Revisiting the Magi Carta

Recently I was looking back on the Magi Carta supplement for Heroes & Other Worlds. I think the book still has a ton of value, even with my improv magic system for Blades & Black Magic.

Lots of Great Spell Ideas

The majority of the supplement is made of lists of spells. These spells come from The Fantasy Trip, Dungeons & Dragons and other inspirations. The spell stats are all written up for HOW, which is a TFT clone. So all the spells are based around ranges of hexes, costs in ST points and durations in 5 second turns.

The spells are all organized by IQ level, and will be familiar to anyone who has played TFT or HOW. I didn’t count how many spells are in the book, but there are a LOT of them.

What I found interesting about these spells is that they have a spirit about them. Most of them are very terse, with only basic effects written in. Even the ones adapted from D&D are not that long. They just seem like they are begging to be fleshed out, to be given color and depth…

That really screamed out to me for some reason. Maybe it was the opportunity to add some of the various "spell requirements" that I have in my Untold Realms magic system for Blades & Black Magic. Maybe it was the chance to add some really cool swords & sorcery color to even basic spells like Fire or Lightning…

One thing to consider, though, is that most of these spells are really designed for dungeon crawling or other tactical-level uses. There are a few bigger, higher level spells (especially at the higher IQ levels), but it seems the majority are at that lower level. Th reason for this is because of the costs for the spells–in TFT clones, unless you throw a number of wizards at the spell, one wizard just does not have enough ST to power the higher-cost spells.

Converting Magi Carta Spells to My System

And that brings me to converting these spells to my magic system. The first thing to do when converting these spells is to look at the effects of the spell, and decide which Rank it will need.

Rule of thumb: low level or pretty simple spells are Cantrips; tactical spells that can injure or replicate what can be done with tools are First Rank; complex spells that can kill or do things that are beyond tools are Second Rank; and spells that are Earth-shattering or have a significant impact on the story are Third Rank.

After assigning a Rank, you have to look at the spell requirements you might want to select. The does two things: it lets you buy down the ST cost of the spell, but also lets you add more color to the spells themselves. These will drive you further away from dungeon use as you make the spell more complex, but it definitely adds more color to the story!

A few more things to consider, though, when converting these spells: don’t feel the need to be a slave to the effects written in Magi Carta. This is an improv system, after all!

Another thing to consider is assigning the spell into Paths. I use these in my magic system for additional color and story use–necromancy for dead stuff, conjuration for summoning creatures, evocation for elemental magics, etc. Not needed, but I think it adds some cool roleplaying opportunities during play.

And that’s pretty much it for conversions. Like I said, this system (call it the Untold Realms Magic System…) drives you away from dungeon crawls and more towards what you would see sorcerers do in the old novels and stories. And that’s ok! For a swords & sorcery feel, that totally works!

But Wait–There’s More!

More, you say? Yes! There is an entire first section of the supplement that goes into detail about a few different odds and ends. These include cartomancy (casting instant spells onto some wood or paper that can be used later), dermal magic (tattooing the spells onto the sorcerer’s skin!), spell books and wizard’s staffs (staves?), familiars and a couple other things.

The things I want to work with more in the future are the spell books, staffs and familiars. I want to think more about those, especially the spell books and familiars. I’ll write up some rules for those sometimes the near future, too.

And those are my thoughts when I took another look at the Magi Carta It has some cool extras that I want to explore more later, but at its heart are the spells! It can take some work to convert them to my system, but I think they are a treasure trove of ideas and would be well worth the effort of bringing some of them over.

But what do you think? What do you think about the Magi Carta? Is the info in it worth it? Is it worth converting to the Untold Realms system? Let me know in the comments below.

Oh, and finale: if you do like Magi Carta, head over to Lulu and buy a copy. CR Brandon will thank you for that!

Marko ∞