Striker wrote:we thought that a simple addition of a ranged fireball with he same stats as his regular attack might just be enough to tip the balamce-noy tested yet.
It is even enough to tip the balance the other direction, in fact.
We had to limit the fireball by letting it cost two mind points each time it is fired, otherwise it would become too strong.
Basically, we carefully cut the spell range and cost from the effect. In the original it is quite mixed.
Slev uses more keywords and symbols than i, but the basis behind is the same:
In the original you pay your cast action and the card ( you have to discard it). All the spells cost the same, so based on cost vs effect, some are "good" and some are not.
We noted that and invented spells that would cost more, or less. If that fits to the spell's effect, each spell might be worthy in the end.
Now the payment options on the spells are: The mastery test, the cast action, the card, one or more body points and one or more mind points, movement points or the entire movement phase, and anything else that comes to your mind.
A mastery test is, you roll a d6, add the indicated number. For a success you must stay equal or below your current mind points. If you miss, you may pay the difference in mind points in order to make it work by brute force. You pay any other cost after the mastery test is done, but regardless if it was a hit or a miss.
Ah, important: And we gave the wizard the ability to heal 1 Mind Point, on the cost of one cast action.
So if you invent a spell with a mastery test of one, and a cost of one mind point, then you can cast it two, maybe three times, but then you really run out of mind points and have to make some pause before you start casting again.
For Fireball, for example, a cost of cast action and discard of the spell is too much. You lose your offensive capability for an effect that anybody can do with a sword, and that can be frustrating.
We made it cost the cast action, a mastery test of 1 and 1 MP. That was too low. The wizard was casting only that spell all the time, forgetting all the others.
We changed the cost to "cast action, mastery test of 1 and 2MP". That is enough. it is used, but not all the time. Perfect!
You can find my spells here. I was adding a fourth spell to each group. This expansion is totally untested so be careful with that.
After some test games, i was deciding to give my fireball variant an alternative cost: If you're out of Mind Points but you desperately need to cast the fireball, you may discard it like in former times.
The two black dice have 4 sides with skulls each, so this is exactly the same like dealing 2BP damage and make a saving roll on 5+ like on the original card. It is also written that the damage is fire damage: This is totally unimportant except if the target has a special rule regarding fire damage. In my system, for example, the wall of fire is totally immune to fire damage. Against almost anything else, this is just normal damage.
It is worth noting, that the entire system works only if you have some time pressure mechanism working.
We use the Evil Wizard deck, others use some token system that can activate special abilities of Monsters if you take too long.
If you give the players unlimited turns to recover, then the entire system comes apart.
and add the spell's "difficulty level". If the total is less than or equal to your current Mind Points, the spell works, otherwise it doesn't - but either way, the card remains in your hand, available to cast again on a future turn. The system is a little more complicated than that (some cards can't be re-cast; others cost one or more Mind Points), but very intuitive once you figure out how it works.
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