Why I don't like Vancian resource systems

Most people familiar with tabletop RPGs know what Vancian magic is; it's the system traditionally used by D&D and it's various clones (like Pathfinder) where a certain number of spells are memorized and each time one uses it, that spell is forgotten. So you might have a wizard who memorized three copies of Magic Missile, and after casting two Magic Missiles he can only remember how to cast one more. He needs to sit down and memorize the incantation again, mystically transporting the text in the book into a corner of his brain.

If you are familiar with Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, you have a great parody of the concept in the first book, The Colour of Magic, where the reason Rincewind is unable to use magic is because he has one highly destructive and somewhat sentient spell occupying his brain, and every lesser spell is too afraid of that one to be its roommate.

Anyway, I don't Vancian systems. It has nothing to do with the concept; it has to do with the mechanics being poor for gameplay.

You also see the mechanic in the feat design of D&D 3rd edition, and all its spinoffs (like Pathfinder and FantasyCraft). All the abilities where a character is only able to perform an ability a certain number of times per "day" are basically Vancian magic without the magic. Abilities have a finite number of charges and the only way to recover these charges is for your characters to stop whatever it is they are doing, pitch a tent, and take a nap and/or browse a spellbook.

This is a problem.

Whether your game is about hunting vampires, exploring dungeons or trying to escape nightmarish deities, gameplay in a tabletop RPG involves going somewhere dangerous and needing to use your abilities to survive. I don't know about you, but if I'm half-way in the middle of a place called "The Dead Mines" I don't think I'd be pitching a tent and campfire in it, under any amount of circumstances. Yet this is exactly what people do all the time in the land of RPGs.

Aside from the insanity of the idea, there is a larger issue at work; gameplay stops. It ends up being that, because your strongest abilities are the ones which have per day uses, you understandably want to use them in every battle. That makes sense. You want to enter a battle at your best so your character doesn't die, forcing you to spend time rolling a new one then waiting for everyone else to get out of the dungeon so you can re-join the group.

So Vancian resource systems can lead to players taking a nap after every battle. This is dumb because it contradicts the cinematic flow these games ought to have. I mean, in Star Wars Episode IV, how many times did you see Luke Skywalker and Han Solo take a nap during their invasion of the Death Star? I saw that happen zero times, and yet the d20 versions of Star Wars have Vancian resource mechanics at work.

I've given a lot of thought on how to improve this. The simplest solution seems to be to make it so a character recovers their charges through play rather than through interruptions. What I mean is, instead of recovering your ability to cast Ice Prison by pitching a tent and memorizing a spell, you now gain a resource called "Spell Surge" every time your character lands a critical blow with any spell.

So let's say you cast Magic Missile (which can now be cast like in 4th edition as your default attack ability if you are a spell-caster and doesn't cost anything) and roll a 20. That's a critical blow, so you earn a Spell Surge. Ice Prison requires 1 Spell Surge in order to cast, so you can now use it. That's an improvement, in my opinion, because it still prevents the most powerful abilities from being used all the time without forcing the player to do boring things like take a break to read a book when they are in the middle of a dungeon.

This can also be applied to non-magical abilities like Feats. If the fighter lands a critical blow, they earn a Power Surge that can be spent to use stronger abilities. 

Currently, Radiant Fantasia has a lot of Vancian resource mechanics in its talent design. I will be removing these mechanics as much as possible, replacing them with a resource acquisition mechanic that encourages play, as described in the two paragraphs above. There is one drawback to this system that I can see; it causes more book-keeping. But I think it is easy to manage if players use tokens like pennies or poker chips to manage the Surges rather than writing it down on a notepad, and the rules will encourage players to use tokens. That should make it flow smoothly.