Spell Books

Shostak · 05-12-2020, 10:53 AM

TFT magic started out in the Wizard microgame as something quite different from its D&D alternative of the time. Wizards did not have a number of slots of spells prepared from a grimoire that each could only be used once before a long period of rest; instead they simply knew spells and could cast them so long as they had strength to do so. And, again, unlike D&D, TFT wizards could do this without the necessity of magic ingredients; they bent reality to their will through application of their life force. Like psionics or The Force. Cool. I imagined the T’reo School to be like a martial arts monastery.

Then, with Advanced Wizard and its introduction of spell books, TFT magic became a bit more like D&D's. From these grimoires, wizards can cast spells they don't know (cool!), so long as they are not too complex (d'oh!). With the grimoires came wizards' chests, full of components with which to cast spells from books. aww! So, magic isn't like psionics or The Force? I like the idea of ingredients for potions, but not for spells.

But spell books are interesting. The idea that to learn magic, one must find and copy (or steal!), rare old books is appealing for many reasons, some of which include its agreement with common tropes about magic and the plethora of adventure seeds it offers. But, this seems to be at odds with TFT. After all, the Wizards' Guild presumably has copies of all of the books necessary to learn the relatively few spells in TFT's list (150 or so?), which makes finding and owning books far less important. It might make more sense if there was not a monolithic Wizards' Guild with chapters all over the place, but just a few isolated colleges at which one could study the art. And, spell books would make yet more sense if each spell required extensive thaumatological theory to be mastered beyond the specifics for any given spell (thus requiring perhaps multiple books for each spell)--but none of that is spelled out ;-) in TFT's fairly brief rule set and background info for Cidri.

What has been your experience with spell books using RAW been, and what have you adopted for changes?

05-12-2020, 10:53 AM	#1
Shostak Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: New England	Spell Books TFT magic started out in the Wizard microgame as something quite different from its D&D alternative of the time. Wizards did not have a number of slots of spells prepared from a grimoire that each could only be used once before a long period of rest; instead they simply knew spells and could cast them so long as they had strength to do so. And, again, unlike D&D, TFT wizards could do this without the necessity of magic ingredients; they bent reality to their will through application of their life force. Like psionics or The Force. Cool. I imagined the T’reo School to be like a martial arts monastery. Then, with Advanced Wizard and its introduction of spell books, TFT magic became a bit more like D&D's. From these grimoires, wizards can cast spells they don't know (cool!), so long as they are not too complex (d'oh!). With the grimoires came wizards' chests, full of components with which to cast spells from books. aww! So, magic isn't like psionics or The Force? I like the idea of ingredients for potions, but not for spells. But spell books are interesting. The idea that to learn magic, one must find and copy (or steal!), rare old books is appealing for many reasons, some of which include its agreement with common tropes about magic and the plethora of adventure seeds it offers. But, this seems to be at odds with TFT. After all, the Wizards' Guild presumably has copies of all of the books necessary to learn the relatively few spells in TFT's list (150 or so?), which makes finding and owning books far less important. It might make more sense if there was not a monolithic Wizards' Guild with chapters all over the place, but just a few isolated colleges at which one could study the art. And, spell books would make yet more sense if each spell required extensive thaumatological theory to be mastered beyond the specifics for any given spell (thus requiring perhaps multiple books for each spell)--but none of that is spelled out ;-) in TFT's fairly brief rule set and background info for Cidri. What has been your experience with spell books using RAW been, and what have you adopted for changes?

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