Saturday 22 October 2016

Theorems & Thaumaturgy Revised: Spell Lists

I've just been fiddling around with the revised Theorems & Thaumaturgy (it's so nearly finished!!) and thought it might be fun to post the final spell lists. As I mentioned previously, there have been some small changes from the lists in the original edition. The elementalist, in particular, has been expanded slightly.

So first, the changes:

Elementalist
New spells: crystal resonance, sound the deeps, sea lust, castaway, power word petrify, skyland.
Merged spells: banish elementine & summon elementine merged into summon/banish lesser elementine, banish elementine & summon greater elementine merged into summon/banish greater elementine.
Reworked spells: detect magic is now dweomerfire, amalgam of fire and water and amalgam of air and earth are now magic items.
Six new magic items.

Necromancer
Removed spells: detacth/graft and organ transference. (These are now vivimancer spells.)
A few spells have been renamed but are otherwise identical.

Vivimancer
New spells: instinct, minimus replication, detach, organ transference.
Reworked spells: detect magic is now arcane sight, hold animal is now paralysis, plant growth is now overgrow (reversible), revert shapechange is now revert biology, egg of life is now a magic item, hold vegetation or fungus is now animate vegetation or fungus (reversible).
Removed spells: yeast growth, fly, insect plague (too clericy, I think), mutate, mass mutation. (The mutation spells are in The Complete Vivimancer, but I felt they don't make sense to include without the associated mutation charts.)
Eight new magic items.

And now the complete, final spell lists:

Elementalist
1st level
Burning hands (MU)
Create water (rev.) (C)
Crystal resonance
Feather fall (MU)
Firelight
Lasting breath
Manipulate fire (MU)
Purify
Ray of fire/ice
Read magic (MU)
Resist cold (C)
Seasong/windsong/firesong
Shapes
Sound the deeps
Summon/banish lesser elementine
Wall of vapour (I)

2nd level
Dweomerfire
Elemental cancellation
Fire trap (MU)
Fog cloud (I)
Incinerate (rev.)
Produce flame (D)
Pyrotechnics (MU)
Resist fire (C)
Sea lust
Summon/banish greater elementine
Tidal force

3rd level
Banish elemental
Fireball (MU)
Fly (MU)
Gust of wind (MU)
Heat metal (rev.) (D)
Protection from fire (D)
Stone shape (D)
Summon elemental I
Vacuum
Water breathing (D)

4th level
Contact elemental spirit
Fire shield (MU)
Flash fire (rev.) (D)
Ice storm (MU)
Lower water (D)
Move earth, lesser (MU)
Summon elemental II
Summon elemental horror
Temperature control (D)
Wall of fire (MU)
Wall of ice (MU)

5th level
Atmosphere bubble (MU)
Command elemental I
Cone of cold (MU)
Contact other plane (MU) *
Control winds (D)
Distort distance (MU)
Elemental plane protection
Flame strike (C)
Passwall (MU)
Summon elemental III
Transmute rock to mud (rev.) (MU)
Wall of stone (MU)

6th level
Command elemental II
Control weather (MU)
Freezing sphere (MU)
Move earth (MU)
Part water (MU)
Stone to flesh (rev.) (MU)
Summon aerial servant (C)
Summon greater elemental kin

7th level
Command elemental III
Control weather, greater (D)
Delayed blast fireball (MU)
Earthquake (D)
Elemental plane protection, 10’ radius
Fire storm (rev.) (D)
Statue (MU)
Wind walk (C)

8th level
Castaway
Elemental portal
Elemental wrath
Incendiary cloud (MU)
Meld elemental
Power word petrify
Skyland

9th level
Brimstone monolith
Demand
Gate (MU) *
Elemental portal, greater
Imprisonment (MU)
Meteor swarm (MU)
Pact of brass

Necromancer
1st level
Cause light wounds (C)
Command dead
Command undead (rev.)
Darkness globe (MU)
Detect disease
Detect undead
Dying words
Exterminate
Haunting
Locate remains
Pass undead
Preserve dead (rev.)
Ray of enfeeblement (MU)
Read magic (MU)
Scare (MU)
Chill touch
Skeletal servitor
Summon necromantic familiar
Unseen servant (MU)

2nd level
Choke
Corpse visage
Death recall
Detect magic (MU)
Feign death (MU)
Rigor mortis
Lend strength or fortitude (rev.)
Ray of pain
Resist turning
Seal tomb (rev.)
Speak with dead (C)
Spectral hand
Summon vermin
Zombie servitor

3rd level
Animate dead (MU)
Cause disease (C)
Fear (MU)
Hold person (MU)
Skull sight
Skull speech
Summon monster I (MU) *
Unhallow (rev.)
Valour in death
Vampiric enslavement
Zone of sinister stillness

4th level
Bestow curse (MU)
Cause serious wounds (C)
Charm monster (MU) *
Inter (rev.)
Curse of rotting
Raise dead, lesser
Reassemble
Summon monster II (MU) *
Swarm transformation

5th level
Cause critical wounds (C)
Death spell (MU)
Gaseous form
Guardian spirit
Magic jar (MU)
Portent of doom
Summon monster III (MU) *
Summon shadow (I)
Wall of gloom
Zone of creeping terror

6th level
Bind spirit
Contact spirit
Curse of undeath
Harm (C)
Knowledge of life
Grip of death
Sacrificial resurrection
Spiritwrath (MU)
Summon monster IV (MU) *

7th level
Death geas
Destruction (C)
Drain energy (C)
Necrosis (C)
Summon demon (MU) *
Summon monster V (MU) *
Undead regeneration
Zone of weakness

8th level
Clone (MU)
Power word blind (MU)
Skeletal army
Summon monster VI (MU) *
Symbol (MU) *
Trap the soul (MU)

9th level
Power word kill (MU)
Raise dead (C)
Reinstate spirit
Steal life force
Summon monster VII (MU) *
Zone of death

Vivimancer
1st level
Detect poison
Edibility (rev.)
Entangle (D)
Jump (MU)
Natural weaponry
Read magic (MU)
Reptilian metabolism
Skin transformation
Sleep (MU)
Speak with animals (D)
Spider climb (MU)
Spore cloud
Summon familiar (MU)
Vitality surge

2nd level
Accelerated healing
Accelerated immune system
Accelerated metabolism
Arcane sight
Drone
Fungal growth
Infravision (MU)
Instinct
Life energy protection
Minimus replication
Polyvorousness
Staunch blood flow
Symbiotic familiar
Venom
Water breathing (MU)
Warp wood (D)
Web (MU)

3rd level
Cannibalize
Divide body
Feign death (MU)
Hibernate
Insect swarm (D)
Natural weaponry, improved
Neutralize poison (D)
Overgrow (rev.)
Paralysis
Repel vermin (D)
Revert biology
Vats of creation

4th level
Animate vegetation or fungus (rev.)
Chimera I
Detach (rev.)
Hive mind
Hive sight
Immunity to disease
Plant metabolism
Plant symbiosis
Polymorph others (MU)
Polymorph self (MU)
Speak with plants (D)
Spore blast
Swarm transformation (q.v. necromancer spell list)

5th level
Animal growth (D)
Anti-plant shell (D)
Devolution
Divide mind
Immunity to poison
Regeneration
Transfer pregnancy
Venomous blood
Wall of thorns (D)

6th level
Anti-animal shell (D)
Charm plants (MU)
Chimera II
Flesh blast
Impregnate
Life cycle
Organ transference
Reincarnate (MU)
Repel wood (D)
Transformative pupation
Virus

7th level
Parasitic implantation
Regeneration, greater
Replicate life-form
Vats of creation, greater
Xenogamy

8th level
Chimera III
Clone (MU)
Explosive growth
Mass devolution
Organ transference, greater
Regenerative pupation
Shape change (MU)
Survival of the fittest

9th level
Artificial intelligence
Creeping doom (D)
Extraordinary regeneration
Extinction
Genesis
Temporal stasis (MU)

Monday 17 October 2016

Notes on Barrowmaze in Dolmenwood

I'm gearing up to run some games in Barrowmaze set in the heart of Dolmenwood. Reading through the Barrowmaze Complete book, which I received last week, I've been making notes on combining the two settings.

First thoughts:
Barrowmaze is located in hex 1306, where the forest thins and boggy ground prevails. Prigwort is the closest settlement. (I intend to write up more details on this village, but you could also just use the info on Helix given in the Barrowmaze book.)

The cult of Nergal dispersed, abandoning Barrowmaze, some 1,100 years ago.

The Anganach (ancient gods) are those worshipped by the original, scant folk of Dolmenwood, whom the Drune named the “interlopers”. Their presence is still felt, at times, in the wood and their names live on in local folklore, although they are no longer commonly worshipped as gods.

St Ygg is a saint of the One True God.

Replace the Necromancers of Set with the Drune, who use serpent symbolism in many of their markings and rituals.

Replace the bugbears hired by the Necromancers of Set with wild goatmen.

Instead of steel skeletons, the Drune create golems of thorny iron-wood.

The tablet of chaos, buried in Barrowmaze for centuries, began calling out to those sensitive to its message around fifteen years ago. The maze is coming back to “life”. The Acolytes of Orcus arrived ten years ago, called from a land in the distant east, followed shortly after by the Drune.

Runic tablets are written in the ancient language of the interlopers. This requires magic or research to read.

Tuesday 4 October 2016

Theorems & Thaumaturgy Revised Edition: Another Sample Spread

All has been rather quiet on the Necrotic Gnome front for a little while. Eerily quiet. That's right, I've been stalking around in graveyards at night and touching dead people's faces. That and moving into a brand new, empty flat, which entails quite some amount of logisitcal effort, I've discovered.

In the meantime, while I've been busy attending to matters material, a couple of things have been creeping along in the background. One of those things is the resplendent revised edition of the perennial favourite Theorems & Thaumaturgy. I'm super excited about this beast. It represents a proper second edition of my first book, enhanced in many ways to be (to paraphrase George "the beast" Lucas) much closer to what I imagined as its potential, originally. Among other things (full details here), the layout and design have been completely redone and the book is being illustrated afresh, largely by the uncannily talented hand of David Coppoletti. (Cadanse D of the first edition returns with some remarkable pieces, along with leftfield entries from Claytonian "JP" and a sneaky guest appearance from none other than Russ Nicholson.)

Anyway, I can now reveal that things are looking on track for a November release date. A5 softcover. Slightly-larger-than-A5 (because that's what OBS offer) hardcover. 136 pages. And it's gonna have a black cover, proper grimoire style.

As proof of the non-phantasmagoric nature of this project, feast your eyes on this example spread from the necromancer chapter: