Cellular Smoke Signals

Vondy's recent Blog Entries - specifically the one lamenting having to Build spells - got me thinking in a new direction on some ideas I had already tried out in one campaign.

The essential idea is to reduce Spells in a Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, or similar, campaign to nothing more than Skills. Mechanical Builds are a lot of fun, and indeed much of the fun for many Hero Gamers. On the other hand, they can also be an immense pain in the backend when you're trying to set up a fully thought out campaign world - doubly so for Fantasy Campaigns where you can't rely on Known Familiarities as much as any campaign type that takes place in some form of the "Real World."

So I started to write a document on my idea, and I got a bit in, and set it aside for a week. Then came back to it and realized I really needed to go more in depth on what I was thinking, and organize it more as well.

So far I'm working with two ideas; Spells As Skills and Spell Familiarities (like Weapon Familiarities). Neither idea requires - in fact the exact opposite - knowing how to actually Build anything with the Hero System Powers Chapter. The whole purpose is to completely circumvent that part of the campaign creation.

It's turning out to be interesting and I think even usable. But right now I'm deep in revising the whole she-bang. I hope to have something by the end of the month at the absolute latest.