Have you ever been confused by the mess of rules and philosophies concerning death and the undead? Here's an attempt to lay down a set of rules to end all confusion.

A follow up thread to MoonHunter's NPCs out of History. These are battles out of history that may serve to inspire GMs to create cool battle scenarios or mythical battles / rumours of battles.

An adventurer guild is a way to provide plot hooks, motivation and social context for such a weird and diverse group of people known as 'adventurers'. It can can offer interesting options, in-game and out-of-game.

I could think of many times such a party contract would of come in handy.

In the royal year 451, also known as the year of Red Leaves, something strange occured. A star fell blazing from the heavens, in to the Midlands. Imperial Wizardry could be sent to examine the object. However things changed in the area. Royal Viziers were unable to postulate a cause for the matter, but the fact that none of the countyfolk were alive led to the whisper of one, chilling word. Zombie.

Lai-Xeng was a traveling scholar and wise man. There are a hundred tales attributed to him, each one containing a kernal of wisdom.

This is a popular children's rhyme in the city of Ur-Kanesh. It is chanted while the children run down the street on St. Arakis eve.

In the lands of the Ardamians there is a tale. A tale of the weather god, Shastalar, and of Tear, the spirit of nature. This tale is often told when the weather grows bad and the children huddles in front of the fireplace.

How may times have you read a book in which a famous hero's sword is treasured and valued, not because it is magic, or because of its powers, but just because the hero wielded it. The 'Sword of Enthar' the great warrior may just be a normal steel broadsword; but because he used it, it will be prized and treasured.

Most of the people who 'spell components' really don't know anything about magic. Components are used as tools, symbols to help focus the concentration and associations for the spell caster. Rarely is anything 'consumed' in the casting, unless it is a sacrifice or burned.

The little things matter.

Steamery is a type of learning, like Magery and Lettery (Magic of Written words, Scholarly works), akin to Alchemy which combined elements of the two. It is considered a type of magic, the use of the four basic elements to produce 'magical' power.

Magic is a strange power, that can be harnessed (or not?), but never fully understood. Magic should be unique. Magic could be REALLY unique on this one world...

It is said that dwarves have problems with using magic (maybe they cannot cast spells at all). This is an attempt to create a distinctly dwarwen school of magic. The way you use it is of course yours.

But, O Fellow Denizens of the Citadel, I ask this - what other kinds of unique elements can you come up with?

Recently unearthed this gem of mine, and thought to post it. Its writing predates my joining of Strolen, and I found quite a few interesting bits in it. It is nearly completely written and I am going to endeavor to finish writing it out. Until then, I plan to post it here, perhaps a section a day or so. Enjoy, expand, criticism, comment.

The magic in my roleplay system is based around gemstones. It started off with the fact that wizards could use gems to regain lost mana: essentially, the gems were nothing more than glorified potions of mana. Since then I've managed to expand the uses of gems considerably and make them much more integral to the magic system; however, I still feel there is a lot more that I could do with them if I could only think of it! Basically, I'm asking for any ideas and suggestions that people have on how to make the gems and magic more interlinked.

The worlds are nothing more than bubbles on the strings on the plane of dreams.

Magic is a living entity, simple and non-sentient, but reactive to large-scale emotional states. Its name, like we might call a dog, 'Dog', is Garan. It is better to think of it as a huge astreal vine like plant, rather than an animal.

Quote from: 'Sir Isaac Newton' Every action has an equal and opposite reaction