Thursday 7 February 2019

New mage class: Earthsea Mage

I often dislike magic systems in games. It's often sterile, boring, or a very specific solution to a very specific problem.

Very rarely does it feel like magic truly connects to the fabric of the universe, to the very nature of existence.

By Tim Robbins

It does feel like that in Ursula le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea.

So I built a GLOG class of this type of magic.

Summary:


  • It's very wonky. There's only 4 spells and 1 unique ability. Yeah, you heard me. 
  • It's subtle. There's no explosions here. Rather, there's a deep and subtle manipulation of almost anything.
  • The spells are: Call, Command, Summon, Change. That's it; but you can use them on almost anything. Much will be up to the DM.
  • You can only enchant something if you have the True Name of said anything. Finding out the True Name is an unique, once-a-day-ability.

4 comments:

  1. I love this. Earthsea nails magic that feels like magic and this does an excellent job of working with that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thats good - then I did what I set out to do. I have yet to actually playtest it though.

      Delete
  2. Huh, I've accidentally made an Earthsea-ish magic system without being aware of it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is it the true names thing? Because while Earthsea made that famous, that's a universal things. There's Egyptian burial texts that proclaim that this guy about to be buried is so powerful "not even his mother knows his name".

      Delete

Table of a Thousand Cults

I'm preparing a location for my next foray into actually getting players together. Kogo Hnennis, City of a Thousand Cults, City of a Tho...