Draxia RPG is Mythica Gaming’s unique roleplaying system based in the Draxia Universe first introduced in the Legends of Draxia board game.

Mythica Gaming's Lead Game Designer, Jimmy Sanders, has years of experience playing RPGs. Coupling that experience with his creative mind has led to the creation of a full-bodied system—easy to use, but very robust. The ability to customize abounds!

Current release is the beta version, so expect additions and updates as time goed on. The current version is already over 100 pages and will only get longer! Keep an eye out for updates and additional information as the world of Draxia continues to unfold.

Scroll past the downloads for more information about Draxia RPG and the world of Draxia.

Rules and Downloads

Click on the following links to download the Draxia RPG game rules and character sheets in Microsoft Word format.

Download Draxia – The RPG – Beta v1.1 [461KB]

Download RPG Custom Character Stat Sheet (Digital) [35KB]

Download RPG Custom Character Stat Sheet (Paper) [36KB]

The fundamental driving force for almost everything in Draxia is magic. Nearly every aspect of Draxian life is influenced by magic in some way. The production and use of magic influences where cities are founded, the types of jobs that exist, how people interact with beasts and monsters, even the architecture of buildings. With something as influential as magic in Draxia, it is important to understand how and why magic works to understand the world itself.

To properly understand how magic works, it is helpful to know why it works. In Draxia, magical energy surrounds and infuses all things. However, the concentration of magical energy is so insignificant that in most cases there is no evidence of it at all. There are two fundamental principles of magical energy: it adheres to liquids and it is reflected by metal. Because of these fundamental properties, specially crafted metal bowls can be made to catch and concentrate magical energy. If filled with a liquid, the concentrated magical energy becomes trapped in the liquid. Liquid that contains high concentrations of magical energy is called mana. It’s easiest to think of concentrated magical energy (mana) as a fuel. It can be used to power a large variety of things from enchanted equipment to spells. Once the concentrated magic is consumed, the magical effect ends. From a scientific perspective, it can most accurately be thought of as a concentration gradient moving towards equilibrium. As the magical energy moves towards equilibrium, it can power a wide variety of magical effects.

Now that we understand why mana exists, and how it is made, the next question is "how do Draxians use mana?" Mana can be drunk, used when crafting magical equipment, used to recharge magical equipment, or used to fuel ongoing magical effects. When mana is drunk the magical energy becomes available to the imbiber. In Draxia, most people have figured out how to utilize internal mana. Many people simply use it to augment their physical abilities, such as temporarily gaining fast reflexes or added strength. These physical applications of mana can even be used on equipment one wields to ignore armor or deal additional damage. In addition to physical augmentation, internal mana can be used to cast spells. Spells are either arcane or divine. The casting of an arcane spell relies on the caster’s knowledge of how magic and reality are interconnected. This allows them to control elements, create matter, and distort the laws of physics temporarily. The casting of a divine spell relies on the caster’s emotional and empathetic depth. Many divine spell casters find it useful to focus on a deity while casting divine spells, however, this is not necessary. The outpouring of a divine spell caster’s own will can allow them to heal wounds, provide protective magic, and gain insights through divination.

Mana can also be used on equipment. Precious gems such as rubies and diamonds can be used to store magical energy. A skilled artisan can craft these gems into a piece of equipment and enchant them with mana. Once enchanted, the wearer can then activate the enchantment at will. Usually the activation command is a mental one, however the creator can make the activation command whatever they desire. When activated, the equipment drains the magical energy stored in the gems. When the enchanted gems run out of magical energy, a mana potion can be poured over them to recharge the equipment. The last use of mana is to power an ongoing spell effect. If a spell caster wishes to enchant an area permanently, he or she can attach a spell to a mana pool. In this case, the magical energy used to fuel the spell comes directly from the mana pool. Common uses of mana pool attached spells include illusions and regenerative healing magic.

The way a monster is created in the Draxia RPG is very similar to the way a character is made. The rulebook contains a handful of pre-generated monsters, but it is easy to make unique ones or modify existing monsters. A monster is assigned a set amount of XP just like a player character. With that XP you can have the monster improve core attributes, skills, or special abilities. What is unique about monster creation is that each type of monster has its own special ability tree they spend XP in. The monster ability trees help to keep the monsters thematic. This means an undead monster will consistently feel like an undead, and a beast will feel like a beast.

The Undead

The undead ability tree is designed to create a wide variety of corrupted creatures. In the Draxian universe, any creature exposed to sufficient corrupted mana begins to turn into an undead. Some of the common traits of the corrupted are high levels of damage reduction and innate magical tendencies. Using this system, it is possible to create stereotypical monsters such as zombies and vampires. However, because of the system’s flexibility, you can easily add new and unique abilities to an existing monster. For example, you could take a zombie, give it some additional XP, and it could have the ability to temporarily become ethereal.

The Humonoids

A humanoid monster will tend to have equipment, and usually a higher level of intelligence. Many humanoids will also have the use of mana abilities, so always be wary. The humanoid ability tree has a focus on weapon proficiency and spell casting. A thousand years ago most humanoids, such as orcs and ogres, had nearly been driven to extinction. After the humans’ great fall from power, the other races slowly began to grow again. There is very little love between humans and their humanoid counterparts.

The Beasts

Beasts tend to have a lot of HP, and the ability to attack with claws, teeth, and any other natural weapon they have. Beasts come in many forms, from flying bats to rampaging bears. The beast ability tree is designed to allow for the creation of a wide variety of animals. Some high XP beasts may even gain sentience, allowing them to cast spells.

The main goal of these subgroup ability trees was to allow for a flexible method of customization, while still maintaining game balance. With a little creativity, it is possible to create a close facsimile to most mythical monsters.

To properly understand modern human society, it is important to understand how magic works and human history.

The Average Draxian

The average Draxian citizen is actually quite interesting. The easy access to magic means that most people in Draxia employ it to a certain degree. With only minimal training, people can learn how to heal minor wounds, create fresh food or water, and even create small teleportation portals large enough to transfer small items. Since even minor magic requires mana, which costs money, the poorest of citizens will only use magic sparingly. However, most Draxians have one or more small bowl size mana pools to create a small amount of mana each day.

Most humans in Draxia naturally incorporate magic into their daily lives. Hunters will frequently use it to improve their bow shots while hunting wild game. Laborers use magic to improve their stamina to work longer. Traveling merchants create food on their long journeys. In addition to the mundane tasks, some people will specialize with certain kinds of magic to accomplish more impressive things.

Guilds

The most common way to specialize with magic is to join a guild. People train in a wizards guild for arcane magic, a temple for divine, and an adventurers guild for warfare. Wizards guilds offers numerous fields of magical study. The primary categories of study are elemental, conjuration, and distortion. Wizards guilds make most of their money by using their vast teleportation networks in order to transfer people and their valuables from one city to another. Temples in Draxia have taken on a dual purpose, to serve both the spiritual and physical health of the community. Most temples will train anyone who expresses interest in the healing arts. Adventurers guilds will teach members how to channel mana to improve their physical abilities. Adventuring guilds have recently become popular. This was in response to many cities offering bounties to clear the surrounding areas of dangerous beasts and monsters.

Draxian Politics

The political landscape of Draxia is currently made up of numerous independent city states. Centuries ago Draxia had a handful of larger kingdoms, but after the fall of man, society was splintered. Without any central authorities, the wilderness has taken over most of the continent, leaving it dangerous and fragmented. Many of the more powerful cities are beginning to reclaim their surrounding lands, creating new city-states. At the moment there is plenty of wilderness to reclaim, but some of the coastal cities are beginning to encroach on each other. As the threats from wild beasts and monsters diminish, tensions between rival cities begin to grow.

Due to the paradigm shift caused by the discovery of magic, the calendar dating system is based on the year magic was discovered: before Enlightenment (B.E.) and After Enlightenment (A.E.).

10,000 B.E. – 0 B.E. – Before Magic

During this time period, the human species transitioned from a hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian one. Small towns grew into cities, and eventually into city-states. Human settlements covered the continent, ranging from the mountains to the ocean. The most powerful of the city-states clustered around an enormous fresh-water lake. A handful of rivers flowed into the lake from the mountains, and a few rivers flowed from the lake to the ocean. These waterways were instrumental in the prosperity of the cities surrounding them. Unfortunately, it was this very prosperity that led to their ultimate destruction.

1 A.E.-254 A.E. – Early Magic

The discovery of magic was linked to the refinement of precious metals. The mana produced during these years was weak and barely noticeable. It took centuries before it was discovered how to craft proper mana pools. The early mana pools were simple bowls made from gold. The crude design meant that it took days to concentrate, and the mana produced was weak. Metals such as copper and silver were incapable of concentrating mana in these simple mana bowls.

Initially the use of magic was simply a novelty. It cost an exorbitant amount to produce, and talented magic users could do little more than start a fire with it. The use of magic remained a novelty until mana pool design was refined sufficiently to create better mana out of cheaper materials. With the creation of cheap mana, the use of magic became widespread nearly overnight. The high demand for mana led directly to the fall of civilization.

255 A.E. – 500 A.E. – The Fall

In response to the demand for mana, the powerful central city-states began construction of massive mana pools. These pools were made primarily out of lead because it was cheap and readily available. The use of lead to create mana was brand new. No one knew it would corrupt the mana. By the time they discovered that exposure to mana created by different metals impacted the results, it was too late. The central city-states began to fall as the twisting influence of the corrupted magic took hold. By the end of this era, humanity was splintered and the wilderness began to retake much of the known world.

500 A.E. – 800 A.E. – Recovery

Very little happened during these centuries. Most people lived in small towns cut off from each other. Travel between towns became dangerous as wild animals and other humanoids, such as orcs created by the corrupted mana, began to thrive in the wilderness. Eventually, though, pockets of humanity grew large enough to begin retaking lost trade routes. Most shipping routes traveled along the ocean coastline. The river routes were avoided since they traveled through and around the ancient corrupted cities.

Travel between towns was dangerous.

800 A.E. – 1,000 A.E. – New Renaissance

As the wealth of towns began to grow, so did magic. The reopening of mines saw a large increase in the amount of precious metals available for mana production. The founding of Wizard Guilds helped to safeguard against the improper use of magic. The use of magic eventually became common practice for all. Most people use magic to help in daily life. However, some gifted individuals are able to perform great feats of magic such as teleporting over hundreds of miles. With this new found power, mankind is beginning to retake what they had lost. This new age of exploration and adventure is where we find our heroes now.

Creating Draxia
Notes from Jimmy Sanders, Lead Game Designer

There is a story behind every piece of Draxia, and I one day hope to bring them all to you.

The core of the Draxia RPG system is composed of a few key parts: dice mechanics, character creation, and the utilization of mana, all contained in a system that is highly flexible and allows a player to craft and create a wide variety of truly unique objects, spells, and monsters.

1. Dice Mechanics

Dice mechanics for the Draxia RPG system are exclusively D6s. In general, when dice need to be rolled, a player references the core attribute (such as strength) and rolls dice equal to the value. The result of the dice rolled is the sum of the dice plus any modifiers that may be present. If the result exceeds five more than the target needed for success, a critical success is made. If the result is five below the target for success, a critical failure occurs.

There are a few reasons I chose to make the dice system this way. First, it’s a simple system. Having a handful of D6s is easy to get, and rolling a couple of D6 dice and adding the values together makes a low barrier to entry to learn the system. In fact, at more than one convention I ran the system for a group of convention attendees where one or more had never played in a single RPG before. Within less than half an hour they were rolling dice confidently, taking their turn independently.

The next reason I chose to use only D6 dice is for consistency. Rolling a consistent D6 set of dice and adding their values together provides a bell curve of scores, with the probability favoring the average of the dice. For example, rolling 3D6 gives a range of 3 to 18, with the majority of rolls resulting between 8 and 13. If a single D20 is rolled the range is from 1 to 20, with even probability for all values. Using multiple small dice allows for crazy low or high numbers to occur, but less frequently. Always using D6 dice provides a more consistent, balanced, and stable system.

2. Character Creation

Personally I find it frustrating when I play an RPG system that forces an archetype on me. I find a highly structured character class / leveling up system inhibits and limits how a Character develops. In order to allow players to do what they want with their Character, I created an Experience Point (XP) buy system. This means that a player is given Experience Points and is allowed to assign them wherever they want on their Character. For example, if you want your spell-casting wizard-like Character to have a lot of Health, you can spend Experience Points to increase his Health. Without designated character classes and levels, the player is allowed to create their vision for a Character.

The one downside to having this incredibly flexible Character Creation system is complexity. With three categories to spend Experience Points: Core Attributes, Skills, and Special Abilities, and multiple options in each category, there are literally thousands of ways to generate a Character. This can be daunting for new players. To help newer players (and experienced players who want the option to jump in with a different Character), I am in the process of creating numerous pre-generated Characters. I recommend novice players start with a pre-generated Character. As Experience Points are earned, it is simple to update Attributes, Skills, and Abilities to their base Character and gradually over time morph it into their own custom Character.

3. Magic Utilization

I have spent countless hours pondering over how I want magic to work in Draxia. The challenge was developing an RPG system that kept the spirit of how Draxian magic worked, while maintaining a simple and easy to use mechanic. To satisfy both simplicity and depth, the magic system works by consuming mana out of an internal supply to fuel Spells and Abilities. During Character Creation, or Leveling Up, a player may spend Experience Points on mana-consuming Abilities and Spells. Each Ability and Spell has a defined mana cost. When a player wishes to use an Ability or Spell, they simply pay the mana cost from their internal supply of mana. If a player does not have enough mana, then the player must acquire more mana before they can use the Spell or Ability. To provide greater depth to my system, I developed comprehensive Spell Attribute tables. Through the use of these Spell Attribute tables, players can create custom Spells to fit their desired play style.

I consider the use of magic in the Draxian system to be the glue that holds everything together. By simplifying the cost of all magic down to an internal mana supply, it allows a seamless transition between physical and magical Abilities. Using mana as a universal power source means that both Spells and spell-like Abilities are limited by a player’s mana capacity. This simplifies a lot of bookkeeping many systems have to deal with. In most systems each Ability or Spell has a specific number of times it can be used each day. This means that every Spell and Ability must be tracked separately. In my system the only limitation to Spells and Abilities is how much mana a player currently has. In addition to mechanically simplifying Spell Casting, this system allows and encourages all players to use and enjoy magic, regardless of character type. The lore of Draxia says that magic is intrinsic to daily life, and the magic system designed for the RPG makes it a reality.

4. Crafting Mechanics

The first and most obvious thing a player can create in an RPG system is an ordinary material object. This is accomplished through the use of a craft skill. In my system a player selects the object they want to make, makes a skill check using the appropriate craft skill (such as craft weapon), and spends the appropriate amount of time and gold needed to finish the object. The time and gold cost formulas are clearly written in the RPG for those who are curious about the specifics.

While this is a fairly common way for a craft system to be designed in an RPG, I have one significant difference from most other systems. The core attribute used for the craft skill varies based on the skill, rather than using Intelligence for all of them. This means that to do work as a blacksmith, a player needs to have a high strength attribute, and to do wood working a player needs a high agility attribute. I did this for two reasons. First, I find it more accurate to have the skills associated this way. Frail scholars are NOT the types of people who work at a forge. Second, it encourages more players to take craft skills, since it means you can make equipment for your own use, rather than asking someone else to make it for you.

5. Masterwork Crafting Mechanics

In addition to making ordinary objects, I also developed a set of rules to craft both masterwork and enchanted equipment. Yet again, in most systems I have encountered minimal to no versatility when it comes to improving equipment. I built a set of masterwork and enchantment tables to allow players to pick and choose what they want. In this way a player can create a highly customized piece of equipment. Not only can a player customize the physical attributes of the equipment, but he or she can then choose complimentary magical enchantments to further augment its abilities, creating a completely unique item.

The advantage of a craft system that allows such powerful customization is the nearly endless combinations of physical and magical attributes that can be made, providing numerous ways to make each piece of equipment. This facilitates good RPG playing by allowing and encouraging players to be innovative and creative. For the moment the masterwork and enchantment tables are fairly basic, such as increased damage and accuracy. But as time goes on I will continue to expand the tables to allow ever more complex customization.

6. Custom Spell Creation

I have come across very few systems that even attempt to have a way to design unique spells. I can’t count the times I have been playing a Spell Caster and found myself limited by the pre-generated spell book for the game. To address this issue I created spell attribute charts for each component of a spell, such as cast time, duration, range, etc. When creating a spell, a player uses Spell Points to determine the potency of the spell’s attributes. The amount of Spell Points available for a spell is based on the level of the spell. In this way a player can choose the level of spell they want to create, and then spend Spell Points to modify the various components of the spell.

The end result of this custom spell crafting system is truly unique spells. For example you could create an extremely long ranged lightning bolt spell that does minimal damage. Alternately you could make the same spell, but increase the cast time to half a day, and now the spell also does significant damage. By providing a truly custom spell system players are encouraged to think outside the box – to accomplish their quests in new and innovative ways. Such an open magic system encourage players to think of new ways to play Spell Casters; which will be all the more fun for everyone in the Party.

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