The power of the written word.
Note: This is not a fleshed out school at all, in fact it is a school that one of my players will be creating over time. I am including in here the foundations of it and will update it from time to time with the spells she creates.
You just have to write. Not recording what’s happening though. That’s journalism. Non-fiction is for losers. Anybody can do that. Fiction is where it’s at. Actual creation. Unlimited creation. Not bound by the laws of phsyics or magick. With a pen and paper you can create anything you want to.
You can write away your problems, invent a wonderful life for yourself and describe in graphic detail the horrible deaths of your enemies.
Paradox Writing is how you communicate with the outside world and express your ideas. However writing keeps you locked away from the world, busily scribbling your every thought down.
Minor charge Spend four hours writing. No toilet breaks, no eating, no Facebook.
Significent charge Get published. Magazines, journals, poetry anthologies, wherever.
Major charge Win the Pulitzer price for literature.
Taboo The image of the writer is the pen (or pencil, quill…) and paper or typewriter. A scribomancer cannot use a computer in way. Everything must be handled via hardcopies.
As the player progresses she will come up with spotanenous spells which she will eventually form into formula spells. As this happens I will include them here.
Taboo is properly punishing, but it mixes avatar symbology with adept paradox.
I recommend something that emphasizes the personal genius and creativity part. Refusing to have anyone edit your work except yourself, for example. Not having anything except the finished product be copied, as another.
The avatar/adept blend was actually something I’d considered, the player seemed to like this taboo. I can’t immediately see how refusing to let anybody edit your work would be that much of a hindrance to anything other than getting sig and major charges.
vanAdamme – “The image of the writer is the pen (or pencil, quill…) and paper or typewriter.”
I’m not sure that’s true any more especially for people under 25, when you say writer they probably think of someone typing on a laptop. These days if you want to get your story out there, it’s a lot easier to self-publish on a blog than trying to get it printed in a magazine.
Suggestions for possible alternatives:
Minor charge : Write a story that is read by at least 100 people
Significant charge : Write a story that is read by at least 100 people who paid for the content.
Taboo : You lose your charges if you comprise your artist vision (for example: deliberately writing really short stories to get maximum charges or writing porn in order to be more commercial instead of trying to write the best stories you can). Also your Scribomancy skill can’t be more than double your Creative Writing skill.
Again, it’s limitation on the player is appropriately severe, but I’d think that something more in line with the creative vision aspect would be appropriate, similar to the Narqui’s taboo of the sublime pureness of drugs he himself creates.
If you’re okay with it and the player likes it, go on ahead. But if you post the whole thing later (don’t keep posting the same thing with minor changes, wait until you have 10 formula spells minimum), others will probably fiddle with the taboo to their liking.
Also, something that occurs to me:
Your minor charge notes no facebook, but you can’t access it at all, because it’s online and requires a computer.
“Actual creation. Unlimited creation. Not bound by the laws of phsyics or magick. With a pen and paper you can create anything you want to.” -vanAdamme
This sounds like a very extensive scope of power, what would be the actual limitations? Could you create a jet fighter or a real live unicorn?
Another possible taboo : My work is my life : The scribomancer must write the spells he casts in a diary or journal with ink mixed with a drop of his own blood. Like Dorian Grey’s painting, if anything happens to the book it happens to the scribomancer. Small books are easier to carry around, but they fill up faster and then you have to worry about keeping two or more of them safe.
Being somewhat of a scribbler myself, I’m naturally drawn to this concept. There a thousand ‘right’ ways to work it, just as there a thousand ‘right’ ways to write a piece.
My take on it is that the Scribonmancer’s paradox is that writing is her ultimate way to make others understand what she experiences and to express herself, while increasingly demanding that she looks at others and herself from outside. Her intimate truth comes from detachment, her coherence from deconstruction, her impact on strangers from her distance from loved ones and herself.
To put it in more earthly terms (that she’d probably find abhorrent, not to mention meta-reality) – all Passion must only be directed at writing. When a Scribe can act on one of her Passions, she either does so and breaks Taboo or stores it up to be later transmuted into her writing. The player should write it down somewhere – what was the Passion invoked, what stirred it, and what was the price of not calling on her inner strength.
This ties in to how the Ghostwriter charges up. Charge-generation is a process: experience, transmutation of it into creative form, and impact on readers. It’s important to note that this take posits that writing’s strength is not when the words are written, but when they’re read. The payoff level is based on:
1) the importance of the memories or experiences at the base of the work, and the price paid for penning it down. Writing about an important personal experience or publishing a secret only you know is a minimum, while using a stored Passion-invocation (see above) or something that caused you Stress notches (either hardened or failed) may be good for a Significant charge.
2) the ritualistic process of writing – including time, exhaustion and isolation, necessary idiosyncrasies that vary from author to author, and some element of re-living the core experience. Visiting a string of old lovers then locking yourself in the apartment for the weekend with old blues records may be good for a minor charge, while symbolically re-enacting abuse you suffered or inflicted, going on a cross-country self-destructive binge then writing for 96 hours straight may be Significant material.
3) How many people the piece touched. Not how many people read or liked or didn’t understand half of it, but how many people it changed somehow. Since Novelists write twisted, mystical works based on twisted and often insane and mystical experiences, dissemination may be hard and bring all sorts of unwanted attention to the author. Describe how you send your textual love-child into the world (to make it very clear – major publishing houses are out. They’re all monitored by Powers-That-Be that don’t want your shit out in the open, plus they’ll edit the hell out of your magic to increase revenue), and the charges will be gradually building up as your memes infect the unsuspecting masses. Yes, it means it takes time to gain power but each project may be worth multiple charges, and that your works give a little magic to whoever actually understands them (kind of like Mak Attax burgers for intellectuals). An alternative charging method is to write a journal as the character (since she obviously keeps one), which may be worth a charge or two per session and is really good for role playing anyway.
Okay, but what do you get to do? Your magic covers the intimate relationship between mind-and-soul and the written word. Examples include:
* Master of the Written Tongue – read and write in any existing language, whether or not you know how to speak it. This may also work on ciphers, but not on computer or signal-based encryption.
* Word of your Desire – Make a text say whatever the reader most wants it to, not changing its type or sender.
* Silverlight Pen – Make on the fly a document that seems completely authentic (and of course, says whatever you need it to say).
* Fascinating Reading – scribble something that captures the attention of a number of watchers for some minutes, or seconds in a tense situation. Afterward, they won’t even be sure what it was about.
* Word of Advice – Magically and subtly change readers’ opinions on something using a text – an opinion column, review, newspaper ad, pamphlet, protest signs or even graffiti.
* Nakedness of Words – use a text (anything, even a signature) to peer into the writer’s thoughts or memories at the time of writing. Each text (or page, if it’s really long) is worth one question.
* As it is Written, So it shall Be – Create a magical writing that readers will be sure is true. It, and the illusion it creates, fade after a couple of hours, and quicker the more disbelief is applied to it (number of readers and degree of doubt).
* The Grimoire – temporarily gain the ability to perform a certain Magic from a text written by someone who knows how to do it.
* The Forbidden Tome – write a text that causes madness. Writing it transforms one of your Hardened Stress notches into a Failed one.
* Book Burning – make all copies of a certain book unreadable. This can have a profound effect on civilization.
Like I wrote above, this is just my crazy way to do it. I’ll add that I really like the other crazy ways people already posted on this page.
*Eleventh Commandment – Give a written sign divine authority. People must make a rank-5 unnatural stress test to disobey. The sign must be considered a legitimate instruction by the viewer even if they would usually ignore it, for example a No Trespassing sign would work at a private residence but a sign asking people to turn off their cell phones would only work at a theater.
Sensational. I’ll figure out suitable charging costs and put it to you guys to judge.
Minor Spells
Silverlight Pen
1 minor charge
Make on the fly a document that seems completely authentic (and of course, says whatever you need it to say).
Fascinating Reading
1 minor charge
Scribble something that captures the attention of a number of watchers for some minutes, or seconds in a tense situation. Afterward, they won’t even be sure what it was about.
Word of your Desire
2 minor charges
Make a text say whatever the reader most wants it to, not changing its type or sender.
Nakedness of Words
2 minor charges
Use a text (anything, even a signature) to peer into the writer’s thoughts or memories at the time of writing. Each text (or page, if it’s really long) is worth one question.
Master of the Written Tongue
3 minor charges
Read and write in any existing language, whether or not you know how to speak it. This may also work on ciphers, but not on computer or signal-based encryption.
Significant Spells
Word of Advice
1 significant charge
Magically and subtly change readers’ opinions on something using a text – an opinion column, review, newspaper ad, pamphlet, protest signs or even graffiti.
The Grimoire
2 significant charges
Temporarily gain the ability to perform a certain Magic from a text written by someone who knows how to do it.
Eleventh Commandment
2 significant charges
Give a written sign divine authority. People must make a rank-5 self stress test to disobey. The sign must be considered a legitimate instruction by the viewer even if they would usually ignore it, for example a No Trespassing sign would work at a private residence but a sign asking people to turn off their cell phones would only work at a theatre.
As it is Written, So it shall Be
3 significant charges
Create a magical writing that readers will be sure is true. It, and the illusion it creates, fade after a couple of hours, and quicker the more disbelief is applied to it (number of readers and degree of doubt).
The Forbidden Tome
3 significant charges
Write a text that causes madness. Writing it transforms one of your Hardened Stress notches into a Failed one. Anybody reading the text must make a rank 10 – Unnatural stress check.
Major Effects
Book Burning
Make all copies of a certain book unreadable. This can have a profound effect on civilization.