Reading about things I’d forgotten

While working through OSRIC, I can’t help but feel moments where I think, “Oh wow, this or that would be great to use for creating a quest.” This has happened a lot in the section on magic. In particular, the spell “Imprisonment”.

Basically, the spell allows the caster to imprison something in a stone. A cool spell and definitely the kind of thing that has made its way into may fantasy tales. What really attracted me to this was the idea of how the spell operated in reverse. Basically, the spell can free an imprisoned creature, but may also accidentally free other imprisoned creatures. And there it is, the plot hook. Someone botches a spell to liberate someone/thing that has been trapped in a stone, but botches the spell. The target is then freed, but so is something truly awful. The group must then track down the freed entity and subdue it, if they can. Brilliant! Is it reinventing the wheel? Yeah, actually it kind of is. Would it be a fun and completely playable quest? Absolutely! The only thing I had to do was read one spell description and I have a whole adventure planned out. Its amazing what a trip down memory lane can do.

It’s so easy to forget things, and then re-learn what you’d already known. I find gaming is really no different in this respect. There is so much material created for RPGs every year that stuff can slip through the cracks, or be forgotten on a dusty shelf (which is kind of poetic for table-top games right?). A little time going back to study the basic concepts can go a long way.