As well as co-creating Golden Dragon, Blood Sword and Dragon Warriors, Oliver Johnson has written a number of excellent fantasy novels. There's the Lightbringer trilogy and also a very fine opening volume in a new series, The Knight of the Fields. Unfortunately you'll look for that last one in vain. Publishers raved that it was the best fantasy they'd seen all year -- and then decided it was "too 1990s" (I wonder what they think A Game of Thrones is?) and wanted rewrites to give it a more conventionally heroic ending.

Fantasy publishers are idiots, but luckily Oliver has turned his talents to a field where the gatekeepers are more discerning: the conspiracy thriller. Caller Unknown, out next week, entangles its protagonist in a world of cults, terrorists and corrupt politics. Take a look at Michael Jecks' review in Shots magazine to see the kind of rave reception it's getting. If you enjoy the Winter Soldier/Three Days of the Condor kind of paranoia vibe delivered with the immediacy of a murky modern thriller, don't miss it.

How come I'd never heard until now of Cardinal Cox? No, not the hottie from Friends -- Cardinal Cox is a poet who specializes in the eldritch, the macabre, and the wondrous, with poetry cycles devoted to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and the like. He has been poet-in-residence at a Victorian cemetery, at a 15th century Gothic church, and at the Dracula Society.

I was introduced to his work by a friend who picked up some of his chapbooks at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton recently and was kind enough to see that they would find a home with me. Look out for the Codex Nemedia, with poems about Conan, Bran Mak Morn, and Solomon Kane; and the Codex Yog-Sothoth, which includes lines that could have been penned for Queen Nyx in the Vulcanverse series:

His poetry is accompanied by amusing and recondite notes to delight the hearts of every true SF/fantasy nerd. I particularly liked the reference to the Bramford apartment building and the translation of the Phaistos Disc. If the Cardinal doesn't run Call of Cthulhu games then he really ought to. One reviewer said of his work: "Earth is a part of the story but, as in much Lovecraftian literature, Earth and our species are by no means as important as we humans tend to think."

He has a collection called Grave Goods that is available on Amazon and is described thus:

"Yes, there are vampires. Plus ancient gods, Frankenstein's creation at the back of a drive-in, Dr Jekyll's sister's guest house, suburban devil worshippers, ship-wrecked sailors, alchemists, murderers, and an alien plant."

I think it was Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson who first started using keywords in gamebooks. Prior to that, a gamebook might say something like, "If you met the old man in the almshouse and he gave you a piece of stained glass, turn to X." 

You can see the problem. What if I don't remember if I met the old man or not? That's especially likely if I've played through the adventure several times and can't remember whether I met him on this run-through or a previous one.

The other advantage of keywords is that they don't give the game away. The keyword for getting the stained glass fragment wouldn't be GLASS, for example, or even VITREOUS but something unrelated to the story event -- OBLIQUITY, for example. That way, if you come across the keyword without having triggered the event that would give it to you, you have no idea what effect it would have. That's particularly important in open world gamebooks like Vulcanverse and Fabled Lands, though there are cases where it's fine to know why an event is triggered -- getting arrested if you're a wanted fugitive, for example, or being granted an audience with the king because you're the court champion -- and in those cases we typically use a title like Godslayer or Saviour of Iskandria.

Keywords can serve one of two functions. The first is to record if an event has happened. For example, has the player ever met Baroness Ravayne? Once they have, that can't be undone. So in design terms that's a flag. The other use of keywords is to track a state that can change. An example of that would be whether they are an ally or enemy of Baroness Ravayne. Prior to meeting her, neither can apply. But once they are able to enter those states, there could be ways to flip them; you might become the Baroness's enemy, then redeem yourself and become her ally, then do something to make yourself an enemy again.

How many keywords do we need for this kind of set-up? I'll give you an example from The Pillars of the Sky, the fourth book in the Vulcanverse series. We've actually discussed this before. If you want to familiarize yourself with the scenario, here's a short demo version. The gist of it is that the player comes across a valley in perpetual darkness and finds a switch that lets them turn the sun on and off. (Here in London in icy January I could do with something like that.)

I used two keywords. Quell identifies whether the player has found the switch. So that's the first kind of keyword mentioned above, a logic flag. Once you've found the switch, you can't unfind it. The other keyword, Quire, records if the sun is currently on. If you go back to the switch and flip it to the off position, you lose the keyword Quire. Anytime you're in the valley, if you have Quire then the sun is shining, and if you don't it's pitch dark. So Quire records a state.

Typically you want to limit the number of keywords used in a book, as the reader is going to have to check through a list every time a keyword is called. In a multi-book series it helps a bit if the designer uses different letters of the alphabet for each book, as we did in Fabled Lands and Vulcanverse, but it's still preferable not to have too many. Initially I tried to economize in The Pillars of the Sky by only using Quire for the valley with the artificial sun. That meant there was no difference between the sun being off because the player hadn't found the switch and the sun being off because they had found the switch and left it in its original position. Later on I discovered that there were circumstances where it mattered whether the player had found the switch, so I had to bring in Quell too.

A slightly more streamlined (if less aesthetic) solution would have been to have Quire-ON and Quire-OFF as keywords, using ON and OFF to designate substates. Then I wouldn't have needed Quell as I'd be able to infer the state by asking, "Do you have a Quire-* keyword?" -- or maybe, more elegantly, "Do you have any form of Quire keyword?" I wouldn't do that in code as it's cleaner to differentiate the flag (has the switch been found?) from the state (is the switch up or down)? In fact, if the code isn't visible to the player, in an app version for example, I'd have both Quell and Quire-ON/OFF. As you will appreciate, technically I don't need the ON/OFF substates in that case because all conditions can be derived from simple combinations of Quell and Quire:

• Quell && Quire = The player has switched the sun on
• Quell && !Quire = The player has switched the sun off
• !Quell = The player hasn't found the switch

So the only reason for having the Quire substates is the belt-and-braces principle that when debugging it helps to have everything spelled out. Trust me on this -- currently I'm coding all the Vulcanverse books as a web app and O! the bugs!

If you try playing the demo, here's a moment from Workshop of the Gods that gives a hint of how that sunless valley came about:

The sands are trickling away on the preorders for Whispers Beyond The Stars -- just hours left now to reserve your copy. Backers will get the app version delivered right after the campaign ends, with the hardcover edition to follow later in the year. Meanwhile, here's me and Paweł talking about death in gamebooks.

There's one more day left to get your tentacles (or other partly squamous, partly rugose appendages) around a copy of Whispers Beyond the Stars, the new gamebook co-authored by me and Paweł Dziemski. People keep labelling it as cyberpunk, but I think that's missing the point that both SF and our ideas of the future have moved on. A friend of mine nailed it when he described Whispers as "Cthulhu in the Age of Neo-Feudalism".

The story is set in 2050. You play Alex Dragan, who has just been released from prison and whose attempts to reclaim his/her/their life are destined to be wrecked by the incursion of entities who have been plotting the subjugation of Earth for over a century.

Paweł went on The Hardboiled GMshoe to talk about how we developed the Cthulhu 2050 concept, in particular the way we co-wrote the book. This wasn't like The Warlock of Firetop Mountain or Keep of the Lich Lord, with one person writing everything up to the midway point and then the other taking over. Instead, we began by designing the world background and themes. Then I wrote the whole adventure from start to finish in outline, leaving threads for my co-author to develop later in more detail. It's a true collaboration:

Paweł: "At the begining we had a couple of workshop meetings to discuss how the world will look in 2050, from the perspective of geopolitics, energy, technology, space industry. We wrote the year by year history from 2025 until 2050 as well. Then we discussed the overall story. Then Dave wrote 200 sections as a main end-to end-thread, then I wrote the alternative storylines (another 450 sections) discussing with Dave from time to time to be on the same page. Finally I wrote the app that interprets the story and provides all the game mechanics."

There will be hardback, paperback and app editions, and the English version of the app will be available to backers as soon as the campaign concludes tomorrow. But if you want to be part of this adventure, better be quick. There's no option to "eternal lie" where crowdfunding is concerned.

More Lovecraftian musings from me and Paweł. We don' need no steenkin' genre. And remember, as recently as the beginning of the century our lives today were still science fiction.

There are still a few days to go to reserve your copy of Whispers Beyond The Stars. Don't look back with regrets.

Following on from yesterday's post, I came across this article by Joseph Heath which explains a lot. Populism has been a significant driver of revolutionary change throughout history (the collapse of classic Maya civilization, the French Revolution, the far-right and far-left in early 1930s Germany, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Khmer Rouge, MAGA, etc) yet I've never been able to get my head around it till I saw Professor Heath's analysis. So in case that's useful for you to carry into 2026, have a read.

One of my favourite movie moments. We could all do with taking this sentiment to heart. It's from Warlock (1959) and I'm going to watch it right now. Happy New Year!

When you're playing a gamebook, how much freedom do you want in creating the main character? As I'm a roleplayer I like to define a character for myself, and that attitude is reflected in most of my own gamebooks. Yet even back in the early days of the medium, series like Falcon, Way of the Tiger and Lone Wolf presented the player with a pre-defined character who came with a history, a name, and usually an implied set of beliefs.

Nowadays, perhaps because of the influence of CRPGs, many gamebooks expect you to play the character the author gives you. To some extent that's what Paweł Dziemski and I have done in Whispers Beyond The Stars, our Cthulhu Mythos gamebook currently available for pre-ordering on Gamefound. The amnesia gambit (trust me, it makes sense in the story) means that you have plenty of latitude to decide what your Alex Dragan is like, a bit like Doug Quaid in Total Recall. There's history there, and other people react to you based on that, but you still have the final say about what motivates your character in the here and now.

What's your preference? A blank slate? A sketchy template? Or a fully author-defined persona?

We've talked here before about whether gamebooks need dice, and what place there is for randomness in interactive stories. Paweł and I thought a lot about this for our upcoming Cthulhu gamebook, Whispers Beyond The Stars, and here we are talking about it. I'll just add there's a week to go on the crowdfunding campaign for the book, and the advantage of being an early backer is you can reserve a full-colour hardcover edition rather than waiting for the paperback.

Don't let a little thing like the Christmas and New Year holidays get between you and the mind-shattering secrets of nameless horrors from the sunless abyss of eternity. Or, to put it another way, there's still just over a week to reserve your copy of Whispers Beyond The Stars, the modern Cthulhu Mythos gamebook that I've written with Paweł Dziemski.

There's a new review on Facebook which gets right to the heart of what Paweł and I are trying to achieve with this book: "It pays homage to Lovecraft without ever lapsing into dusty pastiche. Instead, we get modern Lovecraft: sleek, eerie, buzzing with uneasy implication rather than melodrama."

He goes on to say, "The true spirit of cosmic horror is here in full: that creeping insignificance, the suspicion that the universe is enormous and indifferent, and the gnawing sense that humans, when handed forbidden knowledge, behave exactly like a toddler given access to permanent markers and a freshly painted wall." 

The review concludes: "If you enjoy adventures where your decisions matter—and occasionally haunt you—this gamebook deserves a place on your shelf, somewhere high up where the tentacles can’t quite reach."

Isn't this a thing of beauty? What is it, you ask? It's a map of all the connections in the seven Fabled Lands books. I don't know who created it, but I'd like to thank them for making the effort. The end result looks a little bit like a map of the actual universe, though naturally that has around a sextillion times as many nodes. You can view the source files (for the FL map, not the universe) here. And now I'm wondering what the Vulcanverse connections map would look like...

This card will make most sense if you've played in or read Tim Harford's solstitial adventure "Water Like A Stone" or its predecessor from last year, "The Malletta Caper". Inquisitor Paln probably wouldn't share these sentiments, but my message for the season is to wish you peace and happiness in 2026. That goes for everyone, whoever you are, wherever you may be. If we all listen more, try to understand more, help whenever we can, and forgive each other -- we could yet make this a planet to be proud of.

Today in our countdown to Christmas: a little more chat about the background to Whispers Beyond The Stars, the upcoming near-future gamebook inspired by the work of H P Lovecraft. Aspiring Cthulhu cultists can reserve their copy here. It's $35 for the hardcover + app or $15 for the app alone -- either way you get the PDF too. Why not treat yourself? After all, it's Christmas.

“At the time, ninjas were new and exciting and everyone loved them […] So basically ninjas meets Lord of the Rings was what we came up with and it turned into a hugely successful game book series.”
-- Mark Smith 

A part of our rapid-fire countdown to Christmas, here's a look at Gremlin Graphics' Way of the Tiger computer game from the 1980s.

Having played very briefly in Mark Smith's Orb campaign, I always thought it was a pity it got overshadowed by martial arts mania. There weren't any ninja in the original Orb setting, which was a masterclass in how to use Tolkien-like fantasy elements in a D&D game. Prancing around flinging shuriken and flash powder was far less interesting than all the richly original flourishes Mark had put into his world.

The gamebooks are still available, and there's occasional talk of publishing an Orb RPG. (Basic Roleplaying or Mythras would get my vote.) Fingers crossed -- and I'm not talking about the kuji-no-in.

There's nothing Yule-flavoured about this except that it's magical (or do I mean madrigal?) and riotously delightful and those are essential elements of the season. Jonas Wolf's Renaissance covers are my current favourite thing on YouTube, so I wanted to share the fun with you.

For the best in gaming pleasure, I can't think of a better way to celebrate the tilt of the year than by getting the latest issue of Casket of Fays, which comes with a periplus of the Emphidian coast (map below) as a bonus. There are the usual top-quality scenarios, solo adventures, articles and artwork that are the hallmark of Red Ruin Publishing. I feel privileged and humbled to have such talented folks as these contributing to the world that Oliver and I created forty years ago.

If you're in the north, stay warm, and the sun will resume normal service as soon as possible.

To give AI art generators some chance to redeem themselves after last time, here's an image of the Rathurbosk that I managed to coax out of ChatGPT (animated below by DeeVid). I've never cared much for that dully realistic trad fantasy style, but at least the AI managed to get a sense of the scale, though still not close to the sense of wonder that even a rough sketch by Leo Hartas conveys. Looks like the best human artists aren't going to be replaced anytime soon.

The setting and environs of the Rathurbosk have a numinous seasonal feel, and if you want to make use of that then Damian May has an excellent adventure seed for you; "Captain of the Gouge" gets right down into the chasm for another angle on Legend's most miraculous bridge. Whether you're spending the holiday period high or low, hot or cold, busy or quiet -- have a good one.

With Christmas almost upon us (what, again?!) it seems like a good time to try something just for fun. I asked Claude to take my post about Tim Harford's Earthsea-like Conclave campaign and convert the rules to Dragon Warriors. Although I do sometimes use AI when I'm writing rules and scenarios, normally I just use it as a sounding board. This time I'm handing over the reins, so here is Claude's guest post. 

This is the first of a string of daily posts comprising a countdown to Christmas, so check back in tomorrow for something else.

The art below in today's post by AI too, hence the mostly trad-fantasy style. (But we can't blame Claude for that. It doesn't do images.) You can still coax decent art out of AI, but it's not as easy as it was a year or two ago, when it wasn't overtrained on the same old same old.

OK, take it away, Claude...

The Mage

A Dragon Warriors profession for Earthsea-style magic

Overview

In the island realms where magic flows like tide through ancient stones, the Mages represent the truest practitioners of the Art. Unlike the scholarly Sorcerers with their books and laboratories, or the elemental shamans who channel raw forces, Mages understand that all magic begins with the Word, the true name that binds essence to form. They are the wizards of legend, capable of reshaping reality with carefully chosen words, yet bound by ancient traditions that demand restraint and wisdom.

Minimum Requirements

To become a Mage, a character must possess:

• Intelligence 13+ (understanding the deep structures of language and reality)
• Psychic Talent 11+ (sensitivity to the true names underlying all things)

Characters with Psychic Talent 8 or less cannot use magic at all.

Initial Characteristics

Basic Combat Factors:

• Attack: 10, Defense: 5
• Magical Attack: 16, Magical Defense: 6
• Health Points: 1d6+3
• Evasion: 3
• Stealth: 13, Perception: 7

The Art of True Magic

The Two-Step Casting System

All Mage magic requires two separate skill checks:

1. Naming Roll: Roll against the Mage's Naming skill to determine how well they can discern or invoke the true name of their target
2. Art Roll: Roll against the specific magical discipline being employed

The degree of success on the Naming roll directly modifies the Art roll. If the Naming roll fails completely, the magic cannot work at all - without the true name, the Word has no power.

Naming Modifiers

Known True Names: If the Mage knows the complete true name of the target, no Naming roll is required - the magic automatically succeeds at maximum effect.

Partial Knowledge:

• Target's common name known: +2 to Naming
• Target's lineage/type understood: +1 to Naming
• Target studied for at least 1 hour: +1 to Naming
• Target completely foreign/alien: -3 to Naming

Success Levels and Art Modifiers:

• Naming roll succeeds by 10+: +4 to Art roll
• Naming roll succeeds by 5-9: +2 to Art roll
• Naming roll succeeds by 1-4: +0 to Art roll
• Naming roll fails by 1-4: -2 to Art roll, spell may still work
• Naming roll fails by 5+: Magic fails completely

The Nine Arts of Magic

Each Mage begins play knowing Naming plus three Arts of their choice. Additional Arts may be learned through study, typically requiring a teacher and 3-6 months of intensive training.

1. Change (Major Art)

Transform one thing into another

• Range: Touch for major changes, 10m per rank for minor alterations
• Duration: Permanent for inanimate objects, Spell Expiry for living beings
• Restrictions: Cannot create or destroy matter, only reshape it
• Examples: Stone to bread, rabbit to wolf, iron to gold, man to tree

2. Find

Locate lost or hidden objects, places, or people

• Range: 1 mile per rank
• Duration: Instantaneous (provides direction and approximate distance)
• Modifiers: +2 if item belongs to the caster, +1 if recently handled
• Examples: Lost ship, buried treasure, missing person, hidden door

3. Gate

Open and seal magical portals and paths

• Range: Touch
• Duration: 1 minute per rank (or permanent with additional cost)
• Types: Unlock any physical barrier, create temporary passages through walls, open mystical doorways between distant places (8th rank+)
• Examples: Locked door springs open, passage through solid stone, portal to distant island

4. Healing

Restore health and cure ailments

• Range: Touch
• Duration: Instantaneous
• Power: Restores 1d6+rank Health Points, can cure diseases and neutralize poisons at higher ranks
• Limitations: Cannot raise the dead or regrow lost limbs 

5. Illusion

Create false images and sensory deceptions

• Range: 50m per rank
• Duration: Spell Expiry
• Scale: Single person illusions (1st-3rd rank), building-sized (4th-6th), landscape illusions (7th+)
• Examples: False appearance, phantom armies, invisible ships, illusory islands

6. Mend

Repair broken or damaged objects

• Range: Touch
• Duration: Permanent
• Scope: Complexity limited by rank - simple tools (1st), complex mechanisms (4th), magical items (7th+)
• Examples: Shattered sword becomes whole, broken mast repairs itself, torn sail mends

7. Pattern (Major Art)

Scrying and discerning hidden connections

• Range: Unlimited for scrying, touch for connections
• Duration: Concentration (can maintain for 10 minutes per rank)
• Applications: See distant places, understand relationships, predict consequences, read the past from objects
• Examples: Watch events across the sea, trace a person's family line, foresee storm paths

8. Send

Project your image and consciousness

• Range: 10 miles per rank (cannot cross running water)
• Duration: 1 hour per rank maximum
• Limitations: Image can speak and perceive but cannot physically interact or cast spells
• Examples: Appear in a distant council chamber, scout enemy positions, deliver messages

9. Summon (Major Art)

Call objects or beings to your location

• Range: 1 mile per rank for objects, unlimited for willing beings
• Duration: Permanent for objects, willing beings stay as long as they choose
• Power: Complexity increases with rank - small objects (1st), large objects (4th), creatures (6th), people (8th), the dead (10th+)
• Examples: Summon your lost staff, call a fish to your net, bring forth a long-dead spirit

10. Weather

Command wind, rain, fog, and storms

• Range: 1 mile radius per rank
• Duration: Natural weather patterns (typically hours to days)
• Scope: Small changes (1st-3rd rank), local weather (4th-6th), regional effects (7th+)
• Examples: Gentle breeze, thick fog, driving storm, calm seas

Magic Point System

Daily Magic Points: Rank × 3

Spell Costs:

• Minor Arts (Find, Healing, Illusion, Mend, Send, Weather): 1 MP per rank of effect
• Major Arts (Change, Gate, Pattern, Summon): 2 MP per rank of effect
• Naming: No cost (but required for all other Arts)

Example: A 3rd rank Mage using Change to turn a rock into bread would spend 6 MPs (2 × 3 for a Major Art at 3rd rank effectiveness).

Restraints of Wisdom

The true power of a Mage comes with corresponding responsibilities. Reckless use of magic disrupts the natural order and marks the practitioner as dangerous. Choose one restraint system for your campaign:

Option 1: Mana Depletion

Each casting depletes ambient magical energy in the area:

• After casting, all subsequent magic in a 100m radius suffers cumulative -1 penalty per previous spell
• Depletion recovers at 1 point per hour
• Natural phenomena may be disrupted (tides, weather patterns, animal behavior)

Option 2: Natural Consequences

Every magical act creates an opposing reaction:

• Weather magic brings equal and opposite weather later
• Healing one person may cause illness in another
• Summon magic often requires something to be "paid" to the summoning
• Effects manifest within days or weeks

Option 3: The Burden of Power

Excessive magic use affects the Mage's health and spirit:

• Each spell beyond (rank ÷ 2) per day inflicts 1 point of Psychic Strain
• At Strain equal to Psychic Talent, suffer -2 to all rolls
• Strain removes at 1 point per day of complete rest from magic
• At double Psychic Talent in Strain, risk permanent characteristic loss

Option 4: The College of Hythe (Recommended)

An organization of elder Mages monitors magical use:

• Obvious public magic draws attention (Perception check for College agents in civilized areas)
• Misuse of magic results in warnings, then censure, then active opposition
• "Good" magic use builds reputation; "selfish" magic creates enemies
• High-rank College members are 12th+ rank Mages with powerful allies

Mages and Armour

Mages suffer significant penalties when wearing heavy protection, as armor restricts the precise gestures and movements required for their complex magic:

• No armor or Gambeson: No penalty
• Padded Armor: -1 Attack, -1 Defense, 10% spell failure
• Mail Hauberk: -2 Attack, -2 Defense, 20% spell failure
• Mail Armor: -3 Attack, -3 Defense, 35% spell failure
• Plate Armor: -4 Attack, -4 Defense, 50% spell failure

Special Abilities

• Naming: Core ability to discern and invoke true names
• Spellcasting: Can use any three Arts chosen at character creation
• Magical Sensitivity: +2 to detect magical auras, enchanted items, or supernatural presences

4th Rank: Scholar of the Word

• Expanded Repertoire: Learn one additional Art
• True Speech: Can communicate with any intelligent being for 10 minutes per rank per day
• Magical Appraisal: Automatically identify the function of any magical item after 1 round of study

6th Rank: Master of Arts

• Dual Casting: Can maintain concentration on two different spell effects simultaneously
• Deep Lore: Learn one additional Art
• Ritual Magic: Can perform elaborate rituals taking 1-6 hours to achieve effects beyond normal spell limits (GM discretion)

8th Rank: Archmage Abilities

Select one ability when reaching 8th rank, then one additional ability each subsequent rank:

• Word of Making: Once per day, cast any Art at double normal effect without spending Magic Points
• True Name Mastery: Automatically learn the true name of any creature or object studied for 24 hours
• Sanctuary: Create a permanent mystical refuge warded against unwanted intrusion
• Weather Mastery: All Weather magic costs half normal MPs and affects twice the normal area
• Geas Binding: Place magical compulsions on willing subjects or defeated enemies
• Otherworld Travel: Use Gate magic to access planes beyond the mortal world
• Master's Voice: All Arts can be cast at +1 rank effect with no additional MP cost
• Deathward: Automatically resist one killing effect per day (death spells, fatal damage, etc.)

Initial Equipment

A beginning Mage starts with:

• Robes (counts as Gambeson, Armor Factor 1)
• Staff (d6, 3 points - can be used as spellcasting focus)
• Dagger (d4, 3 points)
• Spell Component Pouch (required for complex magic)
• Book of True Names (contains 2d6 true names of common objects/creatures)
• Lantern and oil
• 3d6 × 5 florins
• One minor magical item (GM's choice): crystal orb, enchanted ink, silver stylus, or similar

Art Descriptions and Mechanics

Using Magic in Play

1. Declare Intent: Player states what they want to achieve and which Art they're using
2. Naming Roll: Roll 1d20 ≤ Naming skill
3. Determine Modifier: Apply Naming success/failure to Art roll
4. Art Roll: Roll 1d20 ≤ (Magical Attack + Naming modifier)
5. Resolve Effect: Success creates the desired effect; failure may have unpredictable results

Note: All Arts use the same Magical Attack score, just like other Dragon Warriors magic classes. The Lore skill represents general magical knowledge - understanding magical theory, identifying spells, knowing the history of enchanted items, etc. It doesn't directly affect spellcasting but is useful for magical research and investigation.

Learning New Arts

• From a Teacher: Requires a Mage of 4th rank+ who knows the Art, costs 500 florins, takes 3 months
• From Ancient Texts: Requires finding rare books/scrolls, Intelligence check, takes 6 months
• Through Discovery: GM may allow learning through special adventures or profound magical experiences

Major vs Minor Arts

Major Arts (Change, Pattern, Summon) represent fundamental alterations to reality and are correspondingly more difficult and expensive. They require greater mastery and exact a higher cost in Magic Points.

Minor Arts are still powerful but work with rather than against the natural order of things, making them somewhat easier to employ safely.

Sample Mage: Tenar the Windcaller (5th Rank)

An expert in Weather magic who has defeated warriors from three islands

Characteristics: Strength 10, Reflexes 12, Intelligence 16, Psychic Talent 14, Looks 13

Combat Factors:

• Attack 11, Defense 6 (base +0 for average Strength, +0 for average Reflexes)
• Magical Attack 22, Magical Defense 12 (base +1 for high Intelligence, +1 for good Psychic Talent)
• Health Points 14, Evasion 5 (base 4 +1 for good Reflexes)
• Stealth 14, Perception 13

Arts: Naming 14, Magical Lore 17 

Known Arts: Weather, Find, Healing, Illusion 

Magic Points: 11 per day (5×2 + 1 for Psychic Talent 14)

Equipment: Enchanted staff (+1, counts as d6+1, 4 points), robes, storm-glass pendant, charts of the seven seas

Background: Tenar earned her reputation by calling down storms that scattered three separate pirate fleets threatening her home island. Against an average warrior (Magical Defense 6), her Weather magic succeeds about 66% of the time - powerful enough to be decisive in battle, but with enough uncertainty to create tension. When she knows the true name of winds (learned through years of study), her magic becomes much more reliable, explaining her fearsome reputation among sailors.

Success Rates (typical targets):

• vs Ordinary Humans (MD 6): 66% success
• vs Trained Knights (MD 10): 47% success
• vs Other Mages (MD 12+): 35% or less

Designer's Notes

This profession balances the "great wizard" power level of Earthsea with Dragon Warriors' mechanical framework. The two-step Naming system creates interesting tactical decisions, while the restraint mechanisms prevent the "flinging spells about without qualm" problem you identified.

The progression reflects narrative power - a 5th rank Mage like Tenar has the magical firepower to deal with entire groups of warriors, but the system encourages thoughtful rather than profligate use of such abilities. The emphasis on true names creates rich roleplaying opportunities and gives GMs tools to control magical power through knowledge rather than just mechanical restrictions.

"To speak a true name is to change the world."

Adventure Seeds

The Nameless Ship (1st-3rd Rank)

A merchant vessel drifts into harbor with no crew aboard, yet the cargo holds are full and the ship is in perfect condition. Local authorities ask the characters to investigate. The ship resists all attempts at magical investigation - Find spells fail, Pattern magic reveals nothing, even simple Mend spells won't work on deliberate damage. The truth: a desperate captain erased his ship's true name to escape a terrible curse, but this has left it "hollow" - existing but not truly real. The characters must discover what the ship was called and restore its identity before the namelessness spreads to other vessels in the harbor.

The Weather Thief (2nd-4th Rank)

Fishing villages along the coast report their weather has "gone wrong" - some islands are locked in drought while others suffer endless storms. The characters discover that Koreth, a young Mage, has been stealing favorable winds from poor fishing communities and selling them to wealthy merchant captains. He knows the true names of several wind-spirits and can command them with near-certainty. The moral complexity: Koreth grew up in poverty and is sending his earnings home to his starving family. Do the characters stop him, try to reform him, or find a third option? Meanwhile, the disrupted weather patterns threaten to cause a famine.

The Apprentice's Folly (1st-2nd Rank)

The characters arrive at a coastal village to find half the buildings transformed into different materials - stone cottages turned to glass, wooden piers become silver, gardens sprouting metal flowers. A elderly Mage's apprentice attempted to impress the villagers by demonstrating Change magic, but didn't properly understand the true names of what he was altering. Now the transformations are slowly spreading and becoming more chaotic. The master is away on a long journey. The characters must either find him quickly, discover the true names themselves to reverse the magic, or find another solution before the entire village becomes an surreal nightmare.

The Truthseer's Dilemma (4th-6th Rank)

Lord Harren of Stormhaven requests the characters' help investigating rumors of treason among his nobles. He specifically wants a Mage to use Pattern magic to scry the truth, offering a substantial reward. However, the characters soon discover that Harren himself is the traitor, planning to sell information to enemies for personal gain. The honest nobles he suspects are actually trying to stop him. The Mage faces a classic dilemma: honor the contract and help expose innocent people, or violate their word to serve justice? Meanwhile, Harren knows several true names of court members, making him dangerous if he realizes the characters have discovered his secret.

The Bone Ship's Cargo (5th-7th Rank)

A skeleton crew literally sails into port -- the ship is crewed entirely by animated bones, but they're peaceful and simply want to trade rare spices for common goods. The problem: they're the remains of pirates who were executed years ago, animated by their former victim - a merchant Mage seeking revenge. The spell has gone beyond his original intent and the skeletons are now genuinely reformed, feeling guilt for their past crimes and trying to make amends. Local authorities want them destroyed, the Church declares them abominations, but the bones themselves plead for a chance to complete their penance. The characters must navigate the moral complexity while also dealing with the original Mage, whose thirst for revenge has consumed him for decades.

The College Inquisitor (3rd-8th Rank)

Master Yevon, a stern 10th-rank Mage from the College of Hythe, arrives to investigate reports of "irregular magical practice" in the region. He suspects one of the player character Mages of violating the ancient codes -- perhaps using magic too freely, or for personal gain, or without proper restraint. His investigation is thorough and his standards impossibly high. He knows numerous true names and can make magic work with frightening certainty. The characters must prove their innocence while also uncovering the real culprit: a Sorcerer who has been masquerading as a Mage and using flashy magic to gain political influence, not understanding that this brings unwanted attention from the College. [Note: I disagree with Claude here. I don't think it makes sense to have any other magic-using professions in an Earthsea-like world. There should be Mages and there should be non-wizards and that's it. -DM.]

The Last Word (6th-10th Rank)

On a remote island, the characters discover an ancient library containing the true names of things that no longer exist: extinct animals, lost islands, forgotten gods. A mad scholar has been using Summon magic to call these vanished things back into the world, but each return weakens the boundary between what is and what was. Dragons that died centuries ago now soar overhead, islands that sank beneath the waves reappear randomly, and ancient plagues return with the creatures that once carried them. The scholar believes he's restoring the world to its proper state, but his actions threaten to unravel reality itself. The characters must stop him while deciding what, if anything, from the lost past deserves to be preserved.

The Rival's True Name (Any Rank)

A recurring enemy of the party (perhaps a wealthy merchant or noble whose honor they've questioned) approaches them with an unusual request. Someone has learned his true name and is using it to work malicious magic against him: cursing his weapons to break, his horse to throw him, his food to turn rotten. He believes the culprit is another player character Mage, but swears he'll put aside their enmity if they help him discover who is really responsible and stop the magical harassment. The twist: the enemy is telling the truth, but the real culprit is using the attacks to manipulate both sides into a confrontation that serves their own hidden agenda.

FAQ

Resistance & Unwilling Targets

Q: Can you transform an unwilling person with Change? Yes, but they can resist. Treat it as an opposed Magical Attack (caster) vs Magical Defense (target) roll. If the target wins, the Change fails. Knowing their true name makes resistance impossible - the magic simply works.

Q: Does Summon work on unwilling targets? Yes, same as Change - opposed magical rolls. A summoned person arrives but isn't compelled to stay or obey. True names bypass resistance.

Q: Can you force-heal someone who refuses Healing? No resistance roll needed - the target must simply accept the touch. Someone actively avoiding you must be restrained or caught off-guard first.

Q: What if someone is holding a door you're using Gate on? The door holder can make a Strength check against difficulty (10 + Art level). Success means they hold it shut/open despite the magic.

Range & Area of Effect

Q: What's the range for Change, Mend, Healing, and Gate? All require touch for inanimate objects, or line of sight within 30 feet for living targets (Change, Healing). Gate must be cast on a portal you can see or touch.

Q: Can one casting affect multiple targets? No - one casting affects one target. To mend five broken arrows requires five separate castings (though they can be done in sequence, 1 MP each). Exception: Weather affects everything in its area simultaneously.

Q: How big can Changed objects be? Use the weight limits given. For living creatures, "small animal" = cat/rabbit, "large animal" = horse/stag, up to GM judgment for unusual cases.

True Names & Special Interactions

Q: If I know someone's true name, what exactly does that do?

• Automatic +3 to Magical Attack (no Naming roll needed)
• Bypasses resistance - Change, Summon, and similar Arts work automatically
• Makes effects permanent - Changed living beings don't revert
• Removes requirements - You don't need to have seen/touched them for Find

Q: Can I use someone's true name once I learn it, or do I have to re-learn it each time? Once learned, always known (unless you forget it, or powerful magic makes you forget). This is why Mages guard their true names so carefully.

Q: What counts as knowing the "true name"? The complete name in the Old Speech that defines the thing's essential nature. Partial names (knowing it's "rabbit" not "stone") help with the Naming roll but don't give the full +3 bonus.

Concentration & Multiple Actions

Q: While maintaining Pattern or Send, can I do other things?

• Pattern: Requires full concentration - you cannot cast spells, fight, or perform complex tasks. Can walk slowly, speak briefly.
• Send: Your consciousness is split. You can see/hear through the sending while your body remains aware but dazed. Cannot cast spells from either location.

Q: Can I maintain a Gate portal while fighting? Created portals don't require concentration once opened - they last their full duration regardless of what you do afterward.

Q: How many Arts can I have active at once? As many as you have Magic Points for, except those requiring concentration (Pattern, Send). Only one concentration effect at a time.

Ending Effects Early

Q: How do I reverse a Change before the duration expires? Cast Change again on the same target, declaring you're returning it to original form. This uses Magic Points as normal but automatically succeeds (no rolls needed) if you cast the original transformation.

Q: Can I close a Gate portal early? Yes - simply use Gate again on the same portal (1 MP, no roll required if you created it).

Q: Can I dismiss an Illusion voluntarily? Yes, at will, no action required. The Illusion simply vanishes.

Detection & Visibility

Q: Can targets sense when someone uses Pattern to scry them? Powerful magic-users (Magical Defense 12+) get an uneasy feeling when being scryed. They can make a Perception check against the caster's Magical Attack - success means they know someone is watching but not who.

Q: Is a Send projection obviously magical? Appears completely real at casual observation. Close examination or touch reveals it has no substance (hand passes through). Magical detection (Perception vs Magical Attack) can identify it as a projection.

Q: Can Mages detect active Arts being used nearby? Characters with Magical Defense 6+ can make a Perception check against the caster's Magical Attack to sense nearby magic being worked. Success reveals "someone just cast a spell" but not specifics.

Q: Do the Arts leave traces that can be detected later? Permanent effects (Changed objects, Mended items, summoned things) radiate faint magic detectable by anyone with Magical Defense 6+ who specifically examines them. Temporary effects leave no trace once ended.

* * *

And a final note from the human here: this exercise is very unfair to Claude. It does sterling work when I ask it to write code for me or to comment on rules mechanics. It struggles with creative writing because, like all LLMs and most humans, it specifically aims to recreate the standard story patterns it has trained on, which means it produces the kind of stories beloved of Hollywood writing gurus. For the same reason every AI-created RPG scenario is going to sound like a typical (aka bog standard) scenario. But ask Claude to write a parser to turn a prose gamebook into logic markup for an app and it will take flight and soar. Don't judge it by this post is what I'm saying.

In Cthulhu 2050: Whispers Beyond The Stars you are Alex Dragan, a recently freed convict who has chosen to have "the Wipe", neurosurgical adjustment that has left you with no memory of your crime. The idea is that it will make it easier for you to rehabilitate, but your partial amnesia starts to complicate things when you realize that the society into which you've been released is politically divided, fraught with global tensions, and plagued by power outages and cyberhacks that seem to be tied to mysterious numbers stations.

Following several violent deaths, suspicion falls on you as an ex-con and you are forced to flee. On the run, you will encounter bizarre conspiracies and phenomena that defy sanity. Without your own memories to rely on you must decide who you can trust and who is a deadly foe pretending to be a friend. And as you struggle to stay alive, you start to uncover the terrible truth that connects the threat of global war to the scheming of entities older than humanity itself.

The gamebook, which will be released in both physical book and digital format, blends deep storytelling with easy-to-grasp gameplay, dropping you into a world where cosmic horror meets futuristic mystery. Your character can specialize in different approaches – fight your way through with COMBAT, sneak past dangers using STEALTH, hack systems with TECH, overcome physical challenges with ATHLETICS, talk your way out with SOCIAL skills, or uncover hidden truths through INVESTIGATION. You get to choose Dragan's training (military, police, space travel, or an undefined wildcard background) which will both shape your history and unlock unique options as you play.

The two key stats are Health and Sanity. Health drops when you're physically hurt. Sanity diminishes when you witness things the human mind wasn't meant to comprehend. If either stat reaches zero your story ends -- or maybe it doesn't, thanks to the innovative "Wake From This Nightmare" journal system. (See below.)

As you explore this broken future, the game remembers your discoveries, relationships, and key decisions through keywords that become part of your ongoing story. So your choices really do matter, opening or closing paths as you progress and having enduring consequences. In the journal you can keep track of important events and locations, which helps you to navigate the tangled conspiracy unfolding around you. (In the digital version the app does it all for you automatically.)

The "Wake From This Nightmare" save system connects gameplay mechanics with the story's themes of fractured reality. When your character, Alex Dragan, dies or breaks mentally, you don't just restart. You "wake up" at a previous journal entry as if it was all just a nightmare vision. You first death sends you back one entry, your second death sends you back two, and so on. What makes this unique is how Alex retains hazy memories of what's to come, giving you a chance to make different choices and avoid the fate you've glimpsed.

This mechanic is designed to fit the Lovecraftian vibe, where objective reality becomes increasingly unstable and elusive. The line between dreams and waking blurs until both you and Alex will start wondering what's real and what's just a glimpse of possible futures. Is Alex truly seeing the future -- or is his or her mind cracking under the weight of cosmic revelations?

Cthulhu 2050 is a collaboration between me and award-winning game designer Paweł Dziemski. We think what makes it truly special is how the gameplay elements create real narrative consequences. Your choices don't just determine which page to read next – you will forge uneasy alliances, uncover hidden truths, and ultimately decide humanity's fate against forces from beyond the dawn of history. It's currently crowdfunding, with the app version due for release the moment the campaign ends on January 6th, so if you want that and the premium hardcover edition and lots of other gruesome goodies, slither over there now and join our unspeakable cult.