Arcane Backgrounds
In Galeblazers, the biggest deviation from the Savage Worlds Core Rules is the alteration of Arcane Backgrounds. I have left the attributes of each Arcane background as written, but made significant edits to their lists of available powers.
When curating the power lists, I paid the closest attention to whether the background in question relies on Material Components, risks Corruption when casting, or follows a Vow. Typically, the backgrounds which are more restricted by these Hindrances will have access to a larger variety of spells.
In vanilla Savage Worlds, each character's Arcane Background grants them a specific array of starting powers, as well as one more more powers of the player's choice from a list. My house rule allows players to ignore the preselected powers, and simply select any combination of Novice-rank powers, totaling up to the original number of starting powers for that background.
Next to each powers is listed the (Trapping) associated with it. These are mostly mental notes for me to help clarify what source the caster is drawing power from. When you take the powers, we can discuss what the power might look like for your specific character, what materials it consumes, what modifiers are reasonably available for that version of the power, and whether it might have a rider or discount effect like the ones listed on Core Rules pg 150.
The three tags Ritual, Preparation, and Device denote something special about how the power must be cast.
Devices, Preparation, and Rituals
Revised Power Lists
- Preparation: The caster must use the Prepared Powers casting rules found in Fantasy Companion pg 111. Spells with the Prepration tag are also often designed to be imbued into Arcane Devices.
- Device: The character must have the Artificer edge to create a device that can cast this power. See the rules for Arcane Devices on Fantasy Companion pg 109.
- Ritual: There is something unique about the way this power is cast. Typically it requires special reagents, complicated instructions, a special location, and invariably, plenty of time. However, the efficacy of the results can far surpass what would result from casting the power in its non-ritual mode. You do not strictly NEED to have a power in your background’s available power list in order to attempt to cast it as a ritual. For desperate situations, there are rules that allow ritual casting of powers outside your specialization. However, just having it available on your list means that your character could use their native spellcasting skill for the roll, rather than Occult. Powers tagged as Ritual may be sought out and learned as part of gameplay, meaning that with the proper mentoring or a rare discovery, your character can learn the power without spending experience points. For more information, see the Ritual Magic rules on pg 112.