What happens when you cast a spell?

[sniffles]

An excellent question, OP. Magic has become very utilitarian these days, and for DMs, especially, it's important to postulate on in-game special-effects.

Ranger REG and Masquerade already described a couple I use, and several I will use.

Whatever spell it is, mine usually involve floating, glowing runes and arcane sound effects (including TV ad jingles).

Examples, please!

This I gotta see.

 

[prospero63]

The writing on the scroll crackles with magical energies, burning off the page, leaving nothing but scorched writing remnants. When the final spell on a scroll is cast, the page itself bursts instantly to dust...

 

[Ranger REG]

Whatever spell it is, mine usually involve floating, glowing runes and arcane sound effects (including TV ad jingles).

"TV ad jingles"???

 

[Sanguinemetaldawn]

Specifically, what happens when you cast a spell from a scroll?

I'm not talking mechanics here. What do you envision happens? Scrolls are single-use items, so how do you handle why you can't read the words off of that scroll more than once?
...<snip>...
I'm hoping for some colorful descriptions here. Show me your imagination!

I remember reading a description from somewhere, probably Dragonlance, of the characters on the scroll flaring into brightness as they are read, then disappearing. I guess that means once you start reading a spell, you finish it or it is wasted.

 

[Claudius Gaius]

Since the scroll-user has to be directing the power of the spell on the scroll (since they get to pick the target, etc), I use the scroll-makers personal magical signature for the scroll, coupled with the users personal signature as he, she, or it, directs the spell.

 

[Slife]

Snarky answer:

My dad buys me $200 worth of gaming supplies.

 

[Hairfoot]

"TV ad jingles"???

Yes. In my defence, the player did say his rat swarms were happy little Vegemites.

 

[evilgamer13]

I was visualising that the writing would transform into a moving calligraphy of fire as the words were read, and then as the spell was completed the calligraphic fire become a two dimensional fire of an unnatural color for a moment as the spell actually casts leaving behind scorch marks on the paper.

 

[Set]

Boring old 'letters turn to fire as you read them and vanish from the page.' But the fire doesn't burn the parchment, since you can have multiple spells on a single scroll (or all bound into a book). The ink is burning away, but the page is unburnt, and reusable as a sheet of paper/parchment.

 

[Voadam]

I was really only thinking of scrolls as having a single spell on them. In my experience that's how they're used. I can't recall when I've ever been given or purchased a scroll containing more than one spell.

It was common in older editions to find scrolls with multiple random spells on them.