Really nice system from what I've looked at so far!
One question on spell casting: are runestones/writs per spell, or per circle?
The rules for scribing suggest one per spell (since the special component must relate to the spell in some way), but this seems quite prohibitive considering they take an inventory slot each!
Runestones and writs are one per spell. This is designed to be slightly restrictive - more in line with the low number of spells memorised by magic users and clerics in b/x d&d. At some point your character might well own several more runestones than they can carry, this means they will need to choose which ones to take with them (similar to memorising), or come up with ways to carry more, e.g. hiring a porter.
Feel free to join us on the FORGE discord where we've talked about this, as well as many other topics. There are also options for increasing carry capacity if RAW feels too restrictive - everyone has different preferences!
While I understand the goal of restricting how many spells are available at once, it effectively makes Strength the stat that governs this which doesn't feel right to me.
I appreciate that there are options like porters which mitigate this, but at low levels it seems to punish magic users even more than most OSR systems and dissuades the use of niche spells like 'Ventriloquism' or 'Read Languages' when you can only carry 2 or 3 total.
Going from level 1 to level 6, unless strength is a primary, then an arcane magic user will have 5 more spells per day and 60 more spells to choose from but only 3 more slots. Meanwhile a melee fighter is unlikely to ever need more slots than they start with besides perhaps having a secondary weapon or acting as the party's pack mule.
Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate that the restriction on carry capacity might not be everyone's cup of tea.
Just going back to your point about a low level magic-user only being able to carry 2 or 3 spells - this is effectively similar to how many spells a magic user has access to in, e.g. OSE. They have only a single spell at level 1, 2 at level 2, 3 at level 3.. etc. Whilst RAW a FORGE magic-user could potentially have 3 runestones at level 1. Yes this would be at the expense of other gear, but the option is still available to them.
Whilst I do agree that the rate at which you gain inventory slots as a magic-user increases more slowly than the max number of spells able to be memorised in OSE, the earlier availability of higher circle spells (e.g. 6th circle at level 6 instead of level 11) swings the balance quite considerably back in the magic-users favour.
In any case, as I mentioned previously, please feel free to increase carry capacity to your preference. For example, using (STR check bonus + 15) inventory slots will give you more wiggle room at lower levels without breaking anything.
I hope that helps.
