Daydreaming about a game about playing a wizard’s apprentice.

To become a wizard the apprentice must…

…summon an entity from another world, keeping it contained and making a useful pact.

…learn 1 spell from teacher.

…learn 1 spell from rival.

…learn 1 spell from ancient source.

…create 1 spell.

…craft a meaningful tool or weapon.

…enchant your staff.

…pass a final test decided by no less than 3 wizards (teacher cannot be involved)

I’m imagining that these were put together from a quote from an ancient wizard that went something like:

A wizard has been touched by another world. In their tome you will find their elder’s magic, an understanding of their enemy’s spells and an arcane creation all their own. They have crafted their own arcane implement and hold their staff proudly.

What kind of arcane practitioner(s) teaches you?

A Hedge Wizard

The Hedge Wizard’s tower is…

…half a day’s walk from a grateful village.

…at the crossroads of a long-dead empire’s trade routes.

…or at the foot of the mountain where the dragon they helped hunt was slain.

…at the entrance to a demon-haunted gorge.

A Court Sorcerer

The monarch they serve is…

…impossibly young, at the mercy of a noble council.

…dying, with vultures circling to take the throne.

…or in the prime of their power, trying to stop a civil war from erupting.

…away at war.

A Back-alley Warlock

To survive the warlock is…

…in hiding.

…a lone player in an active criminal web.

…a crime lord of an up-and-coming syndicate.

…trying desperately to stop a Mage War.

A War Mage

This mage serves…

…a mercenary company they helped found.

…in a storied company of the Emperor’s Legion.

…in a rebel cell attempting to topple a throne.

…in a ducal army, laying siege to their hated rival.

A Boneyard Necromancer

The Boneyard is a…

…necropolis built by long-gone civilization.

…a dragon cemetery where these mythic beasts go when they die.

…an ancient battlefield, still scarred by arcane weapons, whose energies are lost to time.

…a city’s labyrinth of tombs.

A Country Witch

Her hut is currently…

…at the edge of a haunted forest.

…among a ring of villages plagued by bandits.

…along the coast, where frothing raiders often land.

…in land claimed by a corrupt cabal of knights.

An Arcane College

This college was founded in…

…an ancient city where magic was said to be born.

…a library built atop the world.

…an otherworldly borderlands where alien beings frequently wander through.

…a remote island where the first sorcerer was punished after stealing arcane fire from the gods.

Was your apprentice sent to learn magic because of one or more of the follow reasons or is there another?

You summoned something fell and lost control of it.

You attempted to marshal elemental forces.

You found your teacher so you could learn some mystery that only arcane arts can solve.

You fell into another world and came back marked by the experience in ways that made home uncomfortable for you.

You see something wrong with the world that you currently believe only magic can change.

Tempted to use Fighting and Why It is Horrible for any violence.

When you cast a spell, tell your friends what energy from this world or another that you are attempting to manipulate and to what effect.

The GM will tell you one or more of the following:

It works as you intended but…

…does something surprising.

…and the landcape’s buried history exerts some influence.

…but demands more than you had anticipated.

…but plants a seed that will bear fell fruit later.

You have forgotten or misunderstood a vital lesson…

…and the GM will describe how these energies begin to coalesce in ways you had not anticipated.

…and the GM will describe the pain inflicted on your flesh.

…and the GM will describe the horror you have wrought.