Systems of Magic

Localising Magic, Tactics and Placement

Arjan recently suggested that magic could be localised. This would mean that you could place a magic spell on a panel or on a specific creature, and this could also affect you or your party. This would bring tactics into the game, where you were required to place an enchantment on a panel, and risk it not doing anything due to no creature passing it, or placing one on a creature, risking it coming close to your party and hurting them. This would add a whole new element into game-play that I have not seen, but would definitely like to.

Magic herbal brew

Casting spells with herbs for a new magic system. It really is quite simple to understand. Basically, you collect the ingredients for your spells, you then combine them using the correct method, and voila! You have an instant spell, ready to cast. I have seen this implemented in Might and Magic before, but that was just for potions. You collect the reagents and combine them to create something new. This allows for new combinations to be made without actually having found a recipe. You could also have volatile combinations that could cause harm to the player.

Magic channelling and "using the flow"

I have seen a lot of magic mana systems that use the surrounding area to draw from. This could be used in games and the competency of a magician would be based on how well they can channel that energy. If you had your "mana" replaced with a "channel" which allows you to use the mana in your current area more effectively. Different types of mana can mean different types of spells and of different strengths. If you could channel mana more efficiently, then you would do better in places where mana was scarce. This has a lot to do with Raymond E. Feist and Pug going to a land with no magic, where the magic was actually stored in crystals. This would be a very good puzzle to put in a game.

Co-operation of casting, bringing in a helping hand

Adding in the ability to help others cast spells, or have continuous spells and being able to maintain a number of spells. A system that I was designing about a year ago was a multi-threading spellweaving system. It allowed players to cast a spell and to have others support that spell. The main attributes behind this were:

    1. A concentration factor (which was required for the whole game-world)
    2. A channelling ability.

The system requires a certain bandwidth of your concentration factor to be taken up with the task of channelling magic into it. The spell took up a bandwidth of your channel ability for magic. As other people aided your spell, you required less bandwidth for both of these. You could supply more bandwidth to each of these to help create a stronger spell. This also allowed for multiple spells to be cast by the same player as well. Instead of having a system where you and your friend both work together by casting different spells, you each help one another. Being hit (or hurt) took up a bandwidth of your concentration. If your spell's concentration bandwidth was interfered with, then your spell would attempt to burden any other helpers/casters and if it could not, the spell was broken. This allowed for both a protection spell to be aided by two people (so as to reduce the chance that it would be interfered with) and then these two could work together to cast other spells.

This system allowed for continuous spells, this required your concentration to never be interfered with and for you to provide a continuous channel for the magic to continue this spell. The spell would continue until such time as you moved too far away from the spell or something broke your concentration.

Another idea to come from this system was that of remote casting. This is not a spell system that allows you to just mystically make a fireball appear where you know a friend is. It is something a little more complex than that. Because we are dealing with channelling magic through a magician, we require an open channel to the mana of the land. A magician is actually required in the place that you wish to cast. This is only really an issue if the other magician does not know your spells. You must take control of the other magician's mind, and then you cast the spell through them. To take over the mind of the magician, you and the other magician are required to cast a mind-control spell each (host and client version of it) to allow the connection. You can then cast the spell using their channel and they can maintain it. This requires the mind control spell to be active to work, so it costs a little more in both of the bandwidths.

The benefit of this system is that a mage that does not know a certain spell is still able to aid in the casting of it. A drawback is that it is slow to actually select what spells you want to aid and what spells you do not wish to. It would add to the fun as a whole though and aid team spirit.

Putting the mystery back into magic: When click casting defeats the purpose

Something that has come to my attention is the role of magic in games. By my interpretation of its definition, I see Magic is a powerful yet difficult to understand force that can be wielded by those with knowledge of how to use it and awed by those who cannot. Magic in games seems to differ greatly with my view. The way that magic has been displayed in games really seems to be just as a draw card. It is there because there are a lot of people who would like such magic to exist and wish that they were able to control it. Magic is yet another example of the "Click 'N' Kill" (CNK) problem, but I prefer to term it as "Click 'N' Cast" (CNC). The problems with CNC is all that it was with CNK, but the new problem arises in making Magic "Magical". Theoretically if you use any defined laws in spell casting as rules then we can examine a simple example.

To cast a spell, you would need to follow a basic procedure:

And these steps were converted into a simple CNC system where, in less than a second, you can have unleashed 5 fireballs in the direction of an unsuspecting beast. Well, first I am here to say that this is really taking the magic element out of what is considered magic. At least the player could be asked to remember runic combinations in order to cast spells. One idea that I believe is really of worth, for some of the more Arcane magics, is asking the player to "invoke a symbol". This idea came from Katherine Kerr's books when invoking seals of protection required certain combinations of power symbols. I would not ask the player to have to accomplish a task that was by no means achievable, but I do think that with a certain degree of difficulty in such a task that the experience would be rewarding to the player knowing that THEY had actually achieved something.

To actually invoke these power symbols, a player would be required to either hold down a mouse button whilst drawing the shape on the screen or by pressing a key to start the logging process and doing the same as above. We are talking about very basic symbols that can easily be interpreted if we separate our screen up into squares (or a square number, i.e. 9 boxes or 16 boxes). The only things that you need to log to get a reasonable interpretation of what they are trying to do are:

To interpret these results accurately, you may want to discard boxes that the drawn symbol just entered (clipped) and you would come up with a reasonable estimate of what the player meant. This would also add room for bad casts where there could be damage done to the player (revenge of the Gods as I like to think of it) or a completely wrong spell could be cast. This brings the player more into the game by REQUIRING them to participate actively in it by actually learning the "spells" themselves. This is how I see the first step of putting the magic back into magic.

If you wanted to use different types of magics in your game (elemental, runic, seasonal, etc) then you might have different methods of casting different sorts of spells. This means that for elemental, then you might need to draw some kind of elemental symbol followed by some spell specific symbol, and for runic, you might need to draw the different runes. You may just have a panel, which the player can click in an order of runes and then click on a cast button. I do not really think that the implementation details are that important, just that it should require the player to take an active role in the game, which is something that current games are lacking.

Note: I do NOT want to REMOVE Click 'N' Cast entirely from these games, but I am suggesting that for the more powerful spells that a different method should be used (or at least cast time should be increased). Pressing specially marked buttons in a specific order might be what you want to use, or the method of casting that I suggested, but for basic spells – Click 'N' Cast is just too popular to leave for dead. People still need a familiar system to help with the introduction of a new game.

Chaos and Order, Gods and Prayer

This is yet another version of a magic system that could be used. It all started when thinking of chaos and order, the two blind gods in the beginning. One created and the other destroyed and they contributed to creating the fabric of the universe by both grabbing loose strands and weaving them into a thread, and by grabbing the thread and tearing it into strands. This is just a wordy introduction to the creation of the universe. From these loose strands, the power of the new gods came. The gods that can be worshiped and can grant gifts to those who worship them.

What happens in this system is that the character chooses certain gods that they wish to worship. Worship consists of offerings and sacrifices (whatever is necessary for the specific god) and by prayer. Prayer is the means of casting; the player asks for power from their god of choice and the god grants them the ability to cast the spell in their name.

The beauty of this system is that it allows players to choose different types of spells that they may wish to cast, because they can choose to worship any god. There are consequences though as a character must swear allegiance to that god and must obey their rules or be hunted down (give the player a reason to wait before making a decision on which magic to use). The character may worship any number of gods, but the gods that they worship must not be in conflict with any other god that they worship, otherwise that character would be a traitor and probably end up being hunted down or just hit by lightning. This restricts the combinations of which gods that the player may choose to worship, and thus limits what kinds of combinations of spells that the player can have.

(New) Dynamic Magic Casting, "Mixing and matching Glyphs"

The following explanation of this system is just a direct copy of the post that Solthar made in "What do you think of my new magic system?". I may endeavour to rephrase the text, but that will have to wait until a further time, as I am very busy at the moment.

I took my dynamic spell idea I posted here ages ago and revised the hell out of it. Now I have a Brand New Ideaä that's - get this - 'User Friendly'! First Let's start with the bases of the system, The Spell Objects. Now these can be anything the developer wants them to be, from cards to runes. For the hell of it I'm going to use glyphs in this example. Now, there are 6 different Classes of Glyphs, each of which cause a different effect.

They are as follows:

Say the user combined these glyphs: Fire, Lance, Hostile, Low, Other, and small. The mage would get a low powered fire lance that flies toward the targeted person/beast

Now lets try Fire, Sphere, Neutral, low, Self, small. Now they get a glowing ball of flame - or a magical torch

Now one final example: Fire, sphere, benevolent, low, Nearest Friend, and small. The target would get additional protection vs. fire damage.

Basically, with this system, all the programmer would have to worry about (besides balancing) is what each effect does if the intent is hostile, neutral, or benevolent. - Solthar

(New) Moderating Magic

The fact that magic use is so common in games, and the other belief that magic is supposed to be all powerful and hard to come by (also see "Putting the mystery back into magic: When click casting defeats the purpose") leads us to a conclusion. There needs to be a method of regulating magic use within a game, because too much magic use will just make the idea of magic passé. With a little thought of the beliefs pertaining to medieval times leads to making some headway. In these times, people were very fearful of magic users. They believed that people with such powers were evil and as such were the cause of plagues, blights, droughts, mutations, weather, bad luck, actually – they were pretty much blamed for anything that could and did go wrong. Murphy's law was the doing of evil sorcerers and witches .

How does this fit into games? Well, you can probably guess that I am asking you to consider putting in an anti-sorcery cult or something of the like. That is one way of looking at it, but it doesn't just have to be a cult, it could just be the ordinary citizens of your world banding together to remove the sorcerers presence. If they ever catch a person casting, then that person is to be lynched or driven from the town. It could also be interesting if the townsfolk started to suspect that you were using magic if strange things started to happen (and they couldn't blame goblins that is ). There is more on this in the Plot Elements section with "Dragon Dreams and Magic".

(New) Candle Magic - A magic system with self-moderation

Candle magic is something that is practiced by those who believe in real magic (I will not state my own stance on such beliefs as real magic) where candles are burnt to empower the caster to wish for things. This is not how I would have it, exactly, in a game-magic system. The system works as so:

The character collects a 'candle set' in the form of a box. This box may or may not be empty, and the player may get such a box from a store or a quest, or just randomly find one, it is of little consequence. This box will contain spaces for candles of different types, and also for whatever other ingredients (such as talismans, powders and incenses) and the collected set can be used to cast different spells.

The casting part works by the character placing out the candles, lighting them, placing out the talismans, and calling upon the power invested within each of the objects. Depending on the candle types, the player may be able to set targets, or distances or something along those lines. Each candle colour, or type, has a different quality that can be used when casting. This works similarly to the aforementioned glyphs (Dynamic Magic Casting, "Mixing and matching Glyphs") in that the spell is built up through the candle colour, size, power, type or whatever. This allows for very dynamic casting properties, which is a plus in modern games.

The self-moderating aspect works in that it takes quite a long time for the character to set up the candles, and to cast the spell. This is why the candle system should only be used for very powerful spells and not the quick-cast ones that are required in battle. This brings in the tactical element of whether a player should go to the hassle of finding the spell components when they have simpler, though less effective, elements in their control.

Types of spells that this system could work with include radius-related spells, where everything, or just selected things, are affected within a certain radius. The smaller the radius, the denser the effect will be in that radius. Other things that I can see include protection spells (such as barriers), healing spells (on a large group), wide scale destruction or natural disasters (including meteor storms, earthquakes, lava eruption, weather effects such as hurricane winds and blizzards, and more). Another possible use of this system includes the summoning of daemons and creatures. If you can't fight daemons with magic, fight daemons with daemons. Enchantments could be placed on other players or objects, adding to a teamwork methodology.

Balancing this kind of magic is also yet another possibility, as using one type of candle reduces that candles power, whilst it replenishes another candles power. Magic elements can be teamed up

A tactic that this system may help employ is that of teamwork. If the sorcerer-type could team up with a warrior-type, then the warrior could watch over the sorcerer while casting was taking place. This then builds a bond, as the sorcerer looks after the warrior through spells, and the warrior looks after the sorcerer through brute force. Also, the sorcerer may then channel the magic from the candles and enchant the warrior and maintain that enchantment while the warrior goes into battle. This brings another element of teamwork into play, and would greatly reduce Player Killing, as the Player Killers would need to be social with other Player Killers to allow for this ability.

(New) Enchantments

Enchantments are a form of magic that has been generally glossed over in games. This magic involves the gathering of magical energy into a certain object or about a specific individual. Enchantments can be small, in the form of talismans, which allow the player certain helpful additions to their current character attributes. Talismans have been around for a while in games, but they have mainly been in the form of static magic items.

The revolutionary approach that I am suggesting is to allow the players to make their own talismans. The player may enchant an object that is devoid of any current enchantment. The power of the enchantment can depend on the strengths of the actual casting of the enchantment, and of the strengths of the caster of the enchantment. Casting an enchantment would require certain specific ingredients that the caster would draw essence from. These could be in the form of plant-life, animal life or remains, excrement (just to add a disgusting element ), rocks and gems, or possibly magical devices (such as scrolls etc.). This then gives a large number of possibilities to the player about what talismans they want and also gives them the chance to experiment with each combination or learn about some in due time.

Enchantment does not have to be just for talismans though. An apt sorcerer may enchant people with spells that could make them more majestic, quicker in battle, stronger, more alert, or even slower, weaker, less energetic, and more cowardly. These enchantments may be constructed in much the same way that the glyphs system works (Dynamic Magic Casting, "Mixing and matching Glyphs") and then cast upon a character (player, NPC or enemy). Depending upon how you implement the system, the caster may be able to enchant a character that they have met, or the character may actually need to be within visual range, or even in contact with the caster. As it depends on how you implement the system, it allows you to moderate how much power you can allow some sorcerers.

There should definitely be a decay effect upon the enchantment. This means that the enchantment starts to wear off, and the effect becomes weakened, until it reaches a point where the magic is just dispersed and is gone. More apt sorcerers will be able to keep an enchantment from decaying quickly, and there should also be the opportunity for powering up an enchantment for when the magic starts to dwindle.

(New) Magic Balancing - The contrast of colours

I have already alluded to this in some of the previous thoughts. This mainly is used for the generic spell creation systems, such as the glyphs (Dynamic Magic Casting, "Mixing and matching Glyphs"), Candles (Candle Magic - A magic system with self-moderation) and Enchantments. Basically, it involves having ingredients for spell making with converse pairs. Each element that can be used has an opposite that has an opposing force to the original element. In this way, there can be a system where balance can become an essential part in moderating magic use.

In our example, let us take the element fire (or an element that represents fire in a spell). This element has a converse ('converse' being a term I am using to mean a combination of 'counter' and 'inverse'), which is none other than water . As more of the fire element is used, the strength of all fire elements decreases. This means that prolonged use of any particular element reduces its effectiveness. Additionally, the continued use of the fire element causes the water element to become more effective. Because of this, there may be a more balanced use of different spells. As time goes on, the balance of magic within the game changes and the scale tips between the converse pairs. This adds a bit of variety into spellcasting, as it will be more beneficial to know a specific set of elemental spells and their converses.

This can become more complex as well if you introduce a multi-directional converse system. There is no direct inverse, but a combination of two or more inverses of a specific element. We take fire again as our initial element. The converses in this new system are water and earth (combined). As fire is used, it loses in effectiveness, but water and earth do not both gain. Water has the converses of fire and wind, and as water is used, it decreases in effectiveness. To increase water magic, both fire and wind spells need to be used. They reduce their own effectiveness and gain water's effectiveness. Also, to increase fire's effectiveness, water and earth spells need to be cast. The reason why you would do this is to vary the spell casting even more than the previous system did. It requires a balance between 4 elements to keep itself stable. An element is only as strong as the weakest of its converses.

Here is a list of each of the elements and their converses, just for this example. Note that we need 5 different elements to actually balance the system, otherwise it gets out of sync.

Element

Converse One

Converse Two

Fire

Water

Earth

Water

Fire

Wind

Earth

Fire

Life

Wind

Water

Life

Life

Earth

Wind

Now to get into some implementation rich example work. I will just step through it as dot points, as I think that it is the cleanest and most effective way. The effectiveness of each element is a percentage that is balanced by its converses. An element is only as strong as 100%-its strongest converse.

I hope that wasn't too hard to follow. I made a little program that modeled this system and adjusted a few flaws. Basically, the effectiveness of the other elements is not adjusted directly, but instead the new value that the element is trying to balance to is stored in another variable. As time passes, the element's effectiveness slowly tends towards this other variable. I do not think that I explained that as best as I could. It might be better if you try to follow the code of the modeled system. You can get a copy of the balancing program from http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/Discussions/Discussions.html as one of the links off the page. It has a few more features than I have discussed here, but it will do for example purposes.

(New) Magic Saturation – The devastating effects of "Total Power"

In line with the previously stated magic balancing system (Magic Balancing - The contrast of colours) you set up your magic system to do auto balancing with also the converse elements gaining as an element is depleted. This covers what would happen if an element gained to about 95% or more. In such a case, it was suggested by Solthar, the magic becomes so saturated in the current area that unpredictable things happen. For example, instead of a fireball targeting a single enemy, it wipes out a much larger range around the enemy (possibly including the player-characters current location). In the event of Fire reaching 100% saturation, the effect could be one of widespread destruction of the whole area. Additionally, if Fire reached 100%, the player wouldn't need to cast anything to cause a sudden outcropping of fire magic in some form. If Water reached 100% then the air could turn to water.

Another thing that I was thinking of in the case of a total power on one or more elements, the 'natural' effect of the world could be to cast random spells of these elements until a more stable balance was restored. If both wind and fire managed to reach a 100% saturation level, then the world could cast a 'natural' wind spell, fire spell, or wind and fire spell at the character, or at any random creature or location. This could be beneficial or detrimental to all inhabitants.

Also, if a saturation level reaches below 5% then the spell could just fizzle, disallowing any more casts. Not that it would be a complete fizzle all of the time, but only a small number of casts will be able to be managed. Once a saturation level reaches 0%, no surprises, the magic of that element is unavailable. It would be good to see a player casting frantically to kill something while running away, only to have their magic fizzle and then to be slaughtered (not that I condone it as an end to the player-character). It gives me the image of the gun that won't load and either won't fire or misfires.

(New) Magic Decay - Making Magic a Precious Commodity

A bit of a talk from what Nazrix and I were saying. More on this later...