Or is it? What would it take to learn to cast magical spells? How long would it take? What is involved? Would it be as difficult as learning rocket science? What would one’s IQ need be? As a general rule, I think it safe to say that learning and mastering some subjects is exceedingly difficult. Let me broaden that; to become a master of any medium requires much. It might seem unfair to say, but it appears as if some people are just born with the capacity to excel in one craft or another.
Whether it is realized or not is another matter altogether.
Mike Tyson is a great fighter. I am not a boxing fan and know little of boxing. From what I can tell, Tyson is like a predatory beast in the ring. I know he trained a lot, but in my mind that just refined an unparalleled natural skill or ability for fighting. The training was necessary. The training was long. The training was constant and unremitting for decades. Others train as much. Others fight as much. Others simply do not have the natural instinct for fighting to the degree Tyson does. Others probably have the ability but never used it.
What Does Boxing have to do with Magic?
You might ask. You might not. I bring up Tyson for a reason. Tyson is a warrior, a monk if you will. Wernher von Braun was an actual rocket scientist and by all accounts, brilliant. Not much of a fighter though. Both studied, trained, experimented, and learned through personal experiences to master their domains. Both were born, it seems to me, with natural skills and instincts that only needed an outlet. They also needed some training to get there.
Much the same can be said of an arcanist and a warrior in The Game as with the rocket scientist and boxer. At least, this is how I perceive it. Each is born with a natural skill and instinct for their profession. Castles and Crusades recognizes this in the prime attribute system. It takes intelligence to become even a moderately good spell-slinger. It takes strength to become a great fighter. More importantly, it takes a natural instinct in both professions to excel and master it. That natural instinct is the prime attribute.
Can’t One have a natural Instinct for Both?
One of my favorite characters in all of literature is KarlEdward Wagner’s ‘Kane.’ Kane is a consummate warrior and brilliant sorcerer. He is also immortal. That gives him a slight edge when it comes time for training and mastering skill sets. The point is, he is both a sorcerer and warrior. Kane has the instinct for both and few are better than him. Kane is similar to Moorcock’sElric in this regard. Conan, on the other hand, is a warrior. Harry Potter is a wizard. These latter two are the archetypal heroes. The previous are not.
Castles and Crusades offers an avenue for methods of playing all those types of characters. This is handled either through multi-classing, class-and-half, or playing the various classes in the Adventurer’s Backpack. However, what Castles and Crusades lacks is a manner in which to allow players to change their class or take on new skills after the character has been created. This is not a bug but a feature.
But I Want More!
I am like a baby that way. The goal I have sat before myself in creating a rule allowing for new skill acquisition. A key element of that rule would be time. The character must spend time to acquire a new skill. The problem here, in essence, is that in all iterations of The Game, resource management is one of the few factors that supply tension in the game. Hit points, spells, arrow supplies, even armor class are resources that are managed and a source of tension at the table. Time, outside of localized encounters, is not a resource. Time can be spent with no regard. It is not tension generating therefore, in the rules time in training is not a depletable resource.
I have to overcome that somehow.
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