>I'm of mixed feelings about large spell lists of generic effects, because
>my experience has shown that many players are reluctant to think outside
>the box... the list being the box. When presented with a list of options
>and a way to create their own options, many players restrict themselves to
>the list and are unable to come up with their own creations. (Witness the
>number of Champions characters whose disadvantages are taken from the
>*sample* disads in the rulebook.)
There are times when a generic list is all that is desired and needed.
However, see my response below.
>What I'm personally interested in seeing is a selection of interesting and
>even unique spells written in Gramarye terms. One important thing this
>does is give more examples for inexperienced players.
This what I intend to do, once I get things all organized in my mind. I
just want to use the "basic list" as a personal starting point, something
to work from and to generate ideas from. I'm sure I'm not as creative as
the writers of Ars Magica ("Abyssal Ball of Flame" -- what a great name for
"fireball") but I'll do my best.
>On another point, you said that after you compiled lists of effects, you'd
>start assigning them to colleges... some effects may be accomplished by
>more than one college, so be careful about pigeon-holing an effect into a
>particular college.
This is true. I have also noticed that there is a some cross-over of Realms
for some effects, and many effects could be described as a combination of
two Realms and one College (or two Colleges and on Realm).
I'll do my best to avoid an atmosphere of "here's a big list of spells, use
it" with this and encourage creativity. I am a huge fan of the Ars Magica
method of magic.
Tschuess,
Joseph R. Dietrich
yikes@evansville.net