Magery, in the Adventure Role-play Gaming system, is understood to be the manipulation of preternatural energies to achieve effects in the natural world. In the World of Anghar, this force is called Xaris (pronounced CAR-iss), though other world settings will likely use other terms. More will be said about this force in the World of Anghar section.

When a mage performs a work of magery he is manipulating this energy into patterns called Schemas. It should be remembered, however, that magery is an art and not an exact science. Though there are a number of schemas that claim to give certain results, there is a wide margin for bizarre and unpredictable results. The preparations are often painstakingly tedious and the slightest deviation can spell trouble.

In the ARG system, magery is treated like a skill. Who can learn to use these skills depends on the world setting. In some "low magic" worlds, magery may be restricted to a few rare and especially talented individuals. In other worlds, magery may be restricted by race. For example, humans may not normally have any mage skills unless they have fae (fairy) blood.

The World of Anghar is a "high magic" world. Here everyone has the ability to learn at least a few mage skills. Even many peasant women know some useful little schemas to ensure the cow gives milk, the crops grow plentiful and to attract the eye of the man she loves. (Just think of medieval superstitions as if they really worked.)

In earlier versions of the magecraft system, we replaced the standard long spell list with a list of spell elements by which players could create their own spells. In this, somewhat, simplified version of the game we decided to treat schemas more like skills with each "sphere" of magery represented as a separate skill.

When a players wishes to invoke a schema, he simply tells the GR which schema he is invoking, the method he is using, and the target of the work. Then he makes a skill roll.

All schemas are divided into seven categories or "spheres". These are:

• Xaris--sometimes called the sphere of pure magery. This sphere includes all schemas of manipulating matter and energy that are not included in the following spheres. Mages who specialize in this sphere are often referred to as Wizards.
• Elements. This sphere involves the summoning, manipulation, and banishment of the four elements (Air, Fire, Stone and Water), the four anti-elements (Vacuum, Frost, Shadow and Salt) and the six para-elements (Smoke, Dust, Mist, Steam, Mud and Lava). (For more information on the elements see the World of Anghar section.) Mages who specialize in this sphere are often referred to as Elementalists or Elemental Wizards.
• Nature. This sphere involved the manipulation of weather, plants and animals. Because of the "miraculous" nature of their works, mages who specialize in this sphere are often referred to as Thaumaturges.
• Enchantment. This sphere involves instilling in objects (both living and not) characteristics and abilities they would not otherwise possess. A Mage who specializes in this sphere is often referred to as an Enchanter.
• Mysticism. This sphere involves all schemas that gather, use, transfer or obscure knowledge and information. Illusion is usually included in this sphere, though the practitioners of the next sphere also claim it as belonging to them. A mage who specializes in this sphere is often referred to as a Mystic, unless he specializes in Illusion in which case he may be referred to as an Illusionist.
• Spirit Mastery. This sphere is the realm of all schemas that involve the manipulation of other people's minds or spirits (whether living or dead). These schemas include charms (emotional manipulation), commands and illusions. A mage who specializes in this sphere is often referred to as a Sorcerer.
• Hieromancy/Necromancy. This sphere concerns the basic forces of life. These schemas include works of healing/harming, blessing/cursing, disease and poison curing/causing. A mage who specializes in this sphere may be referred to as a Hieromancer or a Necromancer depending on whether he focuses more on the positive or negative aspects of this sphere.

For every point a mage character spends on his Learn magic skill, he gets 1 SP to spend on a sphere of magery. Whether only one sphere, all spheres or just a few spheres are available to a player is left to the GR to decide. It will be based on both the mage customs for the world (or area) in which the game takes place and on that particular character's background. One option which may work for a general approach is to require a primary, secondary (and possibly) a tertiary sphere. If this approach is used, the character is not allowed to spend more points in a lower sphere than in a higher one.

Some suggested schemas are listed below under their respective spheres. Some schemas may be listed under more than one sphere (i.e. Bind Schema under both Xaris and Enchantment). Other schemas in one sphere may be very similar to schemas in another sphere. (For example, an elementalist may be able to alter an element "air" to enable one or more people to walk on it, while an enchanter might be able to enchant one or more people--or perhaps just their boots--to walk on air.) The differences may be slight, but appropriate to the sphere being invoked.

• Bind Schema to (Wand/Rod/Staff)
• Force
• Telekinesis
• Teleportation
• Mend/Tear
• Wish

• Alter Element (i.e. stone to sand)
• Create/Destroy Element
• Elemental Blast
• Purify Element
• Shape Element
• Transmute Element to para-element

• Command--Animal, Plant, Weather (limited area)
• Grow/Increase/Shrink/Decrease--Animal, Plant, Weather
• Hold--Animal, Plant, Weather
• Summon--Animal, Plant, Weather
• Turn--Animal, Plant, Weather

• Bind Schema to (Wand/Rod/Staff)
• Flight
• Increase/Decrease Attributes
• Polymorph
• Add/Remove Skills
• Unbind Schema
• Walk on solid (wall or ceiling), liquids, gas.

• Analyze
• Augury
• Clair-audience/voyance
• Detect/Hide (The more specific the information, the higher the cost.)
• Divination
• ESP
• History
• Locate
• Speak Other Language
• Speak with animal, plant, mineral, dead
• True Sight

• Alter Emotion (rage, fear, love...)
• Alter Perceptions (illusion)
• Command
• Remember/Forget
• Summon/Banish

• Cure/Cause Blindness
• Cure/Cause Disease
• Cure/Cause Wounds (cost 1/10% of MWL)
• Neutralize/Poison
• Purify/Putrefy food and drink
• Slow Poison
• Regeneration
• Resurrection/Death Command

When a player announces his character is invoking a schema, the GR must establish a difficulty level for that task--just as in any other skill. The GR may also simply declare some schemas off-limits to relatively inexperienced characters. (For example, a mage with only a few SP in Hieromancy may be able to heal some wounds, but not perform a full restoration or resurrection.) If the GR has very many of these limitations, he should draw up a list of SP requirements for various schemas.

With the exception of very powerful or complex schemas, the bulk of the schemas a mage is likely to attempt should be ranked on a scale of 1 to 10. The base value will be further modified by the casting method, power, range and duration attempted. In many cases, changing the cost and difficulty level of the schema may alter these parameters.

Once the modifiers are chosen, they are added to the schema's base rank, then multiplied by the method of invocation selected.

The final modified rank is the "cost" of a schema. When a schema is successfully invoked, its cost is added to the mage's Xaris level (XL). If the mage's XL has exceeded his Maximum Xaris Level (MXL) then the mage suffers a penalty (-1 for every point over) to his skill roll when invoking any further schemas.

There are a number of other factors that will also affect a schema's cost. The player may alter the normal power, range or duration of the schema. He may increase his chance of success by "pushing" the invocation and adding extra Xaris to the cost. The GR may also allow the player to choose certain advantages/disadvantages when invoking chosen schemas, or even take stunning or killing damage in exchange for lowering the difficulty level and/or cost.

All schema skill rolls are treated as "special" skill rolls--meaning that the final cost is added to 10 to determine that schema's difficulty level. If the target resists the effects of the schema, then additional factors will have to be added. If the schema's effects are physical in nature (a physical attack) then the defender can resist with either the Athletics or Endurance skills though the GR may wish to average in the defender's Spirituality attribute. If the attack is mental in nature, then Mentality and Personality might be averaged (with or without Spirituality). If the GR is using a horror genre, then a separate "will" or "sanity" skill might already be established.

No discussion of magery in an RPG would be complete without the mention of combat magic. Generally a rank 1 attack schema will do .25 damage and require the mage to touch his target either with his hand or with a wand, rod or staff. (If he uses the ritual method this rank is doubled, if talismanic, it is tripled.) Some possible modifiers, which might be considered when determining the rank of an attack schema, are:

Self--means the schema's effects only affect the mage invoking it.

Touch--means the schema only effects the person or object touched either with the hand, or a wand, rod or staff.

Projected--means the schema's effects start at the mage's location and shoot outward.

Ranged--means the schema's effects start at a pre-determined location somewhere away from the mage.

Area--includes ranged by default. The usual area starts at a 10-yard diameter sphere unless increased.

The form of the attack depends on the sphere being invoked. Some possibilities include:

While advanced mages may craft wand-like items with special powers, the primary purpose of a wand is to store schema. Any mage may create a wand. It is a long ceremony which culminates in an enchant skill roll against a Hard difficulty level. If the wand is crafted from any biological material other than from a living tree it is at a Very Hard difficulty level.

Up to 1 schema per point of Magery skill may be bound to a wand, however a wand can only hold multiple copies of one type of schema at a time. Once all the schemas are used, the mage must spend time and energy invoking new schemas into the wand. An enchant skill roll vs. an easy difficulty level must be made in order to prepare the wand to receive the schema(s). Then the schema must be successfully invoked before it can be bound to the wand.

A Xaris scroll contains powerful glyphs that will actually invoke a schema once a successful read magery skill roll is made and the triggering word(s) is spoken. The glyphs are destroyed when the schema is invoked, so if a mage wishes to learn the schema written on a Xaris scroll, he must first make a successful read magery skill roll and then an analyze magery roll to translate the glyphs. Once this is done he may attempt a write magery skill roll to copy the glyphs on a normal scroll in the language of the mages.

Like any skill, a mage's ability to invoke schemas improves with both practice and study. How EPs are used to modify schemas depends largely on how much detail the GR want to go into. EPs can be applied to individual schemas, or only to entire spheres. (If the GR allows advantages/disadvantages for individual schemas and maintains detailed lists of schemas, then EPs probably should be applied to individual schemas) Whatever approach is chosen, the 3 to 1 rule still applies: the 3^rd SP earned by a schema is applied to the entire sphere, the 3^rd SP earned by a sphere is applied to the Learn Magic skill and the 3^rd SP earned by the Learn Magic skill is applied to the Magery skill.