In Spell: The RPG, there are two types of spells. New Spells are magic you cast once but don’t keep and can’t readily repeat; Permanent Spells are magic you spend points on to easily recast. When you spend Potential (which is like experience but you get it at the beginning of the session and spend it as needed in the moment) to make a spell permanent, your character changes slightly to reflect that permanent magical infusion. They’ve fundamentally affected their own definition so that they can have this magic at their fingertips.
The current version, however, is contradictory when it comes to permanent effects for the world itself. Typically, when you cast a spell, it does a thing and then goes away or, at least, stops being active. You can conjure something into existence, but once the spell is over, it’ll either disappear or become inert or mundane. I want to explore ways to create spells that persist, become fixtures of the word itself, and outlast even the speaker who casts them. The current rules reference these kinds of spells as features of the setting but don’t provide the how-to.
Meta Currency: Potential
My first design instinct for supporting permanent magical effects is to add an investment more significant than Potential. Before I launch into new currencies, I wanted to take this opportunity to tweak the current system. Potential is not merit-based or even “earned”—it’s simply handed out, with characters getting more at the start of larger story arcs. New adventures are full of potential, after all.
The book recommends 3-5 Potential per session, given at the start, or 10 for a one-shot. What I might change that to is:
- Gain 2 Potential at the start of a session OR 4 at the start of an arc OR 6 at the start of a one-shot.
- Gain 1 Potential for the first new spell cast this session.
- Gain 1 Potential for the first roll that fails this session.
- Gain 1 Potential for the first time you learn something new in a session.
The increase will be offset by having more things to spend points on, such as Focuses, Practices, and additional spell options. This also incentivizes certain kinds of play, specifically risk-taking, exploration, and using less than ideal stats. It’s fun to be rewarded for doing things you’re bad at. I like this revision for Potential, but we’re still looking for something a bit heftier for these big, permanent changes.
Meta Currency: Legacy
I’m tossing around “Legacy” for the second currency, but that’s not set in stone. Legacy would be a sort of spendable level. The more magic your character wields and accumulates, the deeper their connection to the universal language and magic itself. Legacy can be tapped into to amplify effects—really push them to the limit—or spent to permanently externalize some aspect of magic.
If we look at Howl’s Moving Castle (the film), for a fun little example, when Howl uses small magic like turning the guards around or “walking” through air, those are his spells. Cool, low cost magic he can always do, but that won’t continue once he’s done using them. When he makes a big ritual circle and remodels/relinks the castle, that’s him tapping into his Legacy: it’s a big, significant use of magic that has a tangible, lasting effect. But building the castle itself? That cost Legacy—part of him was removed and put into magic that persists after and independent of him.
Essentially:
- New Spell: No cost. A singular use of effective, if fleeting magic.
- Permanent Spell: Costs 1 Potential per level. A magical effect that can be repeated at will. A minor, often cosmetic side effect manifests on the speaker.
- Legacy-Linked Spell: Either a new or permanent spell can be Legacy-Linked; taxes but does not expend Legacy. A significant application of magic that leaves a lasting but inert effect on the world.
- Legacy-Writ Spell: Costs a level of Legacy. A significant, independent magical effect that continues to be magical without further ongoing costs.
A specific example would be:
- The new spell HUT allows a speaker to create temporary shelter once.
- The permanent spell HUT allows the speaker to create temporary shelter whenever they need.
- The Legacy-Linked spell HUT creates a permanent shelter.
- The Legacy-Writ spell HUT is what Baba Yaga used to make her magic chicken-footed hut that’s practically alive in its own right.
This second currency opens the door for some really exciting, long-term setting-building. Slow and substantial investment in things like towns with pervasive magical effects, guardian sentries that operate long after the speaker’s gone, and unique artifacts that legends are written about.
I considered tying the gaining of Legacy to another aspect of the character, like gain 1 Legacy for every x Potential spent or y levels in spells, but the math could get cumbersome. I also thought it could be exclusively narrative, only given with certain impetuses. This would be more like a milestone level-up system, thus far more subjective. The players might have to regularly question “did that thing we did earn us the special point?” I’m still undecided.
Rituals & Spell Upgrades
This is where I thought of having more codified “spell upgrades” that would be the result of extended efforts (and still cost Potential). The current rules describe some ongoing actions, where you make multiple rolls at regular intervals until you eventually surpass a final goal. I was already planning to expand that into a more core mechanic. The bones of the mechanic are solid, but pulling it from the specific edge cases it exists in now allows for more opportunities for long-term investments. In this case, it could be speakers developing ritualized versions of the spells they know.
Optional rules for “linked spells” essentially let you tack on sub-spells to your existing spells. I’d take that framework and swap out the links (made from drawn letters) for predefined effects. For example, “Lasting” could be a ritual effect. You have the spell HUT, but it disappears once you’re done using it. Spend some time crafting a ritual for it and then spend Potential to get Lasting for it. Now you can cast HUT to make a building that will stick around.
The precedent here is that spells already fall under specific effect categories when targeting other characters: Recovery, Boon, Curse, and (unofficially) Attack. I would identify what the default limitations of spells are and then create finite categories that expand them beyond those limits. These would be rituals the character would spend time and effort to build for themselves, crafting uniquely for a specific spell, and then finishing off with the cost of Potential. This adds a tag to that spell that allows it to break a certain rule.
If I went this route, I wouldn’t split the use of Legacy into two versions. Rituals would take the place of “Legacy-Linked,” above, being more an extension of buying spells (therefore using Potential). Additionally, Rituals complement Practices, which are able to more readily grant access to more specific options that might not be otherwise available.
I’m warming up to this idea because it keeps a character’s spell list from “maxing out” in a way that’s more substantial than the existing linked spell rules. Currently, once your spell hits the sixth level, that’s pretty much it. And that’s not very hard to get to. However, if there was an ongoing way to manually build up some chunky ritual effects around your favorite spells for some real worldbuildy business, that’d be cool.
How Legacy ties into this ritual aspect of spells remains to be seen, but it’ll be simpler than the Legacy-Linked/Legacy-Writ descriptions above. I’ll likely have Rituals encompass various upgrades to Permanent Spell at the cost of Potential plus a few exceptional options that cost/require Legacy to lock in place. Legacy would come into play for the very significant elements, like the jars of Muster or the Sky in the Crystal at Skymouth. To use more media examples, it’s your Frankenstein’s monsters or the robots from Castle in the Sky.
This post is foundational but ultimately represents the work-in-progress for what I feel will be one of the biggest changes for the new version, next to the new settings. I’ll dive deeper into these options, especially extended action rules, in additional posts.
A special note on the art: I’ve been commissioning artists to draw, with as much freedom as they’d like, a character of their choice casting a spell of their choice. These characters have been great examples of what’s possible in the world of Spell. Please support these artists and all human artists making real art. If you’d like to put your portfolio in the hat, you can respond to this post.
Leave a Reply