Magic Paradigm for SNAFU

So here's how it works.

A mystic decides that the want to transform the world in a predetermined way. 

To do this, they instinctively follow a procedure that involves a few steps.

They decide what changes they are aiming for.

They invoke the energy that will manifest changes in the world.

They filter the gathered energy through their intentions.

The world changes in some way.

The first and last steps are fairly narrative in nature, while the middle steps are where the mechanisms of play manipulate the flow of events. 

They decide what changes they are aiming for.

The effect is described in the terms of a simple sentence with one or more metaphysical terms thrown into it. The simplest form of the magical sentence is a metaphysical verb combined with a metaphysical noun. The verb is what you're doing, and the noun is what you're doing it to. "[Create] [Fire]", "[Purify] [Water]", "[Grow] [Plants]", "[Corrupt] [Data]"...the words can be mixed and matched as long as you know them ... which means those eight words could easily be mixed into variations like "[Create] [Water]", "[Create] [Plants]", "[Create] [Data]", "[Purify] [Plants]", "[Grow] [Fire]", "[Corrupt] [Plants]", etc. Different communities of mystic will tend to have linked groups of words associated with their practices and crafts.  

They invoke the energy that will manifest changes in the world.

Just as there arr different words associated with different communities of mystics, they may also gather their energy from different sources. An alchemist might use ingredients for effects that are manifest through potions and elixirs, while a technomancer might have an "alien" power source, and an enlightened monk might use kata and harnessing of chi. Many advanced mystics will have learned a few types of energy absorption methods. They may choose to harness the most effective energy source at the time, and more powerful mystics may be able to draw on power from multiple sources simultaneously.   

Here's where magic takes a radical departure from other parts of the SNAFU system and I'm in two minds about it. Since the nineties, Dave Chandraratnam and I had an idea for a magic system that was based on the alliteration of terms "Connection", "Conduit", and "Capacity". Connection explained how many things you could draw power from, conduit described how much power could flow through you at any one time, and capacity indicated the amount you could store in your soul for future use. The Connection score had to be higher than the conduit score, and the conduit score had to be higher than the capacity score.

First Circle (Minimum of Connection 1) - Generally a minor psychic or dabbler who can activate artifacts and predefined magical effects in the world. They are more sensitive than able to invoke their own changes in the world.

Second Circle (Minimum of Connection 2 and Conduit 1) - Generally a lesser mage who can make minro changes and use established systems to invoke predefined effects.

Third Circle (Minimum of Connection 3, Conduit 2, and Capacity 1) - The beginning of true magic, such a person can manipulate the world around them in new ways limited only by their power and their imagination.

To convert these ideas to SNAFU, Connection seems to be the easiest application, The system already includes the notion of rolling extra dice and taking the best two results for an action outcome. Connection can reflect the rage of different energy sources a character could draw power from at any one time, and therefore the number of extra dice they could roll (where the level of the die determines the maximum energy that this die could produce). Capacity is the next easiest within the rules, where the score can simply function as traits that add successes (or energy) to the final output. Conduit is the tricky one that needs the rules to be bent a bit. We normally only ever pick the best two dice for an output, and I hate design by exception, but it feels like we need an exception here. The most elegant solution I can think of is allowing a player to keep an extra success die for each level of conduit, reflecting the ability to channel more energy from more sources into a given effect. 

Part of the problem I'm seeing here is that Conduit feels like the most powerful part of the trinity. Istead, I feel like Capacity should be more powerful, since it's the last one to get, and it has to remain smaller than the other two. I feels like a novelty prize at the end rather than a goal to aspire towards. So I'm keeping the idea that the capacity score is an indicator of how much magical energy can be store within the soul for the long term, but adding the idea that for the short term it allows a mystic to accumulate energy from multiple rolls to perform some truly monumental feats.

This basically leaves us with a character rolling their dice to accumulate power: an agency die + a number of connection dice available at the time (based on which connections the character has mastered and each capped by their mastery level). The character keeps 2 results plus one per level of conduit score, one result is sacrifice, and the rest accumulate power points with their successes. If a character has capacity, they may roll again for each point, and continue building power. In the short term, they may accumulate massive amounts of power from their sources, but in the long term they may only store a single point of energy per level (or may spend these extra points to fuse some kind of ongoing enchantment to their soul).

A starting "true mystic" with 1 capacity (and minimum accompanying scores of 3 connections as 2 conduit) could be rolling 3 dice to build up power, earning up to three successes from each and keeping two of those to build up 6 power to pump into a spell. If they don't use it straight away, they'll lose 5 energy and only be able to store one.

This may mean that a character with 3 capacity (and minimum accompanying scores of 5 connection and 4 conduit) could be rolling 5 dice each turn to build up power, earning up to three success from each of these results. They'd be able to store the successes from 4 of their dice, earning a potential 12 energy each turn, for up to three turns. If we're talking optimal die rolls, that's 36 energy ready to be pumped into a spell. If they don't use it immediately, 33 gets wasted and they're left with 3 energy in their soul.     

They filter the gathered energy through their intentions.

Once the energy has been gathered, it needs to be directed through the mystic's understanding of the universe to form an effect. This is done using the words mentioned in the first step. Some words are easier to use, or more reliable than others, and this meas that each of the words has a difficulty associated with it. some words may also have an elemental affinity, or an ability associated with it (sometimes both).

An action is taken to manifest the magic in the world. Maybe a spell incantation is spoken, maybe an elixir is brewed, maybe an artifact is crafted, maybe a set of ritual gestures is performed, maybe the lid of a garbage can is lifted and something is revealed within... every action will take a die roll.  

This works like a standard action. Agency die + Attribute die + Ability die + Advantage die. Successes and sacrifices, but the stakes are far higher. 

For each level of sacrifice, half of the energy used in the spell causes a backlash of some sort, it might cause direct damage (resisted with a character's Health aegis), it might cause a curse (resisted with a character's Resolve), it might cause some other effect, but it can always be resisted with aegises. 

The difficulty from the different words applies to the level of success, and as long as the difficulty is met, the effect comes into being. If one extra level of success is met, half of the energy may be applied as bonus conditions on the effect. If two extra levels of success are met, all of the energy may be applied as bonus conditions.

Unless bonus conditions apply (or specific words over-rides this), any effect is instantaneous, only affects the mystic themselves, and at most applies a single level of benefit or penalty. 

Bonus conditions

Duration 

(1) seconds (an action), 

(2) minutes (a scene), 

(3) hours (a act), 

(4) weeks (a story), 

(5) years, 

(6) centuries, 

(7) millennia, 

(8) aeons, 

(9) eras, 

(10) effectively forever. 

Range to centre of target zone 

(1) touch, 

(2) close range (metres), 

(3) line of sight (hundreds of metres), 

(4) within the city (tens of kilometres), 

(5) within the country (thousands of kilometres), 

(6) within lunar orbit (hundreds of thousands of kilometres), 

(7) within solar orbit (tens of millions of kilometres), 

(8) local interstellar, 

(9) galactic, 

(10) universal. 

Radius of effect 

(1) one other person, 

(2) all viable targets in a room (metres), 

(3) all viable targets in a building (tens of metres), 

(4) all viable targets in a city block (hundreds of metres), 

(5) all viable targets in a suburb (kilometres), 

(6) all viable targets in a city (tens of kilometres), 

(7) all viable targets in a state (hundreds of kilometres), 

(8) all viable targets in a small country (thousands of kilometres), 

(9) all viable targets on a continent (tens of thousands of kilometres), 

(10) all viable targets on the planet (hundreds of thousands of kilometres). 

Number of benefit/penalty traits applied 

(1) 1 trait, 

(2) 2 traits, 

(3) 3 traits, 

(4) 4 traits, 

(5) 5 traits

I'm sure there's other conditions, but that's all I can think of as I'm writing this. 

The world changes in some way.

Once we know what the intention was, how much power was accumulated in the effort to manifest it, and how effective the channeling of that energy was, we can filter the results back into the story. It's the way pretty much everything in SNAFU works, just with an extra step or two that makes things more risky for more chance to completely change the world of the narrative. The whole point of this magic system is along the line of Mage: the Ascension, in that characters with enough agency can not only change their destiny, but can also change the world, but with a risk, and that risk could  involve completely obliterating themselves and everything they've been fighting for. 

A lot of it is tied back to James P. Carse's "Finite and Infinite Games", especially the concept that "Finite players play within the rules, while infinite players play with the rules". If a player wants to step up ad take control of the world, they risk taking the control of the oracle duties and may end the game only to be forced to run a new game themselves. They have transcended playing in the game and have to deal with the ramifications both within the game and beyond it. It also links back to the origins of SNAFU, back in the early days of FUBAR, where every action had the chance to be narrated by the player, the oracle/narrator, or a combination of the two.