The tomes which held Turjan’s sorcery lay on the long table of black steel or were thrust helter-skelter into shelves. These were volumes compiled by many wizards of the past, untidy folios collected by the Sage, leather-bound librams setting forth the syllables of a hundred powerful spells, so cogent that Turjan’s brain could know but four at a time.

– Jack Vance, The Dying Earth

People do not like DnD’s Vancian magic, and truth be told, I do not understand why of all the possibilities that were present in descriptions of magic in fantasy literature they went with something derived from Jack Vance’s stories.

I mean, even in some of the earliest variation on DnD, like the Warlock system that became the mainstay on the West Coast, people started replacing the weird spells-per-day system with spellpoints. And truly, is there any other roleplaying game around that uses Vancian magic and is not just a clear derivative of DnD?

… OK, besides the multiple Dying Earth games for obvious reasons…

Spell points make more sense. Having to choose your spells beforehand is of course an exercise in resource management that most people don’t want to deal with.

By all accounts Vancian magic is a stupid idea.

…

…

I kinda dig it though.

No, don’t get me wrong, it is a stupid system, but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

The very first story of Jack Vances Dying Earth starts with a wizard lamenting that he can barely squeeze four spells into his brain at the same time. And I kind of like that flavor.

Magic should be difficult, and weird, and kinda dangerous.

Combine that with Pratchett’s notion of spells that are basically minor daemons in themselves (I wrote about those topics before, Pratchett in the early books clearly seems inspired by DnD and Vance) this makes for some bizarre interplay.

Spells are effectively already cast when they are in the brain of the magic user (wizards, witches, whatever…). They need to be squeezed into the brain, and get released with the formula the magic user uses to cast them.

Spells are not learned in the morning (even though people use that terminology), they are cast and kept in a wizard’s mind. And the reason why they can’t take more than a specific amount and level is because the spell might take them over, or squeeze their brain out their ears, or something like that. Magic users are constantly wrangling daemons in their mind. No wonder some of them get a bit kooky.

That has multiple results in my rules and campaign:

• any spell slot can be taken over by a lower level spell. I don’t think anyone ever thought about that, but it might make sense. You might really need a specific 1st level spell instead of that one 2nd level spell you have

• every spell can only be learned once a day. Spells don’t like sharing a room with themselves.

• scrolls can only be used by people trained in them because the spell contained might decide to take over the caster instead. This does not just happen from looking at a scroll at least.

• magic users are trained in spell handling, but sometimes a rather embarrassing and dangerous misfire can happen. In that case spells in a MU’s mind are released improperly and at once. Spells might cast themselves, others just look for empty brainspace in other minds around to hang out in.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/10/21/worldbuilding-paean-to-vance/