Ley Lines - Best Simulation

[Black Rose]

Okay, in my modern-day urban magic setting there are ley lines. If there's no nearby ley lines, then magic is unreliable and dangerous (Side Effects, usually damaging ones). The "deeper" the ley line, the further away it's "aura" projects and no need to worry about your magic going awry. Ley lines have Nodes, which often have strange effects around them and can boost magic in various ways; making magic easier to cast (bonus to skill rolls), more powerful (Aid Magic), or more usually, both. Mages can tap a nearby ley line to either fuel a spell effect or simply refill one's inner reserve.

 

In places untouched by man (very rare) the lines are like massive rivers of mana, very strong and "deep", and tend to follow major natural features; mountain ranges, rivers, large forests, volcanoes, etc. These lines make magic safe for kilometers around them. Trying to use one of these lines without a very well-constructed ritual to take the pressure off is like trying to refill your canteen from Niagara Falls -- possible but reckless, and you will probably get hurt. But if you can, the power is immense.

 

In the civilized world the ley lines are more diffused and "shallow", less a river and more a marsh, all but useless for more than making magic safe within them and for meters around. If magic is used repeatedly in such areas, however, the diffused "marsh" becomes more like an irrigation system or a web -- the area is still safe for casting and there might even be some small bonuses here and there. Needless to say, casually fueling spells or refilling one's reserve is much safer, if slower.

 

Now, you ask, this is all nice and background-like, but what does it have to do with me? Well, these are my build problems:

 

Most elegant solution for tapping ley lines -- do I go with Aid END Reserve REC, must be near ley line or perhaps END Reserve, REC only, must be near ley line* as a spell, or one-or-the-other as an in-built power build. Thing is, I'd rather keep it as a spell, since I want the ability to tap ley lines directly to be somewhat uncommon. Its much more common in this setting to use arcane architecture to build a web of smaller ley lines that acts as a lesser Node and just live/work around that.

 

* This is what I've got now, but I'm not married to it.

 

Most elegant solution for building/breaking ley lines -- it's fine to leave the ley lines as GM fiat, but I want to be able to let PCs (and NPCs as well) actually build their own. I guess here, the question is "how do I create something like a positive Change Environment, accessible by anyone in the area?" I want to be able to give a skill bonus to anyone in the area -- Skill Levels Area of Effect, Useable By Others, Useable By Nearby, or what? Likewise, if I want an Aid Magic to be open to everyone in an area, what's the best way to do that? And how would you dismantle such a thing -- Dispel, Drain, Transform, other?

 

Thanks for any help in advance.

[Lucius]

 

Quote with emphasis added

 

In places untouched by man (very rare) the lines are like massive rivers of mana, very strong and "deep", and tend to follow major natural features; mountain ranges, rivers, large forests, volcanoes, etc. These lines make magic safe for kilometers around them. Trying to use one of these lines without a very well-constructed ritual to take the pressure off is like trying to refill your canteen from Niagara Falls -- possible but reckless, and you will probably get hurt. But if you can, the power is immense.

So- they "make magic safe" by making it so incredibly dangerous you are likely to get hurt?

 

 

In the civilized world the ley lines are more diffused and "shallow", less a river and more a marsh, all but useless for more than making magic safe within them and for meters around. If magic is used repeatedly in such areas, however, the diffused "marsh" becomes more like an irrigation system or a web -- the area is still safe for casting and there might even be some small bonuses here and there. Needless to say, casually fueling spells or refilling one's reserve is much safer, if slower.

 

Now, you ask, this is all nice and background-like, but what does it have to do with me? Well, these are my build problems:

 

Most elegant solution for tapping ley lines -- do I go with Aid END Reserve REC, must be near ley line or perhaps END Reserve, REC only, must be near ley line* as a spell, or one-or-the-other as an in-built power build. Thing is, I'd rather keep it as a spell, since I want the ability to tap ley lines directly to be somewhat uncommon. Its much more common in this setting to use arcane architecture to build a web of smaller ley lines that acts as a lesser Node and just live/work around that.

I'm not really clear on this. I gather tapping a line is not like tapping a node, and you want the latter but not the former to be a common ability?

 

Because if they're the same thing, I don't see how using arcanitecture to construct a "lesser node" helps you unless you actually have the power to tap into it for something.

 

 

* This is what I've got now, but I'm not married to it.

 

Most elegant solution for building/breaking ley lines -- it's fine to leave the ley lines as GM fiat, but I want to be able to let PCs (and NPCs as well) actually build their own. I guess here, the question is "how do I create something like a positive Change Environment, accessible by anyone in the area?" I want to be able to give a skill bonus to anyone in the area -- Skill Levels Area of Effect, Useable By Others, Useable By Nearby, or what? Likewise, if I want an Aid Magic to be open to everyone in an area, what's the best way to do that? And how would you dismantle such a thing -- Dispel, Drain, Transform, other?

 

Thanks for any help in advance.

Just throwing out a few suggestions:

 

Summon Base. For this purpose maybe you don't even need the "slavish loyal" Advantage, since it helps everyone indiscriminately.

 

Change Environment. It can work because you are NOT buying the helpful elements via Change Environment; you are buying them as their own Powers with a Limitation "only near Ley Line" or whatever, and then changing the environment to one in which those Powers work. Which leads us to,

 

Variable Limitation. For those able to construct their own Lines and/or Nodes, instead of the Conditional Limitation "needs nodes" use a Variable Limitation: either use an existing node or use some combination of Limitations that represents what you need to create one (I'd go for Extra Time only to Start, Concentration only to Start, Costs Mana/END (or extra Mana) only to Start.)

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Now you Node, says the palindromedary, and Noding is half the battle

[Markdoc]

Here's a totally different approach. It sounds like you can - if you have the right mojo - tap into ley lines and nodes. If I read it correctly, ley lines make magic safe to use, but do little else, while nodes allow you to amplify your magical capacity in different ways. At the same time, if the ley line is too strong, it can be dangerous to use. Lucius has already indicated that the text is a little confusing here.

 

I'd suggest simplifying and rationalising your description and it's not hard to do that in a way that meshes with old ley line lore. Namely that ley lines allow magic to be used safely, and that more power can be found in old, deep ley lines and at nodes. Tapping that extra power though, can be dangerous.

 

This does not actually sound like a power you should build for PCs - instead it's part of the game world and the powers that PCs need are those to safely tap the power.

 

I'd define all magic as having side effects (whether based on a skill roll, activation roll or always when used is up to you) when used outside a "ley affect area". Whether the limitation is -1/4, -1/2 or -1 is again up to you depending on how severe the side effects can be.

 

Additionally, I would note that nodes and particularly deep ley lines can provide an Aid, with the Variable special effect advantage (at the +2 level?). The Aid is not a PC power: it's inherent in the node or ley line itself. This lets you tap some extra power, which you can use for a variety of purposes (up to +1 in advantages). It doesn't help you, though unless you are already some kind of spellcaster, since you need to have a power to Aid. The catch, of course is that this Aid comes with a side effect (I'd suggest that this one be based on a skill roll, with a penalty based on active points, maybe at the -1 per 5 active points level, so the more powerful the source you draw on, the greater the risk of magical meltdown).This gives mages a variety of ways to tap into this extra power safely. They can just blow the points on an increased skill roll. They can create rituals (extra time, incantations, foci, etc) to do so more cheaply. You could even, as Lucius suggests, build a base on a powerful node and use the  base to harness it, by building a bonus to skill rolls into it. A mage could choose to make the extra power available to others via the variable advantage, or selfishly hoard it.

 

This should give the feeling you want, while providing an easy-to-run solution. Instead of buying the Aid itself, mages would want to buy spells to detect, analyse and tame nodes and powerful ley lines. For those mages who want to build arcane architecture to generate their own ley lines, they can build a base containing a similar Aid power.

 

cheers, Mark

[Black Rose]

So- they "make magic safe" by making it so incredibly dangerous you are likely to get hurt?

 

Sorry, no, I meant to say that performing magic outside of a ley line-affected area would have damaging side effects if not done very well (I was thinking make your skill roll by 3+ or something), and performing magic inside of a ley line-affected area would have... more embarrassing Side Effects if not successful. Less "boom" and more "wah-wah-waaaaaaah."

 

 

I'm not really clear on this. I gather tapping a line is not like tapping a node, and you want the latter but not the former to be a common ability?

 

Because if they're the same thing, I don't see how using arcanitecture to construct a "lesser node" helps you unless you actually have the power to tap into it for something.

I really love it when someone whose opinion I respect asks me to clarify my "posted in the middle of the night, thought it made sense but clearly didn't" ramblings.

 

Okay, receiving the passive benefits from being on a ley line or node (safer magic, possible skill boost and/or minor Aid to spells) is normal for mages. It's the active "use the power of this line/node to fuel my big ol' magic/top up my Reserve inside of a minute or so" that I want to keep uncommon. If you assume a small magically active population (say, 350,000 in the US), maybe one in 20 know how to really directly use a line or node like this; everyone else just knows to avoid the places that magic is weak and that you can build your house/village/town in such a way that it does the whole "arcanitecture" (I like that) thing, even if they themselves have no idea exactly how you do that. Like, I know that it's good for a house to have a lot of windows to give southern exposure, that the winds blow West to East here, and that solar panels would be a benefit to my power bill -- I have no idea how to build a house to take advantage of my "knowledge".

 

 

Just throwing out a few suggestions:

 

Summon Base. For this purpose maybe you don't even need the "slavish loyal" Advantage, since it helps everyone indiscriminately.

 

Change Environment. It can work because you are NOT buying the helpful elements via Change Environment; you are buying them as their own Powers with a Limitation "only near Ley Line" or whatever, and then changing the environment to one in which those Powers work. Which leads us to,

 

Variable Limitation. For those able to construct their own Lines and/or Nodes, instead of the Conditional Limitation "needs nodes" use a Variable Limitation: either use an existing node or use some combination of Limitations that represents what you need to create one (I'd go for Extra Time only to Start, Concentration only to Start, Costs Mana/END (or extra Mana) only to Start.)

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Now you Node, says the palindromedary, and Noding is half the battle

 

Jesus, Summon Base? That's it? Gah, I feel like an idiot. I kept trying to do something with Transform, maybe with AoE Trail to shape the lines, or END Reserve, REC only, Usable Simultaneously (128 at once; +2) to represent a whole bunch of people being able to use it; I figured, if you can't actually cram as many people as can use it into the area by the line, you're probably covered. This seems much easier.

 

The Change Environment is inspired, I love it. And with the Summon Base, I won't really need to figure out how to build a Node beyond "here's the effect I want it to have, and it happens right here in the Base". Brilliant.

 

And your sig is both corny and wonderful.

 

 

Here's a totally different approach. It sounds like you can - if you have the right mojo - tap into ley lines and nodes. If I read it correctly, ley lines make magic safe to use, but do little else, while nodes allow you to amplify your magical capacity in different ways. At the same time, if the ley line is too strong, it can be dangerous to use. Lucius has already indicated that the text is a little confusing here.

 

I'd suggest simplifying and rationalising your description and it's not hard to do that in a way that meshes with old ley line lore. Namely that ley lines allow magic to be used safely, and that more power can be found in old, deep ley lines and at nodes. Tapping that extra power though, can be dangerous.

 

This does not actually sound like a power you should build for PCs - instead it's part of the game world and the powers that PCs need are those to safely tap the power.

 

I'd define all magic as having side effects (whether based on a skill roll, activation roll or always when used is up to you) when used outside a "ley affect area". Whether the limitation is -1/4, -1/2 or -1 is again up to you depending on how severe the side effects can be.

 

Additionally, I would note that nodes and particularly deep ley lines can provide an Aid, with the Variable special effect advantage (at the +2 level?). The Aid is not a PC power: it's inherent in the node or ley line itself. This lets you tap some extra power, which you can use for a variety of purposes (up to +1 in advantages). It doesn't help you, though unless you are already some kind of spellcaster, since you need to have a power to Aid. The catch, of course is that this Aid comes with a side effect (I'd suggest that this one be based on a skill roll, with a penalty based on active points, maybe at the -1 per 5 active points level, so the more powerful the source you draw on, the greater the risk of magical meltdown). This gives mages a variety of ways to tap into this extra power safely. They can just blow the points on an increased skill roll. They can create rituals (extra time, incantations, foci, etc) to do so more cheaply. You could even, as Lucius suggests, build a base on a powerful node and use the base to harness it, by building a bonus to skill rolls into it. A mage could choose to make the extra power available to others via the variable advantage, or selfishly hoard it.

 

This should give the feeling you want, while providing an easy-to-run solution. Instead of buying the Aid itself, mages would want to buy spells to detect, analyse and tame nodes and powerful ley lines. For those mages who want to build arcane architecture to generate their own ley lines, they can build a base containing a similar Aid power.

 

cheers, Mark

 

This is very good, and I am going to happily yoink it. Once I have things more codified in my notes, I'll post it here.

 

Thank you both for the help.

[NuSoardGraphite]

One thing you can do is designate that the Endurance Reserve in Ley Lines and Nodes (or stored in foci) is the only thing that will power magic under normal circumstances, and that casting spells outside of the influence of a Ley Line or Node is treated as the same effect of using a power that costs Endurance when your character is out of Endurance.  That is, that for every 2 Endurance cost, they character takes 1D6 Stun damage.  Or, you can make it Normal damage to make it truly dangerous. (1/2D6 per point of End cost).  Using the Stun Only method, Stun becomes a character's limited END pool outside of Ley Lines and will be used as such.  The fast rate of REC makes this possible.  Using the Normal Damage (including Body) makes casting spells outside of Ley Lines truly dangerous, as the Body damage from this heals very slowly over time (REC per month) so mages will very rarely want to do that unless they have absolutely no choice whatsoever.

 

Allowing for mages to carry Foci which act as END Reserves they can tap into outside of a Ley Line would be a good idea and such Foci would be worth quite a lot to mages in the setting.  I would make these Endurance Reserves with a REC that only recovers while the foci is physically immersed in a Ley Line or Nexus point.  Mages might be able to develop a Talent where they have a personal END Reserve which can only be replenished while in a Ley Line and thus have access to a limited amount of personal power when separated from their source of energy. (limit this reserve heavily to prevent mages from stocking up on 100 End worth of magical energy and ignoring the limitations of your magic system)

 

The Ley Lines themselves could be great sources of magical energy with Endurance reserves of 50 or more, with a Recovery of 10 or more.  This is plenty of power to fuel minor to medium magics on a fairly regular basis, but not quite enough to support a great magical duel between multiple opponents.  This creates a dynamic of resource management at minor Ley Lines and necessitates Mana rich Nodes and mighty Nexus points to implement grand magical duels without the fear of running dry of power.

 

Here's how I would rate Ley Lines and Nodes:

 

Trivial Ley Line: END: 10 REC: 2.  These are found almost everywhere.  These are small streams of magical energy which branch off other larger Ley Lines which feed energy to the land surrounding more prominent Lines.  These Lines can stretch for miles.  Their radius of effect is very small, and usually only a few meters wide then the power dissipates into the land itself to feed the life therein.

 

Minor Ley Line:  END: 20 REC: 4.  These Ley Lines branch off from Major Ley Lines. They are the most commonly encountered Ley Lines which cross the landscape.  cities are often built along Minor Ley Lines with the center of a city (and it's corresponding holy temple or mage chantry) being a Minor Node of two or more interesecting Minor Ley Lines.  The radius of effect of a Minor Ley Line are about 10 meters in width and these Ley Lines can often run for many leagues, sometimes connecting two Major Ley Lines sharing power between them.

 

Major Ley Line: END: 30  REC: 6.  These Ley Lines branch off from Primary Ley Lines and often feed Life Energy to an entire continent or major geographical feature such as a forest, a mountain range or a desert.  Major Ley Lines are about 100 times rarer than Minor ones.  Major Ley Lines can be between 50 and 100 meters in width.

 

Primary Ley Line: END: 40+ REC: 8+ (always 1/5 of the END pool)  These Ley Lines are quite rare, about 100 times rarer than Major Ley Lines.  There are only a handful of these on any given continent.  The very landscape is shaped and influenced by their presence.  They average about 1km in width but can vary somewhat (as small as 500 meters in some cases)

 

Nodes (Nexus points):

 

Minor Node: END: 50  REC: 10.  This is a confluence of multiple Trivial Ley Lines intersecting one another.  It is not uncommon for there to be several Minor Nodes in one area due to Trivial Ley Lines snaking throughout an area and crossing in multiple areas.  Minor Nodes usually affect a radius of between 5 and 10 meters.

 

Common Node: END: 100 REC: 20.  This is the crossing of two Minor Ley Lines.  The area becomes saturated with magical energy which permeates the very land itself (and the plants, animals and people/objects which inhabit that area) which allows the Node to hold more power than would be indicated by the amount of Mana which is flowing to the area from the two Ley Lines.  They usually have a radius of about 100 meters.

 

Major Node: END: 150+ REC: 30+.  This is two Major Ley Lines that cross one another, or multiple (more than two) Minor Ley Lines.  To determine how much END is available at the Node, multiply the amount of End of the largest Ley Line by 5 for two Ley Lines crossing, by 10 if 3 Ley Lines cross, by 15 if 3 Ley Lines cross, etc.  The radius of effect is usually about 200 or more meters.

 

Prime Nexus: END: 250+ REC: 50+.  This is two Primary Ley Lines that intersect.  In general, there are only two or three of these spots on any given continent.  The area encompasses 10km area (sometimes more.  There are known ocean based Prime Nexus which encompass nearly 100km!)  The amount of energy at these Nodes are essentially inexhaustible, being able to replenish hundreds of Mana in under a minute.  These areas are essentially the Earth's major chakra points.  Damaging one of these points (nearly impossible of course) would have a great (detrimental) effect on the area's Mana level.  The greatest known Prime Nexus on Earth are the Poles, the Bermuda triangle, the Devil's triangle, Tibet, the Great Pyramid at Giza and the South Atlantic Anomaly.  Each of these major Earth Chakras have 1000 Endurance with a recovery of 200.  Damaging one of these points which receive Mana energy from the Earth's Heart (core) and cosmic sources (the Sun and the Galactic Sun/Black hole) would irrevocably damage the Earth's mana production.

 

Maybe I will do some work on Geomancy and manipulating Ley Lines and Nodes on a later post.

[Cinniuint]

Couple of general thoughts on the subject.

 

RoleMaster Companion had a system of nodes, mostly without leylines. Major, meaning they could be detected at range, and minor meaning they could not. Recently discovered, (not in the core rules) it was anybody's guess which were actually major or minor.

 

Second, and more important here, spots that provide lots of power will be noticed, and become well known. Powerful enough, and they will become protected and controlled. Spots that provide unusual benefits, or strong benefits to unusual magics will also become known,and might quite possibly draw pilgrims and/or protectors.

 

Cinn