Vasic Stones: Teleporation

Vasic Stones are all about moving things from place to place, be it energy, matter, or properties of the universe. But the pinnacle of  their use is teleportation. This uses the largest stones and skilled navigators.

The Rock

Transportation stones are large and unlike other vasic stones, often have odd shapes. Each is fairly unique and very heavy. The carrying capacity of a stone is 1/3rd of its weight. Most Vasic rock can be used as transport stone, but in general, the smallest are about 20 inches across and weight 300 lbs. As powerful and practical magic items, large stones worth large amounts of money are common, even in smaller communities. 30 ton rocks (with 10 tons carrying capacities and costing $2 million ) is a good number for the larger common stones.The largest stones in a setting are probably famous landmarks with cities built around them to handle their traffic.

Transportation stones must have a large flat face that supports the weight of what they are transporting. They cost $100 per 3 lbs (and thus $100 per pound of carrying capacity). They do not require a stone to receive them, but it is helpful. Inscribing one of these stones takes 20 minutes, except for very large stones. Stones above the 'typical' amount for the setting should have their prices quadrupled, and the very largest stones are probably not for sale. One level of extra time may be taken on the inscription of any transportation stone, plus a extra levels for fine or very fine stones.

Most people don't own the stones they use -- they're owned by wealthy investors, brokers, nobles, communities, or governments that charge for their use. A heavily used stone can make 24 trips in a day. If the investor wants the stone to pay for itself in 10 years (not unreasonable -- but they last much longer), and we count 300 days to a year (surely there is some downtime and days when traffic is lighter), a 3,000 pound stone  ($100,000) needs to charge about 1.40$ for a thousand pounds. This price may go up or down depending on the setting, but 2-4$ per ton is a decent benchmark.Taking extra time should increase this by the amount of time spent, and the cost factor multiplies it as well.

Kera, a talented navigator setting out to explore new worlds, always carries with her a vasic stone to get home with. it weighs 900 lbs, so it can send 300 lbs back. It costs 300lbs * $100/lb = 30,000$ -- its one of the most expensive parts of exploring a new dimension!

When she sets out for the new dimension, she needs a stone that can send her ticket home with her. And she has it send herself, so she needs a stone that sends over 1,000 lbs at a time -- and preferably more. a stone with a 2,000 lb capacity is going to cost 200,000$ -- more than Kera can afford! but she doesn't need to own this one, since she's only going to use it once. The local merchant guilds would charge 3$ for per ton, time, doubled because she takes extra time to inscribe for the world she's going to, for $6. But they stand to gain as much as she does (they are hoping for a juicy new trade route) so they let her use the stone for free.

The Navigator

Transportation stones require pilots, who use Navigation (Vasic). Once a inscription is activated (the pilot does not have to activate it), the pilot stands on the spot designated by the inscription and enters the world of Vasic Navigation. During this time the Navigator cannot see or hear what's happening around him, but he can sense the general landscape for miles upon miles around him, particularly locations of other Vasic rocks and other features the GM feels are 'part of the foundation of the universe'. This sense is not particularly limited in range, but if a target requires a roll of 3 or less to reach, details about it should be limited. A typical travel attempt takes 10 seconds.


Traveling between worlds must be specified in the inscription on the stone -- a navigator cannot automatically sense possible worlds to travel to.

• Target: +10 on another stone specified in inscription ready to receive cargo, +5 for another travel stone, +2 for crushed vasic stone, raw vasic stone, or other area related to foundations of the universe, +0 for any area. halve this bonus if the stone is too small to send the cargo.
• Navigator is not being transported: -3
• Each dimensional boundary crossed: -4
• Distance: long distance modifier. If there is no location correlation between two worlds use -6.
• Power of stone/inscription: +1 to skill for each +1 power of the stone. Raw Vasic Stone can be used at -2 to skill.
• Weight: +1 if the payload is 1/10th or less of the maximum payload for the transportation stone, +2 for 1/100th.
• Time spent in 'void' with cargo, -1 per attempt or 5 minutes of waiting.

Success places the payload in the intended location. Failure results in being off target. The navigator may choose to either take the failure or waste the inscription. To determine the distance missed by, add the bonus from the target to the margin of failure and look up the result on the long-distance modifiers table -- if you miss the incoming stone, it doesn't help you get any closer. If the margin of error is greater than the distance attempted to travel, cap the error at double the distance attempted or 1 mile, which ever is greater. Failures when crossing dimensions should either result in missing the target destination in the same dimension or (in extreme failures) not crossing dimensions at all.

If there is no bonus for a target, by default a success only gets the cargo within 100 yards of the target. subtract (10-margin of success) and lookup on the regular range table to find out the accuracy of the attempt.

If a target platform is occupied, the target stone will glow. The navigator is aware that the stone is occupied, and can wait for it to become available -- but this takes time.

The passengers of a trip experience a weird timing sensation. They generally spend 10 seconds in  'the void', longer if circumstances are not ideal. They experience only about 1/3rd of these seconds. They don't see anything but blackness, and cannot physically effect anything -- including themselves. and they have a vague sense of the larger geography of the map -- but not nearly as clear as the navigator. They enter and exit the void with small popping noises, and maintain their physical positions.

Kera is crossing a single dimensional boundary for -4, and the world doesn't have any location correlations to her own world, so she's at an additional -6 for that. She takes extra time on the inscription for a +1. She's at -9, but all she really wants is to not end up in an ocean. Her skill is 15 and a target roll of 6. She expects to fail, but she's not really aiming for anything. failure by 5 puts her within 30 miles of where she wants to be -- which is enough to feel safe landing in Italy, let alone something the size of china. She notices though that this supposedly unexplored dimension she's arriving at has a Vasic stone already in it. Now she's curious. The stone gives a +5 to the roll, for a skill of 11! She rolls a 9, which is a success! But the stone is occupied! She waits a minute, and the stone doesn't empty. This attempt fails! no one cleared the stone for her! she is at a -1 to her next attempt, for a -10 total and a skill of 15-10=5! She rolls a 7 -- which is a failure by only two. That's enough to put her within a mile of the occupied stone! She arrives in a tropical forest with a ruined temple rising in the distance, right were the stone should be!

Kera has her smaller stone with her. She decides to use it to get as close to the main stone in the temple as she can. This time she's only a mile away, for -2. She takes double time, (40 minutes) to inscribe the stone for +1, and once again doesn't aim for the stone, just nearby. She has an effective skill of 15-2+1 = 14, and rolls a 10 -- success by 4! She can tell where the temple is because its a notable feature in the land, but not any of its passages -- the only thing inside she knows about is that stone! she didn't succeed by 10, so she doesn't get exactly there, so she subtracts four from ten to get 6 -- she's within 20 yards of the stone. She can't appear in the center of stone, so she ends up in a random passage in the temple with some gear, and a general knowledge of where the stone is. She doesn't have any travel stones with her, so she'll have to either make it back outside or get that mysterious stone in working order ...

Once she's found the temple stone and cleared it from Rubble, Kera goes back to the merchant's guild. She's at -4 for crossing dimensions and -6 for a lack of geographic correspondence, but the temple stone is HUGE and can transport 10 times her weight, so she gets a +1. there is also a stone at the merchant's guild waiting to receive incoming navigators. her effective skill is 15-4-6+10+1 for 16. Unfortunately, her first roll is a 17 -- an automatic failure! she only fails by 1, but because she failed the +10 from a rock to receive her is gone! she failed by 11! that's 30,000 miles! She tries again, at effective skill 15 this time, (-1 from the failed attempt). She rolls a 14, and arrives right at her destination.

Use in the Campaign

Vasic stones are intended to be used for a cross-world campaign, but can be used in a setting comprising only a single world. They are a large scale way to get from place to place with a mystical feel that still retains some limitations -- particularly physical limitations.

This system is not complete if more than a handful of characters are to use it. For that you need rules on how to resolve conflicts between Vasic navigators -- rules I will shortly provide.

In addition, I have a world that uses this magic system -- really they were created in my head at the same time. So watch out for a world that uses this system!

I hope you find this system useful!