In stark contrast with yesterday's failure, is a post today by Norman J. Harman, Jr who is guest blogging over at at Zarhary's RPG Blog II.
Norman is talking about D&D's Magic System, and nicely nails one of the major advantages of its approach in this section lifted from a paragraph:
"That having each spell be it's own little set or rules with weird names and wildly varying power/effects instead of some unified & coherent system where for example the higher level fire attack spell is the same weak fire attack spell just with more power applied. Makes Vancian Magic more phantasmagorical and mysterious, less mechanical and logical. All things that greatly appeal to me as I try to escape rules-heavy, min-maxed, mechanical focused games. Too many players (and DMs) have forgotten that magic shouldn't be reduced to numbers and effects, shouldn't be mundane or well understood."
This is a statement I agree with, and one of the driving factors behind the Magic System I selected for my own Age of Heroes fantasy system which uses that type of spell design (but does away with the other two features of D&D- memorization and spell slots).
I'd add further that such a system is more easy to balance (as long as the total number of spells are controlled- expansion without bounds will destroy balance in any system) as it's exceedingly difficult to develop a core mechanic that remains balanced under any possible use- and yet still have a vast range of possible uses. I've never seen it done, and such attempts always require GMs to maintain a firm grip on the attempted usage.
The article goes on to justify and/or praise other aspects of D&D's system, most of which aren't things I agree with- but even so are still valid opinions to hold.
Like Norman, I too don't think that one approach is the end all. He likes Ars Magica, and I like and use HERO System (you can't get a more unified and coherent spell build system). It all depends on what type of campaign I'm looking for.
So a 'good job' to Norman, and for Zach for hosting that post.
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4 comments:
I should take a look at HERO's magic if it's as good as you say. I like Ars Magica, but ultimately the best magic system I encountered was Mage the Ascension Revised edition. I'm working on a magic system myself right now that I think has some good and unique concepts in it's design. Going to need to work out the bugs in playtesting but so far I'm excited.
I do agree that there needs to be a balance in magic between letting the PC's have mechanics that work properly, and magic spells with enough mysterious effects to seem well... magic. Some games use wild dice to simulate the unpredictability, but the jury's still out on that for me. I think I prefer a variable execution mechanic rather than an additional level of randomocity. What I mean by that is that the spell is the same but the way it's cast and delivered changes. An example would be a bolt of light spell that is so hot it damages things. An archaic mage casting the spell has runes imprinted on the wall that glow and then shoot forth the bolt when triggered, while a technomage has it channeled through a "ray gun". Same effect, vastly different delivery and utility.
Thanks for the kind words.
HERO's magic system. Is there a magic supplement? Or, does it use the powers system?
@Helmsman: Hero System is what has been called an effect based build system- which is basically what you describe. An Energy Blast for example is a base power that costs 5 pts per d6 of damage, to that you add special effects (fire, lightning, basically anything you can think of) and advantages and/or limits to tailor it to your exact need.
The system is actually easy, but mastering it on the build side takes effort. With all the years I've had with it- I can do just about anything. But the learning curve is heavy for those new to the system.
@Norman Harman: HERO Magic uses the power system with a number of limits to represent spell casting (which can be tailored to the setting). They have one or two spell books with lots of example builds, and any setting supplement that has magic includes yet more examples.
I should note at this point that I get all that much use out of the published examples because I don't use the same baselines for building characters they do. HERO can be customized greatly (while staying within the same rules- that's its nauture), and I have done so.
Okay. I cracked open a HERO 5th PDF, and so far I'm loving the fact that this game exists and people actually like it. It gives me great hope because I've worried no small amount that Hardkore is too crunch heavy for people to bother with, but after looking at HERO I can honestly say that our crunch is looks to be considerably more streamlined than this, which is great because I'm basically trying to do the same thing as HERO. (Have comprehensive rules for everything.) I'll definitely have to read more.
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