Magic Words

Lately, the thought of dynamic spell lists has appealed to me. It's magic after all. If it worked exactly the same all the time, every time, it'd be science. Also, creating such a list for custom settings is a huge pain. So, given lessons learned from Legends: Make the players do it.

The thought appeals to me for several reasons. Firstly, after the brief rule structure to follow, little further work is necessary. Second, it allows the players to feel they have some sense of agency and allows their sad little hearts to be full, if even but for a moment. Third, it allows for more customized and quickly created setting related spells. Wizards of an alternate 1920's America can summon gin to guzzle while quickly mending their three piece suit. Magi of a generic fantasy world can rain down fire upon peasants. You know, general magic things.

So, with that, I've hammered vague ideas into a magic system: Words of Power.

Novel? No. Oh, my, no. But every system I've seen for it has lacked...something. They've never felt exactly 'right'. Especially the monstrosity Pathfinder jammed together.

The idea is fairly simple. Words are learned just as a wizard would learn a spell. The number of syllables are the level of the word. Spells are effectively created by stringing together syllables, with effects of such spells being fairly obvious.

Examples
Defenestration - Fifth level spell that defenestrates the target.
Summon Beer - Third level spell that generates one unit of beer
Kill - First level spell that kills the caster
Create Fireball - Third level spell that creates a ball of fire

Yes, there are some issues in this. "Create Fireball" would be a third level spell, while "Summon Fireball" is a forth. The solution would be that the forth level fireball is obviously bigger. Also, most spells don't really become useful until level three. But that can be chalked up to being an apprentice of an insanely versatile magic system. Or first level casters can start with three syllables, and just subtract two from everything to determine power level. Not terribly hard. Another issue would be the use of the word "kill." Over powered however you look at it. That's why, as in all things, the GM has the ability to say 'No.' (Or would it be? See below for a drunken edit.)

Power increases (xp spending, level ups, magic items, etc) apply through increasing the number of syllables allowed per day and/or per level.

Edit!
Thoughts on the "kill" power word have lead to the following examples

• Kill - kills the caster
• Kill orc - kills an orc, somewhere, randomly through random means. May be coincidence. 
• Kill that orc - kills that orc in a random fashion. "The hardships of a life lived long and well" are a valid death. 
• Kill that orc now - Finally kills that orc, right now, through a random means. 

Given this, the players and GM are encouraged to work together to generate something that seems fair and world fitting. Read: Make the players figure out what want to do, then the GM says 'No' until the spell is actually balanced.

Best system? No. Worst system? Probably not. A thought has occurred to me that this system could also be applied to a LARP environment, but I'm in no rush to perform the trails on this one.

So, yeah, there is it. Remember: Make the players do all the work.

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