I'm currently running a RotRL campaign and having received Ultimate Magic, I immediately took a liking to the Words of Power chapter (which could have something to do with my love of Ars Magica's magic system) and want to incorporate it into my campaign. So I'm throwing this out there to others who are interested in the Words of Power rules and have played/are playing/have read RotRL for their input and/or ideas.
My first thought is to incorporate the new magic system as a deeper understanding of the Thassalonian runes of power developed by Old Xin and later expanded upon and codified by his Runelords. The runes themselves are described as derived from the language of creation, so I figure it's a perfect mesh for the campaign. I mean, if inscribing runes upon the flesh can alter a person's lifeforce (i.e. Inscribe Rune feat), what might speaking them in the proper sequence and intonation do?
Yet the language itself presents a hurdle in that it is a dead, three part construct based upon positive, neutral and negative symbols, so the chances of a modern speaker actually being able to utilize it are next to nil. So this brings up a problem: How do the casters in the group have the chance to learn it and utilize it?
I figure they need a primer or two and a good dictionary, or someone fluent in spoken Thassalonian to instruct them; luckily, the campaign gives me both at the Therrasic Library with the Clockwork Librarian and the volumes of lore housed there.
However, I'm not sure when to actually incorporate it into the campaign and the additional question of how much to give my players. Here's my initial thought on how I might handle that:
I figure the library will be a good time to hint at the system and to field test it in my campaign by giving Mokmurian a few words to play around with instead of spells. In the library itself the casters could uncover some of the basic words and maybe a low-level effect word, and learn from the Clockwork Librarian how to pronounce (use) them properly, yet I'm thinking that Runeforge would be where the real trove of rune magic lies.
My idea is that within Runeforge a truer understanding of the spoken rune could be found among the Lords of Sin lab notes. I'm thinking I could scatter different types of words among the various labs of Runeforge, matching their primordial sin (and/or school) with the most appropriate area for it to be found in (Death effects among the Ravenous Crypts, Concealing effects among the Shimmering Veils, etc.). Yet I'm also thinking that some of the more exotic stuff (Gravity, Time, Power effects) can only be found in Xin-Shalast; specifically, I'm thinking at the Pinnacle of Avarice, where Leng seeps down into this dimension and space/time is corrupted.
This is just my first thought of how to incorporate this new system of magic into the RotRL campaign, but if anyone else has any idea or comments on it, I'd love to hear them. It helps stimulate my imagination when I see it from different angles.
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This immediately struck me as an awesome idea. What better way to set a 10,000 year old society apart than to make its magic entirely different?
I'm in the sixth book for my first group, and I'm not in a position to make changes for that group. But I start another group through the AP in July, and I fully intend to use this idea.
I will be starting my prep for it next month. I'm sure I'll dwell on this in between and I'll post my thoughts as they come to me.
Thanks for the spark. Awesome idea!
Great idea there. One thing I'm doing in my campaign is removing all metamagic feats as PC or NPC feats and only giving them to those who are schooled in Thassilonian magic. The PCs have an early chance to figure this out in my campaign as I've changed Brodert Quink from an Expert to a Commoner/Expert/Adept, who has taken Extend Magic. When he sits there with comprehend languages active for more than an hour from a single casting, someone should work out that something funny is going on.
Between Brodert and some judicious hint-dropping (as well as metamagic rods becoming ancient Thassilonian artefacts), I think that's a good enough way to set the magic apart.
If I had one other comment it would be to try to make the spells you build with Words of Power as different as you can to the spells listed in the existing books. Make them do wacky things, combine effect words in strange ways.
In addition, if you were building (say) a 5th level full caster who used Thassilonian magic, there's nothing that says you can't build him some 4th or even 5th level spells to represent the powerful nature of Thassilonian rune magic. It's not balanced, but sometimes balance can get in the way of fun--and that's the time to throw balance out the window and have a good time. : )