Weird West: Characters and magic in Broken Compass

Having already outlined the world and some sample characters for my Weird West setting, it’s time to detail some mechanics and character creation. The following assumes you already have knowledge or experience with Broken Compass which has a lightweight game engine and a focus on the narrative and speed and does not have a lot of ‘crunchy’ details. This isn’t a game with ten circles of spells, casting times and strict area-of-effect templates. ‘Magic’ is a general ability or calling; a method special to that character to solve problems that is different than other characters might have. 

I’ll write a separate article about integrating with Two Mice’s other RPG game which is a fraternal twin to Broken Compass, named Outgunned Adventures. It has the same core mechanics as Broken Compass, but different attributes and skills and slightly different terms for character creation.

Gifted characters

The magic of this module draws a lot from the “What If” supplement, specifically the Wild West and Fantasy Quest chapters as they are the most relevant to the Weird West setting. From the core rulebook the following TAGs are appropriate character choices: Action Hero, Cheater, Explorer, Gunslinger, Hunter, Medic “Healer”, Playboy/Femme Fatale, Professor, Rebel, Soldier, Spy, Techie, and Thief. From the “What If” Wild West chapter: all the character TAGS are appropriate to Weird West.

While baseline characters in Broken Compass are a combination of two Tags (like Action Hero, Professor, Thief), the heroes in Weird West choose a third special Tag for their Gift. This identifies the nature of their magical power plus an Expertise, Field and Skills to support the choice. Every type of magic is empowered by an Expertise relevant to that type of magic: “Elementalism” for an Elementalist, “Enchantment” for an Enchanter, “Shifter” for a polymorph, etc. With this initial acquisition, the character gains 3 Mana points, which are used and regained as outlined in the “What If” supplement. An additional Expertise/Trait called “Mana” can be acquired multiple times, each of which adds one more Mana point to the character’s pool. Your choice of magical Tag also grants one FIELD point and one Skill point.

Magical TAG: Expertise: +1 FIELD: +1 SKILL:
ELEMENTALIST Elementalism GUTS Cool
SHAMAN Shamanism SOCIETY         Charm
SHIFTER Shifting WILD            Survival
STORMTECH Electrotech KNOW Tech
DIVINE FAITH Faith SOCIETY         Eloquence
PLANESWITCH Witchcraft WILD Survival
ALCHEMIST Alchemy         KNOW First Aid
ENCHANTER Enchantment KNOW Tech
HEXORCIST Exorcist GUTS Tough
ARCANIST Arcane KNOW Observation

“I want to cast Fireball!”

So how do heroes use their magic? Characters use their magic to give them an opportunity for action that they wouldn’t otherwise have without their magic; the difficulty of the challenge depends on how applicable their approach is to the situation. Skill rolls are still made with a dice pool of their relevant Field and Skill. Throwing a fireball? Roll Guts + Shoot. Turning into a Bear will give you a bonus to your Action + Fight actions.

Small common uses of magic shouldn’t cost Mana, but big impressive and flashy uses should. To borrow a term from Burning Wheel: "Color" scenes uses of magic that don't invoke dice rolls don't cost Mana. If you're using magic to get a mechanics benefit, you're spending Mana. Some uses of magic should last an entire scene: a shifter who turns into a bear for an entire fight should only spend one Mana for that entire fight. If they shift into a different form for a different benefit during the scene, that requires another Mana expenditure.