Bringing Wonder
To the table
I have to say that I am more likely, nowadays, to be gaming solo rather than with a group around a table. Also, I kind of prefer science fiction tabletop roleplaying games to fantasy.
Something else. I also run roleplaying scenarios solo, and then turn them into source material for my fiction blogs. So my gaming table is much more likely to be a writing desk.
Which brings me to today’s topic; magic in roleplaying games.
‘Tis Magic, Magic …
The first tabletop games brought along magic spells which took their cue from Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth. Magicians were lifted out of whole cloth from that fantasy book. Bloated, bloviating, pompous little pompadours who lent their names onto individual spells.
Such spells had specific effects. They had ranges. Durations. Set amounts of damage they could cause. They required three things - a verbal component (chant), a somatic component (gestures and bodily movements), and a material component (something which was consumed in the activation of the spell).
And D&D spells were all aimed at causing damage, or aiding the wizard or their party in combat. That’s all. Unless they were for combat, they never appeared in the book.
Looking back at those magic rules, they are the opposite of art: the very essence of banality.
I’ve spent some time trying to think of ways to make magic a source of wonder in roleplaying games - and, incidentally, to make it a source of wonder in my writings, too.
… That Has Ravished Me
Magic is described in Planetary, a comic, as “a loose, lossy signal.” It is also described elsewhere in the same title as “cheat codes for the universe.”
The origin of the term magic seems to derive from an ancient word magos, describing a learned person or priest. There is a possible root origin in the PIE root term magh-, meaning to possess or wield power.
The chief point of magic is that it is knowledge. Through the knowledge you, or at least your character, possesses, it is possible to manipulate the course of events, by applying forces through arcane means to people, places, or things.
Knowledge also translates in Latin to Science. Scire is the Latin for to know.
The Ways And The Means
In one of my stories, and also in an unpublished roleplaying game I have been working on, I have introduced The Ways and The Means as a source of magic. The practitioners of The Ways and The Means study two components - The Ways, such as summoning, banishing, warding, repairing, sending (messages) and so on; and The Means, the tools by which the character imposes their Will, such as sigils, ranging from simple glyphs to full-sized magic circles; cants, chants, songs, tongue twisters, hymns; or poppets - effigies and so on, relying on tiny fragments of the target such as a chip from the corner of a building, or a likeness of a person containing a lock of their hair.
Not every practitioner knows all of The Ways and all of The Means; and most practitioners learn no more than one Means, and perhaps two or three Ways such as Conjuring, Banishing, and Warding. But these Ways and Means lead to a great variety of spellcasters, from magicians summoning storms from the protection of a magic circle (cant, gesture, sigil) to a hearth witch brewing up medicines to cure an ailing child’s nasty cough (libation, banishing, warding).
I’ve playtested The Ways And The Means in a narrative tabletop roleplaying game. The secret is to remove the numbers. Your character’s ability to use a sigil (a magic circle) to draw weather to her (Conjuring) is not restricted to a range of just fifty feet or a duration of one hour at most.
Your character might be effective at Conjuring small things, pulling doves out of a hat, opening a closet to bring forth a blanket, or sterilising a patient’s wound before stitching it up; but the same Ways and Means don’t specify what exactly you might be summoning - anything from a rabbit to a stormcloud is possible, as long as you have at least one Ways and one Means under your belt.
Energy Considerations
Here’s the thing. Your fantasy setting doesn’t have a James Prescott Joule working in the background. He was the scientist who formulated the theory of how energy is propagated. He theorised that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; merely transformed from one form of energy to another, such as potential energy to kinetic energy, and kinetic energy to heat.
Your settings probably don’t have someone like that. So what would your characters know, if nobody’s taught them how energy works?
Your fantasy worlds can have flying sky cities, weather witches, and beings capable of charming audiences of thousands with a voice which cuts through the loudest sounds. Your characters do not need such mechanical roleplaying game contrivances such as spell slots, spell points, energy points, Mana points, Quintessence, Magic Points, Prana, or even Fatigue.
The scope and scale of your magic doesn’t have to have a range measured in feet, a duration measured in units of ten seconds, or to sound like a chemical equation balancing reagents and products in absolute measured detail.
What matters is the desired result, not the visual or other effect brought about by a successful casting. Cool - you have summoned rain. But more importantly, you have used your magic to break a drought. And that is the important thing.
Leverage
A hypnotist friend taught me one of the most important lessons of magic. It’s something he found while practicing real world hypnotism. And the saying he taught me is this.
Little hinges open big doors.
It is not always the biggest effect that has the biggest change. A tiny pebble could start a landslide. A tiny spark can set off a raging forest inferno.
The canniest magician knows how to apply the least amount of effort to create the biggest changes. Sometimes, a magician makes a huge difference with one small but crucial item going missing, or being displaced to the wrong place. Even something simple, such as a discarded banana peel on the ground, if you know what part of the ground to drop it.
Just as they know how to apply the power, they also master the art of knowing when to apply it. Timing is crucial. A small action done early can create a huge effect later.
Magic, you see, is as much a matter of knowing how, when, and why to apply the powers, as how much of the power to apply.
Bringers Of Wonder
You can summarise the sorts of people who play magicians in your fantasy games. Your mages are going to be bright. Inventive. Spontaneous. Joyful. Forensic. Strategic.
Most of all, they are going to be smart.
When there are many different outcomes in a fantasy story, other than murderous combat, your magic users must be the ones your party turns to for answers. Will talk produce better results than swinging swords? Then let’s talk. Will trade soften the blows? Find out what you’ve got in your gear that they want.
The highest expression of magical prowess is understanding what they mean when they say that Knowledge Is Power.
Bringing The Line To Life
The headings above have their origin in Kit Marlowe’s Faustus:-
To practice magic and concealèd arts.
Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both law and physic are for petty wits,
Divinity is basest of the three—
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile.
’Tis magic, magic, that hath ravished me!
In the end, magic is a means to make things happen in the story as a result of some form of arcane knowledge possessed by the wielder of the power. However the magic in the story manifests, the duty of the storyteller or Gamesmaster is to make the working feel wonderful, marvellous, and even unique - unrepeatable.
You are the teller of the tale, and your art is diminished if you include crass details such as ranges, durations, a restriction as to targets, such as having to have them clumped together in a circle no larger than ten metres, and so on, just because you decided to use a specific spell from a game core rulebook such as Mythras and that was how you interpreted their rules.
Always remember the magician’s motto: To Know, To Dare, To Will, And To Be Silent. Keep your magic subtle, yet bursting with possibility, and you too will conquer the Universe.
