M is for Magic!

[tectuctitlay]

I've been jotting down ideas for a setting I'd like to write out someday. In this setting there are 3 types of magic: glamour, which is based on POW and only usable by faeries (or fae blooded), and "peasant" and "college learned" magic usable by humans and based on EDU. Since "college learned" magic requires schooling by definition, I'm requiring a minimum EDU of 14... but what about "peasant" magic? I'm assuming that most peasants would know at least a few "charms", but I'm debating whether "full use" would necessitate a minimum EDU requirement... Any opinions?

[rust]

In my view it would depend on the setting. If certain forms of magic are a part

of a peasant's everyday life, used by everybody and his brother, it should requi-

re no more EDU than making a living as a peasant does - it is just a part of it. If

peasant magic is more rare, known only to the wise men and women of the villa-

ge, an EDU requirement could make sense, although I would prefer to handle it

through learning opportunities within the setting instead of character statistics -

for example, a peasant character would have to earn the respect of the village

elders to be allowed to learn the magic, no matter how educated he may be.

[Aini]

Personally i would stick with using POW in all magic systems. Keep an EDU requirement to learn spells or such (could have different EDU requirement for each spell or some such)

Each system could work differently though even with all using POW. Glamour could be similar to the old RQ3 divine magic system (Sacrifice POW to learn re-usable spells), Peasant could be kept as a lower power but easier to learn magic that has less drawbacks (no POW sacrifice) and the college learned magic could be most diverse/powerful in many ways but each spell having its own seperate skill to learn similar to RQ3 Sorcery, and an EDU requirement to learn perhaps)

Just some suggestions

[tectuctitlay]

The magic system I'll be using is very free-form, with a "faerie tale-esque" bent. Spells take the form of a sentence which the player must speak out loud. Each sentence has 3 components - a subject, an effect, and a duration - each of which has a difficulty. The three difficulties are added together to find the final difficulty. The sentence "I banish you Jack Silverheels from Albion's shores, for a period of no less than a year and a day" has a subject (the faerie Jack Silverheels), an effect (Banishment in this case) and a duration (a year and a day). Say you have a The Art (Scientific Magic) skill score of 42%... adding the three difficulty scores together gives you a difficulty of, say, 35%. You'd subtract 35% from 42% giving you a modified The Art (Scientific Magic) skill score of 7% to cast the spell. Difficulty may be reduced by taking modifiers to the spell (I haven't worked out exact mechanics yet). Taking "The Magus must spin thrice, widdershins" would reduce difficulty a little, while "May only be cast at Land's End by the light of a full moon" would reduce difficulty a lot. If enough modifiers are taken, the mage may actually get a bonus to cast the spell.

There are three flavors of magic -

-Scientific (book learned) magic which has the most available effects and can be cast by humans. Based of the EDU score, spells require research and formulation before they can be used.

-Hedge (peasant) magic, which has fewer available effects and a nature-esque bent. Based on EDU, spells require research and formulation before use.

-Glamour or faerie magic (magic in it's raw form). Usable only by faeries (and fae-blooded), based on POW. Glamour is innate and usable at will, and thus has no casting time (unless the faerie takes modifiers that give it a casting time). Spells don't need to be researched or formulated, so modifiers may be added or dropped on the fly. Fewest number of available effects (varies by faerie "breed", sometimes as few as one or two effects).

To get back to my original question, though, the way I picture Hedge magic is along the lines of Eastern European "folk magic", where your avarage joe might know a charm to ward off the evil eye, and a few more to keep from getting eaten by the boogie man. I also wanted to include a sort of villiage "wise woman" type, who uses magic full-time. My current thinking on the subject is now maybe allowing anyone to take low levels of The Art (Hedge Magic), but requiring a minimum EDU score to increase your skill level beyond a certain point. Does this sound plausable at all?

Edited December 7, 2010 by tectuctitlay

[Jarulf]

Just a quick thought. Change APP to CHA and base the Faerie Magic on that, use POW for Peasant magic.

[rust]

My current thinking on the subject is now maybe allowing anyone to take low levels of The Art (Hedge Magic), but requiring a minimum EDU score to increase your skill level beyond a certain point. Does this sound plausable at all?

It is one of many possible ways to handle it, but it is not without problems.

The EDU stat covers both formal education and general life experience, but in a

very unspecific way. Peasants rarely have much formal education, and their ge-

neral life experience is not directly connected with magic - the peasant with the

greatest life experience and therefore EDU stat of the village may have it becau-

se he is the one who knows most about barley and sheep, or because he has

travelled a bit and has seen some big cities, but this does not necessarily make

it easier for him to learn magic.

So, if you want a game mechanic requirement for peasant magic, I think POW is

more closely connected with the ability to do magic than EDU, and would there-

fore seem more plausible to me.

[tectuctitlay]

On one hand, I REALLY like the idea of basing faerie magic on APP (given that it's all charm and illusion-type magic, it just makes a lot of sense), and I can see the wisdom of basing hedge magic on POW too (the magic is passed down rather than gained from a formal education)... But on the other hand, I saw hedge magic as being a refined version of glamour, and scientific magic being a refined form of hedge magic, so I wanted to keep at least a little continuity between the three systems... This is going to take further thought.