VANCIER MAGIC SYSTEM [B/X]

Quick post I’ve been thinking about lately. I recently read Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth after going down an Appendix N rabbit hole during the pandemic. I’ve always liked the Vancian casting system old d&d uses but reading the book really solidified my appreciation for it. Vancian casting just makes sense now. That being said I wanted to toy around with a system emulates the Dying Earth magic that’s still somewhat balanced for b/x-esque games.

Dying Earth Art by George Barr

Here’s what I’ve got jotted down so far:

BRAIN SLOTS (Name pending)

• A magic-user begins play with a number of Brain Slots equal to 1 + their Intelligence Modifier. Thus a magic-user must have a score of 9 or higher in order to hold and cast spells at all.
• Brains Slots represent a magic-users ability to hold the esoteric spells they find during their careers.
• On level up the magic-user may roll an Intelligence check (roll under INT) adding their level to the attempt to gain a new Brain Slot. This check represents the character’s natural talent, mental exercises and meditation they undergo to increase brain plasticity. The penalty represents the slump and hubris that comes with success.
• A human brain can only have a maximum of 10 Brain Slots. [My first instinct was max 6 brain slots since B/X spells only go up to level 6 but I liked the nice simple 10 that b/x uses a lot. Rounds, turns, ect]
  
  

SPELLS

• Spells are held in Spellbooks and must be prepared and contained in the Magic-User’s Brain Slots before they can be cast.
• Preparing spells to hold in Brain Slots takes 1+1 turn for each spell level above 2. This represents the caster "priming" the spell and performing the necessary chants and gestures before imprisoning it in their brain to cast when needed.
• Spells weigh a number of Brain Slots equal to their level. So a Third Level spell would take 3 Brain Slots to contain.
• Spells may also be found imprisoned on Scrolls and can be cast from them without utilizing Brain Slots.
• Spells can be transferred from scrolls to Spellbooks or Spellbook to Spellbook but comes with risks and costs.
  
  

NOTES

So using this system a 1st level magic-user with a 17 INT could prepare and cast a Fireball spell (3rd Level) but just that one spell. Or they could prepare and hold three 1st level spells.

One thing I'm really liking is that it's not guaranteed that a M-U gets a new brain slot each level. The most powerful magicians in the Dying Earth could only hold a few powerful spells. I think this system showcases that well. But let me know what you think, is this playable? What would you change to make it feel more Dying Earth?

That hat, goddamn. Yum.

Campaign Map Building 01

Land of Confusion Base Map

The above is the starting map I drew up a couple of hours before my session last week using Worldographer and this blogpost by Melan as a guide. 

I started the campaign off in Hex 0804 which houses the Fell Temple of the Baboon God. A basic dungeon I wrote up using the procedures found in Old School Essentials. The players returned to Hex 0905 at the end of the session which contains the starting town of Gillamore. In session two the players wanted the visit the Northern River Temple in Hex 0703, but got stuck in Hex 0904 where they encountered slavers (random encounter roll) who were on their way back to the City-State of Nostia in Hex 1107. They slaughtered the slavers, freed the slaves and claimed the slaver's treasure as their own. They once again returned to Gillamoor to carouse and hire new retainers. So two sessions so far and they've only been in 3 hexes, a little content goes a long way.

After my 2nd session I decided to fill out my map some more using the stocking method outlined in the simple Hex Guide I linked to earlier.

The guide says to roll 2d12 for 6-mile hexes for Ruins & Lair but I changed it to 3 to add a wildcard with Wonders & Vignettes.

HEX STOCKING METHOD
Roll 3d12 different color dice. On a "1" stock the hex as per the table below.

DICE 1--WONDER [Triangle] or VIGNETTE [Triangle w/ Circle]
DICE 2--RUINS [Square] or STRONGHOLD [Square w/ Circle]
DICE 3--LAIR [Circle] or SETTLEMENT [Circle w/ Circle]

You can roll a dice or just choose which content the hex has.

After rolling the above for each hex I ended up with the following map.

Was pretty surprised that HEXES 0305, 0905, & 1107 were hits considering they were already settlements so I decided 0305 would be the hidden lair of an Ancient Sorceress turned Demon, and 905 would be the lair (palace) of the Sorcerer King. Haven't decided what's in 0905 yet, first instinct is thieves' guild. At first I wasn't going to roll for the ocean portions but was surprised at all the hits I got. I think 1203 is for sure going to be Crap people. 

OH yeah before I forget to write it down, I based the map off my home town of Los Angeles. 

Orange hexes are Chaparral terrains.
Red are mountains.
Purple are wetlands.
Pink are Swamps.
Teal are Forests.
Brown are hills.
Green are grasslands.

But yeah, I'm having a great time keying this map and I can't wait for my next Land of Confusion session. I'll post my full Hex Map Key on the blog when I finish it. Thanks for reading!

Land of Confusion, Session II Recap

Source

[Read Session I here]

CONTENT WARNING: Extreme Violence, Gore and Immaturity. Also Murderhoboness.

LAND OF CONFUSION Campaign (Homebrew OSE), Session II

CAST:
AELFUM [Sorcerer 1]
HARLOCK [Sorcerer 1]
KUAN, the Slayer [Vagabond 1]
BARTZ NAKED the Gambler [Vagabond 1]

RETAINERS/HIRELINGS:
N/A

Session II UPKEEP:
Current Settlement: GILLAMOOR
Time Spent: 1 Week.
Funeral Fees:

• Situal’s Family was paid 100gp for his death.
• Sundor had no family/friends and thus no one to collect the fee.
• Ramra’s husband was killed by Bartz in a back alley after “asking too many questions.”

Living Costs:

• Bartz chose to live a life of squalor in Gillamoor and spent his time fishing along the Belleboros Channel.
• Aelfum, Kuan & Harlock chose a moderate lifestyle.

DOWNTIME ACTIVITES: 

• Carousing after Last Adventure, Bartz ended up owing money but borrowed from Kuan to stay out of debt to a crime boss.

GAMEPLAY NOTES:

• The name Los Monos (The Monkeys) is agreed upon as the adventuring party’s name.
• Los Monos hears rumors of a castle called Al Pastor gone dark in the southern Chaparral, a recently built Necromancer’s Tower in the Northern Hills and that the Priests of the Northern River Temple are angry for recent escalated tensions between the two city states. They also hear of the infamous Man in the Coyote Mask who steals people’s OD [1].
• The party discusses checking out the Castle but decide against it after agreeing it’s name is a bad omen. They then decide to visit the Northern River Temple.
• Before setting out for adventure the party sells old Baba Yun the pack Chaboka [2] and buys 3 War Chaboka instead with the gold recovered from the Baboon Temple.
• The party departs the settlement of Gillamoor and begins their trek north along the Belleboros Channel. The surrounding terrain is wetlands which slows the party’s travel to a crawl (50% slower). The journey to the temple will take two days.
• On the First Night of travel the party makes camp on a dryer elevated hill along the river. They start a campfire.
• Harlock notices another fire in the distance and alerts their party. They quickly snuff out their fire and make for cover and darkness.
• Luckily it’s a very clear night and the twin moons and starlight cast enough to see a lone man seemingly beaten to shit and in rags who calls out for help. The party is suspicious so they wait for the man to get closer.
• They notice 3 other figures sneaking about 100’ behind the first.
• Aelfum the Charming begins speaking to the lone man who is now in the camp. He says he needs help again and again and motions his eyes to the figures behind him and mouths the words: “Help me”.
• Bartz hides in a scrub and waits for the leftmost person to approach so he can catch him in silence. He succeeds and grapples the man down in complete silence and threatens his life. Kuan the slayer jumps out from his hiding spot and launches an arrow at one of the men who appear to be Nostian Slavers! The arrow veers heavily to the right and the men who were surprised scream a cry of battle. Combat begins.
• The fight was brutal and swift but Los Manos emerged victorious with no injury sustained. The surviving slaver flees over a hill but is run down and eviscerated by a War Chaboka ridden by Aelfum.
• Aelfum sees 5 more slavers coming up the hill to join the fight.
• Bartz stabs his captives leg to prevent him from fleeing and joins the new fray.
• Combat! Heads were taken, arrows flew and missed their targets, again, by Kuan. Harlock cut a man from his shoulder to his ribs and before caving his head in with a staff. Aelfun charms one of the dumber looking slavers. Combat is over, no injuries sustained.
• The beaten man thanks Los Monos for their help, he was captured by Nostian Slavers in his village to the west. They were taking him and the others who were captured to the City-State of NOSTIA.
• The party investigates the slaver camp and finds 3 other captures slaves in a cage and locked chest on a pull-cart. They free the slaves and give them 5gp each to start over.
• The party finds the key to the chest on the Slaver’s leader along with a sigil of rank. They unlock the chest and find obscene wealth. They decide to pack up and return to Gillamooor to better gear up for adventure.

TREASURE RECOVERED:

• 2000 EP
• Jewelry worth 1650 GP

END OF SESSION

[1] OD, ones lifeforce or Ki. (Idea Stolen from Berserk).

[2] Chaboka: imagine a ancient Moa mixed with a Chocobo. 

REFEREE NOTES

Books used this session: 

• OSE Rules Tome
• Broodmother Skyfortress

I did made a few huge mistakes before the game started, luckily I'm decent at improve.

The first mistake was a couple of hours before the game started I decided I hated my campaign map and completely redrew it in Worldographer. My original map was 27x17 hexes. The new one is 12x12 after reading Melan's Hex Campaign Simple Guide. Which is one of my favorite blog posts of all time now. This also meant I had to throw most out my random encounters. The only one liked and kept was Nostian Slavers, and of course the players just happened to roll a random encounter as soon as they exit the town.

My second big mistake is that I decided to say the Slavers were caring a treasure chest with them. I really wanted to randomly roll the treasure inside so I said it had 100gp in it plus whatever they rolled. I checked the treasure types in the OSE Rules Tome and picked...Type C. The average was 1000gp what could go wrong I thought. Well as you can see they were lucky as shit and got A TON of money. Oh well, let's just say someone is gonna come looking for it.

All in all, we had a blast and I'm really looking forward to the next session. I actually really like my new campaign map too, just gonna clean it up a bit and stock it before I print it out.