Use of Use Magic at the table
The Keeper may say that…
When and how do you use these options? All the time? Depending on who is doing magic?
It seems like at least 2 of the options can be “no you can’t do that right now” and that doesn’t sound like fun. What if my character doesn’t bring a weird book or weird materials with them everywhere they go? Then I am saying what I want to do and the GM can just look at me and say “you will require weird materials. You have any? No? Mh. Seems like you must do something else then”.
Reading that makes me not want to use that move as much. With Big Magic that is totally fine. You tell everyone what you want to do and the GM tells you what you will need. The move sets in when you plan out the Big Spell.
Use Magic feels and looks much more like spontaneous magic but getting requirements you simply can’t fulfill right now breaks this hard.
Because of that you can’t really say “I will start the Summoning Spell of Yehavis to call forth a Gremlin to mess up his plane”. You need to say “I would like to cast that spell, can I?”.
Am I right?
Yeah, but especially The Spooky is an illustration of how the limitations of Use Magic are balanced by other moves.
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What do you mean Felix Girke ?
I struggled with this as a player. I was the monster so I tried to use it to do “magic” that had to do with my monster nature, like using my unnatural strength to stop a van from tipping as the plane banked. It was very tempting to do all kinds of crazy magic. I like the idea of basing the requirements on who is asking. The spooky totally can throw a force field around that guy, the monster can mesmerize that guy (I was a succubus). The monster would have higher requirements for the force field, as it is not in character with what he is.
Look at Jinx. Jinx can mimic other official Use Magic effects (do 1-harm?) just like that, with the same roll as Use Magic, but nothing in the way of other conditions. This is just one example, others could be found, but I think it is built into a number of play books that there are moves that can do typical effects of Use Magic better, with fewer conditions and higher efficiency, but are more specialized. Use Magic can do ANYTHING, more or less, but not right now, not always, and not without some preparation. The Hex is a very instructive playbook in how it deals with this. So is the Spell-Slinger. I found it perfectly practical to answer requests to do magic with some constraints. Or rather: I try very early on to make my players understand that Use Magic is powerful and versatile, but not necessarily spontaneous. I think it is a matter of balance. If you take the strictness out of Use Magic, it kinda makes all these specialist moves from the various play books superfluous. That’s my take on it, anyway.
I think Use Magic is mainly for the minor and commonplace magic that you see in the source material. Things like locator spells, moving that big vending machine against the door to keep the werewolf out, letting the vampire nose-bleed, etc.
Casey McKenzie Interesting stuff. I currently play an Incubus as Monstrous.
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I think much depends on what has been established in the narrative. The description of Use Magic in the GM part of the book talks about that on page 196.
As the MC i feel like I would ask questions about how to achieve the magical effect within a limitation. But if the group is not clear on the tone of their setting yet, it can come down to saying “No” if they want to use the skill. But the same can happen if you do not provide enough reason to manipulate someone.
If you have to have a weird material, isn’t that an opportunity for the character to improvise? “and we need a valuable crystal…”
“would this box of salt work? It says ‘Great Value’ right there on the label… “
Personally I think every Magic should start with the Phrase “I want to cast a Spell (use my infernal powers, summon divine might, relocate reality) and want to make X happen”.
The Big Question is if X is still Use Magic or is it Big Magic? If its Big Magic the Answer is, Yes you can do it, but absolutely not NOW, because you have to prepare something, gather people for your background chanting etc.pp.
If its in the range of Use Magic, because its in the list or you can interpret one entry enough, that its more a question of style. All the more you have to think outside the box, be better prepared to talk a special thing through with the keeper.
The rest depends totally on the established style of the caster 🙂