Two weeks ago, in the distant past that was the year Twenty Oh Eight, we asked what your New Year’s Resolution is. 23% of you answered 1280 x 1024, a traditional choice. In a very close second, 1680 x 1050 garnered 22%, a newer resolution for newer times. Only 1 solitary person is still committed to 800 x 600. Now, the question with all New Year’s Resolutions is… will you stick with it?
Over New Year’s, I took a trip down to Miami (Florida, not my alma mater) and visited with The Main Event. In addition to some Left 4 Dead and Rock Band 2 playing, we took that time to discuss and speculate on the fantasy epics that we’ve enjoyed so much (and eagerly await the next installment.) He’s more well-read than I am within the genre, and was explaining some about the Mistborn series and the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, particularly how the two handle magic.
While an interesting magic system is not enough to drive a fantasy setting, it does appear to be part of the main hook when getting readers. Likewise, in a fantasy RPG system, this provides an immediate appeal to playing the game if the magic is interesting enough. In systems like Mage: The Ascension/Awakening or Ars Magica where everyone is a magic user, it’s practically a requirement to make the game fun.
To that end, The Main Event and I compiled a short list of different kinds of magic systems. The question thus is:
[poll id=”108″]
I’m sure many others have been left out, as we compiled this list just on the ones we are aware of. Are there other awesome magic systems out there, in print or otherwise? Enlighten us!
I voted Free-form, but my favorite is much more free-form than Mage.
I’ve run modern fantasy and swords and sorcery games using Mutants and Masterminds, and I love seeing the players (and sometimes game designers) come up with different ways to use the power structures to model different flavors of magic. I’ve seen characters with the standard themed list of alternate powers (these are the things I can do with my magic), with a pool of points they can allocate with a skill check and a full round action (doing a ritual that empowers yourself), and just creative uses of a single power (transmutation, for instance).
Not only does it allow the player to develop their own mental model of how magic works, it allows NPC’s to be surprising as well as unpredictable.
I voted for fatiguing, which is my favorite flavoring of magic (in literature and stuff, and just in theory). That said, I don’t think it necessarily makes the best game mechanic.
4E is just WOW!
DUrrrrrrr
I’ve always enjoyed Vancian with a dash of “other” houserules to make mages more interesting. I like the thought of magic being alive, a living breathing thing that mages have to deal with. Those types of stories make magic more fun for me.
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Unknown Armies has my favorite magic system by far. Having to feed your own irrational obsessions to build up charges is all sorts of fun.
Ryan: I remember doing something similar in GURPS and Champions, but my favorite way to handle free-form magic is still Mage: The Ascension.
Highbulp: We had a discussion about whether this was mechanically speaking or flavor speaking, and opted to fall into the latter (which meant we left out things like “mana points”). Maybe that’ll be a different question later.
TME: HONK
Chgowiz: I like Vancian in theory, but I’ve never seen it work the way I want in actual play of RPGs, and it’s generally pretty rare in literature. (Discworld toys with it a bit too).
Saragon: Aha, I should add “Mental Toll” to Fatiguing.
I rather like the Exalted system. It is Recharge, with character regaining points of essence per hour, but stunting (being cool) speeds up the recharge rate.
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I like Rowling’s system: you know a spell, you cast make a skill check to cast it, and move it. Kind of like those dudes from the 3.5 Tome of Magic that I never got to play.
In play, I’m a huge fan of Mage: The Ascension style magic on both sides of the screen. I’d be a big fan of Mistborn style magic if implemented well, though it’s hard when $ = effectiveness. After all why not rob a bank to be awesome?
@The Game – That’s the beauty of Unknown Armies. It’s the opposite of ‘fatiguing’; you build up charges through your own obsession, what you WANT to do whenever possible, avoiding the taboos that dilute or counter your hardened, mad perspective on the world. They get ‘charges’ because they really do get a charge from what they do.
I voted for Mage: The Ascension style magic because it’s the most interesting, fun, and imaginative magic system I’ve played with.
Out of curiosity, where would you group the StarWars Force system into these? I know in most it’s akin to taking a feat in Control, Sense, etc. and then you gain access to levels of powers, then there’s mixing and matching involved as well, but I couldn’t figure it out quickly so I’m bringing it up.
@Bartoneus: New Star Wars Saga uses a ‘recharge’ model that served as a dry run to 4E D&D’s powers, but retains some school based distinction.
West End’s d6 system and Old Star Wars used schools (Control, Sense, Alter) where you learned things based on those basic groupings and other prereqs.
I’m quite fond of Shadowrun’s system of stun damage that can be resisted and even negated at low levels, so basic magic is almost free and more powerful magic runs the risk of knocking you out cold (or even killing you if you are unlucky / too ambitious). What really makes me smile as a DM is that getting hit in combat makes it harder to resist that fatigue / damage and suddenly even really minor magic gets harder.
Of course, part of me (the writer) wants to try the Wushu system, making magic attacks mechanically identical and forcing the players to describe it as being different instead.
Magic is most interesting to me when it involves a moral trade-off, such as Dark Sun’s wizards, Ben Hawkins in Carnivale, or as is evident in parts of Stardust.
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I voted for Mage simply because I have had the most fun with it. Fatigue comes next, with Shadowrun’s system working well for me.
Prince of Cats: Sorry to nitpick, but SR damage doesn’t work that way. Resisting damage, of any sort, is not affected by your wound level or any other penalties (other than armor piercing weapons, well, piercing armor).
I consider myself a connoisseur of game magic, with each system having strengths and weaknesses and it’s own place in a game or a game setting, but I really prefer my own homebrew overall. It’s my baby.
Otherwise, I prefer magic in a recharge system style.
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