Environment (PW)
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| Starfox's Princess World |
Channelling Wild Magic
Even in the controlled lands magic is bizarre. Once you get into the deep wilds, woo! Forget about it. Super weird. Frontier kingdoms are shielded against the worst of it but even so, they are unavoidably places where there's a lot of uncontrolled wild magic around. This is represented by Chaos, a measure of just how weird things are getting in and around your frontier kingdom.
Chaos
Chaos increases in a number of ways. Strong emotions can increase Chaos, especially if a lot of people are feeling the same way, or if one particularly powerful individual (say, a princess) is in an emotional state. Messing around in the wild lands can increase Chaos, as can ignoring the wild lands and allowing elementals and other monsters to gather power (sort of a catch-22 situation there, to be honest). Disorder can increase Chaos. Even something as seemingly innocuous as an untidy room can have surprisingly serious consequences.
Elemental Explosions
Elementals are formed of highly compressed wild magic. When an elemental is destroyed all of that energy is released at once, increasing the Chaos of a nearby kingdom by the elemental's Tier. Nearby princesses may attempt to calm this explosion, rolling Weird against the elemental's Tier. Each level of effect reduces the Chaos increase by one, to a minimum of zero. Only one attempt may be made for each elemental, although other princesses can mark Weight to help the princess making the roll.
Chaos Sets The Stage
At the beginning of each session the GM should roll a number of dice equal to the kingdom's Chaos + Wild.
- Every 1 rolled indicates a possible weakening of the kingdom's shields. If this isn't
dealt with by the end of the session, reduce the kingdom's Shield by 1. Shield problems generally require a free time action to solve. Multiple shield problems might require multiple actions, or might be represented by a clock that must be filled. For example, if two 1s are rolled then the GM might create a four segment clock. If the princesses manage to fill this clock before the end of the session, their Shield will not decrease. Dealing with shield problems might also be the focus of this session's affair.
- Any 6s rolled indicate an abatement of Chaos; reduce the kingdom's Chaos
by one.
- Any set of doubles indicates a kingdom-wide wild magic surge, which can manifest in many different ways. See the Wild Magic Surge Examples section, or roll on
the random table in Appendix B (pg 109).
If the kingdom's shields are strong (Shield is higher than Land) then players may request for any of the dice to be rerolled.
Example: Stella's kingdom has a Chaos of 5, and strong shields. The GM rolls 2, 2, 1, 5 and 6. Stella asks for the 1 and one of the 2s to be rerolled, resulting in a 5 and a 4. There's still a wild magic surge (double 5s), but the shields aren't weakened and Chaos is reduced by 1 thanks to the 6.
If the kingdom's shields are weak (Shield is less than Land) then reroll all 6s once.
Example: Beka's kingdom has a Chaos of 4, and weak shields. The GM rolls 6, 3, 2, 4. They reroll the 6 and get a 3, resulting in a wild magic surge and no reduction in Chaos for the kingdom.
If Chaos ever reaches ten then the wild magic near the kingdom's borders has reached a crisis point. Reset chaos to zero and increase the kingdom's Wild by 1. In addition, trigger an extra powerful kingdom-wide wild magic surge as the raw chaotic forces find an outlet.
Wild Magic Surge Examples
The length that wild magic surge effects persist for is up to the GM. Generally they'll last a session or two, or until the princesses deal with them directly (possibly as an affair). If you're having trouble coming up with a wild surge, try looking at the projects the princesses have, their kingdom focus, their relations with factions and other kingdoms, and their goals. What would mess with those things?
If you're still coming up blank, or just want to embrace the chaos and roll for it, dozens of wild surge examples can be found Here.