Vancian Spellcasting In Tabletop Rpgs

Vancian Spellcasting in Tabletop RPGs

“Vancian” magic systems - which is to say, those based on the work of 20th century fantasy author Jack Vance - are common in roleplaying games (particularly D&D and its various derivatives, homages, and clones). The Vancian idiom also makes its way into fantasy fiction from time to time, perhaps more often by association with D&D rather than the work of Jack Vance.

Here I’m going to share a few thoughts on how spellcasting works in Vance’s Dying Earth books, which are the primary source for this rich tradition of spellcasting systems.

The Dying Earth stories are set in the waning days of our planet, eons into the future, after countless civilisations have walked the earth practicing science and magic. In the last days of earth, science is largely forgotten in favour of wizardry, or perhaps one has evolved into the other. The sun flickers in the sky, and is expected to go dark any day now. In this moribund world, Vance’s cast of characters strut and fret their hour upon a collapsing stage. In general they are a venal and untrustworthy lot, prone to excesses for which the term “content warning” is not remotely ill-suited.

Spells in the Dying Earth

A spell, in Dying Earth terminology, is a sequence of mystical syllables designed in ages past to achieve a particular purpose. By the era of Vance’s stories, most of the thousands of spells devised by the wizards of old are lost, leaving scarcely more than a hundred.

One Spell for One Job

Each spell is specific in its purpose. The Excellent Prismatic Spray pierces a foe with varicoloured penetrating rays. The Curse of the Macroid Toe enlarges the victim’s toe to the proportions of a house. The Omnipotent Sphere protects the caster inside an impenetrable magical shell. Players of D&D will recognise some of Vance’s creations as spells common to many editions of D&D. Others bear Vance’s mark in how they are named - Mordenkainen is a character from D&D’s Oerth setting, after whom many spells are named. Jack Vance never wrote about Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion or Mordenkainen’s Sword, but he did write about Phandaal’s Gyrator and Phandaal’s Mantle of Stealth, likely inspiring D&D’s tradition of naming spells for their eminent creators.

Only A Few Spells At Once

The spellcasters of the Dying Earth cannot go forth armed with every spell they have ever learned. They must consult their books, cramming the ineffable syllables of each enchantment into their brain with great effort. A learned mage can memorise a handful of spells at once. Those of less impressive intellect, such as that of Cugel the Clever, can hold but one spell in their memory, and may, at times, confuse a syllable and spoil the casting of that single spell.

In a process most D&D players will be familiar with, Mazirian the Magician (in the story named for him) sets forth from his laboratory having chosen a specific set of spells designed to protect him against the perils he foresees for his journey. After this departure, only those spells are available to him, and if the situation better suits a spell he failed to cram into his memory, Mazirian is flat out of luck. Furthermore, he can cast each spell but once, losing it from his mind as he casts it. Phandaal’s Gyrator is fearsome indeed, but Mazirian cannot simply cast it at every foe that crosses his path.

Here we see some of the criticial features of Vancian spellcasting - choosing which spells to prepare, and having a limited number of castings. D&D has separated and permuted these features in various ways over the years. Some classes can cast any spell they have learned, without having prepared a particular selection for the day. However, such classes generally expend a “spell slot” of the spell’s level to cast it, and so cannot hurl dozens of Fireballs in a day.

Questions Raised by Dying Earth Spells

For anyone planning to build their own spell system inspired by Dying Earth, there are some critical design questions which Vance, being a storyteller rather than a rulebook writer, fails to address. Various editions of D&D and other games find various convenient answers to these, but it’s interesting to revisit them with a fresh mind:

Why doesn’t Mazirian take a few spellbooks with him?

Mazirian the magician prepares spells from books before venturing forth on an adventure. Who knows how long the errand might take him, and how long he might be separated from his precious books? If he is detained, he has no way of preparing further spells.

At one point we see Cugel cram a single spell into his cranium, cast it, and then consult a tome to prepare a second spell. This seems to take him just a few moments, suggesting that a wizard who carried spellbooks around would have much greater flexibility in their casting.

Now Mazirian may have his reasons - not wanting to risk his precious tomes being perhaps one - but if you copy this system as-is into an RPG, you may find your PC spellcasters carry pack-mules full of spellbooks, and swap their prepared spells at a moment’s notice. Such characters will be difficult to challenge.

Can you prepare the same spell more than once?

If you’re planning an extremely sneaky mission, and have a mind fit to bear three spells, can you memorise Phandaal’s Mantle of Stealth three times? As far as I’m aware, no-one ever does this in a Vance story, though it is common in some versions of D&D and other tabletop RPGs.

However there is an argument that it doesn’t make sense with Vance’s idea. The concept is that the syllables of a spell are so cogent that cramming them into memory is a great feat, and the mind can only hold a few at once.

How easily could you oblige, if I were to ask you to memorise the name of Alexander the Great’s horse (Bucephalus) twice? Such that if you forgot it, you would still remember it.

This issue is probably why the term “prepare” has become more common than “memorise” as the name for this process of selecting one’s arsenal of spells.

How long do prepared spells last?

Once I have memorised the Curse of the Macroid Toe, how long do I have to unleash it on some unsuspecting malefactor? There’s no clear answer in the stories - perhaps it persists indefinitely, perhaps it depends on the spellcaster’s natural powers of memory. RPGs will tend to answer this with a simple, definite time - perhaps the following dawn, or the next time the spellcaster sleeps.

Other Magic of the Dying Earth

For those who have only heard of Vancian magic from roleplaying circles, it’s easy to presume that all magic in the Dying Earth works according to this strict set of rules. In fact this is far from the case. The Dying Earth is full of magic items with strange powers that require no spell, demons and ghosts which can be summoned forth to do a wizard’s bidding, and alien creatures whose abilities are tantamount to sorcery.

Indeed the most powerful wizards of the Dying Earth rarely cast a spell at all, having bound into their service certain reluctantly powerful creatures called sandestin. By commands, entreaties, bargains and threats, these wizards coax their sandestin into performing such wonders as they require, much like holding the lamp of a particularly snide and recalcitrant genie.

Conclusions or lack thereof

Really this post is just an opportunity to revisit Jack Vance’s take on magic, rather than provide any serious mechanical analysis of various forms of Vancian magic that exist in RPGs. For me it’s useful to know where the term comes from, and how Vance actually wrote about magic. Comparing that to how RPGs employ the concept is an interesting process, but where it leads will depend on your own thoughts and preferences.