a given time and so forth.
In 1953, physiologists Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman discovered the sequence of variations in sleep quality and the distinction between REM (Random Eye Movement) sleep and NREM (Non Random Eye Movement) sleep. REM sleep (sometimes called paradoxical sleep) is so called because ofthe intennittent bursts ofrapid eye movements, but has a number of other interesting characteristics such as increased heart and respiration rate, blood pressure, and significantly higher brain activity relative to other sleep. Although there is periodic twitching of facial muscles and extremities, the body as a whole is effectively paralyzed. This is believed to be a defense against accidental injury arising from spontaneous and sudden movements that might otherwise occur, because during REM sleep the brain dreams....
NREM sleep (or orthodox sleep) is an apparently restful state conducive to the recuperative functions nonnally associated with sleep. NREM sleep increases if sleep occurs after physical exercise and if the individual is in recovery sleep after a prolonged length of wakefulness. During the deepest substage ofNREM sleep, bodily tissues are repaired with the aid of growth honnone. Body movements are not inhibited in NREM sleep.
Contrary to myth and expectation, somnambulism (sleep walking) occurs in deep NREM sleep and apparently has no connection with any remembered dreams. Similarly somniloquy (or sleep talking) is mostly a feature of light NREM sleep and also appears unconnected to dreams with appropriate content.
Dreaming is a feature of REM sleep but can also occur in NREM sleep. REM dream periods last between five and fifteen minutes, and REM dreams are vivid and full of action. The NREM counterparts are much briefer, and are characterised with less drama, and more shadowy and blurred imagery.
The sleep pattern of a nonnal adult can be described as adhering to the following cycle of four stages. In the first stage, the sleeper relaxes with the conscious mind drifting in and out of sleep. In the second stage, the sleeper has entered a very light sleep and can be awakened by slight stimuli. In the third stage, the sleeper is much more relaxed and only loud noises or other serious disturbances will awaken him. Together these stages usually require twenty minutes. The fourth stage is deep NREM sleep and is the period of bodily repair. The sequence of stages reverses itself but instead of waking up on reaching the first stage the first period of REM sleep is entered. Thus the cycle is 1-2-3-4-3-2-1(REM) and reaching the first REM period takes 70-90 minutes on average. The cycle will then repeat completely at least once and possibly twice. The remaining two or three cycles will omit the deeper NREM stages and alternate between REM sleep and second stage NREM sleep. The length of the REM periods will increase as the night progresses.
Sleep and dreaming are important for the continued physical and mental health of humans and animals. Full sleep deprivation leads to severe physical debilitation and eventual death. Partial sleep deprivation and selective sleep deprivation also have adverse effects. For obvious reasons, most of the scientific research has been undertaken on animals.
In partial sleep deprivation, such as when the individual must survive on three hours rather than the nonnal period and hence has less than nonnal REM sleep, the body compensates on return to nonnal routines by increasing the amount of REM sleep as a rebound which happens every night until the quota of REM sleep is recovered. (A rebound also occurs when NREM fourth stage sleep is lost, but this only happens on the first recovery period.) This sort of deprivation and selective deprivation of REM during nonnal sleeping periods has been shown in animals to impair learning and other cognitive tasks, increase their sexuality and aggressiveness, and heighten the central nervous system's sensitivity to auditory stimuli and electrical shocks.
Total sleep deprivation induces irritability, blurred vision, slurring of speech, and memory lapses. Hallucinations (visual and tactile) and bizarre behaviour will occur after five to ten days of complete lack ofsleep. Intellectual activity is impaired with tasks requiring timely responses being most affected, and other tasks suffering from errors of omission as the body slips in and out of the momentary refuge of microsleep.
Dreams serve many purposes, and can be classified into a number of distinct types. The categories are not mutually exclusive and so dreams can often find membership in more than one category. The classification adopted in the Mentalism Companion is eclectic and gives equal weight to the dream categories, without judgement on the validity of the theories and current world-views underpinning them.
The psychological category contains the "safety-valve" dreams, the compensatory dreams and the recurrent dreams which are the subject of the various schools of analysis.
"Safety-valve" dreams are exercises in wish fulfillment, expressing the hidden desires of the unconscious mind which are repressed in nonnal waking life. The dream allows behaviour that is unacceptable in nonnal waking life and acts as a release for pent-up drives and aggression. Shrouded in symbolism to conceal the true objects of desire, these dreams are brief and difficult to understand.
Compensatory dreams act (according to Jung) to balance the psyche, with the dreamer finding himself in situations and exhibiting personality traits far removed and opposite to the dreamer's nonnal persona. One of Jung's own dreams, that of the Customs Inspector, included the ghostly apparition of a peevish Imperial Austrian customs official who was described within the dream as one ofthose who couldn't die properly. Jung interpreted this portion of the dream as being compensatory, in that the customs official represented his mentor (Freud) and was indicative of the expression of a need to be more objective and robust in his attitude to Freud and Freud's theories.
A subset of compensatory dreams, known as contrary dreams, occur as temporary balances to a personality overwhelmed with joy, sadness, grief or anger. Thus, a dreamer may experience dreams of sadness at a period of extreme happiness in his life, and vice versa.
Recurrent, repetitive, and sequential dreams are conceived as expressions of hidden problems. Over a period of days, weeks, even perhaps years, the dreamer will experience a sequence of dreams containing repeated elements upon a given theme. The sequence may be likened to episodes in a story, or may juxtapose the repeated elements in widely differing circumstances. The sequence may reflect changes in the dreamer's circumstances and how he views himself. I f the sequence is frightening, it may hearken to childhood terrors and events. The dreams may sometimes hint at solutions to the problems they represent.
Factual dreams concern objects and persons in everyday life, without symbolism, and may serve to absorb and integrate daily experiences. A variation of these are vigilant dreams which may incorporate various stimuli from the dreamer's surroundings, and serve as a reminder of tasks that the dreamer should complete. One such dream, experienced by a psychologist, was of a garden door banging in the wind. On awakening, she checked the door, and found it securely fixed open. She hypothesised that the dream had been a mental reminder to ensure the door was locked.
Similarly, the momentary and long-term physiological needs of the body may slip into dreaming, as may physical sensations. This is known as physiologicaly dreams. A dreamer may be jolted awake during or at the conclusion of such dreams. The physician and researcher of dreams, Alfred Maury, awakened one night with the memory of being tried by a French revolutionary tribunal, questioned, condemned, and guillotined. Part of his bed had fallen on the back of his neck.
Dreams have served as catalysts for creativity and problem-solving in many poets, artists, scientists and scholars. In each case, the dreamer had spent some time reflecting upon the topics before retiring to sleep and experiencing dreams upon the subject matter.
Some famous examples of such dreams include the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who dozed off one afternoon, having just read the words, "Here the khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built." He awakened some three hours later with some two to three hundred lines of poetry in his head. He penned fifty-four lines of the poem Kubla Khan before being interrupted by a visitor. Returning to work an hour later he found his original inspiration had vanished. Robert Louis Stevenson attributed many of his literary achievements to an active collaboration between his dreaming and waking mind, claiming an ability to dream in sequence, picking up a story where it had left off the night before. He also claimed that he could dream up stories on demand when he needed a salable work.
The chemist Friedrich August Kekule von Stradovitz, unable to fathom the structure of the benzene molecule despite months of study, dreamed one night of atoms forming into a scornful snake eating its own tail, and so discovered the molecule's ring structure. Niels Bohr's dream of horses at a race, where the horses were allowed to change lanes provided they maintained their distance but were disqualified if they ran along the lines of chalk dust marking the lane. On awakening, he interpreted this "rule of the track" to symbolise the answer to his questions regarding the existence and stability of the elements, and eventually formulated quantum theory.
Dreams concerning events in the future are sometimes ascribed to paranormal abilities, magical abilities, or supernatural agencies. Their content may also be the expression of subliminal clues perceived by the senses, ignored by the conscious mind, but processed by the unconscious mind and manifested in dreams. The dreams may also reflect deeply rooted fears.
Warning dreams may serve to alert the dreamer to danger and may foretell "death." Death does not always signify mortality; it may rather symbolise endings and beginnings in the stages of the dreamer. It may also symbolise change in relationships, both in terms of the dreamer's feelings towards others or vice versa.
Anxiety dreams usually have as their source some knowledge unrecognised by the waking mind. Sometimes these dreams may act as unconscious warnings from the body of imminent ill health.
Nightmares are anxiety dreams taken to extremes in which the fears and terrors experienced are primeval phobias. Their purpose appears to be exercise the "fight or flight" response so that the individual can make the correct response in the face of a very specific danger.
Calpurnia dreamed that her husband, Julius Caesar, would die in the Senate. He was unwilling to beware the Ides of March and was assassinated by Brutus. His successor Augustus was saved from assassination by heeding a dream warning, and was so taken by the prophetic power of dreams to require that anyone who dreamt of the State must proclaim such a dream in the market-place, and would often act on his own dreams.
The preceding discussions may have given the misleading impression that dreams are an uncontrollable and untamable sending from our unconscious minds. In reality, it is possible to control sleep and to manipulate dreams. Lucid dreaming, in which the dreamer becomes consciously aware that he is dreaming while still asleep, is rare, but it has been shown to be a learnable skill.
Before lucid dreaming can be achieved, it is necessary to understand how to control sleep as the mind and body must be properly relaxed.
Firstly it is necessary to determine when to go to bed, based on when it is necessary to awake and arise, and upon experience of how much sleep is required to be fully rested in the morning. Retiring at least thirty minutes before it is actually necessary is preferable.
Nightmares are often blamed on the digestive process handling heavy meals eaten shortly before sleep. Food, that is liable to induce flatulence or has a high fat content, should be avoided in the two hours prior to sleep, and only fruit or other light foodstuffs should be consumed before going to bed, if absolutely necessary. Stimulants such as caffeine will also prolong the time before sleep is achieved. Alcohol and nicotine should be avoided as they inhibit both REM sleep and NREM sleep, thus depriving the sleeper of proper bodily and brain repair. Medications to encourage sleep will provide a bland dreamless repose.
The environment should be dark, quiet, warm without being stuffy. Background noise can often be masked through the use ofcontinuous noise. The bed should be comfortable and provide proper support for the body. Before retiring, some light exercise or a warm bath will help to reduce tension. Light music, a quiet read and so forth are also conducive to relaxation both before and going to bed. (Television news programs and the like should be avoided as the content has a tendency to imprint itself upon the unconscious mind and be regurgitated in dreams.)
Once in bed, the traditional techniques of "counting sheep," counting backwards from 1000 and other repetitive and fatiguing methods may be employed if sleep fails to come quickly. An alternative method is to exercise the body, say by repeatedly opening and closing the eyelids, tiring the muscles, and allowing that fatigue to trigger sleep.
Although lucid dreams can occur naturally without prompting or training, effective dream manipulation requires an individual to recall and achieve some understanding of his dreams. Dream recall can be assisted by the keeping of dream diaries, to record dreams upon waking before they fade. The order of dreams, their moods and their times must be recorded as should external events in ordinary life that have occurred and are expected to occur in the future. Over time, it may be possible to detect patterns in the dreams. As the diary progresses, the personal meaning ofthe various dream symbols should gradually become clear.
One strategy for lucid dreaming is as follows:
Achieving lucid dreaming appears to depend on attaining the appropriate mindset, either by carrying the conscious mind into dreaming (counting yourself to sleep "One, I'm dreaming;" "Two, I'm dreaming;" "Three, I'm dreaming," until eventually at some stage in the count you are dreaming and aware of it) or auto-suggestion for invoking dreams.
In lucid dreams, the dreamer, having recognized that he is experiencing a dream, can exercise some control over both the content and course ofthe dream. Thus, the attacking animal in the Senoi nightmare can be faced and defeated. Interaction with dream figures becomes possible leading to rapprochement of personality aspects. The dreamer can stand outside the events of the dream, as an observer, a critic, and a participant in the further evolution of the dream. The possibilities within lucid dreaming for wish fulfilment (travel to exotic locales and other times say), problem-solving and creativity, and indeed the resolution of psychological problems are numerous. In some cases, trained lucid dreamers have even been able to indicate to dream researchers (by moving their eyes vertically) when they begin a dream.
A note of caution is in order. Controlling all dreaming is to be avoided. The unconscious mind has imperatives that are not fully understood, and it is wise to allow free dreaming so that the unconscious can fulfil its own agenda.
This section discusses how to use dreams within a role playing story and game.
Dreams are a cultural universal in human societies, with every people in every era possessing a body of dream lore, a set of assumptions underpinning that lore, and techniques for using dreams. Dreams are a valid and valuable addition to the story regardless of whether the setting is medieval fantasy, the 20th Century (of Black Ops and Pulp Adventures) or the far future, and this section is intended to be broadly applicable to any of these settings. The lore (or science) of dreams will alter with the setting, but there will still be dreams and dreamers. Different cultures within the setting may have radically different beliefs-in the world of Pulp Adventures, a Noble Savage might retain ancestral beliefs; or an Academic might be a practicing Jungian-analyst!
A fantasy or science-fictional setting will often incorporate non-human races, and these may be appropriate as player characters. The Gamemaster must decide on a case-by-case basis whether a given non-human race dreams, but humans are not the only species of the animal kingdom to dream. All mammals (which give birth to live young) apparently exhibit behaviour consistent with dreaming in humans. It has been hypothesised that dreaming has been an evolutionary development necessary for mammals to learn and forget without expanding the brain size excessively. It has been ascertained that reptiles do not dream. This provides a criterion for determining the ability of a race to dream. Some fey races recuperate by spending a scant few hours in meditation needing no sleep. Unless inappropriate for the setting, such races might be considered to dream while meditating.
The underlying assumption throughout this section is that dreams are primarily mental experiences. In settings where magic exists, some dreams may be the creation of supernatural agencies or the result of esoteric magic. Indeed where magic exists, the Gamemaster can incorporate ambiguity in the very nature of the dream.
The 18th-Century Italian composer Giuseppe Tartini once dreamed he made a Faustian compact with the devil. He gave his violin to Satan who played a sonata of exquisite beauty. Tartini grabbed his violin on awakening and tried in vain to retain the sounds. He then composed a piece, which he named "The Devil's Sonata," and which he considered to be his finest work. This is normally considered a classic example of creative dreaming. In a magical world, however, a demonic visitation might have occurred and a Gamemaster could weave an intricate story around such uncertainty.
Another dream, usually considered to be creative, concerns the American Assyriologist Hermann Hilprecht. He was unable to identify two ancient fragments, each bearing a peculiar inscription. One night he dreamed that he conversed with a Babylonian priest who provided the answer: the two fragments were part of the same piece. Hilprecht joined them together and deciphered the inscription. In a magical world, the credulous might consider the dream to be an actual contact through the unknown dimension of time. A subtle Gamemaster could use such an incident to reintroduce the unknown to player characters who have become complacent in their belief that they understand all the physical and magical laws of the setting.
In modem-day or science-fiction genres, where magic is unlikely to exist and psionic abilities might also be absent, precognitive dreams may be apparently inappropriate. Anxiety dreams, where the unconscious mind is presenting conclusions based on perceptions ignored or unavailable to the conscious mind, remain relevant. More prophetic dreams which draw true conclusions based on information that even the unconscious mind could not possess are much harder to justify. However the Gamemaster can use the vitriolic attack of Cicero on dream divination as a rationale for occasional true precognitive dreams:
"For what person who aims at a mark all day will not fail to hit it? We sleep every night, and there are very few on which we do not dream: can we wonder then that what we dream sometimes comes to pass?"
This section discusses the sources of dreams.
Dreams are a normal part oflife, yet it is all too easy in Rolemaster to incorporate dreams within the story only when a character has employed a Dream spell. The absence of natural dreams within the story removes one avenue for individual character development. Used carefully, natural dreams can provide characters with the verisimilitude of an unconscious giving a greater depth to even the most three dimensional character. Used sparingly, natural dreams can allow the Gamemaster to intimate subtleties within the story.
The difficulty with natural dreams is that normally even the most vivid dream, recalled with precision on awakening, will fade swiftly with time, unless actions, such as writing down the details of the dream, are taken. However players attach importance to all events that occur in a session, and thus the characters will discuss the minutiae of the dream in great length on the assumption that the dream is of direct relevance to the story. (This assumption will of course be correct if "natural dreams" are an unheard of event within the story.) As time passes, the dreamer's I., memory of the dream should blur into oblivion, and the "-i companions with whom the dream has been discussed will also forget. It is this failure of a character's memory that some players may find hard to stomach, demanding the opportunity to cudgel the character's memory. In such instances, the Gamemaster should feel free to heavily penalise the memory rolls.
Natural dreams should be avoided unless the players are sufficiently experienced to preserve the distinction between player and character knowledge, and sufficiently mature to accept realistic limitations on their undoubtedly competent characters.
Dreams, whether natural or engendered by magical means, need interpretation if the dreamer is to understand their true meaning. Although it is suggested in the RMSR that the Symbol Lore skill (to be found within the Lore — Magical category) may be used to interpret dreams, the study of dreams is sufficiently distinct from the study of magical symbols that a separate skill, namely Dream Lore, is appropriate.
Some characters may learn how to control, to some extent, both their sleep and their dreaming. This is represented in the game mechanics by the addition ofthe Dream Control skill to the Self Control category. This skill should be considered as being a Restricted skill and only available to those with unusual cultural or apprenticeship backgrounds. The Dream Control skill can be reclassified as Normal for characters who take the Dreamweaver training package.
A successful Dream Control maneuver will allow the dreamer to have one dream on the specified topic and to remember the dream upon awakening. A failure may result in an unremembered dream or a very vivid dream on some other topic (at the Gamemaster's discretion).
When a dreamer attempts to control the topics in his dreams he should make a maneuver modified by his Dream Control skill and the modifiers shown below.
If the initial maneuver is successful, the dreamer may attempt another Dream Control maneuver to enter lucid dreaming when the chosen dream begins. Further maneuvers will be necessary to change the dream parameters, make controlled physical movements, or swiftly return to wakefulness. The modifiers are shown on the following table.
The Dream Control skill is also useful to mitigate or eliminate the effects of Induce Dream and Induce Nightmare spells, allowing a trained individual to recover mastery of his dreams without magical defenses.
There are a number of spell lists within RMSS which allow the caster to specify a dream topic. However, the Gamemaster should note (and the player beware) that those spells do not allow the type of the dream to be specified nor do they provide interpretations of the resulting dreams.
The Dreamweaver training package has two associated spell lists concerned with dreams. While some artistic license has been used in the design of the spells to incorporate some fantasy elements, the spells are broadly consistent with the beliefs and theories described earlier in this chapter. The spells refer to the dream-self/dreamer patterns and dream patens. The dream-self is the dreamer's unconscious mind, and the associated dreamer pattern is the equivalent of a conscious presence. A dream pattern is a combination of the symbolic elements and the internal script that combines to form the complete dream.
In the real world, dreams need only be interpreted. In a role playing game, dreams must also be created like any other element of the story. The purpose of this subsection to assist Gamemasters in the creation of "realistic" dreams. Players whose characters possess access to the spell lists of the Dreamweaver should learn these lessons through experience.
Unless the dream is to be a natural occurrence, then the topic of the dream will already have been chosen. The Gamemaster's first choice will normally be the type of the dream that will be experienced. (This choice may again be preempted by Lucid Dream spells or characters with high Dream Control skill bonuses). This choice is critical, as a wish-fulfilment dream on a given topic is a very different proposition to a divinatory-dream on the same topic. The detail and description of the dream may be identical in both cases and may influence the actions of the characters but they represent very different levels of commitments to the future unfolding of the story. The Gamemaster may choose the dream type randomly, determine it based on the mood and personality of the character prior to sleep, or in the case of characters who employ the realm of Channeling sway the utility of the dream type dependent on the degree of the character's adherence to religious precepts.
The Gamemaster should decide in advance at least one intended interpretation for the dream and translate this intent into the symbolic language of dreams. The elements chosen, whether they be objects, people, creatures, places, events or even the mood of the dream, should attempt to provide the dream with personal, cultural and archetypal contexts in which the dream may be interpreted. The personal context may relate to the background or experiences of the dreamer. The cultural context should allow a symbolic element to be associated with the history, current affairs, society, geography and so forth of the setting. The archetypal context would relate a symbolic element to one of the eternal myths of the world. Thus, in a medieval setting, to dream of being a knight might be an expression of a personal ambition to advance oneself socially. In the cultural context, it might simply be an expression of the greater freedoms and authority enjoyed by the gentry relative to the peasantry. In archetypal terms, the knight would conjure the theme of the holy quest, the dedicated warrior with a single goal, the hero. Not all dreams should possess all three levels of context, and indeed members of more advanced cultures will have significantly less archetypal content than primitive tribesmen.
In assigning symbols to meanings, the Gamemaster should make frequent use of visual and verbal puns (a young woman who dreams of travelling to an isle may in fact be dreaming of an impending wedding), and of contraries where the opposite interpretation is meant (e.g., for a sick man to dream of dying means he will recover).
Cheap dream dictionaries offering interpretations for thousands ofdreams are readily available. The associations are often obscure. This is sometimes the result of translating an association from another (possibly dead) language. For instance, the Egyptian dream of uncovering one's behind would be interpreted as the imminent loss of one's parents, an interpretation whose sense depends on knowing that the Egyptian words for buttocks and orphan are very similar. Such obscure associations are very effective in maintaining the challenge for dream interpreters in role playing games.
The final step is to weave the elements into a cohesive whole. In terms of length, a dream may range from a single sentence (describing a single action or a glimpse of a scene) to a vignette of a few hundred words. With the exception oflucid dreams, the Gamemaster should accurately describe the dream once. If the player presses for clarification of details, the Gamemaster may provide further accurate or inaccurate details. The potential inaccuracies reflect the interaction of the conscious mind in elaborating and rationalising the dream.
On the other hand, lucid dreams are created in a dialogue between the Gamemaster and the character's player. Sometimes the player will script the entire dream ... Gamemasters may find rich material in such dreams to use later for their own nefarious purposes.
In creating nightmares, the Gamemaster should use the primeval fears of hostile strangers, wild beasts, open spaces without cover, enclosed spaces without exits, falling, darkness and so forth which represent the ancestral dangers faced and which evolution has predisposed us to survive. The Gamemaster should adjust the presentation to suit the players and should avoid specific fears (if any) of his players suffer from phobias or nightmares (unles he knows with confidence how the player will react to these "real" fears and/or phobias).
Nightmares, inability to dream, and inability to sleep have increasingly adverse effects on the psyche and body of the sufferer.
The effects of nightmares will vary dependent upon the character's reactions. A character who faces up to the terror enshrined within the nightmare may have made progress towards losing the fear in waking life. A character who is conquered by fear in a nightmare may have reinforced the fear within his personality, which may unman him in similar circumstances in the real world. The nightmare may become a recurrent nocturnal event with occasional variations on the theme. Attempts to use Dream Control skills and the various Dream spells may be prone to subversion as nightmarish elements infect the desired dreams. The sufferer may be unable to sleep properly or easily, waking through the night. These latter effects will impact upon the sufferer's ability to recuperate (in terms of hits, exhaustion points, and power points). In addition, the Gamemaster could apply penalties to all actions (for failure to recuperate). These penalties could be as severe as -10 per period of sleep lost.
Dreamlessness, which will often be the result of an Undream spell, will prevent the sufferer from successfully employing the Dream Control and almost all of the dream spells that require the caster to dream. Of course, it will not be possible to observe, enter, or induce dreams or nightmares in the sufferer. Dream Communication spells will also be ineffective. Locate Dreamer spells will still function as they only require the target to be asleep. Once the sufferer becomes able to dream again, the missing dreams must be experienced. So for every sleep period without dreams, a recovery sleep period will occur with extended and confusing dreams until the deficit is eliminated. Controlled dreaming in the recovery period (whether by skill or spell) will be prone to the addition of random elements.
It is by no means clear what adverse effects persistent dreamlessness has on humans and so no recommendations will be made. On the other hand, insomnia will have the immediate effects of preventing normal recuperation (of hits, exhaustion, power points, and/or maneuver penalties). Once the cause of the insomnia is removed, the victim will often collapse into a deep and prolonged recovery sleep. In cases where the inability to sleep is prolonged, the character should make a Disease RR (with the level of attack being equal to the number of days without sleep). Failure will result in the character suffering from the lesser symptoms ofsleep deprivation (occasional memory lapses, slurred speech, blurred vision, irritability and impaired skills. On the fifth day after succumbing to the lesser symptoms, and every day thereafter, the player must make a Disease RR (with the level of attack being equal to the number of days without sleep) on behalf of the character. Failure will trigger the onset of hallucinations and temporary bouts of insanity. Unless someone is protecting the character very carefully, injury and death may occur as a result of bizarre behaviour or a hallucination.
Dreams can be a valuable addition to the story, but, like other special abilities, overzealous players can leverage a dis-proportionate story share, depriving others of participation and enjoyment in the session. What constitutes abuse through overuse will differ on a case-by-case basis, and with some advance planning, micro-stories using dreams can be created involving more than one character broadening the story to more players. Gamemasters are also reminded that directed or controlled dreaming preempts natural and necessary dreams. Sooner or later the unconscious will retaliate by subverting Dream spells to change their type, adding random elements to Dream and Lucid Dreams spells, and possibly triggering nightmares. Such measures should be sufficient to restrain overenthusiastic players.
An alternative and mutually exclusive approach to handling dreams is to consider them as the portals to mystical dreamworlds, a component of a number of popular works of contemporary fantasy fiction. Of course, such an approach is only sustainable in a setting which supports magic. Creating a dreamworld can be as ambitious an undertaking as creating a normal fantasy world, and the aim of this section is not to present a sample "off-the-shelf' dreamworld, but rather to draw the reader's attention to some crucial dreamworld design decisions and provide some support in terms of game mechanics.
A Gamemaster must consider the geography of the dreamworld. Does it mirror the geography of the "real world" or a number of "real worlds." Do places in the real world gain dreamworld reflections as people dream in (and of) them? Do dreamworld locations outlast their "real world" counterparts or do they also gradually fade into the dreamstuff? Are distances in the two worlds identical or not? Are there locations in the dreamworld which only exist within the dreamworld and are these interspersed with the other places? Are the dreamworld reflections distorted, and if so distorted for good or ill?
Does time flow in the same fashion in the dreamworld? Is time the same everywhere in the dreamworld, and if a dream traveller returns to the dreamworld will it be to the same time or to a different past or future? Ambiguities in time (combined with reflections of "real world" locations) may allow dream travel to be used for scrying, divinatory, and retrocognitive purposes.
Does the dreamworld have inhabitants other than the souls of mortal dreamers? If so, what are their reactions and interactions with the mortal interlopers?
The most important design decision for the Gamemaster is the balance between "ease of entry to" and the "dangers of ' the dreamworld. Cynicism suggests that the dreamworld will be at least as dangerous, albeit perhaps in a different fashion, as the real world. A world without conflict may be a pleasant utopia, a living hell of tedium, or an evolutionary cul-de-sac; and it will most certainly be a world without a story. If conflict exists in the dreamworld, what happens to those harmed (or killed) in the dreamworld? Do the wounds carry over into the real world as actual physical injuries (and perhaps sudden death)? Is the damage purely mental, in that physical injuries are transmuted into temporary losses of mental statistics, power points etc.? If every sleep period represents ajourney into a dangerous dreamworld, sooner or later a dreamer will be "hurt" (or "killed"). Given a sufficiently large population, someone will "die in their sleep" every night. Action would be taken, countermagics would be developed, the dreamworld would be pacified.
While the above might provide an enterprising Gamemaster with the nucleus for an entire campaign, it is probably not how most Gamemasters would visualise the dreamworld. The compromise to retain conflict without endangering every sleeper is to make full entry into the dreamworld demand the use of appropriate skills or magic. Without the use of such skills or spells, the dreamer (or perhaps more correctly the dreamer's "soul") only partially enters the dreamworld as a completely passive observer drifting through the realms of dreams, and protected by this status from the dreamworld. (When using a Dream spell, the dream wanderer remembers what has been observed upon waking.) The same skills and spells that enable full entry are also necessary to empower the dreamwanderer to use "real-world" skills and magic within the dreamworld environment, and without them (the dream wanderer would be at the mercy of the inhabitants).
Two skills and a new training package (the Dream Traveller) with an associated spell list (Dream Travel) are introduced to support this dreamworld approach.
This section lists all of the spells associated with the Mentalism realm. All of the standard rules, restrictions, and notations from Spell Law are used here. For convenience, the spell description key is repeated here.
Several types ofcodes may follow the spell names in the listings: area of effect, duration, range, and type. In addition, some descriptions will explain that a particular spell has an RR Modification (shown with the notation [RR Mod: #]). This section presents a key to those codes.
[RR Mod #] - Any RRs against the effects of this spell are modified by #.
* — Instantaneous; spell does not require preparation rounds.
• — Spell does not require power points.
‡ — Part of a set of spells that must be thrown in conjunction with other spells continuously to be effective (or fully effective).
E — Elemental spell. These spells use the force ofthe spell to manipulate physical elements (heat, cold, wind, light, water, earth, sound, smell, taste, touch). These elements (and not the spell) are used to either create a phenomena that can affect the physical environment of the target (e.g., a "wall" spell) or the sense of the target (e.g., an "illusion" spell). Because the elements are real, no Resistance Rolls are normally allowed.
BE — Ball Elemental spell. These are elemental spells that attack an area with one of the physical elements.
DE — Directed Elemental spell. These are elemental spells that directly attack a target with one of the physical elements. Such attacks are resolved on one of the "bolt" attack tables.
F &mdesh; Force spell. These spells involve the direct manipulation of matter, energy, the elements, or living beings through the use of a spell's force. If the spell has a target capable ofresisting, the caster make an attack roll on the Spell Law Basic Spell Attack Table 5.1 to determine the RR modification for the target. Determine the type of armor the target is wearing and roll on the appropriate column of the table (using the Other column if nothing else applies). After determining the RR modification, the target makes an RR (on Table 5.10 in Spell Law, using the target's level and the attacker's level as the indices).
P — Passive spell. These spells usually only indirectly or passively affect a target. Thus, if an RR is allowed (GM' s discretion), its purpose is only to determine if the target is aware of the spell. Many detection spells are of this type.
U — Utility spell. These spells only affect the caster, a willing target, or a target incapable of resistance. Thus, RRs are not usually necessary. A willing target who is capable of resisting may still be required to make an RR (GM's discretion), but it is modified by -50 (i.e., he mostly likely will not resist successful). Most healing spells are of this type.
I — Infomlational spell. These spells involve gathering information through means that do not require RRs.
s &mdesh; Subconscious spell. These spells are capable of being cast (or triggered) by the subconscious. The caster can always cast a spell of this type as a normal spell; and ifhe is unconscious (or is asleep or in a trance), a spell of this type can be cast by the subconscious as necessary (starting with the highest level spell needed). An exception to this is the Stun Relief spell. This spell may (at the option of the caster) be cast by the subconscious while the caster is stunned.
m — Mental Attack spell. These spells affect the target's mind and are subject to mental defenses.
x target(s) — The spell affects x number of targets.
x target(s)/lvl — The spell affects a number of targets equal to the caster's level times x.
distance R - The spell affects all within a radius equal to distance in size.
distance R/lvl — The spell affects all within a radius equal to distance times the caster's level in size.
area — The spell affects all within a fixed area of effect. Sometimes area will be specified as a specific target (e.g., 1 herb, 1 limb, etc.).
caster — The spell affects only the caster.
" — " — The spell has no area of effect.
varies — The exact size of the area of effect depends upon some other aspect of the spell.
time — The spell has a fixed duration equal to time.
C — Concentration is required. Concentration takes 50% of the caster's normal activity. The caster cannot cast any other spells while concentrating.
duration (C) — Concentration is required, except the period ofconcentration cannot exceed the duration given. The caster can stop concentrating and the spell effect will stop. If the duration has not expired, the caster can concentrate again and the spell effect will resume.
P — Permanent. The spell has a permanent effect (in the sense of creating a "permanent" physical or mental condition). The effects of permanent spells that manipulate matter and require concentration will disperse according to the normal physical laws once concentration is no longer applied (e.g., a frozen body of water will melt normally, a bowl of boiling water will cool). A spell with a permanent duration may be affect by outside forces. For example, the spell may be dispelled, cured, or otherwise disturbed by enchantment, physical force, etc.
varies — Variable. The exact duration depends upon some other aspect ofthe spell.
" — " — No duration. The effects of this spell required no duration and are applied immediately.
time / level — The duration is the time multiplied by the level of the caster.
time / # fail — The duration is based upon the difference between the target's modified RR and the minimum roll required to resist the spell (see RMSR Section 23.6). The duration is equal to this difference divided by # and then multiplied by time.
Example: 1 rnd/10 fail would mean that ifthe RR is failed by 20, the spell would lastfor 2 rounds.
self — The spell can only be cast upon the caster himself
touch — The caster must touch the target to create the effect.
distance — The caster can be no further than distance to the desired area of effect.
distance/lvl — The distance to the area of effect can be no further than distance times the caster's level.
unlimited — There are no limitations placed upon the distance to the area of effect.
varies — The distance to the are of effect depends upon some other aspect of the spell.