SKEIN Issue #2: ESOTERICA.

From the inner cover:

ESOTERICA ĕs″ə-tĕr′ĭ-kə: Matters intended for or understood by only a small group; esoteric items

What The Heck Is This?

This issue of Skein is comprised of twenty-four oddly specific and questionably useful spells. They are intending for extremely specific use cases that should rarely turn out to be beneficial in a normal game session. At least, if you define useful as something that can solve the players current problems directly. My intent here is to increase the level of creativity magic users need to exercise in order to be effective by forcing them to use wordplay to use spells in unintended ways. 

This could also add depth to your created worlds by introducing the kinds of spells that I think would exist if magic was “real”. I’m talking about spells for the every-man, that could be sold on TV. I’m also talking about all of the failed experiments that came before a great wizard made their ultimate spell. If you found the notebook of a sorcerer’s grad student, what avant-garde wonders might be contained within?

How Do I Use This?

» Are you a GM? Start by adding spell costs based on whatever system you are using. Most of these spells should be inexpensive to cast, except for the last two pages. Players should most likely find these spells on crumpled old scraps of paper in places where magic is researched, or being sold by shady vendors in dark alleys. Feel free to adjust any spell as you see fit. 

» Are you a player? Did you just learn a seemingly useless spell? Spell’s that are more general might seem powerful, but general-purpose tools are rarely the best tool for the job. Plus, when you find a clever way to use one of these spells, you are going to feel like a genius.

Contained Within:

Twenty four system neutral spells each with a full color illustration and description. There are also sub-tables to help with creative block and introduce some chaos.

Future Plans:

Additional issues of SKEIN will be released periodically. Physical copies are in the works. Anyone who purchases the full issue, or downloads the free text version will be notified when future issues release (unless you don't want to be).