Musings about draconomancy

[Polydamas]

I've been musing about the Draconomancy magic system from GURPS Dragons pp. 137-9. Its an interesting attempt to use GURPS Magic in the way it should be: boiling it down to a short list of spells appropriate for a particular campaign. In this case, the list of draconic-themed spells (with a rough prerequisite count) was:

• Master
• Might, Vigour
• Compel Truth (requires very high IQ)
• Fish Control, Reptile Control, Bird Control
• Breathe Water
• Armour (with scales as a nuisance effect), Breathe Fire, Detect Magic, Partial Shapeshifting (3 prerequisites)
• Enlarge, Fascinate, Memorize (6 prerequisites)
• Aura, Counterspell, Gift of Tongues, Identify Spell, Recall, Recover ST, See Secrets, Suggestion, Watchdog (10 prerequisites)
• Gift of Letters (11 prerequisites)
• Halt Aging (11 prerequisites)

Its premises were:

• Magic is an intellectual skill which anyone can learn and use without a complex initiation.
• Casting spells usually has odd psychological effects (inflicts various draconic mental disadvantages for several days) and occasionally produces permanent mental or physical changes in the caster
• This type of magic fell out of use centuries ago and was reinvented a decade or two ago
• There was some effective research around 1900, but typical first-generation researchers were antiquarians, members of obscure religious sects, or secret societies. Those with scholarly skills and knowledge of dead languages likely lead research into new spells, and not all of these spells are common. Wizards are typically eccentric and secretive.

Unfortunately, I'm drawing a blank on how people would use this kind of magic. Obviously Halt Aging is an attractive goal for anybody, and some might explore these spells out of sheer curiosity or religious devotion, but I’m drawing a blank on other uses, especially for the simpler spells. Does anyone have suggestions?

What if draconomancy reappeared earlier in the 20th century?

[William]

The list seems very useful to me.

Gift of Tongues and Gift of Letters both suit a researcher or a diplomat or translator.

Memorize, Recall, and See Secrets are good skills for a private eye. So are the next line.

Aura, Detect Magic and Identify spell are useful to supernatural investigators.

Compel Truth would be a regular in interrogations, official or otherwise.

Aura, Fascinate, Suggestion, and See Secrets empower a master manipulator.

Armour and Might make a powerful street fighter, even if guns are around, since guns aren't always in a given situation. Watchdog might be a military standard protocol.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by William

The list seems very useful to me.

Gift of Tongues and Gift of Letters both suit a researcher or a diplomat or translator.

But remember that they have 10 or 11 prerequisites, so in the time it takes to learn either to a useful level one could learn to read or speak five or six languages (more, if learning the spells is slowed by lack of textbooks or need to Invent new spells). Most philologists will already know five. If someone knew that Gift of Letters was a possibility, they might be interested in working through the prerequisites and using it on languages which are really dead like Linear A or Lycian or Harappan though ...

Originally Posted by William

Memorize, Recall, and See Secrets are good skills for a private eye. So are the next line.

Aura, Detect Magic and Identify spell are useful to supernatural investigators.

I will have to look up the 3e descriptions of the two memory-related spells. There are non-estoeric ways to teach oneself Eidetic Memory.

Someone obsessed with the occult might research the second three spells. In the base setting, they won't have much of other people's magic to cast Identify or Detect Magic on, so they might use Controlled or Mastered animals as subjects.

Originally Posted by William

Compel Truth would be a regular in interrogations, official or otherwise.

I agree that Compel Truth will be popular with anyone who wants to force answers out of people (and its likely to get such organizations to start a research program in draconomancy to invent other useful effects). The high IQ requirement will limit it though (it was 14 in 3e, probably 13 in 4e, and people with such high Intelligence are rare and hard to manage).

Originally Posted by William

Aura, Fascinate, Suggestion, and See Secrets empower a master manipulator.

I can see a psychologist or salesman or corporate lawyer or con artist wanting Aura, but again it has a lot of prerequisites, so what would lead someone to invent it? I agree that See Secrets is attractive to the nosy, and Fascinate/Suggestion to the manipulative.

Originally Posted by William

Armour and Might make a powerful street fighter, even if guns are around, since guns aren't always in a given situation.

So what kind of person with the right background to learn these spells is likely to get into street fights? I can see twentysomethings who like drugs, loud music, and the thrill of being around violence or dangerous people being interested (and not minding that casting spells alters their minds).

I can also imagine someone who does a martial sport wanting to punch above their weight class with Might, and take hits better with Vigour. That might lead to adventures when someone powerful loses a lot of money on bets, or sees their favourite child knocked out.

Originally Posted by William

Watchdog might be a military standard protocol.

I'm not sure about Watchdog: it affects a small area, and I think professionals are likely to use other kinds of alarms or keep a watch. It also has lots of prerequisites. I have trouble imagining an agency putting people through two years of school to learn it at a useful level and its prerequisites.

Remember that spells are Hard skills, so they are about as hard to learn as a undergraduate math or science subject (or the 'practical understanding of people' kind of psychology). Most people won't learn them unless they have a formal curriculum telling them to, a practical reason to be interested, or are academically minded.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

But remember that they have 10 or 11 prerequisites, so in the time it takes to learn either to a useful level one could learn to read or speak five or six languages (more, if learning the spells is slowed by lack of textbooks or need to Invent new spells). Most philologists will already know five. If someone knew that Gift of Letters was a possibility, they might be interested in working through the prerequisites and using it on languages which are really dead like Linear A or Lycian or Harappan though ...

Hmm... If you're studying Dracomancy, you're presumably interested in learning those other spells. Taking time away from that to learn a language might be counter-productive.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Hmm... If you're studying Dracomancy, you're presumably interested in learning those other spells. Taking time away from that to learn a language might be counter-productive.

The assumption of the setting is that draconomancy is the only type of magic known. Some people with a knowledge of medieval Byzantine theology and Tang dynasty magic might go "ooh, cool!" at the ability to command birds and grow dragon claws, but I don't think there would be a lot of them. I'm not devious, so I'm trying to brainstorm why someone who would see one of these spells and think "excellent! I can use that to ..."

[whswhs]

This is kind of a side point, but the proper form of the name would have been dracontomancy. The original Greek is drakon, drakonto-, and the genitive stem is the combining form.

Bill Stoddard

[William]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

The assumption of the setting is that draconomancy is the only type of magic known. Some people with a knowledge of medieval Byzantine theology and Tang dynasty magic might go "ooh, cool!" at the ability to command birds and grow dragon claws, but I don't think there would be a lot of them. I'm not devious, so I'm trying to brainstorm why someone who would see one of these spells and think "excellent! I can use that to ..."

Well, if the animal command and partial shapeshifting isn't interesting, simply think of it as something you have to know to get to the stuff you want -- it's a consequence of underlying theory that you have to learn on the way.

In other words, from the in-universe point of view, you didn't set out to learn how to command birds, but your studies of the fundamental nature of language (leading to Gift of Tongues) has also made clear to you the words which echo in the minds of birds.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

The assumption of the setting is that draconomancy is the only type of magic known. Some people with a knowledge of medieval Byzantine theology and Tang dynasty magic might go "ooh, cool!" at the ability to command birds and grow dragon claws, but I don't think there would be a lot of them. I'm not devious, so I'm trying to brainstorm why someone who would see one of these spells and think "excellent! I can use that to ..."

I might be misunderstanding you. I was merely pointing out why someone who was interested at all in learning Dracomancy AND interested in languages might prefer to go through the prerequisite route to Gift of Tongues->Gift of Letters rather than learn new languages the old-fashioned way. The former is working towards another desired goal, while the latter is taking time away from it.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by William

Well, if the animal command and partial shapeshifting isn't interesting, simply think of it as something you have to know to get to the stuff you want -- it's a consequence of underlying theory that you have to learn on the way.

In other words, from the in-universe point of view, you didn't set out to learn how to command birds, but your studies of the fundamental nature of language (leading to Gift of Tongues) has also made clear to you the words which echo in the minds of birds.

Right, but that gets us back to "so what might be the stuff someone wanted, and what might they want it for? Once someone could command birds and grow claws, what might they use them for?" Traditional magic lets you make money fortelling the future, cursing people, and making people fall in love; D&Desque magic lets you become a human artillery piece; Stross' Laundryverse magic is a game for academics and tinkerers, a tool for terrorists and three letter agencies, and a way to manipulate people.

It looks like we have a few ideas, but I'd be interested in more. A criminal might be interested in the "wings" form of partial shapeshifting (and would be more likely than average to be interested in Armour, Might, Vigour, etc.) A GM could have fun with a person from the wrong side of the tracks who decides to go straight, but sees the potential in some of the things that his crazy Religious Studies professor talks about and is tempted back into crime.

Originally Posted by whswhs

This is kind of a side point, but the proper form of the name would have been dracontomancy. The original Greek is drakon, drakonto-, and the genitive stem is the combining form.

Bill Stoddard

Or, if you really want to be fussy, δρακοντοθυοεργιά or dracontotheury. This art seems more like invocation than divination to me. I could have fun working up rules for the risks of using this kind of magic without a good level in the appropriate languages and humanities skills. In the long run they would probably work out the underlying theory, and translate spells into modern languages, but at the start the theory is likely to be embedded in medieval Taoism and heretical Byzantine theology.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Or, if you really want to be fussy, δρακοντοθυοεργιά or draontotheury. This art seems more like invocation than divination to me. I could have fun working up rules for the risks of using this kind of magic without a good level in the appropriate languages and humanities skills. In the long run they would probably work out the underlying theory, and translate spells into modern languages, but at the start the theory is likely to be embedded in medieval Taoism and heretical Byzantine theology.

How did you get the Greek font? I looked for one and couldn't find it as an option.

I presume what you mean to say in the Roman alphabet is "drakontotheurgy," though for some reason your velar consonants have deleted themselves. I'm not sure why "-the-" is in there, as I don't see a role for the divine. If you're going to call it an -urgy (which I agree would be closer, though -mancy is sometimes generalized, as in "necromancy"), I would think it would be just draconturgy or dracontourgy, or perhaps dracontothaumaturgy.

Bill Stoddard