Wild Spellcraft... ?

[TrizzlWizzl]

Does anybody know whether or not Wild Spellcraft has actual mechanics for resolving spells via playing cards (a la the Deadlands system)? The cover has consistantly featured some wild-western looking dude throwing some cards around, which along with the d20 logo has suggested to me that the supplement might somehow help in plugging the huge hole in the Deadlands d20 magic system: that playing cards are not used to resolve the casting of 'arcane' spells.

I've read just about every review I could get my hands (or my mouse) on, but I don't recall seeing any mention of these playing cards.

Thanks.

 

[Morrus]

Nope, not a card in sight. Sorry!

 

[RangerWickett]

Heh. . . . Actually . . .

It's not in the book, but I had another prestige class that was only sorta tangentally related to the subject matter of the book, the Cartomancer. I took it out of even a rough draft, because it really didn't use the rest of the rules in the book much at all, even though it still played around with the forces of probability.

The cover of the book is just supposed to represent that the wild sorcerer there (Meece, a gnome, even though he doesn't look much like a gnome on the Mystic cover *shrug*) controlling elements of unpredictable magic, but I always did want to do a card-based caster. And since we just finished up Tournaments, Fairs, & Taverns, which has rules for gambling, I thought this would be the perfect time.

I could probably have it prettied up and available for public consumption in about two weeks. However, since you're the one asking, are there any particular details you want to see? I'm not too familiar with Deadlands, so what types of spells and magic abilities are needed for that setting?

 

[RangerWickett]

Nope, not a card in sight. Sorry!

And also, Russ, that's not quite true. There is one spell in the book that would help like hell to cheat at cards or dice. Meece's cartomantic flourish is a little cantrip that lets the caster control what cards or dice come up when in a game. It isn't involved in actually casting spells, but it is a spell that affects cards.

 

[Crothian]

How would this work? Do you cast a sdpell and then randomly draw a card that has a modification on it nad then apply modification to the spell?

 

[TrizzlWizzl]

However, since you're the one asking, are there any particular details you want to see? I'm not too familiar with Deadlands, so what types of spells and magic abilities are needed for that setting?

I don't actually own the Deadlands d20 book, but from what I understand of the original system, playing cards (poker hands to be specific) are used to determine the efficacy of the spell in question.

For instance (and Deadlands players are welcome to correct me here), if one were to cast magic missle the range would be farther, the damage higher, etc. if one drew a full house than a pair of threes. You know what I'm saying? The better the poker hand, the more powerful the spell. From what I read of the Wild Spellcraft book, it seemed like there were all kinds of rules that helped adjudicate random variables in spells in all kinds of ways and when I saw the cover I immediately jumped to the conclusion that someone had seen the problem with the d20 version of the Deadlands magic system. I don't own Wild Magic, but it seemed like with all the methods available for implementing variable magic there might be a table or something showing how to use poker hands a la the o.g. Deadlands.

d20 Deadlands uses mostly d20 spells, but with no implementation of playing cards... which, seeing as how the idea was such an intregal part of the original system, seems to have been a really bad idea. A lot of people were pretty bummed out and I bet d20 Deadlands kind of shot itself in the foot.

Hell, if Wild Magic had poker-hand-magic-rules I'd probably buy both Wild Magic and d20 Deadlands... needs and wants, needs and wants, so sayeth my accountant.

Thanks for answering my question though RangerWickett. I'm sure Wild Magic is dope... if I had large amounts of disposable income I'd for sure buy the print version. The tavern game book looks cool too.

I wonder if I could get the gubment to subsidize my roleplaying hobby...