Wizard City Character Creation Guide

With the conclusion of my previous campaign and the freeing up of space, I do believe I am now ready to playtest this puppy I've been working on called Wizard City.

Ladies, gentlemen, and brains-in-jars, we shall be using the GLOG!

WIZARD CITY CHARACTER CREATION

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Welcome to the second ever Wizard City campaign! (I can’t take credit for the first, Anne beat me to it!) This right here is a guide for making your first, second, and potentially last characters for the campaign.

WHICH GLOG???

We will be using Skerples’ Many Rats on Sticks of the GLOG.

LIMITATIONS

1. Available races (pg. A-10): Human. No others.

2. Only Wizard Templates may be selected, at least at first. No exceptions. All Wizards within the Rat on a Stick Edition ruleset are automatically allowed, and any other GLOG Wizards that use the MD mechanic are allowable with GM approval (just toss me a link over Discord and I’ll see if it’s kosher for this campaign).

CREATION SPECS

1. All characters begin the game with 2d6 Spellgold. 

(See: Spellgold, below.)

2. All characters have a STUDENT LOAN MORTGAGE worth 2d6x500sg (spellgold), which means your soul is presently reserved by the Fiduciary Lich in the Bank Inerrable, and if you should die before paying back the loan your soul goes right to the bank. This was the cost of tuition in Wizard City.

SETTING SPECIFICS

INTRODUCTION

You are a freshman at the University of Chronulus, Wizard City - a city full of wizards. Wizard City is a dangerous place, especially for a student such as yourself. You will be expected to brave many hazards during your undergraduate experience, and it’s more than likely several things will attempt to kill you during your studies.

Wizard City is a large and strange place, full of wizard criminal gangs, magi-oligarchs, mad scientists, half-robots, and poor students like yourself. Many students never survive to graduate, and even fewer decide to continue their studies beyond that. As a student, you are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of power: everyone sees you as a disposable asset. However… You are a wizard! Even weak wizards can be dangerous.

What follows is a list of questions for you to consider, with the help of the GM, when determining aspects of your character.

WHAT MAJOR AM I TAKING?

Your studies will be a reflection of what Wizard templates you choose to take. This is largely up to you to determine, and for you to coordinate with the GM. What your major/templates are will determine which University Department you primarily interact with.

Don’t fret too much about trying to match your class with a Department.

d20	Department	Spell Examples
1	Torture	Wracking Pain, Heat Metal
2	Medicine	Cure Wounds, Raise Dead
3	Familiars	Summon Familiar, Unseen Servant, Animal Messenger
4	Tongues	Speak with Animals, Bookspeak
5	Reality	Minor Illusion, Clone
6	Accounting	Locate Object, Detect Crime
7	Circles	Circle of Protection, Explosive Symbol
8	Venoms	Poison Spray, Hands to Spiders
9	Thought	Modify Memory
10	Space and Time	Teleportation, Hyperadjacency, Time Stop
11	Tailors	Bag of Holding, Magic Hat
12	Grammar	Misspell Magic, Counterspell
13	Spying	Scry, Detect Thoughts
14	Charms	Charm Person, Suggestion, Hold Person
15	Whales	Fireball, Light, Protection from Elements
16	Names	Instant Summons, Sending
17	Elements	Wall of Swords, Summon Ooze
18	Forms	Enhance Ability, Stoneskin
19	Elves	Sleep, Magic Missile
20	Crystals	Magic Jar, Prismatic Spray, Color Spray

For instance, a Drowned Wizard (pg. C-5H) might be taking classes in the Departments of Whales, Elements, and Accounting. A White Hand Wizard might be taking classes in the Departments of Torture, Medicine, and Circles.

HOW DO I GET SPELLGOLD?

Spellgold is the primary currency in Wizard City. Virtually all commercial things are paid in it, from food to rent to textbooks. You can get it several ways:

• Make it yourself - this is very inefficient. MD can be converted into Spellgold at a 1:1 ratio. To start you can only make one Spellgold per day, and this leaves you vulnerable.

• Fence some loot - Few undergraduate students find themselves above thievery of university property. If you’re above theft, however, there are some dungeons on campus one can delve to acquire loot. There might even be more outside of campus. Steal furniture and busts of old administrators, loot textbooks off forgotten shelves, delve deep and find abandoned magic objects. Kleptomania is likely to be rewarded!

• Do some (probably dangerous) work - There are plenty of organizations around the city who could use some cannon fodder bodies: wizard gangs, fraternities, magical capitalists. Do some work, get paid.

• Marketeering - Lots of goods are in demand in various parts of the city: necromancers need bodies, spies need secrets, krill converters need, well… everything. Pawn stuff you find to these people for quick cash.

• Get scholarships - Do really well in your studies, and maybe some benefactors might decide to help pay some of your expenses in return for future favors or employment.

WHAT’S THE GOAL OF THE CAMPAIGN?

Well, traditionally it’s to survive until graduation... But really it’s up to you and the consensus of the group as to what you want to do during your time in Wizard City.

Keep in mind, though, this campaign will be limited in scope. There is a world beyond Wizard City, but we won’t interact with it (for the most part). It may be alluded to, but venturing beyond the city limits will exist extra-narratively, if at all.

CAMPAIGN TIME COMMITMENT

I also do not have plans to continue it indefinitely. This campaign will run for a limited number of sessions. Ideally we’ll be looking at 1-2 sessions per Trimester Break, resulting in around 12-24ish sessions overall, each 3 Hours in length. (I have a habit of underestimating how long things’ll take, though, so maybe double that.) Understand that your time in-game is limited, and make the best use of it.

SETTING SPECIFIC MECHANICS/TERMS

SPELLGOLD (SG)

10 Spellgold can be consumed like a Magic Die in order to cast a spell that you know, or have a spell scroll for. All wizards can turn their MD into Spellgold at a rate of 1 MD = 1 Spellgold. This process takes 1 Hour.

SESSION STRUCTURE

Wizard City campaign sessions will compose of two parts:

• What happened during the Trimester?

• Adventuring during the Break.

Every academic year is composed of three trimesters, preceded by three breaks. Because being a student is hard, everyone will only have time to adventure during these breaks. The rest of the time is spent doing off-screen studying, taking classes, working for minimum wage, etc.

Each break is only 2 days long. Each day is 10 Hours long (Wizard City uses metric time. 1 Day = 10 Hours = 1000 Minutes.) When break comes to a conclusion classes will resume, and any adventuring comes to a halt (dungeon expeditions, quests, and all between get abandoned).

Every trimester start with an additional 2d6 Spellgold, representing MD you managed to spare.

TRIMESTER EXPENSES

As a student, you’ve got bills to pay on a trimester basis:

• Food: 1d6 Spellgold

• Rent: 4d6 Spellgold

• Student Loan Interest: 3d6 Spellgold

Failure to meet these bills means during the next trimester you’ll respectively be: starving, homeless, or hunted by the Bank Inerrable. Additionally, there may be additional bills:

• Club Membership / Fraternity / Sorority Dues

• Protection from Criminal Gangs

• Doctors’ Bills

• Payment Plans on Textbooks / Supplies

LEVELING UP

Characters will level up every academic year, provided they are not expelled from academic probation. To avoid academic probation, you must have two things: passing grades in three of your classes, and materials for your classes (textbooks, inks, reagents, etc.)

These materials have commercial costs as follows: 

Freshman: None

Sophomore: 50sg

Junior: 100sg

Senior: 200sg

At the end of every trimester all students will make one ability check per class to determine whether they’re passing it or not. This is traditionally representative of one’s grades on a midterm or endterm test/paper.

 

Roll-under the requested stat on a d20, and you’ve passed. This check can be modified with bonuses, penalties, and everything in-between according to how prepared you are (with materials obtained during breaks) and potential random occurrences.

Certain objects, relationships, or loot can grant you bonuses. Injuries, getting on peoples’ shit-lists, or being lost in time and space can grant you penalties.

(For instance, a pilfered Textbook on Spell Anatomy with handwritten notes might grant you advantage on the Spell Breeding class. Doing a solid favor for Professor Y might grant you advantage in your Demonology Class. Having a major concussion might give you Disadvantage on the Planar Mathematics class.)

The standard number of classes for a student is 6. Students can take additional classes, but doing so increases their workload and provides a -2 penalty per extra class taken on all of their classes.

WIZARD CITY CLASSES

While everyone will start as a wizard, certain GLOG templates will become available after certain achievements have been met. Classes can be found here. 

Unlock requirements (will become displayed once unlocked):

Anti-Magic Officer: ???

Mo-RON: ???

Spellshark: ???

T-Man: ???

Bureaucrat Bravo: ???

Grey Gnost: ???

Krill Man: ???

Speed Wizard: ???

These classes do not progress normally as Wizards. Instead, to gain templates one must acquire and spend an amount of spellgold equal to the XP requirements on page A-9.

Relativity is a Bitch

Brainstorm for a Mothership adventure.

A black hole like Gargantua from Interstellar. A system of planets in its orbit. Each carries a different time dilation factor proportional to its proximity to the event horizon.

Something is wrong. The time dilation calculations aren't correct. It's much higher than it should be - much higher than should be possible. That's the kicker.

The Company is offering hefty bounty for some volunteers to take some quantum entangled measurements on the various planets. They won't tell you about the time dilation.

Go too deep towards the horizon and time will simply slip away.

This last planet is a prison. A time prison for the worst criminals of eons past and future. Things forsaken by gods and intelligences impossibly old. All arriving at once upon the cusp of the event horizon. Reach this point and there's no going back. Trapped for infinity, 'til the heat death of the universe.

Ideas

• Far enough towards the collapsed star, the skies are full of ships landing, just like you. Like you, trapped. Constantly arriving. They rapidly get more advanced with every integration, practically on every hour.
• The ship's captain, if not a PC, has a death wish. They know about the time dilation, but their past haunts them and they're okay with putting it hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of years behind them.
• Androids can deal with the existential implications of the time dilation just fine. Humans, though... Stress and sanity a-plenty.
• Communications to time dilated people. Life events, deaths.
• A timeline with three scales: Days, Years, Centuries. The further in you go
• Timekeeping is important. Keep track of time for the ship and the crew. Calculate how long it'll have been away from the star.

Places

• A distal planet: hazardous but fairly boring. Maybe a wreck. Maybe a space station. Some dicey atmospheric conditions. Time Dilation Factor: 1:4 (1 Hour = 4 Hours)
• A distal-medial planet: some space pirates have a hideout here. They use the modest time dilation to lay low while the heat blows over at a faster relative time. Time Dilation Factor: 1:30 (1 Hour = 1.25 Days)
• A medial planet: ships distant by years apart are arriving days after one another. People on these missions are discovering with rude awakening that The Company keeps sending people on the same mission. Time Dilation Factor: 1:720 (1 Hour = 1 Month)
• A proximal-medial planet: civilizations decades and centuries apart are all arriving at this planet mere hours after one another. Every human day is a new human era. Later civilizations are more advanced, and potentially more hostile. Time Dilation Factor: 1:9,000 (1 Hour = 1.02 Years)
• A proximal planet: who arrives at a planet where one day will waste away a over a millenia? Religious colonists, probably. They haven't yet set the flags down before dozens upon dozens are here to do the same. Chaos. Madness. A thousand civilizations all landing in quick succession. Time Dilation Factor: 1:1,000,000 (1 Minute = 1.90 Years)
• The event horizon. A planet resides on the very edge. Things are here which shall never escape. And if you're here, neither will you... Hell is becoming crowded. An infinity of arrivals just keep packing in.

The Go

The Go is a wide open green at the heart of the Chronulean campus in Wizard City Hexcrawl. It used to be called "The Diagonal Green". Then eventually the students shortened it to "The Diagon". Then "Diago". Then, simply, "The Go"...  Age is the best indicator for which of these names will be used.

'The Go' is host to a number of University-sponsored and sanctioned activities. It's a popular destination for recruitment and solicitation, due to the considerable foot traffic it gets.

d20	What’s Happening?
1	Two ten-foot solid iron statues of old rich donors are about to have a duel.  They’ve been doing this for years... They’re picking weapons:  1) Their canes 2) Fisticuffs 3) Whatever they can grab nearby, like you!  4) Pistols (Cannons), Twenty Paces 5) Swords stolen from other statues  6) Pokemon battle with a tiger statue fighting a swan statue.
2	Recruitment drive for “Drain The Drain!”.  Student wizard activists are soliciting questions to passers:  1) “Are you comfortable having a giant pool of arcanoactive waste next to YOUR drinking water?” 2) “Hey... Can I interest you guys in like… Saving the world?” (He’s here to get laid) 3) “Hi! Would you like to contribute to SLAYING THE MAGICAL MUCK MONSTER?” 4) Until The Drain gets cleaned, THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU! (Shows off horrible mutation)
3	A Brawl.  4d6 wizard students are having a fistfight. Plenty of spectators. There are no sides. Nobody has any idea why this is happening, they’re just happy to be involved. The Dean is about to show up in force with five of his clones in approximately 2d4 Minutes to break it up and make examples.
4	University Activity Club is Recruiting Members.  They’ve got a table set up and literature to pass out.  1) Lightball League - No Contact, No Points, (No Fun) 2) Academic Fencing - Cool facial scars, only moderate chance of hospitalization. 3) Spell Study Club - In case you wanted your extracurricular to be more studying. 4) Knitting League - Competitive. Very competitive. People DIE in Knitting League. 5) Mental Gymnastics Club - For academics, philosophers, politicians, and pedants. 6) The Young Warlocks - A social movement for the de-stigmatization of Pact magic. 7) S.R.C. (Secret Reactionary Committee) -  “A secret committee for the disestablishment of secret committees.” 8) Cloning Clones Club - Want to make clones? Don’t like the ethical or spiritual complications? Then just clone clones instead! (It’s NOT the same!)
5	Internship Drive.  Companies are recruiting interns for dangerous work and/or free labor. 1) The Security Enterprise Corporation needs a secretary-in-training. Redheads only. 2) Magic Hat Holdings requires a coffee-getter for their Arcane Exchange team. Linebacking skills preferred. 3) Torch-Holders and Porters required for Extranational Expeditions. Funeral expenses provided. 4) Chronulean Patent Enforcement Force requires someone who can read. To read things. You will not be paid. 5) The Bookprinter’s Cartel - Learn monopolization skills and bashing skulls. 6) Crypt Currencies LLC - Nobody is sure how anything works or what work is being done, but money is made, so nobody questions it. 7) Do you like arson AND extortion? Join the Fire Brigade! 8) Failing in your studies? Have you considered police brutality as a career? Join Patent Enforcement today!
6-12	Students Hanging Out. 1) Spider Studies Major is spinning web-hammocks in a tree. Pretty cool. 2) Sophomores tossing a Lightball back and forth using their Light wands. No risk of contact. 3) Couple of green pals, photosynthesizing. Tank tops and sunglasses. 4) Friends chilling around a magic circle, holding hands. Doesn’t seem terribly ominous. 5) Pair of gals casually chatting about blood magic. 6) Meditative grad student is focusing on visions of the apocalypse. Does not want to be disturbed. 7) Freshmen cautiously picking at mysterious jiggling food acquired from off-campus. 8) A few juniors are walking their familiars and chatting about summoning sword demons. 9) Two brains-in-jars privately giggling and badmouthing professors. 10) Two-headed senior is having a conversation with themself about how annoying eavesdroppers are. 11) Gaggle of juniors talking loudly and acting inebriated, drinking out of bagged bottles secretly containing weird little demons. 12) Elven music major is waving around a grass reed, conducting a symphony of cicadas and crickets. 13) An Accounting student is simultaneously counting every person entered, step taken, and word spoken in The Go. 14) Two amateur linguists are attempting to Speak with Earth on the rock monument devoted to the Class of 499. 15) A cheery senior from the Department of Torture is outlining their thesis on the history of skin flaying to a group of horrified freshmen. 16) A lass is practicing enunciation to summon a disease demon… “DISSSS-entery.. Hmm, no… Dis-EN-tery…” Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe without a proper subject. 17) Three lads are practicing drawing perfect circles with chalk. Harder than it looks. 18) A tall guy is feeding the squirrels and turning them purple. 19) A small cohort of students are writing advertisements for cults in chalk on the sidewalk. (See: #17) 20) Three juniors with strange goggles are staring up high, aghast at something invisible and giant.
13	Protest.  6d10 people present. 1) Students Against Textbook Hikes - The Bookprinter’s Cartel hiked textbook prices again. People are understandably upset. Great place to ask around for black market locations on and off campus. Cartel infiltrators present. 2) Custodians For Additional Designated Shrines - Nobody present. They won their demands. Nobody messes with the Custodians, not even Administration. 3) Faculty Against Proliferation of Cults - There are just far too many cults. How do we even keep track of them all? It seems like there’s a dozen every day. They’re not anti-cult (they’re fine with older ones), just anti-new-cult. 4) Graduate Students Against Committee Protocols - There is exactly one very brave graduate student. They’re probably doomed. 5) Student Groups Against Systematic Brainwashing - They've done this yearly protest at least four times in the last month alone. 6) Students and Faculty for Departmental Peace - They want an end of hostilities with the pariah History Department. Concessions and Pardons should be given to bring an end to the violence.
14	Special Event!  6d10 Students present. 1) Academic Triathlon - Elite students compete in three back-to-back categories: memorization, incantation, and somatics.  2) Renewal of the Abjurative Demons - Powerful summoning ritual performed by faculty to summon tolerable demons that will keep truly dangerous demons at bay for another harvest season. 3) The Department of Spying is having its monthly Spy vs. Spy war game. People are being faux-abducted and assassinated with probably-harmless magic. 4) Concert. Loud experimental bands approved by student secret committees. Large crowd gathered.
15	Panhandler.  They will move on or be removed by The Dean within 1 Hour. 1) Brain in a jar of a guy who sounds drunk, despite having no orifices or body. “Hey, spare some brain fluid?” 2) Forgetful Student. “Can I bug you for a couch to surf? I lost my memories and don’t have a place to stay.” 3) Reality Junky. “Spare some Spellgold? This reality just ain’t good enough anymore, y’know?” 4) Bum Animancer. “Hey man, got some juice? I haven’t bestowed the gift of sentience in like… hours!” 5) Bum Transmuter. “Want some change?” 6) Curse Eater. Holding a cardboard sign:  “Any Curse Helps. Fates Bless.” Will literally eat cursed stuff.
16	A Tour.  One tour guide plus 4d6 attendees in tow. 1) Student orientation tour. Tour guide talks about how the statues periodically duel, what buildings to avoid, and to NOT TOUCH THE UNIVERSITY SEAL. 2) Student re-orientation tour. Occasionally students lose their memories and must be reacquainted with the university. 3) Administrative Audit. Shadow-faced suits on route to a PURGE. They carry bloody swords and faculty evaluations. 4) Business Wizards. Suits and balding heads. On their way to witness some potentially profitable science.
17	Advertisement! 1) Magic Mouth. Only appears if you’re in debt. “NEED CREDIT?? Shark Loans! No questions asked!” 2) Chalk message. “Church of the Spoon. Sundays at 3.” 3) Flyers. “If you can understand this expression, join the Hypermath Cult.” Total mathematical nonsense… unless you’re high or hallucinating. 4) Chalk message. “Don’t look at page 26.” Code for the latest issue of The Waking Eye - which page will cause the magazine to self-destruct.
18	Construction. Hazardous.  3d10 Spatial Engineers from the Bureau of Space and Time are here, moving entire buildings around. Blockades are set up. The Go has become a labyrinth. An uncareful student can fall in and find a building has been moved on top of them.
19	Anomalous Event.  Something strange is happening… 1) All students present are standing perfectly still, gazing up at the sky. After a few moments they continue on with their routines, oblivious to what just happened. 2) The Greens are permeated with strange holes in reality. If one’s not careful one can fall in and become Lost in Space and Time. 3) A student is screaming and clutching their head, ranting about ‘the programming inside us all. The Archmages, they’re controlling everyone!’. Secret police from the city are about to arrive and make him disappear. 4) “Eat The Rich” scrawled in chalk. After seeing this, the next time one encounters a wealthy individual they’ll try to cannibalize them. 5) Mural painted on the sidewalk: a black-robed individual in the distance, as if coming from out of the desert. Contagious memetic virus. Visions of this approaching man. When he arrives within a week, one will be compelled to mindlessly head east into the desert (and likely perish from exposure). 6) Mystical Portal has appeared. It goes to a random location in the city.
20	Nothing…  (Which always means something.) Overrides other entries if rolled. 1) The Go is entirely empty, except for the Statues. 2) The Go is entirely empty, even the Statues. 3) The Go simply does not exist right now. You enter one side and exit out the other without remembering a thing. 4) The Go does not exist narratively or sequentially in your campaign. Skip over it entirely and accept no questions.