Even More "Medieval Authentic" Magic?

David Johansen · November 30, 2016, 08:27:50 PM

Quote from: DavetheLost;933192You mean kind of like "The Highest Level of All Fantasy Wargaming only less of a clusterfuck?

Hell yes I'd be interested.

Really, I'd put Galloway's take on magic as more modern Wicca and less historical than C&S. Actually you can take a fair bit of Fantasy Wargaming as a direct response to C&S.

DavetheLost · November 30, 2016, 08:50:52 PM

As I said, less of a clusterfuck.

RPGPundit · December 12, 2016, 10:26:15 PM

Quote from: CRKrueger;933212Sure, I'd buy it. I'd also buy the same version for historical Indian religion/magic, pre-Islamic Arab/Moor, pre-Roman Brythonic Druidism etc...

In my opinion, OSR compatibility should be "very loose". There's been 40 years of official and unofficial D&D spell lists with various cultural flavors, I want the "real deal", I don't necessarily give a shit about Classes/Levels/Die systems, etc... You want to write a chapter on Divination that requires an actual complete Tarot Deck, go for it.

Make sure you include some "authentic" Goetic/Satanic/Key of Solomon stuff in there. I don't want the D&D Law vs/Chaos bullshit but "Get Thee Behind Me Satan!" and "The Power of Christ Compels You!" and Kabbalic guys summoning Angels to do their bidding.

If you don't have every major Abrahamic faith denouncing you, you did it wrong.

Well, I'm writing an RPG, not a guide to magic.

I think that Dark Albion's demon summoning rules already ARE the authentic goetia system; that's the one part of this I already accomplished. Now I have to do the other parts.

RPGPundit · December 12, 2016, 10:27:59 PM

Quote from: One Horse Town;933259It's interesting from an academic standpoint, the real trick is not overdoing it for the purposes of showing off how much you know in an RPG book and having it as playable.

I agree! That was my guiding principle in Arrows of Indra and Dark Albion and would be here as well.

Madprofessor · December 14, 2016, 12:18:20 AM

hoc est corpus ...er I mean, Hocus Pocus.

Yeah, I'd buy it. However, there are so many legends, traditions, and regional differences. Practically anything could be "magic" to a medieval person. I mean, if you got sick, who would you go to? A doctor? A priest? The local wise woman? They're all magicians of a sort. Anyway, are there specific facets of medieval magic that you have in mind?

RPGPundit · December 15, 2016, 11:40:46 PM

Quote from: Madprofessor;934963hoc est corpus ...er I mean, Hocus Pocus.

Yeah, I'd buy it. However, there are so many legends, traditions, and regional differences. Practically anything could be "magic" to a medieval person. I mean, if you got sick, who would you go to? A doctor? A priest? The local wise woman? They're all magicians of a sort. Anyway, are there specific facets of medieval magic that you have in mind?

Well, just because of my own background, the emphasis for the magisters (magic-users) would be on the sort of stuff we see from the grimoiric tradition.

Clerics would, on the other hand, have the sort of stuff medieval 'holy men' or saints were expected to be able to do.

Doom · December 16, 2016, 09:02:22 PM

You might want to consider Long Lost Friend for some inspiration. Granted, it's officially 19th century magic, but it's a safe bet many of the spells there date from much earlier.

For what it's worth, a few spells probably work fairly well. For instance the spell to cure cold feet involved a pound of chicken poop, dissolved in boiling water (I won't finish the rest of the spell, but, yeah, it should work).

Probably the most fascinating thing about the book is how many of the spells are very Christian in nature...a good way to get a medieval feel, IMO.

RPGPundit · December 17, 2016, 04:33:10 AM

That's a very interesting book. But I do have a pretty sizable collection of my own occult library to work from...

tenbones · December 20, 2016, 02:34:51 PM

Pundit, are you a fan of Ars Magica (pick your edition)?

Kinda curious.

AsenRG · December 21, 2016, 06:34:36 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;935594That's a very interesting book. But I do have a pretty sizable collection of my own occult library to work from...

But does it contain recipes for magicalizing chicken poop:D?

Doom · December 21, 2016, 11:23:42 PM

Quote from: AsenRG;936224But does it contain recipes for magicalizing chicken poop:D?

It doesn't really magicalize it, the poop is just a material component. It's really neat, the spells detailed in the book pretty much all have verbal components, most have somatic components (the sign of the cross, primarily), and most have material components. As so often the case when I read about this sort of thing, I'd be stunned if Gygax didn't draw some inspiration from sources like this.

There's evidence people were still seriously using these spells in the early 20th century.

Arkansan · December 22, 2016, 03:40:29 AM

Quote from: Doom;936402It doesn't really magicalize it, the poop is just a material component. It's really neat, the spells detailed in the book pretty much all have verbal components, most have somatic components (the sign of the cross, primarily), and most have material components. As so often the case when I read about this sort of thing, I'd be stunned if Gygax didn't draw some inspiration from sources like this.

There's evidence people were still seriously using these spells in the early 20th century.

I know for a fact my great grandmother was still using bits of old folk magic and she only passed away in 97. I seem to recall specifically that she was fond of some old spell to remove warts, used something she called stump water, a few little gestures and a chant. I should ask my mom, she recalls much more of it than I do.

crkrueger · December 22, 2016, 04:08:11 AM

That book's about American Hoodoo and stuff, yeah? Shit people still do that now.

AsenRG · December 22, 2016, 05:19:13 AM

Quote from: Doom;936402It doesn't really magicalize it, the poop is just a material component. It's really neat, the spells detailed in the book pretty much all have verbal components, most have somatic components (the sign of the cross, primarily), and most have material components. As so often the case when I read about this sort of thing, I'd be stunned if Gygax didn't draw some inspiration from sources like this.

There's evidence people were still seriously using these spells in the early 20th century.

Man, is that old news. There are people seriously using spells in the early 21st century:D!
Whether those would be the same spells or not, I cannot tell;).

RPGPundit · December 26, 2016, 12:16:26 AM

Quote from: tenbones;936124Pundit, are you a fan of Ars Magica (pick your edition)?

Kinda curious.

Nope. I read one of the editions (an old one, I think). Never played it. Never got into it.