PDA

View Full Version : Do you want Indipendent Spell Creation?


MarioTani
Nov 26th, '04, 03:31 AM
Inspired the thread of Sbarron Things I'd like to see more of in fantasy gaming:hail:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23938

I was thinking to ask how much you liked the magic system to be able to adapt to PCs.

In the system I'm using now, I have made only few limitations:

1) Only Elves can use VPP, and they HAVE TO use them
2) Every Spell has to be limited with RSR
3) Every spell has to be attached to an element (there are five of them:
Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light) or more than one (a principal and some complementary)
4) The spell has to belong to a school of magic and the character can only learn the spells of school of magic he knows (but the player can create their personal school of magic)

there are no other rule limitation I can figure out.
I've chosen to follow this way, for two reasons:
1. There's much less works for me to do
2. Every Player can have the character he wants

So I feel my system is rather flexible.

Some game systems, p.e. DnD, prefer a different approach creating a vast spell list. And it's not a matter of System as even generic system like GURPS have a pre-defined magic system, obviously you can throw away that system and build you own, if you wanna, but this is not the point;).

In FH speaks about "No / Limited Independent Spell Cration" and "Open Spell Creation", and I definitely prefer to use the latter one, but there are examples when the setting require the magic system to be rigid.

Some example could be inspired by novels.
1) Harry Potter. In this setting every student hcan learn the same spells, so an Harry Potter Campaign require the master to previously develop the spells the students can learn. This example is clearly a "No Indipendent Spell Creation" (FH. 243)

2) WoT, there is not much research of new spell in the WoT setting, even if every sister has some minor trick she has developed by herself (the magic pool to track you of Elaine(?), for example). This seem to me a case of Limited Indipendent Spell Creation (FH.243)

They are limitations built in the magic system, and so every PC has to confront with them, every student can learn only those spells, every Aes Sedai can learn only those waves and personalize them in some minor aspect; but there could be occasion in which the setting is not limited, but the single way of casting it is.

One example could be some specific Divine Magic, where the priests have access only to some rituals, and this would a limitation of the first tipe, or maybe they can make only some minor change to the way a spell works.
Moreover with a "closed" system the Players have not to know the Write-up of the spells their mages use, and this is useful to create and atmosphere of mistery around the spells and the magic system.;)

So which approach do you prefer? and Why?

Curufea
Nov 26th, '04, 12:03 PM
It's really a measure of either how well the users of magic are organised and educated, or how structured the magic of the world is when it comes to magic - such that rituals to access magic and its effects are limited to set groups.

In my setting (which is currently being rewritten), the major religions are organised, and other users of magic are individuals without organisation, or free spirited creative types. So "the church" has set spells - whait their religion believes in and what their deities represent. Other magic users create their own spells - however thihs means they are free to look at any source material for ideas, and can simply rename one. They will need to categorise how their spells are powered (ie what type of mana it uses) and it must also have the limitations of Increased Endurance unless tapping a ley line (which is the same limitation amount as increased endurance because magical weather effects the ley lines)

sbarron
Nov 26th, '04, 02:39 PM
I'm all for letting the PC's build their own spells, but under very structured rules on magic.

The system I'm working on now comes with many mandatory limits that anyone casting magic has to deal with. It's got nothing to do with PCs saving points. These are all about my attempt to install a particular style to the magic in the game. So PCs can build their own spells. But they can only buy the powers that I have OK'd as good for the magic system, and they have to take at a minimum all of the limits that I have set out.

I realize that's pretty restrictive. I've had some bad players in the past that milked an open magic system to ridiculous levels, and I have yet to see a magic system done in HERO that I thought felt much like magic at all. So, I'm trying to come up with something that handles these two issues.

arcady
Nov 27th, '04, 07:53 PM
I have a fairly tightly controlled systen as well. Players are left to design the actual spells their characters use, but the system is built with a very strict set of guidelines in order to recreate the style of magic used in my fiction.

<ilayer src="http://home.pacbell.net/arcady0/fahla/Gaming/magic_Hero.html" height=500 width=100%></ilayer><iframe src="http://home.pacbell.net/arcady0/fahla/Gaming/magic_Hero.html" height=500 width=100%></iframe>

Curufea
Nov 28th, '04, 02:55 PM
Very nice!
And would fit well with the use of Ley Lines from my other thread too...

I'll skip writing a magic system altogether for my game, just write up the Ley Lines and have some house rules to modify your system slightly to use them :)
Mainly just combining the religious elements...