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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1327622" data-attributes="member: 151">I voted to keep Vancian magic, though alternate systems are welcome and encouraged. I think that most folks undervalue the point that john makes here.  Gandalf is a powerful wizard, as is Merlin, Pug, Faust, Belgarath and other such characters.  But how do you quantify them in a game, particularly with other characters?  You can go the GURPS route, and make them relatively weak conjurers with spells that are really just wonky arrows and minor bonuses; you can go the Castle Falkenstein route, and make spells take forever to cast, but have very wide reaching effects; you can use an alternate system that will be different (but not necessarily better); or you can accept that most wizards of fiction don't lend themselves to the RPG environment directly, and what limitations are given to them are usually plot devices, not an actual codified system that can be used in an RPG. Let's face facts, as has been oft-noted in Dragon and elsewhere, Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and the Witchking cast precious few spells in Tolkien's works, Merlin makes potions more than spells, Belgarath just does whatever the author wants him to do at that point, and so on.  I like some of the alternate spell-casting systems that are available, but I don't think any system can truly replicate most of literary fiction...and certainly not most of it at the same time.</blockquote>