Meta Magic - Experimental Extra-Diegetic Spellcasting (an Alternate Magic System plus Oracular Bingo, Sigil Minigames, IRL Material Components and More)

Herein I present a smorgasbord - a spittlesome spitball - of dumb ideas (most half-formed) for meta, extradiegetic gimmicks and novelties relating to magic and spell casting.

[Is this your card?]

META MAGIC:

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 as normal 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:

• 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.

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.

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.

Now, what could these BIG and small somethings be? Fulfilling individual squares could result in minor boons or positive changes in the setting, like the waters of the Stinking Bog run clear, the blood-snow stops. Certainly a bingo could result in an instant level up or major positive change in the world.

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

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?

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.

The Talismanic Caveman, Fetishist or Mountain Man* - an OSR class

The Bad Durrenberg Shaman

HD: 1d6
Level as: Cleric
Save as: Fighter
Weapons: Any
Armour: Shields only, see below
Fights as: No progression, see below. 

You are What You Wear: A Talismanic Caveman may possess a number of Talismans equal to their level. Indeed, this Caveman derives all their power from these eponymous Talismans - trinkets, trophies, armour and apparel carved and shaped from their fallen foes. 

Each Talisman grants a special ability, a passive boon, inspired by the beast that the Talisman is made from. For example; a rhino horn amulet might grant +1d4 damage when charging into melee, an oxhide cloak may grant +2 STR (strong as an ox), a dragon scale headdress allows the wearer to take half damage from fire. When ideating abilities - think mythically. There are more example Talismans at the end of this post. 

Each Talisman also grants two of the three following bonuses, the same bonus can be selected twice:

• +1 melee to-hit
• +1 ranged to-hit 
• +1 armour class bonus

- Talismans have no effect when worn by characters of a different class. 

- The oft bloody affair of harvesting and constructing a Talisman happens simultaneously. It takes 10 minutes and requires no specialist tools. 

Sacred Symbols: A Talismanic Caveman cannot carry more Talismans than their current level and swap them out as needs be. That would be sacrilege. A Talisman must be destroyed when it is replaced by another. This happens after the new Talisman has been created and it's powers defined. 

- Likewise, for example, one may not wear two helmets or two masks at the same time.

- A single Talisman takes up one inventory slot.

Kitted Out: The Talismanic Caveman's Talisman AC bonus caps at +6 (not including shields), any AC bonus above this has no effect. 

- Likewise, if a Caveman's to-hit bonus (either melee or ranged) exceeds +10, the excess converts to bonus damage. 

Lucky Charms: A Talismanic Caveman may shatter their Talismans to mitigate 1d4 points of damage of any type. This includes Stat Damage. A shattered Talisman is lost forever. 

Effects that damage armour, such as critical hit results, destroy 1 Talisman of the Caveman's choosing.

- But beware, for without their Talismans, these folk are little more than frightened, superstitious troglodytes.

Beast Lore: The Talismanic Caveman are animal experts but are prone to speak in myth and legend rather than useful, grounded facts. They knows the legends of all the 'natural' beasts and monsters of this land (and can instantly recognise unnatural things such as mutants, aberrations, aliens, Frankensteins and such like). The class can ask a question about any natural beast they can see with a 3-in-6 chance of getting an accurate answer. The DM will roll for this in secret. On sucess they DM will answer tersely yet accurately. If unsuccessful, the DM will give a false, albeit mythical answer. 

For example, a player asks 'what is the weakness of the Flightless Carrion Roc?'. The DM rolls a d6 in secret and is unsuccessful, so replies mythically: "You know the legend of how the Carrion Roc lost his wings, cursed for his arrogance - shame is his greatest weakness!" or "You heard that long ago, Jahooli, King of the Carrion Rocs was once enchanted by the pleasant flute playing of Otongo the Ape!". While false, knowing the nature of this game, sometimes false things can - in play - become true. 

Do I know this beast? Honey, I'm wearing it!: You gain a +1 bonus to your Beast Lore rolls Vs a particular creature for each Talisman of that species you are wearing. If wearing three Talismans of the same type of creature you automatically pass your 'Beast Lore' rolls for that type of beast.

Animal Mimicry: You can imitate the sound of any creature you have a Talisman of. You can only mimic sound and emotion but not true communicable speech. Additionally you can mimic not just a creature's verbalisations but other sounds they make, such as the fluttering of their wings, the sound of their feet padding the floor, the swish of their tail, the spurting of their acidic expulsions, etc.

Spirit Animal Visions: Should the DM feel a Talismanic bonus is too powerful, the spirit of that animal may appear to the caveman in a dream and renegotiate the ability as well as provide them a piece of guidance, advice or information to aid them in their current quest. Conversely, animal spirits may appear to boost the power of their Talismans. 

A level 1 Mountain Man

    

D12 Example Talismans:

1. Monkey Veil: +1 ranged, +1 AC, Fruit eaten heals 1d8 (or one die size higher than consuming a regular ration)
2. Sabretooth Skull Mask: +1 melee, +1 AC, Critical Hit range extends by 1
3. Falcon Wing Crown: +1 melee, +1 ranged, immunity to falling damage
4. Beaver Tooth Charm: +1 melee, +1 AC, Fell even large trees after a single round of chopping
5. Chimp Pelt: +1 melee, +1 AC, +2 to climbing skill
6. Goblin Bone Girdle: +1 melee, +1 AC, +3 to Hide when hiding in caves.
7. Gorgon Hair Skirt: +2 AC, +4 to saves vs paralysis and petrification.
8. Ostrich Feather Gaiters: +1 ranged, +1 AC, wearer can run and jump further and faster than any other party member.
9. Bigfoot Hide Trousers: +1 melee, +1 AC, renders the wearer mostly immune to scrying, appearing as a fuzzy, indiscernible brownness.
10. Hook Horror Vambraces: +2 melee, unarmed attacks do 2d4 damage.
11. Elf Ear Earrings: +2 ranged, detect secret doors as an Elf (or +2 Awareness).
12. Sloth Loin Cloth, +2 AC, the wearer sleeps as peacefully as a sloth and always heals the maximum amount of HP regained by sleeping.

The Talismanic Caveman (or Mountain Man, Fighting-Shaman or Fetishist) is directly inspired by James Young's Inheritor class, which is in turn inspired by Hack and Slash Master's Blue Mage.

*Additional, rejected class names include; the Fighting-Shaman, Scrimshaw Sailor, Mad Taxidermist, Skin-Wearer, Totemic Caveman and Trophy Hunter. I like Mountain Man best. Likewise Talismans can be renamed depending on the class vibe. A Mountain Man may have Trophies, a Fetishist would have Fetishes and so on.

Taken from God of War 'Raider' concept art, pretty good for this class's vibe

O Drc - Toki Pona's Evil Twin

 The word for food is slugs.

by Vergvotre

The following is the collated work of the late Emeritus Master and Polar Explorer Wimm Oxwoe, who through some mysterious method (now, perhaps lost forever) had claimed to have reconstructed the ancient language spoken by the thralls of the Dread Hyperborean civilization. Whatever uncanny technique Oxwoe employed, it's efficacy is undeniable. Now, through the language's use, many of the strange arctic hominids who lurk that malignant land can now be communicated with intelligibly. Perhaps unsettlingly, this lends greater weight to the theory that these creatures are indeed descendants of the human slaves of that dread civilisation. 

And what a cruel language it is. Pity those folk who lived in the brutal world to which O Drc alludes - they who knew no other language.

photography by Kjetil Karlson

A Handsome yet Arrogant Author's Thoughts and Design Notes:

It is the dream of all nerds to make a conlang. I'm no nerd, and what's more, I'm barely literate. So, bish bash bosh, I'll just make an entire conlang in 2 weeks, no problem, it'll be great. I cannot deny this isn't anything other than baby's first conlang. I have certainly learnt a lot during the process. But still, I hope I have achieved something interesting. 

O Drc, is inspired by Toki Pona and shares its interest in the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. Whereas Toki Pona tries to be twee and good spirited, so O Drc will be sinister and cognitively oppressive - like a primordial version of 1984's Newspeak - a small language full of purposeful restrictions, omissions, pointed polysemy and the impoverishment of expression amongst others techniques. Though I do feel I could have pushed this further. 

The phonology of O Drc is deliberately simple and almost overwhelming 'English' and is likewise presented simply. The intention is, while the language may sound alien, I would want it to be easily read by my players. The rules around grammar are a little stranger but still stem from a notion of simplicity. Still, if you are unsure of how to pronounce anything ping me on Discord, I mean it. Furthermore, if you are a real smarty pants conlang or linguistics aficionado (and therefore likely pained by this language) please give me some feedback. 

Generally, using conlangs in roleplaying games is a risky business. Perhaps as a short lived linguistics puzzle you'd be ok, like how I plan to use O Drc - I'm thinking I may include a magic item that automatically transcribes O Drc speech spoken by NPCs to aid in this. If you would like actual, gameable content relating to languages, check the bottom of the post where I have compiled a collection of posts quilled by wiser minds.

A list of just a few of the grammatical terms I did not (and perhaps still do not) know/understand upon creating this conlang:

• Subject
• Object 
• Noun Phrase
• Phonesthemes
• Tropicalisation
• Semantic Domain
• Free translation - and the difference between gloss and transliteration. 
• Basically most types of this stuff: accusative? the subjunctive? Huh?
• How to read IPA
• And much more!

I am the Conlang dunce. But if I can make a 'entire' language, so can you. 

It's me

This post was requested by Metasyn of the mainwave OSR discord server for Christmas (I received the spooky, energumeniacal class; The Guided Hand by Katt Kirsch) They wanted a post on Language, I gave a language. Unfortunately, these are not the same things. So here is some more befitting content: 

d13 GREAT OSR POSTS ABOUT LANGUAGE:

1. Blog of Forlorn Encystment's 'On Language' argues for skill based, gradated language, checks to build a more realistic picture of language acquisition and multilingualism
2. Speaking of multilingualism, Lich Van Winkle's post titled A Reality Check for Language Rules in Your Fantasy Game (and rationalizing alignment languages), argues a character's known languages shouldn't be based solely on their Intelligence score but a host of factors such as social class (and much, much more!)
3. Prismatic Wasteland offers a novel method for slot-based languages in Schrödinger’s Chat 2: Amended & Restated Quantum Language Rules. In my opinion, quantum language is 👌 but the memory system presented in the post sets meaningful limits. Personally speaking, I've had a dwarf PC who ended up speaking a huge 16+ different languages including every type of Dwarven dialect and some wacky ones like Western Lowland Gorilla and Martian.
4. Prismatic Wasteland also looks at the implied setting of D&D through the lens of language. What does the existence of 'Common' actually imply? Read The Languages of D&D Imply a Specific Setting to find out.
5. Troy Press wrote Real-world Language Proficiency for Fantasy Games. It introduces us to F.A.C.T - an actual method for appraising the level of a speaker's language proficiency and how this can be applied to games (in a variety of ways).
6. Murkdice asks What did you say?. They demand one should treat language as an ingredient for gameable scenarios and interesting social/textual obstacles to encounter during adventures. They also suggest ways to handle this kind of play.
7. Additionally, Languages and Frictionless Design by Nate Whittington of the Grinning Rat blog builds upon this. They write about language as a wrinkle in play, a problem, a complication. There's also some very interesting thoughts on tying language to faction play.
8. You must read the Onomasticon Quernorum (I must self promote). And is not onomastics (the study of names) not a kind of language we interact with daily? This Adonic author (of a blog too cool for Google to index) suggests the obvious, names are good for implied world building!
9. Rise Up Comus serves up some sizzlingly gameable subversions on classic dnd languages in Lingua Franca.
10. The Benign Brown Beast follows a similar path in Saying Magic Words where in they link languages to spells. How intriguing, how WHIMSICAL.
11. This Benign Brown Beast can't be stopped! In RPG Linguistics they share their thoughts on shrinking the common naturalist take on language with many dozens of racial/geographic dialects to a narrativist approach. It's very thought provoking.
12. Real value for money with this 2-in-1 post (titled Some Thoughts About Languages in RPGs). First, an overview of some excellent scripts for use as ciphers. Then, a brilliant and detailed array of 'The Languages of Generic Vernacular Fantasyland'. A real cracker of a post from Dan.
13. The inimitable Xaosseed ruminates on how the presence of extraordinarily long-lived beings might effect the evolution of language in Your great-grand-elf's elvish: long lives slowing language change.

If you have any other great posts of Language do share them in the comments! 

A tear-jerking reaction to this post (and me and my blog in general) from Diogenes of Dio's Dungeon: