Scrolls

[Jeff]

I'm creating a campaign world and its magic system(s). Call it Middle Fantasy in aim - all sorts of non-human humanoids about, classic monsters in far-off places, and magic isn't just legendary. But it's not something that's a routine fact-of-life for the vast majority of humans at least, not in the current age, and you don't have mages taking on armies or reshaping the world in the current age either.

 

I'm wondering about scrolls. Modelling D&D is in no way a goal. Given that, how much call is there to do scrolls beyond as normal non-magical written media? Magic suitable for combat use exists, assuming you can swallow typical full phase casting, gestures, incantations, Magic skill rolls, and frequently concentration, so they wouldn't be urgently useful as a means of packing away a long casting time outside of combat. Is that prepared spell role for scrolls common to much fantasy outside of D&D and clearly derivative works?

 

If I don't want them for that, does anyone have any alternative visions of a role for scrolls that might make them fresh, new, and fun?

[badger3k]

Re: Scrolls

 

Originally posted by Jeff

I'm creating a campaign world and its magic system(s). Call it Middle Fantasy in aim - all sorts of non-human humanoids about, classic monsters in far-off places, and magic isn't just legendary. But it's not something that's a routine fact-of-life for the vast majority of humans at least, not in the current age, and you don't have mages taking on armies or reshaping the world in the current age either.

 

I'm wondering about scrolls. Modelling D&D is in no way a goal. Given that, how much call is there to do scrolls beyond as normal non-magical written media? Magic suitable for combat use exists, assuming you can swallow typical full phase casting, gestures, incantations, Magic skill rolls, and frequently concentration, so they wouldn't be urgently useful as a means of packing away a long casting time outside of combat. Is that prepared spell role for scrolls common to much fantasy outside of D&D and clearly derivative works?

 

If I don't want them for that, does anyone have any alternative visions of a role for scrolls that might make them fresh, new, and fun?

 

In a lot of low fantasy (Conan, et al) they tend to be more common - they are used in the casting of spells which are more ritual in aspect (long casting time, etc). Other than that I haven't seen a lot in fantasy literature except where its a major artifact-type spell ("the One Thing that Will Kill the Evil Overlord"), or it's a source for mages to learn spells. To make magic harder, you can require scrolls for all castings, but that doesn't sound like what you're looking for. Scrolls can have all the unique spells you want people to have and can be the focus of an adventure (i.e. this scroll has the spell needed to cure the king).

 

Beyond that its tough - maybe have scrolls be a record of a lost civilization, with appropriate spells that can't be learned and must be translated, or that some magic requires writing the spells down before the magic can be used. A society of scribe-mages could be the result. Or maybe a certain type of magic can only be cast from scrolls (such as creation magic). Just a few thoughts.

[Jeff]

Re: Re: Scrolls

 

Originally posted by badger3k

Beyond that its tough - maybe have scrolls be a record of a lost civilization, with appropriate spells that can't be learned and must be translated, or that some magic requires writing the spells down before the magic can be used. A society of scribe-mages could be the result. Or maybe a certain type of magic can only be cast from scrolls (such as creation magic). Just a few thoughts.

Thanks!

 

You know, coming to think of it, I've got a background in which powerful magic has been lost - a lot lost way back in the Twilight Age, a lot lost with the end of the age of elves and the beginning of the age of man, a lot lost with the War of the Gods, a lot lost with the fall of the old Empire of Phonnor, and a lot more lost most recently (three centuries back) with the Wizard Wars. (The entire school of thaumaturgy ceased to function as part of the collateral damage.) I don't need scrolls to have prepared spells you cast by reading them and then they fade away for oohs and aahs to do with scrolls - I can get that if some of them are just records of spells that have otherwise been lost. If you only have access to one of those and a rationale to buy that spell, a spell with capabilities no contemporary spell has - well, you've got something quite a lot better than a "mere" magic item, much less a single-use one.

[feywulf]

One way you could do scrolls is to build them as independent oaf slots for a multipower that a mage buys without independent or oaf.

 

A Mage buys a "talent" for casting magic as an MP, and maybe has a few spells for it as well. Then the mage collects spell scrolls to diversify his spell library.

 

Really powerful spells on a scroll could be a problem, though you could fudge it buy buying part of the spell as an MP slot, and the rest payed for normally. A strong spell may have the bottom 20-60 active points bought in a slot, and any mage with a large enough MP to cover that portion of the spell's cost can attempt to cast it. The remainder of the spell's active point cost should be heavily limited, as any powerful spell should be, but doesn't get the cost savings of being in a multipower slot. Since such spell scrolls will be independent equipment in a heroic campaign, the cost doesn't really matter, except as a guide for game balance.

[cutsleeve]

Instructional Manuals

 

What if the scrolls in your world are a form of manual for the most complex and most powerful spells spells that are so intense and complicated that it is almost impossible to remember every step in the process and so they wrote it down to make sure it was done correctly every time. Make the spells highly complex ritual spells with incantations and gestures throughout and some require certain materials and certian glyphs to be draws on certain objects, all contained on a long scroll. All the incantations are long long poems detailed in the text.

 

The Big Laundry List Of Evocing Steps To Manipulate The Outer Plane For The Transmutation Of Small Amazonian Beans Into Coffee. That kinda thing.

[Markdoc]

In my game scrolls come in two types.

 

#1 - and most common - scrolls are rolled pieces of parchment/vellum/human skin on which someone/something has written something. It could be a map of the Lost Treasure, it could be a laundry list, it could be the spell of Twitten's Twinkletoes. If if is the latter a mage could learn Twitten's Twinkletoes by studying it. In other words, it simply holds information.

 

The second approach is scrolls enchanted to HOLD a spell - of course you could do this with a ring, sword or wand as well - in which case, reading the scroll will cast the spell. Traditionally this ís one use only (trigger) but it could be multiple use (Independant).

 

cheers, Mark

[Alcamtar]

I tend to see scrolls and potions as two sides of the same coin. It's flavor. Spells that affect the body, such as healing or water breathing, seem natural as potions, while scholarly metamagical spells, like wards and summonings, seem much more appropriate as scrolls. Lightning bolts don't seem appropriate as scrolls OR potions... wands are better for that.

 

So scrolls are nifty when you want a one-shot magic item that just doesn't seem appropriate as a potion (or something else).

 

Also I don't see much reason to limit myself to D&D types and forms. Why couldn't a scroll be runes scribbled on a stick, or a tattoo, or ethereal glyphs floating on the surface of a magic pool? A one shot spell could be a potion, scroll, wand, gem, powder, amulet, herb, feather, rabbits-foot, or whatever.

 

Mike