I’ve got a Mage who suggested a clever idea.
What about a move where a non-Vancian wizard (like the Mage, but others too) could write spells into a spellbook, then incant those spells to repeat the magic?
As in, they have their “do magic” move, but if they take time (maybe via ritual, or in a place of power) to reflect on some magic they’ve performed, or witnessed, they can write the spell into a book — a literal book, such that the player would keep their own unique log.
Then, instead of doing the magic move, which can often have terrible effects, they could recite an incantation to achieve more reliable effects?
The real question, I suppose, is what incentive there would be to doing magic once you’d built up enough good spells — or what downsides there would be to the spellbook.
Would they have to get the book out and actually reference it to cast the “safer” version? Cuz if so, that’s the downside right there. Think of how much you can F with a mate trying to read a spell from their book in the middle of a fight.
Yeah, the ‘terrible effects’ of Cast a Spell have got nothing on the full list of GM Moves you open yourself up to when you don’t have the narrative control that the dice grant you.
(Though, The Mage’s horribly written version doesn’t really give you much narrative control anyway, so bleh.)
Sounds like if you used Ritual to put your spells down on a scroll, which requires it’s own costs. A scroll would be one use and of course, fragile/flammable. So it becomes a piece of equipment at that point, which unless it’s a class given item we all know it’s fair game for GM moves lol
I think Scott is on point. Make scrolls. Or a book containing what are essentially scrolls. Ritually made, one time use scrolls. The parchment contains powerful magic that costs allot upfront, but little when casting.
To that end, i don’t require my players to roll to cast scrolls most of the time. Unless the situation is dangerous, in which case i require a DD