Fantasy Core RPG--Arcane Magic-Casting

Fantasy Core RPG
(c) Jerry Harris, 2013
Published here as Open Game Content.

[The next six posts are here to provide some idea of how arcane and divine magic work in the implied game world.  This is all optional, of course.  The Wizard Council and the Circle of Elders were put in as regulatory bodies for magic users, which isn't too hard to imagine would occur in such a world.  From a game stand point, they're also a good source of plot hooks and character drama.]


Arcane Magic Spellcasting

Magic spells are formulas written in an ancient, lost, dead language. It was a language that was also secret and not spoken by any general population, only by a small cult. After the global catastrophe (or whatever destroyed the old empires in your game world), this language became fragmentary and very obscure. It is amazing that any of it survived and that any contemporary person understands any of it.

This tradition has only been carried on and not allowed to die out because it contains the language of creation and destruction, words of power. While the ancient practitioner may have been fluent in it and capable of great works, the modern wizard only imperfectly understands some small fraction of its power and is prone to failure. Only the brightest and bravest have any chance of understanding its workings and can deal with the personal effects of failure.

Invoking a magic spell involves an intense concentration of both halves of the brain, the logical and the intuitive. The wizard has to understand the written spell. They must be able to speak it from memory. Most importantly, they must be able to understand and visualize the forces these spells call upon. None of the scholarly rote practice does any good without imagination and intuitive understanding.

Arcane Magic Training
Wizard Council

I'm off Monday, be back Tuesday.