Xechon
2012-02-04, 11:14 PM
Magic:
Intro
-How Magic Works
Arcane-
-Spell-shaping
-Casting spells
-Runes
--Energy Source
--Materials
--Gestures and Language
--Focus
---Training
---Failure Consequences
---Schools
Divine-
-Deities
-Pacts
-Possession
-Active or Passive
--Assistance
--Intervention
---Pleasing your power
---Repenting
Psionic-
-physical enhancement
-supernatural actions
--Training
Items-
-potions
-scrolls
-permanent
--Recharge methods
LANGUAGE, SCRIPT, AND GESTURES
MATERIAL COMPONENTS AND FOCUSES
Intro:
In most games, books, movies, and everything else, magic has the potential to be horrendously unfair. Whether it be poorly worded or thought-out spell descriptions, stacking effects endlessly, chaining, training continuously without consequences, auto-hits and crowd blasting, or what have you, magic is usually considered completely broken. This could be because it doesn’t have to follow real-world mechanics and the balance of nature. Maybe its because people don’t like to follow all of the stereotypes of magic, because they seem too hindering. Either way, no matter how hard people try, magic breaks any game its in, with very little exception, if any.
This shouldn't be. If a believable (from a squishy science standpoint) system for it were created, pretending it was possible and skipping over only the minor details that make it impossible, and it follows reality as far as possible, then magic should be more or less completely equal to the mundane, and then we can use new content to push it the rest of the way.
This is my view on a proper magic system. I’m not saying it’s right, or better, but I hope to achieve pseudo-reality for a fantasy mechanic, and use popular folklore to keep it balanced. I will be explaining my thought process and will use examples whenever relevant. Please correct and challenge my ideas so that I may revise them to better implement supernatural forces in a game setting. Notice that there are no numbers, effects, or anything actually usable laid out right now, I am reserving that for later, and would just like to know if my ideas are just at the moment. I am doing this to put into a new RPG I am making, which will not have classes or levels, and the magic will most likely be in the skill system, but I leave this open for anyone to modify for any system as they please. Here we go...
How Magic Works:
Magic, in a very simple definition, is energy. Spellcasting, therefore, is the art of manipulating energy. Energy can be explained simply and fairly accurately as “movement”. I can say this because of how the transfer of energy between it’s forms and the movement of matter when affected by energy. Both energy and matter can’t be destroyed, only converted and distorted, and when energy is converted from one form to another, it merely changes the common direction of the energy. For example, when an arrow flies through the air, it is considered as exerting kinetic energy. However, while it is displacing the air in front of it (matter using energy to displace matter), it also converts some of the energy into heat energy, which is the acceleration of the natural movement of atoms and atomic particles. It also gives off energy in wavelengths called sound, and all of these come from the
initial kinetic energy of the arrow.
Another example of energy being movement is in how it is stored in your cells. They take Glucose, break it down, and use it along with oxygen gas and water to make things move (by + being attracted to -), and then uses that movement and creating rotational energy by putting it through a turbine to shove a phosphate onto an adenosine diphospate (ADP) to make adensosine triphosphate (ATP). When it is shoved on there, it attaches it like a spring, keeping the energy stored as potential energy in a form your cells can use. When hydrolysis occurs, the last phosphate is cut off and the spring releases, also releasing it’s stored energy, which then proceeds to move what it’s supposed to.
Now magic can move things. Whoopee. To add to this, so that magic is useful, I will use popular theoretical science. For those of you familiar with the laws of thermodynamics, you may be confused to why I didn’t mention that energy cannot be created. That is because, as stated (here), energy can be compressed into matter, and matter can be released into energy. Now we can create objects, albeit for a large amount of energy, and as a slow and potentially unstable process, release it for use. This can be thought of as like the process of nuclear fission, in which radioactive uranium breaks down, releases massive amounts of energy, but also very dangerous radiation and random atoms form and react many times in that method.
Also, there are times where you want to use magic to pick a lock or mend a wound. To do this, the caster must have an extreme and precise control over the magic he is wielding, and have knowledge of what he is doing. Just because magic is capable of doing something doesn’t mean you can make it do that. You must have knowledge, and preferably experience, doing the mundane equivalent. Magic merely makes the task easier, but more fatiguing, and in some cases magic is faster, and in some it is slower.
Some might question the application of this rule to effects without a mundane equivalent. However, you cannot, I repeat CANNOT do anything that can’t be duplicated in any form by the mundane. This is not limiting, but it just makes you have to think about what knowledge or regular skill your character must use to understand how to do it. You may still teleport, time travel, and do other extraordinary things. However, using time travel as an example, your character must have sufficient knowledge to understand that matter pulls on time, and that there are micro-subatomic portals between subatomic particles that link space-time. The entire last line is theory from Stephan Hawking.
Now, the energy used in magic has to come from somewhere. For someone who lacks the patience to learn the other techniques, they simply draw from themselves, fatiguing them. They may also decide to draw from their surroundings, taking some of the energy being released from plants or animals at the time and the energy of the winds and rotation of the earth itself. This however, takes more time and concentration than drawing from one’s self. Note that the energy drawn from nature has no ill effects on the surrounding plants and wildlife, as it draws just the energy being released at the time. The third common method is to draw the energy from any of the two sources noted above and store it by using a spell to create a spherical barrier around the caster, which follows him around as he moves. The barrier, unless modified with a spell, provides only a very minor deflection of other’s attacks, such that only objects that would’ve just barely hit would miss because of this. It can be drawn from quickly, but is limited and requires constant concentration.
Controlling magic takes the constant concentration of the caster. Once drawn, magic can not be simply put back (except with a spell, which is not 100% energy efficient). Unless the caster has already started to shape a spell with the energy, it can be released into the air, lost, but with no ill effects. If the caster loses concentration of this magic, it is simply gone. However, if the energy is in an unstable form, as in being released or compressed to convert it’s form, it will react randomly, as in nuclear reactors, and cause potentially harmful effects. For example, if you are storing energy in a barrier around you and you get distracted, it simply dissipates and is lost. If, however, you lose focus while changing that energy into fire (to expand it and hit everything around you), then it could make a pile of salt, blind you with light, create a smokescreen, or even just backfire and burn you.
Arcane Magic:
Spellshaping:
I’ve discussed how magic works and some of the rules and limitations applied to it, but just how can someone use magic? That is controlled by the components of the spell. These include somatic, verbal, material, focus, and concentration. Sound familiar? These components must be precise for precise effects, and therefore must be practiced and, overall, known. There is a specific arrangement of stimuli that moves energy to do what you want, and the somatic and verbal components of spellcasting are often referred to as the language of magic. This “language” is extremely complex, and considered perfect, as not two sound-gesture combinations mean the same thing, and there is a word combination for everything. It must be learned word-gesture at a time, and rules only exist for the combining them. There is also a script for magic, that simulates the somatic, verbal and concentration influences, but I’ll address that later.
To make fire, for instance, a person would have to know the words for channeling energy into an object, and for getting that energy based on their extraction method. If he is lacking fuel or oxygen, however, he must also know how to make carbon and oxygen out of energy.
Largely unfinished, as can be seen from the table of contents, but feel free to post comments, concerns, criticism, and sarcastic remarks. No knock-knock jokes allowed. I will try to update often, and some days are much worse for my wording of subjects so please just be patient with me :smallbiggrin:.
Intro
-How Magic Works
Arcane-
-Spell-shaping
-Casting spells
-Runes
--Energy Source
--Materials
--Gestures and Language
--Focus
---Training
---Failure Consequences
---Schools
Divine-
-Deities
-Pacts
-Possession
-Active or Passive
--Assistance
--Intervention
---Pleasing your power
---Repenting
Psionic-
-physical enhancement
-supernatural actions
--Training
Items-
-potions
-scrolls
-permanent
--Recharge methods
LANGUAGE, SCRIPT, AND GESTURES
MATERIAL COMPONENTS AND FOCUSES
Intro:
In most games, books, movies, and everything else, magic has the potential to be horrendously unfair. Whether it be poorly worded or thought-out spell descriptions, stacking effects endlessly, chaining, training continuously without consequences, auto-hits and crowd blasting, or what have you, magic is usually considered completely broken. This could be because it doesn’t have to follow real-world mechanics and the balance of nature. Maybe its because people don’t like to follow all of the stereotypes of magic, because they seem too hindering. Either way, no matter how hard people try, magic breaks any game its in, with very little exception, if any.
This shouldn't be. If a believable (from a squishy science standpoint) system for it were created, pretending it was possible and skipping over only the minor details that make it impossible, and it follows reality as far as possible, then magic should be more or less completely equal to the mundane, and then we can use new content to push it the rest of the way.
This is my view on a proper magic system. I’m not saying it’s right, or better, but I hope to achieve pseudo-reality for a fantasy mechanic, and use popular folklore to keep it balanced. I will be explaining my thought process and will use examples whenever relevant. Please correct and challenge my ideas so that I may revise them to better implement supernatural forces in a game setting. Notice that there are no numbers, effects, or anything actually usable laid out right now, I am reserving that for later, and would just like to know if my ideas are just at the moment. I am doing this to put into a new RPG I am making, which will not have classes or levels, and the magic will most likely be in the skill system, but I leave this open for anyone to modify for any system as they please. Here we go...
How Magic Works:
Magic, in a very simple definition, is energy. Spellcasting, therefore, is the art of manipulating energy. Energy can be explained simply and fairly accurately as “movement”. I can say this because of how the transfer of energy between it’s forms and the movement of matter when affected by energy. Both energy and matter can’t be destroyed, only converted and distorted, and when energy is converted from one form to another, it merely changes the common direction of the energy. For example, when an arrow flies through the air, it is considered as exerting kinetic energy. However, while it is displacing the air in front of it (matter using energy to displace matter), it also converts some of the energy into heat energy, which is the acceleration of the natural movement of atoms and atomic particles. It also gives off energy in wavelengths called sound, and all of these come from the
initial kinetic energy of the arrow.
Another example of energy being movement is in how it is stored in your cells. They take Glucose, break it down, and use it along with oxygen gas and water to make things move (by + being attracted to -), and then uses that movement and creating rotational energy by putting it through a turbine to shove a phosphate onto an adenosine diphospate (ADP) to make adensosine triphosphate (ATP). When it is shoved on there, it attaches it like a spring, keeping the energy stored as potential energy in a form your cells can use. When hydrolysis occurs, the last phosphate is cut off and the spring releases, also releasing it’s stored energy, which then proceeds to move what it’s supposed to.
Now magic can move things. Whoopee. To add to this, so that magic is useful, I will use popular theoretical science. For those of you familiar with the laws of thermodynamics, you may be confused to why I didn’t mention that energy cannot be created. That is because, as stated (here), energy can be compressed into matter, and matter can be released into energy. Now we can create objects, albeit for a large amount of energy, and as a slow and potentially unstable process, release it for use. This can be thought of as like the process of nuclear fission, in which radioactive uranium breaks down, releases massive amounts of energy, but also very dangerous radiation and random atoms form and react many times in that method.
Also, there are times where you want to use magic to pick a lock or mend a wound. To do this, the caster must have an extreme and precise control over the magic he is wielding, and have knowledge of what he is doing. Just because magic is capable of doing something doesn’t mean you can make it do that. You must have knowledge, and preferably experience, doing the mundane equivalent. Magic merely makes the task easier, but more fatiguing, and in some cases magic is faster, and in some it is slower.
Some might question the application of this rule to effects without a mundane equivalent. However, you cannot, I repeat CANNOT do anything that can’t be duplicated in any form by the mundane. This is not limiting, but it just makes you have to think about what knowledge or regular skill your character must use to understand how to do it. You may still teleport, time travel, and do other extraordinary things. However, using time travel as an example, your character must have sufficient knowledge to understand that matter pulls on time, and that there are micro-subatomic portals between subatomic particles that link space-time. The entire last line is theory from Stephan Hawking.
Now, the energy used in magic has to come from somewhere. For someone who lacks the patience to learn the other techniques, they simply draw from themselves, fatiguing them. They may also decide to draw from their surroundings, taking some of the energy being released from plants or animals at the time and the energy of the winds and rotation of the earth itself. This however, takes more time and concentration than drawing from one’s self. Note that the energy drawn from nature has no ill effects on the surrounding plants and wildlife, as it draws just the energy being released at the time. The third common method is to draw the energy from any of the two sources noted above and store it by using a spell to create a spherical barrier around the caster, which follows him around as he moves. The barrier, unless modified with a spell, provides only a very minor deflection of other’s attacks, such that only objects that would’ve just barely hit would miss because of this. It can be drawn from quickly, but is limited and requires constant concentration.
Controlling magic takes the constant concentration of the caster. Once drawn, magic can not be simply put back (except with a spell, which is not 100% energy efficient). Unless the caster has already started to shape a spell with the energy, it can be released into the air, lost, but with no ill effects. If the caster loses concentration of this magic, it is simply gone. However, if the energy is in an unstable form, as in being released or compressed to convert it’s form, it will react randomly, as in nuclear reactors, and cause potentially harmful effects. For example, if you are storing energy in a barrier around you and you get distracted, it simply dissipates and is lost. If, however, you lose focus while changing that energy into fire (to expand it and hit everything around you), then it could make a pile of salt, blind you with light, create a smokescreen, or even just backfire and burn you.
Arcane Magic:
Spellshaping:
I’ve discussed how magic works and some of the rules and limitations applied to it, but just how can someone use magic? That is controlled by the components of the spell. These include somatic, verbal, material, focus, and concentration. Sound familiar? These components must be precise for precise effects, and therefore must be practiced and, overall, known. There is a specific arrangement of stimuli that moves energy to do what you want, and the somatic and verbal components of spellcasting are often referred to as the language of magic. This “language” is extremely complex, and considered perfect, as not two sound-gesture combinations mean the same thing, and there is a word combination for everything. It must be learned word-gesture at a time, and rules only exist for the combining them. There is also a script for magic, that simulates the somatic, verbal and concentration influences, but I’ll address that later.
To make fire, for instance, a person would have to know the words for channeling energy into an object, and for getting that energy based on their extraction method. If he is lacking fuel or oxygen, however, he must also know how to make carbon and oxygen out of energy.
Largely unfinished, as can be seen from the table of contents, but feel free to post comments, concerns, criticism, and sarcastic remarks. No knock-knock jokes allowed. I will try to update often, and some days are much worse for my wording of subjects so please just be patient with me :smallbiggrin:.