My supplement for adding a guild of wizards to your campaign is on sale!
Mage guild has 12 new spells, 8 NPCs, 5 magic items, and 2 monsters as well as notes for adding the concepts to you game, a series of adventure and plot hooks, rules on True Names and ideas like Mage Houses.
Showing posts with label Mage Guild. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mage Guild. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Names, True Names, and Magic in my campaigns
Back in 1979 I had a problem. As a new DM I was desperate to have a gritty, realistic campaign full of sturm und drang (yeah, I was one of those DMs) with Big Ideas and lots of Drama. But, well, everyone in my party was only 12, like me, so the characters had names like BadAxe and Joey Longhair. This didn't fit my Ideas About the Campaign! Why weren't they using the 9 page glossary of common names and name elements, by race? Huh?!
I like to think my first real insight about being a good DM happened while I was wrestling with this problem. If the players were unwilling to change something like that and it wasn't, oh, unbalancing the campaign, why not change the campaign so that it fit, anyway?
That is why my campaigns have the concept of True Names. Certain creatures (mainly Humans, demi-humans, humanoids, etc.) are born and first named that is their true name. A spell caster that knows the true name of a target and uses that name in spell casting has a greater power to affect the target. For this reason, most people have what is called a 'Day Name' or 'Friend Name'. Some societies take the idea so far as to have a true name, usually known only to the person and their parents, a 'house name' which is used only be their immediate family, and a Day Name used by everyone else. It is also fairly common for someone to change their Day Name at key moments in their life, such as leaving home, becoming a master at a craft, etc.
This explains why one wizard may be named Altrazar and the one next to him is Firewalker - Altrazar is probably the Day Name his mother gave him while Firewalker is one taken when he left his apprenticeship. The great thing is, they both make sense in universe.
What effect does knowing someone's true name have? Well, I have a small section on this in my OSR supplement Mage Guild, that has a handful of ideas, but here is one suggestion: if you know the true name of your target they make all saves vs. your spells at -4 and any magic resistance is cut in half. Mage Guild also has the 8th level spell Naming which allows high level magic-users to really ruin your day if they know your true name!
If you use a mechanic like this then I suggest that you also make finding a true name tough - asking a Charmed target their true name gives them an immediate save at +4; if using ESP the target gets a saving throw to keep their own true name unavailable to the caster; etc. Learning the true name of a Big Bad can be a major quest worthy of a long series of adventures.
On a side naote, years later when Glen Cook's novel The White Rose came out my old friend Eric called me up,
"That is so cool! We did the same thing in your campaign in '83!"
That was a good phone call.
I like to think my first real insight about being a good DM happened while I was wrestling with this problem. If the players were unwilling to change something like that and it wasn't, oh, unbalancing the campaign, why not change the campaign so that it fit, anyway?
That is why my campaigns have the concept of True Names. Certain creatures (mainly Humans, demi-humans, humanoids, etc.) are born and first named that is their true name. A spell caster that knows the true name of a target and uses that name in spell casting has a greater power to affect the target. For this reason, most people have what is called a 'Day Name' or 'Friend Name'. Some societies take the idea so far as to have a true name, usually known only to the person and their parents, a 'house name' which is used only be their immediate family, and a Day Name used by everyone else. It is also fairly common for someone to change their Day Name at key moments in their life, such as leaving home, becoming a master at a craft, etc.
This explains why one wizard may be named Altrazar and the one next to him is Firewalker - Altrazar is probably the Day Name his mother gave him while Firewalker is one taken when he left his apprenticeship. The great thing is, they both make sense in universe.
What effect does knowing someone's true name have? Well, I have a small section on this in my OSR supplement Mage Guild, that has a handful of ideas, but here is one suggestion: if you know the true name of your target they make all saves vs. your spells at -4 and any magic resistance is cut in half. Mage Guild also has the 8th level spell Naming which allows high level magic-users to really ruin your day if they know your true name!
If you use a mechanic like this then I suggest that you also make finding a true name tough - asking a Charmed target their true name gives them an immediate save at +4; if using ESP the target gets a saving throw to keep their own true name unavailable to the caster; etc. Learning the true name of a Big Bad can be a major quest worthy of a long series of adventures.
On a side naote, years later when Glen Cook's novel The White Rose came out my old friend Eric called me up,
"That is so cool! We did the same thing in your campaign in '83!"
That was a good phone call.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Mage Guild is up at RPGNow
Back when I was playing in Lew Pulsipher's Tonilda campaign I had a magic-user named Jonas. Jonas had good stats and generally good luck with one exception - he kept blowing the Learn Spell rolls for the 'best' spells. He failed to learn Charm Person, Burning Hands, Stinking Cloud, Web, Lightning Bolt, and (cruelest of all) Fireball.
He knew Magic Missile, though.
On one adventure I found a Wand of Magic Missiles and I later traded some items with a cleric for his Ring of Spell Storing that could hold 4 Magic Missile spells. Then I finally got average and learned Minute Meteors! While I might not have any area of effect spells, I could throw a lot of magical damage down range. While it was fun playing the 'gatling mage' I had glaring holes in my spell combat abilities. I tended to be in parties with two magic-users so we could 'cover for' each other's weaknesses.
While roleplaying with the crew one evening I got to thinking about how darn difficult it must be 'in-universe' to be a mid-level magic-user like Jonas (then 5th level); effectively no melee abilities; some arcane power, but rather limited; and you have a lot of things that much more powerful mages might want. Tonilda was rife with vile clerics and evil mages of one stripe or another lurking about (especially the dreaded pyromancers from Traprain Law) so this was a credible threat. Since the campaign had multiple parties in it, we had a fair number of mid-level magic-users, illusionists, and multi-class types, as well. On the spur of the moment I proposed we band together into a mage's guild.
To the surprise of Lew and especially of me, everyone liked the idea. Before I knew it virtually every spell caster in multiple parties was either in or asking to join. We pooled our resources and built a stronghold with a library and lab; hired 2 alchemists; made copies of all of our spell books and stashed them away; set up bylaws and rules; the whole nine yards. Not only was it great role playing and great fun, it clearly illustrated why guild work in the Real World - strength in numbers. Before too long the guildsmen were adventuring as a group with their henchmen and hirelings along as the muscle.
Never one to miss the extremely obvious when prompted, I soon added an NPC Mage Guild to my own Seaward campaign. I had it run by NPCs, of course, and made it an older institution expanding into the core campaign area. I also gave it a few dark secrets and plot hooks and let it go, hoping my players would take the bait. They did, with enthusiasm. The Guild has been an element of my campaign ever since - 22 years, now, acting as everything from a place where you can get a reliable Identify or sell a wand to advice on how to find a lost command word.
Mage Guild is a book that captures the essence of these guilds. It describes ways to introduce the guild, either as a brand new idea or as an older institution moving into the area. It includes the bylaws, hierarchy and structure, benefits and fees, and rules of the guild. It also has write ups of the guildmaster, the members of the guild council, miscellaneous members of the guild, and a few others who may be friends or foes of the guildsmen..
There are also new familiars, new magic items, and a ton of new spells.
We've done our best to make Mage Guild the way I like the supplements I buy - you can use it as-is, change a few things, or just take what you lie.
He knew Magic Missile, though.
On one adventure I found a Wand of Magic Missiles and I later traded some items with a cleric for his Ring of Spell Storing that could hold 4 Magic Missile spells. Then I finally got average and learned Minute Meteors! While I might not have any area of effect spells, I could throw a lot of magical damage down range. While it was fun playing the 'gatling mage' I had glaring holes in my spell combat abilities. I tended to be in parties with two magic-users so we could 'cover for' each other's weaknesses.
While roleplaying with the crew one evening I got to thinking about how darn difficult it must be 'in-universe' to be a mid-level magic-user like Jonas (then 5th level); effectively no melee abilities; some arcane power, but rather limited; and you have a lot of things that much more powerful mages might want. Tonilda was rife with vile clerics and evil mages of one stripe or another lurking about (especially the dreaded pyromancers from Traprain Law) so this was a credible threat. Since the campaign had multiple parties in it, we had a fair number of mid-level magic-users, illusionists, and multi-class types, as well. On the spur of the moment I proposed we band together into a mage's guild.
To the surprise of Lew and especially of me, everyone liked the idea. Before I knew it virtually every spell caster in multiple parties was either in or asking to join. We pooled our resources and built a stronghold with a library and lab; hired 2 alchemists; made copies of all of our spell books and stashed them away; set up bylaws and rules; the whole nine yards. Not only was it great role playing and great fun, it clearly illustrated why guild work in the Real World - strength in numbers. Before too long the guildsmen were adventuring as a group with their henchmen and hirelings along as the muscle.
Never one to miss the extremely obvious when prompted, I soon added an NPC Mage Guild to my own Seaward campaign. I had it run by NPCs, of course, and made it an older institution expanding into the core campaign area. I also gave it a few dark secrets and plot hooks and let it go, hoping my players would take the bait. They did, with enthusiasm. The Guild has been an element of my campaign ever since - 22 years, now, acting as everything from a place where you can get a reliable Identify or sell a wand to advice on how to find a lost command word.
Mage Guild is a book that captures the essence of these guilds. It describes ways to introduce the guild, either as a brand new idea or as an older institution moving into the area. It includes the bylaws, hierarchy and structure, benefits and fees, and rules of the guild. It also has write ups of the guildmaster, the members of the guild council, miscellaneous members of the guild, and a few others who may be friends or foes of the guildsmen..
There are also new familiars, new magic items, and a ton of new spells.
We've done our best to make Mage Guild the way I like the supplements I buy - you can use it as-is, change a few things, or just take what you lie.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)