You may be aware that my upcoming Medieval-Authentic RPG rule-set, Lion & Dragon, is going to be using a totally revamped magic system. It won't have the standard Vancian spells that you're familiar with from D&D. Instead, it will focus on a series of magical techniques that are all based on real Medieval magical beliefs, practices, and rituals.




But of course, a lot of people like their Vancian casting. And they might prefer to keep that system while trying to give it at least a little bit more medieval flavoring.

So if that's what you're looking for, this is the product for you.

In RPGPundit Presents #7: The Medieval-Authentic Vancian Wizard's Spellbook, now available from the Precis store or from the DTRPG store (for just 99 cents!) you will get a 7-page guideline for how to make your standard OSR magic-users into something more similar to medieval magicians, who were not just spell-casters but lore-masters.  A big focus of this is the spellbook, re-imagined as the medieval-wizard's Magical Diary.

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So check it out!

And check out my sig for links to the rest of the Pundit Presents series thus far!

Vancian spells

I am not familiar with that term.

Quote from: Headless;1008319Vancian spells

I am not familiar with that term.

   Turjan, remembering this conversation, descended to his study, a long low hall with stone walls and a stone floor deadened by a thick russet rug. The tomes which held Turjan's sorcery lay on the long table of black steel or were thrust helter-skelter into shelves. These were volumes compiled by many wizards of the past, untidy folios collected by the Sage, leather-bound librams setting forth the syllables of a hundred powerful spells, so cogent that Turjan's brain could know but four at a time.

Turjan found a musty portfolio, turned the heavy pages to the spell the Sage had shown him, the Call to the Violent Cloud. He stared down at the characters and they burned with an urgent power, pressing off the page as if frantic to leave the dark solitude of the book.

Turjan closed the book, forcing the spell back into oblivion. He robed himself with a short blue cape, tucked a blade into his belt, fitted the amulet holding Laccodel's Rune to his wrist. Then he sat down and from a journal chose the spells he would take with him. What dangers he might meet he could not know, so he selected three spells of general application: the Excellent Prismatic Spray, Phandaal's Mantle of Stealth, and the Spell of the Slow Hour.

From: Jack Vance - The Dying Earth (1950)
The novella/story collection that gave Gygax the idea of spell memorization.

When I read those stories (about six months after discovering D&D) the formerly abstract-gamistic D&D magic rules suddenly made sense, and "fire and forget" never ever bothered me again.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;1008322Turjan, remembering this conversation, descended to his study, a long low hall with stone walls and a stone floor deadened by a thick russet rug. The tomes which held Turjan's sorcery lay on the long table of black steel or were thrust helter-skelter into shelves. These were volumes compiled by many wizards of the past, untidy folios collected by the Sage, leather-bound librams setting forth the syllables of a hundred powerful spells, so cogent that Turjan's brain could know but four at a time.

Turjan found a musty portfolio, turned the heavy pages to the spell the Sage had shown him, the Call to the Violent Cloud. He stared down at the characters and they burned with an urgent power, pressing off the page as if frantic to leave the dark solitude of the book.

Turjan closed the book, forcing the spell back into oblivion. He robed himself with a short blue cape, tucked a blade into his belt, fitted the amulet holding Laccodel's Rune to his wrist. Then he sat down and from a journal chose the spells he would take with him. What dangers he might meet he could not know, so he selected three spells of general application: the Excellent Prismatic Spray, Phandaal's Mantle of Stealth, and the Spell of the Slow Hour.

From: Jack Vance - The Dying Earth (1950)
The novella/story collection that gave Gygax the idea of spell memorization.

When I read those stories (about six months after discovering D&D) the formerly abstract-gamistic D&D magic rules suddenly made sense, and "fire and forget" never ever bothered me again.

Cool post; thanks for that. I've always sort of understood where this comes from but it makes a big difference to see it expressed in the author's words!

Damn, Pundy, I can't wait for this one!

I still owe you a review for #2, the one about demons.  I liked it a lot, more for the possibilities.

Also, per this product, in ... Orlando Enamorato I think... a female wizard has a book.  She reads a page in the book, a demon appears and does the thing she wants.  One page, one demon, one task.  So it's sort of "Vancian but off permanent scrolls".

Also, when I reffed "Fantasy Wargaming" all those years ago, with a pseudo authentic magic system, I noticed that magic using players had certain things they liked to do over and over, and figured out ways to make it quicker... so Vancian magic sort of started to evolve on its own.

Is that Galloway's Fantasy Wargaming?  If so, how did combat run?  Also, how did mass combat run?  I have a copy but I've never had players crazy enough to try it.

Quote from: David Johansen;1008392Is that Galloway's Fantasy Wargaming?  If so, how did combat run?  Also, how did mass combat run?  I have a copy but I've never had players crazy enough to try it.

Yep.  Combat worked well, never tried mass combat.

My cousin's copy was really my first introduction to the middle ages beyond Disney movies.  

A few years ago I gave a friend a couple hundred dollars worth of early WOTC D&D prepainted miniatures (don't look for what they sell for now) and he found a copy of Galloway's Fantasy Wargaming for me.  I also have Martin Hackett's Fantasy Wargaming first edition.  Tried the mass combat once but written order systems are less interesting solitaire.

Quote from: Headless;1008319Vancian spells

I am not familiar with that term.

Really?

OK, in brief, it's spells the way they're used in standard D&D: you have a spellbook with the spells in it and you memorize the spell from the book every day.

Vancian is the "fire and forget" type of spellcasting.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1008317You may be aware that my upcoming Medieval-Authentic RPG rule-set, Lion & Dragon, is going to be using a totally revamped magic system. It won't have the standard Vancian spells that you're familiar with from D&D. Instead, it will focus on a series of magical techniques that are all based on real Medieval magical beliefs, practices, and rituals.

I've seen/heard you mention Lion & Dragon from time to time, but the description above caught my "sounds like Ars Magica" eye, so how do you see L&D as similar to/different from ArM?

Allan.

Quote from: grodog;1008614I've seen/heard you mention Lion & Dragon from time to time, but the description above caught my "sounds like Ars Magica" eye, so how do you see L&D as similar to/different from ArM?

Allan.

Well, for starters, it's OSR.  
Second, it's not focused on magic users.
Third, its magic system is actually based on medieval perceptions and sources on magic; Ars Magica was not.
Fourth, I guess you could say that Ars Magica is slightly more medieval-authentic than a lot of games, but L&D is a lot more medieval-authentic.