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Whilst major battlefield magic does occur in massed battles on the world of Valon, especially elemental magic, it is the smaller trick magic used by individual soldiers with only a slight talent that concerns us here. These small spells are often useful for simple actions, such as opening locked doors or lighting small fires. To ascertain how many soldiers in your section have the talent for magic roll a D6. This gives you the number of your troop who have a magical talent. Exactly who has this ability should be decided randomly, perhaps by placing all the numbers of your section in a hat or envelope and pulling out as many numbers as the D6 score. The drawn numbers are the troops with the talent. But exactly what abilities do they have? This will depend on their individual status - Raw troops may only perform one spell, Average troops two and Experienced or Veteran three. Magic Spells To find out exactly what spell they each have roll a D100 for each and consult the following chart:
01-05%
| Heal: 1 Wound (own or another’s). | | 06-10% | Heal: 1 Wound (another’s only). | | 11-15% | Distort Appearance: -10% to hit when shot at. | 16-20%
| Steady Shot: +5% to Aimed Fire modifier | | 21-25% | Steady Nerves: Ignore result of first Morale Test. | | 26-30% | Speedy Flight: May run for two consecutive moves without a rest. | | 31-40% | Vault: Takes no time to cross a low wall and only half a move for a high wall. | | 41-50% | Mighty Vault: Takes no time to cross low or high wall. | 51-60%
| Smash: Open strengthened or normal door in one move. | | 61-80% | Push: Open normal door immediately. | | 81-100% | Ignite: Light small fire immediately. |
When a magically talented trooper gains another level of individual status experience level they also gain an extra spell, which should be diced for randomly. If an Average, Experienced or Veteran trooper rolls the same spell twice, roll again. If the second roll comes up with the same spell again then they lose that extra spell.
Replacement fighters for casualties should roll a D 10 to see if they have any magical talent and a score of 1 indicates that they have. Spells are ascertained in the normal fashion. Spells are recorded on the bottom of the Unit Roster. Using Magic The intention with Dresda is that the magical talents of a character can be used only once per turn, but during as many turns within the game as required. Only one spell per turn can be used by any one character. Magic can be used at any time during the turn sequence and takes half a move as an action. The only exception is Steady Shot which is used at the same time as the aiming of a weapon during aimed fire. However, as an option you may wish to restrict magic within the game and only allow talented characters to use each spell once during the game (or maybe D6 times). This makes the use of magic much more of a tactical challenge. Webmaster's Notes The above rules were first printed in the original Dresda rulebook in 1996 and they are included here with the kind permission of the authors. |
