True Vancian Casting?

[Person_Man]

I'm currently in the process of re-reading the Dying Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Earth) novels by Jack Vance for the first time in over a decade. As you probably know, the works of Vance are the source of Vancian Casting (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VancianMagic).


Each spell has one fixed purpose.


Spells must be prepared in advance of actual use, and each prepared spell can be used only once before needing to be prepared again.


Magic users have a finite capacity of the number of spells they can prepare.


What you may not know is that in the works of Jack Vance:


Magic users could memorize only a very small number of spells at any given time, perhaps around 1 to 6.


Spells were not organized into levels.


Spells were jealously guarded (you can't just buy them at a magic mart). You either learned them from another magic user, took it from them, or spent years researching them.


It was possible for anyone to attempt to use a spell, although with the possibility of backfiring.


There were a very limited number of spells in the world. There are perhaps only a 100 spells left known in the world (though at one point, its rumored that their were many more).


Spells were extremely powerful. If you cast the right spell at the right time, you basically "solved" the problem. You could kill a creature with the right spell, create life, be completely protected from harm for a short period of time, transport yourself across the planet, etc.


Magic users weren't weak, d4, 1/2 BAB, mostly Skill-less tools. They were adventurers and/or powerful sages or tricksters.


Most spells don't require any material components or gestures.


So, has anyone written a system or homebrewed a class or magic system that actually reflects the works of Jack Vance? Or have I found my next homebrew project?

[Emperor Tippy]

I have a few things kinda like it laying around but the closest to actual full Vancian casting I have is my Dovahkin class, which needs to be renamed and changed a bit so I can pretend that it isn't a total Skyrim rip off.

[Flickerdart]

Seems pretty similar to Factotum, except remove the level restriction on SLAs and add some sort of thing that requires him to learn spells.

[Ylorch]

There's an official RPG for Dying Earth put out by Pelgrane Press.

[AstralFire]

I've considered working on it in the past, but on reflection I pretty much decided that Incantations (3E) or Rituals (4E) handled it better rather than making a class revolving around the concept.

The incantation is used to prepare the spell and anyone can attempt it. A second skill check is made when attempting to use the spell. This type of magic works better as a general world system rather than being grafted onto a particular class.

[Thrudd]

I'm currently in the process of re-reading the Dying Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Earth) novels by Jack Vance for the first time in over a decade. As you probably know, the works of Vance are the source of Vancian Casting (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VancianMagic).


Each spell has one fixed purpose.


Spells must be prepared in advance of actual use, and each prepared spell can be used only once before needing to be prepared again.


Magic users have a finite capacity of the number of spells they can prepare.


What you may not know is that in the works of Jack Vance:


Magic users could memorize only a very small number of spells at any given time, perhaps around 1 to 6.


Spells were not organized into levels.


Spells were jealously guarded (you can't just buy them at a magic mart). You either learned them from another magic user, took it from them, or spent years researching them.


It was possible for anyone to attempt to use a spell, although with the possibility of backfiring.


There were a very limited number of spells in the world. There are perhaps only a 100 spells left known in the world (though at one point, its rumored that their were many more).


Spells were extremely powerful. If you cast the right spell at the right time, you basically "solved" the problem. You could kill a creature with the right spell, create life, be completely protected from harm for a short period of time, transport yourself across the planet, etc.


Magic users weren't weak, d4, 1/2 BAB, mostly Skill-less tools. They were adventurers and/or powerful sages or tricksters.


Most spells don't require any material components or gestures.


So, has anyone written a system or homebrewed a class or magic system that actually reflects the works of Jack Vance? Or have I found my next homebrew project?

I think there was a published Dying Earth RPG system. I think Gygax may also have developed a Dying Earth setting for AD&D

http://www.dyingearth.com/ I haven't played it, but it says it is written by Robin Laws, who also wrote the excellent Feng Shui RPG. So it might be worth looking at.

I would say that the Dying Earth world did have spells of different power level. In Mazirian the Magician, it describes that he could memorize six different standard spells, or four spells of greater power. So not exactly the different spell level/slots of D&D, but there were spells which required greater mental energy to memorize than others and had greater effects. It did describe that Mazirian was one of the most powerful in the world at that time, being able to hold a whopping six spells at once in his mind, and one of the few who knew the more powerful spells.
I also understand that the final book, "Rhialto the Marvelous", has a group of Magicians who know quite a bit more about magic than the wizards of the earlier Dying Earth stories, and some of the conventions of magic from those stories have gone out the window.

I feel like D&D Next's system might be able to support a Dying Earth setting, more than previous editions. They have the arcane intiate feats where anyone can gain a couple spells. The number of spells cast per day has been reduced greatly in relation to previous editions. It would not be hard to reduce it further and restrict the casting to strictly Vancian method (no casting a spell a second time using another spell slot). However, spells might need to be more powerful to compensate.