Heavy Magic

            Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working very, very hard on Heavy Future, my sleezy 70s sci-fi campaign world. Today I thought I’d preview the spells and some of the magic items for the setting, since it will be running on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game engine, and in addition to the expected ‘hard tech’- stuff like lightsabers, blaster pistols, robots and hyper-drives, full 9-level spellcasting will be available.

            The spelllist is fairly complete as it stands, though I want to add a few more spells over the next couple weeks. I’m especially disappointed with the 9^th level spell selections- every ninth level spell in this preview is previously published, some in The Modern Grimorie, others in freelance projects I did for Louis and am ‘reclaiming’ under the OGL. I need to add a few more high level spells, unique to Heavy Future.

            However, I’m pleased with the lower level and utility spells. The spells really emphasize the fact I’m going for immature sleeze, building a game world purely around sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. They have a lot of flavor.

A few of the spells listed manipulate Pleasure- a deadly new energy type introduced in this sourcebook. I’ll explain that later, but in short, Pleasure weapons are sorta like the tasps in Larry Niven’s Ringworld universe, or Duran-Duran’s torture-organ in Barbarella- addictive psychic weapons that kill you by overloading your nervous system. Adding a new energy type to the game has really opened some interesting new design space- I’ve already added about a dozen Pleasure weapons, armor to counteract the new energy type, magic items based around the concept, and I’ll add some Pleasure-using monsters later.

           

By the way, I don’t expect to place a full Heavy Future Bestiary in the sourcebook…that will migrate to a stand alone release, due to the rapidly expanding page count of Heavy Future as is. This one’s going to be as big as Black Tokyo or Otherverse America’s Unlimited Editions!

            After my spell preview, take a look at the Magic Item chapter outline (at least as it stands this afternoon). Right now, there’s around 2 dozen magic items- I want to have at least 100 before I go to press, and might have as many items as I did in Black Tokyo Unlimited.

            Right now, I don’t have as clear a sense of cultural identity for the magic items as I did with Black Tokyo Unlimited. There, I could pull items from obscure myths or create something vaguely inspired by something I’ve read and stat it out. Easy. Heavy Future’s magic items are going to be a bit more scattered, I think…..

The goals I’ve had in mind for the magic items here are to be slightly vulgar, but more immature and lighthearted than the more explicitly sexual stuff in BTU. I’ve also wanted to parody a lot of sci-fi stuff… the Bacta Hot Tub magic item is a favorite because the idea of a bunch of stoned, skuzzy adventurers and assorted strippers hot-tubbing in this green healing goo is just hilariously 70s to me. I’m also going to be including more weapons than I did in BTU, I think. For BTU’s magic items, I made it a point to include relatively few magical guns, because Japan as a whole isn’t a big gun culture. Strike that, reverse that, and you’ve got Heavy Future. Expect tons of weird magic guns.

            Let me know what you think, and remember it’s all a work in progress.

            CHRIS

Zero Level

• Condom When You Need One (conjure a single condom or other prophylactic)
• Glow Kiss (share the effects of a Glow joint with a kiss)
• Laser Max (next attack with a laser does maximum Fire damage)
• On Tap (conjure a mug of tasty beer)
• Plasma Torch (a torch fire becomes plasma, able to burn in vacuum or underwater)
• Pocket Pills (conjure a single dose of nonprescription drug)
• Sexy Furover (restyle a felinoid’s pelt to grant a +1 bonus on sexually oriented Diplomacy checks for a day)
• Tit Show (turn armor and clothes transparent for one round, allowing you to activate abilities requiring nudity while wearing them)

First Level

• Atmos Field (low power forcefield prevents atmosphere from escaping a particular area)
• Bacta Bolt (non-positive energy healing bolt restores 1d6 + caster level HP, maximum 1d6 + 8)
• Bathroom Wall Wisdom (retry a failed Knowledge check at a +5 luck bonus thanks to useful bathroom graffiti, or make a simple gather information check)
• Bigoted Perception (craft an illusory disguise based on the mark’s prejudices)
• Erobot Trans (immediately alter an Erobot’s gender)
• Glam Guise (all creatures perceive you as sexually attractive)
• Neurogram (project a real time hologram of a sleeping creature’s dreams)
• Rockin’ Blast (musical blast inflicts 2d4 sonic and deafens target for 1 round)
• Stunning Orgasm (target suffers 1d6 Pleasure and is stunned for ½ that number of rounds, minimum 1 round)
• Summon Erobot’s Parts Shelf (briefly teleport a specific Erobot’s parts shelf and associated tech to your location)

Second Level

• Boarding Lock (create an airlock on the hull of a starship that lasts for 1 round/ level)
• Carnal Parasitism (one lover absorbs STR and CON bonus from their lover, becoming more powerful, as their lover weakens)
• Confused Violence (targets attack the creature in the Initiative order immediately after their intended target, which may be friend or foe)
• Gravity Acclimation (subject does not suffer skill, combat or movement penalties due to local gravity conditions, and is treated as having Zero G Training feat)
• Internal Fires (burn a target alive from the inside out)
• Love Not War (force target to resolve disagreements by a sexual competition, not through violence)
• Liar’s Blade (lie to make melee attacks with successful Bluff checks)
• Pacifician Consciousness (target receives +3 resistance bonus to all saves, which is lost if she  attacks)
• Rockin’ Blast, Hard (target suffers 2d4 + caster level sonic damage (maximum 2d4+20) and is either dazed for 1 round or deafened for 1d6 rounds)
• Shahteyan Puberty (female subject gains +2 WIS and CON temporarily, plus an awesome bush)
• Sex Stink (cloud of sex and incites lust, imposes a -2 penalty on INT and WIS checks and some WILL saves for those inside it)
• Tripglow (beam of black light blinds target for 1 round and has one of several lingering effects)

Third Level

• Ballistic Crucifixion (while immobile, you are struck with multiple ranged attacks, but inflict Pleasure damage to all creatures within 100 ft equal to the damage you suffer)
• Breath of Ecstasy (breath weapon dazes target for one round and imposes -2 penalty on all rolls due to lingering pleasure for several rounds)
• Emergency Space Suit (summon a magical space suit as a swift action)
• Expository Geomorph (conjure a glowing, multifaceted crystal that answers your questions)
• Luck of Heroes (opponents have difficultly confirming critical hits against you)
• Robotic Logic (target gains +2 INT, become immune to mind influencing effects and receives bonus vs. illusions, but becomes emotionless and uncreative)

Fourth Level

• Breath of Wasps (summon multiple wasp swarms as a strange breath weapon)
• Copperblast (target is wrapped in molten copper, which slows them and renders them Vulnerable to Electrical damage)
• Deadly Pleasures (target suffers steadily increasing Pleasure damage for multiple rounds)
• Edge of Mars (blood red forceblade inflicts 2d6 force damage; forego massive critical hit multiplier damage to inflict either panic or 1d4+1 points of CON damage on the victim)
• Electric Ladyland (female allies gain combat bonuses related to speed and electricity)
• Fold Space (declare yourself adjacent to a target regardless of actual distance between you)
• Gynoid Form (become a seductive chrome combat robot)
• Orgasm Mine (target suffers 2d4 Pleasure per round, or 3d6 + 1d6 fire/two levels if it resists the pleasure damage)
• Pirate’s Registration (starship is wrapped in an illusion that conceals its ID with forged registration and ELINT information)
• Shahteyan Puberty, Mass (as Shahteyan Puberty, but affects multiple creatures)
• Ship’s Tendrils (create enormously strong, metallic tendrils from the hull of your starship)

Fifth Level

• Confused Violence, Mass (as Confused Violence but affects 1 creature / level)
• Flamesoul (your soul is temporally linked to elemental fire, granting Fire immunity and flaming defenses)
• Pacifician Battlefield (create a rainbow lit area where lethal damage is converted into status effects like blindness or paralysis at the moment of impact)
• Ravages of Time (age objects to ruin)
• World Goes Liquid (objects and structures within a huge area pulse, move and push or pull towards or away from you based upon your sexual motions)

Sixth Level

• Alien Hand (transform your hand into a mass of tentacles that deal 1d8+ STR bludgeoning damage and paralyze for 1d4+1 rounds)
• Anthropomorphize the Problem… And Fuck It (replace any skill check with a DC up to 20 + caster level with a DC 15 Perform (sexual) check instead)
• Disco Grenade (targets dance uncontrollably, becoming helpless, dropping held objects and failing saves against Sonic spells and effects)
• Electrocutie (become a beautiful Electrical avatar, capable of flight, energy blasts and healing by absorbing electrical damage)
• Eugenics War (cone of energy inflicts 2d6 points of fire damage and blindness/ 1 round per point of negative ability score modifiers)
• Ghost Blood (become intangible and ghostlike)
• Infernal Rock & Roll (create a spherical area where Sonic damage is maximized, lawful, good and Silent spells are impeded,  and chaotic and evil summoned creatures gain new attacks)
• Pacifician Consciousness, Mass (as Pacifician Consciousness, but affects 1 creature / level)
• Swashbuckler’s Suicide (attacks on subject are resolved as touch attacks, armor penalties vanish, but subject can make a free attack against any adjacent attacker and receives luck bonuses for being outnumbered)

Seventh Level

• Outshatter (dimensional vibrations destroy Outsiders, starting with their bones)
• Painful Confession (target helplessly confesses their sins, suffering physical pain for each recalled sin)
• Silver Future (nearby allies are sheathed in silver that provides +3 AC, acts as a space suit and their attacks are considered Silver and Lawful for 1 minute/ level)  
• Skull Rocket (create ectoplasmic missile that inflicts 1d6 negative energy per caster level (maximum 10d6) and summons 1 skeleton for 5 points of damage inflicted)
• Warp Envelope (shunt a single starship into hyperspace for a single journey)

Eighth Level

• Aeons Crash Down (destroy a target’s sanity by forcing it to experience millions of years of time in a few seconds)
• Nuke The Site From Orbit (expose an area several hundred meters in diameter to 20d10 fire damage with no saving throw, and leave the site radioactive for months)
• Surf the Nebula (liquid silver coats the caster’s body, rendering him immune to deep space conditions and granting phenomenal in atmospheric and space flight capability)

Ninth Level

• Early Dawn (alter local reality so that sunrise occurs immediately)
• Exile to the Outer Void (teleport a victim to intergalactic space and trap it there)
• Lesser Moon (summon a planetoid into close orbit that has severe gravitic and mystical effects)
• Madburst (psychedelic tac-nuke damages targets, animates objects randomly and drives creatures insane)
• Omniversal Awareness (gain total knowledge of the cosmos and limited prescience)
• Seal the Body (completely seal shut all orifices on the bodies of multiple targets)

Tenth Level (epic)

• Planet Killer (target world and all inhabitants suffers more than 30,000 points of various energy damage)

Heavy Magic Items

Magic items here have both a GP value and a Purchase DC. The item’s Purchase DC was calculated by converting the item’s GP cost to modern wealth using a 1 GP: 1 US dollar : 1 standard galactic credit ratio. Not too precise, but it works.

               

Wondrous Items

(Cn) indicates a consumable item

1. Astronaut Ice Cream(Cn)
2. Bacta Hot Tub
3. Bailout Ring
4. Dino Disk (Cn)
5. Satanic Panic Button
6. Soylent Rations (Cn)
7. Space Breather
8. Telepathic Amplifier
9. Unitrans Ring

Magic Weapons

1. Dom Gun
2. Green Wasp Disintegrator Blaster
3. Ironsaw Rocker
4. Love Gun
5. Maternal Ribbon
6. Murder Maxxer
7. Reentry Pistol
8. Shahteyan Particle Katana
9. Sub Gun

Magic Armor and Costuming

1. Dead Astronaut’s Suit
2. Gynoid’s Wig (lesser)
3. Gynoid’s Wig (greater)
4. Pacifician Starsuit
5. RoxWitch’s Hat
6. Scornful Furs

Minor Artifacts

1. Extinction Blade

Heavy Artifacts

            Nothing yet….but I’ve got a few ideas…..