Conceptual Magic: Delays and Triggers

I’ve been doing a series of posts on conceptual magic, linked below:

• conceptual vs. mechanistic magic,
• further explanation (skippable,)
• nearly-permanent spells,
• areas of effect,
• range.

My boilerplate “too long, didn’t read” definition for the series has been:

“[Conceptual Magic] treats spell duration, range, area of effect, and other details not as stats, but as concepts: the spell lasts as long as a candle remains lit, or is cast at the point where a thrown talisman lands, or affects everyone who hears the magic words.”

So far, I’ve covered duration, area, and range. What other spell stats are available for conversion?

There’s spell level and saving throws, of course. But I consider these to be GM-facing mechanics, not player-facing mechanics. One of my design principles is that players should not be requesting classes, races, magic items, or spells based on what mechanics they’d like, but based on what they want to happen in the fantasy world.

“I want a spell that gives me a +5 to hit”

versus

“I want a spell that makes my hands as sharp as knives.”

So my inclination is not to let players research spells with better saving throws or lower than normal spell level, but instead set these details based on what the spell actually does or uses.

Another traditional stat is casting time. This may also be in the same category as spell level and saving throws, but to some extent casting time can be shortened based on other concepts being used in the spell, for example a circle of protection has a casting time that is partially governed by the time needed to draw the circle. This is a topic I’m still thinking over.

But there is one conceptual area similar to casting time that seems very player-facing: delays and triggers. If a spell caster wants a spell to take effect later instead of immediately, spell components could be used to tie the spell either to an event that acts like a timer or a condition that acts like a power button.

A lot of the same concepts used for spell duration would be useful for timers as well. A spell could be set to begin when a candle burns out, or when a flower blooms. Linking a spell to an egg could delay a spell until the egg hatches. A spell caster could even cast a spell on some kind of Rube Goldberg device, such as a flame burning through a rope to drop a packet of incense into a brazier so that the spell is delayed until the smoke fills the room.

Triggers would work basically like magical traps. The condition that triggers the spell becomes a tripwire. See the conditions for nearly-permanent spells as examples that could also be used to trigger the start of the spell effect, instead of the end. A 6th level spell, then, could have a total of six conditions total, which can be split between spell delay and spell dissipation, although some components of spells may naturally affect both.

The most used trigger is Magical symbol, glyphs, and runes, which can be used for 1st level spells and affects both the delay and the duration. Seeing or touching the symbol triggers the spell effect. The method of creating the symbol affects the duration:

• Symbols are written with ink on paper, vellum, or other material, and will end when the ink fades or the material bearing the symbol is destroyed.
• Glyphs are written with paint, but usually on a more durable surface, like a stone wall or floor. The spell ends when the paint peels, but the surface itself will probably last much longer than a piece of paper.
• Runes are etched into a surface, usually wood or stone, and must be scratched or chiseled off to dispel the effect.

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Conceptual Magic: Range

I’ve been doing occasional posts in a series about “conceptual magic”, which treats spell duration, range, area of effect, and other details not as stats, but as concepts: the spell lasts as long as a candle remains lit, or is cast at the point where a thrown talisman lands, or affects everyone who hears the magic words. These are the previous posts on conceptual magic:

• conceptual vs. mechanistic magic,
• further explanation (skippable,)
• nearly-permanent spells
• areas of effect.

How would range be determined in a conceptual spell?

The base range is the caster’s self, a held object, or a single target within reach. Hostile magic requires a touch, but other magic only requires a gesture and glance towards the target. Concepts can effectively alter either the distance, the method of selection, or both.

Some of the area of effect concepts affect the range as well: incense or smoke can reach anyone in the same room, liquid sprays or splashes or smoke bombs affect targets within throwing range, candlelight/torchlight reaches to the edge of the illuminated area.

• Cast a spell while throwing a pebble (or other object.) Similar to throwing a smoke bomb or flask of liquid, but instead of the spell affecting multiple people touched by the smoke or splash, it affects one person touched by the thrown object, or in rare cases more, for example throwing a blanket that can cover two or more people.
• Cast a spell while reflecting a beam of light with a mirror. Similar to using a bare candle or torch, but using a mirror (or a shuttered lantern) a beam of light can be directed to a precise target over a longer distance.
• Cast a spell while ringing a loud gong or bell. All targets who can hear the bell are affected, which could mean a fairly long range.
• Cast a spell into the wind, on a river current, or under sunlight or moonlight. A very long range spell, but it requires other components to direct it. For example, allowing the wind to blow sand from your palm allows the spell to target someone standing on sand up to a league away.
• Cast a spell using a simulacrum of the target (doll, portrait.) May have a very long range indeed, but the figure uses to target the spell must include something that belongs to the target (piece of clothing, blood, hair) to make it effective. The more components involved, the greater the possible distance, but also the more times the spell must be cast; a spell cast on a target many league away might take hours or days to cast.
• Cast a spell on a specific distant location. Requires something that belongs to that location, for example topsoil from a farm, or a piece of something deliberately placed at that location, for example half of a talisman the caster has created.
• Cast a spell using the target’s true name. This can be used with short range conceptual components like candles or smoke to narrow the spell to specific targets, or it can be used with a simulacrum to extend a long range spell.

I’ve hinted at casting time being connected to distance for some spells, but I haven’t specified how yet. It’s something that needs to be worked out, but I’m thinking that for long-range spells, one league means one hour of casting time.

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Conceptual Magic: Area of Effect

Delta’s blog had a post recently about the Massmorph spell analyzing the way the spell stats and description have changed over the various D&D editions. Fine detective work, but it got me thinking again about what I’ve called “conceptual magic”, defining spell duration, range, area of effect, and other such details not as stats, but in terms of concepts: the spell lasts as long as a candle remains lit, or is cast at the point where a thrown talisman lands, or affects everyone who hears the magic words. If that summary is too brief, feel free to check out these other posts on conceptual magic:

• conceptual vs. mechanistic magic,
• further explanation (which might be skippable,)
• nearly-permanent spells.

Anyways… Delta is more concerned with a very mechanistic wargames approach to magic, so it’s very important that the number of people turned into trees by Massmorph should match the area of effect. If 100 people can’t fit into the radius of the area of effect, that’s a serious flaw.

How would area of effect be determined in a conceptual spell?

The base area of effect is either the caster’s self or one person or object the caster can see and gesture towards. Hostile spells would specifically require a touch unless the range is modified (something I’ll have to think about for a future post.) To broaden the area of effect, the caster needs to use a concept that describes a larger area:

• Cast a spell while marking a circle using sand or charcoal. When the circle is complete, everything within the circle is affected. Larger circles affect more targets, but take longer when casting the spell.
• Cast the spell while burning incense or something that produces a lot of smoke. Everyone who breathes or is touched by the smoke is affected. Larger areas of effect require larger fires and more material to burn.
• Cast a spell with a spray of oil or wine. This could be done either by opening a flask and flinging its contents out, or with a brittle gourd or a hollowed-out eggshell filled with liquid. Only those splashed by the contents are affected.
• Cast the spell while throwing a small incendiary device, like flashpaper or a smoke bomb. Basically, a cross between the smoke option and the spray/splash option. Only those a few paces from the explosion would be affected.
• Cast the spell while brandishing a torch or candle made of special material. Affects everything the light touches. Hostile magic requires a magical ingredient, like a candle made from the tallow from the fat of a unicorn. Non-hostile magic only requires mundane ingredients, like sprinkling the torch with common powders prepared in advance by the magician before lighting it.
• Cast the spell while shouting through a horn or trumpet. Only those in front of the caster within the range of the sound are affected.

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Nearly-Permanent Spells Using Conceptual Magic

Last time I talked about changing the way spell stats are handled, I focused on spell duration. By default, spells would be very short, only a few minutes (determined by a random roll.) To extend the spell, a spell caster would include something to bind the spell duration to. Some examples:

• Bind a spell to a candle. When the candle burns out, the spell ends. Duration is several hours.
• Cast the spell at sunrise, binding it to a flower that closes at sunset. Spell lasts until the sun sets.
• Cast the spell over several days, binding it to a chicken egg. Delays the spell until the chick hatches. Spell lasts as long as the chicken is alive.

These all extend the duration of a spell, they offer tactical choices for PCs facing spell-casting opponents. Snuff out the candle, destroy the flower, or kill the chicken to end the spell early. It also has the benefit of explaining “weird” rooms in dungeons. A room full of candles with no explicable purpose is sustaining one or more spells. Extra candles make it difficult to end a specific spell.

Along the same lines, consider some of the ways fairy tale spells are broken, like being awakened by a prince’s kiss, or killing the bird that hatches when you break an egg hidden in a chest buried beneath an ancient oak on a distant island. What’s the reason behind things like that? Why would a magician even specify how a spell can be ended?

Magicians set odd conditions for ending a spell to make the spell last a very long time.

This is why I call conceptual magic “conceptual”. Tying spell durations or counterspells to concepts, like “being kissed by a prince”, rather than numbers, like “12 turns”.

There’s have to be some rules to something like this, of course. For one, the number of conditions would be tied to either spell level or spell caster level. Sixth level spells could have a chain of up to six conditions:

1. Break a mirror
2. On an iron anvil
3. While ringing a bell
4. On a burning barge
5. On a mist-covered lake
6. When a nightingale begins to sing

Each of these conditions would require spell components. Some obvious, like the mirror and bell. Some linked conceptually to the desired condition, such as a piece of rotted timber from a shipwreck. Some may require creating “fake” versions of the desired condition, such as constructing a “lake” in a basin and blowing a cloud of incense over it.

If any generic item fitting a spell condition will do (break any mirror, on any anvil, ring any bell,) then the spell caster can likewise use any ordinary item. Any time a specific item must be used (this mirror, this anvil, this bell,) the caster must make the item themselves, or personalize it with some ritual.

Binding spells to things with an obvious duration (candles and chickens) requires some care, but usually doesn’t require supernatural ingredients. The spell caster might have to make their own candles and mix herbs into the tallow, for example. Binding spells to things like breaking a mirror requires the inclusion of magical ingredients, like the blood, fur, feathers, or bones of an enchanted creature, or rare roots and leaves collected under unusual circumstances. These help bind the condition desired to the spell.

More work needs to be done on this, of course. For example, extraordinary conditions need to be sorted into types… at the very least, conditions that seem logically impossible must be harder to bind than those that can be duplicated by almost anyone. But there are enough details here to be able to improvise at least a few such conceptual bindings.

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The Concept Behind Conceptual Magic

I’d like to work more on spells based on conceptual magic, but I have a feeling that people don’t get exactly what I mean by “conceptual magic” vs. “mechanistic magic”. So perhaps I should explain that.

I sometimes use the term “conceptual” to mean “based on ideas, rather than on measurable quantities”. I seem to remember that I described astral travel as conceptual, meaning that the “distance” to a place is based on how well you know it or how “close” it is to you on an emotional or psychic level. Places you’ve been to many times are very “close” and easy to get to, places you’ve vaguely heard about or that are unlike anything you’ve ever experienced are very far away.

In the same way, a conceptual approach to magic would be based more on things like the laws of sympathy and contagion rather than on hard numbers. For example, touching someone is the shortest possible range, not because the measured distance is short, but because of the physical contact. Close visual range would be a little farther, using a possession or piece of the target would allow spell casting over greater distance, and you might need a being’s true name to have any hope of casting spells across enormous distances.

“Mechanistic” magic, in contrast, is what I’m calling the AD&D approach, where everything has hard numbers, and higher caster levels means greater range, more weight affected, larger areas, and longer durations.

Somewhere in between these two extremes is what I call “abstract spell stats”: ranges and areas affected are expressed in terms like “everything in the room”, “everything within reach”, “everything visible” or “everything on the same level”.

I will probably still use “mechanistic” stats on the low end for many spells, such as those give in the spell stat table. And some of the effects of conceptual magic will overlap with the “abstract” stats approach. But the maximum ranges, areas, and durations would be truly conceptual, and the conceptual approach would be the only way to extend the range, duration, or other stats. No “Extension I/II/III” spells, no 5th level “Long-Range Fireball” spells, no metamagic feats.

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Conceptual Magic vs. Mechanistic Magic

Delta’s blog has a post about Gygax on scale. Worth a read, but mostly about grid combat and thus too quick to dismiss the 1-minute round and “the infamous and rather absurd defense of the scale as highly abstracted action” when doing theater-of-the-mind combat.

But it leads into my thoughts on spell range, duration, and area of effect. Where they apply at all in OD&D, they take a precise approach, which gets more precise in every subsequent edition as the game moves more towards grid combat. But that doesn’t match up with magic in fiction or legend, which frequently doesn’t talk about measurements, but instead talks about concepts. You bewitch people by catching their eyes, not by being within 60 feet. You hear things whispered into the wind within your domain, like Math son of Mathonwy. Spells last until some condition is met, either simple and unavoidable (until the sun sets) or tied to some trigger (until touched by cold iron, or the kiss of a prince.)

A more recent Delta post on blind spell casting gives an example of an issue caused by over-reliance on “mechanistic magic” over “conceptual magic”. Can a spell-caster cast a spell on someone they can’t see? Later editions say no, but some spells in earlier editions or in Chainmail seem to break that rule, or at least there’s no obvious reason why they should follow that rule. A caster points a finger and a magic projectile flies a certain distance, then explodes as a fireball. Why does the caster need to see the target? A spell like Cure Light Wounds requires touch. If so, why would the caster need to see the target?

This is still something I’m mulling over, but I’m considering making magic very short-range and short duration by default and not having higher-level spell variants that extend range, duration, or other factors. Instead, that’s one of the things you use spell ingredients and spell research for: to create specific instances of that spell that last longer, affect more people, or have a longer reach. I will only cover one example in this post: extending spells that only last 2d6 minutes. A spell like that normally fades by the end of a combat, but what if you want it to last longer? A spell caster would use something in the casting that has a longer duration, for example a torch or candle. When the torch or candle burns out or is snuffed out, the spell ends. Longer-lasting spells might take longer to cast: for example, to make a spell last for years, one approach would be to bind the spell to an animal, like a chicken. Cast the spell on an egg, repeating the ritual every day until the egg hatches, at which point the spell takes effect. When the chicken dies, the spell ends.

I have other ideas on things like “permanent” spells, increased spell range, and the other spell stats in a conceptual magic system, but they will have to wait.

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