In this series I’ll be developing a new system for casting magic in tabletop role-playing games. When complete it will be available at joeyv120.itch.io
Check out Part 1 of this series for a little background on my intent for creating this system.
Reviewing the Narrative Elements
In Part 2 I described how the characters may interact with this system through narrative elements. I’m a visual learner, so I thought a graphic may help convey how this works.
Combining three Components (one of each: Spheres, Fiats, and Paths) defines a Study. A character can only cast spells within a Study they have knowledge of. New Studies can be gained through play.
For example, Daniel the Warlock learned Flora-Summoning-Ritual from his mentor as his first Study. Daniel can now call forth a wall of thick vines to impede his enemies or pluck a tulip from thin air to impress the barmaid (but you’re rolling with disadvantage for hitting on a waitress).
Meanwhile, Lady Gianna of Lakeland, through her elven heritage, has Pyre-Warding-Circle. As she’s learned to harness this power, she can protect herself from fire or ease the pain of an injured friend.
As characters learn more Studies the range of their powers grow.
I want to take a moment to make sure I’m meeting my design pillars.
Simplicity: inventing your own spells from a set of vague words is arguably less simple than picking from a prescribed spell list, but perhaps that vagueness itself provides simplicity. Frankly, picking three words from as many lists is pretty simple.
Guidance: I feel that the suggested interpretations I provided with each component offer good guidance on my intent with each. But let me know if you disagree.
Flexibility and Agency: I’ll make this explicit, as I don’t believe I did before, the players have the power to describe what spells are within their study, not the GM. However, there should be some agreement and negotiation between both parties. We will get into that another time.
Neutrality: If your setting has magic, I suspect I’ve been able to cover at least 80% of it within this Study framework. But you’re welcome to challenge me on that.
Adding Excitement Through Uncertainty
Much of the fun in ttrpgs comes from uncertainty, normally in the form of dice. Players watch and wait with bated breath to find out if the arrow hits its mark. Some games use cards or other tools to provide a similar device, but for me, there’s just something magical that happens when those math rocks rattle across the table. Plus, I couldn’t shuffle a deck of cards to save my life.
I know I want to have dice decide the outcome of using magic. Magic, after all, can be quite unpredictable and difficult to control, especially if you’re a sorcerer’s simple apprentice. But the question then becomes, how to best use dice for this system? Looking back again to my design pillars, the bullets that stand out to me here are simplicity, uncertainty, and progressive.
Simplicity
It should go without saying, but there shouldn’t be anything beyond single digit addition and subtraction in a tabletop game. You shouldn’t need a calculator-watch to use this system. To me, simplicity also means few modifiers, and they should be obvious. I hate having to flip through a rule book trying to decipher when a modifier is applicable. But TOO simple and it risks being uninteresting. Flipping a coin — for example — would get old fast.
Uncertainty
Using dice implies uncertainty, but there’s more to it than that. It should be reasonable and satisfying. There’s no fun in using a magic system that only lets you cast a spell 1% of the time. Likewise, why roll dice when you have a 99% chance of success? And to take it a step further, I want something where the statistics are not immediately intuitive. We’ll make sure the numbers are fun and fair, but I don’t want the players to be able to quickly calculate their chance of success in their head. Sure, “roll over 75 on a d100” provides uncertainty, but most people will immediately have a firm grasp on what their chances are.
Progressive
As characters advance their magical abilities that uncertainty should shift in their favor. Maybe that means more dice in a dice pool, or higher modifiers on a single roll. Either way, some mechanical element should reflect their growth as a magic user.
Until Next Time
I welcome your feedback and constructive criticism as I continue to develop this. Feel free to comment. Otherwise, I hope to see you again soon with Part 4 of this series where I’ll dig deep into dice statistics. Cheers!