Goodman Games

My players have found and successfully "read" the scroll. Do they just know it's going to cast Magic Missile, or do they have to cast it once and roll to find out?

Thanks,
Todd

Generally, if you've 'read' the scroll that means you know what it is. You could say "Magic Missile" or you could indicate that it's an attack spell that directs energy at a foe and leave them guessing as to how it works exactly until they actually cast it (at which time you'd give them the options available to them [the spellcheck result]).

I'm curious what else they may have gotten from reading it that wasn't the nature/name of the spell??

I was thinking in terms of 0-level know-nothings, what would "magic missile" even mean? In mechanical terms it makes sense to tell them, "you now have the power to do something n times", but it struck me that a scroll in a DCC funnel (much more so than D&D), is like a finding a raygun in Barrier Peaks--you can turn it on, but you won't know what it does until you pull the trigger. You got the tool, but not the instructions.

I'm curious what else they may have gotten from reading it that wasn't the nature/name of the spell??

I told them they had a "sense of magical power at your disposal".

I'm surely overthinking this, but I really want to play up the "magic is dangerous, unpredictable, and rare" aspects. In Sailors I had the same question about an item, but fortunately nobody found it, and they all died anyway .

Yeah, I struggle sometimes with how much to reveal or not reveal... "How would they know what this unique item would even do?"

But I know you have to give players "something" and it does depend upon the players. Some players can't function in regards to an item, unless you tell them what it does explicitly, even if the character has basically no reason to know that info... And in the long run, it's about having fun playing. Sometimes it's better to set 'realism' aside and just play.