Radiance

The raw magical energy of the world is referred to as Radiance. Like many other types of energy it exists "in the background", but it is not a naturally occurring resource. Almost lost forever to the ever aggressive march of scientific knowledge, it has been largely stabilized by the continual effect of the subways travelling along their mystic pathways. All that raw magical energy the subways generate has a mass, a weight that causes it to seep downwards.

The distribution of magic is not equal. The Radiance grows more concentrated the deeper you travel into the bowels of the UnderWorld. Immediately below the surface of the city, there is barely enough Radiance to register. Travel into the forgotten passages and natural caverns hundreds of feet below, however, and Radiance abounds.

Radiance Count
The measure of the inherrent Radiance in an area is known as the area's Radiance Count, or RadCount. RadCounts have a critical effect on equipment, magic, Salvage Tech and some characters.

The deeper you go, the higher the number gets. On the surface (the UpWorld), the Count is zero. In the Subways themselves (the stations and train tunnels), you start getting just a little bit "other-worldly", and so the Count is 1. The further you get from the "real world", the more the Count climbs, eventually reaching a value of 5. Every area has its own RadCount.

Charms and Rites can only be attempted in areas with a RadCount of at least 1. Some Charms and most Rites require a much higher RadCount. If you are attempting to use magic in an area which has a higher RadCount than needed, each level of Radiance above what is necessary bestows a one coin bonus to the Head Count of the attempt.

Radiance Level
Every character and piece of equipment will have a Radiance level. Those Breeds that have a closer association with the Radiance &mdash; Junkmen and Legendaries, for example &mdash; have higher Radiance Levels. When characters with high Radiance levels operate in areas with low RadCounts, they recieve a penalty on all Head Counts equal to the difference between their Radiance Level and the RadCount of the area.

If there is no Radiance in the area (the surface, for example, has a RadCount of zero), characters and creatures with Radiance Levels of 2 or higher take damage, at a rate of one wound level per turn. This is the reason that certain Breeds cannot function in the World Above.

Objects, on the other hand, have problems operating in areas with higher RadCounts. In general, the more an object is associated with modern reality, the lower that object's Radiance Level will be. The reason for this is that magic operates on a system of sympathetic relationships and symbols. The more an object is a symbol of the modern world, the more at odds it is to the magical nature of the Radiance. This means, for example, that firearms, despite having been around since the Renaissance, are less and less reliable in high Radiance areas, because they are so potent a symbol of modern life. The same thing would apply to laptops, cellphones, PDAs, CD players and MP3 players too.

When using an object in an area where the Count is higher than the object's Rating, the player receives a penalty to the coin toss equal to the difference. For example: let's say that your character is trying to use a Laptop (Radiance Rating 0) in a cavern with a Count of 3. Any attempt to use that Laptop would receive a 3 coin penalty... probably enough to prevent it from working at all. This system does not prevent the use of modern weapons and equipment in the deep tunnels. However, with Radiance Ratings of 0 to 1 at best, they're going to be less and less reliable the deeper you travel.

If the penalty inflicted due to Radiance Count is too high, objects just simply don't work rather than fail catastrophically: guns will fail to fire, laptops & radios will suddenly lose battery power, halogen lamp will suddenly fizzle out. The items will still work when taken up to areas with lower RadCounts, and might even work in the ame area they failed if the toss goes the player's way. The effects of the Radiance remove that sense of reliability that we have come to expect from modern technology.

Obviously there is a lot of room for interpreation here. That is as it should be &mdash; after all, UnderWorld is merely a framework. The Conductor is the final judge of the Radiance Levels of items.

Radiance Pools
There are areas where the Radiance collects into sources that are of much higher concentration than the surrounding area. These spots are known as Radiance Pools. Pools are essentially collections of pure Radiance, with RadCounts so high as to be unchartable.

RadCounts are highly sought after by UnderWorlders, and many Domains have gone to war over ownership of Pools. They are of great aid in the creation of charms and the performance of rites, as well as the construction of Salvage Tech. In addition, Radiance Pools, being concentrations of magic, sometimes are the sites of events that cannot be predicted or quantified. Pools have been the birthplace of Legendaries, have brought UnderWorlders back from the dead, and have been the catalyst for events which can only be described as miraculous.

Conductors should use Radiance Pools as complete magical wild card factors. Anything is possible when dealing with a Radiance Pool, and the Conductor should use them to let their imagination run wild, as the focus o events and adventres that shape their campaigns.