Spell Lists Are Not Magical

Determining which spells a magic-user can cast should not feel like you are ordering food at a chain restaurant. Nevertheless, for those playing Dungeons & Dragons (and much of its progeny), a magic-user picks their spells from the pre-set lists for their class, and each spell has a pre-set mechanical effect. “Yes, I think I will have the fireball please,” you say to your waiter, the GM. Ordering fajitas at Chili’s evokes neither wonder nor awe (no comment on whether the same is true for actually eating said fajitas). Casting Fireball in D&D emits plenty of sorcerous fire (which is also true for the aforementioned fajitas), but selecting it from a menu of spells is itself fairly mundane.

Me, sitting at Chili’s, flipping through their lunch offerings

Magic should be strange and unpredictable. This is my own value judgment (and not a new one, it is a foundational assumption for my silly, little Spelling Error mechanic I wrote recently), and such judgment leads, although perhaps not inexorably, to the conclusion that menu-esque spell lists are bad insofar as they make magic less strange, more predictable. But there are many alternatives to this menu-ification of magic. As a world leader once said, there are “at least three.” I will go over that I am calling Random List Systems, Hard-Coded Prompt Systems, and Soft-Coded Prompt Systems.

Random List Systems

The simplest fix to the menu-ification conundrum is that the magic-user does not pick their spell. Under this regime, spells still have a predetermined effect, but which spells the magic-user has access to are randomly determined. This makes magic less predictable with the drawback of reducing the agency of the magic-user. An example of this can be seen in Mausritter that, by default, has sixteen spells. A character may start with a spell (determined randomly by the intersection of the character’s starting HP and cash), but any other spells must be discovered by exploring the world. Spell creation is an ancient art lost to all but the most wizened of mice-wizards.

Not all Random Spell Systems operate the same way. With a Random List System, spells could be determined by the roll of a single die, causing each spell to be equally likely as other spells to be found, or they could be determined by a bell curve distribution. Mausritter opts for the latter method, rolling 2d8 to determine the spell. I am true neutral between these alternatives, but each says something about the system’s setting. For instance, in Mausritter there is a 12.5% chance of a spell being Ghost Beetle but only a 1.56% chance of the Fireball spell. Consequently, Fireball is an especially rare treasure within the Mausritter setting, whereas any magical mouse worth their salt might be able to cast the Ghost Beetle spell. Compare this to Knave, which also uses a Random List System. In Knave, there are 100 spells, all equally likely. This means that each magic-users is more likely to have unique sets of spells.

This tweak can be made to any menu-esque spell lists. It only requires numbering the spells and assigning dice to roll for them. To apply it to D&D 5th edition, specifically, I would not number all of the spells. Instead, I would number just the spell list for each class by level. For instance, a sorcerer would roll a d20 when they learn a new 3rd level spell rather than picking from the list (this is easier for the lists such as Sorcerer Level 3 where there are a number of results that correspond to a typical die-size). This may add some much needed variety in a system like 5e where there typically is an optimal choice. No longer is Fireball an almost obligatory choice—as many sorcerers will know Fireball as those that learn Stinking Cloud.

Hard-Coded Prompt Systems

A prompt-based spell system has no finite list of spells. Instead, you either roll for prompts to determine the spell or individual words in the spell that, when combined, provides the spell’s name. Returning to our Chili’s analogy, this is as if, instead of menu items, they had menu elements. You roll and combine those elements to determine your order. (Perhaps I’ll have a [sound of dice landing on the table] mango-chile fajita salad?) The above-mentioned Knave has a sibling game (with the same father, Ben Milton of Questing Beast fame) that uses a Prompt System. In Milton’s Maze Rats, spells are generated by rolling two words and combining them to form a spell. Thus, you may have the spell “Rat Storm” or “Oil Spray.” The possibilities are mathematically indistinguishable from being endless! Rat Fajita! Mango-chile Spray!

Because there is no definitive list of spells, there is no predetermined effect for a Prompt System. Instead, the spell effect is either soft-coded or hard-coded. A soft-coded effect is one that changes, allowing for multiple uses of the same spell. A hard-coded effect is one that does not change, except for the level of its effect. Once more to Chili’s, under a hard-coded system, we would determine how to make the “mango-chile fajita salad” and, after that, it would be the same each time we ordered that. Under a soft-coded system, we would determine the recipe anew for the mango-chile fajita salad each time. Maze Rats is a hard-coded system by necessity—each spell is single-use so the GM (or player) determines its effect during casting. Therefore, there is no potential for re-determining the effect of the same spell (unless the same spell elements combination is rolled, which is unlikely).

Hard-Coded Prompt Systems are not the exclusive domain of magic systems with single-use spells. In Errant, each grimoire contains a sorcery (i.e., a spell), but the exact effect of said spell depends on a number of random rolls. You do not roll for a spell name, instead rolling for an effect, a sphere and—combined with the themes of the relevant grimoire—the player develops the spell’s effect. I recently played as an Occult (i.e., magic-user) in a session of Errant and used this procedure to generate my own starting spells. The easiest way to demonstrate how Errant’s hard-coding system works is by a real-life example:

Spell 1: I rolled a grimoire in the form of a preserved, sliced finger, whose themes were “Pact, Willpower, Malice.” For the effect and sphere, I got “Request Objects.” From these prompts I developed:

One Finger Discount. Swipe an object from a distance of 20 feet per renown (i.e., level) without anyone noticing, but the object must be small enough to lift or pick up with one finger.

Spell 2: I rolled a grimoire in the form of a broken sword with a lion’s head pommel, whose themes were “Wrath, Patience, Violence.” For the effect and sphere, I got “Shrink Body.” From these prompts I developed:

Honey, I Shrunk the Fists. One creature per renown has all of their hands (or hand-like appendages) shrank for the duration. Creatures wearing gloves are immune.

Spell 3: I rolled a grimoire in the form of a jade skeletal horse figurine, whose themes were “Death, Overthrow, Mortality.” For the effect and sphere, I got “Open Mind.” From these prompts I developed:

Revolutionary Inception. One creature per renown that understands a language you can speak becomes hostile to authority figures for the duration.

Spell 4: I rolled a grimoire in the form of a velvet pillow with a snail sigil, whose themes were “Sloth, Diligence, Rest.” For the effect and sphere, I got “Interrupt Death.” From these prompts I developed:

Death Nap. When an errant or NPC within 20 feet of the caster is on death’s door or consigned to the reaper, they are instead in a deep sleep and out of action. If they wake up for any reason before an hour has passed, they will be returned to death’s door or consigned to the reaper.

This was a fun exercise and a good way to get introduced to the spellcasting system of Errant. It does take some level of effort and creativity from the player, but this isn’t a bad thing—who says only a GM must prep before a game! It could probably work just as easily at the table as well. It was by way of this exercise that I came up with the distinction between hard- and soft-coded prompt systems for generating spells.

Soft-Coded Prompt Systems

Prismatic Wasteland uses a soft-coded prompt system. Spells are randomly generated in a method not dissimilar to the method in Maze Rats (i.e., I would have ripped off Maze Rats had I not already ripped off Freebooters on the Frontier for the spell generation method). But unlike Maze Rats, spells are not single-use. Instead, the magic-user spends points of their Intelligence score (ability scores heal via week-long rests in Prismatic Wasteland) to define the spell’s effect. The process for generating a spell’s effect is outlined below. This happens each time a spell is cast, allowing a spell to have different effects each time it is cast, all within the umbrella of the spell name.

When a magic-user casts a spell, they first define the spell they want to create within the scope of the spell’s name. To define a spell, the magic-user spends Intelligence. A magic-user may spend up to their level plus their Intelligence modifier on a single casting of a spell. They then distribute the points spent among the four aspects of the spell: Effect, Range, Area and Duration.

The same spell may have different effects each time it is cast. The prime requisite is that the spell’s effect falls within the wider umbrella of the spell’s name. Magic-users are encouraged to be creative and experiment.

Determining a spell’s effect is a process of negotiation. The magic-user says what they want the spell to do based on a reasonable interpretation of the spell’s name. The GM may lower the level of Effect if it is narrowly tailored to match the spell’s name or may raise the level if the desired Effect is more loosely connected to the spell’s name. The GM is the final arbiter of the level of Effect for that use of the spell, but may consult the following table to the extent it is helpful.

A soft-coded prompt system makes magic feel both malleable and unpredictable, just the way I prefer my magic. Not only can the player not predict (or worse, plan) their next spell (note: spells are not gained simply by leveling up, they must be found etched on the inside of some long-dead wizard’s skull), once they have the spell neither they nor the GM know exactly how they use it. This can be true to some extent in any system, of course. For instance, in the above-referenced game of Errant, I cast Honey, I Shrunk the Fists to cause a spider to lose their grip on the ceiling. But with a soft-coded system, the player has a lot of agency to use their spells as creative solutions to their problems. In my UVG campaign, a player has a spell called “All-Seeing Smoke” that they have used in a variety of contexts, from surveillance to probing minds. The process Prismatic Wasteland uses for determining spell effects tends to spur rather than stifle players’ desire to use spells creatively. Paired with the Prompt System, casting spells in no way resembles a trip to Chili’s. It feels like the magic-user is working with unstable elements to upset the apple cart of reality.

Ditch the List

Magic systems should evoke magic. If, for you, magic is a predictable, rote and standardized force in the world, then a menu of spells with predetermined effects may be the best way to handle magic at your table. However, if you believe that magic should be wild, unpredictable and strange, it is worth considering how you can change spell selection to accomplish that. These are just some solutions. Like generating spells in Maze Rats, Errant or Prismatic Wasteland, the possibilities are mathematically indistinguishable from being endless.