[DT-RPG] Magic

[Kersus]

What systems have you seen that utilize magic simply..... By simply I mean without pages of spell lists, but more like a force. A system that requires little player/GM memorizing or lookup.

[trp]

A game-independent magic book from the late '70s, Authentic Thaumaturgy, does a good job of describing both a very simple and very complex set of rules for RPG magic.

Here's the simple part. Every magic-user has a talent or two or three or rarely more. Talents can be telekinesis, telepathy, empathy, precognition, levitation, teleportation, light control, heat control, cold control, cellular psychokinesis, etc. You get the idea. These are raw talents, and this could be magic in it's simplest terms. "I use my telekinesis to summon the sword from across the room into my hand." All the character and DM would have to know is how much mass the wizard could affect. Since something like that would only change with levels, or increases in attributes, there wouldn't really be anything to look up.

The complex part of magic for the book would be if you instituted the laws of magic and the combining of talents. Essentially, the players are creating new spells from scratch using mildly complex formulas to determine outcomes. That would take quite a bit of looking up.

[Kersus]

Okay, I'm convinced I need this book.

[Kersus]

...aaaaand now I have it!