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RPG Blog Carnival: Beyond Vancian Magic

 


Hello Friends!

I'm thrilled to be hosting December's RPG Blog Carnival topic, Beyond Vancian Magic! I'm not a hater, but I'll admit I prefer different systems being different, and clerical and magic user magic systems are basically the same.  

I'm looking forward to seeing your interesting takes and contributions on evolving past that kind of magic system.  While I chose this topic about half a year ago, it's come up recently on r/osr, in the post Vancian Magic - What It Is How It Works and Where Did It Come From?

Here are some ideas to get you started if you don't already have something in mind:

  • Creating entirely new magic systems, or emulating those of other works, such as those by Brandon Sanderson or Jim Butcher.
  • Expand on existing the existing "Vancian" system:
    • Make spells truly Vancian, so that they all have a will of their own, with some desire and something they will not do.  For example, a fireball spell might want to set things on fire, allowing the caster to use their thumb as a lighter without expending it, but needing to be convinced to fireball wet things which wouldn't burn.
    • More simply, write variants of core spells which certain guilds might share, such as a version of mirror image known by a guild of shadow mages, which adds 1 damage per figment to physical attacks, but only when the mage is in dim light.  Another guild might have a version of hold portal which allows the caster to name up to three people who can open the door normally without ending the spell.
  • New spells for existing systems that have evolved, such as Dungeon Crawl Classic, Goblin Laws of Gaming (a.k.a. GLOG), or Whitehack.
  • Porting over or making analogs of magic systems from other games for use in old school games, like the systems from Ars Magica or The Wheel of Time, or from fantasy books with fairly well-defined magic systems.
  • An adjacent area might be coming up with a unique school of magic, or even a completely different set of magic spells to use as basic spells, Vancian or not.
  • Love Vancian magic?  What about magic items that alter or enhance magic use, or just change the basic mechanics of magical items?
 

If you don't have a blog, but would still like to participate then you can either send me your contribution via email or comment below.

Tags: #RPGBlogCarnival #OSR #Resource

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Comments

  1. The Robgoblin7 December 2024 at 14:12

    I was already moving in this direction, so some magical skills made sense to me: https://the-robgoblin.blogspot.com/2024/12/beyond-vancian-magic-skills-for-magic.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Robgoblin30 December 2024 at 08:35

      And a cheeky second entry, because apparently that's how I roll. http://the-robgoblin.blogspot.com/2024/12/beyond-vancian-magic-magic-of-poetry.html

      Delete
  2. gmkeros10 December 2024 at 01:43

    and here I just blogged something regarding my setting
    https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/12/10/glimmermark-learning-magic-in-the-glimmermark/

    ReplyDelete
  3. wr3cking8a1116 December 2024 at 03:01

    What if magic was more like superpowers?
    https://aswampinspace.blogspot.com/2024/12/troika-jojo-superpowers-rpg-blog.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bommyknocker Press1 January 2025 at 19:40

    A late addition to the carnival - https://bommyknocker.bearblog.dev/anti-spells-and-lost-humanity/
    How to forget your humanity to make more room for spells

    ReplyDelete

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