Following from my components for bad wizards here are some alternate means of spell research for my current setting project. Inspired by reading Clark Ashton Smith and others on Hyperborean wizards. Playing with names. The Eldritch Wastes. Elder Aeons, Lands of the Brazen Tentacle Gods. The Orb of Telluria second from the sun Eob.
Also thinking I need
-d100 supernatural encounters across the Eldritch Wastes
-d100 clockwork mutations d100 overspace mutations
-d100 lesser demon d100 greater demons d100 demonic nobility
-set of wasteland terrain encounters and generic dungeons
-strange ruins of the eldritch wastes
This turned out better than I would have believed and helps set the wizard tone. Maybe a barbarian (warrior or or priest) life table or war and ordeals and intrigues
A townsman (thief) troubles table or duties of a priest of a city god. If not to similar to old stuff but something to get some ideas along.
A tower and a lab and a library are the basics as everyone knows.
Swapping spells happens but masters and sects guard their special spells.
Alien wizards, adventurers and people far from wizard guilds will swap more.
They are for the common safe methods of research.
When To Roll
Use one of these for how you got the spells last level up (once per spell)
The current research project of a wizard you murder and/or rob
d20 Alternate Spell Research
1 Travel to a far off land or other world to trade spells
2 Travel to another dimension physically or mentally to observe occult princaples
3 Obtain exotic materials from far away land
4 Obtain exotic material from fabulous monster bodies
5 Meet and trade with wizards, further from your guilds or schools the better
6 Visit black markets of outlaw wizards
7 Join the black library school where devils teach you in return for your soul
8 Solve an ancient occult puzzle or mystery with a magical journey or ordeal
9 Find and translate prehuman writings from a cave or ruin or monolith
10 Steal from the sealed libraries of rival wizards, guilds or schools
11 Find, recover and repair ancient texts
12 Find sealed away spell books hidden in ancient vaults
13 Speak to dead wizards by contacting dead spirits
14 Use magic to spy on rival wizards
15 Infiltrate households of rival wizards as an "apprentice"
Also thinking I need
-d100 supernatural encounters across the Eldritch Wastes
-d100 clockwork mutations d100 overspace mutations
-d100 lesser demon d100 greater demons d100 demonic nobility
-set of wasteland terrain encounters and generic dungeons
-strange ruins of the eldritch wastes
This turned out better than I would have believed and helps set the wizard tone. Maybe a barbarian (warrior or or priest) life table or war and ordeals and intrigues
A townsman (thief) troubles table or duties of a priest of a city god. If not to similar to old stuff but something to get some ideas along.
A tower and a lab and a library are the basics as everyone knows.
Swapping spells happens but masters and sects guard their special spells.
Alien wizards, adventurers and people far from wizard guilds will swap more.
They are for the common safe methods of research.
When To Roll
Use one of these for how you got the spells last level up (once per spell)
The current research project of a wizard you murder and/or rob
d20 Alternate Spell Research
1 Travel to a far off land or other world to trade spells
2 Travel to another dimension physically or mentally to observe occult princaples
3 Obtain exotic materials from far away land
4 Obtain exotic material from fabulous monster bodies
5 Meet and trade with wizards, further from your guilds or schools the better
6 Visit black markets of outlaw wizards
7 Join the black library school where devils teach you in return for your soul
8 Solve an ancient occult puzzle or mystery with a magical journey or ordeal
9 Find and translate prehuman writings from a cave or ruin or monolith
10 Steal from the sealed libraries of rival wizards, guilds or schools
11 Find, recover and repair ancient texts
12 Find sealed away spell books hidden in ancient vaults
13 Speak to dead wizards by contacting dead spirits
14 Use magic to spy on rival wizards
15 Infiltrate households of rival wizards as an "apprentice"
16 Use magic to spy on prehuman wizards of the past
17 Use magic to spy on ultratellurian alien wizards
18 Use magic to trade with ultratellurian alien wizards
19 Use magic to make contact with planar beings in exchange for a pact
20 Use magic to spy on other planes and observe entities interacting
21 Use narcotics that provide visions of other times or places
22 Use narcotics that make your spirit travel to the dream dimension
23 Operate a gateways or portal to visit other long ago or future times
24 Operate a gateways or portal to visit other strange far off places or planes
25 Using a magical relic or item to spy on other times or places26 Raising a dead wizard from long ago to learn from them
27 Snatch a wizards spellbook in a heist while it is being moved from storage
28 Allow a wizard spirit from the past inhabit your body for a while in return for a spell
29 Force a supernatural being to teach you by force
30 Make a pact to a supernatural being to further it's interests
31 Sell your soul to many being so they fight over your soul
32 Join the cult of a supernatural being to learn their secret grimoire spells
33 Help a entity find a suitable host body to enter this world for a spell
34 Pass a test from a supernatural being on borders of another plane
35 Make offerings and sacrifices for a bleak spirit from the dark times
36 Find a magic item and disassemble it to gain a spell used in it's creation
38 Observe a magical creature or natural sorcerers using powers for months
39 Find magic to steal spells from the minds of wizards
40 Seek long lost texts from previous ages in ancient tombs of the wizard ruled age
41 Find the first cave and cliff carvings of prehistoric wizards and study them
42 Ancient dungeons built by wizards from long ago often have ancient texts,
43 Find one of the dread black books of old in a library or book merchant
44 Fight a terrible guardian of a spell in a secret ruined place
45 Eat a divine herb of the gods that grants spell knowledge then write it down
46 Study ancient place ruined by black magic or a magical disaster
47 Immerse yourself in study of element or natural phenomena for a year
48 Visiting other wizards and getting them drunk or drugged
49 Spend months in a black lotus drug haze then come back sane
50 Break into one of the sealed vaults elder horrors are imprisoned in for lore
51 Possess the body with your spirit or a rival wizards apprentices or servants to spy
52 Use of a magical scrying device, the more powerful the better
53 Make donation to a school or guild in return for access to a spell in a library
54 Join the school of a different order to lear student and apprentice cantrips and spells
55 Allow a alien spirit from beyond to use your body for a while for magical knowledge
56 Seduce a more powerful wizard as their lover to learn new spells
57 Find the wizard with the spells you want and kill them in a duel then claim their book
58 Graft part of an alien beings brain or psyche into your own
59 Serve a ultratellurian alien wizard on their world for months
60 Find leftovers from creation and recover primal secrets
61 Find and study the fragment of a dead god
62 Study the occult principles of a artifact by operating it for months
63 Mate with a planar entity in for magical lore in return for hybrid offspring
64 Appease a new master, receive a spell in their service then flee
65 Learnt by living with faeries and elves in the otherworld
66 Travelled to fabled undersea kingdom and lived and learnt magic from them
67 Sacrificed victim in ancient cave altar then hurled into evil pit to gain occult knowledge
68 Slaughtered over a hundred goats or pigs or sheep for soothsaying cosmic lore
69 Studied the stars and constellations for months at a observatory or elder monument
70 Ate a alien symbiotic worm to learn the spell and acted as the worms host
71 Made contact with mysterious spirits in a subterranean cave, remnants of the long night
72 Spoke to the strange chattering voices on a frozen mountain top
73 Read hieroglyphs of a sunken city of the krakenfolk cult from the dark age of sorcery
74 Frolicked with ghouls in dark crypts and caverns, learning their magic and lives
75 Accidentally released spirit of a dead wizard, awoke after months with new spellbook
76 Infected by alien spores from a meteorite investigated now know a new spell
77 Contacted by alien spit while in black lotus coma and gained knowledge
78 Find former wizard familiars and interrogate them for months
79 Kidnapped a wizard familiar and blackmailed them for a spell
80 Joined a angry mob burning a wizard house and snatched a few scrolls
81 Served a temple as a sanctified wizard of a city ziggurrat district to get spells
82 Robbed a great temple hidden collection of hidden blasphemous books
83 Seduced loved one of a wizard so you could get close enough to steal a secret
84 Visited a subterranean city of the ancient survivors of the lords of the long night
85 Explored a cursed ruin and had to battle a mighty spirit to lean the secret
86 Ran through a gauntlet of magical traps and puzzles as a test for arcane secrets
87 Narcotic made you remember past life as a wizard and recovered memory of a spell
88 Stole the spell from a lovers book and now they hate you for your betrayal
89 Experimented with one of the great ruined murder machines from the godwars
90 Practiced sexual rites to have out of body spirit voyage to the dreamlands for lore
91 Contacted the spirit of a elder wizard of old through a relic they made for wisdom
92 Sought out the secret sunken library in the sand which lets none take a book
93 Inside the body of a entity in overspace gleaning spells from its brain spore clusters
94 Bathed in a pool if primordial chaos and reborn with new spells and zeal
95 Infected by spores in eldritch tomb after weeks of horrible fever dreams knew secrets
96 Ate flesh of a divine being and learned cosmic secrets
97 Served a dragon and learned some of its magic eventually
98 Studied under liches in a undead necromancy school until you escaped
99 Joined a secret society working on a ancient scheme to get magical secrets
100 Joined minds with a elder god through contact in your dreams revealing mysteries
17 Use magic to spy on ultratellurian alien wizards
18 Use magic to trade with ultratellurian alien wizards
19 Use magic to make contact with planar beings in exchange for a pact
20 Use magic to spy on other planes and observe entities interacting
21 Use narcotics that provide visions of other times or places
22 Use narcotics that make your spirit travel to the dream dimension
23 Operate a gateways or portal to visit other long ago or future times
24 Operate a gateways or portal to visit other strange far off places or planes
25 Using a magical relic or item to spy on other times or places26 Raising a dead wizard from long ago to learn from them
27 Snatch a wizards spellbook in a heist while it is being moved from storage
28 Allow a wizard spirit from the past inhabit your body for a while in return for a spell
29 Force a supernatural being to teach you by force
30 Make a pact to a supernatural being to further it's interests
31 Sell your soul to many being so they fight over your soul
32 Join the cult of a supernatural being to learn their secret grimoire spells
33 Help a entity find a suitable host body to enter this world for a spell
34 Pass a test from a supernatural being on borders of another plane
35 Make offerings and sacrifices for a bleak spirit from the dark times
36 Find a magic item and disassemble it to gain a spell used in it's creation
38 Observe a magical creature or natural sorcerers using powers for months
39 Find magic to steal spells from the minds of wizards
40 Seek long lost texts from previous ages in ancient tombs of the wizard ruled age
41 Find the first cave and cliff carvings of prehistoric wizards and study them
42 Ancient dungeons built by wizards from long ago often have ancient texts,
43 Find one of the dread black books of old in a library or book merchant
44 Fight a terrible guardian of a spell in a secret ruined place
45 Eat a divine herb of the gods that grants spell knowledge then write it down
46 Study ancient place ruined by black magic or a magical disaster
47 Immerse yourself in study of element or natural phenomena for a year
48 Visiting other wizards and getting them drunk or drugged
49 Spend months in a black lotus drug haze then come back sane
50 Break into one of the sealed vaults elder horrors are imprisoned in for lore
51 Possess the body with your spirit or a rival wizards apprentices or servants to spy
52 Use of a magical scrying device, the more powerful the better
53 Make donation to a school or guild in return for access to a spell in a library
54 Join the school of a different order to lear student and apprentice cantrips and spells
55 Allow a alien spirit from beyond to use your body for a while for magical knowledge
56 Seduce a more powerful wizard as their lover to learn new spells
57 Find the wizard with the spells you want and kill them in a duel then claim their book
58 Graft part of an alien beings brain or psyche into your own
59 Serve a ultratellurian alien wizard on their world for months
60 Find leftovers from creation and recover primal secrets
61 Find and study the fragment of a dead god
62 Study the occult principles of a artifact by operating it for months
63 Mate with a planar entity in for magical lore in return for hybrid offspring
64 Appease a new master, receive a spell in their service then flee
65 Learnt by living with faeries and elves in the otherworld
66 Travelled to fabled undersea kingdom and lived and learnt magic from them
67 Sacrificed victim in ancient cave altar then hurled into evil pit to gain occult knowledge
68 Slaughtered over a hundred goats or pigs or sheep for soothsaying cosmic lore
69 Studied the stars and constellations for months at a observatory or elder monument
70 Ate a alien symbiotic worm to learn the spell and acted as the worms host
71 Made contact with mysterious spirits in a subterranean cave, remnants of the long night
72 Spoke to the strange chattering voices on a frozen mountain top
73 Read hieroglyphs of a sunken city of the krakenfolk cult from the dark age of sorcery
74 Frolicked with ghouls in dark crypts and caverns, learning their magic and lives
75 Accidentally released spirit of a dead wizard, awoke after months with new spellbook
76 Infected by alien spores from a meteorite investigated now know a new spell
77 Contacted by alien spit while in black lotus coma and gained knowledge
78 Find former wizard familiars and interrogate them for months
79 Kidnapped a wizard familiar and blackmailed them for a spell
80 Joined a angry mob burning a wizard house and snatched a few scrolls
81 Served a temple as a sanctified wizard of a city ziggurrat district to get spells
82 Robbed a great temple hidden collection of hidden blasphemous books
83 Seduced loved one of a wizard so you could get close enough to steal a secret
84 Visited a subterranean city of the ancient survivors of the lords of the long night
85 Explored a cursed ruin and had to battle a mighty spirit to lean the secret
86 Ran through a gauntlet of magical traps and puzzles as a test for arcane secrets
87 Narcotic made you remember past life as a wizard and recovered memory of a spell
88 Stole the spell from a lovers book and now they hate you for your betrayal
89 Experimented with one of the great ruined murder machines from the godwars
90 Practiced sexual rites to have out of body spirit voyage to the dreamlands for lore
91 Contacted the spirit of a elder wizard of old through a relic they made for wisdom
92 Sought out the secret sunken library in the sand which lets none take a book
93 Inside the body of a entity in overspace gleaning spells from its brain spore clusters
94 Bathed in a pool if primordial chaos and reborn with new spells and zeal
95 Infected by spores in eldritch tomb after weeks of horrible fever dreams knew secrets
96 Ate flesh of a divine being and learned cosmic secrets
97 Served a dragon and learned some of its magic eventually
98 Studied under liches in a undead necromancy school until you escaped
99 Joined a secret society working on a ancient scheme to get magical secrets
100 Joined minds with a elder god through contact in your dreams revealing mysteries