Hi all! I know you all say "oh no, you again?!" and I see it in your eyes. Yeah, I see you. I... SEE... YOU... But, what to do! :)
You know, I'm trying to bring different kind of topics to the table. Before I post a review, I wanted to dive into an interesting topic, because now I know that we all have different kind of experience in this hobby, and I want hear more about your experiences and opinions.
In this post, I want to talk about methods of magic in roleplaying games.
Since we all know that magic and occultism is always there in the history of mankind, some of it appeared as baby steps of science, while the other part was mostly coincidence or fraud. But still, it made itself a huge place in tales, and eventually, literature and roleplaying games.
I want to ask you what kind of application of magic makes more sense in your comprehension of fantasy? Here are some of them which I came across:
Vancian Magic
This is the one I want to mention to get rid of :) Because it's the logic of Dungeons & Dragons' magic use method. It came from a novel called The Dying Earth, written by Jack Vance. It basically wants magic user to memorize their spells, and when they cast a spell, they forget it and they have to work on it and memorize the next day again. This one had evolved into a more flexible version, which you have to "prepare" your spells instead of memorizing.
I'm not sure if the "spell slot" logic is a part of Vancian magic, but they're like "spellcasting bundle" which includes the other. Spell slot is basically your right to cast a spell within a certain amount of energy.
Deal with the Devil
Honestly, I made up its name as "Dance with the Devil", because I don't know if it has a real name, but apparently its name is "Deal with the Devil", which makes more sense. I'm talking about the spell logic of Deadlands. If you don't know about, it's basically Western RPG with strange science and magic combined. There is a character class called Huckster, and they master the magic with some sort of game, usually poker. When they try to cast their magic, the time freezes and the Devil appears. They have to play one round of poker against the Devil, and if they win, the magic happens. You have to be able to spend enough amount of points to create a certain effect, and if you lose the poker round, GM creates a trouble for you.
FATE Magic
I think this is the most basic and also could be the most broken version of casting spells. When you want to cast a spell, every detail of your spell creates a certain amount difficulty, you can invoke your aspects related your spellcasting and roll the dice, add bonuses or penalties. If you meet the requirement, you cast the spell. If your success in more powerful, either you create uncontrolled greater effect, or you create a more perfectly effect, depends on GM's discretion. High risk, high gain.
Lovecraftian Magic
I know this one from Lovecraft's stories, but it's too similar in Call of Cthulhu RPG, as well. Also, lots of other Cthulhu variants use the same method. A spell needs some sort of preparation, like a ritual. If you meet the condition, you start to cast the spell. Depending on its type and/or power, it drains your sanity on the process. Also, there are some sort of spells which requires you to have lower sanity points. There's always a cost for reaching out a forbidden knowledge.
RuneQuest Magic
In the version I used (I guess it was 6th Edition, I used it for a couple of months back in 2016), I remember that it gives a certain amount of Magic Points to a character, like in Call of Cthulhu RPG. You learn some spells from a master, and when you use them, you have to spend your Magic Points. You also have a related magical skill, which defines your mastery on a spellcasting method. I liked this one more than D&D's spells, because it gives you more shamanistic and celtic vibes, and I needed that in my game scenario.
Esoteric/Occult Magic
With this, I actually point out KULT: Divinity Lost. I never tried its magic system, because it gives more atmosphere when a character could do less supernatural stuff. But it's technically real life occultism related. The most fascinating part is, KULT's lore is based on Qaballah's Tree of Life concept. It's mostly known as Jewish tradition of occultism. And how they used this to create their lore is a magnificent outcome.
Mana
I came across this usage in Shadowrun. For those who don't know about it; Shadowrun is a cyber-fantasy merged genre of novel series, video games and tabletop RPG. It's currently on its 6th edition, I guess it's been a year or something, for its newest version. Its setting takes place as a near-future, around 2075 and later. It brings magic, elves, orcs, dwarves, trolls and different kind of creatures to our real world. There are technomancers who can use internet like they are Sorcerer in D&D, and also there are spellcasters and shamans aswell. Depending on your class type, you learn certain amount of spell from a list, and they have mana cost. There's also a spell literally called "Mana Ball", like you throw a bolt of magical energy as a projectile. Also, shamans can summon spiritual beasts to help them. Actually I like how it works on video-games, but the spellcasting seems weak on RPG. Still,the idea of "emptying a mag on my enemy in the middle of a Seattle street gang war, and when I realize I can't reload my weapon, it's time to throw some mana balls while my crew cover me up somehow" is kinda cool, right?
Blood Magic
I literally came across this one as a part of Vampire: the Masquerade, used by clan Tremere. They are blood sorcerers and they do lots of interesting thing with that method. Blood Magic is a huge concept but it never officially used on most of the game systems as a tradition or something.
7th Sea Magic
And this is the one I'm still learning about. They combined five different concept of spellcasting with a "benefit/flaw" counterparts. Every kind of spellcasting have a regional popularity. There is demonology, blood magic, arcane magic, a "chosen one" thing, and Aes Sedai-style women-only magic. I won't go into its details, yet, because after I finish my review video of the game, I'll add an introductory/review post here as well.
So... Have you ever seen more different and interesting usage of magic? I'm currently working on my own game, it's based on Apocalypse Engine and it will use real-life esoterism and occultism, djinns, spirits, curses and other stuff. It will be in my native language, but if I ever could finish my book, I'm thinking about roughly translating it into English to see other enthusiastic people's opinion.
Next time, I'll be talking about the good old classic Call of Cthulhu. See ya!
As I recall, D&D started off using a pure Vancian system, which was all about memorising specific spells from the list of ones you know.
But it didn't take long before they came up with psionics, which was really just an alternative magic system, more based on having a list of powers and a pool of points which were used up as you used those powers.
Effectively, a simplified version of the psionic system led to sorcerers, with a number of spell slots which could be used up to cast known spells of a particular level.
Both sorcery and psionics are good mechanisms to get around the biggest issue wizards have faced in-game, which is that it's easy to be useless for the day if you haven't learned just the right spells.
Something I'd like to see turned into a magic system are some of Brandon Sanderson's ideas. Both allomancy and stormlight are resource-management magic systems, with different magical abilities and effects burning up resources as they are maintained. In allomancy, you have to get hold of and eat different metals, each metal allowing certain magical abilities. With stormlight, the resource is the same (storm-infused gemstones holding the power) and the abilities available depend more on the individual's chosen discipline. But from an RPG perspective, unless it's done well it could all too easily turn into an accounting process and lose the sense of the mystical !
This always bugged me, and I don't like how wizards need to have a wing of a bat in their bag just in case (seems more like witchcraft IMO).
One of my favourite parts of third party RPGs and homebrew is that all magic has a chaotic component, so a fail can cause some weird effects from blowing your hand off to giving everyone in a radius boils ;)
Personally, I think magic would be more like a power reserve than "I prepared these specific spells".
Wonder how Doctor Strange magic fits, I do have the marvel RPG from back in the day I will need to look it up.
I love magic systems, one of the best brains to talk about them is Brandon Sanderson
https://www.brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/
I don't like casting spells like throwing fire-crackers on the way. I like more ritualistic approach, but mostly games have "video-game-logic" spellcasting :(
BTW I'll definitely check Brandon Sanderson's article. Seems interesting.
I hadn't really thought about magic types in all of these different ways. I guess I'm just used to the standard DnD spellcasting system where you have a limited use of spells no matter what class you are but the spells come from different sources. Some are innate while some are learned. Some come from pacts. But they're all cast in the same way. Interesting read!
Thank you! I believe that you could find something more insteresting out there. I always see D&D as a baby step/first step into the hobby. And, as an opinion, they're falling behind the industry while lots of publishers are evolving into something "(relatively) better".
DnD is doing it for me at the moment. It's not really the systems that interest me that much. I'm all about them stories. Until my groups start breaking up because of the system we're gonna stay with DnD.
Yeah I see. D&D still has a huge potential for unlimited magnificent adventures. Also, there are lots of beautiful 3rd party content which give people inspiration for their games.
A nice overview of the different magic types. I mostly played systems using the D&D method, sometimes varying for different types of spellcasters. I remember another interesting method for magic use. In the old "Ultima" video games they had "words of power", I think they were symbolized by runes. Those could be used in different combinations of three of those words to make magic spells. You also needed some kind of ingredient that was used up in order to let the spell happen. A similar system is used in "The Elder Scrolls Online" for enchanting glyphs that can be attached to weapons, armor and accessories to add a special effect.
Yeah I guess I know what you're talking about. Actually, in the new era of gameplay, that thing reminds me of City of Mist. But instead of spells and words of power, City of Mist uses "tags" which describe your abilities, and you use your powers by gathering tags together.
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I have never played FATE, but based on the way you described it I would say that its similar to how the magic system in Genesys works. Basic dice mechanic of the system has you build a positive dice pool based on the Ability and Proficiency of the the caster and a negative dice pool based on the Difficulty, and sometimes Challenge, of the spell. Since you construct the spell yourself you can limit the risk by making a weaker spell with less negative dice. However whether or not you pass the check it always puts mental strain on the caster. This is what is used to keep casters from constantly casting spells, they will eventually pass out.
Yeah, I guess it's kinda similar. Maybe, FATE may give players a little bit more freedom about describing their spells and their wanted results.
I think I'll do a full explanation of it in the future. Its a big part of my new campaign, and it might help me understand it a bit better.