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Which supplements are there for flexible spellcasting of all kind?


Belisar

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This "of all kinds" includes different variants for supernatural effects, if it's classical magic, or modern psi or the kind of "The Force" and "bionics".

Is there a supplement compatible with BRP/CoC to create certain flexible effects rather than vancian style lists of spells? 

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  • Belisar changed the title to Which supplements are there for flexible spellcasting of all kind?

RuneQuest 3 Sorcery can be very flexible, if you chose the right spells. It's available in the Magic Book, under the name Wizardry -surely because the Big Gold Book named the Elric! magic "sorcery", and the 1980 Magic World magic "Wizardry".

At core, Sorcery let you chose the parameters of your spells, providing you spend magic points. But, whereas some spells are very tightly defined (you can't do much except boost damage with Enhance Damage), others are very flexible : Animate (substance), for instance.

The Rune magic from the Elric! book The Unknown East is very flexible. The runes you've learn tell what magic type you're most familiar with, and you can cast any spell you want from these.

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Psionic systems are also generally more flexible than magic systems, and only need a little re-skinning. After all, the ElfQuest Magic system served as the basis for th BGB Psionics chapter.

Another solution would be to take a system such as Mythras or OpenQuest Sorcery, and add some rules to let a magician cast spells that are similar to spells he knows, with limitations. Maybe a malus to skill, and/or an increase in MP cost. Instead of the "similar spells" idea above, you could also include multiple Sorcery skills : Elemental, Physical, Mind, Etc. You could cast any spell related to a Sorcery skill you know, but with limitations.

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I like the Rune Magic system in Mythic Iceland. People know runes, that have certain effects (both physical and narrative), and combine them to build whichever spells they want. The runes could be easily reskinned just by referring to them by the effect and calling them powers/talents/spells etc. It will be the magic system I'd use in any non-Runequest BRP game I run.

https://www.chaosium.com/mythic-iceland-2/

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You could have a look at the ritual casting from Revolution d100 as well. Starting from a classical spell à la BRP, you can alter and expend the effects in a free form way.

 

And there is a free form magic system to dowmload here (which I haven't read so far so I cannot comment). The Second Way Draft

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On 11/26/2020 at 7:02 PM, hix said:

Advanced Sorcery for Magic World takes a stab at emulating the Ars Magica style of freeform casting. A poster here made an alternate version which is really good, should be in the download section.

 

On 11/26/2020 at 12:48 PM, Mugen said:

The Rune magic from the Elric! book The Unknown East is very flexible. The runes you've learn tell what magic type you're most familiar with, and you can cast any spell you want from these.

I believe that I'm correct in saying that these are two explanations of the same system. (Apologies if not).

I fully agree that this (these) set of mechanics is by far the most flexible I've seen for BRP/d100.

There are a set of houserules (by Charlie Serjios I think, although I'm sure that I have mangled the spelling even if I have managed to remember the name) which used to be hosted on Tom Zunder's webpage for improving them which make them even better.

The ki rules from RQ LoN and/or Arete rules from Magic World Advanced Sorcery are also really flexible with a more low key flavour.

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16 hours ago, rsanford said:

There is also a good rune magic system in Elric of Melnibone though it is very specific to Strombringer.

That system also got made "generic" and is included in Advanced Sorcery, assuming your are referring to the Runes from Bronze Grimoire? The old "Ruins of Rathdor" from Demon Magic (the Second Stormbringer Companion from way back) have never to my knowledge been republished.

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7 hours ago, NickMiddleton said:

That system also got made "generic" and is included in Advanced Sorcery, assuming your are referring to the Runes from Bronze Grimoire? The old "Ruins of Rathdor" from Demon Magic (the Second Stormbringer Companion from way back) have never to my knowledge been republished.

No, I’m referring to Pete’ and Loz's creation that was to a large amount meant to replace demon summoning if I’m remembering right. This was in the Mongoose book. Maybe it made it’s way to Advanced Sorcery.

Check out our homebrew rules for freeform magic in BRP ->

No reason for Ars Magica players to have all the fun!

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On 12/7/2020 at 2:51 AM, NickMiddleton said:

That system also got made "generic" and is included in Advanced Sorcery, assuming your are referring to the Runes from Bronze Grimoire? The old "Ruins of Rathdor" from Demon Magic (the Second Stormbringer Companion from way back) have never to my knowledge been republished.

Yeah Loz's and Pete's take at Rune Magic can be found on page 77 of Elric of Melnibone 2nd Edition. A very quick comparison between it and what's in Advanced Sorcery suggest to me that they are different. For example the runes are different and in AS they have to be inscribed on something.

 

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Check out our homebrew rules for freeform magic in BRP ->

No reason for Ars Magica players to have all the fun!

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14 hours ago, rsanford said:

Yeah Loz's and Pete's take at Rune Magic can ve found on page 77 of Elric of Melnibone 2nd Edition. A very quick comparison between it and what's in Advanced Sorcery suggest to me that they are different. For example the runes are different and in AS they have to be inscribed on something.

 

As far as I remember, The Unknown East was also from Loz. :D I must say I'm not really a fan of it. It has clever mechanism to determine one's affinity with the runes, but the rest of the system didn't really impress me. It's an obvious inspiration for the Runes and Techniques of the RQG Sorcery system.

The Runes in EoM are closer to a classic magic system, where each rune is a skill and has a clearly defined effect.

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  • 8 months later...

The Unknown East with some common house rules works well for a fairly low power, somewhat flexible and easy system to use. It’s challenged if I remember right by having fixed parameters for things like range and duration. The Second Way addresses those issue at the cost of having to use charts for range and duration 

Check out our homebrew rules for freeform magic in BRP ->

No reason for Ars Magica players to have all the fun!

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