From: bkoike@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Bryce Koike)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: net.rpg - eliminating mundane magic
Date: 5 Jan 93 04:40:23 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <1992Dec29.035648.5949@wam.umd.edu> nicholas@wam.umd.edu (Ronnie Simonds) writes:
>
>Well, here's a possibility... the biggest problem being that it dictates a
>*BIG* part of your world background.  Still, it would be... interesting.
>
>What if *the PCs* are the ones who discovered magic in the world?

	Umn, this won't necessarily eliminate the mundaneness of
magic, but it DOES keep things almost totally hidden from the
players.  I don't see anything wrong with PCs using the "sigh, same
spell for the same situation."  Eventually it might get to be known
that so-and-so always uses Fire spells.  If the PCs ever make some
big enemies, they might be facing bad guys who are protected from
fire...
	...(in fact, there's a few books and comics where one wizard
prepares his/her spells taking such facts into account.)
	Point:  don't fall into spell ruts.  (And if a GM lets you
get away with it...well...that's her fault!)

>This has a *lot* of fun possibilities.  Firstly, the process of discovering
>how to cast spells could form a campaign in itself!  After months (real time-
>more like years in a game) of truly heroic effort, the players gain power
>literally unimagined in their world... for a little while.  Let em have fun
>being the only wizards for a while. :)

	Yeah, I can see the power trips now!!!  Easily surmounted by
how suspicious spellcasters would be (and possibly hated, hunted,
and feared...lotsa extra baggage when it comes to being a
spellcaster).
	Such views toward spellcasters may actually get worse as
more people discover spellcasting.  None of this AD&D Magical
Rennaissance!

>Of course, eventually there'll be others who want to take advantage of magic.
>Just a few, at first... but before long, either through direct conflict or use
>of the same spell, the would-be mages will learn about each other.  The more
>the PCs lean on unimaginative spells any Joe could think up, of course, the
>quicker they'll learn someone else is dipping into the limited till of spells!

	Not all mages would learn about each other.  Some would
retreat into hiding, some might form secret societies, etc.  In some
ways it might even become a magical arms race -- who will be the
most powerful mage the fastest?  (Of course as time goes on, this
too can become tedious..."Yeah, I can cast a fireball in two
seconds, no problem...")
	Only drawback is that there's no really powerful mages
available in this type of world (sniff...the Big Nasty Evil wizards
are so fun to play with), but that's not a big price to pay.

>Magic use can be kept to a reasonable level with this system, I think.  You can
>literally count all the mages in the universe on your fingers for quite some
>time if you play your cards right... so keeping track of *every* spell ever
>cast becomes reasonable.

	If you have to keep track of this.  In AD&D the solution is
simple: regulate the spells players can get their hands on.  In
GURPS it's more difficult (unless you do the same AD&D thing or you
restrict the available spells).  In fact, the best GURPS advice is
to have only a few mages in the party (preferably 1) and keep a list
of all the spells players have.
	In my own spell casting rules (tentatively for GURPS, but
I'm not done yet), spells are very difficult to cast.  You're asking
a lot if you expect a spellcaster to be able to cast a spell in a
handful of seconds.  (I mean, am I the only person who thinks that 1
second to cast a spell is far too short?)  It *CAN* be done, but the
mage takes a massive penalty for such spell casting.  Mages CAN
"hang" spells (a la Amber and AD&D...) which allows them to have a
small number of spells ready to be unleashed at a thought.  They can
still cast spells the normal way...long, careful, and slowly.  (This
is roughly just a few additions to normal GURPS magic.  Fatigue and
time is higher, but for every minute 1 fatigue is reduced from the
cost or you have a +1 to cast.  Also, casting spells is a contest of
skills versus a "mana" skill level of 15.  Well, enough of that...)

>possibilities.  Everything else I can think of is ugly. :P ("Let's see, there's
>a 54% chance some wizard has used a purple fireball using the law of Contagion
>before..." *roll*)

	Ugly?  Works fine if you and your players don't spend every
second of the game figuring out percentages and crap.  (One method
around this is to take away the mage's spell sheet and just give the
player a list of spells and a general rating of how good the
character is at it..."fireball -- good, levitate -- poor"...and so
on.  Or give players 5 seconds to figure out what spell to cast in
combat.  If the mage has a lot of time to prepare, I have nothing
against the player consulting her character sheet and determining
the best spell to use.  If the mage has practiced the spell, she
better damn well know how well she can cast it!)

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