"In 2005, Adrian Bowyer of the University of Bath started the RepRap Project to develop a rapid prototyping machine which would be able to manufacture most of its own components, making such machines cheap enough for people to buy and use in their homes. The project is releasing its designs and control programs under the GNU GPL. The RepRap approach uses fused deposition modeling to manufacture plastic components, possibly incorporating conductive pathways for circuitry. Other components, such as motors and discrete electronic components, would be supplied externally. As of 2006 the project has produced a basic functional prototype."
--http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Self-replicating+machine

Humans are tool-using creatures. By ourselves, we can't lift heavy objects, but with a pulley or fulcrum, we can. By ourselves, we can't remember an exabyte of information, but with a hard drive, we can. But, our strength is also our weakness -- remove the tool, remove the extra power we have, and suddenly we're relying on our own ability to open that jar and remember the spouse's cell number. MSNBC (woo-hoo, a mainstream link!) talks about how people deal with losing their cell phones. Badly, it looks like.

Magic is both a tool (I move earth with a "Shape Earth" spell instead of a shovel), and an end goal (I need to cast a "Shape Earth" spell). This article looks at the end product, and what tools are needed to reach the end product.

But before I start, let's talk about Von Neumann machines, or machines that generate themselves. One question GMs should ask before the game starts is if spells can modify other spells. Can you cast spells to summon material ingredients for more spells? Can you cast a spell to bring your focus item, or to improve concentration? And can these spells be cast without such items? One of the problems with items like the RepRap is you need one to create one. If these spells do not need components, be sure that PCs will think of ways to abuse this power. Anyway, on with the list.

Spell research. I'm hesitant to add this to the category of "spell components." After all, once you know the spell, it's not something that can be taken away from you (barring the bad knock on the head or amnesia spell). However, research is important for creating any item requiring thought, whether that item be a new drug, new technology, or new spell.

The Castle Falkenstein game approaches this nicely, in my opinion. There are magic guilds, secret and not-so-secret societies that keep their spells hidden in books. Need to know a special spell, join the guild (and pay the guild dues and help the guild when asked). By watching a spell caster at work, you can find out what guild he or she belongs to, which may be a subtle hint on who your allies or enemies are. And of course, finding that spell may be an adventure in of itself, either by tracking down the one wizard who is an expert in polymorph, or by doing your guild a favor in return for access to their library.

Just like the idea with generic versus brand name magic items, certain spells can be improvements on the base spell. "It's like a regular fireball spell, but it waits a few seconds before it detonates," or just spells that have a really cool name and effects. "This fireball burns green elderich fire."

Verbal and Somatic. I'm grouping the verbal and somatic components together. In my mind, they basically amount to the same thing.

First, there's the practical aspect of needing to speak and wave your arms. If a mage is tied up and gagged, he cannot cast most spells under most circumstances. If this is common knowledge, then jailers and more primitive folks get a distinct way to make the playing field even. "Make sure to tie everyone up." And because you can't tell from just looking at a person, they'll probably treat everyone equally, which means everyone is tied up.

In my mind, that ain't fun. I think a lot of their attitude will depend on how common magic is in the world. If a quarter of the population knows magic, then prisons would need to deal with magic on a common basis, which means that people do get restrained as a matter of course (at least unless someone slips up on proper protocol, which would happen given the number of prisoners). If only a handful of people know magic (say, .01%, which means the jailers would encounter them occasionally), then there would be protocols for this type of thing, used on an ad-hoc basis. "Hey, Dolph, that guy's wearing a pointy hat with stars, and Grunk said he saw glowy bits shoot from his hands. Maybe we should pull out the Book about magic." Out comes the shackles and rope.

More brutal prisons have a more permanent way to manage spellcasters. Cut out their tongue and cut off their hands. With healing spells, this isn't even the permanent stigma we think of in the real world. I'm thinking of when this comic was published (hard to tell from this angle, but the characters had there hands cut off), and I thought that characters were done for, until the next comic came out. Again, if playing a tied up and gagged a character ain't fun, I don't think playing a mute and handless character is much more fun. This technique is best left for cut scenes, if you excuse the pun.

And what about the spells that don't need somatic or verbal components? Players Handbook gives a list, but I doubt this list of broadcasted to the common people. Some feats in AD&D allows the magic user to cast without somatic or verbal components, but I've never seen this feat taken, especially since there are much more useful feats to take. GURPS says that if you know a spell incredibly well, you can cast that spell without components -- this makes sense to me, because casting the spell without waving your hands suggests skill in that spell.

Material.

"Over the course of the next century, what had started out as a simple trading company ended up as the manifestation of British power in the East, wielding more power than any other commercial organization in history. As the Scottish economist and writer William Playfair observed in 1799, ‘From a limited body of merchants, the India Company have become the Aribters of the East.' This was due in large part to the way the company fostered, expanded, and profited from the trade in tea."

A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Tom Standage.

Now, this is where the cool stuff comes in. One of the spells we routinely cast in our AD&D game is Identify, an incredibly useful spell when you want to use a magic item without the players worrying about it being cursed and the DM worrying about loads and loads of extra bookkeeping ("I hit AC 25, plus whatever bonuses the magic sword gives me."). The material components include a "pearl of at least 100 gp value, crushed and stirred into wine with an owl feather." What this means is we purchase pearls like parents of a newborn purchase diapers.

Multiply this by the number of adventurers and wizards trying to identify objects they find, and you get…what? Well, again, that depends on the number. If the adventurers and wizards are a small number, it probably doesn't affect the trade much. As this number increases, it causes more of an economic impact. First, the price of pearls are going to increase (assuming that "pearls of at least 100 gp" means a certain quality, not the base price). Companies that get pearls from one point to another are going to increase in power, just like the East India Tea Company benefited by the British swilling down tea by the gallon. I can see "Pearls R'Us" companies springing up, supporting the local adventurer guild.

And what happens if the material component is "the blood of…" or "the bone of…"? Many animals have been hunted to extinction not because they were rare or didn't breed quickly, but because some part of them was in high demand, and supply could not keep up. When this happens in normal life, the fad ends and people move on. With spells, where that exact ingredient is needed to cast the spell, when the plant or animal becomes extinct, the spell is lost. At least, until someone comes up with genetic engineering a la Jurassic Park or a reincarnation spell goes horribly, horribly awry.

Plants are another issue with components. Stealing a page from Mr. Standage again, the English colonies in the New World was populated originally because England thought the colonies would be able to grow olives and fruits only found on the European continent, and perhaps silk found in the East. If supplies are needed and cannot be obtained, countries will do what they can to meet their imports as cheaply as possible, including colonization and war.

Material components are another way to limit the power of spellcasters, although to a limited degree. For example, the material components for "Animal Messenger" is "a morsel of food the animal likes," which means any prisoner that's actually getting fed has the material requirements.

Focus Object. Some spell systems require a cross, holy symbol, staff, or unique item to cast all spells. In some worlds, psionicists need a "psionic enhancer" to use their telepathy and telekinesis. In GURPS terms, this is a 50% disadvantage based on Signature Gear, which allows players to become powerful magicians without spending a lot of points. This also means that if you don't have this item, you can't cast magic.

If this is common across all magic users, this is a great way to limit magicians from taking over the world. And what applies to material components and spell research apply to focus objects as well. What if a few companies made focus objects, or the components needed to build focus objects only were grown in one particular area? Suddenly, a lot of power is being funneled into a few people. Another option is if the ability to create these focus items was lost, and the only way to become a magic user was to wait for a previous owner to die, which may be a while if the magic allows the user to prolong his life through magic. It should be noted that it's a small step from "wait for my uncle to die" to "encourage my uncle to engage in life-threatening risks" to "hire an assassin." And the wills to a magician's estate would be, if you excuse the second pun, murder to attend.

Another idea is that people can cast spells only when they've imbued a substance or under the influence of a drug. The most immediate example I can think of is Wild Cards Captain Trips, who needed to take a series of drugs to morph into a superhero. As the series continued, he was hunted down by the DEA in the "Just Say No" Reagan era, and emigrated to an alternate-history Free Vietnam. If that drug has side-effects, this would bring some game balance, enable some powerful role-playing, and allow the outside world to affect spell-casting abilities. The other effect is this substance is in constant demand, which means there's the risk that the magician's supply will be cut off.

Concentration. Another fun idea gone horribly wrong in most games. The idea is spells take some level of "being out of the moment," of having a mental focus and tuning out the world around you. In most campaigns, spells are cast in the middle of combat, which means that tuning out the world is the last thing you want to do. Combat has the idea of shellshock and gun flinch, where people who can hit a bulls-eye time and time again can't hit an actual person because of the stress of battle. Player characters may be excused from this, but NPCs and scholars could be distracted by the sights and sounds of battle, which means their spellcasting will suffer.

And I left this space for one of my dislikes: The You All Meet in a Cell trope, where the cleric is poked and prodded so he/she cannot pray to regain his/her spells, and the magician loses all spell-casting ability because "he probably wasted them on previous escape attempts." I'm looking at you, A4.

Yes, game masters need to have some type of game balance. Yes, it's a cool idea that could be done once, maybe. But, players create magicians to cast spells, and if you rob the player that one ability time after time, you end up with a pissed-off player. More often than not, I see the components and requirements used as a club, preventing PCs from casting spells, and it can be used for much more. Mileage may vary, based on your gaming group.

Summary. Well, that's it; I hope this column has given you some ideas to play with in your campaign. Next week is going to look at variable magic, making the assumption that not all people can wield all magic effectively at all places. Until then.