Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7005333" data-attributes="member: 42582">Just an in-passing observation here: I think it's interesting that you identify a discrete rules element (with, say, a targetting line and an effect line) as a spell. D&D's footprint is very pervasive!Mike Mearls wrote up a system a bit like this for Arcana Unearthed - a system of rituals which anyone could perform, to get modest buffs, if they used the right ingredients (and knew what to do with them).I'm also pretty sure that Burning Wheel has a variant magic system somewhat along these lines in the Magic Burner (and so recently reprinted in the Codex).And arguably RuneQuest is like this: anyone can learn a spell by beating up an appropriate spirit and getting it to teach the spell in question. One issue is cataloguing the effects. Mearls wrote a list, and RQ has a list of spells. If I'm remembering correctly, BW assimilates the magical effects to what can be achieved with ordinary skills, and thereby aims at a greater degree of open-endedness.I think the focus on skill-based resolution might be a red herring. The issue of access/capability seems more important. But as the Mearls/UA example and the RQ example show, you can have this independently of a skill system. In UA, as best I recall, it is just about learning the ritual and having the right ingredients (I don't think it's gated behind a feat). And in RQ, it's about defeating the spirit in spirit combat to force it to teach you the spell.(4e's legendary and divine boons also approximate to this in a way. In the system of PC building, they occupy the same space as magic items, and reflect special training, special knowledge or special gifts, and are not gated in any way other than the general rules around treasure parcels. A game - like 5e - that dispenses with treasure parcels as a system and just relies on the GM to manage stuff from time to time could just define a whole lot of boons and let the players have their PCs do whatever is necessary - eg collect the right ingredients - to enliven them.)</blockquote>

Verification