Exploring the Implied Worldbuilding of Random Spell-School-Swapping

This post was inspired by a spell description that the players discussed in the 3d6 Down the Line podcast (I can’t recall which episode). The spell provided a haste-style effect, but instead of transmutation or similar, it was actually illusion magic – it fooled the recipient into thinking that they weren’t actually tired and had more energy available to go fast.

What if we pick spells and schools randomly, and then try to work backward to explain how that would possibly make sense? These could create some interesting forms of magic, or imply unusual worldbuilding choices. We’ll also list more sensible alternatives.  

Telepathy

Current school: Evocation
Random conversion prompt: Conjuration
The sensible alternative: Divination

Well, I suppose you’re "conjuring" thoughts in someone’s head… but generally conjuration is distinguished from other magic by “creating a tangible thing.” So perhaps a conjuration-themed form of telepathy actually externalizes the thoughts sent in either direction, making them externalize as literal manifestations of the transmitted thought.

Spells like Detect Thoughts are divination spells, so it would make sense if another spell meant to connect to another mind would land in the divination school as well. Looking through the other communication spells, it’s interesting how they differ. Note that Sending, like Telepathy, is evocation, but Message is… transmutation? Weird.

Web

Current school: Conjuration
Random conversion prompt: Necromancy
The sensible alternative: Transmutation 

We can make this one work, but you’re not going to like it. Spider silk is made of protein, like human hair. A necromantic web spell manifests the lingering hair of the dead to form its binding strands. Gross.

Transmutation would be the more obvious choice, as many transmutation spells mimic animal and monster abilities, and this would bring it into line with Spider Climb. In moving from conjuration to transmutation, the webs should not appear out of thin air but rather be a transformed spell component, or the caster briefly gaining Tobey Maguire-style spinnerets.

Awaken

Current school: Transmutation
Random conversion prompt: Enchantment
The sensible alternative: Necromancy

Awaken is a spell that grants average intelligence to a beast or plant. It also charms them, so Enchantment is the next most-obvious choice. But it suggests an interesting worldbuilding difference. If you transmute a creature to make it more intelligent, you are creating intelligence where none was before. Whereas if you enchant a creature to make it intelligent, it suggests that the intelligence was inherent within the creature, and you are merely coaxing it out. 

None of the other schools make much sense for what Awaken does. But Necromancy could work if we assume that the intelligence actually comes from a deceased spirit that is bound to the animal or plant. That would explain the human-level intelligence.

d100 Questions to Design A More Memorable Dragon

A dragon is the single most evocative visual element of fantasy games. That same universal familiarity makes it difficult to describe to players in fresh, evocative ways. 

Below is a series of questions and prompts for mixing up the appearance of a dragon. Some of these will suggest novel monster designs or adventure hooks. But many of them will have no concrete gameplay application. The point is that when you tell your players to “picture a dragon” their brains should be lighting up in a way that is measurably different from telling them to “picture a Toyota Camry.”

Much credit to this Wikipedia list of dragons in mythology and folklore as a source of dragons that break conventional mass-media informed conceptions of dragons. You could run dragons based on these mythologies for a lifetime and never run out of interesting ideas. And it is funny to note how many non-dragon creatures (by Monster Manual taxonomy) are listed here as types of dragons – behirs, tarasques, hydras, many such cases.

A memorable dragon by Iguanadon't

d100 Ask Yourself, What Does This Dragon Look Like?

Roll as many times as needed, until the dragon is clear in your mind's eye.

1. How many colors are the scales? If it's a chromatic dragon, is it consistent coloration across the body, or does it vary (e.g., darker on top, lighter on the bottom?)
2. Are the scales reflective or matte? 
3. Do their scales camouflage the dragon in its environment? Or are they bright and distracting colors?
4. What do the scales feel like to the touch? Warm or cool? Rough or smooth?
5. Do they have patterns? Banded scales, like a coral snake, are a personal favorite aesthetic for me.
6. If they’re bright and distracting, is it a warning to other creatures? A mating display? A form of dazzle camouflage to make it harder for the few things that can threaten them (mainly other dragons) to hit them?
7. What are the scales made of? Keratin? Something else? 
8. Are they perhaps scaleless, like a sphynx cat? Natural, or lost to disease?
9. Do metallic dragon scales make a sound like metal when they strike against something? Or are they metallic in appearance only?
10. How big are the scales anyway? Small and countless? Human-shield-sized? Really big like an armored dinosaur?
11. Bones. Light and thin like birds, or strong like steel?
12. Does it have externalized bones, like a carapace? Scales could be absent or just in a supporting role.
13. Shedding skin, for more-explicitly reptilian dragons. What do they do with the shed skin? Hugely valuable to alchemists and treasure hunters, but obviously dangerous to get ahold of.
14. If dragons are not related to reptiles, what characteristics most differentiate them from reptiles?
15. Accretion of treasure. Superheated gold tracing the seams of the red dragon’s scales. A gold dragon whose scales are actually melted gold that they basked in.
16. Do they have feathers? For flying, heat regulation, mating rituals, or something else?
17. Is the dragon sleek and impossibly clean, or scarred and marked by age?
18. Does it have a shell?
19. Frills or a crest, like some lizards? 
20. Does any part of the dragon change color depending on its mood, level of activity, or age?
21. What about its spine? Is there a mane, ridges, or even a sail-like protrudence?
22. Are shed scales and egg fragments left in the lair? Destroyed? Bartered to alchemists? 
23. Quills or spines? For defense, offense, presentation, something else?
24. How many limbs? Two arms and two legs?
25. Does it even distinguish between arms and legs? Does it have claws capable of manipulating objects on each limb, and use them as the situation dictates?
26. Are the wings unusual? Feathered? Bat-like? Manta-like? Jellyfish-like? Don’t worry too much about the physics of how the dragon stays aloft, just think about an evocative way to describe how they fly.
27. When it flies, does it cruise like a raptor? Or flap constantly? Can it bank tightly or does it have a wide turning radius?
28. Is the skin of its wings translucent? Same color as the scales, or contrasting?
29. Does it shed talons?
30. Any vestigial wings or legs?
31. No legs at all, like a lindworm? 
32. Weirder limbs? Tentacles? Ew.
33. Can they regrow lost limbs? Maybe even other parts of their bodies, like salamanders?
34. Artificial limb(s)? Don’t get too steampunk with it. Or do, I’m not your boss.
35. How soon can the dragon fly? Right out of the egg? If not, how long? Does a parent protect it or is it immediately on its own after leaving the egg?
36. Does it walk on all fours, or slither, and only use its feet to climb or hurdle obstacles?
37. How finely can its claws manipulate things? Is it characterized by broad monstrous movement, or delicate manipulation that belies its size?
38. Are they rough and indiscriminate with their claws, or are they capable of fine digital manipulation? For example, could they pluck a single coin out of their hoard? What does it look like if they can?
39. Are there parts of their bodies they can’t reach?
40. Does the dragon have a flat or peaked head? A flared hood?
41. Dragons in most versions of D&D have enhanced sight (blindsight in 5E). How does that work? Is it through their eyes, or some other organ (e.g., pit organs, like in some snakes)? What combination of senses gives it that heightened awareness of its surroundings? 
42. What’s the tongue like? Smooth? Ridged? Sticky? Prehensile? Eww.
43. What organs power its breath weapon? Are they located in the mouth, throat, or abdomen?
44. Can you see the breath weapon charging from the outside? Smell it? Feel it?
45. Horns and antlers? Think about what purpose they serve. Do they shed them?
46. What are its teeth like? When it closes its mouth are they all hidden, or do they stick out?
47. Are its teeth like teeth (they stop growing when mature) or like tusks (they grow continuously)?
48. Are any teeth missing? What does that look like? Does the dragon care?
49. How does it digest prey? What does it look like if the dragon vomits? Especially a black or green dragon?
50. How long is the neck? Does it have a discernable shoulders to its body (like most quadriped-style dragons) or does it continue into the body without an obvious break (like a Chinese-style dragon)?
51. What does the inside of the mouth look like? Do the jaws distend like a snake?
52. Internal or external ears? Do they have good hearing, or do they favor other senses?
53. Can they hear high or low frequencies, beyond what is typical of most creatures?
54. Is their breath weapon apparent when they are not actively using it? Do they seep acid from their mouth while talking? Leave trails of fire through the sky?
55. What about its eyes? Like a snake? Like a bird? Something else?
56. Does it have binocular vision or monocular vision? If the latter, why, given that they are apex predators? Don’t worry about making it evolutionarily logical, but do think about it.
57. Can it see parts of the visible light spectrum that humans can’t? If so, would it use that to leave messages for other dragons?
58. What smells does it emit? Do they differ when the dragon is active versus slumbering?
59. If they can transform into other forms, do they reflect their natural physical traits while transformed? Will a red dragon polymorphed into a human have reddish hair or ruddy skin? Or can they hide their form completely?
60. Altered by magic. What spells left their mark on the dragon? Were they cast by the dragon? It’s allies? It’s enemies? 
61. Does it have runes or sigils on its body, representing protective spells or other enchantments?
62. If it can cast spells, what does that look like? What are the somatic components like?
63. Is the dragon a tyrant? Does it have heraldry, markings, symbols to denote this? If it sleeps for hundreds of years, does it want humans to recognize it from stories when it awakes again?
64. Decorations? Tattoos, pigmentation, jewelry?
65. Are they marked by a mate? Do they wear an equivalent of a ring? Or show scars from aggressive mating behavior?
66. Cold-blooded? We don’t need to get too scientific about it, but does the dragon like or dislike heat?
67. Symbiotic organisms. What do they provide to the dragon that the dragon can't or won't do on its own? 
68. Scars and discoloration. Sickness? Battles? If this old dragon fought in that ancient war, can it point to the part of its body that bears the mark?
69. Any embedded weapons? There’s a story there. 
70. Prey adaptations. What does it eat, and can you see the signs? How are its teeth shaped accordingly?
71. Does it consume anything really unusual? Gold? Moonlight? Does a red dragon drink lava?
72. Does it ingest stones like a bird to grind up food? Perhaps only special stones like diamonds?
73. How long do the remains of digested adventurers stay in its body? LINK Dungeon Meshi
74. Where does it defecate? A designated place in its lair?
75. Does it hork up pellets like an owl?
76. What kind of spoor does it leave?
77. What happens when they hibernate? Will mushrooms and moss grow on their sleeping forms? Or do they cover themselves in anti-fungal treasure while dreaming through the centuries?
78. What kind of ridges or protrusions do they have?
79. Does it have an relationship with other creatures that comes across in its appearance or the trappings of its lair? What kind of guests, if any, are allowed in the lair?
80. Are the teeth like huge tusks? Or tiny rows of thousands of daggers? One row of teeth, or many?
81. If the dragon was hungry or even starving, could you tell? What does it look like shortly after it wakes from a centuries-long hibernation? 
82. What fluids, if any, are present? Can it cry? Sweat? Drool?
83. Can the dragon be suffocated or die from exposure to a vacuum? Or does it merely go into a hibernation state?
84. Does the dragon have any predators at all? What does it taste like? 
85. Does it’s body reflect its preferred mode of locomotion? Will it always fly unless constrained? Or does flying take great effort, and it only does it while hunting?
86. Does their appearance change during mating season?
87. How do they regulate heat? Similar to a reptile, or different? Are they slow to get moving when in torpor, or can they wake up fast like a cat?
88. If the dragon is a type that spends part of its time underwater, what does that look like? Does it have gills? Or just hold its breath for a phenomenally long time, like a whale or dolphin?
89. How much does it drink? What does it look like while drinking? Does it lap up water like a beast, or drink out of vessels like a civilized creature?
90. How high into the sky can they fly?
91. How does it sleep? Spread out or coiled up? Out in the open or wormed into a burrow?
92. Does it display sexual dimorphism? Is its sex obvious on sight? 
93. Does it even have a binary sex? Do dragons experience sequential hermaphroditism? 
94. Are they producing eggs? Can an expert tell? If yes, how?
95. Do they lay unfertilized eggs, like some birds and reptiles? What happens to unfertilized eggs?
96. Are they capable of parthenogenesis?
97. What parts of their body decompose? How quickly? 
98. What does the skeleton look like? Regular yellow-white bones, or colored by their environment, symbiosis, diet?
99. Do they go somewhere special to die? Do they dig graves? Incinerate themselves when it is time?
100. Can it die from old age? Or does it just kinda keep going forever, like a Greenland shark?

Campaign Pitch: Revealing the Secrets of the Mystery in the Most Literal Way

You’re planning a game that revolves around a central mystery. It could be the location of the lost treasure, or the motives of the supernatural creatures hidden from mundane society, or the agenda of the aliens in first contact. Try approaching it like this. 

Create a document that lays out the answer to the whole mystery. It may be similar to your own GM notes, but more elaborate. It can include pictures and diagrams. Think of it like a spoiler-filled after-action report. It can be written in-voice, in diegetic language, but that’s not mandatory. It’s particularly easy to do diegeticly in a modern game like Delta Green, where solving a mystery could be expected to create a paper trail, but it could work in any setting.

Give the players access to the document… but hide literally everything with black redaction bars. This is obviously easiest to do electronically, although you could print out copies for at-the-table reference. When the game starts, the players can tell how long the document is, where the headers are, and how many images and diagrams there are, but that’s about it. They can’t see any of the actual text. Be sure to give them view-and-comment privileges, but not the ability to edit.

As the game proceeds, remove the redaction bars from anything that has been discovered in-game. This serves a few purposes. It formally acknowledges that they have found an undisputed truth of the mystery. It provides a common reference for important information that has already been established. And (for players who care about the distinction) it provides fixed information that was established before the GM knew what the players were going to do; in other words, it “proves” that the answer to the mystery is a fixed target, and not something that the GM is making up in response to player action.

But this particular application of redaction does something else. It lets the players see the shape and size of what they don't know. If the entire section under the “Abandoned Mine” heading is revealed, the players can reasonably assume there’s nothing else they need to know about the Abandoned Mine. But if there’s a single sentence still blacked out… well, that should make the players curious. If the players find a map or a photograph, and the GM un-redacts the map in the document, but not the text around it, that raises some interesting questions, right?

They could infer a lot from the organization and the “known unknowns” of what they cannot yet see. Imagine if a section of the revealed text included a hyperlink to an as-yet unrevealed section. Or if one section said “DANGER: Do not engage with [person/entity/object/location] without reviewing [other section that is still redacted]. 

This is probably enough to center the game’s mystery, but there’s room to make it more complex. The GM could tie revealing text to a mechanic, like experience and leveling up. Or give the players an in-game currency to “pay” to reveal certain parts of the text. It could even be a minigame where the players could choose a word and reveal every instance of that word throughout the document, creating a kind of game show word puzzle where they are rewarded for predicting what words might show up a lot, or in particularly important places.

Depending on the desired level of diegesis, it’s up to the group to determine if the characters literally have the document in question or not. At its most literal, it could be classified files or deciphered lore. For a less direct treatment, one could imagine the document as a historical account of the information associated with the adventure. But it’s also OK if it is purely a meta construct. As long as it piques the characters interest in the mystery, it’s doing its job.