Tigers Upon the Steppe: Gray and Brown Mages

IntroductionSome setting-mechanic work for an OD&D game I hope to run in the near future. I've been alternately calling it “Oops All Magic Systems” and “Tigers Upon the Steppe.” This post lays out some addenda to Idraluna’s Supplement Aleph: Chromatic Charms & Spectral Sorceries: the Colorless/Gray Mage, of a re-implementation of an agnostic magic user who has not yet aligned themselves with a school, or refuses to; and the Brown Mage, who uses unleveled spells to reflect a rawer connection to the magical. The magic-user printed in the original fantasy medieval adventure game represents both fledgling and undeclared mages (Colorless) as well as mages who flout the Chromatic Schools (Gray). They gain no additional special abilities, but can learn any spell. A magic-user may claim Colorless status until level 3, at which point they are expected to declare a Chromatic affiliation. When a magic-user aligns themselves with one of the schools, they forsake any spells outside their new…