MAGIC: THE ROLEPLAYING RULES

Created by Gaurav Gulati

Contact: doublegxg@gmail.com
Twitter: @doublegxg

CHANGELOG
Version 0.5 - 7/19/2016
● Clarified how a Hero’s Equipment Artifact is used in the game.
● Added artifact slot upgrade for 50XP.
● Changed format from Modern to anything of your group’s choice.
● Added ruling where the Hero cannot be sacrificed if it is “Downed”.
● Clarified that the Rare in your deck that you start with cannot be a Planeswalker.
● Added “Running Encounters for Players” section, and Nemesis trait.
● Sample Encounter 1: Lurking in the Lab added.

Version 0.5b - 7/22/2016

● Added Spreadsheet of available Heroes in Character Creation (currently outdated)

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 CHARACTER CREATION

Players will build a modified deck around a Legendary Creature, which will be their “Hero” for
the adventure. This character will represent the player in the world of Magic. The name and
likeness can be modified as the player sees fit. The starter deck of each player will contain
the following:

● 60 cards total, all of which are at or below 3 Converted Mana Cost(CMC)

● Only one of each card allowed in a deck(singleton-type deck)
● 1 “Hero” card, which is a legendary creature that must be a Rare with CMC 3 or lower
List of available Heroes(Modern)
● Only 5 Uncommons in the entire deck
● Only 1 additional Rare in the deck(cannot be a Planeswalker)
● Only 1 artifact card of Common rarity, that has the subtype “Equipment”
● All cards in deck match the color identity of your Hero card
● All cards must be legal to a format that your group decides on(Modern is
recommended, as that is the format I am testing this with)

Over time, as players gain XP and acquire other resources, they will be able to upgrade slots
in the their deck to have higher rarities. Mythic slots will be awarded for defeating very
difficult bosses.

UPGRADING CARD SLOTS

When you gain XP, you can use it between sessions to upgrade the SLOTS for the cards in
your deck, and in doing so, you can put more powerful cards into those slots. The only slot
that is not upgradeable is the Hero slot, which is locked at 3CMC and Rare.

Here is how the upgrading works:

● To upgrade a COMMON slot to an UNCOMMON slot, it costs 40XP per slot.

● To upgrade an UNCOMMON slot to a RARE slot, it costs 100XP per slot.
● To upgrade a slot's CMC restriction from 3 to 4, it will cost 15XP per slot.
● To upgrade a slot's CMC restriction from 4 to 5, it will cost 20XP per slot.
● To upgrade a slot's CMC restriction from 5 to 6, it will cost 25XP per slot.
● To upgrade a slot’s type to ARTIFACT, it will cost 50XP per slot.

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Here's an example of an upgrade: Let's say I wanted to add Dungeon Geists to my deck(which
is a 4CMC Rare), and I wanted to do it by upgrading an UNCOMMON slot. I would need to
upgrade an UNCOMMON slot to a RARE slot and then increase the CMC restriction for the
slot from 3 to 4:

UNCOMMON slot to RARE slot upgrade = 100XP

3CMC slot to 4CMC slot upgrade = 15XP
Total upgrade cost = 115XP

You CANNOT upgrade a COMMON to a RARE without first upgrading it to an UNCOMMON

first.
You CANNOT upgrade to a MYTHIC, those will be acquired as you play through the campaign.
You CANNOT upgrade a slot beyond 6CMC until later in the campaign.

RACES & RACIAL ABILITIES

Players may choose to use the Race that is printed on their Hero, or replace it with one of
ones below. Each race is awarded a special racial ability, which may be used once per
encounter, and only any time that player could normally cast a Sorcery. Flip over your Race
card when you use your ability to show that you have used it. Only one Racial Ability can be
used per turn among all players.

● Human - Put a +1/+1 counter on up to 3 creatures target player controls.

● Merfolk - Up to 3 creatures target player controls are unblockable this turn.
● Vampire - Target creature gets -3/-3 until the beginning of your next upkeep.
You gain 3 life.
● Goblin - All creatures target player controls gain haste and +2/+0 until end of turn.
● Elf - Search your library for a land and put it onto the battlefield tapped under a player’s
control.

HIT POINTS

All players begin the campaign with 15 HP plus the amount equal to the toughness of their
Hero character. For example, if their Hero is Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest(3/2), they would
begin with 17(15 + 2) HP. After that, it costs 15XP to raise your maximum HP by 1.
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 COMBAT ENCOUNTER RULES

When a combat encounter begins, all players set aside their Hero and 1 Equipment Artifact of
their choice from their deck and shuffle the remaining cards to form a library. The Hero begins
the game on the battlefield, but does not have haste. The Equipment Artifact also begins the
game on the battlefield, but does not trigger any Enter the Battlefield triggers. All players take
their turn together, much like a Two-Headed Giant game, but have their own health totals. The
GM takes their turn by themselves.

● Your Hero cannot be put into a graveyard.

● If your Hero would take lethal damage, is destroyed by a spell or ability, or sacrificed,
they are “Downed”. Tap them, and they do not untap during your next untap phase.
Activated abilities and mana abilities may not be used while they are Downed. All
equipment attached to the Hero is unequipped. The Hero cannot be sacrificed if it is
Downed. The player that controls the Hero takes 1 damage each time it is Downed.
● If a spell or ability exiles your Hero permanently, put them into the Command Zone.
They can be returned to the battlefield by paying their casting cost. Commander Tax
applies after the Hero has entered the Command Zone for the second time.
● If an enchantment or creature exiles your Hero, the enchantment needs to be
destroyed/exiled/bounced to return them to the battlefield.
● Life totals and poison counters do not reset after each battle. In-game methods of
healing must be used. Life gained in a battle in excess of your character's base life
total is lost at the end of the battle in which it was gained. You may not gain life in
excess of your base life total outside of battle.
● When a player’s health reaches 0, they are knocked out. All permanents they control
remain on the battlefield, but they take no action on the players’ turn. Another player
may heal them using abilities or spells, and when they reach 1 health or above, they
may resume play normally.

A player’s health can go into negatives, and will remain there until healed. When a battle ends,
all players with 0 health or lower are brought up to health equal to the number of Rare cards in
their deck +1(the +1 is for your Hero).

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 BATTLEFIELD LIMIT

Each player has a soft limit for the amount of non-Hero creatures that they can add to the
battlefield before they start taking damage. This damage represents the strain that the Hero
takes for managing a large army, which becomes harder as they add more to the battlefield.
This limit is increased as players they reach certain milestones.

For every creature that is added to the battlefield past the limit, the player will take 1 damage.
This damage is first applied when the limit is initially broken(when the creature enters the
battlefield), and then on every upkeep beyond that the limit remains broken.

For tokens, each one counts as half a creature.

At the start of the campaign, each player has a Battlefield Limit of 3(including their Hero).

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 SKILLCHECKS

The adventurers may occasionally come across challenges which they must overcome to
gain some reward, or affect the story. They can also choose to do a Skillcheck in situations to
get more information or to resolve it in a different manner. In this case the DM determines the
difficulty of the challenge (a number) and the appropriate attribute (ie. breaking through a
door would require Strength.) When a player is required to do a skillcheck, that player shuffles
their deck and reveals 7 cards from the top of their library. Each symbol of the target color
counts as 3, and symbols of the allied colors count as 2. Basic Lands that produce the target
color work the same way. ALL OTHER lands count as 1.

SKILLCHECK DIFFICULTY:

2-4: A super simple task. Probability of failure is very low.

5-10: A routine task. If this is primary color, you should pass no problem, and if it is an off
color, you still have a chance. Only people with no access to that color (a B/U deck trying a
Green check, for example) are doomed to fail.

11-15: A task that requires some skill. If it is a primary color of your deck, you are still likely to
pass, though not for sure.

16-19: A highly skilled task. Even if it is one of your colors, the odds are against you. It helps if
you lean towards that color, but even then, you're will fail more than half the time. If it is an off
color, it is very unlikely.

20+: An extremely difficult task. Passable with aligned colors (adjacent ones help a lot) and a
lucky draw, but most times you will fail.

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 CRITICALS

When assembling your deck, each player must mark two cards in their deck, using a small
scrap of paper in each sleeve. One will be marked as critical success, and the other as critical
failure. You use white paper for a Critical Success, and black paper for Critical Failure.
Revealing one of these cards during a skillcheck will have the following effect:

● Revealing a Critical Success: +10 points towards current skillcheck

● Revealing a Critical Failure: -10 points towards current skillcheck

White - Healing, Wisdom, Protection

Blue - Intellect, Countermagic, Stealth

Black - Intimidation, Greed, Lie

Red - Speed, Intuition, Reflex

Green - Strength, Perception, Endurance

RUNNING ENCOUNTERS FOR PLAYERS

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As a GM, the encounters you create should challenge the players in different ways. To do this,
you’ll need to create some foes that are hard to defeat, although that may be difficult because
of the way creatures work in Magic: The Gathering. Because of this, you have the ability to
give a creature the Nemesis trait. A creature with this trait is stronger, physically and mentally,
than most creatures. It gains the following features:

● The Nemesis cannot be put into a graveyard or library.

● If the Nemesis would take lethal damage, is destroyed by a spell or ability, or
sacrificed, they are “Downed”. Tap the Nemesis. Unlike a Hero character, they will
untap during the next untap step. Activated abilities and mana abilities may not be
used while they are Downed. All equipment attached to the Nemesis is unequipped.
The Nemesis cannot be sacrificed if it is Downed. The player that controls the
Nemesis takes 2 damage each time it is Downed.
● If a spell or ability exiles the Nemesis permanently, put them into the Command Zone.
They can be returned to the battlefield by paying their casting cost. Unlike a Hero
character, Commander Tax does not apply to Nemesis creatures.
● If a spell, ability, enchantment, or creature exiles the Nemesis, put them into the
Command Zone.

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 SAMPLE ENCOUNTER 1: LURKING IN THE LAB

After escaping a torture chamber(START), the players are exploring through an underground
laboratory to find an exit to the city above.

The halls are narrow and cramped, and smell like rotting flesh. It is dead silent except for the sounds
of running water and skittering rats. You eventually end up in an old prison cell block, the walls lined
with closed, dark cells. The cells are empty, save for a few trinkets here and there…

MAP

This map should not be shown to the players, it’s just a reference for you to use. Describe the
environment as best you can and build the world together! If you DO choose to use a map in your
game, don’t include the notated interest points.

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PRISON BLOCK
There are many cells here, but none containing any prisoners. The left side has 5 cells, and the right
side has 2. There is a big open area on the right with some coffins strewn about.
❖ Most of the cell doors are closed, but not locked
❖ If any player enters a cell, have them make an Endurance check with a difficulty of 7. This is
because as soon as they enter a cell, they are assaulted with the spirits of the dead, who haunt
these cells for eternity. If they fail, they will draw 1 less card at the beginning of the next
Encounter. This effect can only occur once per player, so if they have entered a cell once, do
not trigger it if they enter a different cell.
❖ (1A) A player can search this cell using Perception(7) or Intellect(9). If they succeed, they find
that a prisoner hid a photo of his family behind a brick in the cell. Finding it, they are inspired to
not have the same fate as them, and can Scry 2 at the start of the next Encounter(after
mulliganing).
❖ (1B) There are 4 coffins here, and they all smell foul. Searching them thoroughly(Perception
14) reveals that one of the bodies was holding a Pristine Talisman when it died. Give the player
a Pristine Talisman that they can use as a starting item from now on. It does not replace the
artifact they start with. If this Talisman is destroyed, it is gone forever, removed from the
character and game.
❖ (1C) There is a 20 foot deep pit trap in this hallway leading to the lab. A player using Stealth(6)
does not trigger this trap. Otherwise, the first person to walk through it needs to make a
Reflex(10) check. If they fail, the floor gives away below them and they fall into the pit and take
5 damage. They’ll need the help of another player to get out, or make a Strength (8) check to
climb out. The players behind them will need to either jump over the pit(Speed 7), or find a way
accross using the materials in the prison cell block. Let them come up with their own ideas,
and see if they’re plausible enough to happen. Create skillchecks accordingly. For example, a
player could say that there’s probably some rope in the prison, and use those to fashion an
easy way up and down the pit.

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LABORATORY
❖ The lab is filled to the brim with piles of bodies and what look like garbage chutes. It looks like
someone has been experimenting on the bodies, and then tossing them down the chutes like
garbage.
❖ There is a door on the far side, behind crates and barrels. It is made of iron, and although it
looks old and rusty, it does not budge if you try to open it.
❖ There are a few items in the room. Any of these can be inspected and picked up. Give the
player that picks up the item the accompanying card for that item.
➢ 4 Blazing Torches are lit on each wall of the room. These are items that can be a big
help during the upcoming combat encounter, so you want to make sure you mention
them. Tell players that the room is VERY dark, and the only places that you can search
are where the torches currently are. Hopefully that will get them to pick up a torch, and
use it to explore.
➢ (2A)An Executioner’s Hood is on the table to the left of the hallway entrance
➢ (2B)A Vanguard’s Shield is sitting next to the crates and barrels by the door
➢ (2C)A dusty tome is sitting in the hands of a statue, but is locked behind bars

As the players are inspecting the room or begin to move aside the crates to get to the door, they hear a
voice behind them: “Are you… leaving? So soon? Heh heh… ”

The wall behind the dusty tome slides open, and a Necromancer(N) is standing inside a small
chamber behind the bars. He grabs the tome, and begins chanting while ringing an ominous bell in his
hand… You hear groaning and moaning all around you. The piles of bodies are moving!

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 ENCOUNTER SETUP
Players must defend themselves while attempting to break down the door to escape!

DECK: http://deck.tk/17uN99bs
CREATURES: Put a 2/2 Zombie token onto the battlefield for each player you’re facing.
ARTIFACTS: Put 2 Cellar Doors onto the battlefield. Put a Grimoire of the Dead onto the battlefield.
This is the tome that the Necromancer is holding, and can be destroyed by a player.
LANDS: Put 2 Islands and 4 Swamps onto the battlefield.
HAND: Draw 7 cards.
TURN ORDER: The players go first.
DRAW: You draw 1 card per turn. When the HP of either the door or the bars reaches 50% OR if the
Grimoire of the Dead is destroyed, you draw 2 cards per turn.

HOW TO PLAY IT: The zombies should attack the players each turn, but a few should defend the door
as well. If the players begin attacking the bars, all the zombies attempt to defend it. Use your spells
and creatures as you get them, but don’t put too much down on the board at the start. The zombies
should come in at a slow and steady pace. Taunt the players with the Necromancer each turn, but if
they begin attacking the bars, make sure to show that he’s worried about it.

❖ DOOR(2D) HP - 90(HP amount is unknown to players) The players should not know how much
HP the door has, but you can describe it getting weaker as the HP of it drops.
❖ BARS(2C) HP - 40(HP amount is unknown to players) The players can also attack the bars in
front of the Necromancer, although they should come to this realization by themselves, without
you having to tell them.
❖ EVERY TURN DURING PLAYER’S UPKEEP - The tome that the Necromancer is chanting from is
causing the zombies around the room to come to life. All players reveal the bottom card of
their library and put it into their graveyard. Put X 2/2 Zombie tokens on to the battlefield, where
X is equal to the highest converted mana cost revealed among all players this way. This effect
ceases if the Grimoire of the Dead is destroyed. If it is destroyed, the Necromancer shouts in
anger: “No… NO! You will SUFFER! The dead SHALL LIVE!” You now draw 2 cards a turn to show
that he is angered and focused on destroying the players.
❖ GRIMGRIN - When Door HP is below 50, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born enters the fight. Sacrifice 3
Zombies(or all of them, if you have less) and read this aloud to the players: “The Necromancer
screams at you, “There is NO ESCAPE!” He begins chanting a new spell, and several of the
zombies suddenly stop approaching you, and instead, walk towards each other. They begin
forming a pile of corpses, that gets bigger and bigger until suddenly, a large monstrosity bursts
through the center. A large, disgusting creature stands before you, made out of the bodies of the
dead.” Put Grimgrin, Corpse-Born onto the battlefield. This creature has the Nemesis trait.
❖ IF DOOR(2D) HP HITS 0 - (END ENCOUNTER) The metal door flings open! The Necromancer
appears from the side of the room in front of the open door and fires a Doom Blade at
everyone near the door(REFLEX 9 CHECK) and then flees. Anyone who doesn’t dodge the spell
takes 3 damage. The zombies fall to the ground as soon as the Necromancer leaves.

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 ❖ IF BARS(2C) HP HITS 0 - (END ENCOUNTER)The Necromancer shuts the secret passage
behind the bars, and flees through the tunnel south. The zombies fall in place as soon as he
drops the tome.

AFTERMATH: The players can pursue the Necromancer out of the lab and through the streets of the
city, which starts a chase scene. Or if they’re gravely injured, they can hang back and rest, and find him
later on their own time.

If the players complete this encounter, they each get 50XP. If a player destroyed the Grimoire of the
Dead, they get an extra 5XP.

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