Izzy Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Hello, My title says it all, well almost all. I like to do fantasy writing in my spare time and have been writing this story called The Reluctant Champion. The problem is that the story is also set in my world where my players will be playing. Some have read the current draft and like the magic use description. Now it seems like I am stuck with it. While it works in stories I am not sure if it will work as a magic system. I give you some excerpts to let you read. ~excerpt 1--Use of Mage-Sight, Power nodes and ley lines. “It would be much appreciated,†giggled Lissa. Vail smiled at this and really looked around him and saw things, as they truly were not what they seemed by using his Mage-Sight. The city of FreeHaven was a city varnished with age and washed in tremendous power. Vail shuddered at what someone could do with that power if they knew how. “Lissa have you looked at this truly looked at the city?†“Not really, been to busy looking after you.†“Look at with your Mage-Sight,†Vail said. Lissa opened her inner eye and the resident power exploded and almost overwhelmed her Mage-Sight. â€Wow!†“That is the word for it,†Vail chuckled. “It is not just the ancient protections Vail, it is something…what am I seeing Vail?†“You are seeing a radiating effect from a power node. A powerful one with multiple ley lines. †“Is that good or bad?†“Depends, with the protections swirling around, no one outside the city could access it, but from inside they would have tremendous power to draw on.†“I am not sure I like the sound of that.†“I know I do not like it. So to be on the safe side lets trace it.†“Let’s do it.†~excerpt 2--Ley lines--Antimated graveyard--Spell casting He turned around and paled as the ley lines brightened and were sucked down into the node the spirits were sucked down into swirling maelstrom, with a mighty wail that shook the buildings in the area. “Lissa it is time to run,†Vail said as he pulled her around and they started to sprint towards the way the came. A vortex of black power exploded up from the graveyard and slammed into their backs. Vail and Lissa and all the people in the area flew through the air from the explosive force. Some People tried to swim through the air with flailing limbs, but most hit the road or buildings with body numbing impact. Vail rose groggily from the stone street and swayed over towards Lissa. She was moaning when he reached and touched her face. Lissa’s eyes fluttered open and sat up with Vail’s assistance. People around them groaned and rose slowly but some were out cold. A young girl screamed and pointed towards the graveyard. People moaned with fear and started to run away from what they saw. Lissa’s blue eyes turned white as she followed the girl’s fingers and stared at the churning ground. Bony white fingers and gray maggot ridden fleshly arms were reaching the surface. Doors blew off the tombs and many more undead joined the horror before Lissa’s eyes. “Vail†“I see Lissa,†Vail said as he reached down and helped Lissa up. “But…†“No buts. Nothing we do right at this moment.†“So what do we do.†“I would say run away, But we need to get the stop reacting and get them to help us move the injured away from here.†The undead slowly started walking, pulling their dead brothers out of the ground as they moved towards the gate. Vail looked at Lissa and said, “Time for a spell or two my dear.†Lissa took Vail’s hand and said, “A force wall seems appropriate.†“Sounds good. Ready?†“Yes let’s do it.†Vail and Lissa started chanting the spell formula together and both reached out to mana around them and gathered it in and held it inside them. The chant rose in volume as they twisted and molded the power and with a shout, the power exploded into a hazy wall before them. The undead slammed into the wall and stopped. Their nails and finger bones screeched as they dug at the wall. The eyes of the dead flared with a sickly green as they wailed in frustration. Vail looked the wall with satisfaction and smiled at Lissa. “It will do but it will not last forever.†“That is true. So let’s get order restored.†I think I have created a ambient mana system with a twist, I could be wrong though. The premise for magic in the story is to channel mana in spell formula's utilzing chants and maybe gestures. But they get tired from the spellcasting. I think that I want use ambient/mana system but it causes LTE use for every cast spell. So I thought about using Enduarnce reserves (aka mana) and for every spell cast it also costs 1 LTE End per spell cast, which is not recoverable until you get a couple hours sleep/rest etc. Is this idea fesible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunrunner Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Almost anything's feasible my friend, but before I can try and help you I have to know: what is LTE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snarf Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Long Term Endurance. It's like losing ordinary endurance but takes way longer to recover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! [snip colourful background reading] I think I have created a ambient mana system with a twist, I could be wrong though. The premise for magic in the story is to channel mana in spell formula's utilzing chants and maybe gestures. But they get tired from the spellcasting. I think that I want use ambient/mana system but it causes LTE use for every cast spell. So I thought about using Enduarnce reserves (aka mana) and for every spell cast it also costs 1 LTE End per spell cast, which is not recoverable until you get a couple hours sleep/rest etc. Is this idea feasible? Definitely feasible. I think from the background the leylines etc sound like they should charge up the endurance reserves and perhaps even provide aid for those spells the casters already know - thus you would have powerful wizards building their towers on power nodes and when they are home they would be far more powerful than outside their tower. The leylines would be an interesting tactical feature in any map provided to players. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Cross Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! It seems that Izzy's been lifting the magic system from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rage Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Maybe Mercedes Lackey is lacking an original idea for her fantasy setting. Sigh Owlflight, sight, plight, might, blight, height, knight... the list goes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted May 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Southern Cross It seems that Izzy's been lifting the magic system from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series... I didn't know that. I never read anything by her but Chrome Born. She is a good writer but just not my style. Doc Democracy Definitely feasible. I think from the background the leylines etc sound like they should charge up the endurance reserves and perhaps even provide aid for those spells the casters already know - thus you would have powerful wizards building their towers on power nodes and when they are home they would be far more powerful than outside their tower. The leylines would be an interesting tactical feature in any map provided to players. Doc Doc that is a very interesting idea, never really thought of that to much. I want to make tapping ley lines/power nodes dangerous especially if they tap or use them to cahrge up endurance reserves or to aid spells.. I am probably going to use a corruption or burnout or tap addiction side effect or a combination of all three. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! I am probably going to use a corruption or burnout or tap addiction side effect or a combination of all three. Oh yeah - you could have a cumulative transform whenever exposed to the leyline energy - no defences if you are using it to power spells etc. Different leylines could have different effects and you could have it as something on the character sheet - Corruption [5] - once the corruption score is 2x the characters BODY then whatever you wish that to do happens. Obviously the corruption score will decrease as time passes thus allowing the character to once again venture close to the leylines and perhaps even tap them. I think that giving all powers a burnout chance if they boost their power using the leylines is a good idea - possibly a side effect for backlash etc. Lots of potential for tactical thinking and colourful magic. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted May 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Doc Democracy Oh yeah - you could have a cumulative transform whenever exposed to the leyline energy - no defences if you are using it to power spells etc. Different leylines could have different effects and you could have it as something on the character sheet - Corruption [5] - once the corruption score is 2x the characters BODY then whatever you wish that to do happens. Obviously the corruption score will decrease as time passes thus allowing the character to once again venture close to the leylines and perhaps even tap them. I think that giving all powers a burnout chance if they boost their power using the leylines is a good idea - possibly a side effect for backlash etc. Lots of potential for tactical thinking and colourful magic. Doc Thanks for the ideas. Humm! sounds like Arcane law for RMSS. Doc have you ever read it Maybe I pull it out and adapt from there. I am defintely looking for colorful magic and making the players or Characters in my stories to think. I seem to building a very High magic fantasy world. I have to work this out in detail, I may let priests do something similar or come up with something similiar. If not I will have to rethink my War-Mages. Soome use Divine Magic with the Arts of War, others use Arcane and the Arts of War. While the very best use Divine,Arcane and Arts of war together. I see them having some kind of magic/divine link. Sigh what a job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pson Posted May 6, 2004 Report Share Posted May 6, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! How I (probably) would use ley-lines. I would use them as a positive modification on the Spell-skill, possibly with a spell/power that needs to be activated (maybe with a side effect). If you have different levels of ley-lines you need several powers with limitations that they require a higher level of ley-line. Example (no activation) 1 PSL: Spell Power, Limitation require level one or more ley-line. AP: 5, Real cost: 5/(1+1/4)=4 1 PSL: Spell Power, Limitation require level two or more ley-line. AP: 5, Real cost: 5/(1+1/2)=3 [etc] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted May 6, 2004 Report Share Posted May 6, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Thanks for the ideas. Humm! sounds like Arcane law for RMSS. Doc have you ever read it Maybe I pull it out and adapt from there. It's actually one of the systems that I have never owned or played... Sigh what a job. You LOVE it, don't you. I always work on the principle that Hero players are the ultimate tinkerers and love thinking of different ways the system might be used... Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lezentauw Posted May 6, 2004 Report Share Posted May 6, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! In my thread for a skilled magic system, there was some people that stated concerns with using LTE. Before you go using LTE, I would first determine what type of magic system you want. To me LTE is more apporpriate for a low/sword & sorcery magic system. If you want a High Magic system, then LTE may not be the way you want to go. It really depends on what flavor you want. If you want to have a High Magic system, this is what I would do. (From your writings, your system does seem to be on the high end. IMO) Part of this idea is based from something that Killer Shrike posted. This is kind of generic, just something to give an idea for another way to create your magic system. Each mage will have an END RES, they cannot purchase a REC for that END RES. The Lay lines recharges the END RES. I would build the Lay Lines as a Regeneration to END RES with Explosion and Extra Time. When a mage is next to a lay line they will get the full benefit. The further they get away from a lay line, the less they will recieve, till they only get 1/(Time limit you decide as the base). So as an example: If a mage was next to a decent sized lay line, he could get 10END/hour back. Next comes the nodes. You could either just add up the REGEN rating that you assigned each lay line, or use the highest lay line REGEN rating (or perhaps average them out) and for each addition lay line intersecting with it would decrease the time by one. Example for a 3 lay line node. Lay line 1 has a REGEN rating of 10. Lay line has a REGEN rating of 5. Lay line 3 has a REGEN rating of 3. You could total them up and have a REGEN rating of 18 END/hour, or a REGEN rating of 10 END/minute or 6 END/minute when averaged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted May 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Doc Democracy It's actually one of the systems that I have never owned or played... I have always thought I had to many games. I am a game junkie Lately I been selling quite a few off on Rpg.net. You LOVE it, don't you. I always work on the principle that Hero players are the ultimate tinkerers and love thinking of different ways the system might be used... I sure do. I have hacked almost everygame I ahve played one way or the other. Thanks for all the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted May 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! pson How I (probably) would use ley-lines. I would use them as a positivemodification on the Spell-skill, possibly with a spell/power that needs to be activated (maybe with a side effect). If you have different levels of ley-lines you need several powers with limitations that they require a higher level of ley-line. Example (no activation) 1 PSL: Spell Power, Limitation require level one or more ley-line. AP: 5, Real cost: 5/(1+1/4)=4 1 PSL: Spell Power, Limitation require level two or more ley-line. AP: 5, Real cost: 5/(1+1/2)=3 [etc] Humm! interesting idea pson, thanks. Lezentauw In my thread for a skilled magic system, there was some people that stated concerns with using LTE. Before you go using LTE, I would first determine what type of magic system you want. To me LTE is more apporpriate for a low/sword & sorcery magic system. If you want a High Magic system, then LTE may not be the way you want to go. It really depends on what flavor you want. If you want to have a High Magic system, this is what I would do. (From your writings, your system does seem to be on the high end. IMO) Part of this idea is based from something that Killer Shrike posted. This is kind of generic, just something to give an idea for another way to create your magic system. Each mage will have an END RES, they cannot purchase a REC for that END RES. The Lay lines recharges the END RES. I would build the Lay Lines as a Regeneration to END RES with Explosion and Extra Time. When a mage is next to a lay line they will get the full benefit. The further they get away from a lay line, the less they will recieve, till they only get 1/(Time limit you decide as the base). So as an example: If a mage was next to a decent sized lay line, he could get 10END/hour back. Next comes the nodes. You could either just add up the REGEN rating that you assigned each lay line, or use the highest lay line REGEN rating (or perhaps average them out) and for each addition lay line intersecting with it would decrease the time by one. Example for a 3 lay line node. Lay line 1 has a REGEN rating of 10. Lay line has a REGEN rating of 5. Lay line 3 has a REGEN rating of 3. You could total them up and have a REGEN rating of 18 END/hour, or a REGEN rating of 10 END/minute or 6 END/minute when averaged. Cool Idea Lezentauw. The magic in my world being on the high end is not the word for it Magic plays a big role in my world, especially in war. All you have given me many ideas and things to think about it. Keep throwing them at me, please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lezentauw Posted May 6, 2004 Report Share Posted May 6, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Humm! interesting idea pson, thanks. Cool Idea Lezentauw. The magic in my world being on the high end is not the word for it Magic plays a big role in my world, especially in war. All you have given me many ideas and things to think about it. Keep throwing them at me, please. Ok here is the link to the thread that I based the idea presented on. http://www.herogames.com/forums/sho...ht=Magic+System Check out that thread, it may help you out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted May 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Thanks Lezentauw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted November 22, 2004 Report Share Posted November 22, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Sorry to dredge up an old post, but it was the only one I could find on ley lines. In my campaign (of years ago) I had three versions of ley lines - dynamic, static and variable. They were generated through belief and opened channels to the gods for clerics and to the elemental planes for mages. This was for my old Western Shores game that didn't go for more than 5 sessions. Although the PBeM game in the same setting went a fair bit longer. I had tied up magic, religion, belief and gods all into ley lines. I'm thinking of rewriting my version of the Western Shores (you can find it at http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv1&advid=590) into 5th edition and running a game of Fantasy Hero again. I'll post the possibly overly-complex ley line system to this group when I have it rewritten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted November 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! HiYa Curufea, No problem dreging up the old post. I am still working on it actually, been working to much overtime lately to do more the dabble at though. Got you link bookmarked and will read it this weekend. Cannot wait to see your rewritten ley-line sytem when you are done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 Re: How not to come up with a magic system! I've put the background in the thread "science of magic and the evolution of gods". Gods in my settings aren't "where power comes from" but are a personification/manifestation of the various elemental planes. In fact, one of the games I ran dealt with two of the gods handing on the reins to two mortals, to become the new manifestations. So I was thinking that there are two ways of writing up ley lines - either as separate entities, or as powers belonging to the elemental plane. Technically a god is also a manifestation of the plane - although it is more than a mental illusion, and has humanoid personality - whereas the elemental plane does not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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