#mtg rpg

I made a Magic the Gathering RPG. And while I was playtesting with some college friends. I made the colors with specific motivations that were in opposition to eachother, just like in the actual game. In the playtest, I think it took about 30 minutes for the Planeswalkers to throw down, pick teams and start fighting eachother over their beliefs.

Also, if you want a suggestion for how mana works (if not then just ignore this paragraph), maybe something similar to like how mp/pp works in JRPG’s? Where like each ability costs X mana but you gain back Y mana each turn?

Howdy there anon!

That's pretty much what I landed on! The challenge I ran into though, was how to manage there being five distinct colours, of which someone can use only one or all five. I didn't want trivialise mana as a resource by saying that you just get mana of the colour you want each turn, nor did I want to do what MTG video game adaptations have done, where you start with no mana and get mana back each turn, as while that IS how the card game works, it doesn't play as well in RPGs --- namely because it means encounters take FOREVER to get to the good part.

So what I did was bake the colours of magic you use into character creation. You choose your colours of magic at the same time you choose your tribe, class, and background. Unlike these other elements you can change your mana affinities later, however, doing so is *supposed* to be a big deal.

In actual gameplay, you begin each day with an amount of mana equal to your magic score. Magic is a score like Strength or Dexterity, though I'm retiring the idea of score vs. modifier for this d20 run, so it'll range from -3 to +5. (Sidenote; this assumes you can play a non-magic using character, even though I'm not really planning on write rules for them). Note: that as you gain levels you can increase your magic score to get more mana, but that as this is an RPG magic isn't everything (so be wise when deciding how much of your energy to sink into magic).

Whenever you use a spell or magical ability, you expend mana. Mana costs are written in the same way they are in the card game, calling for a certain amount of coloured mana and (usually) a booster of mana that can be any colour. Lightning bolt, for example, might cost 1 red mana but fire ball might call for 2 red and any amount of other mana to increase the size of the explosion.

Once you spend mana, it regenerates rather slowly. At the start of each turn that you don't have a full mana pool, you can roll to get mana back. Do this, you roll a d20 for each colour you have access to, in an order you choose. The DC is equal to a base, set by the number of colours you use, minus your magic score (so that the more powerful you are, the more likely you are to get mana back)

The base table is:

Use 1 colour = get mana back on 12 or higher.

Use 2 colours = mana back on 16 or higher.

Use 3 colours = mana back on 17 or higher.

Use 4 colours = mana back on 18 or higher

Use 5 colours = mana back on 19 or higher.

You roll until you have a full pool of mana again or until you've rolled once for each colour, whichever comes first. If you roll a natural 20 you get 2 mana back instead.

If you need/want more mana than you would regain by this method, what you can do is use one of your 3 actions each turn (Pathfinder 2e style) to try rolling again. This is called a channeling check. You can gain more mana than your normal maximum by channeling, though you can only ever have mana equal to twice your magic score, and mana in excess of your magic score is lost at the end of each encounter.

And that's mana! I've also figured out the rules for spells (cause by GOD I am not using Spell Slots) but this post is long enough!

Imagine if there was a huge boy who talked like macho man randy savage who’s main goals were partying and fighting who was also a planeswalker. These are his tales Threw a building at an zorius cop, got a critical fail, got detained. Visited in prison by Boros Angel, offered release if he swears a magical oath to obey. 

They put him on the wall as the gruul hords pull up with a giant wurm to attempt to break down the wall for the millionth time. Leon proceeds to use his super strength to leap onto the wurm and wrangle it, riding into the rubblebelt sunset before anyone can react. Can’t be compelled to fulfill your oath if you can’t hear what the angels are saying because you’re riding a wurm at mach fuck through buildings

One visit with a Gruul cursebreaker later, a newly oathless Leon comes riding back to the wall, leaps off the back of the wurm, crashing it into the wall and breaking a hole, and punches the angel who attempted to shackle him into a building with a critical success and planeswalks away.