Core Mechanics

TBD, more system 7.1-8 like (opposed skills) but with mixed success

Powers, Skills, Power Sources

Magical skills provide outer boundaries to what you can do. If you have Frost 0 and Fire 1, you can do lots of things with fire, but virtually nothing with Frost.

Feats can give you cantrips, effectively--reliable powers with no failure clause under normal circumstances. They can also do meta-things.

Power Sources determine mana (effectively) and the ceiling for what you can do with freeform magic. Power Sources are not primarily based on level--they are more self-balancing (like the 7.1 Vampire, or most of the cooler S6 races, or even 3e Star Wars v1).

Notes

Two "currencies" for power expenditure: risk and cost.

Easy powers (feats, i.e. cantrips) have no risk, and therefore always succeed. They're also pretty limited in scope and generally can't break the game (in theory).

Anything else requires a roll, and thus has a failure chance. Thus:

• Complete success: works fine, no cost.
• Mixed success: risk or cost.
• Failure: risk and cost.

But that's for a normal power use, i.e. something within normal bounds. If something is beyond what you could normally do, but still feasible, then you roll "hard mode", i.e.:

• Complete success: it works, but there's still a risk/cost.
• Mixed success: partial effect plus risk and cost.
• Failure: risk, cost, and worse

Alternative

Currencies:

• Glitch
• Cost
• Help
• Strain
• Doesn't Work

Normal difficulty:

• Total success: 0
• Mixed: 1
• Fail: 2

special mechanic for contests of power level: tbd?