Had this marinating in drafts for forever and finally had the energy to finish it. I’ve been thinking about mechanics that are grounded as much as possible in the consensus and intuition of the play group and encoded as little as possible in the written rules themselves (related the FKR principles that have been bouncing around lately). These are magic rules for a game in the vein of Runequest or Earthsea I’ve been thinking about running lately.
They really only work in a pretty technologically limited setting (the game is Bronze Age-ish), since they’re keyed off of “things within human capacity” which gets really thorny when you have much past that.
Sorcery
Sorcery is an art that provides supernatural means to mundane ends–with their magic, a sorcerer can perform any feat within human capacity, but nothing more. Raising the dead, inspiring true love, lifting castles into the sky, and other ancient acts of magic are entirely beyond latter-day sorcerers. Within this limitation, however, sorcerers can still achieve much–forging a blade without a hammer or fire, transporting themselves great distances without a cart or mount, persuading people without speaking a word, performing dangerous labor from great distances, auguring long-lost secrets without cracking open a book.
Sorcerers are not equally learned in all forms of sorcery, however. The practice is divided into Lores, each a domain of sorcery that focuses on a single field of human endeavor. The Lore of Stone allows a sorcerer to cleave and shape rock like a mason; the Lore of the Forge allows them to stoke small flames into roaring fires and shape raw metal into smithed goods like a blacksmith. Lores are still constrained by the limits of sorcery; a Stone-sorcerer could raise a tower from living rock, but not create one from thin air; a Forge-sorcerer could turn iron ingots into a sword but could not magic up a blade from nothing.
Although sorcery can wholly replace the time, equipment, and labor necessary to achieve something, the more a sorcerer leans on their own power, the more difficult and dangerous the magic is. To safely, effectively, and reliably cast a spell, a sorcerer needs occult equipment, components, and time roughly equal to what would be needed to perform the act though mundane means. A dearth of resources can be overcome with talent and experience, but always brings some level of risk.
Lores
- Stone: magic of masons. Cleave rocks, raise stone structures, etc.
- Yoke: magic of animal husbandry. Train, soothe, command, care for animals, etc.
- Path: magic of travelers. Travel great distances, move at great speeds, scale walls and mountains, etc
- Bough: magic of hunters. Camouflage, track, kill at a distance, etc.
- Forge: magic of blacksmiths. Stoke flames, shape metal, smith objects, etc
- Bone: magic of doctors. Augur diagnoses, clean and treat wounds, etc.
Examples:
- A Stone-sorcerer destroying a boulder might bring a staff to shape their magic the way that someone else might use a sledgehammer to direct their strength. In a pinch, they could try to crush the boulder with no gear, but this could exhaust them, injure them, or end in a botched or incomplete job.
- A Yoke-sorcerer ensorcelling a dog to obey their commands might prepare a series of ritually treated meals for the dog to take the place of the food someone else would use to reward it during training. They could try to fall back on their own power and will, but this could sicken or injure them or the dog, or lead to the dog becoming aggressive and feral instead.
- A Path-sorcerer could construct a ritual palanquin to carry them to a neighboring town the way someone else would use a cart. Carrying themselves with their own sorcery could injure them or lead them to the wrong place.
Procedure:
- The player declares what they are trying to achieve with the spell and how it is going to happen. It must be within human capacity and it must pertain to their Lore.
- If their PC has the time and resources equivalent to what the task would take normally, it just works.
- If they do not have or are not willing to dedicate the time and resources, the Referee tells them how many dice to roll. If they are well-equipped, they roll 3d6. If they are moderately prepared, they roll 2d6. If they are unprepared, they roll 1d6. Sorcerers who go through brutal training, bathe in moonlight on auspicious nights, complete pilgrimages to locations of great power, wield relics of great power, etc, roll an extra regardless of level of preparation.
- If the player’s highest die is 5+, the spell works. If the highest die is 3-4, the spell simply fails. If the highest die is 1-2, the spell fails and there is some backlash: the sorcerer is exhausted or injured, the spell causes an undesirable effect, etc.
Taboo Sorcery
Wisdom of the Beasts
Greedy sorcerers may reach for powers beyond what has been allotted to humans by consuming the lifeblood of an animal. This is a grave taboo–to be one thing and not another is the lot of all mortal life, and the mingling of kinds recalls the dark and formless Chaos that preceded the world as it is known today. A sorcerer who has attained the Wisdom of a beast may achieve anything that it could, just as a Lore affords the powers of human effort. A beast, more than anything, is capable of being itself, and so Wisdom-stealing sorcerers may also assume the form of animals they have consumed.
- The Wisdom of the Bear allows a sorcerer to exert immense force, tear apart obstacles and enemies, and scale trees and walls.
- The Wisdom of the Crow allows a sorcerer to fly, to stand on slender tree branches, and communicate with flocks of other crows.
- The Wisdom of the Eel allows a sorcerer to breathe underwater and swim at great speed.
- The Wisdom of the Asp allows a sorcerer to inflict venomous wounds and travel through the narrowest of spaces.
The most terrible heights a sorcerer may ascend are by consuming the lifeblood of a divine beast: dragons, sea-serpents, great-wolves, corpse-eagles.
Forbidden Knowledge
There are Lores that are persecuted at every opportunity by right-thinking people: The Lore of the Rack, perfected by torturers, the Lore of Belladonna, devised by poisoners, and the Lore of the Throne, invented by tyrants. The books that contain them have been burned, the people who learned them have been ground into dust and buried in secret places. The smallest hint that someone has recovered even a part of these Lores will bring down terrible reprisal from regular people, town governments, empires.
There are also Lores that are treated with suspicion or banned in some jurisdictions, but do not necessarily carry a universal taboo. Anything that impinges on the mind of another, allows secrets of others to be augured, or inflicts grievous injury causes too much trouble to be trusted, even if they can only induce a person to do something within the boundaries of their nature and morals.
- Heart: magic of courtesans. Persuade, mislead, and seduce.
- Jaw: magic of gossips. Divine rumors, start whisper campaigns, stir up mobs.
- Tome: magic of scholars. Augur any information that has been written or remembered.
- Scale: magic of merchants. Augur the value of objects, divine what people want, reveal the composition of coins, ingots, and other things.
- Blade: magic of warriors, Cut, gouge, crush, pierce, but also ward off blows.
- Knucklebone: magic of gamblers. Weigh dice, augur card hands, discern true feelings.