Here’s an idea for magic that’s somewhere between the Mage playbook and the wizard’s Ritual move. I was fiddling with it for a while, but it doesn’t fit the larger project I’m actually working on. Presenting it here in case anyone wants to do something more with it.
I think you could make a pretty compelling spellcaster playbook based around this. Background/racial moves could dictate your beginning domains? Or just flavor them? Other moves could let you always incorporate X as an element to add/remove a tag. Or other moves could just give you more spontaneous magic type powers (like spirit walking, suggestion, etc.).
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g_VUfKTHiC6f-OnnlYUAQinCOur_m7naoIcLZFe3VLc/edit?usp=sharing
I dig the tags you came up with.
I like it but it is quite complicated. Seems better for a low-magic setting where magic is unusual and takes significant effort and planning. I wouldn’t want to do too many of these spells per session.
I love it. The mage feels too open-ended, and makes in a bit too easy for a prima donna player to hog the spotlight. This fixes some of that, but remains nicely open and customizable.
I’ve been working since last year on a playbook with a similar take on “freeform but not overbearing” spellcasting.
Here’s the latest draft:
https://plus.google.com/115960798010335943593/posts/8oU8u9kRSwj
Actually, I’d love to add a section for making NPC and monster versions of my playbook mage, and one idea that occurs to me (if you’re ok with it) is I’d love to use your Tag Dictionary here as a part of that.
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Watching this because I have noodled over related topics before.
I like this a lot. I made a few suggestions in the way of minor edits. I am confused why you included spells and limit the player to one spell out of two, considering they have an open ended way of creating both spell effects anyway. Am I interpreting that incorrectly?
Mike Wice I was thinking that if I fleshed this out, I’d want to have ~2 spells per domain pre-made as examples.
Having the player pick 1 from each domain means that they have a limited number of starting spells that are already defined and that don’t require any negotiation at the table.
If I picked Speak with Dead as one my starting spell for the Black Gates, then there’s no guarantee that Shepherd the Wayward Flock is a spell that exists as written.
Like, I might say to the GM “I want to cast Shepherd the Wayward Flock, just like it’s written here!” Technically, the GM’s response should be “OK, so you want that effect and you’ll use those elements… roll +INT.” And then I get a 7-9, so I choose the duration (mere moments… no way do I want this lasting any longer). The GM chooses then chooses the same tags of creepy, demanding, and dangerous. “But if you want it to be potent, you’ll also need to invoke the true names of those effected.”
In other words, by picking the spell-as-described, you know what you’re getting. For the spells you don’t pick right away, you can use them as a guide but the costs, durations, tags, etc. are up for debate when you want to put the spell together.
Social Justice Commander Shepard Use any of this you want. I’m probably not going to do anything more with it.
Gracias!
Jeremy Strandberg That makes sense. Are you going to add spells for the others any time?
Probably not. Like I said, this didn’t pan out for the project I was working on.
If you have ideas, go for it!