Generating Thematic Spells for Patrons in Knave

23 Jan, 2024

Knave already contains a procedure for generating spells, but applying it as-is to create a patron's repertoire is likely to produce jarring results. Here, I offer a refinement that can still produce a huge range of spells that will retain the thematic flavor of patron they are derived from. Notice that this same procedure could easily be applied to schools of magic.

Procedure

1. Create the patron by choosing domains and a symbol.
2. Create new Qualities, Effects, Elements and Forms tables for the patron by first adding the patron's domains to the Elements list and their symbol to the Forms list. Then select, items from each of the original lists that are thematically aligned with the Patron's concept, domains and symbol, so that each of the patron's tables contain six items.
3. Roll D6 on the Patron Spell Formulae table (below) to determine the spell formula.
4. Roll D12 on the Patron Formula Restrictions table (below) to determine which words must come from the patron's restricted lists created in #2. All spells that are created will have at least one of patron's words in it, but fully half will be composed entirely of their words.
5. Create the spell as normal, except for selecting words from the patron's lists as indicated by #4; otherwise, use the original tables as usual.

Tables

Patron Spell Formulae

Patron Formula Restrictions

#knave2e #patrons #procedures #spells #tables