Proposal draft: Spellcasting
Add a new Rule to the Ruleset. Call it “Spellcasting” and give it the following text:
There are a number of Spells, listed in this Rule’s subrules. Each Spell has one or more Activation Sequences, each of which is a Rune sequence containing one or more Vowels and no Damaged Runes. Each Spell also has an Effect.
Any Apprentice whose Workbench contains a Spell’s Activation Sequence may Cast that Spell. Upon doing so, he must select a subsequence of his Workbench with a Value that is the Activation Sequence, change the last Rune in the selected subsequence to a Damaged Rune, then perform the Spell’s Effect.
No two Spells may have the same Activation Sequence. A spell cannot be Cast if its Effect cannot be performed.
Since this is likely the most important proposal of the dynasty, I’d like feedback on it before I propose it.
The Spells will probably all be listed in the same subrule.
Comments
arthexis:
This was more or less what I was thinking about. What about letting players change any rune into a damaged one, not just the last one?
Hix:
This is what my SAP and SORT do, but it’s more restrictive. This one says that every spell has to work the same way (Spell out a Runeword as a subsequence, and the last rune breaks just before you use it). But that would effectively discourage other creative ways of making spells.
*a very minor effect that doesn’t destroy its own Runeword when used
*a “Runeword” that is allowed to appear out-of-order (Such as the way “TRAP” appears scrambled in “XOPARTSXS”)
*Rune breakage _after_ the spell’s effect
Kevan:
Those could easily be exceptions, as part of the individual spell’s rule. It’s good to have a baseline, rather than defining the same thing over and over again.
Bucky:
“*a very minor effect that doesn’t destroy its own Runeword when used”
I have other plans for this type of effect, namely sequences that have some continuous effect while they are on your workbench.