Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bofinger
Supposing we wanted to make several spell lists for wizards, so that different wizards had access to different subsets of the spells. How would the split be made?
|
I started dividing up spell knowledge in my campaigns in 1990 (in GURPS, where there are many more spells and they are already thematically sorted), and I've continued to do so almost always. It can have several benefits as far as having fun/interesting situations which tie into the game world situation and history and reasons for things being the way they are.
e.g. This wizard's guild knows these spells, that other one knows different ones and has some different variations of the same spells. That religion has a sect of wizard-priests with those appropriate spells. The high priests of another are the only one who can do divination (e.g. TFT Trance spell) but it takes a ritual of 5 priests, a day, and a sacrifice. Only certain people know weapon/armor enchantment. There are some examples of some enchantments no one now knows how to make. People used to know these spells but now almost no one does. The Traveler's Guild someone mentioned in the Gate network antics/economy thread might have a near-monopoly on Gate & Long-Distance Teleportation magic. Etc etc etc.
TFT has a shorter spell list that GURPS Magic, though. However even if/when I re-fire-up my original TFT campaign(s), I would still track which guild
don't know which spells, and which know which variants, and what spells have limited teaching/books available. Some spells and enchantments I would have either be lost or only known in certain nerfy/weird/limited versions. Mainly I'd be looking at limiting (or at least tracking who knows them) the more powerful and exploitable spells and enchantments, both to limit abuse and to keep track (or at least have a sense) of who in the world is doing what with them, and who someone will have to talk to to get certain magic.