Spellcom for Generic Settings?

[TGryph]

Howdy!

I am currently running a MRQII campaign in a generic setting influenced by Glorantha. Would the Spellcom book be useful to me? I am reading through Wraith Recon right now, and can see some use in the Passions section, as well as the excellent parts detailing the various races. I have heard about alternate magic systems, and wonder if it is worth picking up.

Thanks for any input you may have!

TGryph

 

[Dan True]

Howdy!

I am currently running a MRQII campaign in a generic setting influenced by Glorantha. Would the Spellcom book be useful to me? I am reading through Wraith Recon right now, and can see some use in the Passions section, as well as the excellent parts detailing the various races. I have heard about alternate magic systems, and wonder if it is worth picking up.

Thanks for any input you may have!

TGryph

There are Elric-inspired rules for summoning creatures, there are new sorcery spells, rules for combined casting and new enchantment rules. They are pretty d&d-style like.

- Dan

 

[Titus]

Yes, Spellcom is well worth it for plundering ideas. The enchanting and concert casting (multiple casters working together) rules are very interesting. There are a couple dozen example magic items, made with the Spellcom enchantment rules, which are recognizable for their D&D origins. As you have seen from the Wraith Recon book, the Grimoires have cantrips and spells. The cantrips are common magic and the spells are sorcery, but they use both use the Grimoire skill for casting.

I would also recommend Age of Treason. It also has a different enchanting system, has alchemy, and constructs. The author uses the core rules with modifications and some interesting blending of the magic rules. The cults of Glorantha don't exist in the same way. The main empire's religion is a pantheon of gods, has a mix of sorcery and divine magic, plus gifts (permanent) and blessings (one use). Cults do exist, but they may require the aspirant already have a pact with the entity or object of worship. There are interesting ideas for other types of organizations that may provide magic. Some people may have grimoire skills, but not know Manipulation. The grimoire may come from family, cult, club or some other organization. Spirit magic works somewhat differently in the world of AoT and I prefer this to the core spirit rules.

For that matter, most of the setting books tweak the magic to some degree and may offer some interesting alternatives. They could possibly local or regional magical traditions that the PCs encounter in their wonderings.

Vikings doesn't use common, sorcery or divine magic from the core rules. Spirit magic is modified for the setting. It presents rune carving, seidr, spa (prophesy), and shape-shifting forms of magic.

Clockwork & Chivalry uses alchemy to do essentially common magic and summoning. (I haven't read through this completely yet, and I know there is more to it than that.)

I just bought Deus Vult, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Skimming through it I see divine magic (miracles), sorcery and spirit magic seem to be represented.

 

[BluSponge]

Gah! All of this makes me think that having a "magic system compendium" a much better idea. Lots of good options and ideas spread between a bunch of big sourcebooks.

Tom

 

[Prime_Evil]

Gah! All of this makes me think that having a "magic system compendium" a much better idea. Lots of good options and ideas spread between a bunch of big sourcebooks.

Tom

I agree. Indeed, that was something that I suggested a while back - I even gave a rough outline of what I thought such a book should contain. I think that there is a need to organise the various magic rules that have been released in the various RQ II / Legend product lines in a systematic way.

Note that a "magic system compendium" shouldn't dictate a single definitive version of the magic rules - it should provide a toolkit that individual campaigns can use to define a magic system that suits their needs. At the moment, the danger is that Legend will quickly become fragmented with incompatible magic subsystems in different books.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with having multiple variant magic systems, I believe that there should be some method of reconciling the compatibility issues between them so that GMs can pick and choose the elements that they like when building their own campaigns.

If we end up in a situation where material from one Legend book is largely incompatible with material from another Legend book without a lot of effort, the underlying simplicity and elegance of the game system will gradually be obscured. And it becomes a lot harder to market the game to a skeptical audience if the rules look messy...

 

[Prime_Evil]

Hmmm...I stumbled across a comment by Pete Nash on the message boards over at the RPGSite where he talked a bit about the upcoming Blood Magic book, hinting that it will cover many of the topics necessary to flesh out the magic systems for Legend. I really hope that Mongoose declares the rules content from this book as OGC so that third-party publishers can take advantage of it - I have a growing suspicion that third-party support will make or break the future of Legend.