Spells and Magic

[sean]

Magic is an integral part of almost any fantasy genre game, and Eternal Dungeon is no exception.  Several different character types in Eternal Dungeon will have access to spells, which allow them to perform a variety of feats.

The base spell casting mechanism is quite simple.  Each character will begin the game with a fixed number of spells, each of which is represented by a spell card.  The spell card notes the spell type (each magic-using character uses a different type of spell), the spell name, and the effect.

Players with spell-casting characters keep all of their spell cards laid out in front of them during player.  All uncast spell cards are laid face up.  Spell cards which have already been cast are flipped face down, and may not be used again for the rest of the adventure.

During a player's turn, the player may opt to cast a spell instead of attacking or searching.  When a spell is cast, the player reads the spell name, the effect, and denotes the target of the spell.  Once the results are determined, the spell card is flipped face down.

The actual spells a player starts the adventure with can vary.  Each character has a set of available spells, but can only have a limited number of spells per game session; usually three to five.  The player must pick which spells he wishes to bring before play begins.

That is all there is the actual spell casting mechanics.  Most of the rules come by way of the actual spell effects.

Each spell has a target, which may be a room/tile or a specific ally or enemy.  Some spells may be limited by line of sight while others can target any spot on the currently revealed dungeon.  These different targeting rules are one of the primary differentiators between different character types.  The Bard character type has spells which affect all allies or all enemies on the same dungeon tile as the character, for example.  The Wizard's spells are able to affect any spot on the revealed game board.  Other character types will usually be limited to line of sight spells, but there will be exceptions.

The actual effect is always something simple which can be described in a few sentences on the spell card.  Examples would be basic damage spells (which mimic attacking with a weapon), healing spells, turn altering spells (like allowing a comrade to take an extra turn, or making a foe lose a turn), and combat modifiers.  There will be no spell effects which span multiple turns.

That sums up all of spell casting.  I'll detail more of the actual spell effects in the articles describing the individual character types.