ShadowFinder Spells (Patreon)

Okay, let’s do an actual OGL rule example of some material coming in the Starfinder Infinite ShadowFinder book.

Since ShadowFinder is a new Play mode that focuses on a more modern aesthetic and theme, I want to add some things–like spells–that tie into that theme. These are simply ways for characters to feel more “Supernatural Kindred Stalker” than “Guardians of the Trek Wars.”

Here’s an example:

(Art by grandfailure)

Secret Signs [Technomancer 2]School divinationCasting Time 1 roundRange personalDuration instantaneous

Casting secret signs can tell you whether entering a specific commercial or public space that has signage (such as a store, restaurant, library, subway terminal, and so on) is likely to be helpful for accomplishing a specific goal you wish to accomplish there (such as buying a specific item, being able to travel to a given destination, finding a friend of yours, finding a police officers, and similar goals). You must have the specific goal in mind when you cast the spell, and it gives you information above every public or commercial location in your line of sight by changing how you see their signs, indicating good results with positive emojis (smiley faces, thumbs up, etc.), and difficult or unlikely locations with negative emojis.

The chance for successfully receiving a meaningful reply is 85%; this roll is made secretly by the GM. A result may be so straightforward that a successful result is automatic, or it may be so complicated as to have no chance of success. If the secret signs succeeds, you get one of four results.

*Thumb’s Up (if the location will probably aid in the goal).*Thumb’s Down (if the location likely won’t aid in the goal).*Shrug (If the location may aid, but such aid is dangerous, expensive, or hard to find once within the location)*WTF (for locations that have neither especially good nor especially bad results).

If the secret signs isn’t successful, you get the “nothing” result. A spellcaster who gets the “nothing” result has no way to tell whether it was the consequence of a failed or successful casting.

The secret signs can only predict about 30 minutes into the future, so anything that might happen beyond that time frame does not affect the result. Thus, the result might not take into account the long-term consequences of a contemplated action. Multiple castings of secret signs by the same creature about the same goal in the same region use the same die result as the first casting.

Expanded Post

I try to give you, my patrons, a little extra content in one post a week. This week, it's some design philosophy.

It should be fairly obvious secret signs is a variant of the augury spell. It is far more limited in effect, but also doesn't require expending a Resolve Point. But the biggest change is that it's technomancer-only, whereas augury is available to mystics and witchwarpers, but not technomancers.

I don't think a limited augury is, by itself, a good enough idea for a new spell. But in this case, i love the visuals of it so much I think the flavor it ads to a modern=-era spellcaster is worth the less-interesting choice of making a variant spell.