Alternative to Vancian magic

When I grew up playing D&D, the only magic system I knew of was the Vancian system - which is the "fire-n-forget" method presented in OD&D, and subsequent editions.

At the time. I didn't know it had a name, and didn't care if it was right or wrong. Only being 10 at the time, there wasn't much need for me to ponder if this style of magic made sense to me. Now that I am considerably older than 10, I can safely say that I do not favor the Vancian style of magic.

I have always found the system to be very limiting in the following ways;

• Players had to memorize their spells in advance, and could not react to the situation at hand
• Characters - who presumably spent their entire life studying this art - would all of a sudden "forget" the spells they just cast, after spending all day memorizing them
• All casters knew the same spells - and gained them at the same progression

Having been an avid reader of the Conan series of books throughout my young to adult life, I was gradually conditioned to view magic as something that took great force of will, and could leave the caster fatigued from great exertion. The spells were powerful, and created to meet the needs of the given situation.

This is the style of magic that I want to incorporate into my games - the caster had control over their discipline, and created what they wanted, when they wanted.  I found this with the Talislanta RPG.

The Talislanta rules were some that I passed over many times when I was looking for something new, and different. I just happened upon a website which had all of the editions in PDF format, so I decided to download them, just to add to my collection.

After reading through the various editions, as well as the D20 version, I found that the magic system presented, mirrored exactly what I was looking for. You could make up spells on the fly, determine the spell level, and then come up with a target number that you had to achieve in order to cast the spell.  It even had a D20 method of determining if the spell was successful, which played right in to the mechanics of Basic Fantasy rules - which have the ascending armor class, and 3.0 BAB.


Here is an overview of how the system works;

There are 11 Orders of Magic - specialty classes, if you will; each with an key associated attribute (STR, DEX....), which modifies the spell Mode casting attempt - explained later.

The 11 Orders

Cartomancy	DEX
Cryptomancy	INT
Crystalomancy	WIS
Elementalism	STR
Invocation	WIS
Mysticism	WIS
Natural Magic	WIS
Necromancy	INT
Shaminism	CHA
Witchcraft	CHA
Wizardry	INT

Orders provide Advantages, as well as Limitations. This is explained further in the Talislanta D20 version of the rules.

In addition to the Orders - there are eleven Modes of magic; which is a general type of spell effect. Not all Orders (Specialties) have access to all Modes (Spell Effects) - and some Orders have +'s or -'s when using certain Modes.

The 12 Modes

Alter
Attack
Conjure
Defend
Heal
Illusion
Influence
Move
Reveal
Summon
Transform
Ward

And some Modes have opposites, such as; Summon*Dismissal &  Reveal*Conceal

Within each Mode, there are guidelines, and design costs for creating your spell.  The point system is pretty straight forward, and is geared for creating spells on the fly, although the rules do suggest creating some commonly used spells before-hand. There are even rules for modifying previously created spells at the time of casting, so as to enhance range, radius, etc...as needed.

It took me a couple of reads between the D20, and 4th edition before it clicked - but this is really an easy system.  An example of it is below.

Example Character

Say you have a 1st level character, with a STR of 16, who wishes to be an Elementalist; Air - aka Aeromancer.  Elementalist is the particular Order (Specialty)of magic chosen, which is further narrowed down to Air. This Order has the following Modes (Spell effects) available to it;

Attack
Conjure
Defend
Move
Reveal
Summon
Transform
Ward

Which means that he can only cast spells with the Modes listed above, with that particular Order

As a bonus, each spell with the following Modes, receive a modifier

Conjure +3
Move +3, because of the Elemental Air

There are no penalties to use other available Modes, they may only summon an appropriate Elemental type, and the chosen element can be transmuted through its various forms; i.e,  air transformed in to fog, toxic gases...etc...basically the practitioner has complete control over his Order - he owns it.

Example Spell

On the Wings of Eagles (Fly)
Mode: Move
Casting Time: 1 round, +0 standard casting time

Area: Self +0, standard area
Duration: 5 rounds +0, standard duration
Saving Throw:N/A
Weight: up to 250 lbs +10 to target#
Speed: 30ft/round, +0, standard speed
Total Casting Target#: Base 10 + 10 for weight = 20.

To cast this spell, our 1st level Aeromancer has to roll a 20 (target number), on a D20.  Pretty impossible, right!  However, Aeromancers gain a +3 to Move Mode spells - which is added to their die roll.  As Elementalist also add their STR modifiers to their casting attempt, our caster gets to add +2 to the roll as well, for having a STR of 16. Additionally, the character decided to add their 1 magic point (1 pt, gained at each level of advancement) to the Move Mode at character creation, so another +1 is added to the die roll.

All in all, there is a total of +6 added to the die roll.
+3 for Move Mode bonus for Aeromancy
+2 for STR 16
+1 for Move Mode advancement, added at 1st level

The target number is 20, so with all of the modifiers, our character needs to now roll a 14 or better to succeed.  Not easy, but not out of the range for our 1st level character - particularly as the Fly spell is a 3rd level spell in Basic Fantasy, and you need to be 5th level before you can cast it.

Continuing Example

Now, if the character were 3rd level, and decided at each level to place their +1 skill point in Move Mode, they would the following modifiers;

+3 for Move Mode bonus for Aeromancy
+2 for STR 16
+3 for Move Mode advancement; +1 added at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level

This is a +8 total mod, which means that he would have to roll a 12 or better on a D20, to be able to cast this spell. This is a 60% chance to Fly at 3rd level.

This process may seem complicated at first, but after a few passes over the chapter it has become really easy to grasp. Plus, the books do a better job of explaining the process than I do.

I feel this type of magic system really opens up the possibilities in play, as the only limitation to what can be is your imagination. Knowing the Modes, and how, and when to use them, makes a spell caster truly adaptable, and formidable.   While they can become power-beasts as they advance in level - a fatigue rule, as well as their generally low hit points, still means that they have to be cautious.


Adapting for OSR Rules

At Character creation, the Order(s) is/are chosen. (Up to the GM on how many Orders to allow, and when)

At 1st level, and each level thereafter, full class spell casters gain 1 spell point to permanently assign to a specific spell Mode. This will act as a bonus to the caster's die roll to hit the casting target #. This may seem like a powerful option, but consider that many spell casters will have multiples Modes. You could enhance one, or two Modes all the way up, but you would really stink in the other Modes - which you just might need one day.  This does allow some variation between characters with the same Orders, as not all users will take advantage of all Modes, and not everyone will have the same mastery.

Dual class characters receive 1 point at first level, and every odd level after that - 3rd, 5th, 7th..

Governing Attributes (Determined by Order) +/- are added to the caster's die roll

Base casting target # is 10 + and spell design points.

Fatigue

Casting spells is fatiguing, so each spell cast, beyond the first, whether successful or not, has a cumulative -1 modifier added to the die roll.  This adds some limitations to what a caster can do - and keeps some checks and balances to the game.

The GM determines how quickly fatigue is recovered - generally 1 point negative modifier goes away with each hour of rest; 

Example, if a caster cast 3 successive spells, they now have a -3 modifier to any other spells cast within the next hour.  If 1 hour goes by without casting a spell, the spell modifier is now -2. If two additional hours go by,  the spell modifier is back to 0.

Multiple Orders

If multiple Orders are allowed, the character may find that they have duplicate Modes available between the chosen Orders. Even though the Modes are the same in function, they are not considered the same when assigning spell points, as they are from different Schools.  

Example; The Aeromancer above, decides at a later date to learn the Pyromancy Order under Elementalism, which also has the Move Mode. Any points the Aeromancer has already assigned in the Move Mode under Aeromancy, do not apply to the Move Mode for Pyromancy.  Spell points gained at later levels will have to be assigned to a particular Mode, for a particular Order.  

This helps limit the power a Magic User can gain. I role playing terms, is attributed to the the Magic User splitting their focus, and no longer specializing in a given field magic.

This was a long entry, but I hope someone can find some use from it.  Again, for a better idea of how this works, please download a copy of the rules from the Talislanta website.

  

My own version of OSR rules

Although I have been a bit quiet on the blog-front lately, it does not mean that I have not been active.  I have been pouring through all of the hard back books, and PDF's I own of various Fantasy RPG's, both old and new.  Each set of rules has something I like about it, and some things I do not.  

As I mentioned in a previous posting, I waffled on whether or not I would use Basic Fantasy, or Labyrinth Lord.  I finally decided on LL, as pretty much everything was in one book (If you do not consider AEC)

As I delved farther in to LL, I still found that I was referring back to Basic Fantasy, and other rules, to compare the Racial Traits, Spells, AC, etc… and as I was  constantly flipping back and forth between this set, and that set, I decided it would be so much easier if I just compiled everything I liked about all of the various rule sets, in to one.  And this is what I am going to do - take all the parts that I like, and put them in to one cover. This will be a mixture of old, and new ideas, with possibly even something new from my imagination.

I may be deluding myself, but I do not think that it will be that hard to do. Everything I am looking for is in OGL format, and should be pretty easy to cut-n-paste in to a word DOC.  Maybe the one thing that will hold me up is the formatting.  

This will probably turn out to be the ugliest baby on the block, but it will be my baby.

Ok, so why recreate the wheel, right? After careful thought (and realizing how much work is involved) I decided to stick with Basic Fantasy as the base, and just add in my house rules.

The most recent version of Basic Fantasy won me over.  

Save VS poison, part 2

I was thinking further on the mod I adopted, instead of the standard "save VS poison, or die" rule.  The one thing I did not take in to consideration was additional poisoning, while being already being poisoned.

I was thinking; In the instance where a character was already poisoned, and took further damage, and failed the poison save, what happened? I mulled it over a bit, and then decided on the following;

• Failing future poison saves, while currently poisoned, extends the duration by 1/2 of the original duration, rounded up. For example; a character has been bitten by a 5HD spider, and fails the poison save, he will take 1d6 1d4 damage, each turn, for 5 turns.  The next round, the character is bitten again, and fails another save. Instead of adding 5 turns to the duration, the character will only add 3, for a total of 8 turns.  

As mentioned before, this may not sound like a lot of damage, but consider that this totals 8d6 8d4, or a max of 48 32 additional points of damage, over a period of time.  Additionally, the randomness of the damage each turn will allow the players some time to find a cure for the poisoning.

With the change in how poisoning works, I had to give some consideration to the spell, Neutralize Poison.  My thought is to make this spell accessible at 1st level, instead of 4th, for Clerics & Druids. 

The trouble with "Save VS. poison, or die" rule

I have been looking for a mod for the "save VS poison, or die" rule.  I think this it is pretty silly that a a centipede can kill a higher level adventurer,  almost as easily as a 1st level adventurer.

I ran across a mod somewhere, (I'm not sure where) which changed the poison save from a "save", and instead made it a d6 d4 worth or additional damage, for a certain number of rounds.  I don't remember what the exact mod was, but I have enough of a framework, to make something useful out of it.

Here is what I am thinking.

• Roll save vs poison as usual.
• Save = No damage, or as otherwise indicated by specific rules for type of poison, or monster.
• Fail = Take 1d6 1d4 points of damage per turn, for X number of turns, with X  = the HD of the monster.  Less than 1 HD monsters round up to 1.   Example:  The poison from a 5HD Giant Spider, will do an additional 1d6 1d4 points of damage each turn, for 5 turns, beginning on the turn after the wound was received.
• Previous rule applies, if poison runs over to CON damage. 

At first, this may seem to be a bit light, when compared to the extreme result of death; but, consider that this is continuing damage.  Initially the character may take 1-4 points of damage for the delivery of the poison, but the next turn, and subsequent turns, will take an additional 1d6 1d4 points of damage - in addition to any other damage taken from other attacks/effects.

This gives the character a little bit of wiggle room when facing envenomed creatures, but still faces them with the possibility of death, through continuing damage.

We have not tried this out yet, but I think it will work ok...at least it does in my head. 

I will get you..... in about 5 turns!

Thoughts on Hit Points

One of the things that has always thrown me off about low level characters, is the low hit points.  When you have a range of 1-10 hp for 1st level characters, not including constitution modifiers, you are basically a one hit wonder; meaning that after one hit, your character is dead.

I had always played where 1st lever characters started off with max hp at 1st level, but this still didn't save you from a lucky swing from a goblin, or even two bad swings.  I toyed with a couple of ideas on how to get some longevity out of a character, without totally messing up the dynamics of the game.  Below are a couple of the options I tried, with the pros and cons of each;

• CON x d6-d10D, depending upon class.   Example; Fighter with CON 16, would roll 16 x d10, with the result being the characters hp, for the life of the character. The hp total would never change unless through some boon or misfortune. 
• PRO: The benefit is that 1st level characters would have a much higher survival rate, with tons of hp.
• CON: Players would max out their CON, in order for a larger bucket of dice for hp. 
• CON: Players could still roll pretty poorly, and wind up with low hp.  Then again, maybe that is not a CON, but a PRO

•  Player rolls twice for each level gained.  Players would roll 2 dice, based on class, and would take the highest roll.  
• PRO: Player could possibly roll well
• CONS: Player could roll poorly

• Player just took max hp adjustment for each level gained. 
• PRO: Characters would have a better chance of reaching higher levels.
• CON: Did not feel right, and gave the fighting class an advantage, which would probably skew a player's choice of class selection. 

So, with not being totally enamored with any of the above (except maybe the CON option), I started searching the internet, to see what other players were doing.  I ran across the blog, Akratic Wizardry, which had a nice post about "House Rules".  In this post there was a version of using CON as HP, in conjunction with using your usual class HP, to represent fatigue points or bruising.

I am reprinting the majority of the mechanics below, and will remove if the owner is offended at my duplication of their work.
 

• Character's class hp's represent "superficial damage" (exhaustion, bruising, scraping, ..)
• Character's CON represents lethal damage to their person

• All lost class hp are regained by sleeping, without interruption, for 8 full hours
• Resting, or sleeping, for less than 8 hours, only enables characters to regain 1 hp, per full hour.

• Cure Wounds spells, and potions of Healing, do not heal class hp, but only heal lost points of CON.         

•  Once a character's hp have been reduced to 0, any further damage is taken off the CON score.
• This damage represents "serious" damage
• Every time damage is taken to CON, a save VS. Death is required, or the character falls unconscious.  
• An unconscious character, regains consciousness after 8 hours of rest.
• Additionally, any character which has taken damage to CON, suffers a -2 penalty to all actions (attack rolls, savings throws, etc..)

•  A character whose CON is reduced to 0, or lower, is dead

•  A character cannot regain class hp, until he has regained all lost CON.
• Characters regain 1 CON, for every two days of complete bed rest. 
• The care of a Doctor, or Healer can improve the rate to 1 CON, per day of complete rest.

• Magic healing spells may only restore hp, not CON (GM's may change this to sui their tastes)

I really like these rules, as it allows characters a great bit of survivability, whether at low, or higher levels.  I do not think this unbalances the game, or changes any of the dynamics.  There is also the element of realism for lower level characters, and the Heroic element for higher level.  Of course, we still have to play a few games with it, so see how it works.   I also need to see how it works out with my "You've been poisoned - save, or die" mod I am working on.