Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 2041962" data-attributes="member: 907">I haven't yet played HARP, but I do have the main book as well as two supplements (Martial Law and whatever the magic book is called). I like the idea behind the magic system, but some things look like they won't work out well in practice - for example, IIRC the penalty you get to casting from "boosting" the Elemental Bolt spell cancels out the extra bonus you get from throwing a bigger bolt, while at the same time costing you more resources (magic points) and taking longer. But that's a matter of fine-tuning, not re-engineering.One magic system that looks good but that I never got to try out properly either is Earthdawn's. In ED, magicians have a small number of "Spell matrices" that can each hold one spell. You can swap the spells out, but that either takes a while (like ten minutes IIRC), or requires skill rolls (with failure meaning you burn the matrix out for a while). In order to cast a spell, you must usually first weave some threads of magic power to the matrix (one skill), and then roll for the actual spellcasting (another). However, as long as you have the spell in a matrix, you can keep casting it all day long.In addition to the normal matrix casting, you can also use "raw magic". The idea is that the purpose of the spell matrix is to act as a buffer between the magician and the astral plane, because a recent invasion of bad things from beyond (though they've mostly gone away now) has left the astral plane severely polluted and hazardous. Casting raw magic will cause the magician some damage, and may attract the attention of some of the remaining nasties.</blockquote>

Verification