"Speaking" Magic During a Game

[jaydubs]

I try not to just say "I power attack the goblin with my +2 greatsword." But what about when casting a magical spell? Anyone have a way to dictate magical words without sounding incredibly corny?

One idea I'm toying with is just to use a foreign language no one else at the table speaks. Has anyone tried that to good or ill effect? And what languages might sound suitably magical? Latin? Chinese? Arabic? Irish? Cherokee? (I'm not actually claiming to speak all of these. :smallwink:)

Maybe a series of nonsense words as per Jabberwocky?

Or is any attempt something that would just make you roll your eyes?

[Kazudo]

A way a few of the spellcasters in a few games do it is to make a short stanza that explains what the spell is, ending off with a rhyme. They inevitably sound corny.

Things like:

"I pull the pinch of bat guano and sulphur from my pouch forming a great circle with my hands as my mind focuses upon my intended target. When the time is right, I incant:

"A great inferno
To devour them all
I call forth fury
In my Fireball!"

Unleashing a giant fireball from my combined hands which whirls to the target square and deals *clatter* 20 fire damage!"

Or even worse, one of the better ones I've heard was

"I shatter the pearl and sprinkle it into the silver goblet of wine, stirring with the owl's feather. I hastily drink the concoction in a ceremonial manner. No sooner have I done this, then I incant:

"There's something in this wine
I cannot deny
Something something something
Identify."

The item is ______________"

[Flickerdart]

Repeat after me:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Lorem ipsum...

[Grod_The_Giant]

Describe the arm-wavings and the material components, the muttered words that sting the ears of all that hear them, the flickers of light and sound as emotion as you call up power, the crackling roar of the fire as it leaps from your hands to your target, stuff like that. Don't touch the actual words you say.

[CyberThread]

Repeat after me:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercilation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Lorem ipsum...



Ooo so close, you may have rolled a 20 on the dice roll, but due to your mispronunciation, of the spell pact, it counts as rolling a 1, your caster,is now wearing the gender swap belt.

[Alefiend]

You could fall back on the Techniques and Forms from Ars Magica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_Magica#System). It's a bit limited, but that means you have less to consider when you make up magic words.

If you're planning to create the words for your spells ahead of time, I'd go with translating the spell's name into a language nobody at the table is familiar with. Hindi, Cantonese, and Aramean are just some of the possibilities. Think The Internet will be your friend in this.

[Crake]

Ooo so close, you may have rolled a 20 on the dice roll, but due to your mispronunciation, of the spell pact, it counts as rolling a 1, your caster,is now wearing the gender swap belt.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[Jeff the Green]

Repeat after me:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Lorem ipsum...


Heh. Loren ipsum is kind of hard for me to read because it has a few sounds not in Latin (like "adipiscing") and I got enough practice in college that those trip me up. So I bring my copy of the Catiline Conspiracy and read a couple lines if I need some sort of arcane gibberish.

[jaydubs]

So what I'm hearing is...

Exotic sounding real or fictional language, maybe. But it's real hard to do right, and really easy to do wrong.

But rhyming in english is big bag of corny, corn battered, corn kernels. Sound about right?

[Sith_Happens]

Psst, I'll let you in on a secret. The reason verbal and somatic components are abstracted is because they're actually always this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAVfPJHlgCw
:smalltongue:

[Ravens_cry]

Go for more descriptive than actually saying something. Such as "Harsh and guttural tones almost speak themselves as I struggle to contain the power of the spell, before a blast of green light streams from me, striking my foe with its devastating glare."

[Rijan_Sai]

Generally, if I'm going to speak words for the spell, I use one of two methods:

1) The "Zatana" method:
Fireball = Llaberif; Cure Light Wounds = Eruc Thgil Sdnuow

2) The "Al Bhed" method:
Fireball = Venapymm; Cure Light Wounds = Lina Mekrd Fuihtc

3) Or use both:
Fireball = Mmypanev; Cure Light Wounds = Anil Drkem Cthiuf

[Yawgmoth]

The verbal component to every spell is Yu Mo Gui Gwui Fai Di Zao.

[dascarletm]

I agree with two schools of thought.

1: Yu Mo Gui Gwui Fai Di Zao

2: Random cool sounding language...


Though #1 is superior.

[Big Fau]

There's also the Negima method, but that involves a massive amount of research (or a copy of the actual mangas).

[nedz]

There's also the HAL method
Fireball = Ehqdazkk
but you may need to improvise some vowels.

Or the Quenya method
Fireball = Feanaro koron

[Red Fel]

As a rule, I find four methods work very well.

1. The Uncle Method. Uncle is always right. This is an easy one - a single magical incantation transforms your will (whatever it may be) into reality, and is good for any spell. Basically, the one-stop shopping method.

2. The Dresden Method. Harry Dresden uses magic words to insulate himself from magical feedback. In order to do so, he uses either languages he doesn't know (such as "Fuego" to cast a fire spell) or completely fictionalized words altogether (such as "flickum bickus" to light candles). For this one, the words themselves are less important than consistency - one phrase per spell, but the phrase can basically be any non-word.

3. The Lina Inverse Method. To cast her most powerful spells, Lina Inverse recites elaborate and poetic incantations in the common tongue. ("Darker than darkness, deeper than blackest night, drifting upon the sea of chaos..." Etc.) Longer spells have more power, right? This is that - the "more words mean more power" philosophy, applied to the common tongue.

4. The Dark Schneider Method. Spells are in a fictitious language, half ordinary speech and half nonsense words, and totally awesome. ("Zazard, zazard, scrono-rono-sook. Burning in the depths of darkness, the fires of hell, become my sword and slay my enemy..." Etc.) In some ways it's a derivative of the Lina Inverse method, in that it still uses the long, poetic language, but mixes in some random fictionalized words to emphasize how mystical and arcane it is.

I'm rather partial to numbers 3 and 4, myself, because they build anticipation. Once you start chanting, anyone remotely familiar with you will immediately get the point - and hide behind any available cover. Not that it will help them.

[unseenmage]

I look up random language translators online for magical gebberish inspiration. Though I try to use the same phrases for the same characters whenever possible.

[Averis Vol]

Gonna second that I'm not enough of a goober to actually try to say spells in a weird language. So normally I'll just say something like "I wave my hands through the air, intoning the magic within my mind and letting it course through my body before pointing at X enemy and letting the magical coils wrap about him. Casting phantasmal strangler."

All that being said, the people within the magical community of DnD know the names of these spell. They are tangible, talked about things in caster communities, so saying "I cast Evard's black tentacles" is perfectly acceptable.

[Jeff the Green]

I look up random language translators online for magical gebberish inspiration. Though I try to use the same phrases for the same characters whenever possible.

Oh, yeah, I do this for my artificers' command word and spell-trigger items. Generally I'll pick a different language for each type of item and then a word or two that matches what that item does. So a wand of barkskin might have the Basque word for 'bark', a wand of lesser vigor the Basque word for 'heal', and a hat of disguise the Welsh word for deceive. Then eternal wands will be in Turkish or something.

Granted, this is for PBP, since I'm nowhere near masochistic or organized enough to play an artificer over a tabletop.

[geekintheground]

i always incant: Yu mo gui gwai fai di zao

[Ravens_cry]

i always incant: Yu mo gui gwai fai di zao
Ye gods, the ninja are stealthy tonight.

[Sith_Happens]

Ye gods, the ninja are stealthy tonight.

Naw, it's just that suggestions to use that particular incantation are much like the incantation itself: Better with repetition.:smallwink: