2.0 -- The Magic of the Deryni

Despite having twelve novels, a book of short stories, an encyclopedia like reference in the Codex, and a book devoted to the subject itself, the magic of the Deryni is still quite illusive in its definition. Crossing the boundaries of what is magic, psionics, and divine miracle at times. Things that even the characters within the stories do not fully understand, even as they do them. Makes it a little hard to detail properly for an RPG, even one as flexible and fluid as FUDGE.

Part of the problem is the books themselves. The world of the Deryni from the author’s point of view has changed much since the first book was published, and the stories themselves span two hundred years within their covers, making for many changes from one era to the next. Also, being stories, much of how magic works is determined by the story itself, so minor variations creep in. This means that not all the information is completely in sync with the rest, and I must work as best I can to catalog things to a usable format for gaming.

A few notes: "Usable format for gaming" means that I will change things that I think won’t work for the game, or that I didn’t have sufficient knowledge at the time to decide. I want the world we game in to be internally consistent, and if that somehow contradicts new information or that I’ve forgotten that appear in canon Kurtz, then the game’s way of presenting it will usually be the correct one, unless the modifications are minor or there’s a great need they be fixed.

The story we tell in our game is the most important thing, so some uses of certain powers may give slightly different results depending on the situation. Please keep that in mind while using the following guidelines for use of the powers of your Deryni characters.

Skill Modifiers: When using a Skill, please modify your ability due to injury, Fatigue loss, and the following guidelines, with a roll of Fair being desired for success. (Keep in mind that not all Powers are affected by these modifiers, and some Powers may have others.):

Getting Through: An Opposed check is made, attacker’s Skill versus defender’s Shields Skill. Attacker’s roll must beat defender’s. Defender may spend Fatigue to bring roll to a tie. Each round, both lost a point of Fatigue.

Humans vs. Deryni: For the most part, a human cannot detect the use of Deryni powers upon himself, nor can he stop what’s happening. But a Perception check might be granted if the particular human is used to such uses of Deryni Skills and/or is used to the touch of that particular individual. Also, a human may be looking for the intrusion and has some idea what to look for. Also note that some powers that alter a person’s perceptions such as Mind Control or Illusion may be overridden if the target has reason to suspect what he feels or sees. PLAYER CHARACTERS ALWAYS GET A PERCEPTION ROLL, SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE PLAYER CHARACTERS! Normally I don’t make exceptions for PCs, but no one likes having their characters manipulated by the rest of the party either. But this won’t come up because all the PCs are good and moral and wouldn’t harm their fellow PCs now would they? PCs get no extra bonuses for preventing what happens, only knowing it happened.

Power Fatigue and Stamina Fatigue -- The Difference: Deryni get an extra Fatigue sink based off their Power Attribute. Fatigue is lost from Power first until the level drops, then it goes to Stamina. Loss of all Fatigue from Stamina causes character to drop from Fatigue, and loss of all Power Fatigue means character cannot perform any Deryni Skills (even if the penalties would still allow an above-Terrible chance at doing so).

Effect of Fatigue on Deryni Skills: Each level lost of Fatigue (off the Stamina Sink) confers a -1 penalty to Skill being attempted. Fatigue loss from using abilities is cumulative with other Fatigue losses (such as from Combat).

Maintaining Skills: For those Deryni Skills that can be maintained, Fatigue is spent while doing so. 1 point of Fatigue is spent about every minute or so. Please note that while Fatigue itself might come back fairly quickly, that doing several draining workings may leave a Deryni with a lowered effective Fatigue. Using Mind Speech at great distances, frex, cannot be done more than once every few days or the Deryni will wear themselves out and be unable to perform anything.

Fatigue drawn from others: A Deryni may use another person’s Fatigue to fuel his own spells. The subject must be willing and/or completely unconscious. If willing, the subject may remain awake in a meditative state. Fatigue is drawn off the subject’s Fatigue sink as normal for rate of draw for the power being used. If the subject is Deryni, Shields must be lowered beforehand and Fatigue is drained, as normal, from both Power and Stamina Fatigue sinks.

Sense Enhancement: A Deryni may, with concentration, enhance his or her senses beyond the norm. This is an extension of just being Deryni, the way Shields are, so one’s ability to do so is equal to their Power Attribute, although a Sense Enhancement check is made as if it were an Opposed Action. The relative degree of a Sense Enhancement check above Mediocre (Good is two relative degrees and thus a +2, etc.) is added to a Perception roll. The use of enhanced senses does not drain Fatigue, but does require concentration from the character, and a Meditation roll may be required in some situations.

Deryni Skills (with basic DLs and modifiers not mentioned above listed for uses of the Skills).