unGOD Magica campaigns follow practitioners on their three-month pilgrimage toward Walpurgisnacht—the one night when magic is open and one Wish is granted. This structure rewards players for embodying their Bloodline's philosophy through Doctrine-based XP.
Campaign Structure: The Pilgrimage
The Three-Month Arc
A standard campaign spans three months of in-game time, culminating in Walpurgisnacht. During this pilgrimage:
- Practitioners travel toward the host city
- Rivals and allies surface with conflicting Wishes
- The Veil becomes increasingly fragile as the night approaches
- Mundane lives create pressure and complications
Structuring Sessions
Sessions typically alternate between:
- Mundane Life: Jobs, relationships, maintaining covers—these scenes grant access and pressure
- Magical Action: Covert operations, rival confrontations, pursuing hidden knowledge
- Downtime: Healing Stress, researching spells, managing the Veil
Walpurgisnacht
Walpurgisnacht is the climactic final session where:
- The Veil doesn't matter—magic is open for one night
- The Moon erases mundane memory of magical events
- All Seals restore to 5
- One practitioner's Wish is granted
- Conflicts between practitioners resolve permanently
Everything in the campaign builds toward this night. The GM should telegraph it from session one: "Walpurgisnacht is in 87 days. What's your Wish? Who else wants it?" Make the countdown visible—crossing off days on a calendar, tracking moon phases, showing rival preparations.
Experience (XP): Doctrine-Based Advancement
Character Progression
- Level cap: 10
- XP per level: 3 XP
- Stat points per level: +2 points (to distribute between Metres and Limits)
How You Earn XP
XP is earned by playing into your Bloodline's Doctrine—the core philosophy your family embodies. Each Bloodline has two paths:
- Uphold: When you act according to your Doctrine, mark 1 XP
- Defy: When you deliberately go against your Doctrine, mark 1 XP
Both paths grant XP because both create interesting narrative tension. You can "mark XP" multiple times per session if you repeatedly engage with your Doctrine.
Doctrine: Power Should Shape the World
- Uphold: When you use your magic to change a situation's outcome in a way that benefits your agenda, mark XP.
- Defy: When you deliberately hold back your power to let others solve a problem, mark XP.
A Merlin practitioner earns XP whether they dominate a scene with magic OR show restraint. The choice is theirs.
The XP Bank
Characters have an XP Bank with a maximum of 12 XP. Once you hit 12, you stop earning XP until you spend some. This encourages regular advancement rather than hoarding.
Spending XP: Upgrading Spells
The primary use of XP is upgrading spell Risk Classes. All spells start at RC-0. You spend XP to unlock higher-power Tags:
| Risk Class Upgrade | XP Cost |
|---|---|
| RC-0 → RC-1 | 2 XP |
| RC-1 → RC-2 | 3 XP |
| RC-2 → RC-3 | 4 XP |
| RC-3 → RC-4 | 5 XP |
Example: You have a Kinetics spell with "Nudge" (RC-0). Spending 2 XP unlocks "Shove" (RC-1). Spending another 3 XP unlocks "Slam" (RC-2). Total cost to RC-2: 5 XP.
Other XP Uses
While upgrading spells is the core advancement path, GMs may allow XP to be spent on:
- Learning new Practices (if narratively justified—requires a teacher or grimoire)
- Unlocking improvised spells (as per Striver's "Improvised Formula" ability)
- Custom advancements negotiated with the GM
These should be rare and story-driven, not mechanical shopping.
The Doctrine system rewards players for making choices, not for succeeding or failing. A Crowley practitioner who breaks a taboo and suffers consequences? Mark XP. A Houdini who submits to authority when they could escape? Mark XP.
Be generous with XP marks. If a player acts on their Doctrine in a way that creates interesting tension or complications, let them mark. Over a 10-12 session campaign (three months), players will likely earn 15-30 XP total, enough to meaningfully upgrade 3-6 spell tiers.
Don't police "farming XP." If a player is engaging with their Doctrine creatively and it's creating good story, that's the system working as intended.
Pacing the Pilgrimage
For a three-month campaign (10-12 sessions):
- Month 1 (Sessions 1-4): Establish mundane lives, introduce rivals, build toward first magical conflict
- Month 2 (Sessions 5-8): Escalate stakes, Veil starts dropping, mid-campaign revelation or betrayal
- Month 3 (Sessions 9-11): Race to Walpurgisnacht, final preparations, climactic confrontations
- Walpurgisnacht (Session 12): The final night—one Wish granted, all debts paid
Track the calendar visibly. Use moon phases to mark Seal restoration. Make the countdown to Walpurgisnacht feel inevitable and pressing.