The Spellbooks of Mydwandr...

Spellcasters in the Mydwandr RPG (and its eponymous setting) exploit a natural talent known to few beyond the mysterious elves, shaping the materials of creation into sorceries both powerful and (oftentimes) deadly if cleverly deployed. The result is a game wherein players fashion effects on the fly, no spell list required or available. A feature, not a bug, albeit one that may take some getting used to. Fortunately, there are tricks to tapping the game's potential in ways consistent with Mydwandr's spellbinding mechanics.

In Mydwandr, magic is something formed on the spot, which means players will improvise and no doubt remember which effects were allowed by the rules (and the referee) and proved effective in critical situations. When this happens, the enterprising magician can write these down in their PERSONAL SPELLBOOK for future reference. These can be named (i.e., Sye's Slippery Slope) with coverage/range, duration, and a descriptive text covering anything else the character may need to know, all drawn from actual in-game experience.

What follows is a sample spell, cast in the heat of the moment and subject to Mydwandr's spellcasting rules, formalized here as part of the character's spellbook:

Faren's Falling. Coverage/Range: Self  Duration: Triples (Rounds)

By means of this magic, the caster becomes feather light to fall safely and without injury at a rate of 10'/round to the ground. Should the spell terminate before the descent is complete, damage taken is limited to what distance remains. A life-saving conjuration.

This isn't Vancian. Players remain free to improvise spells on the fly. But by building a list of proven spell effects, spellcasters enjoy both the convenience of a traditional spellbook, complete with ready-to-cast magic of their own creation, and the challenge of conducting the sort of research spellbinders are known for. Ambitious referees might also place FOUND SPELLBOOKS as treasure. These serve mainly as good advice, making spellcasting easier while encouraging the improvisation and research Mydwandr enables.

The goal is a creative culture. Over time, the campaign will have its own spell list made by generations of spellbinders (and referees) adding to the setting's lore, available to new players with the continued option of impromptu effects. And really, isn't this what D&D and its many offspring are already, by implication, doing? Their voluminous offerings must have originated somewhere, after all, and Mydwandr turns the idea on its head. Regardless, the use of spell books should make spellcasting easier and research within reach...

Upgrading the Common Orc...

The common (some might say lowly) orc is ubiquitous in fantasy gaming, and while clearly dangerous in numbers, they can become stale with repeated use, especially to the seasoned group. Fortunately, it shouldn't take much to keep them interesting. Tribal politics alone can invigorate these pig-faced humanoids. They're more than just a pretty face, and the inventive can always find ways to spice up the individual encounters where these beasties frequently appear, using the following as inspiration. The key lies in defying convention:   

1. Orc berserkers who fight on for 3 rounds after death.

2. Orcish cavalry, ritually burned, riding firedrakes.

3. Orc devotees of a dark god so foul other orcs shudder.

4. Orcish engineers equipped with high explosives.

5. Orc flagellants so pious they turn their whips on heretics.

6. Orcish minstrels who sing to summon deadly spiders.

7. Orc pacifists who eschew violence and might help the party.

8. Orcish regulars outfitted with razor-sharp boomerangs.

9. Orc shamans (magic-users) carried in baskets on an ogre's back.

Once again, they key is to defy convention, but also to challenge. Giving orcs unique, often powerful allies and servitors, equipping them with unconventional weapons, and granting them unexpected and effective strategies collectively ensures not only cinematic encounters replete with spectacle, but challenging ones to test the toughest of parties. Of course, this operates best when coupled with campaign lore. Who is the dark god feared by the foulest of foes? And why do orcs have engineers? The game alone knows the final answer...

Beating the Planetary Blues...

World building is a central tenet of tabletop gaming, and it certainly illuminates the sheer immensity involved in a living planet. Vast continents spanning climates and cultures await those willing to explore, and one need look no further than our real-world example for an education. Worlds are impressively large. Tropical islands concealing pirates, frozen tundra home to deadly, cold-adapted wildlife; inhabited worlds have a bit of everything. Physical geography is just the beginning of an endless mosaic of possibilities.

An eastern religion storms westward, brought by the sword. Rats from their ships bring a deadly plague to foreign ports, a perfect storm depending on where someone just happens to be standing when it happens. Worlds are massive, and airplanes haven't done enough to shorten the distance. Now contemplate the vast universe in a spacefaring scenario complete with occupied planets as big as our own. Individual worlds become a pitstop for wandering spacecraft, reduced to mere blips on some rock's vast surface... 

It's a matter of shifting scale, where the void of space becomes a new world and individual planets its towns and far-flung villages. An unavoidable accommodation, although not outrageous or unsound as spacefaring types can only experience the specific locations their vessels happen to land upon. Laziness is a potential risk, however, with simple one-world governments and geographies that defy latitude and spheres. For referees and writers, this is a time-saving mechanism that actively serves to diminish these worlds.

The best way to avoid this trap is to formulate some idea of a planet's situation even as the spacefarers only experience their small portion. Perhaps open (and bloody) war rages between continents, with impacts to the tiny spaceport the characters encounter, uncovered when the party converses with the locals. A few scribbled notes are normally enough for narrative purposes, although it helps to have a system. Our Planetary Worksheets designed for the Blood of Pangea: Retrospace RPG are free for the curious... 

Sketch a quick surface reference, identify its major regions complete with climate, resources, and relevant heads of state, plus whatever additional details, including catastrophic wars, perhaps driven by plagues or natural disasters, define the place. Establish a checklist, using our planetary worksheets when not a better homebrew alternative to flesh out convincing worlds on nothing larger than a regular index card. Even the smallest of planets is enormous and deserves to be treated as such, and the briefest of sojourns will benefit.

Galloway vs. Gaming Gonzo...

Devotees of D&D in the early 1980s were lucky to encounter Bruce Galloway's master treatise: The Highest Level of All Fantasy Wargaming. The title was a bold claim, clickbait in the days before clickbait, intriguing to those of us with a bottomless appetite for whatever gaming we could get our hands on. And it was certainly ubiquitous. As I recall, my 14-year-old self found his copy on Winn-Dixie's magazine rack. Mom didn't approve of its occult artwork, but knowing her offspring, she acquiesced with little argument... 

Between the casual, unexamined sexism (obvious even to a teenage boy) and overly dense rules keen on subverting the players' agency, a fine collection of essays spanning fantasy literature's greatest themes got the reader thinking, and its medieval reference materials may have been its ultimate triumph. And in all fairness to Galloway, his obvious distaste for Gor tempered some of its generational misogyny. His remains a seminal offering, but my younger self rejected what was clearly his leading argument, summarized below: 

"In many ways, however, D&D is unsatisfactory...The party of adventurers will usually be an oddball assortment of warriors wearing armor and bearing weapons from a wide variety of cultures and historical periods; Black and White magicians; thieves, clerics...Apart from the sheer unlikelihood of such a motley crew being able to agree on any course of action without coming to blows, why should they associate together in the first place...Motive is the key word. D&D scenarios exist in a vacuum, and that is why we call them unsatisfactory...a fantasy scenario must contain its own consistent and intrinsic logic."

This was doubtless a marketing ploy. Why buy the book? Here's why. Galloway must have understood that the rules weren't imposing a setting so much as providing raw materials, drawn from history's abundant source, to fashion the campaign. Want history? Referees can make it happen. But most campaigns don't even occupy our universe, redrawing the lines beyond all reproach. Dwarves invented Renaissance plate armor, elves the English longbow to their specifications and on their timeline. This, alone, negates any argument...    

But there's more. There's gonzo. Take the game as offered and you do get a collection of armor and weaponry. You absolutely achieve that motley assemblage. Chaotic wizards, respectable, law-abiding heroes. And so what? There's this thing called fun, and an eldritch logic can still prevail in this environment. The introduction of dragons and wizards, alone, violates realism, and the same logic which allows this can exert its own consequences when some rule gets broken. In Wonderland, this intrinsic logic can be different.

These objections percolated within my adolescent brain, and to his substantial credit, Galloway appeared to anticipate as much, beseeching his D&D-oriented readers to see the power of his point despite such disagreements. Galloway's greatest achievement was a medieval reference manual complete with essays on everything from fantasy literature to the art (indeed, the necessity) of world building. And it taught this 14-year-old the value of his personal intuitions and how best to turn disagreements into something worthwhile...

Note: I still disagree on many counts, but find things to praise in this historic publication, including, most especially, its astrology, angels, demons, and solid essays.