Chapter 7: Magic

Whenever a magical effect is invoked, the magician experiences Backlash (see section 7.3, below), which has a disorienting effect. Backlash is what prevents people doing whatever they like, whenever they like. Backlash is similar in principle to physical damage, and the Backlash rules are related to the physical damage rules.

7.2 Schools of Magic

Certain tasks could be attempted by more than one path. For example, a Fireball could be considered an Alteration, if some material component was used, Elementalism, or even Summoning. A list of suggested Schools of Magic is given in Table 8, with descriptions in section 3.16.

7.3 Casting and Backlash

Table 42: Backlash

Roll	Code	Effect
Under 0	N	No Effect
0-2	F	Fazed
3-5	L	Lightly Disoriented
6-8	S	Seriously Disoriented
9-13	M	Major Disorientation
14-17	MM	Extreme Disorientation

Each additional block of 4 above 17: +M to Code

As with wounds, two Effects of a lower Rank add up to one at a higher Rank (e.g. two L's make an S), with the exception that four F's are equivalent to one L. The amount of Backlash a person can suffer is given by Table 43, below (which parallels Table 27, the Wound State Table).

Table 43: Mental State Table

Phase	Stunned	Insane	Coma
Up to 1	-	-	L
2	-	-	S
3	-	S	L
4-5	-	S	S
6-7	S	L	L
8-9	S	S	L
10-11	S	S	S
12-13	M	S	L
14-15	M	S	S
16-17	M	M	L
18-19	M	M	S
20	M	M	M
21	MM	M	L
22-23	MM	M	S
24	MM	M	M
25	MM	MM	L
26-27	MM	MM	S
28	MM	MM	M
29	MM	MM	ML
30-31	MM	MM	MS
32	MM	MM	MM

If casting an incantation results in the caster being stunned or worse, the spell generally fails. Someone who is stunned is disoriented, and incapable of doing anything for 1d6 rounds. Someone who is insane suffers an immediate insanity (which may or may not prevent them casting further magic). Once coma is reached, they have fallen comatose. In both the latter cases, a permanent personality disorder may result (see section 7.5).

Two major factors that affect the result of Backlash rolls are the Local Phase and the Hazard (see section 7.17 and section 7.18). The Local Phase modifier is a constant value which is added or subtracted from the Backlash roll. The Hazard represents how stable the relationship between Shadow and Twilight is. Hazard is expressed as a number from 1 to 6. If any of the dice rolled on the Backlash table come up this value, they count at this value and are rolled again.

For example, Sarakiel is attempting to cast magic using Alteration, one of her Schools of Magic. Her Skill in Alteration is 30, and the Local Phase is -1, with a Hazard of 4. The Difficulty of the effect she is attempting is 25. Sarakiel's Skill exceeds the Difficulty by one complete block of 5, giving a -1 to her Backlash roll. The area is also -1, for a total modifier of -2. She rolls on Table 42, getting a 2 and a 4. Ordinarily, this would be a total of 4 (4 +2 -2), and would cause a light disorientation, but since she rolled a 4, she has to roll another die. This comes up 5 for a total of 9 - an M. If this third die had come up a 4, the total would have been 8, and another d6 would have been rolled. Sarakiel has a Phase Attribute of 12, giving a Mental State Code of M S L. The M result causes her to be stunned, and therefore the effect fails.

7.4 Tentative and Reckless Magic

Reckless magic is useful when the spell caster absolutely needs the spell to succeed and is prepared to take the consequences. The extra die tends to send most wizards insane, but at least the spell succeeds.

7.5 Insanity

Table 44: Insanity Table

Insanity	Coma	Result
3-4	2	Rationalisation
5-6	3-4	Insight
7-9	5-6	Temporary Catalepsy
10-13	7	Temporary Delirium
14	8	Temporary Phobia
15	9	Phobia
16	10	Neurosis
17	11	Psychosis
18	12	Insane Insight

Rationalisation:

This means that the experience has had a positive, calming influence on the individual, and any personality disorders may be reduced to a certain degree (usually by one level - see below).

Insight:

The magician has gained some piece of knowledge as to the nature of Shadow. As a result, they gain a Development Package (see section 3.21) in whichever School of magic led them to this Insight.

Temporary Catalepsy:

Sufferers of temporary catalepsy become totally withdrawn from the outside world. The magician falls into a trance and their body becomes rigid. They are totally unable to communicate until they recover.

Temporary Delirium:

In general, this causes the subject to babble incoherently and stumble around in an uncontrolled fashion. They will be almost completely incapable of communicating intelligibly until they recover.

Temporary Phobia:

A phobia instills an acute fear of something into the subject, ideally something associated with the circumstances which caused the temporary phobia. This lasts for several days.

Phobia:

is the same as temporary phobia, except the effect is permanent. In general, a person with a phobia is completely rational except when confronted by the object (or situation) they fear.

Neurosis:

An acute personality disorder. It is advised that players and GMs cooperate to determine which neurosis an individual suffers, since it will have a profound effect on the character. Suggested neuroses are given in section 7.6.

Psychosis:

This is similar to Neurosis, but covers a different set of problems. As with Neurosis, the GM and player should consider carefully which psychosis to inflict. Suggested psychoses are given in section 7.7.

Insane Insight:

Much like insight, except it is triggered by a traumatic, disturbing experience. One side effect is that as well as gaining a Development Package, the individual becomes slightly more insane (one of their disorders should increase by one level - see below).

Level 1:

The disorder is at a minor degree. It may start to manifest itself within the personality all the time, or just under certain conditions, most commonly when the individual is casting, or has just cast, some form of magic.

Level 2:

The disorder starts to impose itself all the time, in a minor degree, and to a great degree when magic is attempted, or under certain specific conditions.

Level 3:

The subject is recognisably insane. Although they may still have aspects of their original personality, their Insanities tend to dominate most actions. When invoking magic, the individual triggers an extreme insane period which may last for some time.

Level 4:

By now, the subject may be too deranged to be used as a player-character. These people are frequently unable to cast magic, or lack any incentive to attempt to cast magic. In some cases, the subject may still be able to use magic, but their insanity will dominate the form and content of this magic.

Level 5:

The sufferer experiences a complete nervous breakdown, and will probably die. They can no longer be played as a character.

Each level of an insanity will affect the character's Demeanour traits, Affinities and Aversions (see section 3.8 and section 3.9). For example, a character who began to suffer from claustrophobia would gain a Concept aversion to Enclosed spaces.

The descriptions of neuroses and psychoses give suggested changes in Demeanour traits, corresponding to each level of the insanity. Each time the character advances a level in an insanity, they should consult the description of the Demeanour traits for that level. For each trait listed, they should alter their own Demeanour by one position. That is, if the trait is already possessed, it does not change; if neither of the opposing traits are currently expressed, the character gains the trait; and if the opposing trait is currently possessed, the character moves to the neutral position, losing the opposed trait.

For example, the description for Level 1 Non-violent Mania says that the insanity is characterised by Capricious and Impulsive character traits at this level. A certain character who has just become manic is currently Predictable but neither Capricious nor Persistent. They would change to being Capricious, from being neither, and lose their Predictable trait, becoming neutral in this pair of traits.

In addition, because insanities push people beyond the normal limits of their personality, it is possible to develop insane traits with some disorders. These are Demeanour traits which are so intense that they go beyond the normal extent of that Demeanour trait. If an insanity can raise a Demeanour trait to being an insane trait, it is listed in italics at the earliest level at which it can do so.

Insane traits will reveal themselves in every action of the character. The character will tend to project these traits before any normal traits they have. If decisions have to be made, the outcome will generally be dictated by the insane traits, even when that decision goes against logic or common sense. Because insane traits extend beyond the usual extent of a Demeanour trait, they may also cause the character to become obsessed with their insane actions. For example, a Paranoid character may worry about acting in a Paranoid fashion, therefore becoming even more Paranoid. An Hysteric who gets so tense worrying about certain people or actions bringing on her insanity may actually trigger that Hysteria.

Please note that the insanities provided should be treated as suggestions. Any Demeanour trait can in theory be raised to become an insane trait, and this can be used to generate other psychoses and neuroses. The distinction between the two types of disorder is very narrow, and depends more on physiological differences in the brain than perceivable behaviour. When deciding if an insanity is a neurosis or a psychosis, the following simple criterion can be used: if it's morbid or involves panic, it's probably a neurosis, otherwise it's a psychosis.

Many of the listings only give traits for up to Level 2 or Level 3. For each level above this, apply all of the levels to the character again. For example, let us consider the character in the example above. If he advances to Level 2, he will become insanely Capricious and will move one position in the Cautious / Reckless axis. If he is currently Cautious, he would become neither.

At Level 3, all the traits (Capricious, Impulsive and Reckless) are applied again. He is already insanely Capricious, so this does not change, but is neither Impulsive nor Persistent, so he becomes Impulsive. Similarly, because he is currently neither Cautious nor Reckless, he would become Reckless at Level 3. At Level 4, no further changes would occur.

Insanities may be cured or worsened by people using the Mentalism School of Magic. No-one may perform such a task on themselves, and it is never easy to make someone `sane'. If an attempt is made, the GM should restrict the operation to a success lowering the derangement by one level, and include the possibility of the insanity getting worse in the event of a failure, with the additional danger that the Mentalist may actually begin to suffer from the insanity themselves. Reducing the level of the insanity will affect the character's Demeanour traits, but the details should be determined by the GM, who may wish some residual effects to remain.

A character's insanities will affect how they cast magic. Like many other matters dominated by personalities, the details are left to the players and the GM to determine. However, it is easy to see, for instance, that a person who is suffering from Paranoia and is hence insanely Suspicious is likely to start developing magic solely based around protecting themselves, and a person who is insanely Altruistic is going to concentrate on magic which benefits others over and above themselves.

Similarly, a character's insanities may affect other aspects of their being. For example, an person suffering from a Violent Mania may develop a form of Berserker Fighting style, even if this will decrease their abilities in combat. Naturally, all details should be worked out between the player and Gamesmaster.

7.6 Neurosis