Spell Casting on the pitch

[graeme27uk]

Hi,

I'm new to the forums but not new to BB. Been playing since day 1....

I have come up with an idea that I have "borrowed" from other systems. I know players casting magic is frowned on by some and can break the game but the potential for mayhem is too tempting.

So what I have come up with is a Casting Roll. Basically to cast a spell as a player you have to roll equal to or over a casting roll, determined by the particular spell. However magic is very fickle and so failure to cast a spell means the player is placed prone and an automatic injury roll is made. This means that magic is fairly unpredictable and potentially lethal.

Casting a spell counts as an action so a player can not do any other special action apart from move.

The ability to cast spells on the pitch would be limited as an extraordinary ability. Actual spell choice there are various models you could use:

1) randomly drawn at the start of the game. each caster gets one spell ability to use that game.

2) you buy spells like skills for players so they have a reportoire to choose from

3) casters have access to a list of racial spells to choose from

4) there is simply a big list of universal spells that casters can choose from


Would be interesting to read people's opinions on this.

[Joemanji]

However magic is very fickle and so failure to cast a spell means the player is placed prone and an automatic injury roll is made. This means that magic is fairly unpredictable and potentially lethal.

Very bad mechanism IMO. By all means have huge penalties for failure, but an Injury roll is too harsh. Presumably spellcasters would be expensive, and having them die very frequently is not a fun way to balance them.

The rest of your suggestions have been discussed before, and used in some cases. The MBBL2 system uses casting rolls, racial spells and generic spells you can learn instead of skills. However the spells are woefully unbalanced which kind of spoils it. (Example: one spell casts on 2+ and lets a player take two actions in a turn, which equals a free TD. No penalty for miscast. But another casts on a 4+ and gives one player +1ST for a turn. But a miscast inflicts an Armour roll on every player in your own (AV7) team. Ridiculous).

I've floated many Spellcaster rules over the years myself. Nobody seems to care much. Try yours out though, they might be fun!

[mubo]

I've floated many Spellcaster rules over the years myself. Nobody seems to care much. Try yours out though, they might be fun!

I care!

[graeme27uk]

However magic is very fickle and so failure to cast a spell means the player is placed prone and an automatic injury roll is made. This means that magic is fairly unpredictable and potentially lethal.

Very bad mechanism IMO. By all means have huge penalties for failure, but an Injury roll is too harsh. Presumably spellcasters would be expensive, and having them die very frequently is not a fun way to balance them.

The rest of your suggestions have been discussed before, and used in some cases. The MBBL2 system uses casting rolls, racial spells and generic spells you can learn instead of skills. However the spells are woefully unbalanced which kind of spoils it. (Example: one spell casts on 2+ and lets a player take two actions in a turn, which equals a free TD. No penalty for miscast. But another casts on a 4+ and gives one player +1ST for a turn. But a miscast inflicts an Armour roll on every player in your own (AV7) team. Ridiculous).

I've floated many Spellcaster rules over the years myself. Nobody seems to care much. Try yours out though, they might be fun!

Maybe the Injury roll is harsh, but in concept its sound. Maybe its a simplier Miscast roll...

D6
1 - 2 = Prone
3 - 4 = Stunned
5 - 6 = KO'd

Balancing the spells requires playtesting and common sense. Those you quote above sound rediculously unbalanced. But in concept the system is simple without slowing play down. As for player cost then that would obviously increase their cost though by how much I am unsure.


My reason for pursuing this is that I would like to develop a Tzeentch Chaos team but once that more accurately reflects Tzeentch's magical nature. Chaos Warriors would become Chaos Sorcerers and there would be Acolytes, Pink Horrors, etc...