Which mechanic for magic works best

[Evil Steve]

I'm working up a rather generic FH campaign and have been considering which magic mechanic from the FH book (p 239) to use;Multipower? Elemental Control? VPP? Spell Familiarity (like Weapon Familiarity), individual spells?

 

I was wondering if any of the more experienced GMs have a preference or opinion.

[John Desmarais]

Re: Which mechanic for magic works best

 

I'm working up a rather generic FH campaign and have been considering which magic mechanic from the FH book (p 239) to use;Multipower? Elemental Control? VPP? Spell Familiarity (like Weapon Familiarity), individual spells?

 

I was wondering if any of the more experienced GMs have a preference or opinion.

 

I created many and used even more, but now that I'm old and tired I favor simplicity. The last Fantasy Hero campaign I ran I used the system straight out of the Turakian Age book - buy each spell individually but a 1/3 the "real" cost. It worked well enough and was very simple.

[Old Man]

Re: Which mechanic for magic works best

 

90% of my FH games were run with no framework and no blanket discount. 5% were run with ECs, which people seem to hate using in fantasy for some reason. The last FH game I played used multipowers, which would probably have worked better if I hadn't munchkinized my character such that each slot cost 1cp, allowing him to run around with 25 lightly-limited spells.

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Which mechanic for magic works best

 

I'm working up a rather generic FH campaign and have been considering which magic mechanic from the FH book (p 239) to use;Multipower? Elemental Control? VPP? Spell Familiarity (like Weapon Familiarity), individual spells?

 

I was wondering if any of the more experienced GMs have a preference or opinion.

 

It depends on the campaign and the concept of magic that you want to have for your game. In my current game, I use a VPP (but very limited) and individual spells.

 

If a mage can cast practically anything, but it is limited by his skill, and not a whole lot of power, then VPPs are good. They're like the swiss army knife, lots of possibility, but you're stuck with relatively small amount of active points for the cost. The drawback (for most GMs) is it becomes the sonic screwdriver, solving way too many problems with a simple diceroll. To keep this from being a problem, limit the active point, require a skill roll (and do not have an uber-Magic skill but break it down into categories).

 

Multipowers are good for modelling a spell or a device that can be used in a different ways. A lightning wand that can produce light, produce lightning, or produce chain lighting (all pulling charges from a central reserve).

 

ECs are simular to Multipowers, but they have subtle differences. The main one being that they use END (usually from an END reserve) and they can all be used at the same time.

 

Spell familiarity is good if magic is simply thought of as a skill. Slayers is a good model for this. Nina learned Fireball and everyone knew what that was and almost every mage that studied fire had it. Dragon Slave (which was a dragon-slaying sized Fireball) was another skill. Giga Slave (which is a minor demon lord-slaying sized Fireball) was another skill (and presumely you needed to know Dragon Slave before you could learn this one). Granted, very few mortals knew that skill. This works great if your campaign has lots of very well defined spells.

 

I think of buying individual spells as sort of a talent. For roughly the same cost as a talent, you can get a decent spell (20 to 40 active points) with lots of limitations that represents one of the few spells that one has mastered and becomes a talent that you have.

 

I've also looked at using the 3-for-1, which is kinda like Spell Familiarity without the skill.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Which mechanic for magic works best

 

Some Magic Systems are designed better than others, but there is no "best" approach. It all depends on what is important to you and your campaign.

 

I've got a lot of magic systems on my site, and this document helps "advise" which are appropriate to what concerns you might have; check it out, it may help:

 

Magic System Advisor

[CTaylor]

Re: Which mechanic for magic works best

 

You're going to hate hearing this but I have to say "depends" as well.

 

Power Pools give you a more D&D style system where mages know lots of spells but only have a few prepared.

 

Multipowers are cheap and easy to use, but greatly limit what you can keep running at the same time and make you more of a single effect mage.

 

Familiarity type systems give mages a tremendous amount of power for virtually no cost; they can easily eclipse other types of characters.

 

I prefer a Martial Arts-style system, where you pay a portion of the cost for each spell you learn (depending on how specialized you are the cost can be as low as 1/4 the cost). This way the mage has to buy their special abilities, but they don't cost so much as to cripple them with the expense.

[Markdoc]

Re: Which mechanic for magic works best

 

First off, try and think how you would like your magic system (or systems) to work. Maybe think about fantasy books that you liked the feel of magic in.

 

We can then probably suggest something to fit.

 

cheers, Mark

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Which mechanic for magic works best

 

... *sigh*

 

"What they said," Thia mutters as he passes by, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

 

"Really, at the end of the day?" Thia begins paring an apple as he sets his feet up on the aged wooden table, scarred with poorly played knife games and still burnished to a shine with a beautiful deep set glow, "It depends on what you like." You hear this as he says it around a mouthful of sliced apple.

 

"Take me, f'rinstance. I'm a Paladin. My powers are based on a Multi-Power framework. If I want to Smite someone, that's a slot. If I want to Lay on Hands, that's a slot. Odds are good I won't do both at once, so that's all right. I could have done as an EC, which would be fine, but it wasn't as 'clean' and cost a bit more, although it would be perfec... lee..." Thia's thoughts trail off as the apple slowly levitates out of his hand, and lands neatly in the palm of a rather plain looking human woman, in a loose tunic and heavy canvas pants.

 

"Or," as she bites hard into the apple, grinning at Thia, "You can build it as Wizards and Clerics are built for our setting; as an 'iVPP.' An inVariable Power Pool, meaning it's highly structured and limited, but the theoretical possibility is very high. You can always write and add new spells without worrying about whether a player has points to pay for it -- they only need to establish they have the ability to cover it. So if their power only covers spells of up to sixty active points, they can't learn a seventy-five point spell, but if they come across one in their class, they can possibly memorize and then cast it."

 

"Things to think on."

 

"Um... Ryssa? My apple?"

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Which mechanic for magic works best

 

Here's an example of someone using a VPP in my game. Note that I added rules to make it simpler, more spontaneous but limited in scope. Basically, we work out the general "level", look up pluses and minuses on a table, and then roll dice and see if it works.

 

 

Player: "Hmm, the desert sun is going to be a problem."

Me: "Yes, by noon, it will be unbearably hot."

Player: "You're just saying that because I'm playing a bearman. Actually, I'm in human form currently."

Me: (smiles)

Player: "Ok, well, I have the skill Body Manipulation, so I'm going to take this small lizard and break off its tail. And I'm going to weave a spell to make us cooler."

Me: "Life Support: Extreme Heat, covering less than 8 people, we'll call that 10 point spell or less."

Me: "How long are you going to take?"

Player: "Well, I'm not in a hurry, so I'll take an hour."

Another Player: "Well, using your table, that's 16 or less."

Me: "Roll."

 

Of course, the roll succeeded, since it was a very tiny spell taking a full hour not to mess up.

 

Me: "Ok, you cast a spell, and you all now look like Lizard men. Except the Catgirl who looks like she has something that is neither red fur nor green scale but something inbetween." (The side effect was directly from using Body Manipulation and the fact that a lizard's tail was used. They would also have the Disadvantage: Cold Blooded, but in the desert sun that wasn't going to be a problem.)

 

The rest of the party looks at the player.

Player: "What, it worked didn't it?"