Spells vs Brains

Wizards in flux-engine, as I have said before are spell infected wretches, host and addict to spells.
This is the current rules for them.
These are kinda long for my liking, but I can't see what to cut at the moment.


They have a potency score. It starts at 1 + savvy modifier.   You can have  combined total levels of spells stored("wrangled")  in your mind equal to this.

The spells that you "know" (ie have learned , made notes of , and are running around your head)
is 2d4 at first level. After this you can learn new spells by;

= deciphering another wizards "spell book",

(this can be anything from rhyming couplets, tattoos, knotwork, scrap books or toilet graffiti. A spell book for a wizard is anything that the use to organise their mind and trigger the patterns necessary to get the spells to behave)

This is a savvy check modified by the level difference and anything from a -8 to a +8 modifier depending on how idiosyncratic  the wizards "notes" are.

=overhearing a spell and repeating over and over again until you get the pitch right. This requires an awareness check at the time, and later a savvy check at -8.
The savvy check happens over an hour of you practising  and if you roll a 20 , you get +1 stress. You can keep doing it until you get right or get 2 ( not necessarily  constitutive ) 20s.

=any ridiculous amount of mental derangement either  chemical or other wise has a flat 10 % chance of learning you a new spell

=rumours of the correct preparation and consummation of wizard brains, as a way of getting spells, may or may not be true

If you learn more spells than half you savvy score each level you get a permanent +1 to your stress score for each spell you learn above  that totally.

When cast the spell the spell is not lost from your mind, it is instead lost in your mind, scurrying around where you can't easily access it.
A couple of minutes of idiosyncratic ritual and referral to the wizards notes is required to wrangle the spells somewhere manageable.
(where the player chooses the spells readied).
You can wrangle more spells than your potency score but the extra levels are used to modify the savvy check. You can't wrangle more than twice your potency.

This savvy check is made  after each spell wrangling session. It's modified by any extra spell levels you have wrangled.

IF you fail  this roll, add one to your stress score. This is used to modify unfavourably a savvy check that you make at the end of each game session. If you roll a 20 on this you also roll on the table below.

Certain talents can give benefits in exchange for increasing your stress score.

Failing this means you roll on the table below. The duration of any non-instant or permanent result of this table is a week. Make another savvy check( modified unfavourable by your stress score). If you fail that double the duration and make another savvy check, repeating this process until you succeed.


add your stress score to this roll:
(despite the use of 2nd person, this table should be rolled in secret for maximum fun)
1 minor visual hallucinations (after trails)
2 a random spell becomes a favourite
a favourite spell always gets memorized, like or not, but you get +1 with any rolls with it. Despite what children have been told , there can be only one favourite.
3 spell buds, one spell is lost but you instantly learn a number of new ones of total levels = to the original  and at least 2.
4 random spell selection, instead of choosing which spells are prepared, it is now done randomly
5 reverse spell effect once.
6 Sporatically bleed from eyes and ears
7 Intense endorphin rush whenever you cast a spell. Make a savvy check in order to not cast another spell on the next available chance. +2 hitpoints though coz maaaan you feel great
8 You must make a successful con check in order to not immediately voice whatever thought comes into your head
9 Rhymes make you angry
10 Auditory hallucinations, -2 to awareness checks. Echoes, chirps, whispering
11 Auditory hallucinations, -2 to awareness checks, voices, threatening , laughing , mocking
12 Domestic animals can't stand being around you
13 Bizarre food cravings
14: One spell proceeds to bully the others, growing in size until it takes up all available space. You have only one spell prepared but double any effects and your effective level for casting it.
15 You become dreadfully afraid of one spell, and must make a successfully con check in order to cast it. It's not the effects of the spell you are scared off, as you are the feeling of it moving inside your brain.
16  1d4 teeth fall out, and are gradually replaced with random animal ones
17 Your spell book methods no longer work, you need to invent a new one, or atleast radically overhaul them.
18 Insomnia, you can't sleep and can only partially recover from resting
19 lose a spell
20 reverse spell effect , all
21 Roll on the mutation table. Effects are permanent.
22 Partially paralyzed  for 1d4 days
23 numb, emotional, immune to emotion based effects. Auto fail most social rolls though
24 either blind, deaf, or mute. This does not effect your spell casting however, not even targeting spells.
25 learn new spell
26 You forget one language and learn another one, but do not realize the substitution
27 physically numb, you are immune to pain, +1d6 hitpoints but must make a dex check every hour or have suffered a d4 damage unwittingly. The d.m now tracks your hit points as well.
28 if anyone says your name within your hearing you take 1 point of damage
29 Your tongue periodically forks
30 You doubt all your memories as false. A couple of them are false now.
31 You need to make a successful savvy check to not mistake a word for the thing it describes
32 Next time you go to cast a spell, all the spells you have wrangled happen at once
33 Randomly determine a letter. You are physically unable to say words beginning with that letter.
34 Vision drifts in and out of present time, basically everything is under the effects of displacement spell but you get an initiative modifier that is either +1,+2,+3 (1,2,3 on a d6) or -3, -2, -1 ( 4, 5, 6, the modifier will be on the bottom of the die)
35+ permanent stat damage , randomly choose stat, 1d8 damage.