Thieves World Magic system

[NinjaStylerobot]

Well after watching spoonies magnum opus of a campaign I was really interested in the magic system.

Turns out its pretty good. Its both very fluffy and seems to solve the issue with casters (I think)

It both makes it more powerful (In a way) and significantly weaker.

On one side things take more time. Even casting magic missile at level 1 could take two+ rounds.

On the other Ritual casting allows for longer spell duration

What do people think about it?

[Grundy]

I don't recognize your reference to spoonies campaign, but I do love the books. I recall the magic involving maintaining concentration on current spells, among other limitations. The mages had spectacular power, but they were vulnerable, in ways. Like to knives.

[Vanvidum]

I don't recognize your reference to spoonies campaign, but I do love the books.

Spoony is an internet reviewer, and also has a video series called "Counter Monkey" in which he relates his RPG experiences.

Recently, he talked about a Thieves World campaign he ran that didn't exactly go according to plan. I'd say more, but that would spoil it--as would the comments. Part I (http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/03/04/counter-monkey-thieves-world-part-1-poor-impulse-control/) and Part II (http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/03/04/counter-monkey-thieves-world-part-2-the-chicago-way/). Suffice to say the story there has kindled a personal interest in the setting for me, and the magic system seems like it'd be in many ways more interesting and better to scale.

[Alefiend]

I've never had the opportunity to read any of Thieves' World, and I wish that were not the case. But those two videos describe an awesome campaign. I regret that I'll likely never be in a game that good. Thanks for posting.

[Starbuck_II]

Well after watching spoonies magnum opus of a campaign I was really interested in the magic system.

Turns out its pretty good. Its both very fluffy and seems to solve the issue with casters (I think)

It both makes it more powerful (In a way) and significantly weaker.

On one side things take more time. Even casting magic missile at level 1 could take two+ rounds.

On the other Ritual casting allows for longer spell duration

What do people think about it?

Magic Missile if you read is not changed. I guess if you had to gather mana slowly it might be good to extend casting, but not normally.

[Grundy]

One of the cool things about the anthologies was that there were many different types of magic. There was a witch named Ischade who could apparently spontaneously (and quickly) cast, there were traditional ritual type wizards, and divine magic came in many stripes as well. Tempus was the avatar of the Rankan war god, and he was a super-buffed melee guy. There was an artist, Lalo, who was granted the power to paint people's souls, and then later the power to breathe life into any of his art.
I've never read the game, so I don't know exactly how they translated into play. Spoony's account sounds like they streamlined it, which I can understand. It would be pretty impractical to have a dozen different magical systems. Almost like 3.5 :smalltongue: