It’s funny how a genre creates it’s own cliches. The BoE community, for example, has created a cliche that has made me hopping mad! It is one that can be seen in the best scenarios, and it is one, which, like many cliches, was a good idea at the time. Then it got picked up on so much it got annoying. What is this infamous cliche?
Almost all mages that do research, or are specialists in, certain areas are working on teleportation and/or barriers.
OK, it was a good idea to introduce people who can help characters put up (or more commonly put down) barriers, and it was an even better idea to make characters who can transfer the PCs to anywhere using portals. But the tool has gotten so old and overused that it is just plain annoying!
Magic can make anything happen, so why not try to stretch the boundaries a little and get a mage character who, if doing research, is engaged in something other than bloody teleportals and barriers (and no, anti-teleport barriers don’t count!)
Just through looking at the spells the player has I can think of several ideas for mages doing research projects, and how they might be incorporated in your scenario.
(Note I am not a scenario designer, I have a limited knowledge of how the system works, but that’s it. If any of the suggestions I make are impossible, then I apologize.)
- Augmentation Research: A mage who researches new spells to augment a parties abilities (e.g. haste, bless, etc). You could get a special spell of him/her to this effect, such as a spell that makes the entire party invulnerable for a time. Or perhaps it could be the opposite way round, you could learn from him/her how to counteract a spell of invulnerability; thus making you able to kill a bad guy whom is otherwise invulnerable.
- Divination Research: Mages trying to broaden the field of divination. There are many ideas here. The classic is of attempting to find a magic map spell for the outdoors, but they could be trying to upgrade Scry-Monster so you can tell what people are thinking. This could be a spell you lean which allows you to read someone’s head, at a given time, of course.
- Pyrotechnic Research: Mage(s) messing with fire. Perhaps they’re trying to find a better fireball, or making people/objects immune to fire. Maybe they’re evil fanatics who have been driven insane by their fire spells, and now want to burn the entire world, giving it to their lovely fire. If they’re sane, then one would imagine this guys to be bright, fun loving and passionate personalities, with a chaotic and slightly psychotic streak in them.
- Summoning Research: These mages want to stretch the bounds of summoning spells. You can get your characters to follow in their footsteps by changing the type of creatures summoned, or they’re summoning groups. Or perhaps the mages are trying to work out how a summoning spell actually works, and where the monsters come from? Or maybe YOU are summoned, as a monster, to fight for an incredibly powerful magic-user. All of these could be great hooks for adventures.
- Appropriation Research: All the anti-barrier spells in the world won’t unlock and impossibly locked door. Perhaps some mages are thief mages! These guys are trying to work out new, stronger forms of the Unlock spell. Forms you could use to unlock any otherwise impossible-to-open door! All the advantages of barrier research, with non-of the cliche. Alternatively, they could be looking at invisibility spells; the advantages and ideas for this are obvious.
- Necromancy Research: One tends to presume this is evil, and it could be, but it could also be good. Perhaps these mages are using the undead to do good in the world, only re-animating the bodies of creatures that have done evil, in an attempt to repair the damage they’ve done. Alternatively, the mages could be looking for a way to prevent a person or spirit from becoming undead. You could even make your players study necromancy by making all the summon-type monsters undead.
- Cryotecnic Research: How about fiddling with the forces of cold? Perhaps your party is ill, so mages have to ‘cast cold spells on you to freeze you (cryogenic freezing, represented by a stone spell) and then reanimate you at a later date, when a cure has been found (unstone you.) This would be a nifty way of making the parties go forward in time. Or maybe mages are trying to counteract the effects of cold. Perhaps a mage is obsessed with cold, wanting the throw the world in an eternal winter.
- Geomancy Research: We all know the power of a Shockwave spell, but what if there was a spell that could set of volcanoes! Or maybe mages are working out how to mould living rock, giving them the ability to create beautiful structure by hand very quickly. (Or another form of being able to get in somewhere, simply by ‘molding’ the wall out of your way.) The Geomancy school of magic can be creative and nurturing, such as a druid style mage caring for nature, or powerful and destructive, such as an evil mage trying to poison the very earth.
- Astomancy Research: These air-headed dudes are obsessed with&ldots; air. They could be lovers of flying round, trying to find a longer lasting flight spell (or making flight items, both of which could be usable as special items for the PCs). Maybe they have created spells the make their bodies insubstantial, and able to pass through walls or under doors. Then again, they could be foul villains, bent on conquering the world through use of poisoned smog and gas!
- Mancy-mancy Research (or Research into Magic): Mages are curious guys, in every sense of the word, and they must occasionally stop and ask themselves ‘what is magic?’
The study into this, most basic of questions could lead so some very powerful answers. Perhaps their research is leading them to discovering the Source of All Magic, or the Ultimate Spell, neither of which the mages of your world are ready for. Or perhaps they have devised a spell that could suck magic levels or even spells away from someone! This could be a great aid to you, or a deadly tool to your enemies. This would be a strange field of research, but also a very powerful one.
That’s it, just by thinking for a few minutes I have thought of ten very interesting fields of magic, and how they could be used to make new spells, new characters, or new hooks into adventures. And that’s just the start! What about how to use web-spells or poison spells or fear spells? What about research into magic items? Or mutant monsters? And what about the Vahnatai spells, like Capture Soul and Simulacrum? The list simply goes on and on, if you thing about it for long enough.
So don’t let those portal-cliches by a barrier to your imagination! Do some research in the matter, and let yourself fly into the true realms of magic!
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