[Is this your card?]
The more psychic ability you have as a player, the more effective your magic-user 😏.
We will be using James Young’s magic system as a basis* - a Magic-User has mana equal to their level, begins at first level with four or so levelless spells and learns 1 new random spell per level. To safely cast a spell they must expend 1 mana. Spells can be cast without mana though this ranges from taxing, to deadly, to the uncanny and the grotesque. Spellcasting can go wrong via Mishaps - Chaos Bursts or much worse via Cosmic Horror. Let's get psychical;
Each Magic-User player has a deck of cards with the Jokers left in.
To cast a spell, the player declares the spell and whether they are casting with mana or without mana, then - their deck in hand - attempts to predict the next card by naming its rank and suit, then they draw the top card. Compare the prediction vs the drawn card and consult the following:
Casting with Mana:
- If incorrect, lose 1 mana and the spell is cast as normal
- If one card element (numeral/face or suit) is correct, either - cast the spell at 1 level lower but lose no mana or cast the spell as 1 level higher and lose 1 mana.
- If all elements are correct, cast at double your level, gain 1 temporary mana and learn an additional spell upon levelling up (or during the next downtime, it’s up to you as a DM).
- If Joker, experience a Chaos Burst.
Casting without Mana:
One cannot guess ‘Joker’. Not even if your psychic mega-brain knows a Joker is up next, you can only plan accordingly.
Place drawn cards to one side. One can try to count the cards. At the end of the day/session (whichever comes first), the deck must be reshuffled.
There. A wacky, experimental alternate sketch of a magic system. I wouldn’t use it! While psychic powers would be beneficial, I mostly like the probabilities non-psychic players have to deal with on a mathematical level and accurately predicting the card makes you feel like a real bigtime wizard. You can test it online here. What I am most unsure of is how frequently the (non-psychic) player is wrong, it's never nice to feel so wrong. The system could be reversed where you have to guess what the next drawn card isn’t, but that feels worse - clunky, boring. The concept can be taken in other ways. The deck could have 52/54 distinct arcane sigils sharpied on the back of the cards that can be studied, this would aid the players’ guesses and make them feel like they are learning real magic (perhaps these as they are varied and unique enough). OR, one could simplify the guessing by using a single suit - or better yet - just use the face cards. One could also use a tarot deck’s major arcana or those cards used to test for real psychic powers - Zener Cards although these cards lack the concreteness of playing cards. It goes without saying that with any of these changes the prediction-vs-card results would have to be rethought and rebalanced. Perhaps, this line of thought is just an evolutionary dead end.
Oracular Bingo - Player Driven Campaigns via Omens and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies:
Each square on your campaign’s bingo board is an omen, when an omen is observed… something happens. When a row is filled, the prophecy is fulfilled and… something BIG happens! I am a genius! Now there are two options, two paths to take.
The direction of the bingo could also matter, a horizontal bingo would be good for the players whereas a vertical bingo could spell some calamity or a boon for (or arrival of) the BBEG.
You can generate some custom bingo cards on osric.com (no relation).
An Even More Half-Baked Idea for a Ritualistic Sigil Drawing Minigame:
One can draw magic symbols, glyphs, sigils and runes on squared or hexagonal paper/whiteboard to cast distinct spells. The complications your character faces (enemies, lack of magical resources/ingredients, character skill, encumbrance, etc) are represented by a number of dice which are rolled on the paper before you draw the glyph. One must attempt to draw the symbol around these dice, intersecting as few as possible. Each die your sigil intersects introduces some chaos to the magic - perhaps it works on a free form, improvisational system. For example, the SERVANT sigil summons an indestructible humanoid golem to perform a single task of the sigil drawer’s command. If the sigil is trisected (drawn over two die complications) the Golem appears but the DM rules that it is 1: hideously terrifying for all to behold, 2: will achieve the command via the most murderous methods possible.
THE SCRABBLE MAGIC OF THE RANDOM CONJURERS:
I can’t stop thinking of dumb stuff. A magic-user can conjure up anything they can spell out using any number of the 7 randomly drawn Scrabble letters they have drawn at the start of a session. They have a pool of tricks equal to their level - they may use these tricks to swap letters and/or draw new replacement letters after using some for a summoning. I currently have no idea how to balance this, a player can summon ‘GOD’ quite easily. The player with the letters should keep them secret, but can show them to the other players for assistance at a cost of 1HP per level. This may work better with Bananagrams letters. The question is, does/can the player build off of words they have already summoned like in the regular Scrabble game? If so, why?
- If incorrect, lose HP equal to the card’s value and experience a Chaos Burst.
- If one card element (numeral/face or suit) is correct, the spell casts as normal but you lose HP equal to your level.
- If all elements are correct, the spell is cast as normal + regain 1 mana
- If Joker, experience a Cosmic Horror.
Place drawn cards to one side. One can try to count the cards. At the end of the day/session (whichever comes first), the deck must be reshuffled.
There. A wacky, experimental alternate sketch of a magic system. I wouldn’t use it! While psychic powers would be beneficial, I mostly like the probabilities non-psychic players have to deal with on a mathematical level and accurately predicting the card makes you feel like a real bigtime wizard. You can test it online here. What I am most unsure of is how frequently the (non-psychic) player is wrong, it's never nice to feel so wrong. The system could be reversed where you have to guess what the next drawn card isn’t, but that feels worse - clunky, boring. The concept can be taken in other ways. The deck could have 52/54 distinct arcane sigils sharpied on the back of the cards that can be studied, this would aid the players’ guesses and make them feel like they are learning real magic (perhaps these as they are varied and unique enough). OR, one could simplify the guessing by using a single suit - or better yet - just use the face cards. One could also use a tarot deck’s major arcana or those cards used to test for real psychic powers - Zener Cards although these cards lack the concreteness of playing cards. It goes without saying that with any of these changes the prediction-vs-card results would have to be rethought and rebalanced. Perhaps, this line of thought is just an evolutionary dead end.
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| Frank Frazetta |
EVEN MORE META MAGIC:
Oracular Bingo - Player Driven Campaigns via Omens and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies:
Each square on your campaign’s bingo board is an omen, when an omen is observed… something happens. When a row is filled, the prophecy is fulfilled and… something BIG happens! I am a genius! Now there are two options, two paths to take.
- First and more radically, these omens can be written collectively by the party before they embark on a new arc of an already long-running campaign. This is an attempt by the players to predict events, themes, encounters, aesthetics and consequences they feel they may encounter (and to an extent, things they might want to see happen). I imagine this works best in established campaigns where the players know a lot about the world and might be able to make informed predictions or new campaigns but with very thematic worlds. In doing this, I imagine the campaign will take on a very different character. The players will try to fulfill these omens and in doing so steer the campaign - you as a DM can also include some of their ideas. It could be very useful for players who sometimes lack direction.
- Secondly, you the DM may write them. This will likewise inform the trajectory of the campaign. It’s something like in Mythic Bastionland but instead of the Myths being a mystery you give them to your players on a big bingo card right at the start.
The direction of the bingo could also matter, a horizontal bingo would be good for the players whereas a vertical bingo could spell some calamity or a boon for (or arrival of) the BBEG.
You can generate some custom bingo cards on osric.com (no relation).
 |
| Not this complex |
One can draw magic symbols, glyphs, sigils and runes on squared or hexagonal paper/whiteboard to cast distinct spells. The complications your character faces (enemies, lack of magical resources/ingredients, character skill, encumbrance, etc) are represented by a number of dice which are rolled on the paper before you draw the glyph. One must attempt to draw the symbol around these dice, intersecting as few as possible. Each die your sigil intersects introduces some chaos to the magic - perhaps it works on a free form, improvisational system. For example, the SERVANT sigil summons an indestructible humanoid golem to perform a single task of the sigil drawer’s command. If the sigil is trisected (drawn over two die complications) the Golem appears but the DM rules that it is 1: hideously terrifying for all to behold, 2: will achieve the command via the most murderous methods possible.
THE SCRABBLE MAGIC OF THE RANDOM CONJURERS:
I can’t stop thinking of dumb stuff. A magic-user can conjure up anything they can spell out using any number of the 7 randomly drawn Scrabble letters they have drawn at the start of a session. They have a pool of tricks equal to their level - they may use these tricks to swap letters and/or draw new replacement letters after using some for a summoning. I currently have no idea how to balance this, a player can summon ‘GOD’ quite easily. The player with the letters should keep them secret, but can show them to the other players for assistance at a cost of 1HP per level. This may work better with Bananagrams letters. The question is, does/can the player build off of words they have already summoned like in the regular Scrabble game? If so, why?
Meta-Material Components:
James Young* has a rule where if he is bought a beverage, the party gains a d30. The d30 can be substituted for any one d20 roll (or use it to increase the die size of any other roll). What if this was extended and taxonomised into a bewildering array of magical nonsense? Bear with me, I think this may actually have the most potential yet. Take your game’s spell list and attach an extradiegetic material component or ritual to each one. Players may prepare these components/rituals ahead of a session for specific spells their character knows. Doing this weird out-of-game/in-game ritual would see the spell massively boosted in scope, power, duration, effect or size. For example, if a player’s Magic-User knows the spell Web, they also know its meta material component/ritual - that player can bring in a piece of real cobweb to a session, burn/singe it before casting Web and see the spell go nuts. Rather than the web blocking a 10 foot cube, they can block an area equal to a 100’ foot cube
ARGHHHHHHH! What a sloppy start to 2026. This spittlesome spitball of a post is actually a thank you gift for Empedocles of Elemental Reductions for organising the OSR Secret Santa. They wanted an Alternate Magic System. Empedocles oversaw a 100% gift rate and put up with my constant demands for blood of non-delivering crooks (see below). Maybe I’ll return to this post and spin something or two out into a workable, playable thing. Probably the Meta-Material Components post.
If you like the Extradiegetic angle, check out my other META posts, I’d recommend one one about drugs and the other about diseases.
*According to Elmcat’s masterpiece blogosphere map, I am one of James Young’s biggest simps.
James Young* has a rule where if he is bought a beverage, the party gains a d30. The d30 can be substituted for any one d20 roll (or use it to increase the die size of any other roll). What if this was extended and taxonomised into a bewildering array of magical nonsense? Bear with me, I think this may actually have the most potential yet. Take your game’s spell list and attach an extradiegetic material component or ritual to each one. Players may prepare these components/rituals ahead of a session for specific spells their character knows. Doing this weird out-of-game/in-game ritual would see the spell massively boosted in scope, power, duration, effect or size. For example, if a player’s Magic-User knows the spell Web, they also know its meta material component/ritual - that player can bring in a piece of real cobweb to a session, burn/singe it before casting Web and see the spell go nuts. Rather than the web blocking a 10 foot cube, they can block an area equal to a 100’ foot cube
ARGHHHHHHH! What a sloppy start to 2026. This spittlesome spitball of a post is actually a thank you gift for Empedocles of Elemental Reductions for organising the OSR Secret Santa. They wanted an Alternate Magic System. Empedocles oversaw a 100% gift rate and put up with my constant demands for blood of non-delivering crooks (see below). Maybe I’ll return to this post and spin something or two out into a workable, playable thing. Probably the Meta-Material Components post.
If you like the Extradiegetic angle, check out my other META posts, I’d recommend one one about drugs and the other about diseases.
*According to Elmcat’s masterpiece blogosphere map, I am one of James Young’s biggest simps.
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