Rune Magic as Thaumaturgy theme?

[Druidstorm890]

A couple of friends and I are talking about putting together a game and one of them wants to have a thaumaturgy theme using runes, glyphs, calligraphy, etc. The problem I am running across as I am going to be the DM is how do I build this kind of theme that is both strongly expressed and and limited in scope. I know logically that  almost any thaumatugy type could fall into runes. So how do I give it some limitation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Haru]

Well, if the runes are just flavor for any kind of thaumaturgy, he could take full thaumaturgy and your problem is solved. As long as he can describe how his magic incorporates the runes, he can do it.

Otherwise, the runes were traditionally used as a method of divination, so limiting them to that could make sense if you want to go for ritual instead of full thaum.

Another way to go would be personal specialization. Much like saying someone is "an expert in history", doesn't mean he knows everything there is to know. In reality, he'll know a lot about say the civil war because he studied extensively, while he knows next to nothing about china during the ming dynasty. Yet both fall under the category of "history".
The same is true for wizards. The runes are not so much a theme but rather the wizards tools. If he knows how to summon demons with it, that's what he can do. If he knows how to use the runes to bind a ghost, that's what he can do. If something is out of his expertise, he might still be able to do it, but he'll need to do a lot of research. Just take an aspect that describes his area of expertise and use that as a guideline to determine what he might or might not know. It's basically the idea behind the "Blind Spots" box on page 179.
And if you are unsure, go with what you think will lead to a cooler scene.

[Druidstorm890]

While I agree with your points especially on the  pick a specialization and then flavor it with runes. He really likes the idea of thematic thaumaturgy like Biomancy or Ectomancy etc, and wants to make one based on "Runes". Which while a cool idea is troublsome.

[Haru]

Well, that doesn't really contradict itself, it's just that runes are not really a theme, at least not in the sense like biomancy or ectomancy are themes.

Biomancy can do anything that thaumaturgy can do, but you need living matter to base your spell on. Instead of magically picking a lock, you could supercharge your muscles and simply rip it apart. Instead of throwing a fireball to hurt someone, you make their blood boil. And so forth.
Ectomancy can track things, if you ask ghosts to keep an eye open. It can make a car malfunction if you convince a ghost to inject itself into the motor. You can do anything you like, but you need ghosts to do so. Without them, you have a problem.

Both of those are inherently limiting, runes are not. At least I don't see it. Which is probably what you mean by troublesome.

Is there anything besides "based on runes" he wants the magic to be? Like I said, there's not much of a theme in there inherently, but there might be if there's a bit more to work with. Sponsored magic could work, as well, maybe.

I've created a sort of modular runes set with a player to get away from modeling runes as magic. Maybe that's something for you. The idea was basically to assign a power to each rune and allow the player to switch them out using modular abilities. We went for 4 modular points and the player created sets of runes that thematically fit together to create power sets instead of having individual powers on each rune. It was mainly done to fit the character better, but maybe it's a route you could take here as well?

[PirateJack]

Alternately you could have him take Ritual (Crafting) and have the Runes be Enchanted Items. Of course that means he has to prepare the Runes before he can use them (as Gard did in Small Favor), but that may not be how he wants it to work.

If he just wants to inscribe runes on things and have effects happen then you could go with Ritual/Thaumaturgy (Runes) and force him to inscribe said runes into the things he wants to cast magic at. That's a pretty huge limitation for Thautmaturgy as it requires you to get up close and personal to be able to inscribe a rune properly.

[djerf]

Generally I'm a fan of the crafting route as it is the easiest power/rule to adapt to different ideas but crafting can easily become static as well.

PirateJacks second idea is also valid and it could look something like:
Runeography (or something) -3, A rare variation of Thaumaturgy that builds upon Ideographic likeness instead of symbolic links.
Allows the caster the full range of Thaumaturgy as long as the target is marked by a a runic representation of the desired effect and complexity. In combat Runeography requires the caster to "paint" his target using Fists contact "paints" the target with a rune of complexity equal to the casters Lore, repeat until the desired complexity is reached. With the complexity reached the caster summons power as normal once per exchange.

I firmly believe that the "Rule of cool" overrules everything and so, if tweaking the rules allows you and your group to tell an awesome story the way you want to, you should tweak them =)

[Druidstorm890]

Thanks all  of you,  I have some ideas that I think he should be happy with or at least something that can be worked with. Also djerf did you mean to put -3 as the cost?

[blackstaff67]

Gurps Magic and Gurps Vikings both list the Futhark runes and have ascribed traits/spheres of control for each rune (Food, Protection, Magic, etc.).  Is that what you're looking for?. 

[Mr. Death]

There are a couple versions of Runic Magic sponsored magics around -- there's one variant that's all thaumaturgy and items (basically, you can 'store' a full thaumaturgic spell for later in a runic item), and another that uses the 18 runes for Evothaum.

[Mr. Death]

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,38894.msg1912084.html#msg1912084 Here's the 18 rune evothaum variant

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,31204.0.html The all-thaumaturgy variant is here, just ctrl+F for Rune Magic

[g33k]

Also worth looking at, maybe are the Ars Magica variants -- "Rune Magic" is a chapter in the 5e supplement "Ancient Magic" and IIRC there's a version in the 4e supplement "Ultima Thule".