Occult Philosophy: Maddening Magic

Occult Philosophy | A Sourcebook for Shadow of the Demon Lord RPGAs a fantasy game, albeit a dark and sinister one, magic permeates the world languishing under the Shadow of the Demon Lord. One can find it in the ruins of fallen civilizations, in relics pried from the clutches of unspeakable things, and, of course, in the hands of those people with the talent for apprehending magical energies and shaping them into useful forms. In the main rulebook, three of the four novice paths can access the many traditions of magic and, with Bred for Battle, even warriors can dabble in the arcane arts. Since magic plays such a big part in the game’s cosmology, I always felt that free access to magic would broaden the utility of Shadow’s magic system and the numerous spells it offers. For this reason, magic seemed to me the ideal place to start in my efforts to expand the rules and the setting.

Shadow of the Demon Lord includes thirty traditions, from Arcana to Water and everything in between. Each tradition originally offered a set of eleven spells, which gave us 330 spells, not including the spells the game made particular to certain paths. In the years since the book came out, I have added additional traditions, such as Fey in Terrible Beauty, and Invocation in the Demon Lord’s Companion 2, which brought the total number of traditions in the game up to 41. We have also seen new spells added to existing traditions to broaden the offerings by detailing new areas that express the tradition’s central theme. So when I began work on Occult Philosophy,I had loads of spells already, but there’s always room for more, right?

Number 42

As a Douglas Adams fan, I realized 41 traditions would simply not do. After all, 42 is the answer. Now, some of you are probably wagging a finger at me and saying, “But Rob, what about the Blood tradition?” Well, when I was working on Tombs of the Desolation, I thought I would expand magic by offering a slew of minor traditions to supplement the major traditions presented in the main rulebook. After Tombs came out, however, I realized that I could really just express the themes of what were to be minor traditions within the body of major traditions and that by making a distinction between minor and major, I’d be cluttering up the game. Thus, Occult Philosophy pushes all the Blood spells into the Necromancy tradition. Easy-peasy.

But I still needed another tradition. It didn’t take long for me to figure out the one area underserved in magic was madness and insanity. Having a tradition of magic that ravages the minds by calling forth things from beyond the bounds of reality would be pretty sexy, and so Madness, as a tradition, came into being. Here’s an unedited excerpt from the Madness tradition.

Art by Julio Rochá

Madness

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, some desperate scholars of magic have turned to ancient tomes and use them to commune with strange, alien beings in the hopes of finding some secret knowledge with which they could save their world. From these distant beings, these seekers of occult lore uncovered an entirely new order of magic, one that brings forth impossible, inscrutable energies from across the gulfs of space to serve their commands. Although such magic might be of limited use against demons, it proves itself effective and terrifying against nearly everything else.

The Madness tradition taps into forces beyond mortal reckoning, reaching out into dimensions and realities beyond those known to exist and drawing forth strange energies to spawn horrors that bend and break the mind. Spells from the tradition tax the minds of those who know them and students find the longer they look into the secrets of the tradition, the weaker becomes their grip on reality. All who dabble in this dark art lose their minds and the fearless pioneers who assembled the spells and secrets of the tradition have been sealed away in vaults to protect them from harm and protect others from the unspeakable secrets they reveal.

Each time you learn a spell from the Madness tradition, you must make a Will challenge roll with a number of banes equal to the number of Madness spells you have learned so far. On a failure, you gain 1 Insanity.

Mitigating the Madness

The Madness tradition forces users to peer into dark places and grapple with mind-blasting truths. As a result, most students of Madness wrestle with their sanity, always struggling to cling to whatever shreds they have left until their minds finally buckle and break. However, as users grow more and more accustomed to the horrors of their art, they learn to compartmentalize their weird experiences so they can keep their wits even while gibbering, frothing, and clawing at their bodies. Whenever you roll to end the effects of going mad, you add a bonus to your d6 roll. The bonus equals the rank of the highest rank madness spell you have learned.

Sample Spells

Reveal Unspeakable Truth         Madness Attack 0

Target One creature within short range

You whisper some dark, unsettling truth, causing words of smoke to spill from your mouth and float toward the target where they dissipate. If the target can hear you, make an Intellect attack roll against the target’s Will. If the target has 3 or more Insanity, you make the attack roll with 1 boon. On a success, the target gains 1 Insanity.

If the total of your roll was 0 or less, you instead gain 1 Insanity.

Aid from the Outer Gods                Madness Utility 1

Duration1 minute

You impose 1 bane on attack rolls made against you until the spell ends. In addition, whenever a creature you can see would attack you, you can use a triggered action to gain 1 Insanity and impose 2 additional banes on the attack roll.

Eye of the Outer God                      Madness Utility 3

Requirement You must have at least 1 Insanity to cast this spell.

Duration 1 hour

A bloody eye opens in the center of your forehead and remains open for the duration. The eye lets you see into areas obscured by shadows or darkness as if those areas were lit. As well, your attack rolls ignore banes imposed by cover or obscured terrain.

Furthermore, you can use an action, or a triggered action on your turn, to level your gaze on one creature that can see you and is within medium range. The target cannot avert its gaze. Make an Intellect attack roll against the target’s Will. On a success, the target takes 1d6 damage and gains 1d3 Insanity. On a failure, the eye shows you something you cannot comprehend and you gain 1 Insanity instead.

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Announcement — PunkApocalyptic: The Roleplaying Game

PunkApocalypse RPG: Coming Soon!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SCHWALB ENTERTAINMENT TO PUBLISH PUNKAPOCALYPTIC THE ROLEPLAYING GAME

PunkApocalyptic Roleplaying Brings Bad Roll Games Miniatures Game to Roleplaying Games

August 22, 2017—MURFREESBORO, TN: Schwalb Entertainment announced today that it has signed a licensing agreement with Bad Roll Games to adapt their exciting and irreverent PunkApocalyptic tabletop miniatures game into a new tabletop roleplaying game.

“My friends over at Summum Creator turned me on to PunkApocalyptic, and its irreverent and hilariously vulgar take on the post-apocalyptic genre convinced me that I wanted to bring their world to tabletop roleplayers everywhere,” said Schwalb Entertainment’s Man of Action, Robert J. Schwalb. “I’m thrilled my new friends at Bad Roll Games agreed to the partnership and excited to bring the insane chaos of a world gone mad to tabletop gamers everywhere!”

In PunkApocalpytic, the wealthy and powerful hide behind high walls of their massive cities, leaving everyone else to scrabble and fight to survive in a war-torn, irradiated, and inhospitable wasteland crawling with mutants, gangs, and the insane. In the RPG, the players assume the roles of veteran survivors, Mercs, who sell their services to whomever can afford them, undertaking missions for unhinged gang leaders, embattled survivors, caravans seeking safe territory, and more. PunkApocalyptic: The Roleplaying Game embraces the nastiness and brutality of the miniatures game, while opening even more of the world for exploration, ultraviolence, and adventure.

“When Summum Creator told us about the possibility of working with Robert for releasing an RPG version of our tabletop skirmish game, we couldn’t believe our luck,” says Bad Roll Games. “We knew about his huge success with the campaign for the Demon Lord book and we thought that would be perfect. We love his spirit, his enthusiasm and we are thrilled with the idea that he likes our setting so much as to take it in and give his own approach to it.”

In 2018, Schwalb Entertainment will launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of PunkApocalyptic Roleplaying, a new, standalone tabletop roleplaying game powered by the Demon Lord Engine™. Stretch goals unlocked during the campaign will introduce additional adventures, player options, and setting sourcebooks to expand on the information presented in the main rulebook.

More information and previews for PunkApocalyptic Roleplaying and the Demon Lord Engine™ will appear on www.schwalbentertainment.com in the coming months.

About Schwalb Entertainment
Schwalb Entertainment, LLC was founded in 2014 by Robert J. Schwalb (veteran RPG game designer, developer, and author) to offer a rich, immersive game-play experience in worlds of dark fantasy and science fiction. Before Schwalb Entertainment, Robert was a member of the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons design team, worked as a line developer for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition, and was lead designer on A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. He has contributed design to a slew of 4th Edition and 3rd Edition D&D sourcebooks, numerous supplements for the d20 system, the Cypher System, and many other roleplaying games. Schwalb Entertainment, LLC is headquartered in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

About Bad Roll Games

Bad Roll Games is a Spanish company founded in January 2014 by three hardcore RPG players, fantasy fans, sci-fi nerds and friends, Israel, Marcos and Marco. From the short comic book stories created by Marco, our graphic designer, Israel built up a fast-paced, lethal, and irreverent set of rules called PunkApocalyptic. Two successful crowdfunding campaigns later, and with an ever-growing catalog of miniatures sold to every corner of the world, Bad Roll Games is seeking to expand its sphere of influence and reach the roleplaying games audience with a new agreement reached in 2017 with reputed creator Robert J. Schwalb.

Contact Schwalb Entertainment

Robert J. Schwalb
Man of Action
info@schwalbentertainment.com

 

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Crazy for the Demon Lord

Shadow of the Demon Lord uses insanity to describe the effects of encountering the awful. When a character sees something that doesn’t belong in the world, witnesses an atrocity firsthand, or is subjected to something of profound wrongness, insanity is often the result. Like damage, insanity is measured as a number. You accumulate insanity, rather than reduce some other resource. The maximum insanity a character can accumulate is its Willpower score.
Gaining Insanity
When the GM decides or when the rules direct that a character is at risk of gaining insanity, the character must usually make a Willpower resistance roll. On a failure, the character gains 1 or more insanity and becomes frightened for a number of minutes equal to the character’s insanity total. Gaining insanity from some creature has additional effects such as with the hag. A creature that gains insanity from a hag also becomes compelled for a number of rounds equal to the character’s insanity total.
Quirks
One way characters can rid themselves of insanity is to spend insanity to buy a quirk. Once each day, a player may ask for a quirk. If the GM agrees, the player reduces his or her insanity total by a variable number and acquires a roleplaying trait appropriate to the source of the insanity. For example, a character who recently gained insanity after encountering a bloody bone might have a fear of raw meat. Quirks can be phobias, addictions, nightmares, and a variety of other disorders acquired from great mental strain.
Madness
A character cannot gain more insanity than his or her Willpower score. When the insanity total reaches the limit, the character goes mad. The effects of madness are random and example forms of madness are included in a big, saucy table. Once the character recovers from going mad, the character removes insanity from his or her total.

Here’s an excerpt.

1 or lower         Death. Your heart stops and you die as a result.
2                       Catatonia. You fall prone and become defenseless. At the end of each hour, roll a d6. A 4 or higher ends the madness.
3                       Self-Mutilation. You must take the next turn you can and use your action to tear your eyes from your sockets. Unless prevented, you become blinded until your ruined eyes can be repaired—such as with the restoration Life spell. The madness passes at the end of the next minute.
4–5                   Stricken. You become stunned. At the end of each minute, roll a d6. A 5 or higher ends the madness.
6–7                   Sickened. You become violently sick, vomiting and defecating as a result. While sickened, you are dazed. At the end of each round, roll a d6. A 5 or higher ends the madness.
8–9                   Hallucinations. You believe vermin infest your body. While affected, you must take a fast turn each round and use your action to cut or claw yourself unless you are prevented from doing so. Each time you take this action, you take 1 damage. At the end of each round, roll a d6. A 5 or higher ends the madness.

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Skills

Player characters use skills to describe the areas in which they have formal training, the languages they can speak and read, and the environments in which they are accustomed. Skills add to characters’ description, offering details about identity, occupation, and nature. In this way, a skill is more like a descriptor or a tag. It is something that a character has or doesn’t have. A skill has a negligible mechanical weight and usually functions as a story-telling tool.
Generally, player characters have skills. NPCs and creatures can have any skills the GM wants as appropriate to their role in the story and their description.
Language Skills
The most basic skills in the game are the language skills. All starting characters know how to speak in the Common Tongue. The game includes a list of typical languages and more languages are mentioned in the Bestiary. Having a language skill means your character can speak in that language and be understood. You either have the ability or you don’t. Note that the ability to speak in a given language does not automatically mean your character can read it. You can trade out one of your skills to become literate in all the languages you know or you might choose a professional skill that grants literacy in a language.
Professional Skills
Most skills are professional skills. A professional skill describes the area in which a character is trained and how that character might normally make ends meet. Examples include Arcanist, Armorer, Locksmith, or Theologian.
Having the Arcanist skill means your character knows stuff about magic. When your character sees an unfamiliar magical effect, you might automatically know the spell’s name or what the effect does. Or, you might have to make an Intellect action roll to gain this information as the GM decides. If you don’t have the Arcanist skill and you encounter an unfamiliar magic effect, the effect is unfamiliar to you.
Some professional skills let you manufacture finished items from raw materials. The Armorer skill, for example, lets you turn raw materials into armor provided you have a space to work, tools, and raw materials equal to 1/4 the armor’s price.
Professional skills also enable certain activities. Having the Locksmith skill means your character knows how to use lock picks to unlock locks. Without the skill, your character must resort to other methods to unlock locked doors, containers, windows, and so on—using a key (obviously), brute force, or magic.
Many professional skills grant literacy in a language the character knows how to speak.
Status Skills
Finally, some skills indicate a special status such as Aristocrat, Criminal, or Drunk. Of all the skills, these are the “softest.” A character with the skill knows how to conduct himself or herself around other characters that fit into the described status. Aristocrats know proper etiquette, can probably recognize heraldry, and know the people of wealth and status in their homeland. A criminal has connections to the black market and criminal underworld, knows the major organizations, and likely has a contact or two. A Drunk knows his or her way around taverns, can consume vast quantities of booze without becoming too impaired, and can probably gather a few rumors from the regular haunts.
Gaining Skills

All characters begin with two skills (chosen or determined randomly) plus any skills gained from their ancestry. Characters gain another skill when they choose a novice path, an expert path, and a master path. Some paths grant additional skills.
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Magic Stuff!

Magic Stuff
Shadow of the Demon Lord has spells, as you saw last time, but what about magic treasure? Are there enchanted swords, cloaks, and other objects? Sort of. Magical objects are a staple in the fantasy genre. Frodo & Bilbo had the ring. Arthur had Excalibur. Arawn had his Black Cauldron. Agni had his wand of Universal Fire. It goes on. At one point, I had rejected the idea that the game would have such things as “magic items,” but I ultimately came back to it after recognizing that enchanted objects do have a place in dark fantasy. Such things can be mementos from previous stories, oddities that can hinder as much as they help. They can also operate as world-building tools for GMs and players alike. For these reasons and others, I use three broad categories for magical widgets: consumables, enchanted objects, and artifacts.
Consumables
A consumable is a magic device that has a single use. When you use it, you consume the magic from it. In the case of potions, you literally consume the object. In the case of incantations, you consume the magic by reading the script aloud. Player characters can typically purchase consumables, though their availability depends on their rarity. For example, you’d have to travel to a large city to find a philosopher’s stone.
Here are two examples of consumable items found in the equipment chapter:
     Repair Oil: A thin, amber oil causes fractures in objects to close and repair any damage done to it. You may use an action to smear the oil on an object or a creature that is a construct within your reach. The oil takes effect at the end of the round in which you applied it. The object heals 1d6 damage or damage equal to its healing rate if it is a construct.
     Death’s Heralds: A white, powdery substance contained inside a wax paper packet, the powder is made from the eggs of a rare moth found in the Underworld.
     You may use an action to attack with the powder by blowing the contents from the packet into the face of one living creature within short range. The target must make a Strength resistance roll with two complications. On a failure, it becomes impaired for 1 minute. If it’s already impaired, it takes 2d6 damage.
     At the end of each round until the effect wears off, the affected creature must make a Strength resistance roll. On a failure, the creature takes 1d6 damage from the hatching eggs and burrowing larva. A creature incapacitated by the damage dies and its body vanishes.
     In addition, each time a creature takes damage from the death’s heralds, a cloud of black moths spreads out in a 1-yard radius from a spot in the creature’s space. The cloud remains until the end of the next round and it totally obscures its area.
Enchanted Objects
Enchanted objects are not generally for sale. Instead, they are  found in the world. They are worth whatever the NPC or PC is willing to pay for it. Enchanted objects are things of minor magical power that persists. A glass box that glows when touched, a wand that sprays liquid flames, or a bone scimitar that glows blue when brought to within short range of a troll are all good examples of such items.
            In the core book, the game presents a set of tables for quick generation. One table gives you an idea of what form the object will take. The other tables describe the object’s magical power. The GM can pick or roll dice for random generation.
            Here’s the form table:
Enchanted Object Form
1d20           Form                         Examples
1                 Light Armor              Robes, soft leather, hard leather
2                Melee weapon          Sword, staff, or spear
3                Jewelry                     Ring, necklace, bracelet
4                Furniture                   Chair, mirror, rug
5                Sculpture                  Statuette, idol
6                Coin                           A copper penny
7                Tool                           Hammer, scales, wrench
8                Clothing                     Hat, cloak, shirt, shoes
9                Instrument                Lute, drums, flute
10               Container                  Bag, box, chest
11               Inscription                 Tome, scroll, clay tablet
12               Implement                Wand, crystal ball, knife
13               Technology               Pocket watch, pistol
14               Game or Toy             Cards, dice, doll
15               Accessory                 Key, monocle, scabbard
16               Vehicle                      Cart, rowboat, wagon
17               Religious                   Holy symbol, book, beads
18               Weird                        Mummified hand, gallstone
19               Ranged weapon        Longbow, crossbow
20              Heavy armor            Chainmail, plate & mail
And here are a few entries from the effects tables.
6                The object radiates menace. Creatures within 5 yards of it have a complication for Willpower resistance rolls made to stop or resist being frightened.
7                You can use an action to place the object on any surface you can reach. The object stays there, no matter what, until you touch it and use an action to pick it up.
8                The object changes color to match its surroundings perfectly.
9                The object vibrates slightly when within 100 yards of a troll or giant.
10               You can use an action to extinguish all flames within 10 yards. You can use the object three times. You regain expended uses once each day when you douse the object with water.
11               The object turns green when within 10 yards of a poison.
12               You can use an action to cause all doors, containers, and other objects that can be closed or opened within 10 yards of you to close or open as you decide. The object has three uses.
Artifact
An artifact is an enchanted object with a story. These items tend to be more powerful, have a drawback, and may benefit the entire group. Here’s an example artifact.
Blood Moon Medallion
A disk wrought from reddish metal and embossed with a skull-like visage on the front, the medallion hangs from a rusty chain that catches and pulls the hairs from the neck of anyone wearing it. When inspected in moonlight, the medallion gleams with baleful light.
     Raise the Dead: Once each night, you may use an action to choose a pile of bones or a corpse of Size 1 or smaller creature that you can see within short range. The target becomes a skeleton or a zombie until it becomes incapacitated.
     Upon creating a skeleton or zombie with this artifact, make a Willpower action roll. On a success, you fully control the target until dawn, at which point the skeleton collapses into a pile of bones or the zombie falls down to become a corpse. On a failure, you gain 1 insanity and the target becomes hostile to you and your companions until it becomes incapacitated.

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