Revising enthronements

The rules for astrological modifiers differ dramatically between the Nephilim rulebook and Enlightened Magic, as part of newer BRP editions simplifying and streamlining rules. I'll leave it up to groups to decide which astrological system to use.

In the Nephilim rulebook (p130-2), astrological modifiers were randomly determined by consulting complex tables and rolling dice. Indeed, a paper spin wheel was included in the Gamemaster's Veil to make it easier to calculate. Characters could predict these modifiers with astrology rolls. This lent a big element of unpredictability when determining enthronements.

In Enlighted Magic, the modifiers are flat and predictable. The day of the week applies a ±10 modifier, the season ±5. This thankfully removes the tedious book keeping, but it makes astrology preparations less important since everything is so predictable. I don't want to constantly roll to determine daily modifiers, but I do think you could add back randomly determining the dominant field on Sundays and in the month of Leo without introducing too much extra complexity.

Astrology tables

Below is a table adapting the EM-style planetary days and months to the Nephilim elements. I have included separate tables for both the USA version and the French version, as the associations differ between the two, in case the GM wants to use the latter. To save space, the elements are noted using their alchemical symbols (Air is 🜁, Earth 🜃, Fire 🜂, Lunar ☽, Water 🜄, Orichalc ♄). 

Planetary Days and Months Table (USA)
Planet Day (±10) Months (±5) Bonus Penalty
Sun Sunday Leo All —
Moon Monday Cancer ☽ 🜁🜂♄⚸
Mars Tuesday Aries, Scorpio 🜂⚸ ☽🜄♄
Mercury Wednesday Gemini, Virgo 🜁⚸ 🜃☽♄
Jupiter Thursday Pisces, Sagittarius 🜃 🜁🜄♄
Venus Friday Libra, Taurus 🜄 🜃🜂♄
Saturn Saturday Aquarius, Capricorn ♄ All†
—
Planetary Days and Months Table (French)
PlanetDay (±10)Months (±5)BonusPenalty
SunSundayLeoAll—
MoonMondayCancer, Capricorn☽🜁🜂♄⚸
MarsTuesdayAries, Scorpio🜂⚸☽🜄♄
MercuryWednesdayGemini, Virgo🜄🜃🜂♄
JupiterThursdayPisces, Sagittarius🜁⚸🜃☽♄
VenusFridayLibra, Taurus🜃🜁🜄♄
SaturnSaturdayAquarius♄All†
†The penalty doesn't apply to solar spells, assuming those exist and are available to the PCs.

Black Moon (⚸) is included in case GMs wish to apply astrology modifiers for it. The placement is inspired by the French 3e black lunar astrology table, which effectively treated ⚸ as opposed to ☽ and ♄. However, that table used the lunar phase to determine the daily modifier instead of the day of the week. If the GM wishes to convert this, then apply the daily bonus when the Moon is waxing or waning but the daily penalty when the Moon is full or new (syzygy).

Fluff text: "The Black Moon field is parasitic: it has no celestial body, ethers, nor rays of its own, but insidiously insinuates itself within the elemental fields. While not directly influenced by the planets and stars, these do exert indirect influence on it by a ricochet effect. The Black Moon field derives less interference as the Moon field wanes, whereas Orichalka's dominance weakens all."

I don't know why later French editions changed Capricorn's association to Moon. Maybe it was to rebalance lunar magic since it was the only playable element with only a single associated month? You could house rule that Capricorn is somehow associated with both the Moon and Saturn: lunar and saturnian spells receive a +5 bonus under Capricorn while all others (except solar) receive a −5 penalty. If desired, add the following row to either of the above tables:

PlanetDay (±10)Months (±5)BonusPenalty
——Capricorn☽♄🜁🜃🜂🜄⚸

Fluff text: "Curiously, Capricorn enthrones both the Moon and Saturn but opposes the other Ka-elements. Why this happens is furiously debated by nephilim astrologers, but it definitely contributes to the general distrust against onirim."

Hm… I think I’ll enjoy this house rule!

Enthronement-limited magic

The supplements Secret Societies and Liber Ka placed casting limits based on the day of the week and the zodiac month rather than specifying enthronements and grand enthronements, respectively. The two schemes are not equivalent, but perpendicular. For example:

  1. Orichalka must be worked under "Solar Grand Enthronements" (Nephilim rulebook p190-1), presumably any day in the month of Leo that Orichalka dominates? The expanded/revised version of this spell Awakening Orichalka (see Secret Societies p38-9) must be cast on Saturdays. [This spell uses the 1e magic system and wasn't updated for Liber Ka.]
  2. Saturnian spells (see Secret Societies p67-9) may only be cast upon Saturdays in the months of Aquarius and Capricorn. [These spells use the 1e magic system and weren't updated for Liber Ka.]
  3. High Magic spells (see Liber Ka p75, Enlightened Magic p49) may only be cast upon the day of the week corresponding to their element, or on Sundays when their element dominates. [In LK, the dominant element on Sundays is randomly determined. In EM, all elements dominate on Sundays.]

You may notice that these rules aren't consistent. Only the third mentions Sundays when said element dominates, and none mention the month of Leo when the dominant field is random every day. The basic idea seems to be that certain spells are limited to being cast on enthronements or grand enthronements of that spell's element, but the exact definitions of these widows varies. This is why I'm glad EM heavily simplified the astrology, and going forward I'm using that style.

We can adapt these into a single consistent scheme of time limits:

  1. “Enthronement”: these spells must be cast on the day of the week corresponding to that element, or on Sundays.
  2. “Grand Enthronement”: these spells must be cast 1) on the day of the week corresponding to that element, or on Sundays, 2) in the month/s corresponding to that element, or in the month of Leo.
For example: High Magic lunar spells must be cast on Mondays or Sundays. Saturnian spells must be cast on Saturdays or Sundays in the months of Aquarius, Capricorn and Leo.

Hope you enjoy!

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