Crypticism is a very "practical application" style of magic; rather than undertaking a broad or theoretical study of magic Crypticists instead learn how to cast very specific spells. A typical Crypticist might know only five to ten spells, but they will generally be very powerful (as measured by Active Points).

Crypticism spells are designed as Power constructs (including Compound Powers) and embedded into a 3d6 "spell skill", which is paid for rather than the actual cost of the Power.

Each spell skill is a GEN Skill (11-) and costs 3 pts; each +1 to a Skill costs 2 pts. An 8- Roll with a spell skill can also be taken as a Familiarity for 1 point, though this is rarely practical.

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Skill Rolls and Active Points

Each spell skill has a number of Active Points available to it equal to the skills Roll x 5. Thus the Power construct in an 8- spell skill can have up to 40 Active Points, while a Power construct in an 11- spell skill can have up to 55 Active Points, and a Power construct in a 20- spell skill can have up to 100 Active Points. The following chart illustrates this.

Real Cost of spell skill	3d6 Roll	Active Point range of embedded spell
1	8-	1-40
3	11-	1-55
5	12-	1-60
7	13-	1-65
9	14-	1-70
11	15-	1-75
13	16-	1-80
15	17-	1-85
17	18-	1-90
19	19-	1-95
21	20-	1-100
23	21-	1-105
25	22-	1-110
27	23-	1-115
29	24-	1-120
etc	etc	etc

A Power construct in a spell skill does not have to be designed to use all of the Active Points available to it; a Crypticist might have a spell skill with a roll higher than it needs to be so that they have a better chance of successfully casting the spell. For instance, a Crypticist might have a spell skill with a 14- roll even if the Power construct represented by that spell skill only had 45 Active Points rather than the 70 Active Points it is permitted.

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Casting a spell

To use a spell a Crypticist simply makes a skill roll with the appropriate spell skill. If the spell skill roll succeeds then the Power construct represented by the spell skill is activated, otherwise nothing happens save that any Endurance Cost must be paid and any applicable Side Effects take effect.

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Real Cost Penalty

Spell skills suffer a penalty equal to the Real Cost / 10 of the Power construct they represent rather than the typical Active Points / 10.

Thus the more heavily limited a spell is the easier it is to cast. Note, this is the most significant restriction upon this Magic System.

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Design Restrictions

• No spell may be on Charges
• No spell may have No Conscious Control (NCC)
• No spell may be Independent
• No spell may have an Activation Roll
• All spells must either cost END by default or take the "Costs END" Limitation
  • spells may take Reduced END
  • spells may take "Costs END Only to Activate" where allowed by the rules normally
    • All Costs END only to Activate spells must have a defined termination, expressed either as a duration or a specific and reasonably common event
  • spells may be built with Reduced Endurance (0 Endurance), but must take a Side Effect that always occurs automatically whenever the Power is used (Costs AP/10 In END When Cast) as a -1/2 Limitation.
• spells may not be embedded in a Universal Focus, but a Personal Focus required for activation is allowed
• All spells must have at least -1/2 in Limitations
• No spell can Require a Skill Roll to be cast; the spell skill itself serves this purpose.
  • A spell may Require an additional Skill Roll other than the corresponding spell skill to take effect.

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Minimum Buy-in

There is no upper limit on the number of spell skills a Crypticist can know; they can have as many as they can afford. However due to the efficiency of the Magic System at the lower end a minimum requirement is recommended.

In order to be a Crypticist and use Crypticism spells a character must have at least five (5) spell skills and spend at least 25 points on spell skills.

Individual GM's may remove this restriction or replace it with some other arbitrary limit.

With new characters this is easily achieved as part of the character's design, but if a player decides that they want an existing character in play to become a Crypticist then they must first save up 25 Character Points in addition to any other in-game necessities of finding a mentor and spending enough time to learn the requisite five spell skills before they can use any of their new Crypticism abilities.

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Effect Limits

Because this Magic System is so effective at the upper end, a GM might want to put some limits on it.

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Active Points

One option is to simply limit the Active Points available to spell skills; 90 Active Points will generally serve this purpose well.

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Maximum Skill Roll

A very effective way to limit the upper end of this system is to forbid any spell skill where the final roll after the Real Cost / 10 penalty has been applied is better than a 17-. If this rule is implemented, then a player can round the Real Cost penalty upwards to hit the 17- mark if they are on a break point (see the Arcane Shield spell skill example below). Note however that this mechanism actually discourages the taking of Limitations past a certain point so as to keep the RC penalty on high-end effects larger so as to bring the over all skill roll under the limit.

ARCANE SHIELD

By means of this spell a Magician can create a magical Shield that protects them from damage to the side of their choice.

Effect: Force Wall (14 PD/14 ED), Costs END Only To Activate (+1/4), Hardened (+1/4) (105 Active Points); Limited Coverage 1-60 Degrees (Only on the same horizontal Level; -1 1/4), Self Only (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4)) (Real Cost: 35) {-4 to roll (would normally be -3, but is being rounded to benefit the player), 9 END to cast}

Arcane Shield: 21- (modified to 17-)

Real Cost: 23

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Triggers

Triggers deserve a special mention in conjunction with this Magic System. It is expected to be fairly common for Crypticists to have Triggers using Command Words as part of some of their spells, allowing them to basically cast a spell earlier in a given day when it is convenient and float the spell's effect until it is needed later.

In moderation this usage of Triggered effects is an acceptable and even desirable aspect of this Magic System. However if not restricted, it is open to abuse by unscrupulous players. Thus as a Campaign Groundrule a Crypticist may only have one Trigger active for a given spell skill at any time.

Also, it should be pointed out that it is common for people to forget that all Advantages built into a Power construct must be used when that Power construct is activated. Thus unless a Power construct is designed somewhat unusually it normally is only usable via it's Trigger if it has one. Effectively this means that in most circumstances if a Crypticist has a Trigger active for a spell skill they must use that prepared Trigger before using the same spell skill again.

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Skill Levels

Overall Skill Levels, All Skill Levels, and 5 point Skill Levels bought to apply to Crypticism spell skills can be used to improve spell skill rolls (except for 1 point spell skill Familiarities).

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Examples

ARCANE BLAST

By means of this spell a Magician can attack foes with a blast of magical force.

Effect: Killing Attack - Ranged 4d6 (vs. ED) (60 Active Points); -2 Decreased STUN Multiplier (-1/2), No Knockback (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4) {30 Real Cost = -3 to roll; 6 END to cast}

Arcane Blast: 12- (modified to 9-)

Real Cost: 5

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Links

• Magecraft: Crypticism is just a streamlined version of the Magecraft System. The Magecraft Packages and sample spell effects are usable with Crypticism as is or with minor alteration.

Magic Systems