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Laws of magical "physics", and rethinking archetype distinctions
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<blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 7005094" data-attributes="member: 23935"><p>I find it a decent idea where the devil lies in the implementation.</p><p></p><p><strong>Not directly related but the first thing to come to mind:</strong></p><p><em>Fantasy Wargaming</em>, a RPG from the early '80s had as part of its magical systems astrological correspondences linked to magical effects so the strength of fire magic was controlled by fire signs and reduced by water signs, for example. The correspondences existed through physical expressions: specific plants, gems, colours, animals et al. were astrologically associated as were more ephemeral qualities like numbers and dates. So people could (and did) adjust their environments to increase or decrease the locations association with the signs as they deemed valuable.</p><p></p><p>It was a bear of a system to keep track of and apply the effect to magic. It definitely needed some abstraction.</p><p></p><p><strong>More on topic:</strong></p><p>The system might look like the one in <em>Dragonquest</em> with magic colleges or it could define a bunch of magical principles like Contagion, Sympathy, Naming, etc. and the more principles brought to bear the greater chance of success / greater effect on the world sort of like <em>Ars Magica</em>'s variable spontaneous magic or the magic from the oWoD <em>Mage</em>.</p><p></p><p>I'm struggling to see how this is different from a skill-based system where some of the skills represent "how magic works" as opposed to "how to hit someone with a club".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nagol, post: 7005094, member: 23935"] I find it a decent idea where the devil lies in the implementation. [B]Not directly related but the first thing to come to mind:[/B] [I]Fantasy Wargaming[/I], a RPG from the early '80s had as part of its magical systems astrological correspondences linked to magical effects so the strength of fire magic was controlled by fire signs and reduced by water signs, for example. The correspondences existed through physical expressions: specific plants, gems, colours, animals et al. were astrologically associated as were more ephemeral qualities like numbers and dates. So people could (and did) adjust their environments to increase or decrease the locations association with the signs as they deemed valuable. It was a bear of a system to keep track of and apply the effect to magic. It definitely needed some abstraction. [B]More on topic:[/B] The system might look like the one in [I]Dragonquest[/I] with magic colleges or it could define a bunch of magical principles like Contagion, Sympathy, Naming, etc. and the more principles brought to bear the greater chance of success / greater effect on the world sort of like [I]Ars Magica[/I]'s variable spontaneous magic or the magic from the oWoD [I]Mage[/I]. I'm struggling to see how this is different from a skill-based system where some of the skills represent "how magic works" as opposed to "how to hit someone with a club". [/QUOTE]
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Laws of magical "physics", and rethinking archetype distinctions
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