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How hard it is to make a rules system for magic
So I'm running this Generic Fantasy setting that heavily rips off fantasy classics like WoW, D&D, TES, Final Fantasy, and the like.
My players are as follows:
- A ninja
- A magic knight wielding blunt weapons and Ice magic
- A barbarian who was converted to Thinly Veiled Christianity Epic of Gilgamesh-style (by getting drawn out of the wild and screwed hard)
- A former Thieves Guild thief
The thing is that we've just started, and I have fuck all idea what to do. I have a vague plot about fighting some magic-user guys, but that's really all I have. I'm mostly just pulling shit out of my ass. My current concern is how I'm going to make magic work.
So this is what I have, currently:
- Magic CANNOT restore others to life or heal wounds. If a party member gets beat, I'll probably have to write in some "not quite dead" bullshit.
- Magic CANNOT conjure money.
- Magic is hereditary. Either you can use magic, or you can't. Not just anyone can learn magic: you have to be born with it. This is more a lore tidbit, but still.
- Mages are not born with innate knowledge of a spell, even if they can use magic. They have to study spells, either under a mentor or in school.
I ripped most of the Schools of Magic from D&D and TES. There is no way to "specialize in" or "bar" a school: under D&D definitions, all wizards are generalists. A spell is not necessarily limited to one school: a Mystical Shield spell counts as both an Abjuration and a Conjuration spell, for instance.
- Abjuration: Protection spells, whether physical or magical. Spells like Kinetic Barrier or Remove Curse are examples of Abjuration spells.
- Alteration: Alteration of a target's physical properties. Spells like Wolf's Speed and Oakflesh are examples of Alteration.
- Conjuration: Creation of objects/minions magically for a variety of purposes. Spells like Spectral Killer and Mystical Pistol (primitive firearms exist in this setting) are examples of Conjuration.
- Illusion: Using magic to fool senses. Spells like Holographic Image and Compelling Voice belong to this school.
- Hexing: Magically conferring a negative effect upon a target. Spells like Polymorph and Permanent Blindness belong to this school.
- Mysticism: Magical manipulation of fire, ice and lightning for offensive purposes. Fireball and Chain Lightning belong to this school.
- Enchanting: Bestowing a magical quality to an item.
I'm grasping at straws now, and I need some help. Anyone? Please?
Comments
Honestly, I'd start off with the lore stuff and build magic rules from there. :v
...that's going to take a while, though.
How does "war between two nations going on because religious reasons, players are in politically neutral zone" sound?
Irrelevant to the particular rules you're trying to draw up. :V
"Lore" is a very broad topic.
Do you mean like "how magic was formed" and big cosmic stuff? The origin of the setting? The different races? The history of magic usage?
How magic works, why it works, where it came from, etc. Everything that's relevant to magic in your setting.
I can...conjure up something about magic coming from the Ether or Lifestream or something.
Hey...that just gave me an idea.
That's... not really very helpful.
Tell me like... what is your magic? Is it a D&D-esque system where you have a pre-defined set of spells you can cast, and the magic comes from the caster and is unexplained as to how it got there? It is a TES-esque system where magic comes from a connection to another plane and basically anyone can cast it?
But even that's only one part of what I'm sayin' you should look for. :V
Here's what I've got so far:
...that's all I have.
Okay. Why?
Well there's an obvious gameplay reason, but I guess I could try to put up a lore reason.
Uh...hm.
Okay. So now you know that you need a rule for that!
Isn't lore fun
Hey, I could expand on that.
Maybe I could give chaotic mages (let's call them warlocks for conveniences' sake) their own backstory. Like how they're responsible for rules magic being implemented in the first place because of people facing down one fallout thing too many.
Because seriously, fuck emotion-based magic.
That could certainly work.
As long as you are aware that that is pretty much precisely how Eragon works so I will compare it to Eragon forever. :V
Remind me to remove elves from the game, then.
And wasn't that based around the power of words or something?
The ancient language was created because it was safer to use than the previous method, which involved... using your intent to shape magic, which could be altered by a stray thought, I believe.
It's essentially the same thing in concept.
Fuck.
Well, do you have any alternatives? I really don't want to look like elven propaganda...
Heaps of ways.
The simplest way to go is simply that the ritual is a focus- like a magnifying glass, you know. A mage can channel magic, but without something to focus, the result will be incredibly minor, unless they're overwhelmingly powerful, in which case they could create any weak effect infinitely as long as they don't run out of stored magic. Probably something for the villains more than the heroes though.
You could also go, I dunno. Part of each 'ritual' involves allowing the magic out of the caster, and while any mage can store magic indefinitely, they can only get the magic out of them via a ritual.
I have other magic systems but they're mine and you didn't say please and they wouldn't fit with your RP system anyway. :V
It really says something about Eragon when I'm running a wholeheartedly cliche fantasy system and I still want to avoid association with it, doesn't it.
Yes. Yes it does.
Hm, a ritual can also be seen as a sort of a deal with a deity, other supernatural entities, reality or magic itself. Perhaps these rituals allow one to channel magic safely, perhaps to channel any magic at all. It's another kind of a fantasy cliche, I believe, although it also seems to me it's relatively less cliched than D&D ripoffs. This offers an easy explanation as to why only a powerful wizard can cast a powerful spell. I'm personally fond of this approach to magic, so that's why I'm throwing these two cents in.
I'm trying to make the setting as agnostic as possible. There are only a few supernatural beings that in-stone exist, but that's a whole different beast.
Then the last two of the four stick. Real life beliefs on the matter were varied.
What. No. Why would you say that.
Anyway, what's the attitude to which mages place upon magic? Is it a craft, to be learned under a master so that you may be a journeyman and establish your trade? Is it an art, where prowess is judged upon by one's peers? Is it a scholarship, where the learned use principles to teach and practice the field and make it as widely-known as possible? Is it a religion, where to accomplish oneself is to commune with the divine and learn sacred mysteries?
...because I have a different opinion of it?
It's a little of everything you said, really.
My current magic system is intrinsically tied to emotion. Emotion-based magic can work quite fine.
I'm curious. How exactly does it work?
Even Harry Potter used emotion based magic, to a degree.
Harry Potter magic is as rule magic as rule magicky as can get. They even have schools for that thing, in case you haven't noticed.
The only emotion I can remember being used was the "killing intent" for Avada Kedavra.
Interesting and fun magic systems are usually based on some kind of give-and-take, unpredictability or both. Video games aren't typically good at this, because they usually fall back on the MP bar, but lots of tabletop games and books excel. For instance, the Warhammer Fantasy setting has magic as a byproduct of the forces of Chaos; failing a spell badly enough can attract demonic attention, or at least detonate the caster. The Riddle Of Steel tabletop game has a mix-and-match spell effects system where failure ages the character (thereby creating the elderly wizard trope).
D&D, TES and games of their ilk run into a problem wherein magic is risk-free and completely predictable, so it's a mechanically standard tool. That's a problem because players won't feel different about using that tool on a mechanical level -- they'll expect things to work out as they would as though they were doing anything else, which isn't very "magical". Even if there's a very clear system, I think magic needs some unpredictability to really function as magic for narrative purposes, and mechanics that have non-MP penalties for using magic are a great way to go about this.
Or think of the quasi-scientific Fullmetal Alchemist. Its only essential rule is that the elements that make up an object must be in play in order to create it. But when the Elrics break the rules or try to play with intangibles that break their understanding of alchemy, things go pear-shaped -- because they're imposing a limited human understanding on top of something that is obviously more than the sum of its parts.
Whatever kind of magic you may like, it's clear that magic with a large element of mystery is what resonates most powerfully with a general audience, and this rule carries over into mechanics. So rather than trying to work absolutely everything out, why not run with a theme, like the examples above do? Warhammer is about chaos, Riddle Of Steel is creativity, FMA is about exchange and so on. This keeps their magic systems conceptually tied to the same cerebral location and allows them to use some unpredictability.
All 3 of the Unforgivable Curses are stated to require a huge degree of intent behind them for a successful cast. Hence the "unforgivable" thing, seeing as you have to want to sincerely murder/torture/control somebody.