Recent ARC clarification on magic/spell augmentation

[KyleSchmelz]

https://alliancelarp.com/forum/threads/magic-elemental-augmentation-innate-casting.38744/

Specifically point 3. Is this a change from 1.3 or have Chicago and Minnesota been playing this wrong for the last decade? The interpretation of the rules locally has been that Magic delivery (whether through monster abilities or Magic Augmentation) allows one to cast even when you don't have Game Abilities because of something like Drain.

This interpretation comes from page 49 of the 1.3 rulebook:
"Effects delivered via the Magic and Ar-
cane qualifiers and the mechanism of activating a Magic Item are both exempt from negative effects which restrict Game Abilities. For both, you must be able to at least move your mouth to vocalize (though the Magic and Arcane qualifiers may be used while under the effect of a Silence)."

I know this is listed under the NPC Game Abilities section, but it's a general statement (no language specifying it only applies to NPC abilities).

 

[Draven]

I’m not sure anyone can really answer that other than ARC?

 

[MaxIrons]

Of note, Seattle/Oregon have the same issue with rule 2, as Magic Release while bound has been a staple of both chapters since I've been playing. As much as I hate follow up ARC clarifications - yeah... this one looks like it needs to go back to them.

 

[Darkcrescent]

Yep, we have played Magic release for web/Confine as well in Mn/Chi.

 

[Polare]

Hiya folks,

I'm fairly sure that a number of chapters have been doing a number of those items wrong for quite a while just due to "this is how we've always played it" type issues

Here's what it boils down to:

Magic Augmentation (now Spell Augmentation) takes a spell and removes the incant. This essentially makes it the same as Innate Casting; in both cases, the in-game incant part of the spell is skipped, and you just need to say the OOG call of "Spell <whatever>". For example, "10 Spell Flame" or "Spell Prison" or "Spell Weakness" or whatever.

However, because the source is still a Battle Magic spell slot, it still follows the rules for spellcasting. The Bind rules explicitly mention this, and I believe there's a part under the Magic section which also mentions that arms must be free to cast spells.

We talked about this extensively last night on our ARC call and we are firm on the answers here. Many of us have played it wrong for some time, but the 2.0 release is a good time to adjust items like this to make sure we're all on the same page.

Repeating an ARC question to ask "really? are you sure?" is not necessary.

-Bryan Gregory
ARC Chair

 

[MaxIrons]

I think my confusion came from local versus national marshal board discussions on how this works. What you posted is pretty clear. A clarification then, can you activate a Magic Item while unable to use game abilities? There's at least one ritual in 2.0 that says you can do so even if unable to use game abilities, which leads me towards the "no" answer, but 2.0 is a great opportunity to clean up these misunderstandings.