SPELLing Bee- a magic game/system

[Ken]

For the last couple of days, I've been tooling around with a magic system/setting called SPELLing Bee. The main idea is that students from magical schools across the globe (or where ever) participate in a spelling bee-style competition for spell casting. While the game originally worked with more traditional system mechanics, I eventually refined the systerm to this: the moderator of the competition draws a spell card from a deck of about a hundred or so. The spells are simple (ish) latin words or phrases that describe the intent of the spell. The player whose turn it is attempts to spell out the name of the ...er spell. Then the player rolls 1d10 and must score higher than the number of letters they got wrong (with character level and spell level mods of course).

Ultimately, the game seems like a short-run beer and pretzels type game, though there may be other opportunities. I thought of linking it loosely with the MYSTAT system I developed for Sync. Its pretty basic and loose enough that I think they compliment each other. This type of system probably wouldn't be very good with ultra serious magic gaming but might work well with a quirky setting.

Thoughts? Been done before?

Thank,

Ken

[QuestKeeper]

Sounds interesting and(potentially) amusing to me. Yes, it would probably work as a beer and pretzels game, especially if it had a Munchkin-like setting.

[Callan S.]

Sounds like a nifty game. I'd like that at a party.

Umm, your not asking how to bring in the SIS a bit, but I have a suggestion in case its of interest. The character could be put in an areana with various situations conjured up - fairly basic ones right at the start. The announcer says two spells (perhaps three if you want it harder) and the player has to A: spell the spell right and B: Chose the right spell for the situation.

With that D10 thing, you mean they must roll over the number of miss spelled letters or they are out? Good good - keep that going but if the chose the right spell for the situation, they remove two or three misspelled letters. Something like that.

Yeah, I'd like that at a party! Nifty!

[Ken]

Umm, your not asking how to bring in the SIS a bit, but I have a suggestion in case its of interest. The character could be put in an areana with various situations conjured up - fairly basic ones right at the start. The announcer says two spells (perhaps three if you want it harder) and the player has to A: spell the spell right and B: Chose the right spell for the situation.

I was thinking that the standard bee format would be contestants on a platform in front or a large stage adorned with a protective circle (elipse, whatever). As each student is called up, they would move to the circle; the spell in question would be named, and a challenge would be conjured up for the student to target. There could be a mixture of conjured challenges or targets wheeled in by hand; that  would be up to the moderator. The moderator would be very integral to the fun of the game, and they would determine the flavor of the game by how they choose to narrate the challenges. I may provide same challenges for each spell as a starting point. Ideally, it should be exciting but not particularly lethal; though that again is up to the moderator.

Glad for the feedback; feel free to keep it up,

Ken