Version 0.10 · not yet playtested
Demonic summoning borrows its power. Every effect a summoner works is drawn from a patron beyond the world, against the only collateral that thing wants: the summoner’s soul. Every working deepens the debt, and when the ledger fills, the patron collects. Alone in the family, this source’s price is external (see Alternative Magic Systems): the cost is a character across the table with wants of its own, and the GM plays it.
This supplement swaps the core’s stress fuel for a pact clock and its falter for a collection. Everything else, the 3d6 ladder, the four magnitudes, magical harm, durations, the dry-caster poke, stands unchanged. If a rule is not below, it works as the core book says.
A summoner has a pact clock of 6 segments, drawn on the sheet. Casting does not spend a pool; it ticks the clock toward the patron’s collection. You can always cast, until the clock fills.
| Magnitude | Ticks | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Cantrip | 0 | A borrowed trick, at will. Never ticks. |
| Spell | 1 | One real effect now: a hellfire bolt, a bound imp, a curse, a charm. |
| Greater spell | 2 | A horde, an aura of dread, a possession, a wall of flame. |
| Ritual | — | The great summonings. Costs time and a price the patron names, negotiated, not ticked (see below). |
On a partial (9–12) take the reduced effect free, or tick +1 segment for the full result. Always optional.
The casting attribute is Presence: you do not understand the fire, you command it, and a bargainer’s will holds the entity to its word.
When a casting fills the last segment (or overflows it), the patron collects. The GM chooses or rolls what the debt buys the patron now, then resets the clock to zero. Until the collection is resolved, the patron withholds its power: the summoner cannot cast spells (only the dry poke remains) until they have answered, at minimum through the rest of the scene, longer if the demand is a task.
| d6 | The patron collects |
|---|---|
| 1 | A task. A service the summoner must perform before power returns: a life taken, a thing fetched, a place defiled. |
| 2 | A mark. A brand, horn, or blacked eye appears on the summoner, obvious and permanent; strangers distrust, the faithful recoil. |
| 3 | A tithe of flesh. Take harm as the patron takes its due, and lose a Speed step until you next rest. |
| 4 | A whisper obeyed. The patron dictates one action you must take at the next opportunity, against your interests. |
| 5 | A hostage. The patron seizes a boon, a memory, a name, a loved one’s safety, held until a later, larger service. |
| 6 | A glimpse of the collector. Something of the patron manifests briefly and does as it pleases; the summoner is not in control of it. |
Play the collection as a story. A summoner who serves the patron’s ends finds the demands lighter; one who defies or ignores it finds them cruel. Escalate over a campaign: the price of power is a slow surrender.
Before play, define the patron with the player: its name and nature, what it wants in the world, and its temperament (a cold banker, a jealous lover, a mad prince). The pact clock is the patron’s attention; the collection is its voice. Give it goals that pull on the summoner’s, and it will run itself.
Every demonic bundle grants Infernal Rebuke, the at-will poke, borrowed hellfire that flows even when the patron is withholding: one action, 2 magical harm (ignoring armor) or brief Frightened on one target, rolled to hit. It never rivals a real weapon or the bolt. It ticks nothing; it is the ember the patron leaves lit to keep its servant useful.
Setting flavors:
A ready-to-use demonic catalog, sorted by magnitude. Copy chosen entries onto a spell-book sheet. Damage numbers are the L1 default; a playbook’s damage step scales them. All damage is magical harm.