Rune Mark questions/clarification

C&C discussion. Fantasy roleplaying.
New products, general questions, the rules, laws, and the chaos.
Post Reply
monkeybars
Henchman
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2021 4:05 pm

Rune Mark questions/clarification

Post by monkeybars »

Not sure if there's already a thread for this; I couldn't find one. Just looking for a bit of clarification on questions that have come up while playing a Rune Mark.

Spell Resistance?
In the Runic Magic section (pg. 87 of the Adventurer's Backpack), it states "Spell resistance does not work against the power of a rune." But many of the entries for the runes have "SR yes". Has there been any official statement on this? More than anything this feels like it really needs clarification.

Losing rune use on failed checks?
If a Rune Mark fails the attribute check on using a rune, does that count as a use? I can't find anywhere it states yes or no.

Duration of Marking rune?
The Marking rune is listed as having a duration of permanent, but the text states "The runes last for as many turns as the rune mark levels."

Range on Rending rune?
The text for the Rending rune states "Any item upon which rending is inscribed...", but it has a range of 10 ft./lvl. In Using the Runes (pg. 87), it says "To release the power of a mastered rune the rune mark inscribes the rune with their finger or with a stylus if they so choose on the ground or some physical object." I'm not sure how to parse these requirements with the range listed. Does the range only apply when the Rune Mark is 6th level and can trace runes in the air? And if that's the case, how does this requirement interact with runes that have a range of touch?

Protection of Shielding rune?
The text for the Shielding rune states "The extra-dimensional space shields the caster’s body from physical and magical damage...", but the next line says "The shield can absorb 10 hit points +1 hit point per level of physical damage on any energy-based attack, including lightning bolt, fireball, magic missile, magic arrow, etc." Should it be "or any energy-based attack"?

User avatar
mgtremaine
Ulthal
Posts: 532
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:00 am
Location: San Diego, Ca
Contact:

Re: Rune Mark questions/clarification

Post by mgtremaine »

These are all great question... Sorry thus far no one has chimed in. I've never used the Rune Mark so I'm pretty clueless. My gut on the SR question is ignore the blanket statement and use the SR No/Yes per rune. SR should be pretty hard to overcome by Magic regardless of the form.

-Mike

monkeybars
Henchman
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2021 4:05 pm

Re: Rune Mark questions/clarification

Post by monkeybars »

mgtremaine wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 3:42 pm
These are all great question... Sorry thus far no one has chimed in. I've never used the Rune Mark so I'm pretty clueless. My gut on the SR question is ignore the blanket statement and use the SR No/Yes per rune. SR should be pretty hard to overcome by Magic regardless of the form.

-Mike
Just to update this, there was clarification from Stephen Chenault in his AMA on Reddit, and Runic Magic is not impacted by SR: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/r ... l/hnitj82/

User avatar
mgtremaine
Ulthal
Posts: 532
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:00 am
Location: San Diego, Ca
Contact:

Re: Rune Mark questions/clarification

Post by mgtremaine »

Ah ha! Thanks for posting the answer.

-Mike

User avatar
Captain_K
Greater Lore Drake
Posts: 2747
Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:37 pm
Location: North Coast

Re: Rune Mark questions/clarification

Post by Captain_K »

As a player for years, heck decades now, a Norwegian-American proud of history and that style of play... I just cannot make the runes work all that well. Trust me I tried in 2ed too. Unfortunately the CnC write up of too many are too vague and in some cases nuts. As you are finding out, the errors or problems occur in darn near every cool rune... check out the rune "Threads" there are more contradictions in there than a Kobold Paladin on a flying hippopontamus. As a mechanical engineer, the errors in units and details are tough to let slide. The mechanics of runes in general do not mesh all that well with the existing spells either. If you are going to do this, I strongly suggest carefully reading each rune your player is going to use, retyping them on your own, and agreeing with the PC how you will allow each rune to work and expect this to be an iterative process. Likely in play you will have to tweak this, but as you play, you and the player will or could make a great working system and have a great time doing it, but on the flip side, that is a ton of work neither of you might enjoy. I was in the middle of that with one PC Runecaster, he was a great player with endless imagination, I'm a tad specific and I like things sort of tidy and by the rules.. together, we were getting places, slowly, but he dropped out of the game and his PC went back to the North and took Rune magic with him. The CnC world and the old Norse use the powers of Runes, Odin hung himself on THE tree to gain runes.. so they have history, great opportunity, but you may need to be a God (or a have a god's patience) to figure out how to use them propperly.

Send me a PM and I will email you what I started and give you more thoughts... call it your Xmas present from me. I would be happy to work with you to try to fix some of this.
But in the end, I fear, you will need to figure these out one Rune at a time. The adventurer's back pack has the most recent write ups, the old Norse Codex I think was their start... the old 2nd Ed DnD has some starts and old histories have the original Odin's gained Runes.

To take my stab at your questions:
Basic rules for me: Magic, be it divine or archaic, works in the "real" world and on each other, rune magic is older, but should be similar (IMHO), so SR should work in general, but there may be specific runes designed to defeat SR. Keep in mind, the creation of the rune may not be foiled by a creature with SR, but at the same time, said creature may not be affected. So the Rune is cast, SR or no, but the creature keeps his personal protection. Keep in mind, SR is not very common in CnC I think.
Runemarks have few runes per day and limits to those active at one time, the roll should not be too tough, so I would say, if you fail, you use that rune cast that day. You can try again if you have another open chance that day.
Your next three issues are as I generalize, sloppy details you will need to fix as you see fit.
Cheers, Captain K
Wow, Another Natural One! You guys are a sink hole for luck. Stay away from my dice.

Post Reply