ingredients for spells

[geoffrey]

From p. 32 of the rulebook:

"Regardless of the form the final spell is in, several ingredients are required. These ingredients are often, (but not always) hard to come by and expensive. They may range from the hair of a white dog born at midnight to stale bread. The exact ingredients of each spell are not specified in these rules for several reasons...in campaigns where lists of specific spell components are desired, they must match the world and biome the campaign is set in."

This consideration can give immense flavor to the magic in one's campaign. One referee's D@D campaign might require horrific ingredients such as fresh human body parts, another referee's campaign might require rare and exotic flowers and butterflies, yet another might require ancient artifacts, etc. The precise choice of ingredients can make magic dark and inhuman, or bright and wondrous, or ancient and musty, or etc.

In any case, having precise lists can help drive the campaign. Just make sure as referee to scatter the ingredients over the entire campaign map (and perhaps beyond), thus necessitating wizards and their allies to travel widely in search of their magical ingredients.

[Falconer]

The only danger there is that the “allies” might begin to resent being dragged along on these wizard’s quests as sidekicks. The wizard, in turn, might begin to resent the fact that his allies feel they have a right to tell him when/what to cast. So it needs to be carefully handled. Components for 1st level spells which were hard to come by for a 1st level wizard might be commonplace later on to the point that the judge rules that the wizard has an adequate store of it and need not worry about keeping track of his supply. In effect, only making the wizard focus on components for highest level of spells (and other spells the judge wants to keep a lid on). And the judge should take care that the party is not constantly having to go off on special expeditions purely for the wizard’s sake. Occasionally, sure, but on a whole I should think the materials would be more-or-less conveniently encountered.

[geordie]

Seems to me a saving throw + mod to scrounge/find stuff could be in order.

Or a table - Mike Davison did a cool little table for scrounging stuff for Ruins and Ronin, I've used something similar for post-apoc tech.

[aldarron]

Apr 19, 2010 14:28:03 GMT -6 Falconer said:

The only danger there is that the “allies” might begin to resent being dragged along on these wizard’s quests as sidekicks. The wizard, in turn, might begin to resent the fact that his allies feel they have a right to tell him when/what to cast. So it needs to be carefully handled. Components for 1st level spells which were hard to come by for a 1st level wizard might be commonplace later on to the point that the judge rules that the wizard has an adequate store of it and need not worry about keeping track of his supply. In effect, only making the wizard focus on components for highest level of spells (and other spells the judge wants to keep a lid on). And the judge should take care that the party is not constantly having to go off on special expeditions purely for the wizard’s sake. Occasionally, sure, but on a whole I should think the materials would be more-or-less conveniently encountered.

Its definetly important to know how much and to what extent your players will want to quest for spell ingredients. Judging from the FFC and player reports, Arneson does not seem to have used a "search for spell ingredients" as group adventure hook much if at all. Gathering spell ingredients seems to have been one of the sort of things that were left for the players to do individually between group adventures. It could be handled as a one on one adventure with the player or just as a short between game narrative, if the other players are not interested in such quests. This is part of the reason its important to track players on a calandar.