Wampus Country Guest Spells

In appreciation for Erik Jensen letting me use spells from Wampus Country, I figured I’d make a couple to give back. They are both grounded in the unusual mechanics and style of his setting (to the best of my ability.) One even has commentary from Erik’s wizard narrator for his book of spells, written by Erik himself!

SURPRISE HOLDOUT *
Themes: Battle, Conjuration
Level: 1
Duration: Instant
Range: 30 feet
Material Component: walking stick, club, or similar item (not consumed)

The Surprise Holdout turns a stick into a gun for just one round and one shot. If the stick is more rifle sized, the gun does 1d8. If the stick is more pistol sized, the gun does 1d6. It appears to be a concealed weapon, but upon later inspection, there is no clue that the stick was transformed.

The Magnificent Montranto adds: I have this spell transcribed as ‘Furtive Fusillade’, but you know how I am about alliteration.  A very useful transformation indeed for certain situations.  Two notes.  First, if your walking-cane or wizard-staff is too well-worked – that is, heavily enameled or clad with metal – it may not count as a ‘stick’ for the purposes of ‘Surprise Holdout’.  Secondly, I have noticed that the bullet produced by the spell continues to exist after the gun reverts to a stick, but it remains wooden!  Surely there is a savvy application of this foible as regards vampire-hunting

STIFF SHOT
Themes: Vice, Enchantment
Level: 1
Duration: Enchantment lasts until the sun crosses the horizon (dusk or dawn.)
Range: Touch
Material Component: Container for alcohol (not consumed), and each use requires a swig of alcohol (consumed)

Cast this on a container of alcohol. The spell affects one drink per level of the caster. Instead of rolling 1d3 to regain hit points with a shot of stiff alcohol, the recipient gains 3 automatically. The spell enchants the container, not the alcohol, so it can be refilled if necessary.

“Crumbling Epoch” and “Wampus Country” Magic!

Erik Jensen put out a fantastic book, the Wampus Country Arcane Abecediary. I really liked his non-standard magic with all its charm and utility (beyond raw combat thumpery.)

Additional background: in “Crumbling Epoch” the story is that the winds of magic burned out millenia ago, and magic has been rebuilt from the ground up–and then had time to grow ancient.

Therefore, I found Erik’s book of magic very appealing. Not only does it have that warm roguery and delight that suffuses all his Wampus Country work, it also has a lot of useful and unique spells. I reskinned with a light touch, and recontextualized. Now I go from one page of spells for 0-3 levels to a massive addition of 42 spells the characters can adventure to find. Here it is!

Crumbling Epoch Spells Volume 1, Wampus Spells

As if that was not wonderful enough, Erik agreed to write a foreword for the project! I’ll copy it here in case you don’t download the Crumbling Epoch spellbook. Thanks again, Erik!

As a notoriously wordy writer, I was pleased and surprised when Andrew Shields inquired about using some of my work as the basis for supplemental, variant spells in the stripped-down ruleset he was crafting.

 Much like limiting or tweaking a monster list, an altered or custom spell list is a great way to paint a picture of a setting.  Through descriptions of common and rare magic, the reader incrementally adds to their impression of what a game or campaign is really all about – what makes the world and society move, and what people care about.  That’s the approach I took with the ‘Arcane Abecediary’, but more importantly it’s what Andrew has done here.

 It’s one thing to adapt spells from various sources to your game, and wholly another to decide exactly which spells actually fit with the vibe you have in mind.  Andrew has gone a step further in this case, and continued the Abecediary’s tradition of a ‘running commentary’ from a magician woven throughout the mechanics – another great way to get setting information across in easily digested, often humorous bites, and without resorting to page after page of narrative.

 It’s been refreshing to see him take some very silly magic and – usually with very little actual reskinning – make it seem decidedly less silly and more widely useful.

 Crumbling Epoch is another great experiment in the Fictive tradition, and I’m proud to have contributed to it in some small way.

OSH: Rebalanced Grimores

When I started on the idea of making schools of magic, I didn’t get it balanced just right. The Magic User 5 talents were neat, but not cohesive, showing a limited range of what a wizard could be. So, I figured magic users could start with a grimore as a base template, or the regular Magic User base template.

To get at what I wanted to do, I had to create a generic “all wizards should be able to do this stuff” base template, moving the variously flavored spell lists to the side. Now all lists of spells relate equally to a strong generic center, instead of having to choose one of several lists of spells as a base template.

Customizing the wizard becomes easier. They can spend a week of study and a talent to gain a spell from any other grimore. Or, they can spend a month of study and buy the grimore as a talent, and then learn any of its 5 spells without further training and also cast them for 3 Awesome Points as unlearned talents from the base template.

This allows wizards to be flexible in their spell choice, as it should be, and also protects their usefulness from level 1 onward. They have to spend time to study, and if they want a bigger pool of “base template” spell talents they must give up a talent. This balances them against clerics, who start with 10 base template spells but cannot expand beyond that easily.

OSH: From Magic User to Wizard

I have always winced a bit at the term “magic user.” It takes the most esoteric and mysterious of classes and turns it sort of utilitarian; like calling a fighter a “weapon/armor user” and a cleric a “god user.”

They could be mages, wizards, sorcerers, keepers of the Flame of Anor, spellcasters, enchanters, magicians–surely we can do better than “magic user.”

So for “Fictive’s Talents and Templates 2″ I am replacing the Magic User with the Wizard.

Also, I wanted to give the wizard the same kind of face-lift I gave the cleric. With the cleric, I gave the base template talent/spells that would be generally useful for all faiths, then put specific spell lists for gods in “canticles.” With wizard, I’m taking the original spell list and putting it in a “grimore” and I’m replacing the base template talents with more stereotypical wizard stuff.

The exception: I’m moving “Book of Power” out to the “General” talents. Why? Because anyone can get a Book of Power. Because if you have a talent that requires an object you don’t have, you can’t just spend 3 Awesome Points to access it even though you don’t have it (or if you can, that’s absurd, even for Old School Hack), and that reduces the flexibility of the template.

So, I added a talent to replace it in the grimore that receives the original Magic User talents:

• Mystic Reinforcement.Rested. Gain +1 per level casting a spell that requires a roll, or do +1 wound with a spell that deals damage.

I am very pleased with the new baseline wizard talents I designed. You can see them here, along with the grimore entry for the previous talents (so they are not lost.)

OSH Wizard template

OSH Robinihak Grimore

OSH: Scrolls and Potions

Scrolls and potions! I’ve drafted up some possibilities for how they work in Old School Hack, to take greatest advantage of the unique flavor of the system.

Labled scrolls or potions are worth 200-300 gold pieces. Unlabeled (and unidentified) are worth about 100-150 gold pieces. As always, it depends on what the market will support, in a world with no magic shops. (If you have magic shops in your world, feel free to retool the generic mystic economy to fit.)

Scrolls. A scroll can contain a single spell from any school of magic.

• Learning the Spell. When a wizard finds a scroll, the wizard can spend 3 Awesome Points that do not count towards leveling, to learn the spell after at least 12 hours of study, as a talent when the wizard levels. This does not damage the scroll.
• Casting From the Scroll. A wizard can drain all magic from the scroll once and spend 3 Awesome Points, casting the spell as though it was an unlearned talent from the wizard’s base template. The spell works normally, but the scroll then disintegrates.

Potions. A potion takes a focus action to drink. Most also take a focus action to go into effect. Some potent potions fit in a smaller space, and can be downed like a shot glass as a Defend action. The effects can be adjusted by the DM for specific potions as desired—these are general categories.

•  Awesome Sauce. This potion grants 2d5 Awesome Points to the drinker.
• Cosmic Insight. Gain a level immediately. Take 1 wound for every 2 Awesome Points you would have had to spend.
• Healing Potions. Drinking this potion either restores 1d5 wounds, or 1 wound if down to 0-2. This healing does not count against the daily total.
• Liquid Rest. These popular potions count as “rest” and recharge all rested talents. Each one reduces the drinker by 1 wound until the drinker sleeps for 6 hours.
• Liquid Training. Gain its talent immediately, replacing the talent you’ll get when you next level. It can be common or restricted—rumors of a few that teach exclusive talents excite drinkers.
• Reverse Potions. They do the opposite of what they were meant to do; drain all rested talents, inflict 1d5 wounds, suck out 2d5 Awesome Points, yank 1 level away, “forget” a talent, and other horrors.

Week Three of Old School Hack!

Well! Today represents the first day of the third week I have been posting about Old School Hack. I’m glad you all could come along and have a look at this stuff.

To celebrate, I’m going to give you all a collection of 36 magic items for Old School Hack; they are easy, they are useful, they are fun, and you can even randomize with the list.

OSH Enchanted Weapons, Armor, Objects