ZERO EDITION

a game of fantastic adventures

Paolo Grec0 - Lost Pages - 2017
Cover Art by Jason Sholtis
Logo by Greg Gorgonmilk
MAGEBLADE! (sometimes referred to as MB) is a game about adventures in fantasy
lands. Each player controls one Character in the adventure, but one of the players (the
Referee) instead takes care of everything else: what happens in the world, how it reacts
to players' actions, its locations, inhabitants, magic, treasures, and intrigue. The fun
happens as Referee will set-up a scenario and the other players try to wrangle it.

The Core Rule

Some actions are not certain successes or failures, or are risky. In those situations the
Referee might decide themselves or will ask players to roll a check: roll a 20-sided dice
(d20) and try to get equal or under to your character's relevant attribute. If you are
trying to move a heavy object roll 1d20 under Strength; to understand an oblique
reference roll under Intelligence; to resist a malison, under Wisdom; to stay asleep
overnight, under Constitution; to win the favour of a crowd, under Charisma; to hit
someone with a sword or an arrow, under Melee or Missile; and so on. For example:
with Charisma 14 you need to roll 14 or less to enthrall a crowd.

If two or more actions are opposed or in competition, a success always beats a failure,
and a success rolled with a higher number on the die beats a lower number. For
example, three people are vying for the favour of a bureaucrat; they all try to roll under
Charisma. Ali (Charisma 13) rolls a 14 and fails. Bo (Charisma 11) rolls a 9 and
succeeds. Casey (Charisma 15) rolls a 8 and succeeds. Bo succeeded better than Casey,
so Bo wins the favour of the bureaucrat.

In short: Roll high, but not higher than your means.

Characters:
Characters have dangerous and exciting adventures. Each character is defined by some
attributes. These are the attributes and how you generate them:

Name: The name of the character. Decide it yourself. Try to pick a name that you
won't regret, as there's a chance that your character will stick around for a long while.

Class: To make the game simpler, each character has a class (or type) to define their
abilities. You can decide which class you play:
• Fighter, if you want to play someone good at combat.
• Caster, if you are keen on magic powers
• Rogue, if you want to be a lucky daredevil
• Mageblade, if you want to use steel and magic
All classes are better explained later.

Hits and Mana: Physical and mystic energy; vary with class and increase with
level. Wounds reduce hits, and casting spells and pushing your luck reduce mana.
When they drop below zero you will have a problem. To determine hits at level one,
roll the type of die indicated by the class twice (for example d10 for the Fighter) and
take the best. Mana starts at zero.

Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma:

How strong, smart, wise, agile, tough, and loved by the Gods your character is. These
attributes are called Stats. To determine each roll 3d6 and assign the result to the stats
in order. At the end you can swap two scores.

Level and Experience: How expert the character is. Experience is gained usually
in adventures. When the experience is high enough the character increases in level and
becomes better. Characters usually start at level 1. Level also determines your Focus.
Focus is a really important concept in Mageblade. Very Important. Keep on reading.

Focus: Each character class excels at one specific thing: Fighters are great at fighting,
Casters at ensorcelling people, Rogues at pushing their Luck, and Mageblades at using
their mettle. That's what they focus on. Focus is a modifier that starts at +3 and
increases with level; each class explains how its Focus applies to a different aspect of
the character.
LVL 1: +3; LVL 3: +4; LVL 6: +5; LVL 9: +6; LVL 12:+7
Perks & Skills: All characters have something peculiar to them. For example some
have peculiar skills, or know secret magic, or practice a combat style. All characters
start with one Perk, and will gain one more at levels 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12.

Perks can be spent to learn two Skills (from the list of Skills later in the book) or to get
some special ability specific to the character class. Fighters spend perks to learn combat
stances, Casters to learn magic disciplines, mageblades for devotions and blademagic.
Rogues can spend perks to gain three skills instead of two.

Melee, Missile: How good your character is at hurting people. Melee and Missile
start at 12. Fighters add their Focus to Melee and Missile. Since other classes pursue
other virtues they can improve Melee and Missile only with magic.

Defence: how hard it is to wound your character in combat. Starts at zero, improves
with armour: a light armour gives Defence 2, while heavy armour gives Defence 6.

Option: Stat Modifiers

Options like these are optional rules. Decide with the other players whether to
use it. We tested the rule, and we advise to use it, but it's not mandatory!

Your six stats, if high or low, can modify other attributes. The modifiers are:

7 or less: -1 8 to 12: nil 13 to 15: +1 16 or more: +2

Strength modifies Melee and Melee damage rolls

Dexterity modifies Missile, Defense, and Initiative rolls
Intelligence modifies spells and perks. If positive, get more spells and perks.
If negative, get one less spell at level one and do not get the perk at level two.
Wisdom modifies the Mana points total.
Constitution modifies each die used to determine hits. This can not reduce
your hits to less than 1. So a level 3 Caster with constitution 16 rolls 3d6+6 to
determine hits.
Charisma gives you extra Luck every day. Low Charisma makes you the butt
of every joke and victim of random misfortune.
Skills
Perks can be spent either on Skills (from the list of Skills below) or class-specific
abilities. One Perk buys two skills (three skills if the character is a Rogue). Here is a
list of skills, and their relevant abilities:

Climbing (Str) Lockpick (Int) Sneak (Dex)

Feat of Strength (Str) Engineering (Int) Acrobatics (Dex)
Research (Int) Sneak Attack (Dex)

Surgery (Wis) Swim (Con) Bullshit (Cha)

Mind over Body (Wis) Stamina (Con) Gather Inform. (Cha)
Diplomacy (Cha)

Languages - Foreign Languages - Dead Languages - Esoteric

To succeed in a skill roll, if your character knows the skill, you will usually need to roll
under the relevant stat. If your character does not know a skill, plead with the Referee.
They will determine if the use of the skill is common knowledge: they might let you
roll under half or 1/3 of the relevant stat. Armour gives a penalty to Dexterity- and
Strength-based skills : -2 for medium armour, -4 for heavy.

At any rate, sometimes it's hard to say if a skill is needed or not for a given check.
Sometimes a stat check is needed but a character can also have a skill that applies. In
this case let them roll twice, on both stat and skill. A double success might mean
something special, depending on circumstances, the Referee's kind soul, or lack thereof.

Bullshit, Diplomacy: the fine arts of getting what you want from people. Bullshit
relies on sheer lies, diplomacy on strong arguments: often one will do when the other
has no chance of succeeding.

Climbing: the character can climb sheer surfaces, A failed roll stops the ascent. The
character can continue next round, but if they fail, they fall.

Engineering: the character is adept in construction. They can build structures,

design building, oversee construction, sapping and tunneling works, and so on. They
can also detect secret doors and traps in buildings.
Feat of Strength: the character can use their whole body when massive physical
strength is required, beyond what normal strength can do. Use when borderline-
superhuman feats of strength are required: moving a boulder, lifting a fallen tree to free
a comrade, etc.

Languages: language skills have no scores. Use and knowledge of the relevant
language group is at a competent level.

Lockpick: the character can unlock locks using lockpicks, or completely jam them
with pretty much any tool.

Mind over Body: when characters must save or collapse, die, succumb to hunger or
pain or sleep and so on, they try a Mind over Body roll instead of a save.

Surgery: the character can roll to to bind wounds. This can be done once after
another character has been hurt (multiple wounds in a single combat allow only one
surgery roll). A success heals 1d4 hits, but not more than what's been lost during the
fight. Surgery requires a surgeon's bag (40c). See also the Rest & Recovery rules.

Stamina: being really fit and trained. When the character gets tired they must save
vs. Constitution to push on. Stamina allows this saving throw to be rerolled (once
only per save). It can also be used for those situations of terrific effort where a simple
Constitution roll is not enough.

Research: used mainly to find information in a body of work, like a library or a

really badly organized wizard archive.

Sneak: the character can hide, tail, someone move silently and be unnoticed.
Sneak Attack: If the character attacks a victim from behind, unseen or otherwise
unnoticed, they can also roll on Sneak Attack. Regardless of the attack roll, if the
Sneak Attack roll succeeds the character deals damage as if they hit. If both the attack
and the Sneak Attack roll succeed, roll damage twice and add the results.

Acrobatics, Gather Information, Swim: exactly what they say.

Fighter
Fighters are soldiers, guards, duelists, adventurers. They are fighting experts and often
form the last line of defense between a group of adventurers and their foes. Fighters
roll d10 for hits.

Focused on Combat: Fighters apply Focus to Melee and Missile.

Panoply: Fighters can use all armours. They also can use all weapons, and their great
skill at arms bumps up all melee weapons damage by one category (1d4 to 1d6, 1d6 to
1d8, 1d8 to 1d10). A two-handed weapon in the hand of a Fighter deals 1d10 damage.

Perk: Combat Stance: Fighters can spend perks to learn these combat stances.
Stances are announced when the fighter acts, take no time to be assumed, can be
combined and stack (unless the Referee says otherwise).
• Patient: +2 defence, -2 damage
• Quick: -5 attack, 1 extra attack
• Shrewd: +2 to hit, -2 damage.
• Two-weapons: the character fights with two weapons, and the second must be
light. +1 Defence in melee. If the character misses with the first weapon melee
attack they can attack with the off-hand weapon. No damage plusses apply to the
off-hand weapon (Panoply is not a "damage plus" so it applies).
• Reckless: +2 damage in Melee, both when hitting and when hit.
• Waste: when felling an enemy in melee with a two-handed weapon the character
can step and make an extra melee attack.
• Bulwark: if a nearby ally is attacked the Fighter can spend one mana to take the
attack instead. Roll to hit the Fighter normally. The attacker cannot attack the
protected ally for a number of rounds equal to the Fighter's Focus or until the
Fighter moves away.
• Barrage: -4 attack, 1 extra attack with bows or thrown weapons only.
• Secret Moves: Chose a weapon type (e.g.: battle axe or bow). When fighting with
it +1 initiative and, once per combat, can inflict +Focus damage.
• Mobile: can move before and after attacking. Only usable when mounted or if
wearing light armour or less.
• Tactician: before rolling initiative the Fighter can give orders to their allies, but
only mundane tasks like move, stand ground, or charge. The fighters and all the
allies following the orders can decide to not roll initiative, but have initiative equal
to the Fighter's Focus.
Rogue
Rogues are travelers, tinkers, thieves, thugs. They are specialized in specific skills and
can always count on their luck. Rogues roll 1d6 for hits and start with zero mana.

Focused on Luck: Rogues have a daily allocation of Luck equal to their Focus.
They can spend Rogues' Luck on any roll affecting them, even opponents' hit rolls.
Rogues' work begins at night, so Rogues' Luck is fully recovered at each nightfall.

Jack of All Trades: Rogues start with a free skill.

Perk: Versatile: When spending Perks to gain more skills Rogues get three skills
instead of two.

Perk: Mastery: Rogues can become masters in a skill they are trained in. They pay
only half the cost in mana or Rogues’ Luck points when pushing their luck on a
mastered skill. This means they can always get one reroll on any mastered skill,
without spending any mana. Rerolling the skill check two or three times costs them
one mana. Rerolling four or five times costs two mana.

Tools of the Trade: Rogues can use all weapons and armours, though most
medium and heavy armours are a hindrance to skills requiring nimbleness.

Push your Luck

Mana is how much leeway the Universe is willing to give you. That's why spells
and some magic items use Mana: changing reality is hard. So, in a way, Mana is
Luck. You can spend one mana to push your Luck, and reroll any Save you failed,
and in any other situation the Referee feels like Luck should be important. Mana is
recovered at sunset.

Some things also make some people just lucky: high Charisma and Rogue's Luck.
Rogues focus on knowing when they should push their luck, and every day have
extra Rogue's Luck to spend, in addition to their Mana. Those with high Charisma
are just beloved by the gods, and have a stronger destiny. In either case, either can
be used to reroll any die involving the character, even, for example, hit rolls they
would wound them. Luck is also recovered at sunset.

Luck and Mana are best represented by tokens of two different colours. Or candies?
Caster
Casters are mystics, wizards, sorcerers, mentalists. They bind the metaphysical, deal
with its problems and exploit its opportunities. Casters roll 1d6 for hits.

Focused on Knowledge: knowledge makes magic stronger, the spells harder to

resist. Victims of the caster's spells save with a penalty equal to the number of spells
the caster knows in the discipline of the spell cast. The penalty cannot be more than
the Caster's Focus. E.g.: a caster knows four Psychomancy spells. If their Focus is 3,
the save will be at -3, if the focus is 4 or more, the save will be at -4.

Perk: Disciplines: spells belong to disciplines, and to cast a given spell casters must
spend a perk to learn its discipline. For example: you need to know the discipline of
Physiurgy to cast Cure, Apotropaism for Scapegoat, Cunning Craft for Blackstaff.

Spells: Casters know three spells at level one. All spells must belong to learned
disciplines, and no spell can be cast more than once per day. To cast a spell the caster
must spend one mana point and spend the round making strange noises, concentra-
ting, and performing some uncomfortably bizarre dance. When gaining a level Casters
learn two more spells from disciplines they know. They can also learn spells from
scrolls and grimoires.

The Spark: Casters are flooded with mana, and start with one mana at level 1. If
they meditate close to an item they understand if it is magic and what are its powers.

Maleficence: the caster can channel one mana into a magic attack. The specific
form varies by Caster (maybe flames, or force blades, or a sandblast) and affects either
one target or everybody in a small location. The damage dealt is 1d6 (explodes on a 6)
plus Focus. Victims can save to take half damage, usually on dexterity or constitution.

Magic Shield: if the caster or a close ally is subject to a magic attack the caster can
spend one mana to shield up to one victim per level from the spell effects, as if they
were not subject to its magic.

Extramundane: Casters have normal competency in weapons, but never use shields
or armour. It's not clear whether they eschew it, as relying on material protection
would betray lack of trust in their powers, or because they think they are above it, or
because armour and shields are heavy and chafe.
Sample Discipline: Æther Path
The Æther Path is a versatile discipline, often the first taught to apprentices in Zephyr
Valley. It is focused on controlling raw mana, referred to as æther in this discipline.

Æther eye: the caster floods their eyes with æther, temporarily becoming blind but
able to see their area through æther winds, as an omniscent observer, noticing hidden
details, illusions and detecting auras, but not their exact natures, malevolent or not.

Ætherplasm: the caster twixts æther into life fluids, in order to heal by laying
hands. A total of 1d6 hits + 1/caster level can be cured while the spell lasts. A potion
can be spent as component: add the potion's effect to the spell effect.

Ætherwind: the caster can vent æther and control winds in their area. This lets
them blow really loud winds to stop conversation, clear air from gases, blow off
debris, put off or stoke fires, and much more, like flying with an glider or big kite.

Ectoplasm: the caster condenses æther into any shape of human volume or less.
The shape is similar enough in appearance to look like the real thing, except if someone
interacts with, as it is sticky and its sounds are limited to gurgles and whispers.

Great Wave: the caster sends a wave of æther toward their enemies, either in a 30'
long and wide cone, or a 200', 10' wide beam. Victims take 1d6 damage from flying
debris, +2 temporary damage per caster level, and must save or be knocked down.

kataplasm: the caster condenses æther into a layer of slippery ectoplasm over an
area (up to 10x10' per level), lubricating everything. Everybody in the area must save or
slip and fall into the layer of ectoplasm and get the sticky, slippery goop all over.

Manashield: a shining shield of solid aether is wrought surrounding the caster and
moves with them. Physical attacks deal half damage to the caster, half to the shield.
The shield starts with Focus hits. At any point the caster can empower the shield,
increasing its hits by Focus hits per mana spent.

Ponfusion & Cuzzlement: an æther wave clouds the minds of all nearby enemies.
While the spell lasts victims are confused and unable to act until attacked or physically
shaken. Afterwards they will not remember clearly what happened. Save negates.
Sample Discipline: Psychomancy
Psychomancy is a discipline focused on the caster's mental powers. While it has its
inoffensive uses it is also exceedigly pernocius, turning people against their own will.

Bewitch: Hostile creatures become neutral, neutral creatures become friendly, and
friendly creatures become infatuated. Friendly creatures will be open to serving the
caster, given some basic incentive, and infatuated creatures require no incentive. Affects
a number of levels worth of creatures equal to the caster level.

Comprehension: The meaning of obscured or indecipherable communications is

laid bare. This spell may be used to understand the words of any language or read the
true intent of a cyphered missive. Even spirit or animal speech, such as the groaning of
clouds or the howling of wolves, may sometimes disclose their secrets.

Dominate: By standing completely still with eyes closed in concentration, the caster
may psychically enter the body of another nearby, gaining access to any of their
senses, and dictate the subject's physical actions (a save applies, but does not end the
spell, and the caster may attempt to command again the same subject or another in
following rounds). Subjects of this spell may resist any given dictated action by taking
1d8 damage. Such manipulation is awkward (a minor penalty applies), and lends a
marionette-like quality to the movements and demeanor of the subject so controlled.

Dread Manifestation: The caster calls forth the deepest monstrous fear from a
victim's mind nearby. This manifestation is real to the victim (assume double level
compared to the victim with appropriate special abilities), and will pursue the victim
with the speed of an unencumbered person, though it is merely a dim phantom to all
other observers. When the spell expires, the manifestation (roll 1d6):
1) leaves behind some inanimate material remains
2) attains full materiality and autonomy
3) serves the caster until the next full moon if offered further targets
4) vanishes in a pillar of fire
5) haunts the area permanently as a dim psychic echo which may spontaneously
erupt as per this spell description,
6) persists and is actually a fear doppelgänger which will take on a new shape based
on the fears or nightmares of other nearby minds.
Dust of the Sandman: Sparkling dust conjured from the land of dreams blankets
a small area, and all within must save or fall asleep.

Fascinating Gaze: For the duration of this spell, anyone that meets the caster's
gaze must make a save. Those that fail become fascinated and are unable to act as long
as the caster maintains eye contact and doesn't do anything other than speaking.

The victim will answer basic yes or no questions truthfully, though questions
requiring more complicated answers will not be understood, and memories of the
episode remain foggy and indistinct.

Obsecration: A nearby creature (which must be living and have consciousness) is

called to aid the caster. The power of this creature will be proportional to the caster's
level (one level per level is a reasonable guideline), and it will serve the caster loyally for
a number of turns equal to the caster's level after arrival.

The creature must physically travel to the caster, retains memory of all acts committed
while under the influence of the spell, and will feel oddly satisfied about serving the
caster afterwards (assuming that the creature's basic ethos was not violated).

Plasmic Manipulation: The caster examines the mind of another for spells or
other plasmic entities and may choose one of the following options:
• steal one spell and mana for later casting
• implant (and thus lose) a spell into the target's consciousness
• free any number of plasmic entities from the target's mind (in effect making casting
impossible).

The target of this spell is permitted a saving throw (use of a spell shield provides a +2
saving throw bonus rather than entirely preventing the effect), and if that saving
throw is a natural 20 the target may instead raid the mind of the spell's originator,
with recourse to the same three options. All the effects are temporary.

This discipline originally appeared in Brendan Strejcek's Wonder & Wickedness, also
published by Lost Pages,
Sample Discipline: Physiurgy
Physiurgy is a tightly docused discipline exclusively dealing with healing. It has no
offensive capacity (except when affecting the undead, which harms them), therefore
healers are easily accepted in human society with no stigma.

Aura of Renewal: The caster can sit and chant for up to 1 turn/level. Should the
caster move or stop chanting, the spell ends. Characters resting within 20' of the caster
are immune to the effects of disease or poison and can, every turn, either:
• regain 1d6 hits
• roll a save to be fully healed of a single affliction of disease, poison, blindness, etc.

Cure: The caster lays hands on a creature nearby to miraculously cure their wounds.
The subject is healed of 1d6 hits +1 hits per level. If the caster passes a Save or a
Surgery check, the subject is also cured of a single disease.

Death Unto Life: The caster brings back to life a corpse, previously anointed with
a Balm of Restoration (sometimes available from temples or alchemists for 2000c). A
body missing parts will be brought to life missing those parts, miraculously alive
should they lack vital organs: their existence will be short and probably very painful.
The departed is brought back to life at 1 hit, level zero and bedridden until they rest
the the same amount of time they spent beyond the veil.

Thereafter will recover 1 level per week, up to the level they were before dying. Should
they accrue experience during recovery, it does not apply until the recovery is complete.

After casting this spell the caster is profoundly enervated and must save thrice: if the
first save fails the caster dies. If the second fails the caster falls into a coma for 1d6 days.
If the third fails the caster can't cast spells for a week.

Last Oath: The caster opens life conduits from their close allies as they swear an
oath of duty. All allies within 10', but not the caster, are healed of 1d6 hits +1 per caster
level. The caster though takes 3 temporary damage for every ally healed this way.

Milk & Honey: The caster brews up a mix of milk and honey (and other things). If
immediately drunk, puts the drinker to sleep for 3d6 hours. All attempts to awake the
drinker will be fruitless, but they will wake up fully healed, at maximum hits.
Salvation: The touched target automatically passes the next poison,disease, paralysis,
petrification, mind-affliction et similia save they would otherwise roll this turn.

Salvific Apport: The caster’s hands exude some apport, a balsamic white goo. The
apport will evaporate within a turn, but until then it can be spread on wounds –
healing 1d6+Focus hits – or simply swallowed to immediately cure poison.

Wilson's Orange Draining: The caster shoots a lurid orange conduit from
their open hand. If it hits it deals 1d4+Focus hits to the victim and the caster is healed
of the same amount and the spell ends. If it misses, the caster can retry the following
round, up to 6 attempts in total.

This discipline originally appeared in Marvels & Malisons, also by the author and
published by Lost Pages,

Sample Discipline: Jevnacack Praxix

The Jevnacack Praxis is a truly ancient, pre-apocalyptic discipline focusing on
meditation, navel-gazing and trance induced by mantra repetition. It is completely
unfocused, and allows the caster to precondition their mind into accepting any spell
they have learnt, even if the caster has not learnt the spell's discipline.

This great flexibility though comes at a price: after an hour of meditation the caster
enters the trance to bind mana to spells. The caster can bind any amount of mana they
have access to, but bound mana can be spent only to cast the spell they are bound to.
It is possible to enter this trance status several times per day and rebind unspent mana.

Binding mana is a way to partially overcome the limitation of casting a given spell
maximum once per day: several points of mana can be bound to the same spell several
times, enabling several casting of the same spell.

The Jevnacack Praxis has a limit regarding pre-apocalyptic spells: those spells had the
limitation of requiring a certain minimum power level from the caster: this was caused
by an antiquated understanding of magic and bigoted thaumaturgy. Therefore the
Praxis does not let bind mana to a spell of higher power than the caster's level, and
only one spell of the same level as the caster can be bound.
Mageblade
Mageblades are mystic knights, swordsaints, ironmonks, initiates of the Steel Orders.
They unite the strengths of spirit and body through the edge of their Athame, wicked
blade-wands. Most belong to an order, learning its mysteries: the order gives access to
its special Devotions, Banes and Blademagic. Other seek knowledges wandering the
world in their own terms. Mageblades roll 1d8 for hits.

Focused on Iron Will: Mageblades are fueled by Iron Will, and gain Focus
bonus to all saves. They can empower their athame by spending one mana and gain a
melee bonus equal to Focus for one hour. Empowering takes no time.

Athame: Each Mageblade has an athame, a bound ritual blade. In the hand of its
Mageblade, the athame is both a wand and a magic weapon (dealing appropriate
damage dapending on its size: 1d6 for a hand weapon, 1d8 for 2-handed). The athame
stores one mana that can be used by its Mageblade and regenerates every sunset. The
athame can be replaced: bonding with a new one takes one month.

Perk: Blademagic: Mageblades can spend Perks to gain blademagic, iron-magic

techniques. Once per round, if the Mageblade wields their athame, they can spend one
mana to activate a blademagic. This takes no time. Blademagic accessible to any
Mageblade are:
• Rend: after hitting in melee the Athame deals extra Focus damage
• Arc: the Mageblade can attack three enemies per round. Lasts 1 turn.
• Dance: the Athame takes flight and follows its Mageblade's bidding. It can melee
at 12+Focus or grant +2 defence to someone. If hit in melee (it has a defence of
Focus) the next round it won't be able to do anything. Lasts 1 turn.
• Bane: there are many Banes, each learned separately. Each Bane works against a
special kind of being, so that the Athame deals them double damage. Each order
teaches specific banes: for example against undead, spirits, squids, automata, beasts,
shapechangers. There might be more. Lasts until dawn.

Perk: Devotion: Devotions are rites similar to spells, each Order teaching secret
devotions to their members. A devotion takes one round and one mana to cast: if the
Mageblade has a free hand to cast they can also attack with their Athame in the same
round. Mageblades start with a free devotion, but other must be paid with a Perk.

Ironclad: Mageblades can use all armour, weapons, and shields.

Sample Order: Thaumagram Lodge
The Thaumagram Lodge is the keeper of the Manifold Nexus, the maze-space in
between our many universes, ensuring its wholeness is not disrupted. Its members can
use secret Devotions called Thaumagrams, magic glyphs invoked by tracing them mid-
air or on the target. This is the list of Thaumagrams and other secret techniques:
• Violent Darkness Vortex, which obfuscates the sight and the judgement but
not the drive, leading the victim to inflict violence and dark sorcery on friends and
foes alike. For one turn the victim decides whether to attack or cast an offensive
spell every round, but the target is at random. Save negates.
• Bleak Gloom Lemniscate, leaving the victim listless, incapable of acting for 1
turn. Save every round.
• Pure Cleanse Octagon: the victim is cleansed of all curses and negative spell
effects for a day. No save.
• Utter Dispel Cross: the victim is completely purged from magic effects, and
won’t be able to work magic or use magic items for the next 1d6 rounds either. Save
to avoid.
• Ruby Fire Barbs, the victim catches fire and takes 1d6 damage every round for 1
turn. No save, but Stop, Drop & Roll grants a save to terminate the effect
• White Sanctuary Circle: a person stepping inside its bounds has an
additional 50% save against any attack, negative spell, effect, or ability. The Circle
stops working if the subject leaves or commits an aggressive act, or after a day.
• Purple Demon Trident: summons a fire demon of the Caster level (def 5, 1d10
damage). Its 10' fire aura deals 1d6 fire damage every round (save to halve damage).
The demon is hellbent on arson, murder and jaywalking and totally not under the
control of the caster. It burns off in 1 turn.
• Gold Charm Heart: makes the victim totally fall in love with the writ-giver
for 1 turn. Save negates.
• Green Life Square: heals 1d6+Focus damage. Save to halve, as this deals
damage to undead.
• Silver Banish Star: banishing the victim for a day to their plane of origin.
Works only on those that are not on their plane of origin. Save negates.

Banes: the Thaumagram Lodge gives access to Demons, Undead, and Weirds Banes.
Blademagic: Sever the Cord: this secret technique lets the Thaumagram Lodge
initiate to cut any rope, physical or not, with one stroke. This includes silver cords.
Sample Order: the Ravenous Ones
The Ravenous Ones are an order that pursues illumination by getting drunk, tearing
humans, animals and gods apart and eating their flesh raw. Their athame is a thirsus,
a festooned spear with the blade hidden by wine leaves or a pine cone. Rarely they
have order-wide cohesion, except in revel and bloodlust. This is their list of devotions:
• Wielding the Thyrsus: the initiate can strike their thyrsus to the ground to
create enough water, honey, milk and wine to satiate and/or inebriate six humans
per level.
• Suckling the Beasts: the initiate can charme of up to 6 mammals for 1d6
hours (save negates). By suckling the charmed victim the initiate can make this
charme permanent for up to 2 levels of charmed mammals per initiate level. Male
initiates lactate too, obviously.
• Girthing the Serpent: the initiate can charm a snake. If successful the snake
will coil around the initiate: while coiled the snake will temprarily leave the initiate
to attack anybody attacking the initiate in melee. The snake, at dawn, will wake
up the initiate and, if its level is higher than the initiate's, leave.
• Withstanding the Flame: the Ravenous One is immune to fire damage.
Lasts until sunset.
• Ignoring the Iron: the Ravenous One can’t be cut by iron and steel weapons.
Iron or Steel weapons deal 1d3 damage instead. Lasts 1 turn.
• Omophagia: the Ravenous One can eat the heart out of a creature, and will bear
them as a child. At the end of the term the Ravenous One must save or die, but the
child will retain the stats, levels and memories they had in the previous life, and
grow to adulthood in just a few months.

Banes: the Ravenous Ones have access to Divine, Animal and Human Banes.
Blademagic: Sparagmos: the Ravenous One's frenzy reaches incredible levels,
allowing them to tear their victims apart with their bare hands. The Ravenous One
can attack once per round with each bare hand, or with thyrsus and bare off-hand.
Treat their bare hands as thyrsi dealing 1d6 damage. If their thyrsus is empowered, so
are their hands. In this frenzy the Ravenous One can't do anything but fight until all
the enemies are gone (and might decide to pursue them). Lasts 1 turn.
Starting Equipment
Each characters gets: 2d6 coins, knife or hatchet, simple clothes, bag, blanket, spoon,
waterskin or gourd, a day of food, 3 torches, tinder and flint.
Each character also picks one of the following packages:

Soldier: hand weapon, shield, plus one of:

• medium armour and spear
• saddled light horse (lvl 2, 2d8 hits), lance and garish cavalry uniform (light armour)
• bow or crossbow, 12 arrows or bolts, 3 stakes, big tower shield, light armour.

Apprentice: staff (1d6 damage), apron, plus one of:

• a book with 3 random spells of 3 random schools
• a craft skill like smith or wainwright or herbalism, and tools of the trade
• a big faithful dog (lvl 2, 1d8 hits) and a smart talking crow (2 hits)

Initiate: implements of sacrifice, plus one of:

• light armour, healing potion and vial of poison (save or die if injected or imbibed)
• medium armour, shield, tabard with symbols of their order
• mystic ritual tattoos (+1 mana)

Scoundrel: hand weapon, light armour, six daggers, plus one of:
• bow, 12 arrows, one secret hideout out of town, manacles
• 6 wedges, pythons, hammer, crowbar, pickaxe, rope (50'), lockpick, grappling hook
• 10 flasks of blazing oil, sling, seditious literature

Dilettante: hand weapon, light armour, swanky clothes, family jewels (50c), 20c in
cash, plus one of:
• family friends in every market town
• a trained, exotic, very fancy pet (monkey, bird of paradise, falcon)
• a car or sailboat or flyer (depending on the setting! e.g.: Laputa: Castle in the Sky)

Any class can pick any package, and while there are items that can't be used by some
classes, do not let that stop you! Also, it is advised that the Referee add or amend
packages to the selection depending on the campaign.
Equipment - Mundane
Mageblade does not have an extensive equipment list because pricing and using those
lists is a bit boring. So, use this guidelines for anything that is not listed: simple items
cost 1-3c. Scale up, then multiply for each of the following factors that might apply:
• Made of metal: up to x4
• Work intensive: up to x3
• Big: scale up reasonably
• Luxury material: x5 at least
• Specialized work: x2 or more
• Import or coming from afar: up to x2 for each "afar" or "import"
• Illegal/Contraband: x2, or halve the cost if subject to heavy taxation and undercut

So, for example:

• a lenght of rope is 2c, but if made of silk (x5), embroidered (x3), and smuggled in
from a foreign country (x2, x2) it would be 2 x 5 x 3 x 2 x 2 = 120c
• simple wooden tools would be 1c, but a cart is bigger (x20) and made by specialist
(wainwright, x2) = 2 x 10 x 2 = 40c
• small row boat: as for the cart, but boatwrights are more specialized (x3) and
boatmaking is work intensive (x2): 2 x 10 x 3 x 2 = 120c

Equipment - Arms
Item Effect Cost
Small weapon 1d4 damage, concealable, often throwable 2c
Hand weapon 1d6 damage 6c
Two-handed weapon 1d8 damage 10c

Light armour Defence 2 20c

Medium armour Defence 4, -2 to dexterity rolls and skills 100c
Heavy armour Defence 6, -4 to dexterity rolls and skills 400c
Shield Defence +2 10c

Bow, Crossbow 1d6 damage 15c, 12 shots 6c

Gun 1d8 damage, 1 min (10 rounds) to reload, 100c, 10 shots 10c
ignores armour, really noisy
Equipment - Petty Magic
I'm keen on adventurers using small magic items, or objects that for all intents and
purposes behave similarly. Availability of these items, and which ones are available,
affects in an interesting way the tone of the campaign, and lets characters spend
money on things they want.

Furthermore it adds both a great element of strategy for adventures based on long
expeditions and, making the adventurers more resilient in a non-elastic way (very few
alchemists in the wilderness, but maybe a few hedge wizards can be befriended),
allows the Referee and the players a wider range of encounters.

Alchemist's
Blazing Oil: 20c: Catches fire super-easily, deals 1d6 damage for 2 rounds.
Oil of Fire Protection: 300c: half damage from fire. If a save is allowed to reduce or
deny damage, passing the save completely denies all damage.
Healing Geode: 500c: Once per day heals 1d6 of cuts or generic trauma damage at
the cost of 1 mana.
Thaumaturgic Gem: 500c: Once per day heals 1d6 burn, cold or acid damage at the
cost of 1 mana.

Pharmacist's
Blessed Water: 40c: deals 2d4 to undead.
Healing potion: 50c: heals 1d6+3 wounds.
Antidote: 100c: counters poison effects.
Life potion: 200c: heals 3d6+5 wounds or 3 sips for 1d6+3.
Balm of Restoration: 2000c: Heals 1d6 stat damage and 1d6 wounds. It’s also a
material component for the Death unto Life spell.

Apotropaist's
Goat: 4c: it’s a goat, it bleats, it screams like a human. It’s great for companionship,
bait, food, sacrifices, or monster fodder. Hard to potty-train.
Amulet: +4:300, +6:900: protects the wearer from ill magic. When the wearer fails a
save against hostile magic, add the bonus of the amulet to the roll: if the new total
passes the save, the wearer saves and the amulet falls apart and loses its magic.
Candle of Respite: 1200c: it removes a curse, but only if the creator level is equal or
above the curse caster's.
Combat
Combat is divided in rounds. Each round sees the participants act in initiative order:
to determine initiative, each character rolls 1d6, with Rogues adding a bonus of 1.
After initiative is rolled, characters start acting from the highest initiative to the
lowest. Ties go to whoever is highest level and, if that is also a tie, to PCs. Characters
can also delay their action, acting at a lower initiative number.

During a round each character can do one action, for example:

• Come close to the enemy and attack in melee.
• Just attack in melee, or with missile weapons.
• Retreat tidily, or manoeuvre to gain a better tactical position.
• Cast a spell or use a power.
• Something else.

Hitting an enemy requires a roll under or equal to the character's Melee or Missile,
and more than the victim's Defence. Melee and Missile start at 12: Fighters add their
Focus to Melee and Missile, and generic "monsters" with no class add their level (up to
+4). Defense starts at 0, Light armour gives defence 2, medium 4, heavy 6. A shield
gives +2. So if a character has Melee 12 and is attacking an enemy in medium armour
and shield (Defence 4+2) roll a d20 and get 12 or less but more than 6 to hit.

If the attack is successful then the victim is wounded, taking damage depending on the
attacker's weapon.
• Small, concealable weapons (including slingshot) deal 1d4
• Hand weapons (and missile weapons) deal 1d6
• Two-handed weapons deal 1d8

Wounds & Fatigue

Characters get hurt. A lot. When the current hits of a character go to zero or below,
the next wound might prove fatal, and any strenuous activity except moving slowly
requires a constitution check to avoid collapsing for a few turns.

These rules do not specify what happens next. Maybe characters stay collapsed until
they regain hits. Maybe they just die. Maybe when they recover they decide that
adventuring is too risky, and retire. We invite the referee to use any critical hit table
they prefer if a character with zero hits or less takes extra damage.
Morale
Enemies will try to fight as best as they can, making use of terrain and other factors
where possible. The limit is that enemies won't all fight to the death unless they have
good reasons, or are well drilled (or fanatics). As enemies take losses, make them save
to keep on fighting (wisdom or Melee save), or make their leader roll charisma checks.

Save when they lose more than 20% of their group in a round, if their are taking much
more losses than their opponents, when their leader is vanquished. Leaders are better
equipped, usually have a character class and are 1d6 levels higher than their underlings,
and possibly both. Maybe bribes work better? They usually do.

Saves
Characters get in a lot of problems. Drink poisons, get cursed, fall off cliffs, get bam-
boozled. They do this all the time. Because you make terribly unsafe choices. For fun.
Yay you. The last ditch before a terrible end is trying a Save: in most circumstances the
Referee or the rules will require you to make a roll under or equal to the stat relevant
to the circumstance to lessen the damage or avoid it entirely.

Here are some guidelines to find the stat related to each save:
• Strength for massive physical damage, dragon breath, falling, and being crushed
• Intelligence for illusions, swindles, beguiling, and bamboozlement
• Wisdom for enchantments, ensorcelments, seduction, and charms
• Dexterity for things you can dodge or shield from like magic fire and bolts
• Constitution for tiredness, poison, disease, and other physical ailments
• Charisma for curses, misfortune, random events and everything else

For example:
• If that ale your character just drank is poisonous, they will soon be foaming green
at the mouth and very dead. A Constitution save will instead let them barf green
and take 1d6 damage.
• If that fire blast is going to burn their flesh off for 25 damage, a Dexterity save will
shield them so that they take only half (12).

If you fail a save, remember your character can spend one mana to push your Luck,
and reroll the Save you failed. You can spend more mana to keep on rerolling, but
given the limited budget you should consider whether it's better to spend the mana to
maybe pass this save or save it for saves later. Mana is recovered at sunset.
Adventure Locations, Dens, Encounters
Here are some sample adventure locations and their inhabitants. They are presented
for low levels, medium levels and high levels. Of course you do not need to present
only level appropriate challenges: players can decide to scout and retreat, and that
makes for a more challenging and interesting game. Also feel free to perk up these dens
with small magic items and special guests (a guest special "monster" that meshes well
with the den). The templates (like wrecker) are defined in the next section.

Manor: a knight, their retinue and and their servants. Most knights were raging
assholes, and were keen on exacting illegal tolls from any passerby, tormenting their
peasants and pillaging. A manor also has a whole lot of servants, peasants and kids.
Low: 3 squires, 1 men at arms, 1 knight bachelor. Treasure: 3d6x10c, 3d6x20c in grain
Mid: 5 squires, 10 men at arms, 3 knight bachelor, 1 knight banneret. Treasure: 50x
low, plus 50% chance of 1d2 magic armour or weapon
High: 10 squires, 20 men at arms, 8 knight bachelor, 2 knight banneret, 1 earl.
Treasure: 300x low, plus 50% chance of 1d3 magic armour, 1d3 weapons, 1 other item.
Each knight also has a signet ring (25c per level), plus a warhorse (lvl 4) each 4 levels.

Squire: lvl 1 (6 hits), def 4, atk 13:1d8 or 1d6 (bow)

Man-at-arm: Fighter:professional 2 (12 hits), def 8, atk 16:1d8+1
Knight Bachelor: Fighter:brute 4 (28 hits), def 8, atk 17:1d8+1
Knight Banneret: Fighter:brute 8 (56 hits), def 8, atk 18:1d8+1/1d6
Earl: Fighter:professional 10 (70 hits), def 8, atk 18:1d8+1

Goblin Den: goblins are small mischievous humanoids that live in burrows. That's
great, so you can't see the weirdness they do every day. Why the white rabbits? Giant
wargeese (lvl4, 20hits)? Gob-ball matches? The problem is they want to eat your face.
Each goblin has a 20% poisoning their weapons (+1d6 damage, save or paralisys).
Low: 8 gobs, 2 hobgob, 10% 1 wargoose. Treasure: 2d6x10c, 3d6 white rabbits
Mid: 50 gobs, 10 hobgobs, 1 kingob, 5 wargeese. Treasure: 10x low, 50% any 2 items.
High: 5000 gobs, 100 hobgobs on wargeese, 1 kingobbo. Treasure: 100x low, plus 1d6
non-weapon, non-armour items and 1d6 catapults.

Gob: lvl 1 (5 hits), def 2, atk 13:1d6 or 1d6 (bow)

Hobgob: Fighter:professional 2 (10 hits), def 6, atk 16:1d8
Kingob: Fighter:brute 6 (30), def 6, atk 17:1d8+1
Kingobbo: Mageblade:wrecker 12 (60), def 8, atk 12:1d6+1
Cult: many cults are entirely legit and do not threaten anyone at all with their private
pratice. A selected few though are prone to extraordinarily heinous deeds, or have
nefarious purposes. Most do not though, and are easily confused with the second type.
Low: 4 candidates, 3 initiates, 1 preacher. Treasure: 5d6x10c, 3 potions, gold idol (40c)
Mid: 30 candidates, 10 initiates, 4 preachers, 1 mystagogue, 20% random summoned
servitor of level 1d6+2. Treasure: 10x low, 60% any 1d6 items, gold idol (100c).
High: 200 candidates, 40 initiates, 15 preachers, 5 mystagogues, 1 Exarch, plus 2d6
random summoned servitor of level 1d6+2 and one of level 10+1d6. Treasure: 50x low,
any 1d6 items, giant stone idol with 2 gem eyes worth 2000c each.

Candidate: lvl 1 (5), def 0, atk 12:1d6

Initiate: Mageblade:any 1 (6), def 6, atk 12:1d6 or Caster:any 1 (5), def 0, atk 12:1d6
Preacher: Mageblade:any 3 (15), def 8, atk 12:1d6 or Caster:any 3 (12), def 0, atk 12:1d6
Mystagogue: Mageblade:any 7 (42), def 8, atk 12:1d6 or Caster:any 7 (35), def 0, atk
12:1d6. Mystagogue also have a special blessing: choose any mageblade power that
grants some benefit; it is always active.
Exarch: Mageblade:solver 12 (72), def 8, atk 13:1d6+1 or Caster:support 12 (60), def 0,
atk 12:1d6. Exarchs have 3 blessing and a powerful badge of power (a magic item).

Gang: gangs put the organization in crime, for the purpose of money-raising through
banditry, contraband, burglary, blackmail, racketeering, slavery, forgery, plotting
against king and country, petty theft, grand larceny, and corruption. Some run guilds,
banks, trading companies and cities, or their friends do, or control who does.
Low: 1 bravo, 2 cats, 1 soldier. Treasure: 1d20x20c (75% stolen goods), 1d6-3 prisoners.
Mid: 5 bravos, 12 cats, 5 soldier, 1 master. Treasure: 1d100x50c (50% stolen goods), 3d6-
8 prisoners, 50% 1 item.
High: 12 bravos, 20 cats, 10 soldiers, 3 masters, 1 boss. Treasure: 1d100x400c (1d100%
stolen goods), 3d10-10 prisoners, 1d6 items.

Bravo: Fighter:skirmisher 1 (7), def 5, atk 15:1d8 (sword) or 16:1d6 (bow)

Cat: Rogue:raider 1 (6), def 3, atk 12:1d4 (dagger) or 13:1d6 (bow)
Soldier: Rogue:brute 3 (15), def 3, atk 13:1d6+1
Master: any class, level 8
Boss: Rogue:any 12 (72), def 4, atk 13:1d8+1
Prisoners can be ransomed for 10c each. Each has a 5% change of being more valuable
and can be ransomed for ten times as much (and roll again).
A Character's gallery
If you need to create or adapt characters and monsters on the fly, here is a table with
average values. It is followed by a list of sample templates with perks for various
characters types: just give the correct number of perks starting from the beginning of
the list,and improvise for the remaining perks. It's ok to not allocate all of them, as
simpler NPCs are easier to handle, and Referees already have much on their mind.
LVL Hits Focus Perks Hits: d10 Hits: d8 Hits: d6
1 1d 3 1 7 6 5
2 2d 3 2 12 10 8
3 3d 4 3 18 15 12
4 4d 4 3 24 20 16

5 5d 4 3 30 25 20
6 6d 5 4 36 30 24
7 7d 5 4 42 35 28
8 8d 5 4 48 40 32

9 9d 6 5 54 45 36
10 10d 6 5 60 50 40
11 11d 6 5 66 55 44
12 12d 7 6 72 60 48

Fighter: brute: Quick, Waste, Secret Moves, Reckless, Two-weapons, Barrage

Fighter: professional: Patient, Bulwark, Tactician, Quick, Secret Moves, Reckless
Fighter: archer: Barrage, Mobile, Patient, Quick, sneak+sneak attack, Secret Moves
Fighter: skirmisher: sneak+sneak attack, Two-weapons, Quick, Secret Move, Patient
Caster: aggro: Aether Path, Jevnacack Practice, research+mind over body
Caster: support: Aether Path, surgery+engineering, Physiurgy, research+gather
information, Psychomancy, Languages x2,
Mageblade: wrecker: Arc, Ruby Fire Barbs, Violend Darkness Vortex, Bane, Purple
Demon Trident, Rend
Mageblade: solver: Utter Dispel Cross, Bleak Gloom Lemniscate, Silver Banish Star,
Green Life Square, Bane, White Sanctuary Circle
Rogue: raider: climbing, sneak+lockpick+engineering, languagex3, acrobatic+swim+
bullshit
Rogue: thug: sneak, sneak attack+diplomacy+bullshit, stamina+lockpick+climb
Magic Items
Magic items make characters more awesome. Magic weapons give +1 to Melee or
Missile and to damage, but numerically that's it. Mageblade's mechanics have been
developed to work without magic item bonuses. Magic bonuses do not stack anyway,
so take this game as an occasion to give away perky items. You all can come up with
magic deck of cards and statuettes that give blessings depending on the terrible things
they make you feed them, so here are items mechanics I found good in Mageblade.
Usually they have two effects: a static effect plus an effect that requires mana.

Bane weapons: these are malevolent weapons that want to seriously kill dead a
type of creature, like demons or humans. When close to one of those creatures they
glow and make the user feel that their prey is close, and an unexplicable want to kill.
At the beginning of the combat the weapon will spend one of the wielder's mana to
deal double damage to its hated creatures for the whole fight.

Runerod: runerods are indestructible magic rods (+1 to melee and damage) inscribed
with one or more runes. Each rune can be activated once a day by concentrating one
round and spending one mana, and it has the same effect of casting the spell matching
the rune. Only Casters can activate runes, but the rod can be used by anybody.

Flying skiff: a stylish red and white 15' skiff. It flies for 1 hour for each mana spent
on it. It's still a sailboat, so it flies as fast as the wind (less if sailing into the wind).

Seeping Stone: once per month during a moonless night it oozes shelf-stable goop
that heals 2d6+2 hits. Who sleeps in the same room as the stone has prophetic yet
imperscrutable nightmares and wakes up with no mana but fully healed.

Demon Teeth Gun: this magic gun shoots demon teeth. It requires no munition
but takes still fidgeting aplenty to reload. When shooting spend one mana to have the
demon tooth zig-zag as it bounces through bodies: roll to hit against 1d6 enemies.

Spirit Reactor: once per day a character can spend one mana and one round to
bind a spirit into this iron reactor the size of a football. The spirit can save: if it passes,
the spirit can't ever be bound into the reactor. Once freed the spirit will usually leave
post-haste to avoid being bound again. When the reactor is binding a spirit it can be
attached to a crankshaft to power any kind of machinery. Spirits badly tolerate
binding, let alone forced labour. Still, sometimes, temporary deals can be worked out.
Experience & Levels
Your characters will live strange adventures, and if they survive until the end of the
session they will also usually gain experience points (exp). Referees decide the amounts,
but the baseline award is 100 exp per character level each session. The following
amounts are equally split by the group:
• 100 exp per level of enemy defeated (vanquished or routed or surrendered, but no
double dipping). If the enemy is a character class or has combat abilities, add some
extra. Do not award this experience if the character level is double or more than the
vanquished enemy's.
• 1 exp for each coin worth of treasure looted and brought back to a safe place
When your character gains enough experience they gain a level. When a level is
gained:
• find the new maximum hits by rolling one die per level based on the class (e.g: a
level 3 fighter rolls 3d10) or by adding two to the old amount, whichever is highest.
• increase the current and maximum Mana by one.
• Casters gain two new spells from disciplines they already know.
At level 2 gain a new Perk.
At levels 3, 6, 9, and 12:
• Increase Focus by one.
• Gain a new Perk.

LVL Experience Hits Focus Perks

1 0 1d 3 1
2 1,000 2d 3 2
3 3.000 3d 4 3
4 6,000 4d 4 3

5 10,000 5d 4 3
6 16,000 6d 5 4
7 26,000 7d 5 4
8 40,000 8d 5 4

9 65,000 9d 6 5
10 110,000 10d 6 5
11 180,000 11d 6 5
12 250,000 12d 7 6
After the adventure: Rest & Recovery
Characters recover Focus hits per night of rest, +1 if a character with the Surgery skill
is available. Mana recovers completely at sunset.

This means that the characters can adventure for a while, catch some rest until sunset,
and then get second winded and recover to push through: this will leave them burnt
out the next day, but that's the only outcome to be expected if one is out risking their
life and adventuring all night.

A Smattering of Other Rules

When traveling overland, assume 30 miles a day if characters are not too loaded, and
15 if they are. In a dungeon they can probably explore through 4-5 rooms per turn,
provided they do not spend too much time rummaging or toying with stuff they find.

Roll for random encounters happen every 2 turns in inhabited areas like dungeons or
villages, and twice a day or more during overland travel. An interesting encounter
happens on a 1-in-6 chance. In pacific areas more encounters will happen but I expect
you will not play out all encounter with each traveler found on a busy road, every
goat on a mountain or every rat in a dungeon.

Traps and secret doors are found on a roll under half Intelligence. Engineering rolls
can find traps and secret doors in built structures. I recommend that if the players
search a secret door in the correct place but fail the search roll, they should be made
aware that the wall might be in fact suspicious. If they want to take a pickaxe to it, let
them, but nearby dungeon denizens might react to the noise.

Non-player characters do not have predetermined stats, so you can: roll the stat on the
fly; make them save as if their stats were all 10, but their main stat was 9+Focus; make
them save as if all their stats were 7+Focus.

Magic bonuses do not stack. In general, the math of attack rolls might seem a bit
wonky to you but we spent a long while tinkering with the numbers (especially with
the Melee and Missile scores both being at 12, and the Fighter's Focus), but if you
prefer a combat more similar to other OSR games, have Melee and Missile start at 10.
Perking up fights
I imagine you all prefer engaging fights instead of just the same grind. If you and your
players do not enjoy interesting combats, ignore this page.

First of all, let players decide whether they should be engage in combat at all, and let
players scout ahead. Unless the impede it, always let players retreat. Make that
interesting, with chases, dropping behind oil flasks, nailing doors shut and so on.

Start with a few easy fights so that everybody gets acquainted with the rules and their
characters, then start throwing in a few harder fights now and then. Ideally you want
a mix of difficulties, and scouting is good to let players ascertain enemy strength. This
is a list of things you might use to spice up combats:
• Give missile weapons to some enemies, while others hold the front line.
• Throw in difficult terrain. Maybe a cliff? Or a river. Frisian horses, palisades,
stakes driven in the ground, felled trees.
• Read up on Carthaginian tactics: the enemies engage in melee, then withdraw and
pull the pursuing PCs in a trap. Or maybe they go for a frontal attack, while
hidden or fast enemies attack from the rear.
• Enemies should retire if it's seems like they ought to.
• Throw fire. Throw oil. Throw dead horses, oozes, night vases, angry goats.
• One or more enemies are leaders with good equipment, class and levels, and
possibly a mount. The mount makes it easy to retire, and is also an occasion to
stop putting off deploying that chocoboo mount you love.
• A few of the enemies are just weird. Maybe demons summoned by a caster, or a
caster with strange magic, a protoplasmic ooze, or the Saturday Night Special.

Using many of these encounter perks at the same time makes for a really harsh
situation, as the dicciculties compound in effective ways. Also, remember that PCs can
and will do the same to you, and probably worse. When your players come up with
some nasty tactical trick that makes you so proud or so very angry, write us, and do
not feel bad recycling it against them. It's only fair.

My personal favourite is to have a handful of unnoticed enemies shoot a salvo at the

party from behind difficult terrain. I make sure players can dive for cover, when they
eventually get initiative. There are many elements to handle (wounded comrades,
cover, getting to and through the difficult terrain) and finding good solutions to new
challenges can be great fun.
The Manifold Nexus
Some places are crooked. Literally. Straight lines there bend ever so slightly, but as
they bend, they make their own space to bend into. Through the ages paths have been
marked, tunnels dug and bridges and platforms built to walk along those lines: follow
the path, take a turn, walk under the tree into the burrow and you emerge millions of
miles away, or so far that space is not adequate concept to describe the distance. Those
paths, tunnels, tree branches are the Manifold Nexus. It connects everywhere and is
coveted by everyone in the know. Its inhabitants come before time and beyond space.
It is Styx, it is Yggdrasil, it is the Crystal Maze. The Thaumagram Lodge patrols it to
keep it accessible and free, so you can use it to have a campaign that spans settings.

DIY Campaign
If you want to create your own setting and tinker with the content, I found it
convenient to maybe start from these questions:
• Classes: are all available for PCs? They could be limited to Mageblades for
example, or classes could be unlockable.
• What about having the setting having a specific class as enemy? for example
Mageblades? (their mechanics make them excellent NPCs)
• Make mageblade orders. Give each order a few special Blademagic they can teach,
their Banes, and a special list of devotions (you can alter and reskin existing
devotions, obviously).
• Prepare new magic Disciplines. Maybe regroup and reskin spells, or write new
ones, or take spells from other games and take spell levels off.
• Add items! Alter the list of small magic items available: they are mostly potions,
but feel free to err.
• Make new magic items. Remeber: characters can spend their own mana to power
items, so design magic items accordingly. Maybe continuous effects items need a
mana per day, maybe only one-off powers do. Maybe you can spend more than
one mana per power. The design space is very big.
• Make "monsters" and factions. Make them horrible and to keep your area tightly
focused keep the number of creature types encountered in a given area low (6 or less
is tight enough).
• Please make sure there's a way for players to start in the setting.
• Speaking of: custom random starting equipment tables are good.
• Remember that the Manifold Nexus already provides portal-less planar linkage
and fast-travel to those fools that want to use it, so do not feel you have to add
that. A hyperfocused setting works best, and in case of need you can leave it.
More Spells & Magic Disciplines
At the moment there are only few disciplines in the handbook. My (guilty of self-
serving) advice at the moment is to use Wonder & Wickedness and Marvels &
Malisons for spell lists and disciplines. The first has all the spells your sorcerer needs,
the latter has a host of protection and healing spells, plus some… non-canonical spells.
The truly excellent The Nightmares Underneath by Johstone Mentzger has also ten
disciplines of 10 spells each.

As an alternative, make your own disciplines! Group existing spells by theme in sets of
8 (please do not do earth/water/wind/fire/death/love/acid/frost, it's kind of boring),
give them a snappy name and use those as disciplines.

If these pre-existing spells are leveled ignore the level. If you do not want to, should
the caster try to cast a spell higher than their level, require an INT save with a penalty
equal to the spell level: if failed the spell goes wrong, and ask a normal CHA save. If
also the latter fails, the spell goes horribly wrong.

Compatibility Notes
Just wing it. The Game Police does not know where you live.
If you need to port monsters or characters, levels can be kept the same. If you feel like
someone ought to be a spellcaster or a very sneaky character or a great fighter, give
them a class. Even more than one if they are truly badass.

Armour can be converted to the correct category. If you use material for one of those
games with numeric armour, just write down what the score is for no armour, light,
medium and heavy in the other system so you know what corresponds to 0,2,4,6 in
MB. Extra- and inter-polate as needed.

Magic weapons give a FLAT+1 to Missile or Melee, and +1 to damage. When

converting them, keep all their special abilities (so for example a dragon-slaying spear
deals double damage against dragons, or whatever they do).

In general, Casters can use all magic items, and Mageblades most of them.
Do you even adventure, pal?
If you want you can just grab an adventure made for an Old School RPG and run it
straight. Just grab an adventure. If in doubt, grab Dyson's adventures: If you like
goblins (who doesn't, really?) I suggest Dyson’s Delve. for higher level, Erdea Manor:
https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps/dysons-delve/
https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps/erdea-manor/

Also, the One Page Dungeon context is a veritable trove of dungeon goodness:
https://www.dungeoncontest.com/

The Frequently Asked Question: luck?

How does Luck work? Is it spent after you use it, does it recover?
There are two concepts: Luck and Mana. Spending either grants you a reroll. Mana
can be spent as Luck to reroll saves or to power spells or items, and is recovered daily,
and all characters eventually get some. Luck comes either from Rogue's Luck or high
Charisma, can be spent for any reroll, and is recovered daily.

Can you play through a case of using luck? I don't think I get it.
A knight wants to kidnap you, and spikes your ale with spirits.
You roll a save vs constitution and fail. Oh, wait, you have high charisma, so you have
1 luck to spend. Reroll... fail again, stupid delicious booze. At this point you spend a
mana point, and pass, and do not keel over. Not tonight.

The other Question: Mageblades WTF?

How do devotions work? how are they not spells?
Devotions are a kind of magic rite performed by Mageblades. They can be cast in
armour and the mageblade can cast them holding the athame. If the mageblade's
second hand is free, they can attack with the athame and activate a devotion in the
same round (look at the cover of this game).

What's the deal with empowering+mageblade+melee attack?

Empowering takes no time. Activating a blademagic takes no time either, but can be
done only once per round. So it's possible to empower, activate a blademagic and
attack in melee. And if the second hand is free, also push a devotion through in the
same round. This is intentional, and was playtested, and usually means that the
Mageblade will be out of mana really, really soon. Which is not good.
Opinionated Playtesters: Andrea, Gary, Silvia, Sam, Stuart, Mattia, Daniele, Andrea,
Damiano, Martina, Fabio, Aldo and little Diego.
Critical readers: Andy, Harald, Christian, Richard, Slade, Brendan, Matthew, Sean,
Luka, Sophia and Richard.
Thanks to Andrea for the help in development and the delicious food.

This version is totally not final. Said that, the rules have been stable for a while, and
we played a few campaigns, using both OSR adventures and our own homebrew. So
I think the only differenced between this and the final version are going to be fixes,
typos, cosmetic, and more stuff. Please get in touch if you have any feeback!

tsojcanth@gmail.com
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PaoloGreco