I haven't heard it either until a few days ago and I own D&D manuals, played D&D games and followed D&D news (WotC and customs stuff) for about 15 years now.
Feargus has never heard the term Vancian Magic?!?
*head spins*
I'm curious to see how this will play on a Win 8 tablet when it comes out.
I've been playing DnD since the first edition in the late 70's and that term is new to me too. Internet memes/invented words are just that.
Never heard of it either. Still have no idea what it is. I suppose I'll have to look it up at some point.
It means its derived from the magic described in the Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance - hence "Vancian." The short stories, originally published as early as 1950, described a world in which wizards had to commit spells to memory and where the spells left their memory whenever cast - as well as a host of other things which would be very familiar to anyone playing old school dnd. Some of the names names, purpose-built nature, and finite number of memorization "slots" were derived from these novels.
Also, for 140.00, you will be able to get in on the beta!
Pledge $140 or more
Previous reward tier + we will upgrade your box to a COLLECTOR'S EDITION BOX. You will find a CLOTH MAP OF THE GAME WORLD and the PROJECT ETERNITY CLOTH PATCH inside the box. The collector's edition box will include a cloth map just like the old RPGs that we love. The game patch is an embroidered high quality non-iron on patch. Game patches are a tradition at Obsidian, and we want to share that tradition with you! Please add $20 for international shipping.
Where do you see that?
...
Granted, I'm considered buying that just for the cloth map! I think the last game I played with one of those was IWD.