![]() ![]() These were volumes compiled by many wizards of the past, untidy folios collected by the Sage, leather-bound librams setting forth the syllables of a hundred powerful spells, so cogent that Turjan’s brain could know but four at a time…. The tomes which held Turjan’s sorcery lay on the long table of black steel or were thrust helter-skelter into shelves. And though few people would be surprised by this oft-quoted passage: ![]() Outside of the D&D scene, it was often deemed to be strange, childish, or even “unrealistic.”īut it turns out that only a fraction of Jack Vance’s ideas were lifted from The Dying Earth to be grafted onto the first fantasy role playing game. In D&D circles, it was often accepted as just being the way things worked with hardly anyone demanding an in depth explanation of it. This was termed either “Vancian magic” or “spell memorization” depending on who you gamed with. When he cast them, he would forget them and then have to study them again. ![]() In that game, a magic-user could spend time studying to learn a set number of spells. Consequently he’s often remembered just for inadvertently providing the template for the magic system in Dungeons & Dragons. His stories are superb, but his books haven’t always been easy to track down. The writing of Jack Vance is striking, inventive, and vividly descriptive. ![]()
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