Vancian Magic - How The Dying Earth Inspired Dungeons and Dragons
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Here I talk about the magic of Jack Vance's The Dying Earth and how it inspired the way wizards cast spells in Dungeons and Dragons. It could be considered both hard and soft magic, which is why it evokes themes of delving into the unknown while working in a TTRPG.
Check out The Wizard Slayer here; a.co/d/feTBjRr
Join my newsletter here; franklinrobert...
Stalk me on Facebook; / franklinrobertsauthor
I actually started out with Dying Earth as my initial fantasy novels before expanding to the likes of Dragonlance Chronicles and LOTR. It was a rather happy accident because I was a little boy in the airport and my parents were rushing me to select a book in the airport book store to take on the airplane while I was being like Goldilocks. So they rushed me so much that I quickly settled on The Dying Earth (the original collection) and was blown away on the airplane from Singapore back to Japan (I am from Japan and I also learned English largely reading these fantasy novels and playing Western CRPGs; apologies in advance if my English is very poor).
It's been over 30 years since I read the books and my memory is so fuzzy (I definitely need to make it a point to re-read them), but I think you struck my childhood impressions perfectly in that the magic seemed so grounded and governed by strong internal rules but simultaneously so mysterious. I also thought there was a very foreboding element to it; at least my childhood impressions were shocked when I was so used to the idea of magic being a happy-go-lucky fairy tale concept for unicorns and rainbows and cute little gnomes and elves who live in the forest and like to dance to flute music.
I've since become a gamedev and Vancian magic actually became my favorite magic system. Even disregarding the wonderful aspect of the lore, from a gameplay aspect, I love the preparation we have to make in advance against unknowns (reminds me of the skill of designing a well-balanced deck in a CCG without knowing precisely what sort of decks we will face). I love optimizing against unknowns in this way (big fan of Poker, games like X-COM: UFO Defense, etc). It's not so interesting to me to have our entire arsenal of tools available at all times (like a soldier that has a rocket launcher, assault rifle, shotgun, endless ammo, grenades, food rations to last him many seasons, everything he might need all at once in his infinitely-large backpack) without that requirement to select what we think is most important to bring with us into a largely unknown battle in advance.
Also love Dark Sun most with respect to the AD&D worlds, probably in large part due to the Dying Earth influence. It strikes me as the most badass of them all. I never tried reading any of the Dark Sun books but I loved the computer games and how barbaric and savage they were with the idea of a scorched planet laid barren by spellcasters who went insane, leaving behind a completely different idea of even elves as smugglers and thieves and hookers with totally shredded bodies and bronze tans standing 7 feet tall. There's nothing cute and innocent about anything in Dark Sun (such a thing or person would die immediately), and I like that. I'm really drawn to these dystopian settings like post-apocalyptic settings, cyberpunk, settings of this nature. Think it immediately lends itself to a greater degree of suspense like, "Who can we trust when practically no one is entirely trustworthy, not even ourselves?"
I can't wait to read your book series!
Great video!
Wow, some pretty advantageous timing! I was actually looking for more information on Vancean Magic, and lo and behold you recently uploaded one! This definitely makes Vancian magic far more interesting than I thought. I feel like I need to read "The Dying Earth" now.
so zoomer do you "feel" like it, or will you actually read it?
That is great content. I always thought weird when I read that the caster forgets the spell, when I was young, this was around the 90s. But I thought it would go more or less like this later, when reading more other systems and stories. I didnt knew about Jack Vance and his lore! Cool! I seen your videos on Elric as well! Keep these subjects! great stuff, cheers!
Thank you!
Never heard of Dying Earth until your video. Checked out more of your channel and you should continue making videos! You’re great at explaining and story telling!
I really love doing these videos, but it’s hard doing this and writing books as fast as I want to. Hopefully you’ll see another upload soon, though…
I read The Demon Princes first, but I did eventually read the Dying Earth. More people should read Jack Vance.
Great vid, wil get avances book, and probably yours as well. Berserk and metal? That's the jam, myaaan!
Very cool
I remember in 2e adnd that you were not only limited in how many spells you could memorize by level, but that the prep time was 10 min per level of the spell. So if you wanted to prep your two level 5 spells, plus all the lower level ones you got it could take literal in-game hours.
That's why the elven wizard was so powerful. They only needed 4 hours of sleep, so they could get their spell prep in without making the whole party wait for half the day.
I only tried the video games like AD&D Gold Box and NWN on AOL which took that AD&D Gold Box idea to an MMO context but I often found it beneficial to have 2-3 mages in my party when I wanted to min/max, and always elf! In spite of it, I never thought the games were too IMBA because at least the video games generally didn't make resting 4 hours as opposed to 8+ so practically different, and because they made it so when they cast the most powerful spells, they tended to require more than one turn to cast (and able to be easily interrupted with even a dart). They were extreme glass canons, so to speak, and as devastating as they could be, hopeless without other people to protect them from harm's way while they chanted their spells. Like as powerful as Raistlin was, he would have been hopeless without Caramon to protect him. It did practically make my entire party relegated to supporting/protecting the mages in my party though, like the ghost nukers in Starcraft! 😅
Discworld made fun of spell slots- wizards would memorize a spell for 20 years and it just abandons them after one casting lol
You do voices really well! Funny too! And to the point. Greatly appreciate the overall narrative of the book. Thank you!
Youngin', I started playing DnD in about 1980, so I figure the game was about 6 years old at that time. At first we played the original with just 4 classes. That's it. Then Advanced was all the rage. We kept the fact that we played the game secret because we didn't want to be thought of as nerds. Oh how times have changed.
Green Magic 🪄
Your vids are great man! Wish there were more
Just uploaded one :)
@@franklinroberts4837 sensational!
I love your work!
Thank you so much!
Awesome video! Thanks so much!
It's great to see some love for The Dying Earth and, the much maligned, Vancian magic. People often complain that it "doesn't make sense" but, taken as a whole and within its context it is a wonderfully thematic and structure system. I remember that in AD&D 1E magic-users had a % chance to learn each spell and if they failed, they could never learn that spell, regardless of their level. Great video and I look forward to your book.
Hey dude, not sure if you’ll see this or if you just made these to help promote your book (which I’ll add to my backlog) but I just wannna say I like your style. It’s hard to find people my age who appreciate these pulp classics from the golden age of SFF. Best of luck on all your future books!
Thank you! RUclips/talking about old fantasy has always been something I’ve wanted to do, and book promotion was the perfect excuse. Unfortunately, writing and vids take up quite a bit of time.
That being said, I think I’ve refined my process so that I’ll have time to make more vids. Time will tell. Funnily enough, the script I have outlined pertains to your pfp
You've convinced me to try the book. That sounds badass
You’re in for a wild ride. 👍
Loved D&D (loved Rifts even more😊) but never heard of this inspiration!
No wonder was over my head! Great video!😅
ordered the omnibus
Simpin' cover.