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Spell: The RPG

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All of existence and nonexistence, reality and surreality, is spoken in a Universal Language. It describes all the laws of the universe: what is and what is not, everything that ever happened and ever will, won’t, or can’t. This language is beyond the full comprehension of any mortal, though a rare few have an ear for it. These individuals can translate the Universal Language into familiar glyphs and, from there, spell out new descriptions, new laws, new realities.

Spell: The RPG is a complete, original tabletop roleplaying game using six-sided dice and letter tiles. Roll dice to complete tasks with Impulses – stats that describe a character’s motivations and personality. Draw random letter tiles to spell out magic abilities and keep the best spells to use again and again. This system balances creativity and potential with fair and streamlined mechanics.

Front & Back Cover art by Nathalie Fourdraine. Interior art by Leigh Luna.

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Reviews (1)
Discussions (7)
Customer avatar
Karl K October 21, 2023 4:07 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Do spell levels do anything mechanical, or are they just for flavor?
Customer avatar
Mauricio P August 16, 2023 2:13 am UTC
WOW!!
What a interesting idea to implement the magic. It's like the concept of magic in the celtic culture with all that about the "spoken word has power" and about "not writing anything" of the Greek philosophers. And this reminds me something about The Lord of the Rings in that there are no spells but you do magic verbalizing the effect you want, trying to impose your will and power to alter reality (like Gandalf when he said who he was with all his titles of power (to give himself more strength/power) and said who the Balrog was (in such a way that it lowered him to having to obey) and finally told him "You shall not pass" and repeated it to him to try to give him even more power with emphasis). Although the magic in the Lord of the Rings largely depends on the power that your spirit possesses, that's why you kind of lose life energy every time you use magic and if you create magical objects you are reducing the magical power that you possess to put it into that object, whereupon...See more
Customer avatar
David Antonio G January 23, 2023 3:01 pm UTC
Hey! I'm loving this game but I have two questions.
First, does level affect how many points I have to invest into my traits? Like, 3 per level means that at level two I'd have to invest 6, level three 9, and so on? Or is it three points every level?

Second question, I can't seem to find how to make enemy NPCs :( A section talking about that would be much appreciated!
Customer avatar
Richard B May 01, 2022 9:58 am UTC
PURCHASER
What is the distribution of the letter tiles?

Note that neither the website generator nor the app mentioned on the Kickstarter appear to be available at this time.
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Customer avatar
Taylor S May 10, 2022 1:11 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Here's the distribution:
2x: J, K, Q, V, X, Z, wild
3x: B, F, G, P, Y
4x: C, M, U, W
5x: D, H, L, N, R, S
6x: I, O
7x: A
8x: E, T

Unfortunately, a WordPress update disabled the html the generator uses, so it's no longer functional. I've set the link up now to redirect to this fan-made generator: https://itch.io/embed-upload/4734227?color=472D48
Customer avatar
Matthew G January 20, 2020 6:54 pm UTC
Spell is a really fun take on a role-playing game, and very approachable. There are still dice, although you'll only need six-sided dice to play. The more interesting items you'll need is a collection of letter tiles, exactly like those found in a popular spelling board game.

The magic is unique in that you don't just pick an effect from a list and say "this happens". Instead you choose an Impulse, like Action, Feel, or Hope, then draw a number of letter tiles, and finally spell the name of the spell. In this way, magic is flexible and interpretive. There are mechanics for retaining letters for future casting, spells that don't cast properly, and other mundane actions you can take.

What I find most interesting about the book is that there is a lot of supplemental material, like settings, themes, companions, and magic items. All in all, this is a great addition to your shelf. Spell is a unique take on role-playing that offers you an endless world of opportunities based around...See more
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Customer avatar
Mauricio P August 16, 2023 1:34 am UTC
I would say that the cover art, especially, is amazing... perfect design to make an animated cartoon of the style or features like Steven Universe, Amphibia or The Owl House.
Customer avatar
Kage G November 12, 2019 8:19 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hey, I have the original beta ruleset, and I'm trying to see if it would be good to pick the newer version up. What are the differences between the beta version and this one? I've also found that the link I have from said older version isn't working anymore. Is there a new site for the tile generation?

Thank you for making this! I've gotten so much inspiration from Spell and can't wait to finally get to actually play it again next week!

-Kage
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Customer avatar
Taylor S November 15, 2019 4:56 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Kage! I'm happy to hear you've enjoyed Spell!

The updated version makes a lot of minor and editing changes, as well as a handful of major changes and additions. Impulses are renamed and clarified, there's a new system for rewarding rp moments by giving tiles, there's a whole new chapter on creatures (from familiars to bosses to massive summons) which also doubles as stat block examples, there's a chapter on magical items, and expanded clarification on unique spells for healing, helping, and cursing characters. I think you'd have fun exploring the new material, but the skeleton of the game will still feel very familiar.

Gosh, you're right! It looks like the online letter generator broke when I updated the sites theme. It's now been updated (and is at the same link) and is back in action!
http://whimsymachinegames.com/letter-generator/

Thanks again,
Taylor Smith
Whimsy Machine
Customer avatar
John-Michael W July 11, 2019 12:14 pm UTC
Hi there. I have a question. Does using scrabble tiles in a published RPG such as this somehow come into copyright conflict with Hasbros Scrabble? If I was to create an rpg with a scrabble tile mechanic, would i need to inform them of this?

thx and greetings

John-Michael
Reply
Customer avatar
Taylor S July 11, 2019 2:24 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hey John-Michael! Spell: The RPG uses its own unique set of letter tiles. They have a different distribution of letters and don't have the little numbers that Scrabble tiles have; for that matter, they're also unique from Bananagrams. I make a suggestion in the book that letter tiles from other games could be substituted in because it can be cost prohibitive to buy a game that requires a special set of tools to play.

If you were to create a game that uses a letter tile set specific to another game, I would imagine you'd need to license that property from the company in order to do so.

Taylor
Whimsy Machine
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Customer avatar
Mauricio P August 16, 2023 1:41 am UTC
I'm just going to take a thick cylindrical stick or two, the kind that holds up the curtains, and cut it into 110 slices and then brand/draw the letters with red-hot iron. But if you're in a hurry anyone can just write the 110 letters on a few pieces of school notebook paper in a few minutes.

And no one can impose copyright to appropriate the idea of using letters in a game and/or spelling.
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Product Information
Electrum seller
Author(s)
Rule System(s)
Pages
64
ISBN
978-1-949029-03-1
Publisher Stock #
WMSpell01
File Size:
5.08 MB
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File Last Updated:
September 30, 2018
This title was added to our catalog on October 03, 2018.
Publisher
Whimsy Machine Games
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