For the past month through the end of October, Binary is hosting the fourth annual Minimalist TTRPG Jam. As part of my efforts to publish a beta for The Serket Hack by the end of the year, I’ve decided to participate. In a feat of monumental laziness, I’m writing this post to kill three birds with one stone by blogging my way through some game design. Today I’m working on sketching out spells for the Black Mage, the main “caster” class I plan to include in the beta; if you don’t care about my lore, you can skip ahead to the spell table and copy my homework for your OSR game.
Nothing is certain in the realm of ttrpg betas, but I do know that I want more than this for my wizards. There needs to be more to magic than one way of doing it, and I also want to leave room in the game for GM’s to create entirely new forms of magic and slot them into the system. In light of this, I came up with the vague notion that this style of magic is merely one Path, and associated it with one of the five elements — water.
The Path of Water
The Path of Water is the most often the first magic that mages learn because it is the easiest to obtain. Water magic works like language and the Guild of Vitality maintains the Lexicon. The Lexicon is literally a living document inscribed on the oldest tree in the echolands. All mages can draw on its power to cast spells they’ve learned.
While this is a great boon to those without arcane talent, there are many downsides. Without extraordinary dedication, the Path of Water is much less powerful than the other Paths. Furthermore, the available words are finite and under Guild control. Finally: drawing arcane power from a remote source makes it easy for enemy mages to disrupt. For these reasons, most regard the Path of Water as “training magic”.
Learning Spells
Students of the Path of Water may learn new spells by attuning with a place of power. Unguided meditation will imbue you with a random spell, while a teacher is able to direct your focus to a spell they know.
- Roll 2d8, three times. The first pair gives you an adjective, the second pair gives you a form, and the third pair gives you a noun.
- Using the three words, select one template and learn the resulting spell name.
- [adjective] [form]
- [form] of [noun]
- [adjective] [form] of [noun]
- You may tweak the spell name slightly to make it sound better, such as adding or removing pluralization or eliding the word “of”. Be sure you do not change the meaning of the words.
| Roll | Adjective | Form | Noun |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Solar | Song | Spring |
| 1.2 | Hallowed | Dance | Summer |
| 1.3 | Waking | March | Fall |
| 1.4 | Bright | Chorus | Winter |
| 1.5 | Kinetic | Melody | Dawn |
| 1.6 | Improvised | Rhythm | Dusk |
| 1.7 | Dazzling | Waltz | Twilight |
| 1.8 | Recursive | Symphony | Midnight |
| 2.1 | Deadly | Sphere | Fire |
| 2.2 | Advanced | Cone | Water |
| 2.3 | Lunar | Cube | Earth |
| 2.4 | Silent | Circle | Wood |
| 2.5 | Normal | Column | Metal |
| 2.6 | Vast | Dome | Ice |
| 2.7 | High | Wall | Stone |
| 2.8 | Half | Ray | Magnetism |
| 3.1 | Ancient | Wings | Sound |
| 3.2 | Flaming | Wave | Plasma |
| 3.3 | Raging | Path | Psionics |
| 3.4 | Poisoning | Sword | Doom |
| 3.5 | Chilling | Bullet | Deliverance |
| 3.6 | Shocking | Engine | Lightning |
| 3.7 | Bludgeoning | Fist | Glass |
| 3.8 | Slashing | Record | Laundry |
| 4.1 | Piercing | Hand | Sanctuary |
| 4.2 | Revitalizing | Boon | Luck |
| 4.3 | Quick | Bane | Jinx |
| 4.4 | Immovable | Blossom | Peace |
| 4.5 | Sticky | Call | War |
| 4.6 | Ten | Flare | Sleep |
| 4.7 | Motivational | Blast | Vigilance |
| 4.8 | Depressing | Name | Wind |
| 5.1 | Nuclear | Cyclone | Memory |
| 5.2 | Slutty | Brush | Determination |
| 5.3 | Ghostly | Taste | Wrath |
| 5.4 | Instant | Knowledge | Anxiety |
| 5.5 | Reverse | Breath | Joy |
| 5.6 | Overclocked | Fragment | Family |
| 5.7 | Undervolted | Touch | Cure |
| 5.8 | Forgotten | Truth | Vitality |
| 6.1 | Surprise | Toll | Ruby |
| 6.2 | Revealing | Flood | Emerald |
| 6.3 | Feline | Cascade | Topaz |
| 6.4 | Sickening | Edict | Magic |
| 6.5 | Nasty | Banner | Prophecy |
| 6.6 | Menacing | Charge | Gears |
| 6.7 | Ominous | Delivery | Protection |
| 6.8 | Messy | Legend | Tongues |
| 7.1 | Blessed | Wish | Chaos |
| 7.2 | Damned | Trick | Order |
| 7.3 | Revolutionary | Regalia | Sun |
| 7.4 | Corrupt | Riddle | Stars |
| 7.5 | Lesser | Fate | Moon |
| 7.6 | Greater | Paradox | Destruction |
| 7.7 | Heroic | Soul | Nihility |
| 7.8 | Nautical | Echo | Harmony |
| 8.1 | Risky | Allegory | Gender |
| 8.2 | Spicy | Miracle | Feast |
| 8.3 | Devouring | Steed | Wealth |
| 8.4 | Sacred | Chains | Strife |
| 8.5 | Literal | Gaze | Trickery |
| 8.6 | Illusory | Barricade | Romance |
| 8.7 | First | Legion | Dark |
| 8.8 | Final | Guillotine | Light |
Casting Spells
Spells learned through the Path of Water do not come with pre-defined output or cost. They give you a language to express a variety of magical effects powered by your connection to the Lexicon. If you cast “Ray of Fire” to light a campfire, the cost will be small compared to attempting to use it to burn through a steel door.
In The Serket Hack, I plan to have a system to estimate the cost of such spells and impose limits on practitioners, but unpacking costs requires me to explain resource economies that are already irrelevant from my main goals with this post. On a fundamental level though: spellcasting in this method is a negotiation with the GM, who will both tell you whether a feat is impossible or help assign an appropriate cost.
Breaking the Limits
What happens if you want to leave the walled garden of council-approved spell words? Besides seeking other Paths, mages can sideload their own words of power and grammar using a grimoire. These grimoires must be created using materials from the Lexicon tree, so each one is highly coveted and considered an invaluable treasure by Black Mages.
Some Random Spells I Rolled
- Lunar, Engine, Wood > Lunar Engine
- Command the power of the tides in a localized area around you. Reveal secrets only visible in moonlight. Use the power of the moon to re-charge an ancient artifact.
- Dazzling, Wall, Anxiety > Wall of Anxiety
- Create a wall that deals psychic damage to anyone who crosses its threshold. Project a visualization of someone’s insecurities (for therapy). Or do it in combat to freak someone out.
- Flaming, Delivery, Dawn > Flaming Delivery of Dawn
- A burning angel delivers advice from the spirit of dawn. Flaming missiles explode into sunlight against your enemies. Curse an area to burst into flames when the sun rises.
This entire system is lifted almost directly from The Electrum Archive. I played as a Warlock in a short campaign and I really loved the spell system. While my rules maximalist preferences inevitably drive me towards adding complexity, I think there’s something elegant about this middle ground between vibes-based magic and deterministic spells. If you like anything in this post, you should go check out The Electrum Archive. I altered the spell templates and came up with my own list of words, but the overall concept is the work of Emiel Boven and Ava Islam.
Challenge of the week: roll up a spell and let me know what you get in the comments!