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GM Notes on
Prepared Casting (Vancian)
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| CASTING
MODEL |
| Practitioners of a Prepared Casting Magic
System use the "Prepared Casting" Model, which is VPP Based. |
| Practitioners of a Prepared Casting Magic
System learn to cast
Magical Effects, usually called Spells, often making use of props such as
incantations, gestures, material components, etc. to assist them in the
use of their Magic. |
| Practitioners go through various
levels of understanding and capability as they advance; as they gain
experience their ability to manipulate the metaphysical Laws of Magic
increases, as does the mental endurance required to focus their will.
Essentially, as they progress their ability to cast
larger and more powerful Spells increases assuming they spend Experience
Points accordingly. |
|
EXPANDED REAL COST LIMIT |
| Practitioners of a Prepared Casting Magic
System have an Expanded
Real Cost Limit on their Magic VPP's; they may prepare Spells with a
Real Cost equal to or less than their Magic VPP Pool x 3 (RC Limit =
Pool x3) each day. The Pool size is still the upper limit on Active Points
however. |
| EXAMPLE:
Vardik is a moderately skilled practitioner of a Prepared Casting Magic
System with a 90 Pool Magic VPP; she may
prepare up to 270 Real Cost worth of Spells each day, all of which must have
90 or less Active Points. |
| EVEN MORE EXPANDED REAL COST LIMIT OPTION |
| This option is in effect in
my campaigns with permission |
| As an option, a GM might allow Characters
to extend the Real Cost limit for their Prepared Casting VPP even further
that the 3x multiple provided. This should be carefully considered, as it
might prove to be abusive depending upon the overall power level of the
campaign. |
| If this is permitted, Characters can
purchase a Custom Talent that increases their Expanded Real Cost limit by
one more multiple for each level purchased; thus the first level would
increase the multiple to x4, the second to x5, and so on. Each level of the
Custom Talent, shown below, has a Real Cost of 5 points. |
| Increased Real Cost Limit (IRCL):
This custom Talent increases the Real Cost multiple of a Character's
Prepared Casting VPP by one. |
| Real Cost: 5 points |
| RECOMMENDED CAP |
| If this is allowed, it is recommended that
a cap be in effect according to the formula provided below. As always, the
result is rounded in the Character's favor, thus a Character with 300-499
Character Points can have up to two levels of the IRCL Talent, increasing
their Real Cost multiple to x5. |
| IRCL Talent Cap: (Total Character
Points / 200) |
| SPELL LEVEL TO ACTIVE POINTS |
| Each practitioner has a list of
Known Spells which are learned via the use of topical Magic School Skills as
described below.
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*0 |
1-15 |
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1 |
16-30 |
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2 |
31-45 |
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3 |
46-60 |
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4 |
61-75 |
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5 |
76-90 |
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6 |
91-105 |
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7 |
106-120 |
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8 |
121-135 |
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9 |
136-150 |
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| Spells are ranked by Spell
Level; some GMs may prefer to refer to this concept in
variant ways, such as Spell Circles, Spell Houses, or Spell
Ranks to avoid confusion stemming from the overloaded use of the
word "Level", or simply to add more flavor. Each Spell Level
starting at Spell Level 0 has 15 Active Points more than the
Spell Level before it.
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| Thus a Level 0
Spell is between 1-15 AP, 1st Level Spells are between 16-30 AP,
2nd Level Spells are between 31-45 AP and so on as indicated on
the adjoining table..
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| *Level 0 Spells are often called "cantrips". |
| KNOWN SPELLS LIST |
| Each player of a practitioner of a Prepared Casting
Magic System must keep a list of all the Spells
that their character knows, including Spell write ups. On any given
in-character day they must allocate Spells to their character's VPP, but all
of the Spells must be chosen from their character's Known Spell List. Spells on this list can be referred to
as "Spell Slots" out-of-character. |
| Each type of Magic System that uses the Prepared Casting
model will define a means to learn and or create new Spells to a character's
Known Spell List, and also any limits on how many or what kind of Spells are
valid for practitioners of that type of Magic. |
| PREPARED CASTING VPP |
| Each type of Magic System that uses the
Prepared Costing model will define their VPP a little differently. However
the following Limitations upon the Control Cost are mandatory. |
|
MAGIC VPP CONTROL
COST |
- *Either
- Only Arcane Magic (-1/2)
- Only Divine Magic (-1/2)
- All Spells Must Have 1 Charge (-1/4)
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| *NOTE: ARCANE & DIVINE
MAGIC IN THE
SAME MAGIC VPP |
| With GM Permission a character could
buy off -1/4 of the "Only Arcane Magic" or "Only Divine Magic" Limitation, allowing them to have both "Arcane" and "Divine" Spells in the same
Magic VPP. This would
only be appropriate if the character met the criteria for being a Divine
Spellcaster (worships some entity or deity which grants Divine Spells). |
| This
might be allowed in the case of a practitioner of Prepared Casting that is also a Priest of a God of
Magic (or vice versa) for instance. However, the potential for abuse is very
high with this option; a high level practitioner of a Prepared Casting Magic
System could
buy off the "Only Arcane Magic" restriction and suddenly also be a very powerful
Divine caster,
and vice versa. |
| Despite the risk of abuse, the cost involved
and the limiting factor of how many Spells the character could have in their
Magic VPP at any given time both help minimize the abusiveness of this
option. To prevent a practitioner of a Prepared Casting Magic System going from knowing absolutely zero Divine Spells to
potentially knowing many Divine Spells by simply buying off a -1/4 Limitation,
a GM might
consider allowing a character to buy off the Limitation on up to 15 Pool (one Spell
Level) at a time, with corresponding in-character
events as the impetus. |
| It is worth adding extra stress to
the idea that this particular option should be heavily controlled by the GM.
It is perhaps the single easiest way to make a practitioner of a Prepared
Casting Magic System instantly too
powerful if not strictly curtailed to only-when-it-makes-sense occasions. |