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The Magnus Archives Primer-2023!08!28
The Magnus Archives Primer-2023!08!28
The Magnus Archives Primer-2023!08!28
TM
The Magnus Archives is an award-winning horror fiction anthology podcast
examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organization
dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. It follows the actions of head
archivist Jonathan Sims as he attempts to bring a seemingly neglected collection of
supernatural statements up to date, converting them to audio and supplementing
them with follow-up work from his small but dedicated team.
player characters, or PCs) attempt to do, and the GM 2. The GM determines if there’s a chance of failure
determines what happens next. One scene logically or if that action is routine (and therefore works
flows to the next—you might start at a coffee shop, without needing a roll).
travel to an abandoned warehouse, and eventually end 3. If there is a chance of failure, the GM determines
up at a haunted construction site—and before you which stat the task uses (Might, Speed, or
know it, you’ve got a story as compelling as any you’ve Intellect) and the task’s difficulty—how hard it will
read or watched. The rules and the dice help make the be on a scale from 1 (really easy) to 10 (basically
game run smoothly, but it’s the people that direct the impossible).
action and determine the story—and the fun. If a rule 4. The player and the GM determine if anything
gets in the way or detracts from the game, the players about the character—such as training, equipment,
and the GM should work together to change it. special abilities, or various actions—can modify
the difficulty up or down by one or more steps.
If these modifications reduce the difficulty to less
HOW THE GAME WORKS than 1, the action is routine (and therefore works
The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game uses the with no roll needed). A common modification
Cypher System rules, which use a twenty-sided comes from Effort. Using Effort is when character
die (d20) to determine the results of most actions. spends 3 points from the appropriate stat Pool to
Whenever a roll of any kind is called for and no die is decrease the difficulty by 1.
specified, roll a d20. 5. If the action still isn’t routine, the GM uses its
This is how you play: difficulty to determine the target number—how
1. The player tells the GM what they want to do. high the player must roll to succeed at the action.
This is a character action. If time is a consideration, The target number is always three times the
every character gets an action each round. task’s difficulty, so a difficulty 4 task has a target
(Characters can also move across the room or a number of 12. To succeed at the task, you must
similar distance when they take their action.) roll the target number or higher.
6. If the character uses a special ability, there is remember: it’s always three times the difficulty. The
often a prescribed cost of points from one of target number is the minimum number a player needs
their stat Pools. Any time a character faces a stat to roll on a d20 to succeed at the task. Moving down
Pool cost, whether from a special ability or from the table means the task is more difficult; moving up
using Effort, they can subtract their appropriate means it is less difficult.
stat Edge from the cost. Different characters have Modifications affect the difficulty rather than the
different stat Pools and Edge. player’s roll. This has two consequences:
7. The player rolls a d20. If the roll is equal to or 1. Low target numbers such as 3 or 6, which would
higher than the target number, the character be boring in most games that use a d20, are not boring
succeeds. in this game. For example, if you need to roll a 6 or
higher, you still have a 25% chance of failure.
That’s it. That’s how to do anything, whether it’s 2. The upper levels of difficulty (7, 8, 9, and 10) are
identifying a strange marking, calming a frantic all but impossible because the target numbers are 21 or
friend, crossing a treacherous bridge, or battling an higher, which you can’t roll on a d20. However, it’s
insane cultist. common for PCs to have abilities or equipment that
The key features here are: character actions, reduce the difficulty of a task and thus lower the target
determining task difficulty, and determining number to something they can roll on a d20.
modifications. When setting the difficulty of a task, the GM should
While that’s everything, let’s look at some of these rate the task on its own merits, not on the power of the
topics in more detail. characters. Difficulty is not relative. A level 4 locked
THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES ROLEPLA YING GAME
surprising turn of events is, they ask that player, “Now as normal, and because the GM intruded, the character
what do you do?” The player must deal with this new gains 2 XP. The PC immediately gives one of those XP
complication. to another player.
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If a character rolls a 1 on a die, the GM can intrude Trying to convince a loyal believer to disobey orders
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without giving the character any XP. This kind of is harder than their level might indicate, but convincing
intrusion can happen immediately or very soon them that new orders have come in might be normal
thereafter. difficulty. Skills like persuasion or deception might help,
and of course, Effort can be used (always Intellect).
INTERACTION Although fighting dangerous monsters or other foes
Obviously, players can talk to each other all they want, can be interesting and exciting, much of gameplay
and at least some of that conversation represents what probably involves other situations: overcoming
the characters are saying to each other. Often, a PC obstacles, interacting with NPCs (eyewitnesses, corrupt
will want to talk to a nonplayer character (also called booksellers, cultists, ghostly apparitions, telepathic
an NPC). It might be to convince someone to answer vampires, or weirder things), solving mysteries,
a few questions, get a librarian to let you see a book finding solutions to problems, blazing trails through
from the restricted collection, or get a peek at a police the wilderness, exploring caves, sneaking, climbing,
report from an officer at the station. This conversation running, and all other kinds of exciting activities.
is normally handled by the GM taking on the NPC Sometimes these actions allow PCs to achieve goals,
role and talking things through. When a PC tries to such as “find the book that the old man hid in the
convince an NPC of something, or when they try to house” or “help get an injured friend to the hospital.”
deceive or intimidate the NPC, a roll is involved. This But more often than not, they propel characters
is handled just like anything else—use the level of the toward making discoveries. And discoveries are the
NPC as the difficulty, modified by the circumstances. heart of the game—because to stop the entities (at
least temporarily), we need the knowledge the Magnus
Archives compiles.
You can always attempt any action—
you do not need to be trained or
specialized in a related skill.
In other words, being trained in
climbing doesn’t let you climb—it
just makes you good at it. Anyone
can still try to climb. It’s just a
bit harder.
COMBAT
Making an attack in combat works the same way as any
other roll: the GM assigns a difficulty to the task, and
you roll a d20 against the associated target number.
The difficulty of your attack roll depends on how
powerful your opponent is. Just as tasks have a
difficulty from 1 to 10, creatures have a level from 1 to
10. Most of the time, the difficulty of your attack roll
is the same as the creature’s level. For example, if you
attack a level 3 black bear, it’s a level 3 task, so your
THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES ROLEPLA YING GAME
target number is 9.
Players make all die rolls. If a character attacks a
creature, the player makes an attack roll. If a creature
attacks a character, the player makes a defense roll. threatening, the injury inflicts 1, 2, or 3 stress. We’ll get
The damage dealt by an attack is a flat number based to more serious injuries shortly.
on the weapon or attack used. For example, a pickaxe Utilizing any supernatural artefact, power, ritual, etc.
always inflicts 4 points of damage. NPCs have a health also inflicts stress on the character.
score from which the damage you inflict is subtracted Some characters have (or gain) the ability to withstand
(this score is often three times their level). You’ve more stress before it accumulates into a stress level.
defeated an NPC foe that reaches 0 health. Accumulated stress adversely affects a character by
imposing a penalty on all actions, hindering them. The
STRESS more stress a character has, the greater this penalty.
When player characters experience a terrifying event, Each stress level hinders all actions by one step until the
they may suffer stress. This might be facing an unnatural stress is reduced.
creature, finding a sack of hundreds of human teeth, A desperate character can use their stress as a
or seeing their friend engulfed in a swarm of worms. temporary advantage. If they have at least 1 stress
A character begins with 0 stress, but a terrible shock, a level, they turn that into a one-time bonus on a single
ghastly experience, or a gruesome encounter may inflict 1, action, “burning” the stress and easing the task by one
2, or even 3 points of stress upon them. Players track their step. Doing so represents a sort of manic energy. While
character’s ongoing stress total. Each time a character has 3 this means a reduction in the character’s stress level,
points of stress, this is known as a stress level. the GM immediately uses an intrusion that increases
Characters can also get stress from minor wounds or the overall tension and danger of the situation. Stress
injuries. Knocking your head on the door, slicing your cannot be used by a character who is not already in a
hand with a knife, or burning your arm by grabbing tense situation, nor can it be used on a defensive action.
something out of a fire before it is consumed causes Lastly, in certain situations, characters can “trade”
stress. Essentially, any time a character takes an injury stress for supernatural powers. These powers represent
10 that might affect them temporarily, but is not life how a character is changed by their experiences.
Depending on the power, the player might not have
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complete control over their new ability, at least at first. THE DAMAGE TRACK
In what can only be described as horrific irony, using Hale is the normal state for a character: the PC
such powers almost always inflicts additional stress on has no penalties from harmful conditions.
the character.
Spending time in a relatively safe, relaxing space Hurt is a special step that particularly tough
reduces stress. So do other factors, like food and drink, characters reach before they are impaired in
nearby friends, or even a nice dog to pet. which all of their actions are hindered.
Artists
Sam Wolfe Connelly, Donald Crank, Russell Marks, Roberto Pitturru, Kyle A. Scarborough
TM