Themed wizards

Nils_Lindeberg · 07-27-2018, 05:23 AM

Maybe a simple system for schools or themes might be what people want.

The simplest system I can come up with is a tags system. Every spell gets a handfull of tags, or themes.

A fire ball could have a few like these: Martial, Missile, Fire, Dragon, Elemental, Haven, Destruction, Illumination, Passion, Choleric, Fire Godess, Smithing God, Demons, etc.

And in order to encourage people to go for a theme the xp cost of learning a themed spell would be lower. The more spells you already have that share a theme with the new spell, the cheaper it will be.

In turn this would also mean that many schools or mentors will be more or less specialized. And they in turn might research more spells within their specialities to encourage students to come to them.

So learning a new spell when you know no other spells might cost 200% of the normal cost. For each other spell you have that share one or more themes with the new spell you get a rebate on the price by 20%. And when you know 5 spells that all share one or more themes with the new spell, then you can learn it for a normal cost of 100%, if you know 7 you can get it for 60% and then maybe have a lower limit or minimum cost of maybe 20% or so.

And if you want to add a new theme, Blood Magic for instance, you just have to tag all spells that you think fit the new descriptor, and maybe add a couple of special spells for flavour, and voila you have a new themed school. And wizards on average will pay about the same over their career. Specialists will pay less, but can still pay more for a couple of spells that are outside their usual schools/themes for variety.

You could also connect the tags to special abilities, magic items or talents. For ex. 1 Point, You can sacrifice real Health instead of fST when you cast Blood Magic spells. Each wound taken gives 2 fST.
ex. 1 Point, You are a devotee of the Smithing God, and all Smithing God spells can be cast at half fST when you have uphold all the tenants of that religion for the last week.

And the tags could be small Icons, so they don't take up so much space and distract you in the spell descriptions.

A similar rule could be used for talents as well to encourage people to learn similar talents instead of cherry picking wildly. They should have the option to cherry pick, but it will be a little more costly. Here the themes could be based on classes, professions, cultures, organisations, backgrounds, titles, guilds, etc. And even a mix of all of them.

If you already have 4 of the 6 Courtley Graces the 5th should be cheaper. If you already know 3 of the Thieve's Guild Trade Secrets the 4th will be easier to learn. And when you are knighted it is time to look over the Knightly virtues and see which one to pick in order to please your lord. New things are always harder to learn, but lucky for you Pole Arms and Shield you already have from your Mercenary days and those themes overlap, so you won't be starting from scratch at 200% cost.

Is it just too complicated or could it be fun to puzzle around with?
I won't take up much rule space, since it would mostly be the small symbols themselves, a short description of what the symbols represent and the rules for using the rebate system. Extra talents or spells to go with the symbols could be presented later as a supplement.

zot · 07-27-2018, 06:47 AM

It's a great idea for both spells and talents and it intersects very well with "More Things to Spend XP On"!

I think the "emerging theme" from tag list overlap works particularly well with TFT's ala carte philosophy.

Anomylous · 07-27-2018, 10:02 AM

I just made a post about a similar idea, over here:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...49#post2196649

But I like the greater flexibility of your "tag" system.

Nils_Lindeberg · 07-27-2018, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anomylous

I just made a post about a similar idea, over here:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...49#post2196649

But I like the greater flexibility of your "tag" system.

A "tag" system is just overlapping lists by another name. Mostly it takes up less space to add a symbol or five next to a spell in the normal spell list. So your system was very close.

The big difference I see is that you don't specialize in one "school" but you get a bonus if you keep to the schools you already have. And the more you specialize, that is the more spells (or possibly talents) you have from the same schools the cheaper it gets.

And soon you will have an interesting choice, should I get this very cheap, but not top priority fire spell or should I go for this a little bit cheaper void spell since I have a lot of void spell tags too, or should I take this really good spell that I have no XP bonus for? Some would go the generalist route and pay a little more, but only have the usual suspects - the best spells and combos, while others would go with one or more distinct themes and develop a little faster. And if spells and talents are going to cost XP it is easy to give a rebate in several steps. If they cost one memory slot, it is very hard to differentiate the cost.

And even if we don't know exactly what we will use the spell tags for, having them can open up possibilities later on in further supplements and house rules. Some symbols could be put in just for decorative purposes, but have some thought behind them. And it could be useful for the GM when he makes wizard NPC. Instead of writing down a complete spell list, he just writes Fire and Void spells and then that NPC has all of those spells up to the wizards IQ. And by combining two or three themes every wizard will feel different, play different and probably look and act differently, even though they are template builds. :-)

07-27-2018, 05:23 AM	#1
Nils_Lindeberg Join Date: Jul 2018	Themed wizards Maybe a simple system for schools or themes might be what people want. The simplest system I can come up with is a tags system. Every spell gets a handfull of tags, or themes. A fire ball could have a few like these: Martial, Missile, Fire, Dragon, Elemental, Haven, Destruction, Illumination, Passion, Choleric, Fire Godess, Smithing God, Demons, etc. And in order to encourage people to go for a theme the xp cost of learning a themed spell would be lower. The more spells you already have that share a theme with the new spell, the cheaper it will be. In turn this would also mean that many schools or mentors will be more or less specialized. And they in turn might research more spells within their specialities to encourage students to come to them. So learning a new spell when you know no other spells might cost 200% of the normal cost. For each other spell you have that share one or more themes with the new spell you get a rebate on the price by 20%. And when you know 5 spells that all share one or more themes with the new spell, then you can learn it for a normal cost of 100%, if you know 7 you can get it for 60% and then maybe have a lower limit or minimum cost of maybe 20% or so. And if you want to add a new theme, Blood Magic for instance, you just have to tag all spells that you think fit the new descriptor, and maybe add a couple of special spells for flavour, and voila you have a new themed school. And wizards on average will pay about the same over their career. Specialists will pay less, but can still pay more for a couple of spells that are outside their usual schools/themes for variety. You could also connect the tags to special abilities, magic items or talents. For ex. 1 Point, You can sacrifice real Health instead of fST when you cast Blood Magic spells. Each wound taken gives 2 fST. ex. 1 Point, You are a devotee of the Smithing God, and all Smithing God spells can be cast at half fST when you have uphold all the tenants of that religion for the last week. And the tags could be small Icons, so they don't take up so much space and distract you in the spell descriptions. A similar rule could be used for talents as well to encourage people to learn similar talents instead of cherry picking wildly. They should have the option to cherry pick, but it will be a little more costly. Here the themes could be based on classes, professions, cultures, organisations, backgrounds, titles, guilds, etc. And even a mix of all of them. If you already have 4 of the 6 Courtley Graces the 5th should be cheaper. If you already know 3 of the Thieve's Guild Trade Secrets the 4th will be easier to learn. And when you are knighted it is time to look over the Knightly virtues and see which one to pick in order to please your lord. New things are always harder to learn, but lucky for you Pole Arms and Shield you already have from your Mercenary days and those themes overlap, so you won't be starting from scratch at 200% cost. Is it just too complicated or could it be fun to puzzle around with? I won't take up much rule space, since it would mostly be the small symbols themselves, a short description of what the symbols represent and the rules for using the rebate system. Extra talents or spells to go with the symbols could be presented later as a supplement.

07-27-2018, 06:47 AM	#2
zot Join Date: May 2018	Re: Themed wizards It's a great idea for both spells and talents and it intersects very well with "More Things to Spend XP On"! I think the "emerging theme" from tag list overlap works particularly well with TFT's ala carte philosophy.

07-27-2018, 10:02 AM	#3
Anomylous Join Date: Jul 2018	Re: Themed wizards I just made a post about a similar idea, over here: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...49#post2196649 But I like the greater flexibility of your "tag" system.