Level 1 Mage - "I cast Magic Missile!"DM - "But you are in a farkin' Tavern and there aren't any Monsters you dumbass!"
Level 1 Rogue - "I roll charisma to charm the ladies."
Level 1 Mage - "I said I cast Magic Missile..."
Level 1 Fighter - "Can I roll a die to see if I'm drunk yet?"
DM -nods to Level 1 Mage with a sigh, to Level 1 Rogue
Level 1 Rogue Rolls a 3
DM - "The Mirror and a number of objects shatter, the ladies leave the bar posthaste and the Barkeep pulls out a crossbow and demands recompenses..." Note DM had decided random chaos for Magic Missile spell vs NPC deaths...
DM - The Sherriff shows up - he was following you Murder Hobos the moment you stepped foot in town. He says "How in Pholtus's perfect plan is it possible a moron like you knows basic Magic?!"
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic..."
Arthur C. Clarke - third law
What IS magic? The act of will/ritual to somehow alter reality. But, really, what IS Magic?
As it applies to a TTRPG game of course...
Balderdash, superstition. Gygax himself noted he never met any "Mage" even in the super Occult 60s, 70s aftermath who could even approach a first level spell in an early Draconic Magazine article on how he worked out the first Magic Spells system for the game and why he kept with it.
So why - in this Far Future themed RPG do we still plan on having the "Vancian" system from Science Fiction Writer Jack Vance as the default? Spells ancient lore. Mages search them out, covet them, memorize them, fire and forget?
The first reason is the "Old School" roleplay feature. And that the revered Gary Gygax made a perfect but imperfect balance with that - wizards were very powerful but had strong limits so it wasn't a game of "Wizards and non-important assistants" like competing systems from alternatives in the 70s, 80s to modern over-powered "Politically Correct" corporate regurgitation. Vance's system WORKS, simple as that - wizards are powerful but not unbeatable Per Robert E Howard "A few sword thrusts" can still end an Archmage. Its getting close enough that's the challenge.
The second reason is that the "Magic" of the world of far-tomorrows is NOT any magick system of today (1) but rather it is a product of the far future. Is this meaning they are just using ray-guns and some kind of force field and this is just sci-fi? NOPE. Its fantasy but a more mature fantasy. There will be no trick to this system, the Mages will still be using Magick - just if they went to a time portal to today I strongly doubt their magick would work.
This is to be a TTRPG set in the world of the far future, the Far Tomorrows. At least One-Hundred Thousand years ahead of now, possibly a Million. Think Wells's "The Time Machine" or Gene Wolfe's "Urth of the New Sun" cycle... It is not yet entropic like Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth" or Clark Ashton Smith's "Zothique", Lin Carter's "Gondwane", C.S. Lewis's "Charn" or Hope Hodgkin's "Night Land"... - but it is a very old, matured earth with many eras of rise and fall of civilization so the oppressive weight of history creates a resigned Zen-like acceptance of the impermanence of life and Man's Achievements. Most are content to live simple lives in this long shadow, save the "Heroic Adventurers" of course!
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| A "Titanomachy" a war of Gods, Titans, which destroyed all civilization as Men knew it and re-shaped the earth itself. As in the dim forgotten past so it will be in the far future... |
It takes longer but civilizations still rise and fall and rise again. Every five to ten thousand years the world is wiped clean, some upheaval, civilizations die along with most of the populace and then survivors rebuild, try to remember but it is largely distorted. There are archives but this is so far ahead that it is buried in thousands of "Histories", many of which conflict with themselves or are outright fabrications.
The base world of Far Tomorrows is set in a Confederated Fiefdoms; A quasi Renaissance to pre-industrial tech era if left on its own with no interference would take a few thousand years to get to the space travel age again versus a few centuries. It's seen as part of an eternal cycle that is both inevitable and unavoidable but there is no hurry, it's happened before and will happen long after. Men rarely try to interfere with the flow of history but rarely push it forward faster than it seems to be going. It will reach heights and then fall and that is the cycle.
During some of these heights man achieved a very high level technology. All the goodies of "Science Fiction" and beyond even that. No need to go on many pages on that issue. And rather than some "Future History" of many thousands of years its best to examine it by a very harsh but simple standard.
Kardeschev's levels - meant as a thought experiment on how 'advanced' a civilization was by how much energy it could generate to power something like a signal into space to see if there's any reply back...
Level 1 - they control all energy on their planet
Level 2 - they control all energy in their star system
Level 3 - they control all energy in their Galaxy
(unspoken by K but extrapolated)
Level 4 - they control all energy in the UNIVERSE
Level 5 - God - by definition would have to be - in theory transcending the universe and any 'multiverse' creating or destroying at will the heartbeat and breath in both a long cycle called a Kalpa and in the rotations of sub-atomic particles and fluctuations of the space-time foam...
This set of levels is wildly scaling high and quite debatable (also has been broken up into 10+ levels by thoughtful Sci-Fi geeks) but like an ancient mythic saying there's a lot of truth into it. Mankind right now is near .8 of level 1 - but once we get to Level 1 we could build a Stapledon Swarm (NOT a "Dyson Sphere" - bad name, bad idea) and effectively harness all or most of the Sun's output. Once we do that we could get to Level 3 and work out ways to advance to Level 4.
Huge rates of scale - for instance if the "Bootes Void" is an emerging Level 4 civilization covering entire galaxies of star systems with Stapledon Energy collection clusters it's a Level 3.01 civilization.
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| Clarke's 3rd law states that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from Magic... |
How does this relate?
Since mankind is still alive about a Million years in the future I think it's not too much to extrapolate he's gone out into the stars and achieved Level 3 a few times and more. The "More" is when the "Wizard Lords" emerged at the earliest Fifty-Thousand years hence. They had advanced technology that made them at Level 4 in at least capabilities, though they spent more time making bizarro beasts and their own gardens of pleasure than "Conquering the Universe". And really, why the latter, want to see two odd aliens arguing over some 3rd alien that might be a sheep and who owns it, with a line of petitioners going on so long the entire surface of an 'imperial world' is a pure line all over it? I'd rather make bizarro worlds, crazy monsters, beautiful monster-girl mistresses and do crazy games like make titans that ravage worlds and fight other Wizard-Lord's titans...
Anyways the "Spells" as we know them were some of the end results of the Wizard-Lord's play with Level 4 technology. A recent and not well received edit to a famous Space Opera had a quasi-supernatural force come from a natural source - sub-microscopic machines... That 'proved' in Cannon a 70s "Fan Theory" that said galaxy had Level 4 tech but somehow pretended to be a failing Level 3 civilization. Being able to "Edit" the literal "Laws" of the universe to add a "Force" is the definition of Level 4 range technology. Think a character who's all powerful but about as stupid as smart from another popular space opera...bossing and bullying 'lesser' beings he's sent to study because they have potential. In principal an amazing character but he came off as a comical foil for a popular superhero.
Thus in the world of Far Tomorrows there is "Magick" much like the fantasy worlds of today and the superstition and mythology of the far far past. And it is real. And it works. It's also magic because of all who spend their lives studying and studying it to barely scratch the surface, perhaps one in ten-thousand of those that achieve "Arch-Mage" level have any idea WHAT they are doing. An "Arch-Mage" while VERY impressive (At the cusp of Epic Level) is about 1/100th as powerful as a "Wizard Lord".
The Wizard Lords whom had three known "Ages" are now long gone. Some are in other realities, some have transcended to the greater universe of which this one is akin to a soap bubble frothing on the edge of an endless cosmic sea... Most are dead, killed by wars with other wizards or self-destruction of despair and boredom, perhaps one or two by "Several Sword Thrusts" and not having a backup plan. There are rumored to be a very few left but these hide themselves, acting as 'guides' to carefully give a push where needed. Of these only the name Merlin is well known, a Magician of times far more ancient than the Age of the Wizard Lords whose power was much greater than most but from far before the known 'spells' and if any connection it is debatable.
Their legacy is the "Magic" they left. A hundred spells and a legendary thousand more. Or ten thousand spells and a million more, depending on who you talk to. These are ways they built to quickly access whatever system they added to the Space-Time reality that let them shape worlds as easily as handling clay and paint, to twist man's form into beasts and monsters, to master space and time like a mathematical concept. A student of Magic spends years to learn the basic concepts, by mentor, by school or rarely some innate talent and more fantastically the most guarded thing in the world - a "Spell book" falls into their hands. But after study they can learn a "Spell" and then study it to use it later but must re-study it to prepare it again. It is fantastic and frustrating, humanity on the cusp of Godhood when even the most simplest of spells is used but then is 'forgotten' even if the Wizard could recite the verbal component a hundred times he still must memorize it again properly...
Truly this - the "Vancian" system is best explained by a far future science fiction setting - what "The Dying Earth" by Vance is really. It works great in a ttrpg because wizards can still become incredibly powerful but they need to manage real risk and work with others to get that far. The game is not "Wizards Only" as many alternative systems have let themselves become.
The Magic in the world of Far Tomorrows in base will be traditional then. There are others with different types of "magical abilities" not requiring years of study and books - but these will be limited and have different sets of rules. A mage is the definition of possibility.
This will also be the main difference in the "magic" between this and the "Core" TTRPG; Mages have far more control of spells here. There might be at start fewer but it will be meant to include spells from 3.5 of "Core" and earlier if DM/Setting allows. However the Spells are more flexible.
For instance - Duration vs power - Power versus focus-
For "Bolts of Smiting" aka "Magic Missile" the mage should be able to modify if not unreasonable the use of the spell. They could spend it all in a 1.5x stronger single burst against a single target. They could make them last for ten minutes per level of caster unless cancelled circling around and hitting anything that comes near at a cost of being .75% as strong. With the chain of a "True Name" or "Warding" spell they could seek out specific targets or wait as a limited trap such as attacking anything going through a doorway unless a word determined by the caster is given. These would still be limited effects until the mage got "Enchant" level and at greater time and expense was able to set up permanent wards if needed.
Another spell which is new for this setting and not from the classic sources (core RPG, "Draconic" magazine...) is the spell "Bowman's Paradox" where it uses an absurd thought paradox - that for a bow to reach its target, it must travel half the distance, and half the distance of that - causing the opponent to make many "Rolls" in attacking and if one fails the attack misses. This too can be modified or combined - so a long hall can seem to stretch forever, a lock resets after being picked many times
The best 'rule' to use for these more flexible spells is that usually greater specialty or limited focus increases power/duration while expanded options reduces power/duration. A lone, low-level Mage might cast "Shield" and seeing the Orcs attacking him have metal weapons so he focuses it on metal so they can bang and slash at him for a prolonged time with no effect while he spooks them trying to convince them he's a Master Wizard and they should run. Good strategy, but perhaps their Goblin friend has a long wooden stick he likes to try to hit things with...?
Off-Camera boost in power
There is a difference between the modular, mobile fire and forget "Spells" and the abilities magic use and 'spellbooks' give. Ever notice how mages in stories seem so powerful but they aren't able to make magic missiles or clever cantrips unless it's genre specific fiction? Or how in Vance's dying Earth while the mages have great power they can do things off camera that no way would any normal DM allow - especially on-camera?
Magic Users of the study kind should have access to as they rise in level and experience to much more powerful magics that simply take longer to set up. While making a fortress wall would be handy in combat if it takes a day of casting it isn't worth memorizing. This should start at level 5 but Magic User characters should have a wide berth on how they decorate and defend their homes, of greater magicks they cast if they can do it unopposed and take time and resources. Constructing a fortress. Mass charming of creatures. Creating new Gestalt creatures. Making automata... Really, this is a good portion of why there are so many "Dungeons" to explore adding to the layers of ruins monsters, treasures and things more relevant than many thousands of years past.
THUSLY:
- Magic should start with the "Vancian" based system for the base "Magic-User" classes. No "Mana Pools" no power battery - this is not a video game.
- Players need a source of spells, such as their starter "Spell Book" and new spells are NOT easy to obtain or buy. These are keys to reality, they are coveted and held so tightly. This is why they adventure into ancient ruins and risk death versus staying at the crumbling but cozy family manor or the 'college' with the lonely and touchy professor.
- Players need to memorize spells, choosing which they might need to use - that are then 'forgotten' after use and require study/preparation to use again later.
- Players that get their Spells from other sources (Paladin, Cleric, 'sorcerer' if DM allows...) still need to spend time in ritual, prayer, delving inside themselves...etc.
- The spells for classic casters are VERY versatile - they'll come with some suggestions but these are not to limit the use. The DM is to reward creativity not whine "You are trying to expand your character's Horizons..." in a pathetic huff.
- Gestalt - spells can be combined creatively - this should start at Level 3 or above as the new casters need to learn how to use single spells in the dangerous environment.
- Characters, NPCs, Monsters with "Spell-like" abilities are usually more limited in use to compensate for no need for study and possible higher frequency of casting. The exception is transcendent beings, Aengeliac or Daemonik or other advanced spirituality/extraplanar beings - these have the spell abilities and also control and versatility.
- Off-Camera the Magic Users have effectively greater power for projects, experiments, home defense, etc. This costs time and money and shouldn't be allowed until a few levels have been gained.
Notes:
1 - I've actually been into "The Occult" in real life. WON'T get into that in this project and will NOT incorporate any "Real" magic system save necessary surface only items. This is a far far future and likley a RL mage from today (One BIG exception) would be powerless and also likely mages from then travelling back in time. However a branch of it - "Chaos Magick" does use "Sigils" in a very similar way - of investing power, research, work then "Fire and Forget" - it might be the pre-pre-PRE-history of the system of "Far Tomorrows" akin to an Ape coming out of a tree. Like Vance for the RPG Spell system, like Olaf Stapledon for Sci-Fi coming up with what we call (wrongly) a Dyson Sphere a RL Artist/Mage named Spare created this system... (or codified it at least) I say that ONLY for amusement. As a knee-jerk defense I separate real "Occult" from RPG practices due to being a survivor of the 80s Psychic Wars over RPGs...
