Spells: do you prefer Rotes or Dynamic?

[Ashley Cartwright]

It is much like Academia; you have a society that requires a controlled and proven way of doing something. Those that do not follow the prescribed method are shunned and seen as radicals.

I'll pass

 

[RenleyRenfield]

What if each "faction" or "School" or whatevs... only had their one or two "special" spells?

Would it be a fun game of steal the spell? Hide your own special spells? other?

 

[Thomas Shey]

It is much like Academia; you have a society that requires a controlled and proven way of doing something. Those that do not follow the prescribed method are shunned and seen as radicals.

I don't see how that changes my suggestion at all. A technique is a prescribed way of doing something. Its just a prescribed way that can be applied in different fashions, but its not a different technique.

 

[Thomas Shey]

What if each "faction" or "School" or whatevs... only had their one or two "special" spells?

Would it be a fun game of steal the spell? Hide your own special spells? other?

While this sort of thing can be kind of cute, it only really works in a very rigid society where the individual schools can enforce their monopolies if need be, and those sorts of settings don't tend to have a lot of room for things like "adventurers".

 

[RenleyRenfield]

...room for things like "adventurers".

This brings up an interesting sub question to my original one =

Adventurers vs Telenovelaists
(That is to say, go on a quest folks - versus - stay in one spot and suffer drama folks) (D&D playloops versus Mage the Awakening perhaps)

Does either type need/benefit form Dynamic spells more or less?

Does ether type benefit from a specific variant of a mechanic of spell casting ?

 

[Thomas Shey]

This brings up an interesting sub question to my original one =

Adventurers vs Telenovelaists
(That is to say, go on a quest folks - versus - stay in one spot and suffer drama folks) (D&D playloops versus Mage the Awakening perhaps)

Does either type need/benefit form Dynamic spells more or less?

Does ether type benefit from a specific variant of a mechanic of spell casting ?

The latter is too open-ended to answer usefully, but I don't think the answer to the first is that either particularly benefits from rote casting, per se. You might get something where the rote casting actually provides more early versatility of some sort than the dynamic casting does (where, for example, it takes a while to accumulate the traits that provide really wide options, where individual spells are easy to come by; most D&D sphere fire-and-forget spells in contrast to OLD Knowledges (which fairly early can provide you a number of things within a domain, but you're still stuck within it so maybe you can do a lot of variations on fire magic but you aren't going to do air spells or healing).

 

[Staffan]

While this sort of thing can be kind of cute, it only really works in a very rigid society where the individual schools can enforce their monopolies if need be, and those sorts of settings don't tend to have a lot of room for things like "adventurers".

It reminds me of the Wizard half of the Jakandor setting (Jakandor was originally conceived as a Barbarians vs Wizards setting, and while it got a little more nuanced than that it stayed pretty close). The Charonti had eight wizard guilds, based on the different schools. There was a common knowledge base of about 40 spells (most of level 3 or lower) but also a number of spells exclusive to each guild – mostly topping out at level 5 or so. A big part of the reason the Charonti were out exploring their former empire was to recover lost knowledge.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

What if each "faction" or "School" or whatevs... only had their one or two "special" spells?

Would it be a fun game of steal the spell? Hide your own special spells? other?

I think this would become a kind of corporate espionage game. Where wizards are constantly trying to steal one another's secrets. Which is, of course, a trope of fantasy fiction. Like any trope, used occasionally it can be fun. I wouldn't want to play a campaign that was nothing but this.

This brings up an interesting sub question to my original one =

Adventurers vs Telenovelaists
(That is to say, go on a quest folks - versus - stay in one spot and suffer drama folks) (D&D playloops versus Mage the Awakening perhaps)

Does either type need/benefit form Dynamic spells more or less?

Does ether type benefit from a specific variant of a mechanic of spell casting ?

Heh. I like "Telenovelists."

Anyhoo... I feel the rote vs. dynamic issue depends more on the variety of challenges faced by the PCs rather than the fictional location.

One might think that telenovelists would face similar challenges each adventure, and thus not suffer from a limited repertoire of spells. But there's no reason that that has to happen. Look at Gilligan's Island. The castaways were on the same damn island for years. But they faced a wide variety* of situations.

Then there's The Incredible Hulk. Bill Bixby wanders from town to town, never in the same place for long. But rather samey challenges in each place. Most of the issues are solved by hulking out. i.e. he had 1 rote spell.

I have no idea where I'm going with this. Except down memory lane.


*okay, I could come up with 3 types. Unusual occurrence presents opportunity to escape; unusual occurrence presents existential crisis; interpersonal drama. But the details varied.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

...
Then there's The Incredible Hulk. Bill Bixby wanders from town to town, never in the same place for long. But rather samey challenges in each place. Most of the issues are solved by hulking out. i.e. he had 1 rote spell.
...

Oh hey sir, what's your spell?

sir = I iz stronk

ah, good spell. good spell...

I dunno where you were going with all that, but for some reason I totally get ya. Diversity of tactical combat/drama can drive needs for different spells for sure.

How far "Mind control" and "super strong" get a character......those two alone solve a LOT of general situations.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Mind Control and super strength can solve most issues. If you can't beat it to death, you can try to mind control it. And vice versa.