Jack7: Good advice on writing! But it would be a shame if you didn't submit something for people to enjoy.
I'll create a booklet, maybe a fully developed .PDF with illustrations (I hate not including artwork, though it will definitely include charts and graphs, etc), which I will make available to anybody who wants to review it with the proviso they do not disseminate or seek to publish, though they're welcome to take it and play it with their own group if they so please.
RCX: I hope you find time to finish. One of the main criteria was playability, so there should certainly be a selection of 'spells'. After all, the theme was Magic.
As far as selection of "spells" go, I think it really depends on how you are trying to develop magic. I am trying to go with a somewhat dynamic version of magic, so I won't have spells but will have some effect guidelines. The actual rules of magic in the world have changed very recently from the characters' perspectives so some things which they were able to do before are no longer possible, and some things which were not possible have now been unlocked. It all goes into rediscovering wonder in a world that had quantified "everything."
I've thought about this for a long time and I've decided to skip spells as well. So I'm with RCX on this one. Rather I'm gonna have magic (arcane magic) and miracles (divine magic) and people can create rituals, spells, capabilities out of that in any way they want, given a few simple guidelines and limitations I set out. I gonna try and avoid, as much as possible, telling them how to use or employ their magic, rather I'm gonna tell them what it can or can't do, and then let them do with it whatever they want. That's the way I'm also gonna approach magic.
And I'm gonna have divine magic controlled by God, rather than the cleric. The cleric will be the instrument of the miracle and inform how it manifests itself, but cannot "control" it. On the other hand (with both forms of magic) I'm working on a system that will hopefully allow most every individual character (and player) to greatly influence the way magic works based upon their own character and nature. That is to say, if I can pull it off, and I've got a few ideas, Wizards will be Wizards based upon how they approach magic, and Mages will be Mages based upon how they approach magic, but no two Mages, or no two Wizards will be alike in how they "express magic." The same for clerics, monks and hermits. If it works that is.
I'm shooting for magic not to be a technical science (as in recent games) but a psychological art (and a dangerous, sometimes almost spurious one) arising from what people can imagine and what their natures are like. As a matter of fact I'm hoping to devise a system in which the more powerfully you express your magic the more dangerous and uncontrollable it becomes.
I'm also trying to devise some peculiar magical items, artifacts, and relics that will likewise be more "open-ended" when it comes to how one can employ them and what they can do magically. I've thought about including static, experimental forms of magic too, like alchemy, but I think that things like Alchemy will be proto-science instead and will be expressed through item creation and technological achievements (which Wizards will be good at).
On the other hand, I don't expect every character to be a magician. So right now I'm wrestling with the system for mundane conflict resolution (skills, combat...) and trying to find ways for non-magical characters to have interesting decisions and benefit from some tactical depth.
One thing I've thought about (and have pursued) is integrating combat and magic so that both function in a conflict in exactly the same way. A magician can duel another magician, or fight against a whole party in a tactical skirmish, a fighter can fight another fighter, and a fighter can fight a magician, and it will all (dependent upon the particular details) function in just about the same way. And hopefully fluidly and rapidly. Because one roll will determine whether you strike in combat, where on the body, and exactly how much damage you do to both the target and their armor, all at the same time.
And, indeed I have no idea how I'm gonna do this just yet, but I'm gonna have a system that somehow integrates and overlaps magic and heroism, and which encourages heroism (though I more or less know how to do this) in play.
The best I can say is "I'll see what I can do"
Try LX, and see what ya get. At worst you can always have the skeleton of a work you can develop later.
