Ultima Underworld rune magic system?

[fredramsey]

Long ago, there was a computer game called Ultima Underworld. In it, to cast spells, you combined runes found on stones. Different combinations of runes allowed different spells.

Anyone know if anyone has done something like this for d20?

 

[Gez]

Ah, Underworld. I loved UW2, the Labyrinth of World.

I have thought about making runestones into some sort of focus for spells -- if you have the proper combination of stones, you do not need material components.

As a reminder, here are the Ultima Underworld spells:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|AN   - Negate  |BET  - Small  |CORP  - Death     |DES  - Down    |
|EX   - Freedom |FLAM - Flame  |GRAV  - Energy    |HUR  - Wind    |
|IN   - Cause   |JUX  - Harm   |KAL   - Summon    |LOR  - Light   |
|MANI - Life    |NOX  - Poison |ORT   - Magic     |POR  - Movement|
|QUAS - Illusion|REL  - Change |SANCT - Protection|TYM  - Time    |
|UUS  - Raise   |VAS  - Great  |WIS   - Knowledge |YLEM - Matter  |
-------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Spells of the 1st Circle       | Spells of the 2nd Circle        |
|                                |                                 |
| IN MANI YLEM   Create Food     | QUAS CORP      Cause Fear       |
| IN LOR         Light           | QUAS MANI YLEM Dispel Hunger    |
| ORT JUX        Magic Arrow     | IN BET MANI    Lesser Heal      |
| BET IN SANCT   Resist Blows    | UUS POR        Jump             |
| UUS DES POR    Bounce          | REL DES POR    Slow Fall        |
| WIS JUX        Detect Traps    | ORT WIS JUX    Deadly Seeker    |
| BET ORT IN     Luck            | IN FLAM JUX    Flame Rune       |
| BET WIS EX     Locate          | QUAS AN CORP   Valor            |
|                                |                                 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Spells of the 3rd Circle       | Spells of the 4th Circle        |
|                                |                                 |
| AN NOX         Cure Poison     | IN MANI        Heal             |
| ORT GRAV       Lightning       | IN AN FLAM     Frost            |
| QUAS LOR       Night Vision    | IN SANCT       Thick Skin       |
| REL TYM POR    Speed           | NOX JUX YLEM   Poison Weapon    |
| AN JUX ORT     Dispel Rune     | AN JUX         Remove Trap      |
| JUX MANI       Bleeding        | SANCT FLAM     Flameproof       |
| YLEM POR       Water Walk      | GRAV SANCT POR Missile Prot.    |
| AN KAL CORP    Repel Undead    | WIS MANI       Study Monster    |
|                                |                                 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Spells of the 5th Circle       | Spells of the 6th Circle        |
|                                |                                 |
| REL SANCT YLEM Mending         | VAS IN LOR     Daylight         |
| POR FLAM       Fireball        | VAS REL POR    Gate Travel      |
| ORT WIS YLEM   Name Enchantment| VAS IN MANI    Greater Heal     |
| EX YLEM        Open            | AN EX POR      Paralyze         |
| AN CORP MANI   Smite Undead    | QUAS REL WIS   Charm            |
| ORT POR YLEM   Telekenisis     | VAS SANCT LOR  Invisibility     |
| IN TYM JUX     Time Trap       | VAS ORT GRAV   Sheet Lightning  |
| UUS HUR POR    Levitate        | WIS EX         Map Area         |
|                                |                                 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Spells of the 7th Circle       | Spells of the 8th Circle        |
|                                |                                 |
| KAL AN MANI    Summon Demon    | FLAM HUR       Flame Wind       |
| VAS AN WIS     Mass Confusion  | AN TYM         Freeze Time      |
| ORT AN QUAS    Reveal          | IN VAS SANCT   Iron Flesh       |
| ORT POR GRAV   Magic Satellite | VAS MANI       Restoration      |
| VAS EX YLEM    Portal          | ORT POR WIS    Roaming Sight    |
| JUX HUR        Shockwave       | VAS JUX MANI   Smite Foe        |
| VAS ORT YLEM   Enchant Item    | VAS HUR POR    Fly              |
| VAS POR YLEM   Tremor          | VAS KAL CORP   Armageddon       |
|                                |                                 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------

So, for a fireball spell, you'd need to In, Vas, and Flam runes. For cone of cold; In, Vas, An, Flam.

But I haven't heard of anyone having make the work of a conversion. If you do, I'll be interested.

 

[fredramsey]

WOOT! Thanks!

Any chance you know of pictures of the runes themselves?

 

[Gez]

The runes on the stones are (about) those from Ultima's runic alphabet.

On the differences, the Uus and Vaas runes are different (they're shown as being one and the same in the above picture). Vas looks like an inverted V. Or a big circonflexe accent: ^
Uus is as the picture. The Xen and Zu runes weren't found in the Underworld games, and neither were all the (unnamed?) double-runes (TH, EE, NG, EA, ST).

The meaning of the Xen stone is "foreign" or "alien" and makes it an essential rune for Summoning spells. The meaning of Zu is "sleep", in the Ultima games, the An Zu spell allows you to wake somebody up.

 

[fredramsey]

Thanks!

I'm definitely going to do something like this, but I might have to start from scratch if I'm going to try to market it... But, I might just stay lazy and use it for my own purposes.

I'm already tossing some ideas around.

 

[Sado]

There are many Rune Magic D20 variants I am aware of. I think what most closely fits the bill is in Signs and Portents #10 (Mongoose Publishing's D20 magazine). There is an article in there which I've been told has a number of runes, each representing a concept or power, that combine to form spells. As in Ultima, one rune might stand for "create" and another may stand for "light". Combining them would cast a spell for creating light.

I haven't read the article, but I was interested in the same thing a while back and asked a similar question.