Freeform Spellcasting

[LostSoul]

I used to run Jedi that way in the old Star Wars d6 game.

They would say what they were doing, I would set a Difficulty, and there you go.

 

[Wik]

I used to run Jedi that way in the old Star Wars d6 game.

They would say what they were doing, I would set a Difficulty, and there you go.

Yyup. Exactly same experience here.

...The people who weren't Jedi didn't get to do much.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

If it's d20 then you want true sorcery by green ronin. It is not really a true 20 book{even if it's in that section}, and has a very freeform d20 magic system. Each spell "seed" can be modified and used on the fly. For example you might have the spell 'Obscure' in which you can use to make, concealment, invisibility and shield thoughts for starters. It gives rules how to change them and gives a DC based on just what ya do, so as long as ya can make that roll your golden. It is a complex system but,You might like it

You can look here http://www.greenronin.com/store/product/grr1707e.html they have two previews as well

 

[Quantarum]

These systems are either too open or too cumbersome from my own experience, if the players don't have a good understanding of the boundaries it's just disastrous. -Q.

 

[Smoss]

Yes. I like the flexibility of "freeform" but wanted more limits. So when I designed a spell system for my d20 based RPG system, I went for a "spell point" system. The points determine the target number to cast the spell (For example, an 8 point spell would be an 18 to cast).

It costs a certain amount of points to do a touch spell, more points to do an area effect. Duration has a cost, etc... It made for an easy delineation between "on the fly" casters and "by the book". Players that want to pick from pre-made spells would play a "wizard", who has a spell book with spells already added up and ready to use. Those ready to be "sorcerors" can just create spells and let them loose.

It also allowed me to set the limits of magic in my game world. Either by the expense in points or by there not being an option to use it (Like I have no teleportation in my world for example). it has worked out extraordinarily well for what I was looking for. Obviously it is not for everyone...

Smoss

 

[Jack7]

My setting uses what you call free-form spell-casting.

I like it and my players like it. It uses a system and methods I developed myself, over time, with player input.

I allow players to use spells from gaming books if they desire to give them basic guidance on what they want to create, though after some practice the players usually abandon those books and start creating their own "Spell-books" filled with ideas of exactly what they want to do and create. This also allows them to develop a very efficient method of generating individualized variations on already existing spells ad hoc. In this way how good a magic-user becomes really depends much upon their own imagination, innovation, and creativity, because effectiveness is not based so much on raw force (a weakness of many existing magical systems in my opinion, the idea that magic, like electromagnetism, is most effective when highest charged), as on subtle and clever manipulation of the forces, environment, and events surrounding the current circumstance they encounter. In this way magic went from being "Hulk-Smash, jack up the current," to a more fluid and adaptable tool of surgical precision. (You can easily control how much force is applied.) Though occasionally the players still consult pre-generated spells from gaming books to give them ideas in a tight situation.

The same basic idea occurs with what many games call psionic powers (though I don't like that term, especially not for fantasy settings) in my world. So both magic and psionics are freeform. Ease of use comes over time. It just takes practice to master, as is the case with learning any system.

The one trouble I did have was in differentiating Clerical or Divine magic from Arcane magic, because if it's freeform then clerics might feel they have the right to create the same basic spells as Wizards, and vice versa. The best thing I did to solve that problem was to take away all spells from Clerics and instead center the Cleric and the Clerical type characters, Monks, Hermits, etc. on prayer, meditation and Miracles. Also with my system most Wizards have a very hard time healing themselves and others, and have an even harder time healing permanently, whereas most clerics don't most of the time. With free form casting though Wizards can become particularly effective illusionists, and clerics can become very potent focal points for miracles.

Miracles are kinda like arcane magic in one limited sense, in effect, but are nothing like magic in the way they operate. Miracles in operation are almost totally out of the hands of the cleric (as far as direct control) but are instead in the hands of God. Clerics, Monks, Hermits, Saints, etc. can perform miracles but they cannot control what happens during the miracle or contour the manner by which the miracle will manifest. That effectively solved the free-form cleric-wizard overlap problem.

Anyways good luck to ya. With some experimentation I'm sure you can develop something that'll suit ya just fine.

 

[On Puget Sound]

Ars Magica has always had a freeform spell system, and it works pretty well. It doesn't try to balance wizards with non-wizards; all PCs are wizards (at least most of the time).

 

[Afrodyte]

My setting uses what you call free-form spell-casting.

[ . . . ] how good a magic-user becomes really depends much upon their own imagination, innovation, and creativity, because effectiveness is not based so much on raw force (a weakness of many existing magical systems in my opinion, the idea that magic, like electromagnetism, is most effective when highest charged), as on subtle and clever manipulation of the forces, environment, and events surrounding the current circumstance they encounter.

I really, really like this idea. It reminds me of something I read in Emma Bull's War for the Oaks where there was an illusion contest between a brownie (I think) and a Sidhe. The Sidhe created this glorious castle in the sky complete with flapping banners and such. The brownie made an apple and chewed it.

The brownie won.

 

[Afrodyte]

In many cases, magic is a trump card, not another tool in the shed. So it always comes off as difficult to balance magicians against mundanes without arbitrarily limiting what magicians are capable of. Although, I've been intrigued by the idea of creating a system around various acts of magic (seeing, transforming, creating, etc.) as opposed to around various effects of magic (elements, minds, etc.).

 

[Jack7]

I really, really like this idea. It reminds me of something I read in Emma Bull's War for the Oaks where there was an illusion contest between a brownie (I think) and a Sidhe. The Sidhe created this glorious castle in the sky complete with flapping banners and such. The brownie made an apple and chewed it.

The brownie won.

You can see why.

Although, I've been intrigued by the idea of creating a system around various acts of magic (seeing, transforming, creating, etc.) as opposed to around various effects of magic (elements, minds, etc.).

I agree. To me magic is about far more than merely blowing stuff up, or even about gross and predictable scientific transformation. But rather it is about the unexpected recreation of the world in often unpredictable, subtle, and even invisible ways.