Ygg magic again

[Christoffer Lernö]

Adam, I don't think the speed in play is something I worry about. The problem is more if and how things fit in properly with the world. I see some things as being stuff one should be able to improvise, whereas others seem rather fixed.

That is why I separated out the demonic abilities. Maybe I shouldn't even separate the other groups as they all are about magic you're supposed to be able to improvise. That would leave me with two groups ("magic" and "demonic abilities") for the magicians that use demonic magic. That would be even simpler. And then depending on the power I simply have a ranking from minor to legendary use of the spell. I'm gonna have a lot of examples so the GM should be able to fine tune it fairly easy since the levels are few.

Since I'm aiming for simplicity, this seems like a good idea.

[ks13]

The four categories that you introduce all seem suggest a unique approach to how to best handle them.

"Borrowing Demonic Abilities".

Sounds like each "spell" should act as an individual skill. Thus make each ability well defined and detailed. If you want to prevent the option of players stacking up on these abilities, have the taint increase as more of these abilities are known. Having half a dozen demonic abilities running through you is surely tougher to control than one, which could be represented by the taint.

"create dimensional rift"

This implies a single spell, that gets modified as needed. If some demons can do this on their own, then why not leave it as a demonic ability? I am not seeing why this needs to be separated.

"summoning & possessions".

Here you can either make two vague and broad spells, or leave it as a school of magic. In the latter case, all spells are manifested through demons or demon energies. Sorcerors need to find or be taught the right demons for the desired effects. However, this still doesn't eliminate the problem of having a standard list of spell effects.

"Sealing and Warding"...

If you are interested in pursuing the component magic idea, this the perfect place to try it.  Have Warding consist of a base number of symbols, from which all wards are constructed.

The problem that all this brings up is that the system is now higly fragmented. How does the other, non-demonic magic fit into all this? What causes taint and what doesn't? And can the resolution mechanics be kept consistent from one method to the next? If magic was a strong focus of the game (e.g. every character had at least one demonic ability) than this is not an issue. But if you are shooting for a much wider scope, and all encompassing fantasy rpg, than such a bits-and-pieces, scattered approach might turn people off.

I was thinking of seeing the base spells as a kind of "learning kit" for magicians which then could be expanded on. For example the mage learning the Death Lights might use it to summon fire demons for other purposes, or simply learn how to command the dancing fire demons to move around in a room on it's own and stuff.

Although appealing at first, it seemed to cumbersome to put into practice at second glance, and I think I would have too many basic spells anyway

I really like this idea. Whose to say that there needs to be a huge list of spells? You know a few, and the rest of the effects are obtained by manipulating the known spells.