Anyone used Elements of Magic in a campaign

[Ace]

TEOM is very close to what I have been looking for in a magic system. It does have a Rolemaster flavor (a good thing in my book) and a great deal of flexibility

This I like

What I want to know is how does it play in a game

Is it balanced or worse does the customization lead to a lot of bogging down of the action?

 

[Piratecat]

I know that nopantsyet had someone using it in his game; it seemed to work quite well on the games I sat in on. I haven't used it myself, though.

 

[RangerWickett]

Let me just step in really quick and clarify that the original Elements of Magic was released over a year ago, and we at E.N.Publishing recognize that, though it is flexible, the book is not fully thought through, and in many parts is not as elegant (or as balanced) as it could be. That's why we've spent the past six months revising and updating the rules, including an updating to 3.5-compatability.

The new version of the rules is a lot easier to use, and it's had an extra year's worth of internal and boards-derived playtesting to help us figure out what sorts of things are easy to break in a flexible magic system. If you haven't already, go to the E.N.Publishing website and download the teaser of the revised rules.

The system is still very similar, just updated for your convenience. If you imagine that are spells are like library books, then we've implemented electronic cataloguing for our collection.

 

[Darklone]

Thanky RW. I didn't know yet that EoM will be updated.

 

[Orryn Emrys]

I have used the original EoM in a campaign, which only lasted about a year, and I must admit that I was terribly impressed with the system, but desparate to see the revisions. The system is extraordinarily flavorful, but challenging to apply as a complete magic system for a campaign. I often had a difficult time fleshing out my NPC's spellcasting ability and making it all feel appropriate to the aims and needs of the character. This need for greater versatility and more options seems to be among the issues addressed, in many ways, in the revision.

I'd wait for the revised product, but I won't hesitate to suggest the system to anyone looking for a different flavor of magic in their world. I was even able to use the ruleset to help reflect a kind of "low magic" appeal, though it is similarly adjustable, I believe, to the needs of most any flavor of fantasy adventure.

 

[der_kluge]

RW, how does EoM scale for a low magic campaign? Can it be tweaked downwards?

 

[MerakSpielman]

You could just decrease the number of casting points you get per day.

I ran a Play by Post campaign using the original EoM rules. There's a link to the thread in my sig, if you want to see how it went. It was cut short, unfortunatly, because participation dropped.
edit: I don't suppose previous purchasers get the update at a discount?

 

[Wombat]

Looked through it many times; have yet to use.

OTOH, I am looking at parts of it for an upcoming campaign. We'll see if it makes it in

 

[RangerWickett]

edit: I don't suppose previous purchasers get the update at a discount?

Nope, sorry. The revision is very significant, far more deep than the revisions made to Four-Color to Fantasy. I'm off to lunch, but I'll come back and talk about the fun ways to tweak the system.

 

[RangerWickett]

RW, how does EoM scale for a low magic campaign? Can it be tweaked downwards?

There are several ways to go about this, and we briefly touch on them in the full book.

The first option is to just limit characters to a maximum caster level. If you say that no spellcaster can go above 5th level, that cuts out most of the things that really mess with cultures, like resurrection, teleportation, and powerful scrying.

The second option is to restrict access to certain types of magic. There are 11 primary types, plus various divinations. You can either forbid types you don't want, impose an MP cap, or impose an MP barrier.

An MP cap would mean that, say, you cannot cast any spells that use more than 5 MP of Evoke spell lists, but that you can cast spells of as high level as would normally be available to you for anything else. An MP barrier would mean, for example, that to use any Heal spell list, you have to pay an extra 5 MP. One keeps spells from getting too powerful, while the other means that certain types of magic are only available at high level.

The third option is to impose cultural restrictions. A basic example of this is the D&D division of healing and attack magic; you can't do both, or at least not well. You might say that only X culture can use a certain type of spell, or maybe that they're limited to certain elements. Allow people to get around this restriction if they spend a feat or have enough ranks in Knowledge (arcana), and perhaps then you can impose an MP barrier.