Guest Author: Coleman Gailloreto
Even if magic is common and reliable, can you still call it magic? This question lies at the heart of the magical rules of the mist, a new “rustic fantasy” role-playing game from Orc's son. Read how The Legend of the Mist combines gameplay with World Building to create a fantasy setting that is different from the regular Dungeon & Dragons campaign. Magic is mysterious and dangerous, and even a special world.
Their literary inspiration, first of all.
The backstory of the Fog Legend tells the era of the lost magic, the era of the magnificent kingdom in which the rulers exercised the art of Thaumaturgy. A disaster occurred that later unleashed the monsters of the world and reduced civilization to ashes. By default, a legendary campaign will be centuries after the fog, and will be centuries after the disaster, and will adventure across town walls and place players in hopeful villagers shoes to explore the ruins, mysteries and magic of a long time period.
In some ways, Legend in the Mist is an RPG that rejects D&D style magic. The character creation system allows players to create PCs that do not fit the regular RPG class. Its “simple fantasy” theme mandates a world where there are no fewer magic shops and magic schools. At the same time, the Adventure-Friendly World Legend of the Mist is very similar to the “Point of Light” setting in D&D 4th Edition, allowing players to create fireball wizards and priests that heal their faith.
So, apart from the D&D magic system, what really sets the fog magic system?
Their literary inspiration, first of all.
RPGs like D&D use the magic of the dying earth
Into it quickly, there were two major inspirations in the Dungeon & Dragon magic system (and all the other fantasy RPGs it inspired).
The first one? The dying Earth story of fantasy writer Jack Vance is when a distant magical wizard memorizes the magic formula and forgets them as soon as the spells are cast. This “Vancian Magic” became the template for the early D&D academic “Magic-User” and respectful clergy, and influenced many other magical archetypes in future editions.
Other inspiration? D&D evolved tabletop war games artillery rules. Paris Dungeon & Dragon, most war games simulated historical battles. In other words, the Napoleonic Wars. After that, D&D co-creator Gary Gygax added a fantasy supplement called Chainmail to the 1971 medieval war game. So he explained about a wizard that allows you to cast a “fireball” spell with a “lightning bolt” spell with a “lightning bolt” spell with a “lightning bolt” spell.
These two concepts – “Spells as Ammo” and “Wizard as Artillery” – are burned into almost every D&D-inspired fantasy game. Perfect for when GM wants to run an RPG campaign on the magical industrial revolution! It's not so good if GM wants to run a campaign in a world where magic is dangerous mystery.
…The Legend of the Fog uses folk magic
There are pages through real medieval grimoires, Hedge Witch Journals, or scraps of old Egyptian papyrus, and no spells are found to be found to cast fireballs or throw lightning bolts. Most often, you will find rituals, talisms, recipes and chants that claim something quite ordinary, such as spells that provide magical free art education to find love, summon animal servants, fight off theft and illness, or even summon demons to win with dice.
The magic of mist draws a lot of inspiration from the magical magicians found in old myths and medieval romances, along with these real examples of magical folk tales. Furthermore, the game mechanics of Legend in Mist's core book encourage players to create their own magic, from epic elemental calls to “rustic” crafts centered around herb collection and learning true names.
How to build a new magic in legend in the mist
The foundations of the legendary magic chapter of Mist Core Book explain how magic works in the game's Mist Engine system, providing players who want to take the next step.
Create a tag that defines magic: The legendary character creation of the Mist revolves around choosing four major themes that define who the fantasy hero is. To define a magical theme, we construct a list of descriptive tags that show how magic works in a general and specific way (e.g. “True Name Call”, “True Name of Nature”, “True Name of North Wind”). Add a tag describing the magical act. That is, it adds whether you need chan chanting, gestures, material collection, a swinging wand, and more. Add tags for skills needed for magic: secret knowledge, weaving, cooking, dancing, singing, and more. Add tags to describe the flaws of magic: elemental weaknesses, ritual requirements, physical sacrifices to the caster's body, social obligations, oaths, taboos, etc. Defines the magician's quest.
Another way to customize your magic with legend in the fog is how the game handles failures. In classic fantasy RPGS, spells like “Fireball” generally have two effects: Hits and deals damage to targets, or misses or deals half the damage. In contrast, in the legend of the mist, the gamemaster gives a wider range of possible outcomes for the rolls of dice in the bad magic cast. The spells can become out of control and have unwelcome side effects.
The legend of the 8 sample magic system of Mist
The legend of Mist Core Book also has a list of eight options of “magic methods” that players can choose, adjust, or hack if they want to create a Magician PC on the fly.
Alchemy and Herbs: Naturalistic magic centered around brewing potions, medicines, poisons, etc. You will need special ingredients, special recipes and downtime. Fey Patronage: Magic that focuses on being taught or bestowed by Fickle Fair Folk, fantasies, tricks, visiting other worlds, etc. requires a good relationship (and minimal debt) with Fey Patron. Land Shaping: Channel energy from the land to manipulate its primitive elements. We need a healthy, thriving landscape that is not exhausted with energy. Runic Inkocation: Find, decipher and combine magic symbols to create magical sentences. You need the right rune knowledge, quests to find new runes, and some way to engrave them on people and objects. Shape Shift: To turn into small creatures, big beasts, other people, natural phenomena, etc., discipline is required to resist the instincts of the adopted form. Magic: A powerful raw magic fueled by the magician's own life force. Special gestures/words are required, and if they fail, they will harm the magician (smart styles like the magician and magicians in D&D). Binding power of spirit: They negotiate and munch on their spiritual beings, so they do magic on behalf of the caster. The magicians mandate to find and defeat new spirits and struggle to keep the bindings from breaking. Magic: A long, elaborate ritual magic centered around fortune telling, blessings, curses and charm. It requires extended preparation time, location, power time, sympathetic links to the target, and more.
Conclusion
The Legend of the Mist depicts a different path from the magical systems found in D&D and other RPGs by bringing magic back to folk roots. This is not to say that legendary players are forced to portray “historically accurate magicians” in the mist. Mist Engine's flexible character creation/game rules make gamers easy to create magician PCs with mystical powers that are fun to create stories, using stories full of wonder and results!
Legend in the Mist book of Mist, available on Drivethru RPG and Son of the Oak website.
