[The following rule utilizes the Zombie dice from Zombie Dice, a game published by Steve Jackson Games. Zombie dice, which will hereafter be referred to as dZ, have the following faces: brain, footprints, and shotgun blast (abbreviated here as simply blast). The distribution of faces varies by color. A green dZ has 3 brains, 2 footprints, and 1 blast. A yellow dZ has 2 brains, 2 footprints, and 2 blasts. A red dZ has 1 brain, 2 footprints, and 3 blasts.*]
Twelve years ago (!), I posted an article entitled "Zombie Dice and Spell Interruption." Today, I would like to offer another method of using Zombie dice with spellcasting.
Each time a spellcaster casts a spell, the caster must roll 1dZ. If the casting is not interrupted, the caster rolls a green dZ. If the casting is interrupted, the caster rolls a yellow dZ. If the casting is interrupted through injury to the caster, the caster rolls a red dZ. The result of the roll is compared to the table below:
| dZ | Effect |
|---|---|
| brain | The spell is cast and retained. |
| footprints | The spell is cast and forgotten. |
| blast | The spell is disrupted and forgotten. |
All of this presumes that the baseline magic system is Vancian, i.e. the caster may memorize a certain number of spells of each allowable spell level; once cast, a spell is forgotten and cannot be cast again until it is re-memorized. Contrarywise, with this rule, there is always a chance that a spell may be cast and retained in the memory, cast and forgotten normally, or disrupted and forgotten.
One could also give the caster the option to cast in standard Vancian fashion (spells cast are always forgotten, but never disrupted unless interrupted) or risk the Zombie dice method on a case by case basis.
* Standard six-sided dice may be substituted as follows:
"Green" d6: 1-3 = brain, 4-5 = footprints, 6 = blast.
"Yellow" d6: 1-2 = brain, 3-4 = footprints, 5-6 = blast.
"Red" d6: 1 = brain, 2-3 = footprints, 4-6 = blast.
