More dark fantasy FotF noodling – this time on magic.

More dark fantasy FotF noodling – this time on magic.

More dark fantasy FotF noodling – this time on magic. Rather than having one big list of forms, elements and adjectives to generate spells, I’m hoping to convey setting flavour through distinct magical traditions. Each tradition gets its own custom table for spell names.

During character creation, magic-users choose which tradition they wre trained in, and roll their spells on its tables. In play they can learn new words – even from different traditions – as normal. Here’s my first stab at a tradition:

The Empty House

The bleak arts studied by the necromancers of the Cairnwoods. Their study requires the imbibing of poisons grown on abandoned graves, provoking vision-explorations of a vast, silent house. Its hearths are cold. Its doors are numberless. But behind one of them, it is said, lies the Ivory Crown once worn by the King of the Dead.

Form

1. Call

2. Candle

3. Circle

4. Crown

5. Cup

6. Curse

7. Subtlety

8. Door

9. Feast

10. Guide

11. Guise

12. Mark

13. Mouth

14. Noose

15. Oath

16. Sentinel

17. Servant

18. Shroud

19. Tongue

20. Whisper

Element

1. Ash

2. Bone

3. Clay

4. Cold

5. Death

6. Dust

7. Ghosts

8. Gloom

9. Glory

10. Gluttony

11. Grave-gold

12. Mist

13. Midnight

14. Palefire

15. Poison

16. Quiet

17. Sight

18. Solitude

19. Spite

20. Cairn-stone

Adjective

1. Bleak

2. Binding

3. Colourless

4. Deep

5. Harrowing

6. Hollow

7. Hungry

8. Icy

9. Joyless

10. Last

11. Lingering

12. Lonely

13. Moonless

14. Old

15. Patient

16. Sapping

17. Stirring

18. Thirsty

19. Unseen

20. Untiring

I don’t think this is quite there, yet. Some fruitier words would give it some sparkle. Also, I feel like this might benefit from a custom spell name template table as well, but I haven’t worked that out yet.

24 thoughts on “More dark fantasy FotF noodling – this time on magic.”

  3. I like the concept of having the tradition to give a “base” flavor to any spell from it. I imagine spells of The Empty House cause interfaces between the caster or target and this spoopy house demi-plane. Gives us more traction to interpret the spell name with.

  4. I like the concept of having the tradition to give a “base” flavor to any spell from it. I imagine spells of The Empty House cause interfaces between the caster or target and this spoopy house demi-plane. Gives us more traction to interpret the spell name with.

  13. I love this idea, Chris. The base tables provide kind of a crazy spectrum of Vancian possibility, so limiting the words by school is a genius way to set a different and more nuanced tone. And as with your heritage hack, I appreciate that all you need to imply a storied magical discipline is a single succinct paragraph and some word lists.

  14. I love this idea, Chris. The base tables provide kind of a crazy spectrum of Vancian possibility, so limiting the words by school is a genius way to set a different and more nuanced tone. And as with your heritage hack, I appreciate that all you need to imply a storied magical discipline is a single succinct paragraph and some word lists.

  15. Those base tables do an amazing job of injecting potent doses of Vancery. It pains me to lose entries like “inescapable” and “cerulean” BUT I MUST WALK MY OWN SHADOWED PATH.

  16. Those base tables do an amazing job of injecting potent doses of Vancery. It pains me to lose entries like “inescapable” and “cerulean” BUT I MUST WALK MY OWN SHADOWED PATH.

Comments are closed.