D&D Geekitude: Adult Ed Courses ... in Magic!

[kent_allard_jr]

In the early 80s I loved RuneQuest, like many aspiring RPG writers, for its delightful mechanical consistency and elegance of design. One thing I didn't like, however, was its "Battle Magic" system, at least in the first two editions. (Battle Magic was equivalent to Arcane in 3e D&D.) It wasn't how spells worked, in play, that bothered me, but how you learned them: You went to a local cult, gave them money, and *bang!* you could cast spells. I thought it killed the flavor of the game, to have magic taught by equivalents of the New School, and was happy when Avalon Hill changed this in 3rd edition.

Fast forward twenty-something years to 4th edition D&D. As I've said before, I liked how Rituals were distinguished from other spells (continuing the 3e trend), but after a bit of play I was dissatisfied. There are a number of reasons, but one is that it brought back Ye Olde Magick Market: You marched over to the Discovery Institute, paid them cash, and walked out knowing a nice new ritual.

kokoinai pointed out that this market already existed in 3rd edition, which is true (and it existed in 2nd as well, in a different form). In those days, though, it was limited to wizards (Bards in 2e). I can accept the "spell market" for wizards -- they need to buy all those books, after all -- but extending it to clerics, shamans, and so forth seems wrong to me. What would be the alternatives?

One would be to simply give the latter classes their rituals for free, but that might put them at an advantage, money-wise. A solution -- for divine casters, at least -- may be to charge them a tithe, expressed perhaps as a fixed fee per level, and then give them rituals (and perhaps other benefits) for free. I would have no problem doing the same for psionic casters (since I identify them with Eastern ascetic traditions) but I'm not sure how to charge primal classes. Demanding a tithe from a shaman seems weird -- who would they pay? -- but there's no reason for them to have extra money in their pouches. Expect them to spend time "communing with the spirits," perhaps, on the time-is-money principle? I don't know, but I'd welcome suggestions.

Update: I just noticed that shamans don't get the Ritual Caster feat. Replace "shaman" with "druid" above, I guess.

Comments

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

Expect them to spend time "communing with the spirits," perhaps, on the time-is-money principle?

Similar to my first thought: the local shaman isn't going to teach you his tricks for free. You're going to have to go dig him a well and rout out his gutters and milk his goat and feed his chickens. Probably for a few weeks while he figures out how long he can string you along before actually teaching you anything.

[mneme]

Of course, for any of the above, you could have rituals be found in treasure. Certainly, if one takes the asctetic traditions as a guide, scrolls containing lore are a standard device -- see Avatar: The last Airbender or Kung Fu Cult Master. And players seeking a specific ritual could engage in a short skill challenge, part of the reward for which is a scroll or ritual book.

1. Let them consume ritual components (which are, after all, a cash equivalent) to go on a vision quest and attempt to learn secrets of the spirits (eg, rituals).

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I get the feeling that in RQ campaigns closer to Greg's ideal, cults didn't so much "sell" battle magic as teach it to people willing to fulfill cult obligations, which among other things cost money. While that's not how the rules were actually written in the Chaosium RQ I/II rulebooks, Cults of Prax definitely pointed in that direction.

Or you can get them from shamans, and only the shaman will know what you'll have to do to get them.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

cults didn't so much "sell" battle magic as teach it to people willing to fulfill cult obligations

That makes sense, although I understand why the designers would turn to cash payment system instead: "fulfilling cult obligations" could include everything from monster-killing to foot-massages. In D&D 4e you could reduce treasure allocation, and give equally valuable rituals in their place as quest rewards, but RQ was far less systematic in those respects.

[jlc.livejournal.com]

I just noticed that shamans don't get the Ritual Caster feat. Replace "shaman" with "druid" above, I guess.
I think someone out of our group ends up re-noticing this every time shamans comes up...

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Yep. 'course it catches folks by surprise because it makes no fucking sense! Gosh-darn it...

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

On a completely unrelated note, The New School would be wayyy awesomer if it taught magic classes.