duncan_disorderly said:
alex_greene said:
Deleriad said:
Technically, by not being in legend, RQII spirit magic is not OGL as RQII wasn't OGL.
But if Mongoose release the spirit rules in a separate book, would all of the above -spirits, spirit magic, spirit combat - be considered OGL?
Rumour suggests that if it is released in a "xxxxx Of Legend" Core Book then it will be covered by the Legend OGL, but this need not necessarily be the case if it is released under a different title.
(so "Spirit Magic of Legend" would be entirely OGL but "Spirit Magic of the Young Kingdoms, an Elric Supplement" would not).
It needn't have to be "Spirit Magic of Legend."
Since RQ came on the market, the concept of spirits in fantasy and horror roleplaying games has evolved far beyond the original concepts. Nowadays, we have various and sundry supplements for spirits and spiritual phenomena in all manner of roleplaying games, from the more mainstream Shadowrun and the World of Darkness to the more obscure titles and licenses such as The Dresden Files RPG and so on.
For some time, now, spirits and spirit magic have become more or less codified along the lines of:-
a. Spirits are incorporeal entities, inscrutable, capricious and alien.
b. These include beings of myth found in the astral plane, dream planes, various and sundry shadowlands, hells, heavens, Olympian dwelling places of gods and the shades resting in the realms of the dead.
c. Some of these spirits take on earthly form and walk the earth. Some have human form in every detail save one inhuman touch - a bushy fox tail, no voice, solid black eyes with no sclera - which gives them away as manifested, incarnate spirits.
d. Certain people - shamans, stoners, truly innocent children and adults, the insane - can see, touch, communicate with and have relations with, certain spirits.
e. A profession (or many professions) exists which deals with such spirits, incarnate or insubstantial. These adventurers can summon, bind, command and banish their chosen kind of spirit - shamans can call upon kami, shades from the lands of the dead and ancestor spirits, druids call upon the spirits of living natural creatures, trees and the land itself, animistics summon entities which they then channel, letting them ride their bodies like an equestrian rides a mount, theurges call upon Divinity to send down shards and avatars to bless or to rain down heavenly ire upon sinners, while their polar opposites, warlocks, draw intricate summoning patterns on the ground and summon beings from malign planes which reek of sulphur, sin and guilty consciences.
f. These spirits dwell in various kinds of realms, in which they are as substantial and solid to one another as we are in our realm. Some of these realms can be accessed by the more reckless forms of spirit sorcerer; they can either visit the planes in their dreams or in astral form, as insubstantial to the spirits in their realms as they are in ours. Some can even open portals and visit those planes physically. In each case, they had better have a compelling reason to do so such as a quest for greater power or to find a missing soul - because these realms tolerate adventurers only for a short time, and casual tourists not at all.
So,as you might imagine from the richness of variety of spirits available, from the need to compare combat stats of an angelic spirit pitted in combat against a Hellhound, say, or a walking shade of the realms of the dead against an incarnate druidic water spirit conjured from the depths, this makes Mongoose's decision to keep spirits to a separate book somewhat more understandable.
Accordingly, I would not put it past them to title the book simply "Spirits of Legend."
