Glyphs: My Custom Magic System

Magic is one of the greatest draws to TRPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. Players long to have great effects on the world around them, and few moments in games are more exciting than when the right spell is used at the right time. But magic is also heavily regulated by the game's design, and spellcasters often find themselves in the situation of having to work creatively to get their spells to apply as desired. Perhaps, like me, you want to empower your spellcasters to make more meaningful decisions and have greater control over the effects of their spells. In that case, glyphs are perfect for your game. Read on for the way the system works and how you can implement it in your game. 

When I was running Listen Check years ago, we were at the forefront of a new technology and the beginning of the tabletop game boom of the 2010s. I was telling a story about a port city, full of criminals, and the designs of a vengeful god who wanted to see the city torn to the ground. The players were up against forces they struggled to understand let alone combat, and the group's spellcaster, Rupert, used his available spells as cleverly as possible to get by. But I wanted Rupert to have the tools to succeed against his foes so long as he was creative enough. So I dropped mention of a new magic system in a book Rupert had read (and which I had created in-game), and Rupert took to it immediately. I drafted the glyph system, and before long, Rupert was creatively solving all manner of problems with his experiments in magic. In the end, Rupert used a glyph spell to help defeat the vengeful god, so the system played a major role in the campaign--no way around it, these spells changed the trajectory of the game. 

Glyphs work simply. As I note in the instructions in my glyph resource, all you need to do is some quick subtraction. You take the level of the spell slot that will be expended, add two, and that's how many glyphs you can use to cast the spell. A cantrip allows for 2 glyphs, for instance, and a 3rd level spell allows for 5 glyphs. Spellcasters can reuse a glyph multiple times in a spell to emphasize it. From there, it is a matter of GM interpretation to determine the effect of the spell. 

The first set of glyphs; check out the link for all 13 pages of the symbols. 

A successful glyph spell includes considerations for each detail of the spell. The link above also leads you to the array of glyphs and their meanings. Combining glyphs takes the meaning of each symbol and combines them. Have your spellcasting character list the glyphs they use, in order (the order affects how predominant the effect of that individual glyph is), and then describe the intended effect of the spell. If you believe that the chosen glyphs align with the intention, the spell should largely succeed. If the glyphs are a bit off from how you think the spell should have been built, have it go wrong in some small way. Read on for examples of good and bad glyph spells. 

A traditional spell has a clear intention and definite limits. Glyph spells may or may not have either. Let's start with a more traditional spell, recreated with glyphs. "Enlarge/Reduce," a second-level spell, will work well. There are a number of ways to rebuild this spell with glyphs. A reliable start would include the direction the spell is supposed to work in: either "Limit/Restrict/Verge" or "Increase/Improve/Grow"  would be good indications of either enlarging or reducing. Similarly, "Calibrate/Adjust/Tune" could indicate that change is taking place, but a more specific glyph like the two above would be stronger indications of the intention. That gives us three more glyphs to work with. Let's say we're going for a general increase or decrease in size, which means we want to have a balanced growth/shrinking. We can cover several types of size with the following glyphs: "Fatness/Width/Abundance," "Height/Tallness/Altitude," and "Strong/Powerful/Potent" would all add up to proportional growth or shrinking. You might also use "Thinness/Spareness/Scarcity," "Smallness/Fragility/Fineness," or "Weak/Powerless/Stunted" if you're keen on shrinking rather than enlarging. These would be suitable and successful glyph spells. 

But your players might not put together a strong glyph spell without practice. You'll need to know how to describe an unsuccessful spell as well. Let's try "Enlarge/Reduce" again, but with some issues in two different version of the spell. The first goes like this: "Flesh/Body/Visceral," "Height/Tallness/Altitude," "Mastery/Conquest/Rule," and "Control/Influence/Impose." The spellcaster is trying to increase the size of the body with careful control. But these glyphs might be interpreted in other ways. The spell may backfire, causing the spellcaster to become tall and thin with the ability to control the shape of their body for the duration of the spell. Not exactly what the player was looking for. And that's okay! Glyphs do create the opportunity for spell failure, but the greater customizability of spells balances it out. Your players won't mind having a spell fail every so often if their successes are all the more spectacular. 

But the player might try a different tactic. Rather than a one-to-one reproduction of the "Enlarge/Reduce" spell, a player may try to customize. They use "Increase/Improve/Grow" to signify making the target bigger and "Strong/Powerful/Potent" to indicate the way the growth should be characterized. Then the add a few glyphs to focus on keeping the target safe from damage: "Defend/Guard/Steward" and "Damage/Destruction/Ruin," the intention being to guard the growing character as able to resist damage. If the spellcaster's intention had been to recreate "Enlarge/Reduce," the spell would fail, growing the target but not matching the growth with the kind of strength needed to do extra damage; instead of a damage boost, that character receives a small bit of damage resistance until the spell ends. But if the intention was to buff a tank character, it would be very successful. That character would become larger and more powerful with significant damage resistance. Intention matters a lot; the glyphs themselves understand a spellcaster's intention and try to act accordingly, though within the limits of what each glyph stands for. A spell that aligns with the spellcaster's intention should be especially successful. 

Now let's consider a custom spell unlike recreating a traditional spell. In Listen Check, Rupert used some of the more specific and uncommon glyphs to interesting effects. At one point, trying to develop an alternate identity, Rupert cast a spell to create an enormous tattoo that covered his back--its design was to be a symbol of his deity, Wee Jas. Rupert picked his glyphs carefully: "Scar/Tattoo/Piercing," "Wee Jas/Death/Magic," "Flesh/Body/Visceral," "Complexity/Nuance/Faceted," "Imagination/Artistry/Fantasy," and "Magic/Glyphs/Energy." Specifically, Rupert was creating a tattoo of Wee Jas that had some of the god's magic in the tattoo; it affected his body, had fine levels of artistic detail, and was itself a magical effect. The result was a stunning work of art depicting Wee Jas staring directly at the viewer, waves of magical energy coming off the tattoo, and it helped Rupert stay in contact with his god as the adventure continued. 

A successful glyph spell should be similar to a natural 20 in that it should be memorable and celebrate the success of the caster. On the other hand, failures should be closer to success than outright failure because the spellcaster has intention guiding their spell. It is more dramatic and interesting to have a near-success than a complete failure, as it makes the glyph-using character(s) more like scientists experimenting than experts in an established field. Glyphs are meant to lend some excitement to spellcasting, so consider the ways you can interpret glyph spells in terms of where it will take the story. 

Rupert could have failed with his tattoo spell, however. He might have used "Wee Jas/Death/Magic," "Ink/Charcoal/Paint," "Symbol/Suggestion/Allegory," "Identity/Personal/Private,"  and "Pattern/Design/Symmetry". Here, the first emphasis is on Wee Jas rather than the tattoo, and the glyph selected for the art itself is ink rather than a tattoo itself. Partnered with the other factors in the spell--symbolism, identity, and patterns--this spell could have radically different effects depending the GM's interpretation. If the spellcaster's intention is muddled here, I would have the spell fail pretty wildly. Rather than a tattoo of Wee Jas, I would have a drawn image of Wee Jas appear on a nearby building or sheet of paper, an image which depicts the goddess as powerful and alone in distinctive, symmetrical patterns. But if the intention is clear, the spell might come closer to succeeding. They may get a small image of Wee Jas in charcoal on their body where they wanted the tattoo, or they may end up with an image that is closer to a comic strip depicting a Wee Jas allegory than a single image. It all depends, as I said, on the GM's interpretation. 

I mentioned above that glyphs can break the game if you're not careful. I especially recommend it to parties with lots of spellcasters, as it makes the act of breaking down the glyphs a collaborative game rather than an opportunity for one player to shine. But with a responsible player, glyphs will not break your game. In fact, the only way that they can break your game is if you let them. If you're concerned about the power level of a spell, look to a few traditional spells of the same class. Is what the player wants to do in the same order of effects as the traditional spells? This informal style of balance works just fine, and you shouldn't feel hesitant to take your time to preserve this balance. But even better still is developing your own sense of difficulty based on effect rather than input. By this I mean getting a sense of how your players use glyphs--are they using them for roleplaying effects, like helping NPCs? Even if you did grant extra power to the spellcaster through glyphs, you wouldn't be breaking the game because they're using the spells to advance story moments. Are your players using the glyph spells in combat? Now we need a closer eye on balance. Keep your approximate levels of spell powers handy and don't let the creativity of glyphs ruin combat for your non-spellcasters. 

So perhaps you want to implement glyphs into your game--but how would you do so? It radically changes the way spellcasting works, and unless you implement it from the start, how would your spellcasters transition into glyphs? Well, it's actually not that bad. I implemented glyphs midway through Listen Check, and the transition was pretty seamless. In the show, I had an NPC named Tasselman who was something of a library scientist; when the party needed difficult-to-find information, they went to Tasselman, and he would dig up the information in question. Glyphs were mentioned in a book about magic use in the modern age, and Rupert sought more information on the mysterious symbols. I ended up writing the resource found in the linked glyph information as an introduction for Rupert, and soon he was casting all manner of custom spells with myriad effects. 

So to implement it in your game, all you need is a trip to the library or bookstore. Have your players find (or have recommended to them) Shadestepper's book and invite them to try the system out. Some players may find the range of choices overwhelming--it's important to not force them to use glyphs, as their fun is more important than trying out a new system. But if your players respond favorably to glyphs, there are practically no limitations on the adventures they can have. Familiarize yourself with the glyphs before using them so that you have a general sense of which symbols are best suited for which effects, and trust that your players will work to master the new system. Above all, have fun! Glyphs are meant to increase spellcaster agency, creativity, and novelty--the three things that form fun in a TRPG. So get out there, get casting, and have some fun with magic that's as wild as it gets. 

If your players really like the glyph system, you can let them lean even further in that direction with my custom class: the glyphist. With this class design, you can convert traditional magic to glyphs easily and provide your players with the challenge of collecting all of the symbols in their quest to master the dangerous art form. I wrote the rules based on the Wizard from D&D 3.5, but you can still use it for 5e games without much disruption, so long as you're consistent about how glyphs work. 

And of course you want to describe the effects of the glyph spell in an interesting way. Use this guide for describing magic, and especially use color associations with each glyph. If you do, each spell will be characterized by an array of colors and effects which can make glyphs even more dazzling. I like to run my game so that glyph casters cast by drawing the glyphs in the air in front of them, but you can choose whatever method of casting suits your campaign. The point is to make magic more fun, so go with whatever you think will be the most interesting to your players.

That's all for now. Coming soon: my expanded familiar table for every class, random events for traveling, and how to deal with party splits. Until next time, happy gaming!

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