[2E Hack] Reflexive Spells

[Moinen]

Reflexive Spells

All spells can be cast reflexively but with restriction that you can only cast one spell per turn.
Want to run and cast behind you? Pay 2 Reach and Mana. Hit someone with lightning-fist? Same. It allows players to act more without disbalancing gameplay. They still can cast only one spell and have to pay for it but its more fun this way.
You can e.g. throw yourself with Forces across the rooftop gap or jump and glide in the same turn.

Q: How does this work with initiative?

It would make a nice CoW, spellslinger style. My players don't abuse it too much since its costly, but if you need some structure make it that you can only do it in your action and make it semi reflexive. I allow for reflexive spell casting and shooting, yes, it's more fun.

And they don't get to employ any Yantra since there is no time. So try to cast Psychic Domination with 7 Reach (3 base from spell to actually kill; 1 instant; 1 sensory; 2 from reflexive) and 1 Mana on top of that which leaves with only 1 more Mana to mitigate paradox, all of that in the first turn of combat. Good luck with that.

Q: But why?

(It's my opinion only) Storytelling System that powers CofD suffers from bad decisions that were made in the development. It was onto something but didn't really know what.
There are two mechanical vectors that can entertain the player in combat

1) D&D style - roll a lot and manage options that were given to you. On failure nothing happens that would propel the action forward, but you have so much rolling that it rarely happens. Mechanics are also straightforward so the turns are decently fast.
2) pbtA style - roll once and only for the action you described. On failure shit hits the fan and the story unveils.
and here is
3) CofD style - roll once. If you failed you do nothing for this turn. No story comes out of it(you can argue but pbta does it 10x better). In Mage especialy, with all its magic systems, it means that you have to wait sometimes even 15-20 minutes for your next turn. When you add up the turn you waited for your time and the turn you have to wait for next one it can be half an hour when you did nothing in the game. Gasp.

So back to the question. You better have some options and multiple actions when it comes to your turn.

I have some ideas of how to make failures better in terms of storytelling but its a topic for another hack.

[Vent0]

pbtA?

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Other related hacks for scaling the power of this:

• +1 Reach per dot: Small spells are easy, but throwing the Reflexive Unmaking spell is going to cost.
  • +1 Mana per dot: Like the Reach option above, but less prone to Paradox "fun" and more like throwing money at your problems.
• Can't over-Reach: You need to spin that Imago fast and can't cram all the extra power you might like into it. Keeps the Reflexive spells small.

Since you can use 1 Yantra reflexively, you might simply provide some restrictions on what they can be. Tools and Muldras? Nope. Environment? Sure. Might encourage preparing the field ahead of time, or creative use of one's surroundings.

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One way to make casting Failures more interesting might be to have them generate Paradox - it can't be used to stop the spell obviously (too late for that), but you could make minor magical effects happen (that aren't quite according to the original design), or have more fun Paradox effects floating around.

[Moinen]

PbtA is a simple and fast system that takes rolling from GM and puts it all in the hands of a player. Started with Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker and now used by dozens of other games. I'm sure you have heard about at least one of them.

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I love all of your ideas, realy. It's a nice toolkit for everyone to tinker and help implementing it into their games.

[2ptTakrill]

You could house rule that Praxis and maybe Rotes, being products of overlearning, can be cast on the fly without additional cost. That might give players some incentive to actually buy the things.

[Johnny Awesome]

You can already cast and leap in the same turn. You still get your Speed worth of Move if you're casting as far as I can see from the book.

I'm also not sure that making each player's turn longer is a solution to a slow paced game.

I generally don't allow more than 4 players in my game and rarely does a player action take more than 3 minutes.

The way to get to pbtA-style gaming is to encourage DFs for spell failures. I have one player that DFs all the time on failures and it provides great story advancement. Let the Beats roll in.

But back to the topic at hand:

I'm ok with Reflexive casting for +2 Reach and a Mana and no Yantras, but I'm not sure if it needs restricting further. Probably not as +2 Reach is going to get into Paradox territory for non-Rotes pretty fast I think.

[Moinen]

You can already cast and leap in the same turn. You still get your Speed worth of Move if you're casting as far as I can see from the book.

Its's not leaping, it's fast walking. To make a meaningful jump you need to take an action.

The way to get to pbtA-style gaming is to encourage DFs for spell failures. I have one player that DFs all the time on failures and it provides great story advancement. Let the Beats roll in.

With rules as written Dramatic Failures are not really dramatic and would need an overhaul to work properly. But it's only my opinion, and its not the part of this hack.

I'm ok with Reflexive casting for +2 Reach and a Mana and no Yantras, but I'm not sure if it needs restricting further. Probably not as +2 Reach is going to get into Paradox territory for non-Rotes pretty fast I think.

For me personaly its ok with no other restrictions(its cleaner this way), but if someone wants to balance it more, and likes the layer of crunch on everything, he can choose from one or more of those options.