An Abominable Fancy

Faith and Doubt In a supernatural environment, parsimony insists that gods exist. But that doesn’t mean that your god exists, or that it likes you, or is listening to your entreaties. So, let’s keep the efficacy of prayer mostly secret. Only do this if it’s fun, obviously. Do you and your players like the idea of praying for water, and then looting the body of a dead ogre to find a full waterskin, and not knowing if it’s coincidence or not? Here’s what your player should tell you about their religion: God/Pantheon’s Name: Domain of Influence: Cleric's Sacred Duties: Cleric's Forbidden Acts: Weapons allowed to Clerics: Opposing Force/The Enemy: They can make up lots more, but that’s what’s essential. Secret Spells The GM instructs the player that they can pray for miracles, and the god might respond. Requesting too much can anger/bore the god. And the Enemy is listening, and will tempt you into damnation if you pray for the wrong thing. That's all

Having some fun with Boring Spells . I decided to make some completely random spell casters. I came up with four motifs: Mad Inventor Plague Doctor Infested with magical crystalline parasites Hedgehogs I decided to randomize what School via 1d6. 1           Academy Mage 2           Cleric 3           Illusionist 4           Necromancer 5           Witch 6           Eccentric And each gets 2 0th Order Spells, and 1 1st Order Spell. I rolled 1d6 to determine each spell. For the Eccentric, I rolled 3d6 for the 0th Order (there are 17 0th spells) and 1d30 for the 1st Order Spell. The results are a lot more interesting that the standard MU equipped with Magic Missile and Detect Magic. Mad Inventor Pockets crammed with little gadgets, most of which don’t work. The few that do have very limited charges. The Inventor is sure that his next invention will be the one that brings him fame and riches. School: Illusionist Spells:

I prefer simple classes that let you model a wide variety of characters. OD&D does this really well with Fighters. Your Fighter can be a knight, or a pirate, or a robin hood, depending on how you outfit and play them. Nice. The new wave of the OSR has provided us with several adaptations that turn the Thief into a Specialist or Expert or Adventurer, which creates a similar effect: you have a class that provides non-combat skills, be it a box-man, architect, diplomat, tracker, whatever. I like it. But spell casters are not so flexible. The spell list contains enough flavor and world-implication that your Magic User is always a D&D Magic User, and your Cleric always tithes to the Church of Gygax. Gustav Doré, Don Quixote, 1863 So. I present a completely flavor-drained spell list. Just straight mechanics. Want a Fire Mage or Shadow Walker or Time Lord or Gadgeteer or whatever? Just pick the mechanics you need and dress them up in lovely fluff. It's a lot easie

Some assumptions: Magic systems should be fun. Magic systems should offer a lot of variety. The classic D&D spells are the lingua franca of rpg magic. It is good when magic is mysterious and wonder-producing. It is convenient and practical when magic is mechanical and predictable. Perhaps the thing to do is to use the established spell lists as a catalog of effects for the GM's benefit, not as a menu for player's to pick from.  You get the ease of established mechanics and spell effects that are compatible with other products, while keeping things murky enough that magic never loses its wonder. Talking to Spirits Here's a great magic system that does exactly this: Spirit Magic by Brett Slocum . Instead of casting spells, it is a system for negotiating with spirits, who create spell effects for you. But the players never really know what they're going to get. The results could be better, worse, or completely different from what they had in mind. And t