Tabletop RPGs With Avante-Garde Systems of Magic

Most fantasy roleplaying games, be they digital games like Skyrim or tabletop ones like Dungeons & Dragons, tend to have very similar rules for magic, giving spell-casters a limited pool of resources they can spend to cast classic spells like Fireball, Magic Missile, or Lightning Bolt. The following tabletop RPGs with unique magic systems, however, try to break out of this mold through world-building and game rules that empower players to create their own spells, improvise new magical effects, and define for themselves what magic is.

The very first RPG magic system – the “Fireball and forget” ruleset introduced in Dungeons & Dragons – is commonly called “Vancian” magic, named after Jack Vance, the author of the Dying Earth fantasy stories. In both D&D and the world of the Dying Earth, a magic spell is a complex arcane formula that a spellcaster memorizes and stores in their mind like a bullet in a loaded gun. After casting a spell in this system, the spellcaster “forgets” their spell and must memorize it again.

Some D&D-inspired computer RPGs, like Pillars Of Eternity, still use the Vancian system of spell memorization, but most video games (and quite a few tabletop RPGs) have switched over the mana system. This lets a mage character keep casting the same spell for as long as they have mana, a store of magic energy derived from a concept of spirituality found in Polynesian cultures.

Even though the rules behind these systems’ acts of magic differ, the actual spells in Vancian and mana systems tend to be the same: elemental attacks like wizards’ Fireball, utility spells like clerics’ and White Mages’ Heal, etc. What makes the following tabletop RPGs interesting is how they deviate from these standardized systems of magical metaphysics, introducing fresh, original rules and effects for magic that mesh perfectly with the worlds they describe. In effect, these RPGs make magic “magical” for players once more.

RPGs With Unique Magic Systems – Mage: The Ascension

The White Wolf-produced Mage: The Ascension technically takes place in the same universe as the grim, gothic RPG Vampire: The Masquerade. While Vampire: The Masquerade is an exploration of the personal pathos of monsters trying to live in a world of prey, Mage: The Ascension is a psychedelic, symbolism-drenched experience about how a person’s dreams, philosophies, and beliefs can change the world – literally so, if they’re a Mage. Mechanically, a character in Mage: The Ascension can cast any spell their player can think of, as long as they have a strong enough affinity with “Spheres” of magic, such as Force, Mind, Entropy, Spirit, Matter, etc. The more blatantly a spell violates humanity’s collective sense of what’s possible, though, the greater the danger a Mage will suffer from reality-breaking Paradox effects.

This free-form magic system encourages the improvisation of subtle spells, while also justifying the “Ascension War” core to the premise of Mage: The Ascension – a conflict of conspiracies waged between the chaotic magicians of the Traditions and the orderly scientists of the Technocracy over who gets to define the nature of reality. One other great appeal of this RPG is how a player can use any “paradigm” of rituals and beliefs to empower their magic: a Mage in Mage: The Ascension can be a Harry Potter-style wizard, a disciplined martial artist, a faith-based healer, a computer hacker, a steampunk mad scientist, and other, stranger things. A spiritual successor called Mage: The Awakening updates the 1990s-era rules of Mage: The Ascension and introduces a new setting themed around truth-seeking Mages pursuing arcane mysteries while trying not to fall victim to hubris.

RPGs With Unique Magic Systems – RuneQuest: Roleplaying In Glorantha

Glorantha, the main setting of RuneQuest, is a mythic fantasy RPG published by Chaosium Inc. It takes place in a vividly-drawn setting inspired by Bronze Age history and myth, a world where the earth genuinely is flat, half-plant Elves and half-stone Dwarves co-exist with dragonnewts and sentient ducks, and heroes join cults dedicated to the godly Runes in the hopes of one day reaching divinity themselves. Magic in RuneQuest: Roleplaying In Glorantha is steeped in animism and ritual and is mechanically represented by three disciplines: Rune Magic, in which heroes enhance their actions by gaining the favor of the living Runes that embody aspects of reality; Spirit Magic, in which shamans invoke boons from creatures of the Spirit world; and Sorcery, which treats magic as a scientific art.

RPGs With Unique Magic Systems – The Bloody-Handed Name Of Bronze

Like RuneQuest, The Bloody-Handed Name Of Bronze takes place in a Bronze-Age, sword-and-sorcery setting, with strong themes of animism. Unlike RuneQuest, The Bloody-Handed Name Of Bronze has simpler, more narrative-focused game mechanics that use black and gold six-sided dice to represent a player character’s physical strength, equipment, magical prowess, and, most importantly, the power of their names. Like in Ursula K. LeGuin’s bestselling Earthsea fantasy saga, everything in the of world of The Bloody-Handed Name Of Bronze has a “True Name,” the knowing of which can grant a hero great power over themselves and others. Players in this game can either take on the role of “Fated Heroes” with potent reputations, mighty epithets, and a destiny to do great things, or sorcerous “Namedealers,” who can entreat and bargain with any named thing, be it rock, tree, ocean, cloud, mouse, spirit, or god.

RPGs With Unique Magic Systems – Nobilis

Tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons have magic systems based on negotiating with or swearing oaths to a god. The RPG Nobilis, on the other hand, cuts out the proverbial middle-man and outright makes players deities of a sort. The setting of Nobilis, though on the surface similar to the real world, is shaped behind the scenes by Nobles, godlike beings similar to the protagonists from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics, who personify aspects of reality such as Justice, Shadows, Hunger, Bleeding, Clocks, Nightmares, or Subways. Within the purview of their Noble character’s domain, a player can effortlessly re-write both reality and history, and the more prevalent a concept is in the cosmos, the more powerful a player becomes. The bulk of a game of Nobilis, as a result, consists of players working to subtly or blatantly influence reality to promote their agendas and hinder the agendas of their enemies – negotiating the signing of a peace treaty to weaken a Noble of Warfare, for instance, or spreading memes on the internet to help bolster the Duchess Of Cute Kittens.

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