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1. Barakiel
   Posted 19/1/2020, 19:59

   Making sense of the Vancian System: Pure Chaos
   
   
   Today i read a very interesting piece of idea written by a friend (@The_kernel_in_yellow https://oicn.icu/, telegram channel :https://t.me/oi_cn follow him if you like, so much good stuff)
   
   

   CITAZIONE

   Ok fast arcane magic's refluff
   Let’s abolish mages. Away with them! All casters are Sorcerers ( if you don’t have sorcerers in your ruleset use mages without prepared spells, don’t make me lose time).
   Then, OSR: Magic is Chaos. Now, what is Chaos? Chaos is Entropy, in the form of metaphysic entity. What is Entropy? Oh come on, is Destruction of Information!
   
   So: Sorcerers don’t have spell slots. They have a list of things they have studied before and that they will forget during the day to launch their spells.
   Those strange words they utters everytime? It's Common tongue, or at least it was, before Chaos devoured the meaning.
   
   And scrolls that can be used only one time before disappearing? It's the same thing! Chaos feed on the meaning of the words and the spell is cast.
   
   Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

   
   This is brilliant in so many ways. First of all: it will be the main reason arcane casters will go all around the world to look for new discoveries or pieces of information. Those heavy books that they keep bringing all around? Great sources of information to consume at the right time. Those grand libraries they keep building in the middle of nowhere or in their majestic towers? More informations to feed to their magic.
   
   But how can we make interesting to play and role play something like that?
   Make your spellcaster choose a knowledge area. It could be anything, better if it’s a knowledge skill he already possess. It could be Nature, Local knowledge or History or another kind of knowledge that exist in your game. Anytime the spellcaster will try to remember something he was sure to know in that field, make him throw a percentage die. If the result is lower than his level he forgot that information long ago while casting one of his spell. The number and level of information is equal to his spellcasting slot for his caster level.
   
   What? You want more fluff to it? Well entropy rarely manifest itself without some “collateral effect”. What i’m talking about? Here’s a handy list to choose what happen after Chaos make its entrance into reality for a second.
   
   Random Entropy Effects:
   1 - The temperature in the area drops
   2 - All the knots in the area unties.
   3 - A small number of the caster's hairs become white
   4 - An object crush to the ground
   5 - Somewhere a door slam closed
   6 - The lights in the room dims
   7 - A little nonmagical metal object oxidizes
   8 - A small non weared mundane object crumble on itself, turning to ashes
   9 - A flower wither and dies
   10 - The next word uttered by the caster makes no sense to all the listeners
   
   What if he lose all the information he had in mind for that rest/day?
   
   Here things get really interesting.
   
   Give your arcane caster some Bonds. Memories that are important to him.
   Starting from his childhood until that moment: for example: who were his parents, where he lived as a child, his first kiss, the first time he forgot something to cast a spell and so on.
   
   The Game Master or the table will decide how many he can choose every level, with how many he starts with and if he will be able to create new ones.
   If you have no idea how much Bonds a character should have, give him a number of Bonds equals to his Charisma modifier at level 1, with a maximum of Charisma*2 Bonds during the adventure.
   
   Some other option to create and use Bonds:
   More Bonds can be forged with the caster's companion. Everytime the party get to do something extraordinary together the Game Master can allow the caster to choose a member of the party other than himself and form a new Bond that include that character.
   
   How do we use this Bonds?
   Everytime the spellcaster desire to cast a spell without having any more knowledges ready to lose, let him lose a Bond instead. If he lose all Bonds, he's considered mentally dead or gone crazy.
   
   
   

   CITAZIONE

   The mad sorcerer in the sewers? Oh boy.
   He has lost himself with his foul attempts at magic...

   
   If a forgotten Bond was created with a character of the party using the option above, the caster will forget completely the presence of that person in the event. His mind will try to rationalize this memory loss in every way without thinking that it was the Chaos in his magic that did it .
   
   
   The Bard? He was sleeping in the tavern when we won the war.
   The Paladin? She was not yet part of our group when we found the treasure.
   
   If a Bond with a character is forgotten the caster gain a level of Distrust with him
   
   Levels of Distrust
   
   1 - The Bonus of Helping Action that target that character pass from Advantage to a +1.
   2 - Using the Helping Action to aid the character will give no Bonus at all.
   3 - The caster cannot receive the Helping Action from the character.
   4 - The caster gain a -1 to all ability rolls that would aid the character in some way (Stabilize, Break Free etc.).
   5 - The caster gain Disadvantage on every roll to stabilize the dying character.
   6 - The caster gain a -1 to all rolls as long as the character is in sight.
   
   The Distrust lowers by one level for every week the caster spend without seeing or hearing the character.
   The caster cannot create a Bond with a character if the level of Distrust with him is 5 or higher.
   
   
   What kind of playing option we gain with this ruling of spellcasting?
   
   The only way a caster can cast without losing a memory is by becoming a Lich.
   
   

   CITAZIONE

   The Lich? He forgot his humanity while trying to launch a fireball and things went pretty downhill from there.

   
   To become a Lich a caster must forget willingly all of his Bonds while he's at his maximum capacity, performing a ritual to empty himself completely , thus becoming a construct of Chaos Energy and hollowness. Higher the number of Bonds forgotten this way, more powerful the Lich will be.
   
   Having forgotten everything that was human and alive in them Liches become the perfect unliving embodiment of power and destruction. The only way to truly kill a Lich is by forcing him to create a new Bond.
   How? There are two main way.
   One is the nice way: gaining the trust of a Lich is one of the hardest thing imaginable, but if somehow that become a reality the strength of the trust can form a new Bond without the Lich knowing, thus destroying him.
   The other is to force the Lich to witness something so horrible and devastating that will force him to Bond with anyone that perform the foul act. Something so vile and disturbing that will shock even an unliving nightmare such as himself.
   
   

   CITAZIONE

   That’s why no one likes Lich Hunters

   
   
   
   

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