Spells in 1e DnD/OSRIC

Does anyone have a good way of creating a spellbook for 1e? I don't see anything on the character sheet. I'm using OSRIC rules, and what I've been doing is creating a custom deck for each level of spells, then the character can draw their spells for the day from the deck, and play them on the table when the spell is cast. The benefit is that the player has a concrete object to show just how many spells they have left, and which ones they have memorized. The card itself also is the spell description, so it acts as a reference as well. But it means a lot of screenshots and cutting and pasting from the OSRIC rulebook. I was wondering if anyone had a more elegant solution.

That method is one of the most fluid ways to do it. The other way is to just make a journal with the text list or a table in it. I personally like the idea of the spell deck because you can put a specific back on the deck then you could make the fronts of the card look the way you want with any graphics and such. Interesting idea.

Yeah, that's actually what I did. I used GIMP to make a "faded" version of the OSRIC cover, and then put letters and numbers to signify the type and level of spells. Here's the Druid 1st level spells cover: Then the front of the card is just the spell description from the OSRIC rules: It works well, especially with being able to choose cards from decks now, it's just a lot of cut-and-paste. Just wanted to see if others had better ideas.

That's an elegant way you're doing, but time consuming, until such time as you have entered all the spells. There's a long-around way that wouldn't actually work right now, but it's conceivable... If one buys subscription, become Mentor of Roll20, you get access to API scripts. If someone wanted they could create an API script that would import the spells and produce the cards like this for you in game. I think that someone has done so with some of the other games that have some sort of open-source or open-content or open-licensed spell lists. I think that OSRIC is a game product like that (which would quite possibly permit such programatic importing). But I haven't seen threads of anyone doing something this extensive with OSRIC on Roll20 API as of yet. It would be pioneering, so that doesn't help you immediately resolve it, just mentioned to let you know something like this is probably possible based on what people have done with other games in the API. There's a more simple basic approach, that is more what I use. The books, or the OSRIC rules PDF open in another tab, for you and the player. No spell book in game. Player would type a list of the spells they "Know" per level, in their character journal on the Bio tab (free text space). It's a simple listing and the GM can open and see it when you want. Then each "day" in the game, the Player simply must type their daily memorized spells into the chat room. "Today I have Sleep and Charm Person." Ok, done. If they cast a spell they type it in the chat "Casting Sleep". If you don't know what the spell does, the GM and the Player can look it up in their book. Ok, done. No prep, no importing, no worry, the game just works.

I agree with that Gold but Gozer's method is a cool visual that allows everyone to see at a glance what has been played. He has 5 spell cards and holds 3 in his hand as they are memorized. He plays 1 card to represent his casting and now it is clear he has 2 spell cards left in his hand. I like that.

Indeed. It would be awesome. I'd like to have what he is setting up, in my games. But I wouldn't like to set it all up. You know what else would be neat? If publishers would/could offer Spell-lists as pre-made Card Decks for sale in the Marketplace.

It would be nice but would it be allowed? Are the spell descriptions and mechanics be ogl? If they are then a publisher could make deck faces (tokenized) with those spells. They would have to chose the system like pathfinder or 3.5 unless they are similar enough to be interchangeable. and put enough of them into a pack to make it worth while.

I'm not sure if your response goes with what I'm saying, Pat. I said if the publisher could do it. Not random people. Sure, if it's allowed in a license, then anyone who is licensed can do it according to the text of the license. Also I'm not remotely suggesting interchangeable spells, that sounds awful, I don't think anyone would use interchangeable spells from a different game. Everyone wants the spells that are in the game that they are playing. Let me give some examples to make it clear. Hasbro/Wizards Of The Coast, publishers of D&D 5e, could make a product for Roll20 that would offer the D&D 5e spells. The publisher of Pathfinder would do it for Pathfinder. Anyone who is licensed to do it for any game, could do it for whatever games they are licensed to do it for. It would be like the modules that are already selling in the Marketplace (there are Pathfinder branded modules offered in the Marketplace currently), except instead of a module I was suggesting if they could offer Card Decks as a product, and the Card Decks could be pre-filled in the style that Gozer is doing. There are tons of other licensed decks they could offer, if the Marketplace adds this ability: Monster decks, Spell decks, NPC decks, etc. As for the OSRIC license specifically, someone would need to study it or explain it, to see if it has open-content spells that can be republished for non-commercial uses. I'm quite sure it is licensed for personal use (what Gozer is doing, importing his own by his own hand for his own game). I'm guessing that it may be licensed for someone to freely share it, as through an API method, thus offering an ability to duplicate the spells by-program importing to many peoples' games for no charge. I'm doubtful that it would be licensed for anyone other than the publisher/author to sell it in the Marketplace, but I suppose it might be, depending on what the license permits. My suggestion is for the publisher to look into offering it, as they can certainly give themselves permission.

I misunderstood you.

Well, if it's legal, I'd be glad to share my decks as I create them, but I'm not sure if that would be possible. Again, if it's legal, which I don't know. As far as I know, OSRIC is "open source," but what that means in this particular instance, I'm not sure.

I make a journal page for each spell. I then create a journal page for each spell caster with links to individual spells on it, or in their bio/info section. I output the spells into the chat using the PowerCard API script. I can't handle the individual uploading of cards, but you are making a sweet thing there!

Pat S. said: I agree with that Gold but Gozer's method is a cool visual that allows everyone to see at a glance what has been played. He has 5 spell cards and holds 3 in his hand as they are memorized. He plays 1 card to represent his casting and now it is clear he has 2 spell cards left in his hand. I like that. I fully agree with Pat. The amount of work going into that is massive, but oh man is it pretty!

Thanks guys! I do like the end result, and I don't mind investing the work if I'm going to be satisfied with the end result. And I just do the spells I'm going to need. Right now, I've got a game with a first level Druid, a first level cleric, and a couple spell casting NPCs. So I've done 1st level Druid and cleric spells, and a couple of cards for the NPCs who use spells. As they go up in level, I'll add another deck. So it'll be a bit of work, but I take it in bite size chunks.

What you're doing is utterly awesome :)