Magic and RPGs

Since the dawn of RPGs Magic and Swords have been locked in an Epic battle for supremacy. With my musings letting me look to write adventures for multiple systems, one of the things I find myself looking for is the Magic system in an adventure. Ok I'll admit I like the old school style.

Anyway that all aside I decided to do some Fantasy based RPGs, for my kids initially, and then possibly using it in other adventures. I don't know yet whether it will be something worth writing up and putting on something like DriveThruRPG as a pay what you want. Even people using it for free would mean others are getting some use/enjoyment from it which is cool.

I guess a rough outline of the system would give people some idea of what I'm working on at the moment.

I decided that spells shouldn't be limited by what you remember, or write down. After all some of my favourite images are of Mages with magic tome in one hand and Staff in the other (or hand outstretched finger pointing). So my system starts by allowing mages to take/cast any spells.

Mages start as a Lvl 1 Magic User. At the end of an adventure they roll 4 fate dice and add the number of spells they cast that adventure to their total. They compare the result to this table:

At level 1 they need to roll 7+ to gain level 2.
At level 2 they need to roll 11+ to gain level 3.
At level 3 they need to roll 15+ to gain level 4.
At level 4 they need to roll 19+ to gain level 5.

Mages then have their Levels which grant them spell slots.
At level 1 - The mage can cast 3 spells at level 1 (this will make a bit more sense in a minute). After this each time the Mage wants to cast an additional spell it costs them 1 fate point.

At level 2 - The Mage can cast 3 spells at level 1 and 2 at level 2 for free. They can then cast further spells but each spell costs 1 point per level they want to cast the spell at. So casting a level 2 Fireball would cost 2 Fate points.

Now onto the spells (this will clear up how I mean casting a spell at level 1 or 2 etc.)

Spell: Fireball (Always a classic)
Spell Cast as Level 1 - An attack against 1 target at +1
Spell Cast as Level 2 - An attack against 1 target at +2
Spell Cast as Level 3 - The Mage may select either 2 targets and attack each at +1 or a single target and attack at +3
Spell Cast as Level 4 - The Mage may select either 2 targets and attack both at +2 or a single target and attack at +4

So as you can see, a Level 1 Mage can only cast spells at Level 1. However once they are at Level 2, they can choose how they cast their spells, and at what intensity.

My plan is for all the spells to work in this fashion, that at each level the abilities of the spell change. Some will add or remove aspects from play. Others will create advantages etc.. On the whole though I want to keep it simple, but flexible. It would also mean for people to add their own spells all they need to do is literally write the effects for each level and done. I realise that doesn't cater for classes, or specialisms but that isn't what I'm going for. I am aiming for straight up simple Magic.

Now as you can imagine I haven't finished writing all this up, or play tested it. But that's another of the ideas floating around. I may write it up, and then put it out to the community. I realise there will be other systems, but I like being able to make them up too. I think it is fairly simple. The Mage can flick through his Big Book of Magic, to find a spell. You could even make them take up an action to find the relevant page before letting them cast it :)

Well enough of my ideas for tonight. As always any feedback is always welcome.