Invoke: Rank 0

Rank 0 Invoke

(Difficulty 15)

"I Experience"

This rank of Invoke is used for perception and luck rolls—essentially, the player asks, "Do I see something? Does something good happen?"

Let's begin with perception.

The three standard uses of perception, all of which are based on Invoke and with a rudimentary difficulty of 15, are as follows:

• Generic looking around to see what impinges automatically on one's consciousness;
• Targeted examination of an object, person, or thing;
• Detection of an impending but un-hidden threat.

This can be an automatic action, where the GM calls for a roll and provides the free action with which to take it. It can also be a conscious act of observation on the character's part, using a free action. The latter generally gives more information than the former. In both cases, however, the GM gives out exactly as much information as the GM deems reasonable/wants to give. Player-driven acts of observation require slower Attributes such as Praxis or Magic. A 15+ denotes success: the GM describes something in the world. On a roll of 14-, the character is oblivious, and this may be played up for comic or dramatic effect.

The standard use for a luck roll, again based on Invoke and with a rudimentary difficulty of 15, is

• Is something going to go horribly wrong? (e.g.:
• There's a small possibility that things could go wrong. Will they?
• This is going unexpectedly well. Will fate step in?)

It's almost always an automatic action, since players don't usually have reason to tempt fate. A 14- means that something does in fact go horribly wrong. 15+ avoids this possibility.

Don't use Invoke to check for an amazing stroke of good luck—Invoke calls upon the likely and natural. If you want to see whether something goes amazingly, unexpectedly right, use the Fairy Fortune rules.

Invoke: Rank 1

Rank 1 Invoke

(Difficulty 18)

"I Act"

This rank of Invoke allows for the reflexive unleashing of emotion, reaction, and power on the world. This is the proper rank of effect for catching something thrown at you, sharing a first kiss, shouting down an enemy, and calling upon your fairy nature to act upon the world.

Rank 1 Invoke is a primal mode of action. It manifests a single impulse; it has no place in it for higher-order goals; it has no guarantee of success. Instead, rolling an 18+ guarantees that you've put your full strength, speed, heart, or whatever into it; rolling anything less means that you hesitated, goofed, or just weren't at your best.

The calling for this rank of Invoke is a description of your character or their current mental state—something, presumably, relevant to what you're intending to do. For instance, suppose someone throws a ball at your character's head. You want to catch it. You could invoke any of the following callings:

• Calling: "I'm athletic."
• Calling: "I'm not putting up with that today."
• Calling: "It's groovy, it's groovy."
• Calling: "I guard what is given me."
• Calling: "Not for nothing have I trained among the ball-throwing mountain yeti for seven years!"

Before following this up with

• Action: "I grab the ball out of the air."

Inchoate and Formal Actions

Many of the actions you take during a game of Fairies are inchoate—they have no specific system motivation or form. For instance, your character might go around doing daily chores and looking up information on the web while amidst a telephone conversation with someone else: most of the time, most of what you're doing there (and certainly 99% of the individual sentences you say on the phone) have no game mechanics associated with them.

If the GM asks you to roll for something you're doing, or otherwise makes it mechanical, then it's become a formal action. Most of the time, if an action goes from inchoate to formal, it's a rank 1 Invoke effect: if you roll 18+, you put your best foot forward, and if you roll 17-, you . . . don't.

What if putting your best foot forward isn't enough?

That usually means you actually want to be consciously taking an action of a higher rank or a different Attribute. Either accept failure or talk to the GM about what you should be doing instead.

Fairy Power

Each fairy type has a set of callings that are suited to invoking their magical nature. When you want to reflexively do something magical, you use such a calling. The action is then something that you can cause to happen through a relatively unfocused and primal application of that power. This will probably still be a little more sophisticated and complicated, when it comes to describing it, than most Invoke 1 actions, simply because English doesn't have basic kinesthetic vocabulary for fairy magic actions.

For example, for summerkin, the standard callings are:

• I am things turning out all right;
• I am things being OK;
• I am a power of safety;
• I move with this, flow with this, make its motion my own;
• I help these things move together.

And an example rank 1 invocation is:

• Calling: "I am things turning out all right."
• Action: "The plane may be plummeting furiously towards a nuclear silo, but seriously, don't panic. We'll figure something out!"

Invoke: Rank 2

Rank 2 Invoke

(Difficulty 19)

Operational Invocation

This rank of Invoke lets you use things in the world to facilitate action and to accomplish effects. This is the proper rank of effect for using cars, weapons, libraries, and charts; for drawing on established techniques and spells; and for reacting to points of possible leverage in the world around you.

For example, you might conclude that the center of some magical effect is the pulsing reddish mini-star that is hovering in the vault behind an enemy's office. This conclusion could be an actual part of the is, or just something that you believe. Either way, you could use it as your calling, and then draw upon that calling to act:

• Calling: "[I think] the center of the spell is here —"
• Action: "So I can break it!"

As another, more mundane example, you could decide to fly to Phoenix to visit your grandparents. While it might be possible to conjure up some magical wings, or separate out your fairy self to visit them while leaving your mortal body behind, the simplest solution is to take an airplane:

• Action: "I wish to fly to Phoenix—"
• Calling: "So I'll take a plane!"

The standard etiquette for this is to list the calling first if it's weird or unusual, but you can list it first, second, or not at all if you're doing something totally mundane.

Rank 2 Invoke is a free instant action.

Once you've used this rank of Invoke, the GM performs a sanity check. First, if the calling is obviously wrong, or the action makes no sense given the calling, the GM tells you so, summarizes why, and cancels your action. You get your available free action back, or (if you spent an MP to obtain that available free action) the MP you spent to obtain it.

If the calling and action pass this sanity check, then your character commits to the action. Make your Invoke roll. (If you were over-eager and rolled before the GM confirmed that your action was sane, use the roll you already made.) It has a standard difficulty of 19, and the normal outcome on success is that your action and its outcome become an immediate part of what is. The normal outcome on failure is that your action becomes an immediate part of the would have been.

That said, this is an invocation, and the outcome of your action is irrevocably tangled up in the tools you're using and the background of experience. There are three cases in which your action can fail to shape the is, even on a successful roll.

First, if another character interferes with your action before it completes—e.g. using the Mist Attribute to interrupt you, or spending enough MP to give an Invoke- or Praxis-based action priority—then the success downgrades one level. Success places your action in the would have been; failure, in the might have been. An example is someone Misting away the airport as you go to board a plane; suddenly, the travel plans under consideration take on an air of quixotic futility.

Second, as an occasional thing, the GM may declare a failure by fluke of fate. This should happen rarely—perhaps 10% of the time, with Operational Invocations that would otherwise succeed. It's up to the GM to preserve a maximal sense of either fairness or randomness here while also serving the needs of the game.

Third, the action may face an unexpected hitch. This gives it a reduced effect in the now—creating a would-have-been instead of an is, or a might-have-been rather than a would-have-been, but carries with it an implicit suggestion that should the character overcome the obstacle, future attempts at the action will succeed. One example is the character reaching the airport to discover that they have been placed on the no-fly list; another is the GM being overall willing to believe that the character has the funds and organization necessary to catch a flight, but requiring some additional steps of planning and description from the player in order to believe it. As a general rule, when a plan encounters such a hitch, the GM explains the issue, denies the action (reducing the effect as described above), and—if the player's Invoke roll succeeded—offers a +1 bonus to one rank 2 Mist, Invocation, or Praxis effect made in the near future to resolve this issue.

Here's an example exchange:

• Player: "I want to fly to Phoenix—so I'll take a plane."
• GM: "Roll, then. Difficulty 19."
• Player: "22!"
• GM: "Alas, you're on the no-fly list."
• Player: "WHAT DID MOM DO THIS TIME?"
• GM: "Hee hee. You don't know."
• Player: "OK, I'm going to burn an MP to get another free action, call home, and try to figure out a different way to get myself there."
• GM: "Roll! Difficulty 19, +1 bonus."
• Player: "Alas, all I have is one seven. 17."
• GM: "Well, that would have worked, except you don't reach anybody."
• Player: "I bet Buckaroo Banzai's kids don't have to deal with stuff like this."

Invoke: Rank 2: Spells

Rank 2 Invoke

(Difficulty 19)

. . .

[details of how to use rank 2 of the Invoke Attribute go here.]

. . .

Spells

A spell is magic in structured form. Thus a blizzard spell, which conjures up a blizzard or some element of winter, is a spell — but so is a knife that can cut anything, a martial arts stance that is as immovable as a mountain, a smile that can win any heart, and a rune that you can draw to engage various effects.

Each spell is symbolic. That is, it does not have one specific effect; rather, it has a symbolic meaning that a fairy can channel to various ends. The blizzard spell is also a spell that can ice over a walkway, conjure snow into a friend or enemy's pants, and bring a crisp stillness to the air. An immovable martial arts stance is generally just used for fighting without being knocked out of place, but if it's, say, Mountain Style Kung Fu, then you'll explain your specific moves and the GM will judge their quality based on mountain imagery — "he exhausts himself fighting me, it's like punching a mountain" or "I'm using the Oxygen Exhaustion substyle — the longer she fights me, the harder it is to breathe!" That means that it's also OK to have very generic spells like the ability to draw things and have them come to life (that's what drawing is symbolically all about), or a flexible healing spell that can handle anything from physical and mental wounds to spackling a wall.

Characters have access to a number of spells equal to their Invoke Attribute, and can change which spells these are over time. There's a couple of ways in which you can create and temporarily maintain new spells in play, which doesn't fall under this rule — even somebody with Invoke 0 can do magical research and make a spell to solve some specific problem — and sometimes if circumstances allow you can draw on the spells of other fairies around you. However, your "arsenal" of spells, the effects you'll use repeatedly, is that set you maintain based on your Invoke.

Invoking a spell requires rank 2 Invocation, so the standard difficulty is 19. Each has a set of callings associated with it, e.g.,

• Chalk of Living Forms:
• What I draw is made manifest;
• This chalk embodies the tendency of true things to define themselves with form.

"What I draw is made manifest; I summon up an army from the chalk figures on the ground."

• Endless Mountain Stance:
• I am vast, like the mountains;
• I am unmoving, like the mountains;
• I am strong as the stones.

"I am vast, like the mountains. Your water style crashes against me and fades away!"

• Knife that Cuts Anything:
• This knife, it severs;
• This knife, it wounds;
• This knife, it divides two forms.

"This knife, it severs. I cut the wall apart."

• Knife that Embodies Good:
• This knife is virtue;
• This knife is the triumph of the good and right;
• This knife brings an end to sorrow.

"This knife is the triumph of the good and right. I stab the vending machine slot and it gives me the drink I paid for."

• Rune of the Raven:
• I draw raven's rune on [something] [to imbue it with raven's power];
• I find wisdom with raven's rune;
• I call ravens with raven's rune;
• I free the mind to fly on raven's wings.

"I draw raven's rune on this textbook so that my homework can learn subtlety."

• Snow Spell:
• I weave the spell into coldness;
• I weave the spell into wetness;
• I weave the spell into winter;
• I weave the spell into slipping on ice;
• I weave the spell into bundling up warm;
• I weave the spell into the icicle and the avalanche;
• I weave the spell into the concealing blizzard.

"I weave the spell into the concealing blizzard; I step into it and I am gone from their sight."

• Winning Smile:
• I enchant with my smile;
• I brighten with my smile;
• I change the flow of events with my smile;
• I radiate warmth and gladness. Ting!

"I enchant with my smile, and the hungry wolf realizes that it isn't so hungry after all. Then we frolic!"

To invoke a spell, use one of its callings. Then name your action — something you are doing by calling on that power. Finally, make an Invoke roll (against, typically, the standard difficulty of 19.)

The GM first judges your calling. If you're using a standard calling for the spell then this is not an issue. If you're needing to embroider things a bit, because none of the standard callings quite fit, then it's up to the GM to decide whether the calling works at all. The usual answer is yes, but if it's no, then you have wasted your action — at best, the whole thing flows into the might have been.

Then the GM determines whether your action is reasonable or excessive. If you push the boundaries of your spell too far, your action can fail on those grounds: essentially, you call up the power, and channel it towards your end, but your end is not accomplished. It's also possible for someone to interrupt you, e.g. with the Mist Attribute, to block an action that the GM would otherwise have allowed.

If you succeed on the roll, and the GM allows your action, and nothing actively intervenes, then your action instantly becomes a part of what is. If you fail on the roll, but everything else checks out, or if you succeed on the roll but the GM decides that it doesn't work (possibly due to another player's intervention), then it becomes part of the would have been. If you fail and it wouldn't have worked anyway, it falls into the might have been.

So if you are using your snow spell in a fairly standard fashion — to cover the campus with ice — and you succeed on the roll, your invocation succeeds. You've covered the campus with ice. If you fail the roll or if someone counters your spell in some fashion, then you don't quite manage it — you would have covered the campus with ice. If you're trying to use your snow spell to warm things up ("heat transfer, don't you know") and the GM finds that excessive, and you roll an 18 to boot — well, practically nothing happens at all. Maybe you might have been able to heat things up, you know, maybe, if you were a better mage?

If you need to change your selection of spells, you have two options. One is to seek the GM's permission to trade out one spell you know for another you want to master or create, and wait until something the GM considers to be a good time — often, "between stories." The other is to find or create a new spell in the course of the game; at this point, you can abandon one of your old spells in the new spell's favor. Developing new spells and maintaining access to spells that are outside your typical portfolio are under the aegis of the Magic Attribute and are a certain specialty of the watch-fey.