Spell-less magic system for summoning

[Yora]

I am working on a setting based on a game system that doesn't really have spells. What magic there is is basically telepathy and premonition.

However, in that setting, spirits do have the ability to magically change reality. And when someone wants to do something with magic, you have to get a spirit to do it for you. I want to develop things and methods that can persuade spirits to do what you want into a basic magic system. The idea is that at some point, players will be able to come up with their own ideas how a spirit might be coerced, just based on the things they've seen NPCs do and use successfully.

I already got a couple of ideas so far:

Since spirits can not see human faces, people use masks to identify themselves to them. This makes it very easy to hide your identity from spirits by wearing a new mask, or to impersonate others by stealing their masks.

Spirits have an aversion to iron, and impaling them on iron stakes paralyzes them. If you can get at them and catch them in a physical form. Or you can try to target the true source of their power, like the tree of a dryad.

Iron chains drain the strength from spirits snd rob them of their magical powers. The perfect method to keeping them imprisoned.

Spirits heal almost all injuries instantly. Except for fire, which hurts them just as much as any mortals. Unfortunately that means they don't burn very well, but it's at least one more option in the sortiment. Fire works really well to destroy objects cursed by spirits.

Salt dispels magical illusions and forces spirits to revert to their true form. But throwing salt at people to check is extremely insulting.

Lamps with green crystal lenses reveal magically hidden things.

An incense can be used to repell spirits. Either to protect a home, or as protection when approaching a spirit's lair or haunted place. (I really like the idea of putting it in a lamp as well.)

It's a start, but I think witches and shamans need a lot more tools in their equipment. Any ideas for things that have special effects on spirits, and special rules that spirits would have to obey?

[Tvtyrant]

I have been working on something similar. In my setting there is a distinction between two types of magic. One is based on self-denial, where the individual gives up specific things to gain Jedi-like powers. The other is dealing with spirits and devils.

The spirit system I used was similar in concept to yours. The conjurer summons a spirit by taking a drug that allows the conjurer to enter the spirit world and either convinces a spirit or forcibly drags it back to reality. If the Conjurer attacks a spirit and loses they become possessed instead.

Once brought into the world of the living the spirit is shoved into the body of an animal that is killed at the moment of union, becoming the host for the spirit. All spirits (also called imps) share the trait of having small horns on their temples and that something is clearly wrong with the host. Some look like they are dead, others change colors or grow blinking eyes, but are clearly not actually the original animal or person.

A conjured spirit has to obey the conjurer (unless they possess the conjurer) and provides them with magical power. The spirit gets dumber the bigger the body it is placed into but remains exactly as magical, so an Elephant Imp is a formidable weapon but even less intelligent than a normal elephant. Imps in hosts smaller then 10 pounds can talk and carry on conversations. A possessed conjurer is the exception to this, they are far stronger and more intelligent.

The magical powers of the spirit depend on the spirits type and not the host.

[TheYell]

Since spirits can not see human faces, people use masks to identify themselves to them. This makes it very easy to hide your identity from spirits by wearing a new mask, or to impersonate others by stealing their masks.

It also opens the door to famous patterns of masks by long-standing covens, so that the spirits think this heroic persona has been summoning them for decades. Such hero-masks are precious secrets and would provide a plot hook if stolen.

[jqavins]

What other ways are needed to threaten a spirit depends on what a spirit can do and how, especially how easily, one can be summoned. For example, if summoning one requires the sacrifice of a quart of the summoner's blood, and the summoned spirit's capability does not extend beyond washing the dishes, then I think the controls you've got are more than adequate.

Seriously, I need a more complete picture of the summon-control-use-dismiss* system in order to address the control segment thereof. I confess myself a little disappointed; it isn't like you to leave out such important information.

* Or otherwise lose.

[Yora]

It really is the whole extend of any system I have so far. I don't have any more rules than that yet, but need to expand it a lot more.

Summoning is something I actually had not thought about yet, even though it's an obvious assumption in this context. Summoning makes much more sense as the most common way to gain control over a spirit instead of finding and reaching its lair.

I think it's probably best to have rules for summoning a spirit to you, and rules to command both summoned spirits and spirits in their lair. Requires you to make and remember fewer rules jn total.

To summon a spirit, you probaly need to either call it personally or set up a lure and wait for the spirit to be drawn to it.

[TheYell]

Could be divergent capabilities of magic users.

Summoners are more organized and methodical, they study the secret names of powerful spirits to call them. Advancement as a summoner means knowing more and more powerful summoners and their secrets.

Trappers are individuals and less well organized. Once taught how to seek out a spirit and trap it in its lair, they tend to operate on their own. Advancement as a trapper means finding more and more spirits.

You COULD do both, only they are different social groups of magic users. Trappers don't waste their time with summoners and summoners don't trust trappers. Each could be equally powerful, knowing the same number of spirits by name, but you can't really tell from looking at them.

[jqavins]

Or...

A different take on a related notion: trapper and summoner are most often different stages in a "practitioner's" career. One starts out unable or barely able to summon a spirit of any power, so have to use trapping instead. As one gains experience, skill, and power of one's own, summoning becomes a more viable option. Most eventually turn mostly to summoning, and some give up trapping entirely.

In any case, I initially made an unfounded assumption, as the word spirit led me to think that these are incorporeal (at least when free) and other-worldly, such that they must be summoned to the physical world. So trapping, or finding a spirit in its lair, or a spirit having a lair in this word didn't even occur to me.

I here propose a rough (and excessively simple, cliché, pedestrian) notion on which to build.

1. A practitioner either traps a spirit or summons and then holds it, or simply calls on a spirit with whom s/he has an established relationship.
   • The stronger the spirit, the harder this is to do (should the spirit resist).
   • Stronger spirits are capable of more powerful magic.
2. Trapping and holding are both matters of physical restraint and/or threat, by means already under discussion.
3. The practitioner gets the spirit to do his/her bidding in one of two ways.
   • By further threat, torture, etc.
     • This, predictably, results in animosity between the spirit and practitioner, and trickery and deception (or attempts thereat) by the spirit.
   • By striking a bargain.
     • Ah, but what does a spirit want?
   • The methods may be combined, as in "Do as I ask and, not only will the torture stop, but I will also give you what you desire."
4. To keep the system spell-less, there are rules only for the sorts of things that spirits can do, not specific, repeatable things (which are tantamount to spells). The exact thing done is up to the imagination of the practitioner, the power of the spirit, and the bargain struck.
5. The spirit may then be released, retained, or killed.
   • A released spirit may become an enemy, or may become an ally.
   • A captive spirit can be coerced into action again and again, but should it ever escape is certainly an enemy. Since the practitioner usually outgrows the spirit's power, keeping one is rarely worth the risk in the eyes of the wise. But some do it all the same.
   • A dead spirit is no threat, but spirits are not so easy to kill and many have killed practitioners or escaped this way.

[MoleMage]

I used a similar concept for a Fate game once. Let me check my notes and I'll run through the process.

• Step 1: The player determines how strong of a spirit they wish to summon (and what type). Certain characters had affinities with different types of spirits that made those spirits easier to deal with (divide as you will; or replace affinity by type with affinity by familiarity).
• Step 2: The spirit appears when summoned and attempts to fight back against the summoner in a contest of wills. (In Fate this was handled as the player defending against an actual attack).
  
  • Step 2a: If the player wins the contest of wills, the spirit then attempts to do whatever task it was summoned for, according to its strength. It then is returned to the spirit realm safely. Proceed to step 3.
  • Step 2b: If the player and the spirit are equally matched, the spirit still attempts to do whatever task it was summoned for, but it does not return safely to the spirit realm. Proceed to step 3.
  • Step 2c: If the spirit wins the contest of wills, the player takes mental damage as the spirit overpowers them without ever entering the physical world.
  
  
• Step 3: The spirit exists in the turn order. At its next turn, it uses its power (determined in step 1) to attempt to do whatever it is the summoner tried to get it to do, as though it were a separate entity. If it was summoned "properly" it then returns after enacting whatever effect it was creating. Otherwise, continue.
• Step 4: If the spirit did not return safely to the spirit realm (see Step 2b), a new foe is created in the form of the spirit. It has stats appropriate to its power (this will depend on system of course).