My goal is 50 magic limitations to try to offer a more flavorful magic. Because if its not laid out in front of people, they will tend to choose the most obvious choices. Give them a menu of choices, and their magic will get more varied.
I already dealt with this to some degree in a previous post, but I can't find it. So there will be some repeats.
Furthermore, I may be doing a lot of outlining which I can fill in later.
1. Bargaining. Forex: "Lord Ares, if you protect me from the Theban's arrows, I will sacrifice a golden arrow to your temple once I get back home."
2. Here I Am!: The caster's position is now known to everyone within a certain, specified distance who is sensitive to magic can sense you. Ranges vary from on the same street to the same county, same state, same continent, same world, and same universe. A special category which is a separate bonus is nearby dimensions.
Thus Caitlin Saunders,verser, Demon Slayer, and former Accountant from Earth casts her spell of Disintegration against a Foul Minion of the Shadow. In a neighboring dimension, a Hellworld, the Demon Grz'lak'nik wakes up to the smell of Power, and starts to track the spoor with his Hellhounds.
A further limitation is that the smell of magic does not leave you immediately. While close physical proximity to the caster's once location is the typical default, again greater ranges are possible.
Grz'lak'nik arrives ten minutes later on Earth with his hounds cloaked in a veil of invisibility. His hounds pick up the spoor, and he spots the smear where a foolish Minion challenged a Demon-slayer. He cackles grimly. He believes in the virtue of ambush. Caitlin will not be so lucky later tonight as he stalks her.
3. Same Alignment: The spell only works on those of the same alignment as the caster. Forex "The blessing of Gaia only affects those who love the Light."
4. Open Door: If the target has been hypnotized, this opens a door for this magic. And such doors are hard to close.
5. Umbrella of Authority: Forex: Joe had been disobedient to his Papa, the Policeman, and his Pastor. Now the Witch of the Woods who lives in a bubble universe with a gate in the thicket behind his school is able to cast Summon Child on him.
6. Trance: The caster must alter her state of mind to match a specific mind state in order to cast spells. This typically goes with concentration.
7. Solitude: Magic can only be cast in complete solitude from other sentients.
8. Sanctum: Magic can only be cast in the special, prepared grounds of a Sanctum. Frequently spells receive bonuses from the spells pre-woven into a sanctum, but this is not that. This spell requires a sanctum.
9. Balance Magic: All forces are balanced, light and dark, cold and heat....use one, and an equivalent, but uncontrolled effect of the other will appear 1d4 rounds later.
10. Wild Magic: The caster is able to generalize a wish, and then a GE roll is made. Based on that roll, and the skill roll, the GM tells the effect of the magic. Forex: "Sarah pulled up the slippery, strand of power from her chakra, and flung it into the world hoping that it would open the door that was locked so she could flee the mugger." GE 3: The door opens, and Sarah flees, and then it closes behind her, and locks. Any other door in front of her will do likewise. 15--It opens. 21--She blows a hole in the wall that can be used to escape. 30--She steps through the dooway into a bubble universe she just created.
11. Code of the War Wizard: The war wizard must follow the code, or lose his powers. He must practise daily, he must embrace the possibility of death for himself and his enemy, he must realize that truth is real, and that morality based on that truth requires action, even violent action. He must not shirk his duty.
12. Code of the Good Witch: She will do no harm to the undeserving by magic or physical action or by word. She will help the helpless who are in need. She will defend the Craft against unjust attacks.
13. Code of the Believer: He will harbor no sin in his heart. He will be obedient to God, and secondly to proper authority. He will promptly seek forgiveness from God, and from other people who he has unjustly offended. If he fails in this code, he will lose his prayer access to Heaven, although he is still a citizen of Heaven.
14. Three-fold Return: What you do with magic especially, come back to haunt you three-fold.
15. Limit of Mercy: If you cry to God to empower a weapon, and the target of that weapone pleads for mercy, you must grant it. See Tom Day granting mercy for the pschyopath Jay in his RPOL.net 'worldwalker' game.
16. Hand Over Control: The caster enters an unusual state of mind most of the time, and then hands over contol of your body and mind to a spirit. The spirit than casts the spell.
17. Fasting
18. Self-Flagellation
19. Twins: Some spells require two casters, others require that the casters be twins, or some form of opposed halves.
Forex: "At the end of the week of the Harvest Festival, the Priest, representing Father Sky and the Priestess representing Mother Earth in her aspect as the Crone, broke the binding on the north winds which allowed the rain-bearing, cold winds to come, and Winter to truly begin. This was necessary as the Cycle of Life, represented by Priest and Priestess needed renewing."
20. Some Deities Won't Listen: As hinted at in #19, where Father Sky needs a man to speak to him, and Mother Earth needs a woman to speak to her. There are also Male Secret's and Woman's Mysteries, and to dare to cast one from the other side is to dare the wrath of your deity.
21. Once and Never Again: Some spells can only be cast once by a particular person. A less restricting version would allow the spell to be only cast once in a particular universe.
22. The Time of the Casting is Now: Some spells can only be cast at a particular time which is often separted by great gulfs of time. This is typically used to release bindings, and anniversaries of the original binding are often the time of the potential release. This is usually an unwise spell to cast, but not always. Forex: "The Demon Lord Throatcutter and his minions are imprisoned in a dry well by the Sorceress Shandra. Once every hundred years, on the blackest night of the year, if the blood of an innocent human victim is dripped into the well, and the words of summoning in the Ancient Sumerian are shouted, then Throatcutter and his minions will be released to torment the Earth once more."
23. Sacrifice of Others: There is sacrifice, and then there is sacrifice of animals, and sacrifice of humans. Such sacrifice is generally unwilling, although more power is generated by a willing sacrifice.
24. Held Back Sacrifice: There is also sacrifice where someone thinks they are going to be sacrificed, and then at the last moment is spared, and another is inserted in his place. Forex: "The Case of Abraham and Isaac in the Old Testament which seems to signal Yahweh's dislike of human sacrifice, among other aims."
Forex: "The priests of Xorox, a harsh but just god, take initiates, and lay them out on an altar to be killed. Those who flee are banished from the order. The initiates are promised they will rise from the altar. A good deal of sermon follows as the priests attempt to use this moment to impress their beliefs about being reborn as a priest of Xorox means. And then the remaining initiates are released as new made priests."
25. Calm Heart: Casting requires calmness throughout, and emotional strains can cause checks to see if the magic fails.
26. Mental Focus: Casting requires concentration with a Difficult check at the beginning, and Simple checks at decision points along the way.
27. Caster Centered Magic: Magic does not adhere to a target. You cannot throw a fireball at someone, or cast an enchantment on someone. What you can do is clothe yourself in flames, and then touch them, or make yourself awe-strikingly beautiful, and then smile.
28. No Range Attacks: All magic is touch magic.
29. Hypnotic Trance for Caster: Casting requires that the mage place themselves into an altered state of consciousness where their willpower is temporarily reduced @5 thus making them suggestible.
30. Spells Fueled by Lifeforce of Caster: Spells may last as long as the caster likes, but for each five minutes of casting time the caster is required to make Simple Stamina check to continue. Failure may be blocked with a Difficult Willpower check.
31. Mana-Fueled Magic: Certain magics have the caster do a preliminary gathering of magical power in order to provide the oomph for the spell.
Forex: "Gregori the Mage walked the battlefield searching for the exact spot where the King of the Normarkans had fallen. Such a spot would be rich in mana, and he carried a Mana Trap. Already, he had found and drained the spot where the King had taken his first wound, but the spell he cast yesterday had taken all that Mana."
Typically, the Level of a spell from the skill charts is the number of Mana Points required by this system...if you're going to use Mana Points. Thus in order to cast Do Anything a 15@ skill, you might well require the mana from the King's deathground, and his first wound site, and the mana from a spot where two soulmates met for the first time.
Different worlds have different approaches to Mana. Some think that it is difficult to find as in the example above, and others think that it can be gathered and strained from the morning dew. In other words that it is a challenging chore, and not a minor quest to find it.
32. Invisible Magic: Magic is quiet. One does not shout, or cause fire to sprout from one's hands. Magic is subtle and quiet, but it can be unmistakably unnatural.
Forex: The old woman stood in the mud of the track facing the young knight and his party of bravos. They had come to her village as before to take sport with the young woman, and to thrash with their weapons the weaponless farmboys. Enough was enough, the old woman had decided. So she spoke a Word of Power under her breath, and the knight found himself fixed to the spot, and unable to move. Neither could any of his bravos move him.
He did not glow, nor did he fly, but he never moved for seven days until he died."
33. Magic is Unusual Luck Or So It Might Seem: A skeptic might not see it. An honest observer might feel the hair on his neck rise in the presence of magic because its obvious something weird is going on. But it could just be luck.
Forex: The Ranger Prince kissed his mother's ring, and walked out to the orc war party to demand their surrender. They responded treacherously as he expected. They filled the air with dozens of arrows. None hit him, which was....very lucky some said. He used the shock of it to convince the orcs to surrender.
34. Magic is Only Sacred: No one who is not initiated into a school of magic may see, touch, or experience magic without the magic losing its power. Opposing forces may experience it, as long as they are magicians themselves, but skeptics break the spell by their defiling presence.
Some traditions allow for the purification of the magic tools. Some traditions require that the purification be done with the defiler's blood.
35. Magic is an Unnatural Thing, and so the usage of such magic always rebounds to the detriment of the user.
Jonas Majeerle, verser, AC Tech, and Apprentice Mage opened the Black Book of Forbidden Spells while his master was out. He cast the first spell of entertainment and enjoyed a fine repast with beautiful waitresses, and the ghosts of famous men to converse with. Then he got up, and felt sick to his stomach.
He had a stomach flu.
Later as he ventured to the latrine, he tripped and fell down the hill.
Still later, he came in to see his master who was very angry with him. Inexplicably, he had forgotten to put up the Forbidden Book, and his master was aware of what he had done.
A bit humorous, but it gets the idea across. This is not 'no benefit to self'. Instead this is 'Magic is an aberration, and Nature hates it.'
36. Things Man Was Not Meant To Know: To learn magic is to risk your sanity. Every spell you cast threatens to take you further from the realm of normality, and into madness.
37. Magic is Pain, Horror, Corruption, and Madness: Only spells which degrade and terrify the caster can work if they have this limitation. The point of this limit frequently is to achieve pain in the caster's life. And since one tends to become blase' to shock and horror after a time, this means that increasing levels of suffering are demanded of the caster for the same effect.
38. Magic is to benefit others: If you use it to benefit yourself, the Universe will get revenge in creative ways. Generally speaking such limits do allow self-defense, but some do not. However, almost all of them allow one to kill monsters even if they are only threatening you at the moment because its assumed that they will be a threat to others later.
Forex: "The Lady Perilous, Sorceress Guardian of the White Order cast fire upon the demonspawn that boiled up in the demonpit in the basement of rancher house. The owner was behind her, a well-meaning magi, not intending to traffic in daemonic forces, but the Universe had rebuked him for his trying to rig the stock market with magic. It was a failing of young and untrained magi to seek a way to use that which was for the good of all, for themselves alone, which is why the Lady supported so strongly the creation of Mage Schools."
39. Magic Backed Up By Science: In order to cast a spell, you have to understand the physical processes you're trying to manipulate. In some cases, this allows the casting of much more powerful spells than before.
Forex: The Wizards of Wallingtree, a small trading center on the edge of the dessert, knew enough about wind to create sandstorms. But their visitor from another scientific reality understood the nature of the jet stream, and so he reached with his power, and pulled the jet stream to Earth, and scoured the enemy raiders from the face of the Earth. They had been expecting eighty mile per hour winds, and had prepared. But nothing they had done had prepared them for six hundred mile per hour winds as the jet stream slashed into their faces."
40. Magic vs. a Specific Target: Spells can be rigged to attack certain types of enemies more effectively. In some cases, spells are created that only effect a specific type of enemy, and do no damage to anyone else. What is not the concern of this list is the spell that might have some effect on one person, say a Scream spell, but will affect a specific monster devastatingly because they are vulnerable to loud noises.
Be cautious as overly specific spells can actually be beneficial.
Forex: "The vampire had grabbed the Red Cross worker, and held her in front of Paul St. Simon, Special Agent on the FBI's Undead Task Force. Paul smiled, and pulled out his vial of Unearthly Flames. The shattered, and the flames spread like a grenade, and the flames covered the both of them. The hostage screamed in fear, but in no pain as the vampire screamed in 'mortal' agony as it turned to ash."
41. Magic by a Specific Caster: Certain spells can only be cast by very specific individuals. Some magics bind the King and the Land he rules together so that health in one is health in the other. Other magics require a virgin. One common limit is 'not born of woman'.
I've used the last. It kinda sorta went like this....
Forex: "The Fimbulwinter Chest could only be closed by one not born of woman." The supervillain said with a smirk. "Its impossible for you to close it. The world will be covered by ice."
"Um, I'm not actually human. I was born of Chaos in interstellar space." The superhero replied....
42. Personal: One effect is the gaining of things that are personal. This goes several directions at once. Certain magics, such as Voodoo, require personal items to make the spell. Others require the True Name of the target. The True Name can be one of two things--an innate name that something has, perhaps gifted to it by Adam when that something was nameless, or by some other Namer. Or it can be a secret name which is held closely.
44. Roles must be respected: This is typically holy magic. The Prophet may not call down fire upon the Demon except in certain specific circumstances. Perhaps if the Demon manifests itself in its Hunting Form, a material killing machine, or if the Demon has been thrice rebuked by the Innocent, and it decides that instead of tempting the Innocent, that he will take the Innocent's cat hostage, then the Demon has stepped over his own boundaries, and may be dealt with by any means neccessary.
This is more common in worlds with strong codes of behavior and high magic, and potentially archetypical patterns are commonplace. It is a form of Armed Truce between the Host of Heaven and the Forces of Evil.
45. Magic is Crippling: Each spell casts cost in terms of stamina, and/or resistance. Frequently in such a world, the good guys have a serious problem as such magic allows for others to sacrifice for you.
Forex: "Gilandor the White stood leaning on his rod of power, old and white-haired, and not even half the age of his opponent who was full of health and vigor. It was because Viradn the Black had a sacrifice tied to his right hand. It was from her innocent body that he would draw the strength to cast the spells while he preserved his own health. She might well die of heart failure, but Viradn would ne'er touch his own health. Unlike Gilandor who figured he had one last fight in him before he had to retire. And that was if he was lucky, and ruthless. He struck fast as he could at the sacrifice to kill her, and take the fight to even terms, but it was not fast enough. This looked to be Gilandor's last fight for sure."
47. Uncontrolled Reactive Magic: You have magic which acts based on certain stimuli. You can't control it. For some, its the Full Moon, for others its Anger, and for others its the sight of a bird which throws their conscious mind into the bird.
Forex: "Joel Macross dodged the fire flung by the monstrous machine that tracked him. And as he rolled on the ground, he realized he really did not want to die. But it looked like there was no choice.
Might as well go out with style, he muttered to himself, and stood up to charge.
The machine was waiting for him, and fire launched at his chest. But it was met five feet away from Joel's chest by a bright, white light which took it, consumed it, and raced back along its path to its source. And there the white light took the demonic machine, and sucked it dry of energy leaving behind nothing but a rusty pile of metal that clanked in the breeze as it fell to the parking lot.
This had happened once before, Joel rememebered. He had always thought it had been a dream. There was a power in him, but it came out and did what it wished on its own terms. However, it did seem to have some desire to protect him, at least from demonic machines, anyways."
48. Magic is Illusion and Delusion: If you run through a fire unharmed, you're actually harmed. Your body is burnt, but you believe it not to be true, and so you don't feel it, and others don't see it. You can be so deluded as to be alive when you should be dead. But pierce the veil for one second, and all the weight of truth comes crashing into your self-deluded world.
49. Visualization: You must see clearly what you are trying to do. For some magic, this need extends throughout the whole use of the spell which for some spells can be difficult if they last for an hour or more.
50. Emotion: Some spells require emotion to fuel them.
Forex: "The Flaming Fist of Doom covers the hand with fire as the caster feels anger, and allows the caster who spikes his fury to an all-consuming level to throw bolts of fire."
This is obviously a Cast Once, Use Multiple Times spell. Many spells are Cast Once, Attack Once. Others are Cast Once, and Continous Use which is common for invisibility spells. The use of COUMT spells allows for the feel of two duelling wizards who have power beams blasting at each other which are met by the other's power beam, and they struggle to move the meeting point toward the other wizard.
It also allows a wizard to have what amounts to a hand pistol. You pull out the gun (spell), and each combat round, you try to hit the target.
....MORE LATER
