Spells and Poetry

[Malcadon]

"East winds that blow
Have you as their source
Into my hands
Ignite all their force!
FLARE ARROW!"

Years ago, I considered the idea of attaching poems to spells, so players have to recite it when casting a spell (but not magic items, as they would have a one or two word component to activate its spell-like effects, with clues laid out on the item). The idea was to add a level of immersion to the role-playing and to add a level of tension, as there is a good chance of magic miss-fire if you cant recite it right, but it fell flat as I'm not a poet and my focus turned towards more "Carcosain" style of spell-casting, which is already flavored with drown-out rituals (Although, it would add to the flavor to such a spell-casting system).

So what do you guys think of such a verbal prop?

[gentleman john]

It's a technique we have used in the past, in both TT and LARP, and it does add a certain something to the situation. In the LARP settings, it was important as it alerted the surrounding players that something was going on, and the length of the verbal component reflected the complexity of the spell. In the TT settings, it was just plain, good atmosphere.

Don't restrict your players though. If they do decide to use actual verbal components, let their creativity reign. It adds to the individuality of the character.

[Skathros]

If it works for you and your group, that's great! For my bunch of players, it really wouldnt work out well. We're not really poetry kinda guys. Bashing orc heads? Yes. Poetry? Not so much.

[Malcadon]

I'm not much into poetry myself, save for some warrior poetry like what you find in the works of REH - Damn that guy can write stuff that could put hair on your chest!

[Blood axe]

Maybe a rhyming magician? All his spells must be a rhyme.

[samwise7]

If you wanted to do something a bit different, you could give each spell a command word in some ancient dead language.

I've grown quite fond of Sumerian for naming things in RPG settings, and there is quite a large collection of Sumerian and Akkadian words found here:
http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/nepsd-frame.html

So for the Fireball spell, the command word might be:
Ganzer [FLAME] + Ellag [BALL] = "Ganzerellag!"

Sometimes the word you are looking for isn't found, so you have to try to think of alternate words to type in.

Magic Missile would be:
Emeĝar [MAGIC] (E-Meng-Gar) + Gagsisa [ARROW] (Missile wasn't in the lexicon) = "Emeĝargagsisa!"

Just a random thought.

[samwise7]

You could even have moments like in Army of Darkness where they mispronounce the words... >: ) mwha mwha mwha mwha!!!

[Blood axe]

Didnt the Ars Magica game use Latin?

[PeripheralBlue]

A ball of flame is all it'll take, to maintain - cause pain - make a motherf%$@!& abstain from his attack, so step back! This arcane s&%@ will stop a motherf&%$#@ right in his tracks!

So, so tasteless, I know. Still, you had to have known that one was coming from somewhere down the line.