I just mailed off for the Donjon pdf, and so I've been thinking about it as of late (and pondering possible characters), and a glaring omission in my knowledge occurred to me - I haven't a clue how spells work in this game! (except that it has something to do with "words", whatever that means). Could anyone gimme a hint to keep me company whilst I wait?

Without giving too much away on-line, the Donjon magic system looks very flexible - my first spin will be next week. Essentially, using your Primary Ability as a type of magic gives you 4 "magic words", while using a Secondary Ability as a type of magic gives you 2. You can combine those words to create spells, and use the dice rating of the ability to adjudicate effects. Pretty snazzy, actually.

Christopher

Sounds like a hoot! Thanks for the preview (and for not giving too much away; these guys deserve to make some money off of this game).

Actually it really isn't giving much away. I think there are detailed discussions about every aspect of Donjon in various threads scattered about.

Without getting into mechanics specifics which wouldn't make sense until you've seen the mechanics you have words as mentioned which detail your magical "theme" if you will (not called that in the rules).

For example a "weather mage" might take Thunder, Wind, Temperature, and Precipitation. Each word you use in a single spell makes the spell harder to cast but allows you define a seperate effect based on that word.

So I might decide to cast Mystul's Thundering Winds as a two word spell. For my effects I say the clap of thunder is deafening and stuns the target while the gale force wind actually pushes him away. I select how many targets I'm trying to nail, figure out how much power the spell will cost, spend some time gathering up that power and then blammo...hit 'em with the spell. The target must then make 2 saving throws...one for each effect.