Okay, here it is at LAST!

I finally got off my electronic ass and

formatted part I. Part II of D.I. 6 will be sent out tomorrow. It is,
at this point, a list of Castings for Heka-Forging. I will be adding to
it, but it's just too late now. This is one of the more important
issues. Save it!!! Print it out!!! It is good! And useful! :) Here:

------------------------------------><--------------------------------------
WELCOME TO...

DDDD AAA NN N GGG EEEEE RRRR OOO U U SSS

D D A A N N N G G E R R O O U U S S D.I. #6:
D D AAAAA N N N G EEEE RRRR O O U U SS Whenever I
D D A A N NN G GGG E R R O O U U S Get Around
D D A A N N G G E R R O O U U S S To It!
DDDD A A N N GGG EEEEE R R OOO UUU SSS :)

A forum for the free & unmolested IIIII DDDD EEEEE AAA SSS
exchange of ideas submitted to me I D D E A A S S
by members of Mythus-L and all our I D D EEEE AAAAA SS
friends who love the Mythus Game I D D E A A S
and the Dangerous Journeys system. I D D E A A S S
Read it and hope for the future! IIIII DDDD EEEEE A A SSS

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Dangerous Ideas is an electronic-only (unless you print out a copy for your-
self) forum for any and all players and Journey Masters who use or merely
enjoy the Dangerous Journeys Multi-Genre Game System and the Mythus Fantasy
Role-Playing Game, written by Gary Gygax and Dave Newton, now unfortunately
owned by T$R. Note that almost everything discussed in this (not too)
periodical is in one way or another related to Dangerous Journeys and the
Mythus game. The game and all its related copyrights are owned by T$R, and
are totally used without any kind of permission whatsoever. That's okay,
since no one here is planning on stealing any of their business, making any
money, or actually publishing this thing for any kind of sale. Unfortunately.
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Dangerous Ideas is put together by me, Jesse Griffis, but is really written by
the members of Mythus-L, who submit their ideas to me for inclusion herein.
By doing that, they do NOT relinquish any of their rights to their created
material, so if you plan on using some of it anywhere except in your own home,
do us all a favor and ask...Of course, if anyone ever really DID want any of
this for publication, I think we'd all have general heart troubles...
You can join (and I would suggest it mightily) Mythus-L by writing to
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the body of the message. If you need help, ask whoever you know who knows
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Send anything you want to say |
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Each submission will be tagged | that effect as the subject. I will need to
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other potential legal garbage. | will be nothing more than a memory...thanks!
Ask the author for permission >--------------------------------------------
to use any of his/her ideas... | Since DJ prints no more: check out ARIA! :)
===============================^============================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
 1. Hi Again...A message from me
2. Heka-Forging Fun
============================================================================
1. Hi Again, everyone!
Okay, so it's been about forever since I've gotten around to putting
together an issue. Sorry. I just got out of the mood for a while, and by the
time I was back in the mood--term papers. (Uh..huh huh huh...School sucks...)
Then, when I had time--vacation. Then, after that, something else. You get
the idea. So anyway, here we are again, trying to sow the seeds of creativity
amongst ourselves. This issue is going to mainly contain Steve Gulluerud and
John Teske's very good "refinement" of the original Heka-Forging rules. I
like them immensely, and I wonder if there are other K/S Areas which are ripe
for the same sort of treatment...
So, thanks for waiting. Here it is, may it last more than 5 more issues
before I get tired again. And send me something interesting! :) I would like
to do a future issue on nothing but magick items created by us. Read the List
for more details on that one later...
============================================================================
2. The Good Stuff. Heka-Forging Rules Revision: Steve Gullerud (I lost his
address, so find it if you need to.)
Here it is! I will allow Steve's introduction to really get you into it. I'm
just the messenger, you know! :)

Heka-Forging: a revised method

by John Teske and Steven Gullerud

This is an introduction to a revision of the Heka-Forging K/S area. A

while back, there was a great deal of discussion on how to use Heka-Forging,
in particular concerning how to resolve the Castings with the K/S Area
description. After this debate died down, we attempted to incorporate some
of the ideas presented in Mythus-l into the Heka-Forging system. Eventually,
this grew into a full rewrite of the system, including Castings, success
tables, and the general K/S Area description.

We should acknowledge the members of Mythus-l, as many of them are

practically co-contributers to this revision (i.e. we borrowed lots of good
ideas). Particular people worth mentioning are Matthew Berry for the whole
concept of impermanent magic items, Edward Bromely for the work on Permanence
and False Target Castings, and Mike Hill for some additional spells that we
included. Of course, Jesse has been invaluable for providing the push to
get the work on Heka Forging started in the first place.

Now, a quick disclaimer before we begin. Some of the philosophy on how

Heka-Forging works is inevitably tied to how common you want magic items
to be in your campaign. The rules presented here are designed to fit
John Teske's campaign. However, it should be possible to modify the
revision here to fit magic heavy and magic light campaign worlds. There
are also two paths for Heka-Forging in this revision. One relies only
on the Castings to produce items, while the other is almost entirely
roleplaying-driven. Each path has its own advantages and disadvantages,
and each could stand alone as the means to create magical items in a
game world.

Now, without dragging on, here are the revisions to Heka-Forging:

Heka-Forging
 The Heka-Forging K/S Area remains much as the text in Mythus describes
it. This section of our revisions will focus on general clarifications
and changes to the text as found on pages 166-168

First, the Heka gained from Heka-Forging is as stated in in the K/S

description instead of the table at the beginning of Mythus Magick. Namely,
magickal energy gained is equal to STEEP plus the average of the persona's
PMPow and PNPow. If only Physical based Heka is used, P Trait is added
instead.

Second, the Heka-Forging Sub-Areas are not gained automatically with

increase in STEEP. Gaining the knowledge necessary to properly enchant a
class of items is a long and involved process. As such, the rules for
gaining new Heka-Forging Sub-Areas are as described on p. 135. Namely,
10 APs and 10 weeks of study are required to gain a new Sub-Area. However,
no roll is required to check if the persona has learned the Sub-Area
successfully. HPs may or may not have all possible Sub-Areas at the time
of character creation. This detail is left up to the GM, though the first
Sub-Area is gained automatically with acquisition of the Heka-Forging K/S
Area. Thereafter, Sub-Areas must be purchased as described above.
Because Heka forgers must be able to channel large amounts of Heka, each
Sub-Area beyond the first increases the practitioner's Heka Aperture by
10 points.

The minimum STEEP required for each Sub-Area is listed below. Note that
this table is changed somewhat from the one listed in the K/S description.
A persona may decline to purchase a new Sub-Area and still increase STEEP
in Heka-Forging. Also, Sub-Areas do not have to be gained in order, so
long as the persona has the necessary STEEP to purchase them.

Grade Minimum STEEP Sub-Area

1 None Enchanted Mechanisms
2 21-30 Enhanced Object Quality
3 31-40 Heka Reservoirs
4 41-50 Detection/Information
5 51-60 Armor/Weapons
6 61-70 Defensive/Offensive
7 71-80 Casting Storage
8 81-90 Skill Bearing Items
9 91+ Spirit-Holding Devices

Armor/Weapons provides the ability to forge defensive

armor along with offensive weaponry. These items may have
enhanced physical properties, but may not be othewise
enhanted with defensive or offensive Heka Effects. For example,
armor enchanted to provide protection from Spirtual attacks
is beyond the range of this Sub-Area.

Defensive/Offensive items enables the HP to manufacture

or enchant dweomered items which perform a Casting-like
Effect which damages a target or protects the wielder. Also
included under this Sub-Area are rings and other miscellaneous
items that give bonuses to worn armor and wielded weapons.

There are two paths for the creation of enchanted items using Heka-Forging.
The easiest method utilizes the Castings found in Mythus Magick. These
Castings create 'impermanent' items, which can be disjoined by other
Castings. The many Heka-powered conveniences found on Aerth are constructed
using this method. As such, most Heka forgers find employment making
impermanent items. Functions of these items are limited by the Castings
available to the Heka forger. If no Casting grants a desired property, a
new one must be researched. Masters of impermanent item creation
may use Castings which provide a resistance to disjunction, making the
greatest impermanent items almost permanent in nature. Personas who make
use of this process will have little difficulty in acquiring Heka-Forging
Castings, though Materia is still expensive.

The second path of item enchantment is much less common, but more
powerful. By combining the skills of Heka-Forging, knowledge of the Laws
of Magick, and abilities in various Heka-using K/S Areas, items can be
created which are immune to disjuction. These items are truly permanent,
save from physical destruction or the Unbinding Ritual. The process of
enchantment of a particular item requires unique Rituals which are developed
through research and experimentation. These Rituals are highly dependent
on the Heka forger's will and spirit, and therefore only work for the
individual who developed them. Much of the materia used in this 'artistic'
process must be built into the item in question by the Heka forger. Thus
Heka forgers following this path usually possesses K/S Areas such as
Gemsmith/Lapidary and Smithing/Welding. This requirement also makes
experimentation a very expensive affair.

Impermanent Item Creation

Impermanent item creation utilizes the Heka-Forging Castings to

imbue Heka into an item. Of course, these Castings may be dispelled
as easily as any other. A few Castings give resistance from disjunction,
but these are only available to the most able Heka forgers.

Most of the Heka-enabled devices on Aerth are of the impermanent sort.

Castings such as Volition Ritual have allowed Heka forgers to build various
labor saving and luxury-oriented devices. Unfortunately, these items are
still expensive, and are generally only affordable for the wealthy. While
impermanent weapons and armor do exist, these are usually made under
contract by governments for their military forces.

Note that little or no roleplaying is required for the enchantment of

items using this method. However, if the practitioner does not have a
Casting that will yield exactly the effect desired for a new item, there
is no choice but to research a Specialized Casting.

Changes/Clarifications from Original K/S Description

Heka preparation and Heka-generating substances grant no bonuses for

the success of item creation. Certain Castings now require Heka-generating
substances for their successful use. Also, the quality of the object to be
enchanted has no bearing on the success or failure of the forging, other
than whether or not the object qualifies as flawless or perfect.

An already enchanted item cannot be further enchanted by this method of

Heka-Forging, unless that enchantment has been disjoined or has otherwise
expired.

Many of the Heka-Forging Castings have been revised, some have been
entirely rewritten, and some new ones have been added. A summary of
these changes will follow.

Initial Steps
 Little is required in the way of preparation for item enchantment.
Assuming the practitioner has the necessary Castings, the forging should
be completed quickly. Prepare Item Ritual, Evaluate Item Formula, and
possibly Cleanse Item Ritual and Purity Spell will be required before
other Heka-Forging Castings are laid upon the item.

Of course, the persona must have all associated Heka-Forging Sub-Areas

in order to proceed. Otherwise, the attempt is doomed to failure.

Heka-Forging Equipment

Unless the Heka forger wishes to construct the item to be Heka-Forged (and
gain a DR bonus thereby), very little equipment is necessary for impermanent
item enchantment. At most, a simple forge is needed beyond the Materia
required for Heka-Forging Castings. The only exception to this usually
occurs when the practitioner wishes to enchant an object with a continuous
Heka Effect. The Heka required in this case (x100 that of the Casting cost)
almost always requires access to a large Heka reservoir.

Determination of Success

Once all desired Castings have been activated, a roll is made to

determine the success of the forging. Special Failure means the destruction
of the item, Failure means the item is unchanged, Success indicates the
Castings had the intended effect on the item, and Special Success means
one or more of the Castings had a slightly enhanced Effect.

This roll is made against the practitioner's Heka-Forging STEEP, with

the DR determined by the table found on p. 167 of the Mythus book. The
modifiers to that table have been changed, as listed below:

Heka-prepared item no modifier

Heka-generating substance being worked no modifier
Each additional function of the item
beyond the first +1 DR harder, up to 3
Flawless or perfect substance being
worked -1 DR easier
Practitioner has constructed the item
being enchanted -1 DR easier

If the Heka-Forging attempt fails but the object remains, the Heka forger
may attempt to enchant the object again. However, it must once again be
Evaluated, Prepared, and so on as the forging attempt will have contaminated
the item.

Permanent Item Creation

Permanent item creation requires more effort from both the player and
the persona than that of impermanent items. Because much of the
process is focused on creativity and roleplaying instead of Castings, the
work involved may be as much or as little as the GM desires. What follows
are suggested guidelines for the GM to follow.

Much of the artistic creation process depends on the mind and spirit of
the Heka forger. Standard Rituals are thus useless, as what will work for
one Heka forger will most likely fail utterly for another. A Heka forger
must devise Rituals which will imbue powers and enhancements into the forged
item. A practitioner may incorporate knowledge from other Casting-generating
K/S Areas in order to make a wider range of devices.

It is expected that Heka forgers will develop their own characteristic

styles, using certain K/S Areas and methods in their devices. The GM should
make the use of a K/S Area (especially one that is Casting-generating)
difficult and time consuming if that practitioner has not used it before in
combination with Heka-Forging.

Initial Steps

The initial step in the artistic method requires the player of the Heka
forger to submit a proceedure for the creation of a desired item. This
proceedure should at least include the following:

1) Planned functions of the device

2) Description of how Rituals will be used to forge these functions.
3) Cost and type of Materia used in the process
4) All K/S Areas used in the item's forging

Once this plan has been submitted, the GM may ask for any clarifications
before allowing the practitioner to continue. Note that the Heka forger must
possess all applicable Heka-Forging Sub Areas in order to attempt the
proposed plan. Also, the persona should construct the item to be forged, or
at least be present during its construction. The forging of a sword bought
from the local weaponsmith will certainly fail! As in the making of
impermanent items, the object in question must have Prepare Item Ritual
and Evaluate Item Formula cast upon it. An item might require Cleanse,
Purity, or be completely unsuitable for enchantment even after the work
done to make the item in the first place.

The GM may also require a change in the submitted proceedure if desired.

The HP might be required to search out unique Materia for the item, or
quest for a forgotten scrap of knowledge vital for the success of the
forging attempt. Details here are left to the imagination of the GM.

Heka-Forging Equipment

The exact cost and nature of equipment required will vary greatly
depending on the type of item to be forged and the method used to
enchant it. At the very least the Heka forger will need any equipment
needed to construct the item in question. The GM may add other
requirements as desired for a particualar item. It is suggested that,
unlike Alchemy, the equipment required for Heka-Forging be relatively
inexpensive unless a particularily powerful item is planned. This will be
compensated by the cost of Materia used by the Heka forger. Of course,
if the Heka forger is also performing Alchemical operations or working with
particularily exotic materials (like adamantine), then both expensive
equipment and expensive Materia will be required.

Materia Cost

Materia cost will also vary with the item to be forged. For the best
possible DR, the Heka forger will have to construct an unsurpassed quality
item - incurring all associated costs. Much of the Materia required by
the Rituals to be performed must be built into the item during its
construction. Thus, building the item in the first place may be a very
expensive proposition. If the forging is then unsuccessful, most of the
Materia will not be recoverable.
 As a general rule of thumb, refer to the Materia Costs of the Heka-Forging
Castings to arrive at standard costs for the Rituals used in the artistic
method. The Materia Cost for a Heka-Forging Casting will correspond to the
cost required to achieve a similar, but somewhat restricted, Effect for a
permanent item. For example, the use of Defense Bonus I to create +5 armor
costs 5,000 BUCs. For the same 5,000 BUCs, a Ritual that grants a +5
defense versus fire-based attacks may be performed.

Note that a significantly novel proceedure should require experimentation

before it can be used in a item. Of course, any Materia consumed by such
experimentation cannot be reused or recovered for future Heka-Forging
operations.

Research Time

Research time will vary with the past experience of the practitioner. If
the persona has created similar items in the past using similar methods,
as little as one week will be needed to design each Ritual. If the
practitioner is using an Casting-generating K/S Area that has not been
used in a previous forged item, a month or more of time will be required
for each Ritual.

Base Chance of Success

Before any roll is made for the success in the Heka-Forging attempt,
rolls may be required by the GM against Smithing/Welding, Gemsmith/Lapidary
and other K/S Areas used in the basic item construction. These rolls
may be used to determine the quality of the item destined to the subject
of a Heka-Forging effort.

The artistic method in Heka-Forging requires an in-depth understanding

of the Laws of Magick - in particular the Law of Ritual - as they apply to
the different Casting disciplines. While creating Rituals that perform
similar functions to Heka-Forging Castings is usually not difficult,
creating Rituals combining Heka-Forging with other Casting-generating Areas
without this knowledge is nearly impossible.

The base STEEP that is used to determine success of item creation is

taken from the lower of the STEEPs in Heka-Forging and Magick when other
Casting-generating K/S Areas are involved in making that item. Other
Casting-generating K/S Areas used will contribute 10% of their STEEPs toward
the base chance of success. Even if a persona does not possess the Magick
K/S Area, there will still be a small chance of a successful Heka-Forging.
If the only Casting-generating K/S Area required in the Rituals is
Heka-Forging, then STEEP in Heka-Forging is the base chance of success.

Difficulty Rating Determination

Assigning a DR for a Heka-Forging operation can be as simple or as

complicated as the GM wishes. The following is a fairly complex system
which seeks to reward the establishment of a style of Heka-Forging, as
well as base DR on the power of the item to be forged.

To determine a DR for the Heka-Forging operation, assign Casting

Grade equivalents for all powers of the item that are derived from
Casting-generating K/S Areas. Also consider Heka-Forging Castings for
impermanent item creation for similar powers. Compare these Grades with
the maximum Grades given by the practitioner's STEEPs in those K/S Areas.
Then assign a base DR as follows:

Powers are at least 2 Grades lower than Caster's max Grades Easy
Powers are at least 1 Grade lower than Caster's max Grades Moderate
Powers are at most the same Grade as Caster's max Grades Hard
Powers are at most 1 Grade higher than Caster's max Grades Difficult
Powers are at most 2 Grades higher than Caster's max Grades V. Difficult
Powers are at most 3 Grade higher than Caster's max Grades Extreme

This base DR is then modified by the following considerations:

+1 DR harder for every power beyond the first. (max of +3 penalty)

+1 DR harder for every level of quality below Unsurpassed of the
Heka-Forged item. (max of +3 penalty)
+1 DR for every Heka-generating K/S Area used in the Heka-Forging
Rituals that the Heka forger is unused to combining with
Heka Forging.
-1 DR if Heka forger is using an established style with K/S Areas
the practitioner has previously combined with Heka-Forging.
-2 to +2 DR based on creativity of plan submitted to the GM for
creating the item.
-1 to +1 DR based on cost of Materia used in plan, compared with what
GM determines as a standard amount.

Success and Failure

Because the Heka forger is manipulating Heka at a fundamental level during

the creation of a permanent item, success and failure are not very clearly
defined. A successful roll will sometimes yield an item with unforseen and
undesired side effects. Likewise, a failure might still produce an
enchanted item, but quite possibly one possessing useless or even baneful
properties. The GM is recommended to take the cost, time, and effort the
persona (and player) put into the process of creating the item when
determining actual item properties. If the persona cut corners, place
limitations or detrimental side effects on the item. On the other hand,
if the persona put extraordinary creativity and resources into the item,
consider adding bonuses or additional functions to the item.

To clarify this, check the following suggestions for the different

possible results of the final success roll:

Special Failure: Either the item is destroyed utterly or the item is

cursed, and possesses abilities opposite to what was
desired. Note that the Heka forger may be unaware that
this has taken place! In any case, the practitioner
will have to scrap the previous proceedure and develop
a new one, if this was the first time a particular
item was attempted.

Failure: The item is unchanged or has useless properites. (a

Spellsong-aiding harp that instead plays "It's a Small
World" continuously, loudly, and off-key would be an
example of this!) The practitioner may have to
modify the proceedure somewhat before trying again.

Success: The item has the desired abilities, but may have quirks,
additional powers, or weaknesses depending on the
quality of work that went into it. If desired,
repeating this proceedure may yield an item with
 fewer side effects.

Special Success: The item works only as desired if effort was somewhat
lacking. If sufficient research was done, the item will
have enhanced or additional abilities. Note that
repeating this proceedure will not reproduce another
oustanding item unless another Special Success is
rolled