Shaping

Shaping is a process by which strong-willed people can change the world around them. The world is what we perceive it to be, and through shaping, we can alter to world to fit our perceptions.

Shaping generally requires a period of concentration and a skill roll. The difficult of this roll depends on many factors, the most important of which are the time you take, the stability of the world you're in and the complexity of what you are trying to create. Sum up all the Shaping Difficulties, the total is the difficulty of the Shaping task. As usual, the GM can impose any situation modifiers he chooses, and shaping is even more dependent on GM goodwill that sorcery.

There are couple of optional rules for Shaping, including Reality Storms and Shadow Walking. The GM will have to decide whether to use these or not

Subconscious Shaping

In some cases, you can use shaping subconsciously, without meaning to. As you walk the netherworld, things around you start to look familiar, and after a while you come to a facsimile of your old home town! You have no idea that it was actually your shaping at work. This kind of shaping is often quite powerful, but entirely at the GMs mercy.

This is how much time you spend on the shaping attempt.

How large is the thing you want to change.

Complexity

This is perhaps the most difficult quality, and governs how advanced forms you can create. You can also create life, even people. If you want something large, with many instances of complexity (a cutting edge city with people in it and a magical curse), the GM may increase the difficulty even further.

Rough Stuff

You can create very basic stuff, like rough stone walls, simple implements like a club, or a pool of water. Only one type of substance can be involved, it cannot have multiple or moving parts, and it has imperfections and faults that makes it unsuitable as a raw material for precision functions. Not can the material itself be unstable or unusual. Typical objects include walls, pebbles, clubs and rough furniture.

Basic functions

You can create basic objects like swords, axes, tailored clothes and simple armor. There can be no moving parts, but separate pieces connected to the whole are allowed. The items can consiste of several materials worked together. You can also create simple natural phenomena, such as a stream of water, soft light or a burning campfire.

Worked objects, lesser animals

You can create most simple objects and machinery with basic functions. You can create lesser magic, such as basic potions, floating objects, magical light and other conveniences. This includes most everyday objects, tools, guns, simple steam or combustion engines, ballpoint pens and so on.

Lesser animals are bugs and rodents of small size and no particular intellect. Insects, mice, rats, fish and lizards all fit the bill.

Hi-tech, magic, greater animals

You can create magical and technological items of great complexity. Motor vehicles, guns, powered machinery as well as magical items like flaming swords, wands of fire and armor without encumbrance. Most item-oriented schticks fall in this category, such as Arcanowave Devices, Gizmos, Magic items and so on.

Greater animals include any creature that is not sapient. This includes unintelligent supernatural creatures.

Cutting edge, legends, people

Cutting edge includes items that are highly complex, such as microsurgery tools, scientific labs, super-computers, highly sophisticated curses, legendary magical items and spacecraft.

At this level, you can also shift the remembered history, legends and culture of people. You can create a legendary sword, and some people will have heard the legend. You can create a fictional event, which becomes historical.

People are unnamed, but otherwise skilled and capable. If you create a lot of people, they will have some form of culture, with some skilled professionals, leaders and so on. A few of these people may be (or become) named characters, but in general, people are unnamed. It is a matter of philosophical debate whether you actually create these people, or if you just summon and shape them in an image to your liking. They do have memories, backgrounds and so on commensurate with their type and environment. They don't remember being created by you, but you can make yourself a cultural icon or god to them, if you wish. Beware, people can have strange expectations of their gods.

Beyond complex, named characters

This is when the GM rules an item too sophisticated to be allowed, but decides to let you try anyway. Doomsday devices, hyper-complex magical geasa, artificial super intelligences.

You can also "create" named characters to your specifications. You can even recreate specific people from your past. They may not correspond to the real thing in every way, but they will be a good facsimile. Don't expect to automatically become friends with them, though; they have no memory of being "created", and show you no special reverence.

Milieu

Your GM has spent many hours creating a beautiful gaming world for you to play around with: don't expect him to let you call in reality-altering stuff easily. There is a consensus in a world that describes what is normal and what is not, and trying to shape something that just doesn't fit the picture is very difficult.

Fits right in

Most changes are in this category; you change the fit of your clothes, or create a new house on an old street. Most people won't pay attention, and the thing fits right in. If you try to show off by shaping something before the eyes of spectators, and conjuring magics aren't common, you might get a more difficult modifier, but in most cases, changes are subtle and won't be noticed.

Radically different

Now you are trying to create something possible, but that just isn't right. A bikini in a victorian environment is physically possible, but culturally taboo, unless you are in a house of sin. Only truly outrageous things should be penalized this way, but things shaped tend to confirm to local aesthetics, so if a character want's to maintain the decor and style of his homeland (or another foreign place), impose this modifier.

Bends local axiom

This thing won't really work in the local perception of reality, but this is subtle or concealed somehow. A phaser can look like a toy pistol to most observers, and an Ouija board just might have some divinatory powers. As long as there is a legend or myth that at least some people believe is real, it just bends axioms, it doesn't break them. UFOs and werewolves would be examples of reality bending today. A flying galleon might be considered reality-bending in the 17:th century, while a boomstick (gun) would bend reality in a fantasy reality (it might be just an unusual magic wand).

Reality-defying

Clearly at odds with reality, Basically, anything that obviously would not work, according to local perception. Floating castles and fire-breathing dragons would qualify today, while jet planes and computers would fit the bill in a fantasy world. The GM will often veto such a creation as too story and genre disruptive.

Alternate World-View

At this level, you can alter reality itself. You can locally alter a juncture modifier, or make water run upwards and people see in darkness instead of light. The changes possible at this level are so drastic that most people will either go insane, or just convince themselves of a new world-view to keep their sanity.

Beyond the pale

Reality is a morass of shifting perceptions, you can mold it like a kid plays with crayons. No form of reasonable limitations need be observed. Just smile and watch the funny lights.

Reality

Some realities are more resistant to change than others. In general, older, more populous worlds will be more resistant than recently created, small pocket-dimensions. But this depends on the campaign setup.

In the DnD cosmology of outer planes, the Reality factor is one for every plane you are removed from Limbo; +0 in limbo, +2 in Olympus or The Abyss, +4 in Hades, The Outlands or Elysium, +6 in Hell or The Seven Heavens and +8 in Mechanus. The inner planes are standard minor worlds at +9.

Virtual Reality

Some worlds are shaped by the user's perception right from the start. These include limbo, astral space and computerized virtual realities.

Netherworld

Netherworlds are basically unreal; they can be the borderland between different realities, or they are sub-realities within a larger reality. The netherworld, underworld, and the abyss are all examples of netherworlds. They are easy to shape, but generally lose form quite quickly.

Minor world

Pocket universe, domed worlds and astral realms, all categorize as minor worlds. Often with a definite outer limit, and an area small enough to be clearly observed, Minor Worlds often seem unreal. They are also often very strange, perhaps as the result of a powerful shaper who created his own "paradise".

Major world

This is your basic adventure world. In most campaigns, "reality" will be at least a major world. It is large, full of history, and complete in itself.

Hyper-reality

In many campaigns, there are some worlds that are more real than others. Core Earth in TORG and Roger Zelasny's Amber are both good examples. In these places, shaping is extra hard to use, and might have unforeseen consequences on other worlds as the domino effect spreads. Hyper-realities also tend to contain powerful personas, who don't appreciate when people mess with their world.

Multi-reality

Sometimes, you want to make a change in more than one place; you might want to change the name and color of all Redbirds to Bluebirds over a large stretch of reality (What, no Redbirds? Somebody already did this?). Such sweeping changes can affect a large number of worlds, but should not be attempted without the GMs active cooperation.