That's true -- I love Summer the most of all the seasons (actually, of the other three, only Spring escapes my disdain), but I'm not gonna blog about that, today.
Instead I'm gonna point you to a neat post that someone else already wrote -- namely, this blog post by Max, on his "Malevolent And Benign".
Funny thing is, for a while now I've been thinking about personalizing my C&C campaign by changing the spell names, why not. I agree with Max -- "Color Spray" sounds...well...colorful, but "Sleep"? "Summon Monster"? "Magic Missile", even?
They are too prosaic. Dull. They do not evoke magic, beyond being recognizable as FRPG spells.
Whether they be Vancian or no, I fully support the idea of re-naming FRPG spells in one's campaign. Thus, I add my voice to his. Furthermore, I think I just might start working on a list of re-titled spells and share them here, why not. You totally got what the title of this blog post has to do with the subject, right?
Here, let me try some.
Sleep - "The Slumber of Alun-Zaad"
Magic Missile - "Demon-Bees", "Tizmanthur's Bolts And Arrows", "To Sting A Foe From Afar"...really, it could have all kinds of different names, based on what the caster decides they should look like.
Summon Monster - "The Master Calls The Servant"
Or, hey -- you could go all Rowlingian (WTF?!) in naming your spells and name them after the very words you speak when casting them! They can be fakey Latin, or just nonsense words. But be careful:
Player 1: "I cast Caraz Un Klecto at the orc, for...let's see...dee-four, dee-four, plus one, plus one..."
Player 2: "Cast what?"
Player 1: "Caraz Un Klecto. It's Magic Mi-"
Player 2: "Klaatu Barada Nikto?"
Player 3: "Klaatu Barada Necktie!"
Player 2: "This is my BOOM stick!"
Player 1: "Okay, that's good. Thanks. Anyway, I rolled--"
Player 3: "Good, bad..I'm the one with the wand."
Player 1: "Shut the hell up, all of you, or I'll cast Foot To The Junk on all of you."
Hmm...this idea needs work.
