Four By Five Magic
Four-By-Five magic is a system designed for FUDGE, although it has been adapted to other systems like FATE System, Microlite20 and Amber Diceless RPG. The system uses an verb-noun method to classify spells, much as Ars Magica does. It was originally written by Steffan O'Sullivan in 1999 for 5-point FUDGE.
A magician learns words of power, spoken by the creator(s) to bring the world into being. It's not enough to duplicate the sound, the magician must also flex their spirit to pronounce the correct "sound" equivalent in the local ether. This emits an effect that local reality cannot ignore.
In FUDGE, a magician knows all the words except "Control" and "Spirit", which they only learn if they spend at least 3 points in the Magic skill group. In Microlite20 and other level-based games, a starting wizard would know 3 words and gain another word every 3 levels, but "Control" must be the last action word and "Spirit" must be the last realm word.
Words
There are nine words of power. Spells are usually an action (verb) and a realm (noun) together. Below are also the words in Latin in case you want to get all Harry Potter. (Don't forget that Latin puts the verb after the nouns.)
The Four Actions:
- Communicate with (defero): Read, Seek, Inform, Sense, Determine, Understand, etc.
- Diminish (infirmo): Weaken, Damage, Injure, Reduce, Break, Dull, Deteriorate, etc.
- Enhance (augeo): Strengthen, Heal, Enlarge, Repair, Sharpen, etc
- Control (tempero): Shape, Hold, Command, Form, Direct, Dictate, etc. (only after mastering the other actions can a magician learn to properly use the Control word).
The Five Realms:
- Body (corpus): Living body of sentient beings, animals, plants.
- Energy (navitas): Fire, water, air, magic, [electricity, etc.] - and, if the GM is willing, time.
- Matter (materia): Solid material with no mind - stone, metal, wood, leather, paper, [plastic, etc.]
- Mind: (mentis)That which normally inhabits and animates a body
- Spirit (animus): That which motivates the living but no longer inhabits a body, or never did, or what unnaturally inhabits a body or other dwelling such as ghosts, demons, etc. (only after mastering the other realms can a magician learn to properly use the Spirit word).
These combine into twenty spell effects.
Spells
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Source
- The original article by Steffan O'Sullivan