tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

A lot more people have volunteered to help with the project than I thought so I’m closing the applications so I and those who’ve volunteered can get sorted XD

Thank you to everyone who showed interest <3

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

A lot more people are interested then I thought would be XD thanks everyone I’ve sent out dms for everyone that’s showed interest so far ^_^

Heyooo I’m looking for some people who would be willing to help me play test my ttrpg tales from the aether!

Tales from the Aether is a rules heavy sword and sorcery ttrpg heavily inspired by a number of open world video games. It focuses on role play and story telling while integrating both into the combat and social mechanics. Its roughly on par with pathfinder for crunchiness but takes a completely different approach to resource management in combat.

We’ll be creating characters and playing in a tournament esk arena to test out both the character creation and player combat system and to help me figure out the monster balancing.

Your commitments will be pretty low with reading the rules/character creation being the biggest time commitment and after that its all combat baby! I estimate - based on my own health and availability - that well be playing once every two ish weeks when everyone is available.

If this would interest you, please leave a comment or send me a message! If ur not interested for what ever reason then pls reblog and share so this post has more reach <3

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Heyooo I’m looking for some people who would be willing to help me play test my ttrpg tales from the aether!

Tales from the Aether is a rules heavy sword and sorcery ttrpg heavily inspired by a number of open world video games. It focuses on role play and story telling while integrating both into the combat and social mechanics. Its roughly on par with pathfinder for crunchiness but takes a completely different approach to resource management in combat.

We’ll be creating characters and playing in a tournament esk arena to test out both the character creation and player combat system and to help me figure out the monster balancing.

Your commitments will be pretty low with reading the rules/character creation being the biggest time commitment and after that its all combat baby! I estimate - based on my own health and availability - that well be playing once every two ish weeks when everyone is available.

If this would interest you, please leave a comment or send me a message! If ur not interested for what ever reason then pls reblog and share so this post has more reach <3

(Edit: the server is temporarily closed due to so many volunteers XD if you are interested in joining, stick around for when I open the server again)

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #tales from the aether #tfta

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

My post is being derailed into the “homebrew is good actually!” And its like… that wasnt the point… the point is dnd is a monopoly… lmao XD

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Oh 100% i agree. This is not an “everyone secretly hates dnd” post because there are genuinely things i enjoy about dnd 5e myself and i know people who also genuinely enjoy it and people who’ve just never gotten the chance to play other games.

Dnd is flawed but it has its merits. Like you said, some people play it because they genuinely prefer it to other systems and some people play it because its familiar and they can turn it into what ever they need it to be. Thats just the way it is and i dont really know what we can do about dnd’s semi monopoly on the ttrpg sphere other than encouraging people to observe their reasons for playing dnd and ttrpgs in general

Thats really all in asking and pointing out lololol

Something ive noticed about a lot of people who play dnd (myself included) is that… they arent really playing dnd.

I don’t mean that in the - they’ve homebrewed the system to the point where they are basically playing a completely different game. i mean it in the way that dnd is less of a game and more of a tool or frame work to tell improve stories with friends. Thats why so many tables have a significant amount of homebrew rules or play it loose with the rules - because dnd is secondary to the act of telling a story.

Unfortunately, dnd wasn’t built for such a narratively focused sandbox. It was built around dungeons and adventuring and violence in general - an aspect that is only a fraction of many stories that dnd is used to tell.

I think that is why so many people are resistant from trying other ttrpg systems that may give them a better player experience. They dont play dnd to play dnd but they dont even realize that. The game is secondary so why does it matter what game they play? Everyone at their table is already versed in dnd so they can make it work as a framework even if its trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

This is something ive been thinking about a lot while making my ttrpg Tales from the Aether as I am inspecting my own view and experience with dnd and what i enjoy about it versus what could be done better. Why do me and my friends play dnd? To hang out and tell stories. Dnd happens to be the system i knew at the time we started and thus it is the one we used. But there is nothing particular about dnd that supports this goal while there are many things that hold us back - such as characters archetypes and classes being so ridged and having practically zero guidance for running the game outside of combat or adventuring. This is where homebrew comes in.

Ironically thats the entire premise of Tales from the Aether. I started making it years ago with the idea that this system is specifically a framework for people to tell improve stories with friends. That is the whole point. All of the mechanics revolve around giving players the tools to do what they want while the rules act more as a form of in universe world building (like a hard magic system) than actual rules.

The reason why so many people who play dnd are hesitant or straight up refuse to try out other ttrpgs is because the game is secondary. Its a tool. Its a framework that they can build off of to create the experience that they want. Its familiar so they know how to bend it, what parts to chip off or expand, to give them what they want. A new ttrpg, even if its one that gives them everything they want in a ttrpg, is unfamiliar and thus not worth investing in when they already have something that works well enough.

Idk i may be way off base here but from my own experience and from watching live plays and reading people’s takes on dnd and playing the game… thats kinda the conclusion ive come to.

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Honestly the whole Tall-Man thing is such an elegant solution to the whole human problem in dnd. So much language like "have some humanity" gets so awkward when there's a group called humans. Having humans instead refer to all humanoids just makes so much sense in this context!

High key gonna bring this up to my dnd groups and am gonna hard code it in if/when I make my own system.

#i would do this for tfta but humans are like the middle of the height range lmao #elves orcs and dragonkin are all significantly taller in tfta lololol #still pondering a name for ‘humans’ in tfta that accounts for that problem…

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Something ive noticed about a lot of people who play dnd (myself included) is that… they arent really playing dnd.

I don’t mean that in the - they’ve homebrewed the system to the point where they are basically playing a completely different game. i mean it in the way that dnd is less of a game and more of a tool or frame work to tell improve stories with friends. Thats why so many tables have a significant amount of homebrew rules or play it loose with the rules - because dnd is secondary to the act of telling a story.

Unfortunately, dnd wasn’t built for such a narratively focused sandbox. It was built around dungeons and adventuring and violence in general - an aspect that is only a fraction of many stories that dnd is used to tell.

I think that is why so many people are resistant from trying other ttrpg systems that may give them a better player experience. They dont play dnd to play dnd but they dont even realize that. The game is secondary so why does it matter what game they play? Everyone at their table is already versed in dnd so they can make it work as a framework even if its trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

This is something ive been thinking about a lot while making my ttrpg Tales from the Aether as I am inspecting my own view and experience with dnd and what i enjoy about it versus what could be done better. Why do me and my friends play dnd? To hang out and tell stories. Dnd happens to be the system i knew at the time we started and thus it is the one we used. But there is nothing particular about dnd that supports this goal while there are many things that hold us back - such as characters archetypes and classes being so ridged and having practically zero guidance for running the game outside of combat or adventuring. This is where homebrew comes in.

Ironically thats the entire premise of Tales from the Aether. I started making it years ago with the idea that this system is specifically a framework for people to tell improve stories with friends. That is the whole point. All of the mechanics revolve around giving players the tools to do what they want while the rules act more as a form of in universe world building (like a hard magic system) than actual rules.

The reason why so many people who play dnd are hesitant or straight up refuse to try out other ttrpgs is because the game is secondary. Its a tool. Its a framework that they can build off of to create the experience that they want. Its familiar so they know how to bend it, what parts to chip off or expand, to give them what they want. A new ttrpg, even if its one that gives them everything they want in a ttrpg, is unfamiliar and thus not worth investing in when they already have something that works well enough.

Idk i may be way off base here but from my own experience and from watching live plays and reading people’s takes on dnd and playing the game… thats kinda the conclusion ive come to.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #ttrpg community #just some thoughts ive been moling over for a while…

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Tales from the Aether: Monster Design

Part 1 - pre play testing

So I've got a bit of energy and inspiration from a previous post so I'll give a quick run down of how monsters work in this system.

Monsters in this system have a total of 10 Levels and are broken into 5 Ranks within each Level: Minion, Grunt, Boss, Spawn, and Swarm. Level 1 creatures are balanced around a party of level 1-3 adventurers. Level 2 creatures are balanced around level 3-6 adventurers, so on and so forth. However, I will go in depth on different kinds of encounter design based on the party's composition and give GM's the tools to tweak a monster's Level or Rank as needed.

All Monsters of each Rank, regardless of Level, share similar surface level characteristics, allowing them to be scaled to player levels easily. A Level 10 Minion servers the same purpose in an encounter as a Level 1 Minion. How to create your own monsters is clearly laid out with templates and damage ranges, stat ranges, and health ranges compared to various party levels.

Additionally, a significant focus is put on every monster's gimmick and motivations. Every monster has a unique ability or special circumstances where they thrive such as favoring dark environments to gain additional Defense and Ambush capabilities. Every creature also has a number of points distributed between the following motivations: protection, hunger, greed, survival, and blood lust. This will help guide the GM in determining how the monsters act in and out of combat and is easily adjustable for every monster.

Lastly, every monster has damage vulnerabilities and weak spots the players can exploit during combat. This encourages the players to seek out information about their potential enemies as well as giving monsters more diversity in how they are defeated.

Below the cut I'll go into a bit more detail on what all this means ;P

This is a peak at some design elements of my TTRGP Tales from the Aether. This is not dnd. If you think some of these ideas are interesting, check out my Masterpost linked here and follow for more updates :D

Creature Ranks

Minions are death fodder and go down in one hit. Their purpose is to distract the players, chip their health down, and waste their resources. Minions are incredibly simple with one attack a turn and have two actions at most. In small numbers Minions are a nuance but they can become a problem in groups or when paired with a Grunt or Boss.

Grunts can go toe to toe with individual party members and have a healthy choice of actions and abilities but aren’t too complicated. They have a max of 5 abilities and can occasionally use magic. They often come in equal numbers to the party and are often minor antagonists, potential allies, or mini bosses in fights leading up to the main Boss.

Bosses can tank whole parties by themselves as solo encounters or work with lower Ranked monsters in a Commander capacity. Alternatively, a Boss itself might not be very strong but plays a support roll that increases the difficulty of every Grunt or Minion they command. In some cases, defeating the Boss may cause all other enemies to scatter, potentially ending the encounter. Bosses have a plethora of abilities to choose from with significant health and occasionally magic. These are usually the final confrontation in dungeon crawls, the main antagonists for story arcs, or particularly rare and deadly random encounters.

Spawns are nests, portals, or other things that bring new waves of enemies into the battlefield. They must be destroyed to stop the onslaught of enemies but will often be highly protected and can even be alive to defend itself. Any encounter with a Spawn usually has the main objective of the encounter being to destroy it. Like Bosses, destroying a Spawn may cause all other enemies to abandon the fight - or fight even harder if the Spawn was a type of nest.

Swarms are a collection of tiny or smaller creatures that are essentially harmless on their own, but can be deadly in groups. A Swarm acts as a single creature and disperses if enough of the swarm is killed. Because it is a mass of small creatures working together, striking the swarm with weapons or targeted abilities can be incredibly difficult. Fighting multiple swarms may lead to defeated swarms joining together instead of dispersing to create new swarms or even combining to create Mega Swarms aka Boss level swarms. Regular swarms are generally on par with Grunts or Minions.

Motivations:

Protection: The creature is holding its ground and trying to scare you off. It makes a big display of aggression to try and convince you to leave. It will die to protect whatever it is defending but will let you leave if you don’t get too close or are not a threat. 

Hunger: The creature needs to kill you to eat and depending on how desperate it is, it may be willing to die in the attempt. The creature will try to remain hidden to ambush its prey in hopes of ending the fight as quickly as possible. No show or warning here, this creature means business and isn’t about to let a meal escape.

Greed: The creature wants something from you be it wealth, magic items, or your life to satisfy a contract. This creature could potentially be bought off but if you aren’t willing to give them what they want or are incapable, they have no problem with killing you. If it becomes more trouble than it is worth, the creature will try to escape the moment they realize they are going to lose.

Survival: The creature is driven by pure desperation to survive. If you are able to convince it you are no threat to its survival, it may stop attacking and it will try to escape if it thinks it will die. 

Blood Lust: The creature wants to kill you and there is nothing you can do about it. This could be out of enjoyment of the hunt or a mindless need to destroy. There is no parlaying with these creatures. They may flee if they realize they can’t win but they will return and finish what they started, perhaps with friends.

Weak Spots

All creatures have Weak Points, areas of their body that could cripple the creature or fatally wound it. These spots are usually very well protected and may not be obvious to the naked eye. All Weak Points are unique and require a specific damage type to exploit. Let's explore the three Weak Points all Humanoids share.

Throat. Slashing damage. The Strike’s damage is doubled. The target takes 4d4 points of Bleed damage (1 heart) for 5 rounds and cannot speak.

Head. Bludgeoning damage. The Strike’s damage is doubled. The target is Stunned for 1 Minute. At the start of its turn, the creature can attempt a Willpower Reflex check against the DC 15 to remove the Stunned Condition. On a success, it remains Disoriented for the rest of the minute.

Chest. Piercing damage. The Strike’s damage is doubled. The target takes 2d4 points of Bleed damage (0.5 heart) for 1 minute.

In order to successfully attack a creature’s Weak Spots, you must make a Called Shot. A Called Shot is when you declare a specific part of the target you want to hit before you roll to Strike. All Called Shots take a -5 Penalty to the Attack Roll but certain creature’s Weak Spots may be protected and can increase this Penalty, as seen in the Weak Spot’s description.

You may take a Called Shot to target a specific part of a creature that is not a Weak Spot in an attempt to disable it in some way. This could mean attempting to damage a creature’s wings to reduce its fly speed or chop a creature’s arm off so it can’t wield a weapon, etc. Declare your intention before making your roll and the GM will determine the Damage Threshold you must reach in order for the effect to take place. 

The Damage Threshold is how much punishment a creature must take to a specific part of its body in order for that part of its body to become disabled. Only half of the damage dealt during a Called Shot in this manner counts towards the Target’s total Health. 

Monster Health

Monsters count health differently than Player Characters. Instead of a number, monsters have Hearts. One heart equals 10 points of damage. All damage a monster takes is rounded to multiples of 5 and when a creature takes damage, there is no math that needs to be done. The GM simply fills in a heart on the monster's character sheet. I explain explicitly how to round damage when I talk about this in the monster section.

During the first play test we did, this was such an incredible weight off my shoulders it was incredible lololol No maths required i just fill in bubble XD (ok minor maths to round the number but rounding to multiples of 5 is way easier than subtraction in my opinion)

If you read this far thank you <3 I'm always open to feedback and things will definitely be tweaked as we continue play testing. If you are interested in exploring the system then stick around, send me a message or comment as I'm probably gonna start asking for volunteers to help beta test the Character Creator and Combat soon ;)

#tales from the aether #tfta #ttrpg #indie ttrpg #ttrpg mechanics #monster design #this is part 1 because I will make updates as play testing is underway #and things are adjusted #but this is the basic gist of how monsters work #in this system #:D

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

This is something im tinkering with in Tales from the Aether and this really kinda jostled some thoughts loose that ill have to mull over.

Monsters in this system have levels between 1 and 10 while players go 1-30. Additionally, there are different ranks of monster within a level such as a Minion, Grunt, and Boss - each of which plays specific rolls in encounter design. So a Level 1 boss (players lv 1-3) may be equivalent to a Level 3 Grunt (players lv 7-9) and so on. Im actively in the play testing stage to see what works and what doesnt

As of rn, minions, grunts, and bosses have specific restrictions to the number of abilities, health, etc regardless of their level. So a level 1 minion and a level 10 minion will have the same number of abilities and health as they serve a specific function in the encounter.

Im trying to make it very easy for gms to shift the level of these creatures by having specific damage ranges, health ranges, and ability limitations depending on the creature’s rank all laid out plainly. So if a gm likes the vibes of a level 1 monster, they can scale it up to wherever the players are or vise versa.

Im also focusing on the gimmick each monster has when i make them. What are their priorities and what unique abilities do they have that differentiate them from other monsters? What story telling opportunities do they present? Etc etc

Idk its definitely something im thinking a lot about rn as we r taking the system for its first spin soon

yk, I think I'm starting to actively dislike challenge rating as a concept.

"here's a monster that's totally cool conceptually. By the way, it's set up specifically to have balanced interactions with only characters of at least a specific level and to be forgettable if you're too far above that level'

giving things a CR diminishes them

#developer diary

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

First round of play testing went extremely well!! Lots of balancing needed to be done but i learned a lot and we had a lot of fun

The play tester said when asked how the combat compared to dnd “it was a lot more unpredictable and exhilarating” but she ensured to say the predictability and static nature of dnd combat isn’t necessarily a negative XD which is true.

We had two tpks but it was incredibly close and I’m much more confident in how the enemies/encounters need to be balanced. Some time soon i may be looking for more people to help me play test Tales from the Aether so if you are interested let me know :3

#play test journal #developer diary

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

One of these days I’m gonna talk all about Tales from the Aether’s setting and how meta it is and I hope everyone likes it as much as I do lololol as someone in which story telling is my life, it’s a homage to the very concept of story telling and every part of it - the ups and the downs

:>

#I’m taking a little break rn irl for my health #I’m still trudgen away on the system #and am planning to play test over the weekend #after some play testing I’ll probably talk about the combat and character creation some more #we’ll see #developer diary

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

This is literally how Minions (a distinct category of enemies along with Grunts and Bosses) work in my ttrpg Tales from the Aether

I’ll make posts explaining and talking about it all after I do some play testing (hopefully this week!) but yea this is basically how minions work in my system lololol

They are death fodder to distract and chip away the party’s health while Grunts are a tad more complex and challenging and are roughly equal to individual party members and can act as mini bosses. Bosses can potentially tank whole parties themselves or turn Minions from a nuisance into legitimate threats through buffs and strategy.

All enemies in my system are labeled as Minion, Grunt, or Boss and each of these labels (regardless of level) determine how beefy or complex the enemy is with Minions being 1 hit and only having one or two actions while Bosses and very tanky with a whole plethora of actions, spells, and special abilities to use.

Minion Necessities

Do you need hordes of easily-defeated fighters to keep heroes busy while you complete your ritual? Are you looking for lab assistants who can be easily fooled?

Here are some tips for what minions should be, mechanically: 1. Each minion can be bypassed by a single successful roll - one hit knocks them out, one clever ruse makes them leave you alone for the moment, etc. 2. Minions need an interesting gimmick that makes them dangerous, beyond simple weight of numbers. Some might have ranged attacks! Others might be able to combine and enhance their allies, or take a hit meant for the more important villains. I would probably avoid anything that requires too many rolls, since you'll have to use these powers for each minion. 3. An enjoyable catchphrase, voice, or running theme. If the minions are people, maybe they all have rhyming names. Robots might threaten the heroes by announcing their programmed attacks.

#hope it’s okay to add on #but I’m in the process of creating some monsters rn to play test #and you described almost exactly how minions work in my system #lololol #like all that is baked into the monster and encounter design of the system #XD #great minds think alike I guess #developer diary

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Could you elaborate on the ableism in sanity mechanics? I'm not familiar with games that use it or how it works

Essentially, the idea of “Sanity” in general being the norm/base line for humanity is itself ableist and leads to the dehumanization of neurodivergent people with schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, bipolar disorder, etc etc too many to list off as it is often symptoms of these neurodivergence that are used for “losing sanity”.

I assume a majority of the games and ttrpgs that use sanity mechanics are not intending to be ableist but just forget about the wide range of experiences humans can have when it comes to how we experience the world.

Sanity as a concept is heavily based on a neurotypical’s experience and at best discards and at worst demonizes the wide variety of neurodivergence that humans experience.

#anonymous #asks #might have more to add on later when I wake up fully #but this is the basic gist

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Agreed. Not only is it redundant, it’s also ableist.

In my in progress ttrpg, Tales from the Aether, there is a Stress mechanic instead in addition to a Fear mechanic and they both have levels of severity.

Fear is short term in the moment and passes somewhat quickly but can be debilitating and deadly if your fear gets too high and find yourself paralyzed in terror during combat. The fear condition also increases your Stress.

Stress is accumulated over time due to predetermined personalized triggers such as going down in combat, being reminded of an abuser, becoming over stimulated, etc. Stress affects you long term and the only way it goes away is by doing activities that bring you peace (as specialized for each character) such as seeing a performance, sex, reading a book, etc.

I’m gonna make a post explaining Stress more in depth eventually but it’s what I came up with to replace Sanity because I wanted the PC’s adventures to have mechanical consequences tailored to their backstory and personalities without the ableism of traditional Sanity meters.

sanity meter is my least favorite convention in games because its like. theres already a mechanic for when something scary. its called being afraid.

#I’m taking a bit of a break until the new year #but I’ve got lots of stuff planned #:D

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Tales from the Aether Magic pt 4

Lastly, the most unique element of Spells in this system is that they are not static. Spells you learn will evolve with your character as they grow. All spells have Spell Upgrades. To unlock new upgrades for your spells, you must use them in the game.

To Upgrade a spell, you must cast it a specific number of times (to be determined through play testing). These castings cannot be spammed just to level up the spell but must be used organically throughout the game. If you cast, say, a healing spell multiple times in a row to heal everyone back to full after an intensive combat, this would count as one. You only learn by life experience which means using the spells naturally over time.

All upgrades are divided into the various Ranks of the skill the spell belongs to, thus, you can only unlock upgrades of the Ranks available to you. Additionally, you must unlock at least one upgrade of the lowest rank to unlock the next rank of upgrades. Example: I am a Journeyman Mystic, I can unlock spell upgrades up to Journeyman level but I must begin with Novice upgrades.

There are two types of Spell Upgrades: Passive and Active upgrades. Passive Upgrades add no additional Arcana cost to the spell and are applied automatically to the spell. Active Upgrades add an additional Arcana cost to the spell depending on the level of the upgrade. However, certain Active upgrades deviate from this rule and detail their cost in their description. You can apply multiple upgrades to a single casting in addition to multiple Feats, so long as you have the Arcana reserves available to cast it.

Lets check out a Spell under the cut as an example.

This is a peak at some design elements of my TTRGP Tales from the Aether. This is not dnd. If you think some of these ideas are interesting, check out my Masterpost linked here and follow for more updates :D

Stitch Wounds

Rank: Novice Arcana Cost: 2 Casting Time: Main Action

Duration: Instantaneous Target: One Creature Range: Touch

The target regains 1d10 points of health. Undead and Constructs are unaffected by this spell.

Upgrades:

Novice - Passive - Deal additional healing equal to the caster's Necromancy Rank Bonus. 

Novice - Active - Increase the distance of the spell to 30 ft. 

Apprentice- Active - the caster can cast this spell as a Minor Action.

Apprentice - Active - the target gains 1 Level of Courage until the start of the caster's next turn.

Journeyman - Active - the caster can target a number of creatures equal to the caster's Magic Score. Every creature costs 2 additional Arcana. 

Journeyman - Passive - Choose Undead or Constructs. This spell now works on one of these two categories of creature.

Expert - Passive - Deal additional healing equal to the caster's Necromancy Score. 

Expert - Active - dispel one of the following Conditions from the target: 1 level of poison, wasting, or weakened.

Master - Passive - When the caster cast this spell, roll 1d10. On a 10, the healing energy surges and either heals double the amount or jumps to a creature of the caster's choice within range and heals this creature an equal amount.

Master - Active - If a creature is killed, the caster has 10 rounds (1 minute) to attempt to bring them back to life. the caster must heal them a total amount equal to their maximum hit points during this time. If the caster succeeds, the creature is resurrected with 1 HP. If the caster fails, the creature remains dead. 

I cast Stitch Wounds with +30 range (+1 cost), +1 level of courage (+2 cost), and dispel one condition (+4 cost) to bring the total cost of this spell to 9 Arcana.

(All spell upgrades will be named in the final draft I just haven't gotten around to naming them because there are literally hundreds of spell upgrades and there are more important things to focus on rn lol)

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I’m working on the disabilities section of Tales from the Aether and I’m on the chronic fatigue section but I can barely think or keep my eyes open due to my own chronic fatigue

Oooh the irnoyyyy

#progress notes #I took a shower and painted my nails today #that’s it #and all my spoons are gone now #:D #I think I’m gonna just chill and not push it today #I’ll probably keep working after Christmas

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

Tales from the Aether Magic pt 3

The act of Casting a Spell in this system - from a mechanical point of view - is simple. You only need two things, the ability to perform the physical elements of casting spells (cannot be Restrained) and Arcana. There are no spell slots or limits to how many spells you can cast per day. Instead, every spell casting character has Arcana, a pool of magical energy that they can draw on to alter the world around them aka cast spells. Your Arcana pool is constantly regenerating, allowing you to cast spells infinitely while out of combat - as well as curbing the strength of the spells you can cast.

In combat is where things get tricky as you are often casting spells faster than your Arcana Regeneration can keep up in addition to effects such as Lightning that drain Arcana. If your Arcana pool reaches 0 or negative, one of two things happen. 1 - you take 1d12 damage (that cannot be reduced) for every point of Arcana you cannot afford and gain 1 point of Fatigue. 2 - you become Incapacitated until the start of your next turn, gain 1 point of Fatigue, and have a 5% chance (1 out of 20) of becoming possessed by an Aether Spirit. This choice belongs to the player in question and cannot be reversed. Regardless of the choice, the player starts their turn with 1 Arcana.

All spells require some amount of time to cast, be it a Reaction, a Main Action, a Minor Action, multiple Main Actions across multiple turns, or a Ritual that requires a number of minutes, hours, or days.

A Ritual Spell or Spell that takes multiple turns to cast is a Focus spell. The caster must be able to spend the stated cost of the spell every round until the casting is complete. If the caster is unable to meet these demands, then the spell fails. Focus spells are one of the two types of Lingering spells.

Lingering spells are spells that you maintain over time. You can have an unlimited number of Lingering Spells cast at any given time if you have the Arcana resources to sustain it. There are two types of Lingering Spells: Focus Spells and Reserve Spells. If your Arcana reaches zero or you fall unconscious, your Lingering spells end.

Focus Spells require consistent focus and have no predestined time limit. At the start of every round (5 seconds) if you choose to continue focusing on the spell, you pay the Arcana cost of the spell again. Example: I cast Steel Skin, a Focus spell with an Arcana cost of 2. Every round that I maintain concentration on the spell, I spend 2 Arcana. You can lose Focus if you take damage.

Reserve Spells are more stable and temporarily reduce your Arcana Pool by the spell’s cost. Example: I cast Spectral Armor, a Reserve Spell with an Arcana cost of 3. For the duration of the spell, my Arcana Pool is reduced by 3.

The main difference between the two is that Focus spells can reduce your Arcana to 0 if your Arcana Regeneration is not fast enough while Reserve spells are stagnant and have no such risk.

Any Spell can be made permanent through a 10 minute Ritual involving a filled Soul Stone. This Soul Stone becomes an Anchor for the spell and the spell will remain active until the stone is destroyed or it is Dispelled. A Spell cast through a ritual such as this requires no additional Arcana cost once the Ritual is complete and the Soul Stone Anchor is created. 

This is a peak at some design elements of my TTRGP Tales from the Aether. This is not dnd. If you think some of these ideas are interesting, check out my Masterpost linked here and follow for more updates :D